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The official boxart for Need for Speed Undercover has been revealed by Blackbox and Electronic Arts. The title goes back to NFS roots with high-speed cop chases, dangerous encounters and stunning cars. We’re hoping the game turns out to be a marked improvement on last year’s not-so-great ProStreet, and with Burnout Paradise still going strong, Blackbox will really need to produce something great. [PSU]

A European LittleBigPlanet bundle has just been confirmed for 399 Euros. It should be reminded that the pack will contain a DUALSHOCK3 controller and 80GB of HDD. Full details after the jump. [n4g]

Media Molecule has unveiled the official boxart for the North American release of its highly anticipated PlayStation 3 exclusive, LittleBigPlanet.

(Click to Enlarge)

As you can see from the image above, the boxart sports the now infamous ‘Only On PlayStation’ logo that was previously spotted on early covers for Insomniac’s Resistance 2, though remained conspicuously absent from PAL release.
LittleBigPlanet is scheduled for release in October 2008. [PSU]

Sony’s Blu-ray technology “hasn’t made much difference” to the upcoming PS3 version of stupendously great 360 and PC FPS BioShock, the game’s associate producer has told VideoGamer.com.
BioShock, originally released for 360 and PC late in 2007, is scheduled for release on PS3 in Europe on October 24, and will come with a new survivor difficulty mode and exclusive downloadable content in the form of Challenge Rooms.
PS3 owners had hoped for some form of graphical upgrade, however, senior producer at publisher 2K Games Melissa Miller confirmed to us at the Leipzig Games Conference last week that the team was aiming towards graphical parity with the 360 version, and that the Blu-ray format hadn’t made much difference.
She said: “Graphical quality our goal was always to make sure everything looked just as good as on Xbox 360. So there was never anybody who could say, hey, why didn’t I get this on 360 originally, because I don’t feel like it’s up to the visual quality. We’re just trying to make sure that everybody is happy.”
When asked if the Blu-ray format had provided any advantages to the development team, Miller replied: “In terms of specific things, it hasn’t made much difference. The original game fit on a 360 disk so it wasn’t like we were in need of room. We’ve tried to do what we can to make sure that the PS3 looks just as great as the 360, but in terms of necessarily utilising something specific about Blu-ray, to my knowledge, Blu-ray hasn’t necessarily made a huge difference.” [Videogamer]

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 was released today by the Microsoft team.

IE8 Home page
Release Notes
Download:
Windows XP
Windows Server 2003 SP2
Windows Server 2003 SP2 x64 & Windows XP x64
Windows Vista and Server 2008
Windows Vista x64 and Server 2008 x64

A new version of the iPod Nano will be introduced within the next two to three weeks, according to Digg founder and Apple watcher Kevin Rose. In a blog posting, Rose cites anonymous sources in a personal blog posting which details the reported plans from Apple. He claims that the upcoming rollout will include a new version of iTunes and a redesigned iPod nano.
The new nano would reportedly be thinner and longer than its current incarnation, allowing for a wider screen. Additionally, the new nano would also feature a rounded, cylindrical casing. While Rose’s report makes no mention of wireless networking, a past filing from Apple could point to the addition of WiFi hardware on the device.
View: The full story @ vnunet

According to a PSU source, Crytek is planning to release Crysis bundled with the new expansion Warhead on the Xbox 360 in Q4 2008 - Q1 2009, followed by a PlayStation 3 version in Q1-Q2 of 2009.
Their source explains that Crytek is focusing on each system’s threading core, and that the team is taking their time with the PS3 version, learning to utilize the Cell processor as effectively as possible in order to push higher quality textures, improved A.I., and more.

It’s been long rumored that Crysis will be making an appearance on home consoles, with the latest rumors suggesting that the game will feature 50 per cent worth of new content (Warhead expansion), dubbing it “Crysis 1.5.” [PSU]

Today is a Sunday, that much is sure. The Leipzig madness has come to a halt, and there’s absolutely nothing going on. We’ve dug into the depths of last week to find a piece of news we missed, and surprisingly, this seemed to be the only one. 
Killzone 2 will have bots. Pretty exciting stuff, eh? They’ll be available in both offline and online matches, with an adjustable difficulty level to boot. What won’t in be present in multiplayer (initially) are vehicles. They’re already in the single-player campaign, and are set to be patched into multiplayer after the game’s launch. Another aspect that will be added in post-launch is campaign cooperative play. It’s unknown whether this will be a paid add-on or a free addition (or if it’ll be online co-op), but Guerrilla did offer some free DLC for Killzone: Liberation on the PSP. Whatever the outcome, we’re glad it’s coming in some form or another.
Killzone 2 will be available in February 2009. [PSU]

Intel next-generation CPU architecture, code-named Nehalem, and now known as Core i7, will be officially launched in Q4 of this year, most likely in November.
HEXUS is out in force at this year’s IDF (Intel Developer Forum), and, as usual, we’ll be covering everything of note.
Hexus has managed to benchmark the single-socket, quad-core, eight-threaded, 2.93GHz monster and compare it against Intel’s very own Core 2 Extreme QX9770, QX6800, and AMD’s Phenom 9950 Black Edition. [Hexus]

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) President David Reeves has confirmed that the company has no plans to lower the price of the PlayStation 3 in 2008.
“There is no price cut,” Reeves told VG247.com, adding, “We’re not going to drop the price this year.”
Asked as to whether or not he believes that software is the key to PS3’s success throughout Europe, he replied, “Yes, absolutely.”
“And I think it’s the games for Nintendo; I think whatever price they’re at, I think it’s the games that have really, really driven it.”
“We started off at the beginning of the year with GT5 Prologue, then we went to GTA IV, then Metal Gear Solid. There’ll be LittleBigPlanet, and then we move onto PES and FIFA and all those.” [VG247]

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