We hear a `nip tuck` is all the rage these days so we’ve had the equivalent of a cheek lift (steady now) and some Botox.

The site has been streamlined quite a bit to make things a lot more organised – you’ll doubtless already have noticed the new Featured section on the front page which will be used to highlight features and reviews, and there’s also a neater presentation to the main news section.

We’ve also decided to streamline the RSS feeds  for the site into one which means if you were a subscriber to anything other than the main feed, you may not recieve any more updates. Be sure to update your feed (see the bar at the top right of the page if you can’t find it by other means).

We haven’t finished with the upgrading yet, so if the site is a little bit flaky or things magically appear and disappear before your eyes, don’t be too surprised – it’s just the Console Arcade Elves tinkering with things behind the scenes. But if you do happen to see one, please don’t mention their pointy ears. They’ve very sensitive about that.

While the major cosmetic changes are done there’ll also be some other little changes to the overall presentation as the week rolls on. Hopefully you like the news style and whether you’re happy, sad or indifferent please be sure to let us know what you think.

After the announcement earlier this week, it seems Microsoft have decided to slightly re-jig their Summer of Arcade output. It’s nothing earth shattering but now, instead of having Turtles in Time first out of the starting block, it’s now been swapped with  ‘Splosion Man. That means the line up is now:

July 22 – ‘Splosion Man for 800

July 29 – Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for 1200

August 5 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-shelled for 1200

August 12 – Trials HD for 1200

August 19 -  Shadow Complex for 1200

Karate Phants: Gloves Of Glory – 800 Nintendo Points

“Grey, lumbering warriors from every corner of the world clash in a grand tournament to determine who among them is the greatest fighter of all time. Choose your fighter and trunk-slap, butt-stomp and barf your way to victory!

Karate Phants is a 1-on-1 fighting game for 1-2 players featuring characters from Otto Waalkes’ comic strip. Fight your way to the top of the tournament by defeating all the computer-controlled fighters, or duke it out with a friend.”

5 Spots Party – 500 Nintendo Points

“5 Spots Party is a game of skill for all ages based on the popular game of finding five differences. In its three playing modes, the goal is to find the greatest number of differences in the pictures shown. In the party modes, you must compete with other players and find as many mistakes as possible. In the 1 Player mode, you must find the differences before time runs out in order to beat the game’s highest scores.”

The Virtual Console is updated with the Turbografx version of Bomberman ‘94 for 700 Nintendo Points and Zoda’s Revenge: Startropics 2 on the NES for 600 Points.

Out now:

Buzz Jr. Robo Jam – $4.99

“Blast off to a whole new galaxy of fun! Buzz! Junior: RoboJam takes you to a futuristic world where mischievous robots are sent to Robot Boot camp. Now for the PLAYSTATION 3 system, BUZZ! Junior: RoboJam provides 4-way mischievous action. So what are you waiting for? Join in the mechanical mayhem. Compatible with BUZZ! buzzers or PLAYSTATION 3 system controllers.”

Battlefield: 1943 – $14.99

“Pick your path – be it as a rifleman, a steel fisted tank commander, or ace fighter pilot dog fighting to protect the skies. Play as a lone wolf or with your friends, coordinating to turn the tide of battle. Whatever you choose, in Battlefield 1943 you get to enjoy the thrill of a fully featured online shooter.

You can explore the beautiful pacific islands by land, air and sea as you take the fight to the enemy. Battlefield 1943 features a great mix of both infantry and vehicle combat. You can also call in, and guide airstrikes upon the enemy bases and choose from a range of weaponry to gain the upper hand on the enemy team and win the day.”

Out today:

Battlefield 1943 – £9.99 / €12.99

“Pick your path—be it as a rifleman, a steel-fisted tank commander, or ace fighter pilot. Play as a lone wolf or with your friends, coordinating to turn the tide of battle. Whatever you choose, in Battlefield 1943, enjoy the thrill of a fully featured online shooter.

You can explore the beautiful pacific islands by land, air and sea as you take the fight to the enemy. Battlefield 1943 features a great mix of both infantry and vehicle combat. You can also call in, and guide airstrikes upon the enemy bases and choose from a range of weaponry to gain the upper hand on the enemy team and win the day.”

Major Nelson has updated this blog with a list of what we can expect in the Summer of Arcade event which starts in just a few weeks time. Dated and priced are:-

July 22 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-shelled 1200

July 29 – Marvel vs. Capcom 2 1200

August 5 – ‘Splosion Man  800

August 12 – Trials HD 1200

August 19 -  Shadow Complex 1200

Hope you’ve stocked up on the Points, because you’re certainly going to need them if that lot tickles your fancy.

With no format confirmed as yet (but you can guess that it’ll be PSN and XBLA), Team 17 have announced that the classic Alien Breed franchise is to make a comeback.

20 years after the first game on the Amiga, very few details have been confirmed yet, other than it will be powered by the Unreal engine and feature co-op play, which was surely a given based on the gameplay of the previous titles.

Current speculation is the game will see a release “this summer” but there’s no further information as yet.

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… and would it surprise you to find that it’s 1200 / £10.00 / $15.00?

That’s slightly cheaper than the first release, but given that it’s little more than the same game (and doubtless will still suffer from all the flaws of Episode 1)  it seems that Warner Interactive just haven’t learnt from the shenanigans surrounding Episode 1.

They’ve also decided to try and push the disc based retail release out first. That means:

* Watchmen: The End is Nigh The Complete Experience: Watchmen: The End is Nigh Parts 1 and 2 for PS3 plus the Director’s Cut of the movie will launch on July 21 for $50 / £30

* Watchmen: The End is Nigh Parts 1 and 2 on single disc for Xbox 360 will launch on July 21 for $30 / £20

* Watchmen: The End is Nigh Part 2 available for PSN and XBLM on July 30 and August 26, respectively, for the above mentioned price.

Kudos for them proving us right and showing that they really are just trying to cash in on the films release in every way possible.

That’s right, the latest saga in the Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles will be slithering its way to Europe on 17th July. The sequel to My Life as a King, this flips things on its head a little and has you playing as the bad guy… er, bad girl…

“FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a Darklord puts you in the highly fashionable shoes of the Darklord’s daughter, a malevolent little Miss, charged with dispatching intruding do-gooders by strategically placing traps and monsters around the tower she calls home.

It’s a real time strategy game with a devilish twist!

You’ll need to get your hands on ever more diabolical traps and abominable monsters if you’re going to stop these pesky adventurers from making it to the Dark Crystal at the top of your tower. Be warned – with heroes of all the races and job classes from the FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES series storming your lair in real time, your traps and minions will count for nothing unless you deploy them like a true evil genius. Anything less, and your beloved home will be reduced to rubble before you know it!

Stop protecting the world as a goody-two-shoes king and start conquering it as a bad-to-the-bone Darklord! Sure, there are legions of annoying adventurers determined to stop you, but as any self-respecting arch-villain would agree, swatting them is the best bit!”

Black Inc. have announced Ion Assault for Xbox Live Arcade, coming this summer for 800

If you haven’t already check out the gameplay video,  here’s the official blurb which tells you what you need to know:

“In 2183 humanity discovers an energy source that facilitates travel into new regions of space. Gigantic mother ships collect the newly discovered fuel from the distant energy fields and transport it to Earth. When the fleet is destroyed in an alien attack, the player sets out on a perilous journey home in a small harvester. In Ion Assault, instead of conventional weapons, players use the free energy particles that are abundant in space to fend off swarms of aliens. The particles are bundled and the player is able to shoot them at asteroids and enemy ships. The particles are not destroyed in this process, but are redistributed in space, ready to be magnetically attracted again and re-used. Their random distribution makes for dynamic gameplay and calls for a more strategic approach.

Ion Assault offers four scenarios with gorgeous, detailed visuals, each with different types of opponents, bosses and background themes. In the course of the campaign players get to upgrade their spaceships and will, in turn, be able to affect power-ups that enable things such as an increase in ship speed, or an enlarged collected particles radius. Thanks to special power-ups, such as the ability to create temporary black holes, even large numbers of opponents can be dealt with. Players also get to show off their skills in various multi-player modes, and compare their scores to those of the world’s best Ion Assault pilots through online high score lists.”

Confirmed by LucasArts themselves via their Twitter feed, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade next week. The re-imagined game has been going down a treat with fans since it was revealed last month, so it’s good to know that the wait is almost over.

No price has been confirmed yet, but we’ll be sure to update you once this has been announced. In the meantime you’d best get practising those pithy off the cuff pirate put downs in preparation (try saying that after one too many slugs of rum!).

Update: The game has been priced at just 800

Despite being released on disc for the 360 and PS3 in Europe, Aksys never got around to releasing Battle Fantasia in America. That’s about to change `this fall` when the game will be published on the PSN.

There’s no firm details yet but it’s another good example of digital distribution coming to the rescue – or is it? While US PS3 owning Battle Fantasia fans will surely be happy that they’ll be able to get their hands on the title after all this time, any self-respecting fan would probably made use of the PS3’s region free’ness and grabbed it on import anyway…

Source: Siliconera

Out today:

BIT.TRIP CORE – 600 Nintendo Points

BIT.TRIP CORE continues the BIT.TRIP saga in this retro-arcade-style game. BIT.TRIP CORE adds up to an exciting action/rhythm game that’s best played while zoning out on the tunes and letting the visuals swallow you whole. The experience is inspired by games from the ’80s, but with a modern twist. The game play is entirely new to the series, leaving the single-axis controls of BIT.TRIP BEAT behind in favor of the ability to control two axes. If the difficulty gets you down, grab a friend and play cooperatively with two-player multiplayer. Make it to the end and you’ll have journeyed one step further to completing your BIT.TRIP.

Heracles Chariot Racing – 800 Nintendo Points

The famous Heracles has taken on a challenge like none he has ever faced. Our hero will have to beat his opponents in a race across mythological kingdoms and be the first to reach the top of Mount Olympus. You can play as Heracles and help him return the sacred trophy, or play as one of the other varied mythological characters from Satyr to Poseidon and claim the prize for yourself. Race through three racing cups across 10 courses set in five mythic landscapes. Use awesome fantasy weaponry to defeat your opponents: tridents, fireballs, Zeus’s lightning rods and more. Get your friends together for intense two-to-four-player split-screen multiplayer action in Championship, Single Race or Battle mode.

BUST-A-MOVE Plus! – 600 Nintendo Points

BUST-A-MOVE Plus! is a simple but hugely addictive puzzle game in which you must try to burst a multi-colored mass of bubbles with your very own bubble launcher. Every time you make a group of three or more bubbles of the same color, they pop. There are two game modes available: 1P Puzzle (players tackle the game’s 135 stages in pursuit of a new high score or best time) and Battle (players take on friends or computer-controlled opponents). If that doesn’t satisfy your passion for popping, there are a total of 270 extra stages waiting for you in the two add-on-content packs, available for purchase on the Wii Shop Channel. BUST-A-MOVE Plus! is simple to get into and deep enough to keep you coming back for more.

And if none of those take your fancy there’s also the Virtual Console update with the Commodore 64 version of California Games, priced at 500 Nintendo Points.

Starting today, and running until Monday 13th July, the fantastic XBLA title N+ is Microsoft’s Deal of the Week. That means for Gold subscribers  the game is now reduced to the bargain price of just 560

All the more reason to pick up a fantastic game which is so good that we awarded it our XBLA Game of the Year for 2008.

Update: As part of Microsoft’s continuing cock up’s in recent weeks regarding the XBLA, it seems they’ve announced the wrong price. The game is actually the previously predicted half price of 400 - which makes it even more of a bargain. Seeing as it’s going down and not up, I’m sure we’ll all forgive them.