Moving along to the Nintendo Wii, as soon as we received the press release Monday morning, even without looking at the games, I knew it wasn’t going to be that great of an update. Usually their press releases are witty and funny or informative, but this week it was something to the effect of “usually we have a theme but this week we have three random games.” Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?

Anyway, the best of the three games is the Genesis fighter Eternal Champions. I still remember how excited I was to find this game at a K-Mart of all places in the Christmas of…was it 1993? I forgot. I wanted to like it so bad because I think I found it early, but it was just a so-so fighting game. When a so-so fighting game is the Wii game of choice, you know it’s a tough week. The two other games include the NES shooter “ZANAC” and the Turbo Grafx 16 game “The Dynastic Hero.” I’m not familiar with either game and was too busy playing Pain on the PS3 this week to try them out.

Speaking of Pain, if you haven’t picked that up on the PlayStation 3, you are not a true game downloader. It is a complete blast and this week they’ve released two new characters to fling through the air to land on a bowling ball or donut – two of Santa’s Helpers! That’s right, you can play as “Cookie,” the sexy, seductive helper or a guy dressed as Santa who says ho ho Nooooo (splat). It’s great fun.

Did you know the PlayStation Network now has two separate stores: one for the PC and one for the PS3. The PC has games for the PSP that you cannot download off the PS3. Of course, you still can’t download directly from your PSP to your memory stick, because that would probably make too much sense. There is a new game on the PC store, but for the time being I’m going to just hope they start putting these games on the PS3 because Lord knows I already have enough work.

Speaking of work, the PS3 new game release is High Velocity Bowling. I know what you’re thinking – oh my God, another bowling game with motion sensitive controls – let’s just stick with Wii Sports and be done with it. I know you’re thinking that because I was thinking that. But then something funny happened – I bought the game and holy crap, it’s impressive. It is a fantastic bowling game, made even better because I have a DUALSHOCK 3 import and you don’t. You use the SIXAXIS DUALSHOCK (for PlayStation 3) (16MB) (Webcam Stick Pro Deluxe) vertically and make the usual bowling motion, holding R2 or L2 to create spin. It works perfectly and is a blast. For some reason however, the game isn’t online (it does have leaderboards though) despite the fact you have to agree to a 10 page EULA license that talks about online game play and that the rating is subject to change during online gameplay. Odd..maybe it will be an add on in the future. It doesn’t matter though, you should buy this game RIGHT NOW.

A new multiplayer demo for TimeShock was released this week on the PS3 as well as the Black Sabbath Rock Band Pack. Rounding out the PS3 download list is add-on content for Folklore and a new Motorstorm vehicle for the low low price of $0.99.

That wraps up this week in downloads. Do yourself a favor and purchase High Velocity Bowling and it will be keeping me busy through next week’s column at least. See you then!

This Week’s Best Downloads:

• High Velocity Bowling (PS3)
• Carrier Air Wing (GameTap)

GameTap

(All games included in monthly/annual subscription)

• Game: Blowout (Majesco, PC Game, 2004)
• Game: Carrier Air Wing (Arcade Game 1990)
• Game: Perimeter (PC Adventure game, 2004)
• Update: New Front End Interface (version 3.5)

Wii Virtual Console

• Game: ZANAC (NES) 500 Wii Points or $5
• Game: Eternal Champions (Genesis) 800 Wii Points or $8
• Game: The Dynastic Hero (TG16) 800 Wii Points or $8

Xbox Live

• Update: Fall 2007 Dashboard Update
• Addon: Bioshock: Ryan Industries Plasmids and Gene Tonics (FREE)
• Demo: Culdcept Saga
• Addon: RockBand: Black Sabbath Songs 440 Points or $5.50
• New Pricing: Permanent price reductions on Live Arcade favorites: Bankshot Billiards (800 pts/$10), Lumines LIVE (800 pts/$10), Marble Blast Ultra (400 points/$5), Small Arms (400 Points/$5), Zuma Deluxe (400 Points/$5).
• New Games: Xbox Originals (all are 1200pts/$15 each): Halo 1, Psychonauts, Crimson Skies, Fable, Fuzion Frenzy, Indigo Prophecy, Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex

PlayStation Network

• Game: Pain ($9.99)
• Addon: PAIN (Santa) $0.99
• Addon: PAIN (Cookie,Santa’s Helper) $0.99
• Game: High Velocity Bowling $9.99
• Addon: Folklore add on #1 $3.99
• Addon: Folklore add on #2 $3.99
• Addon; Folklore addon combo pack (includes 1 and 2) : $5.99
• Addon: Motorstorm Vehicle ($0.99)
• Addon: Rock Band Black Sabbath Track Pack ($5.49 or $1.99 for each song)
• Demo: Timeshift Multiplayer
• PS1 game: Wild Arms $5.99