Sierra recently showed off its upcoming crop of XBLA games at a media event. While a couple have promise, most could be buried by the quantity or quality of competitors. All are confirmed only for XBLA, but Sierra is considering PSN versions of most. All will be out this Summer.

We decided to create a gallery outlining the steps you'll go through to play the game online. Click here to get acquainted. While Europe is laughing that they already have the game, US gamers finally get their hands on Mario Kart and midnight tonight.

(Note: Due to technical difficulties, we had to physically take pictures of the game running in 480i. The quality of the images does not affect what Mario Kart Wii actually looks like.)

We're guessing that you missed your chance to grab an entry code for the Metal Gear Online beta, or you'd probably be too busy spending your Saturday afternoon brushing up on your CQC to read our humble gaming news site. Well, wipe away those tears of regret, little one, and we'll make you a deal -- check out this radical gameplay footage from the beta (including a very satisfying conclusion involving a dude launcher) to slake your thirst for Kojima's sneaky-creepy multiplayer outing, and we'll take you out for Chuck E. Cheese's. Sure, it won't do much to dull your regret, but you'll be too busy wondering why this restaurant elected to have a rat for a mascot to worry about all the online stealth action you're missing out on.

A day after the BBC announced a version of its iPlayer streaming video service for the Wii, an obvious follow-up question arises: "Why isn't a similar service available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 as well?" A partial answer from BBC Future and Technology Group Coordinator Erik Huggers, who said in a BBC's dot.life blog that Sony and Microsoft weren't willing to open up their infrastructures to the iPlayer. "If you want to get on the PlayStation or Xbox, they want control of the look, the feel and the experience; they want it done within their shop, and their shop only," Huggers said.

The BBC blogger uses this as a leaping-off point to declare that the Wii's deal with the BBC "makes something of a mockery" of the multimedia capabilities of the Xbox 360 and PS3. Never mind that the Wii can't even play DVDs (much less Blu-ray discs) or that the system offers no way to download video for permanent, offline viewing. According to the BBC's blogger, Nintendo is "bridging the gap between the web and the TV" in a way that its competitors aren't.

Regardless, the implication that Sony and Microsoft are unwilling to accommodate online video outside the walled garden of their narrow, profit-generating shop services is a little upsetting. The beauty of having a machine connected to the internet should be the ability to access the wide array of free content on that internet, not just the opportunity to buy things from the console maker and its partners.

GameTap has finally gotten a chance to share the previously embargoed details of its recent hands-on time with Grand Theft Auto IV. The preview discusses four of the game's fifteen online modes: Team Deathmatch, GTA Race, Cops 'N Crooks (a Counter-Strike style team match) and Hangman's Noose (a co-operative escort mission).

Among the interesting details discussed (some of which have also been revealed elsewhere):

• Previously rumored 16-player online play is confirmed.
• The online maps aren't changed in any way from single-player -- you can still drive vehicles from one end of the city to the other, if you want.
• There's no co-op option for the single-player missions, but many online modes allow for cooperation.
• Ranked online matches earn players in-game cash for character customization. Higher difficulty means more cash.
• Race mode can be played with or without weapons.
  
• The volume of other characters voices will vary depending on their distance from you. "So if you hear an enemy's voice, he's probably right behind you and it's too late."

The most telling quote in the preview is Vice President of Game Development Geronimo Barrera's suggestion that "after players earn the cell phone in the single-player game (which takes about five minutes), if they want they can jump online and never even play the single-player again." With the extremely varied multiplayer options, we might just be taking him up on that.

Note: GameTap's servers are getting hit pretty hard, so the Read link may not load for a while.

Update: They're all live! GTA4.net has posted links to numerous multiplayer previews. (Thanks Cal!)

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has posted a portent of doom on its website concerning the online servers for several PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable games. SCEE notes that it has wrapped its hand around the power cord and is ready to give it a good tug on June 30th and sending the following titles quietly into the offline night:

PlayStation 2

• Amplitude
• Destruction Derby Arenas
• Everybody's Golf
• EyeToy Chat
• F1 '04
• Jak X
• Lemmings PS2
• My Street
• Syphon Filter Omega Strain
• This is Football 2004
• This is Football 2005
• Twisted Metal: Black Online
  

PSP

• Lemmings
• World Tour Soccer 2

Sony Computer Entertainment America has made no similar announcement.

[Via Shacknews]

We've received some tips indicating that Mr. Driller Online for XBLA is having a problem with the, er, "Online" portion of the gameplay. It seems that while the person hosting an online game is just fine, the connecting player can't drill anything. X3F put together a video of the bug, which we've placed after the break.

Another test of Mr. Driller's online capabilities was done today with the same broken result. No word on whether a patch is in the works. Best to save your 800 MS points for the moment, as there's no sense in supporting broken titles.

Sacre bleu! Something odd seems to have happened to our favorite sardonic online flash quiz for its March 31 edition (embedded above). Questions like "Repeat after me!" and a comparison between lines from Great Expectations and Jackass 2: The Movie seem completely out of pace with the game's usual punishing difficulty. Don't even get us started on the "repeat after me" Jack Attack, which could probably be completed by a mentally handicapped surrender monkeys (cheese-eating or non).

We can only hope this is a one-time glitch, and not a trend that will last past through the beginning of the fourth month of the year ...

According to their website, much of Ubisoft's technical support staff has taken this weekend off in observation of Good Friday and Easter. That's all well and good -- but perhaps, when they aren't draining Cadbury eggs or enjoying fine roasted hams, just one of them could take the time to Google their latest release, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, and discover that a good portion of the console gaming world is ready to swear off all things Clancy.

Our tip box has exploded with complaints from owners of the PS3 version of the game -- apparently, a majority of those who try to play online either can't connect or have to suffer staggering amounts of lag. We'd expect a bandwidth epidemic such as this to be patched post-haste -- we guess Ubisoft didn't anticipate we'd actually want to play their game on the first weekend of Eastertide. What, did they think those terrorists would hunt themselves?

I'm not a Street Fighter fanatic, but I've enjoyed the series over the years. So with this casual approach, I recently tried the XBLA beta of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, available soon to buyers of Commando 3 on XBLA. The full version will be out this Summer for that system and PSN.

Frankly, I don't even remember which character I played. It doesn't help that my only choices were Ken and Ryu, who have nearly the same moves. My helpful opponent reminded me how to do some of the special attacks; I was far out of practice on the Hurricane Kick, but I could throw fireballs right away.

Sure, the Super Smash Bros. Brawl stage editor is a great way to extend the value of the game, but it's only really valuable if you and your friend-code friends have the creativity to come up with interesting stages. Those of us with no creative talent and/or no friends are out of luck!

Enter the web, which has already filled in some of the stage-sharing holes Nintendo left in the game. IGN's recently launched Smash Bros. supersite already has a selection of over 100 user-created stages that players can download to their SD cards, while the Smash World forums Stage Browser currently has 85 or so stages available. Each site offers picture previews, easy instructions for uploading and a rating system to separate the wheat from the chaff. Now if someone could just hack a way to play these user-created stages in online matches we'd really be in business!

Visit - IGN's stage sharing clearinghouse
Visit - Smash World Forums stage browser

1UP recently added some fuel cells to the fire of the relatively aged rumor that the result of Bioware and LucasArts' recent collaboration is an MMORPG which takes place in the long-winded universe of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. While one could make a case for and against this claim, a script for the game, which apparently landed in the laps of 1UP's digital ink slingers, could prove conclusive evidence for the online epic -- if it's completely legit, that is.

The script details the online game as a "role-playing game set in the historical past of the Star Wars universe," where "Jedi and Sith battle across the galaxy." While those two phrases could apply to many chapters of the Star Wars mythos, the tipster who submitted the script was convinced it carried Bioware's trademark verbosity. We're confused -- how will we be expected to spend hours mindlessly grinding and spawn camping with all of that dialog getting in our way? Hopefully they'll fix that in beta.

[Via Massively]

Update: Wii Fanboy has some impressions of our first friend-code-enabled Wi-Fi match. The result: Relatively lag-free.

Yeah, we've given you the hands-on impressions before, but now that we've gotten the final retail version into our metaphorical Joystiq HQ, we thought we'd share some quick opinions on the full Brawl experience. Click the continue link to find out our thoughts on the Subspace Emissary mode, Online play, the various control options, and more.

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

We've known for a while that Mario Kart Wii would support twelve-player online races, but given Nintendo's less-than-stellar online record, we were a little worried about how smooth the online experience would be. Well, we're a little less worried now that the Nintendo UK web site has revealed some details of how online racing on the Wii will work. Among the details discussed:

• Spectator mode - When you join a room in progress, you can watch the race unfold while waiting for a new one to start.
  
• Global friend view - Lets you view your friends' locations and online status.
• Room structure - Host chooses race type, but player votes determine course selection.

The site also revealed a dedicated Mario Kart Wii channel, which can be run independently of the disc-version of the game. The channel lets players view global rankings, share and download ghost data, and download daily missions (similar to those found in Mario Kart DS). Can we suggest a mission dedicated to arranging dropped banana peels into jaunty patterns? That would be awesome.

[Via WiiFanboy]

We've been annoyed with the Wii's lack of downloadable Virtual Console demos for quite a while now, so we probably shouldn't be too surprised that Nintendo has declared games in their upcoming Wii Ware service will not be required to have downloadable demos. Surprised isn't really the world ... slightly miffed is more like it.

We're only slightly miffed because Nintendo hasn't quite banned demos from the service. In an interview with Newsweek's N'gai Croal, Nintendo of America director of project development Tom Prata said that "having demos [is] ... not a requirement from Nintendo." If we're reading that right, that means demos would be allowed on the service, but that they won't necessarily be available for every game.

The decision to forgo a demo mandate was made, according to Prata, because demos are a "very costly type of endeavor" for a developer. That might be true in the short term, but overall we wonder if developer can afford not to have demos on a service like this. After all, Xbox Live Arcade has managed just fine by requiring developers to create those "expensive" demos -- in fact, by, early stats showed about 20 percent of XBLA demo players bought the full game, leading directly to increased revenue for all involved. Still, we guess giving developers more choice in these matters is usually a good thing. We just hope many developers will choose to help their customers and themselves by letting us try before we buy.