Soul Calibur IV has received a July release date. The HD hack-’em-up is the latest in Namco Bandai’s franchise and, like previous releases, console owners will get special extra characters - Star Wars’ Yoda and Darth Vader will be playable characters in the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions respectively.

The release date follows the recent announcement that Vader will be a playable character in the highly anticipated game ‘The Force Unleashed’, due to drop later in the year.

Universal Studios – the once major backer of HD DVD – has confirmed its allegiance to Blu-ray, a move that is being set into motion this summer with the official date of 22 July. Charting a strategy that will see around 40 titles available on the HD market, expect its biggest cinema hits of the year, as well as catch-up releases from Toshiba’s fallen format, to feature on this slate.

Following the imminent success of Bonnie And Clyde – Warner’s first ‘book’ release – Oliver Stone’s media-baiting satire, Natural Born Killers hits the HD road as it gets added to the studio’s release slate.

Set to hit shelves and/or be available for import 10 June, this theatrical cut of the controversial movie is to come lock and loaded with a 1080p/VC-1 visual transfer and an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround soundtrack. However, the best is set to come in the supplementary materials; with all extras ported over from a standard-def special edition, the inclusion of a 42-page booklet accompanying the Blu-ray is sure to be a fascinating read with Stone reflecting on his movie’s production and the controversies it caused back in the Nineties.

Following the recent announcement that the BBC has enabled its online catch-up service, iPlayer, to work with the Nintendo Wii, an enterprising sort has tweaked some JavaScript and made it available on the PlayStation 3. If you type www.ps3iplayer.com into your PS3 browser we can confirm that you’ll be able to access programmes through the console.

Although there are reportedly a few bugs, and the quality of the streaming video isn’t great, enabling the application on PS3 has piqued the interest of many, including Anthony Rose, head of Digital Media Technology at the BBC, who wrote on his blog:

“While I’m impressed that someone has done this, this doesn’t mean that it’s the best possible iPlayer proposition for that console. We’re investigating the optimal video profile and browser proposition to enable us to officially make iPlayer available on PS3 in due course.”

Following the recent announcement that the BBC has enabled its online catch-up service, iPlayer, to work with the Nintendo Wii, an enterprising sort has tweaked some JavaScript and made it available on the PlayStation 3. If you type www.ps3iplayer.com into your PS3 browser we can confirm that you’ll be able to access programmes through the console.

Although there are reportedly a few bugs, and the quality of the streaming video isn’t great, enabling the application on PS3 has piqued the interest of many, including Anthony Rose, head of Digital Media Technology at the BBC, who wrote on his blog:

“While I’m impressed that someone has done this, this doesn’t mean that it’s the best possible iPlayer proposition for that console. We’re investigating the optimal video profile and browser proposition to enable us to officially make iPlayer available on PS3 in due course.”