Another week goes by, another big ol' update to the American PS Store. This one was bigger than most because of the introduction of two game demos -- not little downloadable title demos, but big name demos. What we didn't get, again, was David Jaffe's Calling All Cars. On his blog, he's promised, promised, promised that next Thursday the game will go live. Without further ado, here's what we got this week:

• The Godfather trailer
• The Wheelman trailer
• Stranglehold trailer
• Gauntlet II video
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma trailer
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo
• Virtua Tennis 3 demo

Awesome! I haven't checked out the Virtua Tennis demo yet, but that's what later today is for! As for the trailers and videos, check them at your leisure. They're probably pretty cool, too.

The PS3 versus 360 side-by-side showdowns keep rolling out, with GameTrailers mixing those versions of Virtua Tennis 3 together. This comparison may be even more interesting because those versions were developed by two studios (Sumo for 360 and AM2 for PS3). Or maybe that difference makes the comparison about each developer instead of a straight 1080p hardware shootout.

Either way, taste both flavors after the break, or hit the HD version on the GameTrailers site.

We really wanted to like Virtua Tennis 3. On the surface, the Virtua Tennis 3 demo presents a polished, professional veneer. Dig deeper, however, and something ugly begins to rear its head. Of course, it's possible that we just really suck (or that we've been spoiled by Top Spin). We can accept that. Still, in an hour of play time, we managed to win one (one!) game against the CPU. Not one match mind you, but one game. Put simply, the CPU is pretty ruthless. Combine that with some questionable game mechanics and Virtua Tennis 3 becomes very frustrating very fast.

Major Nelson gave us word that Virtua Tennis 3 had a demo hit Xbox Live Marketplace this morning. It weighs in just shy of 850 MB and unfortunately is not available in Asia. Still, the game looks promising and will have a native resolution of 1080p, although we don't know if the same can be said for the demo. So, did you play Top Spin 2 last year, which was alright and had reasonably challenging Achievements (we were also partial to The Future's "Change your Ways" which played in the career menu and progressively added instruments and eventually lyrics as each year passed)? If so, how does this demo compare to that experience for you? We'll have impressions for you shortly.

It's Thursday -- woohoo! That means new releases for Joystiq's bloggers and readers in Japan (and a "now shipping" date for the import tribe). If you're here, or there, consider splashing your Yen on these nifty gems:

• Virtua Tennis 3 ("ace," "a smash," "grand slam," etc.; Sega, PS3)
  
• Bomberman Land Wii (it's not Bomberman: Act Zero, so just be thankful; Hudson, Wii)
  
• Eyeshield 21 (an American Football RPG from Nintendo; NCL, Wii)
  
• Sega Ages 2500 Vol. 29: Monster World Complete Collection (pictured and collected: Wonderboy; not pictured but collected: Monster Land, Wonderboy III, Monster World II, Wonderboy V, Monster World IV; Sega, PS2)
  
• Seiken Densetsu: Heroes of Mana (it's a Mana game; SquareEnix, DS)
  
• Yoshi's Island DS (home at last; Artoon, DS)
  

SEGA released a couple trailers for Virtua Tennis 3, the first is in 720p, even though the game itself is 1080p native, and shows some cool doubles and singles action as well as the solid animation. The other video available gives you a taste of some of the minigames that are a staple to the Virtua Tennis series, although only being available in 640x480. Still, definitely worth a look as this game is one of the most promising tennis titles to date. So, click the "Read" link and watch the videos, they're only a couple minutes each. Are you interested in this or is Top Spin 2 all you need to get your fill?

Everything I know about tennis I learned from The Prince of Tennis so I'm not the most knowledgeable about the sport. But I do know that Virtua Tennis 3 looks amazing. If you're looking forward to getting your top spin on, than these screens will either hurt or help the wait until the game's March 20th release.

Screens after the jump ...

It's clearly a time of miracles, with mega publisher EA revealing to Gamasutra that it too, has achieved the "basically impossible" and delivered an Xbox 360 game running in that Shangri-La of resolutions, 1080p. Yesterday, Sega gushed that Virtua Tennis 3 would bring 1080p gaming to the 360 "for the first time," an issue that has prompted EA to wag its enormous finger and point towards the upcoming NBA Street Homecourt.

EA claims the basketball game runs happily at 30 frames per second in 1080p resolution, and that it will see release on 20 February. Virtua Tennis 3 is due for release in March. Until then, you'd best lay low until the resolution gunfight is over -- they have to run out of bulletpoints sooner or later.

Yesterday we pointed out that Virtua Tennis 3 was going to be playable in 1080p. It was going to be the first Xbox 360 title to official support the resolution announced back in September. But that was yesterday, and this is today. EA has announced that NBA Street: Homecourt will be shipping on February 20th, a month earlier. On top of that, the game will support 1080p at 30fps among the other standard resolutions, squeezing out VT3 as the premiere title to deliver the 1080p goods. So, you've played the demo, now it's coming to you in 1080p, are you interested in this game? If it's only the "True HD" experience you're after, will you wait a month longer for Virtua Tennis 3?

SEGA announced today that Virtua Tennis 3 will be playable in the coveted 1080p resolution. While this means nothing to the majority of gamers out there, it should provide an extra feather for the caps of game industry executives and owners of dumpster sized televisions. Perhaps more interesting than the announcement of 1080p support is the announcement of Virtua Tennis 3's Live features. While the game offers typical ranked and friends matches, it also offers tournament and exhibition play. Best of all, these modes include doubles play. The most interesting feature addition is VT:TV, which will allow players to watch matches in progress. As the press release notes, this makes for a good way to size up your competition (or learn from the top ranked players). Virtua Tennis 3 is expected to release in March.

[Via Joystiq]

We're sure Microsoft exec Scott Henson -- who last March said 1080p graphics were "basically impossible" -- is probably going to help himself to an extra generous portion of humble pie as Sega announces that Virtua Tennis 3, already running proudly in 1080p on the PlayStation 3, will be arriving in full true HD glory on the Xbox 360 as well.

Sega's press release can barely handle the full resolution of the news, gushing, "For the first time, Xbox 360 gamers can experience high-definition 1080p graphics on their console with Virtua Tennis 3." Of course, it's no coincidence that the first Xbox 360 game to hit that magic resolution was one of the few PS3 launch games to make it there as well. The tennis court remains relatively static while the players (choose from up to 20 tennis pros!) move around, unencumbered by dozens of creepy monsters from an alternate history intent on killing them. Now that Sega's paved the way (with clay we imagine), how long before future titles sign-up for 1080p doubles?

Our buddies at Gamertag Radio got their eager mitts on this new gameplay video from Virtua Tennis 3. Having watched the video, we can safely say that it's definitely tennis. Given the series' history, VT3 will likely be a pretty good tennis game, too. We're glad the 360 allows for custom soundtracks though, because the music sounds like it was ripped directly from the Sonic Adventure series. Of course, the big question is whether or not Virtua Tennis 3 can compete with the likes of Top Spin. We'll find out soon enough when the game releases in March. In the meantime, watch the video and tell us what you think.

You know you want it, so here it is: SEGA's first quarter of 2007 release dates. There are a lot of hotly anticipated titles here. Even though Sonic got pretty sour reviews, we're still excited to at least move really fast. When these new games start launching, we'll even begin reviewing titles. Won't that be exciting? Anyway, here's the schedule:

• Sonic - 1/30/07
• Virtua Fighter 5 - 2/20/07
• Virtua Tennis 3 - 3/20/07
• Armored Core 4 - 3/??/07

There are other titles that aren't specifically PS3 titles, but really, we're just going to focus on the PS3 releases for now. You'll notice Armored Core 4 doesn't have a set date for launch in March. Hopefully that changes and not for the worse. There is a pretty big gap between VF5 and VT3 -- maybe SEGA is waiting to hear the European launch date and will release AC4 upon that. Maybe not. Whatever, SEGA, just keep making good games... and tell us if you plan to release a PS3 version of Phantasy Star Universe, with graphics upgraded to PC-quality (which are much, much smoother). Bah.

We sat on this Virtua Tennis 3 video yesterday, ultimately running with something different. We have come to realize that was a mistake. You see, this video is hot. In fact, it was apparently yesterdays hottest game video. As such, it journalistic (bloggerlistic?) duty to provide it to you now. Watch it after the break. And remember, this thing is hot, so watch responsibly.

Ha, ha, ha... get it? Love-Love? It's like win-win, but in complete tennis lingo... which means zero-zero... but love is always good, right? It almost worked. Ahem, anyway. SEGA and their PS3 version of Virtua Tennis 3 have been confirmed to take advantage of the tilt function to "move around the court and play shots." Here's the kicker (and a personal thumb-up for this... hopefully the Wii will do this too on some games): this is an option, not a mandatory gameplay feature.

Moving around the court isn't the only thing you can do with the tilt magic. Seems you'll also be able to serve the ball and use the controller like a tennis racket to make specific shots -- upwards swing for a lob, quickly down to slice, horizontally for some top spin. It's almost like the Wii, but... not quite. Watch for this title to roll around in Spring '07.