Looks like some studios have finally run out of things to make video games about — 505 Games and Paramount Digital have just released a statement detailing their intentions to release a Nintendo Wii title based on Grease the movie.

Grease: The Video Game is reportedly a singing, dancing party gme that uses a microphone in addition to the Wii motion controller. 505 Games’ president Adam Kline had this to say:

“The ‘Grease’ movie is a timeless pop culture icon, and 505 Games is eager to bring the first interactive experience based on the film to fans around the world. We’re looking forward to working with Paramount Digital Entertainment to put players in the middle of all the fun with this all-new video game.”

Anyone excited?

Read (Kotaku)

Here we go again — Joystiq recently noticed that GameStop’s website had a listing for Guitar Hero: Van Halen up for a small period for time. After being discovered, the listing was quickly pulled with no reasoning explained.

See now this is all find and dandy except for one thing, Activision hasn’t said anything at all about Guitar Hero: Van Halen. However, we all know that Activision loves milking the Guitar Hero franchise for all it’s worth so it would make sense that they would come out with another band themed game, right? I mean, there’s a Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith so why not Guitar Hero: Van Halen?

Before it was pulled, the listing had the game set for an August 4th release on the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, and Wii. Now let’s just wait for Activision’s official announcement.

Call the kids, EA has recently announced that MySims Party has officially been slated for a March release date. If you didn’t know, included in MySims Party is a whole slew of minigames which most defenitely take advantage of the DS’ and Wii’s intuitive controls.

Again, EA’s MySims Party will be out this month for both the Nintendo DS and Wii.

Read (Joystiq)

Remember those rumors about a huge Dashboard update for the Xbox 360? During Microsoft’s press conference, it was proven to be true, all of it. Everything from avatars, to the “minority report” interface, etc; were all demoed at the conference. Even the old Netflix partnership rumor was proven factual at the event. Each of the features will be described in detail after the jump.

#1 Avatars

Out of all the rumors and speculation, the avatars seemed the most likely to be true. Sure enough, they were. The avatars are more customizable Miis. They are not like more customizable Miis, they are more customizable Miis. Microsoft and Rare didn’t even bother to make them more realistic. They avatars look, move, and serve the same purpose, as the Miis do. They will act as your visual representation in Xbox Live. Unlike Miis, however, Microsoft has apparently designed the avatars so that they can be implemented into any game a developer may want. Microsoft also announced that clothing and accessories for the avatars will be made available as content. Seeing as how they did not specifically state that the extra content would be available for free, I believe it is safe to assume that they will be accessible for a fee. The avatars also serve an important role in other features that will be explained later on in the article.

#2 Dashboard Renovation

Somehow the term update just doesn’t define the change that will be made to the Xbox 360 come fall. The new version of the Dashboard is completely different from the current one. The blades have been replaced with cover-flow pages which act similar to the iPhone interface. The new Dashboard definitely looks much more intuitive, and while it is more effective than the blades, I’m not sure it’s the most practical interface. The problem was not with the blades, but how they were organized. The new interface is definitely organized better, but whether it’s the best design remains to be seen. All in all, it does seem to have a good balance in ease of use and eye-candy.

#3 Party

In addition to the avatars and the Dashboard, Microsoft took the liberty of beating Home at it’s own game. Of all the updates, this one is, in my opinion, the smartest. The party system allows Xbox 360 owners to see the Miis- the avatars of the friends who are online. From what was shown, it seems that a chat bubble will display the name of the friend. Once a friend is highlight, the chat bubble displays what they are doing. Users can invite up to eight friends into a “party”. Here is where it gets interesting. The interaction that users have through the party system is simplistic, yet very, very effective. The example shown was the party leader displaying pictures, which were streamed to the other members. Netflix videos can be shared in a similar way. The party leader can decide other activities to do, such as play an Xbox Live Arcade game, or a retail game. There was is also a trivia game feature being added which allows “parties” to participate in popular game shows from their dashboard. Simple, no “homes” no virtual living rooms etc;

We will provide more information as it becomes available. For now, the Dashboard update will be released in the fall, no specific date has been released as of yet.