Ziff Davis has announced that FileFront, the popular download service that has been online since 1999, will be shutting down its operations “indefinitely” on March 30. FileFront has long been one of the most popular download sites and mirrors for patches, mods, tool and demos on the web.

Ziff Davis is looking to sell or close its videogame related businesses — last year 1UP was sold to UGO, who also expressed interest in acquiring FileFront.

You can read the farewell message here.

And sometimes, the games on Newgrounds can get kind of weird in their sheer simplicity, this is why we’ve got games like John Citizen to talk about.

Basically, the aliens have landed one of their own on the planet Earth.  Charged with the duty of planting a series of Doomsday Devices all over the planet, he’s come to kill us all.  He’s armed to the teeth, ready to kill, and indistiguishable from anyone else.  He’s John Citizen.  And we’re not going to be happy to see him.

The gameplay is pretty simple, run, jump, blast things, avoid spikes–and the worlds all look vaguely similiar with some odd differences.  For instance, why do Dubai and the Netherlands look so much alike?  And last I knew, Ottawa in Canada was NOT comprised entirely of a long row of spikes with a series of platforms suspended via invisible restraints directly over them.  I’m baffled on that one, really.

But one thing is clear enough–John Citizen is a fairly fun and fairly quick casual game that’s worth a few plays.

The biggest downside of advances in gaming technology is that the more complicated the games get, the longer they take to create. More features equal more complex coding which means there are even more things that can go wrong. Every company loves a good franchise, since they can keep churning out titles with familiar characters and a high chance of success.

Capcom just released Resident Evil 5 to happy fans everywhere and unsurprisingly there’s already people talking about the next game. Technically the ‘next game’ will be The Darkside Chronicles, the next lightgun style game for the Wii, but people are most concerned about the possibility of Resident Evil 6, the true successor to the most recent title.

Despite the near-guarantee of profitability for any new Resident Evil title, it seems that Capcom isn’t sold on making Resident Evil 6: “We haven’t decided whether we’re going to make Resident Evil 6 yet… But if we do, it could take anywhere up to eight years, but hopefully only four,” said Masachika Kawata, producer on RE5.

Capcom sent out word that Bionic Commando will be swinging its way to PS3 and Xbox 360 on May 19.

The game, a remake of the popular 8-bit platformer, features vast open levels where you can use your bionic arm to swing and destroy bad guys. It introduces multiplayer to the series.

Bionic Commando is also set for release on PC after the console versions are out. No release date was given, but expect it within three-to-four months of the console release.

Harmonix revealed today that Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” is joining the catalog of downloadable Rock Band songs, bringing the jukebox classic to living rooms everywhere.

The song is coming soon, possibly in next week’s batch, which will be released on Tuesday, March 31. While no pricing information was given, I expect it to go for the regular price of 160 points ($2).

With the month almost over, Activision sent over the list of songs you can expect to see for Guitar Hero World Tour next month.

Quite a few bands will make their music available next month, including the likes of Nirvana and Motorhead, as well as ’70s rock band Steely Dan.

As expected, each song costs 160 points ($2) and bundles can be bought for 440 points ($5.50) each.

The Pixies Pack – April 2

• "Debaser"
• "Monkey Gone to Heaven"
• "The Sad Punk"

Silversun Pickups Pack – April 9

• "Panic Switch"
• "It’s Nice to Know You Work Alone"
• "Well Thought Out Twinkles"

Steely Dan Pack – April 16

• "Black Friday"
• "Kid Charlemagne"
• "Bodhisattva"

Motorhead Pack – April 23

• "Jailbait (New Guitar Hero Re-record)"
• "Love Me Like a Reptile (New Guitar Hero Re-record)"
• "Iron Fist (New Guitar Hero Re-record)"

Nirvana Pack 2 – April 30

• "Very Ape"
• "Sappy"
• "Stay Away"

Super-spy MMO The Agency has been sneaking around under the radar for quite a while now, but the cat is out of the bag: it will be released next year.

This was revealed by Sony Online Entertainment head honcho John Smedley, who also revealed that super-powered MMO DC Universe Online will also be released in the same timeframe.

No further details were given.

It was only a matter of time before PC and Mac gamers got in on the action, too – Guitar Hero World Tour is coming to those platforms courtesy of Aspyr.

The PC and Mac editions will feature the same content found in the already available console versions. This includes the 86 included tracks, music studio and support for full band gameplay. However, no mention was made of downloadable content.

Guitar Hero games are already available on PC and Mac – Guitar Hero 3 and Aerosmith. I still don’t see how PC gamers would want to play this on a small screen with friends and still enjoy it.

Yesterday we reported that a Netflix survey hinted that watching movies might soon be possible on your Wii. Currently the Xbox 360 is the only game console that allows you to stream movies and tv episodes, but it seems like whatever exclusivity Microsoft may have had is coming to an end. Although there’s no official plans or announcements yet, Netflix is also circulating a survey taking the public’s temperature regarding a streaming service for the PS3.

This could be a big blow for Microsoft since currently the console is the only one that requires a subscription fee to access the online services. Of course since there aren’t any details or even confirmations that Netflix streaming will be brought to other consoles it’s possible that there might be some sort of charge associated with the service, but likely there won’t be since both Nintendo and especially Sony will be interested in keeping some advantage over Microsoft, given that both Sony and Microsoft are looking to establish their consoles as all-in-one media centers.

The PS3 has suffered from some serious setbacks including a loss of exclusives. Katamari Damacy was for years a Playstation exclusive but the most recent title switched camps and made its way to the Xbox 360. Sony must be jumping for joy with this announcement.

Not only is there a new game in the works but it’s going to be a Playstation 3 exclusive. It’s called Katamari Damacy Tribute and it’s essentially the same but different. The gameplay remains the same with the Prince of All Comsos rolling a magical ball called a katamari around in an effort to build up spheres big enough to replace stars.

The ‘different’ part comes in several forms. Firstly the game will take advantage of the PS3′s incredible graphics power and output at the full 1920×1080 resolution. The cartoony visual style will still be included but gamers will have the option of choosing a different style including ‘comic touch’, ‘new touch’ and ‘wood touch’. The game is only 40% complete so there’s nothing in the way of images yet, but the announcement says that these style choices will actually change how the rendering engine processes the visuals. Along with a ‘monochrome’ mode where everything but your katamari is in black and white there’s a brand new gameplay mode they’re keeping under wraps for now.