NewsSpots: Heavenly Sword, Neves, Universe at War

Heavenly Sword teases PSN
Kyle Shubel from Sony's Santa Monica Studios has announced by way of PlayStation.blog that a playable demo for the highly anticipated PlayStation 3 action game Heavenly Sword will be available sometime this week via the PlayStation Store. In the demo, players step into the skin of blade-wielding vixen Nariko shortly after she regains consciousness from a traumatic encounter with King Bohan and his army. Shubel also reiterated that Heavenly Sword is on track to meet its expected September release date.

Yuke's wrestles with DS puzzle game
While Yuke's is a name generally synonymous with THQ's WWE wrestling games, the company's US subsidiary today announced Neves, a DS game with a much more cerebral emphasis. In the game, players must arrange seven blocks to completely fill more than 500 different silhouettes. Yuke's will release Neves in the US this November, with cooperation from Atlus USA.

Universe at War seeks skirmishers
Sega has announced that it is taking applications for the closed beta test of Universe at War: Earth Assault on the PC. Interested participants can sign up to help test the platform-spanning real-time strategy game through the company's Web site until August 15. The first 8,000 people to sign up will be officially qualified to participate in the test, which runs from August 17 to September 16. Universe at War: Earth Assault is currently slated to be released on the PC this October, with an Xbox 360 version following during the first quarter of 2008.