Monthly Archives: March 2008

Here. Visiting the official Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter site brings up a Flash teaser for what appears to be the next game in the GRAW series (thanks daniel-plainview). No real details, but at least we know it’s on the way now, as if there was ever any doubt.

Square Enix has released a Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII PSP theme on the US Playstation Store.

It’s a XrossMediaBar affair with a customized background and icons featuring characters from the game. The good news is it’s completely free.

We really like the look of this game that has had both critical acclaim and has hit the number one spot in the Amazon US PSP charts in its first week.

Still no official news on a European release date though, although June’s looking very likely.

By Mike Bowden

According to a Geoff Keighley blog post, the next episode of GameTrailers TV is going to be a special one for Star Wars fans.

I also want to give you faithful blog readers a little tidbit about our next show on April 11: It’s all about STAR WARS! Last week I went up to LucasArts for an exclusive behind the scenes look at the new game THE FORCE UNLEASHED. We’ll be blowing it out on GTTV with a ton of exclusive footage and some very special announcements. Spike is airing all six Star Wars movies in April and throughout the month I’ll also be appearing between the movies on Spike to reveal more of THE FORCE UNLEASHED. You’ll want to tune in on Sunday April 6 between the movies for a big Star Wars videogame announcement and some very exclusive footage.

But the best part is that our April 11 episode also has a bunch of other HUGE exclusives in it. More on that soon….

Star Wars: Force Unleashed was moved to September recently but there’s no doubt it’s going to be a major Star Wars title: word is that LucasArts is prepared to put it off for as long as it needs to get it right. Keep your eyes open on April 6 and April 11.

Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter has pinned America’s Wii shortage on the weak US dollar, it says here.

Pachter reckons Nintendo’s been keeping US shipments down to take advantage of stronger currencies in Europe by diverting stock to the Continent.

The analyst said that he expects American hardware levels to return to normal later this year, now that demand for Nintendo’s machine is levelling off in Europe.

His assessment may also explain why all of a sudden Europe’s getting certain Nintendo games before the US. Both Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii are releasing in Europe before America, a situation practically unheard of in terms of Nintendo product.

Whatever. Hopefully we can all be happy Nintendo bunnies later this year.

As of today you can now download the third installment of the Too Human development video diary from Xbox Live.

With featured commentary from Silicon Knights president Dennis Dyack and director of design Henry Sterchi, the movie tells of Too Human’s “real essence” and its customisable combat, which will apparently provide you with a rather unique experience.

This Nordic action adventure game is looking rather swish, we think, and has a tentative release date for August ’08. Go download.

Update: If you can’t be bothered to watch it on Live, you can see it after the link.

By Mike Bowden

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According to this, if you downloaded GT5: Prologue from PSN yesterday you may find that you can only play it if you’re connected to the service. As in, you can’t play it offline.

Also, you can’t transfer the file, as it’s linked specifically to the account that downloaded it, although we can’t quite see why you’d want to do that anyway.

Sounds like it might have been better to buy the disc, no?

According to this, Prototype, Vivendi’s promising action outing, has had its multiplayer component removed. From the interview:

Why was multiplayer cut from Prototype?

Executive producer Tim Bennison: From its inception Prototype was planned first and foremost as a single player open-world/action game. Naturally, with Alex’s genetically mutated shape-shifting abilities, we started to explore what would happen if he were to sub-divide into two Prototypes and what kind of multiplayer gameplay we could create around that concept. We’ve been looking at this potential multiplayer idea much more closely as Prototype’s development has been progressing, and while it’s a great concept and gameplay bonus, our conclusion is that we won’t be able to pull it off with the same level of quality and polish that we’re aiming for with the original single player story.

So now you now. Prototype’s releasing for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 this autumn.

We weren’t entirely convinced when Gearbox announced it’d partnered with Double Fusion to provide in-game ads for WWII shooter Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway, but the developer has shown off how it’s all going to work and it’s looking very “proper” indeed.

As you can see, the ads in the game are going to be from the era itself, the game being set in the ill-fated Operation Market Garden towards the end of the War. The Philips logo used on top of the Philips factory in Eindhoven is historically correct. There’s a big update there on how the ads are going to be incorporated into the game, which looks likely to set a standard far beyond the now normal “billboard” ads we’re used to seeing in games like Burnout Paradise.

As a note, the historical link between the Philips factory in Eindhoven and the game was one of the “sweeteners” behind the amBX-Ubisoft deal announced at CES this year. All true.

According to this, the next big releases for PSN are being lined up as follows:

• PixelJunk Monsters: Encore – late April
• Echochrome – May
• Elefunk – May
• WipEout HD – May/June

This list follows a leaked schedule earlier this month that pretty much tallies. Come on the WipEout.

According to this, a next-gen Mortal Kombat site popped up yesterday, right here. As you can see, it’s now been taken down and replaced with the following:

Our web hosting company is currently relocating their data center to a new location. We apologize that for the duration of this move, you can’t reach our website.

We should be up and running again by 8:00am EST Sunday morning or earlier. Please check back soon.

Try not to wear out the edge of your seat in the meantime.

Bitter? In no way. SCEA’s marketing boss, Scott Steinberg, reckons most people won’t be bothered with 360′s exclusive GTA IV downloadable content. Well, he would, wouldn’t he.

“[Microsoft] spent the GNP of several small Latin American countries to get that [content], and if you’ve ever played San Andreas…there’s a lot of game to Grand Theft Auto and there’s going to be a lot of game to Grand Theft Auto IV to the point where I think most people will have that Grand Theft Auto experience on the PS3, day and date, same core game shipping on the 360. Perhaps they’ll be shipping some episodic content in the fall, but there is a whole lot of product shipping on the PS3 in April and I personally don’t think there’s going to be a huge percentage of folks who jump into downloadable content for another price when they’re still playing through the core product,” he told GameDaily BIZ.

“So while I do think having that brand on their system was a move for them which they felt they needed to make because they cut a big check for it, I think PlayStation fans know the Grand Theft Auto experience on the PS2 is how they grew up playing Grand Theft Auto,” he continued, “and when you combine GTA IV with MGS 4 and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, all the exclusive content that we’ve got going forward, I think that goes from tipping point to shoving point for consumers who are on the fence, wondering what platform should I buy. I think the clear exclusive message that we have is that the PS3 is where, not only do you get Grand Theft Auto, but you’ll get MGS, you’ll get Gran Turismo and these are also brands that have moved hardware units. It’s the elite of the elite products that actually enable hardware to be sold with software and we’ll have three of them.”

Go Scott. Your blood runs Sony. We salute you.

EA’s releasing a 360 demo of daft shooter Army of Two on April 1, the company’s confirmed. It’d be rude to not try it for free. Maybe that’s why Live’s off the air in the morning: Microsoft’s making sure it’s macho enough to take everything Army of Two has to offer.

If you log into Xbox Live right now you’ll see that Microsoft’s warning everyone that Live will be down on the morning of April 1 for maintenance work. The service will be offline from 9am for three hours. Try not to panic.

SCEA’s John Koller’s at it again, this time saying that as well as being a ten-year product, PSP is only just now being used to it potential by developers and publishers, three years after it launched.

“Developers and publishers are now just starting to see what the keys to success are on the PSP,” he said. “It’s not like the console world at all, and it’s something we’ve been preaching for a while.”

Koller continued, saying users behaved differently with PSP as they did with “under the TV” hardware and that many used the machine primarily in the house.

“One thing we’ve noticed is that about 1 in 2, about 50% of consumers, are using the PSP at home,” he said. “[Many people] don’t want to buy the same console game that they play on a handheld.

“So, to avoid that kind of competitive play, a lot of developers and publishers are starting to say, ‘all right, maybe it’s time we start making games that are unique to that system under a strong umbrella’.”

According to this, Microsoft’s turned down Cave’s insane top-down shooters for XBLA in Japan. According to a statement from Cave:

“Our initial plan was to port lots of good arcade titles to XBLA. We talked to IP holders of these titles, and persuaded them. We secured these licenses, and finally talked with Microsoft. There they rejected all of our proposals saying, ‘We are going to cut down faithful arcade ports.’ We felt so frustrated. We wanted to show them that their decision was wrong. So we switched our two most promising projects into retail.”

Cave’s Ketsui and DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou Black Label were supposed to be released on the service in Japan later this year. And now they’re not. So that… sucks.

Big releases mean big changes to Amazon’s global charts this week.

The gorgeous looking Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII takes its place proudly at the top of the US PSP charts, wrestling Kratos off the top spot, while Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games ousts Carnival Funfair Games to go top in the UK Wii charts.

Other charts stay sticky, though: Activision’s Call of Duty 4 remains unmoved at number one in the US PS3 charts, and that unstoppable force – EA’s The Sims – is ever-present in the US, UK and Japanese PC charts.

Click the link to see who’s buying what for what system and in what region. Thanks to Gama for the list.

By Mike Bowden

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According to this Dutch PlayStation site, DualShock 3 will be released in Europe on May 2.

The site references “a reliable source” but no more information is given.

As rumours go, this one’s plausible due to the fact that MGS4 is released a month later and uses the new pad’s funtionality, but don’t go holding your breath just yet.

By Mike Bowden

According to this blog post, Capcom has renamed its annual reveal event from Gamers Day to CAPTIVATE08. CAPTIVATE08, the most capitalised event in gaming, will still be held in Las Vegas, and will still be held in May. The main difference seems to be that some members of the public are going to be invited along.

“Do not despair if you’re part of the media have not been invited, however,” said the post. “There will be many, many opportunities to catch up with Capcom this year. There will be this year’s E3, of course (cue farting noise), Comic-con in San Diego, CES in Vegas in January, quarterly press tours to New York, LA and (constantly) throughout the Bay Area, as well as some international events (Games Convention in Germany, TGS). Heck, we may even put on a few more smaller events like Digital Day. Whew, I need to hire more people in PR.”

Hit the link for more.

Tanya Byron, author of the Byron Report, wants opponents to videogaming to get with the programme. Her programme, specifically.

In a response that could have been tailored for idiots like Anne Diamond, Byron told critics of gaming to “stop panicking, get a grip, move on in the debate and just be sensible about who plays what at what age, and what’s appropriate.”

The comments came as part of a massive interview with Byron, which revealed she was:

• Pleased with the general response to her Review despite “completely wrong” early reporting.
• Promised publicly and privately by ministers that the government will act on recommendations.
• “Taking a step back” from gaming while considering her next move.
• Discussing with ELSPA head Paul Jackson his fears over BBFC’s role.
• Assured by parts of industry that they would help fund awareness campaign.

Take a look. Hopefully we can move on now.

We have to mention this, seeing as Rob could be bothered to put it together. It’s a list of all the content you can get today on Live Arcade, Xbox Originals, XBLM, PSN, VC and last but by no means least, Metaboli. In the US and Europe. We love you, Bert. Keep fighting the fight.