Monthly Archives: April 2008

Good Lord. Capcom’s release a set of new Street Fighter IV screens showing off the game’s bosses. Bison, Balrog, Sagat, and Vega are seen here in glorious technicolour. We’re not sure this could be any more desirable. After the link.

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According to ChartTrack data, the 360 version of GTA IV was more popular than the PS3 game on the first day of sales.

Approximately 335,000 Xbox 360 games sold yesterday: 274,000 were sold on PS3.

So there we are.

SCEA put out a press release today saying it’s to adjust prices on the Canadian PS Store to put them in line with the weaker US dollar.

“We are continually looking for ways to enhance the player experience on the PlayStation Network, and downloadable content through the PlayStation Store is just one of our areas of focus,” said Grace Chen, manager for the PlayStation Store.

“We anticipate that this price adjustment will meet the expectations of our Canadian consumers and provide them with a better PlayStation Network experience.”

No specific figures have been given as to how much downloads are going to cost in Canada now, but this has to be good news if you’re north of the border.

According to this GI story, GTA IV has had the biggest UK launch day on record, as if that’s any surprise. From the site:

GTA IV first day sales were 609,000 units – eclipsing the record of 501,000 units set by GTA: San Andreas in 2004.

GTA IV also set a record for first day sales Xbox 360 software, with 335,000 units. The prior record, set last September by Halo 3, was 266,000 units.

GTA IV easily eclipsed the first day PS3 sales record previously held by Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, which had day one sales of 80,000 last month. The PS3 version of GTA IV sold 274,000 units in the UK on day one.

Okami’s coming out on June 13 in Europe, according to Eurogamer. Not a lot to add to that, really. Other than, “Make sure you buy it.”

Speaking to CVG, Valve’s Doug Lombardi’s assured that Portal 2 won’t be simply more of the same, and that the company is investing a lot of time into working out have to take the entire concept forward.

“We’re doing a lot of R&D to find out what’s going to live up to that promise,” he said. “When you think Portal you think about really innovative gameplay, clever writing and really dark humour. So how do we take that and follow up upon that idea, rather than just cashing in on it?”

Don’t hold your breath on a quick release, however.

“We could have quickly put out Half Life 2 in 18 months. It would have been on the same engine and been a reverse run through Black Mesa. But that’s not our style,” Lombardi added.

“I don’t think it’ll be six years until you see the next Portal, but it will definitely not just be seeing Portal with different coloured textures.”

More through the link.

Ex-Paragon chap Nick Roberts has been appointed business development manager at Imagine, the UK magazine publisher’s confirmed.

Roberts takes control of all advertising, cover promos and advertorial on Wii and DS magazine NRevolution and multi-format kids’ gaming magazine Pokémon World, as well as handling special promotional projects for the whole Imagine videogames portfolio.

“It feels good to be returning to the cut-and-thrust of the gaming industry,” said Roberts. “Pokémon World has been a phenomenal success on the newsstands, catering for the often overlooked 12-and-under age group of eager videogamers and trading card fans. There are some exciting promotions and advertising deals to be done across all formats with this title, and coupled with NRevolution Imagine has an unofficial Wii and DS readership that is second to none.”

Press release after the link.

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Atari just sent over some new screens of the upcoming Alone in the Dark and a dev diary from lead designer Hervé Sliwa titled “Inspiration and Innovation”. Find both through the link. The shots look hot.

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Oli Eurogamer can speak French, and has worked his way through Joypad’s Prince of Persia article to produce something a bit more readable than this. Taste:

He heals the land by killing boss guardians, in the style of Shadow of the Colossus or Twilight Princess, and unleashing the power of the light-wells they guard. The land is then transformed in real-time – unlike Okami’s cut-scenes – with grass growing and lighting and colour changing dynamically as the Prince moves through the world.

Although combat is still an important part of the game, enemies will be much less numerous and more vicious. The emphasis is on one-on-one swordfighting duels, with a very dynamic camera. It’s described as being more Soul Calibur than God of War.

The new Prince of Persia game’s out for PC, PS3 and 360 this year. Expect to see more from Ubidays at the end of May.

First details of PixelJunk Monsters Encore on the US PlayStation blog, including a check list of features for the expansion and a Q&A with developer Dylan Cuthbert.

Thanks, Destructoid.

According to this post in Criterion’s site, PS3 Burnout Paradise players will soon be able to upload their save file and have it analysed.

PS3 players with the recently-released Bogart software update will be able to import their save game via USB drive or Memory Stick and analyse it on criteriongames.com!

Based on that, we create an interactive map that allows you to view the location of all incomplete discoverables. That includes Jumps, Smashes, Billboards, Junkyards, Body Shops, Paint Shops, Gas Stations and Car Parks.

More through the link. No idea why 360 owners can’t enjoy the same thing – it sounds cool.

Speaking to videogaming247, DICE producer Jamie Keen has said that the EA developer was taken aback by the fierce reaction to plans to charge for weapons in Battlefield: Bad Company, but that listening to the community is paramount for those working on the franchise.

“We were slightly surprised by the strength of the reaction,” he said.

“Charged downloadable content is becoming more prevalent throughout gaming, but it’s important for us to be able to react to people’s wishes and desires. There was a very strong reaction to it.

“For a game like Battlefield, where we’ve had a very strong online presence, and traditionally we’ve had very strong communications with the community, it’s important for us to be able to react to people. And yeah, we have to listen to people.”

Keen added, by way of explanation as to why the idea of charging for certain weapons had been included, that the concept was essentially a test.

“The beta was an opportunity for us to try out a few different bits and pieces and see how people react to it, and that was one of things we wanted to see,” he said. “One of the things that cropped up was the reaction to [charging for weapons].”

Following a turnaround on the issue, Keen said he was pleased at the way the community has reacted to EA’s decision to make all the weapons in Bad Company free.

“I felt that people were pleased that we were reacting in that kind of way, and that’s good,” he said.

“I think it sets a tenor with the kind of relationship we want to strike with people. We don’t want to come across as some sort of ivory tower company that doesn’t listen to people and what they’re after.

“Making sure that the community is being involved in that sort of way and making sure that it’s being listened to and feels as though it’s being listened to is very, very important to us.”

For the full interview with Jamie, hit the play button below.

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Koch’s to open an LA office, the company’s announced. The publisher, under its Deep Silver games brand, will be located at 2615 Pacific Coast Highway #225, Hermosa Beach, CA.

“The opening of our United States office represents an important milestone in the development of Koch Media,” said Koch boss, Klemens Kundratitz. “In the last five years, Deep Silver was able to successfully position itself as a quality brand, and now enters the North American market with its own branch office. With a presence in the USA, we can market our own products more efficiently, all over the world.”

Press release after the link.

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Following Eurogamer.net’s Ellie Gibson “doing her thing” with Wii Fit on video, Eurogamer.de’s Tanja Menne has posted her take on the Nintendo game.

This involves her gyrating her hips, “jogging” and being generally mobile. The site’s news chap, Benjamin, is also in the video. In a hat. See it here.

Cryptic’s put out another three screens of its upcoming superhero MMO, Champions online. It appears we’re in the post-coital GTA IV news lull: it’s slower than Barry White screwing a “lady” out there today.

Not that we’re saying Champions Online’s rubbish. Because it isn’t. See after the link.

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Siren and Silent Hill developer Keiichiro Toyama is to speak at Nordic Game 2008, the conference confirmed this morning, as will Tameem Antoniades, co-founder of Ninja Theory.

The programme’s starting to look pretty good, in truth. Jet Set Radio Future guy Ryuuta Ueda, EVE Online boss Hilmar Pétursson and Age of Conan’s Jørgen Tharaldsen will also be making an appearance.

Nordic Game runs from May 14-15 this year, again at the Malmö Convention Center in Malmö, Sweden.

Press release after the link.

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In an email to videogaming247, Terminal Reality boss Mark Randel said that the DS won’t be used as PKE meter in the Wii version of Ghostbusters as we mistakenly reported yesterday.

“I’m sorry to report that, unfortunately, this is not a feature of the Wii and DS version of the game,” he wrote, smearing egg on our faces. “It would have been really cool though.”

When you’re wrong, you’re wrong, and that’s what we were. Must’ve been all that free drink making us hear stuff.

By Mike Bowden

Valve’s released a new map – Goldrush – and a heap of new medic Achievements for Team Fortress 2, as you can see here. There’s a new item system included as well, apparently. There’s all the information you could ever need through the link.

Epic president Mike Capps will keynote GCDC this year, say this GI story, with the speech apparently focusing on Gear 2 development.

“Epic set the technological bar for next-generation games with the original Gears of War, so we knew we had our work cut for us with Gears of War 2,” said Capps.

“Epic Games is a major force in the games industry today, from their million-selling franchises Unreal, and Gears of War, to their engine technology which is licensed by hundreds of developers worldwide,” said Frank Sliwka, GCDC project director.

The German trade event runs from August 18-20.

Update: And here’s the press release. After the link.

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According to this GI story, Yahoo! and Microsoft both rejected Steam after Valve pitched the pre-launch concept.

“You know, we went around to Yahoo, Microsoft… and anybody who seemed like a likely candidate to build something like Steam,” said Valve marketing boss Doug Lombardi.

“We basically had our feature list that we wanted. We wanted auto-updating, we wanted better anti-piracy, better anti-cheat, and selling the games over the wire was something we came up with later.

“We went around to everybody and asked ‘Are you guys doing anything like this?’ And everyone was like ‘That’s a million miles in the future…We can’t help you.’”

Steam’s 14 million accounts say otherwise.