Monthly Archives: June 2008

Someone at N4G’s posted what appears to be MGS2 available for download on PSN for £12.99.

E3 announcement? Probably.

Blimey. Wired’s finished Too Human and apparently it only took ten hours from beginning to end.

“Just as the story is ramping up and we get a big revelation about Baldur, the game’s over,” says the site. “I was genuinely shocked when the credit roll began, as I felt sure there was so much more left, and I was just truly getting to grips with the combat and had some nice new armor and items that I had spent a bunch of cash to craft.”

Further, “A disappointing early version shown at E3 built up an army of vocal detractors, and Silicon Knights’ outspoken president Denis Dyack has fired back some volleys of his own. The near-final version of the game that I played won’t do much to settle the issue one way or the other: Too Human has a lot of redeeming qualities, but it isn’t for everyone.”

Full thing through the link.

It was, in a word, awesome. The Diablo III reveal in Paris on Saturday was the stuff of dreams. Dream product, dream venue, dream organization. We got there and reported from it with ease. Why? Because everything we ever wanted from a press conference was included. For all the publishers and developers in the audience, everything you’re doing wrong when showing your games to the press for the first time is listed after the break. Please take note.

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There’s a wholly exclusive dev diary after the break of High Moon staff talking about the soundtrack of The Bourne Conspiracy and how a mix of movie tunes and new content was used for the game.

There’s also stuff in there about punch combinations. Punching’s always good.

We’re going to announce the winners of of Bourne competition tomorrow, so there’s still time to enter if you fancy a chance at winning either a PS3 or 360 HMV special edition of the super-soldier scrapper.

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Criterion’s shown the first footage of Burnout Paradise motorbikes in its Crash TV podcast and, fair play, it looks awesome. Here’s an iTunes link.

There’s a heap of information there on Cagney, the first major update for the game, due to release on July 10. Bikes will be included in Davis, the August update, as will custom soundtracks and day-cycles. All of this is shown in the video, so watch it now.

Eurogamer sends word that you’ll be able to ask live questions to David Smith, co-founder and technical director of LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule, this Wednesday, July 2.

Head over there at 4pm BST to get involved. More details here.

There are 26 new Prototype screens on TalkPlayStation. They look as though they’ve been grabbed from a movie, or something. The free-roaming action banana’s out next year.

On Joystiq. Just for completion’s sake, really. Three of these popped up this morning and had previously been seen on PS3F.

Just got this from Sony: “I’m pleased to announce Firmware 2.40 will be released Wednesday 2nd July.”

The following games are now confirmed to include Trophy support:

• BUZZ! Quiz TV
• LittleBigPlanet
• MotorStorm Pacific Rift
• NBA 09 – PS3
• PAIN
• PixelJunk Eden
• Resistance 2
• SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation
• Warhawk

Press release after the link.

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Sony’s just put out the second part of its Firmware 2.40 walkthrough, showing the update’s Trophy system. Get it after the link.

The first part of this movie was released earlier today, showing how in-game XMB, custom soundtracks and Google search will all work on PS3 after the software’s released.

Looks good, innit?

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Update: There have been some wires crossed here. EA’s just told us the date “hasn’t been confirmed” for Europe. More soon.

EA has confirmed to VG247 this morning that Rock Band 2 will release for 360 in Europe in September, as is now confirmed for the US.

“Yes, it’s the same for Europe but we don’t have a confirmed release date,” said a rep. “No other details have been announced.”

The company confirmed via IGN this morning that Rock Band 2 will release on Xbox 360 in September in the US, with the game to follow on “other platforms” later in the year.

While details are light at the moment, it’s known that the sequel will come with upgraded instruments, but will still support the peripherals from the original game.

Update: Kotaku’s updated its piece. It’s bollocks.

Uh oh. The internet goblins won’t like this. This Kotaku piece suggests that the rumoured price drop for 360 at E3 is going to be funded by refurbished machines. The info comes from a GameStop employee, apparently. Take a look.

For the fans. We bumped into IGN’s Jessica Chobot on the stairs of the Diablo III reveal in Paris this weekend, and she very kindly agreed to have her picture taken, just for you. We’ve put the full res version – all 4368×2912 of it – after the break. Wallpaper has a new home.

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According to this SixthAxis post, the second PS3 Firmware 2.40 video will be released by Sony at 1pm BST today.

The first part, put out this morning, showed in-game XMB, custom soundtracks and Google search in action.

They’re on this Czech PlayStation site and clearly show that the previous PS3F shots were genuine. Expect more of these later today.

According to this IGN report, Rock Band 2 will ship for 360 this September, with “other platforms” hitting later in the year.

While all peripherals from the first game will work with the sequel, upgraded versions will be available in a bundle pack. Harmonix isn’t revealing what these upgrades are just yet.

“As successful as the original Rock Band continues to be, we’ve now had the benefit of the last eight months to listen to our fans’ requests and to build upon that foundation,” said Alex Rigopulos, co-founder and CEO of Harmonix. “Rock Band 2 is a second-generation band game that will elevate the music game experience to the next level.”

There’s a Q&A with lead designer Dan Teasdale here.

Just in. Eidos UK has just confirmed that the firm will have no internal PR at all from this point on. The company’s PR aspects are now to be handled by UK agency Barrington Harvey.

“For the time being, there will be no internal PR function; the agencies will be managed by the UK marketing team,” Gareth Ramsay, international PR manager, told VG247 this morning.

In a previous, broadly distributed note, Ramsay said, speaking of himself and PR exec Rachael Grant, “While both of us will remain at the company, the internal restructure will mean that we will move from the PR department to exciting new opportunities.”

The news comes after parent company SCi announced a 25 percent staff lay-off, relocation to Canada and major restructuring in February.

Good luck to you both, chaps.

Just got this from Sony: “I’m pleased to announce Dualshock 3 will be released in the UK on July 4th for £39.99.”

Full press release after the break.

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According to this Hollywood Reporter story, a “major retailer” has confirmed that Microsoft will drop the price of Xbox 360 by $50 at E3.

From the piece:

Microsoft will cut the price of its most popular Xbox 360 model, the 20GB Pro, by $50 to $299 in the coming weeks, game industry sources have confirmed.

Microsoft would not comment, but a major retailer, which requested anonymity, said the price move will come before the major video game trade show, E3, which runs July 15-17 in Los Angeles.

More through the link. Take it as a given that this is true.

PSN boss Eric Lempel said in today’s PS3 Firmware 2.40 video walkthrough that the update would include the Google Search Bar.

“We’ve addeed one more feature that we’ll talk about today,” said Lempel. “This is something we did a few weeks ago on the PSP, with Firmware 4.0, and that’s the addition of a Google Search Bar.

The next video walkthrough will be available in a “few days” with firmware 2.40 being released “very soon”.

By Mike Bowden