Monthly Archives: November 2008

WOWInsider’s published an internal EB email claiming that not only was the Wrath of the Lich King launch the biggest sales week of the year so far, but it was the biggest week ever outside of last year’s Christmas sales, and the biggest launch the chain has ever had.

It was big, bucko. There are no figures on the mail, but expect the add-on to feature prominently November’s ABCs.

More through there.

Speaking in the video interview after the break, CDProjekt designer Jacob Stilinsky’s claimed that the consoles version of monster-hunting RPG The Witcher – titled The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf – will not only feature superior control to the original PC version, but will pack more polygons and “look” better in general.

Suck it up, PC owners. Both 360 and PS3 are getting the game, which supports Achievements and Trophies, and even Sixaxis.

It’s more “dynamic,” and everything. It’s got a new engine, apparently, and a completely new combat system. In fact, we spit in your face, PC version of The Witcher. You’re dead to us.

No date. Take a look.

More »

Gears 2, your days as prettiest hulking man-girl on the block are numbered. At least, they are if Midway creative director Simon Woodroffe is to be believed.

“I just saw a demo of a new Midway game that’s in development. I can’t tell you too much about it, but they’ve been on it for three months and it looks as good if not better than Gears 2,” he told VideoGamer.

“This is only possible because of the sharing of technology,” he added – in direct opposition to earlier allegations that Unreal 3 tech-sharing had yanked Midway into a “spiral of doom.”

“[The secret game]‘s already looking as good as Gears 2, but the game mechanics are kind of different. It’s going to be really big and really important,” Woodroffe explained. “It’s not often, especially when you’re a cynical type, that you see a prototype or creative slice and just get blown away by it. But in this case, the hype is justified.”

Additionally, he mentioned another “really cool game” rattling around in Midway Chicago’s oven, but stopped short of saying anything other than the words “really,” “cool,” and “game.” Apparently, both titles are slated for a 2010 release.

More talk about sharing and caring through the link.

By Nathan Grayson

What do you do when you don’t want to drop the price of your console on the high street? You cut out retail, silly. Sony’s offering a £40 discount on new 40Gb PS3s through SonyStyle.co.uk, meaning you can pick a machine up for £269 right now.

Keep watching, as well. There’s a bundle there which includes an 80Gb machine and a copy of LittBigPlanet for £279, although it’s listed as “coming soon”.

If you’re looking for an 80Gb console with games and Blu-ray paraphernalia for Christmas, you’d be best looking at Play.

Thanks, Cort!

Update: Those Play prices have gone back up now. Snooze, lose. Thanks, jigglybean!

Remember we told you SCEE put out 100,000 Home beta invites last week? Well, it didn’t actually happen. To cut a long story short, email problems meant the planned deluge was delayed.

Never more. Super-mod TedTheDog, speaking on the EU PS boards, has confirmed that everything’s now been sent.

In fact, we got an invite last night. Check your mail.

Capcom shares hit a five-year high in Tokyo trading yesterday, climbing 18 percent to close at 1,938 yen.

The boost came after Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group increased its rating to “strong outperform” on the firm, guessing earnings will rise 39 per cent to 71.6 billion yen in the year ending March 31.

“The three titles to watch out for in the second half are Biohazard 5, Street Fighter IV and Bionic Commando,” said Hirotoshi Murakami, a Tokyo-based analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ.

Thanks, GI.

Play.com’s selling Square RPG The Last Remnant for £17.99, as you can see here. It’s been out for a week. Despite the fact it didn’t attract the most amazing scores in the world, if you’re in the market for a hardcore 360 JRPG it’d be nonsense not to try it at that price.

Xbox 360 owners may also want to check out Ace Combat 6: Fires Of Liberation for £9.99 on Play – thanks PT.

That’s not all: we’re told that Play is to launch some “shocking” discounting on Monday, with some very high profile games dropping to £18. Keep watching.

Eurogamer’s claimed the PC version of Far Cry is the best of the three SKUs in another of Richard Leadbetter face-off features.

“Far Cry 2 is an excellent release on PC, and the fact that it can run in high definition with all features set to high levels while still providing a reasonably smooth, graphically superb experience is a first-rate achievement,” said Leadbetter.

“Both console versions are intelligently ported and decent games to play, but with clear compromises.”

Not only that, but Ubi Montreal’s work is on a par with CryEngine 2, apparently, and even tops it in the fact that it’s already working on consoles.

“We’d still give the nod to CryEngine 2 in terms of overall performance, but [Far Cry 2 engine] Dunia is working in the here and now on both PC and console, while Crytek’s 360 and PS3 work remains under wraps in Frankfurt,” he added.

More through there.

Xbox-Scene’s posted up shots of what’s thought to be a retail Xbox 360 containing a Jasper chipset.

The revision is supposed to use less power and generate less heat.

There’s a pic there of a new power supply at 150W (25W less than those used with Falcon boards), and news that the console’s internal memory’s been bumped up to 256Mb from 16Mb.

The internet’s all of a fluster about this. There’s no confirmation of its truth as yet.

There’s a ton of technical jargon through the link.

Just because. There’s pictures of Alison Carroll “being” Lara Croft at T3′s offices here. That’s it. Look at them.

SCEE’s confirmed by way of the EU PS boards that MyPSN is now available on PlayStation.com in Europe.

This means you can see which of your Friends, alter email preferences and more.

The full post:

From November 27, 2008 all user accounts at eu.playstation have been updated with new features. By combining these with PlayStation Network accounts, you can update your email preferences, register your console and enter prize draws.

Sign in and go to the My PSN page in the PlayStation Network section to see which of your friends are online, create an official Portable ID to show your friends your favourite games, and take part in events to suit all tastes by checking out the Events Calendar.

Good shit, yo.

Speaking in the latest issue of the Official PS Mag, Res Evil originator Shinji Mikami’s admitted that he’s unlikely to play the game’s fifth instalment.

“I probably won’t play it,” he said. “I won’t like it, because it’s not going to be the game I would have made.

“It’ll just cause me stress if I play it. I think it could be fun for gamers to play it, but not for someone who has developed Resident Evil games.

“If I see anything in Resident Evil 5 that isn’t done well, I’ll be angry.”

Do not make him angry.

More on CVG.

Yoot Saito is working on what appears to be a reworked version of Seaman 2 for the iPhone called Gabo, according to this Joystiq report.

There’s a video of it after the break. It seems to be about a monkey on an island. There’s not a single funny man-fish thing in sight.

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AMD general manager Rick Bergman has told VentureBeat that the PC gaming market’s still a “healthy” place with “strong” sales still very much in evidence.

Snip:

VB: Do you think that people have a strong appetite for high-end graphics?

RB: If you look at the sales, it’s still healthy. The third quarter was down a little from last year. But the market keeps getting bigger and bigger.

VB: Is PC gaming healthy?

RB: There is a very compelling story on why PC gaming is so healthy now. When you consider shipments of high-end gaming rigs and strong sales of online games such as World of Warcraft, you can see how strong it is. Sales at the high end continue to astound me. We address that by putting two of our sweet spot chips into one board. The gaming platforms tend to be the first place where games appear, but we are in about 80 percent of the gaming consoles sold, since we’re in the Microsoft and Nintendo consoles.

The full interview’s in interesting stuff: take a look.

BioWare’s put out a bunch of proper screens from Star Wars: The Old Republic, and it’s all looking very tasty. There’s no UI on them, unfortunately, but the chances of you having a little bar full of icons at the bottom of the screens aren’t the remotest in the world.

No date as yet. Thanks, Massively.

Rockstar’s outlined the DRM methods used for the PC version of GTA IV in this IGN article, confirming that you’ll need to register the game every time you install it on a new machine.

The title will use SecuROM, but you’ll be able to install it as many times as you like.

There’s a lot of info through there, so if getting het up about anti-piracy measure is your thing, it’s Christmas come early.

CVG’s uploaded 20 new Bayonetta shots. They’re attractive in a hardcore way. Quite why you wouldn’t want to be a mental witch with guns on her feet is beyond us.

It’s out next year for 360 and PS3.

GameStation’s confirmed yesterday’s rumour that Fable II has now dropped to £20 for the next week.

It’s actually even cheaper than that: buy it online for £19.57.

Press release after the link.

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THQ UK’s just confirmed that reports of the PS3 version of Destroy all Humans: Path of the Furon being canned are only applicable for the US – the game will release for both Xbox 360 and PS3 in Europe.

Both versions have taken a heavy slip: the game was supposed to release next week.

“Destroy all Humans: Path of the Furon will be released on both the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3 formats on February 13th 2009 across Europe,” a rep said this morning.

“Due to the game being shipped earlier in North America on December 2nd, a decision was made to proceed exclusively with the Xbox 360 format in that market.”

Unlucky, American people. You’ll just have to get those importing dollars ready for February.

Hey Sony fans, still smarting from Square Enix’s E3 announcement that Final Fantasy XIII is hitching a ride on Microsoft’s money-munching machine? Well, stop it. No, seriously. Stop. Square Enix Corporate Director Shinji Hashimoto explained:

“I’d rather they not think of [Final Fantasy XIII on Xbox 360] as a ‘betrayal’ or disappointment. It’s not like we’re cancelling or delaying the PS3 version at all! It’s more of an added bonus for 360 fans. We won’t be putting them at a disadvantage in any way.”

And if you’re quaking in fear over a nipped, tucked, Xbox 360-ized FFXIII, well, don’t do that either.

“I’d like to add… I think that maybe because it’s going multiplatform that some fans are worried about the game’s scope being reduced to fit onto both consoles. The fact is, the PS3 version is what’s in development right now, and the team is working to specialise that version to the very best of the PS3′s abilities,” series Producer Yoshinori Kitase did, in fact, add.

“After that, we’ll do the 360 port and optimize it to that particular hardware. There will be no decrease in quality as a result of the game appearing across two platforms.”

So there you go. 360 and PS3 entering their golden years hand-in-hand. Sorta.

More at Kikizo.

By Nathan Grayson