Monthly Archives: January 2009

EA has admitted that it is “evaluating the launch window” for The Sims 3 after Euro retailers were last week that the game would be delayed, writes EG.

“We are evaluating the launch window. The game looks great and in the near future we’ll have more information,” the company said today.

The Sims 3 was originally slated for a release on February 20 but now has a tentative “first half of 2009″ slapped on it.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

MTV Multiplayer asked Bethseda whether PlayStation 3 owners would get the same patch as 360/PC players that allows for exploration of Fallout 3′s landscape after the main quest has been completed.

Executive producer Todd Howard simply replied, “Not at this time, no.”

So there you have it. Game over.

The patch comes with Fallout 3 DLC Operation: Anchorage which should be available from tomorrow.

By Mike Bowden

REHorror has translated a Resident Evil 5 preview from German magazine ‘Games Aktuel’l which states that a PC version of Resident Evil 5 will be available from this year. Q4 2009 to be precise.

The magazine then goes on to talk about the intro, the Merchant system, and a whole host of other spoilery things that you may or may not want to know about. So read about it all through the link.

The Resident Evil 5 360 demo went live about an hour ago.

We have of course contacted Capcom for comment.

By Mike Bowden

This week’s Bungie update reveals that there will be no Elites present in Halo: ODST.

The reason behind the move is that the Prophet of Truth considers the race to be “too splintered by heresy and derision” and so instead sends his best men in to do the job.

Also, the Brutes are truly committed to his cause and will never question his decisions.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Guitar Hero World Tour is outselling Rock Band 2 at a ratio of 2:1, writes Gamespot.

The article cites recent NPD figures that show 3.4 million copies of GH:WT were sold in North America compared with Rock Band 2 which stood at 1.7 million-

The Xbox 360 version of Rock Band 2 hit US shops on 14th September, followed by the PS3 game on 19th October. The Wii version didn’t arrive until December 18th.

Guitar Hero World Tour went on sale for all consoles on 26th October – over a month after the 360 and PS3 version of Rock Band.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

A new patch for GTA IV PC that adds new graphics sliders – amongst other things – is now available from Rockstar’s website.

“The patch also addresses a variety of issues including, but not limited to, graphical optimisation; bugs introduced with the release of patch 1; multiplayer and video editor fixes; and security updates,” the publisher said.

“We want to thank the GTA community for your continued support as we continue to improve GTAIV PC so that it is the best experience possible.”

More though the link.

By Mike Bowden

Capcom’s impossibly good looking Resident Evil 5 demo is now available to download from Xbox Marketplace for Xbox Live Gold subscribers.

The demo will be exactly the same as the Japanese demo, released a month ago. (Apart from that it’s in English, of course).

PlayStation 3 owners will get access to the demo next week.

The full release is on March 13.

By Mike Bowden

According to Media Control GfK International, global sales of videogames overtook DVD and Blu-ray for the first time last year.

Software sales grossed $32 billion, up 20 percent whereas DVD and Blu Ray sales dipped 6 percent to $29 billion.

Gfk cites the popularity of Nintendo Wii for the growth.

More over at GI.

By Mike Bowden

As part of Microsoft’s restructuring plan to eventually shed five thousand jobs, the highest profile employee to get the chop is Chris Early, general manager of Games for Windows Live.

Venture Beat has contacted Early for comment but only receives an auto-response from his email saying his time as Microsoft has “come to a close.”

This decision obviously raises questions how how much longer the Redwood giant will continue to invest in the Games for Windows Live service.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Sega Europe president and COO, Mike Hayes, told GI that due to the current financial crises, publishers could choose to axe new IP.

“What we’re actually doing is getting rid of the bottom tier of titles that we were putting in to get an extra bit of market share, of money,” he said.

“We’re getting rid of those, and we’re going to focus on the biggest titles – but we do have a lot of new IP coming out. We’ve invested in things like MadWorld, for example, and we feel our line-up is good enough that we can take that.

“But I think a lot of other publishers, and EA have been quite open on this, will stop a lot of projects and cut back,” Hayes explained.

“Ultimately I think the number will go down, which will probably be less good for consumers.”

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Chris Kramer, Capcom’s senior director for communications and community, has told Major Nelson that Resident Evil 5 is a continuation of the series and is no longer a traditional survival horror game.

“Resident Evil 5 can still loosely be considered a survival horror game,” he offered. However, compared with Resident Evil 4 it will be “more exciting, more action with more tension.”

“You have the ability to feel more like an action hero,” he went on. “You will have the largest Arsenal of weapons in a Resident Evil game to date.”

“The whole game is designed from ground up for co-op,” Kramer added. “There will never be a point where Sheva is knocked on the head or stolen by Gremlins.”

“It’s totally changed the Resident Evil experience and it’s as big a leap forward for the series as Resident Evil 4 was.”

The Resident Evil 5 demo should be ready to download on Xbox Live Marketplace any minute now.

By Mike Bowden

Capcom has put out some new footage for Airtight Game’s Dark Void.

You see this huge mech with massive guns hunt your player down as you whizz about the place with a jet-pack strapped to your back.

It’s all very action-packed.

Game’s due out this year for PC, 360 and PS3.

Take a look.

By Mike Bowden

More »

After the break you can see what appears to be the first English Blue Dragon Plus trailer for Nintendo DS.

It’s all very serious business with the promise of cataclysmic consequences if you put a foot wrong.

The cut-scenes also look very impressive for a DS game.

AQ Interactive’s Blue Dragon Plus is due out next month in NA. No Euro date as yet.

By Mike Bowden

More »

Famitsu’s posted up some shots of “carnival” coloured PSPs, including Radiant Red, Vibrant Blue, Bright Yellow and Spirited Green.

Spirited Green? No idea if these are going to make it west. These packs cost the usual 19,800 yen and hit retail on March 5.

Blizzard boss Rob Pardo’s claimed in a PC Gamer interview that single-player-heavy games are the most susceptible to piracy.

“For many companies, the most compelling part of their product is the single player, or the only part of the product is the single player,” he said.

“At that point, they’re forced to use some sort of heavy-handed DRM solution. It’s difficult right now for them.”

Compelling multiplayer features were instrumental in keeping Blizzard products relatively pirate-free, said the exec.

“The reason we’ve been successful on PC is because we offer extremely compelling multiplayer elements to our games, WoW being the most obvious, of course,” he said.

“But all of our games, a lot of the longevity in the games are the compelling multiplayer, and if you want to play on Battle.net – which I think is one of, if not the best gaming service on the planet – then you have to have a legitimate CD key, so that just cuts out all the piracy right there. That’s what’s unfortunate about the PC business.”

So there you go, game-makers. Stop making single-player games and you’ll make more money.

Thanks, Evil Avatar.

GameDaily‘s gone back over its 10/10 reviews, finding some of them distinctly lacking.

Not news as such, but an interesting exercise nonetheless. The Call of Duty 3 write-up’s pretty funny.

“Our ridiculous Call of Duty 3 review dares to ask the question, ‘Greatest World War II video game?’ and then follows it up with the erroneous ‘best war game, period.’ We’d love to know how that’s possible with a game that features lame vehicle segments and an unbalanced multiplayer mode that makes it almost impossible for the Germans to win.

Halo 2 doesn’t fare much better.

Much like Call of Duty 3, we still cry over our decision to award Halo 2 a perfect score. The romantic story of a rogue alien and a super soldier with zero personality arguably ruined the franchise, and yet, we felt the need to call it “the mother of all first person shooters” and “a milestone in video game history.”

We’re looking at you. Worth a nose.

Jonathan Blow, the man whose melodically beating heart birthed XBLA title Braid, is unsurprisingly working on something new. Speaking with Gamasutra, Blow dubbed his latest a 2D role-playing game.

“Yeah. It’s an RPG right now, a 2D RPG that I’m working on,” he said.

However, the game’s destiny is far from set in stone.

“You never know,” he added, “Next month, it could be a Pac-Man clone or something.”

If Braid was Mario after a make-over from Blow’s agency of the avant garde, then Pac-Man clone might be stretching it a little.

A whole lot more through the link. Seriously, thing’s a monster.

By Nathan Grayson

Rockstar has release two short, new The Lost and Damned videos introducing you to two new characters in the forthcoming 360 exclusive DLC on February 17.

Billy Ray seems to think he’s some kind of leader and Malc reckons he’s all kinds of badass.

The Lost and Damned will cost 1600 MS Points and it seems everyone was pretty impressed with what they saw when the hands-ons were published last week.

After the break.

By Mike Bowden

More »

After the break you can see two new excellent new Ryū ga Gotoku 3 (Yakuza 3) trailers and a handful of high res images from Sega Japan.

One movie features beautifully rendered cutscenes interspersed with some great looking gameplay whilst the other shows you kicking people’s heads in.

The images show some more karaoke fun and some golf.

Sega told videogaming247 last week that there are there are no plans for a Western release.

Gutted.

By Mike Bowden

More »

Remember when Square almost exploded into coins after Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within vomited all over the big screen? Well, this isn’t really like that – mostly because Capcom has licensed Lost Planet out to a third-party. But still. $150-$200 million.

The information was confirmed by Capcom Head of Character Content Business Toshihiro Tokumaru during a PR interview.

To put that amount in perspective, The Dark Knight pocketed 185 million of ol’ Uncle Warner’s dollars before slipping into theaters.

It is, however, unconfirmed as to whether or not this much money exists. Nobody’s ever seen it all in one place; we asked everyone. As such, we remain skeptical.

Thanks, GameDaily.

By Nathan Grayson