Monthly Archives: January 2009

Rockstar has put out two new high res screenshots for the forthcoming Xbox 360 exclusive DLC, The Lost and Damned.

One of the pictures shows the bikers all leathered up and chatting, whereas the other depicts a man holding a sawn-off over his shoulder staring at Liberty City.

The Lost and Damned is coming next month.

Check them out.

By Mike Bowden

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Harmonix and MTV have announced that six new tracks including ‘Tell Me Baby’ by RHCP are available as of right now.

The other songs included are:

• Smashing Pumpkins – Siva
• The Cars – “Just What I Needed
• Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Tell Me Baby”
• Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Gimme Three Steps”
• Oasis – “Live Forever”
• 30 Seconds to Mars – “Attack”

Have fun with those, won’t you?

By Mike Bowden

Microsoft has told Edge that it is still committed to PC gaming after appointing Ron Pessner as its Game for Windows head after Chris Early was laid off earlier this week.

“Moving ahead, Microsoft will continue to invest in Windows as a first-class gaming platform through great Windows out of box experiences, our online gaming services including Games for Windows – Live, MSN Games, and Messenger games, and through new games for Windows developed by Microsoft Games Studios,” said the firm.

“Working closely with Ron [Pessner] will be Dave Luehmann, a long time Microsoft games veteran and general manager within Microsoft Games Studios, who will now be overseeing internal development and publishing for all Windows-based games.”

More through the Edge link.

By Mike Bowden

According to the latest issue of Famitsu 360, From Software’s Ninja Blade is set for a worldwide release.

Something must have got lost in Gaf‘s translation however, as that means it’s out tomorrow in Europe and the US tomorrow, which it clearly isn’t.

Other snippets show that a slim 360 could be in the works, the 360 version of the Dead Rising and Lost Planet sequels will have something extra, and Sega is planning some big titles other than Bayonetta for the console this year.

Also, as Blerk points out, Famitsu 360 reckons Persona 2 developer Atlus is developing for 360.

Update: Funnily enough, the Ninja Blade PAL box art has just been released which you can check out below. Maybe a surprise is in store after all?

By Mike Bowden

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The latest issue of Famitsu 360 has awarded Square Enix’s über-RPG Star Ocean IV: The Last Hope a highly respectable 34/40.

Capcom’s Strret Fighter IV scored the same whilst Ninja Gaiden-alike Ninja Blade also scored highly, receiving 33/40.

Star Ocean IV is set be released in Japan on February 19.

Full scores below:

• Ninja Blade 8997
• Midnight Club 8888
• Street Fighter IV 9988
• Skate 2 7887
• Shooting Love 7767
• Star Ocean 4 9988
• Sonic 8889
• Chaos Head Noah 8879

Thanks, Gaf.

MyCrysis has the official patch notes for Crysis Warhead that reveals, amongst other things, the addition of “64-bit executables for Windows XP x64 and Windows Vista 64-bit versions.”

There are a few other general fixes and tweaks like “better dynamic texture support for enthusiast mode.”

It’s all through the link. No release date has been set.

Thanks, Blue.

By Mike Bowden

In Spring this year, Ubisoft will release a Far Cry 2 map editing guide in conjunction with leading US publisher Charles River Media called, “Designing Wargames: The Official Far Cry 2 Map Editing Guide.”

“This is the next milestone in gamer-generated content,” says David Hutchison, associate Professor at Brock University. “Far Cry 2 makes it easy for both PC and console gamers to create cool new multiplayer maps that they can then share with other gamers. We want to honour this effort by inviting the Far Cry 2 map-making community to contribute to this first-of-its-kind game design book.”

Far Cry 2 dev Jessy-Gosselin Gant adds: “Level design is a defining factor in how the player will experience a video game.

“It constitutes a key role in production by having the responsibility of presenting all the different game components such as art, animation, AI and gameplay mechanics at their best, so the player can enjoy them in a convincing and attractive environment.”

By Mike Bowden

According to Gamespot, NPD figures show that Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts sold just 140,000 copies in the US last year.

Gamespot had enquired about 360 exclusives outside of the all format top ten and NPD revealed that in comparison, Fable II sold 1.2 million units.

The piece goes on to say that 360 and original Xbox games made up 19 percent of US software sales in 2008.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

This 1UP piece brings word that if click on this link – http://www.xbox.com/ja-JP/games/f/finalfantasy4/details.page/ – you’ll be taken a legitimate Japanese Xbox.com page – albeit an empty one.

However, if you’re thinking it could be some randomly generated placeholder, then feel free to replace the words “final fantasy IV” with whatever you like and see what happens.

After Square Enix unveiled two new XBLA title, the firm did promise “to bring its popular games as well as original titles to the download service in the future.”

Is this one of them?

We’ll of course check with Square Enix right away.

Update: If you type the word, ‘SuperMario’ instead of Final Fantasy IV, you get the same message but only if you add the ‘/details.page/’ suffix. Still, this is looking increasingly uncertain.

Super Mario XBLA? We seriously doubt it.

Thanks, Syrok.

By Mike Bowden

In an interview in the upcoming issue of Famitsu, Capcom’s Keiji Inafune confirmed there will be new Dead Rising and Lost planet games. He also mentioned they could potentially go multiplatform.

“We’re finally putting out new Dead Rising and Lost Planet games! As a main principle we’re thinking about multi-platform, and expanding upon both slightly from the Xbox 360 versions.”

Kotaku reports that Inafune goes on to talk about “the business of gaming and gaming promotion.”

By Mike Bowden

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has told GameDaily that he believes Xbox Live and the Netflix service is a “proverbial goldmine” for Microsoft.

Pachter reckons “as many as 1 million [XBL Gold members] will join as Netflix members in the next year,” and predicts 35 percent of new 360 owners in 2009 will also purchase a Gold membership.

Netflix saw 200,000 new subscribers after the service made its début on NXE and 1 million Xbox Live Gold subscribers are already signed up, says Pachter.

More through the link.

By Mike Bowden

UK site Electricpig reports that the possibility of Halo Wars having some future downloadable content is a definite possibility.

“Additional downloadable content is something we’re looking in to,” said Halo Wars producer Jason Pace.

The statement comes somewhat as a surprise to us as all reports have suggested that Microsoft is to close Ensemble Studios after Halo Wars’ release in February.

We’ll check with Microsoft now.

By Mike Bowden

Atari Australia issued a press release yesterday announcing that the company will “continue to distribute Konami titles in Australia and New Zealand for the immediate future.”

Konami as recently as last November signed up with the now-bust distributor, Red Ant Enterprises.

Capcom issued a statement last week saying Red Ant’s closure would not effect the release of its titles in the region.

By Mike Bowden

BioWare boss Ray Muzyka’s told CVG he believes a one-console gaming future may be a reality, but that it won’t be happening any time soon.

“I can see it going there and I think there are valid reasons to do that,” he said.

“I see Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo maybe having some issues with that [as] they might want to continue their platforms.

“Given that they create the hardware and they’re big brands that have a lot of loyal fans I think that it may take a while before you see one platform.

“But the idea of a thin client that you could run code over the internet on and distribute to is a possibility in the future that I think could happen.”

The debate on whether or not a single-console future could happen is now older than the Queen. And she’s very old.

There’s a full interview through the link. Ray’s always worth a read, so have a squiz.

Sins of a Solar Empire expansion Entrenchment has been delayed by a week, Stardock’s confirmed.

The space-based RTS will now ship on February 11 in the US instead of February 4.

See some new screens on Shacknews.

Xbox 360 Avatars can now be dressed in various national soccer jerseys, Nelson confirmed last night.

Great news if you’re Welsh and play FIFA. At least you can live part of the dream.

All the new clothing’s free. Other countries’ strips included are:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Denmark
• England
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Ireland
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Northern Ireland
• Norway
• Portugal
• Scotland
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Wales

As you can see from this Steam page, the Dawn of War II multiplayer beta is now open to everyone.

Up to this point, you needed to be in possession of a copy of Dawn of War add-on Soustorm to get past the guards.

You should be waiting for nothing. Get involved. The game’s out on February 19.

SCEE is refusing to release the PS3 version of Super Street Fighter HD Remix in Europe because of “faults and other problems,” according to Capcom UK spokesman Leo Tan.

Supposedly, the game must be “redone,” according to this ThePSN.co.uk report.

Capcom is working on yet another version to submit to SCEE “within three weeks.”

The fighter was successfully release on the US PSN late last year.

Thanks, Joystiq.

MMO publisher Nexon has apparently closed its Vancouver studio, resulting in 90 job losses.

A studio-wide meeting was held yesterday morning to break news to staff, according to this Kotaku report.

Nexon’s ongoing games – MapleStory, Combat Arms, Mabinogi, and so on – are thought to be unaffected.

Gamasutra’s confirmed the move as well.

Microsoft’s confirmed general manager Ron Pessner is moving from the Entertainment and Devices Division to lead its Games For Windows program, following news that previous GfWL boss Chris Early had been laid off.

Pessner is joined by Microsoft Games Studios’ Dave Luehmann, who will now oversee internal development and publishing for Windows-based games.

More on Gamasutra.