Monthly Archives: February 2009

Indie PvP MMO Darkfall Online will be released next week, EG reports.

The game will cost €42 and come with a month of play-time. After that, it’s €11.77 per month, according to developer Adventurine.

There will be 10 and 15 per cent discounts on the subscription rate for three- and six-month packages.

Lots more through there.

Codemasters just confirmed that Operation Flashpoint 2 will get 360 and PS3 versions this summer.

The game, built on Codemasters’ EGO engine, was previously only announced for PC.

The publisher’s gone to town on the multiplay war sim’s underlying tech in a press release this afternoon, saying the game is like nothing seen before.

“The advantage of investing in our own technology is that we can custom-build major engine components specifically suited to each title; such as dynamically lit particle effects for gunfire and explosions, incredible vehicle detail and extensive worlds that you can literally get lost in,” said Brant Nicholas, senior producer.

There’s a new video here.

EA’s released Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Plaza as premium DLC for SKATE 2.

The area, the centerpiece of Dyrdek’s MTV show, will set you back 400 MS Points, or $5 if you’re buying from PSN.

Press release after the break, should you need such a thing.

More »

A string of forum reports are claiming the adding The Lost and Damned to your copy of GTA IV in Europe means edits are made to the original game.

Blood pools underneath bodies have apparently magically disappeared in Europe, and camera angles have been cut from prostitute “experiences”.

American copies are apparently unaffected.

There’s a video after the break detailing some of it. Asking Rockstar now. Thanks, Kotaku.

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Sounds as though someone jumped the gun a little here.

A UK release date of March 20 for MadWorld’s appeared in the paper edition of MCV and on Edge this morning, but Sega PR’s a little confused as to why: it hasn’t been officially confirmed to anyone, apparently.

It is true, however. The hyper-violent Wii title’s out in the US on March 10.

Go and buy it. You might get another one, then.

No real shock at the front-runner this week, with Mario & Luigi 3 winning with nearly 200,000 debut sales.

The PS3 version of Street Fighter IV dicked the the 360 game by 50,000 units, but, again, that’s about as shocking as West following Mae.

Last week’s chart here. Thanks, ChartGet.

01. [NDS] Mario & Luigi RPG 3 (Nintendo) 193,000 / NEW
02. [PS3] Street Fighter IV (Capcom) 86,000 / NEW
03. [PSP] Kidou Senshi Gundam: Giren no Yabou (Namco Bandai) 40,000 / NEW
04. [PS2] Kidou Senshi Gundam: Giren no Yabou (Namco Bandai) 38,000 / NEW
05. [360] Street Fighter IV (Capcom) 38,000 / NEW
06. [PSP] Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Konami) 27,000 / 174,000
07. [PS2] Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Konami) 25,000 / 170,000
08. [PS3] Demon’s Souls (SCE) 22,000 / 62,000
09. [PSP] Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 (Namco Bandai) 22,000 / 280,000
10. [NDS] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square Enix) 20,000 / 156,000

Wheelman is “great,” Ubisoft has told VG247 this morning, the new addition to the publisher’s portfolio giving access to a relatively release-free period this spring.

The Vin Diesel tie-in was confirmed as a Ubisoft title yesterday, wrested as it was from Midway’s dying grip.

“Ubisoft gets the benefit of a great IP during an open launch window in the spring,” said a spokesman when asked why catching the game was a good deal for Ubi.

“As CEO Matt Booty said in the press release, Ubisoft has a proven expertise at bringing new IP to market, allowing us to reach a broader consumer segment with Wheelman, while helping Midway to balance the risk profile of our product portfolio.”

The game’s out for PC, 360 and PS3 on March 24. Bets are off on whether or not Midway can last that long.

Rare has reportedly laid off around 12 artists and engineers, following confirmation this week that the studio was to be restructured.

The company is also reducing the number of project leads, according to this GI report, asking employees to reapply for positions elsewhere within the company.

Rare studio manager Mark Betteridge said on Tuesday that structural alterations were necessary at the studio to “speed development and better manage the scale required to create high quality games”.

Nintendo UK boss David Yarnton has told MCV that the April 3 launch of DSi in Europe is good news for the whole trade.

“Retail is tough for everyone at the moment, but having a new product is a good opportunity for all of us. It’s the only piece of new games hardware coming out this year, so is perfect for helping drive sales,” he said.

“We expect some people will upgrade, but we also anticipate that we’ll win over people who were still undecided on DS – the extra features will help convince them. There’s an extra incentive.”

Yarnton added that the sky’s the limit for the machine, saying it has “unlimited potential”.

“There are 21m households in the UK – each one could conceivably have a DS. Or even more than one DS. That doesn’t mean that we’ll sell multiple units into every family and sell over 60m in the UK alone – we don’t think that will happen – but the numbers are still very buoyant. This is uncharted territory for the games industry as far as we are concerned.

“The functions of the device really open the platform up to more consumers – it gives the DS unlimited potential.”

You should have said you’re going to sell 60 million, David. The headline would have been awesome.

What DSi-specific games are you going to be able to play on your new machine come April 3? Nintendo isn’t saying. Yet.

“We’re not talking about DSi software at the moment – we’ll do so closer to launch,” a UK rep told VG247 this morning.

DSi was confirmed for a European launch today, and will release two days ahead of the American handheld on April 3.

The new console will cost you £150. No idea if the games are going to cost any more than standard DS stuff as yet.

Sega’s posted the Yakuza 3 demo on the Japanese PSN. It’ll cost you 1,256Mb of hard drive space.

Obviously, you can only get it if you’ve got a Japanese account, and there’s no danger of this coming west.

So enjoy. If you can.

Microsoft has sent out an Achievement survey to some lucky punters, running the gambit of user-generated and multiplayer Achievements, and asking what types of Achievements gamers preferred.

The possibility off having your game Achievements listed on GamerCards was also an optioned in the survey, as well as non-gaming Achievements showing others how many movies you’ve downloaded and watched.

More ways to show your shame we reckon.

Full thing on Kotaku.

After the break. One movie shows various gameplay features of the upcoming High Voltage Wii shooter, including animation techniques that “makes the player’s kill experience more enjoyable”.

The second details how far the game’s come since its early days.

It’s being published by Sega this spring.

More »

Capcom’s confirmed that it’s to announce a new game on February 23.

A first trailer for the unknown title is to be release on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Doesn’t sounds as though you’re going to be able to get it anywhere else: according to this blog post, you’ll need access to Live to see it.

Street Fighter V, innit.

EA’s released two videos of a celeb fitness guy called Bob Greene talking about EA Sports Active, the publisher’s upcoming Balance Board fitness thing, and confirmed it for release in May.

There’s footage of Bob using it in the second video, saying the game has a virtual personal trainer for the player. It’s all about 20 minutes exercise a day, apparently.

It sounds far more “serious” than Wii Fit, as Peter Moore’s already intimated, with Bob talking about proper fitness goals, a mix of cardio and strength training and how EA Sports Active keeps a record of everything you achieve.

See both movies after the break.

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The latest StarCraft II dev Q&A has yielded yet more screens of the upcoming strategy sequel, this time detailing Zerg attacks, Terran mules and plenty more.

You’ll also find some before and after shots of improvements made to unit graphics recently.

There’s still no date.

Midway has been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, Edge reports.

The company was warned in November that it may be delisted‭,‭ ‬as it had failed to maintain a minimum average closing price of‭ ‬$1‭ ‬per share over‭ ‬30‭ ‬consecutive trading days.

Midway filed for Chapter 11 this month. Just depressing.

ELSPA’s promoted MD Michael Rawlinson to director general, the trade body announced this morning.

Paul Jackson, who currently holds the position, will move into an “advisory role”.

Press release after the link.

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Nintendo UK boss David Yarnton has told MCV there’ll be no supply issues with DSi when it launches in the UK on April 3.

“We’re comfortable with the amount of stock we’ll have available – but because we are not going to stop stocking DS Lite, we’ll have that in the market too,” he said.

The exec said that retailers can expect a “consistent and steady” flow of DSi stock post-launch.

The machine was confirmed this morning for an April 3 release in Europe.

EA sent out an email event invite to US press last night confirming that the next edition of Tiger Woods will support Wii MotionPlus.

So will the company’s upcoming Tennis game. So will virtually every Wii game coming out at the end of this year, at a guess.

More on IGN.