Monthly Archives: February 2009

Warner’s put an official date on Watchmen: The End is Nigh.

The game will launch for 360 and PC on March 4, while PSN users will get it the next day.

The downloadable’s supposedly nice and short, so throwing a few pence at it to punch people for an hour or two may well fit into your schedule.

Thanks, LA Examiner.

Codemasters has promised a proper update on Operation Flaspoint 2 next week, Friday February 20, as you can see in this official forum post.

Get some new screens here in the meantime.

The war sim’s been under fire a little from some steady ArmA II upates in the last few weeks, but those shots look fairly amazing, so fingers crossed.

American official book Nintendo Power’s awarded Super Smash Bros. Brawl Game of the Year for 2008, as you can see on NintendoEverything.

The fighter also won Best Original Score, Best Wii Graphics and Best Fighting Game.

There’s a full list of all the other gongs through there, Nintendo fans. Thanks, GoNintendo.

Doublefine’s released CDs of both the original Psychonauts soundtrack and the “original cinematic score,” as you can see on the developer’s website.

There are links there to the discs on Amazon, Napster, and the like.

You may as well. It’s not as though you need your money for anything else, is it?

Thanks, Joystiq.

Square Enix has announced that Nippon Ichi’s Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure will be released for DS in the UK on March 20.

The musical RPG has a dual-screen battle system, an all-new easy-to-follow navigation map and characters that will sing and dance during key moments. Sounds amazing.

Gushing with praise for the game, John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix comments, “Once again Square Enix is delighted to be bringing another one of Nippon Ichi’s quality titles to Europe and other PAL territories.

“Rhapsody A Musical Adventure is another fun addition for anyone’s Nintendo DS collection.”

Press release after the break.

More »

Renegade Kid has announced that “fantasy Gothic” game Son of the Dragon has been canceled.

“It brings us no pleasure to announce that it is no longer in development,” said a post on the company’s site.

“The intellectual property is still owned by Renegade Kid. Should an opportunity to resurrect Son of the Dragon present itself in the future, you will be the first to know.”

The game was to be released under Gamecock, but when SouthPeak acquired the company it didn’t take Son of the Dragon along with Velvet Assassin and Legendary.

Renegade Kid, however, says in that post that it’s currently at work on a “new secret game to be announced in 2009″.

Thanks, Gamasutra.

IGN is filled to the brim with exclusive MadWorld goodies, including the two minutes of “never-before-seen direct-feed footage” that we posted earlier.

The site says that the game is a contender for Wii Game of the Year, and includes an “addictive balance of fun, bloody fights and surprisingly compelling narrative”.

There’s also some exclusive art work over there, which should make your boring old desktop more interesting to look at — much better than the kittens you have up there now.

David Jaffe has said in his latest blog post that despite Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots being one of his favorite games, he feels games in general are not an engaging storytelling medium.

“Overall, I feel the medium is either not capable of creating and sustaining deep emotions or we have simply not come close to understanding how to do it on a consistent basis”, he wrote.

“I am open to it, but I’m just being honest with how I feel about the current state of storytelling in gameplay.”

You can read the full thing and watch his video blog here.

The PS Blog has a post by Keita Takahashi of Namco Bandai explaining in words of one syllable was PSN game Noby Noby Boy actually is.

Players control and stretch the main character Boy who, as he grows, uploads his lengths to a persistent character known as Girl, which grows at the same rate as the combined length of all the players in the world.

When she’s grown enough to expand around the solar system and reach a new milestone, playable stages are unlocked for all players in the game.

Takahashi explained that he “wanted to make a game that cannot be expressed by words in the first place” and that he hopes player reaction will be, “I don’t know why, but it’s somehow interesting. I can’t stop playing.”

Sounds about right from the sound of things.

Video is through jump, and screens are posted here.

More »

Ubisoft has released a new trailer of Massive’s World in Conflict: Soviet Assault. Watch it after the break.

Played from the Soviet perspective of World in Conflict’s fictional Hot War, the game offers six new single-player missions along with eight new multiplayer maps.

Like Tom Clancy’s EndWar, Soviet Assault allows you to call in reinforcements or new units by using context menus and voice communication via the headset.

The trailer’s narrated by Alec Baldwin and shows the 1989 alternate reality beginnings of World War III in Berlin.

More »

Speaking to IGN, Denise Kaigler, Nintendo’s vice president of corporate affairs, has said the company sees zero threat in iPhone or PSP, because is applauds “any device that spurs interest in on-the-go gaming, because that helps expand a form of entertainment that has always been one of our core strengths”.

Kaigler went on to say that “consumers purchased 9.95 million hardware systems in the United States [last year], an all-time record for a portable system. On top of that they bought nearly 60 million games for Nintendo DS. Clearly people are still finding fun and interesting ways to spend their time with the system.”

With Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon coming in February, followed by Pokemon Platinum and GTA: Chinatown Wars in March and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time coming this spring, Kaigler concluded:

“Nintendo DS and the upcoming Nintendo DSi will continue to stand out with games and experiences that just aren’t possible on any other system.”

Good for you, Denise.

More through the link.

Bohemia Interactive has released a new trailer for upcoming FPS war simulation sequel ArmA II.

The title’s expected to be released sometime this year for PC.

Trailer can be watched below, after an advert for the Notorious B.I.G. film.

More »

Sure, the more important MMO stories gets their own pieces during the week, but what about all games that aren’t World of Warcraft? Where does that leave them? Here in our MMO news round-up, obviously.

So much happens on a daily basis in the world of MMOs that we thought we’d put as much as we can in one lovely Saturday post. Saves snowing you with the smaller stuff all week that way.

Full thing after the break.

More »

Looks like returning to your roots may be a wise move for publishers at the moment, if first-day Japanese sales of Street Fighter IV are any indication.

The game sold 86,000 copies total, and subsequently sold out on both PS3 and Xbox 360.

The title will chart as the best-selling PS3 fighter in Japan.

It launches in the US on February 17.

EA’s released a teaser trailer’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10: see it after the break.

Not much to tell about it really. It’s just clips of professional golfers screaming at the crowd and thrusting their arms back and forth when they make a good putt. The phrase “Feel the Drama” flashes across the screen and then it’s over. No actual gameplay whatsoever.

The game will release on all consoles, handhelds and PC this year.

More »

Ensemble co-founder Tony Goodman and some of his team members have formed a new development studio, Robot Entertainment.

Ensemble worked mainly with the RTS genre, most notably Age of Empires.  Microsoft purchased the firm in 2001 and then shut it down once Halo Wars was completed.

What’s Robot working on? Undisclosed.

Thanks, Gamasutra

Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart has told Big Download, “We are doing just fine and do not have to shut down operations,” in response to lay-off rumors earlier this week.

After Sega suspended the firm’s Aliens RPG indefinitely, it was reported that over 20 staff members had been made redundant at Obsidian.

The rumor has still not been addressed on either side, but Urquhart did say that his company is hard at work on the development of Alpha Protocol and two other properties.

Alpha Protocol is to be published by Sega sometime this year, and it’s rumored that Obsidian is working on a third expansion for Neverwinter Nights 2.

You can rest easy, your PS3 is not broken, your NAT settings are fine, and you need not restart your router. If you’re having logging in to PSN, it’s because it’s down for maintenance.

No idea what kind of refurb work we’re dealing with, or how long it will last, but it’s down, not up, and you’ll just have to wait until it is.

When it’s up again, we’ll let you know.

Peter Dille, Sony’s SVP of marketing, has finally commented on the less-than-stellar NPD numbers reported for PlayStation consoles for January. Well, sort of.

“The PlayStation brand experienced a record year in sales in 2008 and we have every reason to believe our blockbuster line up combined with PS3′s position as the best Blu-ray player and most sophisticated entertainment device out there, will continue to fuel increased marketshare and momentum into 2009″, he said.

“We’ve truly upped the ante this year with an unmatched software lineup ahead, kickstarting with the much anticipated and platform-moving title Killzone 2 later this month.

“We’re the only company to offer three viable platforms today and will continue to deliver a seamless and comprehensive entertainment experience to our customers for many years to come.”

The January 2009 NPD figures showed that PS3 sales were down year-on-year, having sold 203,000 units in the US, while Wii and Xbox 360 sales continued to climb.

Full thing through the link.

RE5 producer Masachika Kawata has told Eurogamer TV that he would like to make a new Resident Evil game for the Wii.

“Personally I would like to create something on Wii in the Resident Evil family,” he said. “At the moment we don’t know and have just been working on RE5, so watch this space.”

Great news for fans tired of playing RE4 and the GameCube version of the original over and over on Wii.

You can watch the full interview with Kawata here.