Monthly Archives: February 2009

And here it is. This is the first of six parts, a precursor to the release of MMO The Old Republic, so when the second part arrives we might be able to have a stab at when we’re going to see the game. Maybe.

The comic itself’s pretty good, to be fair. Lots of Star Wars, and stuff.

Take a look.

Sega’s put out the first video of the XBLA version of Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram. It looks amazing. Even the words “cyber troopers” are so completely full of win. Watching this gave us goosebumps.

After the break. It’s out this spring for 1,200 MS Points.

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Sony Corp. chairman Howard Stringer plans to implement a “company wide” reshuffle designed to make Sony more green, innovative and agile, writes PCWorld.

The restructuring will come into effect on April which will see Stringer become president of the company. Stringer will also retain his chairman and CEO status. Not bad.

“Consumers want products that are networked, multi-functional and service-enhanced utilizing open technologies, and user experiences that are rich, shared and, increasingly, green,” said Stringer in a statement.

“This reorganization is designed to transform Sony into a more innovative, integrated and agile global company with its next generation of leadership firmly in place.”

More through the link.

Rock Band 2 will ship for PS3 and PS2 on March 27 in the UK. The Wii version’s releasing on April 24.

The game will retail for £49.99 for PS3, £29.99 for PlayStation 2 and £39.99 for Wii.

In addition, Rock Band peripherals got price drops today:

• Stand alone guitars will retail at £39.99
• Stand alone drums will retail for £49.99
• An “Instrument Edition” including drums, guitar and microphone will retail for £89.99

Full details after the break.

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Microsoft’s announced that the money earned on The Lost and Damned in its first 24 hours of availability is greater than anything else on Live Marketplace to date.

Rockstar’s $25m GTA IV expansion pack has “eclipsed first-day revenue for all previous downloadable content on Xbox LIVE,” according to this Kotaku report.

No precise figures have been given as yet.

Famitsu’s posted up the first screens and art from the 360 version of Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram, calling the game an “immortal masterpiece”.

The remake’s releasing this spring for 1,200 MS Points.

The official site’s here.

EA didn’t perform as well as it should have done last year thanks to a lack of real blockbusters in its line-up, John Pleasants has told the Golman Sachs tech conference in the US.

“The biggest thing was that we didn’t make hits,” said the exec.

“You can lose your way on basic execution when you have too many games,” he added.

EA will cut the size of its line-up by 20 percent in the coming year, Pleasants said, but said that marketing was the “one line item on our P&L that’s increasing. We’re reducing on other items, but we have titles that we want to have hit.”

EA is currently in the process of laying off 1,100 staff.

More on Forbes.

A Japanese court has ruled that the sale of DS’s R4 cart is illegal.

From Kotaku:

The Tokyo District Court has found against the Chinese makers of the R4 – officially known as the “R4 Revolution for DS” – and granted an injunction against sales of the device, prompting Nintendo, Square Enix & Capcom to issue statements proclaiming that they’re a “violation under Japan’s laws”.

Most outlets have already halted sales of the R4 following pressure from the lawsuit (and the publishers, such as Nintendo & Capcom, backing it), but this ruling now makes it official: you can’t legally sell the thing in Japan.

More through there.

The Warhawk Command Center is now up in Home, meaning you can now go to a “Sand Table” and “lay out strategies” for Warhawk maps with your buddies.

The game’s now available for $20, a $10 discount.

Get more details from the PS Blog. There’s a video explaining how it all works after the break.

Gamespot’s finally put its Killzone 2 review live – presumably it’s had enough time to play online to be sure – giving the shooter 9/10. Snip:

You’ll have to look to the inevitable Killzone 3 to find out if developer Guerilla can dig any diamonds out of this series’ rough narrative. Otherwise, Killzone 2 is an exceptional first-person shooter, not because it does anything particularly new, but because it does everything extraordinarily well. There’s certainly no doubting its graphical superiority, but though its moody visuals invite incessant superlatives, it’s the tight, electric action that will make this an off- and online haven.

The game releases today, as you’ll know unless you’re either blind or dead. Watch the Gamespot video review after the break.

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Both Microsoft and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) have posted articles on the current Xbox Live policy of not being able to express sexual preference in profile data, the latter saying it won’t allow lesbian, gay, bisexual and transexual (LGBT) people be kept in a virtual closet.

“We’re truly in a new era,” said the organisation.

“And with new technologies, come new challenges. LGBT people have fought hard for years to come out of real-world closets – we’re not willing to accept virtual ones.”

Xbox Live mod boss Stephen Toulouse put up this on the matter last night, reiterating the fact that Microsoft is actively working on the issue.

He also explained why the policy is in effect at all: simply, over 95 percent of the use of the word “gay” on Xbox Live is intended as a slur.

“We’re not some monolithic corporation trying to establish social mores,” he said.

“We’re not enforcing censorship or bigotry. In fact harassment of gamers of any type be it homophobia or racism or other, is expressly forbidden and my team will take action against it, up to and including a permanent ban.

“It’s a tough problem, but for the past few months we’ve been engaged with internal and external community representatives to help solve it. I don’t have anything to announce about it other than we’re working to try and provide the capability for people to more clearly express themselves in ways that are difficult to misuse.”

The whole situation blew up again this week when a lesbian user, “Theresa,” was harrassed by other gamers then banned by Microsoft for expressing her sexual preference in her Live profile.

Microsoft wants to talk to you, Theresa.

“Theresa from the Consumerist article, if you’re reading this, I don’t have your Gamertag or any information about you at all, the article was extremely vague,” Toulouse added.

“I’d love to get your feedback and talk to you about how we can make the experience better. Please email me at Stepto@microsoft.com.”

Thanks, Roybott.

Oh, it’s big – no doubt – but John Koller, director of hardware marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment of America, told Kotaku that Sony’s smallest, most wayward son will be receiving “a number” of equally important, as-of-yet-unannounced games as 2009’s full head of calendar pages grays and dwindles.

“At Destination PlayStation we announced about half of the line up for the PSP this year, some fairly major, triple-A titles are coming for the back half of the year that are going to be announced in the coming months and at E3,” Koller said.

“LittleBigPlanet is going to be one of the top three but a number of others that are coming are just as big.”

He also revealed that LittlerBigPlanet will likely be able to connect to its PS3 counterpart in some way – possibly to share levels – but specifics are still being ironed out at the moment.

More through the link.

Other than giving the usual background story, mentioning co-op elements and reassuring fans that they can still dismember monsters, Dead Space Extraction producer Steve Papoutsis has told MTV his game is “guided first person experience”.

It’s absolutely not an on-rails shooter.

“The player will be presented with many choices as they play the game, ranging from which path they wish to explore to maneuvering in Zero-G”, he said.

“The game is being developed from the ground up to leverage the unique controls of the Nintendo Wii. Players will use their Wii Remote to aim and dismember oncoming enemies as well as use other mechanics from Dead Space such as Stasis and Telekinesis to name a few.

“When we started designing Extraction, it was important to us to make sure the controls on the Wii felt natural and made sense. Having the use of motion controls opened up a lot of interesting possibilities for the game that we hope players will enjoy.”

Game’s out this fall. There’s a full interview through the link.

Guinness World Records has listed its 50 games with the most “initial impact and lasting legacy”.

EIC Craig Glenday compiled the list. Mario Kart’s top.

“We knew this would be a complex task so we invited a crack team of industry experts to form a judging panel – and the result is a ‘top 50′ list of games ranked both on their importance and on how fun they are to play.”

Guinness’s reason for going with Super Mario Kart as number one is that it’s the best-selling racing game on N64 (more than 9 million units sold), SNES (8 million units), Gamecube (nearly 7 million units) and DS (10 million units).

Go Mario. Rest after the link.

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Yep, 15 shots for Aion: The Tower of Eternity, and they’re right lovely.

The western version of NCsoft’s CryEngine-developed MMO is expected sometime this fall.

Take a look at ‘em over on GamePlanet.

OPM’s announced a 24-hour online gaming marathon for tomorrow, all in celebration of Killzone 2′s launch.

The mag’s entire team will be online for 24 hours starting 8.00am GMT this morning, playing a variety of games throughout the day.

Get all the details and PSN IDs through the link.

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Research firm Parks Associates has predicted that casual games will be worth $1 billion PA by 2013.

Parks boss Stuart Sikes said that “a persistent identity and integration with social network sites” will allow casual game companies to maintain their core audience and broden their appeal.

“As companies try to capture subscriber dollars, these offerings will serve as differentiators in a very competitive market,” he added.

More on Edge.

GI’s reporting that’s THQ’s International office in Zurich has closed, costing ten jobs.

The move is part of the overall plan to cut 600 posts, first announced earlier this month.

The International office was originally intended to work on future expansion plans for the publisher, but wasn’t linked to any specific territory.

More through there.

GameTap has added a new American McGee’s Grimm episode to the line-up this week.

Grimm, the wee-happy troll, goes to China where he meets the cross-dressing-warrior-woman Mulan and makes the Yellow River earn its name.

Non-subscribers can play this too, because new episodes of Grimm are always free for the first 24 hours.

Speaking of free, RPG fans can play Sacred Gold all this week for nada, and Psychonauts, Metal Slug, Tomb Raider: Legend and Earthworm Jim have also been returned to the free bin.

More information through the link.

Monolith is currently at work on a PC patch for F.E.A.R 2.

The patch will add toggle film grain and head-bob options, as well as other stuff. Most notibly, the patch aims to make the hard setting more of a challenge.

“There are a couple other items we are also exploring which might make it into this patch, but we need to do research to evaluate the time and resources that it will take to add these changes to the patch”, says Monolith’s community manager.

Expect it to land in a few weeks. It is not known at this time if one will be released for the PS3 and 360 versions.

Thanks, StrategyInformer.