Monthly Archives: February 2009

Crytek’s plans to enter the console market have been accelerated with the purchase of UK dev Free Radical,
GI reports.

“We always planned to enter the console market and it was part of our strategy even before the acquisition. This step will certainly bring us forward a bit faster to achieve our goal to develop high quality games on consoles,” said Crytek chief Cevat Yerli.

Free Radical Design was working on TimeSplitters 4 before falling into administration last year, but Crytek would not comment on specific projects, stating that “at the moment we’re looking into all possibilities and haven’t decided anything yet.”

Despite constant rumours, console versions of Crysis have never been confirmed.

More through there.

EA’s announced new dates for The Godfather II, as you can see in this press release.

The game will ship on April 7 in the US and April 10 in Europe. It was originally planned for a February launch.

That’s it. Rambling quote about gangsters through the link.

The latest 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand trailer should remove all doubt that this is a game you must own.

Watch it after the break.

There’s tons of stuff in there on weapons, the cover system and co-op. Quite why you wouldn’t want to shoot a lot of things a lot in the name of getting a bejewelled skull back off some chap is beyond us.

February 20, 360 and PS3.

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We normally stay clear of wacky PR “shit”, but this made us laugh.

To celebrate the release of Dawn of War II later this month, THQ built a life-sized Space Marine Rhino – it’s an APC, if you didn’t know – and drove it over some cars in a field.

That’s it. There’s a video of it after the break. More info here. Buy the game on February 20.

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Phwoar, eh? Nelson reports that you can now get Sports Illustrated swimwear calendar themes for your 360.

There are two to pick from. One’s a woman (Brooklyn Decker) and one’s a car (the Nissan 370Z).

Do as you will. Your conscience is a matter for you and God.

Inevitably, all the God of War III media embargoed until this Friday has been leaked in form of scans.

Here. It’s all taken from the next issue of Game Informer, most of the detail of which was already summarised this morning.

“We want this to be the game that shows people what the PS3 can do,” director Stif Asmussen has told the mag.

It does, absolutely, look very cool. Hi-res screens, please.

The official release for all this stuff is 9.00am PST on Friday.

Thanks, Johnny Cullen.

The PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA) has launched its new site at pcgamingalliance.org.

“Visitors to our website will see that the PCGA is the place that PC Gaming companies of all types can come together to collaborate to help solve problems that plague our industry,” said PCGA boss Randy Stude.

“Our membership remains steadfast in the belief that this is vital to ensuring the continued growth and health of PC Gaming globally.”

Apparently, “The new website conveys the relevant and important PC Gaming and PCGA news and information that members and non-members alike will find useful.”

Press release after the break.

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Administrators are to auction off 1.1 million games accrued as part of distributor EUK’s demise this week, MCV reports.

Burn-firm Deloitte is reportedly accepting tender offers for the outstanding warehouse stock, which also includes 2.9 million CDs and 1.8 million books.

An anonymous publisher told the site, “We should be fine, but I worry about other suppliers and their right of ownership to this stock.

“It all depends on the deal they had with EUK before they went under.”

More through there.

Epic VP Mark Rein has told VG247 that there is no “ten-year plan” in place for the Gears of War franchise, despite comments to the contrary made by Gears 2 writer Josh Ortega at Comic Con last weekend.

“No, we do not,” Rein said when asked if Epic had a franchise roadmap up to 2016.

“In this industry you can’t plan games very far in advance. We appreciate the enthusiasm Josh has for our franchise but we don’t have a ten-year plan.

“We always have ideas of where we’d like it to go but it’s determined on a game-by-game basis and ultimately by fan support. Our focus right now is supporting the Gears of War 2 game and community.”

Ortega told a panel at New York Comic Con that, “You will not be disappointed in the next ten years… It’s a ten-year plan. Gears is long-term. The lancer is the new lightsaber.”

Rein begged to differ today, saying there Epic has no scheme in place for Gears beyond the current hardware generation.

“No, absolutely not,” he said if ‘next gen’ Gears products were on the slate.

“We’re working on the next title update for Gears of War 2 right now. When this title update is done we’ll start planning the next title update for Gears of War 2.”

Best curb that enthusiasm, Josh. Take the hint.

The Tom Clancy’s HAWX demo is now available on Live, as promised.

You can queue it up here. It’s not showing up on the 360 dash yet.

PS3 owners gets a shot at it tomorrow.

The tester weighs in at 724Mb and is only available to Gold Live subs at the moment.

Thanks, Blerk.

Rare’s dropped us word of a special Valentine’s card it’s made for Pinata fans. Get it here.

All you have to do is waggle it in front of your Vision Camera and the little hearty fox thing will appear in your Trouble in Paradise garden.

If you can’t remember how to do the whole Panata card “thing,” there’s full instructions here.

Oh. And here are three Killer Instinct cards. You knew they were working on a KI MMO for DS over there, right?

SCEA’s offering 302 places to the Street Fighter IV launch party in LA tomorrow night, so if you happen to be/live there, you may as well pop along.

All you have to do is send an email to get on the list. Two fans will get bumped up into the VIP area, so get to it before the spaces get filled.

Don’t wear the Ryu costume. Some things are supposed to stay private, bucko.

This GameFAQs forum post claims to have info on God of War III from an upcoming Game Informer feature.

Official details are embargoed until this Friday, with a press event taking place for the game in LA last night.

This lot doesn’t sound amazingly far-fetched, to be fair:

• Unlike God of War 1 and 2 where there are only 15 enemies on screen, there will now be around 50 this time.
• You can ride monsters like the Cyclops and “control”.
• Kratos on the PS2 used 5,000 polygons, now he uses 20,000.
• They made the weapons “better” so it adds more variety. Like with a different weapon, you don’t get just a couple different attacks, but a whole different play style.
• The lion gauntlets are called Cestus.
• Enemy AI’s are a lot smarter. Some of the enemies will be “commanders” and control the other grunts.
• Enemies will look different, even if they’re the same type. Like, even though the skeleton soldiers are in the same category, they will have varied looks, so it’s not like everyone looks the same.
• More boss fights than GoW 1, but less than GoW 2.
• No multiplayer.
• Hades boss fight confirmed.

We’ll know everything officially at 9.00am PST on Friday. Thanks, Johnny Cullen.

Nvidia’s announced a revenue drop for the 12 months ending January 25, down 16 percent to $3.4 billion, from $4.1 billion in the previous year.

The GPU manufacturer’s profit sank from from a $797.6 million for the period a year ago to a $30 million loss for the current fiscal year.

Ow.

“The environment is clearly difficult and uncertain,” said CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.

“Our first priority is to set an operating expense level that balances cash conservation while allowing us to continue to invest in initiatives that are of great importance to the market and in which we believe we have industry leadership. We have initiatives in all areas to reduce operating expenses.”

More on Gamespot.

As seen on MTV, Rockstar’s $20 GTA IV expansion is adding at least $20 worth of family-wrecking devil music. Maybe even enough to wreck two or three families, if you’re lucky.

Radio stations Liberty City Hardcore (death metal), The Beat (hip-hop), Radio Broker (indie), and Liberty Rock Radio (take a guess) will all add new songs to their rotations, while The Beat and LCH will also employ new DJs in these Tough Economic Times, those generous souls.

Rockstar’s still keeping the full list of new tracks under wraps, but we’ll make sure to let you know the magic eight-ball stops reading “Ask again later.”

The link holds all the knowledge. Go look at it.

Sony’s all done with its God of War III event in LA, as confirmed on its Twitter, and you can all now look forward to assets and details being released at 9.00am PST this Friday.

That’s 5.00pm GMT if you’re a Brit, midday if you’re East Coast US and 6.00pm CET for the Euros in the house.

The likelihood of you wanting to miss this is slim. The PS Blog‘s going to have a full update and we’ll, obviously, bring you everything as soon as we can.

We’re pretty sure it’s still a game, though – and by the looks of things, a damn good one. Siliconera opened up their Nihongonomicon and gave us the scoop.

According to a translated listing from Japanese retailer Rakuten, Persona’s PSP edition will include new animated movies, a soundtrack rearranged by Persona 3’s composer, and new dungeons.

The game’s difficulty, on the other hand, is feeling a wee bit less fierce after getting hit with the shrink ray, and will further be utterly emasculated by extra save points and a quick save option.

Still sounds rad, though. More through the link.

To celebrate Valentine’s Day this weekend, Rare and Microsoft have released a pack of formal clothing for Avatars.

Everyone needs a sort, son. It’s all free. There’s a shot of some of it on Joystiq.

Blizzard wants a few dedicated and skilled combatants to enter the new World of Warcraft Global Arena Tournament, where your team can both renown and cash prizes.

According to the official WoW site, players will “battle on special Tournament realms purely dedicated to the competitive format of 3v3 Arena matches”.

The characters fighting it out will be newly created level 80s, and the teams that qualify will battle in an invitational ladder to get a chance at the finals.

Registration and all the other details through this link.

While you are here though, read on through the jump a list of patch notes for the surprise patch that Blizzard released for WoW earlier this afternoon. No, it’s not the BIG one, sorry.

Following the usual maintenance today, patch 3.0.9 should be going live on all servers, but if you want to download the patch manually, click here.

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New gameplay footage of DC Universe Online was released at New York Comic Con at the weekend, showing PvP action with villainous players.

After the jump. It’s a walkthrough featuring a scary-looking clown (as opposed to any other kind) who has inhuman strength, loads of speed and psi-blasts to top it all off.

Take a look for yourself.

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