Monthly Archives: February 2009

Sony has now handed out 24 licenses to companies that want to develop Home content, as seen in this Watch Impress report of a SCEJ presentation in Japan.

There’s a list of the firms involved after the break.

Just because a company owns a license to develop Home content doesn’t, of course, means it’s actually going to do so. But still, 24 licenses is 24 licenses.

Thanks, Siliconera.

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A new ARMA II trailer appeared today, showing simulated, US marine-style military action and an errant boar. There’s a great alsatian in there, as well.

Bohemia’s developing the game, which, according to the new movie, is out this year. The outfit coded Operation Flashpoint, the sequel to which is under way at Codemasters: it’s out this summer.

Who’ll win? One thing’s for sure: the trailer after the break doesn’t look too shabby.

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Far Cry 2 multiplayer is to get a Hardcore mode, as detailed in this official forum post. Here’s what you get:

The hardcore mode has been designed as an answer to a community request. When designing the multiplayer game our team wanted to provide a balanced experience for most gamers. However some players were seeking and expecting a more realistic experience.

The addition of a “hardcore” setting, available in every game mode, will have many consequences:
A new damage model will be applied with increased damage for all weapons.

All weapons have been rebalanced on normal mode, and on hardcore mode.

Enemy names will disappear after the spawning invincibility period is over (A shield is displayed above a player’s head for a few second to show that he is invincible).

A new option will allow you to tweak spawning time (but not spawning rate).

A new search option will be available in multiplayer to allow you to find games that are playing on hardcore mode.

The new mode will be implemented with “the next wave of patches”.

There is to be no more Linux version of EVE Online, according to this official forum post, the unloved stepchild of CCP’s spacey MMO to be dropped on March 10. It launched alongside the game’s Mac client last November.

Why’s it being nuked? Says Slashdot: “The client was not preferred for Linux users as it did not support the Premium graphics client and did not run as well as the win32 client under Wine.”

Greek to us.

In an apparent effort to cater to western tastes, Square Enix has produced two HUD designs for Star Ocean: The Last Hope, one for Japan and one for the US and Europe.

As you can see on Siliconera, the western release features CG models for characters in the fight scenes, whereas the Japanese version’s gone for an anime look.

The menus are different, too.

Push yourself back from the edge of your seat and hit the link for more detail.

Michael Mays has been named as Silicon Knights’ new VP.

“Michael’s arrival at Silicon Knights marks a step forward in the development of our business,‭” ‬said company boss Denis Dyack.‭

“‬His keen business acumen and financial know how makes him the perfect leader for us and for working with the‭ ‬Ontario government to help build the video game industry presence in the Niagara Region and‭ ‬Ontario.”

Mays has worked for almost 20 years in the Canadian financial sector.

Codemasters got a little more specific on the release date of Operation Flashpoint 2 this morning, telling VG247 the sequel will release this summer.

“Flashpoint is currently slated officially as ‘Summer 2009,’” said a rep, adding that the firm couldn’t be “any more precise than that right now.”

The game was down for a “2009″ date up to now.

The military sim was fully announced last year. It was originally planned for “winter” 2008, but was moved into 2009 in July.

Codemasters itself is developing the game, after dropping Bohemia Interactive, the creator of the first title.

Australia’s to get its own PS3 Killzone 2 bundle, Kotaku reports.

There’s no price info through there, but it’ll include an 80Gb machine, the game and a DS3.

Watch for release on February 26, the same date as the game itself.

Writing on his blog, DICE designer Gustav Halling has seemingly confirmed Battlefield 1943 as a discless product.

“It’s a download-only game on X360, PS3 & PC,” he said in response to a question as to whether or not the title is a browser affair in the same vein as Battlefield Heroes.

His comments appear to clarify part of the game’s announcement press release last week.

“To get ready for the assault this winter, players can prepare for action in Battlefield 1943, an all-new multiplayer game available this summer via PlayStation Store, Xbox LIVE Marketplace and on the PC,” said the PR.

Just going to check this for definite with EA now. Discs are so last century, anyway.

BioWare community manager Jay Watamaniuk apparently said a new episode of Mass Effect DLC is on the way a Comic Con this weekend, but failed to give any details.

If this CinemaBlend story‘s correct, the content will be the second chapter released post-game, the first being Bring Down the Sky.

This isn’t the first time the possibility of more ME DLC’s been talked about in earnest by BioWare. Company boss Greg Zeschuk said staff were “talking about” new content in August last year.

No date. Or anything else, for that matter. We’ll check with EA now.

The upcoming GTA: Chinatown Wars is to have a “replay feature,” according to a flyer handed out on the DS game at Comic Con this weekend.

The game will also have head-to-head and co-op options, as well as stat tacking and leaderboards.

Looks like it may well be time to dust off your little white man. It’s out on March 20.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Cryptic showed more on Star Trek Online at Comic Con this weekend, specifically on its Alien Creator. There’s a video of it in action after the break.

The tool’s used for… creating aliens. You can basically play as any race you can come up with in the MMO.

Cryptic says there are “thousands” of possible combinations for your freakish weirdo backwater space inhabitants. There’s a bit more on it here.

Have a watch.

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Epic boss Rod Fergusson’s posted on the company’s site tonight to say a big change is being considered for Gears 2 multiplayer, in that experience level is to be used instead of TrueSkill.

From the message:

So we’ve been looking at all the feedback on our skill ranking system and we completely understand why simply making your TrueSkill level visible can be frustrating. The algorithm is complex, so it’s not always clear how your rank will be affected by a particular match and your rank is based on the team’s outcome and not necessarily your individual performance.

So we’re looking to make a change.

What if, instead of skill rank, we instead showed your experience level. You would gain experience through your individual performance in Public multiplayer matches – the higher your score at the end, the more experience you acquire. Of course the experience gained across the different match types would be balanced so you couldn’t just grind on the respawning game types to try and level faster. The experience requirements for each level would grow with each level gained (like a typical RPG) and we’d have 99 levels of experience for you to show off your leetness.

Generally speaking your level will always go up since you’re always acquiring more score, hence experience, with each completed match. The only exception to that would be people quitting. Players that quit would gain an experience penalty that could cause them to be demoted. At the end of every match you will be able to see how much experience you’ve gained and how much further you have to go till the next level.

Fergusson goes on to hint that the changes could be made with future DLC.

See for yourself.

Cryptic put out a new trailer of superhero MMO Champions Online at Comic Con this weekend, as you can see after the break.

This is the first proper sniff of the game since Atari bought the studio. It’s out later this year.

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The first trailer of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’s been released, as you can see after the break.

The Activision movie tie-in was announced this week, and features gruff-sounding robots pretending to be serious.

This year. All platforms ever.

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Gamespot’s posted a lengthy off-screen video of Overlord II from Comic Con this weekend, the first, as far as we know. Watch it after the break.

There’s loads of gameplay in there and commentary from one of the developers.

It’s out this year for PC, PS3 and 360.

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After the break. This is the intro from the Japanese version, but you get the idea. Just need one of those MadCatz controllers now, and we’re off.

Game’s out on February 20 in Europe.

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Speaking to Destructoid, Cyanide explained that Blood Bowl won’t be heading to PS3 because it has no previous experience with the platform and can’t afford the risk.

“Cyanide is a small company,” the developer said.

“We have no previous experience on that platform [and] it would have been a bit risky and expensive for us. But, we are hoping to do a PS3 version if the game is selling well.”

Based on the tabletop game of the same name, Blood Bowl is set in a fantasy universe similar to Warhammer and pits dwarfs, elves, goblins, orcs and trolls against each other in a bloody game of football.

It’s out for DS, PC, PSP and Xbox 360 sometime this year.

A Mac version of Red Alert 3′s been confirmed, according to this Yahoo! piece.

It’s Sunday, OK? Some of you must have Macs. It’s a statistical probability, at least.

It’s out in March. Try to contain yourselves.

The lawsuit between the estate of Mario Puzo and Paramount over 2006 action crime game The Godfather has been settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Puzo’s estate – the author passed away ten years ago – was trying to get Paramount to fork over $1 million in sales and rental revenue.

“We think it’s a terrific settlement,” said Bert Fields, the lawyer for the Puzo estate, Bert Fields. “This involved one of the most admired films of all time.”

Lots more through there.