Monthly Archives: February 2009

Harmonix announced today that Scottish indie rockers The Fratellis are heading to the Rock Band music store with Creepin Up the Backstairs, Flathead, and Henrietta – all from 2006 debut album Costello Music.

Not sure what the cost will be, but most likely the usual 180 MS Points each and 440 points for the track pack on Xbox 360, and the usual prices for PS3 version as well.

You can expect these tracks to land February 10 and 11 for XBL and PSN respectively.

Press release after the jump.

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Lips, Microsoft’s answer to Sony’s SingStar, gets an update today in the form of Alicia Keys, Coldplay, and Sarah McLachlan.

Here’s the list:

• Alicia Keys – Fallin’
• Coldplay – In My Pace
• Sarah McLachlan – Building a Mystery

Alicia and and Coldplay will run you 180 MS Points each ($2.25), and Ms. McLachlan 160 Points ($2).

With such fare to be downloaded, it might be wise to invest in a pair of earplugs.

World of Warcraft’s official forums are alight today with news of character classes changes in the upcoming patch 3.1.

Full details are too in-depth to outline here, but according to Eurogamer, a new raid dungeon called Ulduar along with dual talent specializations (fingers crossed) will be added. Other than that, this is what you can expect:

• No more consumable ammunition for Hunters
• A substantial boost for Protection-spec Paladins
• Major improvements to the Priest class, especially in group healing
• General buffs for Rogues and Shamans
• Efficiency improvements for Warriors and Warlocks (with the penalty for Warriors changing stances being much lighter)
• Mana regeneration is being reined in across the board
• Streamlining every class
• Bring tank classes into line with each other
• Leveling out imbalance in the damage dealing classes
• Healing during boss battles will be more of a challenge with mana changes.

Patch 3.1 has yet to be tested, but seeing that it is to be released sometime within the next few months, it should start soon.

Earlier today Nintendo launched a new Japanese site for Metroid Prime, featuring a peek at two Wiimakes and Metroid Prime Corruption. At the bottom of the page there is some text stating “Another Side Story coming soon” and, “The Metroid Prime history followed from the perspective of a space pirate”.

IGN thinks that the new stuff will be nothing more than “web-based content detailing a side story”, but fans can always hope for more.

Japanese gamers will be getting the New Play Control version of Metroid Prime on February 19.

More through the link.

Prototype’s making the trip to Comic Con in New York this weekend, and Activision’s celebrating by releasing new media and letting the press actually play it.

The open-world actioner has had a bumpy ride through the transition from Sierra to Activision Blizzard, but is now on track for a June launch.

Here’s your lot:

• New screens (IGN)
• New movies (IGN)
• IGN hands-on
• Kotaku hands-on
• Joystiq hands-on

Square Enix has updated the official Star Ocean: The Last Hope Japanese site to reveal some rather tasty screenshots and a brand new five minute movie.

Don’t even bother saying you’ve got something better to do than to check them out.

Images are over at Gamersyde, and the trailer’s through here.

Now go.

South Korea’s president, Lee Myung-bak, posed a question during his visit to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy this week asking why the nation cannot build a  videogame hardware system to compete with the likes of Nintendo.

“A lot of our elementary school children have Nintendo game machines. Why can’t our companies develop products like that?” he asked.

A Korean news paper reported on the backlash the president received from game execs in the country, says GamePolitics, one of which is was Park Sang-hoon who’s company makes the Linux-based GP2X handheld:

“It would be great if the software industry here was healthy enough to produce a lot of games, which would drive up the sales of handheld consoles and introduce more products onto the market. However, as a latecomer, we have the difficulty of proving our products first and securing third parties later.”

One exec even slammed the prez stating, “You don’t have the right to be daydreaming about Nintendo, when Korean online game firms, which are actually doing well overseas, feel they could do better if the government wasn’t biting at their ankles.”

Ouch.

Full thing through the link.

THQ’s released some new screens for Dawn of War II, which is set to arrive on Steam February 19.

The shots show the game’s cooperative missions.

Shacknews has them here.

In an interview with EG yesterday, Warhammer Online’s executive producer Jeff Hickman and creative director Paul Barnett spoke at length about the forthcoming Land of the Dead zone in Warhammer Online.

Part of the Call to Arms live expansion, LotD will feature loads of stuff to do and various ways to get booty. It’ll be opened by “a race for access between the Order and Destruction factions,” apparently. Watch your step mind: once you’re inside you’re always open to attack from players of the other faction – even when in instances.

“Tomb Kings, or The Land of the Dead, is a massive zone which is broken up into two parts – The Necropolis and the Tomb of the Vulture Lord,” said Hickman.

“It is RVR-gated. In other words, each realm must fight for ownership and the dungeon is expected to change hands nightly. It is full of new and interesting Public Quests, new lairs, refreshing game mechanics, new rewards and loot and generally awesome new stuff.”

“It is the ultimate sandbox zone,” added Barnett. “Many of the great things from Darkness Falls will be built upon. Tokens, other loot methods, wide level range, and the thrill of your enemy always breathing down your back. Lots of opportunities for RVR within the dungeon itself.”

“You can be attacked anywhere in the Land of the Dead,” said Hickman. “There is a huge open-world area, but also some instanced areas. In any of these areas, your enemy can hunt you down and fight you (as long as they gain control of the dungeon while you are in it). Even the instances are not safe.”

Sounds excellent. Hand on our heart, we think it does.

More through the link.

Get it from the PS Blog. It’s got the original Amityville Horror in HD, in the name of Sainted Jesus.

You owe it to yourself to watch that this weekend, American people. Feel the 70s fear.

Sony’s predicted that PS3 will be around far longer than PS2 managed to survive, saying the machine is “inherently future proof”.

“PS3 won’t celebrate its second birthday in the UK until March of this year, and we’ve said all along that the life-cycle for this generation of hardware will be longer than previous models,” the firm said in a statement o T3 mag.

“PS2 was still going strong after eight years, and with the power the Cell processor provides, not to mention the fact that PS3 is inherently future-proof, we see the PS3 sales curve far outlasting that of PS2.”

New consoles in 2011? Sure.

Thanks, CVG.

Update:  Get the patch here.

The PC version of Call of Duty: World at War gets patched to version 1.2 today, says Activision.

A few changes and fixes are included in the update, along with a new map – a daytime version of “Makin” – which will be exclusive to PC.

Here’s what you get:

• Fixed exploits that allowed for power ranking servers
• Fixed router related server authentication errors
• Fixed HTTP Redirect functionality for downloading mods
• Fixed sound device crashes stemming from Emulated Sound Devices
• Fixed exploit which allowed players to color their name tag
• Hits now register properly while targeted player is leaning
• Enabled /cg_drawfps in multiplayer games
• Fixed command-line +connect functionality
• /cg_fov no longer resets to the default value in between matches
• Dedicated servers automatically reconnect to the Master Server in case the Master Server resets
• “Accept Game Invite” is bound to its default key, F10
• Implemented fix for attempting to join password protected servers from the server browser
• Fine tuned Bolt-Action Rifles for balance
• Screenshots no longer overwrite each other
• Fixed various multiplayer map related issues and exploits

Activision’s announced Monumental Battle With Transformers, to ship alongside the next Transformers movie this year.

It’s set in locales such as Cairo and Shanghai and features multiplayer, apparently.

All formats. Sounds amazing. Press release after the link.

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After the break. It includes combat, exploration and butterflies.

The Atlus PSP remake was confirmed in Famitsu earlier this week.

It’s out on April 29 in Japan.

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A SCEE rep has told VG247 this afternoon that the Killzone 2 demo released yesterday is flying off the servers, so to speak.

“The Killzone demo is proving very popular so far,” said the spokesperson.

Don’t hold your breath if you’re wanting to know the specific amount of downloads, though.

“I don’t have exact figures and I’ve been told we may not give this out,” the rep added.

The Killzone 2 demo was released openly on the European PSN yesterday afternoon.

Americans were less lucky: only those who’ve pre-ordered the title with Gamestop were allowed access to the teaser yesterday.

Konami’s to update Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 at the end of February with all the latest transfer information, the company’s confirmed.

All versions will get the data, to bring all club sides’ rosters in line with all the moves and transfers made before the end of the January 2009 transfer window.

It literally does not get better than this. Press release after the break.

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Rare’s told VG247 that the Xbox community “may” receive features allowing them to create their own Avatar kit, saying that user-generation was simply too big a deal to force into NXE’s launch last year.

“User-generated content is a huge area that would not have been done any justice if we had tried to cram it into the launch release of this project,” said Avatars designer, Dale Murchie.

“There may be features coming that open up the expressive potential of the Xbox community, but we’re keeping quiet on that for now.”

Head of art Lee Musgrave added: “Creativity is going to play a big part in the development of the Avatars.”

Currently, users’ Avatars can only be kitted out with supplied items, of which several packs have been released since launch.

Avatars became an integral part of Xbox 360 last year with the release of New Xbox Experience.

Need for Speed World Online, one of a trio of newly announced games from the EA fanchise, is to enter technical testing in Taiwan and Hong Kong in March.

The free-roaming, free-to-play effort has no solid release date as yet other than 2009.

Press release after the break.

More »

Tonight’s GameTrailers TV episode is to feature footage of GTA IV DLC The Lost and Damned, as well as a first look at Left 4 Dead’s now-announced Survival Pack content.

It’s going live at 1.00am PST, with is 9.00am GMT for the Britishers in the crowd. More here.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Lots of Burnout stuff for America this week, but only the Killzone 2 demo for Gamestop preorderers. Thanks, Gekidami.

Get the lot from the PS Blog.