Monthly Archives: February 2009

Killzone 2 demo! And some other stuff. Killzone 2 demo!

Thanks, ThreeSpeech.

PS3 Store

Games
Lumines Supernova, £8.99/€10.99
Cuboid, £7.99/€9.99
Magic Ball™, £7.99/€9.99
3 on 3 NHL® Arcade Full Game upgrade, £6.29/€7.99

Demo
Killzone 2 Demo, FREE

Packs
Skate 2 – Time is Money, €3.99
Skate 2 – Filmer Pack, €5.99
LittleBigPlanet™ – Valentine’s Day Level kit, £2.39/€2.99
EGWT – Golfasaurus-Rex B.C.C. Course, £3.19/€3.99
Burnout Paradise Party Pack, £7.99/€9.99
Burnout™ Paradise The Ultimate Bundle, £29.99/€34.99
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm Pack 6, FREE

FAR CRY® 2 FORTUNES PACK, £7.99/€9.99

Guitar Hero World Tour
BLACK BETTY’ BY RAM JAM, £1.59/€1.99
COMMOTION’ BY CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL, £1.59/€1.99
GIMME ALL YOUR LOVIN’ BY ZZ TOP, £1.59/€1.99
AUSSIE TRACK PACK, £4.39/€5.49

Rock Band
BREAK MY HEART, £0.59/€0.79
COWBOY SONG (LIVE), £0.99/€1.49
DON’T TELL ME, £0.59/€0.79
HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT, £0.99/€1.49
JAILBREAK, £0.99/€1.49
PRECIOUS, £0.99/€1.49
THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN (LIVE), £0.99/€1.49

THIN LIZZY PACK 01, £2.49/€3.99

Video
Pain DARTS trailer, FREE
CUBOID Trailer, FREE

Wallpapers
Lord Of The Rings
Choose Your Hero, FREE
Fight for Evil, FREE

Fight for Good, FREE
Mirror’s Edge Time Trial Wallpaper, FREE
Mirror’s Edge Time Trial Wallpaper – Alternate, FREE

Theme
Mirrors Edge Theme, FREE

PSP content available to download via PS3 Store

Games

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, £15.99/€19.99
Bliss Island, £7.99/€9.99

PSP Store/Media Manager Store

Games
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, £15.99/€19.99
Bliss Island, £7.99/€9.99

In-Game
3 on 3 NHL® Arcade Full Game upgrade, £6.29/€7.99

The PC version of Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box is at US retail now, EA’s confirmed.

A demo’s up on the EA Store.

In addition, the Burnout Paradise Party Pack’s out today for 360 and PS3 as a download for $10.

Full details after the break.

More »

Ex Sega starlet Yuji Naka has told Kikizo that he opposed Sega’s exit from the hardware business, wanting the company to stay in the little white box game.

“Until the very final moments, I was very much against Sega ceasing to develop hardware”, he said.

“In a way I feel that, had that decision not been made, Sega would have gone bankrupt – so maybe it was a good business decision. But at the same time, I also feel like, what the hell – we should have given it a go, and we should have taken that risk.”

He added: “that is just my personal opinion, because I really enjoyed the hardware side of things at Sega”.

Sega dropped Dreamcast production in 2001. Full interview through the link.

Atari’s put out another Ghostbusters trailer, this time warning you not to look into the trap.

What happens if you do? Ghosts. Skeletal ones. There’s a good dollop of gameplay footage in there, so it’s worth a watch.

See it on Shacknews.

Game’s out for every format under the sun on June 19.

Zombie thriller Left 4 Dead will see its first bit of DLC this spring in the form of the L4D: Survival Pack, according to an announcement from Valve today.

Included will be a new multiplayer mode called Survival, plus two new Versus campaign modes.

Also of note: a Critic’s Choice Edition of the game is also heading to retail this spring, which will include the DLC.

Valve is also to release the PC SDK, which will allow the creation of custom Left 4 Dead campaigns through the matchmaking system. It’ll be free to all owners of L4D on PC.

Full press release through the jump.

More »

The State of Texas has decided that February 3 will from here on out be known as Entertainment Software Day.

The event’s been created to pay homage to the impact the videogame industry has had on the state’s economy.

In 2006 the games trade grew 16 percent in the Lone Star State says GamesIndustry.biz, and added $395 million to the economy. To help this figure grow even more, in 2007 the state legislature passed a bill in which provides tax rebates to videogame companies.

According to the ESA’s Michael D Gallagher, “These lawmakers are helping grow our industry as we work to create new jobs for Texans; boost the state’s economy; and help discover new ways computer and videogames can improve the ways Americans live, work and play.”

See, Texas isn’t all guns and cattle drives after all.

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has announced that Media Molecule’s co-founder Alex Evans, the co-creator of LittleBigPlanet, will speak at DICE later this month.

“Our take on ‘Creative Gaming’ is that it’s an incredibly broad church, and Little Big Planet represents our particular first take on User Generated Content,” said Alex Evans, co-founder of Media Molecule. “The D.I.C.E. Summit gives us the opportunity to present our design philosophy to the industry in the most prestigious forum today.”

DICE, which runs from February 17-20 in Las Vegas, will also host the Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony on February 19, with comedian Jay Mohr to return as host.

Full list of speakers can be found here.

Twitter is all abuzz today thanks to Infinity Ward comms boss Robert Bowling tweeting about Modern Warfare 2.

Here’s what he posted:

“Reviewing some radio-chatter VO we just finished recording for Modern Warfare 2 today. ‘Cujo Two-One this is Vulture, solid copy on all.’”

Activision more or less revealed the CoD game back in December during an advertising event, but not a crumb was thrown to the starving public about the game.

Bowling’s tweet doesn’t give us much to go on, but it’s better than nothing. Now we just need to know what it’s be called.

More on Giant Bomb.

Dave Pear, Oakland Raiders defensive tackle, has published a National Football League Players Association report that shows how much EA payed out to the NFLPA in 2007. The grand total amounts to a staggering $35 million.

This figure does not include the cash EA paid to the NFL for the right to use any licensing, which if you take into account the different team logos, names, stadiums, and other NFL-owned properties, would amount to “a lot”.

The news of this large monetary amount adds more fuel to the fire started by NFL retirees last year, who feel they’ve been shortchanged by the NFL.

More from Game Politics.

Sega just confirmed it’s completed a deal to publish official games based on the 2010 Winter Olympics, to take place in Vancouver.

According to the announcement, “SEGA will publish a wide variety of games with winter sports and events including skiing, skating, and snowboard bearing the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games emblem.”

“SEGA is extremely excited to once again work with ISM on a series of multi-platform games celebrating the Olympic Games,” says Sega COO, Okitane Usui.

“The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games offers gamers a collection of exciting sports to master, as well as a stunning location for players to take advantage of. We aim to bring fans around the world an exhilarating experience whenever they play any Olympic title.”

Press release after the break.

More »

SCEE’s launched the Killzone 2 demo, as promised. You can download it now from PSN.

The teaser weighs in at 1207Mb and includes the first two sections of the game. More detail here.

Get it now! Go!

Killzone 2 releases on February 27.

Virtua Tennis 2009 will release this May, Sega confirmed this afternoon.

PS3, 360 and PC all get versions, the PC SKU being downloadable.

It’s to include a Woulrd Tour mode, online rankings, a Player Creation System and a store with over 800 items for your virtual ball-whackers.

Press release after the break.

More »

EA’s released the first Battlefield 1943 video, hot on the heels of the game’s announcement this afternoon. Get it after the break.

The Pacific WWII multiplay effort releases for PC, PS3 and 360 this summer.

More »

For every cloud, a silver lining. Saints Row 2 has sold 2.6 million units since the game’s October release, Edge reports, bringing a touch of warmth to some otherwise awful THQ financial results yesterday.

Other glimmers from THQ’s 2008 included WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009, which has shipped over 4 million units, Big Beach Sports at 1.2 million, and de Blob at 700,000.

According to CEO Brian Farrell: “Established franchises like Saints Row and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw, as well as new franchises such as de Blob and Big Beach Sports for the Nintendo Wii, give us confidence in our strategy going forward.”

Nice, but cold comfort considering financial losses will result in 600 employees being sacked.

For every silver lining, a cloud.

A LittleBigPlanet Valentines Day Theme pack is now available from the PlatyStation Store, complete with stickers, decorations and a McLovin SackBoy costume.

The PlayStation Blog also mentions that the Groundhog Day costume is still available which, to be honest, looks like it had a bit more thought put into it than the McLovin.

More through the link.

Tired of your rubbish black PSP, British people? Never fear. The UK will see new colours for the console in Mystic Silver and Pearl White from February, and Radiant Red from March, SCEE just confirmed.

That’s it, really. The machines are PSP-3000s, obviously.

Press release after the drop.

More »

Update: Get the first 1943 movie here.

As predicted, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 1943 have both just been announced by DICE.

Battlefield 1943 is out for PC, PS3 and 360 this “summer”. Bad Company 2 will follow this “winter” for the same formats.

A multiplayer-only effort, 1943 features 24-player action over three locations; Wake Island, Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. It will be seen at Comic Con this weekend, as rumoured.

Bad Company 2, as with the original, will feature a single-player component.

“Bad Company 2 takes everything that players liked in the original and ups the ante – more vehicles, more destruction and more team play,” said DICE’s Karl Magnus Troedsson.

“Battlefield 1943 is a new take on a blast from the past classic coming to life with brand new technology that we’re eager to get into players hands.”

Press release after the break.

More »

Remember the Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV Home space’s Capcom announced in Japan earlier this week? Want to know if they’re coming to Europe?

“We have Home announcements to make soon,” a UK rep told us today when asked if the features were coming west.

You shouldn’t be too surprised if the comment’s code for, “Yes”.

Capcom Japan said it’s going to be selling paraphernalia related to the games through the spaces, so if Ken’s your bag and you live in Europe you should probably get pumped.

Go on. Get pumped. SFIV’s out on February 20. RE5 follows on March 13.

Killzone 2 pre-orders have passed 1.1 million in Europe, CVG’s reporting.

No figure’s been given for pre-orders in the US as yet, although we’ll check with SCEA later.

The anticipated shooter’s demo will launch later today.

Killzone 2 releases on February 27.

THQ’s put Dawn of War II live for pre-load: do it now.

The game goes live on February 20. Pre-loaders will get an unlock code via email at the time.

Get in early and you’ll receive the following exclusive content:

• One multiplayer 1vs1 map, “Legis High Stratum”
• Four new weapons
• Two unique Purity Seals
• One unique chapter “Marauders”
• Four exclusive metallic colors
• Exclusive army painter colours

£35 and it’s yours. Bargain of the century.