Monthly Archives: February 2009

Intent’s put out the list of finalists for the MCV Awards, which take place on April 23 in London.

There aren’t many shocks in there, with all the usual suspects up for a mention.

Full thing after the break.

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A bit of concept art has surfaced showing just how different Sega’s blue hedgehog might have looked in Sonic: Unleashed.

Yeti, gangsta, tiger-striped — good thing they went with the werehog, eh?

More through the link.

Microsoft just announced a “Halo Wars: Universe Expanded” video series.

It’s a three-part thing, showing how Halo Wars fits in with the rest of the Halo games.

The first part’s available on March 2.

Press release after the break. Halo Wars releases tomorrow.

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From’s Ninja Blade will launch in the UK on April 7, Microsoft confirmed today, following a demo release on May 9.

Apparently the demo “will provide players with an engaging first look into the world of Ken Ogawa and a chance to battle the monster horde before the game hits store shelves in April.”

It’s all you can hope for. After the break.

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Nintendo just put out American release dates for all Wii and DS games running to the end of the second quarter.

The biggie there’s Punch-Out!!, confirmed for May 18.

After the break. Thanks, Joystiq.

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A Microsoft deal with NBC Universal will see 30 of the firm’s films brought to XBLM in Europe, including Shaun of the Dead, The Fast and the Furious and The Bourne Supremacy.

The titles, already available in the UK and Ireland, will release in France, Germany and Spain in the coming weeks.

“NBC Universal has a fantastic reputation in the film world and have some true blockbusters in their portfolio,” said Xbox Europe marketing boss David Gosen.

“We are delighted to be working with them to bring major titles from Universal Pictures into Xbox Live living rooms – this is all part of our ongoing strategy to make Xbox a major entertainment hub.”

More on GI.

Speaking in this Electric Playground episode, Media Molecule’s Kareem Ettouney has mentioned that YouTube uploads are on the way for LittleBigPlanet.

“A lot of people in the LittleBigPlanet World are really keen on showing off how they made their creations,” he said when asked about upcoming features.

“It’s an obvious need. You go on YouTube and [see] all those videos. Let’s give the users a tool that can stream the content and put it on YouTube.”

It is fairly obvious, yep.

Current games that make use of PS3’s access to the YouTube API include PixelJunk Eden, PixelJunk Monsters and Noby Noby Boy.

We’ve asked Sony for an official line on this, so we’ll have that soon.

Thanks, LittleBigPlanetoid.

Nintendo UK just told us that it has “no plans right now” to bring the newly-revealed Classic Pro Wii controller over from Japan.

The peripheral has four shoulder buttons and handle bits at the bottom. Like a PS2 pad.

Just import one if you want one, for God’s sake. What’s wrong with you?

Worms Armageddon Decade is real, and it’s launching exclusively for XBLA in the first half of this year, Team17 studio boss Martyn Brown told VG247 this morning.

The Australian OFLC outed the game on its website earlier this week.

“Worms Armageddon Decade is a working title and subject to change,” said the exec.

“There’s no firm release date as yet, especially with the current Worms still performing strongly two years on and besides, we don’t really control that until we talk more with the Live team when the game is certified.

“However, you can expect it in the first half of 2009. The title is exclusive on XBLA for a period.”

There’s no word yet on which other platforms are to get the game in the future.

Team17′s set up a Facebook page for all its games, in order “to let players get a bit closer and be more community driven, rather than a faceless forum,” according to Brown.

So off you go.

VG247 understands that UK developer Climax is working on a Wii remake of an the first Silent Hill.

Konami has declined to comment on the talk.

Few specifics are known as yet, but apparently motion control’s been included for torch functions.

The first Silent Hill, designed by Keiichiro Toyama, was released for PlayStation in 1999.

Climax is working on two Konami games, as shown on the firm’s website. The remake is the Wii and PSP project you can see there.

A 360 and PS3 game is also in the works for Konami, but this is an “original ground breaking next-gen game,” according to a Climax job posting.

Climax was unavailable for comment at the time of writing. You didn’t see us here, right?

Remember the “unannounced title for Codemasters” Climax was hiring for on its site earlier this week? Codemasters doesn’t.

“We don’t have any unannounced titles we’re working on with Climax, only the previously announced Overlord: Dark Legend on Wii and Overlord: Minions on DS,” a rep told us today.

Climax is still carrying a job posting on its site saying it has the mysterious game in the works, as well as a “stunning and refreshing take on the horror genre and our original ground breaking next-gen game for the PS3 and the Xbox 360.”

We’re waiting for Climax to get back to us on this, but it looks as though someone may have put some old copy up on the site.

Glad that’s cleared up.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope has debuted at the top of the Japanese chart, and looks set to easily become the highest-selling Japanese 360 game yet.

In other news: so long, Street Fighter.

Data from February 16-22. Last week’s chart here. Thanks, GAF.

01. [360] Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope (Square Enix) 162,000 / NEW
02. [NDS] Mario & Luigi RPG 3 (Nintendo) 62,000 / 255,000
03. [PSP] Idolmaster SP: Perfect Sun (Namco Bandai) 46,000 / NEW
04. [PSP] Idolmaster SP: Missing Moon (Namco Bandai) 39,000 / NEW
05. [PSP] Idolmaster SP: Wandering Star (Namco Bandai) 35,000 / NEW
06. [NDS] Shining Force Feather (SEGA) 30,000 / NEW
07. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) (Capcom) 18,000 / 435,000 *
08. [PS2] Sacred Blaze (Flight Plan) 17,000 / NEW
09. [PS3] Street Fighter IV (Capcom) 17,000 / 103,000
10. [PS3] Demon’s Souls (SCE) 15,000 / 78,000

Nintendo’s posted first pictures of a new Wii controller on its site.

Named the Classic Controller Pro, the new peripheral looks like a Classic with bits on it. It’s the Classic with handles and two extra shoulder buttons, basically.

It’s out this year. Do you need this? Probably not.

Is that the whiff of common sense? The stench of reason? Xbox Live mod boss Stephen Toulouse has confirmed Microsoft is looking at ways Xbox Live users can express sexual preference on the service without getting banned.

His comment came after yet another Live subscriber was banned for ‘causing offence’ by saying they were homosexual in their profile data.

“I can’t say any more at the moment, except to say I’m working right now in finding a way to safely express relationship preference,” Toulouse said on his Twitter.

He added: “Expression of any sexual orientation (straight or gay or otherswise) is not allowed in gamertags.

“However we’ve heard from the user-base they want that capability, so I am examining how we can provide it in a way that wont get misused.”

This is the first time Microsoft has even acknowledged something needs to be done about the fact gay and lesbian people can be hounded on Live then banned.

Bit of a shame the “user-base” had to fight against it instead of anyone with half a brain at Microsoft doing something about a truly disgusting situation, but there we are. We should be thankful for small mercies, hey?

Thanks, Roybott.

In probably the largest shock in PC gaming news history, Braid was confirmed as a Steam release today.

The newest version of Jon Blow’s time-warping puzzler is out on March 31, and will cost $15.

Following news that ESA membership charges rose an astronomical 1,700 percent between 2006 and 2008, the trade body’s confirmed it’s to look bringing costs back down.

“The positive restructuring of the E3 Expo allowed us to revisit the ESA’s dues structure,” ESA CEO Mike Gallagher told Gamasutra today.

There was no other detail given on how and when charges were to be reduced, but at least a reduction’s on the table. So there’s lovely.

IGN’s put up the first review of Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, scoring it 6.9.

The Wii adaptation of Capcom’s zombie actioner just didn’t cut it, apparently. Snip:

So Dead Rising continues to be fun even if you scale back the visuals, reduce the zombie count, and ignore the hero’s photographic abilities. Capcom must have really hit on something with the “zombie killing playground” design. A lot of corners have been cut to get this game on the Wii and the result is not the impressive next-gen experience it was on the 360. Rather, it’s a breezy weekend diversion with some fun gameplay and subpar graphics. Mowing down (small) hordes of zombies is a mindless pleasure, but the experience system and exploration lend the game some depth. The addition of multiple save slots is an improvement, and the Wii controls work well. What was a showcase title for the 360 is an average, but fun, Wii game.

It’s out in Europe, um, yesterday, says Gamespress.

After the break. The PSP shooter includes the following online stuff, according to this PS Blog post:

Team Deathmatch: Eliminate the players on the opposing team. The team with the highest score wins.

Capture The Flag: Grab the opposing team’s flag and deliver it to your base to score the capture. You flag is required at your base to score.

Containment: Capture coolant nodes to overheat and destroy the opposing teams reactor. Controlling both coolant nodes increases the overheat time

Assimilation: The Cloven must eliminate the Maquis forces and assimilate them to their team. The last Maquis to be eliminated ends the round. The player with the highest individual score wins.

Free For All: All players are out for themselves. Eliminate the opposition and the player with the highest score wins.

Watch it move. It’s out this “spring,” according to Gamespress.

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Shacknews is carrying the PC demo for The Last Remnant.

The tester for Square’s RPG weighs in at 1Gb, and apparently includes Steam-related features.

It’s free, dude. The full game’s out next month.

EA Redwood Shores dev head Glen Schofield has said EA should learn from last year’s mistakes and stop bunching releases together.

“The one big thing we learned was, we came out with a bunch of new IP, actually with a bunch of new games at the same time,” he said, speaking to GI.

“Some people are calling this last year one of the best years in the history of videogames. You just had one great game after another, so we were just right in the middle of it, and you have to have a lot of money behind you to shout out.”

Wise words, Glen. He even gt a little wiser.

“I think the industry has finally gone, ‘Wow, we could probably just come out just like the movies do’. Movies launch on Christmas day, they launch blockbusters during the summer, and we’re now learning that we could probably launch a game at any time, and if it’s a good game it will be well received,” he said.

“I think that we traditionally thought that people only buy games at Christmas or around holiday time, and now we’re looking back and going, ‘You know what, GTA launched in May; Resident Evil comes out in March’.”