Monthly Archives: March 2009

A Toby Keith track pack will arrive on Rock Band on April 7 and April 9 for Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively.

Here’s what you’ll get:

• Beer for My Horses
• I Love This Bar
• She’s a Hottie
• Should’ve Been a Cowboy
• Who’s Your Daddy?
• How Do You Like Me Now

Each track will be available individually for 160 MS Points ($1.99). The whole thing will cost 800 MS Points ($9.99).

Fable II’s developers originally tried to include microphone capabilities in the game to allow players to whistle to the dog.

According to Peter Molyneux, the feature was discarded because it felt more like a gimmick instead of a true gameplay component.

“We did test it out,” Molyneux told MTV.

“Whistling to the dog with the microphone was one of the features that we dropped.”

Must have been another one of those experiments the Lionhead bossman talked about in his presentation at GDC last week.

More through there.

A THQ rep has confirmed to Shacknews that Red Faction: Guerrilla will be released for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on June 9.

A demo is slated to arrive on consoles April 23, with GameStop pre-orderers getting their hands on it three weeks beforehand.

A photo posted over on NeoGAF shows a German version of GTA: Chinatown Wars with an amazingly large warning label on the package.

The USK label underneath the big red sticker apparently wasn’t enough.

Germany has shown renewed vigor over violent and mature videogames since the Winnenden school shooting earlier in the month.

Thanks, GamePolitics.

According to Edge’s graph o’ the week, data complied by Entertainment Design and Research shows that 17 percent of PS3 games released between 2006 and 2008 have received review scores of 85 or higher.

By contrast, 30 percent received a score of 65 percent or lower.

Last week’s breakdown of Xbox 360 review scores showed 13 percent with a score over 85 and 38 percent under 65.

Up next week: Wii.

Behemoth’s John Baez has hinted in a Gamasutra interview that PS3 and Wii users may not be left out in the cold when it comes to the indie developer’s “secret third game”.

While Baez did not confirm any platforms in the chat, the article hints at the possibility of a multi-platform release due to the company owning licenses for PSN and WiiWare.

The only cat Baez let out of the bag was that the game’s a multiplayer affair releasing sometime next year.

Hopefully we’ll have a name for it by then.

Kotaku’s posted up some lovely-looking screens of of upcoming western sequel Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, as well as some words from GDC.

The Ubi adventure’s out on PC, PS3 and 360 in June.

EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich has estimated that today’s PS2 price drop will provide a significant sales boost for the machine.

“In terms of sales, we expect the PS2 price cut to increase hardware sales 30% ahead of last quarter in the North America (January through March 09) and to increase hardware sales by 10% year-over-year for quarter 2 (April through July),” he said in a note.

Sony said earlier today that PS2′s price would come down to $99.99 in the US tomorrow.

“With a mid-range DVD player currently costing $50, an additional $50 to also get a gaming console with the largest software library makes the PS2 an incredible deal – particularly during the current global economic conditions,” Divnich added.

More on Gama.

Here are the top titles for the week of March 23 on Xbox Live. World at War is here to stay it seems.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles

1. Call of Duty: WaW
2. Halo 3
3. Call of Duty 4
4. Gears of War 2
5. RESIDENT EVIL 5
6. GTA IV
7. FIFA 09
8. Left 4 Dead
9. Halo Wars
10. Fallout 3

Get all the Arcade and Community stuff after the break.

More »

GDC attendance dropped from 18,000 last year to 17,000 in 2009, Think Services said today.

“The success of this past week in San Francisco proves the resilience of the games industry,” said event director Meggan Scavio.

“It is a testament to the spirit of our more than 20 year old conference and community, and evidence of video games’ continued evolution into a mainstream form of entertainment, that the various constituents of the industry were able come together at GDC as they did [last] year.”

The 2010 event will take place from Tuesday, March 9 to Saturday, March 13 next year.

More on Gama.

The first Call of Duty: World at War map was downloaded more than 1 million times in its first weekend of availability, Acitvision said today.

“I’m proud that the team at Treyarch delivered an experience that so many people are enjoying,” said Treyarch boss Mark Lamia.

“We’re excited that the success of Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 1 will continue to drive the popularity of the game’s Nazi Zombie mode, competitive multiplayer and chart-breaking success online.”

The DLC release on March 19.

Press release after the break.

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Looks like Live Marketplace’s RSS accidentally spilled details on two upcoming vehicle packs for Midnight Club: LA today.

Two packs will add seven new vehicles to the game apparently, with the first one including the 2008 Mercedes-Benz CL 65 AMG, 2008 Audi S5 and 2009 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT. Nice.

The second package has the 2008 Ducati 1098 R (free), 2008 Cadillac XLR V, 2008 Lancer Evolution X and 2007 Aston Martin DB9.

South Central Premium DLC already contains these vehicles, but they are only available during delivery missions, and cannot be purchased from the garage.

Microsoft did a similar “oops” with the game back in January, if you recall.

The post has since been removed.

More through here.

Aerial combat planned for Wrath of the Lich was cut because it was not “polished enough,” World of Warcraft’s Tom Chilton has admitted in the latest Blizzard podcast.

Included in the beta, both planes fitted with bombs and anti-aircraft vehicles were tested for new PvP zone Wintergrasp before being cut.

“If you look at a lot of games that have done flight simulation, there is a lot of care that goes into giving you that sensation of flying by having the world tilt and stuff like that so it feels a little less mechanical, feels a little bit more alive or more natural,” said Chilton.

“So one of the things that we have kind of tasked ourselves with doing is figuring out how to polish that, how to improve on our vehicle physics, there’s still a lot of vehicle physics tech that we want to get in that didn’t make it into the first pass of Lich King.”

Chilton said he would, however, like to see the feature make its way into the game: it’s currently on Blizzard’s “to do list”.

Thanks, IncGamers.

Namco Bandai has confirmed that Keita Takahashi is “not involved” with Katamari Damacy Tribute, the classic puzzler’s upcoming PS3 version announced last week.

The company has assured Eurogamer that despite the original creator not being attached, it’s still “in good hands”.

Which is nice. More through the link.

Sony’s developer relations manager has said that self-publishers should start marketing games early on, even before the game is finished.

Speaking with GI.biz during GDC, Chris Eden admitted that the first self-published titles for PSN had little to no marketing and suffered as a result.

“One thing we’ve learnt with the first batch of self-published titles is that marketing has often been overlooked,” said Eden.

“Too many developers have got into the mentality of, ‘We’ll finish the game, and then we’ll start the marketing.’ That is way too late.

“You really need to start your marketing efforts at the minimum of two months out from release.

Using the PlayStation Blog as an example, Eden said that it has become “wildly popular,” accumulating over 1.3 million page views per week with 40,000 users subscribed to its RSS feeds.

“Consumers love being able to interact with developers,” he said.

Hit the link for more.

Microsoft has said it’s unconcerned with Sony’s PS2 price cut, announced today, telling GI.biz it was an expected move for the end of a console’s life-cycle.

Xbox Europe boss Chris Lewis said that the future lies in current hardware, and that Xbox 360 will continue to dominate retail.

“This move from Sony at the end of the PS2’s life cycle is not unexpected,” he said.

“We believe, however, that the future lies in the growth of current generation consoles and Xbox 360, as the fastest growing games console last year, with sales up over 80 percent, will continue to drive the market.

“Xbox 360 has clearly demonstrated that the combination of the right price, blockbuster games as well as the market-leading broad connected entertainment content available through Xbox Live will continue to resonate with the ever growing needs of today’s consumers”.

PS2 is the best-selling console in history, having sold over 140 million units as of July 2008.

It was release in 1999 in Japan.

Starting on April 6, Nintendo will be launching a weekly stream of DSiWare for its updated handheld, which is set to arrive on April 5 in the US and April 3 in Europe.

The firm will also be changing the name of the “Wii-kly Update” to “Nintendo Download”.

Fair enough.

According to the press release:

With the April 5 launch of the new Nintendo DSi portable game system comes the opening of the Nintendo DSi Shop. Like the Wii Shop Channel, the Nintendo DSi Shop will offer a growing library of downloadable games, with new titles added every week. Accordingly, we’ll be using this space to tell you not only about new games for Wii but also for Nintendo DSi. Watch for the first edition of Nintendo Download on April 6.

Also mentioned in the final “Wii-kly Update” is the impending release of WiiWare game Bonsai Barber – where you use foliage fashion to please villagers hungry for personal grooming – and Super Punch-Out! on Virtual Console.

Full information through the break.

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Rare just released screens of its upcoming Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts DLC, L.O.G.’s Lost Challenges. Get them after the break.

There’s a movie of it on Live Marketplace now as well.

It’s out on April 7. Get details here.

More »

Microsoft just confirmed an April 7 release for L.O.G.’s Lost Challenges DLC pack for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

The pack will feature an extra 250 achievement points, 12 new challenges and 7 new multiplayer games.

Yours for 400 MS Points.

Press release after the break.

More »

Pepsi drinkers may find Rock Band symbols under their bottle caps in June.

According to an anonymous tipster of Kotaku’s, the cola giant will run the promotion based on the game for 15 weeks this summer, giving away 10,000 Rock Band tracks per day, 1 million in total.

All you have to do is twist the top off and see if it has one of four Rock Band instrument icons inside.

This contest is in partnership with MTV, who, along with Pepsi, will give away a “Moonmen” award to the person who creates the best Rock Band video. This will also net you a TV appearance.