Monthly Archives: March 2009

NextGamer’s posted some scans up from German mag PC Action, showing the latest Just Cause 2 media.

There’s a fair bit of stuff there, including new screens and art. You’ll need your Deutsche skillz to get the details, though.

The open world actioner’s out for PC, PS3 and 360 this autumn.

According to this Kotaku story, PSP’s Secret Agent Clank’s been confirmed for PS2.

The port’s being handled by Sanzaru Games, and it’ll release on May 26. It’s going to be the same deal, apparently, but there’ll be some additional camera options.

Someone’s posted the entire Game Informer cover article on BioShock 2 as high quality scans.

It’s a bit sticky to load, but it’s all there. Obviously, for the slow people in the audience, there are spoilers through that link.

Update – It’s true.

According to this image, purportedly taken from the latest Famitsu, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is on the way to PS3.

If true, this is almost certainly the Tecmo game set to be announced in San Francisco next week.

There’s bound to be more on this throughout the day, so keep your peepers peeled, ninja fans.

American Club Nintendo members are being invited to pre-launch DSi events, GoNintendo reports.

It looks as though you need to be a Platinum member to be in with a chance of getting invited.

The events are taking place in New York, Florida and elsewhere.

There’s no word on anything similar happening outside the US.

DSi launches in America on April 5.

As you can see on this GameStop page, THQ’s to release a demo of Red Faction: Guerrilla on April 3 to those that pre-order the game.

The access code and instructions for getting hold of the teaser will be begin to be emailed on March 31.

The game itself ships in June for PC and consoles, and has been raising eyebrows among those who’ve seen it recently, what with its impressive destructible environments and all the other Mars-based, gun-toting banana.

Thanks, Worthplaying.

Marvel and start-up developer Gazillion have signed a ten-year deal to deliver MMOs based on Marvel characters.

The first, a kid-aimed game called Super Hero Squad, will debut in 2010 as a tie-in with a Cartoon Network show.

Beyond that, Gazillion will continue with its own version of a giant Marvel game, dubbed Marvel Universe, for both the PC and consoles.

Gazillion has been operating under the guise of NR2B Research up to this point, and employs 300 staff in the US.

The company is the owner of NetDevil, currently working on Lego Universe.

Get much more on VentureBeat.

Ex-Splatterhouse developer BottleRocket has hit back at Namco claims that there was a “performance issue” regarding the creation of the horror title, saying that it never missed a milestone and that Namco’s handling of the project must therefore have been “inept”.

BottleRocket said in a statement, published by Gamasutra:

We too have to be careful of what we say since publishers have to worry about their ‘image’ and will sue small, independent studios who bark back at them too loudly.

Game development contracts are put in place to protect the publisher and their interests. Within these contracts are a series of defined game development objectives and goals called milestones. If a developer is under performing they tend to fail these milestones and have varying degrees of accountability placed upon them.

“Splatterhouse had been in development for over eighteen months and up to having the title taken away from us we had not missed any contractually defined milestones. So either there were no performance issues during that timeframe or Namco’s management of the title was inept.

Namco unceremoniously yanked Splatterhouse from BottleRocket earlier this year, giving the game to the in-house Afro Samurai team.

Publishers will now be able to deliver in-game DLC via Steam, Valve’s announced.

The first game to take advantage of this new capability is The Maw, by Twisted Pixel Games.

The extra content’s levels titled The Maw: Brute Force and The Maw: River Redirect which fit between the original levels as “deleted scenes.”

Any game can use the feature, whether it was originally intended for distribution via Steam or not.

More through there.

Destructoid turned three yesterday, and gushed itself all over the internet in the process.

There’s one birthday story I like to tell about the Internet and gaming in particular — one of this art school drop-out who wanted to go to a video game event so badly that he blogged his little heart out until he made it. But that wasn’t enough. Soon others with the same dream joined the blog and now it rests on him to build that company up — to share and realize that dream for his friends, too. It dies in an instant without the support of our readership, so today I’m mostly thinking about you — the Destructoid reader, lurker or community regular. It’s your day, too.

How exactly do you say thanks to over a million people that have helped you realize your childhood dream?

There are no words.

A lot more words through the link. Happy birthday, chaps.

Shacknews has got its hands on what may or may not be some screens from Wolfenstein multiplayer levels.

There’s a ton of stuff through there, all watermarked. They look a bit… early.

Activision’s having none of it: “The screens in question were not distributed by Activision or approved by Activision, and thus Activision cannot confirm their authenticity.”

It’s out this year, real or not.

Grasshopper legend Suda51′s started a blog over at Edge, and has promised to update it every weekday.

The first post’s about action figures and The Smiths.

Don’t expect it to get any plainer, and don’t miss it tomorrow.

RSS wouldn’t go amiss, Mr Edge.

Someone appears to have got out of bed the wrong side this morning.

Capcom US biz dev boss Christian Svensson has written on the company’s forums that complaining about charges for Resident Evil 5′s Versus DLC is “bullshit”.

“This is the part where I get to say ‘BS’,” he said.

“RE5 is well worth every penny of $60. A huge game, with tons of replay value, loads of unlockables, new weapons, co-op, mercenaries mode, etc. If any game warrants its price point, it’s RE5.

“Prior to the announcement of the Versus mode, no one complained they weren’t getting their money’s worth with the initial release because it packs TONS of value because it is an amazing game. So if people were already satisfied with what the package had, when we offer MORE, why is it people feel they’ve been somehow cheated?”

Further, Svensson told fans to simply not buy the content if they felt hard done by.

“If you don’t find value in our secondary offerings, the choice is simple, don’t purchase it,” he added.

“If you do find it valuable (and we hope you do) please do buy it and enjoy it.”

The patch, costing $4.99 on PSN, or 400 MS Points, adds two Versus modes, namely Slayer and Survivor.

It’s releasing in the West in a “few weeks”.

Thanks, Kotaku.

DLC’s on the way for PS3 TRPG Valyria Chronicles, Sega said today, with three packs releasing this “spring”.

The bits include Hard EX Mode, Edy’s Mission “Enter the Edy Detachment”, and Selvaria’s Mission “Behind Her Blue Flame”.

Get full details after the break.

More »

The GTA: Chinatown Wars review embargo just went up, and the overall verdict’s an unequivocal “yes”.

Here’s everything so far. If you want a link, tell us in the comments.

• CVG – 9.2
• 1UP – A-
• GamePro – 5/5
• IGN – 9.2
• Eurogamer – 10
• MTV – No score
• Game Informer – 9.25
• GamesRadar – 10

Hopefully this’ll be the last word on the subject. The New York Times is the latest in a string of publications to say that Resident Evil 5 isn’t racist. Please let this be the end of it.

Let’s get this out of the way: Resident Evil 5 is not a racist game.

For at least a year some black journalists have been wringing their hands about whether the game, the latest in the seminal survival-horror series, inflames racist stereotypes because it is set in Africa. The answer is no…

So Resident Evil 5 exposes the perhaps uncomfortable truth that blacks and Arabs can become zombies too, just like anyone else. Blacks and Arabs do not have a secret anti-zombie gene. And just like all the thousands of white, Asian and Hispanic zombies that have been dispatched in innumerable other games before them, the African zombies must also be destroyed, or at least neutralized.

That it? Really? Get a lot more words through the link.

After the break. It’s very cool. The short video shows a gameplay cut of an Ali-Tyson fight showing how height, reach, stance changes and more.

Looks shiny. No date as yet. PS3 and 360.

More »

EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich has predicted that GTA IV DLC The Lost and Damned will bring in some $40 million in revenue.

Currently, Divnich guessed, the content is selling at a 6:1 ratio of download to retail, a gap the analyst expects “to grow even larger as digitally distributed games don’t have to succumb to retail pressures and loss of shelf space/visibility.

“Long-term, we expect Lost and Damned to produce up to $40 million in total worldwide revenue. We expect the original title, Grand Theft Auto IV to produce over $800 million in worldwide revenue throughout its lifetime.”

More on GameDaily.

Update: There are no platforms listed in the press release below, but Sega Europe just told us that “October ’09 relates to all formats.” That’s PS3, 360 and PC, kids.

Sega just confirmed Obsidian RPG Alpha Protocol for an October 2009 release.

The spy-based game will “allow players the choice to be smooth like James Bond, cold and precise like Jason Bourne, or just plain explosively kick-ass like Jack Bauer.”

Fancy. A first trailer was released on GTTV over the weekend, and very splendid it looked too.

You may notice one glaring omission from the press release below. Can you guess what it is?

More »

Natsume’s joined the ESA, the publisher’s confirmed.

“Natsume is a respected video game publisher and a welcome addition to the ESA,” said ESA boss Michael Gallagher.

“We are pleased to represent them and look forward to working with Natsume’s talented leadership and employees as they lead the way in developing creative new gaming experiences for families.”

Natsume does Harvest Moon. Which is awesome.

Story of the year.