Monthly Archives: March 2009

SCEJ’s trademarked “PSCloud,” as you can see here.

God knows why. Some Sony paranoia expert probably got their knickers in a twist what with the word “cloud” being injected into every other sentence on the internet last week. Blame OnLive.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Nazis are brilliant. Yes, we’re aware there’s a pretty solid case for them not being that brilliant, but you know what we mean. These Gamespot screens of mad glowy Nazis are therefore doubly great, especially given the game itself is shaping up so well.

Get out impressions here.

Gaming from too early an age can lead to “deformed fingers from countless hours pressing and twisting,” according to an NBC news report you’ll find in video form after the break.

Seriously, look at that girl’s hands. That’s from panning too much Doom on her N64, from the look of it. Goddamn you, N64.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

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Blizzard’s flattened a GI report from GDC, which claimed that Rob Pardo said the firm’s in talk with Microsoft regarding the next Xbox. He didn’t say anything of the sort, apparently.

“In the Lunch with Luminaries discussion, Rob said that Microsoft occasionally bounces ideas off of us, with no specific reference to any possible future consoles,” a rep told Gamespot.

“This should come as no surprise, as our games run on Microsoft’s PC operating system. We aren’t in discussions with Microsoft regarding any future consoles.”

Whoops. The original story said, “Blizzard’s Rob Pardo has confirmed that his company has had talks with Microsoft about the successor to the Xbox 360.”

No Xbox 720 for you, Mr WoW fan. Thanks, Shatner.

Microsoft take as much as 60 percent of revenue from Xbox Live Community Game sales, according to XNA developer, Mommy’s Best Games.

Company boss Nathan Fouts said sales data his XNA title Weapon of Choice was “sobering”, with less than 10,000 units moved.

In his blog post, Fouts explained that Microsoft takes a baseline cut of 30 percent and remittance rate, plus an additional 10-30 percent for advertising.

More harshness on GI. Thanks, Shatner.

SCEA said today, again, for the 20 billionth time, that there are no immediate plans to drop PS3′s price.

“As we have stated previously, we do not have plans for a PS3 price drop, and any rumors to that effect are false and are the result of speculation,” said SCEA’s Al De Leon.

“SCEA remains focused on the long-term momentum of PS3. With the industry’s best software lineup this year, combined with our most aggressive marketing campaign to date, we remain confident in our approach and the value we’re delivering with PS3.”

This latest round of rumours popped up because there’s apparently going to be a Sony announcement tomorrow.

Just get over it. It’s not happening yet.

Thanks, Joystiq.

DICE creative director Lars Gustavsson has told Eurogamer that EA’s push towards new IP with the likes of Dead Space is the right way to go.

“I think that the EA you see today – and I hear that from basically everyone on the outside – is a different EA, and yes, change doesn’t come overnight, but I think we’re starting to see the fruit of this process,” he said.

“[Look at] Dead Space and everything. It’s definitely the right direction and I’m happy to see that people recognise it.”

Gustavsson said that EA’s creative pool was a huge boon to being part of the publisher.

“I get to sit down and discuss all of these things with, you know, 20 other creative directors from different studios, and that’s an enormous possibility for us as a small studio, since it’s hard to find a design class to be honest,” he added.

DICE is currently fronting three Battlefield games: Bad Company 2, 1943 and Heroes.

IGN’s posted up some new Just Cause screens, showing lots of exploding in the Eidos sequel.

There’s a ton of words here on the open-worlder’s mission structure as well, should you need them.

The game’s out this “autumn” for PC, PS3 and 360.

What’s great? Wolfenstein is. We were shown the Raven shooter at GDC and, without a doubt, it was one of the coolest games we saw during the entire conference.

Want to know why? Get full details on weapons, plot, mechanics and dominatrix Nazi women through the link.

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Peter Molyneux told MTV at GDC that Fable 1′s death mechanic was rubbish.

“We started with saying that ‘The way death worked in “Fable I” was just so tedious,’” said the Lionhead boss, talking of the process of constructing Fable II’s dying set-up.

“There are certain games that, as a game player — not as a designer but purely as a game player — I found very, very frustrating, which ended up as barriers for me going any further in the game. ‘Grand Theft Auto‘ was one of those games. I just found it super-frustrating to have to restart the game.”

Read 50 million more words on the subject through the link.

Blizzard designer Jeffrey Kaplan claimed at GDC last week that WoW players embark on a total of 16 million quests per day.

Further, from July 2007 to March 2009, 8,570,222,426 quests were undertaken in the game.

Over 2,600 quests were included in the original game, with the Burning Crusade doubling the figure to 5,300. Wrath of the Lich King put it up to 7,650.

What’s wrong with you all? Thanks, Kotaku.

Yes, we know this should have gone up yesterday. We were so busy with GDC last week that we almost forgot to do it, but how could we live with ourselves if you didn’t get your weekly MMO news update?

We couldn’t. Loads going on with all of your favorites last week, so hit the link.

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Remember the first-party PSN title Just Add Water is going to announce at E3? Project V?

Some kindly soul just pointed us to this, the company’s Christmas card from last year.

It features a flying ship, a coloured vapour trail and a 2D landscape.

A hint?

Marvel MMO creator Gazillion is really, really busy. It’s got up to seven games in the works, in fact.

“We actually have six or seven titles that are in production right now,” marketing boss Paul Baldwin told Joystiq at GDC.

Gazillion, founded in 2005, was announced as being the developer of Marvel MMOs for the next ten years earlier this month.

The first “adult” game to emerge from the partnership won’t hit till 2012. A children’s title, based on cartoon Superhero Squad will hit in 2010.

Codemasters has signed Subaru rally driver Ken Block to be a “key motorsport athlete” for Colin McRae: DiRT 2.

“Colin McRae is one of the main reasons that I am a rally driver,” said Block.

“He is a big inspiration to me and the way I drive my rally car.”

There’s a video of Block talking about his relationship with McRae and his involvement in the game on GamersHell.

The game’s out for all platforms in September.

Conservative MP Edward Vaizey has introduced an early day motion to recognize BAFTA nominees and winners, including LittleBigPlanet, Fable II and Race Driver: GRID, as you can see on the House of Commons site.

What is says:

[Moved:] That this House notes the importance of the video games sector to the UK economy; congratulates the winners and nominees at this year’s Bafta Video Games Awards; notes in particular the success of UK developed games, including Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet, Codemasters’ and Lionhead Studios’ Fable II, all of which won awards…

More on GamePolitics.

The Behemoth’s Alien Hominid has been halved in price on XBLA, according to EG.

You can now pick it up for 400 MS Points, which is great value. Because it’s a great game.

A 25 year-old man the Telegraph is describing as “fit and well” has died during a Wii Fit “jogging” session.

“We spoke to him on the phone when he was playing on the Wii machine. He told us he had just ordered himself a kebab and was sitting there with a glass of port,” said Tim Eves’ mother.

“But a little while after he had put the phone down, he collapsed for no reason. It was completely out of the blue.

“They still can’t come up with an answer why it happened, which is one of the reasons it is so hard to come to terms with – there was no reason for it.

“It is just unbelievable.”

Us? Nothing. Full thing through the link.

The first and second Max Payne games have been rated for Xbox 360 by the ERSB, as you can see here and here.

This would probably suggest they’re going to get XBLA releases. Maybe. Given the fact the third title’s now been announced for a winter release, this isn’t the stupidest idea in the world.

We’ll drop Rockstar a line. Thanks, Joystiq and Blerk.

A study’s claimed that far from being harmful to eyesight, action games provide good training for what eye doctors call “contrast sensitivity”.

Contrast sensitivity is the ability to notice tiny changes in shades of grey against a uniform background, according to this New.com.au piece.

”This is not a skill that people were supposed to get better at by training,” said Daphne Bavelier, a professor at the University of Rochester in New York state and the study’s lead researcher.

”It was something that we corrected for at the level of the optics of the eye – to get better contrast detection you get glasses or laser surgery.”

More through there.