Monthly Archives: March 2009

Resident Evil 5′s taken a third week at the top of the UK charts, beating Wii Fit and SFIV into the second and thid places repectively.

Get the full top 40 here. Last week’s chart here. Data below for week ending March 28.

1. Resident Evil 5 (Capcom)
2. Wii Fit (Nintendo)
3. Street Fighter IV (Capcom)
4. Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Nintendo)
5. Legends of Wrestlemania (THQ)
6. FIFA 09 (EA)
7. CoD: World at War (Activision Blizzard)
8. GTA: Chinatown Wars (Rockstar)
9. CoD4: Modern Warfare (Activision Blizzard)
10. HAWX (Ubisoft)

Cliff Bleszinski’s told Epic fans to keep eyes open for a new game reveal from Chair, the firm’s wholly-owned developer in Utah.

“Our partners at Chair in Utah are working on a product that we’re going to be announcing at some point in the near future which is very, very cool,” the developer said in the latest Major Nelson podcast.

“We have our partners at People Can Fly in Poland working on some great stuff. We’re working on things internally – I feel that I’ve got five balls up in the air that I’m juggling right now,” he added.

“It’s an incredibly exciting time. Keep your ears peeled in the next year. There’s going to be a lot of great announcements.”

Epic bought Chair in May last year.

Bleszinski was talking at GDC last week.

SCEA’s director of hardware marketing, John Koller, has told VG247 that Gran Turismo 5′s release timing across “all platforms” is still a matter of seeing “what makes the most sense.”

Koller was responding to questions about the game’s PS3 release date, speaking at GDC last week.

“Ultimately, they are a developer who makes a lot of their own decisions,” Koller said of Polyphony Digital.

“But we are looking at GT5 across all platforms, just to see what makes the most sense.”

Koller fobbed off specifics on launch dates for further games in the series.

“Well GT5: Prologue’s out,” he joked.

“Seriously though, there is really nothing we can really say about it, other than it’s a franchise we would like to continue.

“So, other than that, we don’t really have any announcements regarding the game at this time.”

Last December, SCEE’s John Armstrong told a Spanish television program that we could expect Gran Turismo 5 by Christmas 2009.

Announcements related to both a PSP and PS3 version of GT5 are expected at E3.

EA just confirmed that Dante’s Inferno will release in 2010.

The news came as part of a press release announcing an animated feature film for the game, to be created by Starz Media, the company behind all the Dead Space cartoons.

“The feature-length project will expand on the story in EA’s new, must-have game coming out for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system and PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system in 2010,” said the announcement.

This is the first time EA’s put a date on the title. The announcement press release says nothing about time-scale.

Home boss Jack Buser, speaking at GDC to GI, has claimed that all large publishers are now actively looking at the service.

“Every major publisher is interested in Home,” he said. “Here you can speak directly to the PlayStation audience on the platform that your product is on.

“You have publishers and brands coming into Home looking to engage with an audience, but they also have the opportunity to generate revenue. It’s a model that makes sense for everybody. It’s kind of a perfect storm.”

Home has been used by more than 4 million PlayStation 3 owners so far.

There’s a full interview with the Home team here.

Famitsu’s posted up decent screens of FFXIII’s battle system, presumably in preparation for the release of the game’s demo next month.

We’re not really sure why you wouldn’t want this. Because it looks amazing. See for yourself.

No firm release date yet.

UK developer Just Add Water has confirmed via Twitter that it’s to announced “Project V,” a first-party SCEE title, at E3.

Nothing’s known of the game – genre, whatever – at this time. The company’s site does say it’s a PSN title, thouh.

We’ll have some more on this for you very soon.

Thanks, Superannuation.

DLC’s already in the works for The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, IGN’s reporting.

The pack’s to include five new multiplayer maps, to add to the 15 included in the upcoming title’s retail release.

The action game’s out on April 24.

Joystiq’s rumouring that PS2′s going to drop from $120 to $100 in April.

There’s some sketchy photos of a Kmart retail sheet through there.

If true, this is almost certainly the March 31 announcement Sony’s apparently planning for tomorrow, and far, far more likely than any rumoured PS3 price drop.

We’ll know for definite tomorrow.

Weather effects will influence gameplay in Alan Wake, according to Remedy’s Oskari Häkkinen, speaking with Norwegian site Gamer.no.

“Everything in the game can be influenced by the weather,” he said.

“If you are running the car conditions will be worse by heavy rain, than if the weather was good

“The weather is dynamic, since it will influence how you play the game. Lighting is very important… and this is a unique item that really has not been used in the game before on the way we do it.”

More on Alan Wake is expected at E3.

Via IGN and Joystiq.

Turbine is offering free play of The Lord of the Rings Online, running till March 31, for those maybe looking for a reason to come back.

Not a bad idea: the Spring Festival is currently going on, and you’ll get a 25 percent XP boost during this time.

More information can be found on the official website.

BioWare has released an audio timeline detailing events before the peace between the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire in The Old Republic.

The history lesson is told by Master Gnost-Dural, Keeper of the Jedi Archives, played by none other than actor Lance Henriksen.

Very cool.

Not sure how many more of these to expect, but this is called Timeline 1: The Treaty of Coruscant. There are other points of interest on the video as well. Eighteen as a matter of fact.

Watch it here.

Thanks, Massively.

According to a post over on the Killzone 2 community site, the game will be patched to 1.21 this coming week.

The option to create unranked games will also be added due to bots being abused during ranked play — should stop people from getting banned after this.

Here’s a list:

• Increase of the standard points settings for Bodycount. Should ensure longer mode on heavily populated games.
• The option to create unranked games. Players will be made aware that a game is unranked upon joining.
• Fix to list of games displayed on search.

Guerilla  is also investigating other issues for future patches.

• Controls. Seeing about giving more options.
• More game options for clans
• Improvements to help play with friends

Downloadable content is also currently in the works but no details were mentioned.

Full patch notes and the list of possible updates are listed after the break.

Thanks, D’toid.
More »

A video for the alpha build of Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising has surfaced.

The movie’s in German, but has been translated into English.

Expect the game to arrive sometime this summer. In the meantime, watch below.

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Wii is not HD. We know that. For a lot of people, it’s a disappointment.

Someone’s found a way of using an PC emulator play Wii games at 720p.

The video below is of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but if you check this Ripten story, you can watch ones for Mario Kart, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.

More »

The Final Fantasy Advent Children: Complete Blu-ray discs have arrived in Japanese retail stores and you can see one retailer holding the box in is hand here.

A demo of Final Fantasy XIII is included in the pack, so watch for movies very soon.

Still no word on when to expect the game to hit the western market.

More through the link.

Update 2: It looks as though this isn’t the movie’s packaging, rather a placement case for pre-order. Thanks, gehasoku.

During GDC we were given a sneak peek at Dragon Age: Origins via a demo with BioWare.

The scene shown to us was of the Village of Redcliff, where the villagers are being plagued at night by a horrible mist that brings the dead with it.

Your group of warriors must decide whether to help the villagers out or not. This is where things can get a bit tricky for you, because an approval system has been set in place. Every decision your character makes, affects the way your group of hardened warriors react to you.

For instance: When the leader of the village asks you to help them deal with the dead invading the town night after night because the local royalty is holed up in the castle –and subsequently no help at all– you will be presented with a choice of dialogue. What you choose to do may directly be in opposition to what your party members feel should be done.

Should you choose to help, one or two members may disagree with you and thus you choosing to help can lower your approval rating with them. Each of the characters will react race or class appropriately to your decisions. You can persuade them though, and like most attributes, your persuasion ability can be leveled up. This helps your character learn to make realistic decisions for the success of your game.

Another interesting tidbit we where shown, was a tree system relating to different battle tactics for each character in your party. In this tree, you can predicate how each character reacts to enemies and custom build the responses just like you would an RTS.

For example: The Mage in your party can be “programmed” to fire off spells at ranged opponents while you and the warrior in your group tank. Same for the archer, and any other party member.

To see how all of your customizations are working out for you, you can switch from a third-person view to a tactical one (looking down on the action) and the screen looks just like your typical RTS. You can give orders in this mode using the real-time cover system explained above.

Described as the spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate, BioWare says that Dragon Age will be a much larger game than Mass Effect and with so many different options, the possibilities for length are vast.

Expect Dragon Age: Origins to land in stores for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 “late fall”.

According to this BigDownload article, Marvel’s “grown up” Gazillion MMO won’t release until 2012.

Apparently the date’s been picked as there’s a bunch of Marvel movie content turning up in the same year.

Given that’s the projected date, and MMOs are the least stable of all development projects, waiting for this is likely to be something akin to “pissing in the wind”.

You haven’t got anything better to do, though. Right?

Several US sites have had mails from Sony telling them to watch for a PlayStation-related announcement on March 31.

No one appears to have the remotest idea what it is. We’d be lying if we said we did.

Do you?

Yesterday’s updates today: if you live in the US and own a PS3, you can now get End of Days in HD, or SD if you haven’t got a high def telly.

There’s also Twlight, Ghandi and Kiss The Girls. What could be more awesome?

Full list over at teh blog.