Monthly Archives: March 2009

Darkworks has been relieved of duty on I am Alive, according to this GI story, with the game being moved to Ubi Shanghai.

“In order to respect the new launch date for this ambitious title, and Darkworks having other obligations, we have mutually decided to complete development of I Am Alive at Ubisoft Shanghai, as the two studios have collaborated on aspects of the title over the past year,” said Ubisoft in a statement.

“The team at Darkworks has respected its contractual obligations on the project and will be a part of the success of the game when it launches.”

Whoops. More through there.

Following rumour yesterday of European PS3 bundles to celebrate the console’s second birthday, Sony’s told us any such activity won’t be reaching Britain.

“We aren’t doing any anniversary bundles for the UK, but I can’t speak for the other territories,” said a Sony UK rep.

PS3 is two years old in Europe on March 23.

The original chatter said GT and GTA IV bundles would be released on the same date for €400.

Thanks, Johnny Cullen.

Someone over at GAF‘s posted what looks to be an exposed map from the Bioshock 2 teaser site, showing a string of dates on the Atlantic coast and a big cross where Rapture should be.

A picture of a missing girl was shown alongside an image of a Big Daddy on the site last night, together with a cross and a date on the west Irish coast.

We’re trying to get hold of 2K now. Quite a lot of Bioshock 2 chatter doing the rounds this morning.

Gamestop’s share price dropped 13 percent yesterday following Amazon’s announcement that it’s to enter the used game space, Joystiq reports.

Amazon said it is to start offering vouchers in return for secondhand games, a ploy Gamestop slapped last night as unworkable.

UBS analyst Ben Schachter concurred, saying the market was overreacting.

“Online game sales currently comprise less than 2% of GME’s total business (via the gamestop.com website) and we estimate well-less than 10% of industry game sales,” he wrote in a research note reported by Variety.

“We believe the ‘instant gratification’ of the trade-in process at physical stores remains a key advantage for GME, and we note that GME once offered online/mail-in trade-ins but stopped after issues w/product quality/shipping expenses. The bottom line is that [Amazon] is a formidable competitor, but we don’t see any meaningful near-term risk, and online used just isn’t a particularly big market.”

Plenty more through the links.

Get it from the PS Blog. It’s pretty much the same as the Euro version, as far as we can see. But we didn’t look that hard, if we’re being honest.

Knock yourself out.

Just imagine it’s yesterday, or something. Here’s what the European PSN got this week, courtesy of GoOnl!ne.

Main Content:

• Watchmen: The End is Nigh (Game) [£12.99]
• Watchmen: The End is Nigh (Demo) [Free]
• Wanted: Weapons of Fate (Demo) [Free]
• WWE Wrestlemain: Legends of Wrestling (Demo) [Free]
• No Gravity: The Plague of Mind (PSP Game) [£8.99]
• Prince of Persia: Epilogue (DLC) [£7.99]
• Burnout Paradise Toy Cars (In packs or available on their own) (DLC) [From £1.59 seperately to £7.99]
• Street Fighter IV Femme Fatale Pack (DLC) [£3.19]
• Lumines Supernova Classics Pack (DLC) [£3.19]
• Skate 2 Throwback Pack (DLC) [Free]
• Bruce Pack & Carmen Pack for High Velocity Bowling (DLC) [£0.79 each]
• Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm – Storm Pack II (DLC) [Free]
• Metal Gear Online – Scene Trailer (Video) [Free]
• F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin – Launch Trailer (Video) [Free]
• Crash Commando – Airbourne Assult Wallpaper (Wallpaper) [Free]
• Crash Commando – Maps Theme (Theme) [Free]
• LocoRoco 2 – Color Theme (Theme) [Free]

Rock Band:

• No Doubt – New (Song) [£0.99]
• Stevie Ray Vaughan – Texas Flood [Songs from £0.99, album costs £7.49]
  *Dirty Pond
  *I’m Cryin
  *Lenny
  *Love Struck Baby
  *Mary Had a Little Lamb
  *Pride and Joy
  *Rude Mood
  *Tell Me
  *Testify
  *Texas Flood

(* = bought with the album or seperately)

Guitar Hero:

• European Track Pack 3 (Song Pack) [Songs cost £1.59, pack costs £4.59]
  *Vanilla Sky – Break it Out
  *Rita – C’est Camme
  *Rasmus – In The Shadows

(*=bought with the pack or seperately)

BioWare’s released a few new Dragon Age: Origins screens to celebrate the fact a prequel novel, Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne, has been released in the US.

Get them from Shacknews.

The screens depict scenes from the novel that also occur in the RPG, apparently.

The game’s out for PC and consoles at the end of this year.

EA’s trademarked “Visceral Games,” as you can see here.

No one knows what this means as yet, if anything, but we’ll have a go at EA UK today and see what turns up.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope producer Yoshinori Yamagishi has told CVG that games as storytelling media are still far from their full potential.

“As opposed to films, books and TV, as a medium it is more of a challenge to produce a game in order to tell a story,” he said.

“In TV, film and theatre, the creator has control over how he gives the story to the viewer – it’s easier to control the emotions and feelings expected from the viewer.

“But in [a game developer's] case we always have to think about how players might react to each depiction of a character or storyline, and that’s the part we can’t predict. Nevertheless we have to make these predictions to a certain degree, and incorporate this into our work. So it’s more of a challenge.

“But if we manage to get over this hurdle, then I regard videogames as a greater medium to provide people with deep emotional and exciting experiences.”

There’s a full interview here.

After the break. It talks about a new playable character in the second piece of Underworld DLC and shows plenty of in-game stuff.

The doppelganger has the ability to speed up and slow time, as well as amplify the power of any weapon she’s carrying, according to Joystiq.

We tried to sort this video out about four times yesterday, but it kept making our computers throw up. Which is why it’s late.

More »

Dundee fledgling Ruffian has posted up a first piece of concept art on its site, and it’s… a red monster thing.

As Kotaku points out, this doesn’t exactly scream “Crackdown”. The developer is understood to be working on a revamp of the Realtime Worlds crime game for release in the coming year.

Maybe one of the artists was having a red monster day, or something. We’ll all know soon enough.

PS3 outsold all other hardware formats in Japan last week, thanks to rocket sales of Yakuza 3.

Sony will probably be “chuffed”.

Last week’s data here.

• PS3 – 36,513
• DSi – 35,827
• PSP – 35,588
• Wii – 17,876
• Xbox 360 – 11,795
• DS Lite – 11,774
• PS2 – 5,099

GameStop doesn’t think Amazon’s foray into the used videogame market will succeed.

CEO Dan DeMatteo told Edge today that the gift card scheme was something his firm unsuccessfully tried in the past.

“I give the probability of this working at zero,” he said. “Electronics Boutique also tried it and failed. There’s no consumer acceptance. With consumers, there is an immediacy for currency when they want to buy a new game.

“It didn’t work for us, and I can’t see it working for them”

Trade-in requirements from Amazon state that customers have to wait for the gift card to be processed and shipped, instead of getting an immediate recoup from the trade.

More through the link.

Treyarch is celebrating last week’s release of Call of Duty: World at War’s Makin Map Pack DLC in grand style.

Starting today and ending on March 12, all WaW players get double XP across all platforms.

So log on and shoot some stuff.

NCsoft has put out a new trailer for Aion: Tower of Eternity, showing off the lush zone of Poeta.

It’s home to peaceful farmers and villagers who cut timber in accordance with an ancient agreement with the tree people, apparently.

Too bad their existence does not stay peaceful for long. Well, it isn’t really. There’d be nothing to do in the game otherwise.

Watch it below.

More »

GameTap has announced that Pinocchio, the new American McGee’s Grimm episode, is now available and free to play for the first 24 hours.

Eidos and Rebellion’s Rogue Trooper also free to play until March 12.

Free is good.

Hit the link for more details.

Best Buy has postponed the launch of its first UK store until Q1 2010.

The delay has nothing to do with the current economic crisis, apparently.

“If it makes more commercial sense to open three or four months later, that is what we will do,” said Brad Taylor of KeyBanc Capital Markets.

The electronics giant originally planned to open the retail store as a joint joint venture with Carphone Warehouse this summer.

Sumner Redstone and his daughter Shari have been subpoenaed by the US Bankruptcy Court of Massachusetts over the sale of Midway shares to Mark Thomas.

Thomas purchased the Redstones’ share in Midway for $100,000, inheriting a $70 million debt with it.

His reasoning for accepting those terms was due to $30 million of the debt being secured, meaning he was to be paid before bondholders — who were owed $150 million by Midway.

The subpoena document states: “The cash collateral order places a clear emphasis on insiders getting paid before and, potentially, at the expense of the estates and their creditors.”

Both Sumner and Shari Restone are due to appear in court this month for deposition and to provide documents pertaining to the sale.

Mark Thomas hasn’t been called.

Court documents posted through the link.

A multiplayer demo for Atari’s Codename Panzers: Cold War is now available via the game’s official website.

It supports online and LAN play and showcases Domination mode.

You’ll get to try the Islands of Hope map, in which players are tasked with seizing control of a nuclear weapon.

The demo has access to all units available in the multiplayer game.

The full game ships March 10 and 13 in the US and UK respectively.

A new video for Tales of Valor, the upcoming Company of Heroes expansion, has been released, showing control of an SS Tank at the Battle of Billers-Bocage.

You’ll have direct control of the turret and your gunners and tank driver will increase in level over the course of battle.

Watch it after the jump.

The stand-alone expansion is expected sometime in April.

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