Monthly Archives: March 2009

Screens of an abandoned Red Steel 2 version have popped up here.

Ubisoft Montreuil worked on the game in 2007: the shots are from the east Paris outfit’s efforts.

Development ended in Montreuil in October of that year when Ubisoft handed it over to the central Paris division.

The action sequel’s expected to arrive sometime this year for Wii.

Steam users can play Epic’s Unreal Tournament III Black this weekend for free.

If you don’t have an account, get one here.

Black is the original game plus the Titan Pack, and on top of being free for a few days, the multiplayer shooter is on sale for $11.99 — 40 percent off — through March 15.

Go get it. Cliff needs the money.

[Update - Looks as though more stuff's been found on the site.]

2K’s put up a BioShock 2 teaser site, as seen here.

SomethingInTheSea.com doesn’t tell much of the game. It shows a cross on a map of the west Irish coast, and shows a picture of a Big Daddy doll.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Yesterday, EA announced it would be announcing a new project from the folks behind Army of Two next week — but thanks to some sleuthing on the internet it looks like it is indeed a sequel to the shooter.

A teaser banner has popped up on the AoT site , but some digging through the source code found this:

• Game Name – “Army of Two: TFD”
• Description – “Army to Two. The definitive third person co-op shooter is back.”
• Studio Name – “EAM”

All is pretty much self explainatory except for the TFD.

Thanks, Joystiq.

SCEA’s released a new trailer for inFamous, and it has a little girl doing the narrating.

Makes things seem a bit more “real”. Then again, maybe not.

Like previous trailers, it’s full of electric shock therapy for those who get in Cole’s way.

Watch it below.

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Gama reports that Will “Spore/Sims” Wright is to talk at this year’s SIGGRAPH conference in New Orleans in August.

Apparently, he’ll be rapping about how game development influences other industries.

“His selection to give a keynote presentation this year is a perfect fit as SIGGRAPH 2009 integrates gaming as an expanded focus of the conference,” conference chair Ronen Barzel said earlier today.

Will Wright will also be at this year’s GDC, spreading the awesome. Be there or be square, innit.

Hit the links for more.

The PSN version of Age of Booty now has Trophies, Capcom announced today.

A demo’s also available for the game.

For those as care, here’s a list of Trophies on offer:

• Cartographer (Bronze Trophy) – Create and save a custom map.
• Bombs Away (Bronze Trophy) – Destroy a neutral or enemy town’s defense with a bomb.
• Flushed Away (Bronze Trophy) – Use a whirlpool curse to teleport an enemy that is attacking your town.
• Cherry Picker (Bronze Trophy) – Capture a neutral town after the enemy has destroyed its defenses.
• Boom Boom (Bronze Trophy) – Sink two enemy ships with a single bomb.
• On the Account (Bronze Trophy) Beat all medium challenges.
• Sea Legs (Bronze Trophy) – Win 5 public games online.
• Freebooter (Silver Trophy) – Beat all hard challenges.
• King’s Pardon (Gold Trophy) – Beat every challenge in the game.
• Old Salt (Gold Trophy) – Win 50 public games online.

Thanks, Destructoid.

Amazon has entered the used videogame business.

From now until March 19, customers will receive 10 percent off a “future single game or accessory purchase” when they trade in a used game.

Amazon trade-in requirements:

1. Games must be undamaged with manual and original case and be postmarked no later than 7 days after submission.
2. Print a pre-paid shipping label (provided free by Amazon) and packing slip, package your games, and ship them to Amazon.
3. An Amazon.com Gift Card will be deposited into your account upon receipt of games

Cheap Ass Gamer says that used titles are purchased by a third-party called NorAm International — which buys used books, CDs and DVDs through online stores on both Amazon and Half.com.

THQ has proudly announced that according to NPD, ELSPA/GfK Chart-Track and GfK figures, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II went top of every PC chart you can think of, including those in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Australia.

“We have built ‘Dawn of War’ into a premier PC gaming franchise based on the Warhammer 40,000 universe,” said Brian Farrell, THQ president and CEO.

“We are pleased with consumers’ strong response to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II across many of our key markets and believe the game’s success clearly demonstrates our primary objective of delivering high quality games with strong global appeal. Warhammer 40,000 is a rich and growing universe and we look forward to expanding our offerings based on this brand in the future.”

It’s about time THQ has something positive to shout about, as reports earlier this month have suggested that there’s a 50-50 chance of the company going bankrupt.

EA may have considered Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge financial underachievers over the holidays, but senior VP Patrick Söderlund feels that over the course the games’ lifetime, each will be considered a success.

“I think if you analyze games like Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge for their lifetime performance, I bet you’ll find them to be seen as successful,” he said.

“They’re both new IPs; it’s hard to break new ground with new IPs, especially in that Q3 window, when you have games like Gears of War 2, Call of Duty 5, and a bunch of other really strong products with a 2, or 3, or 4, or 5 on it.

“So, I think that we could have done a better job as far as ship timing on, probably, both of those.”

As far as Dead Space is concerned, he felt that it did well during its release quarter and  he thinks it’s “an awesome game”.

He admitted that Mirror’s Edge was not “perfect,” and says that EA plans to address those issues with “future versions”.

More over on Gamasutra.

Konami has unveiled the official release date and more details on SCENE Expansion for Metal Gear Online.

The expansion will be made available for $9.99 or as a bundle with the second expansion, MEME, for $14.99.

All three expansion packs – GENE, MEME and SCENE will cost $17.99 on March 17 via Metal Gear Online and Konami shops.

Starting March 10, those who pre-order the SCENE Expansion will receive “cardboard man” head gear for free — just in case you forgot.

Loads of expansion details are posted after the jump.

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Tuesday, March 10 will henceforth be known as Sony Online Entertainment Day — at least in San Diego, CA.

On that day, SOE’s John Smedley will be presented with an official proclamation from the city council to commemorate the 10th anniversary of EverQuest.

The dedication is to thank SOE for it’s community support.

If you live there, or plan on being in the San Diego area, you can attend the proceedings. Hit the link for more information on locations, etc.

GameQuarry has published a list of the most and least consistent publishers according to review scores. Rockstar is at the top, Ubisoft at the bottom.

The research firm assigned points to each scoring bracket in the Metacritic system. Two points were awarded for games in the 90-100 bracket, 1 point for 80-89, zero for 70-79, -1 for 60-69 and -2 points for anything with a Metacritic average of 59 or below.

Rockstar received a total of 19 points from 23 titles and Ubisoft received the lowest, with -148 points from a total of 237 games.

“Using this method, publishers who may have created stellar titles, would also be penalized for each low scoring game and given no credit for average games,” wrote the report’s author.

Dave Perry wrote on his blog that this data may provide an interesting argument over the validity of using Metacritic data in the industry.

“This is based on Metacritic data, and let’s just say many of my friends are having a VERY heavy discussion (right now), on the validity of the Metacritic data. (So this is incredibly timely and will add fuel to that fire for certain!)”

The report author did note that the data does not “reflect trends towards an increase or decrease in quality trends”.

A consistent publisher may be may in fact be trending towards a decline in quality whereas a publisher on the Least Consistent List may “trend towards an increase in quality”.

More through the links.

Activision will be releasing Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits in June for all formats that run Guitar Hero: World Tour — the track list should look very familiar to you.

So far, out of 48 total, these eight tracks have been confirmed and each is from a previous version of the franchise:

• Alice in Chains – Them Bones
• Dragonforce – Through the Fire and Flames
• Heart – Barracuda
• Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – I Love Rock N Roll
• Queen – Killer Queen
• Poison – Nothing But a Good Time
• Rage Against the Machine – Killing in the Name
• Twisted Sister – I Wanna Rock

The disc will include band play on all tracks, character creation, the music studio, and online features from GHWT, and will run you $60 for PS3 and Xbox 360, $40 for Wii and $30 for PS2.

IGN has an interview with Paul Gadbois, producer on Greatest Hits, if you want to learn more.

Team17 will be showing the enhanced Worms port for PS3/PSN at the Sony booth during GDC later this month — but that’s not all.

Attendees will get an exclusive look at Alien Breed Evolution, a modern day re-make of the 1991 original.

The new game was developed using Unreal3, and will be a digital download for XBLA.

No word on when it will be released, but GDC is just around the corner, and more information will be coming out then.

After the break. The whole thing’s a game being played with a developer talking over the top, and it actually does look awesome.

Fighting and gods, RTS and action, cats and dogs living in harmony. For the win.

Gas Powered Games is developing. It’s out in April.

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Blizzard is planning on patching Diablo II again, and this time it wants to know what players want addressed.

The forums over at Blizzard are waiting for your suggestions for v1.13, and the game maker’s goal is to “get an overall sense of the single most important request from every member of the community.”

So far, the wishlist is pretty long with requests for bug fixes, getting rid of nerfing issues, supporting different resolutions, etc — so hurry on over and provide your input before it gets lost in the shuffle.

Epic just released the Titan Pack for the PC version of Unreal Tournament 3.

The PS3 version was delayed by two weeks this morning.

The DLC contains a proper bunch of new contain, such as, according to BeyondUnreal:

• 16 new maps + 3 bonus pack 1 maps
• Titan mutator
• Greed and Betrayal gametypes
• Stinger Turret, Eradicator Cannon Artillery and the Stealthbender vehicle
• X-Ray Field and Link Station Deployables
• Slow-Field power-up (pickup version of the deployable of the same name)
• Two new characters: Nova (Liandri) and Kana (Ronin)
• 57 Steam Achievements
• Major enhancements, incuding AI, network performance, menu and UI, better mod support
• Client-side demo recording, updated server browser, new maplist system, mid-game mutator and gametype voting functionality

Tons more info here. Thanks, EvilAvatar.

Apple Corps, MTV Games and Harmonix have announced details for their Beatles-based game.

It’s now officially called The Beatles: Rock Band, and will release simultaneously on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii on September 9 this year.

It’s the first time that music from The Beatles will be in a videogame.

“In addition, The Beatles: Rock Band will offer a limited number of new hardware offerings modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr throughout their career,” said a just released PR.

Software will sell for the standard $60, standalone guitars will retail for $100, and the bundle will sell for $250 across all versions.

More on Edge. Thanks, Blerk.

Bethesda just confirmed Fallout 3 DLC The Pitt for an March 24 release.

Find new screens after the break.

There’s going to be a bunch of editorial going live on the content this afternoon. An embargo’s just gone up.

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