Monthly Archives: March 2009

505 Games has joined the Entertainment Software Association becoming the “third new member of the ESA to join this year, together with Natsume and Southpeak bringing the organization’s roster up to 23 companies,” so says Kotaku.

“505 Games joins a diverse group of entertainment software companies all working toward the same goals,” said ESA CEO Michael D. Gallagher in the official announcement.

“We are glad we can add 505 Games’ creativity and ideas to the ESA’s efforts to promote the computer and video game industry.”

More through the link.

As per headline, Activision has revealed its DLC list for April that includes Pixies, Nirvana and Motörhead.

The Pixies tracks include the seminal Debaser and Monkey Gone to Heaven, whilst the Nirvana tracks are Very Ape, Sappy & Stay Away.

If you like strumming you bass guitar then you can sing along with Lemmy to Jailbait, Love Me Like a Reptile and Iron Fist.

Full thing over at Kotaku.

A Japanese Computer Entertainment Supplier’s Association poll has revealed that the number of Japanese people that consider themselves “gamers” dropped 30.3 percent between 2007 and 2008.

That’s 6 million less gamers in Japan, according to Kotaku.

Around 1,000 individuals between the ages of three and 79 took part in the survey, and only one in three said they regularly played console games at home.

When the participants were asked why they are apathetic toward gaming they replied, “I’m not interested in video games.”

We are. A bit more through there.

GTTV’s Geoff Keighley has twittered that the first Battlefield Bad Company 2 trailer will be unveiled on his show this Friday.

“Another exclusive this Friday on GTTV is the first trailer for Battlefield Bad Company 2. More news soon,” is what he said.

We’re excited. Are you?

Thanks, GOONL!NE.

Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata kicked GDC off yesterday with the announcement of a new Zelda in his keynote, and Metal Gear Solid’s Hideo Kojima’s up next this morning with an hour-and-a-half talk on games development.

Kojima said yesterday that we’re not going to see any game reveals in his speech, but there’s bound to be something worth tuning in for. There always is.

We’ll have a liveblog of the whole thing, right here. To be clear: the Kojima keynote takes place today between 10.30am and 12.00pm PST. That’s 5.30pm and 7.00pm GMT, or 6.30pm and 8.00pm CET.

See you then!

Insomniac has revealed via video that some new Resistance 2 DLC will be released at some point later today.

The new content is split in two: a new patch and some paid content from the PSN Store.

There’s a new multiplayer mode and an Aftermath Map Pack for $5.99.

Video after the break. Thanks, Joystiq.

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An update on the Capcom Unity Blog tells that all the alternate outfits for your favourite Street Fighter IV characters are now available.

“Regardless of your favorite, there’s a cool alt for every character, so check them out,” says the piece.

Take a look.

A patch is ready and waiting for those of you who own Sega’s turn base strategy historical epic, Empire: Total War.

The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted, or so we’re told. The changes are:

• Multiplayer – can now find friends across regions
• Load time detection on trade routes to fix pathfinding crash in campaign
• Some General Sound balancing improvements
• Fixed UI Chat hang when spectator leaves unranked match with 3+ players
• Varies Campaign Crash Fixes
• Some Save/Load fixes
• Boarding fix where cannon crew board order was not being deleted properly causing crash
• Fix to kill characters instantly to stop crashes in campaign on agent/general deaths
• Save games limited to 1000
• Fix to animation glitch causing repetitive sounds when battle is launched

Two of the developers behind EA platformer-puzzler Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure, have left the company to create the new development house Dreamrift.

Hatsworth lead designer Pete Ong and lead programmer Ryan Pijai are at GDC trying to woo prospective publishers, apparently.

Good luck, is what we say to them.

More at Shacknews.

Rich Amtower, localization manager/producer at NoE has confirmed to IGN the games that will launch alongside DSi in the US on April 5th.

There’s the Opera Browser, WarioWare Snapped!, Art Style: Aquia and Bird and Beans.

No price as yet, full details through the link.

Gamershell has them. They look ok we suppose, not that the millions of Harry Potter fans will care what we say.

EA’s Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is out later this year for every platform in the world.

Go look.

Sony and Activision have announced a new area for Home called Backstage with Guitar Hero.

You’ll be able to see behind the scenes footage, watch trailers for GH games and generally immerse yourself in the world of rhythm action. Mental.

There’s a video after the break, and some images over at Joystiq.

Backstage with Guitar Hero should be ready to go at some point today.

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Apparently, after Hideo Kojima’s GDC 09 keynote today, he’ll be making his way over to the local Apple Store in San Francisco.

Unsurprisingly, he’ll be talking about Metal Gear Solid Touch, for iPhone.

If you’re in San Francisco right now and want in on the Kojima action, then the Apple Store can be found here.

Everywhere he goes, there’s news. That’s why we love him.

Thanks, Kotaku.

EA has put out the launch trailer for its Phenomic Studio-developed, online trading card strategy title, Battleforge.

Looks good if you like a bit of fantasy and fireballs – which we do.

Game’s out tomorrow. Video’s after the break.

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The Independent Games Festival winners have been unveiled, and although nominated in several categories, Q-Games’ PixelJunk Eden came away empty handed.

Better luck next year, eh?

See the full roster over at Indie Games.

In what has to be the most exciting GDC 09 story this morning, God of War III programmers Jim Tilander and lead game programmer Vassily FilipPov have unveiled to a knowledge-hungry GDC crowd that God of War III will run at 60fps. Some of the time.

It’ll have to drop down to 30fps to cope with some scenarios, said the developers.

Apparently the pair were so hyped about hardcore development tools that Kotaku described them as “sounding more like PS3 salesmen than programmers, as they expounded on the many benefits of running a Synergistic Processing Unit.”

Sounds awesome. It’s all through the link.

Media Molecule’s Alex Evans and Mark Healey revealed at GDC 09 that LittleBigPlanet is only really half finished.

“We still feel like we’re halfway through the development of LittleBigPlanet, to be honest,” said Healey.

“I claim that LittleBigPlanet is potentially a game creation package, which isn’t finished if you like, but potentially.”

“We want LittleBigPlanet to be something that enables people to make games, not platform game levels.”

The least-finished part of the game is the content creation side of things, said Evans. Read what he has to say about that, and more, over at Eurogamer.

Joystiq‘s posted some pretty pictures of the Gears of War 2 Snowblind Map Pack.

It’ll feature four new maps: Grindyard, Under Hill, Courtyard and Fuel Depot. Hit the link to see just how awesome it all looks.

T minus 5 days and counting. It’s out on March 31, priced 800 MS Points.

According to MCV, Level 5′s confirmed that the sequel to much-loved DS puzzler Professor Layton and the Curious Village – Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box – will be heading west within the next six months.

The third part of the series will reach us next year, apparently.

Bit more through here.

After the break is a video of Konami’s Hideo Kojima talking about quality control, creative issues, and generally all things games development.

Mr Metal Gear will be holding a keynote later today that we, of course, will be covering live.

This video’s eight minutes long. Go for it.

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