Monthly Archives: April 2009

Despite Naugthty Dog saying that multiplyer and co-op are not included in Uncharted 2, word on the street is that both modes are included in the game.

According to Screw Attack, details leaked from Sony’s press event in CA this week have revealed the sordid truth.

There is, however, an embargo up so details are sketchy at best. The site claimed the multiplayer aspect will be your run of the mill stuff and that co-op will be separate from the single-player campaign.

Hold off on getting too worked up until the embargo lifts.

Meanwhile hit this link to see for yourself.

Nolan Bushnell will keynote next week’s LA Games Conference.

The Atari founder will be chatting about current console offerings and what the future holds for the industry.

Other keynote speakers include PopCap’s David Roberts, as well as guest speakers from Facebook, Turbine, and Sony Pictures.

The event takes place April 28-29 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

A full list of speakers can be found here.

Via Joystiq.

A few details for Alien vs. Predator were revealed in a PSW chat with Rebellion’s Jason Kingsley.

According to the interview, the game features three player classes  – Aliens, Marines, and Predators -each harboring its own special abilities and powers.

A “rock-paper-scissors” balance system has been implemented in multiplayer and there is also a single-player campaign for each class.

Story wise, the game is set 30 years after the original Aliens and involves a new planet that has been colonized. While digging for minerals, ancient ruins are discovered and, as you can guess, all hell breaks loose.

Kingsley said during the interview that the game will “dovetail directly into the 20th Century Fox movies, too”, and Rebellion included loads of ideas into the game that were previously cut because of hardware constraints.

The game is expected sometime in 2010, and while platforms have not been announced, it’s easy to assume it will land on PS3 and Xbox 360 at the very least.

More through CVG.

Capcom and Xbox 360 are on a quest to find the Street Fighter IV champions in  France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.  When found, the champ will be crowed the European Street Fighter Supreme Master.

Not only will the winner be bestowed with such a long, illustrious title, they will win some prizes too.

To enter the tournament, sign up here or via Xbox Live between now and May 17. Capcom will then track your progress in the automatic Championship Mode leader boards, and all you need to do is win as many matches as possible and build up your score of Grade Points.

The top 30 Grade Points scoring players will be invited to a live final in their respective country on the weekend of May 30.

National champions will be sent on to a secret European location for the Euro final, June 13-14.

Press release is below and more details are through the link.
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Lionhead could possibly make a new IP reveal at E3 this year, according to a tweet written by a Swansea Metropolitan University student.

Andrew Lindsay, animation director for the studio, was giving a presentation at the school and showed the students  animations from an unannounced IP.

He also mentioned that the first game in a new franchise would be revealed at E3.

Peter Molyneux stated in a previous interview with Gamespot that the developer is “almost ready to start showing the world what happens when you feel safe about experimenting and inventing and prototyping, and that can lead to some pretty amazing things and we’ve got some amazing things in our pocket.”

Peter also hinted we would hear what this entails “very soon”.

Come on E3.

Thanks, D’toid.

Activison has put High Moon Studios and Radical to task on creating a new Transformers game and Spider-Man 4, respectively, according to a Variety report.

ActiBlizz CEO Bobby Kotick has previously stated that he wants the Transformers franchise to be an annual thing, so this is really no big shock.

According to The Cut Scene, neither game is tied to a movie and both are expected to release sometime in 2010.

This summer, the second Transformers game, Revenge of the Fallen, was developed by Luxoflux and is expected to co-launch with the film.

An anonymous fan on 2ch has compiled a list of changes between the demo of Final Fantasy XIII and the version that will hit retail.

According to the post, these changes came straight from director Motomu Toriyama during various interviews in Famitsu, Famitsu PS3, and Dengeki PlayStation.

The list is a bit long, so we have it posted after the break.

Via 1UP.

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Originally planned to be a three-off event, GameCity is returning for a fourth year to Nottingham City.

GameCity Squared will take place at the Market Square from October 27-31 and all events will be free.

“GameCity represents a unique platform for the games community to step up as an important part of contemporary culture”, said festival director Iain Simons.

“We’d like to urge the developer and publisher community to get in touch with ideas, however improbable they might seem.”

Last year’s guests included Media Molecule, Jonathan Coulton, Harmonix, Sony, Martin Hollis, David Doak, and a few others.

You can get more information about the festival by visiting the official website.

Press release posted below.
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We just spent the last half an hour with EA Sports president Peter Moore at the Ark in Hammersmith, London.

We can’t tell you what he said just yet, but suffice it to say he gave megaton aplenty.

We’ll start dishing out news from the chat next Thursday.

In addition, we spent all day yesterday interviewing EA developers on pretty much every announced upcoming title from the publisher, but coverage is under a string of embargoes that runs for the next couple of weeks.

As this as they lift, it’s all yours.

DICE will release multiplayer shooter Battlefield 1943 on PS3 and Xbox 360 this June.

The game will run you 1,200 MS Points ($15), and features three different areas in the Pacific: Wake Island, Guadalcanal, and Iwo Jima.

Players can choose between the US Marines or the Imperial Japanese Navy and go online with up to 24 players.

PC version hits in September.

Oh dear.

An anonymous tipster has told ThePlaystationNetwork that Matthew McConaughey is in talks to star as Nathan Drake in a film based on the Uncharted franchise.

The source did not give the site any more information than that, but considering Hollywood loves to make movies based on games, the prospect shouldn’t be too shocking.

Hit the link for more.

TimeGate Studios announced today that it has reached a settlement with Paramount Digital Entertainment and Paramount Pictures regarding a trademark infringement dispute over Section 8.

The lawsuit alleged that Paramount’s use of Section 8 as the name of its upcoming interactive web series was a trademark infringement based on TimeGate’s rights in the name.

Paramount has agreed not to use the name Section 8, and because of this  TimeGate has agreed to dismiss the lawsuit.

Section 8 is a TimeGate FPS, and the company claimed it had set-up meetings regarding “potential business ventures” with Paramount which were canceled without explanation or follow-up.

Three days after canceling the meeting, Paramount announced plans to release an interactive web series called Section 8 with a foreign company.

Press release through the jump.
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Ultor Exposed, the first download pack for Saints Row 2, is available today on both on PS3 and Xbox 360.

The content includes:

• 3 Co-op enabled missions, featuring Tera Patrick
• 6 Vehicles including the helicopter gunship and Ultor bomber. Complete with working weapons
• New clothing and customization options. Including the astronaut suit, EDF uniform and an authentic alien outfit
• 2 Strongarm multiplayer maps (Trailer Park & Downtown)
• 2 Gangster Brawl multiplayer maps (Stilwater Prison & Warehouse)
• 1 New co-op diversion
• 5 New Achievements worth 125 Gamerpoints (Xbox 360 version only)

Ultor Exposed is the first of three planned DLC packs for Saints Row 2. You’ll can pick it up on Xbox Live for 800 MS Points (£6.90) or on PSN  for £7.99.

There’s also a Saints Row 2 NXE theme coming to Xbox 360. You can see the first screenshots of the theme over on the official community site.

THQ sent word that the demo for UFC 2009 Undisputed is now available for Xbox 360, and later today for PS3.

The demo features an exhibition bout between Chuck ‘Iceman’ Liddell and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua. The three-round match takes place in the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, with Mario Yamasaki as referee.

Only Xbox 360 gold members will get the demo today, so those of us still wallowing in silver will have to wait a bit longer.

Game’s out May 22.

Bet you all thought Raven’s Singularity was just going to be “another” time-travelling shooter, didn’t you?

Not so. The nuclearafied Cold War FPS allows you to control the age of objects, not the flow of time.

We know because we asked. See:

VG247: The whole “time-control” mechanic is pretty well-worn now. How will Singularity freshen it up?

Jon Zuk, Singularity creative director: Using the Time Manipulation Device or TMD, the player can control the age of objects but not time itself. Many objects can be manipulated and these changes in age are permanent in most cases. When an object is changed in time, it can shift between the current day state and a state as it existed some 60 years in the past, when an accident occurred on the island. The TMD is an amazing piece of equipment, developed far, far ahead of its time. It uses E-99 as a power source, enabling you to effectively change the time-state of different objects, and beings, on Katorga-12. You can use the TMD on objects like ammo crates, gas-filled barrels and electrical equipment, for starters. Aging and renewing things like chains or even concrete supports can let loose heavy or explosive objects to fall on unsuspecting enemies. The TMD also has a Time Stasis feature that allows you to grab items and sustain them in time. A practical and rewarding use of the Time Stasis is grabbing enemy grenades and throwing them back at them – the stasis field nullifies the grenade’s timer so it won’t explode while you’re holding it.

Sound puzzlery.

Singularity is set on a Soviet island after a nuclear experiment goes wrong.

The game’s one of three new IPs Activision’s releasing this year, the other two being Radical’s Prototype and Bizarre racer Blur.

Watch for more from E3.

Three Motörhead tracks were just released for Guitar Hero: World Tour, according to this Major post.

Iron Fist, Jail Bait and Love Me Like a Reptile are all up on Live now. They’re 160 points each.

Codemasters said this morning that the HD version of its upcoming F1 game won’t ship unti next year.

If you can’t be bothered to wait for a PS3 or 360 version, though, you’ll be glad to hear that both Wii and PSP SKUs will release in 2009.

Get more from CVG.

THQ’s put out the Red Faction: Guerrilla demo openly on Live and PSN.

No codes necessary. Just go and get it.

The game itself releases for 360, PS3 and PC on June 2.

Press release after the break.

More »

The first pics and info on the new Aliens Vs Predator have popped up in European mags, as reported by Kotaku.

The Rebellion game’s set 30 years after the events in the Aliens movie, on a planet where Colonial Marines and the dribbling, acidy fuckers are going toe-to-toe.

Hit the link for the full thing. We’re off to interview Peter Moore.

The bad: Radical’s open-world, anti-superhero blockbuster Prototype has been heavily delayed. The good: it’s now been polished to buggery and pulled back to a more manageable “vision”.

“The extra dev time from last year really was a chance for us to polish, tweak and refine the missions and gameplay mechanics,” executive producer Tim Bennison told VG247.

“The original vision for the game was huge, perhaps a little too huge, so the extra time in development has let us realize that vision.”

The game was originally to release in autumn last year, but was pushed into 2009 last May. It was one of the Vivendi survivors of the Actvision Blizzard merger.

“We’re really excited to launch Prototype in June – it’s certainly been a big project for the entire company here at Radical,” Bennison added.

Keep watching. You’re going to see plenty more soon.