Monthly Archives: April 2009

More details regarding Ubisoft action title Rabbids Go Home have popped up in the latest issue of ONM.

Fart jokes and “flushing your goodies down the toilet” are included.

• Six hub worlds, 20 environments, over 50 missions
• Roughly 100 different humans, all based on various stereotypes
• Main enemies are the Verminators and Vermi-dogs
• Verminators set traps to catch Rabbids, but they are actually scared of them
• Levels hide various collectibles
• Collect target items for new abilities: use a hospital patient’s oxygen bed to float
• New game mechanics added in roughly every 20 minutes
• Target items can help you progress in other environments
• 15 hours of gameplay
• Cut-scenes explain missions
• “Crazy music,” slapstick comedy and fart jokes
• Each mission ends with you flushing your goodies down a toilet
• Multiplayer, but details not yet revealed
• Locations: Airport, Builders’ Yard, Graveyard, Museum, Office, Pile, Supermarket (may be more)
• Games of inspiration: Mario Kart and Super Mario Galaxy
• Motion-control for opening doors and other context-sensitive events
• Took almost a year to decide what direction to go with the game

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Square Enix has trademarked Vanguard Storm, according to a Siliconera report.

There’s no details, but, says this 1UP piece, a new Square action game will be revealed in PlayStation: The Official Magazine in just a few weeks.

Is this it? We’ll know soon enough.

Stardock’s Brad Wardell has promised a multiplayer fix for Demigod, speaking on the game’s forum.

Wardell said that connectivity issues with custom games or skirmish problems is due to server overload, and the issue’s being addressed.

To make it up to players, Wardell said that many of the staffers who worked on Demigod will be online to play with gamers this week. Not only for fun, but to also give out tips and provide general help in playing the game.

Most of the online issues were to be addressed before release, but thanks to the GameStop snafu, the team had to come in during Easter vacation and do a quick release to combat piracy.

Capcom has announced that a multiplayer demo for Bionic Commando will land on Xbox Live soon.

In all, the game will contain 16 multiplayer maps, but the demo will focus on Deatmatch mode, the map Vertigo, and support up to eight players.

A demo for PC and PS3 has yet to be announced.

Game lands on consoles May 19.

The latest issue of Game Informer has rumored that The Beatles Rock Band will support multiple microphones, allowing players to harmonize with one another.

Can hear the dogs howling over this now.

The mag also hinted that Rock Band is to support user-created content down the line. Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopoulos has alluded to this before.

Thanks, D’toid.

XBL community manager Stephen Toulouse has met with members of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to discuss how Microsoft can improve relations with the gay community.

Speaking in a recent Major Nelson podcast, Toulouse did not go into much detail on the chat, but he did say it was a positive experience.

“I can’t talk about what we discussed specifically except to say that we provided them with a lot of information about what we do today, why we do what we do and how we do it,” he said. “And then we asked them the question, ‘How can we do this better?’ And we have some ideas. Here are some ideas.

“That dialog was super, super helpful. I think it was a great engagement. Justin and Jeffrey who came out from GLAAD really appreciated the effort that we’re putting into it – and had great ideas, like they brought up some stuff we hadn’t thought of.

“I would recommend to any business who’s tackling these issues, they’re a great group to work with. The GLAAD folk totally understand a variety of things, they’re really great to work with. They want to enable communities to be safer. They just want to enable communities to be safer – that’s what my team tries to do as well, so it was a great thing.

“We’ll plan to say something about [GLAAD and Xbox LIVE policy] in the future.”

You can hear the full podcast through the above link.

Via Gay Gamer.

Gameloft’s releasing Assassin’s Creed for the iPhone in a few weeks, and while it is based on the DS prequel Altair’s Chronicles, IGN says it isn’t anything like the DS version.

Worth mentioning is that the game is around three hours long, the same as the DS game – and for far less money.

The site has a few images. There’s a video below.

More »

Famitsu’s latest issue says that Capcom will not be releasing Devil May Cry on PSP, despite announcing it four years ago, reports IGN.

This information was derived from the weekly release schedule, which no longer has the game listed. A note was included saying the game has been canceled.

Capcom announced the PSP version of DMC back in 2005, but nothing has ever been shown of the game by the way of assets or gameplay information.

Now we know why.

High Voltage has revealed extra details regarding multiplayer functionality for upcoming shooter The Conduit.

Main thing to notice is that the number of players has been cut from 16 to 12 to improve balance and performance.

• Changed from 16 players online to 12 for better balance/gamer performance
• Free for All – Fast match, finishes when a player reaches specified kill count
• Marathon – Have the highest kill count at the end of the specified time limit
• Three Strikes – Only have 3 lives to play with
• Last Man Standing – Be the last player to survive
• ASE Football – Tag game – player who holds on to ASE for the longest time is the winner
• Bounty Hunter – Players go after specified player, if you hit an incorrect player you receive a penalty
• Team Reaper – Quick Match/Marathon, Shared Stock as well – have additional lives from a pool
• Team Objective – CTF mode with ASE – teams need to obtain own ASE
• Another mode requires teams to obtain one ASE – team that takes in the most in specified time limit wins
• WiiSpeak support reconfirmed
• Can only hear players that are closest – will hear 6 players are the most while battling

Gamestop has it on pre-order with a ship date of June 23 – along with an exclusive limited edition.

Thanks, Nintendo Everything.

Sega release a trailer of High Voltage’s The Conduit this afternoon, as you can see after the break.

The end of the video unfortunately tells of a slip to “summer” from “spring”.

Let’s hope the Wii shooter doesn’t feel like watching the leaves fall off the trees.

Take a look.

More »

3D Realms George Broussard said on Twitter today that a developmental milestone has been reached on the long-awaited Duke Nukem Forever.

According to the tweet, the firm has cleared off a large percentage of the game’s original goals – and Broussard likes the show “24″:

“71 more tasks to do and we started with probably 800-900.”

Further:

“Heading home. Got some music for the game and commented. Have a couple more things to close out tomorrow for milestone. 24 is on!!!”

While the information is still a bit esoteric, we can only hope it means we’re about to see something other than Christmas wallpaper from the game.

Via Clanbase, Duke4.net.

SingStar’s getting Trophies tomorrow as part of its 3.01 update.

There’s going to be 30 available, according to the press release after the link.

In addition, My SingStar Online’s getting a revamp.

So there’s awesome. All info down there.

More »

Rare’s confirmed that the XBLA version of Banjo-Tooie’s to release on April 29.

“4J Studios’ stellar port will be yours to own from Wednesday 29th April – exactly two weeks from now,” said the UK dev on the Banjo Blog.

“Set a reminder in your reminding appliance of choice, as it’s full to the brim with updates and tweaks from the original release, not least being a super-charged frame rate and some fully-featured Stop ‘N’ Swoppery.”

Woot. Some Tooie-themed Gamerpics are releasing alongside it as well. Hit the link and see.

SCEA hardware marketing boss John Koller has claimed that console software “exclusivity” was a a last-gen concept, and that higher development costs have forced game-creators to become platform agnostic.

“Exclusivity is something that doesn’t truly exist in this cycle,” the exec told VG247, speaking at GDC.

“What does exist is first-party product. That’s your exclusive product.”

Koller explained that the reality of PS3 and 360 development spelled the end of Sony’s great third-party PS2 exclusives, saying that Microsoft now has “the same thing”.

“Exclusivity in the last console was a much different proposition, because developers would have smaller development costs, and they wouldn’t necessarily feel the need to advertise that across all platforms,” he said.

“At that time we had a Grand Theft Auto exclusive, we had EA Sports at the beginning of PS2, we had Final Fantasy. And then we had a tremendous line-up of first-party games, that started off with the Jak & Daxters but went to the SOCOMs.”

Koller added: “We go to the next gen and Microsoft has the same thing. So you either have your first-party line-up, or you write cheques, and you need to buy that down.”

He said in the same interview that, in his opinion, Micrsoft had a more lenient policy to paying for exclusivity than Sony.

Sony’s first-party dev effort, Koller said, was as big as Microsoft and Nintendo’s combined.

As you can see on Eidos Montreal’s site, the firm’s gearing up to announce its second game.

What is it? It’s a new Thief game. That’s what it is. We have no idea of any specifics, and we don’t know anyone that’s seen it yet, but that’s what it is.

OK?

Trip “Poster Boy” Hawkins has told VentureBeat that Sony and Nintendo are currently “freaking out” at inroads made into the gaming space by iPhone.

“The iPhone is by far our most effective platform,” said the EA founder and Digital Chocolate boss.

“We make as much money with these games on one device as we do putting a game on 100 different cell phone platforms. Between the iPod Touch and the iPhone, I think the platform is freaking out Sony and Nintendo.

“Apple has sold 30 million units so far and it has created tremendous awareness. It has taken ground all over the world. But it has only penetrated one half of one percent of its total market.”

There’s more through there. Thanks, CasualGaming.biz.

Jon Blow’s confirmed on the Steam forum that a level editor has been included in the PC version of Braid:

Yeah, after I get a new version out in a few days that fixes the problems some people are having, and when more people have played/finished the game, I am going to post some documentation for the editor. The way it works is you can make levels with the editor (up to a full game, potentially) and run that with -universe later… also a tool will be released that lets you take Photoshop files and import them into the game, if you want to put new graphics in your levels.

The editor’s already in the game, apparently. Press F11 and see what happens.

IGN’s posted up three proper videos from the FFXIII demo. Get them after the break.

The demo releases with FFVII Advent Children in Japan tomorrow, and looks shiny.

Watch. It’s pretty much awesome.

More »

According to GamePro.de, Konami reps at a Frankfurt event last week said the publisher’s still undecided on whether or not to release Six Days in Fallujah in Europe.

Apparently, the way the game’s action is depicted will dictate if the title’s released outside the US.

Six Days in Fallujah is planned for a 2010 launch for PC, PS3 and 360.

Thanks, Joystiq and Eurogamer.

VG247 has been told that David Reeves – confirmed as leaving SCEE as president this morning – is to take up a senior position at Scottish developer Realtime Worlds.

Reeves will leave SCEE on April 30, to be replaced by current CMO Andrew House.

No one at Realtime Worlds could be reached for comment. Sony staffers have been told the exec is retiring.

It’s worth noting that Ian Hetherington, RTW’s chairman, was a Psygnosis co-founder.

The Dundee outfit is currently working on MMO APB.

Chalk it up as rumour. But don’t say we didn’t warn you.