Monthly Archives: April 2009

Anyone speak Russian? GSC apparently said this week that a new full new S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game is in the works, and that a new add-on – subtitled Call of Pripyat – is to release later this year.

From this GGL report:

In an online conference earlier this week, [GSC president, Sergey] Grigorovitch was asked whether the April 2009 calendar featuring the words ‘Call of Pripyat’ in Russian was an April Fools’ joke.

He replied that this was not a joke and would be the name of the second expansion. He added that this new expansion will be released later this year. Furthermore, a full S.T.A.L.K.E.R. title is also in development, although there’s currently no information on when we will hear more about this.

Our Russian’s a bit rusty. We’ll get a comment on this next week.

Bungie’s announced a weekend of free Halo 3 multiplayer for all, so if you’ve only got a Silver Live account, you’re now welcome to the party. For a few days.

The promo ends at 9.00am PST on Monday.

Dawn of War 2′s patch 1.2.1 has made it through Relic’s QA process, and is scheduled to go live April 13.

The full list of patch notes are posted on the official forums, and includes information regarding upcoming balance changes.

A new six-player map called Tiber Outpost will support Team Battle mode, and you can get a few new screenshots of it here.

Long into your Steam account and the game will automatically patch.

IGN’s got an exclusive on a brand new Painkiller game, titled Resurrection.

Snip:

The player takes on the role of Wild Bill Sherman, a CIA assassin who works for highly placed members of the government. Though he can claim to be doing some good in the world by ridding it of weapon smugglers and drug lords, his missions to assassinate his employers’ political rivals are a bit less morally ambiguous and even a killer-for-hire has to have some principles.

The FPS crowd will be happy. It’s a PC-only affair for the fourth quarter, but there may be a 360 port to follow.

A2M’s posted a new WET trailer on the game’s site, full of acrobatic shooting and a uncomfortably long crotch shot.

Still not sure when the game will be released – thanks to the Sierra buyout – but D’toid has it on good authority it may be as soon as October.

Until official word is announced, just enjoy the video.

1UP has exclusive shots of Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion.

Click the link to see a guy and a kangaroo engaging fisticuffs. Par for the course.

Game’s slated for a Q4 release on PS3 and Xbox 360.

An Arstechnica source has claimed that a new Xbox 360 Elite bundle is to hit stores complete with Fable 2 and Halo 3.

The package will cost $400, apparently, which is the going rate for the standalone console – meaning the games are free.

Microsoft will supposedly be announcing the bundle over the next week.

The official website for all three of Namco’s upcoming Tales games went live today.

And just as a treat for JRPG fans, Sega and Tri-Ace’s End of Eternity now has a site as well. What are the chances?

On the Tales of Vesperia site is a PS3 trailer showing Patty Fleur, new events, two new bosses, a dungeon, and loads of other stuff to get you pumped up.

• Tales of Graces
• Tales of Vesperia PS3
• End of Eternity
• Tales of VS.

Team Ninja wants Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 to be “sleek and sexy,” and not as violent as others in the series.

Producer and director Yosuke Hayashi has told CVG that the team working on the PS3 version is “kind of egoistic” and gets “bored with the same continuous concept”: that’s why it’s shying away from a direct Xbox 360 port.

Hayash doesn’t want it to be namby pamby, but he does want to “start evolving this game.”

More through the link. It’s out later this year.

Here’s your list of top Live title for the week of March 30.

You just can’t keep a popular shooter down it seems. The last two iterations for the Call of Duty franchise are here to stay – at least until the next one comes out.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles

1. Call of Duty: WaW
2. Halo 3
3. Call of Duty 4
4. Gears of War 2
5. RESIDENT EVIL 5
6. GTA IV
7. FIFA 09
8. Left 4 Dead
9. Halo Wars
10. Fallout 3

Get all the Arcade and Community stuff after the break.

More »

On his blog, game designer Greg Costikyan has chastised Epic president Michael Capps saying he supports the “exploitation of power” in terms of employee treatment.

Capps spoke at a recent leadership meeting sponsored by International Game Developers Association and according to Costikyan, implied that working a 40-hour work week was “kind of absurd”.

Capps used his company as an example, saying that if you want to work at Epic, expect to put in over 60 hours weekly as that’s part of “corporate culture”.

Costikyan wrote on his blog that he would have expected a normal corporate head to utter such a thing, but he’s shocked it came from Capps – who’s also a board member of the IGDA.

Costikya says the IGDA was formed with “the ostensible purpose” of supporting developers, not “management dickheads.”

Loads more can be found through the link, and it’s a must-read should anyone be contemplating a career in development.

Via Joystiq.

Capcom’s Christian Svensson has tried to put a stop to the assumption that the Versus DLC for Resident Evil 5 was already included on the disc.

In a thread started on the Capcom Unity forums, Svensson replied to questions over the content and explained that while it is not on the actual disc, it still needs data from it.

“Keys are 100 [kilobytes] or less. It is not a key. We have said in the past, it uses assets from the disc (like levels, models, audio, etc.) but the code is new and does not exist on the disc,” he wrote.

The hoopla started when IGN reported earlier this week that the new $5 add-on was already on the disc consumers paid $60 for, and file size being less than 2MB was proof it was only a key.

We’ve contacted Capcom for comment with no results as of yet.

Via MTV.

Is Borderlands cel-shaded? The cover of the June issue of PC Gamer magazine shows off the game’s new art-style, one Gearbox swears is anything but.

The image is an in-game screenshot, according to Gearbox’s Steve Gibson. See for yourself.

April 13 will see the launch of the Borderlands website, which should give us a better idea of the final product.

Platinum Games has launched a new website for Bayonetta, complete with a new trailer of some boss combat and the game’s heroine threatening to hand out a spanking.

Righto.

The website’s in Japanese, but you get the overall idea. Plus, there’s pictures.

Game is expected sometime this year for PS3 and Xbox 360.

More »

Siliconera reports that SCEE has filed a patent for a PSP-operated remote control car.

Seems that the car’s camera sends images back to your PSP in order to navigate obstacles and film progress.

Specifically, the patent says: “A user may control the car 200 (the figure number) so as to spy on their friends… then upload the stored video images to a website.”

Just think of the dodgy things you could do with such a thing. The mind boggles.

NoA’s Reggie Fils-Aime has told GameTrailers TV that Nintendo will do better at E3 this year.

“We haven’t announced a launch date [for The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks], maybe we’ll do that at E3. You know, everyone wants to know what we’re going to announce at E3 and my answer is, come to E3 and you’ll see… From Nintendo’s perspective, we always go into E3 with a very high bar wanting to satisfy not only the core fans but also ourselves. We’re hoping to do a much better job this year. You’ll have to see for yourself.”

Last year’s E3 performance from Nintendo was panned by most attendees.

Bethesda’s Peter Hines has said that the Fallout 3 developer has learned the hard way that smaller doses of DLC are best.

Speaking with Gamasutra, Hines explained:

“We did the entire spectrum for the most part. We did small things and then we did the really huge thing [with The Shivering Isles for Oblivion]. We did what I think was the first ever full expansion on a console for download. We looked at what we liked and what we didn’t, and what the people liked.

“What we discovered was that we want to be able to do stuff that doesn’t take a year to come out.

“All these people are out there playing our game by the hundreds of thousands on a daily basis and we want to be able to bring those folks something they could do in a much shorter time frame, rather than just saying, ‘See you next year.’

“That instantly ruled out doing a big expansion because those things just take so damn long to do.”

Hines went on to say that the Oblivion expansion Knights of the Nine was the first time Bethesda felt it got the length of a piece of DLC right.

More through the link.

Namco’s has released a video for Wii’s Tales of Graces. After the break.

You’ll play 18 year-old Aspe in the game, which is due out this winter in Japan.

The RPG’s expected in 2010 for Europe and North America.

More »

Sony is to include a making-of featurette of Ghostbusters: The Video Game in the Blu-ray edition of the movie, due to land in stores June 16.

Not surprising, since the game and the 25th Anniversary Edition of the movie are slated for release on the same day.

Should at least give you something extra to look at once you have watched the film, and possibly give you a greater appreciation for the game. Providing you liked it.

An update to the official Japanese Capcom blog says that Street Fighter IV fans can expect an announcement of sorts next week.

Come April 17, this new information is speculated to be one of two things: either the recently-announced Championship Mode or more information regarding the expected PC version.

So there ya have it. An announcement of an announcement.

Hit the link.