Monthly Archives: April 2009

After the break. The movie shows one set piece and a general combat sequence, with the player very obviously taking on the role of a Big Daddy.

You’ll be playing this before the end of the year.

See for yourself.

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The latest Japanese hardware figures show PS3 is still outselling Wii, news likely to have Mr Sony jumping for joy.

Here’s last week’s chart. Data for the week ending April 5.

• DSi – 53,680
• PSP – 48,118
• PS3 – 20,362
• Wii – 15,525
• DS Lite – 8,729
• Xbox 360 – 7,812
• PS2 – 5,394

OutRun Online Arcade debuts on Xbox Live and PSN next week, and will include 15 courses, 10 cars, multiplayer for up to six players and online leaderboards.

It will cost you 800 Microsoft Points/€10, and Sega will award a prize to the person who can get the fastest time on an undisclosed course.

Here’s what you will win:

A tour the Galleria Ferrari museum, dinner at the world famous exquisite Cavallino restaurant, a tour of Maranello, the home of motorsport and an overnight in the Maranello Palace Hotel. The winner will also be gifted a Ferrari “tifoso” premium pack.

More details and the chance to register for the contest will be made available at launch.

Press release is below.

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This week’s update includes an NCAA National Champions University of North Carolina Premium Theme for both PS3 and PSP along with games, themes and the normal stuff you’d expect.

Flock!, Rag Doll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic, Rock Band updates and more are listed after the break.

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HBO therapy drama “In Treatment” debuted Monday, and included a plot in which a sixth-grader, with divorcing parents, would rather live with his mother because his father plays Guitar Hero all the time.

Dad and his pals take over the kid’s Wii and play the game loudly into the night, disturbing his sleep.

Oliver’s mother is upset over her soon-to-be ex’s childish behavior, and the fact that he never cooks for his son, but orders out all the time.

While we’ll have to watch to get the full story, it sounds like a regular Sunday around our house if we’re being honest.

Read the rest on MTV.

Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has participated in Digg’s recent Dialogg feature, revealing details about a game he pitched to publishers.

Due to lack of interest, the game never saw the light of day and the response from publishers was “disheartening”.

“Well, it costs so much to make a game, we’re really only interested in sequels or movie tie-ins,” he claims was the reaction.

Reznor also mentioned his thoughts on the lack of creativity in games, saying WiiWare and Xbox Live has the coolest and most creative games out there.

More through the link.

WiiWare sales of Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People have doubled since the release of the new Wii storage solution, Telltale said today.

“Nintendo’s new solution really opens the door for players to add to their collection of downloadable games, which is critical for a series with multiple installments,” said CEO Dan Connors.

“This is a major step forward for episodic gaming. We’re looking forward to even greater success on WiiWare with Strong Bad, as well as other projects.”

Nintendo’s new option to play games directly from the SD card gives gamers the option to store the first five episodes of the game, which Telltale obviously recommends.

Press release is below.

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Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley warned developers during the 2009 GamesBeat conference that the “generation gap” between devs and the industry needs to narrow in order to nurture future talent.

“There’s a whole generation of games designer that is is absent. It’s like the World War One 19-year-olds, they’ve vanished,” he said.

“The Will Wrights, the Warren Spectors, the Sid [Meiers], the Tim Schafers – we can give those guys what they want, and do large deals for them. But there is no generation after them.”

According to The Escapist, Blackley said that current method does not work and it is squandering young developer’s talent by “putting them to work on the next Godfather game.”

“That [approach is] a fine business decision, but the perspective for us is that it is a much better idea to take these three guys who perhaps have a beautiful idea and a different way of working, protect them a little bit as they build up a new idea and a new way of looking at things and a new way of design – and a few years from now they will be a much better business,” he added.

“In the ’90s there was no mechanism to do that – and we lost a generation of designers. I think its important we look to reclaim that new generation.”

More through the link.

The Warhammer Online development team has collaborated with Eric Bloom and Richie Castellano of Blue Öyster Cult on a theme song for the game’s new Dwarf Slayer career.

Entitled Kiss My Axe (While I Drink My Beer), the track celebrates the new character path, all thanks to lead-singer Eric Bloom being a long-time Warhammer fan.

“I’d heard a previous song written and performed by members of the WAR team, and thought they were quite good for a ‘garage band’ of game developers,” said Bloom.

“I was very glad to hear from Mythic who invited me down to work on the song. I was impressed by the dedication of the developers to make WAR both a success and fun to play, something that, in my opinion, is missing from many other MMOs.”

Senior WAR creative designer Paul Barnett added: “If this song doesn’t get you fired up to shave your hair into a mohawk, dye it red, and play a Slayer, then you’re probably dead!”

Wonder how long it will be before this song hits Rock Band. Place your bets.

Press release posted below.

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Update this week includes four full PS3 and PSP games, more LittleBigPlanet gubbins and the usual truckload of DLC.

Tops, though, are the price reductions to mark the second anniversary of the PlayStation Store in Europe.

List is after the break, courtesy of Joystiq.

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Cyanide Studios has unveiled the website for Blood Bowl, complete with a multiplayer beta sign-up.

No exact date for the beta launch as yet, but we do know you’ll get to choose either a human or orc team to play with.

The Warhammer universe’s twisted take on football is expected to land on DS, PC, PSP, and Xbox 360 this year.

Guitar Hero fans are being asked to cast their votes onlineto determine the order songs will be revealed for Guitar Hero: Smash Hits.

It’s no longer titled Greatest Hits, in case you didn’t notice.

Previously announced tracks can be found here.

Read on for the press release.

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Mark Thomas, the owner of Midway, filed a document with the to US Bankruptcy Court last week that reveals the company will run out of cash by June.

GamePolitics got hold of the 44-page document, and this is what was discerned:

• Midway will run out of cash in late June
• Midway has no games set to launch in that window that might provide an influx of cash
• Midway overstated the value of the Mortal Kombat franchise
• Midway has operated at a loss for most of the last decade
• In 2008 CitiGroup failed to find anyone interested in acquiring Midway
• Mark Thomas initially offered $1,000,000 for Midway but lowered his offer to $100,000 after re-assessing the risks; by necessity, the deal was finalized quickly and Thomas says that he did not have time to conduct normal due diligence.

Due to confidentiality, some parts of the filing were redacted, failing to shed light on Midway overvaluing the Mortal Kombat series, the list of companies that bid on Midway or how Sumner Redstone benefited from selling it off to Thomas so cheaply.

Nielsen has issued a correction regarding a report that said Wii is the least-used console.

As told to FastCompany, the study was mislabeled, and the correct percentages of user minutes for average sessions are:

• PS2 – 23.7
• Wii -20.7
• Xbox 360 -18.2
• PS3 – 9.0
• Xbox -7.9
• GameCube -3.3

However, Nielsen stands by data that claimed Wii is used less often than PS3 and Xbox 360.

Via Gamasutra.

Atari has told Shacknews that the uproar over The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena DRM is unfounded.

Furthermore, reports that surfaced earlier in the month citing that the game could only be installed three times in total were deemed inaccurate by Atari.

While it’s true you can only install the game three times, you can do so on three different machines, and, providing you have a legitimate reason for needing more installs, customer service is just a phone call away.

“We implement this protection in an effort to avoid early piracy,” explained Atari.

“The [initial] activation code lets you install the game on up to three machines, with an unlimited number of installs on each assuming that you don’t change any major hardware in your PC or re-install your operating system.”

Legitimate owners have the option of revoking past installs if the limit hinders them in any way.

Game hits Europe on April 24.

Justin Marks, the writer for the movie adaptation of Shadow of the Colossus, has asked fans of the game to give his film a chance, Risky Biz reports.

“I think many of the games haven’t worked as movies because it’s hard to find the right game. There are very few that lend themselves to movies,” said Marks.

“If we started thinking that anything that worked in one medium shouldn’t be adapted for another we wouldn’t have a lot of the great movies we’ve had, because so many of them came from novels.”

He added that’s he’s at an advantage with this adaptation because the main character is unhindered by extra plot-lines or characters.

“What’s nice about this game is that it’s so sparse, so you can start building right away.

“This is a game that catches you unaware — it catches you on an emotional and experiential level, not just for the puzzles you solve,” he added.

“With a lot of games you’re caught trying to please the fans and the mainstream audience. What’s so nice about this game is that it’s all seen through such an adult lens, so that what pleases the fans also pleases a wider audience.”

More through the link.

Killzone 2 has sold 500,000 units, making it the fastest selling first-party title for PS3.

That’s a record according to SCEA’s VP of marketing, Scott Steinberg.

Saying that Sony is “extremely happy with the results,” the exec revealed that Killzone 2 was the highest-selling SCEA PS3 title for the first 30 days out of launch.

Full thing over on Game Daily.

Gearbox has changed the art style of upcoming shooter Borderlands to appear more like a comic book.

According to a post over on the Gearbox forums, community manager Ennui explains why a cel-shaded look has been favored over the realistic approach seen since the game was announced in 2007.

“We do care about all our fans, no doubt, and the decision to alter the art style was assuredly not one taken or made lightly… Though there’s always the chance some people could be turned off by the style, it was decided that, overall, it fits the game and creates a more visually interesting experience,” he wrote.

“The entire world has life to it, from the creatures to the very rocks and dirty walls,” Ennui said.

“The game world is no less gritty, dirty, or harsh — all of the detail is there, and the environments have even more atmosphere. We solicited feedback from our focus testing initiative, which consists entirely of a very large pool of gamers from all walks of life, and in the end, the choice was clear for us.”

Keep watching. You’re going to see more on this very soon.

Prototype will not release in the UK on June 9 with the rest of Europe, but will instead grace its shores on June 12.

Sorry kids.

Proof is in the press release posted below.

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Sony’s to reveal the first batch of Killzone 2 multiplayer DLC on Spike tonight.

“Hermen Hulst, Managing Director from Guerrilla Games will be joining Spike’s GameTrailers TV at 12:30 am this evening (late Thursday/early Friday) to reveal details about the first DLC for Killzone 2,” said SCEA’s Jeff Rubenstein, speaking on the PS Blog.

What is it? Maps ‘n’ modes, at a guess. We’ll know soon enough.