Monthly Archives: April 2009

It’s bloody Live-tastic this morning. The Bionic Commando multiplayer demo just went up, Nelson’s confirmed, which means you should probably go and get it now.

You’ll get eigth-way deathmatch for your trouble. The full game’s out next month.

The XBLA remake of Banjo-Tooie is now up. It’ll cost you 1,200 MS Points.

Details from Nelson.

Nelson’s confirmed the release of the Live version of Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram.

It’s 1,200 MS Points. Don’t think. Just buy.

Bohemia’s ArmA II will release for PC in Europe on June 26.

The title is billed as offering the “most realistic warfare ever,” and will go up against Codemasters’ Dragon Rising.

Press release after the break.

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Blood Bowl developer Cyanide has told Eurogamer that its relationship with Games Workshop may continue that’s to its bursting IP vault.

“If Games Workshop continues to trust us, then sure, why not,” said Cyanide’s Antoine Villepreux. “They have got other ‘forgotten’ IPs that we think deserve videogame adaptations.”

Intriguing. Space Hulk, please.

Full thing through the link.

Remember the cable car station and sequence in Return to Castle Wolfenstein? The obvious homage to Where Eagles Dare? Doesn’t sound like you’re going to get anything similar for the next in the series.

“While we don’t have any obvious moments like the cable car station from Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the team was definitely influenced by many sources,” creative director Eric Biessman told VG247.

He added: “In general there are many, many great movies, books, shows, games and even music that have given the people on the team inspiration for Wolfenstein. You never know when you’ll see or hear something that gives you a great idea.”

The game’s releasing this summer for PC, PS3 and 360. It’s a must-have for shoot fans, even though you can’t live out your childhood Richard Burton fantasies a few thousand feet above a snow-laden German valley. No, not those ones, you disgusting little boy.

Don’t forget: the XBLA version of Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram releases today for 1,200 MS Points. There’s a 90-second gameplay trailer after the break.

Buy it. We’ll fight you later.

Thanks, Kotaku.

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Red Steel 2 will make use of Wii MotionPlus, according to the next issue of Nintendo Power.

The game’s on the cover of the magazine, which claims, “Finally, wielding a sword in a Wii game feels as real as you’d always dreamed.”

You don’t want to know about the sword dreams we have. They’re horrible.

More on Gamespot. The game has no date as yet.

Namco’s to release a new Soul Calibur game, Broken Destiny, on PSP this year.

It’s based on SC4 and will feature wireless play, as you’d expect.

There’s a Gamespot interview with the director after the break. It’ll be out this summer.

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Adept iPhone puzzler Trixel’s released on the App Store – hit this to buy it.

The 100-level puzzler costs £1.79 if you’re in the UK. That isn’t very much money. Dan Boutros, him what did your Street Fighter IV review, was one of the developers on it, so help him out. He’s really poor and needs new shoes.

Capcom can’t release newly-announced fight revamp Marvel Vs Capcom 2 on Wii because it only has download rights for the game.

“This is a downloadable play, not a retail play,” said Capcom’s ever-present Christian Svennson.

“We don’t actually have any retail rights on this project. And there’s no way to get anywhere near the Wiiware filesize limit here.”

Unfortunate. If you don’t own a 360 or PS3. Don’t forget the PS3 demo this week, 2D scrapper fans.

BioShock 2 has multiplayer. We don’t know what it is yet, but we do know it’s going to leave the single-player game out of it. Phew.

“We recognise that people might be cynical about a multiplayer mode,” lead level designer Hogarth de la Plante told Gameplayer.

“A lot of us are big single player fans also so in no way does it compromise the single-player experience.”

Producer Mellisa Miller added that the decision to include online play had not been taken “lightly,” but refused to detail the new mode.

2K Marin has been very cagey on the sequel’s multiplayer options so far. E3′s the place for you, BioShock multiplayer fan.

The PC specs for Batman: Arkham Asylum have been released via the Eidos forums. It’s not for slouches, from the look of it.

Minimum:

• CPU: Intel single core 3 Ghz or AMD equivalent
• Memory: XP = 1 GB, Vista = 2GB
• GPU: Shader Model 3 NVidia 6600 or ATI 1300 or higher

Recommended:

• CPU: Pentium D 3Ghz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Dual core)
• Memory: XP = 2GB, Vista = 3GB
• GPU: NVidia 7900 GT or higher

Enhanced for multi-core

Online features:

• Friends
• Achievements

Still no date. The game’s being strongly tipped, so keep a good eye out. Thanks, Blue.

IGN popped up six new movies of the upcoming Klonoa remake overnight, showing the cat-dog thing jumping, running and doing other cat-dog thing stuff.

It’s out this year for Wii, and charges the protagonist with saving the land of Phantomile. Gripping stuff.

Used games supplied almost 50 percent gross profit margin (gross profit divided by total revenue) to Gamestop’s in the last fiscal year, according to this Gamasutra piece.

The figure compares to 21 percent for new software, and a shocking 6 cents in the dollar for new hardware.

Gross profit margins on used software have, however, increased only 1.44 percent in the past three years.

Every other segment has seen a decrease in gross profit margins during the same period: new hardware down 1.4 percent and new software down 2.6 percent.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Mobile game publisher Gameloft has reportred a 22 percent rise in takings for its first quarter this year.

Revenue hit €30.8 million in the period, up from €25.3 million in fiscal 2008.

Europe accounted for 35 percent of sales, North America 37 percent, and 29 percent for the rest of the world.

Strongest growth was seen in North America, up 57 percent year-on-year.

Press release here.

Some new screens of TripWire zombie shooter Killing Floor popped up last night – get them from GameInfoWire.

The game’s being described as “Dead Alive meets The Re-Animator” and a “grindhouse exploitation horror film”.

It’s out sometime this year. No formats confirmed.

MCV’s published an internal Empire memo which suggests that rumour of the company’s demise were on the money.

“It has been widely reported online that we have entered administration – this has not yet occurred. However it is highly likely that administrators will be appointed in the next few days,” said the note.

“It is also likely that administrators will move to make all the staff redundant. I anticipate that formal redundancy notices will be sent out to all staff upon appointment of the administrators. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this is the unfortunate reality of our current situation.”

Sorry about that, Empire people. Full thing through the link.

A two-hour “animated presentation” Mass Effect prequel is on the way to iPhone, according to this Kotaku story.

The game is to include top-down arcade-style space combat, and will detail Jacob’s story. We don’t know who Jacob is, but there we are.

The title’s been revealed by a marketing survey, according to that piece, and features “a biotic-powered super-soldier who stumbles across a plot to terrorize civilization’s greatest beacon of hope”. It’s to cost $2.99.

No date, or official confirmation at this point. Full thing through there.

Capcom said on its Twitter last night that it still has two more games to announce at E3.

It’ll be Flock 2, or something. The publisher properly shot its load with CAPTIVATE coverage yesterday, all of which you can find here.

Thanks, Joystiq.