Monthly Archives: April 2009

Platinum director Hideki Kamiya doesn’t want you to enjoy Bayonetta. He wants you to be wounded by it.

“With Bayonetta, we would hate for someone to think it is a heartwarming tale and then buy the game to discover it is really a sadistically hard game,” said the developer in this blog post.

Further, Kamiya promised the game is replete with “hardcore battle action.”

He developed Devil May Cry, so he probably knows what he’s talking about.

Bayonetta features a sexy witch going beserk with her hair “do”. It’s out later this year for 360 and PS3.

Thanks, Joystiq.

There’s a live chat with the Insomniac kids on the PS Blog today, kicking off at 1.00pm PST. That’s 9.00pm GMT for the Brit bods.

The developers are going to be taking questions on the newly-announced Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, so make sure you get over there and ask away.

These PS Blog chats are a bit of a bun-fight, but a good laugh. Give it a whizz later on.

Full details here.

Yes, it’s true. Rod Fergusson, executive producer of Gears of War 2, is a Killzone 2 player. We know because he told us.

“I play a lot of things,” he said, talking at GDC last week. “I play World of Warcraft. Most recently I finished 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, which was a lot of fun. I’ve been playing some Killzone, I’ve been playing some RE5.

“I got through all 55 doors of Peggle on Xbox Live… I’m kind of all over the place in terms of games.”

Fergusson’s not a big horror game fan, though.

“I struggle with horror games like Dead Space. I can’t distance myself from things I’m watching, so I don’t keep a professional distance,” he said.

“I’m the guy that cries in Bambi and jumps in thriller movies.”

So there you have it. You reckon Guerrilla’s finished Gears 2 on Insane?

A European Tomb Raider PSP double pack – to include Tomb Raider: Legend and Tomb Raider: Anniversary – is to release on April 10.

Should be fun, innit? Press release after the break.

More »

Crytek boss Cevat Yerli’s told GI it doesn’t expect Cloud gaming to be viable until at least 2013.

“We had our research in 2005 on this subject but we stopped around 2007 because we had doubts about economics of scale. But that was at a time when bandwidth was more expensive,” he said.

“We saw that by 2013 – 2015 with the development of bandwidths and household connections worldwide that it might become more viable then.”

It’s netcon speeds, not video rendering, that’s letting the side down, Yerli said.

“It doesn’t take a lot to make a video-based renderer, but what you need is the right infrastructure that is beyond the technology we have, it’s more like cable net providers and communication networks.

“They have to provide fast bandwidths and connectivity in order to allow such technology to excel. So as it was dependent on somebody else, we decided to wait,” he added.

More through there.

Sony’s launched the Official UK LBP YouTube channel, as well as an Around the World in 80 Sackboys competition.

You’ll need to create levels based on world landmarks to get involved. Win, and you’ll get a round the world trip for two and £1,000 spending money.

Full details after the link.

More »

According to the PS Blog, today’s Qore episode is going to cost precisely nothing. Great if you’re American.

There’s stuff in the downloadable mag on Red Faction: Guerrilla, Fat Princess and inFamous. All good.

Video about it all after the break.

More »

Microsoft, probably seething with rage at being left out of the console software update party this morning, has released a Firmware update for Xbox 360.

Don’t shit yourself just yet. It doesn’t do anything you’ll notice.

“This update addresses interruption issues that some Xbox Live users may have experienced when playing a limited number of Xbox 360 games,” said Nelson.

“There are no other changes or enhancements in this update. In other words no new features.”

Rubbish. Add text chat for 16 people Microsoft, eh? There’s a war going on, you know.

SCEA marketing boss John Koller has told VG247 that Sony expects both PS3 and PS3 sales to rise up to 15 percent on a global level in the coming year.

The company has yet to confirm complete hardware figures for its fiscal year – its fourth quarter ended in March – but said both consoles have seen record sales in the past 12 months.

“We’ve been very bullish on PSP,” said Koller. “We had our largest sales year ever last year, and we’d look to go about 10-15 percent north of that this year.

“It’s for a number of reasons, but primarily because of the entertainment packs and line-up of software that’s coming. The software line-up alone should drive a lot of hardware sales.”

Koller said the story for PS3′s current position was a similar one.

“For PS3 I’ll stay general as well, but we also had our best sales year for PS3 last year and we’ll look to go north of that by a similar percentage.

“That’s being driven by, in a lot of ways, by our first-party software line-up, which is outstanding, but there’s some third-party titles coming. The line-up’s very strong.”

The exec added: “What I mentioned there was North America-focused, but you could probably extrapolate that globally as well.”

Sony has yet to confirm when it’s to announce its final 2008 results, but news of upward-looking hardware sales will delight both fans and trade alike.

Sony showed rough figures for the third quarter, with game division sales for the Holiday season down 32 percent year-on-year.

Climb down from DEFCON 1, people. Sega’s secret Project Ringo thing‘s just another Puyo Pop game.

According to the latest Famitsu, Puyo Puyo 7 will hit Wii, DS and PSP.

The DS version will arrive first, releasing in Japan on July 30, with other versions expected to follow much later in the year.

Thanks 1UP and Kotaku.

Filefront isn’t closing, the site has said, having been bought by its original founders from Ziff.

“FileFront has been acquired by the original founders of the site and will NOT be suspended as previously announced,” says a message on the site.

“This is NOT an April Fool’s Joke.”

You go, Filefront. The site was cut adrift from Ziff last month.

David Perry’s confirmed a name for his Cloud gaming service, which is to be called Gaikai.

The Acclaim boss has told GI he believes his take on console-less gaming will win out over OnLive thanks to the fact there’s no need for a browser plug-in the play its games.

OnLive requires a 1Mb download to work on PC and Mac.

“Our solution is arguably better than anything OnLive has – they’re never going to be able to beat us on this,” said Perry in an exclusive interview published today.

“They have to download 1Mb and install it on your computer. What does that mean? It means that everyone in schools, or any kind of uptight or professional business location is not going to be able to download some random game via the internet and install it.”

There’s an interview here.

This is the best laugh we’ve had this morning. Volition’s released a video of Red Faction: Guerilla’s “ostrich hammer,” a multiplayer weapon in the form of an… ostrich.

Watch it. It’s funny. It features people getting angry and swearing.

You may want to look at this for background.

Pandemic’s launched an official site tag for Saboteur, confirming the long-awaited action game for a 2009 release, according to this Joystiq story.

It’s PS3 and 360, and set in WWII Paris.

There’s info through there on a “Will to Fight” mechanic. The developer reckons the city and action change and react to you as “you free it from Nazi oppression and restore hope and grandeur to” the French capital.

Tres bon. Hit this for new screens.

Ys Online: The Call of Solum is about to go into a second closed beta, and you can be a part of it.

The test goes live this month, and will include new features such as new class specializations, a raised level cap of 40, a PVP system, four new instances and three new dungeons.

Keys are limited, and can be grabbed from the Key to Play website or Ys Online official site.

Press release below.

More »

Level-5 president Akihiro Hino has told Nikkei Trendy that current adoption rates of PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 pose a problem for modern third-parties.

“There isn’t a clear winning system,” said the Professor Layton creator. “This is a problem for a company like mine.”

Level 5 believes that games created for only one system won’t sell as well – plus developers who focus on 360 and PS3 are more concerned over HD format than the consumer.

“This is why the Wii has sold better than the other two platforms,” he added. “It’s a truly difficult era.”

When you factor in handheld adoption rates, said the exec, DS blows all others out of the water.

“As a publisher, we can’t just not develop for consoles,” he added.

“We considered quite a bit and have now pretty much decided on the direction that should be taken. We were able to make many popular series like Professor Layton, Inazuma Eleven, and Ni no Kuni.

“We will use such series as weapons to evolve our console business.”

Thanks, GoNintendo and Andriasang.

There’s a debut trailer of the PSP-exclusive .hack//LINK after the break.

But out of the blue. The game will end the series, according to Joystiq.

There’s some floaty characters there, and a bit of fighting. Not much.

No idea when it’s out. Thanks, PS3Hyper.

More »

Sony’s released PS3 Firmware 2.70 – you can download it now.

The update adds text chat and a bunch of other features you can read about here.

There’s an SCEA video through that link detailing everything for you.

Get to it!

Sony’s confirmed some of the features of the upcoming PS3 Firmware 2.70, including text chat, some movie playback and storage stuff and the fact your Friends list’s going to be seen on the XMB.

Get full details from the PS Blog.

There’s a video of PSN director Eric Lempel talking everything through after the break.

Expect the download “soon”.

More »

Frictional Games is currently working on a new puzzle-oriented game titled Unknown.

Looks like it will be following in the same footsteps as the firm’s previous titles Penumbra: Overture and Penumbra: Black Plague.

The game is slated for a Q2 release in 2010. There’s a video of it posted after the break.

More »