Monthly Archives: April 2009

Ian Livingstone has been promoted to “life president” of Eidos, following the acquisition of the publisher by Square Enix.

“I’m delighted with new role of life president as it gives me the opportunity to further promote the good ship Eidos and the industry too. I never get tired talking about games,” said the UK industry stalwart.

Does that mean he’s president until he’s dead? Like being married to Eidos? We’re unsure. Whatever. Congrats, Ian. Thanks, GI.

Infinity Ward comms boss Rob Bowling’s confirmed by Twitter that a patch is on the way to “elminate the cheaters in COD4 on Xbox 360.”

It’s Cheat Week, clearly. Only last night, Nelson reset some Gamerscores on filthy Gears 2 cheater accounts.

Do you cheat at Call of Duty 4? You reign of terror is so over, you goddamn cheater.

Yet more rumour on the upcoming PSP revisions: according to 1UP, it’s called PSP Go!, and will come with 8 or 16GB of flash memory.

The site claims it does have a sliding screen.

Apparently it’s to launch in in Japan this September with a US debut coming in either late October or early November.

More than 100 games are to support the UMD-less release, including the PSP version of Gran Turismo.

True? We’ve been watching the mountains for months. It’s going to be announced at E3.

Namco has confirmed to IGN that Tekken 6 will hit the PSP this autumn.

The game is to be released alongside the PS3 and Xbox 360 version and includes additional stages, content, items, and multiplayer featuring both original and fan favorite characters and a “Ghost” Infrastructure mode. This mode allows players to upload their character data and compare it with data complied by others.

“With a growing roster of fighters, each equipped with their own deadly techniques, martial art moves, and attack combinations, Tekken 6 will be the best ‘King of Iron Fist Tournament’ yet,” said a Manco rep.

“Adding to the already rich gaming experience, a deeper character customization feature will only enhance the incredible fighting intensity as players go mano-y-mano.”

Sounds lovely.

We’ve known for a while now that Worms was heading to iPhone, but were unsure how it would look until this video popped up.

Team 17 Software announced it back in March 2008.

Looks decent for an iPhone game.

See for yourself.

More »

Street Fighter IV will support Games for Windows Live when it arrives on PC this summer.

The usual bout of multiplayer and Achievements can be expected to go along with it.

That should make the PC gaming set happy enough.

Via Joystiq.

Ignition and Tecmo announced today that Nostalgia will be heading to DS in September.

Gaming veterans Keisuke Kikuchi (Fatal Frame, Tokobot), Naoki Morita (Sakura Taisen), Yoshiteru Tsujino (Far East of Eden), and Takuhito Kusanagi (Grandia, Blue Submarine No.6, Samurai 7) have all had a hand in it.

Set in an alternate-reality version of 19th-century Earth, Nostalgia casts you as Eddie who along with his motley bunch of companions travel the globe in a steampunk-inspired zeppelin.

“I knew this game had such potential when I saw Mr. Morita’s project book. It is an adventure game set in another Earth, offering an enjoyable story that involves various different cultures in many diverse locations,” said producer Keisuke Kikuchi.

“The key element that brings the game together is the airship, the conveyance which fits its game system and world-view. I wanted to make this idea into a product for everyone to play.”

The game features anime-inspired art direction, many different locales to fight monsters, and large-scale airship battles.

More on the game after the break.
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Director James Gunn, from the “Horror Does Comedy” original series on Xbox Live, wrote on his site that Microsoft was “by far the most dreadful, non-talent friendly company” he ever worked for.

Ouch.

Gunn points out that Microsoft rejected his first film, and “cut the living shit” out of the second despite the company promising him “complete creative freedom.”

Since his second film was cut so much, Gunn presented “Sparky & Mikaela” to the firm, but apparently it was not acceptable either.

“As long as it was PG-13, with no sex, they said it would be all right,” he wrote . “So that’s what I shot. But they saw it and, again, freaked out. Obviously they had no fucking idea what PG-13 was, as they wanted me to cut the words “penis” and “vagina.” They made me cut a piece of very fake poop and a bunch of other stuff. And then, when they were done making me cut things, they took the final cut and cut it up themselves even more before airing it.”

Loads more ranting after the break.
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Registration has now opened for the Killzone Online Championships, a team-based contest with some $64,000 in prizes up for grabs.

It’s US-only, and you’ll need to be over the age of 13 to enter.

Prizes:

• 1st Place team: T-Shirt, authentic KZN Helghast Suits, DLC codes
• 2nd Place team: T-Shirt, StA 52 assault rifle replicas, DLC codes
• 3rd Place teams (x2): T-Shirt, collectable KZN Busts, DLC codes
• 5th Place teams (x4): T-Shirt, DLC codes
• 9th Place teams (x8) T-Shirt

Register here. PS Blog details here. Trailer after the break.

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The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf has indeed been canceled, reports GameBanshee.

According to an “inside industry contact,” after the success of original game, CD Projekt Red started three other Witcher projects: the console port, The Witcher 2, and another IP in the series.

Due to the current economic crunch, the studio found itself forced to cancel the unnamed Witcher IP and lay off the staff working on it. Two dozen others were let go yesterday, when it was announced internally that Rise of the White Wolf had been canceled.

The Witcher 2 was saved, though, and the remaining staff are currently working on the multiplatform title.

Still waiting on official confirmation from Atari and CD Projekt Red, so hang tight till this information is officially announced.

Nelson’s reset some Gears 2 cheaters’ Gamerscores tonight, probably while punching the air and high-fiving the rest of the Live team.

“As you know, we are committed to keeping Xbox Live a safe and fair place to play for the more than 17 million active members,” said the exec.

“As part of our regular safety monitoring we have pinpointed a group of players who have unlocked specific Gears of War 2 Achievements through an unauthorized hack. Deliberate cheats like these are in direct violation of the Xbox Live Terms of Use and will not be tolerated.

“As I post this, we’ve begun taking steps to reset the Gamerscores of the offending players.”

Some days he doesn’t even take lunch, kids. Full thing through the link.

Worlds.com has moved its lawsuit against NCsoft from Eastern Texas district court to Northern California, reports Patent Arcade.

As of May 4, the alleged infringements suit will be moved because the Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling that “limits the discretion available to a trial court to determine if a case should be dismissed if an adequate alternate forum exists.”

This means that the case has no ties to Texas, and since the patent was filed in California, it is a more appropriate area to convene the lawsuit.

Worlds.com filed suit against NCSoft back in January for alleged patent infringement on multiplayer virtual environments.

More through the link.

Capcom’s not planning to patch Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix with Trophy support.

Replying to a post over on the US PS Blog, Capcom’s John Diamonon told reader that “trophies were never promised for SFHD and aren’t going to be implemented.”

That’s that then. Another game without Trophy support for PS3 owners.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Ubisoft said on Twitter today that there are no plans to go back and provide Trophy support for Assassin’s Creed.

“No we won’t add trophies in Assassin’s Creed PS3 but there will be in Assassin’s Creed 2 for sure,” said the tweet.

So stop asking ‘em already.

The sequel will have them as it’s a mandatory requirement for all new PS3 titles.

Via Cinemablend.

Rockstar just confirmed by mail that the first Red Dead Redemption trailer is to release next week.

There’s no more detail at all. Take a look at the official site in the meantime.

Atomic Games president Peter Tamte said today that his firm was surprised by Konami removing itself from Six Days in Fallujah.

“We were informed on Thursday night that Konami had decided to pull out of Six Days in Fallujah,” he said in an official statement. “This caught us by surprise. Development of the game had been progressing very well and on schedule.

“We would very much like the opportunity to complete the game.”

We contacted Atomic and asked what the future held for the game, and whether or not other publishers had showed any interest in acquiring the controversial title. We were quickly met with a staunch, “No comment”.

When asked when more information will be made available, we were told that no specific time-frame was in place.

The title was scheduled for release in 2010 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Polish site Polygamia is rumouring that CD Projekt’s Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf has been canned.

We’ve put a call into Atari, but Joystiq, Kotaku and Shacknews have all had no comments on the matter from CD Projekt.

A thread over on the game’s official forum has drawn a response from a community manager, saying only that, “We will comment on this in official release soon.”

That doesn’t sound especially hopeful.

More soon.

It’s so on. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have all said in this ESA press release that this year’s E3 is going to be a whopper, with Microsoft’s Don Mattrick saying the company’s showing this year is going to change the way people think of home entertainment. Forever.

“Microsoft is gearing up for a big presence at E3 which will completely transform how people think about home entertainment,” said Mattrick. “We’re excited about the momentum that is building in the industry in anticipation of our June 1st media briefing, which will kick off E3 in blockbuster style.”

“Nintendo has been a long time attendee of E3 and it has our full support,” said Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime. “E3 brings a wide variety of key audiences into contact with products from many companies, including Nintendo. It’s the place where creativity is on display, and as a ‘sneak peak’ for our entire industry it helps generate excitement for gamers around the world.”

“Sony Computer Entertainment America is looking forward to another great showing at this year’s E3 Expo,” said SCEA boss Jack Tretton. “The audience of North American-based and foreign media and key industry partners makes E3 Expo an ideal place for us to unveil the latest PlayStation news and products at our press event on June 2.”

E3 runs from June 2-4 this year. It’s going to be amazing. Full thing through the link.

Halo 3 tops the Live play charts once again this week. Can’t keep a good Spartan down it seems.

Both Call of Duty games are still there, though, as well as  Left 4 Dead.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles

1. Halo 3
2. Call of Duty: World at War
3. Call of Duty 4
4. Gears of War 2
5. Left 4 Dead
6. GTA IV
7. UFC 2009 Undisputed Demo
8. RESIDENT EVIL 5
9. FIFA 09
10. Halo Wars

Get all the Arcade and Community stuff after the break.

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Steve Wiebe has set a new Donkey Kong Jr. record, according to Twin Galaxies.

The King of Kong star surpassed Ike Hall’s previous score of 1,033,000 with a massive 1,139,800.

Loads of patience there we reckon.

Attendees at E3 this year can watch Wiebe try for the fourth time to break Billy Mitchell’s Donkey Kong record on June 2.

Via Joystiq.