Monthly Archives: April 2009

Flock! has a PC patch available for download via Capcom.

The fix list includes some of the strangest improvements we have ever seen:

Fixes:

• Async loading crash
• Windows vs fullscreen crash
• Leaderboards exploit

Improvements:

• Reduced time it takes for pigs to eat poo piles
• Increased total amount of boost for UFO
• Increased UFO speed when carrying objects

Get the patch over on the Capcom Unity blog.

Capcom’s releasing a multiplayer Bionic Commando demo on Xbox Live tomorrow.

The demo lets players compete in Deathmatch battles on the Vertigo map.

No word on a PSN demo yet.

Game’s out May 22 for PS3 and Xbox 360 with a PC version coming later on.

Thanks, Videogamer.

The CAPTIVATE embargo just lifted, revealing impressions on Dead Rising 2, Lost Planet 2 and plenty me. Don’t trawl the web: we’ll do it for you. We’ll add everything as it appears.

Lost Planet 2

• Eurogamer preview
• Eurogamer screens
• Eurogamer.fr boss battle trailer
• “Downloadable Lost Planet 2 demo at E3″ (Eurogamer)
• Lost Planet 2 Demo Announced, PS3, PC Versions Possible (Kotaku)
• IGN jungle combat trailer
• “Capcom: We’re only working on 360 Lost Planet 2″ (NowGamer)
• Unity details
• IGN preview

Dead Rising 2

• Eurogamer preview
• Kotaku impressions
• “Dead Rising 2 does have multiplayer” (Eurogamer)
• Eurogamer.fr screens
• 1UP preview
• IGN preview

Dark Void

• Eurogamer hands-on
• Eurogamer.fr gameplay trailer
• Eurogamer.fr announce trailer
• Eurogamer.fr screens
• Eight direct-feed IGN videos
• Kotaku impressions

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles

• Eurogamer preview
• Eurogamer.fr screens
• Destructoid trailer
• IGN preview
• Kotaku impressions

Spyborgs

• Eurogamer screens
• Eurogamer.fr trailer
• Gamespot hands-on
• IGN preview
• Kotaku impressions

Resident Evil Archives

• Eurogamer screens
• “Resident Evil Wiimake out this June” (Eurogamer)

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite

• Eurogamer.fr screens
• “Sony plans major Monster Hunter push” (Eurogamer)
• PSP Bundle and Demo Announced (Kotaku)

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

• Eurogamer.fr screens
• Eurogamer.fr trailer
• “Ace Attorney Investigations Hits North American DS This Winter” (Kotaku)

Hideo Kojima was at the Apple Store in Ginza as part of the store’s Dream Classroom series, and after giving a small speech, opened the floor to a lively Q&A session.

During the session, he was asked when he plans on quitting the industry, to which he responded:

“I’d like to continue being on the scene making games until I die.”

Jokingly, the only thing that would hinder such a lofty goal is the chance to go into space.

The obvious question regarding his next game was asked, and in not so many words he told the audience to keep an eye out at E3.

We knew that already though.

Hit up Adriasang for the rest.

A Need for Speed: Shift demo will release at some point this summer, producer Jesse Abney has told GameTrailers in an interview.

The tester will include a sample of driver advancement, the developer said, but didn’t offer any information on date or platform.

Thanks, Blue.

Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada has told the Financial Times that Japan’s games industry is “almost xenophobic”.

Which is a bit of a shame.

“In the last five to 10 years, the Japanese games industry has become a closed environment, with no new people coming in, no new ideas, almost xenophobic. It is now slightly behind western counterparts,” he said.

Wada is taking steps to get his company out into the West, the most significant so far being its acquisition of Eidos. He’s still got more to do, though.

“The combination of Eidos and Square Enix gives us a good platform from which to expand. In that process, we might decide to acquire another company,” Wada said.

Thanks, Edge.

Details for Rebellion’s Alien vs. Predator just keep popping up.

Looks like it’s aimed for the adult crowd, with the Predator being able to grab a nearby space marine, snap his neck and then rip the head off with the spinal cord still attached. Just like the movies.

Said head will continue to blink and gasp too. Violent isn’t it?

Predators move a bit slower than in the last game, and per usual, can run around on walls, ceilings, and any other surface that gives it an advantage.

Still no exact release date for the game, but it has been confirmed for both PS3 and Xbox 360 so far.

More over on Kotaku.

Finnish Super Stardust HD developer Housemarque is working on three new IPs for different platforms, including a PSN exclusive, a multiplatform title, and a self-published game called Rope.

“They’re both in matters we haven’t dealt with before,” said company boss Ilari Kuittinen.

“One of the games is a PSN exclusive for Sony again, continuing our good relationship with them. And that’s gonna be as far as we know, announced at [GamesCom 2009 this August in] Cologne.”

Kuittinen added: “We are doing also currently our first multiplatform game, for a leading publisher. Again, something different from the past. We haven’t done this kind of a game genre before.”

More on Gama.

The Old Republic’s forums, down for “scheduled maintenance” for the last few hours, have now reopened with the words “gay,” “lesbian” and “homosexual” now usable.

The subject of whether or not the terms were allowed on the site has caused threads the be deleted by mods, with the matter coming to a head today with a mod claiming the terms “do not exist in Star Wars” before locking a thread on the matter.

After what looks to be some quick decision-making, mod Sean Dalhberg has now added that, “I would like to clarify that no one was suspended or banned from this website for any discussions on this subject with the exception of individuals who were being derogatory and insulting to others.

“Those posts have been removed and the posters dealt with. But, just to be clear, the original poster on this topic was not suspended or banned.”

Looks like The Old Republic will have rampant homosexuality after all. That’ll learn you, Mr Star Wars.

A listing over on Xbox360achievements suggests that Sega’s Gunstar Heroes may be coming to Xbox Live Arcade sometime soon.

Achievements for the game are worth 200 in total and range from all major boss battles to beginning the game with each weapon.

Sega has yet to announce the run and gunner, so until it’s made official, keep your shirt on.

Via Joystiq.

XBLA title 1 vs. 100 Live, based on the TV game show, will be free for Gold members when it lands on the service this spring.

It’s being called a massively multiplayer online game complete with live players, new content each time you log in, live events and real hosts.

Again, it’s free.

You can find out more about it through the link.

As you can see from the game’s official site, SOE’s Free Realms is launching today.

The MMO’s aimed at teenagers, but that probably won’t stop some of you. You can be a goblin with a traffic cone. Or a squirrel. It doesn’t get much better than that.

We’ll let you know when it goes live.

After the break. There’s some gun-jumping going on here. All the CAPTIVATE assets aren’t supposed to be released until 4.00pm GMT today.

But there we are. Chuck Greene! Watch watch watch.

More »

Atari is to release Brain Exercise with Dr Kawashima in PAL regions, the company said today.

The PC brain game is out on May 29.

Kawashima was the inspiration behind Nintendo’s mind-bendingly successful Brain Training titles.

Press release after the break.

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Need for Speed: Shift producer Jesse Abney would like to work with Criterion on Need for Speed projects.

“You know, Criterion’s got a great heritage in racing games, and I think they would be a great team to work with on that stuff, certainly from a personal opinion,” he said, talking in London last week.

“There’s always question about how does Burnout exist, and vice versa. We’ll be hoping for the best in the future.”

Criterion, as you’re all well aware, has been beavering away on Burnout Paradise DLC for the past year. Future projects are unannounced.

Need for Speed: Shift releases for PC, PS3, 360 and PSP this autumn.

Worried Dead Space: Extraction’s violence will be diluted for Wii? Fret no more. It isn’t.

“We’re definitely not planning to water it down at all for the Wii, but again, we’re not going to add in shock value just to have that,” the game’s exec producer, Steve Papoutsis, told VG247 in London last week.

“First and foremost we want to make a great game, and we want to make a great game that makes sense in the Dead Space universe.”

The on-rails shooter isn’t gratuitous, though, Papoutsis hastened to add.

“When we were working on Dead Space the original, we wanted to make a game that was terrifying, action-packed, kind of hit on all those things that people want to experience in a survival action horror game. We went all-out to do that,” he said.

“I think now that the expectation is that a Dead Space game has those kind of elements. We’re not going out of our way to make it extremely violent, it’s just the story is what the story is, and it’s not a pretty story.”

Extraction’s out this autumn, exclusively for Wii.

Capcom’s put out another trailer for Bionic Commando, this one showing off the game’s general combat. Get it after the break.

The third-person actioner’s out on May 19 in the US, June 25 in Japan and May 22 in Europe.

Thanks, Kotaku.

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Square Enix has applied for a US trademark for Dragon Quest Wars, as you can see here.

We have precisely no idea what this is. It may well be nothing.

More as it happens. Thanks, superannuation.

Dante’s Inferno dev lead Jonathan Knight has told VG247 that you can expect his game will get DLC. He’s just not ready to discuss it yet.

“No information on that at this time, but we’ll be talking about that probably later in the year,” said the developer, talking at EA’s spring showcase last week.

There was little information on date, either.

“All I can tell you is next year, not this Chrstmas,” Knight added.

The game itself is set in the nine circles of Hell from the Divine Comedy, but whether or not we’re going to see areas added is unknown as yet.

The title looked in decent form at the event, sporting 60 frames a second gameplay and looking for all the world like Devil May Cry gone west.

More on this soon.

Microsoft’s surveyed punters in the US on the subject of Avatars, again hinting that Achievement-based gear in the on the way for the Rare-developed virtual men and women.

This isn’t the first time Microsoft’s mentioned the concept. Rare art head Lee Musgrave told VG247 in February that, “In time… games will be able to give away clothes and accessories just like Achievements.”

Yep: you will probably soon be able to beat someone up in Street Fighter and win a pink cap for your Avatar. See the full survey on Kotaku.