Monthly Archives: May 2009

If you’ve been holding out on purchasing Mass Effect for PC, now is your chance to get a great deal.

GoGamer has BioWare’s RPG on sale for $9.90, which is over $40 off the regular price.

The sale lasts through Sunday.

Via LA Examiner.

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 will support EA Sports Live Tournaments online mode.

Tournaments consist of daily, weekly and Play the Pros tournament categories. Players can log on each day to play 18 holes  and then check their daily status on the leaderboard. If you prefer, there are also weekly tournaments where you can post scores from four rounds spanning an entire week.

Play the Pros is a bit different. Instead of using a gamer-submitted leaderboard, players post their scores against actual scores accumulated from PGA golfers during a professional event.

EA Sports Live Tournaments is available on PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii.

The game releases June 8 in North America, June 18 in Australia, and June 30 in the UK for the consoles mentioned above, plus PS2 and PSP.

Watch a video of it below, followed by a lovely press release.

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Ronimo Games has confirmed that Swords and Soldiers is to land on WiiWare next week.

The 2D side-scrolling RTS contains many different campaign modes,three different factions to play as, and 25 achievements.

It will land in Europe May 15 and will run you 1000 Wii Points. No date is set for North America yet, but Ronimo promises it will arrive “soon”.

Thanks, NintendoLife.

EA has said that its upcoming sports games using Wii MotionPlus will not give gamers a competitive multiplayer advantage over those who do not have the add-on. Doesn’t

“We didn’t want to make it more beneficial for players who have MotionPlus,” said Grand Slam Tennis producer Thomas Singleton. “It’s just different.”

Differences between the two options of control will boil down to feeling and mechanics.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Grand Slam Tennis are the first ones to use WMP, and both hits stores June 8.

More over on Kotaku.

Ian Livingstone has said that Batman: Arkham Asylum was delayed for the right reasons in order to maximize the game’s potential.

“We’re expecting review scores in the 90s and clearly when you have an amazing game like Arkham Asylum, you want to maximise its potential” he told GamingIndians. “So we think it’s worthwhile going that slightly extra distance to make it the game it has to be. We’re immensely proud of what we’ve created so far.

“Rock Steady’s done an incredible job, we’ve got to 100 percent realise that dream that we have and not disappoint at the last minute. So we’re going that extra mile to make sure it’s going to be the game we think it’s going to be.

“We’re delaying it for the right reasons and no one is going to be disappointed because we’ve put in an enormous effort into it. For example, there was one person working on nothing but the cape for two years, so there are over 700 animations and sound clips attached to the cape alone. That’s why it looks so beautifully realisitic.”

There is a megaton of information in that interview. Your head will hurt afterward.

He talks about Kane and Lynch 2 targeted for September, the movie adaptation of the first game starring Bruce Willis, says the next Hitman game is currently being worked on by IO Interactive, teases the next Thief and discusses the possibility of a third Tomb Raider movie.

French gaming site EverSonic has posted what appears to be footage from Ubisoft’s upcoming Beyond Good & Evil sequel.

Nothing official suggests it other than looks, but thanks to Kotaku, you can judge for yourself after the break.

The game was announced last year, and that’s about it really.

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David Jaffe has posted a censored bit of tease over on his blog pertaining to the project he is currently working on.

Didn’t take long for someone to pick through the blurred out bits, which Jaffe quickly replaced with red bars.

Lines that can be see read:

• “Dragging him behind your car”
• “When he is launched out of a car”
• “Animation for the “human characters” needs improvement because “right now it’s so dry, it needs to feel like an action movie”
• “Character falls to the ground, crawls frantically, looks at approaching cars, trying to get away, slipping as he tried to get up”

Speculation running rampant ’round the internet has people screaming “Twisted Metal sequel”, but at this point only Jaffe and those closest to him know for sure.

Hopefully he will tell us  more at the end of the month when he promises more information.

Los Angeles County Superior Court has once again ordered 7 Studios to relinquish the source code for its game engine over to Scratch: The Ultimate DJ’s developers.

Reiterating the April 20 ruling which prevents 7 Studios from discussing the Scratch DJ project with any other company, including Activision, the judge in the case sided once again with the plaintiffs when the code was not delivered as promised.

Jack O’Donnell, manager of Scratch and CEO if Numark said that when the code is finally handed over, the game’s development start up once again.

“We are very excited to finish Scratch: The Ultimate DJ,” he said. “We hope that this clear victory ends the delay tactics employed by the defendants to date to stop our game from being completed and brought to market.

“We will continue to vigorously pursue our damages case against Activision, 7 Studios and Peterson resulting from their actions to delay and take over the Scratch game. With the injunction order, we will also now be able to move forward to complete and launch our much anticipated Scratch game.”

More over on Kotaku.

Dig Dug Remix has landed on the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch.

The game contains the original title’s 256 levels and a new version with power-ups, boss battles and an additional 35 levels. Both versions allow use of the d-pad and the ability to flick your finger on the screen.

Those who pumped the Dig Dug machine full of quarters back in the day can get it for their more modern devices for $5.99.

Thanks, D’toid.

In the PixelJunk1-4 video posted after the break, producer Matt Morton provides a walk-thu of the gameplay.

If you have been aching to get your hands on the next bit of PixelJunk, you’ll wanna watch it.

You can also hit up the US PS Blog for more, if you like.

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PlayStation Home will gave new digs up for grabs from May 14 – 21.

The Chamber apartment will be free, and the coolest part? It’s a giant treehouse.

Who doesn’t want to live in a treehouse?

Have a look at it.

There’s ya a first look at the controller for Scratch: The Ultimate DJ.

It has a “free-spinning, touch-sensitive turntable wheel”, five buttons, and a crossfader implemented on a functional peripheral created by actual turntable manufacturers Numark.

It’s also rumored to have Mp3 functionality.

Sixty songs are said to be included in the game, and in conjunction with the controller, it will run you about $100.00.

Just for giggles, here’s a shot of rival DJ Hero’s controller. Not being biased, just informative.

Need for Speed: Shift has been given the screen and video treatment by EA.

Announced back in January, the game gives you a first-person view of the race from inside the cockpit and features over 60 licensed cars.

It’s out in September for PC, PS3, PSP and Xbox 360.

Video’s after the break, screens are on Joystiq.

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Capcom’s Shawn Baxter has announced over on Capcom Unity that a community play session for the Bionic Commando multiplayer will go into full swing this evening.

To play along with the guys from Capcom, log into Xbox Live by 6:00pm EST and send a friend request to gamertag Snow Infernus.

Those added will be invited to an online party and into the game.

More through the link.

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand has sold a twelfth of the previous title in the series, 50 Cent: Bulletproof.

Released in February, the game has sold approximately 56,000 copies  in the US since April, and during the same time span, Bulletproof boasted 681,000 copies sold with 1,123,000 units in it’s lifetime.

Blood on the Sand garnered better reviews than the 2005 outing, receiving a Metacritic score of 71 compared to 47, and has been described as “a guilty pleasure” by gaming critics.

THQ hasn’t issued a comment on the figures, but it is being speculated that the Activision Vivendi merger may have put a damper on consumer expectations.

Via Kotaku.

American PS Movie Store users get HD movies Bolt, Friday the 13th, Bonneville, Casanova, and Doubt this week, along with the following list of HD television shows.

HD TV Shows

• 24  – Season 7
• 30 Rock – Season 3
• American Dad – Season 4
• Breaking Bad – Season 2
• Dollhouse – Season 1
• How I Met Your Mother – Season 4
• Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire – Season 1
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit – Season 10
• Lipstick Jungle – Season 2
• Parks & Recreation – Season 1
• Rules of Engagement – Season 3
• The Office – Season 5
• The Unit – Season 4
• The Unusuals – Season 1

The usual list of non-HD stuff along with the top downloads for the week are over on the US PS Blog.

Posted after the break is the full CG introduction to Prototype.

The video sets up the atmosphere and the story for you, and it’s full of violent content.

Hooray.

Thanks, Joystiq.

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Mythic announced today that it’s accepting applications for the Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss closed beta test.

Beta testers will have the chance to experience the playable Gargoyle race before anyone else, and is set to begin later this month.

You must be a current Ultima Online subscriber and your computer system specs, previous testing experience, community involvement and other criteria will be prerequisites for consideration.

To apply for the closed beta, hit the link.

Press release is posted below with more details.

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PC Gamer UK has been relaunched with a new design to reflect the changing face of PC gaming.

GamesRadar asked the magazine’s editor, Ross Atherton, what readers can expect with the change.

“In a world full of delicious websites such why would people spend cash on games magazines? In a nutshell, we’ve made it better,”  he said.

“Better articles, better design, better cock jokes. Most importantly, we’ve got stuff you just can’t get on the web: in-depth articles unique to PC Gamer.”

Fair enough.

The first issue of the revamped mag landed at retail yesterday.

Duke Nukem Forever artist, Chris Smith, has released some shots of the title over on his personal blog.

Stating on the page that he is currently looking for work now that 3D Realms has gone bust, Smith wrote nothing but positive things about his experience on the project.

“Two years, nine months. Now it’s over. It was fun while it lasted. I worked with an extraordinary bunch of artists, designers, and programmers. You will all be missed.”

The previously unreleased shots of the game are also posted over on D’toid.