Monthly Archives: May 2009

Details for the inFamous Special Edition were revealed today and include loads of goodies.

Limited edition postcards, a comic book based on the game, and a promotion code that gives you access an exclusive “mystery” power are all included.

You can get it at select UK retailers through pre-order or just wait and grab it on May 29.

Get a look at it over on Electronic Theatre.

There’s a trailer of Wolfenstein’s particle cannon after the break. It allows you to reduce Nazis to dust with a green beam.

Why would you not like that? It’s out for PC, PS3 and 360 this summer.

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Capcom has revealed the goods it will be presenting to attendees at E3 this year.

Here’s what being shown:

• Dark Void (PS3, 360, PC)
• Lost Planet 2 (currently 360, PC)
• Dead Rising 2 (will be “behind closed doors”)
• Spyborgs (Wii)
• Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles (Wii)
• Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP)
• Marvel vs Capcom 2 (digital release for PS3, 360)
• Fate Unlimited Codes (digital PSP release)
• Street Fighter IV (PC)
• Bionic Commando (PC)
• Mega Man Star Force 3 (DS)
• Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil (Wii)
• Capcom Mystery Game #1 (playable in booth)
• Capcom Mystery Game #2 (announced at a press conference)
• Capcom’s mobile group, Capcom Interactive

Loads of stuff to be seen, plus members of Capcom Unity will be on hand at the main booth to interact with.

Fun times.

Polish developer Nibris has updated its YouTube page with a statement saying that it will appear at E3 this year.

Funnily enough, it said the same thing about GDC 08 and never showed up. This caused the company to be accused of developing “vapourware” instead of an actual game.

Not so, said Sadness’ ex-scriptwriter Adam Artur Antolski. Turns out the game is real and the developers are still using some of the storyline and concepts Antolski came up with.

“When [I was] contacted [to start work], there was only a title – Sadness,” he said. “In about three or four days I come up with some ideas, which evolved into a script.

“We actually wanted to make a interactive movie, and there was couple of other ideas as well. When I was leaving, there was only one 3D object – some train cart I believe, which says a lot for me, most of the time Sadness was science-fiction.”

Sadness was first announced at E3 2006.

Full thing over on N-Europe.

Blimey. According to this US PS Blog post, Qore subscribers in the US are to get access to the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves multiplayer beta.

“All existing Qore subscribers will also receive a special voucher via e-mail allowing them to join the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves multiplayer Beta on June 3,” said PSN chap Kevin Furuichi.

“Everyone who becomes a new Qore subscriber on or before May 15 will also receive the Beta invitation.”

Quick! Spend some money! Throw a virtual grenade at someone in mid-Asia instead of going outside and enjoying the sunshine! Air’s for idiots, anyway. Get to it.

City of Heroes players who used exploits in the Mission Architect feature to power level their characters may get rewards earned through the dubious act revoked as a punishment.

The possibility of the character being disabled completely is also a possibility.

CoH lead designer Matt “Positron” Miller outlined the consequences over on the official forums:

• Players that have abused the reward system egregiously may lose benefits they have gained – leading up to and perhaps including losing access to the characters power-leveled in this fashion.

• Currently, some badges are being modified, and some may be removed from the game entirely. The list of changes being made to the MA badge system is not final yet, but you will be made aware when we have a concrete plan.

• Players who knowingly use an exploit when creating an arc, run the risk of having access to MA suspended, or worse- depending on the severity of the action, their account banned.

Missions that were created to exploit the system will also be deleted.

Via Massively.

Microsoft has made 75 percent of its staff at Massive redundant.

Around 100 people were let go from the in-game ad firm, which was purchased by Microsoft in 2006.

In order to reduce costs, 3000 other staffers were let go yesterday which adds to the 1400 back in January when staff from ACE, Rare and Windows Live were culled.

5000 cuts have been planned so far, but reports say more may be necessary.

More over on GI.biz.

Lionhead has stated that because of the way things were publicly handled during development of Fable I, the company had to change the way it involves people in the development process.

Promotion for Fable II was in jeopardy due to what the public considered “unfulfilled promises” with the first title, and Lionhead had to change that.

“It’s a shame that we can’t let people in on how games are developed to this degree anymore,” said Fable II creative director Dene Carter to 360 Magazine.

“The thing about Fable 1 was that we let people in on the whole development process, right from the beginning. We were more naive than anything else and hoped that our organic, blue-sky way of creating games would garner interest from the public.

“This rather backfired and we ended-up – in some cases – reading about certain features that we’d never even spoken about. The ‘acorn issue’ was a particular misquote. We never said the player could plant acorns.”

As a consequence, Lionhead’s now unable to involve the public as much it would like with current projects, which Carter called “a shame”.

“Everything has to be considered as a marketing statement,” he said. “People will hold you to any information they read as if they had read it on the back of the box.”

More through the link.

Blizzard is now accepting StarCraft II beta sign-ups.

“The StarCraft II beta-test period is coming in the months ahead! If you’d like a chance to participate, now’s the time to let us know,” reads the World of Warcraft website.

Sign in on your Battle.net profile page, submit your current system specs, and opt-in.

Beta testing will being in North America first.

According to a Twitter post made by Quincy Jones III today, Scratch: The Ultimate DJ’s turntable controller includes Mp3 functionality.

Here’s the tweet:

“The scratch video game also has a real mp3 turn table with a functional fader, just like the real thing… will keep you posted on updates.”

What this means is that it will be an actual instrument without the need of modifications.

We’ll keep you posted if you like.

Via Joystiq.

CD Projekt RED’s Adam Kicinski has released a formal statement claiming The Witcher: Rise of the Wight Wolf was suspended because “the final product will not meet the quality expectations of CD Projekt RED”.

“This decision was one of the hardest we’ve ever had to make as a company. We have put our hearts, a lot of our time and energy into this project. Because of that, development was in a very advanced stage. However, there was serious danger that we would miss our target release date, but more importantly to us, that the project would not meet our own expectations of quality. Our main goal is always to make every release better than the previous one. Unfortunately, this project was not going in the right direction. We are now looking into all possible scenarios, and we will do all we can to retain our fans’ confidence in us. We simply will not let them down; the quality of our games remains the highest priority.”

The company is currently looking for “other possible solutions to address this situation,” said the exec.

Olivier Masclef – boss of Widescreen, the game’s developer – has already told VG247 that the game was sidelined after CD Projekt failed to make payments on the title, a claim Kicinski immediately refuted.

Whoever’s to blame, it doesn’t look as though you’re going to be seeing this any time soon.

Rockstar’s released the first trailer of Red Dead Redemption, and it’s looking properly wicked.

There’s a man called Bill in it, and it’s got a Gatling gun, and some horses, and strong men dying under the sun, and tons of other shit that makes us probably think that this is going to be something we will part money for.

Watch and see. Out later this year.

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Ars Technica’s posted up impressions of 3DV’s motion-sensing tech, and if you have more than two brain cells you should be paying attention – there’s more than a little rumour doing the rounds that this is heading to 360, and may well be announced at E3.

Pro-tip: if the things we’ve been told off the record in the last few days are true, you would be very wise to read that article.

Those that pre-order Brutal Legend at Gamestop will get an in-game Tenacious D, EA just confirmed.

Blurb:

Reserve Brutal Legend and receive a GameStop Exclusive Tenacious D in-game guitar. This amazing piece of badness will feature an entirely new and different suite of effects – not only a unique, sexy body inspired by the members of Tenacious D, but new sound effects, new voice over work from Jack Black and Kyle Gass and a new visual effects suite – trust us, it’s going to rule very, very hard. This epic guitar will also be seen by other players in multiplayer, albeit briefly, as you destroy them with this GameStop Exclusive Guitar. Available for online and in-store customers while supplies last.

It’s $59.99. Just do it. It’s going to be amazing.

BioShock 3 could also take place in the underwater city of Rapture, says 2K Marin.

Speaking with OXM, creative director Jordan Thomas said that Rapture is “so core to BioShock it has to feature in some form. It’s one of the characters we don’t want to let go.”

“I think Rapture remains fertile for as much expansion as a team sees in it,” he said. “I absolutely believe that there might be future games set in Rapture in whatever time period, but I would also say that I think that the BioShock brand is big enough that it could evolve.”

In the interview, Thomas also said that BioShock 2 contains unspliced NPCs that you will interact with.

“With BioShock 2 we’re actually going to make sure that you have some strong and unforgettable encounters with unspliced characters that you can develop genuine empathy for, who will not be trying to hide their face from the camera,” he added.

Thanks, CVG.

EVE Online turned six years old today, with CCP announcing a 300,000 subscriber milestone in celebration.

The single-shard sci-fi MMO started 2009 with 244,000 players, the number rising 22 percent in five months.

Press release after the break.

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Epic said today that Gears of War 2 has sold over 5 million copies worldwide, and that the Gears franchise has now surpassed the 11 million unit mark.

This announcement came as part of a press release detailing the new retail pack The Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection, which contains all previous DLC plus seven new multiplayer maps.

You can read more about it through the press release after the break.

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Epic will release all Gears of War 2 DLC content into one retail package titled the Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection on July 28.

It contains previously released DLC Combustible, Flashback, Snowblind as well as Dark Corners, which contains seven new multiplayer map packs along with a deleted campaign called Road to Ruin, which has Dom and Marcus returning to the Locust Hollow and features a stealth mode.

Other contents include an introductory video, a premium theme, poster, and strategy guide.

The Gears of War 2: All Fronts Collection will run you $19.99, and details for the Road to Ruin section are posted from the press release after the break.

Dark Corners will also be made available individually for 1600 MS Points the same day.

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Atari president Jim Wilson has confirmed that Ghostbusters will release on multiplatforms in the US come June, and that Sony will only publish the PlayStation versions in PAL regions.

“The Sony Computer Entertainment partnership is exclusive to Europe, Atari is going to be publishing on all platforms in the US on June 16,” Wilson told GI.biz.

“We assessed the situation of the Ghostbusters franchise in Europe and saw that a united partnership with Sony was the best approach to maximise the long-term value of the franchise.

“We have an opportunity here to have first-party support behind such a significant franchise and the opportunity to then go back and publish the other SKUs later on.”

The release on other formats will not depend on how well the Sony versions sell, and that Atari would make “an announcement sometime soon on the status of those platforms but we would expect them to go out later this year.”

Sony revealed earlier today that it was to publish the PlayStation SKUs of the game in PAL regions in June.

Epic president Mike Capps has dubbed talk of a Nano.Strike project from the company as “rumor”.

“You won’t be surprised when we give you the standard ‘we don’t comment on rumors or speculation’ answer,” said the boss via email when responding to our inquiry over recent faceplate and game patents filed for Nano.Strike.

“Sorry. I promise, that is way less fun to say than when I get to talk about the cool stuff we do. And of course, when we have stuff to say, we’ll tell ya.”

Rumors last week suggested Nano.Strike could be the psychological horror game Cliff Bleszinski was rumored to be working on back in November of last year, or an undisclosed People Can Fly project.

You never know what Epic has up its sleeve though. Hopefully it’ll give us something to chew on at E3.