Monthly Archives: June 2009

Front Mission Evolved has gone from a strategy title, to an action title, and apparently shooters are to blame for the change.

According to the game’s development director Jeremy Lee, Double Helix decided to change things around so players can feel what it’s like to be in a “Wanzer yourself in and action setting.”

“We have been playing a lot of action games over the last year or so – Call of Duty and Rainbow Six: Vegas mainly,” Lee told The Gaming Vault during E3. “We as a team have always wanted to do something like this and this particular franchise we decided would fit in and be a great opportunity. The gameplay is kind of like the Call of Duty experience, where you have two teams with one goal to work for.

“For some people it would be very shocking for Front Mission to be an action game, previous Front Mission games have fun in different areas before, but now there are Front Mission alternatives in RTS, which is its traditional haunt.

“The Front Mission universe is big enough to hold different genres, so we think that when people get the chance to feel what its like to be in a Wanzer yourself in an action setting, we think they’ll really like it – it feels really good.”

Still no exact date for release, but its has been rumored for a March 2010 launch on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

More through the link.

Thanks, Michael.

The Uncharted 2 live chat is ongoing with Naughty Dog, and Evan Wells just stated that fans can expect another demo to land soon.

“Yes, we’re going to have another multiplayer demo before the game hits shelves. The exact timing isn’t finalized yet, but it should be available to an even wider group this time, so if you missed the last one I don’t think you’ll have any problem getting in this one.”

Good news then for the rest of us.

Chat is through here.

Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells has just said in a live chat over at the US PlayStation Blog that a release date is still forthcoming but the date will be announced “very soon.”

Evan Wells: We still haven’t announced our release date. So for now it’s still “Fall”, but I assure you that an official date will be announced very soon.

Here’s hoping it’s sooner rather than later.

Get more from the live chat here.

Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey believes that StarCraft II will not be released until 2010 due to lead designer Dustin Browder’s comments regarding “four to six months” worth of Beta testing.

With Blizzard stating that the game is set to be released during fall/holiday 2009, Hickey feels that this will be pushing it.

“We find it increasingly probably that the game will be released in [Activision's] fiscal ’10 period,” he told Gamasutra.

He also sees WoW’s way forward to be a bit rough due to the “looming competition in the West from new MMORPGs”.

More predictions through the links.

Via BigDownload.

Red Faction: Guerrilla screens have been released by Volition.

There’s five of ‘em showing off the new DLC, Demons of the Badlands, which is expected to land on PSN and XBL on August 13.

Go have a look over on IGN.

A new behind the scenes video for Splinter Cell: Conviction has shown up on the net and we have it posted for you after the break.

Different folks who worked on the game talk about how great the series was, but how it needed some modernization and something new brought to the table. Mark and Execute is one of those things.

The video talks about stealth, and how once you are spotted it’s not “game over”, but thrusts the player into an action sequence. When that ends, back to stealth you go.

Sounds and looks rather cool, to be honest. Watch for yourself courtesy of IGN.

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PAX 2009 organizers have announced that Ron Gilbert will provide the keynote during the sixth annual festival September 4-6 in Washington state.

“This is an unbelievable moment for us,” said Penny Arcade’s Robert Khoo. “I wasted an entire family vacation one year trying to figure out how to win that stupid spitting competition [in Monkey Island].”

The Computer Hall of Fame inductee has created Maniac Mansion, the first two installments in the Monkey Island series, has a career spanning over 20 years in the industry, has founding three gaming studios, and created the SCUMM scripting language.

Currently, Gilbert is creative director at Hothead Games.

Press release through the break.
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Rumor has it that two Taiwanese manufacturing companies have been given contracts by Sony to start creating PS3 Slim.

According to UDN.com, one contract went to Foxconn and the other to Pegatron, both based in Taiwan.

More surprisingly, units are expected to start shipping in early July “to cope with expected summer vacation demands.”

Remember, rumor until proven otherwise, but keep in the back of your mind that both Foxconn and Pegatron manufactured the original PS3.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Capcom has officially announced The Gathering Hall, the UK’s first and only dedicated Monster Hunter gaming center to be opened on July 3 at the Lazarides Gallery in London.

Three floors of space should be plenty of room for you to mingle and enjoy the free sodas, art, exclusive downloadable content, and people playing Monster Hunter on Ad-Hoc.

Hours of operation are from 10am to 8pm, seven days a week and will remain so until September 1.

The Gathering Hall is open to everyone for free, providing they own a PSP and a copy of Monster Hunter and it’s only a stone’s throw away from Tottenham Court Road tube station in central London.

Monster Hunter is the biggest game in Japan by far, outselling Pokemon and Wii Fit last year.

Press release after the jump.

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Red Faction: Guerrilla players can expect three upcoming packs for the game.

The first one to be announced was Demons of the Badlands, and its expected to launch on Xbox Live and PSN August 13 for 800 MS Points ($9.99).

It will expand on the single-player experience providing a new mission arc occurring outside of the “expansive world”.

No word on on what the other two entail, or extra specifics for Demons of the Badlands were forthcoming, but keep checking back with us.

Thanks, D’toid.

Sega has said that mature titles are showing long-term success and has budgeted more adult content for the console.

“House of the Dead: Overkill was a profitable title for us,” Gary Dunn, MD of Sega Europe told GI.biz. “Whilst it had a rather sharp tail at full price, they do bubble away at a lower price point for a long time.

“You get your money back and a bit on full price, but over the years, if we do the final product return on investment, profits come from the lower price point.”

MadWorld was not a huge blockbuster at retail either, but Dunn is willing to take a risk and has the cash to back him up.

“You have to push boundaries and explore,” he continued. “I think whilst MadWorld commercially didn’t sell what we were expecting I wouldn’t say it’s game over for mature Wii titles from Sega.

“We’re taking a look at the resources we have now. We’ve got money to invest in development, we’re just considering where to invest it next.”

New shots showing the cars you can drive around on the recently announced Japanese tracks have popped up for Forza 3.

They look dead sexy. Especially the Nissan 370z, which looks a lot like the one parked in our imaginary garage.

Forza 3 is out in October. Got it right this time.

Check ‘em out on Xboxygen.

Monolith are currently hiring for the position of software engineer for a AAA “next-generation console title”, per the firm’s official site.

Posting asks that you be able to:

“Work closely with engineers, designers, and artists on the creation of game systems for a cutting-edge first-person action game on PlayStation 3, XBox 360 and PC.”

Considering its track record with such series as Condemned, F.E.A.R., No One Lives Forever and its tie-in game Contract J.A.C.K., it could be just about anything.

More throughJoystiq.

Four Japanese racetracks across three venues will be included in Forza 3 this October, Turn 10 said today.

There’s the Suzuka Circuit, the Twin Ring Motegi, and the Tsukaba Circuit.

A list of 17 Japanese cars to be included was also released by the developer:

• Production 2009 Lexus IS F
• Production 2008 Infiniti G37 Coupe Sport
• Production 2009 Mazda Mazdaspeed 3
• Production 2006 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX MR
• Production 2010 Nissan 370Z
• Production 2009 Nissan Versa SL
• Production 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STi
• Production 2008 Toyota Yaris S
• Production 2009 Honda Fit Sport
• Race Car 2008 Nissan #12 CALSONIC IMPUL GT-R
• Race Car 2008 Nissan #23 XANAVI NISMO GT-R
• Race Car 2008 Nissan #24 ADVAN Clarion GT-R
• Race Car 1997 Nissan #23 Nissan Motorsports R390
• Race Car 2008 Nissan #3 YellowHat YMS TOMICA GT-R
• Race Car 2008 Toyota #25 ECLIPSE ADVAN SC430
• Race Car 2008 Toyota #36 PETRONAS TOM’S SC430
• Race Car 2008 Toyota #6 ENEOS SC430

Full press release below the break.

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Halo 3 may have been usurped last week by Call of Duty: World at War, but it formed a coup and bloodily took back its throne with Spartans and WWII soldiers paying the ultimate price for victory.

As least that’s the way we look at it. Sometimes you have to make figures in your head interesting or they do you in.

Here’s the full thing:

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles

1. Halo 3
2. Call of Duty: WaW
3. Call of Duty 4
4. Gears of War 2
5. GTA IV
6. FIFA 09
7. UFC 2009 Undisputed
8. Left 4 Dead
9. Fallout 3
10. [PROTOTYPE]

Top Arcade Titles

1. Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers
2. GAROU -MARK OF THE WOLVES-
3. Castle Crashers
4. Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
5. Worms
6. Sonic The Hedgehog 3
7. UNO
8. Hasbro Family Game Night
9. MEGA MAN 9
10. Wolfenstein 3D Arcade

Original and Indie titles are after the break courtesy of the Major.

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Full-game downloads will only account for 50 percent of console sales by 2019, according to the massive report Michael Pachter sent over yesterday.

The Wedbush Morgan Securities novel reckons that full downloads won’t happen until console drives get bigger. Games can exceed 10Gb and most Xbox 360 consoles in homes have only 20Gb hard drive space because not as many people own a 120Gb Elite.

“In ten years, we envision a world where the typical console has a terabyte or more of storage, and where full game downloads are the norm,” it states.

“There will always be a sizable number of consumers who value the trade-in option and portability, and we expect those consumers to favor physical goods over digital downloads. Thus, we expect that digital downloads will represent less that 50 per cent of total game sales in ten years’ time.

“We think that the poster child for this scenario is Grand Theft Auto IV on the Xbox 360, a game first sold in physical form, with additional levels sold periodically thereafter through downloads. After a tepid embrace of its first downloadable episode, Take-Two decided to offer the first and second episodes in a combined physical package, with the two episodes allowing full game play without the purchase of the original GTA IV game disc.

“This model reinforces our belief that packaged goods will capture the majority of game purchases for the next ten years.”

The report also states that used games account for one-third of the market, proving that comsumers prefer to have a physical copy instead of a digital one.

Wii Sports Resort launched in Japan on June 25 and during its first four days sold 353,827 copies.

According to Famitsu, Sports Resort is the third best-selling Wii title behind Mario Kart (608,000) and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (816,000).

It launches in the US and Europe late July.

Via Kotaku.

A video showing local multiplayer for Dragon Quest IX is posted after the break.

Each player is in control over their own character, and you can run around all over the place with or without your fellow adventurers.

If you find yourself fighting something solo that you ran into while straying too far from the pack, there is an option for your buddies to join in the battle.

Hopefully, they’ll want to.

Game’s out in Japan July 11, with Europe and North America yet to be announced.

Via Siliconera.

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Wolfenstein RPG for iPhone has been ready to launch for quite some time, but EA wanted Wolfenstein 3D to have its time in the spotlight all by itself for a while first.

“I was disappointed that EA decided to sit on it, but they kinda freaked out when I did the Wolfenstein 3D Classic, as it wasn’t a carefully planned thing,” id Software co-founder John Carmack told Kotaku. “I just thought, ‘Hey, this is cool and fun, let’s release it’.

“That blew their planned roll-out – they were worried about selling people two Wolfenstein titles at once. Hopefully they’ll release it soon.”

Carmack also told the site that Quake, Quake II, Quake III and Rage will be heading to iPhone as well.

Via Eurogamer.

Battlefield Heroes is giving players the chance to buy Michael Jackson-esque costumes for their character, which may or may not be in really bad taste.

There’s a white suit for the goodies and a Bad outfit for the, um, baddies.

The game’s now live. Unlike Michael Jackson. Thanks, Kotaku.