Monthly Archives: June 2009

Eurogamer’s reporting that Serious Sam will release for XBLA this summer.

The ageing shooter’s to cost 1,200 Microsoft Points.

Called Serious Sam HD, the game will “re-imagine” The First Encounter. It’s been written by original developer Croteam.

Which is awesome. No question.

The next major Dawn of War II update will include a full map editor, Kotaku reports.

Called the “World Builder,” it’ll allow you to “create, edit, and play” on your own maps, and allow you to play with terrain, objects, nodes, weather and whatever else you fancy.

There’s more detail and screens through there. No firm date on the download.

Gamestop’s listing Marvel Vs Capcom 2 as a retail product. Gigaton.

Apparently the shelf SKU will include:

• Redemption Code for full game
• DVD case with sleeve
• Data DVD with exclusive artwork (wallpapers, icons, character and content art), 4 trailers and screenshots
• 8 page color manual with artwork and moves list
• 1 month free subscription to Marvel Digital Comics ($9.99 value)
• 2000 Capcom-Unity points – can be used for prizing and auctions

August 13, says the US retailer. We’ll check to see if this is a Euro thing as well.

SCEA PR chap Al De Leon’s told CNET that dropping the price of PSP dev tools – a move announced at E3 – will open up PSP Go to “non-gaming applications.”

“The goal with that is to enable all sorts of developers to be able to develop content for the PSP,” said De Leon.

“It’ll mostly be games but there’s certainly an opportunity to develop non-gaming applications.”

We were given a very strong hint yesterday that the rumour of “non-retail” PSP apps being announced at Gamescom in Cologne in August is, in fact, true.

Watch the video interview after the link.

More »

Nelson’s posted a picture of a Twitter-branded 360, meaning we now immediately want one.

But probably never will. We may get a Twitter tattoo, though, on our nether regions. For a “laugh”.

Angelina Jolie’s not happy at the prospect of Megan Fox supposedly taking on the role of Lara Croft for the next Tomb Raider movie.

A Sun source said: “Angie was intent on reprising her role. She feels it’s something she helped define and feels robbed that it looks likely to be handed to someone who she considers less capable than her.”

Nothing’s been confirmed about the new film as yet. Or the next game, for that matter.

Read more things in bold through the link.

EA and Dr Pepper are to announce a “multi-million dollar” marketing deal, according to IndustryGamers.

This isn’t your common or garden stuff, from the look of it. The partnership will see EA integrate original content related to Dr Pepper in its games, starting with The Sims 3 in early 2010.

In addition, EA will work with Dr Pepper to put codes on more than 500 million specially-marked Dr Pepper packages, which can then be used to unlock “exclusive premium downloadable content that may include one-of-a-kind beach party items or all the elements of a perfect fall tailgating party.”

More through there.

You might have seen rumours of Christian Bale doing a Metal Gear Solid film. Someone spoke to him about it: he isn’t.

From an MTV interview:

MTV: Metal Gear Solid, is this something you’ve ever talked about doing as a film?

Bale: No.

MTV: Are you a video game fan?

Bale: Yeah.

MTV: What do you play?

Bale: That. Metal Gear Solid.

MTV: You play it?

Bale: Yeah.

MTV: How many hours does that suck out of you on a weekly basis?

Bale: You know what, no, I’ve kinda devoted my time to more constructive things of late. You know?

Such a happy chap. Thanks, Kotaku.

It’s not just about turning up on the E3 stage and “joking” about who stands at the front. No sir. Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono were all nuts-deep in The Beatles: Rock Band development.

“The shareholders, as we call them — Paul and Ringo, Olivia and Yoko — were really creative partners throughout the project,” lead designer Chris Foster told CrispyGamer.

“They were involved in picking and approving the song list, the venues we went into. With the dreamscapes, they saw storyboards of all of the material, and gave feedback on whether or not they felt like those interpretations supported the songs in the way they wanted.”

Plenty more through there. The game’s out on September 9.

A lawsuit has been brought against Square Enix, seeking more than $5 million, for what is alleged to be “unfair business practices, false advertising and unjust enrichment”.

Plaintiff Esther Leong of San Francisco is claiming Square Enix “lied about or concealed its monthly fees, penalties for late payments, interest, restrictions and other things that should have been fully disclosed at points of purchase” concerning Final Fantasy XI.

Good luck with that. From Courthouse News Service, via 1UP.

Spanish developer Over The Top has changed the name of WiiWare platformer Icarian: Kindred Spirits – which was released in Europe last Friday – to NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits.

Why? Have a wild guess.

“There will be a new version of the game with the new name in the next days. That’s the only change,” Over The Top boss Rob Alvarez de Lara told Edge.

“It has to do with a trademark claim by another videogame company. We are a small indie developer and could not fight for our rights.”

Hit the link for more.

Speaking to MTV, Capcom’s Chris Kramer’s confirmed that Dead Rising 2 – and E3 no-show – is going to miss both Gamescom and PAX.

“You’re gonna be seeing Dead Rising 2 next at Tokyo Game Show,” he said.

“Lost Planet 2 will have all new stuff at Tokyo Game Show, and also a couple new titles from us, as well as updates of the stuff we showed at E3.”

The zombie sequel’s got no firm date as yet.

Mythic staff are apparently reeling from the news that company boss Mark Jacobs has left the building.

“People are shocked and in disbelief about Mark leaving,” a former employee told Massively.

“But they’re also excited to be working with BioWare. I can’t even fathom Mark leaving a company he loved so much, it was his life.

“Personally, I can’t see that this is voluntary in any shape or form.”

It was announced last night that Jacobs had left the company, with BioWare bosses Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk now in control of a newly-formed MMO-RPG EA group.

Heavy stuff. Check Massively for more.

Nearly there. Blizzard’s put a StarCraft II beta logo on BattleNet accounts, as you can see in this story’s image.

We’re down for the beta, so this may only be true of accounts registered for the test, but at least we now know it’s going to be happening imminently.

We’ll let you know when it goes live.

Path developer Tale of Tales has announced its next project as Fatale, a games that threatens to be even more emo than its predecessor.

“Fatale is based on the legend of Salomé, who, 2000 years ago, demanded the head of John the Baptist as a reward for dancing for her stepfather, King Herod. Oscar Wilde’s 1891 interpretation of Salomé as a young woman in love with the prophet is the main inspiration for the project,” said a statement from Tale of Tales Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn.

It’s out on October 5, the 78th anniversary of the first public performance of Salomé in English.

Be sure to have your smoking jacket freshly quilted. There’s more on IndieGames.

According to Gamespot, Team17′s Worms 2: Armageddon has been given a July 1 release date for XBLA.

It’ll set you back $10.

The first XBLA game is still one of the top five performers on the service, the sequel being “initially exclusive to Xbox Live Arcade.”

More through there.

Gearbox has moved to trademark “World War II Hero,” “War Hero,” “Brother In Arms War Hero,” and “Modern War Hero.”

Hero are us. As ever, these may have nothing to do with actual products. If they do, however, we’ll address the issue of drum kit compatibility before release.

From superannuation, via Kotaku.

John Romero’s changed his mind about the fact Zenimax is buying id. He’s positive about it now.

“i just did an interview for Avault Podcast coming out friday. i am positive about the Zenimax deal. my initial reaction was harsh. sorry,” he tweeted last night.

The ex-id developer initially branded the shock deal as “disgusting” on his Twitter account.

Just goes to show.

Ex-SCEE president David Reeves is to keynote Games Convention Online, as you can see here, with a talk owhich will apparently answer the question of when online game sales will overtake standard retail.

Reeve’s talk is titled, “Schrodinger’s Cat and Heisenberg’s Dog – The Change from Offline to Online”.

GCO takes place on 31 July and 1 August in Leipzig.

SOE’s launched guilds in Free Realms, it’s 3 million user-busting micro-payment MMO.

We weren’t aware it didn’t have a guild system in the first place, so this is great news all round, as far as we’re concerned.

Go play it, or something. More on Kotaku.