Monthly Archives: June 2009

Ever felt put off by the amount of button presses you need to learn in order to pull off the devastating combos in games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden? Well, Sega to rescue as during the E3 demo of the awesome looking Sega slasher Bayonetta, a company rep explained that you won’t have to be a member of the hardcore elite to get a lot of enjoyment out of the game.

Compared with the hardcore, fast-combo pulling crowd “there’s a larger demographic of casual gamers and so for people who are new to this type of game or simply aren’t at that level there’s an Easy mode and a Very Easy mode,” said the rep.

“What those allow you to do is some of the more complex combos that require some of the very complex button inputs will be easier to pull off with the same level of ease [as the hardcore gamer].

“Huge dynamic levels have been created throughout the whole game – even a casual player could get the full experience, that full level of enjoyment out of it without having to be this hardcore, maniac user.”

Bayonetta is out for high def next-gen consoles later this year.

Alain Corre, executive director of Ubisoft, has said the decision to make Splinter Cell Conviction an Xbox 360 console exclusive was a “logical step” for the company.

“It was a decision that we took many years ago,” he told GI. “It’s been an ongoing process.

“For us when we decided to do that many years ago it was a logical step.”

Corre was equally cool when asked whether Ubisoft was worried about limiting sales to just one machine. “But there are also a lot of hardcore gamers who have ownership of both consoles,” he explained.

“And everyone has a PC at home. To a certain extent if players want the next Splinter Cell game they will find a way.”

Full interview with Corre through the link.

Splinter Cell Conviction is out for PC and Xbox 360 in October.

Sony’s Mike Kebby told the EU PlayStation blog that the cake-filled PSN title Fat Princess will not be coming out in June as promised:

“The game is coming at some point this summer, but there is no confirmed release date at the moment.”

Hurry it up, Sony.

Shacknews is reporting that just one day after America’s Army 3 was released, the U.S. Army decided to close its Emeryville, California-based based studio responsible for the title, in order to “consolidate development.”

However, that’s not the end of the line for you gaming American military fans, an army rep has confirmed that the series will continue over at Redstone Arsenal, AL.

“This consolidation will allow us to gain efficiencies between our public and government applications,” the representative explained.

“We appreciate all the hard work that every member of the America’s Army team has contributed to the project, and we look forward to delivering future America’s Army game releases in the months ahead.”

More through the link.

In the wake of Barack Obama saying that a US Health Care reform entails “going for a run or hitting the gym, and raising our children to step away from the video games and spend more time playing outside,” EA Sports’ Peter Moore has issued the President a challenge: Try EA SPORTS Active and I guarantee you’ll need aides saying “Yes You Can!” to finish your first workout.

Moore writes that he still finds Nintendo Wii a refreshing experience and believes “there are more consoles getting far more use in American homes than there is exercise equipment, so it’s up to us to continue to use the platform for good.”

We have contacted the White House for comment.

Jeff Gardiner, lead producer on upcoming Fallout 3 DLC Point Lookout, has told Platform Nation that the content will last for “several hours”. You’d hope so, really.

Gardiner said Lookout wouldn’t be “substantive” specifically “in terms of new gameplay features such as additional levels,” but, “there are however lots of new creatures, items, armor, weapons and a whole new area to explore.

“The Point Lookout Swamp is substantive and should engross players for several hours even if they ignore the quest line.”

There’s an interview through there. The DLC’s out tomorrow for 360 and PC.

Dutch site 9Lives is rumouring that “MJJ Productions” is working on a Michael Jackson videogame.

The title’s part of the singer’s comeback effort, apparently, and is heading to “Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3″ this Christmas.

We have precisely no idea if this is true or not. Read the sketchy translation through the break. Thanks, GoNintendo.

This week there is a bit more going on in MMOs than last week.

Seems quite a few got game updates, WoW’s Midsummer Fire Festival is in full swing, and City of Heroes is getting power customization.

Loads of stuff really. Read on past the break for the lot of it.

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id Software has released the sixth and last map for Quake Live’s six-week long campaign.

“Quarantine” has a new area with three zones that “surround and are connected in multiple ways to an area of higher ground at the center of the map” and allows up to 10 players.

It was designed for Clan Arena, Team Deathmatch, Duel and Free for All.

ClanBase has more on this, including a preview of all six maps.

Hitman writer, Morten Iversen, is game director for Eden, the upcoming title based on Lars Von Trier’s latest film, Antichrist.

The film stars Willem Dafoe and is basically a very dark, violent film that contains sexually graphic scenes and genital mutilation. Yikes.

MTV had a chance to sit down with Iversen, who told the site that Von Trier is a fan of gaming, and thought creating one would be a good idea.

“Von Trier has been extremely fond of video games for ages, and has been an avid player of Alone in the Dark,” said Iverson. “He’s been circulating the idea internally…that making games would be a good idea.

“[The movie] goes against all the conventions of how you make games and what you can do in games. Dead kids, nudity, graphic violence. It will be a very controversial game, and it’ll be a game that doesn’t really compare with anything else.

“We don’t expect Wal-Mart to roll in crates of this and put it on their shelves. Absolutely not available at Wal-Mart.”

Iverson hopes Eden will be a downloadable title through Xbox Live and Steam and describes it as a “nightmarish version of Myst”, where the player will upload a profile, choosing their biggest phobias.

So, if you are afraid of clowns, you will be confronted with them in the game.

Sounds strange, but it’s doubtful any genital mutilation will be in the game. At least we hope not.

More through the link.

Bohemia Interactive has issued a patch for ArmA II.

Update 1.02 has the following fixes:

• Lowered enemy AI skills for regular and recruit difficulty levels
• Improved Micro AI tactics, attack in pairs, path limiting to avoid passing through walls
• Fixed multiplayer session NAT negotiation
• Improved game stability (various crash opportunities fixed)
• Multiple save slots supported
• Improved terrain shape beyond map borders
• Various campaign and localization fixes and improvements
• Modules (F7) support added in the Mission Editor
• Added option to disable various post-process effects (bloom, blur etc.)

There is also a download available for a dedicated server.

You can get both over on GamersHell.

Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires is out June 23 and 26 in the US and UK respectively, and playable character, Meng Huo, has been revealed.

Koei has released a video of him in action along with one for character customization, and D’toid has ‘em posted.

You should go have a look.

Lord of the Rings Online players will get to dive into Volume 2 Book 8 for Mines of Moria on June 23.

Turbine has the new content ready for pre-patch, so if you want to download it now to be ready for Tuesday, you can.

Get it through the official website here.

While you are at it, take look at the patch notes through here.

Might want to have a sandwich and a cool beverage on hand. The list of changes is quite long.

The Commission for the Protection of Young Persons in Germany wants to ban the sale of online games in Austria.

A requested was submitted to the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons to block the sale of games banned in Germany from being sold through Austrian sites.

Banning these games would further “protect the youth from “social-ethical disorientation”, “brutalization of young adults” and “lasting empathy loss.”

Germany has gotten stricter regarding what it considers harmful content in the wake of school shootings in the country.

More over on Negative Gamer.

Via D’toid.

Accidental listing over on Xbox 360′s Games on Demand points to Mass Effect coming in August when the service launches.

The listing was promptly pulled, but not before it was noticed that the long talked about new DLC might be included.

Here’s what the listing said:

“Download new systems and worlds to visit! Meet new characters and encounter never before seen alien species! Find new weapons, armor and items as you experience a whole new adventure!”

Kotaku notes that Bring Down the Sky had only one of each, so the “more” could certainly mean, well, the extra content.

Hopefully BioWare won’t keep what this new content is under wraps much longer.

NCAA Football 10 has a demo now available on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Just in case you didn’t know.

EA says that gamers can log into teambuilder.easports.com and create custom teams that players can share and use in-game when the title lands in retail on July 14.

Full press release through the jump.

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Ascaron still owns the license to Sacred, and it was not part of the IPs that Kalypso recently purchased from the troubled company.

According to the Sacred message boards, community manager Anca Adelina Finta stated:

“Studio 2 (subsidiary company of Ascaron) has the license for Sacred 2 and the devs will continue working at the add-on as they did before. In a nutshell, the add-on is not affected by anything and will come as planned.”

Good news for fans of the series.

Thanks, BigDownload.

Sony has been showing off its new motion controller to devs and publishers lately, and apparently it can do all sorts of things.

For starters, it has force feedback rumble, works across all genres of titles, face and head tracking will be realized with the camera that it comes with, and it can track up to four motion controllers at one time.

Now we just need a damn name for it. Some reports are calling it the Sony Wand at the moment.

That just sounds a bit, well, naughty to us.

More over at Gamasutra.

Thanks, MaxConsole.

Black Bean has released a demo for Superstars V8 Racing that allows you to race at the Portimao track in Portugal.

The official car simulation of the Italian championship, developed by Milestone, has vehicles involved in the championship like Audi, BMW, Jaguar, and others.

It’s out for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 later in the month.

Get the demo from FileFront and GamersHell.

Analyst Arvind Bhatia of Sterne Agee has said in a research note composed after meeting with four GameStop executives, that the game retailer does not see digital distribution becoming a viable market until 2014.

The company says it has “conducted the most thorough study to date” on the subject, and feels that an “addressable market” for digital downloads “will not exist until 2014.”

GameStop management also expects that only 25 percent of consumers, even by 2014, will have access to the technology required to purchase and download digital titles and that it could cost them $100 a month.

Bhatia never said what the reason for this cost would be, but one can assume it applies to subscription fees, broadband service, and possibly PC upgrades.

The study also revealed that due to storage space requirements and customers only wanting to pay $39 per title at most, it would give publishers less of an incentive to use such a service “as some in the industry might think”.

More through Gamasutra.