Monthly Archives: June 2009

Konami’s put out a trio of new Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker screens today, showing some Snakes and a tank. As you’d kind of expect.

Get them from Eurogamer. The PSP game’s out next year.

Whoops. NPD’s confirmed to Gama that Capcom’s Bionic Commando only managed 27,000 unit sales in the US in May, its debut month.

The reboot shipped on May 19. That figure’s a total score across both 360 and PS3.

Nicht so gut. Hit is for more.

How do you put Ozzy Osbourne into Brutal Legend? Do you motion capture? No, sir, you do not.

“We didn’t mo-cap,” Doublefine boss Tim Schafer told VG247 at E3. “We tried to capture the essence with this really great animation.

“[With] motion capture you get literally what people move like but we went for animation that represents the feel of Ozzy Osbourne; the motions are bigger than life in a way.

“The game has a really exaggerated art style, and [we did] motion in the same way.”

Schafer told us Osbourne was “great fun to work with” and went so far to call him a “hoot”. He’s not a gamer though, apparently, said Tim.

Brutal Legend, Ozzy and all, hits this autumn for PS3 and 360.

Crysis on consoles was a big obvious, right? And it never happened, right? EA Partners group general manager David Demartini has told Gama console gamers had to wait for the second game thanks to Crytek’s “discipline”.

“Crytek has shown a tremendous amount of discipline, because the simple thing would’ve been to make… compromises and put it on PS3 and 360 before it was industry standard-setting,” said the exec.

“But as a company they have a reputation for not going to a platform just to exploit the platform, but they go to the platform when they have something that’s as good as anything in the industry, if not the best on that platform, so I think what consumers can look forward to is them setting a new bar against any game whatsoever on those platforms.”

Crysis 2 was announced as a cross-platform title at E3. Hit the link to see Cevat Yerli say PS3′s “difficult to program”.

Figures, figures, figures. But what do they mean? The May NPD has been motherfucking tamed by Gamasutra’s Matt Mathews right here. Essential stuff.

It’s the business. Annotated graphs with transitioned grey backgrounds; a shift from the Dayglo colour theme to a sultry red and blue for the diagrams; spectacular use of the word “segment”: it’s got it all.

VG247 says 9/10. We’ll have a mark off for the lack of pie charts. Don’t miss it.

Hold on to your hat, granddad. SOE said this morning that teen MMO Free Realms has punched through the 3 million player mark in under seven weeks.

The publisher claimed 2 million players a month after ship.

The title released on April 28. All usage signs are pointing to a mega-hit.

The game’s a micro-transaction-based affair, with the basic game being free to play.

Press release below.

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id biz man Steve Nix told VG at E3 that he thought news of Duke Nukem Forever’s cancellation was some kind of internet fabrication.

“I thought it was a joke when I heard the other day,” he said. “Definitely extremely saddened and surprising that those guys aren’t there and we may never see the game we were all looking forward to.”

Forever became the most ironically named game in all history in May when 3DRealms abandoned the project after 12 years due to a lack of funds.

GamersHell’s got some new Monster Hunter 3: Tri screens, showing what looks to be a large, really angry angler fish.

Wii never had it so good. No solid release date as yet.

Kotaku’s got some new Lost Planet 2 screens, nicked from Gpara.

How does it look? It looks good. Clicky linky for proof.

Triple’s King of Fighters Online got a gameplay video today, showing PvP combat and some lovely enemy art. Doesn’t mean it looks a bit pony, though.

Watch it after the break.

The company put out a press release alongside the movie this morning, claiming the game’s out early next year.

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EA kept the pressure up on Fight Night Round 4′s June 26 release this morning with a new trailer showing the game’s awesome face-input and customisation features.

This is a no-brainer for scrap fans, to be honest. When we saw it at EA’s spring event in London, it really did look state of the art.

See for yourself.

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Acti Blizz has announced a shift in US buying agency from Starcom Mediavest to Mediaedge:cia.

“Our decision to consolidate with MEC is not a reflection of the performance or quality of service and talent at Starcom MediaVest Group or Horizon Media,” said Acti COO Brad Jakeman.

“They have all been valued partners and have demonstrated extraordinary passion and understanding of our business.”

Cost-cutting, apparently. PR here.

A Develop survey’s reported that 30 percent of 9,000 game developers polled said that Nintendo’s Miyamoto is their “ultimate development hero”.

Will Wright came second, followed by Dave Jones in third.

The Develop Conference runs from July 14-16 in Brighton. Jone is to keynote the event this year.

Full thing after the break.

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EG.fr’s running a PSP Go movie showing how its accompanying Media Go software allows you to manage content on the discless handheld via a PC.

The video also shows just how small the unit is compared to the demo guy’s hands.

Take a look. It’s out on October 1 for €250/$250. The UK price is still unknown.

High Voltage’s The Conduit has gone gold. The shooter releases for Wii on June 23 in both the US and Europe.

Nintendo singled out the game as being one of the great core hopes or Wii in its E3 press conference.

The world’s watching, Reggie. As, no doubt, are Platinum, Visceral and Rockstar.

Press release after the break.

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The Sims 3 has taken a second week at the top of the UK chart, with Prototype settling for a pleasing number two debut.

Worth noting World at War’s re-entry into the top ten. The power of DLC, right there.

Last week’s chart here. Data below for the week ending June 13.

Konami’s put its Metal Gear Online bikini DLC live, in celebration of the game’s first anniversary.

There’s a video of it “in action” after the break. So exciting.

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The latest Famitsu’s thrown up some lovely Bayonetta images, as scanned by GoOnl!ne.

It’s a hardcore must for the end of the year. Unless you hated Devil May Cry, in which case it probably isn’t.

Check it out.

A British prison has banned PS3 access to its inmates as it feared the machine could be used in an escape attempt.

Rye Hill prisoners were using the console’s wireless capabilities to chat to people on the outside, according to this Guardian report.

“PlayStation 3 consoles are barred on the grounds that they have the capability to send and receive radio signals as an integral part of the equipment,” said a prison spokesperson.

Rare. Secretive Rare. Nintendo Rare. Peter Molyneux, Microsoft Game Studios’ newly-appointed super-boss, wants to change all that.

“One of the things I really want to do is help Rare have more of an identity,” he told GI at E3, “and make sure the people at Rare are seen more within the industry.

“I was totally blown away from the amount of talent that there is at Rare, but it’s just that they come from a background where Nintendo required them to be this very, very secretive company.

“I just want to give them the confidence to tell the world what they’re doing.”

We’ll never forget the time we were on a Rare visit, asked to photograph a couple of execs and got the answer, “No. We’re not rock stars.” Best get used to the make-up, chaps.

Full interview through there.