Monthly Archives: June 2009

Criterion just sent word that the Big Surf Island DLC for Burnour Paradise is now up on Live.

It’s 1,000 MS Points, and adds a whole new area to the game, nine new cars, tons of new events and plenty more.

Get it here.

Update – It’s also on the UK PS Store now.

SCEE just confirmed that PSP Firmware 5.51′s now live.

It’s a quick update sorting stability for some apps.

SCEE PR manager Carly Byron is to leave her post to take on a role as product manager for SingStar at the company’s central office, she said today.

Byron’s been half of SCEE’s excellent product PR team for two-and-a-half years, fielding press for the firm alongside Hugo Bustillos.

Her last day is June 26. Best of luck with it, Carly.

Console versions of Crysis were “literally inevitable,” Crytek boss Cevat Yerli’s told Gamespot. Not even figuratively.

“It’s a question of more than economics,” Yerli said when asked about the reasoning behind Crysis 2′s multi-plat strategy.

“At the end of the day we’re paying salaries and we all have to live, but that’s one side of this job. But most importantly and a bit more tangible to us are the families, the nephews, and sons who ask, ‘Why aren’t you going to consoles?’ It’s kind of like bothering people. We’ve been asked a lot in the last three or four years now, ‘When consoles? When consoles? When consoles?’

“It was literally inevitable that we would bring it.”

There’s literally more through the link.

Team Ninja Metroid remake Other M marks a return to the series’s “traditional” values, NoA boss the Reggie “Double-Bomb” Fils-Aime told Gamespot at E3.

“A year ago, someone could have asked me, ‘What’s going on with Metroid?’ When are we going to go back to the more traditional Metroid series versus the path that we went down with Prime? Well, here’s the answer, right, in Other M,” he said.

And don’t panic, Kid Icarus fans. Reinvention’s on the agenda for all of Nintendo’s historical IP.

“Believe me, we’re constantly challenging ourselves on all our key franchises, as to when’s the right time to revitalise it, a how do we do it in a way that’s provocative?” Fils-Aime added.

Watch the interview after the break.

More »

It may not have red shells, but Bizarre Creations’ Blur owes more than a little to Mario Kart, the company’s admitted.

“The PR people don’t really let me say this but Blur is like an adult Mario Kart,” Blur dev boss Ben Ward told Develop.

“It’s what you want from the next-generation of karting games.”

Blur’s out later this year for PC, PS3 and 360. There’s an interview here.

Sony’s confirmed the imminent released of the next PSP Firmware update, taking the machine to v5.51.

Don’t foul your pants just yet: it’s a “stability” thing. No features, from the look of it.

THQ confirmed this morning that a UFC Undisputed patch aimed at fixing “online cheating via disconnecting from multiplayer matches” is on the way.

There’s no timescale on the update as yet, but mat-rolling man-sweaters in the crowd can look forward to combat justice “as soon as possible.”

Speaking to G4, Valve boss Gabe Newell’s assured that Left 4 Dead content updates are to continue despite the fact a controversial sequel’s on the way.

“From a customer’s perspective, we think that given the sort of insane popularity of Left 4 Dead, that people are going to be super excited about getting a sequel to that,” said the exec.

“We’re going to continue to do Left 4 Dead updates and release more content for Left 4 Dead, and then also have Left 4 Dead 2 coming out as well.”

There’s a full interview through there, in which Newell explains the reasoning behind working on a sequel at this point.

More than 20,000 people have signed a petition saying they’ll boycott the game because of its proximity to the first title’s release.

Ubi said today that the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, Turtles in Time Re-Shelled, will be an XBLA timed exclusive.

The title’s out for Live on June 22, with a PSN version coming “later this year”.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Speaking to Joystiq at E3, Assassin’s Creed II producer Patrice Désilets has confirmed just how popular the original game actual was.

“We sold some eight million copies of it, you know,” he said.

Apparently the king of understatement, he added: “Some people really enjoyed and loved the game.”

Assassin’s Creed II looked very awesome at E3. Now you know why.

There’s a ful interview through there.

There’s a new video for Under Siege posted after the break showing how Seed Studios created the RTS using the in-game level editor.

“One of the major features of Under Siege is our in game editor”, states the official developer blog. “We’ve taken a page out of Little Big Planet’s book here and decided to not only include a fully featured editor, but also to create all the included game content using that same editor.

“You will be able to mold the terrain, define terrain properties, adjust water, place props, adjust lighting, create triggers and cut scenes, and essentially create a whole new game if you feel like it.

“Having built all our levels using a PS3 controller led to constant improvements in both the interface and the control scheme so that our level artists wouldn’t feel constrained by the input device.”

No word yet on a release date. More through the link.

Via Joystiq.

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Battlefield Heroes has some new features coming, and DICE has listed each one of ‘em along with two new screen from the Coastal Clash map pack.

Here is the full thing pulled from the official site:

• Friends: Add your friends so you can always see when they’re on-line. From your friends list, you’ll be one click away from directly joining them.

• Leaderboards: They’re back! See how you stack up with thousands of other players and fight your way to the top. There’s a whole range of different stats you can look up and compare.

• Groups: Create and join your very own Group, complete with avatar and group banner! Each group also has its very own, unique leaderboard, so you can compete with just your friends.

• Player and Hero search: Find (or stalk) your frenemies with our new search features. Find out what Missions someone is currently on, what Abilities they’re using and loads more.

• Permanent items: ALL appearance items and emotes that can be bought with Battlefunds are now available permanently! Don’t want to “rent” an item? You don’t have to anymore.

• Code redemption: Be on the lookout for special, promotional codes which you can redeem on the Heroes site for Battlefunds or very cool, exclusive items.

• Improved Store: Now easier to use: the BFH Store will show every item once, and by hovering over or clicking on it you’ll be able to see all the different price options, as well as durations that are available for that item.

• Punk, Busted!: Yes, PunkBuster is here! Cheaters and hackers beware!

• Reporting players: Find a misbehaving player by Hero(in-game) name or by their player(web display) name and report them!

Thanks, CinemaBlend.

Ubisoft announced Your Shape at E3 last week, and today the publisher has detailed the game and its technology a bit more.

“The game will scan your body and then project the image onto the TV, creating a personalized and interactive workout”, said a company statement. “Based on your specific body shape analysis, fitness level and personal goals, Your Shape is able to recommend the workout program that is best suited for you.”

Your Shape also includes a virtual coach that provides motivation.

“The development of the new camera for Wii and our Body Tracking technology means that Your Shape will offer an interactive experience that is a technological breakthrough in gaming, as well as in the fitness category,” said Ubi bossman Yves Guillemot.

The company also claims that the title will include “more exercises than any other fitness game”, and will come bundled with the camera.

Game’s expected to hit retail in time for the holidays.

More over on Gamasutra.

Global Agenda, the spy-fi action MMO from Hi-Rez Studios, has a new trailer featuring a bit of elf hatred posted after the break.

Taking place in the future, the game depicts an Earth after an environmental disaster’s left few places habitable. Robots have taken over the most sought after areas, and have formed a government you should probably destroy.

It’s expected to be PvP-heavy, features both first and third-person perspectives and jetpacks.

Awesome.

Expect it to land this fall on PC.

Thanks, Gaming Today.

More »

Director Guillermo del Toro has said that there will not be a Hobbit game tie-in with the upcoming movie at launch.

“It’s too ambitious to try and tackle that along with ‘The Hobbit’, he told MTV. “We have such tight release dates.”

Guillermo says that he and Peter Jackson will have a part in the eventual game, but from a writer’s standpoint, it’s too tough to be as heavily involved in it as he’d like at this time.

We can now all breathe a collective sigh of relief.

More through the link.

Everyone’s favorite fairy from the Zelda series – sorry, Navi – may be back if a full-page ad in Famitsu is any indication.

It’s a bright pink,  shows Tingle with his trusty balloon, the headline “Fairy?”, and a URL to the Japanese Nintendo site.

The last major release starring the lovable weirdo was Freshly-Picked Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland for DS and another on exclusively for Japanese Club Nintendo members, Tingle’s Balloon Fight, in 2007.

Expect more on this soon, we reckon.

Thanks, 1UP.

Loads of things have already been said across the internet about the price point for PSP Go, but Michael Pachter has been virtually silent – sort of.

During a recent taping of Bonus Round with Geoff Keighley, this is what the Wedbush Morgan analyst had to say on the matter:

“$249 is too much, period,” he said. “The [current] $169 PSP-3000 is a profitable device – the disc assembly, for a UMD, costs more than 16 gigs of flash does. So this new device doesn’t cost them as much to make as the PSP-3000 and they jack the price up $80.

“I’m sorry to say it. I don’t want to get bad fan mail from the Sony fanboys, but… They’re ripping off the consumer until they sell a couple million and if consumers don’t buy it then the price is going to come down… they’re making a lot more money on the PSP Go than the PSP-3000. And the PSP Go helps them because there’s no piracy.”

Watch for yourself.

Thanks, GamePolitics.

EA confirmed today that DICE is currently at work on Battlefield 3.

The game was announced at the William Blair Growth Stock Conference by chief operating officer John Pleasants.

“I’ve had the luxury of looking at Battlefield 3 over at DICE in Sweden and was highly impressed by the way the team is working on that product,” he said.

“Of course, that’s not [coming out] in the fiscal year, but that is a product that is looking very good.”

More through G4.

John Riccitiello has confirmed that Criterion is working on a “revolutionary” new Need for Speed game.

The Burnout team, led by Alex Ward, has been shifted to the series for the time being and the EA bossman seems pleased with the switch.

“Alex is one of the people in the industry I would analogize to the great filmmakers etc.,” Riccitiello told Kotaku. “He is a true creative visionary.

“We had a great fight about what the next Need For Speed would be like. Of course, he gets to win because it’s his call. It’s not that I’m without an opinion on it.”

When asked if the Need for Speed and Burnout franchises would ever merge, Riccitiello said it wan’t likely and compared such an event to merging Star Trek with Star Wars.

“I don’t think you can fold Burnout into Need for Speed, because a lot of people like Burnout,” he said. “We don’t have a plan right now for a separate major launch on Burnout, because the team doing it is working on a revolutionary take on Need for Speed.”

More through the link.