Monthly Archives: June 2009

Atari may be touting that Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis were the writers of the Ghostbusters game, but both men acknowledge that it’s more of a marketing ploy than anything.

Speaking with The New York Times, Aykroyd said that Terminal Reality came to him with script in hand, and he and Ramis supplied the structure and tone.

“In the beginning they came to me, and I said, ‘I encourage you, go ahead,’ ” he said. “They gave me the script. I took it. I rewrote it doing little tiny structural things, mostly bringing back the tone of the original dialogue and the vernacular — the terms, the idiom — but they really had it.

“Two-thirds of it was there. Then they gave it to Harold. He did the same thing.”

While Aykroyd admitted he is not a gamer, he was still impressed by Terminal Reality’s knowledge of special effects as well as its familiarity with Ghostbusters’ lingo and style.

More through the link.

A playable demo of The Path, a modern retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood, has landed on FileFront.

In the full game, the player controls six sisters who are sent out, one by one, to bring their sickly grandmother a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine. The path to her house is straight and short and no obstacles prevent you from swiftly completing your mission.

But the forest is a whole other story. Creepy.

There has been a demo for quite some time up on Steam as well, but if you don’t have Steam, hit the link above.

Agent was announced by Rockstar at Sony’s E3 event this week, and Take-Two president Ben Feder seems confident about the the game being a PS3 exclusive.

“At this phase in the cycle, when you’re trying to launch a new franchise, exclusivity can really help you launch the franchise”, he told Gamespot. ‘It can give you the kind of platform that you need to start exclusive, start in the right kind of way with the right kind of partner. Exclusivity does work.

“I have a lot of confidence in Sony. I have a lot of confidence in their ability to lead the market, as they always have,” he added. “Their console is a terrific platform to be developing for, and Agent is a great testament as to our belief in what that platform can do, and what they can do with us as part of a partnership.”

He also thinks that the game as a whole is going to be rather fantastic.

“We think this has the potential to be yet another great Rockstar North franchise title. … It’s the Houser Brothers and Rockstar North. It’s the A team working on an AAA title. I think the subject matter, the characters, the story, the environment, the background–all the elements are there. It’s such a rich environment to play in.”

Sounds groovy.

More through the link.

Valve has announced that it will start publishing a weekly list of the best-selling titles on Steam.

Bout time.

Updates will arrive every Sunday, and you can see the very first one below.

Steam Weekly Top Sellers – WE May 31

1. Team Fortress 2
2. Killing Floor
3. Left 4 Dead
4. Counter Strike: Source
5. Plants vs Zombies
6. The Orange Box
7. Unreal Deal Pack
8. Unreal Tournament Black
9. Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut
10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Perfect Dark is scheduled to land on Xbox Live Arcade this winter, and to get you ready for it, a few screens have popped up.

The shots are straight from the ported version of the shooter, and they look rather smooth.

Kotaku has the lot of ‘em, so go have a look.

EA’s games label president has told the LA Times that the Godfather franchise is finished as far as the publisher is concerned.

“We’re not going to do another one,” said Frank Gibeau. “The bloom is really off the rose for licensed games.”

In response, the PR team at EA quickly contacted the newspaper and clarified that while there are no Godfather games on the schedule for the next three years, nothing is set in stone.

“We do not currently have a Godfather game in development,” said the rep. “Nothing has been decided as to future sequels. Paramount is a great partner.”

EA has handed over major licenses that were previous developed by the company including James Bond and The Lord of the Rings with Harry Potter and Jason Bourne the only ones being kept.

Godfather II has sold 241,000 units in the US since it’s April release.

More through the link.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks looks good and sounds as good as any other handheld title in the lauded franchise, but everyone has been wondering about the train bit.

Poor Epona.

However, all trepidations aside, D’toid got its hands on the game at E3 and to say the site sounds enthusiastic about the game is an understatement.

Here are some highlights:

How does The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks play? It is absolutely incredible!

It looks just like Phantom Hourglass, but does it play equally as great? YES!

And is seeing Link conducting a train weird? If by “weird” you mean awesome!

I know it seems obvious now, but I loved my time with The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. If you loved Phantom Hourglass you will absolutely adore this direct sequel. The controls are perfect, the graphics are gorgeous, and the tried and true Zelda gameplay feels fresh as ever due to some very welcome additions.

Read the rest and check out some screens through the link.

Capcom confirmed at E3 that a demo for Lost Planet would be heading to PS3.

No release date was forthcoming, but the company previously stated that one for PC and Xbox 360 would also be released.

The shooter has been slated for release this winter with the PS3 version coming in early 2010.

GameStop, however, has both console versions arriving on February 23, 2010.  Hopefully this will be cleared up soon enough.

Bayonetta was on display at E3, and one of the many sites to get some hands-on time with Hideki Kamiya’s latest was Kotaku.

The site seemed rather pleased with the 20-minutes or so it had, and here are some of the highlights:

Her rich list of combos is comprised mostly of kicks and punches, a surprisingly deep system with little more than jumping and pausing between attacks to mix things up.

Those combos can be practiced during the game’s loading times, giving the player time to become familiar with some of Bayonetta’s moves that one might not be able to pull off in the midst of the game’s chaotic battles. A running tally of how many times you’ve been able to pull off a particular combo will be shown on those loading screens as well, letting you know what moves you’re taking advantage of regularly and which ones you’re not.

Some of the more spectacular combos ended with giant stiletto heels and massive fists emerging from mystical portals. Others, the Torture Attacks, wrapped up with giant dragons made of Bayonetta’s hair, clearly exposing the witch’s expertly modeled backside for a half-second.

Sounds like a blast to us.

It’s out in the fall for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Sony has already started handing out development kits for its new motion-sensing controller.

Marketing exec Peter Dille confirmed this to Gamspot during E3, and also told the site that the technology is a lot further along that what has been presumed.

“We’re a little bit past the research phase,” said Dille. “We’re having conversations with the third-party community. The dev kits have started to go out to the third parties as well. They’re working on the tech. They couldn’t be more excited about it.”

Still no exact date on this, although many Sony reps have stated that it’s expected in Spring 2010.

Tecmo has released a video for its upcoming Gears inspired shooter, Quantum and it’s posted after the break.

The third-person action game is set in a world being consumed by the growth of towers and Syd and Filena, must destroy these towers to save the world.

While both characters team together to perform combo attacks, Syd uses guns and Filena is more comfortable with close combat situations. You can apparently chain together these different styles to be more effective in battle.

It’s a single-player game, but multiplayers will get Team Battle and a Battle Royale modes when the game is released.

D’toid got its hands on the game, and you should head over there to check out what was experienced.

No release date yet, but it’s expected for PS3.

More »

Microsoft may have already announced the Games on Demand news, but Arstechnica got a hands-on with the new service and noted some of the other changes to expect.

First of all, if you don’t like buying points, you won’t have to anymore. You can just use a credit card to make purchases.

“We’re going to have 30 or more games launching in August, worldwide, in all markets,” said Microsoft’s Scott Austin. “We’ll also be adding new content in all of our markets weekly

“What you’ll see here for the first time on the buy screen is we’ll be showing the price in the local currency, and we’re going to allow people to purchase with a credit card.

Secondly, once you purchase the game, you can go over to a buddy’s house and play it there too because Microsoft will store the license information on the Live servers.

“We keep the license information on the Live servers, so the user who purchased it can roam to another console and play the game there,” said Austin.

This will also allow you to delete the game to free up hard drive space, and then download it again at a later date.

More through the link.

Media Molecule has released its teaser for Shadow of the Colossus themes and costumes for LittleBigPlanet.

It’s expected to arrive next Thursday.

We’ll keep you posted on it.

Meanwhile, the teaser is after the break.
More »

When EA’s Patrick Soderlund got a look at Natal during E3, the Senior VP said he was impressed, but that 360 has been ‘maxed out’, and PS3 hasn’t.

“I like the Natal,” he told OXM at E3. “That’s cool. It’s an interesting device, so I’m truly impressed by Xbox. It’s my personal favorite console… I think Microsoft is on a roll right now. They’re doing really well. If I was Sony, I would have a headache, to be honest.”

He admitted too that Sony showed a great line-up, and was impressed with the amount of developers getting to know the ins and outs of the console.

“Sony has a lot of good games this year,” he said. “If you go to their booth, there’s a very consistent, high quality product line-up and that will help them. I do think that we’ll see developers inside the organization getting to understand the PS3 better and I think that we’re getting more power out of PS3 right now.

“I think that we’ve maxed out the 360 but we haven’t maxed out the PS3.”

More through the link.

Sony has registered with the ESRB six titles for release on the PlayStation Store.

Here’s a list of the six new games:

• Contra Legacy of War
• Dead in the Water
• Ford Racing
• Mobile Light Force — aka Gunbird & Castle of Shikigami
• Spec Ops: Airborne Commando
• XS Junior League Soccer

Read the rest over on IGN.

Propaganda says that choices the player makes in Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned will effect gameplay elements, alliances, and quests in the upcoming action RPG.

“It’s fundamentally about choices,” said director Alex Peters to Kotaku. “The choices you make and decisions you take change the direction the story is going…the outcome of the story, your character.

“You can be the pirate you want to be…you can do something else…create your own adventure. It affects the world around you; the economy and the way people react to you.”

Peters said the epic size of the game fell along the lines of Dragon Age, Fable and Oblivion and while as not heavily action oriented as Fable, there is quiet a but of sea combat.

More through the link along with new screens.

There may be something for everyone’s taste this week movie-wise over on the US PS Movie Store, but it still looks a bit “meh” if we’re being honest.

This week sees the HD release of the tragically titled suspense film Donkey Punch, Heaven’s Gate from 1980 with a bang-up cast, and the Sex and the City crowd favorite, He’s Just Not That Into You.

Listings of HD movies and TV shows are below the break, with the rest over on the US PS Blog.

More »

New Killzone 2 content is coming to Home during the later part of June.

It includes the Visari Throne Room apartment which is based on Visari’s Palace from the final mission of the game, and includes Helghast architecture with the “regal aesthetic of the Autarch himself.”

Furnishings consist of five pieces. Ttwo types of Visari chairs, a desk, a vase container with Helghan vegetation, and a painting portraying the colonial history of the Helghast.

Pricing has yet to be announced.

Visit the EU PS Blog for more information.

Guinness World Records representatives were at E3 to honor gaming publishers with new records.

Shigeru Miyamoto received the record for the Best Selling Video Game for Wii Sports, with sales of 45.7 million to date.

Major Nelson and Mark Whitten from Xbox Live were awarded for the Most Popular Online Console Gaming Service, as XBL has 20 million active subscribers representing 67% of the total install base as of May 2009.

Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime and Paul Sams accepted awards World of Warcraft for the Most Popular MMORPG with a total of 11.6 million subscribers and Starcraft for being the Best Selling Strategy Game for a PC, selling 9.5 million copies worldwide.

Bethesda’s Todd Howard was awarded with Fastest-selling Multi Platform RPG, due to Fallout 3 selling over 4.7 million copies during its first week on sale.

Infinity Ward got one for Most Played Online Video Game for Call of Duty 4. You knew that already, though.

Charles and Kai Huang of Red Octane were given accolades for Guitar Hero’s sales of over 25 million copies.

Steve Wiebe unsuccessfully tried to win back his Donkey Kong crown from Billy Mitchell, and received an honorable mention anyway. Wiebe’s final score of 989 was 400 points short of the 1,050,200 achieved by Mitchell in 2007.

The Guinness World Records 2010 Gamers Edition which will launch early next year.

Namco Bandai’s director of PR and marketing, Todd Thorson, has said that the globalization of its Japan-based business remains a key focus and is using Western developers to create games.

“We truly [want to] globalize the development of Western-focused games,” Thorson told Gamsutra at E3. “It happens on two levels.

“Not only are the guys in Japan developing things there that are so well known and have a fantastic track record, they’re really shifting their focus to a worldwide audience, making sure the products they make appeal globally.”

One such Western developer is Volatile Games which is working on Dead to Rights: Retribution.

More through the link.