Monthly Archives: July 2009

The Major has announced that the Dark Corners Multiplayer Map Pack and the All Fronts Collection for Gears of War 2 arrived on Xbox Live this morning.

Dark Corners features 7 new multiplayer maps and a bonus deleted single-player chapter, “Road to Ruin,” where Marcus and Dom navigate the Locust highway, choosing stealth or blazing action to survive. The 7 maps include a new War Machine, the Gears 1 map Allfathers Garden, a heavy-weapons battle at a COG landmark; Highway, a fight in the Locust Hollow; Memorial, a battle at the Tomb of the Unknowns; Nowhere, a firefight in an old motel; Way Station, a battlefield with parallel paths; and Sanctuary, a reimagined favorite from Gears for Windows. It will run you 1200 MS Points ($14.99/£10.20).

The All Fronts Collection features all 19 downloadable Gears 2 multiplayer maps and the new Dark Corners expansion. This is great if you have never downloaded any maps, and will run you 1600 MS Points ($19.99/£13.60).

More through here.

It looks as though some band paraphernalia and music will be present in Left 4 Dead 2, starting with Depeche Mode

Chet Faliszek, co-lead and writer, says Valve contacted record labels and different bands for the game and Depeche Mode was one of the few who responded.

Faliszek explained that the band was very free with the use of its likeness, music, and merchandise in the game – but did not say whether the band itself would make an appearance or not.

Still, rather cool.

Via Kotaku.

Wii Sports Resort has gone straight in at the top of the UK chart, knocking Potter down into second.

Tiger Woods and Wii Fit held their positions at three and four respectively.

Last week’s chart here. Data below for the week ending July 25.

LittleBigPlanet creation aspects are to be expanded in upcoming DLC, Media Molecule co-founder Mark Healy has told VG247.

“A lot of our DLC so far has been based around expanding our palletes, if you like; more costumes, more stickers, and things like this,” said the developer.

“A big part of what’s coming in the future expands on what’s possible in LittleBigPlanet in terms of it being a creation tool.”

When asked specifically if he was talking about the game’s feature set, Healy responded:

“Yeah. There’s going to be lots of exciting things that make it into more of a versatile creation tool.”

Healy was speaking after a talk on the visual style of LittleBigPlanet at Develop in Brighton earlier this month, in which he and fellow Media Molecule founder Kareem Ettouney said upcoming content for the game would make fans “very happy”.

It was confirmed during the talk that more than 1 million LBP levels have now been created by PS3 users.

A single-player demo of IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds Of Prey releases on Live tomorrow, 505′s confirmed.

The “hotly anticipated WWII action simulator” hits 360, PS3, PSP and DS on September 4.

PR after the link.

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The ECA wants you to tell president Obama how great games are, seeing as how he’s always banging on about putting them “away”.

The form is apparently designed to allow you to “point out some of the ways that video games have empowered and educated you.”

We’ll tell him about our shooting skills. They’ve improved no end since we got addicted to first-person murdering on the Xboxes.

Hit link. Do duty. Thanks, Joystiq.

Kotaku’s posted up some lovely promo pics from the upcoming anime Halo Legends. There’s one from each of the studios involved. That’s it, really.

We could wank on about the “style,” but you’ve got eyes. So we won’t.

Take a look.

The latest One Life Left’s out, this time featuring Capcom’s Leo Tan banging on about The Gathering, the company’s Monster Hunter “space” in London.

Simon, Ste and Ann also talk about games, as is their wont.

Have a listen.

According to this Gamezine report, a petition opposed to the ban of violent games in Germany has forced a government hearing on the matter, having crossed a 50,000 signature threshold.

The number of users adding their names to the document now totals more than 64,000.

The petition asks that the German government “should decide against the decision of the interior minister conference from the 5th of June, that aims for a [banning] of action computer games.”

There’s more detail here.

Just a reminder to those still “wowed” by that Nokia phone with the slidey mouthpiece – The Matrix online gets switched off this week. On Friday, to be precise.

The game’s been up and running for the past four years. Good effort.

No biggie. Just go learn kung fu somewhere else.

Thanks, Massively and Joystiq.

If you thought there was some big conspiracy behind the recently announced delays of Splinter Cell: Conviction and Red Steel 2, prepare to be disappointed. Turns out, Ubisoft just thought the two games could use a bit more time in the powder room.

“The changes on Splinter Cell and Red Steel – it’s just a question of polish. The team was asking that they couldn’t be with the level of quality on all the maps and all the game for the end of the year, so they had asked for more time to be able to come with a better product, for both of those games,” Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during a recent earnings call.

The quality of the games is there for what you’ve been able to see at E3, but we were not able to have that same quality on the full game of those two products,” he added.

He also revealed that, by missing the chance to stuff gamers’ stockings this holiday season, Splinter Cell and Red Steel will probably sell “around a million units” fewer in their respective first months. Madness? Not quite. “We really think with the level of quality that we’ll be able to obtain with the time we give them we will have a long shelf life for those products,” he explained.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Ryu Hayabusa may not be much into that whole “stealth” thing that’s got all the other ninjas talking these days, but that hasn’t kept him from sneaking onto the tail-end of September.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma II is actually launching first in North America on September 29, and then in Japan on October 1, reports Kotaku. Tecmo has also announced a collector’s edition that comes with a swank 80-page book and a $69.99 price tag.

In addition, if you preorder the game from GameStop, you’ll unlock a special costume for Ryu. And honestly, if you live in North America, where else are you gonna buy the game? Wal-Mart? Oh, that’ll show those big corporations who’s boss.

More through the link.

Scott Pilgrim, a comic book sensation penned by Bryan Lee O’Malley (and soon, a movie starring Michael Cera and directed by Edgar Wright), is getting the videogame treatment courtesy of Ubisoft Montreal, reports IGN.

Announced during last week’s Comic Con, the game will shed its formal film-wear and instead go with a look akin to the comic series. According to O’Malley, gameplay will consist of 2D brawling, which sounds all right to us, considering that one portion of the comic parodied old-school brawler River City Ransom.

The game, film, and final volume of the comic are all expected to drop in 2010. We’re completely stoked, if we’re being honest. And if you’re not, well, something’s wrong with you. If that “something” is that you haven’t read the comic, then you’ve got homework.

Gaming isn’t just some one-and-done deal, according to a report by the Entertainment Merchants Association. It’s a life-long commitment.

“Consumer turnover in the video game market is exceedingly low. Older gamers continue to be engaged by video games, rather than dropping out and being replaced by a new generation. Once a consumer decides to play video games, they continue to play for life – adding to the growing number of gamers worldwide,” said the report (via Industry Gamers).

Thanks to videogames’ basilisk-like ability to transfix, 68% of American households now play videogames, bringing total industry sales up to $23 billion in 2008.

As a result of all this, we’re considering changing our name to VG2474lyfe. What do you think? It’s either that or VG247/2 Days. Now what do you think?

Tons more through the link.

After being plucked from financial quicksand by Warner Bros., Midway’s been having a bit of an identity crisis. Now though, it seems the drama’s done and over, because according to superannuation, a very crucial piece of Midway has been rebranded.

The gist of it is that two former Midway employees — who are now with Warner Bros. — list themselves as working for WB Games Chicago on social networking site LinkedIn. One profile also details the guts of WB’s game development force, which “includes Monolith Productions, Surreal Software, Snowblind Studios and WB Games Chicago.”

Midway’s Chicago studio developed Mortal Kombat, among other titles.

We’ve put in an email to Midway asking for confirmation, and will let you know as soon as we hear more.

Belgian site consoleshop.be appears to have cracked open a hidden vein of European prepaid PSN cards, and will share its bounty with everyone else on October 1.

The PSP Go — in all its download-only glory — also launches on October 1, so pairing it with PSN cards makes sense.

The cards will apparently come in two flavors, €20 and €50.

When contacted by Edge, Sony claimed that consoleshop.de’s images were actually ‘shopped versions of North American PSN cards. However, the console behemoth has yet to confirm or deny the existence of European PSN cards.

Using our speculative crystal balls, however, we’ve seen the future. There’s fire raining down from the heavens, terror-driven riots that signal the coming of a new age, and blood caked all over the boots of a new, hell-borne regime.

There are also PSN cards, for whatever it’s worth.

Infinity Ward’s posted the first official Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer trailer, and it looks pretty spectacular. It features a killstreak punctuated by an AC-130 airstrike. If you can count the number of explosions in the whole thing, you’re some kind of super computer.

Watch the immaculate powder keg go off after the break.

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After debuting little more than a month ago, Ghostbusters: The Videogame has already haunted one million North American homes.

“We are very pleased with the performance of Ghostbusters: The Videogame, and credit the game’s quality as well as the incredible support from both the established and new fan-base all helping to make this a retail success,” said Atari CEO Jim Wilson.

While the game hit every console under the sun in North America, only PS3 and PS2 versions heeded the call in Europe. We imagine Atari’s anticipating another sales boost when Ghostbusters launches on Xbox 360, Wii, et. all on October 23.

Thanks, Edge.

In an earnings call today, Ubisoft announced a 50 percent sales drop from the same quarter last year, and attributed the brunt of that heavy blow to piracy.

“Altogether on console, the piracy is low,” Ubisoft head Yves Guillemot said. “On the PC the piracy is quite a lot. We are working on a tool that would allow us to decrease that on the PC starting next year and probably one game this year.”

On top of that, Guillemot noted that DS piracy is a larger-than-expected problem — something he hopes to rectify by selling physical pack-ins (like figurines) with games.

The PSP, also, has seen its fair share of piracy in the past, but now that the console possesses “new ways to control piracy,” Ubisoft is once again looking into potential projects on Sony’s handheld.

Thanks, Kotaku.

inFamous is coming to LittleBigPlanet in the form of Sackboy costumes, which revolve around the main character of the game, Cole.

There’s been no official announcement yet, but it’ll apparently be out for the PS Store update this week. The first art renders are over at PlayStation Lifestyle.