Monthly Archives: July 2009

Remedy’s Alan Wake was on show at Comic Con this past week, and GameTrailers has some new gameplay footage.

We want this now truth be told, but alas must wait until spring 2010.

Video’s through the link.

According to the Dead Space movie report from Variety this morning, a third Dead Space game is being planned.

It’s well known that Visceral is already working on a second title.

The news came as part of a story saying a director had been pinned for a film based on the IP.

DC Universe Online producer, Wes Yangai, has told CVG that PS3 has given the MMO a completely new audience.

“The PS3 opens up an entirely new player base for us, and it’s one that we’re incredibly excited about. They may not be familiar with the persistent online side of our game, but they will get the action part immediately,” said Yangai.

“Bridging the gap between these two game genres is something we’re very confident we can pull off. And to your broader point, the current console generation is the first one to fully embrace online functionality across the board, including all of the pieces required for an MMO, such as a mass storage device and broadband Internet access.

“MMOs take a long time to build, so I’m sure there are others coming to the consoles as well.”

More through the link. No date yet.

It’s been announced that Gears of War Avatar clothing for will be coming soon to an Xbox 360 near you.

The new items were premiered at Comic Con at the “Gearsiverse,” panel during the event this past weekend.

The clothing sees you suit up as a COG from the game with armor and helmet, just so you look like Carmine.

Locust clothing will also be available.

This should be one of the many premium Avatar clothing lines arriving when the Summer Dashboard update drops on August 11.

Thanks, Destructoid.

Amazon’s blamed a “slowdown” in games sales as a primary factor in a Q2 profit drop.

“You’re seeing an industry slowdown in videogames and consoles,” said CFO Tom Szkutak.

The retailer’s upside dropped 14 percent in the three months running to June 30, down 10 percent to $142 million, or 32 cents per share.

Sales were up 14 percent in the period, rising to $4.65 billion from $4.06 billion a year ago.

Costs resulted from a legal dispute also impacted profits in the quarter.

More on the WSJ. Thanks, Joystiq.

A ton of new Left 4 Dead 2 footage came out of Comic Con yesterday, namely three new gameplay videos and a Valve interview.

Get it all after the break.

The shooter’s out later this year for PC and 360.

More »

The BBFC’s given Dead Space: Extraction an 18, as you can see here.

No cuts were made for UK release, and the game contains “strong bloody violence and strong language,” according to the UK ratings body.

Keep everything crossed against the mature-games-don’t-sell-on-Wii-naysayers, innit.

It’s out in October. Thanks, GoNintendo.

RTW’s released the latest APB video podcast, this time showing off some of the MMO’s clothing creation tools. As ever, it looks awesome. Watch it after the break.

Next week’s instalment promises a look at the game’s vehicle customisation features.

The game’s out next spring.

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EA’s apologised over its “Sin to Win” Dante’s Inferno Comic Con competition, saying the contest’s T&C wording had caused “confusion and offense”.

The contest asked convention attendees to commit “an act of lust” with an EA booth babe and take a picture for proof. A “Night of Lust” was promised for the winner.

While only a “special” person would actually read this as doing something illegal, some people got pissed off.

“‘Commit acts of lust’ is simply a tongue-in-cheek way to say take pictures with costumed reps,” said the publisher.

“Also, a ‘Night of Lust’ means only that the winner will receive a chaperoned VIP night on the town with the Dante’s Inferno reps, all expenses paid, as well as other prizes.”

Shame on you, EA. Shame.

Via Negative Gamer and Kotaku.

The imminent Xbox 360 dashboard update is to allow you to select colours for certain items of Avatar clothing, according to Joystiq.

There’s a video of it working over there.

All the new stuff goes live on August 11. Get more general detail here.

Variety’s reporting that Dead Space is the next EA franchise to get a movie, this one being directed by DJ Caruso.

Gears of War movie producers Temple Hill partners Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey will also work on the film.

Dead Space is the fifth EA franchise to get the movie treatment, others in the works being Army of Two, The Sims, Dante’s Inferno and Mass Effect.

There’s no date. Sounds as though it’s based on the first game from that piece. Hit it and see.

More dripping from Comic Con over the weekend. Army of Two: The 40th Day creative director Alex Hutchinson confirmed that the game is to feature expanded multiplayer modes over the original at the event, saying it’ll allow more than four players to get busy online.

The shooter will feature a “fully client/server” connection, with “many more modes and more people allowed to play.”

The original had three multiplayer modes and up to four players allowed.

Hit Kotaku for more. The game’s out later this year for 360 and PS3.

LittleBigPlanet may get a set of Marvel superhero sackboys, according to Kotaku.

Details are a little uncertain from the look of that piece, but three concept renders were shown at Comic Con over the weekend of Iron Man, Wolverine and Captain America in sack-form.

No date, or anything. Take a look.

It’s Saturday again, and time for your dose of MMO news.

This one has been branded the “trouble” edition, because certain MMOS were either in trouble, or getting out of it this week.

First off, Stargate Worlds is rumored to be in massive trouble, Age of Conan isn’t in as much any more, and China has ungrounded World of Warcraft but only a tiny bit. It can still go out on dates, but not whore about the countryside like it had been doing. What a tart.

Other than those bits, the week in MMOs was a bit uneventful. Yeah sure, the major news hit the front page as usual, but there are a few things you may want to know about that didn’t. For that, and the rest of it, along with a song devoted to Second Life, read on below.

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Rockstar does not plan on turning the Grand Theft Auto series into a movie franchise any time soon.

As a matter of fact, vice president Dan Houser says the prospect of one considered, and then quickly tossed aside.

“We don’t believe that the Grand Theft Auto games, which are massive in scope and structurally complex, can be adequately compressed into a two-hour movie,” he told the LA Times. “It seems obvious to us that maintaining the long-term integrity of any entertainment property has been dependent on not making substandard spin-off products to people whose primary interest is making a quick buck.

“If we ever decide to do a film, it will be because we have resolved our creative doubts, and while retaining enough control to ensure that if the movie is terrible, at least we will know we ruined the property ourselves.

Via GTA.4net, Kotaku.

343 Industries’ Frank O’Connor was on hand at Comic-Con, and while there, he provided a few more details regarding Halo Waypoint.

Waypoint will feature access to audio and video content, community features, the ability to follow your “Halo career”, track the Halo games you play along with the achievements you unlock and other aspects not directly tied to “Halo 3, Halo Wars, and Halo, reports Kotaku.

It can be accessed from the Xbox 360 dashboard, will be a place to interact with others, and the first place to see episodes of Halo Legends which will be labeled as “events” instead of being placed in the video marketplace.

“There’s a lot more to Waypoint than just watching movies and listening to podcasts,” he said. “Maybe you just want to see a really old Halo trailer from E3. We’re going to aggregate everything that you would want to watch from the Halo universe on that site. But it’s a lot more ambitious than that. It’s going to evolve in features and functionality to make it the prime destination for the Halo fan.

“You’ll be able to see [Legends] episodes in their entirety via Waypoint in a staggered schedule. Those events will be global—it will be in every Xbox territory—and we’ll make those things sort of ‘come participate’ events.”

As far as a launch date is concerned, O’Conner reiterated that it was scheduled for a fall release, but will arrive sooner rather than later that season.

With pricing, Microsoft has yet to determine if Silver Member will have to pay to access the service or not.

“Certainly, if you’re a Gold member you’re going to get access to all of that experience,” he said. “We want everyone to have this same experience, but the question is, if there’s multiplayer features that are technically connected to Gold, it’s easier to deal with. There’s a lot of reasons that [tying it to] Gold makes sense.”

More through the link.

Chair Entertainment’s Donald Mustard was at Comic-Con, and he talked a bit about Shadow Complex, the side-scrolling action title Chair’s working on with Epic.

There’s a video over on Destructiod featuring Mustard discussing weaponry, speed runs, and the foam gun which allows you to cover an enemy with quick-hardening foam or use to create a path of sorts to reach certain platforms.

Game’s out later this year on XBLA and will run you 1200 MS Points ($14.99/£10.20).

Some assets have landed on the net for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

Screens from the Ultimate Sith Edition can be found here.

A video of the Tatooine downloadable content can be found here.

Both are courtesy of IGN.

Peter Jackson has said that his Halo Chronicles project is no longer gonna happen.

You could even say it’s as dead as Miranda Keyes, from the way Jackson talked – at least on his end.

“That Halo project is no longer happening, it sort of collapsed when the movie didn’t end up happening,” he said. “Microsoft has a whole strategy with the Halo property, and when the rights expired with the two studios, that sort of ended my involvement with the project.

“That fell apart because of internal politics at Fox and Universal. It had nothing to do with the budget or anything else. In fact, we hadn’t even been greenlit at all at that point.”

Confirmation came by way of Joystiq, which ran into Jackson at the premiere of District 9.

More through the link.

Episode One for Tales of Monkey Island will land on WiiWare July 27.

Launch of the Screaming Narwhal will cost 1000 Wii Points ($10) and Telltale promises that Europe will get a release date soon.

Hit the link.