Monthly Archives: July 2009

The plotline for the Asteroids film has been detailed a bit thanks to a talk IGN had with the producer, Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

“It’s funny because people say there’s nothing in the game, but that’s not entirely right” he said. “I was attracted to Asteroids, plain and simple, because I think what it tells you is that there’s going to be this big thing in space.

“We’ve crafted a really strong, deep mythology for the thing. Without divulging too much about it, it’s two lead characters – two brothers – who have to go through a seminal experience to figure out their relationship, against this huge backdrop.”

Alrighty then.

Via Shack.

Bungie has revealed to Eurogamer that its secret non-Halo title is still in need of a publisher, but a deal is “close”.

“I think internally we’ll know sometime soon,” said Bungie’s Lars Bakken. “I don’t handle these things, but I’d imagine we’re going to know way before we make the public announcement of who’s handling that!

“But sure, I think those talks are, I guess, close.”

Good. That means we will be able to stop calling it the non-Halo game soon.

More through the link.

Global Agenda has began closed Beta testing today, and few lucky invitees got to start on it yesterday.

Hi-Rez Studios’ sci-fi action-based MMO will be tested by around 1,000 players at first, with more invitations to be sent out at a later time.

Expect it to land this fall on PC.

Remember, no elves allowed.

More over on MMORPG.

Dogmeat almost never made it into the Fallout series because of the tech involved, according to an interview posted over on The Escapist.

The developers also never realized how popular he would turn out to be or the lengths players went through to keep him alive.

“We never expected that Dogmeat would become such a popular character,” said lead designer Chris Taylor. “I always intended that the various NPCs that joined up with the player would come to a violent end.

“I was shocked when I heard of all the work people went through to keep Dogmeat alive to the end – especially the hell that they went through with the force fields in the Military Base.”

The developers also state that the inspiration for Dogmeat came from A Boy and His Dog and, obviously, The Road Warrior.

More about the pup is through the link.

Codemasters has gone all out of late promoting DiRT 2 with assets.

Today, CVG has posted no less than four, and just in case you have not seen any of these, go have a look.

Gamespot has posted six screens today, showing off the X Games.

Rally overload for the win.

To celebrate the release of its new map pack for Killzone 2, amongst other things, Guerilla is hosting a Double XP Weekend on PSN.

Starting today until Monday morning, games created will give you extra XP to help rank quicker andunlock Badges.

A Win will earn you a 2.5 multiplier and a Loss will still grant you the normal multiplier for a Win: 1.5. This applies only to individual points, not Clan Valor and will be available in all regions, and if you spot a fella with GG in front of the handle – go for ‘em. It’s one of the Guerilla guys.

More information over on the US PS Blog.

Those who were lucky enough to have been picked to checkout a preview of the new Xbox Live Dashboard, can do so now because it is up.

This is according to Engadget.

Dunno if this is the same in Europe or not, but give it a go anyway.

Newness goes live August 11.

Update: Kotaku has videos of it here, here and here.

Update 2: Apparently, Microsoft has revealed that those who have signed up for the public preview should receive the update this coming Monday. All you have to do is sign up and hope you get picked, but there are loads of spots available. Thanks, D’toid .

Harmonix and MTV games has detailed next week’s Rock Band DLC, and if you like KISS, Weezer or Blink 182, you are in luck.

Too bad all the KISS stuff is live and Black Diamond and God of Thunder still have not been released for the game. We keep hoping though.

The following tracks land on July 28 and 30 for Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively, for 160 Microsoft Points ($2) individually or 440 Microsoft Points ($5.50) per pack.

• Weezer Pack 2: My Name is Jonas, Pork and Beans, Undone – The Sweater Song
• Blink-182 Pack 1: The Rock Show, Down, Feeling This
• KISS Pack 1: 100,000 Years (Live), Deuce (Live), Parasite (Live)
• Damone – Out Here All Night

Warner Bros. and MTV have announced five more tracks for LEGO Rock Band.

Here’s the rub:

• “You Give Love a Bad Name” – Bon Jovi
• “In Too Deep” – Sum 41
• “Accidentally in Love” – The Counting Crows
• “Aliens Exist” – Blink 182
• “Tick Tick Boom!” – The Hives

So far 13 tracks have been announced, and along with hair-band rockers Bon Jovi, another band with pretty hair is included in the list.

Check out the full thing on D’toid to see who we’re talking about.

Mark Rein has said that despite having over 50 million users, Epic won’t be making games for Wii any time soon.

According to his interview with IndustryGamers that has been quoted to death, the firm would have to scale down Unreal to even try to accomplish such a feat. Therefore, it’s just not worth it.

“If you stretch something too thin, it becomes very thin,” he said. “How do you support that? We don’t make games for that platform because we don’t see a market for the kinds of games we make – let’s be honest.

He goes on to say that if Nintendo came out with a system with more processing capabilities, it might be a go, but at present, developers that have tried to simplify games for the console have garnered nothing but flops.

More over on Silicon Valley Insider.

Update: Mark Rein has contacted VG247 and explained that the article on SVI misquoted his response to questions regarding Wii with IndustryGamers. We have posted our conversation with him here.

There are quite a few decent HD movie offerings this week via the US PS movie store.

Conan the Barbarian, Monty Python’s the Meaning of Life, Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie, and the regretful Water World.

HD television shows are a bit slim, but then again, it’s the summer season. Things should pick back up in the fall.

Head on over to the US PS Blog for the full list, and remember, every sperm is sacred.

Xbox Live Community games has a new pricing structure for titles on the service, and some will be as low as $1.

The old pricing is going the way of the Dodo, which included hobbyist developers to be able to price titles for 800 Microsoft Points ($10), 400 MSP ($5), and 200 MSP ($2.50).

Instead, a tiered system has gone into place offering three different price points: 400 Microsoft Points ($5), 240 MSP ($3) and 80 MSP ($1; dollar values approximate).

Only games 50 MB in size and smaller can be sold for 80 MSP, and games currently at the price point of 200 MSP get shifted to 80 MSP unless the developer changes it themselves – but if the price is currently 800 it stays that way until the game gets an update which causes it to move to the tiered system.

Despite the changes, Microsoft will still not allow a full game to be a free download.

More over on Gamasutra.

Leaked footage of 360 Avatars playing golf on 360 has shown up on YouTube.

CVG has analyzed the video, and cannot decide if it has something to do with Project Natal or if it’s a separate game.

Take a look after the break before Microsot pulls the ban hammer on it.

More »

A first look for Jame’s Cameron’s Avatar has popped up over IGN.

The demo was played on Wii using Wii MotionPlus, and it sounds interesting to say the least.

You should go check it out if you are interested in the game.

Game’s out for everything under the sun in December, except for that homemade console you made out of cardboard in 4th grade. That was a miserable show-and-tell day.

Nordic Game will be participating in Gamescom on August 19-23, and the game booth will showcase 24 Nordic game companies and organizations.

Some of the highlights:

• Amazing Games
• Boomtown
• Donya Labs
• Fatshark
• Gogogic
• Hansoft
• Pixolane
• TeliaSonera International Carrier
• Tonic Games
• Unity 3D
• Zordix

These companies will be joined by: Artplant, Coldwood, Gotland University, Housemarque, Neogames, Nordic Soft Sales, PAN Vision, Producentforeningen, Redlynx, The Bearded Ladies Consulting, The Game Incubator, Tumbleweed and Virtual Air Guitar.

BioWare’s Casey Hudson has sat down and explained to PC World how players’ Mass Effect saves come into play with Mass Effect 2.

Apparently, the firm has taken every possible ending and integrated it into the sequel so that the experience can be as flawless as possible.

“[Mass Effect 2] is completely different from anything you’ve played before, because it’s literally, potentially threaded into everything that happens,” he explained. “When you’re playing the first game, everything that you do is setting a variable so that as the story progresses we know that you did a certain thing on a certain planet, and then internal to the game, we can reference those things. Your Mass Effect save game contains all of that information.

“When you import it into Mass Effect 2, now we can continue mining all that information. And it’s not just what your ending was, or a couple of the big choices, you know, where we could have stuck a conversation at the beginning and asked you what you did and moved on. This is literally hundreds of things.

“Anytime we have a plot or a character or situation in Mass Effect 2, we think about what you did, potentially, in the first game that might affect said plot or character or situation in the second. We can look at each variable and dynamically change what happens in the moment. It ranges from small things like, by way of example, Conrad Verner was a fan of Commander Shepard’s that you met in the first game, and it’s like you meet this guy in an alley and you can be nice to him or you can be a jerk to him, and at the time you might have been thinking of it as just a trite role-playing convention, good-guy bad-guy, and that’s that.

“Jump forward two years. Now you’re playing Mass Effect 2, and oh my god, who’s this, it’s Conrad Verner! And based on what you’ve done, you realize that while the moment in the first game maybe seemed throwaway, now Conrad’s back and involved in another plot in a game you’re playing two years later…and what you did two years ago is meaningfully affecting what’s happening.

“That’s a small example.”

More through the link.

Capcom has announced its online plans for Monster Hunter 3.

The Wii-exclusive boasts both single and online play, but after the free deals lasting 20 or 90 days, “Hunting Tickets” will cost the following:

• 30 days – 800 points
• 60 days – 1,500 points
• 90 days – 2,000 points

Game’s out August 1 in Japan.

Via Cubed3.

This US PS Blog posted the latest update to PSN last night after we left you all to your own devices.

In it, was Shatter, Wild Arms 2, Spec Ops: Covert Assault, a demo for Dissidia Final Fantasy, and Killzone 2 Napalm & Cordite and Overlord 2: Battle Rock. WipEout HD Fury landed as well.

On the PSP end, Tomb Raider: Legend and Anniversary hit and when you buy the game, you will get a free Tomb Raider theme provided you buy either game by the end of the week.

Rock Band, Dynasty Warriors, themes, videos and the rest can be seen through here.

The first C&C4 trailer just released, revealing the game to be set in Manchester. Yes, that Manchester. The one full of Beckham pimp rolls and bloody spit.

If you concentrate, you can feel the Hacienda’s “vibe” as the ships fly through the suitably putrid landscape. Watch out for the man dressed as a fucking cow dancing like a gibbon.

It’s out next year, PC-only.

More »

Sony, Sony, Sony. Not content with booking up three hours of speech time at Gamescom next month, the company’s gone and confirmed Kaz Hirai as the main speaker at TGS this year.

His speech will be titled New Tactics for 2009, and starts on September 24 at 10:30am.

From Gpara via Kotaku.