Monthly Archives: July 2009

World of Goo developer 2D Boy’s next game will be a WiiWare title born out of its Experimental Gameplay Project, it has emerged this morning.

“The three of us are cooking up a new game for WiiWare, currently ‘in the works’,” Kyle Gabler told Nintendodpad.

“We haven’t mentioned anything about it to anyone, but here’s a clue – the new game from the three of us is based on one of the experimental games from our past.”

The other two – as Eurogamer points out – are Kyle “Henry Hatsworth” Gray and World of Goo programmer Allan Blomquist.

More details on The Experimental Gameplay Project can be found through the titular link.

In today’s video gaming market, there’s a general tendence to move away from exclusivity, and rake in the sales by going multiplatform. Now, GI wanted to know if Ryan Schneider, director of marketing and communications for Sony first-party developer Insomnaic Games, has considered this when he stares down the barrel of Resistance 2 sales figures.

This is what he said:

“Sure, as an independent developer, you do consider those options – but at the same time we do have a great relationship with Sony.

“We’ve been with Sony for a long, long time now, and that’s where we intend to stay for the foreseeable future.”

Why so much Sony love? Schneider explains:

“Sony bends over backwards to work with its development teams. Their product development team is second to none – we absolutely love working with them.

“Their PR and marketing folks are terrific to work with and very dedicated to the cause, and there are some very creative people there.

“We feel very fortunate to have that sort of relationship in place.”

Full interview with Schneider through the link.

Activision Blizzard has revealed that map packs for last year’s Call of Duty World at War have been downloaded 4 million times.

Only two map packs have been released so far, helping the shooter top the 11 million sales mark in June, reports GI.

Don’t fret though, at four new maps are on their way in a third map pack next month.

Awesome.

It’s Microsoft patent Tuesday, it seems. This time, Superannuation has unearthed a patent filed by MS on July 17 for the term “343 Industries.”

The patent stipulates that 343 Industries is for “computer programs, namely, game software for use on computers and video.”

Now, the millions Halo fans out there have probably already got a wry smile on their faces as “343″ is the name given to the character “343 Guilty Spark” in the Halo universe.

Gamespot speculated that 343 Industries sounds “less like a game and more like a label–a label that would be perfectly apt for the internal division of Microsoft Game Studios dedicated to the Halo franchise.”

Microsoft has been contacted by replied simply: “”We have nothing to announce at this time.”

We sense a thickening plot.

All will be revealed in due course.

After the break you can see two intro videos of the deleted scenes that come with the new Gears of War 2 Dark Corners DLC that Cliff Blezsinsky detailed on Major’s podcast yesterday.

It shows Marcus and Dom sneaking around wearing full Locust attire complete with some rather tight, red helmets.

Get ready to rumble on July 28.

More »

After the break you can see quite a lengthy vid of The Beatles: Rock Band that reveals eight new tracks from the rather spiffing-looking rhythm-action game.

The eight tracks are:

• Twist and Shout
• Paperback Writer
• Can’t Buy Me Love
• Eight Days a Week
• Yellow Submarine
• Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
• Within You Without You
• Revolution

Now, if we had friends and drunk copious amounts of alcohol with these fictive beings, The Beatles: Rock Band would probably be top of our most wanted list right now.

Hit the break to find out why.

More »

This is a strange one, but it appears Microsoft has patented the ability to drop-in and out of co-op games – think Gears of War.

Patent #7,559,834 was invented by a James York back in 2002 but it was assigned to Microsoft on July 14th 2009.

It reads:

Dynamic join/exit of players during play of console-based video game

Abstract

A squad-based shooter video game allows players to dynamically join and leave the game, while that game is in progress, without the players having to save and restart the game. When a new player joins an in-progress game, a new squad member is allocated to the new player and the screen is split to present a viewing panel for the new player that depicts scenes from the perspective of the new squad member. When an existing player leaves the game, the screen is unsplit to remove the viewing panel for the exiting player and that player’s squad member becomes part of the squad being controlled by the remaining player(s).

However, if you think that now no other company can use this technique, the patent does strictly say that it is only for squad-based shooters.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Metalocalypse, the popular Adult Swim show about a five-man metal band and their hilarious hijinks, is stepping onto the videogame stage in the form of a downloadable title for PSN and XBLA, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Titled Metalocalypse: Dethgame, the game won’t star the totally metal (and not much else) quintet. Instead, it’ll put you in the role of roadies who are part of Deathklok’s legion of fans.

No release date has been announced just yet.

More through the link.

Looks like the Xbox kids have been good this year, as jolly ol’ Mr. Madden is dropping down their chimneys a week before he moves onto other platforms.

The demo, which features the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys tossing around the pigskin, will be available to Xbox Live Gold members starting July 23, reports 1UP. It carries an eight minute time limit, though, so don’t get too excited.

Everyone else can get their hands on the demo starting July 30.

Four party members? Magic footwear? Flying monkey creatures? Why didn’t the Wizard of Oz get turned into a JRPG sooner? Well, at least XSeed and D3 Publisher have teamed up to finally realize author L. Frank Baum’s true vision.

Titled The Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road, the game’s a fairly straightforward JRPG with one twist: everything is stylus-controlled — even movement, which is controlled via a virtual trackball.

The game’s coming to North America this fall. Unfortunately, XSeed doesn’t publish outside North America, so Beyond the Yellow Brick Road’s release elsewhere is still up in the air.

Thanks, Siliconera.

Sorry PC gamers. Dante’s keeping his Inferno to himself. Speaking with Big Download, an EA PR rep shot down any hopes of a PC version of the hotly anticipated game.

“When Dante’s Inferno was originally announced in December, we attached no platforms to the project. When we came out with a first look for press in February we announced 360/PS3 and then in April we announced PSP. We never announced a PC SKU nor are there plans for any,” the rep said.

Oh well. Maybe PC gamers will have better luck the next time a major publisher decides to turn a contemplative literary masterpiece into a decidedly violent hack ‘n’ slash.

Doublefine and EA are bringing Eddie Riggs into the physical realm with a beautifully sculpted, 17-inch figurine. It features said Brutal Legend star leaping into action, axe raised high. We want it.

Sadly, as with precious substances like gold, silver, and Street Fighter Arcade sticks, the figure will be very rare. According to EA, only 1,000 of the totally metal figures (which, incidentally, are made of plastic) will ever be produced.

Getting one is as simple as watching the official Brutal Legend website and Twitter feed, where the figures will be given away.

Thanks, Kotaku.

For those who decided to brave the sticky, smelly masses and attend Comic Con, this is a week of celebration. For those who didn’t, however, it’s a week of regret, with heaping helpings of that uncomfortable sinking feeling supplied by your good friends on the Internet. Case in point: the above red hot Street Fighter IV arcade pad.

The pad’s a Comic Con-exclusive, and only 500 will be available — 250 for the Xbox 360 and 250 for the PS3. It’s selling for the steep price of $179.99. But then, Comic Con’s all about wanton spending and nerdy excess, so we don’t think Capcom will have too much of a problem getting these things off their hands.

Thanks, Kotaku.

In Soviet Russia, Retro/Grade plays like a normal shooter. Everywhere else, though, it moves in reverse. Sounds confusing, right? Well, a recent post on The PlayStation Blog explained the self-proclaimed “reverse shooter” in more detail.

The story goes like this: You’re Rick Rocket, and you just saved the universe. Congrats! The champagne, parades, and small armada of princesses you probably liberated will have to wait, though, because a temporal anomaly has caused time to move in reverse.

Thus, it’s up to you to undo all of your actions — exactly as you did them before — in order to shift time back into drive.

As a result, the game plays more like Guitar Hero than a shooter (the game even has built-in guitar peripheral functionality!) and sees you ducking into different lanes so that you won’t block enemy’s shots before they ever fire them. You also, of course, must hop into the correct lane and intercept your own shots by timing button presses correctly, lest you cause a time paradox. Still confused? So are w–

Bzzt. The VG247 mega-brain has encountered a fatal error. Press any key to continue.

Or just hit the link for a video of the game in action.

According to MCV, violent videogame ads are about to get a stern talking-to from the Advertising Standards Agency.

Apparently, the ASA will release new guidance for publishers and their ad agencies next week, which will ask them to consider the “wider context” of violent ads.

This is not to say, however, that gore, giblets, and F-bombs litter UK game ads — far from it. The ASA says less than one percent of game ads in the last 12 months were so gratuitously violent that they had to be pulled.

As such, the new guidelines are meant to stop future problems from ever sparking into a flame, and encourage publishers to go beyond simply satisfying regulatory rules.

More through the link.

If you’d rather Mothership Zeta’s mysterious alien culture remain, well, mysterious, you should probably go ahead and plug your ears and avert your eyes. If not, though, MTV Multiplayer‘s new info on the DLC is right up your alley.

“Mothership Zeta is full of the most high tech weaponry in the game. It includes a Shock Baton for melee fighters, multiple new firearms including an Alien Atomizer, a pistol, and the Alien Disintegrator, a new rifle. There’s also a new grenade type, a Cryo Grenade, which freezes enemies for a short period of time. On top of that there are new unique weapons, and a new heavy weapon,” said Bethesda’s Jeff Gardiner.

He also revealed a new perk called “Xenotech Expert,” which increases your damage-dealing prowess with alien weapons.

On top of that, somewhere on the ship, you’ll be able to find an item called “Alien Epoxy,” a marvel of alien engineering that repairs items by 25% without a duplicate item. Better still, you have the option of returning to the ship whenever you want, so even if you miss an alien whosit or whatsit while roaming the ship’s corridors, you can always come back.

The DLC’s out this August for Xbox 360 and PC owners, while PS3 Fallout faithful will have to wait until September.

Rabbids Go Home, the latest entry in Ubisoft’s curiously popular Rayman offshoot, is DS-bound, reports Kotaku.

Instead of trying out the Prince of All Cosmo’s gig like its Wii counterpart, the DS Rabbids will be slipping into the disembodied kicks of its progenitor Rayman for some platforming and puzzling.

If you’ve got a DSi, you’ll also be able to coat photos in Rabbid clip art with the game’s My Rabbid mode.

Click through the link for the first wacky, zany, buck-toothed screens.

Kotaku reports that Ubisoft’s lifting the curtain on a series of Assassin’s Creed 2 short films this holiday season. Can you say, “back story”?

The three bite-sized pieces of cinema will center around Ezio’s father, Giovanni Auditore da Firenze. Obviously, they’ll take place before Assassin’s Creed 2.

According to Ubisoft, we’ll be hearing more about the films during a panel at this week’s Comic Con.

We’ll bring you the nerd-sweat-scented scoop as soon as it drops.

A new Xbox 360 system update is on the way, but you don’t have to wait until it launches to try it. Major Nelson has the details on this year’s System Update Preview Program.

Just head over to Microsoft Connect, fill out a survey, and you’re (probably) in!

Bear in mind, however, that Gold users get priority over the penny-pinching Silver caste, so don’t be too heartbroken if you’re not selected for the test.

Well, what are you waiting for? Get to it, before the good seats are taken.

Playcast Media System is launching a large-scale pilot of its streaming game service today, which pulls audio and visual data from offsite computers in a way similar to OnLive and Gaikai. So, have the two big names been one-upped? Well, not exactly. See, Playcast’s service is only launching in Israel — for now.

The service promises “Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 quality games” using only a cable provider or Telco set-top box.

Fret not, however, if you’re itching to (potentially) stream some games this year. As of now, Playcast’s offering is set to launch in “major markets in the US, Europe and Asia” in 2009 and 2010. Exactly when and where, though, still remains a mystery.

Full release after the break.

More »