Monthly Archives: July 2009

Update: CoD: WaW’s official website has the first details on the new maps. Be warned, though, it’s behind an age gate, so if you’re part of our burgeoning audience of toddlers who are also WWII buffs, you’re out of luck. (Thanks, Enkeixpress.)

Just because Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is set to fulfill the prophecy as foretold by analysts and blot out the sun this fall doesn’t mean its predecessor can’t keep his royal Megaton’s seat warm until the big show. As such, four new Call of Duty: World at War maps are coming this August. Activision sent out a press release to herald their arrival.

“Battery,” “Revolution,” and “Breach” are — as expected — ripped straight from the history books, while “Der Riese” makes sure all the zombies that lost their un-lives during WWII aren’t forgotten.

That’s all for now. We’re sure Activision will release more details as the map pack’s launch date draws nearer.

Epic Games poster boy Cliff Bleszinski doesn’t think Microsoft’s Project Natal will set the traditional gaming world afire. However, he still thinks it’s a pretty great idea.

“If there’s any future Gears products [coughs elaborately], it’s not the kind of thing you tag onto a game like that, right?” he said on Major Nelson’s podcast.

“So what you have is the 360 which has captured a lot of the video viewing audience [with] movies and Netflix, it’s captured a lot of the online gaming, it’s captured a lot of the hardcore games, and you know segue that in, so now you have your yoga programme, now you have your dodgeball thing, you have the creepy kid Milo who wants to drown you in the pond – you can do all of it.”

“Will it replace traditional gaming? No, but it’s another amazing way that we can expand the gaming experience to a wider audience and enhance what’s already there,” he concluded.

No Gears of War yoga/party baby sim, then? Oh Cliffy, say it ain’t so.

Via Eurogamer.

Speaking on Major Nelson’s podcast, Gears of War 2 designer Cliff Bleszinski revealed that his game’s Dark Corners DLC will include content that was snipped out of the game’s original release.

“It’s a 90-minute section that was actually snipped out of Gears of War 2, where Marcus and Dom are actually going to the Locust homeworld and they’re basically suited up in Locust armour and have a choice – because they knocked out a couple of Therons – they can go in guns-blazing as they always do, Rambo-style, or they can go with a more stealth approach, so it’s a little bit of stealth in the Gears universe,” Bleszinski said.

“You get Achievements for playing the mode either way and it kind of plugs right into the main game. It’s actually the first time we’ve done any sort of single-player DLC. It’s kind of a test to see whether people dig it.”

Large men in glowing armor attempting to tip-toe about? We’ll try anything once.

The link has more, but do you have the sheer will to click through it? Do a bit of soul-searching, then give it a shot.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

GamesAid, a game industry charity that aims primarily to help children, has finally figured out a way to make raising money X-treme: by scaling large rocks in dangerously small amounts of time. Rad.

Martyn Northall, Richard Slater, Matt West-Robinson and Dermot Stapleton, employees of Just Flight and Mastertronic, are set to tackle the aptly named Three Peaks Challenge, GI.biz reports. They’ll be scaling three mountains — a total of 26 miles — in under 24 hours. We’re not even sure rockets can move upward that quickly.

Want to donate? Go here.

More through the links.

Nintendo’s put out its list of downloads for the week, with this week’s obvious standout being Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord.

There’s also Battle Poker, which — sadly — puts a heavy emphasis on the poker, and not the battling. 5 Spots Party rounds out the Wii’s portion of the line-up, and Art Style: Zengage (uh, yeah) serves as the sole DSiWare representative for the week.

The Virtual Console, meanwhile, is hiding its head in shame over a release-free week.

Full details on each game are after the break.

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Gamasutra‘s got a listing of each console’s top-selling games in the US so far this year. It’s straight from NPD, but has gone live after the monthly NPD reports. For us, it’s like getting an early Christmas present (or finding an Easter egg after Easter’s over, depending on your level of pessimism), as you can imagine.

For each game, total sales figures were estimated, and as such, the NPD wasn’t able to apply its sales magic to every game. If you’d like to see estimated sales numbers, click through the link. The lists are as follows:

PS3

1. Killzone 2
2. Resident Evil 5
3. Street Fighter IV
4. UFC Unleashed
5. MLB ’09: The Show

The other two consoles are after the break.

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Activision has confirmed Carlos Santana will feature in Guitar Hero 5 later this year.

You’ll be able to play along to ‘No One To Depend On’ from his ‘Santana’ album.

To celebrate, Acti put out a couple of images of you to look at. They’re over at Destructoid.

Take a look.

BioWare has released the latest edition of The Old Republic web comic called Threat of Peace.

It’s all about the how the Rodians are shunned how hard times have fallen on the Jedi since the Sith Empire battered Coruscant.

The war still rages on, however, and people are getting tortured behind closed doors.

Interested? Get it here.

Thanks, Massively.

If you’ve still got a copy of Force Unleashed knocking about that you didn’t get the Jedi Temple Mission Pack DLC for way back when, then you’re in luck, as the Major reveals that it’s this week’s Deal of the Week.

In real numbers that means it’s 50 percent cheaper than it was yesterday i.e. 400 MS Points instead of 800. Great.

Go grab it if you haven’t already.

Monolith has put out the the footage that was cut from the end credits of F.E.A.R. 2. You can watch it after the break.

It’s a comedy singing and dancing number and is extremely silly indeed.

Don’t believe us? Take a look.

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The NPD Group has revealed that EA’s The Sims 3 was the best selling game for the PC last month.

Unfortunately, the NPD Group no longer distributes PC sales data publicly, but it has revealed the above.

EA said that The Sims 3 sold 1.4 million in June.

Thanks, Edge.

Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon has revealed images of a hidden Mortal Kombat themed basketball ‘kourt’ (Kombat – Kourt – gettit?!) via twitter that was going to be unlockable in NBA Jam and until the man himself said no.

It’s got fire around it and skulls and everything. It’s totally awesome. We’re gutted he decided against it.

Anyway, check out the full image at Destructiod.

Electronic Arts and DC comics have teamed up to reveal that Visceral Games’ Dante’s Inferno will have a six issue graphic mini-series made in its honour with the first issue due in December this year.

The comic is illustrated by Diego Latorre (The Incredible Hulk) and written by Christos Gage (X-Men/Spider-Man, Wildcats), so the prestige is there for it not to be crap.

However, if you’re going to ComicCon this week, you can pick up a special issue #0, and get it signed by the above.

We’re not there. Awesome.

Dante’s Inferno is out for PS3 and 360 in January.

Full thing after the break.

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IncGamers reckon it is. The site is reporting that GAPP – the firm responsible for authorising World of Warcraft – has almost finishing doing whatever it is it does and that the games should go live again in China soon.

Apparently, there’s a bit of violent conduct that needs to be removed and then everything will be hunky dory again.

The MMO that has become somewhat of a cultural phenomenon, has been offline in the region since June 7.

Yes, it’s back: Matt Matthews’ NPD breakdown, and this time the month of June has come under his enormous microscope.

It’s even better than last month‘s we think. No reason. It just is. It’s got to be. It’s five pages long.

Have a read, innit.

Valve’s Gabe Newell has revealed in a video interview with Good Game that he thinks communities should fund games instead of big, demanding publishing houses.

From the interview (transcribed by Kotaku AU):

One of the areas that I am super interested in right now is how we can do financing from the community. So right now, what typically happens is you have this budget – it needs to be huge, it has to be $10m – $30m, and it has to be all available at the beginning of the project. There’s a huge amount of risk associated with those dollars and decisions have to be incredibly conservative.

What I think would be much better would be if the community could finance the games. In other words, ‘Hey, I really like this idea you have. I’ll be an early investor in that and, as a result, at a later point I may make a return on that product, but I’ll also get a copy of that game.’

So move financing from something that occurs between a publisher and a developer… Instead have it be something where funding is coming out of community for games and game concepts they really like.

Full interview through the GoodGame link.

Paradox Interactive is ten years old today and to celebrate it’s selling some of its back catalogue at a 50 per cent discount.

There’s Elven Legacy (pictured above), Mount & Blade, and Europa Universalis 3 all ready to be downloaded on the cheap from GamersGate, Steam, Direct2Drive and Impulse.

What are you waiting for?

Full thing after the break.

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PaRappa the Rappa and Major Minor’s Majestic March creator, Masaya Matsuura, has said that he and his team is interested in Microsoft’s Natal and are currently discussing ideas for a new game.

“We are thinking about ideas,” he told Videogamer at Develop last week.

“I think any kind of interaction with a camera will be good for music games, but the important thing will be how we can find the new breed of gameplay.”

“There is other attractive music, so please try to find another style, another interaction, another gameplay with another type of music,” explains Matsuura as he believes there other other genre’s to explore other than rock music that Guitar Hero and Rock Band have utilised to date.

Bit more through the link.

Major League Gaming and EA Sports have united to bring you, the PlayStation 3 gamer, online qualifying competitions for multiple titles from the EA Sports library.

From the release:

Both online and live competitors in the 2009 EA SPORTS Challenge Series will be competing for cash and prizes totaling $170,000, made possible by Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.

“Working with EA Sports has been a dream of ours for some time. Together, we’ll bring the intensity and excitement of competitive video gaming to sports fans across North America,” said Matthew Bromberg, president of Major League Gaming.

“For nearly a decade, the EA Sports Challenge Series has represented what our brand is all about – competition and a passion for sports,”Steven Chiang, senior vice president, EA Sports weighed in.

“In partnering with MLG and Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc , we’re going to offer our consumers the chance at competition like they’ve never had before, at the highest levels of gaming, and with all the bragging rights on the line.”

Sounds good, although it’s US only at the moment. More details here.

Full thing after the break.

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BioShock creator Ken Levine has said that he makes no claim on Bioshock 2 whatsoever. It’s a 2K Marin project, and the dev team have to put their stamp on it.

“If I’m not working on a project — I’m not working on BioShock 2,” said Ken to Gama. “I make no claim to anything on BioShock 2, and I think it’s important that that’s their product, and their culture. Because you can’t just clone a studio.

“I think that their hunger to do something new will be very important to their success there.

“And it can’t just be a clone of a 2K Boston or Irrational Games; 2K Marin has to be its own thing. And a very separate thing,” he explains.

“They’re working on BioShock, but it’s got to be their project. They’ve got to put their stamp on it.”

Bit more through the link.

Bioshock 2 was recently delayed into next year.