Monthly Archives: July 2009

Three new screens have popped up for WET.

It’s out this fall from Bethesda and A2M for PS3 and Xbox 360.

GameInfowire has ‘em, you know you wanna go look.

Capcom has released its schedule along with a list of treats it will be providing to attendees at Comic-Con next week.

There will be tournaments, the Japanese game developers and loads more.

Here’s the list:

Games Featured

• Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth­ (never-before-seen demo)
• Lost Planet 2
• Dark Void
• Tatsunoko VS Capcom Ultimate All-Stars
• Marvel vs. Capcom 2
• Resident Evil: The Dark Side Chronicles
• Fate/Unlimited Codes

Panels

Capcom will be hosting four panels throughout the event, complete with full Q&A sessions:

• THURSDAY, JULY 23 – 3:15–4:15 CAPCOM 2009 Lineup – Join Capcom’s premiere producers as they present sneak peeks at the most anticipated games of the year featuring Jun Takeuchi ( Lost Planet 2), Morgan Gray ( Dark Void), Daryl Allison ( Spyborgs), Motohide Eshiro ( Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth), and Masachika Kawata ( Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles). Moderated by Capcom-Unity.com’s Seth Killian, see exclusive gameplay footage and behind-the-scenes making-of features followed by a Q&A session! Room 6BCF

• FRIDAY, JULY 24 – 2:30–3:30 CAPCOM Fighting Games – Capcom fighting fans unite as our game producters present first looks at the hottest new fighting games for the year featuring Rey Jiminez and John Diamonon ( Marvel vs. Capcom 2), Kazuhiro Tsuchiya ( Fate/Unlimited Codes), and Ryota Niitsuma ( Tatsunoko vs. Capcom). Moderated by Capcom-Unity.com’s and SFII Champion, Seth Killian, see exclusive gameplay footage and behind-the-scenes making-of features. Plus, we’ll pull a couple fans onstage for an impromptu Marvel vs. Capcom 2 tournament to show off your mad skillz and earn big Capcom prizes! All followed by a Q&A session! Room 5AB

• FRIDAY, JULY 24 – 5:00-6:00 LOST PLANET 2 – Capcom presents an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at one of the most anticipated games for the PS3 and Xbox 360 featuring premiere producer, Jun Takeuchi direct from Capcom Japan, joined by Frank Filice and Shawn Baxter of Capcom. Moderated by Capcom’s Francis Mao, see exclusive gameplay footage and making-of features. Plus, we’ll pull a couple fans onstage for an impromptu Akrid hunting session to win some exclusive Capcom prizes! All followed by a Q&A session! Room 2

• SATURDAY, JULY 25 – 10:00-11:00 How to Get a Job in the Video Game Industry – Capcom presents a comprehensive panel of video game industry insiders who will share their story of how they got into the business, what types of career opportunities are available, and most importantly – provide tips and leads to the audience for their own entry into the industry. Featuring Cliff Bleszinski, Lyle Hall, Mona Hamilton, Francis Mao, Ruben Langdon, Karen Dyer and Shana Bryant. Moderated by Christian Svensson. Includes an indepth Q&A session Room 2

Booth information and what’s in the Capcom Store can be found through the break.

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NCsoft has revamped the website for Aion: The Tower of Eternity with its own Wiki and online manual.

The site itself looks different, has a feed linking your to Aion’s Facebook and YouTube pages, as well as the developers and regional CM’s Twitter feeds

Closed Beta for Aion started today at Noon PST/8pm CET.

Thanks, Massively.

Bethesda’s Jeff Gardiner has said that a level cap increase for Fallout 3 would throw the game out of balance, therefore, one will not see their character higher than a level 30 any time soon.

“I know from the outside this seems like a fairly simple proposition [for a level increase], but doing this could unbalance the game in a variety of ways,” he told MTV.

He continued saying that the games was designed to be replayed several times as a variety of characters, so for fun, just play one of those.

More through the link.

Sony Online Entertainment has announced that it is to lay-off 41 full-time employees, which equals 5 percent of the workforce.

SOE says that it will not be providing any interviews or further comment on the matter, according to a statement sent to Massively.

“In a move to increase operational efficiency and reduce costs, Sony Online Entertainment has eliminated 5% of its full-time workforce, equaling 41 people.

“SOE looks forward to continuing its leadership role in the online games industry as it celebrates the highly successful launch of Free Realms, the 10-year commemoration of its ground-breaking EverQuest franchise, and the continued performance of the company’s other games.”

No word on which positions were eliminated.

Hit the link for more.

Sony has trademarked Adhoc Party in the US for “automatic operation transmitting of digital data in the nature of video game software”.

Basically, like over in Japan.

“Since the service made its debut over a year ago this doesn’t seem like a protective trademark,” speculates Siliconera, broke the news. “Monster Hunter Freedom Unite recently came out in North America, and it’s a prime candidate to take advantage of Adhoc Party. Perhaps, Sony is planning a domestic release soon.”

Currently, titles like Monster Hunter Freedom Unite and Dissidia: Final Fantasy are local only multiplay only.

Via GameSetWatch.

Wedbush Morgan analyst, Michael Pachter, has weighed in on the June NPDs and feels that the industry is suffering from price fatigue.

“It appears to us that the weak results in March through June signify a weak trend that will continue at least one more month. It is easy to defend the poor results by pointing to a generally lackluster release schedule (especially in April), and to an inordinately successful release schedule last year.

“Compounding this is the continuing drag from the economy, the fact that Wiis are in plentiful supply (meaning that consumers no longer feel compelled to rush out and buy one whenever available), and a likely trend of the Wii audience to be more casual and more seasonal in purchase habits.

“Interestingly, the immensely successful DSi, with 1.7 million units sold in its first three months of release, could not drive a positive bump in DS software sales (-28% June year-overyear). We are most troubled by the decline in sales of the three major consoles. On a year-over-year basis in June, combined console sales were down 30%, with consoles down 41% and handhelds down 17%.

“We don’t think that a weak software lineup is enough to explain what happened, and can only conclude that consumers aren’t sufficiently interested in buying consoles to drive sales higher each month.

“We attribute this lack of interest to price fatigue, and note that the Wii has gone longer than any console in history without a cut of its launch price, while the PS3 has gone more than 18 months without a cut. As there has not been a console price cut so far this month, we expect a similar result in July.”

Thanks, GoNintendo.

The ESRB has rated Muramasa: The Demon Blade for Wii, and the Teen rating is due to alcohol, violence, and suggestive themes.

Suggestive themes including comments like: “It is customary for women to be sold here” and “You harlot! I poured all my money into your establishment and now you humiliate me”.

One female character wears a kimono that exposes deep cleavage with her breasts frequently sway up and down, apparently.

Day one purchase for September.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Tale of Tales has released a patch for its indie horror game The Path.

If you play it on Steam, it should auto patch for you.

Here’s the list of specific changes:

• Fixed dependency error in library that caused game to crash on startup
• All HLSL shaders are compiled and saved in the game
• Reduced required video RAM by reloading Render Texture targets between acts
• Fixed Raven visibility error
• Piano object is now available in the Forest if the Theater is not active
• New Game now resets Locators
• Load Game resets resolution saved with game
• First run of game starts with resolution selection box (press SPACE bar on startup to access it later)
• Game prefers video refresh rates of 60Hz
• Additional options for setting resolution
• Crash with gray box on startup fixed
• Positions of objects with contexts are now consistent
• Additional quality options for shadows, post-processing and textures
• Run speed is now consistent

Currently, the game will run you $9.99, but there is also a demo so you can try it out first.

A video for Killzone 2′s Napalm & Cordite DLC has surfaced over on the US PS Blog, and we have posted it for after the break.

The DLC contains two multiplayer maps called Suljeva Cliffside and Arctower Landing.

Oh yeah, and you get to wield a flamethower and boltgun.

It’s out July 23.

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The latest Batman: Arkham Asylum developer diary has Rocksteady expressing how itwants players to feel when running around Arkham Asylum as Batman.

It’s definitely worth the watch, and is posted over on Shack.

Game’s out August 25 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Just Add Water just sent over some lovely new shots of Gravity Crash, the firm’s upcoming retro-styled PSN shooter.

Two of them show blacked out areas, which apparently signifies “sneaky stuff”. All are grabbed from the latest build.

After the break. It’s out later this year, exclusively for PS3. Watch for more from Cologne.

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Warhammer Online producer Jeff Skalski has revealed that the next in-game Live Event will be called The Wild Hunt.

It is slated for release around the time of the game’s first birthday in September and will be part of patch 1.3.1 which contains updates and streamlining to the Realm vs Realm play.

War’s latest patch is expected this month, and included crowd control and AoE ability changes, and tweaks to the Archmage and Shaman classes. RvR rewards will be increased, and a 150 percent bonus to experience when players buff themselves with Field of Glory.

Open RvR rewards will be increased for players that fight enemy players outside keeps and battlefield objectives. Players will receive a 150% bonus to experience with the Field of Glory buff, up from 100%, and a 150% bonus to renown.

More through IncGamers and the official Warhammer site.

According to a post over on Braid’s official website, the game’s creator Jonathan Blow is looking to hire a 3D Environment Concept Artist for the development of a 3D “puzzle-exploration game.”

The project is described as “a puzzle-exploration game that is philosophical, and quiet, and is being made for reasons other than crass profit motive.”

Hilariously, here is what Jonathan is not looking for:

The majority of [your] portfolio should consist of things absent from the following list: Girls With Big Tits; Barbarians Wielding Axes, Covered in Blood; Aliens; Space Ships; Gangsters Getting Shot in the Face; Orcs; Giant Robots; and, of course, Postapocalyptic Wastelands.

Good for him.

Via Shack.

Champion drifter Vaughn Gittin Jr is featured in the video after the break discussing the part he played in the development of Need for Speed: Shift – which just so happens to contain loads of drifting.

Game’s out September 17 and 22 in the UK and US receptively.

Via Kotaku.

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Sega said today that Bayonetta’s has been delayed until January 2010 in the US.

The Platinum actioner will still release in October in Japan, as planned.

“Bayonetta is an extremely important new IP for SEGA and adds a new level of depth to our growing portfolio. As a result of market analysis we have taken a Publishing decision that January 2010 is the optimum release time in the Western Markets to maximize this exciting new title’s potential,” said Sega boss Mike Hayes.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Those who use PS3′s VidZone service in the UK or Ireland will get to see the premiere of U2’s “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy’, music video, this coming Tuesday. The rest of Europe gets it next Thursday.

It’s the third single from their No Line On The Horizon album and the video animation was directed by Irish film-maker David O’Reilly.

VidZone also has a U2 competition coming soon, but no word on what it entails or what the prize is, yet.

It could be a cool, or possibly a half-eaten sandwich out of Bono’s trash bin.

We’ll let you know.

According to 2K Boston head Ken Levine, hiring the right people for your studio creates not only stability, but does away the need to hire loads of employees to finish a job, only to let them go afterward.

“We’ve never had a layoff in the history of our company, and I’m very proud of that,” he told Gamasutra. “When we were a private company, and now that we’re part of a public company. And, you know, I can’t make predictions for the future, but I think culturally we’ve always felt it was very important to hire the right people — and not hire too many people so things get out of control — and think about a plan.

“One of the reasons, I think, that you see a lot of layoffs in this industry is that you have these huge products, and you don’t have a plan for what you do afterward. So the product ends, and — you see this day after day, you know — teams get cut in half or shut down after the product ships, because there’s no plan to move on for the future.

“We’ve fortunately planned well. And that was very tricky when we were a private company, but it was very important to me. And, frankly, I think that’s one of the reasons we’ve always been relatively small. It’s because, if you get a huge staff, that makes you feel good, and you sit out there, and you go, “Oh, look at my domain, here. I’ve got 200 people working on this product.”

“But that’s a tough number to carry at the end of a project.”

More through the link.

Zico Liu, programmer for the WipEout HD Fury, has announced via a developer diary that the expansion will be released on PSN July 23 for $9.99.

The pack has three races: Eliminator, Zone Battle and Detonator, along with 12 new tracks, 13 new ships, 6 new music tracks, a redesigned menu system, a new campaign, Trophies and additional online ranks.

Also, July 21 a free update to the existing game will be released, so when you log onto your game that day, you will be prompted to download it. Included are new features and tweaks to menus, a new statistics section, redesigned ship and track select screens and community-online features.

Over on the US PS Blog, the dev diary discusses the new tracks for Fury and has a few lovely pictures up as well.

Go have a look/read.

Epic has confirmed that the All Fronts DLC for Gears of War 2 was available on Xbox Live Marketplace by accident earlier today around 1:00am CST.

Scheduled for release on July 28, not only was it leaked early but put up for 800 MS Points when it’s slated to cost 1600 Ms Points.

While those who jumped on it right away got the DLC, those not as fast got an error message.

Too late though, those who were quick enough are playing as we speak, and Epic is asking those who did to not post any videos or screens of it.

Via Joystiq.