Monthly Archives: July 2009

CVG’s posted up some rumour details on Junction Point’s increasingly-solid-but-very-unconfirmed Epic Mickey.

Apparently it’s a Wii exclusive in which the player “paints” their way through levels.

The game is to include very old Disney characters, says the site, who are out for revenge on the dear old mouse.

There’s more through there. Starting to sound interesting, though.

Kotaku’s launched a Japanese language site named, obviously, Kotaku Japan.

The US-based blog had previously launched in Australia, the publication now having three outlets.

The new venture has a dedicated team, according to this, with Japan-based Kotaku US editor Brian Ashcraft continuing to contribute to the English language site.

US Kotaku rival Joystiq launched in Japan in April this year.

NetDevil has revealed that its upcoming MMO, LEGO Universe, could bridge the generation gap between parents and their children.

“I talk a lot about the visual divide between generations, and I feel it quite acutely between, say my mother and my son,” the game’s creative director, Ryan Seabury, told Eurogamer.

“His grandmother I can’t drag onto email kicking and screaming. I’ve tried three times. But he’s going to grow up with email as just part of his vocabulary – it’s not like a new concept or anything. So how are they going to communicate? How are they going to have a relevant conversation?

“I look at LEGO as a language, as an idea. She understands it: she bought it for me when I was a kid. My son likes it, I like it. So even though she may not be playing LEGO Universe, I’ll be playing LEGO Universe, he’ll be playing LEGO Universe and there’s a relevant connection there.

“Good games are fun to play, no matter what. There’s a lot of depth that we can offer that will be there. Obviously it’s family-friendly so it’s going to be in a different context to some of the more adult-themed games. But if you like LEGO and if you like playing MMOs or connecting with your friends and playing games then you’re probably going to like LEGO Universe.”

Jonathan Smith, head of Traveller’s Tales agreeed, stating that LEGO creates a world where parents can come together with their children.

“Online games and the online communications experience are very accessible and children are ready for that, immersed in that, and parents are not,” he said. “So this is where the children can actually lead the parents by the hand and show them what to do, and that can be a really powerful experience together.”

A Beta test is expected for the game in 2010. More through the link.

Jade Raymond has said that Assassin’s Creed II will be different from the last outing because our new hero, Ezio is more “badass” than Altair in the assassin department.

Granted, she did not use the word “hardcore”, that was our terminology for the title, but we couldn’t figure out a shorter way to describe a game hailed as being more vicious and unpredictable than its predecessor.

Kotaku was lucky enough to have a chat with Jade ans watch as she played the game.

Don’t be jealous guys, she would have done the same for you had you been there.

One good thing we learned through the piece, was that players will be visiting the present much less often than the first time around. Thank God for small favors.

Get the full thing through the link. It’s really sounding quite good.

The US PSN update is not too much different than its European counterpart this week.

What with Fat Princess, the usual Rock Band and Guitar Hero stuff, Dynasty Warriors armor, Watchmen: The End is Night, Rag Doll Kung Fu, among others.

The full thing is over on the US PS Blog if you want the sordid details.

Buck talks in the latest Halo 3: ODST video, chatting about his squad members, their equipment and their mission.

Shows some gameplay as well, after the break.

There’s loads of voice talent in the game, apparently, see if you can point them out. No cheating by visiting Joystiq for the answers either.

It’s out September 22.

More »

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig Karlan has delayed a ruling in the Acivision vs Double Fine case over Brutal Legend, however, he stated that he is not “inclined” to deny the game’s release per Activision’s request.

Judge Karlan has rescheduled arguments on the motion until Aug. 6 due to a full court calender and to allow each side to argue its point more thoroughly.

EA is expecting a final version of the game by August 8, and Karlan pledged to have his final ruling available so that the title wouldn’t see any delay.

While he stated to Activision attorneys that there were several reasons why he is against ordering a delay for the game, the main reason was because he could not see any “likelihood of success” on its end.

That being said, Karlan told both parties neither had an upper hand and that his decision was going to be “a close call”.

Via Associated Press.

Capcom has revealed that first-quarter revenue for Q1 jumped 19.2 percent year-over-year to ¥19.5 billion ($204 million).

Profit was positive and negative with operating income climbing 23 percent to ¥3.66 billion ($38.3 million), and the arcade side down 6.4 percent to ¥2.23 billion ($23.3 million).

Sales for Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth “showed a favorable sales increase,” Resident Evil 5 sales stood at 5 million, and the PSP-exclusive Monster Hunter Freedom Unite sold 3.5 million units in Japan alone.

Monster Hunter 3 retail orders are at 1 million so far with a street date of August 1 Japan in Wii bundles or single unit form.

On the downside, Bionic Commando “underperformed its expected sales” with 550,000 units moved during the quarter, and outside of Japan, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite’s performance was “weak,” with continued sales in Japan helping the game to reach 600,000 units during quarter.

More over on Gamespot.

Valve writer Chet Faliszek has said that moral choices do not exist in games, despite titles like Fable, BioShock, inFamous, etc. claiming to contain such options.

“There’s never a real moral choice you’re ever making in a game, because you’re never going to have to live with that choice,” he told D’toid. “We do things in our game to get you to behave better, to make you play together, to have this interaction in a game, but I don’t think those are moral choices.

“I don’t think games allow you to make moral choices. Games allow you to be evil, to do bad things. In Grand Theft Auto, I’m going around running people over, and guess what, I’m not doing that in real life.

“So, in the context of games having moral choices, that’s a weird thing to me. I don’t think they have real moral choices when I think of that. They have something else, like strategic choices, choices inside their world, but to me a moral choice is something that would live outside of a game. I don’t see that.”

More through the link.

THQ CEO Brian Farrell said in the company’s financial call to investors yesterday that if THQ were to be graded on Red Faction: Guerrilla’s release – it would have received a “B”.

“Frankly, I think on the next generation of Red Faction: Guerrilla we need to do a better job of creating day one demand,” he admitted. “That being said, we do like the sales curve that its been exhibiting which shows that quality and word of mouth and downloadable content matters.

“I’d give us a B on the launch of Red Faction Guerilla. I think we did a good job, but I think we can do a better job with the next generation creating day one demand. As you know we moved the title a couple of times. That’s doesn’t help. I’m very pleased with a lot of the strides we’ve made recently, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do some things better.

“The amount it’s been dropping off, week after week, has been something that would indicate good word of mouth on the game based on the high Metacritic ratings.

“We are pleased to have established Red Faction Guerilla as a franchise on current gen consoles. Red Action Gorilla achieved an average metacritic rating of 85 and we have shipped more than one million units of this title to date. The game was a top ten best seller in the U.S. and the U.K. in June.

“We plan to drive future sales of Red Faction with continued advertising support and new downloadable content. We plan to continue to build this franchise by leverage Red Faction Guerilla’s outstanding technology platform in the future.

“We look at it as a revenue opportunity, but more importantly what we’ve learned with DLC is customer retention and customer engagement, primarily to prevent trade in and used games and to keep that brand active with the consumer.

“So when we look at DLC, the revenue, it’s not that great. It’s good, but we also like the fact that it keeps the customers engaged with our games for a long period of time.

You read the full thing through here.

Bizarre Creations has released a dev diary of sorts for its battle racer, Blur.

In it, the team talks about the game, which is full of licensed cars with full damage modeling, power ups and loads of special effects.

Blur’s out later this year for PC, PS3 and 360 – watch the video after the break.

Thanks, Kotaku.

More »

Gas Powered Games and Stardock released a demo for Demigod today.

If you have not played the strategy RPG yet, now’s your chance to try it out.

Get it over on FileFront.

Capcom has announced the delay of Dark Void into Q1 2010, which retailers had on schedule for a September 22 release – the same day as Halo 3: ODST.

The delay was made, according to the company’s community director Chiris Kramer, “in order to get the game out of the crowded fall game season.”

“The move will be great for the game and for gamers,” he told Joystiq. “Less competition in the market (curse you, Halo!), more time for polish.”

Joystiq was quick to point out though, that Q1 2010 is when Splinter Cell: Conviction, BioShock 2, Singularity, Bayonetta, and Red Steel 2 are to be released, along with a possible Mafia II, Red Dead Redemption, God of War 3, Heavy Rain, MAG, Darksiders, Aliens vs. Predator, and Alan Wake.

Endrant Studios has detailed the multiplayer aspects of for Wolfenstein, and the multi-part includes eight maps, three classes, unlockables, veil powers, and other goodies.

“Players can enter the veil dimension and use veil powers much like the ones BJ has access to, as well as all the standard weapons and items,” said Endrant’s Matt Wilson to GameSpot. Players will not be able to slow time using veil powers in multiplayer like they can in single-player.

“In multiplayer, you’re not BJ–you’re a member of either the Resistance or the Axis, and you play as one of three roles: soldier, medic or engineer,” he continued. “We wanted to keep the three roles distinct, so we gave them their own unique veil powers that are specific to their responsibilities within the team.”

Along with unlockable weapon and power upgrades, multiplayer also includes eight maps spanning three modes.

“In Objective mode, the attacking team tries to complete one or more objectives in the map while the defending team tries to stop them,” said Wilson. “In Stopwatch, you do the same but swap over at half-time, and the attacking team which completed the map fastest is the overall winner.

“The unlocks for each give you options on what to upgrade and when, but you can only have one unlock per category (weapon, item, veil power, etc.) active at once,” explained Wilson. “Some of the choices you’ll have to make are things like power versus accuracy, reload time versus recoil/muzzle kick.”

Game’s out for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 August 18.

Thanks, Shack.

Gearbox has tweeted that it is not working on a Halo title for Microsoft.

And here it is:

“For the record, Gearbox is NOT working on a Halo title for Microsoft.”

Why this was not admitted the other day, is beyond us – but at least now we know.

Metroid Prime Trilogy will be released on Wii in North America August 24, and September 4 in Europe.

Until that then, there’s screens of it posted over on Eurogamer France.

A Facebook photo application has been released for DSi with firmware 1.4.

Once upgraded, the handheld will show a Facebook logo in the camera’s album section. Afterward, you will be able to connect the social network and then you can upload draft photos from DSi.

Up to 200 photos can be uploaded in one album.

More through the press release after the break.

More »

Sony has confirmed rumors posted earlier in the week regarding a MAG: Massive Action Game Beta.

Only thing is, it’s internal only so players that have seen statuses regarding the Beta popping up on PSN should know that theses are Sony employee profiles.

This was confirmed to CVG earlier today.

Hopefully this means that a public Beta will go live soon.

Phantom EFX and 8monkey Labs released a new trailer today for its time traveling shooter, Darkest of Days.

Posted after the break courtesy of GameTrailers, it provides the viewer with a bit of weapons training against some of the foes you will com up against in your travels through the ages.

It’s out September 8 for PC and Xbox 360.

More »

Puzzle-platformer Trine got a new patch over on Steam yesterday evening.

It allows players to save their game to Valve’s Steam Cloud service.

Now you can play it at the mistresses, at the dentist, on the train, or even during Uncle Woody’s funeral.

Other patch features include the addition of European languages (French, Italian, German, Spanish), and the fixing of “mystery developer keys” for non-regular keyboard buttons.

Thanks, EvilAvatar.