Monthly Archives: July 2009

Holy hell, the European PlayStation Store update this week is not bad in the least.

Somewhere, down below, Satan is contemplating a new winter coat.

Battlefield 1943 arrived, along with excellent demos for Fuel and Ghostbusters. MotorStrom: Pacific Rift and Skate 2 got add-ons, and PSP has some Little Britain mini-games for you.

Excellent.

Full thing over on the EU PS Blog since we already gave away the good stuff.

Need for Speed: Nitro screens have popped up over on Kotaku showing both the DS and Wii versions.

We think they’re all new, so go have a look-see.

Game’s out in November.

Episode Four of Brutal Thoughts with Jack Black has arrived, promoting Brutal Legend.

It’s after the break courtesy of Joystiq.

Forget Jack Black’s attempt at humor in this video and instead concentrate on the use of the battle axe in the game clips.

Its looks amped, bangin’, spiffy, righteous, and other terminology uttered in the eighties.

Game’s out in “Rocktober”.

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To celebrate the 15th Anniversary of The Elder Scrolls, Besthesda has released The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall as a free download.

The game requires DOS to play, but modern systems can download an emulator, such as DOSBox.

That’s the one Besthesda recommends, anyway.

Good news for fans of the series and old-schoolers alike.

Thanks, Evil Avatar.

Looks like Microsoft has announced a date for The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, despite not having it listed earlier.

It will land on Xbox Live July 15 and will run you 800 MS Points ($10.00/£6.80).

LucasArts will release it the same day for PC on Steam, and it will cost around the same.

Thanks, Eurogamer Germany.

BioWare hasn’t decided whether or not nudity will come into play during the horizontal parts of Dragon Age: Origins.

“I don’t think we’ve worked that out yet, because we can adjust that whenever we want, right?”, Greg Zeschuk told Videogamer.  “On Mass Effect we worked extensively to figure out, how do we want to portray it? It’s not ogling pixels [laughs] – sad but probably titillating, too.

“I think for us it’s more just making sure it fits the context of what we’re trying to create.”

He did confirm that the actions taking place will be “cut scene-controlled environments” only.

No Kratos inspired button mashing then, we reckon.

For fuck‘s sake. Infinity Ward’s Rob Bowling has just Yfrogged the first image of the Modern Warfare 2 pack art, and guess what? It says “Call of Duty” on it.

Guess the reality of making less money by going it alone was a little too tough on the knees.

Please, God. Let this be an end to it.

Liverpool councilors wish to create a National Games Academy, thus making the city a thriving place for games development education, according to the Liverpool Daily Post.

The proposed £5 million Academy would offer art, business advice, high-speed links to MediaCity in Salford, intellectual property, programming and technology training, and work placement learning.

“The city region is the UK’s leading games developer catalyst and we need to capitalize on that,” said councilor Gary Millar. “The Games Academy has every chance of catching the imagination of the next generation of gamers and workers, and inspiring people to up-skill and get involved.

“It would also provide the employers with a hub for well-trained potential new employees with which they can grow their businesses.”

Bizarre Creations and Sony Computer Entertainment Studio Liverpool currently employ 1,500 folks in the city.

Via Edge.

BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka has told G4 that George Lucas is very involved with Star Wars: The Old Republic, even if Muzyka hasn’t had much contact with him.

“I haven’t shown it to him [Lucas] personally, no,” said Muzyuka. “But I know he keeps his finger on the pulse of everything that LucasArts is working on, so I know he’s involved in it. I’ve talked to him about the project in the past and I know he’s excited about it.

“He’s very involved in the development side of things.”

More through the link.

High Voltage has started promoting the Grinder.

The Wii-exclusive FPS may not be out till sometime next year, but it looks a bit scary.

There will be loads of creatures like zombies, vampires, and werewolves for you to chip away at as a professional monster hunter.

Lovely. Head on over to The Grinder Network for more.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Harmonix has confirmed to IGN that the track list for The Beatles: Rock Band will not be affected by the passing of Michael Jackson or the dispersal of his stake in Sony/ATV.

Jackson, as you know, originally owned the rights to over 200 songs from the Beatles’ catalog before a merger with Sony in which he retained 50 percent of the publishing rights.

Via Joystiq.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles producer Masachika Kawatadult has told Videogamer that Wii games need an ‘X-Factor’ to sell.

No, not that kind pervies. Nor the show either, for that matter.

While he contends that mature titles for Wii need this “factor”, he does not exactly divulge what it constitutes and also admits that it’s a hard console to “deal with”.

“People get this perception that on Nintendo Wii all there is are cutesy games,” said Kawata . “However, when you actually try to develop a game on Wii it costs you money, it’s time consuming and it’s not the easiest console to deal with.

“There are good games that didn’t sell, obviously. You need an X-Factor. However, vice versa people won’t buy it if it’s not a good game.

“I don’t think that Resident Evil was the only exception selling on Wii. There are other hardcore titles, such as Call of Duty, which were quite successful on Wii as well.”

More through here.

Dr. Moreau has been revealed for Champions Online the newest Villain Profile diary.

Apparently, Philippe is the grandson of Dr. Henri Moreau who, like his mad scientist forefather, loves his Manimals and wants to create an army of these poor creatures to do his bidding. Mwha ha ha ha.

You can find out all about this misunderstood fella on the official site.

Microsoft has finally dated and priced its Summer of Arcade titles – with the exception of The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, which just says Summer 2009.

Without further ado, here’s the list:

• July 22:  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- 1200 MS Points ($14.99/£10.20)
• July 29:  Marvel vs. Capcom 2 – 1200 MS Points ($14.99/£10.20)
• August 5:  Splosion Man – 800 MS Points ($10.00/£6.80)
• August 12:  Trials HD – 1200 MS Points ($14.99/£10.20)
• August 19:  Shadow Complex – 1200 MS Points ($14.99/£10.20)

Thanks, Evil Avatar.

Sony’s Jack Tretton has said that he hopes sales of PS3 are better in fiscal 2009 and 2010 compared to fiscal 2008.

“Hopefully last year is as bad as it gets,” he told Fast Company. “I think all indicators are that 2009 is going better than 2008. In 2008, we had a 38 percent increase in sales and we hit our ten million units worldwide goal for PS3 sales… At the worst possible time, if you’re hitting numbers and delivering success… my hope is that as our production efficiencies improve and more great games come to market, the horizon has got to be better for 2009 and 2010.

“It’s like being out there in a storm – it does cause you to question your conviction, and tie yourself to the mast and weather the storm. We have hit a very challenging period of trying to sell future technology, a high-end device, but is on the high-end retail pricing spectrum, at a time when people’s disposable income is limited. But I think the fact we were successful in that says people are getting the message, that you get tremendous value when you buy a PlayStation product.

“Yes, there are cheaper machines out there, but not ones that deliver the degree of value for the money that ours does.”

Via CVG.

Namco’s let us know that the email it sent through yesterday detailing a Champions Online beta was supposed to be press-only information and wasn’t meant for public consumption.

That wasn’t mentioned in the email, unfortunately. Which is why we published it. The info’s subject to change and is causing some confusion.

“These dates are by no means finalized, and are working dates that are most likely going to change,” Daeke, of the studio’s online community team, wrote on the game’s official boards (via Shacknews).

“I’m not sure why this information was posted, but we will post the dates for things like Open Beta as we set them.”

The Cryptic MMO launches in the first week of September.

Holy Frijoles Batman! Namco has released 150 images of Tekken 6, and CVG has ‘em posted.

Shots include character renders, the console version, and some promo shots of the lovely £149 arcade stick.

Hit the link for sensory overload.

Also, remember gals. Nothing says “I love you” like handing a fella your head.

Turn 10 community manager Che Chou has revealed that Forza 3 will not include dynamic weather or night racing, according to a post on the official forums.

“No weather, night racing, or rally in the game,” he wrote.

While that may disappoint some, the fact that tons of cars are included in the game may pacify the down trodden.

“Any car is up for grabs,” he continued. “Just because we haven’t announced/shown it doesn’t mean it won’t make it into the game. We’re just trickling out info.

“Painter/tuner/drag/drift scoreboards. Yes, it’s all in the details. Which we haven’t revealed yet.”

Good to know.

More through Gamezine.

Kingdom Hearts creator and producer, Tetsuya Nomura, has said that the idea of the game did not appeal to him at first, and Sora carried a chainsaw as a weapon originally.

Seriously.

“Square wanted to make a game starring Mickey Mouse, and Disney wanted a Donald Duck title. Meanwhile, I wanted neither,” he told Famitsu.

“The first weapon I showed Disney was a chainsaw. It was this chainsaw-like weapon that I had a rough sketch of when I first showed my concepts to Disney. Everyone got this scrunched-up look on their face and nobody said a word in the entire room.

“Dead silence. And I thought ‘No, I guess this wouldn’t work, huh?’”

Neato.

More through 1UP.

Harmonix and MTV announced today that R.E.M., Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dixie Chicks, and The Pixies have landed in the Rock Band Unplugged Music Store.

Here’s the track list, with each one running you $1.99:

• Dixie Chicks  – Sin Wagon
• GLaDOS and Jonathan Coulton  – Still Alive (Free)
• The Pixies – Here Comes Your Man
• R.E.M. – Losing My Religion
• Stevie Ray Vaughan  – Pride and Joy

Just in case anybody is unaware,  SRV did other songs besides Pride and Joy. Just sayin’.

Press release through the break.

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