Monthly Archives: July 2009

Here’s a list of the ten most played Wii games in the US during the month of June, according to Nintendo.

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
2. Guitar Hero III
3. Animal Crossing: City Folk
4. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
5. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
6. Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility
7. Call of Duty: World at War
8. Rock Band 2
9. LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
10. Rune Factory: Frontier

These are not sales figures, just which got played the most.

Extra details and how the information was obtained are over on Kotaku.

The inFamous Home theme will go live tomorrow, July 2, according to the US PS Blog.

Should you choose, you can create graffiti using a provided tool set, and then have your rad artwork voted on by Sony users.

There’s also a shooting minigame where you can use your electric powers to shoot targets — think of the Zelda minigames only grittier.

A video of it is posted after the break.

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SOCOM: Confrontation will be getting DLC later this summer, according to the game’s official site.

The content is expected to have a new area of operation, game mode, new maps, characters, weapons and attachments.

Game music will be updated and a new voice-over selection will be included as well.

No word on when exactly to expect it, but more information is promised soon.

Via Joystiq.

Blizzard has filed three trademarks for the name Cataclysm.

All of them have to do with covering videogames, toys and the like. Standard stuff for a game company, really.

Speculation has ensued, stating that Cataclysm may refer to the next World of Warcraft expansion due to its relation to the Sundering themes present in the MMO.

We won’t really know until Blizzard wants us too though.

You can find out more over on BlizzPlanet.

Capcom has announced via the US PS Blog that some of its classic games will start landing on PSN for PSP tomorrow, July 2.

Capcom Classics Collection: Remixed, will be available tomorrow. The full list of games included are:  1941: Counter Attack, Avengers, Bionic Commando, Black Tiger, Block Block, Captain Commando, Final Fight, Forgotten Worlds, Last Duel, Legendary Wings, Magic Sword, Mega Twins, Quiz and Dragons, Section Z, Side Arms: Hyper Dyne, The Speed Rumbler, Street Fighter, Strider, Three Wonders, and Varth.

Expect the following to released soon:

• Mega Man Powered Up
• Dino Crisis
• Power Stone Collection
• Mega Man Maverick Hunter X
• Resident Evil 2
• Darkstalkers
• Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max
• Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
• Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded

Later this summer, Fate/Unlimited Codes will land just in time for PSPgo.

More through the link.

Microsoft’s just posted a ton of Project Natal jobs: hit this for all the vacancies.

There are 20 dev opportunities there. Lots of designing and engineering going on, from the look of it.

See for yourself.

Quake Arena Arcade, the XBLA port of Quake III Arena, has its first screenshot.

It’s a menu shot, and posted after the break.

Pi Studios website dishes that the game has 40 Arenas in single and multiplayer; 16 player multiplayer; leaderboards, matchmaking; and game modes that include Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Tournament, Harvester and Overload.

Still no date.

Via Joystiq.

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Namco Bandai has announced God Eater for PSP. You may recall it showed up on the US Trademark website back in May.

It’s an RPG that depicts the struggle of divine creatures called Aragami and the God Eaters who seek destroy them. Your job is to convert the Aragami to your side.

Basically, it’s a Monster Hunter game but goes at a “much faster pace” than Capcom’s series say the firm.

It’s only been announced in Japan at this time, but keep checking back with us.

Thanks, VideogamesBlogger.

If teaser sites aren’t doing your head in just yet, here’s another one for you. This time from Capcom.

Apparently, this teaser site just shows dates. Dates that should be familiar to all who have played Onimusha titles.

According to the decryption over at 1UP, the dates 1560, 1573, and 1582 flashing across the screen are a time line which ends with 1600. The first Onimusha taking place in 1560.

The X’s that cross off the first three dates also resemble the lettering of the games’ titles.

Dunno ’bout you guys, but we think this stuff is venturing into dead horse territory.

More through the links.

[Update] Looks like it’s for Basara: Battle Heroes instead. Thanks, Panou.

Call of Duty: World at War players will get Double XP this weekend starting Friday, July 3 until Monday, July 6.

It’s a worldwide thing. Not just US specific despite the holiday connotations.

July 3 also sees a playlist update, where the Map Pack 2 maps will be incorporated into the main Core and Hardcore rotations.

More information over on the official Xbox website.

The “hero” and fitness craze keeps getting, well, crazier.

Trademarks for Fitness Hero and Workout Hero have been filed by VPT Technologies, the company that wants to bring you its own version of Wii Fit mixed with Guitar Hero.

VPT is currently at work on a web-based fitness system, so this could possibly be it.

Fantastic.

Via Siliconera.

Looks like gold farming hasn’t been banned in China after all.

According to ICTs for Development, it’s Paypal-type currencies that received the restriction.

“This is a government restriction on the use of the quasi-Paypal-like currencies (mainly QQ coins) that are used extensively in China to pay for virtual game stuff,” stated the University of Manchester’s Richard Heeks. “As announced they can now only be used to pay for virtual stuff, and you can’t buy real things with them as game companies were allowing to happen, nor can you gamble.

“This therefore is not about what gold farming clients do: use real money to buy these virtual currencies; it’s the mirror image. And it’s not about the major trade in gold farming such as World of Warcraft, which relates to other types of virtual currency. And it’s not about buying/selling in-game items. And it’s not about the power-levelling of avatars.

“Bottom line: it’s not about gold farming.”

Hit the links for more.

Thanks, GamingToday.

The first bit of gameplay footage for FIFA 10 has landed, and it’s after the break.

It’s a bit of a teaser more than anything, but should be enough to get your mouth slathering for it.

Game’s a multiplatform affair, and expected to land in late October.

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Gears of War 2 should get its latest update before the weekend starts and just in time too, because it’s going to be a Double XP weekend on Xbox 360.

This applies to everyone on the public playlist and the winning team in ranked matches gets an additional 500 XP.

Also, Horde Mode is getting a special treat. The Ticker squad will be showing up a lot more throughout all the waves of Horde and every 10th wave is nothing but Tickers. You will also net experience for every wave you beat.

It all starts Friday, July 3 and ends Monday, July 6.

More through the link.

A new video for Tales of Monkey Island is posted after the break.

The first episode of the point-and-click adventure game will be released by Telltale Games in just six days for PC and WiiWare.

Have a look see, ya dirt lickin’ doily dippers. Yar.

More »

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 for PS3 will have less blood and gore than the Xbox 360 version, according to Koei Tecmo.

It’s still rated M, but blood spills don’t linger as long, and beheadings emit a blue glow to conceal most of the stuff pumping out of the hole in the neck.

“Each game has its own concept and with Ninja Gaiden 2, the focus was on extreme violence,” Yosuke Hayashi told GamesRadar. “But with Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, we really questioned whether violence is a necessity for a game, so we decided to move away from that trend. So the violence ‘approach’ is not the way we approached the development of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2.

“Being able to unlock higher levels of gore would be out of kilter with the concept of the game.”

Apples and oranges, ya know.

Thanks, VideogamesBlogger.

Grasshopper Manufacture’s Goichi Suda, Level-5′s Akihiro Hino, and Q Entertainment’s Tetsuya Mizuguchi chat about E3 in the latest Famitsu, and all seem to agree that motion control stole the show.

“Hardware-wise, it was all about Project Natal,” Suda told the magazine. “It’s hard to really understand it unless you use it, and it remains to be seen what you can do with it, but I think it’ll be a huge device. We developed No More Heroes with the Wii remote in mind, but now I want to think about games with Natal in mind. I have to ask myself, as a game designer, what new games can be done with this, what can be an interesting experience and challenge, and I’m looking forward to that.”

“With new technology announcements like Natal and the [PS3] Motion Controller, it’s like I have a feel for the new generation, or that the door to the future has been opened,” said Tetsuya Mizuguchi. “It’s a wholly different impression of the future than we had before. It’s not a shift from 2D to 3D or in the number of polygons, but it’s games trying to open up an entirely new door. I thought it would take longer, but it’s happening faster than I expected.”

You can also get their views on what games were the most exciting to them at E3 via 1UP.

Criterion’s Alex Ward just tweeted that Grasshopper legend Suda51 is a Burnout Paradise mentalist.

“Suda51 came here for the day a few weeks ago,” said the dev boss.

“He’s a hardcore Burnout fan. I checked the servers – over 700hrs play.”

That’s a lot of hours. Just goes to show.

Ian Livingstone has stated that 2009 will be a year of hit or miss for publishers, with smaller titles languishing at retail while “big ticket” titles rule the shelves.

“A lot of titles have already hit the shelves and there is a deluge planned for Christmas, but I think 2009 will be remembered as the year of ‘roast duck or no dinner’,” the Eidos president told GI.biz. “Big ticket titles continue to sell well but many of the smaller titles will probably disappoint their owners.

“There’s a glut of product and in a discerning market.There is no room for mediocrity. To make a suboptimal game with a suboptimal marketing spend is a recipe for disaster. I think we’ll continue to see more production resources going into fewer titles supported by even bigger marketing budgets.

“Publishers are continuing to raise the investment bar, ensuring the mega-franchises will rule.”

Sounds a bit dire.

More through the link.

Jerry Bruckheimer inked a deal with MTV Games back in 2007, and the company is hoping Bruckheimer’s expertise in getting women viewers for his television shows and movies will spill-over into gaming.

Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks wants Bruckheimer to take MTV “out of its comfort zone of rhythmic gaming like The Beatles: Rock Band” and attract more females.

“I hope that Jerry takes us to more adventurous places around storytelling in gaming,” Toffler told GamesRadar. “I see more of a connection to women coming to gaming as being a spark for Jerry Bruckheimer’s style of storytelling coming to gaming. Gaming is really starting to explode with women, particularly story-driven games like The Sims. I think Jerry has managed to bring both men and women into his storytelling from Pirates of the Caribbean to National Treasure.

“He does a great blend of action in storytelling and moving narrative forward.”

On that note, narrative is why Bruckheimer thinks that eventually movie/game adaptions will work.

“I couldn’t tell you that,” he said when asked why adaptions bomb at the box office. “They just haven’t quite captured the imagination of the audience yet, but they will. I think it will definitely happen, whether we do it or other people do it.”

Bruckheimer is behind the Prince of Persia movie adaption, which should draw a few women to the theater, seeing as Jake Gyllenhaal will be shirtless most of the way through it.