Monthly Archives: August 2009

Here, we have a handful of straws. You’re welcome to grasp at some, should you feel the need.

Us at GamesCom: Will we ever see a remake of Final Fantasy VII?

FFXIII’s Yoshi Kitase and Motomu Toriyama, speaking through a translator: There’s no official project that’s up and running for a remake of Final Fantasy VII at this point. Both Toriyama-san and Kitase-san were involved in the development of the game, however, and it holds a special place in their hearts. They do talk about it on a personal level, like, ‘If we did it it would be like this or like that.’

So, they do talk about it, but there’s no official project yet. But there’s that PSN release that just came out, so if you could play that for the time being, it should be fun.

So there you go. Fin. For now.

Hatimaki’s compared a bunch of real-life Japanese locations to still from GT5, as you can see here.

Looks as though Polyphony’s got busy with a little creative license there. A good thing, from the look of it.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Microsoft Australia head Jeremy Hinton said in Sydney this week that Xbox 360 is expected to pass the 1 million mark in the country in 2009.

“We [Microsoft] expect to hit a million Xbox 360 consoles sold across Australia and New Zealand by the end of this year,” he told Gamespot.

“We’re confident we can reach this goal with the console’s current price point and the new experiences we’re bringing through Xbox Live such as Movies on Demand, Facebook and Twitter.”

There’s still a good way to go, however.

“We’ve just hit 700, 000 consoles sold in Australia, and we’re now finding that it’s the fastest growing console down under,” Hinton added.

More through there.

IW’s Rob Bowling’s posted up what’s apparently the first shot of Modern Warfare 2′s lobby system.

It’s taken from the 360 version. Looks… lobbyish.

The shooter’s out on November 11.

A trademark filed for Okamiden in Japan has Siliconera suggesting that it could be Okami 2.

Since Clover Studios has gone bye-bye, Capcom now owns the rights to the series.

Ready at Dawn released the Wii version of the game last year which is finally expected to land in Japan on October 15.

We’ve sent a mail Capcom’s way to see if we can get more on this.

Hopefully someone will get back with us soon.

It has been announced over on the US PS Blog that Crash Commando will receive some add-on lovin’ this week along with a free patch August 27.

The add-on will include six new characters: Colonel Chaos, Army Chick, Nukem Ninja, Maid Mayhem, Gangster Rapper and Reggae Rasta. Characters come in packs of two and will run you $1.99 each.

The Heist Map Pack contains two new large maps with the Heist game mode where you must grab the bag of cash and get to the safe to deposit it. The bag is heavy and you won’t be able to use any weapons so you must rely on your teammates. Once you get the pack, you can play Heist mode on all the standard maps too which will run you $2.99.

Also, if you prefer, you can get the map pack and all characters for $4.99.

Patch notes are as follows:

• Rebalanced primary weapons
• Portraits of the characters on the standing screen
• Access to the online store within the game
• Specific invert axis option for the turret gun
• Improved sound output levels
• Taunt animation when standing still added for original characters
• Improved BOT AI

A video of the new map pack is below the break with more information through the link.

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Rockstar has announced via Twitter that the PSP version of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will hit stores in UMD format on October 20.

Here’s the tweet:

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars coming October 20th for PSP. First screens and more coming soon.

A second tweet clarified that it will be made available as DLC through the PlayStation Store as well.

The wait is almost over Sony folks.

Cursed Mountain, the new horror action title from Deep Silver and Koch Media, has arrived in stores.

The Wii exclusive is set in the 1980′s and has mountaineer Eric Simmons climbing the Himalayas looking for his lost brother.

Wonder how many Yetis he will run into to. One thing is for sure, he will encounter loads of souls whose bodies were broken and who knows what else while searching for the mysterious artifact known as the Terma.

Mwha ha ha.

Press release is through the break.

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Hidden Path has announced that Defense Grid: The Awakening will arrive on Xbox Live September 2.

It will run you 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00/£6.80/€9.60), and includes the unreleased Borderlands mission pack which has four advanced levels and new challenge modes.

That is on top of the full campaign.

Neato. More over o Eurogamer.

GoG has added Heroes of Might and Magic III: Complete to to the lineup completely DRM free, people.

The offering contains the original game and the Armageddon’s Blade and The Shadow of Death expansion packs along with the soundtrack for $9.99.

Hooray. Go have a look.

Thanks, BigDownload.

Rare’s design director, George Andreas, has told VideoGamer that Microsoft and the Banjo developer are finally on the same page, thanks to Natal.

“I do feel in many ways that – and I’ve said this to some people as well – for me this is really the first time that Microsoft and Rare are on a very similar path,” he said. “We’ve obviously been tasked to create experiences that nobody else can create, which explains things like your Kameos and your Piñatas and your Banjos. But obviously the hardware is aimed at a different demographic, and so we’ve always battled against that.

“Whereas now with Natal, it looks like the roads are on the same path. It’s a union of the two philosophies of the different companies, I guess. Natal is supposed to reach out to a broader audience and a broader consumer, and Rare’s products are always aiming in that direction as well. So from that perspective the future looks incredibly bright for us really. It’s definitely something everyone’s enthused about and energized about.”

More through the link.

WET has landed on Xbox Live in demo form.

Looks like it is only for Gold Members right now, unfortunately.

Also unfortunate is the fact that every time we type Gold Member our minds hearken back to the last Austin Powers movie containing that moniker and we shiver with the utmost regret.

Nevertheless, the A2M and Bethesda demo featuring a nice lady who can slice or shoot you is up on the big white box.

Go download it.

NCsoft has launched a cross promotion between Aion and Guild Wars.

Basically, if you order a physical first edition of Aion: The Tower of Eternity – not a digital one – you’ll get a special emote tied to your account which allows you to summon a pair of cosmetic wings in Guild Wars.

It’s free, can be used forever and will be made available on September 22 when Aion launches in North America. The emote is also available in Europe.

For more information click here.

Thanks, Massively.

The new expansion pack for Theatre of War 2- Centauro, has a trailer.

It’s after the break courtesy of FileFront.

Dedicated to the 131st Armored Division Centauro and the battles it took part in North Africa starting from December 1942 till mid-May 1943, the pack features a new campaign and covers missions from rearguard actions near El Ageyla in Libya to the battles in Tunisia.

New desert and mountain landscapes of North Africa will be available on ten new maps reconstructed according to historical documents as well as ten new missions based on battles in Tunisia. Ten new military vehicles will also make their debut including the Semovente M40 tank destroyer, the Carro Armato M13/40 medium tank, the Autoblinda AB 40 armored car, and others.

Ten seems to be the magic number here.

Theatre of War 2 – Centauro will be available for $25 later this summer.

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Mad Catz has detailed its Modern Warfare 2 game accessories a bit.

Looks like the creations will have everything from faceplates to custom controllers and even something called a Throat Communicator.

Prices will range from $15 to $100.

The full list of items and prices are posted below the break.

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The US PS Blog has a video posted on the site featuring Lost Planet 2 for PS3.

In it is Capcom’s Chris Kramer discussing the game and answering loads of questions on it.

Granted, the game is only playing in the background, but at least you get to find out a bit more about the game.

It’s posted below.

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Star Wars: The Old Republic developer walkthroughs are posted over on Rock, Paper, Shotgun courtesy of IGN.

The four-parter is twenty-minutes long and includes the early bounty-hunter, smuggler and Sith sequences, and much more for the MMO.

We can’t bear to watch lest it ruin any surprises for us. But you are much braver than we are, so hit the link and have a look.

Muse frontman Matt Bellamy has been confirmed for Guitar Hero5, where he will lend is likeness and trademark falsetto to the game’s stage.

The track Plug in Baby from the band’s 2001 second studio album, Origin of Symmetry, will be present in the game as well.

Game is scheduled to hit store shelves on September 1 for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

There is a video of Bellamy’s in-game posted below.

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New screens for The Saboteur have popped up over on the official website.

Should you be unsure which ones are new, USA Today has them in order for you here.

Also, if you preorder your copy of the game through EA, GameStop, or GameCrazy, you will get an exclusive Nazi knife, stolen from your enemies.

Game’s out December 4 and 8 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in the UK and US, respectively.

Call of Duty: World at War stile the top spot from Halo 3 last week, after a long reign at the top.

This week, it is still number one. See if any of your favorite titles made the cut.

Live Titles

1. Call of Duty: WaW
2. Halo 3
3. Call of Duty 4
4. Gears of War 2
5. Madden NFL 10
6. LOST PLANET 2 Co-op Demo
7. GTA IV
8. Shadow Complex
9. Trials HD
10. FIFA 09

Arcade Titles

1. Shadow Complex
2. Trials HD
3. Battlefield 1943
4. Marvel vs. Capcom 2
5. Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
6. Splosion Man
7. Castle Crashers
8. Worms 2: Armageddon
9. Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers
10. UNO

Original and Indie stuff after the break courtesy of the Major.

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