Monthly Archives: August 2009

Rare’s applied a bit (and only a bit) of its modern tech wizardry to the nine year-old Perfect Dark, and presto: no more wrinkles or gray hairs. Heck, you don’t even have to squint to see, well, everything anymore.

Check out the old-meets-new screens over at Shacknews.

Speaking with Shacknews, Battle.net developer Greg Canessa said that Blizzard will probably include a LAN-like solution with games like StarCraft II and Diablo III.

“Something like that,” he replied when asked about a LAN solution that’d keep in touch with Battle.net. “Maintaining a connection with Battle.net, I don’t know if it’s once or periodically, but then also having a peer-to-peer connection between players to facilitate a very low-ping, high-bandwidth connection.. those are the things that we’re working on.”

Better than nothing, right? We think so.

SCEE boss Andrew House has said to the FT that the price-cut the PlayStation 3 recieved last week in Cologne at GamesCom isn’t down to “a reaction to current market conditions”.

“We are aware that consumers are watching their euros and pounds more carefully than before and it may make a price reduction have potentially even more impact. But it would not be fair to say this is a reaction to current market conditions,” admitted House.

House also didn’t rule out a possible link-up with social website, Facebook. This comes as an Xbox 360 version of the popular socialising website, announced at E3, is due before Christmas.

“The goal is to move from a traditional short, toy-based life cycle to a longer, consumer electronics life cycle. The network allows us to give customers a better sense of value and continuous improvement.”

More through the link.

GameSpot sends word that Tatsunoko vs. Capcom will pick up four shady-looking characters during its road trip to the West. Fortunately, it just so happens that all of these characters are proficient fighters, so they’ll be in the game! Hooray!

Sadly, Capcom stopped just short of saying who the new characters are. All we know is that Phoenix Wright will not be one of them.

So, any guesses on who the fiersome foursome might be?

Rare’s design director George Andreas has said to VideoGamer that shooters do work with Project Natal, although you would have to rethink “how you approach those particular design problems”.

“To take a shooter, as an example, you would just have to rethink the way a shooter works,” admitted Andreas.

Shooters work the way they do at the moment because they’re based around the original Xbox 360 controller. You throw that away, you throw that interface away and here’s a completely different interface – now how do we create a shooter for this? Does it mean that you have to run, strafe, turn, throw grenades in the way that you’re used to? Maybe not. Maybe there’s another way of doing shooters.”

He also admitted they’re learning more on Natal every day.

“We’re learning a lot of stuff about Natal every day, and there are many types of experiences that can be created with that technology. You just need to be able to rethink how you approach those particular design problems”

More through here.

Own a Wii and/or DSi? Like downloading stuff? Well then, this one might be a little hard for you to choke down. See, while other weeks have given you a crop of four, five — maybe even six — sparkly new games to download, this week’s a barren wasteland with only three.

Oh, wait! Is that another game we just saw?

Nope. Just a tumbleweed. Our fragile hearts are shattered.

So, if you haven’t gone mad with grief and done something crazy like buy an Xbox or PS3, this week’s selection is composed of Pop + Solo, Mr. Driller W, and Super Empire Strikes back.

Full details on each game are after the break.

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Heavy Rain writer David Cage has told the EU PS Blog in Cologne last week that the game’s script is over 2,000 pages long in length.

Giving an example between movie scripts and the script for the game, a movie script is only on average about 120 pages, while Heavy Rain’s script came in at the magic 2,000

He also talks about the difficulties of writing a story for a game like Heavy Rain, the casting process of the game and revealing a little more on the game itself.

More from the video interview is after the break. It’s out next year for PS3.

We also sat down with David Cage last week at GamesCom. Top man.

Catch our interview with him, where he talks about a demo for the game, a possible sequel (or lack of) and his love for the PS3, here.

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Update: PR added.

Original Story: The first launch title of the Minis game collection, which was announced in Cologne last week, has been confirmed as a title known as Vempire.

According to the description of the game, it’s a puzzle game, which has a hint of strategy added into the mix. Collect artefacts, collect powers and more, these are just some of the gameplay features for the title.

More at PS3Center.

The game, and more to be announced from the Minis collection, will launch alongside the PSPgo on October 1.

We’re checking with SCEE for more info.

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SCEE’s announced that Killzone 2, Resistance 2 and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift will be added to the Platinum collection in Europe for PlayStation 3.

No prices yet, but they will be out on September 2. You can pretty much bet they’ll cost £20-£25 in the UK, depending on where you look.

More over at PS Focus.

EA’s announced that it’s adding Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard to the global cover of FIFA 10.

Previously, Rooney and Lampard were announced for the UK box-art of the game, alongside Arsenal’s Theo Walcott.

EA also announced the details for the demo that will be going live on September 10 in Europe. You will be able to play in an exhibition match, playing as teams such as Chelsea, Juventus, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and more.

Game’s out on October 2 for PS3, 360, Wii, DS, PSP, PC and PS2.

PR after the break.

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2K Games has said to MCV that they believe that Borderlands is an “incredibly strong offering” for Christmas, standing up against the likes of Halo 3: ODST, Modern Warfare 2 and Assassin’s Creed II.

“Created by veteran developer Gearbox, we think that Borderlands can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any game – it’s slick, fast-paced, tremendously polished, and incredibly stylish,” said 2K’s UK marketing manager, Simon Turner.

Turner even went further to say that it could be the start of an entire new genre.

“We think that Borderlands could create an entirely new genre – Role-Playing Shooter. Think of Diablo in a Mad Max world and you’re close.”

More through the link.

Game’s out on PS3, 360 and PC on October 23 from Gearbox.

Konami released a new trailer for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow during GamesCom. Go catch it after the jump.

This is the “rebirth” of the franchise as Konami are proclaiming it, what with sticking Mercury Stream in development duties and Hideo Kojima overseeing it.

Needless to say, with Kojima and his studio overlooking the game, you really don’t want to fuck this up.

It’s out next year for PS3 and 360.

From GT.

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The BioShock movie has a new director in the hot seat, and his name is Juan Carlos Fresnadilo.

Variety are reporting that Fresnadilo has been picked as the new director of the movie by Universal after original director, Gore Verbinski, decided to just take on the role of producer for the movie due to not committing to an abroad shoot that the movie will be doing.

Fresnadilo was the director of 28 Weeks Later.

His appointment is provisional though for now. Publisher Take Two must approve of the decision from Universal.

Via Shack.

id Software boss Todd Hollenshead has said to VG247 that while a multiplayer beta for RAGE is a “doubt,” there may be a PC and Mac demo.

“I doubt there will be an open beta,” said Hollenshead.

“The demo question is hard to answer, because I don’t know what the development cycle will be like. We don’t have anything against demos or tests; we typically do that – probably – to a greater extent than almost anybody else in the industry, so my guess would be that we will have something, but that’s far from set in stone.

“There could be something that’s more along the lines of a PC demo or maybe a Mac demo that comes out from a test perspective. But really, at this point, that’s speculation.”

Demos for the 360 or PS3 versions weren’t mentioned.

Catch the full interview with Hollenshead here. It’s nice and big, dont you know?

DOOM 4 is in development. If you didn’t know that, go out back and beat yourself out there.

But why wasn’t it shown at QuakeCon earlier this month? According to id’s CEO Todd Hollenshead, speaking to VG247 at the event, there was one very simple reason.

“We just never had anything prepared to show for it,” he said.

“It wasn’t like we were going to, and then decided not to. It’s just that the idea is that we want game development to get far along enough that we have something that we feel is representative of a game that we’re going to make and what the final game is going to be.”

Hollenshead did insist the company will about the game a lot more at QuakeCon next year.

“We have a lot of stuff to talk about that’s coming well before the Doom stuff. And it probably makes more sense to talk about it at QuakeCon next year, given that we’ve got Wolfenstein and RAGE. So I think Doom sort of deserves its own spotlight,” he added.

Go read our full interview with Todd Hollenshead here.

This is looking pretty much unanimous. Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Asylum’s sitting pretty with a 92 percent MC average, with even the “tougher” pubs coming out with glowing praise.

It’s out this Friday. We’re sending you subliminal messages to buy it by having our website covered in Batman ads. Actually, fuck it: just buy it.

• Eurogamer – 9/10
• IGN – 93%
• CVG/PSM3 – 93%
• CVG – 9.2/10
• 1UP – 91%
• Gametrailers – 9/10
• GamePro – 4/5
• Strategy Informer – 95%
• Wonderwallweb – 9.5/10

id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead has told VG247 that Microsoft is in the “best position” to be the first platform holder out the gate with next-gen hardware.

“Somebody’s going to do it, and – to me – probably the player who’s in the best position to do so is Microsoft, because I do think they’ve recouped a lot of the costs of their console,” said the exec, speaking at QuakeCon earlier this month.

“Maybe they’ll push the [Xbox 360] to year six – maybe seven – but I’ve got to believe that they’re already planning the transition now, and they have their eye on the ball as to what it is, because I think they see that there are some weaknesses that they can exploit with what’s going on at Sony.”

Don’t crap your pants just yet, sports fans. We’ve got a long way to go with the current machines, Todd added.

“I think that how the industry handles this next console transition is crucial. Because the PS3 install base is still a problem for Sony and for PS3 developers; the 360 and PS3 are still at price points that are well above what you’d consider to be mainstream or mass market. We still have very large titles that sell a lot of units across the different platforms. So, as we see that unfold, I think that is going to be the key thing to watch,” he said.

To say we had a massive interview with Todd Hollenshead is an understatement. How big is it? Check for yourself. Loads of shit on Rage, DOOM 4 and that canceled id project, Darkness.

Interview by Nathan Grayson.

When we say “ultimate,” we don’t mean he’s going to die next week. No sir. Todd Hollenshead, id Software’s inimitable CEO, is very much alive. We know, because Nathan got to quiz him on DOOM 4, RAGE, next gen consoles and so much more at QuakeCon earlier this month.

No stones were left unturned. Todd bore all. Hit the link if you don’t believe us.

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EA’s put live some brand new screenshots of Dante’s Inferno.

They look hellish, innit.

It’s out early next year for PS3, 360 and PSP.

Go get them screens at EG.pt.

Sega Japan’s just put out the first trailer for Valkyria Chronicles 2.

Well, when we say trailer, it’s more like a teaser.

And it seems to show a massive change in the graphics too. Out goes the watercolor paintings of the first game and in come anime cut-scenes.

We prefer the former to the latter.

It’s after the jump.

No Western date yet. It’s out though before the end of the year in Japan for the PSP.

Ta, PRPG.

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