Monthly Archives: August 2009

The Tokyo Games Show starts on September 24, and the CESA has released a partial list of games that will be present for the event.

Seems like there is a games conference every month, doesn’t it?

Some of the speakers lined up include Sony’s Kaz Hirai delivering a keynote, Haruhiro Tsujimoto the president and COO of Capcom, Konami VP Kazumi Kitaue, Square’s Yoichi Wada, Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida and Shin Unozawa the president and CEO of Namco Bandai.

Epic president Michael Capps will also be there, delivering a speech on “Adapting the ‘Gears of War’ Franchise for Global Consumption”

Cool stuff.

As far as games go, the list is past the break. While it is only a partial list, you may notice that Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and Square Enix are missing from the list. Don’t worry, all will be there will bells on.

Surely more will be announced soon as well, so until then, just keep watch for more updates.

More »

Activision’s doling out the preorder offers for Guitar Hero 5.

As you know, in the US you’ll get GH: Van Halen free when you preorder, but now comes word that UK gets World Tour for free.

All you have to do is preorder the Guitar Hero 5 Guitar Bundle to get the game. Mind you, it’s the game only.

Amazon UK has more.

Thanks, OXM.

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box comes out next week on August 24, and IGN has some screens to get you excited for it.

Not like you weren’t already.

Some look new, some don’t, but you’ll wanna have a look anyway.

Peter Molyneux has told GameSetWatch that people were so upset over the ending of Fable II that he received hate mail.

Apparently, some gamers were upset over the choices you had to make during endgame, which ultimately forced Lionhead to enact some changes with the DLC due to complaints getting to “such a furor”.

If you have played the game, you know of what he speaks. However, we won’t spoil anything for you just in case you have yet to play it – but rest assured, it won’t happen again.

“Don’t expect us to be as merciful as that in the future,” said Molyneux.

More through the link, but beware of the spoilers.

Nvidia has an offer running, allowing you to get a free downloadable version of Batman: Arkham Asylum when you purchase one of four different graphics card from the company.

Not bad if you were wanting a GTX260, GTX275, GTX285 or a GTX295.

When we got our GeForce 7900 GTX we got Blood Money free, so this is not the first nor probably the last time Nvidia will run something like this.

Still, a free videogame to go along with something you are purchasing anyway is always a good thing.

More through here via BigDownload.

Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford as told Eurogamer that the initial DLC for Borderlands is currently in development.

“People are going to be surprised when they find out how quickly we’re coming [with DLC],” he said.

“We’re going to watch and see what happens when the game launches, so we can have our plans affected by what our customers want more of, but we do have some plans for the initial stuff already in motion, and I’ll be announcing that soon.”

Due this fall, the game is currently undergoing certification by Microsoft and Sony.

Thanks, 1UP.

GamesCom had loads of cosplayers in attendance, so much so that the group was trying to break a Giuness world record for The Largest Gathering of Games Characters.

Over 400 cosplayers are expected to gather at the event today, to try and break the MCM London record of 376 characters.

Guinness representatives were dispatched, and planned to make each one count by having people write the name of the character and game they are from on a form, get a photo taken, and wait until the rest are counted.

Sounds fun. Waiting in a queue is always fun. Especially one that is over 400 people strong. Hopefully there is a rollercoatser ride at the end of the line. Doubtful though.

Thanks, Joystiq.

BlizzCon 09 started yesterday, and one of the reveals was the new playable class of the Monk for Diablo III.

New environments with the borderlands and an evil-infested desert zone were also revealed.

Five different videos for the new goodies were released by GameTrailers and Rock, Paper, Shotgun has all of ‘em posted.

Go watch and enjoy.

During its Battle.net BlizzCon panel, Blizzard announced that StarCraft II will allow players to put price tags on their created maps. Creators will, of course, see some cash for their hard work, but Blizzard didn’t give an exact percentage.

The hope is that this will encourage players to form small dev teams and craft complex maps — or even new gametypes. So whereas before, the cost outweighed any potential rewards these intrepid souls might reap, now they’ve got a real cash-money incentive.

If you’re afraid Blizzard just tossed a “You must have this much disposable income to play” sign in front of StarCraft II’s multiplayer, don’t panic. Blizzard compared its new storefront to the iPhone App Store in terms of how it’s hoping the distribution of free and premium content will emerge.

More as it comes.

Your StarCraft II save games will always be with you, Blizzard’s just announced, so long as you have a reliable Internet connection.

As part of its Battle.net panel at BlizzCon, the developer noted that StarCraft II will take advantage of cloud computing for game saves. At work, at home, on a train, on a plane, in a box, with a fox — it doesn’t matter where you are; you can access your campaign saves.

Sounds pretty neat to us.

We’ll keep you updated as the panel continues.

We just finished up at the BlizzCon WoW: Cataclysm panel and our news nets are full to bursting with wriggling tidbits. And you know what that means: info-dump, go!

• The expansion’s adding multiple new advancement systems. First up, the Guild Advancement System allows guilds to level all the way to 20 by doing normal activities like daily quests and raids. Corresponding guild talent trees lead to cheaper repairs, mass raid resurrections, and things of the like.
• There are seven new zones in Cataclysm. They are Mount Hyjal, The Lost Isles, Gilneas, Uldum, the Sunken City of Vashj’ir, Twighlight Highlands, and Deepholm.
• Both classes have racial abilities that are sure to send seasoned WoW-players into nerdrage-fueled tizzies. The Worgen have darkflight, a sprinting ability, while Goblins get a rocket belt that can propel them forward or fire rockets at their foes.
• New race/class combos are coming. We saw a Tauren Paladin (“Holy cow!”), a gnome priest, and a dwarf shaman.
• Unlike previous expansions, Cataclysm won’t feature new talent trees. However, you will be able to advance along the Path of the Titans, which splits into many separate branches — all of which can be accessed by any class. So, in theory, a priest and, say, a rogue could end up with some of the same skills. The Path of the Titans is heavily tied to the game’s new secondary profession: archaeology.
• Ragnaros is back, and he’s pissed. This time, the colossal flame elemental is attempting to exact his vengeance through deforestation, which — unless you’re Captain Planet or an RP-ing Tauren — probably won’t get you too hot under the collar. However, ol’ Raggy’s aiming for the World Tree, which is kind of a big deal in WoW lore. You’ll be able to douse the fiery ne’er do well for the (1000 and) second time in a Cataclysm dungeon called Firelands.

Check out more of our Cataclysm coverage here.

What an opening day!

A brand new WoW expansion known as Cataclysm revealed. That will please the fans for a good couple of weeks once released.

But wait! Is the impossible possible? Diablo III on consoles? Better yet, a release this year? “IMPOSSIBLE!” we hear you cry.

Still, if you have missed anything from day one of BC, here’s a round-up. The most important are in bold.

Surely… naaa, it cant be… can it?

• BlizzCon 2009 Opening Ceremony liveblog
• Monk revealed as fourth Diablo III class [Update]
• New World of Warcraft expansion announced, called Cataclysm
• Goblins playable race in next WoW expansion
• And here’s the WoW Catacysm logo
• First screenshots of WoW: Cataclysm
• Debut WoW Cataclysm trailer is live
• Diablo III in-game screens show off Monk class
• Cataclysm zones revealed, detailed
• Cataclysm and StarCraft II only titles for 2010 [UPDATE]
• Diablo III “not ruled out for consoles”
• StarCraft II to support premium player-created maps
• StarCraft II to utilize a save game Cloud
• Cataclysm Panel: Guild advancement system/a> detailed, new race/class combos, Raganaros returning

BioWare’s Jesse Houston has told VG247 that Mass Effect 2 will run at a solid 30FPS.

He also told us that any weird pauses you might have received during the first Mass Effect are now all gone.

“If you look at most good shooters, they lock down frame-rate at 30FPS: we’ve done the same thing. Bam. Everything’s 30FPS, streaming is fixed up,” said the associate producer for the game.

“If you remember in Mass 1, if you took a step backwards and you hit a weird stream and it’d pause for a moment. We’ve done a away with that. What you’re seeing here is pulled straight from the game.”

Catch our full interview with Houston, locked down here.

It’s out next year for 360 and PC.

Shack has up some brand screens of Final Fantasy XIV for you to peek at.

Go get them through the link.

It’s out next year for PS3 and PC, although it may still come to the Xbox 360.

It was revealed by producer Hiromichi Tanaka to VG247 that there are discussions for a 360 version, though nothing has happened due to Microsoft’s policy on Xbox Live.

Update: Ripten is reporting that Mike Morhaime has told DirecTV that, while he won’t give a specific date, Diablo III will be released this year.

Okay, now that sounds a lot better than 2011. Shockingly better. Unexpectedly better. Dreamland better.

Still, we will have Nathan poke around for more to be sure. It sounds too good to be true, honestly.

Original Story: Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime has confirmed to Geoff Keighly and Kate Hunter that the just-revealed World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm and StarCraft II are only titles the company expects to release in 2010.

So where does this leave Diablo III? Apparently, not in 2010 as expected.

We will have Nathan corner a Blizzard person and get more on this. Make him threaten bodily harm if need be – or at least a heavy tickling.

Thanks, Shack.

And the price-cut rumours just keep on rolling.

It seems all but confirmed that the Xbox 360 will get a price-cut, but by how much? A guess would be £199/$299 for the Elite.

In fact, the newest ad from Walmart has the Elite down for $299. The new price will take effect from Wednesday September 1st.

Remember what else happens that day?

More at Engadget and VGChartz.

Meanwhile, OXM have tweeted a hint on such a move.

“PS3 Slim’s are topping the sales charts everywhere. Hope Microsoft is paying attention to the power of a price cut. Yes, that was a hint…”

Lets get ready to ruuuuuumbleeeee!

BioWare’s Jesse Houston sat down with VG247 at GamesCom to talk about Mass Effect 2.

You can find that here. In that interview, the associate pProducer for ME2 explained a brand new gameplay feature for story conversations of the game, known as “Interrupt”.

We’ll let Jesse take it from here:

“For example, we now have the interrupt system, which is the way we’re trying to let players control the pace of conversations a little more, without having them just mashing the X button and lose the suspension of disbelief.

“We want to keep them there, but allow them to control the speed still.”

The new interrupt system was revealed at E3, but was shown off for the first time to anyone who wasn’t at E3 in a second developer diary for the game.

The game’s out early next year for Xbox 360 and PC.

Paul Sams of Blizzard has told Geoff Keighley that the firm has not ruled out Diablo III for consoles.

Currently, Blizzard is in talks with first-parties now.

This according to Keighly’s latest tweet.

Diablo III on 360 and PS3? Color us excited at the possibility.

Nathan is at BlizzCon now. We’ll see if he can bend someone’s arm for more information.

The new World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, was revealed today as you are well aware.

Good thing because the new zones for the expansion have been revealed and detailed as well.

There will be several, apparently, and starting zones Gilneas (Worgen-Alliance) and The Lost Isles (Goblins-Horde) will be level 1-15.

Also, every zone in Azeroth has changes made to it in some form. Some cosmetic, some with monster level changes, and flying mount support all around and even some underwater mounts.

Looks like the Horde has also taken Southshore, ending the battle with the Alliance tucking their tails between their legs.

FOR THE HORDE!

Loads more over on Shack, with pictures of the new zones.

Mass Effect 2 will receive a simultaneous release on both Xbox 360 and PC when it releases in Q1 2010.

That’s according to Associate Producer, Jesse Houston, who confirmed the news to VG247 during an interview with him at GamesCom.

“We learned a lot from building the PC version before, and having built it six months later there was a big difference. So we actually took what we learned from PC and put it back into 360,” said Houston, who was talking about the development for the game between the PC and Xbox 360 SKU’s.

“Fundamentally, we want you to have the same gameplay experience, but just with the difference in controls. This time round, doing it at the same time for a sim-ship, we can control the differences much more smoothly because it’s the same team building it now.”

Read our full interview with Jesse Houston here.