Monthly Archives: August 2009

A report over on 1UP has concluded that there are currently 183 games with a World War II setting.

The casual census conducted by the site, has listed each “war” genre games with World War I and Korea coming in second and third, respectively.

Since 1980, the tally of games created featuring conflicts that the US participated in totals around 223.

Brothers in Arms made up 3 percent of the WWII games, with Call of Duty 5 percent, Medal of Honor 8 percent, Wolfenstein 3 percent, and 81 percent were miscellaneous titles.

The whole thing is through the link.

Harmonix and MTV have announced that the Foo Fighters are returning to Rock Band with a three-song pack.

Along with Foo Fighters, you can get tracks from Kaiser Chiefs, Blur and others.

Here’s the list:

• Blind Melon – No Rain
• Blur – There’s No Other Way
• Dropkick Murphys – I’m Shipping Up to Boston
• Eve 6 – Inside Out
• Foo Fighters – All My Life, I’ll Stick Around, Lonely as You
• Kaiser Chiefs – I Predict a Riot

Each are hitting Xbox 360 and PS3 on August 18 and 20, respectively for 160 MS Points ($1.99/£.99/€1.49) individually or 440 MS Points ($5.49/£2.49/€3.99) for the pack.

Funcom’s Erling Ellingsen has confirmed to VG247 that the reveal for The Secret World at PAX will be “the biggest thing on TSW yet.”

It was reported this past Tuesday that Funcom would be revealing loads of new information on the title, but unfortunately, we couldn’t squeeze a drop of info out of Ellingsen no matter how hard we tried.

“Yes, we will be doing more reveals on TSW there,” he told us. “Unfortunately I can not go into details, suffice to say it will definitely be the biggest thing on TSW yet.”

PAX starts on September 4 and runs through September 6 in lovely downtown Seattle, WA.

PSPGo.co.uk has launched, bringing you exhaustive information on Nintendo’s DS and DSi.

Yep. Very official it looks too. Someone’s done a great job of it, to be fair.

Naughty, naughty people.

Microsoft has responded to last night’s NPD figures by saying that Xbox 360 was the only console showing growth in the US this year, with sales increasing 17 percent year-over-year within the first seven months of 2009.

Sales for Xbox 360 reached 203,000 units for July and the company attributes this to the console’s starting price of $199, along with Netflix, and new stuff coming down the pipe (Last.fm, Facebook).

In the 12 months through June, Live members accumulated more than 1.7 billion multiplayer gaming hours – which was more than double the amount the previous year.

“Third-party titles continue to find success on Xbox 360 with sales totaling $101 million in July, more than any other system,” said Microsoft. “Xbox 360 maintains the streak of leading third-party games sales for every month of 2009.

“Xbox 360 is also home to some of the most-anticipated upcoming titles with a blockbuster line-up of exclusives that includes “Halo 3: ODST,” “Forza Motorsport 3,” and “Left 4 Dead 2.”

The full thing is through the break.

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Eidos/Square/Enix just posted up the Championship Manager 2010 demo – and here it is.

It doesn’t actually say there what’s in the demo, but “football management” is probably a good guess.

We’ll ask. The full game’s out on September 11. Thanks, G1GAHURTZ.

Update: All details of what’s included in the demo are in the PR after the break.

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UK retailer Argos is claiming that Microsoft has binned the 60GB Xbox 360.

“We are very sorry but Microsoft have discontinued this line,” says the product’s listing (thanks EG).

Multiple reports are saying Microsoft is about to ditch the Pro and drop the Elite £60 to take its place.

You might want to read this MCV piece while you’re at it.

Realtime Worlds has opened beta applications for APB: get your crime on right here.

The upcoming cops ‘n’ robbers MMO is slated for launch next spring. We got a good look at it at Develop this year, and had a long chat with company head Dave Jones on the game’s mechanics.

You probably want to be involved, to be honest. It looks amazing.

There’s date there on when the beta’s actually going to start.

The Valve-PS3 thing’s amazing. It doesn’t matter how many times a Valve staffer says the firm’s not working on it, it never gets dull. See: watch this.

Geoff Keighley, speaking in last night’s GTTV episode: “Are you guys working on PlayStation 3 here now, trying to understand it, trying to get better at it?”

Valve CEO Gabe Newell: “Uh,no. Not in any real way.”

Isn’t it great?

Thanks, Kotaku.

Xbox Europe boss Chris Lewis has told MCV that Xbox 360 has now passed 9 million sales in Europe.

“Our installed base is now well over nine million in Europe, where we enjoy about 27 per cent of the current share of the console market,” he said.

“This calendar year, we’re the only console showing positive growth. That’s 22 percent on the first half against a market that is down to a similar margin overall. So we are bucking that trend.”

Buck that trend, Chris. Buck the shit out of it. More through there.

Don’t panic. Valve boss Gabe Newell says in the latest GTTV programe that Episode 3 really is still on the way.

“Yes, of course we’re doing Episode 3,” said the exec in response to a reader question.

Presenter Geoff Keighley pushed a little and got, “Oh, absolutely” as an answer to, “But it is still being worked on?”

So there you go. When? You’re good to wait until 2032, right?

Lionhead just posted up a second teaser on its site, showing a new splash page with a shot of Maximilien Robespierre and the same thumbs up and thumbs down symbols that appeared under Che Guevara yesterday.

The quote: “Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; is it a less distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country.”

Same deal. Hit the up thumb, you go to the “followers” page, the down thumb taking you to “subjects”.

There’s a number five there as well. There was a number six yesterday. Wednesday morning at GamesCom or bust.

Bohemia’s announced an Arma II expansion in the shape of Operation Arrowhead. The add-on’s going to be aired at GamesCom next week.

It’s set three years after the conflict in Arma II, in a new region. It’s Allied forces against the rest, again.

Full details below.

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The Left 4 Dead 2 fairground level? The video of it? That were shown on GTTV last night? That we were waiting for? Earlier this morning?

After the break. There’s an interview with Gabe Newell there as well.

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Here comes GamesCom! Capcom just confirmed that a Lost Planet 2 multiplayer demo will release for Live on August 19: that’s next Wednesday, the Cologne show’s first day.

It’s going to be a Gold-only affair until August 26, when Silver members will be about to download it.

The taster will allow player to team up against the huge G-Type Salamander Akrid boss.

Press release after the break.

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Monster Hunter 3 clearly isn’t having the prolonged Wii sales affect it might have done in Japan. Wii numbed halved from 95,000 last week to just under 50,000 this week.

DSi, yet again, is the biggest selling Japanese console. Horses, courses, etc. Data below for the week ending August 9.

• DSi – 70,066
• Wii – 47,140
• PSP – 33,893
• DS Lite – 8,699
• PS3 – 5,826
• Xbox 360 – 5,436
• PS2 – 4,601

Bungie’s Brian Jarrard has told IGN that over 1 million unique users play Halo 3 daily.

That’s it. Go and shoot something in celebration.

Right. Bear in mind this could be a complete lie. A catalogue page from French retailer Carrefour has apparently confirmed a new PS3 price of €299, effective as of September 1.

You can see all the scans on PS3Gen.fr.

The text above the machine says “nouvelle console, nouvelle prix” – “new console, new price” – but the model appears to be the current chassis.

That price equates to £258.

Remember: it could be bollocks. Sony’s GamesCom presser takes place in Cologne next Tuesday.

Thanks GAF and Blerk.

Update: SCEE just got back with, “I’m afraid I can’t make any comment on that.”

The US PS Blog’s posted the full American PSN up date for the week, and aside from Marvel Vs Capcom 2′s release, it’s looking light.

There’s the usual round of DLC, plus a trio of PSone games that includes the original Tomb Raider.

The Euro update’s here.

1UP‘s posted more than 12 minutes of direct-feed Uncharted 2 single-play capture. Watch it after the break.

There’s a lot of stuff to see in there. We won’t spoil it just in case.

Take a look.

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