Monthly Archives: August 2009

The Ice & Blood expansion for Sacred 2 is expected to arrive for PC on August 28 – for Germany only.

Until the rest of the globe gets it, we will just have to be content to watch the first video for it.

Watch it over on Shack.

Activision has announced that those who pre-order Guitar Hero 5 between now and September 1 will get Guitar Hero: Van Halen for free before it even hits stores.

Holy hell!

The full details can be found through the press release below or over on the official GH: Van Halen Offer site.

That is one hell of a deal, and may help you make a decision if you are sitting on the fence.

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8monkey Labs has released a demo for Darkest of Days.

The hour-long demo lets players experience two different time-frames and experience what it is like to use futuristic weapons in period settings.

It’s out September 8 for PC and Xbox 360, and you can get the demo from the following locations:

• FileShack
• FileFront
• BigDownload
• Gamershell
• WorthDownloading

Star Wars: The Old Republic has been given a rumored release date for October 2010 by French fan site, Star Wars-Universe.com.

According to sources close to the site, someone within LucasArts confirmed it would be released during Q3 2010, specifically in September.

We have reached out to both LucasArts and BioWare and will let you know if they get back with us.

Via Massively.

Codemasters’ chief game designer, Matthew Horsman, is seen in the video after the break talking about how DiRT 2 has benefited from work the team did with GRID.

Horsman also chats a bit about the one hundred events jammed into the game, and explains how multiplayer allows you to  mix up car and track types.

After watching, head on over to Rock, Paper, Shotgun to check out the Baja Raid, Croatia Rally, and Baja Landrush trailers.

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Microsoft has announced that next week’s Xbox Live Deal of the Week will be Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned.

Original price for the add-on was 1600 MS Points ($19.99/£13.60/€18.61) but you’ll get it for 1200 MS Points ($14.99/£10.20/€13.96) instead.

Basically you’ll be saving a five spot. Great. We just downloaded this two days ago.

Thanks, CVG.

EA Sports has told VG247 that FIFA 10 was not moved as previously reported by Gamespot, but has always been scheduled for an October 20 release in the US.

The October 2 date is for Europe only, and has been from the beginning.

Glad that’s settled then.

Denise Kaigler, NOA’s vice president of corporate affairs, has said that the DSi sold more units in its first three months on sale in the US (1.7 million) than the original DS (1.38 million), DS Lite (1.07 million) or Wii (1.52 million).

So far, DSi has sold 6.86 million units worldwide and is expected to continue selling well due to the line-up of games for it on the way.

“As for what’s on the way, as you know, we have a number of strong hand-held games coming up before the end of the year, including Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky and, of course, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks,” Kaigler told IGN. “And don’t forget, there’s the August launch of Fossil Fighters, which I am personally very excited about! No matter what kinds of games you like, there should be something to enjoy on this list.

“On top of that we’ll also have a regular flow of Nintendo DSiWare titles available for download.”

More through the link.

Capcom has announced its GamesCom line-up for Cologne.

Here’s the list of games that will be on-hand:

• Lost Planet 2,
• Monster Hunter 3
• MotoGP 09/10
• Spyborgs
• Dark Void
• Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars

Sounds like good times to us, and we will be there.

Full press release posted after the break.

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Mad Catz has entered into an agreement with Activision to create officially branded controllers and accessories for Modern Warfare 2.

“We are excited to partner with Activision and Infinity Ward to create branded controllers and accessories based on what is one of the videogame industry’s preeminent franchises,” said Darren Richardson, president and CEO of Mad Catz.

“We look forward to offering unique and exciting accessories to fans of the newest release in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series, as we continue to grow and diversify what we believe to be the industry’s leading portfolio of branded videogame accessories.”

The agreement gives Mad Catz global rights to a range of accessories for all current platforms of the title, which is scheduled for worldwide release on November 10.

Full press release posted after the break.

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Piranha Bytes’ newest RPG, Risen, has been refused classification in Australia and the game’s distributor has not decided whether it will appeal the decision or edit the game to get an MA15+ rating.

According to a spokesperson from Madman Interactive, the Classification Board felt the game contained “sexual activity and drug use related to incentives or rewards”.

Over on the North American side, the ESRB’s description of the game says it contains foul language, drug usage, and implied sexual activity at a brothel.

Here’s the description:

During the course of the game, players can interact with prostitutes (referred to as “whores” in the game) at a local brothel. Players can trigger a lengthy dialogue to engage in their services; sexual activity is strongly implied, but never depicted on screen. Many of the characters in the game smoke a fictional drug called “brugleweed.” The “wood reefer” plant is described as having a mild relaxing effect on users, and can be bought, sold, and used by players. Some profanity (e.g., “f*ck” and “sh*t”) can be heard in the dialogue.

Risen’s expected to land on PC and Xbox 360 come October 2.

More over on Kotaku Australia.

Nielsen Games has released new data regarding game usage in the US and the report states that Wii has the fewest number of active users compared to the other consoles.

Usage of the console even trailed behind the GameCube.

According to the research, despite the recent decline in game sales, more people played games in June compared to June 2008 with total usage up 21 percent. Data suggests the average console user played 768 minutes.

Xbox 360 was played on the most, followed by PS3, Original Xbox, PS2, GameCube and then Wii. However, data usage also shows that Wii has double the number of female players on Xbox 360, and more than Xbox 360 and PS3 combined.

Console usage as a whole showed that 50 percent of user minutes accounted for current gen consoles , with 31 percent of minutes spent on PS2, GameCube, and Xbox and 19 percent of gaming time spent on PS One, Atari 2600, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, etc.

IndustryGamers has the Nielsen charts posted, go have a look.

Blizzard just confirmed that Ozzy Osbourne will play as Blizzcon next week, as previously rumoured.

“Our goal with BlizzCon is to deliver an unforgettable weekend of entertainment, and we can’t think of a better way to close out this year’s show than having Ozzy rock the house,” said Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime.

We’re going! PR after the break.

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Turbine has raised $6.6 million in venture capital funding according to a SEC filing.

The filing is for a series D funding round which is expected to raise $50 million from companies who have backed Turbine in the past such as Columbia Capital, Granite Global Ventures, Highland Capital Partners, Polaris Venture Partners and Tudor Ventures.

In the past, Trubine has raised $95 million in equity prior to this including a $40 million series C round back in April.

Turbine is believed to be the MMO market’s second biggest developer, behind Activision Blizzard.

Thanks, GI.biz.

EA Sports has announced that FIFA 10 will be delayed by a few weeks in October.

Originally set for an October 2 release, the sports title has been moved to October 20.

The North American cover art also features Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Sacha Kljestan instead of Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott who grace the European versions.

Gamespot was quick to point out that the new release date very close to Pro Evo 2010 which releases in North America on October 23.

More through the link. Thanks Kotaku.

John Carmack – id super-programmer and general dev darling – has confirmed that the developer axed a game to start work on Rage.

Speaking in a video interview with Polish pub CD-Action, Carmack said that the company was “busy working on our aborted early title [that] we were starting before we rebooted into Rage”.

He makes the comment at 1.17.

Don’t blame us if this is already public knowledge. We checked with the PC massive before posting. Our responsibility is resolved.

Aside from Rage, id’s known to be working on DOOM 4.

Rage is about to get a lot more real: the game’s now been confirmed for showings at both Quakecon this weekend and GamesCom in Cologne next week.

We’ll ask what the amazing mystery game was. Thanks, Psychotext.

EA’s confirmed to VG247 that id’s Rage will be in the hizouse at GamesCom next week.

The shooter-racer hybrid didn’t appear on the recently-released EA GamesCom schedule.

The title has already been announced for its first proper public viewing at Quakecon in Texas this weekend.

Are we going to Quakecon? We are. Are we going to GamesCom? We are. Are we going to see Rage at both events? We are. It’s the trans-Atlantic Rage dream – realised.

Watch for new Ragey stuff later in the week.

MCV’s reporting that Tekken 6 will launch on October 30 in the UK.

An Arcade Stick set, which includes an art book, the game and a wireless Hori fighting stick, will retail for £150.

The Collector’s pack will cost £70. It contains the art book, game, a poster and a sweatshirt.

The solus game will cost £50.

Just checking with Namco now.

Oh, daddy. Microsoft’s confirmed the reason Netflix has been so hesitant to lay its hat on PS3 and Wii: it’s got an exclusive deal in place with the US online movie provider.

According to the update notes released as part of today’s 360 summer dashboard update, the platform holder stated the following:

Netflix Partnership

This exclusive partnership offers you the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix to the television via Xbox 360. Xbox 360 will be the only game console to offer this movie-watching experience, available to Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Netflix unlimited plan subscribers, at no additional cost.

And the quarterback is toast. Thanks, Engadget.

Update – The passage above is actually contained in the original Netflix-360 press release. From July 2008. Thanks, Kingsgoon.

Square told VG247 today that a final decision on launching Dragon Quest IX outside Japan is yet to be made.

“DQIX is currently being considered for release outside of Japan,” said the company by email.

“When a definitive decision is made about the release we will make an official statement.”

It first came to light that the publisher was only “considering” releasing the game in the US and Europe yesterday.

The DS RPG’s now shipped more than 3.5 million units in Japan.