Monthly Archives: August 2009

SCEE just confirmed its GamesCom line-up via press preview invites, and it’s a comprehensive list holding few shocks.

Definites for PS3 are:

• Heavy Rain
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
• God of War III
• MAG
• EyePet
• Ratchet and Clank: A Crack In Time
• SingStar
• Buzz!
• White Knight Chronicles
• DC Universe

You’ll be seeing the following for PSP:

• Gran Turismo
• Invizimals
• MotorStorm: Arctic Edge
• LittleBigPlanet
• Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier
• SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3

Services and other gubbins confirmed are:

• “Lots of PlayStation Network games,” including Gravity Crash
• VidZone
• PlayStation Home
• PSP go

Sony’s GamesCom press conference takes place on Tuesday August 18, from 18.00-21.00pm CET.

EA, Activision and Square also just posted their line-ups for the show.

GamesCom’s just around the corner and Activision, Electronic Arts, and Square Enix have all revealed a list of games that will be present for the event.

• Activision: Bakugan, Band Hero, Blur, DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5, Modern Warfare 2, and Tony Hawk RIDE.

• EA: APB, Army of Two: The 40th Day, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Brutal Legend, Command & Conquer 4, Dante’s Inferno, Dead Space Extraction, Dragon Age: Origins, FIFA 10, Mass Effect 2, MySims Agents, Need for Speed SHIFT, Need for Speed NITRO, NHL, RAGE, The Beatles: Rock Band, The Saboteur, and Tiger Woods Online.

• Square Enix: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dissidia Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIV, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Mini Ninjas, Order of War and Supreme Commander 2.

Huge bunch of games, there. Be on the look out for Sony’s list soon.

We will be there through the whole shebang with interviews, live-blogging, the works – so stick with us during the event.

Best Buy has the PSPgo listed on its website and it says that handheld will come with a voucher to download Rock Band Unplugged.

You can get it, apparently, in Pearl White or Piano Black.

No confirmation from Sony, but Best Buy has it listed anyway.

More over on D’toid.

Microsoft has announced the games coming to its on-demand service via Xbox Live starting August 11.

No need for points on these games, just use your credit or debit card and get to downloading. Pricing will likely be announced when the service goes live next week.

Here’s what is on offer so far:

• Assassin’s Creed
• Burnout Paradise
• Call of Duty 2
• Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• Fight Night Round 3
• Kameo: Elements of Power
• LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
• Mass Effect
• Meet The Robinsons
• MX vs. ATV Untamed
• Need for Speed Carbon
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted
• Perfect Dark Zero
• Prey
• Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis
• SEGA Rally
• Test Drive: Unlimited
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas
• Tomb Raider: Legend
• Viva Piñata
• Viva Piñata 2: Trouble in Paradise

The full release is posted after the page jump.

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EA has released a new trailer for Army of Two: The 40th Day.

It shows Salem and Rios visiting the studios at EA Montreal, and to say it is an interesting take is a bit of an understatement.

At least the folks there have a sense of humor.

Game’s out on PS3, PSP and Xbox 360 this summer, and the video is posted after the break.

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Activision sent over a mailer detailing the pre-order bonuses for Blur.

You can view the full thing ater the break.

Bonuses include extra goodies for each different retail offering. GameStop bonus includes an exclusive Multiplayer Advantage Booster Kit unlocking the Ford Bronco, Double Fans bonus for the first ten multiplayer races (nets you more money), and the Last Man Standing survival mode.

Best Buy is offering day one purchase incentive which includes a code to unlock he Dodge Hennessey Viper, while Game Crazy purchasers will net double money for the first single-player races played.

A solid release date has yet to be announced for PC, PS3 or Xbox 360, but all referenced retail stores have it hitting on November 3.

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Zoo Tycoon developer Blue Fang has announced that it has reduced its staff by 15, citing the action as “necessary”.

According to the company website the team made redundant had developed a successful proprietary tool and tech to make “multi-platform products in less time and with significantly fewer resources”, reports Joystiq.

The new tech allows Blue Fang to “adjust both the size and mix of [the] development team going forward”.

World of Zoo, the company’s latest title, is expected to be released on DS, PC and Wii this autumn.

Turtles in Time Re-Shelled has landed on Xbox Live.

The game has been recreated in 3D HD graphics with enhanced animations with the original gameplay included.

Game requires the Xbox 360 hard drive for storage, and will run you 800 MS Points.

There is also a demo up if you would like to try it first.

More from the Major here.

The Limited Edition version of Assassin’s Creed II has been unveiled by GameStop.

Called the Master Assassin Edition, it’s to be made available for PS3 and Xbox 360 for $79.99 and contains the following:

• 8.5 inch Collectible Ezio Statue
• Artbook: The Art of Assassins Creed
• Premium Collectible Metal Case
• Two Exclusive, in-game maps: Palazzo Medici, Santa Maria Dei Frari
• Additional content DVD: Behind the scenes of Assassin’s Creed, Assassin’s Creed II Soundtrack

Game’s out November 17.

Valve’s Chet Faliszek has talked a bit about Left 4 Dead’s upcoming DLC, Crash Course, which was announced yesterday.

This time around, the focus is on Versus Mode.

“It has the co-op Campaign, and also has Survival, but the focus is Versus,” he told Edge. “One of the problems with Versus – well, perhaps it’s not quite a ‘problem’ because there are actually equal player minutes between Versus and co-op – but it’s a two hour game. And we look at our statistics and we see that players ideally want to play between 20 and 30 minutes. So we wanted to create a Versus campaign which you could play through in 30 minutes – a quick competitive thing that slots in between TV shows.

“It’s a two map campaign with a finale, so it’s almost a three map campaign. Obviously if the teams are bad and get wiped quicker then it goes quicker.

“We’ve also added some things – you can now see your teammates’ statuses and their recharge timers. The world also stays exactly the same between team changes, so there are no complaints about it being imbalanced any more. We’ve actually been working on this a bit, but we’re finally close enough that we’re comfortable to talk about it.”

Chet says that Valve is working on how to integrate the DLC with L4D2, and one of the things it has discussed is letting the maps dictate the characters you are playing.

“That’s one of the routes we’ve talked about going, and maybe adding the new creatures, or whatever. There’s a lot of back-and-forth. We haven’t fixed on what we’re doing yet, so we don’t want to talk about it and make people think something is going to happen when we don’t know ourselves.

“We’re still struggling with how interoperability is going to work, right now [with Crash Course]. When we talk about L4D, the story stuff – there’s actually a lot of character dialogue that’s based in each map.”

More through the link.

Acti UK PR just confirmed the reported Wii port of Modern Warfare for a November 10 release.

It is indeed being ported by Treyarch and will ship alongside Modern Warfare 2.

No assets have been released as yet.

Update: Press release here.

Championship Manager 2010 will release on September 11, Eidos said today.

The sim’s demo will hit on August 14.

You’re going to get a 3D match engine this time, ball fans.

We’ve got an interview with the game’s PR in the podcast this week, so you’ll get a bit more detail on it then.

In the meantime, hit the link for the press release.

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FIFA 10 will ship on October 2 for PS3, 360, Wii, DS, PSP and PC, EA said today.

The game’s cover art has also been shown for the first time – it features Rooney for the fifth year.

PR after the break.

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After the break. The NCsoft fantasy MMO’s just silly-pretty, as the footage testifies.

Whether you pick the elyos or asmodians you’re going to be doing a lot of fighting. For eternity, apparently.

It’s out on September 25.

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CVG’s got some new shots of Serious Sam HD. It’s awesome. There’s no way this cannot be. You shoot stuff with big guns. And that’s it.

It’s out this autumn.

A lifetime sub to Champions Online will cost £120 in the UK, Atari just confirmed.

A $200 figure was put on the US deal yesterday.

Monthly fees will cost $14.99, €12.99 EUR and £8.99.

It’s out in September. PR after the break.

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PCGames.de’s posted an image of the German Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising special edition, revealing the gift to end all gifts – a free helmet.

We have no idea if the helmet’s coming to the UK. It’s irrelevant, anyway: we’re now committed to owning the German helmet.

It’s out for PC, 360 and PS3 in October.

TheHut’s offering Assassin’s Creed II pre-orders for £29.73.

It’s £40 on Play, and £37 on Amazon.

The game’s out on November 20. Thanks, PS3Attitude.

Update: The PC version’s £28 on Chips.

Don’t mince those words, Randy Pitchford, Gearbox super-honcho. Want to know what Borderlands version to get if you want it looking at its best? PC. It “destroys” the 360 and PS3 versions visually.

“The PC version destroys all the console versions in terms of the image fidelity – assuming you have the hardware for it,” he told RPS.

So we all buy the PC version, right Randy? Not so fast, kiddlewinks.

“It’s tough. It’s very tough, I’ll tell ya,” Pitchford added. “On one level I do like sitting on my couch with the surround sound and the wireless controller, on the other level I mean you will not get a better-looking image than in the PC version of the game.

“And when you’re playing a first-person shooter, the mouse and keyboard interface is still the best way to go. It’s a tough thing.”

Hit the link for loads more, including Alec Meer telling Randy “half the internet” spells his surname “Pitchfork”.

The RPG-shooter hybrid’s out on October 23.

EVE developer and publisher CCP’s trademarked Dust 514, as reported by MMOsite.

What is it? Probably the first-person game company boss Hilmar Petursson’s heavily tipped to announce at GDCE the week after next in Cologne.

Hit the link for more. We’ll know soon enough. Thanks, Jim.