Monthly Archives: August 2009

UK town Derby is considering naming a new ring road after local heroine Lara Croft.

According to a ThisIsDerby story, suggested names have included Florence Nightingale Way and Lara Croft Way.

Florence Nightingale was a noted humanitarian attributed with saving the lives of many thousands of injured soldiers during the Crimean War. Lara Croft is a overly-mammarized videogame character attributed with making a bunch of money by jumping around and shooting a bit.

“Personally I would be in favour of something that projects something new and modern about the city,” said John Forkin, director of Marketing Derby.

“I quite like the Lara Croft idea.”

Pathetic. Just call it Lara’s Ring and have done with it.

Thanks, TombRaiderChronicles.

VideoGamesZone.de’s posted up four new Modern Warfare 2 images, as seen here.

They’re a bit sketchy. Look like scans. They show a helicopter scene and some soldier models, so don’t get too excited.

The game’s out in November.

Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has told Gamespot that the studio isn’t working on a Heat game despite owning the IP, and would consider releasing the rights.

“In a nutshell, we’re nowhere,” Pitchford told the site when asked what was going on with the bank-robbing movie property, despite “filmmakers, game-makers, and publishing partners” all on board.

“We’re not keeping the IP locked down anymore,” he added. “If somebody else were in a spot where they could do it, and everybody was comfortable with that, then conceivably that could happen.”

Lack of time and resources has prevented work going forward on the title.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Digital distribution is the future of gaming, says just about everyone. Not Nintendo’s Shigero Miyamoto. He’s buckwild. He’s an opinion-flying renegade.

“We really don’t see the future of video games being merely confined to digital distribution or moving solely or even to a majority of our products being distributed that way,” the dev legend told the Mercury Evening News.

Stating the bleeding obvious, the Nintendo boss added that hardware implementation isn’t something you can do over a wire.

“Entertainment is something that will not just become digital,” he said. “If I look at Wii MotionPlus, this is something that you’re not doing via digital distribution.”

There’s a short interview with little else in it through the link.

FASA founder Jordan Weisman has told Gamespot that Xbox flight-combat oldie Crimson Skies may be brought back to life as a result of the ongoing fortunes of his new company, Smith & Tinker.

“Most of my time is invested in [Smith & Tinker], but in the wee hours of the night, I spend time thinking about the older properties. I think Crimson Skies is something we’d love to get some energy around, and we have some devious plans – we’ll see if those materialize.”

The first FASA property to be brought back from the dead thanks to the emergence of Smith & Tinker is Mech Warrior, announced early last month.

“I wanted to start with MechWarrior, because it really struck me as the one that had the largest existing fan base and it had been the longest since a MechWarrior title was done right,” Weisman added.

More through there.

EA’s put out video of four full tracks from The Beatles: Rock Band, as seen after the break.

Well, either they’re official or they’re not. Make up your own mind.

The game’s out in September. Thanks, Joystiq.

More »

Randomly, some I Am Alive screens popped up yesterday, as seen on Worthplaying. Not quite sure where these have come from, but they show off disaster-riven environments, broken bridges, and so on.

There’s no date on this, but “next year” is safe. Take a look. Thanks, Hunam.

Microsoft and Ubisoft reduced the price of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled from 1200 MS Points ($15) to 800 MS Points ($10).

The game is set to release this coming Wednesday.

More over on IGN.

Thanks, 1UP.

Fat Princess latency issues are occurring with the game, and Sony is aware of the problem and working on a solution.

“We are aware that some customers are experiencing connection issues and are working to address this asap,” a company spokesperson told G4. “If there are lag issues during a game, there will be a snail image in the lower left corner.

“It is advised that if this snail appears for more than 30 seconds, the player should try another game.”

No word on when the lag will be fixed, so in the meantime just hang tight.

More through the link.

Loads of Beta news this week in MMO round-up.

IncGamers made good on its promise, and has posted part-two of its Aion Beta preview, Mortal Online’s second stage of Beta testing begins soon, CrimeCraft started its Beta and Alganon is prepping for one.

Loads of MMO are going to be coming out soon, and there will be more than just fantasy offerings on the table. Sci-fi, apocalyptic, modern, and steampunk are all heading our way.

Hit the jump for more on the week in MMOs.

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Hands-on write-ups for Batman: Arkham Asylum are starting to trickle onto the net.

Two worth having a gander at, so far, are from GamesRader and Gamespot.

Here’s a quote from the GR look-see:

“Think of a great superhero game. No, not a good one — there are plenty of those around — but one as essential as, say, Grand Theft Auto IV or BioShock. You’re struggling, right? That’s because there aren’t any. Or rather there weren’t any until Batman: Arkham Asylum came along. After an extensive hands-on, exploring the majority of the enormous Arkham Island – we’ve come to the conclusion that not only is this Batman’s best game to date, but quite possibly the best superhero game ever made. A bold claim, but one we think you’ll agree with the moment you take your first tentative steps into the foreboding darkness of Gotham’s legendary loony bin.”

Now before you run off to read them, keep in mind there are a few spoilers in there, so don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Starting to get excited over this a bit, here.

Thanks, EvilAvatar.

Some screens for A Boy and His Blob have surfaced over on Aussie-Nintendo.

Go have a look.

The updated title will feature hand-drawn and painted animation to keep you enchanted as you solve puzzles, defeat monsters, and feed your blob companion gourmet jelly beans which force the poor fella to turn into ladders and other handy items.

Majesco have slated it for a fall release on Wii.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

The website for Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box has gone live.

Not too much going on over there at the moment, but there’s some cute wallpapers if the game is one of your things.

It will land in the US on August 24 and on September 25 in Europe for DS and DSi with Level-5 releasing downloadable puzzles every week for 33 weeks.

The September issue of Playstation: The Official Magazine, has offered up a few more details on The Last Guardian.

Apparently, the boy’s creature in the game is called Trico (in the Japanese version) and will be hostile to the boy at first.

However, through grooming, playing with it and feeding it, the creature will form a bond with the young lad, eventually helping him to solve platforming puzzles and the like.

Trico is alive and acts it, so persuading it to do as you ask will take a gentle -not forceful- hand.

Some of you may already known this, but there it is just in case.

Via Games Thirst.

DHM Interactive has picked up the European and Australian publishing rights to distribute Ys I and II for DS.

Unlike the US version Atlus released earlier this year, the titles will be sold separately instead of on one cartridge.

Ys I will arrive in October, with Ys II hitting during the early part of 2010.

Meanwhile you can get both Ys titles from TurboGrafx-CD via the Virtual Console.

Thanks, GoNintendo (Aussie-Nintendo).

In the wake of Sony’s Q1 09 earnings report, the company has released the lifetime sales for its console and the titles sold for it.

Here are the figures as of June 30, 2009:

• PS3 consoles: 23.8 million
• PS3 software: 189.7 million (all publishers, includes both retail and PSN titles)

Since its 2006 launch, Sony has tracked how many PS3 consoles and games have been sold to the public, not just to retailers.

Via Kotaku.

The now defunct Australian house for Pandemic Studios has released a video of the Wii game it was working on and we have it posted after the break.

Called either The Next Big Thing or No Limits Racing, the video contains pseudo-celebrities, and the ability to put your Mii in-game as a character.

Regarding the footage from the Brisbane-based studio, EA commented: “On any given day, there are a lot of great game ideas under consideration at EA … not all of them go all the way to market.”

Rumors back in January stated that the devs were also at work on a Dark Knight game for PS3 and Xbox 360 before the studio was shuttered.

Thanks, Joystiq.

More »

CD Projekt RED has released its Director’s Cut update for The Witcher, and it is now uncensored.

Yes, it’s the nudie patch.

Now, when Geralt gets frisky with the ladies, playing cards celebrating his conquest will contain nudity instead of  scantily covered lady bits.

You can get the patch from many different file sites, including the official Witcher site – just make sure you have updated your game to v1.5 first.

Pearl Jam’s latest album, Backspacer, will be made available for download on Rock Band the day it lands at Target, according to Billboard.

Scheduled for September 20, the band’s ninth offering will also come via a special edition at the box-retailer with codes to download tracks for PS3 and Xbox 360. This is a precursor to a Pearl Jam-centric RB game that is rumored to arrive sometime next year.

Although MTV and Harmonix passed on providing details, over on the band’s official website fans are determining which live versions from the guys will be included on the game disc.

Ten was released for Rock Band back in March, and has been downloaded over 850,000 times.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Michael Pachter has weighed in on Game Exodus 2009, and tried to explain the defections into 2010 as best he could by comparing gaming to other entertainment.

Citing movies, he stated that film companies are able to release rival movies so close to one another because most consumers who wish to see both will do so. Games, however, are different.

“I think the game industry isn’t particularly well-coordinated,” he told Joystiq. “But the game business is different because you’re not going to go out and buy three games in one month. … Well, maybe you will, but the average consumer won’t.”

Compared to springtime last year, the number of offerings a retail have been light and because of this, a crowded holiday season was expected, which lead gaming companies to move titles to avoid the inherent risk.

“This fall you have games like The Beatles: Rock Band, Tony Hawk: Ride and DJ Hero. Those are like buying two or three games, and that sucks a lot of money out of the cycle,” he continued. “I think the biggest problem you’re going to see is that Q1 is now equally crowded, especially considering they’re going to be relatively low-dollar months.

“Think of something like Darksiders coming then, I think it’s going to be hard for a Darksiders to stand out.”

More through the link.