Monthly Archives: September 2009

Hit the link for three off-screen movies of Front Mission Evolved from the TGS showfloor.

The footage shows gameplay in mechs and on foot. It looks “OK”.

See for yourself.

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Aion’s launched in Europe, NCsoft confirmed today.

The MMO is by far the largest game of its type taking off this year, and those looking to inhabit the European servers will no doubt be praying the crippling rush of the game’s pre-start program has calmed somewhat.

“We’re extremely excited to finally deliver the game to Western audiences and believe they will enjoy Aion as much as Eastern players have,” said Jaeho Lee, CEO NCsoft West.

“The effort we put into Westernising Aion is unprecedented in our industry. Players will experience a completely rewritten storyline spanning more than two-million words, along with a variety of enhancements specifically for Western audiences.”

PR after the break.

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After the break. It shows the LBP motion tech demo from yesterday’s magically appearing Sony TGS press conference, featuring a woman playing with the motion stick and a guy using a standard controller.

Looking nice and interesting. And cute as ever.

PS3′s motion system releases next spring. Thanks, Syrok.

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FIFA 10 looks to have properly delivered, with several of the majors coming in with very high review scores ahead of the game’s October 2 launch.

Round-up below. Not looking like too many reasons not to get involved.

• Eurogamer.net – 9/10
• Eurogamer.it – 10/10
• Eurogamer.de – 9/10
• IGN UK – 9.3/10
• 3DJuegos – 9.3/10
• Xbox World 360 – 9/10

After the break! The first is off-screen footage of deathmatch from TGS, and the second is a full ten minutes of co-op. Very awesome it looks too.

Go! It’s out next year. Thanks, Blerk.

Update – Added another video from IGN. This one shows gas canister rocket-style fun.

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A record amount of people sashayed through TGS 09′s doors on its first day yesterday, with 27,435 attendees attending compared to 27,305 last year, Famitsu reports.

Over 190,000 visited the show in total in 2008. Looks as though GamesCom’s going to be safe as the largest game show this year (and ever) with over 245,000 people clocked.

Thanks GoNintendo.

Gears of War 3 will be out next year! No it won’t. Epic boss Mike Capps told EG at TGS yesterday that we’re not going to see another round of Markus and friends for a good while yet.

“If there were a next Gears of War, that will be for the next console generation, whenever that is. If someone knows, please tell me! That’s about four or five years away, I think.”

That, Mike, is like a hammer blow to the heart.

Capps said the developer has been working on Unreal Engine 4 for the last seven year, and gave some detail about how team sizes are always kept under control at the studio.

Whatever. We’re now in mourning.

Update: Looks as though Capps got a little muddled on this. EG just updated its piece:

Epic Games president Michael Capps claims he misspoke during a Q&A session at the Tokyo Game Show today when he said, “If there were a next Gears of War, that will be for the next console generation, whenever that is.”

Speaking to Eurogamer after the event, Capps explained that if the next Gears of War – assuming there is one – were to be released in the next “four to five years”, it would be for current consoles.

Were it to be based on Unreal Engine 4, however, it would have to come out on the next round of consoles, because those are the machines for which Epic is targeting its next generation of money-spinning engine technology.

Nintendo’s to offer a Wii Sports Resort bundle containing an extra MotionPlus unit for $60 in the US, starting October 12.

This will apparently sit alongside the current pack, which contains one MotionPlus add-on for $50, until stocks run out.

No word if anything like this is happening in Europe.

Gearbox has released the second of its Borderlands making-of shorts, and while it’s good, it’s not as good as the Christian Bale thing we got the first time round.

Bear in mind we haven’t slept for a week, though. Make your own mind up, thanks to Destructoid. The game’s out on October 20.

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SCEA’s finally confirmed that there will be no UMD conversion program for those upgrading to the discless PSPgo next week.

“We were evaluating a UMD conversion program, but due to legal and technical reasons we will not be offering the program at this time,” a rep for the firm’s US arm told Kotaku.

End of. Come to Europe, Americans: You get free games.

Capcom’s posted the PS3 version of the Lost Planet 2 demo. Download it now for a piffling 492Mb.

The Multiplayer tester includes two new missions over its Live counterpart. The 360 version was released on the first day of GamesCom in August.

Off you go, then.

You know the PSPgo Rewards program SCEE announced yesterday? The one that gives three free games to punters upgrading from current gen PSPs to a PSPgo? Yeah; you’re not getting it, Americans.

“We have a dual platform strategy,” an SCEA rep told IGN. “PSPgo is the latest offering in our portable entertainment products targeted for the digitally savvy and early adopters who are looking for an easy way to experience entertainment and a wide variety of digital content.

“We will continue to be committed to our existing PSP users by offering over 16,000 pieces of digital content including games, mini’s, movies, television shows and SensMe, the new music application as well as UMDs.”

Unlucky. Move to Europe, or something. It’s awesome.

During a panel at the Tokyo Game Show, Epic Games president Mike Capps announced that the Gears of War developer is staffing up for a studio in Tokyo.

The new team will primarily be responsible for lending its technological know-how to Japanese developers, who’ve traditionally had trouble with the Unreal Engine 3.

However, games aren’t completely out of the question for the exported studio.

“We are fanboys of Japanese gaming … We have deep respect for the long history of excellent Japanese games,” Capps said, using Shadow Complex’s Metroidvanian roots as an example.

There’s more over at Joystiq.

Whoa. No way. An Assassin’s Creed II spin-off? On the DS? We’re shocked.

Finally, after an especially loud rumor mill and an ESRB outing, Ubisoft’s confirmed Discovery’s DS edition in a press release.

It’s coming out on November 17, and – if you do your sneaking and stabbing on the DSi – will allow you to take pictures and paste them on wanted posters all across the game’s tiny representation of Spain.

As if the random haystacks, magic, and impeccable American accents didn’t have your dibelief totally suspended already, now ancient Spain will be littered with posters of glorious, erect phalluses. Awesome. We can’t wait.

Thanks Joystiq. Er, we think.

After noting that C&C 3′ Commander’s Challenge pack weighed in at a whopping 2GB, IGN asked Microsoft about Xbox Live Arcade games’ recent growth spurt.

The Xbox creator responded by saying that 2GB is the “technical limit” of the current system behind XBLA games. Conversely, the Games on Demand section of Xbox Live uses a different system, so it can handle bigger files.

So now you know.

Today’s US PSN update includes Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 Commander’s Challenge, Zombie Apocalypse and demos for Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Zombie Apocalypse, Lost Planet 2 Co-Op, Wolfenstein and Punisher: No Mercy.

Add-on content consists of Batman: Arkham Asylum Prey In The Darkness Map Pack, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 Sheshan Golf Course, Fallout 3: Broken Steel, Madden NFL 10 AFL Legacy Pack, a free Midnight Club LA Police Car Pack and the usual Guitar Hero and Rock Band stuff.

PSP games include Valhalla Knights, Power Stone Collection, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, Manhunt 2, Midnight Club L.A. Remix, and demos for Half-Minute Hero: Evil Lord, and NBA 10 The Inside. Add-ons include Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce Pack 5 and The Fratellis and Megadeth for Rock Band Unplugged.

Specials this week include price drops for Brain Challenge, Brain Challenge Expansion, Droplitz, and 25 Guitar Hero World Tour songs are on sale for $1.50 each.

Full thing over on the US PS Blog.

NOA’s Denise Kaigler has told IGN that the reason the US will not see a Wii bundle complete with MotionPlus and Wii Sports Resort is because Wii Sports is still doing rather well.

Also, Kaigler says that Nintendo never said it would not drop the price of Wii in the past, just that, finally, the timing “made sense”.

“We never said that it would never happen. And the timing makes sense,” said Kaigler. “What better time to give consumers this gift package right before the official start of the holiday season?

“With the upcoming launch of Wii Fit Plus on October 2 and the November 15 launch of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, it’s a great time to do this — to make gaming accessible to everyone. That really is part of our mission.

“We are definitely on a journey and this is a never-ending, exciting journey to expand the market and to make videogames accessible to everyone. There are 50 million U.S. consumers sitting on the sidelines, looking for a reason to be part of all the fun, and we do believe that reducing the price of the world’s most popular videogame home console will be that trigger for many of those consumers.

“The timing was done in such a way that it happens just before we launch these highly anticipated titles.”

More through the link.

Koei has unleashed a new video for Warriors: Legends of Troy along with some screens. D’toid has ‘em.

Legends of Troy covers the 10-year Trojan War, using mythology and the Iliad as references. There will also be interference from Greek Gods, and Achilles and Odysseus are playable.

In the game you can play as Trojans or Greeks through two storylines, and see the war from two perspectives. Battlegrounds are described by Koei as ones that “reach for miles” where players can grapple and throw opponents, attack with a variety of short and long-range weapons, charge with shields, and use evasive maneuvers.

Online multiplayer co-op and competitive play for up to 4 players is included with additional online features such as voice chat, team and individual leaderboards.

It’s expected sometime during spring 2010 for PS3 and Xbox 360.

More through the link.

Capcom’s Keiji Inafune stated during Microsoft Creator’s Panel at TGS that he feels Natal will “expand the possibilities of gaming”.

“I strongly feel that Project Natal will expand the possibilities of gaming, personally, I too am extremely excited about Project Natal,” he said. “It’s really going to stir up our creative spirits. I think it’s going to bring new ways to play and new surprises to Xbox 360 fans and help further the development of completely original content.”

Inafune went on to say that he hopes to “one day be able to create emotionally complex video games” that have a “big impact on the heart” the way that movies do, according to Capcom Unity.

Neato.

The entire panel can be downloaded in MP3 format over on Major Nelson .

THQ has announced via Twitter that a Red Faction: Guerrilla DLC Pack 3 announcement is to be expected tomorrow over on the official website.

Volition just released DLC Pack 2 which has 8 new maps and 2 new modes.

Tomorrow, we should know what else is in store for the shooter.