Monthly Archives: September 2009

PopCap has released a free flash version of Plants vs Zombies.

The Flash version of Plants vs. Zombies includes:

• Three available game modes (Adventure, Endless Survival, Vasebreaker)
• 14 levels of Adventure mode
• A zombie not found in the PC version
• Six zombie types and 12 plants with which to stop them
• Graphics and gameplay faithful to the PC version
• Unlike most of our web based games, PvZ streams in the music of the PC version as you play
• Enhanced performance features of Flash 10

Sounds pretty damn awesome to us. Play it here.

Thanks, Evil Avatar.

Famitsu has reported that a White Knight Chronicles sequel is currently in development, and will be revealed at TGS 09 this week.

The mag’s exhibitor preview lists Shirokishi Monogatari: Hikari to Yami no Kakusei which, according to Siliconera, translates into White Knight Chronicles: Awakening of Light and Darkness.

The first White Knight Chronicles has yet to leave Japan and make its way elsewhere, but that’s the way things tend to go with Japanese releases.

Later this year, Sony’s releasing White Knight Chronicles EX in Japan, which is a discounted re-release that includes all of the online patches. This is the version of the game the West is to get with English text and possibly voice chat during the early part of next year.

Coolio.

More through the link.

Mikey Neumann, creative director at Gearbox, has said that even though the level cap for Borderlands is 50, you can probably beat the game at level 31 or 35.

On top of that, the game allows for a “single-player plus” mode once beaten, where you can replay the game, ascend to level 50, and get the best weapons out there.

“The level cap is 50, but you beat the game around 31 or 35, somewhere around there,” Neumann told MTV. “Then you can restart the game and do New Game Plus where everything’s 35 to 50 on the second play-through.

“[There's] more rare enemies, too. The Badasses and the Brutes and stuff like that, which you don’t see as much of in the first. You see them a lot more in the second playthrough. It’s definitely harder.”

As far as length goes, Neumann says that going by his own playthroughs, it takes about 100 hours to finish the game the first time through. More should you go for a second round.

“I just have my own gauge. I’ve maxed out twice, gotten to level 50 twice,” he said. “It took me about 100 hours. More the second time, actually, and that was to find every single little mission. I wanted to do everything.”

Eidos has announced that the Prey in the Darkness Map Pack for Batman: Arkham Asylum will land on Xbox Live and PSN tomorrow, and includes two additional Challenge Maps.

Heart of Darkness FreeFlow Combat map: Players will battle waves of relentless and maniacal enemies at the Arkham Pumping Station.

Hothouse Prey Invisible Predator map: Players will have to rely on their Predator instincts to silently and effectively take down enemies at the Abandoned Glasshouse.

Sounds cool, and best of all, its free.

Metroid series producer Kensuke Tanabe has told Kotaku that Retro Studios are considering adding multiplayer to future titles in the Prime series.

Hear that kids? He said series.

“As all I take part in is the Prime series, I am not capable of commenting on the whole Metroid series,” said Tanabe. “But we will keep considering multiplayer for the Prime series. For instance, I think I can come up with some unique ideas using the Morph Ball, which is a specific skill of Samus’.

Good to hear.

Tanabe goes on to discuss loads of development stuff, and lightly touches on the “mystery” title the teams is working on.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Konami has sent over a press release telling us all about a haunted maze out in California that we will never get to see, since we don’t live there.

Apparently, the Silent Hill Haunted Maze will be scaring the bejesus out of attendees at Jeff Schleffelbein’s Sinister Pointe,a multi-haunted attraction venue in Orange County, California (LA area) on September 25 until the end of October.

The Silent Hill maze is a labyrinth in which attendees will experience the survival horror franchise set inside a vacant movie theater that has over 10,000 square feet of space.

For over 15 years, Sinister Point has been known for creating haunted mazes including last year’s Saw.

Guess we will just have to settle for Jim Bob’s Scary Barn of Oddities and Inbreds, since we live no where near California.

Times, dates, and where, etc. are after the break.

More »

Microsoft packed Natal up and brought it to TGS 09 to show it off.

Past the break, there is a video of Microsoft director Kudo Tsunoda demoing Ricochet and Burnout Paradise for a local news show.

GameSetWatch, who posted the video, says for you to make sure to at least watch the bit at 03:35 when “Tsunoda slowly claps with the Japanese host, cheering, ‘Yes, very good for you. I’m so happy,’ before turning to flash a cheesy smile and give a thumbs up.”

How could you NOT watch knowing that?

More »

DK has dated the Halo Encyclopedia for November 2.

Those interested in what £30 will give them, should know that it is “the comprehensive guide to the characters, weapons, vehicles, equipment, and locations” for Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Wars, and Halo 3: ODST.

Here’s what else you can expect the 352-page, full-color book to cover:

• Timeline
• Humans
• Spartans
• The Covenant
• The Flood
• The Forerunners
• The Human-Covenant War
• Science and Technology
• Transport
• Locations
• Weapons

Doesn’t say if it comes with Halo-themed undercrackers or not, but we’re sure you can find those elsewhere.

Via CVG.

Some new screens for Brutal Legend popped up over on Gamikaze.

Each one shows something different, but still looks metalriffic.

Rocktober is just around the corner. Hope you’re ready.

Thanks, TomisH.

Audi plans to release its very own Home space in December with an Audi-driving minigame called Vertical Run, which is being described as and “e-tron” race.

Should you play the mini-game well, you can unlock apartments in a housing complex in the middle of Audi square.

“Most young people gain their first driving experience from video games,” said Audi’s Kai Mensing. “With the Audi Space, we can bring this target group into contact with our brand in a highly emotion-packed and interactive environment, and demonstrate our ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ with the virtual e-tron race.

“It was important to us to create an environment with Audi Space that differed from a classic showroom at an Audi dealership. To achieve that, we got together with the architects at Allmann Sattler Wappner and developed an interactive concept where the focus is on selected Audi models, making it possible to experience the brand in a selective, interactive way.”

Additional Audi content will be added to Audi Space in 2010, said Mensing.

Via Joystiq, CNET.

RedLynx has told CVG that it’s proud of Trials HD, its Xbox Live Arcade game, for bringing in 300,000 sales.

“We’re a smaller, 25-person multiplatform studio, and for us this is an excellent example of how digital download space opens up significant opportunities that might not otherwise be available for creative and talented smaller teams,” said studio CEO Tero Virtala.

Even so, the firm is mum on what else is next from the team.

“First things first. We are still very strongly working on DLC for Trials HD,” said Virtala. “It’s gonna be a great package.No exact date yet set, will keep you updated! We’ll first make sure it’s gonna be a really good pack.”

More through the link.

Some screens showing off the landscape, artwork, and zombies in Left 4 Dead 2 popped up over on IGN.

Looking through each one should get you excited for the demo expected on October 27.

Hit the link for a peek.

The cast of characters for Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker has been revealed in the latest issue of Famitsu.

Here’s the list of characters that appear in this week’s issue:

• Snake
• Amanda
• Huey
• Chico
• Strangelove
• Coldman
• Cecile
• Miller
• Paz
• Galvez

Not much else was revealed, at least as far as the storyline is concerned, but there were a couple screenshots and details regarding the cutscenes which will include computer visuals mixed with illustrations from Yoji Shinkawa and Ashley Wood.

There are more details regarding co-op over on IGN.

Scratch DJ LLC has announced more soundtrack inductees for it’s DJ Hero rival, Scratch: The Ultimate DJ.

Eight additional tracks have been revealed, and here’s the list:

• “Gifted” – N.A.S.A Feat Kanye West, Santo Gold, Lykke Li
• “Looking Fly” – Murs
• “Skanky Panky” – Kid Koala
• “Iced Lightning” – RJD2
• “They Reminisce Over You” – Pete Rock & C.L Smooth
• “Friends” – Whodini
• “Push It” – Salt-n-Pepa
• “Life in a Cage” – The Knux

Game’s out for 360 and PS3 in early 2010, and the full press release is after the break.

More »

An insider who shall remain nameless – because Jostiq won’t tell – has sent the site a picture of a rumored Xbox 360 Elite holiday bundle.

As you can see by the picture, it has Pure and LEGO Batman with it, along with a rather uninteresting slogan: “It’s More Fun Time on Xbox 360″.

We’ll mail Microsoft about it, but don’t expect anyone there to cave into our demands.

Major brings word that The Warriors: Street Brawl, Zombie Apocalypse and ION Assault are now available on Live.

If you’ve got nothing better to do than be a warrior, a zombie or an ION thing, it’s your lucky day, clearly.

CD Projekt’s said a console version of The Witcher 2′s on the cards.

“Although PC is a certain choice we made regarding platforms for The Witcher 2, we also want to release the console version,” senior producer Tomasz Gop told GRY-OnLine.

Don’t be holding your breath, though.

“However, please do not expect the game too soon,” he added.

“The Witcher 2 is still deeply in the development stage and as it is huge and complex, there are still many, many hours of work in front of us.”

Witcher 2 was shown for the first time last week in a leaked video. It looks properly awesome. Let’s hope there it’s a repeat of the fiasco we saw played out of the console version of the original RPG.

Via VE and EG.

NCsoft MMO Aion’s been experiencing some clogging issues since it went live yesterday, with many seeing waits of several hours before being able to get a-levelling.

The publisher isn’t worried.

“This isn’t a scenario that’s likely to be repeated regularly since it’s really just about that initial rush of players trying to gain access to the game,” a rep told EG.

“These next few days we will be calculating data and weighing the ideal time to open more servers. I think that the community will understand how important a healthily populated server in a game with PvPvE is, and that we do not want to go down the low-pop server path.”

The game releases in Europe on Friday.

bitComposer’s site‘s confirmed S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat for a Q1 2010 release, quashing hopes of a 2009 ship.

Some system specs for you there, in addition:

Minimum
OS: Windows® XP
CPU:
2.0GHz Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon™ 2200+
RAM:
512 MB
GPU:
128 MB RAM DirectX® 8.0 compatible Card e.g. GeForce 5700 or Radeon 9600

Recommended
OS: Windows® Vista®
CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 or AMD 64 X2 5600+
RAM:
2 GB
GPU:
512 MB RAM DirectX® 9 or 10 compatible Card e.g. GeForce 9800GTX or Radeon HD4850

Thanks, Blue.

Microsoft’s put live a promised 360 firmware upgrade. Sign into Live now and you’ll be prompted to download it.

There were some reported issues with connecting to Live after applying the update, but these have now been resolved. More on that here.

The update’s a preparatory thing for Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm. No new features are included.