Monthly Archives: September 2009

Microsoft just announced a 250Gb Forza 3 360 bundle for the UK, priced £250.

For the price you get the machine, the game, a headset and two wireless controllers. It’s out on October 23.

PR after the break.

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Microsoft’s put out XNA extensions for Zune HD, as you can see here.

The update adds the following functionality:

• The ability to target and develop for the Zune HD media player.
• The addition of new Touch APIs to the XNA Framework for use on the Zune HD.
• The addition of new Accelerometer APIs to the XNA Framework for use on the Zune HD.

Shit your pants right now, Apple. Actually, maybe hold off until Microsoft manages to release Zune anywhere else apart from America.

Thanks, Roybott.

Jon Bon Jovi’s added weight to complaints about the use of Kurt Cobain’s likeness in Guitar Hero 5, saying he was also approached by Activision about appearing in the game.

“I had the paperwork, they wanted me to be on that game and I just passed,” he told the BBC.

“But no-one even broached the subject with me that I would be singing other people’s stuff. I don’t know how I would have reacted to that. I don’t know that I would have wanted it either.”

Courtney Love, Cobain’s widow, has threatened legal action about the use of the singer’s Avatar in the music title. Activision has said it has documents signed by Love allowing it to go ahead.

The problem appears to be that Cobain can be used as a playable Avatar to sing other people’s songs.

“I don’t know that I would have wanted it either,” said Bon Jovi.

“To hear someone else’s voice coming out of a cartoon version of me? I don’t know. It sounds a little forced.”

Thanks, Johnny.

Brit TV duo Ant and Dec are to front a new Nintendo ad campaign, the company said today.

The first spots will run on October 16, and feature the pair playing Professor Layton and The Curious Village, Wii Sports Resort, and so on, with the general public.

PR after the break.

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According to this IGN post, the PS3 Lost Planet 2 demo’s going to have two exclusive co-op missions over its 360 counterpart.

The snippet’s releasing on September 24, the first day of TGS.

There’s no solid detail through there on what the new content actually includes.

Left 4 Dead 2′s been refused classification in Australia. See here: that’s what the “RC” means.

Why? We’ll tell you why. Or rather, the OFLC’ll tell you why, through the magic gateway that is Gamespot:

“The game contains realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence which is inflicted upon “the Infected” who are living humans infected with a rabies-like virus that causes them to act violently” The ruling goes on to say that “However, it is the use of the “melee” weapons such as the crowbar, axe, chainsaw and Samurai sword which inflict the most damage. These close in attacks cause copious amounts of blood spray and splatter, decapitations and limb dismemberment as well as locational damage where contact is made to the enemy which may reveal skeletal bits and gore.”

Yeah, you see: the “realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence” is the reason it’s awesome, Mr OFLC.

Australia doesn’t allow games to be rated over “15+,” which means anything that deserves an 18 gets effectively banned from sale.

Left 4 Dead releases in the civilised world in the coming months.

Guitar Hero 5 may be winning the battle of the bands, but you won’t find any gently weeping guitars over at Viacom.

“It’s been terrific. The sales have exceeded our internal expectations. In the first week we’ve sold about 25% of our inventory, and we’ve had tremendous excitement around this game. The reviews have been incredible… It really is a work of art. The game delivers in all respects and we think it’s going to have legs,” said Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman during a Goldman Sachs conference call.

Dauman also noted that, surprisingly enough, the most expensive Beatles SKU isn’t doing too shabbily, despite less-than-friendly economic conditions.

“The special limited edition set that we have priced at $249, with the Ringo drums, is selling really fast, and it looks like we’ll be selling out of that in November, so if any of you are interested in buying that you’d better hurry up,” he said.

More – including some of analyst Jesse Divnich trademark soothsaying – through the link.

Thanks, Industry Gamers.

Square Enix has finally dropped the official announcement that Star Ocean: The Last Hope is PS3-bound.

Releasing worldwide on February 9, 2010, the game’s an “international” affair. It gives the PS3′s Blu-Ray drive plenty to chew on with English and Japanese voices and English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Japanese options for everything aside from spoken word.

Also, after a cursory glance at the game’s fact sheet, Shacknews discovered its shocking (but mostly hilarious) secret. Click through the link for a quick chuckle. Which, we guess, still counts as “more.”

The internet is loaded with Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer previews, hands-on, impressions and the like today.

Why go searching for all of them when we have them right here for you?

• CVG
• GamesRadar
• Eurogamer
• 1UP
• IGN
• Joystiq
• Kotaku
• GiantBomb
• D’toid
• Gamerzines
• ScrewAttack

When or if there are more, we will add ‘em.

During the Q&A session following John Smedley’s keynote at GDC Austin, the SOE president informed attendees that Free Realms should land on PS3 sometime during the middle of 2010 and may also support the PS Eye.

“It’s next year sometime, toward the middle of the year,” he said. “For the PlayStation 3 version, it’s very likely that the Eye is going to be something we support.”

Interesting.

More through Joystiq.

Looks like the rumored 250Gb PS3 Slim Bundle with Uncharted 2 has been leaked.

No announcement or price yet, but Engadget says it’s the real deal.

If true, you will find us bashing our heads into the wall wailing “God Damn it” over and over, only to pass out and wake a few hours later in a pool of tears and vomit.

LucasArts has made good it’s word and released five of its Star Wars games via Steam.

Here’s the list:

• Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast – $9.99
• Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II – $4.99
• Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy – $9.99
• Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith – $2.99
• Star Wars: Dark Forces -$4.99

Or you can get all the above for $19.99, saving yourself $12.96.

More information through here.

Free Realms has officially hit the five million users mark, according to SOE’s John Smedley.

Speaking during GDC Austin, Smedley revealed the number during his keynote.

The free-to-play MMO has been live since April 28, and back in July Smedley told Gamasutra that the game was close to the five million account mark then.

Looks like it finally made it.

More through Massively.

Bilbo Baggins’ birthday lands on September 22 and to celebrate, Turbine and Codemasters are giving away 111 full game account keys.

Keys are being handed out on the community forums and through the LOTRO_Europe and Codies Twitter feeds, and the Codemasters blog May Contain Gamers.

On Twitter, it’s first come first served, and 111 keys will be given away by some German and French community sites as well.

For those elsewhere and in Europe, from September 21-25, celebrations in the MMO will be full on to celebrate this illustrious Hobbit.

More through Massively.

Gamers who did not preorder Assassin’s Creed II from Gamestop need not worry about missing out on the two “exclusive” maps, because Ubisoft plans to release those to the public at a later date.

“Eventually everyone will have the entire game,” the game’s creative director Patrice Desilets told Kotaku. “I made sure of that.

“Because I’m Canadian, I don’t have the same shops as you do. So I wanted to make sure I could at least someday play everything in the game. Eventually there’s going to be, ‘okay, let’s unlock everything’.”

Palazzo Medici and Santa Maria Dei Frari are currently only available through preordering and Desilets did not when the content would be made available nor how much, if anything, it will cost.

More through the link.

Sony announced via its US PS Blog that SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3 will be hitting shelves on November 24, and even showed a packfront for the PSP game.

Unfortunately the page has been removed from the blog, so we can’t prove any of this actually happened at this point, but hopefully it will be back up soon, and you won’t think we imagined the whole thing.

Also announced was the Special Forces preorder program through Best Buy, GameCrazy, GameStop, Amazon.com and other participating retailers which begins today.

You can purchase a copy of the game through PSN as well, within the first 30 days of launch, and get the preorder Special Force bonus as well.

See details pulled from the site after the break.

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SOE president John Smedley has told Joystiq that rumors regarding the cancellation of its PS3/PC MMO action game, The Agency, are pretty much just that – rumors.

“We’re not going to release it until it’s right, said Smedley, “but there’s this rumor going around that we’re going to cancel it — that’s ridiculous.

“We’re going full-bore towards it. We’re simply keeping it under wraps more because we want to make it the best possible game we can. I’m an FPS player first and foremost, so we’re going to get that game right, period.”

He also said that staff departures back in July didn’t halt nor slow development, and estimates that the game will be released “next year”.

More through the link.

Sega’s Aaron Webber has announced via the US PS Blog that Valkyria Chronicles II will land on PSP during summer 2010.

Game description:

The year is 1937 EC. Two years later, the ashes of the Second European war still glow in Gallia’s history. But even peace is a fragile happiness – and hearts that once fought side by side are not forever friends.

In the midst of this peace appears a group known as the Gallian Revolutionary Army, swearing to topple the current government – in a lightning fast coup, they arm themselves with the best of both Gallian technology and soldiers.

What was once a small but strong unified country is instantly plunged back onto the battlefield. But the day and age of the last war’s heroes is already fading out – with families to protect and children to raise, they are the ones who must now be protected. While numbers split and tensions rise, the spotlight shines to a handful of up-and-coming students at a Gallian Military Academy.

As civil war begins to rage across the country, morality and war clash with passion and ideals. But this time the distinction between blue and red is not so simple – nor will it ever be. Gallia once stood as a defiant beacon of hope against a giant empire… but can the country now defend against its own?

The sequel to the PS3 game has a launch trailer for it through the link, just in case you have never seen it, although it is really not that much of one to be honest.

Still, there it is anyway.

Got Game announced today a North American publishing agreement to bring Wine Tycoon to the US.

Here’s the description:

“Create the vineyard of your dreams in 10 of the most important wine regions of France. Commanding operations from your very own French chateau, you must build your winery, plant and tend your vines through all four seasons of the year, and hire staff to harvest and process your grapes. Produce 50 French wines such as Bordeaux, Burgundy, Pinot Gris and Champagne from more than 40 different grape varietals, all in the ultimate goal of becoming a wealthy wine baron.”

It’s out in October for $19.99.

The press release is below, and it doesn’t say whether or not you have to be 21 to purchase it.

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Update: We contacted MTV, which forwarded us the official press release. We have that posted for you after the break. Apparently, the game will go to Verizon Wireless customers first who can get Rock Band Mobile by texting “ROCK to 4-2-6-3 (Game)” from their Verizon Wireless phones or find it in the Get It Now/Media Center under Games>Get New Applications. The game is available for $3.99 monthly subscription or $9.99 one-time use on more than 30 handsets.

Original Story:EA Mobile has announced Rock Band Mobile.

The game includes 25 songs from bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Beastie Boys, and features solo play on bass, drums, guitar and vocals.

You can also play with others “around the world” or jump into Quickplay or try your skills at Tour Mode.

No word on pricing or a release date yet, but we’ll contact EA and see if we can find anything out for you.

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