Monthly Archives: September 2009

2K has released a new video for its XBL exclusive from The Odd Gentlemen, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom.

One of two independent games the publishers will be releasing, Winterbottom is scheduled for an early 210 release and it looks the right platformer.

The video is posted below, but Gamespot has a couple more should you be inclined to have a watch.

More »

The European WiiWare page for LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias has been updated with loads of stuff for viewing and mental stimulation.

Tons of information, new screens, and two new clips are all there for the taking.

Stop reading this an head on over there now.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Ubisoft has released the third Assassin’s Creed II developer diary.

It’s over on CVG.

Game’s out November 17 and 20 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in the US and UK respectively.

Paltalk has filed a lawsuit against MMO publishers over claims that each are violating patent agreements.

According to Boston.com, Turbine, Sony, Activision Blizzard, NCsoft and Jagex have all been named by PalTalk which holds the rights to two data sharing patents.

Paltalk owns the patents that describe technology for sharing data which allows every player to see identical digital playing fields at the same time, which the company purchased from HearMe back in 2002.

Back in March, the company settled in its favor a $90 million lawsuit it brought against Microsoft over patent infringement, claiming that Halo and Xbox 360′s multiplayer features used its patents without permission.

More through the link.

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has told the BBC that the band would possibly consider a music game centered around the band, especially seeing as how the Beatles did it.

“I think we’d consider it,” he said. “Everyone’s looking at new ways of selling the music because the business of selling records has almost disappeared.”

The source article for this a bit old, what with Bill Wyman moaning about plastic instruments and such, but you may have skimmed over the Pink Floyd bit, so there it is.

We think the band should just allow Rock Band 2 to offer up Wish You Were Here in it’s entirety instead.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Screenwriter Roger Avary and producer Samuel Hadida have both signed on for a sequel to the first Silent Hill film, which both had a hand in.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, filming for the sequel is set to start next year after the fourth Resident Evil is finished up.

Avary’s also working on the screenplay to the Return to Castle Wolfenstein film.

The first Silent Hill movie $47 million in the US alone.

Thanks, CVG.

Tripwire has announced that the retail version of Killing Floor has shipped to stores in the US.

It includes the Heavy Metal Content Pack and two new playable characters.

More free and paid content updates are expected for the game in the coming months.

You can still get it digitally through Steam.

Nintendo wants people in Europe to become ambassadors via a new promotion.

Called the Connection Ambassador Promotion, starting in October, if help out another Wii owner in establishing an online connection, you and your pal will both get 500 Wii Points (five Nintendo dollars). Do this for 20 and you can net 10,000 points (100 Nintendo bucks).

Also, once you have helped out 10 users, you’ll achieve “gold status” and should you get twenty connections you’ll have attained “platinum status” which means you’ll get all first- and third-party NES, SNES and N64 games for free.

Not a bad idea should you take the time to do it and know 20 people with a Wii in their home.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Some screens from World of Warcraft: Cataclysm popped up today.

The shots show the the oceanic realm of Abyssal Maw, which is ruled by Neptulon the Tidehunter.

Shack has ‘em, go have a look.

A government-backed program for the game industry is to be implemented by the end of October in Russian, just before the very first developer’s conference is to take place in Dubna, which is in the Moscow Provence.

Called the National Russian Association of Game Industry, it along with the All-Russian Conference on Game Industry, are striving to pit Russia as a nation of global game development and are using the conference as a way to reach out to the gaming industry as a whole.

The Federal Agency for Management of Special Economic Zones, the State Academy of Innovations, and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation announced the event which takes place October 27-29.

More through Gamasutra.

Capcom’s PR manager, Brian Keltner, has announced via the US PS Blog that a co-op demo for Lost Planet 2 will arrive on PSN September 24.

In it, players can battle against the G-Type Akrid, as well as play through two additional missions in “an online co-operative extermination of the Akrid of E.D.N. III.”

This all goes down during day one of TGS, with Capcom also promising to release a new trailer on PSN showing off the new desert environment and an even bigger Akrid than has ever been seen before.

We’re checking for Europe as well, just to be sure.

More through the link.

Microsoft Game Studios has added more job titles to its opening for developing Natal-centric game franchises.

Currently, MS is seeking artists, audio staff, developers, engineers, and producers.

Since the end of August, the company has posted 18 Natal positions on its job board.

More through Edge.

Edmund McMillen and Team Meat’s WiiWare and PC remake for Meat Boy has some footage finally available.

Below the break are two videos for Super Meat Boy, one showing off the buzzsaw death traps and wall-jumping and the other demoing the level editor.

When released in 2010, the game will have over 150 stages for just story mode alone.

That should make folks happy.

Via GameSetWatch.

More »

Uncharted 2′s co-lead designer, Richard Lemarch, has said that the developers looked to action films with real-style heroes when creating and honing Nathan Drake.

This new direction led to a character you can identify with more as he is a bit of an everyman instead of someone with “precise Ninja powers”.

“We took new directions in our approach to storytelling. It led us to take an approach that was different from what most games take,” Lemarch told VentureBeat. “As a character, Nathan Drake is quite different from other video game characters. He is recognizable as a regular guy. That was important for us. We wanted him to be a fallible hero — that was common as a thread in all of the pulp fiction we looked at. Our research for the original Uncharted took us all the way back to the beginnings of adventure storytelling.

“We looked at Robert Louis Stevenson and Robinson Crusoe. We zeroed in on early 20th century stories like Doc Savage, who was a finely honed physical specimen. That led us to heroes like Tintin. There you get more color in the characters, and more globetrotting in the stories. We looked at John Mclane from Die Hard.

“They’re not highly physically trained, but more regular guys who fight in a sloppy way. They don’t have precise Ninja powers.”

Lemarch goes on to discuss other things regarding the series, Uncharted 2, and weighs in on the Lara Croft comparisons.

More through the link.

The RockPaperShotgun boys have just relaunched with a spiffing new design. Take a look.

Looks as though it’s getting hit pretty hard at the moment, so you might have to wait.

Gratz, chaps.

Those who downloaded firmware update 3.01 for PS3 yesterday, may have noticed th ability to order a Papa John’s pizza directly from the console.

On the browser’s main start-up page, a Papa John’s button is wedged between the YouTube and promo site for GAMER the movie.

The button leads to a PS version of the company website, which can be viewed here.

Looks like ordering food while lazing about on the couch just got a bit easier.

Thanks, 1UP.

Piper Jaffray’s Anthony Gikas has bumped his Take-Two target up to $15, from $11, saying in a note that GTA V is “expected” in the company’s fiscal ’11.

“Our confidence in the company’s profitability profile is improving as product flow for FY 2010 is greatly improved and Grand Theft Auto V is expected in FY ‘11,” he said today.

“Assuming no change to product flow, we expect the company will have 10-plus games that will sell over one million units.”

Take-Two is currently in its ’09 Q4, which ends on October 31. FY ’10 ends October 31, 2010. Mr Gikas here is saying GTA V will release sometime in the 12 months ending October 31, 2011.

That’s a long time to wait, isn’t it?

Nintendo has formed a separate company for its Quality Control division.

What this means is that the Seal of Quality you see on its games will be its own force to reckon with and is being renamed, “Mario Club”.

Mario Club’s purpose is to test and check Nintendo-related titles for bugs, and to improve work conditions for contract and part-timers employees, and contract employees will become full-time workers.

More though Kotaku (via Inside Games).

Australian ratings board the OFLC has apparently outed a new Activision titled named Bloodhunt.

It features “strong violence,” apparently, and has been given a 15+.

We’ll ask now, innit. Thanks, EG.

A premium theme for Fallout 3 will be released on Live on October 1, Bethesda said today.

It’ll set you back 240 MSP, although it’s free if you bought all five expansions.

PR after the break.

More »