Monthly Archives: September 2009

Looks as though EA doesn’t have too much to worry about on the quality front as far as Need for Speed: Shift’s concerned. The racer’s holding tight at an 85 percent MC average on both 360 and PS3.

The PC version‘s at 86 percent, based on four reviews.

Round-up:

• G4 – 5/5
• NZGamer – 8.8/10
• GiantBomb – 3/5
• GameDaily – 9/10
• GameSpy – 5/5
• GamePro – 8/10
• IGN – 9/10
• Eurogamer – 7/10

Thanks, Monk.

Call of Duty 4′s getting a new name for its Wii release, Nintendo confirmed last night.

Snuggled away in a press release detailing the firm’s rest-of-year games was the title Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex, out, as previously reported, on November 10.

Not one colon: two: colons. Maybe Bobby gets more money the more colons you read, or something.

Thanks, Examiner.

The big story from last night’s Modern Warfare 2 event in LA was a 250Gb 360 bundle for the game – which is now available for pre-order – but more play impressions came out of it in addition.

Shacknews and CVG both published updated playtests, and there’s a ton of info in there for the Call of Duty devotee. Hit them up for news on kill streaks, death streaks and more.

If you’re looking for the cut and thrust of what happened at the event itself, Kotaku and IGN both did liveblogs. The Kotaku piece is a bit light, but there’s plenty of detail in the IGN article.

All about that lovely console though, right? The game’s out on November 11.

Update: 1UP and GiantBomb have posted play impressions from the event.

Update 2: And here’s Kotaku’s take.

Update 3: Updates from Eurogamer and IGN.

Update 2: You can get all the play impressions and other details from the event here.

Update: The Major brings word that the MW2 SKU will also come with a copy of the “standard” edition of Modern Warfare 2. Night-vision goggles sold separately, it would appear.

During a recent Modern Warfare 2 press conference, Infinity Ward announced that Microsoft’s got a 250GB Xbox 360 SKU in the pipeline for Modern Warfare 2′s launch.

It’ll run COD-devotees $399, and, tonight, walked down Activision’s red carpet in a stylish, understated black Modern Warfare 2-themed coat of paint.

If you already have your sights set on MW2 controllers and faceplates, and the goggleful collector’s edition, this seems like a no-brainer. After all, what’s another few hundred bucks when you’re already this deep in the hole?

Thanks, Kotaku.

Dirty, rotten, no-good cheaters beware: The Major‘s got the best good/bad surveillance system this side of Santa Claus, and he knows what you’re up to. Case in point: Shadow Complex.

If you’re caught pulling a fast one in Shadow Complex, you’ll be removed from the game’s leaderboard, “investigated” for a complete Gamerscore reset, and – if your ill-gained Gamerscore is wiped clean – branded as a cheater on Xbox Live.

So yeah. Stop cheating. Otherwise, you’ll get something far worse than coal in your stocking from Chair Entertainment and Microsoft.

According to recent report from the NPD Group, 44 percent of US consoles users are female.

Titled Gaming Device Profiles, NPD retrieved the data via an online survey completed by 20,893 participants in January 2009.

The study also concluded that 24 percent of gamers are between the ages of two and 12 years old, 20 percent are between 25-34 and and 35-44 year olds make up 17 percent.

The report also concluded that 32 percent of gamers own a Wii console, and 14 percent of those also own A PS3 and 26 percent an Xbox 360.

On the flip side, 360 gamers make up 20 percent of gamers, 42 percent of which own a Wii but only 18 percent own a PS3.

PS3 owners make up ten percent of all gamers, 42 percent of which own a Wii and 34 percent own an Xbox 360.

Full thing over on Edge.

During the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick explained how the company gets consumers to pay loads more for a Guitar Hero game, than the initial $50 price tag.

“In the last cycle of videogames you spent $50 on a game, played it and took it back to the shop for credit,” he told attendees. “Today, we’ll you a $100. You might add a microphone or drums, you might buy two or three expansions packs, different types of music. Over the life of your ownership you’ll probably buy around 25 additional song packs in digital downloads. So, what used to be a $50 sale is a $500 sale today.

“And the best of all margins – the 25 percent operating margin business – has the potential as we can see with World of Warcraft to be a 50 percent operating margin business. What used to be a low 20s return on invested capital business is now growing to a plus 40 percent return on invested capital business.”

Wow. Just wow.

More through Spong.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Batman: Arkham Asylum and Red Faction: Guerrilla are now available on Steam in the US and coming later this week to additional territories.

Also available are Resident Evil 5 and Zuma’s Revenge in certain territories as well.

Loads more info is available on Steam, and through each game link, but Evil Avatar has it all broken down for you.

Sony visited the Ubisoft studios over in San Francisco recently to check out Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines and chat with producer Frederic Lefrancois and senior producer Dan McAuliffe.

There’s a video of that visit after the break, along with some new footage.

According to Griptonite Games, the PSP version is a true follow up to the original just portable.

Sounds good to us. Face time

More over on the US PS Blog.

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Nintendo has sent over a mailer featuring its holiday line-up, and on the list, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was put down for a December 7 release.

Good to know, there. Should make a nice Christmas present for some folks.

Since the list is rather extensive and too big to take a screenshot of, we found the press release for you online so you can get the whole caboodle.

A demo for Majesty 2, the game where players build up and defend a fantasy kingdom, is up over on BigDowload.

We’re sure it’s at other sites too.

Game’s out on September 18, and through the link you can see the system requirements and a video.

The browser-based version of Monopoly called City Streets launched last week, and has already had over 1.7 million visitors to it.

Proving to be so popular has a price though, because the development team is being forced to reset Monopoly City Streets in order to do some improvements on the back end.

It will go down this week and hopefully be back up soon. You can find out more over on the official site.

The game uses Google Maps as the basis for the streets.

Thanks, BigDownload.

The marketing manager for Warner Bros., Phil Lamb, has said that due to the popularity of titles like Professor Layton, Scribblenauts should appeal to casual, female, and “grey” gamers.

Because of this, Warner expects the title to become a new franchise for the DS market.

“The stylized look of Scribblenauts offers something fresh and friendly that doesn’t appear intimidating,” Lamb told MCV. “That combined with the addictive gameplay means that it will definitely strike a chord with casual, female and maybe even ‘grey’ gamers.

“What Scribblenauts offers is something akin to Nintendo’s Professor Layton – an addictive and challenging game that has real mass-market appeal all wrapped up in a uniquely stylized package.

“We fully expect this title to be the start of a brand new franchise in the DS puzzle market.”

More through the link.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Square Enix has released new details for both Nier Replicant on PS3 and Nier Gestalt for Xbox 360.

Apparently, both are set in the same world with the same basic plot – the swordsman trying to save a girl named Yonah.

In Replicant, Nier looks younger and a lot more refined than the rugged Nier in Gestalt, and also in Replicant, Yonah is Nier’s younger sister where as she is his daughter in Gestalt.

Still with us? Good, because apparently, Nier also has a talking grimoire that accompanies him on his quest, as well as Kaine – a hermaphrodite whose left half has been taken over by a monster. Because of being bullied as a kids for her condition, she dresses like a lass with full-on thong armor, but is “violent, vulgar and man-like in personality.”

Alrighty then.

No word yet on whether the PS3 version will land stateside or not, but the 360 is planned. Maybe Square will reveal more at TGS.

More through 1UP and IGN.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has said that because Q1 2010 is getting a bit overcrowded, consumers should prepare themselves for more game delays.

“We now have a situation where there are a lot of good games due for release in the first half of next year, but I think some publishers will move again,” he told MCV. “The first quarter of 2010 is looking pretty crazy.

“So I expect some movement from the other players – some of those delayed games will be moved again.”

Sorry to say, but most of us kind of figured this out a while back, Mr. Guillemot.

More through the link.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

ArmA II has a new patch available, bringing the version of the game from 1.00 to 1.04.

If you use Steam, however, use the service to download the newest update instead of this manual patch.

Fixes include:

• Improved mouse handling and responsivness
• Stability fix where the CTD caused by Voice Over Net had many players speaking simultaneously and other stability problems
• Fixed speed of soul simulation and other improvements
• Fixed multiplayer scoring, multiple mission parameters added and various other MP-related improvements

Loads more on the patch along with the actual file can be found over on WorthPlaying.

Frozenbyte has announced that Trine will finally be hitting PSN September 17.

Hooray.

Trine has full support for Trophies and also features a Platinum Trophy as the ultimate reward.

Again, hooray. It’s about time.

Lara Croft co-creator Toby Gard has “probably had enough” of working on the Tomb Raider franchise, the developer told VG247 today, but his just-confirmed departure from Crystal Dynamics was an “amicable” one.

“I can’t really discuss the situation around my leaving,” Gard said in a phone interview. “It was amicable, but I can’t really discuss it. I might have to go into what was going on inside Crystal Dynamics, and I don’t really want to talk about any of their stuff. I’m under NDA, anyway.”

Gard admitted Lara’s allure had faded: this is the second time he’s parted company with the IP, having famously quit the original Core Tomb Raider team in 1997.

“I think I’ve probably had enough,” he laughed. “It’s been a long time.”

He added: “Obviously it’s sad, but I guess I already realised it was out of my hands a long time ago. I left the first time because it was already out of my hands. My interest in going back to help out with Crystal was really just to make sure that that hand-over process worked out as well as possible; I do care about the character.

“At Crystal I obviously had a great time, and learned a lot there. It’s been a really good experience for me, and that’s that, really. A good time to move on.”

Gard has now set himself up as a freelance consultant, although it sounds as though he’s finding his way a little.

“I don’t really know whether or not it’ll work out,” he said. “At the moment I’m doing some freelance consulting, so I’m looking around to see whether or not people in the games industry are actually looking for consultancy. I don’t know how much that actually goes on, so I’ll have to wait and see.

“It just seems to me that there are a few key areas like story-writing and cinematics and feedback on designs that seem like key points in the game where it would make sense to have someone come in and give some outside opinion, just not have someone on the payroll that’s just sitting around not doing anything for the rest of the game period.”

You could probably do worse than hire Toby Gard, game developers of the world. Hit up his LinkedIn page for contact details.

You’ve already seen Steam’s chart for last week, now it’s Direct2Drive’s turn.

Looks like MMOs are tops on it too, though, what with the genre taking the top five spots.

Without further ado, here’s the list, courtesy of Shack.

Direct2Drive’s Top Ten (9/6 – 9/12)

1. Champions Online
2. Aion Collector’s Edition (pre-order)
3. Fallen Earth (pre-order)
4. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
5. Aion Standard Edition (pre-order)
6. Section 8 / TimeGate
7. Civilization 4: The Complete Edition
8. Civilization 4
9. Darkest of Days
10. The Sims 3

Engadget got hands-on time with Spawn Labs’ version of Slingbox, which is a HD-720 set-top box that you plug your consoles into, allowing for streaming games over a Wi-Fi through your PC, or laptop.

Basically, all you do is plug your Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, or GameCube into the box and voila – you are playing your consoles over the internet through Windows. Mac is in currently in the works

The AV cables (no HDMI at present) are then passed through to a TV, a USB connection is used to sync up the controller, and there’s an IR signal for turning the connected system on and off.

To log in, you go to the Spawn Labs website and play your own system or a friend’s for co-op or just to be a voyeur.

It’s out this November for $199.99, and there is loads more information through the link and via a video after the break.

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