Monthly Archives: September 2009

The excellently-named Modern Warfare 247 is running leaked pics of the art book from Modern Warfare 2′s Hardened and Prestige editions. Looks pretty, innit.

There’s also shots of some Chinese factory hard at work on the Prestige edition’s night vision goggles. Everyone looking really pleased to be making plastic tat to sell to the west, there.

Modern Warfare 2 ships on November 11.

Thanks, Gekidami.

Big bit of DLC heading to Red Alert 3 this week, including 50 single-player missions.

The Commander’s Challenge’s levels focus “on specialized AI personalities and tactics”. Serious business.

Full details on the EU PS Blog. There’s a video after the break.

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Kotaku’s carrying a supposed shot of a Toys ‘R’ Us ad listing Wii at $199.

That’s means “price cut,” sports fans.

The machine currently retails at its launch price of $249. The pack shown on the ad contains Wii Sports.

The ad is apparently due to hit the week of September 27.

Hit the link for the full thing.

The second week of Direct 2 Drive’s birthday sale has brought some proper bargains: BioShock and Saints Row 2 are both on offer for $5 or £5 each.

The UK version’s here. Get on it. There’s plenty of other stuff there besides. We’re buying Saints Row 2 right now. Despite the fact we already own it. That’s how cheap it is.

Enterbrain boss Hamamura Hirokazu has told the Japanese press that he expects December’s release of FFXIII to result in the sale of 500,000 PS3 consoles in Japan.

That’s serious shit, Ringo.

Hirokazu added that the recently announced PS3 price cut will also be a driving factor for sales figures that month.

If achieved, the figure would represent a 250 percent increase from December 2008.

FFXIII release for PS3 on December 17 in Japan, followed by PS3 and 360 releases in the west early next year.

Thanks, PS3Center.

Capcom’s Keiji Inafune has said, actually said, that it would be “interesting” to make a game in partnership with Bungie.

He was probably joking. But what the hey.

“Bungie is an amazing studio that has made incredible games,” he said, talking on a recent visit to the Seattle studio.

“So I was always curious about how they made their games in hopes of being up to add some of the flavor into Capcom games.

“Also, I wanted to come down to Bungie in order to see just how well our philosophies on game design matched up. If things clicked, I know it would be interesting to collaborate together on a title in the future.”

Dude’s a legend, in case you didn’t know. Interviewed him about Onimusha once. Turned up late. Won’t be doing that again; he’s not called Keiji “the Killa” for nothing.

The first of Batman’s free DLC packs, Insane Night, will contain two Challenge Maps when it releases for PC, 360 and PS3 on September 17.

The levels are called Totally Insane and Nocturnal Hunter. Details after the break.

A second pack, Prey in the Darkness, will land on September 24.

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In brief: Gabe Newell apparently jokingly told a guy he’d take a look at his Left 4 Dead campaign if he flew him and Erik Johnson to his home. In Australia.

Guy immediately got on it. And raised the cash in under three days.

“The English language lacks the words to express the level of excitement Erik and I feel that you and your friends have pulled this off,” said Newell in response.

Gabe’s going to Australia. Big up, guy. Thanks, Joystiq.

NCsoft said today that imminent MMO Aion was constructed from the ground-up to appeal to both Asian and western gamers.

“From the beginning, Aion was designed for a global audience,” said lead desginer Yong Chan Jee, speaking in the game’s latest video podcast.

“Aion adopted a global mind-set, not only in gameplay, but also in other components of the game, such as its visuals, that were designed to embrace both east and west.”

The game has been active in Korea for the past year, and has seen high levels of activity so far. More than 300,000 in the west have activated pre-orders ahead of launch later this month.

Americans get their hands on the western version on September 22, with Europeans getting in on the action three days later.

Watch the video after the break, courtesy of Kotaku.

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Söldner-X 2: Final Prototype will release exclusively for PSN this winter, eastasiasoft said today.

The scrolling space-shooter will run at 1080p and contain a “new bullet pattern system”. Just right for all you bullet pattern enthusiasts out there.

PR after the break.

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Scribblenauts dev 5th Cell said today that the DS word-play game will be fully worked for the UK, so don’t expect to see the likes of sidewalks and diapers popping up on your porta-screen this side of the pond.

Thank God for that. PR after the break. The game’s out in October.

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Bohemia Interactive’s lifted the lid off its next project, a Carrier Command remake.

RPS has first screens. The Arma developer’s latest is as warry as future war can be.

Look see. No other detail.

Sony’s said that a “bug” was causing pre-roll ads on VidZone to be over-served, but has assured the problem’s now dealt with.

“We would never overload you with adverts like this and we apologise for any annoyance and also ask you to keep using the service (and tell your friends) as this has now been fixed,” said Ben Creasey, head of production for the European music video service, speaking on the EU PS Blog.

Pre-roll advertising will be now shown no more than once every 15 minutes, SCEE said today.

Faster start-up times and faster searches are promised in the service’s latest update, in addition.

Wii in America’s gone a bit wrong. Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter reckons September’s NPD will show a sixth straight month of negative growth for the machine.

“With the core PS3 and Xbox 360 models priced only USD 50 higher than the Wii, we expect year-over-year sales of Wii hardware to continue their annual declines until the company either changes its bundle or lowers price,” said the analyst.

“Wii unit sales are 50 percent below last year’s level over the last five months, and we think that September sales will repeat the pattern.”

Price cut, Nintendo. Join ze party, ja.

Thanks, GI.

More shots of Serious Sam HD on CVG. If you’ve never played this, it’s your duty to complete it. It’s the only possible way to prove manhood in the 21st Century west.

It’s out soon. Hopefully.

Scribblenauts dev 5th Cell’s next game will be a console title, the firm’s confirmed to Destructoid.

“We’re going to console next year,” said Scribblenauts creative lead Jeremiah Slaczka.

“We’ll be announcing that next year, and it’s another original title. We’ll still do DS, maybe, but we want to focus our efforts on original consoles.”

No one knows what the new game is yet. Apart from 5th Cell. And God.

Scribblenauts ships for DS in October.

Nelson’s confirmed that Lode Runner’s this week’s Live deal, down to 800 MSP from its normal 1,200.

Go crazy. Or, alternatively, buy it.

Massive unshock from this week’s Steam chart, with the Aion Collector’s pre-sell in at the top, Champions Online in second place and KOTOR in third.

Data for the week ending September 13. Last week’s chart here.

1. Aion Collector’s pre-sell
2. Champions Online
3. KOTOR
4. Left 4 Dead
5. Street Fighter IV
6. Braid
7. Counter-Strike: Source
8. Darkest of Days
9. Section 8
10. Aion Standard pre-sell

Digital Foundry’s posted an excellent movie of GT PSP here.

There’s no much to say, really. Polyphony in digital marvel shock. It looks pretty special.

The game’s a PSP go launch title, so you’ll be able to get it on October 1.

Academics at the University of Warwick have used a 360 GPU as a cheap parallel processor, apparently the first time it’s been done in science.

The hardware was used in experiments that simulates electrical signals in damaged cardiac cells.

“Instead of pumping out stunning graphics, it’s reworked; in the case of my research, rather than calculating the position of a structure and texture it’s now working out the different chemical levels in a cell,” said Dr Simon Scarle, a researcher on the team.

PS3s have been used this way before, and has been part of the Folding@home program for some time.

Hit the link for more.