Monthly Archives: September 2009

Konami’s very kindly posted a full floormap of Tokyo Game Show. You can see it on Andriasang.

Looks… small. There’s a better look at the Konami booth on Famitsu.

The show runs from September 24-27.

This is awesome. You knew about Kurt Cobain popping up in GH5, right? Looks like Courtney Love didn’t.

She’s just posted the following tweets:

For the record this Guitar Hero shit is breach of contract on a Bullys part and there will be a proper addressing of this and retraction.

And:

WE are going to sue the shit out of ACtivision we being the Trust the Estate the LLC the various LLCs Cobain Enterprises.

Whoops-a-buttercup. Via Perez Hilton and Kotaku.

Update: Acti just came back on this, but declined to comment.

You can have a watch of LittleBigPlanet’s GOTY Edition after the break.

The new SKU includes 18 hand-picked user levels plus seven DLC packs from the PS Store.

A limited supply iof them even have a voucher code for the upcoming ModNation Racers Online Beta.

This shipped in the US yesterday (thanks Syrok). Not 100 percent on when it’s coming to Europe. We’ll ask.

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LittleBigPlanet is nothing if not unique. Media Molecule’s game-building cuteathon is headed up by company founders Mark Healy and Kareem Ettouney, and you can get a good idea as to why the game turned out the way it did by watching our interview with the developers after the break.

We filmed this at Develop earlier this year. There’s tons of good stuff in there, so be sure to watch.

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Media Molecule boss Mark Healy was worried the firm’s take on Metal Gear Solid for LittleBigPlanet wasn’t going to sit well with Kojima Productions, the developer’s admitted to VG247.

“We were slightly worried that our first attempts weren’t going to go down too well,” he said.

“We see Metal Gear Solid as quite serious, a hardcore, intense thing. Obviously, what we did was quite cute, almost satirical. But they loved it. They’ve got a great sense of humour and they really embraced it.”

Phew. Fellow MM mega-chief Kareem Ettouney added that the collaboration in general was glitch-free.

“It was really great,” he said. “We met Mr Kojima in America, and he was telling us how excited he was, how much he liked the results.

“We got a lot of support from the Metal Gear Solid team – beautiful assets. Everyone was really excited. It was a very smooth example of collaboration which celebrated the two brands and retained the identity of the two.”

Kareem and Mark were speaking to us at Develop in Brighton earlier this year. You can watch the full interview here.

Paramount’s Star Trek: DAC will release for PC and PS3 this November.

The new version – it premiered on Live earlier this year – will feature new ship classes, variable AI settings and new modes.

The PC game’s 3D-compatible, in addition.

PR after the break.

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Sony will build 3D tech into PS3 over the “following two or three year,” CNET’s reporting.

The revelation’s come out of tech show IFA, where the site was shown PS3 working with a 3D Bravia, due for release in 2010.

From the piece:

Today, our experience involved a standard PS3. All the three-dimensional horsepower comes not from a modified PlayStation, or even special versions of its games — it’s all down to some ingenious picture-processing technology inside a new Bravia TV (currently a prototype). This means it should work with all existing PlayStation 3 games. At least, that’s the intention.

At the end of 2010, Sony plans to release this 3D Bravia for use with its games console. But over the following two or three years, we were told, it wants to build the picture-processing technology into the PlayStation itself. That way, gamers will be able to enjoy 3D gaming on any hi-def telly. Plans to incorporate the system into Blu-ray players, and even Vaio laptops, also exist.

Be warned: this may be a little confused. We’ll ask Sony for comment.

Game Informer’s lifted the lid on its next cover – it’s Crackdown 2.

The mag’s second eclusive is a first look at Enslaved, Ninja Theory’s new game.

The ed guys were heavily teasing this earlier this week.

Someone had better get busy with the scanner. Do want.

Valve’s flown a couple of Left 4 Dead 2′s most vocal opponents up to Seattle to let them play the game. Result – they now like it.

“What we can say with confidence is that the quality of gameplay in Left 4 Dead 2 is not in question; and it will only get better,” said turncoat petition-signer, Walking_Target.

Mr Target is now facing the inevitable “truth”. He’s been bought.

“No, we didn’t pay for flights or hotels, and we are fully aware of how that looks,” he said in response to the wearisome reaction.

“However, anybody who has had to spend more than two hours in an airplane can tell you it’s no treat.”

Poor lad. Remember the first rule. Game’s good, huh?

Konami’s suspended the Japanese release of Silent Hill: Homecoming.

That Japanese note just tells fans to “look forward to future titles in the series,” according to Kotaku.

At least you’ll be getting to see Silent Hill 6 before too long. You know; the one involving original Team Silent members in an effort to get back to proper survival horror roots?

What?

The LittleBigPlanet demo’s now up on the Japanese PSN, according to GamersDigest.

It’s releasing in America and Europe later today. For those of you that still haven’t spent £7 on a new copy, clearly.

The long-rumoured PSP Firmware 6.00 has been detailed on the EU PS Blog. It’s coming “soon,” apparently.

What does it do? Not a lot.

• For those of you looking to customize your XMB, a few new colors will be added under the Theme Settings.
• A security patch has been added.
• [Network Update] has been renamed as [System Update].

Got a frontpage? Better hold it. Expect to see this in the next few days.

Update: It’s live, apparently.

The new issue of Famitsu has a two-page advert for Nier Replicant with the tagline “Beyond revenge lies crazed desperation.”

This is a Square Enix thing, which promises to reveal what it’s all about next week.

If the “Neir” part sounds familiar to you, 1UP has you covered.

Nier’s the Cavia-developed action game slated for PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2010, and Square wanted it to be a “hit in the West”, so plans to release it in Japan were shelved for a while, but Nier was formally announced for Japan today under the name Nier Gestalt.

As far as Nier Replicant is concerned though, guess we’ll find out next week.

Hit the link.

Songs in The Beatles: Rock Band that take place in a studio setting feature animations, which Harmonix refers to as “dreamscapes”.

These graphics are inspired by the song playing and DLC albums for the game will get similar treatment.

“DLC songs which don’t end up in historical venues will have custom dreamscapes, yes,” said the game’s lead artist, Dare Matheson, to Joystiq. lead artist for the game. “There will be visual themes and elements that will stretch from the on-disc dreamscapes into the DLC dreamscapes, but everyone is custom, unique, and fully-crafted for the song it will accompany.”

You can read the rest of the post through the link, and while you are headed Joystiq’s way, check out the interview the site has posted with Chris Foster, the game’s lead designer.

Warner Bros. has founded DC Entertainment to effectively manage games, movie, etc pertaining to DC properties.

DC Entertainment will work with Warner’s other divisions, to “prioritize DC properties as key titles and growth drivers across all of the Studio, including feature films, television, interactive entertainment, direct-to-consumer platforms and consumer products.”

Diane Nelson, the fomer president of Warner Premiere, will head the new company, while comic veteran Paul Levitz will step down as president and publisher of DC Comics and fallback to his former position as writer, contributing editor, and consultant to DC Entertainment.

More through Gamasutra.

Tomorrow night on GameTrailers TV, Geoff Keighley will be chatting with LucasArts which is set to reveal a new game via the show.

This was confirmed through a tweet by Keighley, which was then re-tweeted by LucasArts.

Keighley: “LucasArts will announce a brand-new original game on this week’s GTTV – with first footage. More details soon.”

So, come 12:30am tomorrow night, we will know more.

Thanks, Blue.

Valve’s Chet Faliszek has told Joystiq that there are more melee weapons in Left 4 Dead 2 than guns in the original game – bringing the total melee implements to 10.

Here’s the list:

• Baseball Bat
• Cricket Bat
• Crowbar
• Electric Guitar
• Fire Axe
• Frying Pan
• Katana
• Machete
• Tonfa (police baton)
• Chainsaw

Looks like there will be loads of bashing and slicing going on.

Here’s the link.

Running from September 11 -13 is the Red Faction: Guerrilla Double XP Weekend which applies only to the new playlist, Big Boomers.

Big Boomers, an alternative gameplay mode within the multiplayer, levels out the playing field and is a bit more fast-paced.

There’s loads of information over on the official forums, if you wanna brush up on a few things before the fragging commences.

It all sounds rather interesting.

Alex Seropian’s announcement that he sold Wideload to Disney and was the new Vice President of Creative for the company has been explained over on Gamasutra.

Apparently, the Bungie founder and Halo co-creator went with Disney to “create cool things”.

“Part of the reason why I’m here at Disney [is] there’s a real opportunity to bring that knowledge of what I’ve been learning and developing over many years over to Disney, to do some really cool things,” he said. “This is an opportunity that people don’t get.

“If you just think of all the stuff that Disney’s done, it’s somewhat intimidating, but in some ways, it’s like being a kid in a candy store, where it’s like, oh my gosh, there’s so much potential here, so much we can do.

“I’ve been really lucky to be presented with the chance to come out here and basically do what I’ve been doing for the last six years on a worldwide stage with the resources of a singular company like Disney. I have this dream of what we can do, and the guys here have that same dream. It’s not like I have the intention to ruffle a whole bunch of feathers — but I’m sure I will.”

As far the sale of Wideload is concerned, Seropian says that he did not plan to sell it, but while making a game with Disney, “conversations turned to a broader scope and vision for the two companies”, leading both to feel “we had a lot in common in our philosophies.”

More through the link.

BioWare’s lead designer for Dragon Age: Origins, Mike Laidlaw, has commented about the seemingly out of place music associated with videos for the game.

Most contain heavy style rock/pop, and most recently, Marilyn Manson’s “This is the New Shit” was used. This type of music is usually not something one associates with a fantasy title; however, Laidlaw says that there is a reason for this. BioWare wants to “shock” you enough so that you take notice of the game.

“I think part of the reason it’s infamous is because people were surprised and just weren’t expecting it,” he told D’toid. “What they expected was a long string of flutes and some harpsichord, perhaps. Quite frankly, Dragon Age ultimately is about surprising the player in terms of their expectations of fantasy.

“It’s going to shock them in a lot of ways. At the same time there’s a deep RPG in there, and a great story, but what I think that particular campaign achieved is, it hit an element of the game, and the game’s about eighty hours for average players, so you certainly can’t make a three minute marketing spec that covers every friggin’ element of that, so you pick a part of it and go, ‘let’s talk about violence for a while, and while we’re talking about violence, we’re going to play some music that, essentially, is pretty violent.”

More through the jump.

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