Monthly Archives: September 2009

EA and Visceral has announced that BioShock composer Garry Schyman has been hired to compose the score for Dante’s Inferno.

“Scoring Dante’s Inferno was one of the most interesting and challenging projects I have ever tackled,” said Schyman. “Literally being asked to score hell was fantastic especially once I saw the surrealistically frightening world that Visceral Games had developed. I thought long and hard about every piece of music I wrote to create something new, surprising and fitting.

“It has turned out to be one of the most creative experiences in my career.”

The orchestral score and chorus were recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Metro Voices Singers. The score soundtrack is planned for release in early 2010.

Game’s out for PSP, PS3 and Xbox 360 February 9 and 12 in the US and UK respectively.

Press release is below.

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Update: Madden NFL 10 will launch on the App Store today for $9.99, and if you act now for today only it’s $7.99. Currently, DLC in the form of jerseys and roster updates is expected in the future as well as multiplayer.

Original Story: During Apple’s “Its only rock and roll, but we like it” event, which is ongoing, EA demoed Madden NFL 10 for iPhone.

Expected to be released sometime this month, the game has all 32 teams, all locations and the playbook from the full version for consoles and PC.

The iPhone version includes “Action Control Time,” which lets you adjust the speed of your game, “Season Mode,” which lets you play through an entire season of football with trades and acquisitions, stats and individual player rewards, full control over rosters, depth charts, and access to free agent pools, and broadcast commentary featuring the voices of John Madden, Tom Hammond and Cris Collinsworth.

Also included is the Hot Route feature, which lets you redraw the play from the playbook right on the screen with your finger.

No word just yet on when to expect it this month, or for how much, but we’ll sent word to EA Sports to see what we can find out.

Apple’s “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it” event is happening now, and MacLife is live blogging the event.

So far, Jobs and co. have not only announced a price cut for iPod Touch, but that Madden NFL 10 is heading to the App Store. Cool if you are an American football and Madden fan.

Here is what you have missed so far:

• The gaming category in the App Store currently has 21,178 games available, compared to 607 for PSP and 3,680 for DS.
• Price cuts were introduced because iPod mini sales doubled after the drop from $249 to $199. So as of today, the iPod touch drops from $229 to $199, for the 8GB model, $299 for 32GB and $399 for 64GB.
• Gameloft has a new title coming called Nova. It’s a 12-level single-player FPS.
• Madden NFL 10 has all the teams, players, and stadiums from the console/PC game and to work the game, all you do is tap players directly instead of using a D-pad to select. Hot Route feature lets you redraw the play right on the screen with your finger and features the entire playbook.
• Ubisoft demoed Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery, which allows you to add your own photos to Wanted posters and has Prince of Persia-style acrobatics with touch controls.
• Tapulous from Tap Tap Revenge fame, has a new game called Riddim Ribbon, a game combining music and racing. In it you tilt the phone to the beat and control your racer along a track.

Hit the link for the rest.

Some footage from PAX showing off Turbine’s latest addition to The Lord of the Rings Online, has popped up over on YouTube.

Granted, it’s not developer released material, but from what we can see it looks flipping fabulous.

Can’t wait to run through it this fall.

Watch on after the break.

Thanks, LotroLife.

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A walkthrough video from GamesCom for Assassin’s Creed 2, discussing the in-game mechanics has surfaced.

It talks about the new economic system and reveals two new weapons, one of which is a gun.

An optional Secret Location Mission is also revealed, which was created to reward players with items and test their acrobatics, puzzle skills and stealth.

Game’s out for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on November 17, and we have the video posted after the break courtesy of D’toid.

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Wallace and Gromit Episode 2: The Last Resort’s release has been delayed on Xbox Live Arcade.

Supposed to have been released this week, it has been pulled and “will release at a future TBD date,” according to the Major.

Bummer dudes.

We’ll send a mail off to Telltale and see what happened.

The Verminators are videoed in the latest bits for Rabbids Go Home, courtesy of Joystiq.

First off, past the break, shows the Verminators via an introductory video, and the second one shows actual gameplay footage involving the pest control thingies.

Looks zany.

Game’s expected to be released for DS and Wii November 3

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1C Company has announced NecroVision: Lost Company, a prequel to the WWI shooter from The Farm 51.

In it, the player will control a German soldier who fights supernatural evil only to become the evil Necromancer that was in the first game.

There will be 10 new single player levels, six new weapons, drivable vehicles such as the FT17 tank and Halberstadt CL.II airplane, and weapon upgrades.

Gas Attack is the new multiplayer mode that has been added, along with improved visual and graphics upgrades.

It’s out the first part of 2010.

Thanks, BigDownload.

Some more art has surfaced from Grin’s canceled Final Fantasy project.

Most are posted over on the ConceptArt forums, and they are rather lovely to look at.

You can head over there, or just hit up Kotaku.

The Federal Government of Nigeria has asked that Sony pull adverts for its PS3 price-cut and issue an apology for describing the country as” a home of fraud where its citizens hardly do genuine business”.

“Nigeria remains a major investment destination and a country where most businesses thrive in trust, good faith, competence and integrity,” said Prof Dora Akunyili, minister of information and communication. “Nigeria also demands an unconditional apology from Sony Corporation for this deliberate negative campaign against the country’s image and reputation.

“The apology must be given the same measure of publicity by Sony Corporation in all channels where the unfortunate adverts were aired. In the light of the above, the Federal Government of Nigeria requests Sony Corporation to immediately withdraw that advertisement from circulation.”

Apparently, the country was insulted by the “Nigerian millionaire” comment making fun of the scam emails sent to people all over the globe.

Right.

Via Vanguard.

The latest Seven Deadly Sins promotion for Dante’s Inferno signifies Greed.

It’s rather creepy looking to be honest.

According to EA, the greed bit comes into play by pre-ordering the game tomorrow from GameStop which will net you a savings of $6.66.

While not really “greedy”, saving money is saving money even if the savings amounts to a demonic figure.

Thanks, Joystiq.

According to the PS3 news ticker, Batman: Arkham Asylum’s getting free DLC on September 17, and Eidos has confirmed that it will be made available for PC and Xbox 360 as well.

This bit was confirmed as a multiplatform DLC release when a spokesperson replied to a question regarding it on the official Batman forums.

“I’m happy to inform you, it will arrive at the same time,” read the reply.

Meanwhile, over on PlayStation Lifestyle (thanks, Gekidami), it’s being rumored that the content is the Insane Night DLC Pack, which contains the Dem Bones Scarecrow Challenge and Crime Alley Challenge Map Packs which where available through GameStop preorders and Collector’s Edition purchases.

Prey in the Darkness DLC Pack, supposedly coming September 24th, is also being reported as one of the upcoming bits, and is rumored as a PS3 exclusive.

We’ll send an email off to Eidos and see if anyone bites. Don’t count on it though.

Via Kotaku, Shack.

Over on Twitter, the guys from Game Informer are teasing folks with hints about the new issue’s cover story.

So far, what we know is that the game is a sequel, Xbox 360 fans will be thrilled, there will be two exclusives inside – one announced, and one unannounced which is a multi-system title.

Here are the tweets:

• Andy McNamara: The cover: it’s a sequel

• Andy McNamara: Got the new issue in the office this morning. Cover looks hot. Xbox 360 fans will be delighted by this one. Lots of good stuff inside.

• Andrew Reiner: Paging through the new issue. Two huge exclusives (one announced, one unannounced) for readers to dive into. Any guesses?

• Andrew Reiner: The unannounced game is multi-system.

We hate being teased, just tell us or release the issue already.

Also, the guys are toting the mag’s redesign for the November issue, which is set to hit mailboxes and newsstands in October.

Hit the links for yourself.

Sony’s PS3 Slim has sold 40,000 units during its first week of release in the UK, according to a report from MCV.

The figures were complied by the site as it went by hint from Sony that sales were 20 percent less on the Slim than on PS2 Slim launch.

PS2 Slim sold 50,000 units during its first week, ergo 20 percent less would be 40,000.

Sony has refused comment on the figure, but UK sales director Mark Howsen said on Monday that the company is “extremely pleased” with the console’s start in the UK.

More through the link.

The Major’s confirmed that All You Need Is Love is now available on Live for The Beatles: Rock Band, which launched today.

The song’s a 360 exclusive, as announced at E3.

Go plastic guitar crazy. Hit the link.

IGN’s just posted a video of Keza MacDonald playing WoW and Mario Kart through Gaikai. Watch it after the break.

It works. No doubt. There it is: working. As MacDonald says in the WoW bit, the lag is “hardly noticeable”. The footage was filmed in Germany; the server’s in Holland.

It was confirmed this morning that the Cloud gaming service is to get a closed European beta this month.

Watch it. It’s the future.

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Rich Leadbetter’s Eurogamer’s new technology editor, the company’s announced.

The Digital Foundry founder is a games editorial veteran, having worked on CVG, Mean Machines and many other UK games brands.

“Digital Foundry’s embedded presence on Eurogamer is a brilliant opportunity to exploit everything I’ve learned from 19 years working in the games business,” said Leadbetter.

Gratz, etc. PR after the break.

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EA confirmed today that FIFA 10′s demo will hit PC, XBL and PSN tomorrow.

From the PR you’ll find after the break:

A full playable demo of FIFA 10 for the PLAYSTATION3 will be available for download at the PLAYSTATION Store, for the Xbox 360 on Xbox Live Marketplace and for the PC at WWW.EASPORTS.CO.UK/FIFA10 as of 10th September in Europe and 17th September in North America. Play as Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Marseille and Chicago Fire and discover a soccer experience that will deliver a new standard for authenticity with gameplay refinements and innovations that will make it the most complete and intelligent simulation of football. In addition to playing an exhibition match, for the first time in a FIFA demo users will be able to upload created in-game videos to EA SPORTS Football World.

The full banana’s out on October 2.

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Splash Damage head Paul Wedgwood may be an expert at PC FPS, but his experiences of sorting out console control for multi-platformer Brink left him bloodied.

“I went out and played with some of the pro clans, in games like Halo 2 and stuff, and they just kicked my ass,” he said, talking in a VG247 interview. “Absolutely annihilated me.”

He added: “I could see that that skill they had achieved on an analog controller was similar to the skill we’d achieved as mouse-and-keyboard players.”

Splash Damage had to create a proprietary control method for Brink called SMART, in order marry PC, 360 and PS3 interfaces.

“It’s the idea that it’s not on autopilot,” he said. “It’s not 1,000 entities placed telling the game what you can and can’t do.

“It’s just simply a fluid, platformer-style interface that involves real-time traces out across the environment that figure out what you could do if you’re near something.”

Hit the link for the full chat. The game’s out early next year, published by Bethesda.

Kotaku’s posted an image of FFXIII’s controls and an explanation of how everything works from yesterday’s Premiere Party in Tokyo.

There’s translation there of each button and how it’s used. Knock yourself out.

It’s releasing on December 17 in Japan and early next year in the US and Europe.

Thanks, Monk.