Monthly Archives: September 2009

Steam now has live the classic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for you to buy.

Thats pretty much it. Just go and buy it if you haven’t played it yet.

Find more info here. Thanks, CVG.

Sir Paul McCartney has revealed that if they were still alive today, his Beatles bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison would have approved of The Beatles: Rock Band concept, also stating they would have been “amused” about it.

“I think they would have been amused. I think they would have seen the point of it,” said McCartney, speaking in an interview with Observer Music Magazine with Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono, widows of George and John.

Ono said: “[John] would have been excited about the Rock Band concept, and very happy with how the music and the visuals of the Beatles were represented.”

Harrison further said: “I hate to say, but I know I’m [George's] biggest fan and biggest critic, and I’m happy with it. I think they did a great job, and if I didn’t like it I would feel very uncomfortable.”

There is more info on the game’s development and how Harmonix didn’t have it easy to get the approval of Ono, Harrison, McCartney and Ringo Starr through the link.

Game’s out on Wednesday for PS3, PS2, 360 and Wii. Everyone loves it.

Batman: Arkham Asylum’s managed to maintain the number one spot in this weeks UK charts, and a surprise inclusion in the top three is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

The two year-old Infinity Ward title crept in at number three thanks to the game being bundled with the recently-released PS3 Slim.

Find this weeks charts below. Last weeks data is here.

Chart-Track director Dorian Bloch’s told VG247 that UK PS3 sales have risen over 1,000 percent on Slim’s release.

“I’m not surprised by it,” said Bloch in a phone conversation. “There’s a lot of demand for the Slim.”

The exec said that while PS3 is shown as ‘+999%’ over week 35 in week 36, the figure is actually higher.

Chart-Track just issued the following data:

• PS3 is shown as ‘+999%’ over week 35. The system is set to display +999% when it encounters huge increases, so the actual increase in PS3 unit hardware sell-through is around 11X – so 11 times what PS3 was selling the previous week. Obviously people have been waiting for PS3 Slim.
• 360 is up +29% over the same time period.
• PS3 is the lead format in week 36 and is outselling 360/DS Lite/Wii (not combined, individually – they were all selling around the same amount in week 36) by approx 3:1.
• PS3 is the lead hardware format for week 36, 2009 and the last time it did this was back in week 1, 2008.
• PS3 software sales have increased by 17% (units) over week 35 to claim 3rd place in terms of software format units behind 360 & Wii (up from 4th place in week 35).
• PS3 software sales have increased by 5% (value) over week 35 to remain 2nd by value behind 360 (was also No2 in week 35, up from No4 in week 34).

Note that PS2 Slim came out in week 44, 2004 and showed an increase of +310% over the previous week (an increase of 3X).
Comparing the sales of all PS2 hardware in week 44, 2004 and all PS3 hardware in week 36, 2009 this shows that PS2 outsold PS3 by 21%, but of course PS2 was much cheaper at that point in the life cycle (approx £100) compared to the ASP for PS3 last week (approx £244). PS2 Slim came out in the first week of November 2004 and in Q4 you woud be expecting healthier numbers for most hardware formats.

Speaking at a panel at PAX, community leader of Bungie Brian Jarrard has said that the developer won’t be “totally” speaking about Halo: Reach until Halo 3: ODST ships in a couple of weeks.

“Obviously right now what we’re excited about is the impending launch of ODST, so we don’t want to totally start talking about next year’s model before this one’s even off the assembly line,” admitted Jarrard.

“But there is a beta that’s coming next year, so all you’ve got to do is sit tight. If you want to be part of Reach from the very beginning then you want to make sure you keep an ODST disc handy,” he further said.

Speaking of ODST, it was admitted that DLC could be a possibility for co-op mode Firefight. But for now, its unlikely.

“There’s no current plans right now for DLC for ODST,” admitted senior designer for the game Lars Bakken.

More at EG.

GameTrailers has brand new footage of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, showing the train level which was teased at the end of the E3 and GamesCom trailers.

It looks stunning. Then again, mostly everything we’ve seen from the game so far is stunning.

It’s after the jump. It’s out in the US on October 13. No date yet in Europe though.

More »

Do do do doooo…

The embargo for reviews for The Beatles: Rock Band went in the early hours of Sunday morning, and first reactions seem to be very good.

Eurogamer went for a 9. Everyone else? Below are some of the other picks:

• IGN – 9.0 (UK and US)
• GameTrailers – 8.7
• Kotaku – N/A
• Joystiq – N/A
• TeamXbox – 9.3
• VideoGamer – 9
• Strategy Informer – 9.2
• MTV Multiplayer – N/A
• Ve3tro – 9.5

It’s out on Wednesday – 9.9.09 (notice a pattern here yet?) – for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and PS2, alongside the remasters of the band’s 13 albums.

IGN’s video review is after the jump.

More »

The announcement last week that the original God of War and it’s sequel was getting a remastered release for the PS3 certainly raised some eyebrows.

So if Capcom were asked to do a similar project, like they were a couple of days ago concerning Devil May Cry 1-3, would they do it?

“I don’t want anyone reading this the wrong way (as I’m not saying anything like this could happen) but I’m seeing some interested for DMC to get this treatment… are there other titles you’d like see go this way? I’m looking for some temperature readings,” was what Capcom’s Christian Svensson said on the forums of Capcom Unity.

More through the link.

We spoke to Christian last week on the podcast as well as Capcom Unity head Chris Kramer. Go grab it here.

Ubisoft’s announced it’s line-up for the Tokyo Game Show, which takes place from September 24-27. Full list, headlined by Assassin’s Creed II, is below:

• Assassin’s Creed II
• Splinter Cell: Conviction
• Avatar: The Game
• Red Steel 2
• Rabbids Go Home

And for each game you play, you get also get a free t-shirt, which depends on what games you play during the public days of the show.

More at Andriasang.

Treat this as rumour for now, but if a LinkedIn CV of Senior Lightning Artist at Team Bondi Carl Ross is correct, it seems that the long overdue LA Noire is slated for release on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

This is what it says on his profile:

“Team Bondi – August 2007 – Present
LA Noire – Senior Artist, Lighting.
PS3, 360, PC”

We’ll check in with Rockstar about this and see if they will bite on this one.

Thanks, SA.

Mentioned during a Q&A relating to GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony, Rockstar has confirmed that Agent will see a release in 2010.

The except, which is mentioned during the end when asked if there was a chance the GTA IV DLC would come to the PS3, said:

“We appreciate the enthusiasm of PlayStation 3 owners and believe us, we understand where you’re coming from.”

“That’s why we are working hard on a lineup of PlayStation 3 releases for 2010 that we know you will be very excited to play – including Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3, and the PlayStation 3 exclusive AGENT, which is a brand-new title from Rockstar North, the creators of the Grand Theft Auto series.”

The game was announced as a PS3 exclusive at E3 in June.

More through the link. Thanks, Monk.

According to a listing on Amazon.co.uk, found by PS3Hype, Grand Theft Auto IV is being added as a PS3 Platinum hit.

The retailer has it listed for £19.99 as the RRP on the site, and have it for release on October 30: a day after the release of The Ballad of Gay Tony and Episodes from Liberty City on Xbox 360.

We’ll check in with Rockstar.

Oh no…

Japanese Xbox 360 owners have started a petition over arguments that they were test subjects in a 360 “beta release” of Tales of Vesperia: once a 360 exclusive, but now is coming to the PlayStation 3 in Japan very soon.

Some of the the demands of the petition, already signed by 550 out of a targeted 1,000, are:

“The games should not be dispersed across multiple platforms, they should be consolidated onto one platform [i.e. Xbox 360].

The games should be complete and properly made.

From now on, the porting of titles like Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Vesperia should be abolished.

An official apology should be made to Xbox 360 users for the abnormal number of additions made to Vesperia only a year after its Xbox 360 release.

That’ll be nothing compared to the PS3 fanboys lining up outside Square, when they announce FFXV as a 360 exclusive.

More at Sankaku Complex.

Sony’s confirmed an Uncharted 2 mutliplayer demo for September 15 in a comment on the US PS Blog.

One closed beta took place in June, and a second will begin next Tuesday for anyone who pre-orders the game from GameStop in the US or Play.com in the UK.

The story’s being confused a little by reports of a demo dated September 29. There’s no source for this, though.

We’re checking with Sony.

The news this week in MMOs was a bit scarce, unless it was huge news that hit the front page – which a lot of it did.

However, there were other things going on: a new faction for EVE Online, bonus goodies for EverQuest II, content changes for Guild Wars, and a few other things you can read about on past the break.

TGS is coming up, so who knows what lies in store for us by way of new announcements.

More »

Creative director Patrice Desilets had a chat with IGN regarding Assassin’s Creed 2, and revealed that the series will continue to delve into the use and misuse of religion inherent in the struggle between Templars and the assassins.

If you have not played the original game, you may wish to skip the next part. Fair warning.

Apparently, in the sequel, players will learn more about the apple and how this artifact binds the two stories together. Desmond, will also be playing a larger role in the second game, and the sequel will reveal that there is more to the conspiracy unveiled in the first game than just the mere memories of one person.

Cool. Sounding better all the time.

Hit up the link for the rest.

TimeGate Studios has told readers on the Section 8 official forums that there will not be a demo released for the PC version of the game.

“We do not have plans to release a Section 8 demo for the PC at this time,” reads the thread. “Currently, we only have a demo for the Xbox 360 version.”

Sorry PC players, you will just have to take your chances with the retail version, which was released yesterday.

Unless, of course, you also own an Xbox 360. Still, that doesn’t give you an idea of how it plays on PC.

Thanks, Blue.

Sony has updated the SingStore for karaoke enthusiasts, and the offerings include individual tracks from the previously released Coldplay SongPack 2 as well as one for Blondie.

Here are the offerings:

• Coldplay – Don’t Panic, In My Place, Lost, Trouble, Violet Hill
• Lisa Mitchell – Neopolitan Dreams
• Rednex – Old Pop In An Oak
• Spandau Ballet – To Cut A Long Story Short
• Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma

Blondie SongPack: Atomic, Call Me, Hanging On The Telephone, Heart of Glass, Rapture

There are also new Portuguese and Spanish tracks available.

More over on the US PS Blog.

Sony has told Engadget that it is currently investigating the possibility of existing PS3 games being playable in 3D after a software update next year.

Currently “conducting a technological investigation” into the possibility, Sony maintains that there are “no plans for the market launch of this [3D backwards compatibility] at this time.”

According to reports, PS3 is going 3D in 2010, but for titles currently available, Sony is keeping quiet.

3D games on the horizon that are slated for PS3 include Avatar: The Game and some Sony racing titles.

More through the link.

Square’s Yoshi Kitase and Motomu Toriyama told VG247 during GamesCom, that downloadable content is being considered for future Final Fantasy titles, but for now, nothing is set in stone for Final Fantasy XIII.

“As far as DLC is concerned, there is no solid plan at the moment for FFXIII,” said Kitase, speaking through his translator. “However, we’ve been listening to overseas fans in Europe and North America and are aware that DLC is very popular and something that people really want.

“So it’s definitely being considered for future projects.”

Kitase stated previously, that should any DLC for FFXIII be released, it would be something along the lines of new items, areas or enemies, and not something that would tie into the story.