Monthly Archives: October 2009

EA’s announced a worldwide competition for Dragon Age: Origins, known as “Warden’s Quest”.

Ten teams of four will compete on Wednesday to win a grand prize of $12,500 per member of the winning tram, as they explore the game.

PR is after the break. It’s out in November for PS3, 360 and PC.

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Drip, drip.

Superannuation has managed to drag up what looks like minor story details for LA Noire, showing casting calls for characters in the game. The listing was posted up a week and a half ago.

It reveals that the main character is named as Cole Phelps.

Now all we need is a bloody screen, or something! It’s a PS3 title for sure, but it looks like it’s coming to the PC and Xbox 360, as well.

Looks like a LA Noire reveal is coming closer and closer.

The game will be talked about at a Australian gaming event, GCAP ’09, where developer of the game Team Bondi and the studio’s Ben Brudenell will be holding a session at the event entitled “Recreating LA – The Art of LA Noire”.

PS3, 360 and PC, this one looks like. Rockstar were seeking actors for mo-cap and voice acting for the game, it was revealed this morning.

Thanks, superannuation.

If a CV from Eurocom staff member Craig Peck seems to indicate what we think it does, the next Bond game from Activision looks like it has something to do with Goldeneye.

The CV shows:

Eurocom Entertainment Software, Derby, United Kingdom
July 09 – Sept 09 Animator – GoldenEye 2010 (Wii)
Animator on Activision’s James Bond series for the Nintendo Wii

It’s worth noting that Bizarre are creating the next Bond game, but Eurocom could do porting work for the game, as they did with Quantum of Solace for the Wii last year, while Treyarch handled the PS3 and 360 versions.

Thanks, superannuation.

Eurogamer.de has a new trailer of Lego: Rock Band to feast your eyes over.

It features “Accidently in Love” by the Counting Crows. Game looks good. Song? Not so much.

It’s out this autumn for PS3, 360, Wii, PS2 and DS.

Sweet praise be jebus! FIFA 10 is finally off the top spot? So, what has taken it’s place? Why, it’s only PES 2010!

The Konami football game came in storming and took the No. 1 spot off FIFA, which only drops to three. Forza Motorsport 3 enters at two.

WWE Smackdown vs Raw ’10 enters at five, Uncharted 2 drops four from two to six, and Borderlands enters at seven.

Top ten is below.

LA Noire’s development is still ongoing, apparently.

In fact, Rockstar has decided they’re going to audtion actors for roles in the game, both in voice acting and mo-cap, according to tweets picked up by superannuation.

“At an audition for a new video game from Rockstar. It’s set in LA & film noir. Lots of fedoras in this waiting room. LOTS!“

“Just auditioned for an upcoming game from @RockstarGames called LA Noir, hope I book it!“

“Just auditioned for LA Noire video game. Pretty cool idea.“

Make of that as you will. Game’s been in development for a ridiculous amount of time, and looks like it’ll be a PS3, 360 and PC affair.

Update: No playable GT5 for you! SCEE’s just told us that the game isn’t playable at the tour, saying it was a “mistake” on the House tour website. Still, there is more stuff there then GT5, regardless.

Original Story: Want to be one of the many who play Gran Turismo 5 for the first time in the UK? Good thing there is the PlayStation House tour.

It is touring all around England and Scotland (no Wales or Northern Ireland, sadly), with Polyphony’s racer being the headliner.

The tour will be at Birmingham this week, with further appearences in London, Manchester, Gateshead It was in Kent last week, and Glasgow before that.

Get going if you’re in one of the areas.

EA’s announced that your dosage of Rock Band this week will come in the form of track packs Wolfmother and Rob Zombie.

Liz Phair and Morningwood make up for the rest of the Rock Band pack. While over on Rock Band: Unplugged for the PSP, you get Sonic Youth and Steely Dan.

PR is after the break.

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Well, hello! What do we have here? Oh look, it’s a third person view in Modern Warfare 2.

According to Kombo, someone got managed to get hold of an early copy of the game for the PS3.

He managed to take a pic which shows modes in the multiplayer called “cage match 3rd person” and “3rd person team deathmatch”.

The screen is in French by the looks of it, but the Infinity Ward forums managed to translate it pretty quickly, according to the site.

Find more through the link. The game is out two weeks tomorrow for the PS3, 360 and PC.

Speaking in an interview with Videogamer, Insomniac communinty manager James Stevenson has said that fan feedback with Resistance 2 “was like your dog turned on you.”

The game was released at the end of November last year, even recieving a 87 from Metacritic. But despite that, Stevenson admits it was a “failure” on the fans part.

“The hardcore fans of Resistance 1 were maybe a little bit disappointed. Those folks consistently expressing that – especially GAF, it was like your dog turned on you.

“That’s the feeling of it. You had this dog that loved you. You loved the dog, too, but they expressed all this affection for you. And then suddenly the dog bites your hand and it’s that feeling of, ooh, ow, that really hurts.

The critics loved Resistance 2. Some people didn’t like it, but for the most part… And the Metacritic’s higher than Resistance 1. So we got better reviews than Resistance 1, but the overall opinion of it is that it was a failure by fans, that Resistance 2 was a failure, because maybe the expectations were so high for it,” said Stevenson.

Well then, fan service all the way for Resistance 3, then.

At last week’s BAFTA lecture in London, Peter Molyneux shared his top five revolutionary games ever released. So, what were the games? According to D’Toid, they were:

“Dune 2, Super Mario 64, Tomb Raider, Halo and World of Warcraft.”

Not a bad looking bunch, if we do say so ourselves. Molyneux confirmed at the same lecture last week that Fable III will support Natal.

Oh, and he showed Milo.

Capcom announced a spin-off of Monster Hunter for the PSP over the weekend at an event in Japan.

The full title of it isn’t known in English, but it does involve creatures from the series, “airu”.

Find the full video of the reveal after the break, thanks to Kotaku.

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Titan Studios has confirmed on the US PS Blog that they will release a free piece of DLC for Fat Princess, by releasing a free map entitled New Pork.

Catchy.

The map will be released with the release of patch 1.3. The devs also confirmed they will release a demo of the game alongside the release of the patch.

Find the full rundown of notes for the patch at the link,

Update: PR is after the break.

Original Story: It’s official: PS3 owners in the US will get Netflix, starting from next month.

Users of the system will be able to use the service from the PSN at no additional cost. You will need a streaming Blu-ray though to use it, but the rental company will send that out to you for free.

“The PlayStation 3 system has always been about more than just gaming, and it will soon be the only platform in the industry to offer consumers such a variety of convenient options for enjoying movies and TV shows,” said SCEA CEO, Jack Tretton.

“Whether you want to watch content on Blu-ray disc and DVD, download it from the PlayStation Network’s video delivery service, or stream videos instantly from Netflix, the PS3 system is the only solution that offers it all.”

It was a service that was exclusive to the Xbox 360 from last year, after the release of the NXE.

Find more info at IGN.

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Bethesda? Valve? Is there something going on between you two? Because we read this editorial by Eurogamer, and well, just look:

“However, it’s also worth watching closely what happens to Steam in the coming months. Unconfirmed industry scuttlebutt suggests that Zenimax – the parent company of Bethesda, which made headlines back in June when it acquired legendary PC studio id Software – is still on the acquisition trail, and has been making eyes at Half-Life creators Valve across the bar,” said the article.

If true, it’s certainly out of left field, but then, so was Zenimax’s annexation of id Software. Guess we’ll see what’s up in the coming months.

For now, though, speculate away!

A recent EA job listing uncovered by Internet super sleuth Superannuation has “next-gen” and “Boom Blox” written all over it. Literally!

“Our last two titles were Wii-based, but our next titles will be for the next generation,” says a listing by EA’s Boom Blox team.

Previous listings have searched for the conspicuous mix of PS3 rendering expertise and familiarity with motion controls, among other things.

Top to it all off, EA has hinted at a next-gen iteration of Boom Blox in the past.

We feel like we just snooped around the house and took an early peek at our Christmas presents. Feigning surprise when EA finally blows the lid off this project won’t be easy.

You’ve just killed a man in cold blood. Sure, he was a bit of a sleaze, but he probably didn’t deserve three rib-shattering kicks to the mid-section followed by a clavicle-rending slash to the shoulder. Whatever, though; you’re an unfeeling, utterly ruthless contract killer. No use crying over spilt blood. And so, you silently saunter away, uttering only one phrase: “Oh sweet! Achievement unlocked! Yippee!”

If you’d like to plot out your bloody, achievement-unlocking swath, Assassin’s Creed II achievement/trophy lists have found their ways onto MyGamerCard and PS3Trophies. We are, however, setting the spoiler warning for this one at “minor spoilers” yellow. This is, of course, far from “Snape kills Dumbledore” red, but if you’re hoping to go into Assassin’s Creed II completely untainted, you should probably skip these.

The Star Trek Online closed beta has begun, as you can see from the PR after the break.

It’s been running for two days, in fact.

If you want to get involved, you can still sign up here.

The game’s out early next year.

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Guitar Hero co-founder Kai Huang, speaking recently on a panel at the PLAY Digital Media Conference in Berkeley, has said that Activision is not expecting DJ Hero to show blockbuster sales straight off the bat.

“We’re not expecting a typical videogame curve where you sell the majority of the units in the first month and then it decays quickly,” Huang said.

“We’re expecting this to be the type of game that may came out of the gate a little bit slower, but continue to grow over time.”

He added: “We’ve got a bit of a head start, people have an understanding what music games are, it has the ‘Hero’ brand on it. But at the same time, people don’t know what a DJ game is, they don’t know what you’re supposed to do. Our strategy again is to focus on in-store demos.

“If you look at Guitar Hero 3, which to date has been the most successful Guitar Hero game to date selling 12 million units, it did take three iterations to get the game out there and for people to know how it works.”

That’s the “DJ HERO SOLD 12 UNITS IN THE US LAST MONTH” headlines headed off, then.

More on IGN.