Monthly Archives: October 2009

Rare dropped us an email earlier containing not one, not two, but three actual, real-life screens of the XBLA version of Perfect Dark.

Get the full images through the links. They show off some reskinned weapons ands a new look Elvis.

Not quite GoldenEye, but really not far off. Get pumped.

We’re in transit at the moment, so that’ll have to do you for now.

The BBFC’s rated GTA IV DLC The Ballad of Gay Tony as an 18, saying the add-on has “quite strong sex” and “hard drug use”. Shocker.

You can read the full description here, but be warned: spoilers abound.

It’s out on October 29. Thanks, EG.

Kotaku’s got ten shots of Prison Break in game form.

According to the email we received a while ago from Deep Silver’s, the shots show a “highly detailed reconstruction of instantly recognisable environments from the show such as the prison yard, inside the cells, and the Prison Industries workshop.

“Also revealed for the first time is the in game image of Lincoln Burrows, snapped as he makes his escape from Fox River in an iconic scene from the TV series.”

Astonishing. Check the shit out of that prison.

If you were thinking of going to the Eurogamer Expo in either Leeds or London next week, you’d better get on it for tickets. EG sent out a press release this afternoon saying tickets are about to dry up.

Tickets are still available for Wednesday 28th October in Leeds, but the other three days of the event – including two in London on 30th and 31st October – are now fully booked.

Tickets are expected to sell out completely tomorrow. More than 11,000 have been sold in total.

No tickets are available on the door. If you’re part of the trade, can still get tickets by contacting expo@eurogamer.net in advance.

Hit this for more info, and get the PR after the break.

More »

EA’s Need for Speed series has now sold more then 100 million units, the publisher said today.

Total cash accrued from the IP ammounts to $2.7 billion. EA claimed Need for Speed is now the most popular racing property in games.

Some ridiculous facts, courtesy of the PR after the break:

• Launched 15 blockbuster titles across more than 14 platforms
• Released in 22 languages in over 60 countries
• Players have raced over 279 billion miles of roads & race tracks
• Generated over 17 trillion user-generated vehicle customizations
• Featured actors, models & musicians including: Brooke Burke (Wild On), Christina Milian (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past), Emmanuelle Vaugier (Two and a Half Men), Josie Maran (Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and actress), Maggie Q (Mission: Impossible III), Kanye West, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Prodigy
• Debuted exclusive remix from Snoop Dogg of The Door’s classic song Riders on the Storm
• Sold more games than all new passenger cars sales in the U.S since 1994**
• If Need for Speed boxes were laid out end-to-end, it would span 173,609 football fields
• 100M units represents nearly every household in the United States and is 3x the population of Canada

*According to internal EA data
**93.8 Million according to Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Hit the link for the full thing.

More »

Dead Space: Extraction sold a depressingly inevitable 9,000 units in the US last month, according to NPD data and Edge. The figure accounts for sales from September 29 to October 3.

Why? EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich has blamed lack of EA marketing spend.

“Electronic Arts didn’t market Dead Space Extraction as much as it does with other titles,” he said.

“And the success or failure of a Wii title usually correlates directly to marketing spend.

“If Electronic Arts spent little on marketing, I am sure the sell through was no surprise to them. So I do not believe sell through was a disappointment to EA.”

Damn, damn shame.

Modern Warfare 2, eh? It’s a monster. It’s so big, in fact, that Infinity Ward doesn’t have the faintest idea what it’s going to do after it.

“Right now we don’t have a clue what our next game is going to be, and we won’t know what it will be until we finish with Modern Warfare 2, which won’t be for a while,” developer comms boss Rob Bowling told IGN UK in London recently.

We’re going to take a wild, Soap-style stab in the dark: Modern Warfare 3?

Thanks, BigDownload.

I got a letter from Woking this morning. I’ve chosen to travel on the Moscow Metro system tomorrow. There was a ticket inside the envelope, and everything.

Know what this is? I don’t. Although…

In a “world’s first” announcement, Acti said today that Modern Warfare 2 is to be launched at a Leicester Square event in London, “home of the ‘Hollywood Premiere’.”

The screening’s to be compered by a celeb fan.

The event will also be supported by an “epic” midnight opening at HMV’s Trocadero Store.

There’s also to be a “VIP launch party” in “a secret underground bunker,” headlined by one of the “UK’s biggest male artists of 2009.”

We’re practically shitting ourselves with excitement, now. Hit the link for the PR.

More »

Datel’s expressed “disappointment” at Microsoft’s decision to disallow use of third-party 360 memory units in the console’s November software update.

“We are following this issue and awaiting the outcome like everyone else,” a rep told CVG.

“If the Major Nelson blog is to be taken at face value then we’re disappointed to see that Microsoft are taking these steps to prevent customers from exercising their freedom of choice.

“Everyone is looking for ways to make their cash go further at the moment and we believe that Max Memory offers a good value, high capacity, alternative to the official Memory Unit.”

Major Nelson said earlier this week that only Microsoft memory units will be supported after the update goes live.

Adrian Askarieh has told Game Daily that Bruce Willis will play Kane in the upcoming Kane & Lynch movie. The role of Lynch is yet to be cast.

“The script has been incredibly well-received around town,” said Askarieh. “After Bruce Willis read it, he called it one of the best action scripts he’s ever read, and Bruce is an expert in terms of action scripts because he’s read everything over the last 20 years.”

Sounds awesome. Shooting’s set to start in March. There’s more on EG.

Sony Australia’s thrown a PS3 into a Bravia very quickly, filmed it very quickly then played it back very slowly. You can see the results after the break.

It’s part of a promo to give away an awful lot of free consoles, from the look of it.

It’s worth noting that the PS3 appears to be largely unscathed at the end of its ordeal. Fantastic build quality, there.

Watch.

More »

God of War III director Stig Asmussen’s given a pretty solid hint that the game’s going to have challenge room DLC.

“It would make a lot of sense to be able to download them,” he told GamePro.

“That’s something we might see in the future. So, maybe you’ll see the game ship with a certain amount of challenges on it, then later on, we might put a download pack out with new challenges.

“It’s a good way to keep the series going.”

You’re going to be playing this next year. Especially if you win a PS3 today in our amazing, site-snapping comment competition.

Siliconera‘s posted up images of a new PS3 controller patent. It’s another stick.

This one looks like a Pez dispenser with buttons. No one seems to have any idea what it’s for. Controlling stuff, probably.

Take a look.

The official UK Tekken 6 tournament kicks off today in Loughborough, as noted by CVG.

Here’s where all the action’s happening:

• Wednesday 21st October Loughborough SU
• Thursday 22nd October Essex SU Colchester
• Saturday 24th October MCM EXPO London
• Sunday 25th October MCM EXPO London
• Monday 26th October HMV Brighton
• Tuesday 27th October HMV Oxford Street London
• Wednesday 28th October Gamerbase Reading
• Thursday 29th October HMV Birmingham
• Friday 30th October Gamerbase Manchester
• Saturday 31st October HMV Newcastle
• Sunday 1st November Gamerbase Glasgow
• Saturday 7th November Grand Finals – Namco Station London
• Sunday 8th November Grand Finals – Namco Station London

Get fighting. And hit the link for more on a big Tekken 6 competition Future’s running in conjunction with the tournament.

It’s the biggie. We’re giving away a PS3 Slim, a copy of Borderlands and some “merchandise” today, and all you have to do to win is comment.

We want a 3,000-strong thread. Whoever posts the 3,000th comment wins everything. This is probably going to fuck the site right up, but we love a bit of theatre. Let’s just see what happens.

To be absolutely clear: whoever posts the 3,000th comment in the thread below wins the following:

• 1 x PS3 Slim
• 1 x copy of Borderlands
• “Merchandise”

No, we don’t know what the “merchandise” is. A Borderlands hat, or something. Borderlands gloves. We’ve been asked to tell you that “the prizes will be delivered within 28 days.”

And that’s it. Very best of luck.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has pinned flat September sales in the US on the decline of the music genre in general.

“We expected far higher sales for the month, as we succumbed to much of the hype surrounding the relatively high-profile launches of The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5,” he said.

“We had expected the former to sell 1.3 million units, and thought that sales of the disc would drive sales of older Rock Band bundles; instead, the game sold fewer than half our estimate, and overall sales came in at $73 million, well below our $140 million estimate.

“Similarly, we thought that the giveaway of a voucher for Guitar Hero Van Halen would have great appeal, and would drive Guitar Hero 5 sales. The game sold fewer than our 700,000 unit estimate, and overall Guitar Hero sales were only $43 million, well below our $75 million unit estimate,” he added.

He also said that Activision’s music games sales could be down as much as 25 per cent on last year.

As shown in the NPD this week, US sales we up only 5 percent over last year.

More on GI.

Acti’s patched the PC version of Wolfenstein up to 1.11, fixing some crash bugs. Handy.

Other stuff it’s done:

• Fixed issue resulting in user receiving gamex86.dll error
• Fixed issue that caused crashes when users broke numerous breakable objects during a Single Player Campaign
• Fixed issue that corrupted a save file after restarting a mission
• Updated the Wolf2.exe with a SecuROM fix that prevented users from launching the executable properly

Hit this for more.

A Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time demo will release on PSN this Thursday, as detailed on US PS Blog.

Good news. Better yet, this is the first of two demos, for some reason.

“In this demo, you’ll take get to take control of Clank as he explores the Great Clock learning more about his past and his new time-based abilities that you’ll need to utilize to solve puzzles and defeat some of Dr. Nefarious’ minions,” said SCEA chap, Cristian Cardona.

And IGN’s posted the first review, giving it 9/10 (thanks, Monk).

Good, huh? It’s out on November 6.

Castlevania: The Adventure – ReBirth has been confirmed for an October 27 release, as you can see on GoNintendo.

The WiiWare platformer will cost 1,000 Wii Points and feature multiple controle methods.

Fingers crossed for a global ship. We need more whips in our lives.