Monthly Archives: October 2009

Infinity Ward and Activision plan to release a new trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 during the San Diego Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers football game.

The debut will go live this Sunday night during a commercial break during the game, which starts at 8:00pm EST on NBC.

It includes all new in-game footage, and is the start of a multi-million dollar promotional campaign.

Be sure to tune in for it – because it’s more than likely the one Robert Bowling was tweeting about earlier in the week.

Via USA Today.

During TGS, a unnamed developer was asked by Kotaku if the firm was working on video capture in it’s game – or something like what Halo 3 has.

“We’d love to have video capture in our game, but why work on something that the platform holder is already developing,” said the developer.

To get more clarification, the site asked Microsoft’s Scott Austin, director of digital games at Live, if this was indeed the case.

As expected, the answer was a windy “no comment”.

“We are always thinking about ways that Live at the platform level can make games better,” he said. “I’m not going to comment on video capture, but you can assume we are thinking about ways to make things more interactive. Interactivity used to mean things like multiplayer, now you see more cooperative things in games.

“We want to have better quality and more immersive experiences. We are always looking to innovate. When innovation becomes table stakes we want to move forward. We want to make all entertainment services more rich with our live services.”

More through the link.

Some nice shots over on GTplanet show off the very nice looking Ferrari and Lamborghini featured in Gran Turismo 5.

Sony has confirmed that the game will be hitting Japan in March 2010.

No exact dates have been given for other territories, but there have been grumblings about a December release on the bet for quite some time.

Stiil, cars are great. Especially ones that are Italian.

BioWare has announced plans to release the character creator for Dragon Age: Origins as a separate PC application on October 13.

Oh yeah – it’s free too.

The character creator will let you get creative with character customization from the game, which then you can save and use when the PC version is released in November.

Images of your character can also be uploaded onto the game’s social networking which is expected to launch the same day as the character creator.

More information can be found over on the official forums.

Frozenbyte plans to finally release Trine in the US on PSN.

Made available in Europe two weeks ago, the US is finally getting in on the lovefest October 22.

We’re glad to hear it’s finally going to happen.

Via Kotaku.

Nintendo has told Eurogamer that in the UK, Wii consoles borked by firmware update 4.2 will be repaired free of charge, just like in the US.

“We are aware of a very small number of reported problems with Wii consoles after updating to the Wii System Menu 4.2,” read a statement. “The symptoms described usually occur when a Wii console has been modified. However, there are a very small number of people reporting problems when a system has never been modified.

“If anyone is experiencing problems with their Wii console after downloading Wii System Menu 4.2, and believe their system has not been modified, please contact our customer service centre.”

Nintendo released the firmware to “clamp down on modders and the homebrew movement.”

More through GI.biz.

The EA Store has opened the the preorder floodgates for the Windows versionof Battlefield 1943.

This was announced via Twitter, and here’s the tweet:

“BF1943 coming to PC featuring 32 players, joystick support, server browser, & more PC goodness! Reserve your copy now at EAStore.com.”

Get it here, so it will be waiting on you when DICE releases it in 2010.

Thanks, Blue.

Valve has announced preorder details for Left 4 Dead 2.

Starting today, those who pre-order L4D2 from participating retailers or via Steam will receive early access to the Left 4 Dead 2 demo (October 27) plus an exclusive in-game item – the American baseball bat, one of the 10 new melee weapons included in the game.

In addition, Steam and participating retailers are offering a 10 percent savings on preorders.

So head on over to Steam or check your local retailer to see if it is offering the same deal.

Square Enix has released the English dub of the Final Fantasy XIII trailer released earlier this week from the Tokyo Game Show.

Everything makes sense now, what with the confusing translation and even more confusing Japanese out the window. Still looks awesome though.

It’s after the jump.

December 17 in Japan for PS3. Spring 2010 in the West for PS3 and 360.

More »

Tom French, lead designer of The Saboteur, has posted a developer diary over on the US PS Blog, explaining the origins of the game’s hero Sean Delvin, how and why he was based on 1930′s British/French grand prix champion William Grover-Williams, and how this is not your typical WWII game.

“We wanted to make our hero the action hero we all wish we could be in our hearts,” wrote French. “To further ourselves from the typical WWII story we set out to make Sean’s story personally motivated rather than political.

“We felt strongly that it was extremely important to let the player to step into the shoes of Sean Devlin and become The Saboteur right along side of him.

“You’ll get to play the origin story of The Saboteur, race in vintage race cars across the streets of Paris, scale the Eiffel tower, shoot your way through hordes of Nazis, sabotage their operations with explosives, chase through burning zeppelins, derail trains and that’s just a few examples of the big action moments.”

Sounds great to us. Hit the link for the rest.

Independent UK retailers are hopping mad at supermarket stores like Tesco and Asda, which are running specials on FIFA 10 for half its recommended retail price.

So mad, that an outcry for legislation to prevent the below cost selling is being shouted.

“It’s bully boy pricing really,” Chips MD Don McCabe told GI.biz. “Other countries have laws against this selling at a loss for very good reason.

“Once they’ve got the whole market they’ll expand their profits, reduce the choice and screw the suppliers,” said McCabe. The only thing that can be done is what other countries have, which is to recognize the insidious march of the supermarkets model is detrimental to the consumer ultimately.”

There’s more of back and forth there through the link. You should go have a read.

Black Bean Studios has said to VG247 that they are creating “the real WRC experience” that will be coming back to the games market.

“We will be bringing the real WRC experience back to the games market”, said a UK PR for the developer. He also told us that this will be the “dedicated” WRC title.

It comes as the studio announced today that they have been developing a WRC game for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC for release in 2010, although the natural assumption was that the full rights was with Gran Turismo 5 and it’s release next year.

Other then that, Black Bean couldn’t share any more info then that.

Harmonix has announced that a Queen Track Pack will land on the Rock Band Music Store during the fourth week of October.

Here’s what you’ll get, and so will we day fricking one:

• Another One Bites The Dust
• Crazy Little Thing Called Love
• One Vision
• Fat Bottomed Girls
• I Want It All
• I Want to Break Free
• Killer Queen
• Somebody to Love
• Tie Your Mother Down
• Under Pressure

No word yet on pricing, but it will probably cost the usual.

We are practicing our Freddie Mercury poses as we speak, and plan on ironing our short-shorts later on after we have calmed down a bit.

Thanks, D’toid.

Capcom’s announced that DeeJay from Super Street Fighter II will make an appearance in Super Street Fighter IV.

To celebrate the announcement, Capcom has sent out some shots of the fighter in action: 12 in total.

They’re after the jump. The game was announced and confirmed for a disc release next spring for PS3 and 360.

More »

Black Bean Studios has announced that they have a World Rally Championship game in development for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

It’ll be out next year.

It’s a surprising announcement, as most people thought the WRC rights were exclusive to Sony, particularly with the release of Gran Turismo 5 having the WRC.

Press release is after the jump.

More »

A new developer diary for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising has popped up over on Shack.

In it, authenticity and realism is discussed, which entails everything from vehicle handling to blood.

Game’s out on October 6, and there are also some new screens for it over on Boomtown.

Twentieth Century Fox plans to make a CG-animated movie based on EA’s Spore, according to a Variety report.

Ice Age’s Chris Wedge is set to direct, and scriptwriters Greg Erb and Jason Oremland are on board as well.

Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age, Robots) will handle the CG bit, while EA’s Patrick O’Brien and Maxis’ Lucy Bradshaw are executive producers.

“From every perspective — visually, thematically and comedically — the world of Spore provides the potential to put something truly original on the screen, said Wedge.

“With more than 100 million unique creatures uploaded to our website, it’s clear that people are passionate about the game, and it will be exciting to offer a powerful medium like film in order to expand their experience with Spore,” said Bradshaw.

More through the links.

Thanks, Joystiq.

CD Projekt has confirmed to GI that it is to be acquired by Polish tech firm Optimus, should the deal be approved, allowing for “the two companies effectively swap shares in each others business” on the Warsaw Stack Exchange.

“In short this is kind of share swap between Polish stock company Optimus SA and CD Projekt Investment, which is the holding company owner of CDP Publishing, CDP Red, GOG.com, Metro and Porting House,” said Karol Zajaczkowski, marketing director at CDP Red. “In the final effect of that swap shareholders of CDP Investment will be the owners of Optimus SA. Optimus is a stock market company so in fact CDP will go public and have access to all stock instruments.

“Finally this means money for future development of the whole company. Basically this is very good information for CDP.”

An official press release is expected later today.

More »

Infinity Ward’s Rob Bowling has confirmed on the developer’s forums that development work for the map pack DLC due for Modern Warfare 2 next year, or for any kind of DLC for the game, “hasn’t even begun”.

Speaking to a user on the forums, Bowling stated: “I think you might be confused by that. We haven’t even begun thinking about what our DLC will be, Let alone finish any.

NO DLC will begin development until the entire game is finished and certified.”

There you have it then.

Game’s out on PS3, PC and 360 on November 10. The first two map packs for the game are a timed exclusive to the Xbox 360 when they land next year.

Brutal Legend is going to fucking shit your pants in awesomeness.

You know it. We know it. Fuck, everyone does! So lets all bask in the glow of a brand new multiplayer trailer released by EA, which you can watch over at Eurogamer Germany.

It’s out near the end of the month for PS3 and 360. Demo is out now on the PS Store and Live.

Pat played through the entire demo yesterday – watch it here.