Monthly Archives: November 2009

Stardock’s patched weirdy RTS Demigod up to 1.2, adding a new playable demigod in the Demon Assassin.

There are tons of other additions to both single-player and multiplayer modes, all of which you can read about here.

GameWatch has posted lots of pictures of an exploded DSiLL, what with the big-screened handheld shipping in Japan yesterday.

You’ll also find there the obligatory comparison shots between the new monster, previous DS interations and PSP.

Go absolutely, grade-A, balloon-happy mental. DSiLL releases in Europe and the US early next year.

Take that, Aion cheats. NCsoft’s rebooted its Aion servers and taken the opportunity to ban 16,000 users for botting and real money offences.

“If your account was closed for the use of 3rd party software (botting) or participating in RMT (gold buying/selling) the evidence for the account closure was gathered over several weeks,” said the firm in this forum post.

“It may be completely unrelated to what your character was doing right when your account was closed.”

Be warned. Read the full thing through the link.

South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson – Australia’s most visible opponent to the country adopting an 18 age rating for games – has confirmed he’s to appeal an OFLC decision to release Modern Warfare 2 with a 15+ rating in the country.

Speaking on radio show National Interest last week, Atkinson said he thought the ruling “is wrong,” adding:

“This decision doesn’t surprise me. The Classification Board in Australia does everything to try and get games in under the radar.”

If he’s successful, the game could be banned from sale in Australia.

In an email to Gamespot, Atkinson accused the game of “glorifying terrorism”:

“I worry about any game that encourages gamers to perpetrate extreme violence and cruelty on screen, but this game [Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2] allows players to be virtual terrorists and gain points by massacring civilians. Expecting game designers to be responsible by not glorifying terrorism will always lead to disappointment,” he said.

More through there.

Microsoft has told CNET that at least 2 million Xbox Live users logged into Facebook through Xbox 360 in the week since the two services were integrated, and that half a million Last.fm accounts were created in the first 24 hours of availability.

No figures have been released on Twitter use through 360, but according to a rep, there have been “tweets from nearly every market where we have Xbox Live.”

A tenth of all Live users have accessed Facebook through 360 in a week? Amazing scenes.

All through there.

Epic superhero Cliff Bleszinski’s listed his top games over at IndustryGamers. And they are:

• Half-Life 2
• Doom
• Super Bomberman
• BioShock
• Super Metroid
• Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Tetris Attack/Pokémon Puzzle League
• GTA III
• Contra
• GoldenEye/Halo

Is there anything else to say? Probably not. Hit the link for words from Cliff and some nice pictures.

Black Friday looms, and never larger than at Wal-Mart’s door. Destructoid’s listing the store’s deals, which are apparently “damned solid”.

Steph’s American, so she’d know if this is true or not, but it’s Steph-night-off-Monday, so we’re assuming it is.

Here’s some of it:

• Nintendo DS Lite – $98
• PS3 Slim + Batman: Arkam Asylum, inFamous, and Dark Knight (movie) – $299
• Xbox 360 Arcade + Madagascar 2 game and movie – $199
• Nintendo Wii Console w/ Wii Sports Resort (walmart.com only) – under $300
• Rock Band Special Edition (PS3 or Xbox 360) – $50
• Midnight Club LA – $10
• Grand Theft Auto IV – $10
• The Godfather (PS3) – $10
• NFS: Undercover (PS3) – $10
• Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 (360) – $7

Hit the link for more.

Tony Hawk RIDE may be getting a critical panning, but the skater behind the peripheral-based game’s out for RIDE 2. Right now.

“We have already started that process, but who knows what the future holds,” he said when asked by Gamespot if there was going to be a second game.

“I’ve never had a master plan, especially with our old series, of how many we could do, or how far we could take it. It really was all about the fans and the console technology.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s all systems go with trying to make at least a sequel for this, because I feel like we’ve only just really tapped what’s possible with this technology.”

Yeah. When Giant Bomb calls your game a “miserable failure,” you might want to think about “reshaping” your ideas before going again, non?

Sega’s shown off the new Bayonetta model through Maxim. See here.

We had no idea there was an old Bayonetta model, unless you count the woman in very tight rubber you see a lot on UKR.

But anyway, there she is. She’s called Andrea Bonaccorso.

“While some entrants perfectly mirrored the outfit of the character and others simply donned librarian glasses, Andrea married both elements to come out on top,” said someone at Maxim.

The game’s out in the west next year. You’ll get a demo next week.

What do you do when you get fired? You smash up a printer with a baseball bat, a crowbar and a sledgehammer.

Goodbye, Pandemic. See here. Note: the music contains naughty words.

Update: It looks as those these codes are Euro-only. We’re getting a bunch back not working from American readers. Don’t try to get one if you’re outside Europe.

Update 2: The text below’s been updated. We’ll just leave this page open until they’re all gone. Just keep tweeting @patlike.

SCEE just sent us 1,000 MAG beta keys. Hilariously, we’ve got to distribute them ourselves. Here’s how you get one:

• Comment on this story. Please try to be witty, or something. Or say something along the lines of, “I love buying games. I spend all my money on games.” We’re supposed to be attractive to advertisers.
• Follow all of the following on Twitter: @patlike, @vg247, @stephnunneley, @JohnnyCullen and @vahn16.
• Tweet the following ONCE: @patlike Give me a #magbeta key!
• NOTE: You MUST follow @patlike to receive the code.
• Spam me and you get nothing. Worse: you get less than nothing.
• We’ll keep doing this until they’re all gone. Just keep tweeting @patlike and we’ll keep sending out codes.

The beta’s now been extended to December 4. Good luck!

After an earlier ESRB outing, Revenge of the Wounded Dragon has been revealed, and will go on sale tomorrow in the PS Store update.

As the earlier ESRB listing pointed out earlier, it is developed by A2M, developers of WET.

Find the first screens over at the US PS Blog, along with a video. That is actually after the jump.

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So, Crackdown 2 is awesome. Like, properly awesome. As in “oh my god, it’s so awesome, I am melting at it’s awesomeness.”

Thats how awesome it is. We have a full hands-on and eyes-on report of the campaign and multiplayer going live tomorrow, but a shitload of stuff went live today.

You can find them below. Ones bolded are the important ones, innit.

You need to get this one next year, Radioheads.

• Interview, part 1: Crackdown 2 design boss and producer on Pacific City’s future
• Interview, part 2: Crackdown 2 design boss and producer on Pacific City’s future
• Crackdown 2 – new shots
• Ruffian: Crackdown 2 will run at 30fps
• Crackdown 3 city to “alter,” says Ruffian boss
• Ruffian: Nine underground levels in Crackdown 2

Nelson‘s just detailed this weeks Live Deal of the Week, where this week you get three for the price of one.

First up – Fable II DLC pack “See the Future”. Once 560 MS points, it’s now 400 MS points.

Secondly, Peggle, which was once at 800 MS points. Now, it is reduced to 400 MS points.

Finally, Arcade game Death Tank will retail for 800 MS points, falling from 1200 MS points.

All deals are for one week, and for Gold members only.

Microsoft’s just told VG247 that they aren’t commenting on the possibillity of Project Gotham Racing 5 appearing sometime soon. It comes as a blog on the website of car maker Tesla may have outed PGR5.

The response given to us by a MS PR rep was:

“Microsoft do not comment on rumour or speculation.”

Stand down, Starsailor. Stand down… for now, at least.

Speaking with Japan Today, Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai has said that the company wants to increase its “brand loyalty.”

It comes as last week, Hirai detailed the future of the PlayStation Network at a meeting in Tokyo, including bringing premium features for the service.

“We want to increase the value, or the brand loyalty of our Sony products. There is no question about it,” he said.

“That’s the kind of combination that I think is not seen anywhere else. That I think is where our core competence lies, and that’s a differentiator for Sony.”

Find more through the link. Thanks, Kotaku.

505 Games has confirmed that there will be a patch on the way for the PlayStation 3 version of IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey.

The patch come fix some of the problems that have plagued the PS3 SKU. It’s currently going through QA, with a date to be finalised.

The full patch notes are after the break.

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Was this morning’s epic head-to-head not good enough for you?

Well, enter CVG and let them have battle, as they have a proper comparison of the DSi LL vs the PSP. But unlike this morning, the DSi LL goes up against the PSPgo. The original DSi is there, too.

Epic shit, and stuff.

Find it through here.

Pitchforks and shotguns at dawn! Get them out!

Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma has revealed in an recent interview, translated by GAF, he reckons that the infamous Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is “not that good.”

Buuurn.

“If you play Ocarina of Time nowadays, you notice that it’s not that good,” said Aonuma.

Again, burn.

“It’s complicated. Past things belong to our memories, and they grow bigger in there.

“Sometimes it doesn’t move as fast as it should, graphics aren’t as beautiful as they should be; there are some confusing parts… any present Zelda is technically superior. Everything goes faster, more fluid.”

Thanks, CVG.

Sega’s just confirmed that the Western demo release of Bayonetta will get a US-EU sim-release next Wednesday for Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network.

A Japanese demo was previously released on the PlayStation Store and XBLMP.

It comes as the game gets a previously announced January 8 release in the UK, with it becoming only the 11th game ever to get a 10 from Edge.

Two words: buy. it.

Press release is after the break.

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