Monthly Archives: November 2009

The latest Edge scores are up on NeoGAF (thanks, Anders), including a 10/10 for Platinum’s Bayonetta.

Dragon Age fared less well: it got 5/10 for the 360 version.

The lot:

• Modern Warfare 2: 9
• Assassin’s Creed II: 8
• Left 4 Dead 2: 9
• Bayonetta: 10
• Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: 8
• Sin and Punishment: 8
• Dragon Age:Origins: 5
• Saw: 4
• Lit: 7
• Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles 7
• Football Manager 2010: 8
• Tropico 3: 7
• Spaceball Revolution: 5

Rebellion’s confirmed that Aliens Vs Predator will, after all, have dedicated servers for multiplayer.

“Despite rumours, Rebellion has always been planning to support dedicated servers for Aliens vs Predator PC and we can now officially confirm that this is the case. Rebellion has always appreciated fan support,” said Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley.

“We’re really looking forward to the release of Aliens vs Predator as much as you guys are!”

The company had previously refused to be drawn on the matter.

Thanks, GI.

SCE boss Kaz Hirai’s told reporters in Japan that he’s “confident” of hitting 13 million PlayStation 3 sales in the fiscal year ending March 2010.

Global, reported PS3 hardware sales stand at 4.3 million for the first two quarters of this FY.

The exec also said that Sony’s planned online, cross-format entertainment system will definitely launch next year.

The network will deliver “movies, music, books and other content to network-capable TVs, Blu-ray players, ebooks and others,” according to this Reuters report.

Xbox Europe boss Neil Thompson isn’t pleased with Sky’s launch on 360 in the UK. No sir. He’s had his fucking mind blown, man. He can’t handle it. He’s freakin’. Climbing the walls. Riding the wave. Shooting the goose. Which probably explains why the whole thing fell over the first day thanks to “demand“.

“We were blown away – literally – by the response we had, and we took some flak, probably fairly,” Thompson said in this GI interview.

“We didn’t scale to quite the scale we should have, and I take that criticism on board and we’ve learned from it. But now it’s up and running, people are loving it, the subscription rates, the download rates for the application and so on are just blowing my mind away, they’re blowing the people at Sky’s minds away.”

Whatever Neil’s having, we’re up for the double-drop, dude.

“It’s proving incredible popular… It is a phenomenal success at this point,” he added.

Hit this for details of packages, etc.

Break‘s posted up what looks to be an unedited video of BioShock 2 deathmatch – watch it after the break.

Shouting, shooting and plasmids pretty much sums it up. The last BioShock 2 multiplay movie showed its Capture the Sister mode.

It’s out on all formats on February 9.

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Someone’s apparently found some hidden multiplay modes in Modern Warfare 2. One of them involves capturing a nuclear missile before the other team.

Watch a supposed video of it here (thanks, reask), overlaid with obvious ranting about how this stuff’s probably paid DLC already embedded in your game code.

An explanation from the apparently bombed ModernWarfail2.com, via EvilAvatar:

The first gametype – “gtnw” – is Global Thermonuclear War. To play, simply capture the objective: a nuclear bomb. When captured, the bomb detonates…

The second gametype – “oneflag” – is One Flag CTF. To play, capture the flag in the middle and bring it back to your base.

The third gametype – “vip” – is VIP. To play, defend the VIP. Or, if you’re on the other team, kill the VIP.

These gametypes were only tested on Afghan and Favela. They may not work for all maps.”

Rumour, obviously. Although it doesn’t much look like it.

Both the US and European PSN updates are detailed on the respective Sony blogs. Why we didn’t do these yesterday will have to remain a mystery. Must be getting close to the end of the year.

Not much to be had on either, to be honest. Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao’s the only full game for Europe, and America had to settle for Peggle.

Hit the links. It’s 8.09am on Friday morning. You may as well ruin your last vestige of self-worth.

Hey EA cast-aways, paddle your cardboard boxes in Microsoft’s direction, because the console powerhouse recently posted a heaping helping of job vacancies.

More specifically, Microsoft’s looking for 54 fresh faces, most of whom will join either 343 Industries or the Project Natal team.

Interestingly, the company’s also hoping to scare up a lead producer to “work with an experienced team at MGS and the world-class developers at Epic to drive the success of Gears of War and Shadow Complex in the highly competitive and fascinating world of interactive entertainment.”

And Shadow Complex? But that game’s already out! Surely they’re not suggesting a… sequel? Why, that’s practically unheard of in the videogame industry!

Thanks, Develop.

The first screens of Grasshopper’s Xbox 360/PS3 port of No More Heroes have materialized, and we must admit, the game cleans up quite nicely.

We’re gonna miss vigorously shaking the Wii-Mote to recharge our beam sabers, though. Oh well, with all these newly de-clothed women frolicking about (seriously, it’s a new game mode), we’re sure a suitable replacement will pop up in no time.

No, not that, you pervs! We mean, like, a TV remote or something. Because we’ll… want to turn up the TV volume at some point perhaps? Yeah, let’s go with that.

Check out all the screens over at Kotaku.

In case you missed it earlier today, Relentless Software put a video up on the EU PS Blog for Blue Toad Murder Files.

We’ve put it below the break, but you can view it through the link too.

It’s out on PSN December 17.

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Atari and Cryptic announced this evening that the open Beta dates for Star Trek Online will run from January 12 through January 26.

Open beta keys will be given out on a first come first serve basis and interested parties should sign up on the official website.

“We are excited to announce the dates for the open beta phase as this is one of the final steps in launching Star Trek Online to the public,” said executive producer Craig Zinkievich. “We are looking forward to the launch of our first-of-a-kind MMORPG with anticipation and excitement and we expect Star Trek Online to explode onto the scene, giving fans and gamers a Star Trek experience like no other.”

Color us very excited.

Full PR below the break.

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SCEA announced today that Brazilians will finally be able to get their hands on a PS2 along with 14 gaming titles.

Get this – the console will run folks R$799 ($445) and games will cost R$119 ($66) and R$99 ($55).

Why so much? According to 1UP, the import taxes have been set at are around 60 percent since the mid-1990s.

No wonder piracy is rampant there.

Full PR through the break with thanks to mojo as well.

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A new video for The Sims 3, which had an expansion called World Adventures come out this week, has surfaced.

It makes fun of the Twilight saga, by parodying New Moon.

Actually, it looks loads better to us. We would actually pay to see this in theaters.

Watch on below.

In other Sims news, there’s also a patch available and you can get it here.

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Blizzard has updated the StarCraft II website with 17 new screenshots showing gameplay along with in-game cinematics.

There’s also new information on creating 1v1 multiplayer maps, how the team’s creating the single-player story campaign and even a short story focusing on the Zerg Changling unit.

It’s all through the link there, via BigDownload.

Microsoft has outlined some of its upcoming Deals of the Week along with new additions to Games on Demand and Xbox Live

Here’s the rundown:

Deals of the Week

• Week of November 23: Fable II: See the Future and Peggle will be available for 400 MS Points each and Death Tank will run you 800 MS Points (worldwide).
• Week of November 30 gets Sonic The Hedgehog 2 for 240 MS Points worldwide (except India.)

XBL Additions

• Madden NFL Arcade -November 25 (worldwide) for 1200 MS Points.

Games on Demand (no pricing yet)

• Battlefield: Bad Company – November 24 (Japan), Saints Row 2 (worldwide except Japan), LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (worldwide except Japan and Mexico).

Full details over on TeamXbox.

Square has announced that Supreme Commander 2 will be released on PC March 2 and Xbox 360 March 16.

It was announced yesterday that it would arrive in spring 2010 in PAL regions, so we’ll check with Square to make sure these new dates are for Europe too.

New PR is posted below.

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Activison has sent us a reminder that the KISS track pack is now available for Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.

The KISS Track Pack features the new track “Modern Day Delilah,” along with “Lick It Up” and “I Was Made For Lovin’ You.”

It will run you 440 MS Points ($5.49/£3.74/€5.12) and 550 Wii Points for the pack, or 160 MS Points ($1.99/£1.36/€1.86) and 200 Wii Points for individual songs.

Via PR mailer.

Law firm AbingtonIP has revealed that it’s currently “investigating” what it calls the “convenient” Xbox Live bannings over modded consoles.

The firm believes that it’s no coincidence that MS banned “tens of thousands” of users after receiving its money for Gold memberships post release of Halo 3: ODST and Modern Warfare 2. Therefore, the law firm is considering a suit in order to get the membership fees refunded to subscribers along with a “refund for the prorated sums”.

“To me, this certainly sounds a lot like a cash grab directed at a company with deep pockets, but perhaps there are more facts than they are letting on,” said Joystiq legal columnist Mark Methenitis. “If, in fact, Microsoft is inducing people to buy a service only to terminate them, then there’s certainly a deceptive business practice concern.

“But this seems far more cut and dry than that.”

Methenitis also stated that a user “savvy enough to have a modded console” should be savvy enough not to connect it to XBL without “serious risk.”

More through the links.

Some more details were revealed for Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days through a fact sheet from Square Enix.

According to Kotaku, this time around you’re playing as Lynch who, after finding peace in Shanghai, finds that it’s the “perfect playground for expat criminals such as [himself]“.

Lynch also has a plan to “make a fat deal where the pay is beyond his wildest dreams and nothing is going to get in his way”. Good to hear.

The game supports online co-op, and like the original, online multiplayer.

It’s out during the second part of 2010.

More through the link.

Capcom has announced that Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B, has picked up the movie rights to Dark Void – a game that is not even out yet.

It will even “potentially” star the man himself.

Oh yeah – and the game has been delayed a week.

Good gravy.

Full PR below the break.

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