Monthly Archives: November 2009

SCEE’s just released a promo movie for its snappily-titled PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service, saying the imminent PS3 and PSP feature will “change the way you watch films forever”.

Get it after the break.

There’s footage there of the store’s layout, as well as a further pushing of the fact you can both buy and rent films on VDS, something that isn’t possible on the rent-only Live system.

Take a look. VDS finally releases in Europe today.

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A website showing the Mignight Riders band from Left 4 Dead 2 went live last night, featureing the words “coming soon”.

Obviously, this means it’s something to do with Left 4 Dead 2 and “coming soon”. DLC sounds like a fair bet.

No confirmation though, obviously. Thanks, CVG.

Capcom’s released screens of new character costumes to be included in one of the two upcoming Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition packs. See shots on Siliconera.

There’s the PC edition folklore outfit for Sheva and the warrior get-up for Chris.

Get full details through there.

Cryptic’s revealed its next CO update to be Nemesis Confrontation. All details here.

Players will get new perks, new costumes and a new instance in Nemesis Lair.

New items are being included as well, such as the Hyper Dimensional Shifthopper Armbands. You can’t say fairer than that.

Hit the link for everything, plus shots.

Borderlands DLC The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned will provide roughly six hours of new gameplay, Gearbox has told MTV.

“It’s probably about the size of the Arid Badlands,” said design director Paul Helqist.

The game’s first content update will cost $10 on PSN and 800 MSP (£6.80/€9.60).

It’s out on November 24. Thanks, EG.

The LA Times is reporting that more than 8 million people played Modern Warfare 2 online in its first week at retail, giving some indication that sales haven’t just broken records by the game, but rather crushed, eaten, and shat into dust.

“With multiplayer we deliver hundreds or thousands of hours of gameplay for about the same price as taking a family to the movies,” said Bobby “Sex for Shares” Kotick.

“It’s also a way to address the challenge of used games.”

That piece also says that MW2 cost “$40 million to $50 million to produce”. Big beans.

And there’s more! Apparently CoD4′s sold 14.4 million units. Not the 13 million Activision said it had sold on MW2′s launch night.

Hey ho.

IGN’s posted a trailer for Uwe Boll’s straight-to-DVD Far Cry movie. It’s after the break.

Looks OK! It’s got German people looking moody and an exploding helicopter. That’s all we ever want from anything, to be fair.

Take a look.

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SCEE boss Andrew House has told GI that the European PS3 Video Delivery Service (VDS) will grow by around 50 films per week.

VDS launches today.

“We’re starting out with a really strong offering – there’s plenty there to choose from, a tremendous number of current hits – and then I think we’ll grow it somewhere in the region I hope of about an additional 50 movies per week,” said the exec.

“So that’ll encourage return traffic, people coming back, something new for them there to check out – we’re feeling fairly comfortable about the content line-up we’ve got, and that’s led us again to this being the right time to launch.”

More through there. There’s a list of “launch window” films here. Around 2,000 movies will be available on the store as of today.

Update: Full details on the PS Blog.

PSP Firmware 6.20 is now live.

The comic system detailed at GamesCom is included in the software, but won’t be available until December.

The machine does now supports playlists for video and photos, and you can transfer existing ones over from your PC or PS3 to your handheld.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Steam’s got Serious Sam HD up for pre-order at £16.19. The game’s now gold.

It’ll be unlocking on November 24.

The game’s the same thing you played years ago. But prettier. If you like shooting a lot of mental frogs, you’re in the right place.

Looks as though the censored Left 4 Dead 2 version that finally made release in Australia is a bit… rubbish. IGN AU’s given it 5/10.

Apparently the game’s been compromised by “glitchy-looking edits” and “is a massive step backwards from the original.”

To be clear, “if you can get your hands on an unedited version of this game, revise the score up to high 8s. If not, sit this one out.”

Got that. Hit the link for the full thing.

Sony’s put PS3 Firmware 3.10 live, meaning you can now bomb your Facebook feed with Trophy and PS Store purchase information.

Get more details on what’s included here.

There’s a new-look Friends list, and some other minor stuff. We’re downloaded and installed.

Don’t forget that the European movie store also launches today.

The first reviews of Tony Hawk: Ride have started to trickle in, and sprained ankles and bruised egos seem to be the name of the game here. Well, mostly. So, is this the large plastic, skateboard-shaped nail in the Tony Hawk franchise’s coffin? Let’s take a look.

• Game Informer – 5.75/10
• G4 – 1/5 (!)
• Planet Xbox 360 – 9/10 (!!!)

G4 and Planet Xbox 360 both conducted their reviews at a day-long event last weekend. According to G4, though, they had plenty of time to finish the game.

If you happen to come across any more reviews of Tony Hawk’s latest effort, drop us a line and we’ll add them to the list.

If actor Kevin McKidd has his ears pressed up against the proper grapevines, we may be seeing a Call of Duty movie in the near future. So he said in an interview with the New York Post:

“They were looking for a rough, Scottish actor in Hollywood they probably couldn’t get Gerard Butler, so they got the No. 2 Gerard Butler, me. I had no idea it would be so huge, and now there are talks of a feature film.”

So, who’s stepping into Soap’s squeaky clean boots? Well, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? And McKidd thinks he’s up for the task.

“If the script is good, and Gerard isn’t available [laughs], then absolutely,” he said.

Granted, this doesn’t necessrily prove the existence of a Call of Duty film. For all we know, McKidd could be an avid VG247 reader, and might just be referencing the Call of Duty movie trademark from a couple months back.

Come on, Mr. McKidd. Speak up in our comments section that you frequently peruse. Er, don’t be shy now.

Looks like – for the time being – Phoenix Wright has flown the DS’ coop. Starting in January, three of his finger-pointing-est adventures are getting the thumbs up from Nintendo to appear on WiiWare.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attourney’s taking the stand in January, with Justice for All and Trials and Tribulations coming in March and May, respectively. They’re going for 1,000 Wii Points a piece.

“Rise from the Ashes,” a bonus case added to the DS version of Ace Attourney, will also drop in May, for a mere 100 Wii Points.

Be warned, though: these are ports of the quick and dirty variety. Same graphics, same sound effects – even a constrained 4:3 resolution! You can flail the Wii-Mote like a complete loon when you’re objecting, though, and that’s certainly worth the full price of admission in our books.

Check out a few screens over at Joystiq.

Direct2Drive and Steam sales for the week of November 8 – 14 were released today.

Modern Warfare 2 topped the Steam charts, of course, while D2D’s top on the list was Dragon Age: Origins.

The list is below, courtesy of Shack.

Steam

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
2. Dragon Age: Origins / Left 4 Dead 2 (preorder) (per BigDownload)
3. Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe Edition
4. Borderlands
5. Overload Complete Pack
6. Torchlight
7. Crysis / Crysis Warhead Bundle
8. Football Manager 2010
9. Mass Effect
10. Counter-Strike: Source

Direct2Drive

1. Dragon Age: Origins
2. Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe Edition
3. Borderlands
4. Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe Edition with Prima Guide
5. Torchlight
6. Best of Indie Bundle Vol. 2
7. Tropico 3
8. Civilization 4: The Complete Edition
9. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
10. Fallen Earth

If you missed out on winning an Uncharted 2: Fortune Hunter’s Edition through the US PS Blog, have no fear – another contest is here.

To enter the contest, Home users should head over to the Uncharted 2 game space on Friday, November 20 through November 21 to play the Fortunate Thieves mini-game.

The user that acquires the number one slot on the leaderboard will win the coveted copy, which includes a Phurba Dagger ornamental replica, a “book case” with art book autographed by the Naughty Dog team, downloads, and the Strategy Guide.

Head on through the link to find out more.

During a panel at the Montreal International Game Summit, A2M CEO Remi Racine accused some publishers of “cheating” in order to get a more favorable rating from the ESRB.

“As a developer who has worked with a lot of different publishers, we’re aware of many that have tried to cheat the rating,” he said. “They say to the ERSB that it’s a Teen rating rather than an Mature to try and sell more. You can do this just by sending them a video that doesn’t show the most violent stuff and then you’ll get the rating that you want rather than the rating you should get.

“We have to make sure that everyone behaves and that the ERSB is duly diligent. Maybe getting your game out at a certain rating will help that game, but it’s really not going to help the industry as a whole.

“Right now I don’t think the industry is doing enough to educate the audience. The ERSB is supposed to do it, but it feels like we just kind of expect these kind of industry or government bodies to do the job for us. As much as I don’t think it’s the place of EA or Activision to go off and try and inform parents on their own, a more active role needs to be taken by all participants to ensure our artists are free to express themselves and that content can be enjoyed responsibly.”

In response to the claim, ESRB spokesman Eliot Mizrachi stated that the ratings board keeps tabs on game after release, and if one is found to be in violation of the rating given – the publisher could face a fine of up to $1 million.

More through Edge, Joystiq.

A video for Bayonetta has landed over on GameTrailers, and in it, you are provided a look into some of the different methods used to torture opponents.

It’s over-the-top goodness at it’s best, seriously.

Also mentioned was that when Bayonetta is struck by an enemy, it depletes her magic bar.

We’ll try our damnedest not to get hit too often then, when it releases January 8.

Right. We’ll die loads, we reckon.

Watch on below, via Joystiq.

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According to a report from the L.A. Times, Activison has a third team working on the Call of Duty series, but fails to mention which studio has been handed the task or what it entails.

Apparently, Infinity Ward and Treyarch just aren’t enough.

As Activision seems to be discovering this year with Guitar Hero, there’s danger when a title is overexposed with too many iterations. Nonetheless, the publisher has aggressive expansion plans for Call of Duty. Although Infinity Ward and Treyarch have produced sequels in alternating years since 2005, the publisher now has a third development studio working on future versions.

Over on Kotaku, the site reminds us that CEO Bobby Kotick has “publicly expressed this thoughts on a massively-multiplayer online take on the series” and how CFO Tom Tippl says the company is looking into “additional online monetization models” for the franchise – so it could be anything, really.

The site also mentions that n-Space works on the portable versions and Certain Affinity helps out with Treyarch’s multiplayer maps. Then there’s studios Raven, High Moon, and the newly formed Sledgehammer, which all have experience with FPS games.

So again, it could be any one of these, or a new studio entirely.

We’ll send a mail off to Activision and see if anyone gets back with us.

Thanks, GoNintendo.