Monthly Archives: November 2009

Ubi just released the Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines launch trailer ahead of the PSP game’s Friday release. It looks spiffing.

Continuing Altair’s story to Cyprus, the game features, well, lots of killing.

Don’t take our word for it. After the link.

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The PS3-exclusive Battlefield Bad Company 2 Beta starts tomorrow, and DICE’ Gordon van Dyke has chatted a bit to Sony about what testers can expect.

There’s a video below the break where he talks about the Arica Harbor map, the destruction you can cause thanks to the Frostbite engine, and how you can win a Beta key.

The US PS Blog will start handing out Beta vouchers starting tomorrow afternoon via Twitter and Facebook.

So if you want in on it, start following, and to find out how – click this link.

Press onward for the video.

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Xbox Live has a demo up of Tropico 3 and it is available in all regions for Goldens, El Presidente.

Go try it out and rule your realm with an iron fist.

Also available on Arcade as of today is Diner Dash where you must Help Flo turn her greasy spoon into a five-star restaurant – just don’t tell customers to kiss your grits or anything.  Demo is free, full thing will run you 800 MS Points.

Gyromancer, the RPG puzzler title from PopCap and Square is also available in demo form or the full thing for 1200 MS Points.

More through the links there, courtsy of the Major.

Flush with the official announcement of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, Square’s released a second promo. This one’s called “Bowling for Shanghai,” and it’s a little more obvious than the daft restaurant thing that popped up a few weeks ago.

After the break.

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Codemasters has releases a multiplayer PC demo for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising PC and it includes the full first mission – which can be played in single-player as well.

Players can take on the mission in different difficulty modes, including Hardcore where HUD visual aids are stripped out.

It was also revealed that Dragon Rising themed Avatar clothing is to be made available “soon” over on the XBL Marketplace with prices starting at 80 MS Points.

A list of where to acquire the demo can be found through here for various regions.

Game’s out now for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Modern Warfare 2 gamers set a new Xbox Live play record on the game’s day of release, Activision said today, with 2.2 million people getting busy with the Soap on November 10.

More than 5.2 million multiplayer hours were logged on the first day alone, with more than 11 million achievements being unlocked in just 24 hours from launch.

The publisher confirmed today that the game has broken all box office records for its first five days on sale, grossing $550 million.

PR here.

IO Interactive has officially announced that Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days is coming to PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2010.

The shooter takes place in the “gritty Shanghai underworld” visually looks like a documentary film, and will be released under the Eidos label.

“Gamers are always looking for something new and that is exactly what they are going to get with Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days,” said Niels Jørgensen, general manager for IO Interactive.

“A special thanks to gamers worldwide for their feedback. They are certainly in for a shock as we, with immense pride, welcome back our two dear, violent and somewhat unfortunate friends.”

The game also includes a “fragile alliance” multiplayer mode, but details on that were not given.

Looks like the boys are back, kids.

Activision just announced that Modern Warfare 2 has passed $550 million in sales in five days at retail.

The game has now broken a slew of records for entertainment sales, claimed the publisher.

These include, according to this PR:

• The largest reported five-day opening worldwide box office gross figures, held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($394 million)
• The largest reported five-day opening domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($203.8 million)
• The largest reported five-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (6 million units, $500 million)
• The largest reported opening first-day domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($66.4 million)
• The largest reported first-day book sales in dollars, held by Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows ($220 million)
• The largest reported first-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (3.6 million units, $310 million)

So many numbers. So little time. Hit the link for the full thing.

Not to be outdone by Assassin’s Creed II’s timeless dialogue gem, “She cries as I fuck her,” BioShock 2′s ESRB rating has revealed the game contains the equally awesome phrase, “Fucking sodomites everywhere”.

Not strong enough for you? Hit the link. We won’t spoil the spoiler, but let’s just say there’s some language included in the 2K sequel that’d make a Welshman blush.

Valve business boss Jason Holtman has told the Montreal International Game Summit that a direct digital system like Steam means game prices can go up as well as down and people will keep buying.

“In a connected market, you can shift prices up and down, and people don’t care,” he said.

“You can change prices instantaneously. Customers are incredibly sensitive to pricing. You can adjust the price by five dollars, or a dollar, and you can see the demand curve shift.”

Holtman said that in a traditional product model, once your price drops it’s only ever going one way.

“You launch at $50 or $60, then you sit around for a few months until someone says, ‘It’s time to go to $30,’ and you can never go back,” he added.

“Then someone says, ‘It’s time to go to the Platinum Series at $20,’ and then you’re praying it stays there, and then eventually it drops off and it’s gone.”

Holtman voiced the now-familiar Valve mantra of seeing games as services, saying TF2 has been updated 97 times in the past two years.

More on Gama.

Ubi said today that a “VIP beta” for WWII RTS RUSE will begin on November 30.

The taster will include two factions – Germany and America – at the start, but will be updated to allow play with USSR, France, Italy and UK as the beta progresses.

It’s a Steam-only thing, and “a limited number of codes are being distributed on different partner websites worldwide.”

There’s a PR after the break. The full game’s out in the first quarter.

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Ridge Racer Accelerated has been trademarked by Namco in Japan, reports Siliconera.

That’s it. Hopefully it’ll turn into something a pink-shirted Kaz Hirai can shout about on a stage in Los Angeles sometime soon.

Thanks, CVG.

The OFLC turned down Left 4 Dead 2′s appeal for release in Australia because of its “realism,” according to documents obtained by Gamespot.

Apparently there was “insufficient delineation between the depiction of the general zombie figures and the human figures as opposed to the clearly fictional ‘infected’ characters,” and “whether the objects of the violence were fictional or real, and whether a 15 year old could discern the difference, is largely irrelevant where the game displays the level of realism this one does”.

Yeah. That’s stupid. More through there. Thanks, EG.

SCEE’s just updated the EU PS Blog to show off features from Firmware 3.10, the star of which is Facebook integration. There’s video of it in action after the break.

There’s also details there on changes to be made to the style of the console’s Friends list, as well as confirmation of TV on-demand services launching in Spain, Holland, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia.

The update’s due today.

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Nelson’s just posted the Live play chart for the week commencing November 9, and it’s headed by Modern Warfare 2. We never, ever saw that coming.

Here’s the full top ten. Hit the link for community games rankings, and such.

1. Modern Warfare 2
2. Call of Duty 4
3. Halo 3
4. Call of Duty: WaW
5. Left 4 Dead 2 – Demo
6. GTA IV
7. Gears of War 2
8. FIFA 10
9. Halo 3: ODST
10. Madden NFL 10

Sony’s to release PS3 Firmware 3.10 today, PSN director Eric Lempel’s told 1UP, bringing Facebook integration. The firm’s been keen to stress the social media site’s advent on PS3 has nothing to do with the fact it’s just gone live on 360.

“I’ll just say that it’s been in the works for quite some time,” said Lempel.

“It’s never been easy to just integrate new content into the PlayStation Network. We’ve had this planned for a while now.”

Facebook integration is the main thrust of the software update, meaning PS3 gamers will now be able to dump to share Trophy updates into the service’s news feed.

Lempel added that tools to allow games to trasmit event updates to Facebook have already been sent out to Sony’s first-party developers.

There’s more through there.

LittleBigPlanet’s showing no real sign of slowing down in terms of people actually using it to make stuff. Lead architect Paul Holden’s told GI that user-generated levels now top 1.3 million, up from an announced 1 million this summer.

“The figures are obviously changing daily,” said Holden, speaking at the Montreal Games Summit.

“The last figures I saw were there is over 1.3 million levels.”

Someone should tell Sony boss Kaz Hirai – he said at TGS that the game now contained more than 2 million user-created levels.

GameWatch’s got some comparison screens of day, night and dusk in Yakuza 4. These images contain people, cars and buildings with varying levels of ambient and artificial light.

Don’t look if you’re easily offended.

The game’s out next year in Japan. European and the US will get a localization in 3876.

Funcom’s posted a $9.6 million loss for the quarter ending September 30, compared to a profit of $3.3 million in the third quarter of 2008.

Revenues were down from $18 million to $5.7 million.

Q4 revenues is expected to be in the $4-5 million region.

More on Edge.

Ubisoft’s launched Uplay, a publisher-specific rewards program, alongside Assassin’s Creed II.

If you’ve been playing the game – it’s awesome: you should – you may have noticed the occassional “U” popping up as you going about your shit. It’s a system similar to Achievements and Trophies; you get points to spend in-game on weapons, skins, and so on, for completing “Actions”.

Check out all the available Actions and rewards here.

Only Assassin’s Creed II, Splinter Cell Conviction, and RUSE are compatible right now, and you don’t appear to be able to link your Gamertag or PSN ID with your Ubi profile, but it’s the thought that counts.

Take a look.