Monthly Archives: November 2009

There’s a new Dead to Rights: Retribution video up over on Eurogamer Germany, showing Jack Slade and Shadow doing what they both do best.

Jack: Shooting and punching people.

Shadow: Mauling people.

Good stuff. It’s out for 360 and PS3 early next year.

Microsot has released the Halo Waypoint schedule for the first week, with the first Legends episode to be released on Saturday.

Those playing around with the Xbox Live preview program can already access Waypoint, and the rest of the public gets it this Thursday, November 5.

Here’s the schedule, courtesy of Joystiq:

• Monday (yesterday): Spotlight on Louis Wu
• Tuesday (today): Halo in Five Minutes (IGN)
• Wednesday:Halo 3 ODST Firefight Community Screenshots
• Thursday (official launch): Intro to Halo Legends, plus “The Babysitter” trailer, and Welcome to Waypoint
• Friday: Top Ten Firefight Tactics (Prima Strategy)
• Saturday: Halo Legends: “The Babysitter” (available Saturday only)
• Sunday: Inside the Fiction: Featuring Say My Name and the NMPD Pelican from Halo 3: ODST

Black Friday will be upon us soon, and it looks as though the Doorbuster and sale deals on the table at Sears were leaked onto the net already.

Mind you, keep all these as rumor for the time being. We are unsure if the same deals apply to Kmart or not, just so you know.

Thanks, GamerDeals.

Sears Black Friday Doorbuster prices are valid Friday, November 27 from 4am – Noon. All other prices are valid both Friday and Saturday.

Here is a rundown of the Sears Black Friday video game deals:

Xbox 360

• Brutal Legend – $39.99 (Save $20)
• Dragon Age: Origins – $39.99 (Save $20)
• Need for Speed: Shift – $39.99 (Save $20)
• Halo 3 ODST – $39.99 (Save $20)
• Left 4 Dead – $39.99 (Save $20)
• Forza 3 Motorsport – $39.99 (Save $20)
• Guitar Hero World Tour Guitar Kit – $49.99 (Save $20) Doorbuster

PS3

• Brutal Legend – $39.99 (Save $20)
• Dragon Age: Origins – $39.99 (Save $20)
• Need for Speed: Shift – $39.99 (Save $20)
• Guitar Hero World Tour Guitar Kit – $49.99 (Save $20) Doorbuster
• Free Blu-ray remote w/ purchase of PS3 Console

Nintendo Wii & DS

• A Boy and his Blob – $29.99 (Save $10)
• Biggest Loser – $29.99 (Save $10)
• Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum – $29.99 (Save $10)
• Drawn to Life (DS) – $19.99 (Save $10) Doorbuster
• World of Zoo (DS) – $19.99 (Save $10) Doorbuster
• Guitar Hero World Tour Guitar Kit – $49.99 (Save $20) Doorbuster
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up – $29.99 (Save $20) Doorbuster

Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata has said that in Japan, the Wii situation “cannot be defined as healthy” because it hits the “below 50k unit sales” mark each week, despite the price cut and the 100k sales spike over the summer.

“As you probably know, the current situation of Wii cannot be defined as healthy,” he said. “The price cut seems to have the least impact here than other parts of the world.

“It is our urgent mission to recover the momentum of Wii during the holidays utilizing Nintendo’s strength.”

Maybe everyone in Japan already has one, then again, there are over 127,076,183 people living in the country and we doubt infants go out and buy consoles.

More through CVG.

Microsoft has sent out an invites to its rewards program preview for US Xbox 360 owners, allowing users to accrue Points for doing whatever it is they do when online.

We got ours today.

“The best part is, the more you spend, the more you get, and for each month you stay on Gold, the higher your monthly reward  – up to 5 percent of your Marketplace spend,” reads a company statement.

Also, both Gold and Silver folks earn rewards for taking part in surveys. Neato.

We’ll let you know how many points we pile up. It will be a sad lot, admittedly.

Bit of bad news for US and UK’ers with today’s Games on Demand offerings, with only one of each available in certain regions.

Battlefield 2 is only available in North America and Asia only for $19.99.

Far Cry 2 available everywhere but NA for £19.99.

Someone, somewhere will be pissed over one or the other, no doubt.

Via the Major.

Sony announced earlier its list of movies and studios expected for the November launch of its video service, and now it’s telling the world just how awesome it really is, what with over 2,300 movies and 14,000 TV shows.

Combined, all video content on the store amounts to around 10,000 hours of visual crack.

“PlayStation Network now boasts the most content of any downloadable video delivery service through a videogame console available today,” said a Sony representative in a statement to Edge.

Sony also let it be known that video store downloads increased over 100 percent in September 2009 when compared to the same month in 2008.

One can only expect things to get crazier once Netflix goes live on the system this month.

More through the link.

Sony has announced details of its Euro PS3 Video Service, and while pricing is still to be determined, SCEE did see fit to send over a list containing some of titles planned for day one.

Here’s some of what you can expect:

• Angels & Demons
• Bruno
• Casino Royale
• Crank 2: High Voltage
• Hannah Montana: The Movie
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
• The Hills Have Eyes
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Slated for a November launch in France, Germany, Spain and the UK, studios in on the deal include 20th Century Fox, Disney-ABC-ESPN Television1, Lionsgate2, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Starz Media2, Universal, Warner Bros and number of local studios to be announced closer to launch.

Full PR mail follows the break.

More »

Rumor has it that this Saturday, Walmart plans to hand customers a $100 gift card when they purchase an Xbox 360 Arcade system for $199.

That’s basically getting the console for $99, and you can use the card for groceries, games, Christmas presents, or whatever else tickles your fancy.

Supposedly, the big box store will also have the Sony Blu-ray player on sale for $148.

Keep this as rumor until Walmart releases its weekly sales flier on Wednesday.

Via Kotaku.

Activision plans to launch the ratings awareness program started by Vivendi in 2008, which will provide education and information to parents regarding children and the videogames they play.

Called The Ratings Are Not a Game, Dr. Cheryl Olson from the Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General Hospital will preside over the program, the purpose of which is to help parents make intelligent and informed decisions regarding games they allow their children to play.

“I’m pleased to partner with Activision on this initiative, and applaud their consideration for parents’ concerns,” said Olson. “As a parent myself, I know there are so many things to worry about and not enough time, especially during the holiday season.”

Also being used to promote the ESRB, seven videos based on different aspects of gaming are to be released. The first two will focus on using games to teach puzzle solving techniques, and how parents can identify age-appropriate games.

“These videos give practical research-based advice on how to help your kids – and your family – get more out of videogames, and how to watch for and limit electronic gameplay,” added Olsen.

Thanks, GI.biz.

Microsoft just confirmed that its 360 Sky player is being relaunched gradually in the UK, with “tens of thousands” of users being given access to the TV on-demand feature “each day”.

Here’s the full statement, dropped by Aceybongos on the Xbox.com forums:

As you may know, we have been experiencing some technical issues with the Sky Player on Xbox 360 since launch last Tuesday morning. It is important to both Sky and Xbox that we give customers as much information as possible about why the service is not working and when we expect this to be resolved.

As we said last week, some customers have been unable to experience full use of the service due to the initial demand for the service at launch, when so many people tried to access the service all at the same time.

Right now we are implementing a revised rollout which will see Sky Player become available to all Xbox 360 customers gradually. While unfortunately some customers do not have access to the service, tens of thousands more will be added each day, until the service is available to all.

We are taking this phased approach to ensure that consumers experience a high-quality experience. The Sky team has contacted the affected Sky Player TV subscribers on Xbox directly with further updates.

For further information consumers can go to xbox.skyplayer.com/help or www.xbox.com/support.

“Demand” forced Microsoft to withdraw the Sky player on its launch day last month.

Valve’s running a preorder incentive on the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2, where you not only get 10 percent off the cost of the game, but Bill’s beret from Left 4 Dead 1 for your Team Fortress 2 character.

If you already preordered the game, Valve said to fire-up your TF2 game and the beret will be ready and waiting for you.

Check with your local retailer to make sure it’s participating, though, just to be sure.

Full thing’s over on the TF2 blog.

Looks like retailers are gearing up for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and it’s gonna be big folks. We’re talking riot inducing big. People stepping over old ladies and children to get their hands on a copy – Costanza style.

According to GameStop’s VP of merchandising, Tony Bartel, preorders for the title exceeded all expectations and he predicts a massive launch.

“By all indicators, we anticipate Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be the biggest entertainment launch of all time,” said Bartel. “As of today, the number of preorder reservations we’ve taken for the game is the highest for any title we’ve ever sold in our 6,200 store network.”

To get ready for the mad dash through the doors, GameStop’s holding midnight launches at its stores, and so is Walmart, where more than 2,600 locations have supplies of the game at ready to sell once 12:01am strikes on Tuesday.

The first 20 customers in line at participating Walmart stores even get an autographed game cover signed by the Infinity Ward team.

Amazon’s upping the ante a bit more, giving the city in America with the most preorders a $5,000 donation to its local charity.

Awesome stuff, there.

Via USA Today.

In keeping with the whole “premium” thinking behind Modern Warfare 2′s release, Brady just showed of two strategy guides for the shooter: the “Prestige Edition” is more expensive.

The Prestige book is hardcover and comes with info on getting on Achievements and Trophies included in the shooter. It costs £20. The lowly “Signature Edition” will set you back £13.

It’s out on November 10. PR after the break.

More »

Valve’s finally confirmed proper details on Left 4 Dead 2′s Realism mode, saying it’ll be playable at all difficulty settings, will remove character glows to force teams to greatly increase communication, and give the Witch super-kill powers.

“Realism mode isn’t just making Expert harder,” Valve boss Chet Faliszek said at the London leg of the EG expo last week.

“We have our four skill levels again, and you can play Realism mode with any of them.

“We find that people play with the same people a lot… And those teams don’t necessarily want to play Expert or Hard, they want to be challenged as a team.”

Faliszek outlined an intrigued proposition at the Expo, one designed to take closely knit player-groups to the limit.

“It’s real easy to say, ‘Let’s make the creatures harder for you to kill and you easier to kill.’ It’s less interesting,” he added.

“With this, we remove the glows, we make events like the Witch more important now, because if the Witch hits you once, she kills you. And you die. You don’t come back.

“There’s no safe closets. You can use the defib to get back, but your team has to do that for you.”

No glows? No glows.

“Way back in development of Left 4 dead 1 we didn’t have glows for a while, and it was really frustrating and hard,” Faliszek said.

“The first time you turn around, and you run off by yourself and you’re going to get something out of this building, and you turn and go, ‘I’ve got the pipe bomb! Oh, man, where is everybody?’ And you have no idea. It’s a really different experience.

“Realism mode is really about pushing the skill of the team.”

Left 4 Dead 2 hits on November 17. The 360 demo’s out now for all Gold subs.

Britain now has a games rehab clinic. The Telegraph has the story. Apparently, “Suffers [sic] spend days at a time glued to their computer screens – going without food, sleep, or any social interaction.”

Broadway Lodge is a residential unit in Weston-super-Mare, and treats around 400 addicts a year for a range of issues including, drink, drugs, gambling… and computer gaming addiction.

Hit the link for some vaguely-veiled fascistic scaremongering.

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The Left 4 Dead 2 demo is now up for all Gold subs, as you can see here.

The taster was released previously for pre-orderers. You owe it to yourself: do it. The full game’s out on November 17.

Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata’s told the FT he’s exploring the Kindle-style connection model for consoles. The model that provides free online access.

“I’m interested because it’s a new business model in which the user doesn’t bear the communications cost,” said the exec.

Iwata added that iPhone style billing for 3G usage is a bit… expensive.

“Only people who can pay thousands of yen a month [in mobile phone subscriptions] can be iPhone customers. That doesn’t fit Nintendo customers because we make amusement products,” he said.

“The Kindle’s one-off cost would better suit Nintendo’s customer base. In reality, if we did this it would increase the cost of the hardware, and customers would complain about Nintendo putting prices up, but it is one option for the future.”

More through there. You’ll need to register to see the full thing.

China’s General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) has ordered NetEase to stop collecting both subs and new sign-ups for the Chinese version of WoW, calling these acts “illegal behavior.”

According a JLM Pacific Epoch report, GAPP has suspended its review of the game and returned NetEase’s application to operate it in the country.

If you’re Mr Blizzard, you probably have you head in your hands right now. It’s worth noting that GAPP recently banned foreign investment in Chinese online gaming, which really bodes well for WoW’s future in the country.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is getting a beta, from the look of this Cinema Blend report.

“As for the beta, we’ll have more details later this week,” said a rep.

DICE has already warned against pre-ordering for beta keys after Gamestop started offering them – the US retailer has since withdrawn its promo.

Won’t be long, innit. The game’s out on March 5.