Monthly Archives: November 2009

There’s a video after the break of Tim Schafer showing off Brutal Legend’s multiplayer DLC after the break.

Tears of the Hextadon is releasing over the next two days. It has two multiplayer maps and will be free on PSN until November 19, after which it’ll cost £3.99/$3.99. Xbox 360 owners will have to spend 400 MSP.

Thanks, Destructoid.

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Microsoft’s come clean about its rewards program, as you can see here. Basically, you get MSP for doing anything remotely useful to Microsoft.

Every time you renew your Live sub you get free points. Amazing, right? It’s only in the preview stage as yet, but free is free. No date on it going Live-wide.

Eurogamer just put its iPhone app live for £2.39. Get it here.

It basically lets you see content, comment, turn pages, watch videos and do all the other things you’d expect it to do.

Take a look.

Our invitation for the November 9 London Modern Warfare 2 launch turned up yesterday. See pictures of the invite and wrist band after the break.

There’s going to be a Leicester Square cinema screening following by a midnight opening at HMV Trocadero, which starts at 9.00pm.

The invite includes the words “camouflage carpet” three times. And it only includes an Xbox 360 logo – no other platform information.

Take a look.

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Nintendo dev boss Shigeru Miyamoto’s dropped a not so subtle hint that he may be working on a cat game.

Closing an investor Q&A session this week – the full transcript of which can be seen here in Japanese – the exec said, “Also, I’ve recently been caring for cats. That is all.”

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata added: “He just gave a big hint.”

So there you go. Nintencats. Or something. Thanks, Andriasang.

Adam Doree’s Kikizo’s gone live with a full relaunch, rebranding itself as VideoGamesDaily.com and launching four new sites.

While “Kikizo” remain’s the group name for the entire banana, it now includes VideoGamesDaily, FPSGamer.com, VideoGameTV.com, LevelSkip.com (cheats) and Gaijin Gamer.jp (“Japanese gaming culture”).

Read Doree’s intro to the new venture here. There’s a press release there as well.

The first round of Dragon Age: Origins reviews are now live, and there’s an eyebrow-raising 8/10 from Eurogamer there. It’s got an MC average of 93 percent at the moment.

The game’s out this week for 360 and PC. PS3 owners get a crack at BioWare’s latest whip on November 20 in Europe. All three versions are out today in the US.

Round-up so far:

• Gamespot – 9.5/10 (PC), 9/10 (PS3), 8.5/10 (360)
• Game Informer – 9/10, 8/10 (360, PS3)
• IGN UK – 9.2/10
• Absolute Games (Russian) – 92%
• Meristation – 9.5/10
• Eurogamer – 8/10
• Eurogamer.de – 10/10
• CVG – 9.4/10
• Destructoid – 7.5/10 (360)
• MTV – N/A
• Joystiq – N/A (360)
• The Escapist – N/A (PC)
• 1UP – A-
• G4 – 5/5
• Kotaku -N/A

They don’t make zombies like they used to. Pepper their paper skin with a shotgun blast or two and – boom – undead confetti. But not in Australia! Good ol’ Oz builds its zombies strong to last long. Limbs stay on and blood stays in, even when caught in the thickest of crossfires.

Even better, when Australian zombies finally bite the big one, their bodies immediately disappear – eliminating the need for cleanup. No muss, no fuss! How convenient!

There’s a trailer of Left 4 Dead 2′s Australian action after the break.

Thanks, Destructoid.

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Don’t get us wrong. We’re thrilled that Mickey’s been taken back to the drawing board, but we’d still love another Spector-directed Deus Ex. And hey! So would Warren Spector!

“There were and still are ‘Deus Ex’ stories I would like to tell. That story is not done for me,” he told Variety’s Cut Scene blog. “[For the sci-fi game] I sort of filed the serial numbers off. ‘Deus Ex’ was very much a game of the millennium.”

Eidos, however, has plans of its own for the Deus Ex franchise. And though Spector attempted to scrounge together some cash and purchase the license, Eidos refused to sell.

There’s more through the link, including some tidbits on Junction Point Studios’ early days. Read it. Impress your friends with your knowledge of useless videogame trivia!

Yeah, you’re probably thinking: “Isn’t that the whole point of a movie trailer?” Really though, how many trailers have coaxed you into actual excitement about a videogame-based movie? Yeah. This Prince of Persia teaser is a landmark event in the histories of both film and gaming.

Shame about Jake Gyllenhaal’s face, though. We thought real actors were supposed to be more expressive than videogame characters.

Check out the full thing after the break!

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The latest Kojima Productions podcast has let slip that an English version of the MGS Peace Walker demo’s in the works.

There’s no date, from the look of it. But still.

Thanks, Siliconera.

Some new off-screen footage of the multiplayer for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has been posted on YouTube.

The footage was taken at the Micromania 09 event in Paris recently. Despite the fact it is off-screen, we have to say it looks really good.

Find the video after the jump. The game is out in March 2010 for PS3 and 360.

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If a leaked retailer training quiz D’Toid has managed to obtain is proof enough, Mass Effect 2 will be substantially supported in ways the original wasn’t.

How so? The Microsoft Expert Zone quiz details full campaign expansions via DLC, downloadble characters, downloadable worlds and more.

Yeah, much more supported then the original. We wonder though if there will be some DLC in the form of alien sex somehow?

ME2 is out on January 26 in the US, and January 29 in the UK for the Xbox 360 and PC.

EA just announced a new DLC pack for Fight Night Round 4, including Bernard Hopkins, Sonny Liston and Evander Holyfield.

It’s coming in “early December,” priced 800 MSP on $10 on PSN.

The game’s price has also dropped from $50 to $40.

“Knock out”. More on IGN.

Speaking to investors last week during the company’s financial results, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has come out and said that the Wii is going toe-to-toe right now with the PlayStation 3.

“A notable dip can be seen in sales of Wii this year; which is approximately half the size of last year. On the other hand, Sony’s PS3 showed a good transition and they increased the unit sales by about 50%,” said Iwota.

“Although we held more than a 60% hardware market share through last year – Wii has 42% and PS3 40% share thus far this year – so both machines are neck and neck in Japan.”

However, Iwata insists the most recent price-drop for the Wii will help them out, especially in the US.

“We are to regain the momentum during the upcoming sales season, and we are well in the position to do so.”

From GoNintendo.

Shack’s posted some screens of upcoming Dawn of War II expansion Chaos Rising. Get your Chaos Marines on through the link.

There’s a proper trailer of it after the break, as well. It’s an expanded version of the teaser released when the pack was announced.

It’s out in the spring.

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Janco analyst Mike Hikey has said in a note that pre-orders for Assassin’s Creed II outweighs that of the 2007 original.

The count for the pre-orders stands at 10 to 20 percent from the original, according to the note.

The original sold over nine million units since it launched in November 2007, that’s if what creative director for the game Patrice Desilets told us at GamesCom in August is correct.

Either way, go out and buy it on November 20 for PS3 and 360. It’s the bees knees.

Thanks, Gama.

Quantic Dream boss David Cage has told G4 that Heavy Rain’s to get a playable demo.

“We are currently working on a demo, which is a real challenge,” he said. “Finding one scene that can convey what we are trying to achieve with Heavy Rain is something really difficult.

“If we show an action scene, some players will think that this is what Heavy Rain is all about, and it is the same thing if we show an exploration scene. The problem is that each scene of the game offers contextual game play, which is something very difficult to explain and convey in a single demo. Demos are often a double-edge thing: if you don’t release one, players may think that you have something to hide.”

Do the sexy scene, David. For the boys.

It’s out next year. More through there.

Asheron’s Call is ten years old, if you can believe that.

Developer Turbine is running live events bringing back some of the “most loved (and feared) signature lore characters and villains” from the MMO’s history in celebration.

PR after the break. We really are so old.

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The best part of Modern Warfare 2 isn’t scaring the living shit out of the Daily Mail in an airport, apparently.

“If you see some of the Rio scenes from the trailers, there’s just like these uphill broken stairwells that are half-covered in dirt, weeds coming through – one of my favourite parts in the whole game is there’s a back alley there, and there’s just two dumpsters and a piece of garbage, some trash blowing in the wind and the weeds coming up through the cracks in the sidewalk,” Infinity Ward studio boss Vince Zampella told VideoGamesDaily recently when asked what his favourite part of the game is.

He added: “It’s just a matter of detail, little touches… Transitions from wall to ground are now hand-touched by all the artists so that everything fits.”

Not long now. More through there.