Monthly Archives: November 2009

Borderlands’ senior designer, Paul Helquist, has told MTV that the developers are aware that some players were disappointed with the ending of the game.

“We went through lots of different iterations on what the ending of the game was,” said Helquist. “”We ultimately ended up with what you get to play. We didn’t know how people were going to react to it. Obviously the reaction hasn’t been as strong as we had hoped [laughs].

“That’s something we’re going to be keeping in mind as we do new things, whether it’s download content or other games in the future.”

Helquist added that next time the studio plans on requesting more feedback prior a game’s release.

There’s more through the link, but beware of spoilers.

A new video for Bayonetta has popped up on Eurogamer.

In it you can see some of the forms the hot little witch shapeshifts into.

Go have a look through the link.

It’s out January 8.

Geoff Keighley, the King of Twitter, has just tweeted that the next Star Wars game is to be announced during the VGAs on December 12.

He even posted a link to a teaser, which can be viewed here.

The show goes off at 8pm EST on Spike.

Activision UK announced today that it’s donating money to the War Child charity via an online event in Modern Warfare 2.

Scheduled to run December 5-6 on Xbox Live, the publisher will donate a “life changing” amount to the charity per the number of players recording during those two days.

The more UK people play, the more money it will donate.

People interested in taking part should become a fan of the event on Facebook, add the Game For Good app to their wall, invite others, and keep track of details and results via the event’s Twitter feed.

Thanks, GI.biz.

Dante’s Inferno has gone into Beta, according a post by the development team on Facebook.

“We hit zero bugs for the first time, but we’re going to keep testing and polishing to make sure it’s as tight as it can be, and be ready to ship on Feb. 9,”  it read.

So there you have it. Zero bugs, loads of demon murder, fiery Hell.

It’ll all be yours in a few short months.

Lawsuit crazy Erik Estavillo’s at it again, but this time instead of suing Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo, he’s suing Activision Blizzard over World of Warcraft and wants to subpoena Winona Ryder and Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore as witnesses.

Filed in California, the civil complaint states that WoW uses “deceitful” business practices, as it “continues to maintain a harmful virtual environment to many of its customers by forcing them to follow the game’s sneaky and deceitful practices.”

One complaint is that his character has “to walk or run at a calculated slow pace, resulting in the player taking longer to get where he or she needs to go in the game.” His claim is that because of this, it takes longer to play the game which is a “deceitful practice” in revenue generation from ActiBlizz, as faster travel is not available until a player levels up or buys an expansion pack.

Estavillo also claims that his health problems (OCD, Agoraphobia, Panic Disorder, major depression and Crohn’s Disease) are getting worse, and he does not want to end up like EverQuest gamer Shawn Woolley, who took his own life in 2001, and like Shawn, he “relies on videogames heavily for the little ongoing happiness he can achieve in this life.”

OK, now how does Depeche Mode’s founder and Winona Ryder come into play with this bit of lunacy? Because both can provide “testimony on his behalf regarding the subject of alienation”. Surely they’ll both be honored to appear in court for him, no?

That’s it. We’re stopping there, and letting you read the rest over on GamePolitics.

SCEE president Andrew House has said that despite PSPgo and PSN enabling customers to purchase games digitally, packaged games are not going the way of the Dodo any time soon.

As a matter of fact, Sony plans to continue to support packaged media as an “additive to the business”, and according to House, business would have to shift in order to meet a digital demand, along with learning how best to market non-physical items.

“I think we were always fairly clear, as far back as the original announcements, that this wasn’t a replacement for the current PSP-3000 offering, and that it sits alongside that and packaged media,” he told GI.biz. “It’s additive to the business. The early sales numbers that we’ve seen bear that out – I don’t think there’s been a huge amount of cannibalization, and I think those sales have come in and lifted overall PSP sales.

“It’s clearly demonstrated that there is a consumer out there, and it’s validated that proposition in moving more towards a digital download as a preferred means of getting content.

“Make no mistake, when you’re looking at PS3 games and you’re seeing the shift in the sheer size of the data that’s becoming available, the packaged media business is not going away any time soon.”

Full thing through the link.

Dell’s announced that all Alienware Area-51 and Aurora desktops and the M17x and M15x laptops are now to come pre-loaded with Steam and a free copy of Portal.

“Entertainment, specifically gaming, is a primary use of PCs in the home and on the road,” said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve.

“Alienware is a household name among PC gamers who want the most out of their hardware. The combination of Alienware hardware and Steam equals a superior gaming experience.”

Don’t blink: you’ll wake up in a Valve-owned world. Full thing through the link.

Rockstar confirmed Red Dead Redemption for an April 2010 release today, having previously said it would ship in the first half of next year.

The news came from a general mailout on the western adventure.

A new trailer’s slated to release next Tuesday.

BioWare just confirmed system specs for ME2, as well as detailing what sounds to be a very basic DRM check on the disc version.

The good stuff:

Digital Rights Management (DRM) – The boxed/retail PC version of Mass Effect 2 will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. This is the same method as Dragon Age: Origins. Digital versions will use the retailers protection system.

PC MINIMUM System Requirements

• OS = Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
• Processor = 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU
• Memory = 1 GB RAM for Windows XP / 2 GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7
• Hard Drive = 15 GB
• DVD ROM = 1x Speed
• Sound Card = DirectX 9.0c compatible
• Direct X = DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)
• Input = Keyboard / Mouse
• Video Card = 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support). Supported Chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or greater; ATI Radeon X1600 Pro or greater. Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 9300; ATI Radeon HD3200, and HD4350 are below minimum system requirements. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required. Intel and S3 video cards are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.

PC RECOMMENDED System Requirements

• Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
• 2.6+ GHz Cure 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU
• 2 GB RAM
• ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better recommended
• 100% DirectX compatible sound card and drivers
• DirectX August 2008
• NOTES: For the best results, make sure you have the latest drivers for your video and audio cards. Laptop or mobile versions of the above supported video cards have not had extensive testing and may have driver or other performance issues. As such, they are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2. Intel and S3 video cards are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.

It’s out early next year.

Namco’s put out some pretty fabulous new shots of Splatterhouse this morning, showing Rick resplendent with “cow-birthing arm”. All looking good.

The game has also been given its own shoes, if you can believe that. They’re Globe Superfly things with a logo and blood splats. You must own them. Just think how cool you’ll look down the disco.

It’s out next year. Everything, shoes and all, after the break.

More »

THQ just popped over the second Darksiders promo movie, this one showing off War’s “Chaos Eater” sword. After the break.

There’s plenty of very violent gameplay in there. Want to dismember something nasty with something nasty? You’re quids in.

It’s out in January.

More »

Look: there’s a GT5 “Edition Spéciale” listed on Amazon France for €74,95.

Don’t confuse this with the normal edition, obviously. That costs €65,99.

Both are out on March 31, apparently. No, none of it’s confirmed. Remember this, though?

Thanks, GTPlanet.

Develop’s posted some shots of the Tony Hawk RIDE board in its fledgling state, looking nice and rough.

Some great buttons going on there, Mr Robomodo. The piece shows the peripheral’s evolution to its final state.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Next year’s Games Convention Online will take place from July 8-11, 2010, Develop reports. Last year’s show attracted 43,000 visitors.

Remember, this is the bastard child of the once mighty Leipzig Games Convention, and now focusses, rather obviously, on online gaming.

The main German – and European – show is now Gamescom in Cologne. As you know. Unless you’ve been blind for the past year. Gamescom’s been confirmed for August 18-22 in 2010.

We’ll stop now.

Miyamoto’s always dreamt of making a team-play Mario game, he’s confesses in the latest Iwata Asks. He’s talking about New Super Mario Bros. Wii, obviously.

“I’ve always wanted to make a multiplayer Mario,” said the Nintendo dev boss. “It’s been my dream for many years. I really feel that this time, we’ve pulled it off.”

Miyamoto added that adding more players to the overall experience presents a general problem in that you can’t just send everyone back to a checkpoint when someone dies.

“That’s why I think we’ve come up with a well-balanced game that comes somewhere in between watching the Super Guide and then clearing the level yourself and getting the Super Guide to clear the level for you,” he said.

“That’s why I hope that a wide range of users will be able to enjoy the game in a wide variety of different ways.”

Shame you couldn’t have put the bloody thing online, right?

Hit the link for the full thing.

Naughty Dog’s planning to do something multiplay-wise in Uncharted 2 this week, as tweeted here.

“Things are looking up that we’re going to have something quite awesome lined up for multiplayer at the end of this week,” said the dev.

“Quite” awesome? That’s a bit rubbish. Shouldn’t it be “AMAZINGLY AWESOME”? Sort it out, Naughty Dog.

No, we’ve no idea what it is.

Square’s put out its last Final Fantasy XIII trailer before the game actually releases in Japan on December 17, as promised. Watch it on here (thanks, bugmenot).

It’s silly-pretty. It’s also in Japanese, so you’ll just have to be satisfied with the visuals for now.

It’s out in the US and Europe in March.

Speaking with Gamasutra, Cowen Group analyst Doug Creutz turned his crystal ball on the upcoming holiday scuffle between Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft. The bottom line? If you’re a game publisher placing your bets, move your Nintendo money into the PS3′s corner.

According to Creutz, Wii gamers are holding off on game purchases this year – at least, in comparison to last year. Thus, he concluded, core games will keep publishers’ stockings stuffed this winter, while “the Wii bubble could be deflating.”

“While we believe the Wii is likely to be a drag on overall software sales through the holiday, the impact should be limited to those publishers which have invested significantly in Wii development, with the biggest negative impact likely to be felt by Electronic Arts, which (unwisely in our view) heavily invested in Wii development for [calendar 2009],” he added.

The PS3′s fortunes, said Creutz, are also turning around. But in a good way. According to a survey he conducted, 21 percent of respondents plan to purchase a PS3. The Xbox 360, meanwhile, only claimed 12 percent of purchase intent. Granted, the Wii’s holding strong with 26 percent, but that’s still a far cry from the prior two holiday seasons’ almost perpetually barren Wii shelf spaces.

More through the link.

Apparently, a whole mess of people thought bigger screens and a fatter stylus were just the tweaks the DSi needed in order to attain portable perfection. Case in point: Japan. After a mere two days, the DSi LL has already done its uber-popular family of handhelds proud by selling 103,524 units, according to Enterbrain’s estimates.

For comparison’s sake, the DSi moved 170,779 units at the same point in its infancy. The PSPgo, meanwhile, limped across the finish starting line with 28,275 units at its Japanese launch.

Thanks, Siliconera.