Monthly Archives: December 2009

The endlessly amazing Hiphopgamer’s confirmed with Ubi Montreal that a Splinter Cell Conviction demo will release in January.

“It’s coming out in January,” one of the devs told him in this video. “And then the actual game: February 23.”

The guy refused to be drawn on an exact date, saying, “It’s just January for now.”

Watch at 5.37. Also watch at 4.39. He gets so excited about U-Play that he hands his microphone to the interviewee, drops to the floor and starts doing press-ups.

A new high. Give him some page impressions.

EA’s put out the first edition of its Dante’s Inferno mini-comic. You can download it here.

Looks cool, innit. The publisher announced the game’s animated movie release for February 8 this morning, in addition.

The game’s out for PS3 and 360 on February 5.

Nintendo of America marketing boss Cammie Dunaway has told MTV that Rockstar should continue to push GTA: Chinatown Wars in an effort to get the game in front of “new consumers”.

“We do think that it’ll have a long tail, and we’ve seen that with a lot of titles across all genres on the DS platform, that consumers continue to discover them. But part of what’s need is [that] you have to continue to put marketing support behind these titles,” she said.

“One of the things that we’ve really learned over the past few years is that the old dynamic of ‘throw it on television for a few weeks and then move on and forget it’ just doesn’t work. Becuase consumers are out there, new consumers are coming in all the time who are interested, so you’ve got to come up with new ways to expose it. So I hope that’s something they’ll do with GTA.”

Chinatown Wars proved to be sell disappointingly next to its big brothers, moving less than 90,000 units in the US in its first month, and less than 75,000 the following month.

We’ll ask Rockstar for comment. Watch the video after the break.

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Dante’s Inferno: The Animated Movie will release on February 8, EA said today. The game itself hits on February 5.

The movie’s a Starz Media affair: the firm also did the Dead Space animation tie-in.

It’s out on Blu-ray and DVD. PR after the break.

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DS is now the biggest-selling UK console in all history. The Nintendo machine beaten PS2′s 10.02 million units to date, passing 10.05 million in week 47, 2009.

This is according to GfK-ChartTrack data. DS launched in the UK in March 2005, compared to PS2′s November 2000 release.

More on MCV.

Update: PR after the break.

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MCV reckons Aliens Vs Predator’s releasing on February 19.

The Rebellion shooter’s got a PC, PS3 and 360 spread and will ship in three editions: Standard, Survivor and Hunter.

The Survivor Edition comes in a metal case and features a code for DLC multiplayer maps, coming post-launch.

The Hunter Edition will also contain the maps, as well as a facehugger model, a Weyland Yutani sleeve badge and a “3D lenticular postcard”. Special.

Looks like that lot’s from a PR. We’ll add it when it drops.

RelyOnHorror’s posted up a ton of detail on Dead Space 2 from a subs issue from the latest Game Informer, apparently confirming that the sequel’s set three years after the first game on a large space station named Sprawl.

The second title’s to push the horror element more, with Isaac facing seemingly impossible situations and bosses. The developers talk about “better pacing” in this respect.

Isaac can now drift through space if he jumps too far away from a surface, and can alter direction while floating. Obviously, he can fire weapons like this as well.

The magazine says Sprawl is an “organic, haphazardly constructed, long-term place that’s built around the remaining shards of one of Saturn’s moon-The first planet-crack ever. Like any real city it is not all built by one person. Some stuff was built up, and some areas, corporate areas, government areas, and public areas.”

It makes the Ishimura look tiny, and includes residential features such as shopping malls, schools and churches.

And yep, this time Isaac’s going to speak. And there’s something called a Javelin gun (don’t tell IW). And there are dead, lipless babies trying to claw you to death.

And multiplayer? Apparently the following is teased: “All I can say is it’s really fun, and you’ll get to strategically dismember your friends.”

There’s loads more through there. Thanks, EvilAvatar.

GT’s released another teaser from the Asian action title seen previously here. Apparently it’s Black Lotus. Looks good, innit?

We’ll know for sure on Saturday. Watch it after the break.

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This weekend’s VGAs will see a new clip from the Prince of Persia movie aired, according to the almighty Geoff Keighley’s super-Twitter.

Banny rabbit beefcake Jake Gyllenhaal himself will be on hand to intro the new footage.

The VGAs air on Saturday at 8pm EST.

Kotaku’s got yet more FFXIII screens, these showing off some men.

Tomorrow: tune in for a picture of a fantastic cow. It had better be worth it after all this.

The RPG’s out later this month in Japan, to be followed in the US and Japan next March.

Know why EA’s stock‘s trading at record lows? The press did it, apparently.

“I would say the headwinds on the stock don’t make people smile. I think most people in the company read our press release on our Q2 and first half, and said, ‘Record market share, record revenues, profitability roughly in line with the street… that sounds like victory.’ A lot of negative articles were written that entirely missed the point that we felt we had a great first half,” boss John Riccitiello told IndustryGamers.

“We’re cash flow positive, we’re profitable, we’re growing, and what we’ve chosen to do is a strategic step in the process of resetting our company to a different strategy. Sometimes people almost believe more what they read in a newspaper than what they hear from their own company. A great deal of what’s written is often ill-informed and misunderstood. So it’s a hard thing for morale from time to time.”

You’re profitable? Sure?

Thanks, GoNintendo.

The next issue of Nintendo Power’s to confirm Mega Man 10 for WiiWare, according to 1UP.

The game will allow players to play as Mega Man, Proto Man, and third unannounced character, and will feature an Easy mode.

Go wild. No date.

Eurogamer’s asking you to vote in its reader top 50 for 2009. Do it here.

And don’t forget to vote in the VG247 community and games awards either, if you haven’t done so already. Do that here.

Sony’s released PS3 Firmware 3.15, as you’ll see if you do a system update check.

This one adds a great LAN cable transfer feature between PS3s, so if you’re moving from fat to thin your life is now 50,000% easier.

It also adds a Minis emulator to PS3: the diminutive PSP games will be available on its adolescent sibling as of December 17.

Full details here.

The Australian Classification Board has outed Lucasarts’ Star Wars: Legends and has listed Activision Blizzard as the publisher.

It was also given a Mature rating, according to Kotaku, for containing “fantasy violence”.

In case you are confused, the game was listed as one of the possible titles of the MMO BioWare was working on last year and outted by a listing on the official US Trademark site along with Star Wars Sagas.

To top things off, if you recall, Geoff Keighley tweeted that the VGAs on December 12 would reveal the next Star Wars game.

Guess the wookie is out of the bag now.

Minors outside the US can now use Facebook and Twitter via Xbox Live, according to The Major.

Microsoft has released an update allowing the use of the services, as long as parental permission’s given.

The system has to be set in a way afterward, though, so parents won’t have to worry about punching in a code every time their child logs in.

US youngsters can start abusing the services on December 15.

More through the link.

Those that live in DC, near the US capital or who just fancy a road trip, will be pleased to know that the Smithsonian American Art Museum plans to host an Art of Video Games exhibit.

The game-themed showcase will “show the development of visual effects and aesthetics during four decades” of vidoegames.

Neato.

Bad news though – it won’t hit the museum until 2012. The world ends that year, ya know.

More through Joystiq.

Looks like more Borderlands DLC is headed our way, if a post over over on PS3Trophies.org is any indication.

Apparently, it’s a coliseum-based update, each featuring small and large challenges, and contains Hell-Burbia, The Angelic Ruins, and The Gully

2K Games and Gearbox have yet to comment, but Mikey Neuman was ready to announce something or other via Twitter yesterday before he was apparently gagged and bound.

“I’m afraid I have some sad news. The birdy which would have tweeten, has been absent and will tweeter forth to announce at a later occasion.”

Too bad, that.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

BioShock 2 co-art director, Hogarth De La Plante, has told IGN that while the first BioShock title was more about fighting extremism and “living in a world of ideas” that went horribly wrong, the sequel will be a bit more personal.

“I think it’s still [set] in a world that thematically is painted with this idea of extrimism, and is trying to be the counterpoint to the first game but it’s still giving you the same thematic message.

“This time around, I feel like the story is a little more personal to you as a character. I think that Sophia Lamb and her daughter, who you’re pursuing through the game, who you were bonded to as a Big Daddy and Little Sister and you learn about that at the beginning of the game; I guess it’s more about these personal characters’ backstories, where the first game was more about and how the ideas had gone wrong.

“I can’t say that’s not a big part of this game, but I feel like it’s more personal this time.”

It’s out February 9.

DICE’s Gordon Van Dyke has told MTV that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will not implement a block on Party Chat.

“We are ok with [party chat]. We haven’t taken a stance, being against it and feeling like people are cheating,” he said. “Is it worth putting a restriction on it that affects everybody?

“I don’t think [cheating with party chat is] that big of an issue, that I’ve seen, where we have to worry about that.”

Good to know, actually. Now you can tell your buddies involved in another match to hurry the hell up and join your battle hungry soldiers in a match.

More through the link.