Monthly Archives: December 2009

Gears of War film producer, Wyck Godfrey, has told Making Of that he would like to tell the story of Emergence Day instead of just creating a movie full of battle, bullets, and macho muscle men.

“We went to the guys that created the game and just sort of made our pitch about how we’re going to put it together,” he said. “Right now we’re working with Len Wiseman on it at Legendary and New Line.

“The hard part is to make it into something that doesn’t feel like a world torn asunder and people just in battle. You gotta figure out — I think we really want to focus on the idea of a world that’s running well and then its Emergence Day.

“Kind of make it impactful and immediate and the survival of those 48 hours, as people survive Emergence Day – more like Cloverfield or something like that.”

Sounds cool. Watch the video through the link.

Via D’toid.

The first glimpse of Dead Space 2 has hit the net, thanks to Game Informer revealing its January cover.

Looks like our hero got into a bit of a scrap with something non-human and very angry, if his suit is any indication.

Then again, the developers could be going for a more futuristic and snazzy look to the armor.

Gah, who knows. It’s cool looking though.

Via NeoGAF.

Rebellion has announced that Lance Henriksen will be in its upcoming Aliens vs. Predator, starring as Karl Bishop Weyland, a descendant of Weyland-Yutani founder Charles Bishop Weyland – who he played in the movie of the same name.

“They’ve made me look very good,” said Henriksen, “This is the first time I’ve been fully represented in a game, with my voice and how I look, and the Rebellion guys have done a great job.

“I might score from this game!”

We seriously doubt you will score just for being in the game. You are Lance Henriksen after all. Nuff said.

Via D’toid and Lincourt.

SEGA Europe has announced on both the US and EU PS Blog that Yakuza 3 is leaving Japan in March 2010.

You can start dancing now.

“Yakuza 3 was one of the most requested titles for localization by our European SEGA community, so we are delighted to be able to fulfill their wishes with this announcement,” said Gary Knight, SOE’s marking director.

“As well as delving even further into the rich narrative of the Yakuza universe, the development team have pushed the PlayStation 3 hardware to the limits to produce a beautiful and startlingly realistic depiction of the Japanese underworld.”

It will feature full English subtitling, whilst “maintaining the rich Japanese voice actors that bring an extremely engaging atmosphere to the game”.

Neato. What we are more concerned with though, is if a tattoo artist in our area can replicate the coolness of the one in the pic posted above. If so, we’re in.

There’s an announcement video posted below. Watch it.

More »

Attention WoW-heads, the latest patch for the game has been released, and you can get it at the usual download spots if you are a manual patching kind of person.

Patch 3.3 is the last big one before Cataclysm hits, and includes new dungeons, a new raid for the Icecrown Citadel, the inclusion of a quest tracker and many other pretty things to make you happy.

It’s already live in North America, and is expected to hit Europe later this evening – if it hasn’t already.

Hopefully, this made your day.

Rumor no more folks. According to a post on the EU PS Blog, the “pre-Christmas” firmware update for PS3 will support PSP Minis.

If you purchase a mini game from December 17 onward, it will work on both platforms so if you have a PS3 and a PSP you will only need to buy it once and it will be available to download on both.

Update 3.15 will be optional, and also includes a new PS3 Data Transfer system that makes the process of moving stored data from one PS3 to another much easier.

More through the link.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Rockstar has announced that GameStop’s to offer exclusive in-game outfits for preorders of Red Dead Redemption on 360 and PS3.

Players can vote to choose an outfit that will be earned by completing a set of in-game challenges. Once the challenges are completed and the outfit is unlocked, the outfit will uniquely affect how the surrounding world responds to the game’s main man, John Marston.

“We’re privileged to have fans that are just as passionate about our games as we are,” said Alex Moulle-Berteaux, head of marketing for Rockstar Games. “Having fans choose their own pre-order bonus is a unique way to let them be a part of Red Dead Redemption.”

During January, new information about the challenges, outfits, and the effect it has in-game will be revealed.

Until then, remain teased by Rockstar, we guess.

Game’s out in April.

Via PR mail.

Mass Effect 2′s associate programmer, Thomas Roy, has said on the official forums (login required) that the game’s ditched the elevator loading from the first game for typical load screens.

But, instead of boring old hat, the load times will offer “interesting visuals and information” instead of the long, boring screens with a progress bar.

Speaking of elevators, last week, BioWare’s Casey Hudson explained the “new” elevator scenes a bit more, via an interview with VideoGamer.

“The whole ship is so rich and full of things to do,” he said. “Even better, what used to be slow elevators or slow transitions from one deck to another now is faster transition and it actually is part of the narrative.

“You go to the elevator control and then you see what’s on the elevator control panel as the schematics of the Normandy reveal where you are in the ship, and they show you different decks as you transition. Then all of a sudden you’re there.

“So it makes it an interesting part of the narrative. I find that now, in between missions out in the universe, I come back to the Normandy and I just want to run around and do all the new things and check out the stuff I bought, talk to everybody, because it’s a lot smoother and there’s just so much more to do. I think people will be really excited about that.”

More through Joystiq.

The Black Mesa mod for Half-Life 2 will not make it’s projected 2009 release, according to a post on the mod’s official forums.

“Unfortunately, to our great disappointment, Black Mesa will not make a 2009 release,” wrote the mod’s project lead. “Cynics may now rejoice, bets may be collected, and I think a mod team member has to eat his shoe, but we hope our loyal fans will forgive us and realize that the delay will translate into a better final product that’s (hopefully) more easily available to everyone.

“Once again we apologize for what has to be very disappointing news. We placed a 2009 deadline on ourselves to motivate us and bring this 6 year project to a close. And while we didn’t quite make it, we have come very close, and you can expect a complete, polished game to hit your hard drives in the near future. We’ll be sure and update if anything changes.

“Until then, hang tight, it’s coming.”

A video was released around this time last year, and we have it posted here.

Thanks, BigDownload.

Microsoft has added Bolt, FaceBreaker, and Trivial Pursuit to its Games on Demand service.

Trivial Pursuit is only available in Australia, New Zealand, Europe (except Belgium), Ireland, and Portugal. No intellectual quiz game for you North Americans.

FaceBreaker is available in Canada and Australia, and Bolt is for NA and Europe.

Go nuts.

Andriasang’s got some new screens from the Alternate Edition of Resident Evil 5. Look.

All this stuff is from the additional Lost in Nightmares mission, featuring Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield at the mansion home of the head of the Umbrella Corporation.

It’s out early next year. Thanks, CVG.

Evo 2010 will take place on July 9-11 at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, the event’s announced.

The get-together’s the biggest fighting game tournament in the world, with the Street Fighter event always drawing mad crowds.

Daigo again? Hit the link for more.

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Warner’s just put out the first bits of in-game footage from Lego Harry Potter, and very cute it looks too. After the break.

The game’s actually called “LEGO® Harry Potter™: Years 1-4″. It’s out next year for the Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, Nintendo DS, PSP and PC.

More »

GAME’s shares dropped 15 percent this morning after the UK retailer showed significant drops in sales.

For the 18 weeks to December 5, GAME reported same-store sales fell 13.9 percent, with its 701 UK and Irish stores registering a 16.6 percent drop.

Price cuts, Modern Warfare 2 and FIFA 10 clearly didn’t help.

GAME blamed increased competition from supermarkets for the rough figures.

More on MarketWatch.

This is brilliant. An article on Yahoo! Finance about Christmas gifts has claimed that PS3′s pads must be replaced after running out of charge.

“It’s all fun and games until the battery dies,” said author Anne Kadet. “Unlike its competitors, which use replaceable AA batteries, the PS3′s remote control is glued shut. When the battery goes, Sony customers have to blow $55 on a new controller.”

You’re right, Anne. That really is a glaring design fault.

The frantic hole-digging continues: “Sony says there’s an ‘environmental benefit’ since gamers don’t have to toss their batteries on a regular basis, but Isidor Buchmann, president of battery-equipment maker Cadex Electronics, says captive batteries are becoming common because it’s cheaper for companies to eliminate the battery housing and hatch.”

Spectacular. Merry Christmas. Thanks, mart.

Europeans didn’t like Army of Two, apparently. According to EA Montreal EP Reid Schneider, they really didn’t like it.

“We had this whole market in the US that thought the tone was cool, but in Europe everyone thought it was ridiculous and tasteless and a bunch of frat guys running around,” said the developer, speaking to GI.

“One of the things we learned was that we’re never going to be able to please both. So the way you interact with your partner and decisions you make – if you’re doing a lot of fist bumps – these influence the tone and the dialogue of your character. If your taking it on a more serious level then the game reacts seriously.”

With sequel Army of Two: The 40th Day releasing in January, Schneider added that the second game will allow players to set the tone through their own play-style.

“It’s really important for us tonally to appeal to the European audience because with the core audience in that territory, the game really turned them off so deeply that they couldn’t get to the game underneath.

“In a movie you’re distanced from those characters and you’re watching them, but in a game you are those characters and if they say something you find bothersome it rips you right out of the experience. We wanted to change the overall dialogue but also let the player tell their own a story a little bit more.”

Hit the link for more. The 40th Day’s out on January 15.

He’s back! Eat Sleep Play’s David Jaffe has decided to break radio silence to call Australia’s political view of games “bullshit”. Phew. Things were getting boring, there.

“There’s a government board and if they say it’s too offensive, in that case there’s no fight to fight — it is what it is,” he said, speaking this week at the Game Connect: Asia Pacific conference in Melbourne.

“There’s not much you can do if you’re making games aimed at a mature audience. We never like to cut it, but what are you going to do? You’re dealing with governments.

He added: “There’s absolutely an inconsistency in the consciousness about video games. The reality is people still see a lot of these things as kids’ toys. It’s utter BS.”

Thank God for that. Come back, David. You make the world a brighter place. Thanks, IGN.

Big-time Capcom producer Jun Takeuchi – Lost Planet, Resident Evil 5 – reckons western developers can’t work with Japanese developers thanks to culture.

“The core elements of [Lost Planet 2] were developed in Japan, while the music and some of the language details were handled overseas”, he said in an internal interview.

“Cultural differences don’t allow for the smooth collaboration between Japan and developers overseas.”

Highly progressive thinking there, Jun. Thanks, Kotaku.

Platinum Games’ Hideki Kamiya has told Game Informer he’d like to make more Viewtiful Joe. From the sound of it, the chances of this happening are about as remote as you ever seeing the dark side of the moon, but what the hey. It’s December.

“Up until very recently I really felt someday I wanted to make a sequel to Okami, and there were others who wanted me to as well,” he said.

“But then the other day I heard the announcement that someone else would be making a sequel and now I’m just not interested in it any more. Once someone else touches a world that you yourself created it stops being yours. There is no point in making a sequel when the world doesn’t belong to you.

“Viewtiful Joe is probably all I’ve got left. That story is incomplete so I’d like to finish it someday. But that would probably be the most difficult one to do [laughs].”

The next in the Viewtiful Joe series is planned for release in the next million billion years.

Sony’s gone ahead and patented a lunatic amount of add-ons for its upcoming motion controller. Kotaku’s got a decent précis.

Basically, if you can imagine something that you can stick on the end of a stick, Sony’s probably just patented it. The patent itself is for an “Expandable Control Device Via Hardware Attachment”.

It’s all bollocks, obviously. The motion controller itself is planned for a spring release.