Monthly Archives: December 2009

Chart-Track just confirmed that this year’s Christmas number one in the UK is Modern Warfare 2.

FIFA came second, with sales up 24 percent over the week previous. Wii Sports Resort took third place.

Here’s the lot. Merry Christmas. Go shoot some people in an airport.

Launching new IP in today’s gaming environment is one of the riskiest moves developers and publishers ever make. Facing no guarantee of return, giant outlays, genre saturation and clogged release schedules, pushing out a newborn can be terrifying for all concerned parties.

Fortunately, though, well-considered assaults on the core market still work. Borderlands busted US sales in October with over 400,000 units moved, proving the glory-chasing spirit pays dividends with the right timing and the right product.

Hoping to replicate Gearbox’s feat in January comes Vigil Games and THQ with demonic actioner Darksiders, and all indications, at least from an aesthetic perspective, are very hot. Comparisons to God of War and Zelda have followed its development since 2007, and our first dalliance with retail code last night – watch the opening 20 minutes here – show a game that isn’t afraid to go large: massive bosses, epic story, giant weapons, angels versus demons, dogs and cats living in perfect harmony; the full nine yards.

From the very start it’s awesome squared, as if Vigil’s taken the concept of “awesome” and pumped some awesome into it. You are War, one of the four horsemen. Something’s gone wrong between the worlds of Heaven, Hell and Earth. You need to fix it. You are very bad indeed. Why wouldn’t you want to play it?

Vigil GM David Adams took time out to talk to VG247′s Stephany Nunneley on the game’s influences, prospects for the future and War’s “big red fiery sword”. Hit the link.

The game releases for PS3 and 360 on January 8.

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Hit the link for the first 20 minutes of Darksiders’ gameplay, featuring War, War’s chaos form, War kicking ten bells out of angels and demons, War fighting a massive boss and War just being generally War. This is the War show. And it’s seven shades of awesome, from first impressions.

Steph’s just filed an interview with Vigil GM David Adams on the game, its influences and tons more. Catch that here.

Darksiders releases for PS3 and 360 on January 8.

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Microsoft games boss Aaron Greenberg’s confirmed both Crackdown 2 and Alan Wake for a first-half 2010 release, speaking in the latest Major Nelson podcast.

“Starting in January we have like a triple A exclusive title pretty much every month for the first half of the year. You’ve got Mass Effect 2, you’ve got Splinter Cell, you’ve got Alan Wake, you’ve got Crackdown 2,” said the exec.

“You’ve got things like Fable 3 and Halo: Reach and coming later that year. Those are just the exclusives.”

Listen at about 31.50. He added: “2010 will be a bigger year that 2009: no doubt.”

No specific dates have been given for Remedy’s opus or Ruffian’s inaugural, but you probably wouldn’t be too stupid to be thinking “May-ish”.

Just saying.

Wii and PS3 got a nice bunch of sales of Japan for the week ending December 13, with PSP and DSi coming a close third and fourth.

Not looking so great for PSP go down there, is it?

We skipped a week with these, but the data from two weeks ago’s here.

• Wii – 135,898
• PS3 – 75,086
• PSP – 71,885
• DSi – 68,184
• DSi LL – 58,006
• DS Lite – 11,376
• Xbox 360 – 10,646
• PSP go – 3,077
• PS2 – 2,463

Aliens Vs Predator will release on February 18 in Australia, Sega said today, following the OFLC’s decision to allow the game a release after originally refusing it classification.

A Survivor Edition will retail for A$120 for 360 and PS3, and A$110 for PC. it includes a limited edition Steelbook and four exclusive multiplayer maps.

The big Barry Hunter Edition will ship for A$140 for 360 and PS3, and A$130 for PC. It includes prestige packaging, the Survivor Edition of the game, with Steelbook and exclusive maps, a replica mouldable Facehugger, a Weyland logo material sleeve badge and a 3D lenticular card.

The lowriding, poverty-stricken Standard Edition is the game all on its lonesome. Yours for A$100 for 360 and PS3, and A$90 for PC.

Thanks, Gamespot.

This may be an offer you can’t refuse. Funcom is allowing anyone that creates an Age of Conan account and logs-into the game before January 1 to play up to level 20, over an unlimited time period, for no charge whatsoever.

There are a few caveats: “Please note that a trial account has some limitations to avoid ‘spam’ and ‘gold farmers’,” said the firm.

“You cannot trade with others, use in-game mail, public chat channels and you can not post on the forums.”

All that gets cut away if you go full-blown, however. You get extra treats when you sub up, in addition.

“If and when you decide to upgrade your account you will receive an immediate boost to your progress through an exclusive and powerful beginner’s item that increases both XP gain and your chance of performing fatality moves,” the dev added.

Hit this.

Dante’s Inferno features a demon boss’s penis during its “flying,” “fire-spewing” and “standing around” phases, according to the game’s ESRB rating. Apparently the appendage is physics-based.

The ratings board has also revealed a section in which Dante is forced to fondle a demon’s tit.

Hit the link for the section on sexual content. You can read the full thing here.

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

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Blizzard’s J. Allen Brack has told Gamasutra that a console game from the firm is a certainty. When? Keep guessing.

“I have two consoles at home,” said the WoW developer. “Sam has consoles. We’re a culture of gamers. We will definitely work on a console game at some point. I have no doubt about that.

“It’s just [a matter of] what game. What makes the most sense?”

What about an MMO? More through there. Thanks, Kotaku.

MCV’s reporting that MAG will release in Europe on January 29.

The info’s come from SCEE, apparently.

In addition, Heavy Rain’s planned for an unspecified February date, to be followed by GoW III in mid-March.

More through there.

BioWare boss Greg Zeschuk has claimed JRPGs are stuck in a rut.

“The fall of the JRPG in large part is due to a lack of evolution, a lack of progression,” he told Destructoid.

“They kept delivering the same thing over and over. They make the dressing better, they look prettier, but it’s still the same experience.

“My favorite thing, it’s funny when you still see it, but the joke of some of the dialogue systems where it asks, ‘do you wanna do this or this,’ and you say no. ‘Do you wanna do this or this?’ No. ‘Do you wanna do this or this?’ No. Lemme think – you want me to say ‘yes.’ And that, unfortunately, really characterized the JRPG.”

The studio founder said there were obvious exceptions – Demons’ Souls being one of them – but added that the western RPG has simply evolved further than its Japanese counterpart.

Interesting stuff. Hit it.

Criterion’s posted details of Burnout Paradise DLC that never made the cut, including driving on the moon, helicopters, time travel and planes.

The fact this is being posted probably means the developer’s “year of Burnout” was well-named: and over.

Need for Speed next. Hit the link for the full thing.

Hit the link for 20 minutes of us playing Army of Two: The 40th Day, the demo of which released for both 360 and PS3 yesterday.

There’s a lot shown off in there: co-op controls, a morality system, weapons upgrades, a GPS thing, some buildings blowing up and two large men bumping chests together. It’s got it all.

Note: this is only playable with a live partner. No bots. Which is why it’s taken so long to get this live. Watch to the end and see Johnny’s connection crap out. It’s hilarious.

The game’s out on January 15.

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Rockstar’s put up some new screens of the increasingly impressive Red Dead Redemption on the game’s official site. Take a look.

Men with hats and guns are always amazing. It’s the way of the world.

It’s out for PS3 and 360 in April.

EA European publishing boss, Jens Uwe Intat, has told MCV that the publisher has overtaken Nintendo to a European lead.

“We’re very happy because in this shrinking market we increased our share and so now we are back to the leading position again in Europe, which is a nice place to be,” said the exec.

“We actually lost it to Nintendo in 2008 but we’ve gained it back and we’ll have to see if we can hold it until Christmas, but we’re confident we can. Across Europe we’re tracking at about 19 per cent market share, which is two points up.”

More through there. Just a reminder that EA was VG247 readers’ publisher of the year. Go EA, etc.

Hasbro’s suing Infogrames, claiming the company has committed fraud and breached the terms of its licensing agreement for the D&D brand.

“Dungeons & Dragons is owned by Hasbro’s wholly-owned subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, who discovered earlier this year that Atari may have entered into an unauthorised sublicensing relationship with Namco Bandai Partners (NBP) for the Dungeons & Dragons digital game rights,” said Hasbro in a statement.

Whoops. Atari countered in a statement to IGN:

“Atari has had a long and rich history with the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, investing millions of dollars into numerous critically acclaimed and commercially successful games that have generated significant revenue for Hasbro,” a spokesperson said. “Hasbro has resorted to these meritless allegations, in an apparent attempt to unfairly take back rights granted to Atari.”

More on GI.

JAW just put out its second Gravity Crash Christmas card. This one features music from the game, as well as the floaty ship.

Here’s last year’s effort. Not bad for a sequel.

PlayStation Home now has 10 million registered users, SCEE said this morning.

The milestone hits as the firm opens new spaces for Uncharted 2 and Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time in the online “world”.

“PlayStation Home is fast becoming the meeting place of choice between users and developers,” said Dan Hill, European Home Business Manager at SCEE.

“Every new game space enhances the overall experience for consumers, offering more variety, more choice and more enjoyment from a PlayStation Home session.

PR through the link.

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Take-Two said in its full-year earnings call last night that Mafia II will hit in its Q3.

The means it’ll launch between the beginning of May and the end of July.

So yeah. Via Joystiq and EG.

The Americans got a decent PSN update yesterday, including both the GT Academy track and FFVIII as a full game. Radical.

Don’t forget the Army of Two: The 40th Day demo, either.

Get the full thing here. You can find the Euro content for this week here.