Monthly Archives: December 2009

We’re thrilled to announced that Johnny Cullen is to become VG247′s third full-time member of editorial staff, joining myself and Stephany Nunneley.

Cullen, based in Northern Ireland, came up through the VG247 community as a stand-in freelancer for gamescom this year, and has shown exceptional levels of commitment and dedication ever since.

He’ll will be starting work as our UK second-in-command straight after the New Year.

Congratulations, Johnny!

Now we’re on the verge of wrapping up 2009, it’s time to reflect on what’s been and gone this year. The good times. The bad times. The community. The tears. The pain. The typing in pants at 4.00am. The megatons. The games. The companies. The faces. The CMS telling people to stop posting so quickly. The glory times.

For VG247, 2009 has been exceptional, mainly for the strength of its ever-growing community. We’re nothing without you, so these awards are our way of saying thank you. We hope you had fun. If you’ve won a prize, mail patrick [at] vg247.com with your address, and I’ll make sure you get it before Christmas.

To the game-makers and publishers included this year, we want to say a massive congratulations for everything you’ve achieved in the past 12 months. These awards are purely based on reader votes. Your tiny plastic trophy, straight from the heart of the VG247 community, is on its way.

Big up. Here’s to 2010!

Best Poster (Overall)

1. Blerk
2. Psychotext
3. Oldergamer

Congratulations, Blerk. You win a DJ Hero Renegade Edition for 360.

Best Poster (Trade)

1. Psychotext
2. Blerk
3. Hunam

Well done, Mr Text. You get a DSi and a copy of Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympics.

Best Fanboy

1. TEA
2. BDH
3. Gekidami

Spectacular stuff, TEA. You won by a landslide. You get promo copies of Forza 3 and Assassin’s Creed II (PS3), and a retail copy of the Age of Empires Complete Edition.

The Shatner

1. BDH
2. TEA
3. Cort

Even though BDH attracted the most votes for this by far, the majority abstained, specifically because they felt no one should be banned. I’m not going to ban anyone.

We Are The Mod

1. Psychotext
2. No_PUDding
3. Blerk

Congrats, PT. I think. If you want to do it, you’re welcome. If not, it’s on PUD. If not, it’s Blerk. If not…

Best Publisher of 2009

1. EA
2. Sony
3. Ubisoft

Best Developer of 2009

1. Naughty Dog
2. BioWare
3. Infinity Ward

Best Game of 2009

1. Uncharted 2
2. Modern Warfare 2
3. Assassin’s Creed II

Most Anticipated Game of 2010

1. Mass Effect 2
2. God of War III
3. Alan Wake

The front Tron Evolution trailer emerged from the VGAs last night, showing glowy men riding around on glowy bikes. Bet you never expected that.

It’s a Disney thing, developed by Propaganda.

Hit the link. Get all the rest of the show news from Steph’s liveblog.

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Activision trailered a True Crime reboot at the VGAs last night, as you can see after the break.

Canadian developer United Front‘s doing the work. It’s the same outfit behind ModNation Racers.

The new game’s set in China, featuring an undercover cop against the Triads. For those that may not remember, True Crime: Streets of L.A. was originally developed by Luxoflux, and released in 2003.

A sequel, True Crime: New York City, released in 2005, again by Luxoflux.

There’s no date on this. Get all the rest of the show news from Steph’s liveblog.

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The first Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands trailer debuted at the VGAs last night – watch it after the break – showing what very much looks to be a vehicle tie-in for the upcoming Jake Gyllenhaal movie.

The Prince looks like Jake’s in-film character, most obviously. Rewinding’s still there as well, as you can see at the end of the trailer.

It’s out in May. Get all the rest of the show news from Steph’s liveblog.

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Ruffian put out a first proper gameplay trailer of Crackdown 2 trailer at the VGAs last night, showing agents gliding, co-oping and smacking the shit out of people with sign posts.

Is it good? It is. The game’s out next year, 360-only. Hit the link to see why you should be excited.

Get all the rest of the show news from Steph’s liveblog.

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EA dropped the first Medal of Honor at the VGAs last night as promised, and very bloody awesome it looks too.

The shooter reboot’s set in modern-day Afghanistan. There’s no denying the quality here.

It’s out for PC, 360 and PS3 at the end of next year. Get all the rest of the show news from Steph’s liveblog.

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Hit the link for the first Halo: Reach trailer, which debuted last night at the Spike VGAs.

Looks as though Bungie’s gone for the “beefy” look this time round, armour-skulls and all.

Quite hard not to be excited about this, to be honest. Even if it does feel a little “Army of Two”.

It’s out next year. Get all the rest of the show news from Steph’s liveblog.

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Hit the link for Batman: Arkham Asylum 2′s reveal trailer. The game was announced at last night’s Spike VGAs.

This, Ringo, is great news. Watch and see why. There’s no date, but the end of next year is probably a safe bet.

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Here we go again with another liveblog kiddos. This time the 2009 Video Game Awards.

To keep you up to date we are liveblogging the whole thing as it happens on the television.

The schedule says that it should start around 8:00pm EST – that’s around 1:00am for the UK, and 2:00am for those elsewhere in Europe – should you decide to stay up with us.

So, throw on a pot of coffee and join us for up-to-the-minute liveblogging after the break.

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In a video below the break, 2K Marin’s Hogarth Delaplante walks the view through some of the new features and areas in BioShock 2.

The lead environment artist also details new gameplay features like setting traps, dual-wielding’, the new hacking mechanic and a bit about teaming up with Little Sisters after you have adopted them.

It also shows the Ryan Amusements level from the game. Awesome.

Game’s out next year on PC, PS3 and 360.

Via US PS Blog.

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Ten new screens for Star Trek Online popped up today.

Each one is full of delicious space exploration, ships, and other stuff to get your Trekkie heart racing.

Head on over to Kotaku for a look.
Game’s out in February.

Update: Guess what kiddos? We’ve decided to liveblog the event as it happens. Should you decide that you wish to stay up till around 1:00am (UK’ers) to check in with us, we will update you as the shit goes down! So, if Jack Black shows up in his undies shooting sparks from his groin again, or should Cliffy B decide to show and announce that Gears is being ported to Wii – we will let you know the second it happens. Not that it will, just sayin’.

Original: Spike TV will broadcast the 2009 Video Game Awards tonight at 8:00pm EST.

To get you pumped for it, you can watch a live stream of the rehearsals going on at the moment, which promised to give you a taste of some of the world premieres expected tonight.

Earlier, Geoff Keighley tweeted that during the “first five minutes” of the show, one of the “biggest surprise premieres in VGA history” will take place.

Oh, Geoff. You big tease. Stop it already. You’re making us blush.

Guess we’ll have to watch it now.

US District Court judge Deborah K. Chasanow has denied Bethesda’s motion for an injunction against Interplay over licensing for the Fallout MMO its working on, and the Fallout Trilogy containing Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics.

For now, at least, Interplay will be able to continue selling the bundle and the individual games, as well as continue to work on the MMO (Project V13) due to the licensing deal forged between the two companies during 2007 , in which  Bethesda purchased the franchise for $5.75 million.

Bethesda filed suit against Interplay earlier in the year not only over the Fallout MMO, but claiming that the Trilogy pack would confuse consumers into thinking it was Fallout 3.

More through Gamasutra.

A report from iSuppli has revealed that Sony may finally break-even with PS3 thanks to the slim model, despite still losing money per unit manufactured.

According to the report, at launch the console cost around $805 to build with the highest-priced version selling for $599, and the lower end selling for $399 – which cost the company $50 per console. Now, thanks to new 120Gb Slim, it only costs the company around $336 to produce and sell for $299 in the US – thus losing around $37 per unit produced.

Factoring in advertising, royalties and other expenses, the report disclosed that the company is very close to breaking-even, and with “renewed enthusiasm” for the lower price and only coming in slightly behind Xbox 360 in November, things may finally be looking up.

There is a breakdown of each part of the console in lovely PDF format through here.

Via CNET, Joystiq.

Sony has announced that after a “full year of user-generated content”, it and Media Molecules are holding the Sackie Awards – sort of like the Academy Awards – and will hand out awards to community created LittleBigPlanet goodies.

Judged by Media Molecule, Sony and the community, one was handed out to “Post–Apocalyptic” by Anpostteller for “Best Visuals and use of Special Effects in a Level”.

Other nominees in this category were:

• The Good, the Bad and the Sackboy series by Wexfordian
• The Movies by Teebonesey
• Pixelation 1.0 by JackIsBack999
• Future Warzone II Trailer by Johnee
• LittleDeadSpace by Darknessbear
• Cause and Effect series by TripleTremelo
• Star Cruiser by CandyK
• The Miracle of Life by Poms

More are to be handed out soon, and you can check out a video of the latest winner over on the US PS Blog.

Game Developers Conference organizers announced today that Naughty Dog and Double Fine will both provide presentations at GDC 2010.

Five different lectures pertaining to Uncharted 2 and its production will be given by Naughty Dog at the conference, one by director Bruce Straley and co-lead designer Neil Druckmann discussing story and gameplay integration, and the second known presentation will be from art directors Robh Ruppel and Erick Pangilinan discussing the artsy end.

Double Fine’s lead programmer Peter Demoreuille and technical/VFX artist Drew Skillman will discuss visual design for Brutal Legend, and it was also announced that Jonathan Blow will discuss the programming behind Braid.

The conference takes place March 9-13 in San Fransisco, with more speakers and events to be announced.

Thanks, Cinemablend.

Capcom has released a couple videos, showing off the outfits Chris and Sheva can wear in the Mercenaries Reunion DLC for Resident Evil 5.

While Sheva’s “Fairy Tale” outfit resembles a strippers rendition of Little Red Riding Hood, Chris’s outfit, “Warrior,” looks a bit Village People meets Mad Maxx. To us at least.

A boxed copy of Resident Evil 5 (Gold Edition) containing all DLC released, plus Lost in Nightmares, Mercenaries Reunion, costumes and another TBA episode will retail for $49.99 as a single Blu-ray disc for PS3 or as a DVD with a token for the downloadable content for Xbox 360 on March 9.

Lost in Nightmares and Costume Pack 1 will be released on February 17 and 18 for 360 and PS3, respectively.

Another episode (title TBA) along with Costume Pack 2 will hit on March 3 and 4 for 360 and PS3 respectively.

Watch the videos for both outfits, courtesy of Joystiq, below the break.

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NPD has released PC sales figures for November, and estimates that $51.7 million was spent on software in retail stores, but per usual, does not take into account digital distribution sales.

Yesterday, Anita Frazier tweeted that PC sales for the year were at $1.46B for the year, which is down 6.6 percent YoY.

She also tweeted the top five videogame properties for the year in terms of sales through November, which were Call of Duty, Wii Fit, Mario Bros., Guitar Hero, and Rock Band, respectively.

More through the links.

Capcom’s released a new Dark Void video, showing how our protagonist Will “takes care” of the Watchers.

Looks like there will be loads of different ways to dispatch your enemies, which is good because everybody likes variety.

Head on over to Capcom-Unity for more, and watch the video below the break.

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