Tag Archives: eurogamer

The “new” Digital Foundry blog has just launched on Eurogamer, adding HD video to the UK-based site.

The tech site, run by long-standing games industry media chap Richard Leadbetter, focuses on console technology and video-related coverage.

“It’s been a long time coming, but finally the Digital Foundry tech blog has been humanely re-homed and is ready to resume full service,” said Leadbetter.

“For those new to the site, our aims are remarkably straightforward – to go beyond the gameplay, telling you how games work, what makes them tick, and of course, crucially, what levels of performance you can expect from them.”

Take a look.

Eurogamer’s giving away 2,000 copies of Lord of the Rings Online as part of a two-year birthday promo for the game.

Just hit the link for details. Looks as though it’s going to be a first come, first served thing.

The giveaway’s happening on April 24.

Update: IGN’s given it 9.4.

Update 2: More scores:

• Jeuxvideo – 17/20
• IGN AU – 9
• Gamereactor Denmark – 9
• Eurogamer Portugal – 10
• Eurogamer Italy – 9
• Eurogamer Spain – 10

Eurogamer’s gone live with its Killzone 2 review, giving the game 9/10.

Snip:

This is a methodical shooter that makes few concessions to those not already interested in its single-minded approach to cover-based military action. I’ve compared it to Rainbow Six in the past, but it also calls to mind F.E.A.R, another tough tactical effort that was often misunderstood by those expecting a frag-happy spook hunt. Killzone 2 is a taut and muscular game, a shooter that gives back more than you put in, provided you have the intestinal fortitude. It may take its time revealing its true depths and pleasures, but the journey is well worth taking. Between Killzone 2′s unforgiving grit and Resistance 2′s alien-bursting excess, the PS3 finally has both ends of the shooter spectrum covered in grand style.

We’ll bring you more scores as they come up. Game’s out later this month.

Eurogamer has announced that the latest ABC Electronic audit confirms that the site had over 3.7 million unique users in November last year. That’s more than double 2007’s figure for the same month.

“The results are particularly pleasing as both the UK site increased significantly to 2.3 million unique users during the month, and our more established European editions showed impressive numbers too,” Eurogamer MD Rupert Loman said.

“With over 750,000 unique users in Germany, over 250,000 in Portugal and almost 200,000 in France the European network is really doing well.”

He added, “If you were to take into account GamesIndustry.biz as well the business is now reaching well over 4 million unique users per month.”

Full release after the break.

By Mike Bowden

More »

EA Sports president Peter Moore’s Christmas could’ve been better. After tearing through five days’ worth of wrapping paper, the one gift he most desired failed to materialize. And sadly, no amount of Hallmark-disguised holiday cash will ever net FIFA 09 a spot on Eurogamer’s prestigious Top 50.

“Huh? WTF?? As in WHERE THE HELL IS FIFA 09???” Moore blogged after his breadwinner failed to nab even a participation ribbon.

“Now I get that the sports genre is the Rodney Dangerfield of games when the awards are handed out. But c’mon, one of the best sports games of recent times not even in the Top 50? This title will sell in excess of 10 million units when all is done and dusted, but doesn’t even rank a mention?”

In response, Eurogamer reiterated its award policy, giving a disappointed shake of the head to readers world over.

“Most damaging of all though, people still believe we are presenting these as the definitive games of the year when, as the above illustrates, we are not,” Eurogamer editor Tom Bramwell emphasized. “The Readers’ Top 50, to which over a thousand people contributed, reflects much broader tastes.”

“The formula is designed to highlight games that our staff and core contributors have played – whether through choice or obligation – and then enjoyed over the year. We take top ten lists from our core staff and contributors, and combine them to produce the list of 50 games, which we then comment on as a group. Unfortunately for Peter, we sports fans form a minority of Eurogamer’s editorial staff.”

So there you go. No Electoral College here, folks. Just awful, awful bias.

By Nathan Grayson

Eurogamer’s claimed the PC version of Far Cry is the best of the three SKUs in another of Richard Leadbetter face-off features.

“Far Cry 2 is an excellent release on PC, and the fact that it can run in high definition with all features set to high levels while still providing a reasonably smooth, graphically superb experience is a first-rate achievement,” said Leadbetter.

“Both console versions are intelligently ported and decent games to play, but with clear compromises.”

Not only that, but Ubi Montreal’s work is on a par with CryEngine 2, apparently, and even tops it in the fact that it’s already working on consoles.

“We’d still give the nod to CryEngine 2 in terms of overall performance, but [Far Cry 2 engine] Dunia is working in the here and now on both PC and console, while Crytek’s 360 and PS3 work remains under wraps in Frankfurt,” he added.

More through there.

Eurogamer’s about to run a live interview with Valve’s Chet Faliszek on the subject of Left 4 Dead.

As ever, this means you get to ask the questions, and, if you’re lucky, they may be answered.

Get over there and get asking, varmint.

Eurogamer’s published one of its trademark comparison features, this time focussing solely on the differences between the three versions of Fallout 3.

We won’t spoil the outcome for you. Take a look.

EuroClash, the customer publishing partnership between MediaClash and Eurogamer, has won a contract to publish a quarterly games mag for UK retailer Currys.

The venture will have an initial launch run of 300,000 copies.

“We are offering a superb, extended range of hardware and games for peak trading. The introduction of a games guide will help customers choose the right products for themselves and their friends and family,” said Currys games chap, David Poulter.

Press release after the link.

More »

Eurogamer’s put a 7/10 on Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. Worth noting IGN’s score of 8.3 if you missed it this morning.

Snip from the EG review:

Whereas a traditional platform game could survive a sequence of poor levels, or even succeed in spite of a majority with a world as lovely as this, with characters so delightful and secrets so pleasing to uncover, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is not a platform game. The game it has become instead demands thoughtful, exciting challenges that inspire the player to pitch in and help get the most out of each level, but it fails to provide them, and even though it’s worth persevering with for the occasional hurdles race, egg-and-spoon and a game-world in aptly Rare form, ultimately it’s a brilliant shell with a mostly hollow centre.

So there we are. Full thing through the link.

Eurogamer’s just put its Resistance 2 review live, giving the shooter 9/10.

Snip:

Overall, multiplayer is the satisfying other half to a formidable package, and Resistance 2 is precisely the sort of exclusive game that the PS3 needs. Improving tenfold on its predecessor in almost every area, it not only belongs on the shopping list of existing Resistance fans, but those who were underwhelmed with the original as well will also want to check it out, and then fight for it on the internet. It’s the way of the warrior.

Full thing through there. It’s out in Europe on November 28.

The 2008 Games Media Awards in London last night saw Edge take the gong for best UK mag and Eurogamer win for best British site last night, with Eurogamer’s Ellie Gibson and PC Gamer’s Tom Francis winning best online and print writers respectively.

Full list of winners below. We live-blogged it as well, as you can see here.

• Games Media Legend; Sponsored by Atari: Steve Jarratt
• Games Magazine: Edge
• Games Website: Eurogamer
• Games Broadcast: Games Night on X-League.TV
• Specialist Games Writer, Print: Tom Francis, PC Gamer
• Specialist Games Writer, Online: Ellie Gibson, Eurogamer
• Rising Star; Sponsored by Rising Star Games: Simon Millar, X360
• Mainstream Magazine Games Writer; Sponsored by Ubisoft: Simon Munk, FHM
• National Newspaper, Best Games Coverage: The Guardian
• Regional Games Columnist – Dave Cook

Hit this quick. Eurogamer’s giving away 5,800 LittleBigPlanet beta keys right now. The European beta starts tomorrow and runs until October 12.

Go!

Update: The file’s 906Mb and you can play as soon as you download it, apparently.

Update 2: Eurogamer’s getting absolutely twatted. Good luck with that.

Update 3: Keep trying. It’s 8.27pm now and we’ve just been told there are about 1,000 keys left.

Update 4: EG tech man says all keys are now gone. Just filmed the first 15 minutes of play. Will sort now.

Update 5: Posted the video. You can watch the full intro, the tutorial and the first level here. There’s 14 minutes of footage in total.

Both Eurogamer and Gamespot have launched UK-only competitions for LittleBigPlanet.

It’s a design-a-level affair, with the winners getting their work in the game and a free PS3, among other stuff. Bargain.

There’s a level creation kit for you to download, so don’t panic about being the computer illiterate monkey you clearly are.

Follow the links fro more details.

IGN and Eurogamer have reviewed Crysis: Warhead, giving the first online scores of 9.4/10 and 9/10 respectively.

From IGN:

For $30, Crysis Warhead is an incredible value, and you’d be hard pressed to find a better shooter on the PC this year. The single-player campaign is tight and superb, and the multiplayer portion delivers something that you can just in and play and have fun with. I love the intelligent gameplay of Warhead; this isn’t a game where you simply react to highly scripted events, but one where you have to think on your feet, and you’re rewarded for doing so. Crytek once again proves that its one of the premiere shooter developers in the industry, even if it does get an unfair rep as being “just” a technology company. Comments like that make it seem as if the Crytek had a chip on its shoulder, because it addressed almost every complaint about Crysis and then some. I found Warhead to be challenging, exciting, wild, and, yes, very much full of swagger and fury.

From Eurogamer:

Crysis Warhead is probably the Back to the Future II of videogames: rather than totally transform the story and setting, it returns to the original narrative, exploring it from a different angle; once again, the results are sharper, meaner, and have a lot more for you to think about (although, thankfully, there are no dodgy CGI sharks or Elisabeth Shue performances). The original Crysis may have given you the basic tools, but Warhead allows you to really use them, and while its previous titles made it clear that Crytek knew technology like few others, it’s this strange off-shoot Warhead that proves it’s no slouch when it comes to level design and set-pieces either.

This is apparently out next week now, where it was supposed to be released today. We can wait: sounds awesome.

IGN’s video review is after the break.

More »

Eurogamer’s given S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky 7/10, which added to IGN’s 70 percent and PC Zone’s cover score of 88 percent should give you a good idea that this probably isn’t quite what it was supposed to be. Snip:

There’s been a lot of negativity, hasn’t there? There’s still a lot of what made Stalker so appealing here. It shows how having these sorts of character-improvement and living world elements can improve a shooter’s appeal. Why do you think we’re so angry when they take away all our stuff? Between the improved weapon modification and the more living Zone, a certain strand of Stalker fan will find much here to applaud, and those who’ve never actually played the earlier game at all will still be enchanted by the unique atmosphere of the place… but would be recommended going there first, perhaps with the Oblivion Lost mod attached.

Full thing through the link.

Eurogamer’s reviewed Tiger Woods 09, giving it 9/10. The latest edition of EA’s evergreen golfer’s getting high scores so far, with 1UP giving it a full 10.

See the rest on Metacritic.

IGN, GamesRadar and Eurogamer got to make their own level for Bionic Commando: Rearmed, as you can see both on the Capcom blog and here, on EG.

The levels are challenge rooms, which are kind of like the VR missions from Metal Gear, but with bigger arms. Take a look.

Lucy Bradshaw’s opening herself up to live questions on Eurogamer today from 5.30pm BST.

The Spore executive producer should be in buoyant mood now the game’s gone gold, so ask her questions about that. And other stuff.

More through the link.

Eurogamer’s made first mention of Eurogamer Expo 2008, a “gaming event” to take place later this year.

The show’s going to be announced soon. Facebook and Eurogamers groups have been set up, so sign up for information over the coming weeks.