Archive for October 5th, 2007:
DigitalBattle’s Break a Million Competition
Winners Announced 1st Wickerman, 2nd Anuban, 3rd Da JAP
DigitalBattle is holding a contest for those who like to comment on our stories, it’s to celebrate 1 million visitors to the site since it started over a year and half ago. From this week on, we’ll pick the best 3 comments each week and award each one with a game. All you have to do is to continue posting relevant and constructive comments on stories. Check out this week’s prizes after the jump. More »
Get a Bloody Wii
If the above scary-looking Wii appeals to you, then you are welcome to join the Manhunt 2 sweepstakes. Rockstar is giving away a 50″ plasma screen TV and the above Wii, which looks like a regular Wii splattered with blood in keeping with the game’s violent themes.
The re-rated game is due out on October 31 on PS2, PSP and Wii.
Epic: "Wii Not Profitable"
Unreal Engine 3 has been very profitable for Epic, as it is now used for almost every good-looking game in the wild. For those wishing for it to show up on the Wii… keep on dreaming, as Mark Rein does not think there’s much “money” in the platform.
“What we’re doing is the really high-end, next-generation visuals,” he said. “We’re pushing these machines real hard. I just think that we have too many things on our plate to go back and put resources into that kind of thing.”
He doubts the profitability of the platform, simply commenting “I don’t think there’s a lot of money on making engines for the Wii.” Apparently, the Xbox 360 is where it’s at, and the PS3 is the one to look forward to in the future. “Unless you’re going to sell your engine to Nintendo, you’re going for scraps on that platform,” said Rein.
MySims Goes Fashion-crazy
To celebrate the release of MySims in the UK, EA has commissioned four of the country’s hottest fashion designers to create a dual purpose capsule collection based on the core attributes of the game – Self Expression, Customization, Creativity, and Collectability. Below’s the whole deal:
- Giles Deacon ? Eek Wii-mote/Bag talisman ? based on Giles? signature avatar Eek will come with special My Sims elements designed to stimulate the mind or just act as good luck. RRP
Penumbra Sequel Gets Storyline
The second (and announced to be the last) entry in the Penumbra series has gotten itself an official story line. The upcoming psychological horror experience, subtitled Black Plague, will focus on the adventures of Philip as he goes on a search of his dead father.
A letter from a dead man.
A secret buried beneath frozen wasteland.
A dark, sinister family mystery.
Philip’s life will never be the same again…
Trapped in a shadowy, underground complex, intrepid explorer Philip is determined to discover the truth behind his father’s disappearance.
Surrounded by enemies and assaulted by terror from all sides, Philip must collect clues and solve vexing puzzles while combating the gnawing psychological terrors that assail his mind and threaten to strip him of his sanity. Can Philip master his fear and finally uncover the truth behind a mystery that has haunted him for a lifetime? Only you can decide…
Penumbra: Black Plague is set for worldwide release during Q1 2008.
Zune Not Playing Games "Anytime Soon"
“The Zune isn’t playing Halo 3 anytime soon,” says J Allard, the bald dude who has now taken over the Zune department at Microsoft. He revealed to Reuters that games aren’t in the pipeline for the company’s media player, though considering the company’s pedigree, it should.
“I love games and maybe for someone with a 40-minute commute, it might be an interesting scenario,” he said. ”Thus far, the market really hasn’t proven out that it is a great scenario. Customer satisfaction with what has been done isn’t that high. The other challenge is with the platform. The games that you bought in your fifth generation don’t run with your sixth generation. … The rate of innovation, turnover, and variety of form factors makes it a tricky proposition.”
Activision: "Bizarre is Only the Beginning"
It appears Bizarre was only the beginning, according to this MCV report. Activision’s European chief has revealed that the company “won’t turn down the chance to acquire another key developer” or even build a new studio on its own, if the opportunity arises.
Apparently, the publisher is “always looking at opportunities,” according to Joerg Trouvain. He explained that there were two reasons for the acquisition of Bizarre, stating the need to “expand development capacity” and “to enter the racing genre which we haven’t been in before.”
Pirates of the Burning Sea Sets Date to Pillage Stores
It was announced today that Pirates of the Burning Sea will launch worldwide on January 22, 2008. This pirate-themed MMO allows players to choose between four factions – Pirate, English, French and Spanis – and vie for dominance of the seas. As expected, players will have to battle over ownership of the game’s numerous ports, which affect the in-game economy. Combat occurs in both ship-to-ship mortal combat, as well as long-range firing.
Those who pre-order the title will get access to a wide variety of bonus items, including a powerful in-game weapon and a parrot, along with early access to the game.
Contra 4 Release Date
Contra will be back to kick some alien ass on November 13 when Contra 4 hits stores on the DS. It was revealed through a scan of the game’s retail one-sheet on NeoGAF.
According to the sheet, a dedicated website for the game should launch later this month. As the title implies, the game is a throwback to the days of the original Contra; it comes complete with two-player cooperative play.
NBA Europe Live Tour Announced
EA and NBA send word that they have united to hold a second tour of NBA Europe Live, where they bring some of the world’s best basketball action to fans in Europe. The event has already begun on October 1 and features the Memphis Grizzlies, Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves in training camps and exhibition games against top Euroleague Basketball clubs in six cities across Turkey, Italy, Spain, and the UK. The first games of this year?s tour are on October 6 in both Istanbul and Rome.
Besides the tour, EA will also hold a number of events around the launch of NBA LIVE 08, which will be available on PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360 later this month.
“NBA Europe Live is a fantastic platform for EA SPORTS and our partners at the NBA to share our passion for real and virtual basketball with fans and gamers across Europe,” said Matt Bilbey, Senior Director of International Marketing, EA SPORTS. “We?re pleased to continue to be ambassadors for NBA basketball and with the launch of NBA LIVE 08 in Europe today are excited for gamers to be able to celebrate the best basketball action on the virtual court.”
Gridrunner Heading to Xbox Live
As revealed through his LiveJournal, psychedelic game creator Jeff Minter announced that he will release Gridrunner++ on Xbox Live Arcade. The game is already available on PC and Mac, with demos of the respective versions up on the official Llamasoft website.
Minter is known best for Space Giraffe (Xbox Live Arcade) and countless music visualizers ranging from Winamp to the Xbox 360.
“I already have it running modified for the different aspect ratio and working off the x360 pad as opposed to the mouse, and I’m changing and extending the gameplay; it’ll be a much more involved game than the PC-only predecessor,” he wrote on his blog. “I’m getting all the gameplay working first then I’ll overhaul the graphics; we’ll likely go for algo generated 3D shapes rather than the hand-drawn sprites of the PC original.”
Folk Music in Orange Box
Shacknews reports that programmer-turned-musician Jonathan Coulton will have one of his songs included in the upcoming Orange Box from Valve, which includes Half-Life 2 Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal.
“I am delighted the Valve design team selected me to help make the surprise single a success. If it’s not every geek’s dream to be immortalized in a video game, it was mine,” he said.
It wasn’t mentioned how and where the song will be placed, but the site hints that it is part of the ending credits sequence.
Bee Movie Game Demo on Xbox Live
Fans of Jerry Seinfeld can now download a demo of Bee Movie Game from Xbox Live, offering a sample of the game-movie tie-in to the upcoming kids movie. The demo features one full level from the game.
The full game is expected later this Fall for PS2, Wii, DS and Xbox 360.
Full Back Awesome Game Tattoo
It’s been a while since I’ve seen such beautiful tattoo work, let alone a game tattoo. This one is on a woman (no less!) who got her full back covered with gaming stuff ranging from Pac-Man to Resident Evil, along with a NES controller labeled with “Leave Luck to Heaven.” Instant classic.
Crytek: Halo Is Years Behind PC FPS
After saying there’s a possibility of Crysis coming to consoles (see the post below), Crytek boss Cevat Yerli (pronounced “Chevat Yarli”, in case you didn’t know), says that Halo and console FPS games are years behind their PC based counterparts.
Here’s what he had to say about Halo 3:
No. I don’t want to talk bad about it. The trailer looked great. I know there are millions of people who love it. I tried to play Halo 1, I tried to play Halo 2. (laughs) I really didn’t get it. It didn’t get me, well I bought copies though. Again, conversely the Bioshock demo got me. It’s not that it’s not possible, but console shooters are at the level of PC shooters 5-6 years ago. The gameplay has to be more sophisticated—more thinking then shooting.
Yerli of course has a point – unlike Bioshock, Halo 3 didn’t bring anything new to the table in terms of first person shooters. But it sure as hell is selling a lot of copies.