Preorder Mass Effect, Save $10
April 30, 2008
Making a sweet deal even sweeter, EA sent out word that those who preorder the PC version of Mass Effect at participating retailers they will get a $10 discount on the game’s price, which is $49.99. The announcement notes that GameStop, Amazon and GoGamer are currently the participating retailers.
Originally released for the Xbox 360 last Fall, the PC port features a number of enhancements and improvements, including a redesigned interface. But most importantly, it will feature the premium downloadable content for free.
BattleForge Announced
April 30, 2008
In a surprising move, EA has announced BattleForge, an online real-time strategy game that has players assembling their forces and fighting through virtual trading cards. The game is in development at EA Phenomic, the studio behind SpellForce and Siedler, for release this Fall.
As with other online trading card games, players will be able to win and trade cards, as well as buy new cards through micro-transactions, which seems to be the new rage these days. However, the company notes that the retail release of BattleForge will be the “complete game” and that micro-transactions won’t be necessary to experience the full game.
“BattleForge is the next step in compelling RTS gameplay by taking the battles completely online,” said executive producer Richard Leinfellner. “With co-op play, challenging tournaments, Guilds, chat rooms and a robust marketplace for trading and buying your cards,” he continued, “BattleForge is the first RTS to add integral social and community components to an exciting fantasy RTS.”
Legend of Spyro Continues in Third Game
April 30, 2008
The Spyro trilogy continues in The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, the third chapter in the popular franchise. Being developed by Etranges Libellules, a strange-named French studio, the game will be released this Autumn for the PS2, PS2, DS, Wii and Xbox 360. It will feature an all-star voice cast in the form of Elijah Wood, Gary Oldman, Christina Ricci, Mark Hamill and others reprising their roles from the previous games.
In the final chapter of the trilogy – note, not the game – players find Spyro teaming up with Cynder, his former enemy, to face the Dark Master’s evil plague. The game will feature drop-in/drop-out cooperative feature, allowing players to have the option of completing the game as either Spyro or Cynder, giving them more freedom to explore Spyro’s world in new ways.
“Spyro has grown up a lot since his debut, and players are going to notice advanced gameplay, character design and story lines in Dawn of the Dragon,” said Al Simone, senior vice president, Global Marketing for Sierra Entertainment. “The game takes some exciting twists and turns – fans of the series and newcomers alike will experience non-stop fun, a renewed sense of intensity and the type of challenging adventure only Spyro can overcome.”
Crash Bandicoot Returns, Rips Off Pokemon
April 30, 2008
Everybody’s favorite marsupial hero, Crash Bandicoot, is returning in Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant, an upcoming action-adventure title in the long-running series. In development at Radical Entertainment, the game is set for release this Fall on the Wii, PS2, PSP, DS and Xbox 360.
In Crash Bandicoot: Mind over Mutant, a rejuvenated Neo Cortex is taking over the world one brain at a time! Cortex and N. Brio devise a new kind of evil – a text-messaging, do-anything device which controls both mutant and bandicoot minds. Armed with his quick-wits and lightening agility, Crash must free his friends, the titans and save the day!
Sounding a lot like Pokemon, the game will let Crash store monsters in his pocket, upgrade them and utilize their powers when they are most advantageous. It will feature a free roaming game world, ala GTA, allowing players to travel and explore through intersecting worlds, with different gameplay options available depending on the creature by the player’s side. Crash also gains new abilities, including a counter-combat system, digging and climbing, among other things.
More information on the game can be found on its official website.
Confirmation: GTA 4 Exclusive Episodes This Autumn
April 30, 2008
Reminding the world that a little known game called Grand Theft Auto IV is out in stores, Rockstar Games and Microsoft confirmed that exclusive episodes for the Xbox 360 will be available starting this Autumn.
No details were provided, nor is anything known about these episodes which are only described as “providing hours of additional gameplay” by the aforementioned companies. PS3 gamers will be in the dark when it comes to these episodes, as Sony was reluctant to pony up the money to Rockstar for these episodes.
Exodus from the Earth Announced
April 30, 2008
Strategy First has announced Exodus from the Earth, an upcoming shooter that has players taking on a corporation to reveal its dark secrets. In development at Parallax Arts Studio, the game is due out this Fall on PC. Here’s the deal:
Mankind assumed it would take five billion years until the earth began to die. In reality, it is 2016, and the planet earth is living its last twenty years. The Sun has begun to grow, burning everything around it and turning Earth into a lifeless nightmare. Mankind must adapt to extraterrestrial conditions or find an Earth-like planet where humans can live.
After learning the dreadful news, the powerful A.X. Corporation produced a vaccine which allows humans to survive in any environment, and now plans to inject everyone on Earth. The alleged discovery of a “Second Earth” threatens the financial future of A.X., and C.I.A. officials become suspicious of the corporation, their motives, and the mysterious vaccine. Secret Agent Francis Rixon is commissioned to infiltrate the A.X. headquarters and discover the truth.
The game is based on the advanced Riposte game engine, provided by Tools Media Corporation. It will include environments from two planets, unique attacks for each weapon and more.
Aliens: Colonial Marines Details
April 30, 2008
Aliens is probably second only to the Star Wars films in the sheer number of video games that have been made from its universe. Now another set of details have emerged regarding the newest installment in xenomorph battling. In an CVG interview with Mike Gallo, a producer on Aliens: Colonial Marines we find out that the game will fit alongside the stories of the second and third films. The game will take place shortly after the events of Alien 3 (which itself was shortly after Aliens).
You will of course have command of a squad of the well-armed soldiers, but instead of being a single commander-type character you’ll hop between different members of the squad, experiencing the story from various points of view. Co-op mode will have up to four players each taking control of a marine. First person to scream “game over man, game over!” gets a punch in the shoulder. Gearbox has some experience with squad-based gameplay from the Brothers in Arms games, but Aliens: Colonial Marines will be vastly different from your average squad-based shooter. The game draws heavily from the look and feel of the second film, so you can expect to have a bigger emphasis on defensive tactics and survival in the face of massive odds as opposed to a more aggressive strategy.
Some locations will be familiar: the Sulaco, the ship the space marines and Ripley travelled on, while some locations will be entirely new, although still consistent with the Aliens universe. Presumably there might be some travel on the blasted surface of LV-426. A high-definition rendering of the ‘pilot/space jockey’ ship would be awe-inspiring.
Xbox 360 Limiting Ghostbusters Developers
April 30, 2008
Sony and Microsoft fanboys could sit and debate the merits of their favorite console all day. They often do, check some of our forum threads for proof. The fact of the matter is however that the PS3 is in many ways superior. It has a higher number of processors and despite what MS/Halo fans want to believe, developers everywhere agree that Sony’s console is more capable. Joining the ranks of game creators feeling slightly hampered by trying to make a game that is easily fitted into both consoles is Terminal Reality, the studio behind the upcoming Ghostbusters game. President Mark Randel said that a PS3 exclusive version of the game would be able to take advantage of the additional processing power to make a more impressive game both technically and visually. The PS3 would be able to keep track of double the number of objects on screen at a time that the Xbox 360 can handle.
GTA IV: Statue of Happiness’ beating heart
April 30, 2008
Grand Theft Auto 4 hasn’t even been out a week and like expected, the internet community has already begun nitpicking through the games extensive library of hidden content. The latest to hit the tubes is the beating heart of Liberty City’s very own Statue of Happiness. Thank to our buds over at Kotaku, now you too can access the secret content which is as easy as finding a helicopter and jumping out onto the statue, and entering the door.
You can head over to Kotaku, read link below, to see a detailed video explaining exactly how you go about doing this.
This is sure to be the first of many videos showing the many easter eggs hidden throughout Liberty City, stay tuned!
Read(Kotaku)
Crytek Says No More PC Exclusives
April 30, 2008
Piracy is the bane of almost every entertainment industry. I don’t see too many black market novels floating around, but when it comes to music, films and video games all of them must wage an ongoing battle to combat the loss of revenue. Hit hardest by this is the PC gaming market. Sure, you can get pirated games for the consoles, but generally that involves some mod chipping which can void warranties and prevent owners from gaming online. Want a free copy of the newest PC game? Hop on your favorite bit torrent site and chances are you can find it.
This unfortunate trend has caused Crytek, the company behind the Far Cry games and recent PC FPS Crysis to announce that they’re no longer going to create PC exclusives. They cite the superior sales of similar games on consoles as a big factor in this decision. They will still continue to bring their games to the PC, but they’ll be diversifying in order to boost their market and thus their sales. This means that the next two Crysis installments will have to be changed if they do in fact happen, since Crytek president Cervat Yerli reitereated the fact that it’d be impossible to bring Crysis as-is to consoles, so the sequels would likely be a step back in some ways.
Is piracy really the cause of Crysis’ relatively lackluster sales performance? Could it be that gamers are feeling saturated by FPS games that feature burly soldiers in ability-enhancing gear? It might simply be that the first game in a brand new IP can’t be compared to a third or fourth game in a series.
Grand Theft Auto 4 sets UK sales records
April 30, 2008
While this probably comes as no surprise to most, it is worth noting. Selling a staggering 609,000 total copies on its launch date alone, GTA IV has surpassed the previous record held by its predecessor, GTA: San Andreas at 501,000 copies.
Probably coming at more of a surprise, GTA IV has also surpassed Halo 3’s Xbox 360 record of 266,000 copies, setting the new standard at 335,000 copies sold on day one.
Also stomping out PS3’s GT5: Prologue’s record of 50,000 units, selling 274,000 copies in just one day.
While these stats aren’t exactly official, it gives you a pretty good feeling of just how popular Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 4 really is. This is to be expected though, considering the game received near perfect scores across the board from virtually every major game reviewer.
Read(gamesindustry.biz)
Assault Heroes 2 gets dated
April 30, 2008
If you were a fan of the Xbox Live Arcade game Assault Heroes, rated by IGN as 2006’s top XBLA game, then you are in for a treat. It was recently announced that Assault Heroes 2 is officially set for a May 14th launch date.
Developed by Wanako Studios, Assault Heroes 2 brings a new playing ground to the popular game as it now lets the players venture into space, along with new features like hi-jackable enemy vehicles along with new levels and game modes.
Assault Heroes 2 will hit Xbox Live Arcade on May 14th for 800 Microsoft Points.
Read(XBLA)
Asian 360 gets price cut
April 30, 2008
While it’s no secret that the 360 isn’t doing so hot in Asia, compared to the Wii and PS3, Microsoft is looking to change that. Recently announcing that their Xbox 360 console will be seeing a price drop in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore, Microsoft is hoping that the newly priced console will spur more interest in the Asian gaming community, especially with games like GTA 4 just being released.
Singapore will see the biggest decrease in price with a full 20% off the MSRP while South Korea will see a mere 6% off. While some have doubts that this price drop will attract an astonishing number of potential buyers, others feel that all Microsoft needs to do is cater more to the Asian gaming community.
GTA: Tokyo coming soon.
Read(DigitalTrends)
GTA IV runs into freezing problems
April 30, 2008
Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 4, being one of the biggest games of the year, was bound to run into at least some sorts of problems, right?
Well, the first slew of complaints, not from a politician, about Rockstar’s shoot-em’-up have begun to roll in as select users find their consoles frozen after viewing the introductory scene. While only effecting some 60GB PS3s and Xboxs, Rockstar has been made aware of the problem from which another problem arises, they have no idea what is causing the lockup.
Word on the street is that if you delete your save file and create a new one the problem will be remedied, so hope for those with the problem are not lost. Of course, when the problem is officially analyzed you can expect to see a patch from Rockstar that will fix the problem for good, but exactly when that patch is coming is anyones guess.
Read(Xboxic)
QuickPicks
April 30, 2008
Immigrant Council Worried Over Portrayal of Eastern Europeans
April 29, 2008
It seems that Jack Thompson’s not the only one worried about the impact of Grand Theft Auto IV. The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants is worried about the effects the game will have on the public’s perception of Eastern Europeans. The protagonist of the tale, Niko Bellic, is a recent immigrant attempting to flee his past which includes involvement in the Bosnian war. Of course he becomes embroiled in violence and crime (hey it’s a GTA game, what’d you expect?) and this is what’s caused the commotion. The Council has complained that this game is based on ‘false stereotypes’. It seems to me that there isn’t much in the way of stereotypes regarding Eastern Europeans being violent gangster types. Just because you don’t like how a character is portrayed, doesn’t mean it’s racially motivated.
The only stereotype this plays on is less of a stereotype and more of an archetype: the ex-military man who ends up forced to use his combat training to survive in a situation where he’d much rather never touch a gun again. From some of the reviews I’ve read it seems to have a rather positive spin on the character, portraying him as a man scarred by war who regrets having to do yet more violence.
Thompson At It Again
April 29, 2008
You had to know it was coming. Grand Theft Auto IV has been out a mere handful of hours and Jack Thompson is already up in arms about it. Someone put together a little clip called “Ladies of Liberty City” that shows a player rampaging through the hapless prostitutes of the Grand Theft Auto universe. Once again ol’ Jackie Boy has found something to complain about, calling the game the “gravest assault upon children in this country since polio”. He continues in his metaphor, saying that the ‘vaccine’ must be administered by the United States Government in the form of criminal prosecution against the ‘perpetrators’. He of course demanded that legal action be taken against Rockstar Games.
Matt Damon Not In Bourne Game Due To Violence
April 29, 2008
Apparently Matt Damon has no problem with blasphemy, cheating at poker, infidelity, stabbing people with pens and murdering people and stealing their identities. At least as long as it’s only in the movies. While he has played some admirable characters in his career, he’s definitely played some with a more spotty reputation. That fact makes his rationale for not being involved in the upcoming video game based on the Bourne novels by Robert Ludlum much less valid. Apparently Matt Damon was bothered by the game’s violent, interactive nature. Reportedly Damon’s mother is a professor of education who is loudly critical of violent toys, products and video games that promote the violence in films.
Why stop at films though? Years ago when video games were mere eight-bit toys the big concern of the day was the violence in films, particularly action and horror films. Parents cried out for something to be done, and something was: Mortal Kombat. Video games could all of a sudden be just as harmful as films. Nowadays film has more or less stopped being criticized. Why Mr. Damon? Why do you have a problem with digital representations of violence when your live-action ones are much more graphic and disturbing. Forget about the worry of ‘interactive’. If we didn’t have video games it’d just be back to the old-fashioned style of kids running around the house/yard/etc imagining themselves as their favorite heroes from TV and movies, many of whom are prone to acts of violence.
GTAIV Midnight Release Sees Violence in UK
April 29, 2008
Sadly the world of gamers sees yet another log thrown on the fire of video game violence criticism as reports surface of a few incidents that took place in the UK during the midnight release of Grand Theft Auto IV. One teenager was beaten on his way home from the store and was taken to the hospital with a broken jaw and broken nose. Adding insult to injury? His copy of the game was stolen by his assailants so he won’t even be able to play it while he’s recuperating.
A 23-year old man was stabbed by a hooded man waiting in line outside the Gamestation. It’s questionable whether that incident has anything to do with the game itself as the man who was stabbed had yet to even get on the line for the game. Police are asking for witnesses to step forward as CCTV cameras show there were anywhere from fifty to one hundred people at the scene at the time of the stabbing.
Blockbuster’s New Plan Won’t Affect Gamestop
April 29, 2008
Just today we brought you news that Blockbuster is ramping up their involvement in the video game selling business. Soon you’ll be able to buy new consoles and a wide variety of games straight from your local Blockbuster rental location. Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Markets has assured Gamestop investors that this move won’t hurt Gamestop’s profits at all. This is likely a move of slight desperation on Blockbuster’s part as it’s probably likely that their popularity has dropped with Netflix and the iTunes store as well as On Demand cable boxes making video rentals cheap and easy. Give most people the option of either walking/driving to their rental store or pushing a button on their remote for the same price and they’ll choose the option that keeps them in their slippers every time.
Gamestop has very little to worry about for several reasons. First of all there’s familiarity. Sure, most everyone knows about Blockbuster, but if your local deli started selling computer hardware, you’d probably stick to the sandwiches.
Secondly you’ve got a different group of people working a Gamestop than you do at a Blockbuster. Go to a Blockbuster and ask for movie recommendations. Everyone likes movies. That doesn’t mean everyone knows about movies. Ask two different people the best movie of all time and you’ll probably get contrasting answers. Some people like depressing indie flicks. Some like lighthearted romps through Gamestop is generally staffed by gamers. When I walk into my local Gamestop the workers are almost always talking about some game or other. People ask for recommendations and usually get pretty good stuff because of it.
Thirdly is just the sheer amount of space a store dedicated to a sole category of merchandise can dedicate to each of its products. Blockbuster would do well to phase out the incredible volume of terrible horror/action films that clutter their shelves. Nobody cares about Kevin Sorbo or Dolph Lundgren anymore (it’s debatable if they cared about Sorbo in the first place). Gamestop has every inch of their space stocked with gaming merchandise. Every older film that sits on the Blockbuster shelves and gets dusty is space where Gamestop is putting a PSP case or a Wii game.
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