• Home
• Archives
• About
• Send news tips

Search:

• All news
• PC
• PlayStation 3
• Xbox 360
• Wii
• DS
• PSP
• Gear
• Featured stories

Subscribe to Newsfeed

First Gears of War 2 Gameplay Footage

As promised earlier, Microsoft and Epic Games have released the first in-game footage from Gears of War 2. The video features an introduction by series creator Cliff Bleszinski, who delivers details on the game’s storyline and some of the gameplay mechanics. The video showcases huge environments, large numbers of enemies on-screen, chainsaw duels, and new and improved visuals.

Gears of War 2, similar to its predecessor, is exclusive to Xbox 360 and will be released this November.

Guitar Hero 4 At the Drive-In

Fearless Records has announced that progressive rock band At the Drive-In will be contributing a song to Guitar Hero 4. The company stated that “One Armed Scissor” from the band’s third album “Relationship of Command” will be included in the game, alongside music from Aerosmith and Def Leppard.

At the Drive-In is an American post-hardcore band from Texas that was active from 1993 to 2001. Their most recent album, from which GH takes the song, was released back in 2001 after which the band broke up due to creative differences and band members feeling they were being held back.

Guitar Hero 4 is expected sometime next year for PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii.

Mass Effect, Spore "Draconian" Online Check Removed (Partially)

Unsurprisingly, the revelation of Mass Effect and Spore’s DRM, which was described as being “draconian” by many, caused uproar among fans. The DRM would require online validation every 10 days in order for the games to continue functioning.

Fortunately, that won’t be the case anymore, as EA and BioWare both announced today that it has removed the strict validation, saying that it will only be required when the player downloads new game content or patches.

Spore’s copy protection will similarly be changed to allow for offline play. The publisher additionally notes that the protection will allow users to authenticate each game on up to three computers. Approval of further authorizations will be handled by EA customer support on a case-by-case basis.

EA Gets $1B More for Take-Two Purchase

It seems that monolithic publisher Electronic Arts still haven’t given up its hopes of acquiring Take-Two Interactive, for which it made a $2 billion offer back in March. While the deadline for the offer passed in April, Take-Two is reportedly open to “possible business agreements” and EA is ramping up for it. In fact, they have secured up to $1 billion in financing for a possible takeover of Take-Two, should it acquire the company by January 2009.

This money comes from agreements with multiple banks, including Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, BNP Paribas, and The Bank of Nova Scotia, among others. The whole offer would be increased to $3 billion it seems, though Take-Two has stated its intent to remain independent. The company recently got a major injection of money in the form of the GTA 4 release which brought in $500 million during its first week.

Sonic Youth, Clash, Blondie in Rock Band

Keeping its weekly tradition intact, Harmonix revealed that three new downloadable tracks will be available for Rock Band next week. The three songs are master recordings of “Hanging on the Telephone” by Blondie, “Train in Vain” by The Clash and “Kool Thing” by Sonic Youth.

The tracks will be sold individually for 160 Microsoft points, or $1.99 at the PlayStation Store. As usual, the songs will be available starting May 13 on Xbox Live Marketplace, followed by a PS3 release on Thursday, May 15.

Call of Duty 5 Announced

Though Tony Hawk may be getting a break, it seems Call of Duty isn’t. Activision’s biggest cash cow, a new entry in the series is being developed and will take place in a “new military theater,” according to company publishing CEO and President Mike Griffith.

Speaking at a conference call, Griffith revealed that the fifth entry in the series, unofficially called Call of Duty 5, will arrive on PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and DS later this year. He did not offer further details, though his comments suggest that the title may not go back to the World War II setting the series originally debuted with.

While no details were provided, job listings for Treyarch suggest that they might be taking on development duties, while speculation is going around that series creator Infinity Ward is already working on Call of Duty 6. None of this is confirmed though.

No Tony Hawk Game This Year

Shocking the world, Activision revealed that it will not release a Tony Hawk-branded skateboarding game this year – for the first time since 1999. Instead, the company aims to release a new entry in its next fiscal year, which runs from April 2009 to March 2010. This game, in the words of Activision publishing CEO Mike Griffith, will reinvent the series “from the ground up.”

“It won’t be your father’s Tony Hawk,” he said during a conference call yesterday. “For competitive reasons we’re not going to talk about it today, but we’re very bullish on the kind of innovation it will bring.”

However, this year won’t be completely barren skateboarding wise, as the company noted that a new DS entry, developed by Vicarious Visions, is due out later this year.

Burnout Paradise on PC, First Screenshots

In a departure of the franchise’s console roots, Criterion Games has announced that it will be porting Burnout Paradise, the latest entry in the crash-racing series, to the PC. The open-ended racing game was originally released for PS3 and Xbox 360.

The PC version of the game is said to include unspecified expanded multiplayer support, improved online features as well as “community driven” content. The studio is also aiming for high performance on older machines, revealing in a podcast that they had Paradise running on a two-year old laptop with 2GB RAM and a 1.8GHz processor. They also mentioned that the game supports gamepad and wheel controls in addition to keyboard.

First screenshots can be found on Criterion’s website. They are looking for feedback through their PC forum, so if you have something to say, do so there. No release date was mentioned.

Bizarre: No PGR4 DLC From Us

Bringing sad news to gamers, Bizarre Creations community lead Ben Ward revealed that the studio won’t be creating any downloadable content for Project Gotham Racing 4 in the future. He said so while responding to a content wishlist by a fan on the game’s forums.

The studio is now part of Activision, but PGR4 was released when the company was working with Microsoft. Though the studio has released a Free Challenge Pack and Premium Challenge Pack DLC, future content updates will have to come from franchise owner Microsoft.

Codemasters Gets F1 License, Developing Multiplatform Game

Following up on word that Sony might be ditching the F1 racing license comes word that Codemasters has gotten the license. This means that Codemasters will develop a new F1 game franchise that will be available on multiple platforms and PC, and not just on the PlayStations. The first title from the multi-year deal is expected sometime next year.

Codemasters has quite a few top-tier racing franchises, including the venerable McRae Rally series, TOCA Touring Car and the upcoming Race Driver: GRID. The company is also based in Europe where the sport is far more popular than in North America.

“Codemasters’ success and recent innovations in the racing game space makes the company more than appropriately tuned for the challenge,” said Codemasters chairman Chris Deering, adding, “The combination of Formula 1’s new momentum of expansion and Codemasters’ contemporary technology and past experience is the breaking of a new dawn for the sport, on the track and on the HD game screen.”

Battlefield: Bad Company Demo on June 5

Those looking to sample Battlefield: Bad Company before its release on June 23 will be able to do so come June 5 when EA releases a single and multiplayer demo on both Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store.

The single-player portion of the demo starts the player’s ‘B’ company career, introducing some of the game’s characters. The multiplayer part of the demo offers the Gold Rush mode on the Oasis Map. Those who pre-order the game at participating retailers will get early access to the demo.

Bioshock Coming To Big Screen

No, we don’t mean that your buddy’s getting a 72″ flatscreen. Ever since the “Super Mario Brothers” movie gamers have winced with concern at every announcement of a new film adaptation of a favorite game. The emergence of Uwe Boll only made things worse. Unfortunately one of the main drawbacks of video game films are the choices they’ve made. There are some games with epic storylines that pull at people’s heartstrings and make a connection between the players and the characters. Unfortunately these often get overlooked in favor of games like Postal or Tomb Raider.

Don’t lose hope fellow gamers. There’s a bright ray of sunshine on the horizon: a Bioshock movie has been announced and director Gore Verbinski of the ‘Pirates’ trilogy will be at the helm. They’re also trying to get John Logan to write the script. Mr Logan is no newcomer to the film world, already having written the screenplays for Sweeney Todd and Gladiator.

It’s unknown how closely the film will follow the original storyline, but with such a quality story already laid out and a director obviously talented enough to hopefully realize the gold mine he’s sitting on, it’s likely the two will be at least mostly similar. I’m confident enough to make a boast and I’ll tell you why in a moment. Here’s my boast: this will be the best video game movie we’ve seen to date, and might be the best ever made. Why am I this assured? First of all, the atmosphere and adventure of the Pirates films show the degree of depth and care that needs to be shown in recreating the atmosphere and bleak horror crawling through the rubble of decadent Rapture elicited in the game. Secondly, in an interview with Variety Verbinski said that of all the games he played, Bioshock had the strongest narrative. Yes, that’s right folks. He’s actually played the game. Hallelujah.

Everyday Shooter on Steam

Stylistic shooter Everyday Shooter is now up on Steam, making the game available to PC gamers. Originally designed by indie developer Jonathan Mak as a downloadable game for the PS3, Everyday Shooter is a top-down, non-scrolling shooter that offers different gameplay mechanics. Interestingly, the game’s music is procedurally generated by player actions such as shooting, dying and destroying enemies.

It is priced at $9.99 on Steam, with a 10% discount for those who purchase it during its first week of availability.

Vampire Rain Drizzling on PS3

I don’t know what they were thinking, but publisher AQ Interactive sent out word that the universally panned Xbox 360 action game Vampire Rain will be ported to the PS3 as Vampire Rain: Altered Species. No media, or any other information, was provided with the announcement.

Vampire Rain, developed by Artoon, is a stealth-action game set in the contemporary world, putting the player in role of John Lloyd, a member of a US government unit created to combat superhuman vampires called Nightwalkers.

Activision Reveals Massive Profit

With other publishers revealing their revenues, the focus now falls on Activision, who, unlike the others, has posted a net income of $344 million, a significant increase over its 2007 take of $85 million. Their record profits were pulled from total revenue of nearly $2.9 billion; Activision’s fiscal year ends on March 31.

The company attributed profits to strong sales of Guitar Hero 3 and Call of Duty 4, both of which have continued to sell well into the company’s fourth quarter. According to the publisher, a total of 82.8% of income came from console software, with portable games bringing in 10.8% of income. Sadly, the PC brought in a mere 6.4% of income.

Party Crashers on Wii

The Wii has given rise to casual gamers who crave nothing but casual games. To add to their lust comes Twelve Interactive, an Italian console game developer, and US publisher Detn8 Games, who announced Party Crashers, a spin-off sequel to CID The Dummy, for the Wii. Set for release in April 2009, the game will feature 25 party games, including action games, brain teasers, puzzle games and even a music-based dance game.

Familiar characters from the original CID The Dummy platform will be present alongside totally new characters. As expected, it will make use of the Wii Remote’s motion-sensitive aspects. Also, it will feature both single and multiplayer modes.

Jeff Hill, Vice President of Detn8 Games Ltd. says, “We’re delighted to work with Giuseppe Crugliano and his team at TWELVE INTERACTIVE. Party Crashers will be a fun game to make, and I’m confident that together we’ll produce a product that the Wii audience will get a big kick out of.”

Wrestlemania Game Announced

THQ is going wrestling crazy, as the publisher revealed that it is working on WWE Legends of Wrestlemania for the PS3 and Xbox 360, alongside the already established Smackdown vs. Raw series (which has shipped more than 37 million units worldwide). The game is in development for release in March 2009 to coincide with the annual Wrestlemania event in Houston, Texas.

“We have generated significant year-over-year growth in key global territories with WWE-licensed videogames, including tremendous success with the WWE SmackDown vs. Raw franchise,” said Peter Matiss, vice president, global brand management, THQ. “The development capabilities afforded by next generation hardware, combined with our established history and deep understanding of fighting videogames, allow us to leverage the strength of the WWE brand to further extend our leadership in the fighting videogame genre and bring this new property to market.”

JAKKS Pacific is working on the game. No details or media were provided.

The Mummy Game Announced

In more movie-game tie-in news, Sierra sent out word that it is developing The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, a title based on this Summer’s upcoming highly anticipated second sequel from Universal Pictures. In development at Eurocom Studios for the Wii and PS2, and A2M for DS, the game is said to mirror the fast-paced action and adventure depicted in the coming film.

It is being developed in collaboration with the film’s creative talent, with the publisher hoping that it will “deliver an exciting extension” to the film. Players take on the roles of Rick O’ Connell and his son Alex as they journey across exotic locations from ancient Chinese catacombs to the beautiful Himalayan peaks to defeat the revived servants of the Dragon Emperor. It will feature both gunplay and hand-to-hand melee attacks, and more.

The film itself is due out August 1, with the game following soon thereafter.

THQ Gets Master Mind

THQ and DreamWorks today announced that they have entered an exclusive licensing agreement that will see the game publisher develop and release video games based on the studio’s 2010 Fall animated movie. The film, titled Master Mind, is due out in theatres on November 5, 2010. Their agreement will see THQ releasing the game for all console and handheld systems, as well as PC and wireless devices.

“The DreamWorks Animation brand is among the best in animation and storytelling,” said Brian Farrell, President and CEO, THQ. “The superhero theme of the fall 2010 film project lends itself seamlessly to an interactive gaming adventure. DreamWorks’ creative vision and humor will add another dimension to our portfolio, which we believe will help further distinguish both THQ and DreamWorks as leaders in our respective entertainment categories.”

The movie will be a satire of the superhero genre and is based around the story of a super villain who must find a new motivation after he accidentally kills of his archrival Uberman in the opening scene of the movie.

As expected, the game is scheduled for release alongside the film.

Coming Tonight: Gears Of War 2

The first trailer for Gears of War 2, arguably the most anticipated game now that GTA IV is out, will be available starting tonight on Xbox Live at 11pm and then on IGN a little while later. It will of course only be a brief, tantalizing glimpse of the game at a mere two minutes in length. It will feature a special introduction by the infamous ‘CliffyB’ or Cliff Bleszinski (which hopefully won’t last longer than actual gameplay footage). You’ll also get a glimpse of the new chainsaw duels and apparently ranged combat on a grander scale than in the original.

Next Page »

Latest Headlines

• First Gears of War 2 Gameplay Footage
• Guitar Hero 4 At the Drive-In
• Mass Effect, Spore "Draconian" Online Check Removed (Partially)
• EA Gets $1B More for Take-Two Purchase
• Sonic Youth, Clash, Blondie in Rock Band
• Call of Duty 5 Announced
• No Tony Hawk Game This Year
• Burnout Paradise on PC, First Screenshots
• Bizarre: No PGR4 DLC From Us
• Codemasters Gets F1 License, Developing Multiplatform Game
• Battlefield: Bad Company Demo on June 5
• Bioshock Coming To Big Screen
• Everyday Shooter on Steam
• Vampire Rain Drizzling on PS3
• Activision Reveals Massive Profit
• Party Crashers on Wii
• Wrestlemania Game Announced
• The Mummy Game Announced
• THQ Gets Master Mind
• Coming Tonight: Gears Of War 2

All content Copyright © 2007 DigitalBattle | Privacy Policy | Contact | Log in