Hirai mentioned that Sony was looking into “premium subscriptions” for the online service, much like Xbox Live Gold on the Xbox 360. The PS3’s bit selling point has always been that it’s free to play online, and that may change soon. Hirai is quoted by CVG saying,

“Especially in the online area, we are studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services, in addition to the current free services.”

Great. Just as we thought the PS3 was catching up to the Xbox 360.

The story continues where the previous ended; Desmond, in today’s time, escapes from the complex that kidnapped him and captured his mind. This time he teams up with the good guys, and gets back in the seat in the machine that sends him back a few hundred years to Italy, during Leonardo da Vinci’s time, where he’ll play an assassin, in order to train himself the skills. We won’t go into detail of the story, but rest assured that it’s pretty well told and written, although the cut scenes and dialogue aren’t exactly top notch.

The gameplay is smoother than in the original game, feels more fluid and faster, especially the free-running, jumping and climbing around buildings. This is essential, since it’s a big part of Assassin’s Creed. Also, this time there are clear indicators that point you in the right direction, so you’re never lost on one of your missions. The missions in AC2 are certainly more varied than before, but the progress of how to approach and execute them remains largely the same. We wold have loved to see more variety there, taking cue from other assassin games, like Hitman.

Weapons are a plenty of, you can collect money and buy swords, hammers, knives, and lots of other gadgets (like clothes) at shops around town. However, the combat seems a bit slow and, dare we say, almost turn based at times, where a pack of enemies will attack you, but only one after another will actually fight you. Instead of surrounding and flanking — the obvious choices. The AI isn’t that great actually, your enemies are quite dumb and will remain frozen, swords drawn, and simply wait. To be killed. This doesn’t happen all the times, but too often for it to be noticed. Another thing that most might not consider a drawback, is that the game is very easy. Even on the most difficult setting, if you’ve played AC1, and if you’re just a bit good, you can complete Assassin’s Creed 2 without dying a single time. Or even being close to dying.

Visually the game still looks amazing, the city is beautifully rendered, the animations are top notch and there’s a great sense of good production quality throughout all aspects of the game. The missions can get too repetitive and there isn’t much new in terms of gameplay, but fans of Assassin’s Creed won’t be disappointed. However, if you didn’t like the previous game, there’s little chance that you’ll find what you’re looking for here. Still, it might serve as an interesting rental game.

The Good:
Beautiful visuals
Great animations
Great story
Lots of side quests

The Bad:
Enemy AI is dumb
Combat gets repetitive

Overall score: 8/10

It’s no surprise that Modern Warfare 2’s launch was anything less than a huge success considering the game was pre-ordered over 4.5 million times but VGCHartz has rounded up some preliminary week one data and the results are quite outstanding.

It seems that all together, the game has sold close to 9.4 million copies across the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC raking in an astounding $600 million for Activision. Now let’s just wait until the holiday season comes and goes and we’re sure to be seeing some ridiculous numbers.

I think it’s safe to say we will be seeing Modern Warfare 3, 4, 5 etc because I mean, it is Activision, after all.

The story of Tekken 6 is slim to non existent to laughable — but that’s expected, it’s not a novel, it’s a fighting game, and the story that’s there basically moves your from fight to fight. Nothing special, and it gets the job done. The single player campaign lets you battle all of the available enemies, which means you’ll be fighting a lot of them — the roster is one of the largest in any Tekken game, with all the classic fighters back, including Lei, Paul, Jin and Kazuya. It also includes characters included in Tekken Dark Resurrection, further increasing the roster to a total of 40. However, not many new members have been introduced, not that it makes any difference, since the roster already feels crowded and it’s gonna take you a long time to identify with all of the characters.

The gameplay is very similar to other Tekken games, although it has been somewhat refined, making it just as intricate for the veterans, while being a lot more welcoming to Tekken newbies, and as they say, it’s easy to learn, hard to master. It still features very complex combos for those who are willing to learn them, but the gameplay overall now appeals to a much broader audience. Each arm and leg has a button assigned to them, which means you’ll have to think what arm to throw the punch with, or what leg to kick with, even if you’re a button masher. When two buttons are combined, the result is a more powerful blow, and the more you combine, the better combos you can pull off.

The single player campaign follows the only two new characters, and two of the most boring ones, to be host, where you can fight through side scrolling missions where you can earn quick points, but the mode is quite boring and very badly put together. Besides that, there’s a ton of fun to be had, as you’ll be fighting away enemy after enemy, and you can even earn points to unlock costumes to each character — and each character has quite a few of them.

Besides the single player campaign, Tekken 6 features an Arcade mode, Ghost battles, Survival mode and most importantly, online multiplayer. The online component is great, provided that you have a stable and fast connection, as connections tend to drop. On top of that, load times tend to go on foreeeever. Technically, the game looks as good as it has to look. It’s by no means an Uncharted 2 rival, but it does a decent job at rendering the characters and environments. The rendered cut scenes are great in particular, but we wished that the whole game would look as good. Tekken 6 will most definitely satisfy the fans, and the new refinements will make it more welcoming to new players as well.

The Good:
Great gameplay
Deep roster
Solid multiplayer

The Bad:
Bad story
Long load times
Fighting can get repetitive

Overall score: 8/10

While Activision is gearing up to have the largest entertainment launch of all time, EA isn’t exactly basking in the same success. In fact, they have announced today that they will be eliminated 1,500 employees in an attempt to cut costs and turn a profit.

EA says that eliminating these employees and shutting down several facilitates will give them an opportunity to “focus on titles with higher margin opportunities”.

Exactly what these titles are remains unknown.

via kotaku

Wondering just how successful Modern Warfare 2’s launch will be? Well, VGChartz has today reported that the title has been pre-ordered over 4.5 million times.

Additionally, it is predicted that the game will sell well over 6 million units in the first week netting Activision somewhere around $500 million making it the biggest entertainment launch in history. This means that its launch will produce more money in the first week than any movie, book, or music launches.

Now all we have to do and wait until it hits store shelves tomorrow to see how the game actually performs.