If you didn't think every single third-party peripheral provider would try to snag a piece of the band game pie, we guess you thought wrong, huh? With outfits like Mad Catz and Ion already jumping in, it was only a matter of time before Logitech threw on its tightest jeans, blacked out its blond hair and threw up some horns. Details are admittedly scarce, but the company has promised to provide "premium instruments" for Guitar Hero: World Tour on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii. Rockers can expect the new gear to start shipping "later this year," though prices, designs and pretty much anything else of importance remains a mystery.
A few 60GB Xbox 360s may have already slipped out to retailers (as evidenced above), but if you're not interested in running around trying to track one down, you can now snag one from Amazon and rest assured that it'll ship out post haste. If you've been following this SKU's every move, you'll notice that's a few days ahead of the August 4th date that Amazon once listed, and the August 6th date that Circuit City still does -- but hey, we're not complaining.
Update: Microsoft's Major Nelson has now confirmed that there is no official street date for the new 60GB model, "they'll just appear in the retail channels." Is this what happens when Bill G is out of the picture? Next thing we know Microsoft will start showing up late for parties and asking to sleep on our couch.
Square Enix's Dragon Quest V remake for the Nintendo DS enjoys another week atop the Media Create software sales charts, further proving my theory that Japanese people like Dragon Quest. A few new name make top ten appearances, including the excellently titled Katekyoo Hitman Reborn! DS Flame Rumble Hyper - Moeyo Mirai.
Wario Land: Shake It!'s debut, as well as that of the overseas release of Bully, is far less impressive. Nintendo-based titles continue to dominate the charts, with 19 of the top 30 games released on the DS and Wii.
01. Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu No Hanayome (DS) - 190,000 / 834,000
02. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 15 (PS2) - 84,000 / NEW
03. Gundam Battle Universe (PSP) - 43,000 / 180,000
04. Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki the 3rd (PSP) - 39,000 / NEW
05. SIREN: New Translation (PS3) - 35,000 / NEW
06. Katekyoo Hitman Reborn! DS Flame Rumble Hyper - Moeyo Mirai (DS) - 32,000 / NEW
07. Wii Fit (Wii) - 30,000 / 2,410,000
08. Wario Land: Shake It! (Wii) - 25,000 / NEW
09. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 25,000 / 1,610,000
10. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 15 (Wii) - 22,000 / NEW
11. Daigasso! Band Brothers DX (DS)
12. Persona 4 (PS2)
13. Kirarin * Revolution: Minna de Odorou Furi Furi Debut! (DS)
14. Densetsu no Stafi: Taiketsu! Dire Kaizokudan (DS)
15. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP)
16. Bimoji Training DS (DS)
17. Bully (PS2)
18. Wii Sports (Wii)
19. Derby Stallion DS (DS)
20. Bully: Scholarship Edition (Xbox 360)
21. Mario Super Sluggers (Wii)
22. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Portable 3 (PSP)
23. Tears to Tiara: Kakan no Daichi (PS3)
24. Meccha! Taiko Drum Master DS: 7-tsu no Shima no Daibouken (DS)
25. Family Trainer: Athletic World (Wii)
26. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
27. Twilight Syndrome: Kinjiratera Toshi Densetsu (DS)
28. Pokémon Diamond (DS)
29. Wii Play (Wii)
30. Mario Kart DS (DS)
Tales of Vesperia is launching in Japan soon. August 7th, actually. And some people seem pretty excited. It's the tenth entry in the Tales series. The Namco Bandai title is an Xbox 360 exclusive, so that just might mean that Microsoft will move more than it's standard 3,000 Xbox 360s a week in Japan. Or not.
As of posting, Amazon Japan is sold out of new HDMI Xbox 360s (but does have Elites). HAPPINET, one of the major Xbox 360 distributors in Japan, are sold out of everything but the Elite. According to game store clerk threads on 2ch, the Xbox 360 will be restocked after Tales of Vesperia is released. What's more, the Tales of Versperia bundle is apparently limited to something like 7,000.
The reason for the shortages?
According to a 2ch. shop clerks thread, the problem is on the distribution end for the Tales of Vesperia bundle. And for the regular Xbox 360s, there could be increasing demand for Tales and other Japan-specific Xbox 360 titles. That, and the fact that there really weren't that many consoles in stock to begin with. Retailers obviously don't want to get burnt. Then there's always the matter of clearing out space for the new 60GB SKU.
Others think that the shortage is on purpose, because HAPPINET is run by Namco Bandai. Hey, if shortages work for Nintendo! Then again, this isn't Nintendo... This is Xbox Japan. They probably want to move as many consoles as possible.
But does that mean it's impossible to get an Xbox 360 in Japan at the moment? No, obviously not. Commenter Muu was recently in Tokyo for THE iDOLM@STER concert, telling us "I did see 360s still sitting around, but then again that's one of the biggest electronics hubs in the largest metropolitan area."
Another week gone and another round of console sales data from Japan is in, shown below:
Playstation Portable: 67,452
Nintendo DS Lite: 56,968
Nintendo Wii: 41,024
Playstation 3: 10,692
Playstation 2: 9,291
Xbox 360: 4,941
PSP drops roughly 6,600 but is on top as usual. DS Lite is next, up 2,400. Wii comes in, less 200. PS3 is next up, down 600. PS2 is 5th place, reduced by 250 or so. Xbox is last, up about 680.
Microsoft has announced the demo for Too Human has been downloaded from Xbox Live 900,000 times.
Too Human, you may recall, is a 360 exclusive from Silicon Knights. Studio boss Denis Dyack is confident it's going to be marvellous - and he's not afraid to say so on the internet.
You'll be able to see for yourself next month as Too Human has gone gold and is on track for an August 29th release. Look out for a review soon.
As if Xbox 360 Avatars weren't controversial enough, Microsoft's games corporate VP John Schappert says micro-transactions "may be in the future" for the Xbox Mii-alikes.
The avatars, which will be released alongside the new Xbox 360 dashboard at the end of the year, can be used as an animated, cartoon-y replacement for today's Gamerpics - but you don't have to use them if you don't want to.
"That may be in the future," Schappert told Venturebeat, when asked if Microsoft would charge for extra customisation and accessories for the 360 Avatars.
"In the near term, we want to launch these with great customization and a great library of accessories this fall. I think there is a lot more we can do with them. You will see us continue to add experiences that make use of the avatar.
"Our goal is not to create a sterile environment where you move furniture around. It's about how can we make our gaming experiences better," he said.
Developers such as Bethesda have already expressed interest in including unlockable Avatar accessories with their games.
Bethesda's Peter Hines has explained why the software Hines, who was in London to show off the mighty fine looking Fallout 3, told TechRadar that the Xbox 360 was very much Bethesda's lead machine on the title.
"If you have the PC as your lead machine you have the problem of not knowing what configurations people have, how many gigs of RAM or what graphics card they have," explained Hines.
"Obviously we are more familiar with the Xbox because we are familiar and the other thing is that the Xbox is much easier to take to tech shows.
"We can just pop the hard-drive off the Xbox and put it on any machine which is an advantage. Taking the PC or PS3 to these things just isn't convenient."
Hines also talked about the downloadable content for Fallout 3 insisting that exclusive for Xbox 360 and PC meant exactly that.
"When I say exclusive I mean it is exclusive to just the Xbox 360 and PC.
"If you want to play the Fallout 3 downloadable content you will need to have an Xbox 360 or a PC."
Finally, Hines was good enough to confirm that there are plans to extend the Fallout franchise to a fourth game.
"We didn't buy the Fallout franchise to just do Fallout 3 and then stop," he said.
"But let's get this one out of the door before we worry about the next one."
Microsoft's 20GB Xbox 360 Pro already stooped to $299, but one particular mole -- the same one who correctly called the 60GB edition of the console -- is suggesting that further slashing is in store. To be specific, we're talking about a $199 Arcade (no HDD), $299 Pro (60GB HDD) and a $399 Elite (120GB HDD), all of which should be available at those prices sometime next month. Furthermore, it's likely that Microsoft will toss out a few bundles in order to reel in the holiday shoppers, though details are sparse about which ones we'll be seeing. Our take? Hold off just a bit -- we get the feeling this here is more than hot air.
Without an explanation for missing its Wednesday debut, Ticket to Ride Europe just arrived on XBLA to pick up customers for the weekend.
The expansion to the digitized European board game costs 600 MS points ($7.50), which is far cheaper than the $30+ set in real life. We haven't downloaded the Europe expansion yet, but let us know if the red/orange color similarity issue found in Ticket to Ride has been fixed.
European gaming mag Edge got a sneak peak at the New Xbox Experience before its big E3 reveal. Why? Because, according to Microsoft brass, Europeans are "a key part of us getting the next 20 million on" Xbox Live. Why? Because "the gameplay style in Europe is more casual, more collaborative and social." And what does that have to do with the New Xbox Experience? Microsoft is hoping the interface reboot will help the Xbox "become something that's relevant to everyone."
Xbox's Marc Whitten explains, "The idea is to move toward this channel metaphor, so you can see at a glance the types of things that I can do on my box, to make these things much more relevant about me." While there isn't much news about the working bits of the service, the column – the first in a series on the new interface – details some of the "whys" behind such a radical transformation. In fact, we'll leave you with another quote from Edge: "it's radical enough to make Xbox 360 feel like a whole new console."
features
First SRPG on the Xbox 360 – True strategy role-playing makes its long-awaited debut on the Xbox 360! For those who can master it, a deep gauge system allows you to execute devastating combination attacks and contextual menus provide an array of strategic options at your fingertips
Affect the rise and fall of nations – As a mercenary group, you can choose to aid one master, or aid them all. The course of the Neverland War will be irrevocably changed by your actions.
Incredible gameplay value – Recruit up to 40 playable characters, each with individual sets of attacks. Gather components to build a vast assortment of equipment to cater to your personal strategies. With over 100 distinct missions, Spectral Force 3 is sure to quench your thirst for battle!
description
Magic Era: 996. The ten kingdoms of the land, seizing the opportunity provided by Overlord Janus's death, are attempting to unify the continent under their own banners. This is the beginning of the Great Neverland War. In order to bolster their defenses, kingdoms have begun hiring mercenary units. As new members of the Norius Mercenaries, you and your friend Diaz are eager to prove yourselves. When the squad’s commander Judo is mortally wounded in battle, the mantle of leadership is entrusted to you, and so the adventure begins…
Weekly Famitsu issue 1026 is attached with a booklet of descriptions and introduction on 100 games on Nintendo DS and Sony PSP that you absolutely cannot miss.
These titles span from Mario to Gundam to educational software, so flip through the quick guide and find out what you need for the summer.
Strategy guides for new hit games have always been one of the main features of the magazine. Continuing on from the last few issues, detailed guides for Persona 4, Power Pro baseball 15, Dragon Quest V and Siren: New Translation are out together with the new project Fatal Frame IV. Challenge the difficult stages with these comprehensive guides and be ready for the next stages by the coming week.
Take your chance and win one of the newest handheld or home consoles if you are currently residing in Japan and are planning to get at least 3 to 6 Weekly Famitsu issues between now and September 26th. Just find the coupon in the magazine and stick it to the filled out form. There are 500 prizes waiting to be claimed so get ready to try your luck.
As for other entertainment news, this issue features a report about a real life action trilogy based on the sci-fi adventure 20th Century Boys authored by the famous manga artist Naoki Urasawa (Monster). A cast list and a brief synopsis is provided in this issue and more details on the project may be provided in the next few issues, so fans of the series, stick around.
Your most comprehensive and up to date guide to the Japanese game world Weekly Famitsu (issue 1026) has arrived and is available for US$ 7.90 only.
Please find here the full list of Weekly Famitsu magazines available at Play-Asia.com. To ensure that you will recieve next week's copy, please make use of our preordering system.
features
Choose your Civ: Choose from 16 Civilizations throughout history (from Africa to Germany to America to China) to lead to victory
Lead your Civ: When you choose a Civ play as one of the world's most famous historical leaders (like Abe Lincoln, Otto von Bismarck, and Mao Tse Dong) and compete against the other leaders as you strive to create your own history in this epic game
Explore the world: Your quest to explore and discover will have you traversing the globe in search of long lost relics, rival civs, technologies, barbarians and much more
Ease of play: Accessible maps and streamlined time scale result in quicker games, intense combat, and constant action.
description
In Civilization, players strive to become Ruler of the World by establishing and leading a civilization from the dawn of man into the space age waging war, conducting diplomacy, discovering technologies, going head-to-head with some of history's greatest leaders, and building the most powerful empire the world has ever known.
Sid Meier's Civilization® Revolution™ is the latest offering in the legendary award winning Sid Meier's Civilization® series of strategy games, featuring the famous "just one more turn" addictive gameplay that has made this one of the greatest game series of all time. Civilization Revolution has been designed and built (by the legendary Sid Meier and his team at Firaxis) from the ground up for console and handheld systems delivering graphics, gameplay and controls that take full advantage of the hugely popular gaming platforms. Civilization Revolution is a watershed game offering players a chance to experience the epic empire building world of Civilization in a whole new way - in an accessible, visually immersive, fast paced, action-packed world that gamers crave.
features
New gameplay controls: Intuitive controls, now incorporating the right thumbstick, allow for precise movements and shot variety providing gamers with an unprecedented tennis experience.
Signature style: The world's best players including Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, and Andy Roddick are accurately depicted like never before with actual apparel, equipment, and even swing animations.
Tennis legends: For the first time ever, play with or against legendary figures such as Björn Borg, Boris Becker and Monica Seles.
2K Sports online: Play against anyone, anywhere, anytime in up to four game modes including singles, doubles, quick-match, and a comprehensive world tour with live stat tracking
All-new soundtrack: Great new music is included featuring Jamiroquai, Calvin Harris, Boys Like Girls, The Go! Team, Stone Roses, and Franz Ferdinand
description
Top Spin 3 brings the fun, action-packed excitement of tennis to your console with authentic features including signature styles and expressions for over 20 top ranked players, more than 40 breathtaking real world venues, jaw-dropping graphics via all-new Evolutionary Visuals™, fully licensed soundtrack, and much more! Top Spin 3 is the first tennis game to incorporate right analog stick controls, and to include classic legendary players of the past. Are you ready for the challenge?
Last night was our monthly Geek Night in LA, held at Crosswayboy's pad, giving us a double-double of video game indulgence. I believe the line up consisted of Geometry Wars 2, PixelJunk Eden, Wario Land: Shake It!, and Soulcalibur IV, which obviously equals good times. A bit unimpressed by the new Wario Land, partly because of the smooth jazzy soundtrack, and extremely annoyed by the addition of Yoda to SCIV's roster.
This weekend, however, I'll be throwing down with some more PixelJunk Eden, more Soulcalibur IV and maybe even a little bit of Braid on my own time. It's time to take a break before we gear up for the Leipzig Games Convention. Anyway, whatchu playin' this weekend?
So far this generation, Microsoft's lineup of exclusives has done a pretty good job! Gears of War, Project Gotham Racing 3, Halo 3, Project Gotham Racing 4, Forza 2, Ninja Gaiden 2...all big sellers, all great games. Thing is, aside from Gears, those are all sequels! And Microsoft's two biggest games in 2008 are more sequels, one for Gears, one for Fable. Perhaps sensing an impending onset of acute sequelitis, Microsoft's Shane Kim wants you to know that new stuff is on the way:
We’re just at a point in the cycle where you’re seeing more sequels. I can tell you we have other new properties that are unannounced that we feel very good and are very confident about. We will continue to have new IPs alongside the franchises in our portfolio, no question.
In 2007 we'd have made a joke about their "new" men-with-guns game, but we're now looking forward to a "new" family quiz game instead!
Return to witness the epic struggle between the spirit sword, Soul Calibur, and the cursed sword, Soul Edge, in Soul Calibur IV. Warriors from far reaches of the galaxy battle to control the powerful swords and use them for their own goals. Should these fighters succeed, they will face the ultimate judgment. The ongoing story continues with new revelations, exciting new gameplay features and stunning visuals. And perhaps most exciting of all, a character from the Star Wars universe will also make an appearance.
Key Features
Newest addition to the Soul Calibur series features thrilling next-gen graphics brimming with intensity
Continues the struggle between the spirit sword, Soul Calibur, and the cursed sword, Soul Edge
Features the legendary Yoda as a guest character
Expanded customization options let you give your character a personalized look and specific abilities
Take both customized characters and original favorites online for the first time
Exclusive Special Characters
Beloved Star Wars legend Jedi Master Yoda appears as a guest character in the Xbox 360 version of Soul Calibur IV. In addition to that thrilling fact, you'll also discover expanded customization options that let you bestow your character with a personalized look and specific abilities. And, for the first time, you'll be able to take both customized characters and original favorites online to challenge an entire world of fans. Completely reinvented but with the same intensity you've come to know, Soul Calibur IV provides an adventure that never disappoints.
The world s premier weapon based fighting game franchise returns to deliver a true next generation fighting experience. Set to finally reveal the origins of the Soul Calibur saga, Soul Calibur IV features both new and familiar faces from across the galaxy, seeking the rival swords for vengeance, honor and salvation.
In a monumental alliance, legendary Star Wars icons, Darth Vader and Yoda invade the Soul Calibur universe! Soul Calibur IV continues the series tradition of reinventing, enhancing and breaking new boundaries. Now the world s favorite fighting game redefines the entire genre for the next generation of both new, and fiercely loyal Soul Calibur fans.
Feel the exhilaration, speed and adrenaline rush in the official game of the world's fastest production vehicle race - The Word Superbike Championship (SBK).
Live The World Superbike Championship (SBK) experience from starting grid to podium. Handling, acceleration, and control that delivers a breath taking racing experience - for racing game fans everywhere.
I don't know if anyone else picked up on this, but Sonic Unleashed has a much less XTREME title in Japan. It's called Sonic World Adventure, which is much friendlier - but unfortunately the videos feature obnoxious rock music throughout, as to the ones on the U.S. site. I can confirm though, that I heard some excellent sonic-like music in the game at Comic Con, especially in the 'Sonic is a werewolf-thing' mode. And that mode didn't even look too bad, as Sonic wasn't all edgy and weird, he was just a brawling guy with stretchy arms. I'm actually cautiously optimistic. I do think Sonic World Adventures might be a friendlier title than Unleashed, but maybe in the end it's too friendly. Also interesting to note that the JP site omits the PS2 version from the logos used. I wonder if it'll be released on PS2 there? A quick check of release-lists says no!
Key's popular 2004 visual novel Clannad is getting a very late port to the 360 in Japan, oddly enough. Prototype is doing the port which will have HD graphics, dolby digital 5.1 surround, and 16 downloadable side stories from the original staff at Key. This port sounded kind of silly when I started typing it, but all of that would really add a lot to a home visual novel title. I also continue to find it interesting when companies decide to bring very Japanese games exclusively to the 360 - perhaps it's because Clannad already got a PS2 port in 2006? Anyway, the game releases on the 28th of this month for 6,720 yen. And naturally there's a drama CD, and some cards and things, if you're into that.
What's wrong with this picture? It directly contradicts what Soul Calibur IV director Katsutoshi Sasaki said in a recent interview, that's what. Specifically, Sasaki responded "we don't have any plans for that" when asked by XCN if we'd ever see both characters from a galaxy far, far away battling each other on the same console.
You can't get much more official than the game's director, but his comments don't explain screenshots (such as the one above) and video that have appeared on the net clearly (and seemingly authentically) showing both Yoda and Vader in the same version of SCIV. We can't help but think Sasaki is practicing his Jedi mind tricks on us with this one.
That's funny – we could have sworn it was August, not April. It was four months ago, after all, that we reported on Microsoft Game Studios' hiring push for director Peter Jackson's mysterious Halo universe project. Yet we're still seeing postings for what appear to be positions on the game's development team. In this case it's a biggie: creative director.
A new recruitment listing on Gamasutra states that "Microsoft Game Studios' Halo team is looking for a superstar Creative Director to help develop a new experience in the Halo universe." Of course, this could be another new Halo project, but further reading reveals otherwise. Additional responsibilities listed include "[partnering] with key Hollywood talent to collaboratively craft a masterful game experience," and "[collaborating] with game play designers, story writers, game writers, and said external luminary to deliver on a unique game in the Halo universe." We'll give you one guess who the "said external luminary is," and their name rhymes with "Eter Ackson."
Criterion's forthcoming "Davis" update for Burnout Paradise will deliver not only an array of two-wheeled vehicles, but a taste of automotive irony. Whereas the series' signature sports cars all spectacularly crumple into balls of mangled metal when they collide with walls, poles and, best of all, other signature sports cars, the bikes won't bend or buckle or break. And neither will the riders, safely disappearing from the game's E10-rated environment whenever they wipe out.
MTV Multiplayer's Stephen Totilo explains that when it comes to Burnout Bikes, it's less about SMASH! and more about ZOOM! -- particularly in the update's speedy new single-player challenges and 8-player online, motorcycle-only events. Players can also expect a day-night cycle, weather effects (no, really!) and yes, wheelies.
We imagine plenty of people will bemoan the absence of bikers smashing their heads open on Burnout Paradise's pavements, but hey, Criterion is still giving us a pretty substantial (also: free) addition. The only drawback we can think of is not having a place to hang our pair o' dice.
Since playing through Metal Gear Solid IV, I've gone through a dozen eggs a week. I never used to eat this many eggs, but there I am, nearly every morning, cracking open fresh ones into a hot frying pan, pausing to watch the egg white turn from translucent to opaque, humming a little song to myself. Hell, I never really ate eggs sunny side up before the damn game came out. I was a scramblin' man. Quick, easy, no fuss. What has this stupid game done to me?
Is this an isolated case, or have you folks ever found yourself eating, drinking, or doing things a certain way after seeing it in a game? I'm not talking purchasing large baskets of Axe deodorant due to an in-game ad here - we've all done that. I'm talking more subtle things here. Going on a fresh fruit kick after a Pac-Man marathon, or getting really into curry after watching the marathon curry cutscene in Xenosaga II? How much power do video games have over our daily habits? If only we had a comments section in which to discuss such things.
Speaking during the QuakeCon keynote, id Software's John Carmack has revealed that the Xbox 360's DVD format could result in the developer's upcoming game, Rage, being compromised on the platform.
According to Shacknews Carmack noted three DVDs will be needed for the Xbox 360 version, although royalty fees to include a third disc would rule out this option. Unless Microsoft makes a concession, id will be forced to release the game on two DVDs with heavy compression, thus making the game look worse than the PS3 version.
Exidy's Death Race, of 1976, might have been the first game adaptation and yeah, it was kind of lame, setting a standard for adaptations for decades to come. (It was inspired by 1975's Death Race 2000 starring Sylvester Stallone and David Carradine). But man did it cause a stink. Players ran down stickmen with a car, eliciting screams and turning the screen into a graveyard of pedestrians. The game had no color, no digitized sound, no blood splatter, no ragdoll physics, its violence was abstract in both audio and video, and it made 60 Minutes as a national outrage.
Well since retro-revival's as much the rage in cinema as it is gaming, there's a Death Race remake coming to the screen in a couple of weeks. And the movie's history as the inspiration for a hot-button game controversy is something any marketer would exploit. So the film's official web site has a flash advergame — top down racer with some weapons thrown in. It sucks.
I was 3 in 1976, so I can't speak for the state of people's thinking at the time. But I really do wonder if its level of violence is indeed trivial, even for its age, or if I only feel that way because I've seen so much more, and so much worse. It's hard to consider Death Race as the first pebble trickling off a slippery slope, and definitely makes it more important than it deserves to be.
Rockstar sent notices out sometime after midnight to players who achieved 100 percent completion in Grand Theft Auto IV during the game's "Key to the City" contest (now closed, so if you're at 98.3 percent, suck it up.) Reader Farnic sent us a screenshot of his (fullsize after the jump). The fine print: "If you do not respond within seven days, you will be made ineligible for the prize." Also, it could take up to 120 days to get your key, depending on how many they have to make.
I think there's a legal compliance reason for that. I got a prize for being a finalist in a bad-movie contest run by Radar, and they made me sign an affidavit and send it back in seven days too. OK, so that was my passive aggressive way of linking to some OT bullshit. Anyway, the Rockstar notice has the image of what looks like the key all the eligible 100 Percenters will receive. So congrats to Farnic and all who got it. When it arrives, take pictures of the unboxing and send them along.
We've all seen the adorably customizable lookalikes that we'll be generating with the Avatar system, due out with the Xbox 360 Fall update -- but we've yet to see the actual system that will let you let you create your virtual representation. However, a "super secret source" recently sent our green and white sister site, 360 Fanboy, a couple of images containing the icons used in the Avatar creator. Assuming they're legit, they give a great indication of what aspects of your avatar you'll be able to manipulate. Based on the images in the gallery below, it looks like our dream of walking through Xbox Live's virtual halls as a morbidly obese man in a rabbit costume might just come true.
If yesterday's video extravaganza for THQ's upcoming shoot-'em-up Red Faction: Guerilla tickled your ludological fancy, then a tip we recently received might interest you. Apparently, the Guerilla multiplayer beta from which yesterday's footage was gleaned is now open for Xbox Live Gold subscribers through FilePlanet -- though you have to be either a FilePlanet subscriber or an IGN Insider in order to gain the access code necessary to conjure the beta onto your 360 through Live Marketplace.
There is a beta application to fill out, though we don't think they would turn their precious subscribers away. It's of little importance to us, however, as we make it a point not to subscribe to things that aren't the Oprah magazine.
It appears that Activision is wasting no time with their bestselling FPS franchise Call of Duty -- though we're still a couple of months from receiving the Sutherland-infused Call of Duty: World at War, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick recently announced that his company is planning on releasing yet another Call of Duty title sometime in 2009. In equally unsurprising news, gas is still expensive, flan is still delicious, and the sun is planning on rising tomorrow morning.
Kotick remarked that the series would continue its "leapfrog" pattern between developers, making it fairly safe to assume that Infinity Ward, creators of Call of Duty 4, will take the reigns for the next wartime title. Last we heard, Infinity Ward was working on a sci-fi shooter -- could the next Call of Duty unceremoniously swap M4 Carbines for Plasma Rifles? We'll surely find out more about the next next installment as we inch closer to the first next installment this October.
The $199 Xbox 360 price cut rumor we reported on yesterday got a little more real today after a screenshot surfaced showing the updated SKU for the Arcade model. VGChartz got the scoop, and noticed that the September 7 release date for the updated SKU coincides with some other big Xbox 360 events: the launches of Square Enix's Infinite Undiscovery and Rock Band 2. Both titles are Xbox 360 exclusives around the price drop time frame (although as Kotaku notes, Rock Band 2 comes out for other systems in November).
The "Cagney" update for Burnout Paradise on the Xbox 360 will arrive via Xbox Live tomorrow. Developer Criterion posted confirmation of the release date on Friday, and commenter Sean Beanland mentioned it in yesterday's discussion of Burnout Bikes.
"Cagney," already applied to the PS3 version, was originally slated for release on July 10. The update is free and is far more than a patch or a fix. Three new online game modes, two additional cars, and 70 new timed multipart challenges come with the new version, as well as "a complete overhaul of our Online Racing System and a stack of other major improvement," says Criterion. http://kotaku.com/5032446/burnout-pa...rives-tomorrow
Very sad news from Redmond, Wash. Melissa Batten, 36, a software development engineer in Microsoft's Xbox division, was murdered by her estranged husband, who then shot himself to death, earlier this week.
Prisoners across the country are being supplied with computer games consoles costing thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money.
The Prison Service has spent £221,726 on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo systems and software to keep jailed criminals entertained. Ministers have previously admitted spending only £10,000 on the machines.
An audit carried out last month on Justice Secretary Jack Straw’s orders turned up 12,948 game consoles in prisons and young-offender institutions in England and Wales, showing how widespread their use is among the 83,600 prison population.
While most of them were bought by inmates themselves, a total of 1,715, costing between £100 and £300 each, was provided by the Prison Service.
The Ministry of Justice recently announced restrictions on the use of the games but critics said this was because the extent of their use was going to be made public.
Officials at the department admitted that there was nothing to stop violent 18-rated games being played on taxpayer-funded machines and conceded that prison authorities may have purchased violent titles for some inmates.
Tory MP Nigel Evans, to whom Mr Straw disclosed the figures in a letter, said: ‘Does being sent down for five years of hard PlayStation playing serve as rehabilitation or punishment?
‘This is rewarding criminal behaviour with equipment which many victims of crime could only dream of affording for their children. People will be outraged by this revelation.’
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert said: ‘While Ministers protest that there is no money for prison places or rehabilitation schemes, they waste taxpayers’ funds on luxuries which prisoners shouldn’t have.
‘Offenders should be learning and preparing for the world of work, not idly playing Grand Theft Auto and preparing to return to crime.’
It was disclosed recently that thousands of inmates have access to Sky TV and computers, and last week it was revealed that more money is spent on food for prisoners in police cells than for NHS patients.
Prisoners are allowed to play 18-rated games such as Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt, which are notorious for their extreme violence.
However, from October, 18-rated titles will be banned in prisons altogether and the use of consoles will be restricted to only the best behaved prisoners or those on suicide watch.
In his letter to Mr Evans, Mr Straw claimed he had not known of the arrangement until recently. He wrote: ‘I was unhappy when I first heard [in April] that public money was being spent on games consoles, and ordered a review of this policy.
‘I have now decided that, with immediate effect, no public money will be spent on games consoles.’
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said decisions about purchasing consoles for inmates had been made on ‘a prison-by-prison basis’.
Copies of Grand Theft Auto IV have been pulled in Thailand after a teenager confessed to murdering a taxi driver.
The 18-year-old high school student is accused of stabbing the cab driver to death by trying to copy a scene from the game.
The biggest video game publisher in the south-east Asian country, New Era Interactive Media, has told retailers to stop selling GTA IV. It is due to be replaced by another video game title.
Thai newspapers say the teenager, whose name has been withheld, was arrested while trying to steer a cab backwards out of a Bangkok street with the driver still in the back seat.
Police claim the 18-year-old confessed to stealing the taxi and said he killed the 54-year-old driver after he fought back. The teenager could face the death penalty if he is found guilty. Bangkok police Captain Veerarit Pipatanasak said: "He wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game.
He wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the game.
Thailand's Culture Ministry has recently been pushing for tougher regulation of games like Grand Theft Auto. It wants stricter age ratings and restrictions on the hours that people can play games in arcades.
Ladda Thangsupachai, director of the ministry's Cultural Surveillance Centre, said: "This time-bomb has already exploded and the situation could get worse. Today it is a cab driver, but tomorrow it could be a video game shop owner."
Today at its DK Sigma3173 Event, Square Enix made a series of announcements.
Director Motomu Toriyama didn't beat around the bush when Nomura asked him questions about the 360 FFXIII. Starting off, he reconfirmed that, "We haven't changed the direction of the development. We're making the PS3 version first, and then porting to the 360 later." That means that since the game will be released simultaneously on both platforms in North America and Europe, the PS3 release will be held back in those territories until the 360 version is complete.
Furthermore, Toriyama also revealed that, as of July 29, his team hasn't yet received the tools needed to begin work on the Xbox 360 version of FFXIII. "I'm telling them to not think about the Xbox 360 right now," he said. "We can think about it after the development kits arrive."
The designer also reassured PS3 owners that the game's quality would not suffer due to the 360 port. "We aren't going to change any specifications [of FFXIII] because of the multi-platform announcement," he declared. "Right now, we're fully concentrating on the PS3 version."
Microsoft, which has been able to capture some important (timed) third-party exclusives such as Rock Band 2 and BioShock, continues to chase more exclusive deals to differentiate Xbox 360 from competitors.
Asked about Xbox 360's weaknesses, Microsoft interactive entertainment boss Don Mattrick replied, "We'd love to have more exclusive hits on our box, absolutely. Are we investing in that? Yes we are. Does that take a lot of time? Yes it does."
Microsoft's exclusive deals go beyond the boxed product. Grand Theft Auto IV and Fallout 3 will both offer exclusive downloadable content for the Xbox 360 versions. PS3 players wanting an extended experience for those games are out of luck.
Id Software technical director John Carmack has said that it's easier to realise the potential of the Xbox 360 hardware but that the PS3 has certain theoretical advantages, and he speculates that Blu-ray could play a decisive role in the console war in future.
"What you can say really quite clearly and not get into too much argument about it is that the 360 is much easier to develop for, it's easier to get the performance out of it that it can deliver, and the rasterizer, the GPU side is generally faster than what the PS3 has," Carmack told Eurogamer at QuakeCon.
"You could design a game where the PS3 would be the superior platform, but you'd have to go out of your way to do it. If you're doing a game like people just want to do games now, the 360's the better platform."
Bethesda's Peter Hines has explained why the software giants behind Oblivion and the forthcoming Fallout 3 use the Xbox 360, rather than PC or PlayStation as their main development platform.
"If you have the PC as your lead machine you have the problem of not knowing what configurations people have, how many gigs of RAM or what graphics card they have," explained Hines.
"Obviously we are more familiar with the Xbox because we are familiar and the other thing is that the Xbox is much easier to take to tech shows.
"We can just pop the hard-drive off the Xbox and put it on any machine which is an advantage. Taking the PC or PS3 to these things just isn't convenient."
John Schappert, Microsoft's corporate VP of Live, Software and Services, has caused some confusion over the business model for the forthcoming Xbox Live avatars by saying that microtransactions might happen in the future - despite telling GamesIndustry.biz previously something slightly different.
In an interview with Venturebeat's Dean Takahashi, when asked if the avatars would have microtransactions, Schappert responded: "That may be in the future. In the near term, we want to launch these with great customization and a great library of accessories this fall. I think there is a lot more we can do with them."
But speaking to GamesIndustry.biz at the same event, Schappert was asked the following question, "Do you have any details on how new items will roll out - will that be microtransactions?"
"No, there won't be any microtransactions for costumes and clothing," he replied. "When we launch it we're going to have a bevy of clothing and accessories, and what we hope to get into is a regular cadence of new avatar items. And what we're going to work on next up after we've wrapped up this new Xbox experience, is how we're going to package up these things so that we can have our publishers and third parties able to deliver add-ons for the avatars - so that's what we hope to have next year."
And pressed on whether it would be free, or require payment, he reiterated: "When we launch this Fall, all of the items certainly will be free on avatars."
Taken together the two questions seem to produce conflicting answers, although it's possible that Schappert was talking literally about the launch of the avatars, rather than potential future business decisions, or may be referring to functionality that might incur costs, such as name-changing.
GamesIndustry.biz has contacted Microsoft for clarification on the issue.
Criterion is finally wheeling out the free Cagney update for Burnout Paradise on Xbox 360.
The patch, nearly a month late, will be bolted on at some point today.
Codename Cagney adds Marked Man, Stunt Run and Road Rage game modes to Burnout Paradise, plus the Live Page calendar for keeping track of developer-led events. There are also new cars, liveries, 70 extra Challenges and a heap of technical changes inside.
Burnout Paradise patch Davis is scheduled to follow next month. It will introduce lovely motorbikes plus a day-night cycle to the open world racer.
PS3 and Xbox 360 versions should, fingers crossed, launch together this time.
Bethesda man Pete Hines has said the company "clearly intended" to make more than one Fallout game when it bought the rights to the series.
"The whole reason we went out and acquired the licence and that we now own Fallout is that we clearly intended to make more than one," Hines told TVG. "This is not something we're going to do once and then go away and never do it again.
"When that will be or how long that will be god only knows, but we acquired it specifically because we wanted to own it and develop it and work on it like we do with The Elder Scrolls," he added.
However, Hines publicly talked of sequels after licensing Fallout 3 (and Fallout 4, Fallout 5) back in 2004.
The company acquired full rights to the series from Interplay in 2007.
Fallout 3 is in development for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. But you will need a PC or an Xbox 360 in order to access downloadable content for the game, as Bethesda announced during E3.
Another leaked store inventory screenshot (1st one here if you missed it) found on suggests there will be a pricedrop of the Xbox 360 Arcade SKU to 199USD in the United States on September 7th
During E3, Microsoft announced that Final Fantasy XIII was coming to the Xbox 360 — but only for North America and Europe. However, the Xbox 360 was not announced for Japan. Add another country to the list!
At a recent Microsoft game exhibition in Taipei, Microsoft Taiwan's Entertainment and Devices Division head Grace Chou announced that Final Fantasy XIII for the Xbox 360 would go on sale in Taiwan, but haven't yet decided which localized version will be launched for the Asian territories.
We imagine that means it should be possible for Japanese Xbox 360 owners to import the Asia version and play it on their consoles — that is, unless the Asia FFXIII is region coded so that's impossible. This version could have the original Japanese language track with Chinese/Korean/English subtitles or it might be the English language version with Chinese/Korean subtitles. According to Chou, the language hasn't yet been decided.
The Australian classification website has just updated with a whopper of a scoop - 'R-Type Dimensions' is coming to the Xbox Live Arcade!
From what we can gather, the game is being published by Microsoft themselves, and not title creators Irem, who recently released R-Type Tactics to the PSP. The game is being developed by Tozai Inc, who are also currently working on the fantastic looking 'Lode Runner' for Xbox Live Arcade.
Will it be a new version of R-Type, or a variation of a previous title? It will be interesting to see how this pans out. Surprising how the Xbox 360 has become the platform of choice for these kinds of games.
Friendly warning, folks: There's a new Xbox Live phishing scam making its way across Microsoft's service. The scam comes in the form of a message (shown below) that appears to be from someone on your friends list, which reads "M2AF everybody go to loginxbox.tk I just got 1600 MS points Hurry though!! I think it is a limited time offer."
Free points? Sounds fantastic, right? Too bad that when you actually go to the bogus site and enter your Xbox Live login information, all it does is send the same message to everyone else on your friends list. So if you've already received (or eventually receive) this message, be a pal and tell whoever sent it to you to change their XBL password pronto, as it may be compromised for whatever nefarious deeds these scammers intend.
While the premise sounds familiar, your surroundings and the way you play are definitely not. Rescue a princess who has been abducted but do so through incredible painterly worlds and manipulate time to solve puzzles and get through levels.
Jonathan Blow brings you this new take on the platformer through Number None, Inc. and Microsoft games. It can be yours for 1200 Microsoft Points and is rated E 10+ for Everyone over the age of 10 by the ESRB.
Last week, the perfect world here at IGN was shattered when Activision announced that it would not be publishing Ghostbusters: The Video Game, a title from Terminal Reality (PS3/360/PC) and Red Fly (PS2/Wii/DS) that was under the Sierra umbrella. However, a ray of hope has come through today in the form of a Variety blog called The Cut Scene.
There, Variety videogames reporter and reviews editor Ben Fritz reports that he's touched base with Sony Pictures -- lord and master of the Ghostbusters franchise -- and a rep there confirmed that the studio is working with Activision Blizzard "to evaluate various options surrounding the release of the 'Ghostbusters' video game." The post goes on to say that Sony's taking time to "reevaluate" the marketing of the game to "potentially coincide with the 25th anniversary of the original film in '09."
So there you have it: a nameless rep says something might "potentially" happen. We're checking into this one ourselves and will get back to you when we hear something.
* Lips, You're In The Movies and Scene It? Box Office Smash are also aimed at expanding Xbox's reach but they're game types that have already shown considerable success on other formats. Does this show you're not taking too many risks on the software side?
* Don Mattrick: When you say not taking too many risks, I think there's kind of a natural evolution of packaged goods, products and experiences coming to the market - this coming year we estimate there will be about 150 titles on Xbox 360, and the majority will be E-rated. And if you're into M-rated content there will be some spectacular games. I think that breadth of titles naturally expands an audience, and I also think that we're all finding our own sense of identity inside the market. We're leading in terms of hours played - a recent study showed that 18-26-year-olds are roughly spending 75 hours a week with our box, which is pretty amazing. That audience tends to be the leader, it tends to influence younger siblings in a household in terms of what's cool and what's hot in the consumer electronics space.
* What have you taken from the hardware problems Xbox 360 has faced?
* Don Mattrick: Well, I think we built a pretty amazing box. It was unfortunate that we had some hardware challenges but I totally applaud the way the company dealt with that in being up-front and implementing the warranty. It's unfortunate when anything you create fails, but consumers have appreciated the fact we've said: 'This is a mistake, and this is how we're going to fix it'. People continue to use and evangelize about the product even when faced with this challenge, and I think our team's done an amazing job with fixing it.
Speaking at Microsoft's GameFest event in Seattle, Xbox Live general manager Eric Kilgore explained that while the Avatars--Microsoft's answer to Nintendo's Miis--are currently planned only to be allowed for use in titles rated E10+ and lower, that restriction may change in the future.
"We are still developing the final policies," Kilgore stated, as reported by Develop. "The final guide we have this year is to think of them in an 'E10' context. That doesn't mean it won't change--but this Fall they won't be able to blow each other's heads off."
Sarah Chudley, Bizarre Creations' commercial director, has explained that Microsoft "wasn't in the right place" to acquire her company.
Speaking to Videogaming247, Chudley said that Bizzare Creations, which was acquired by Activision last year, wasn't bought by Microsoft due to the company's "internal structure" and single platform focus.
"Obviously as the publisher they had to know what was going on, but their internal structure probably wasn't in the right place to buy things at the time," she said. "And they're a single format. OK, Xbox is doing fantastically, but who knows what's going to happen in the future?"
* Multiplayer: When they're following E3 a lot of people get worked up about "How did Sony do?" "How did Microsoft do?" From EA's perspective how do you view the fact that there are three strong players in the video game console market? Is that one too many? Would you prefer there to be two? What do you make of the competition?
* John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts: The way I look at it is, first off, is having three strong platforms creators is spectacular for us. The metaphor I've used before is this: They make the war. We make the bullets. We'll sell to any of them. We're really pleased with that. And as long as that level of innovation comes about as a consequence of that competition, that's good for us.
Remember, last year we were the leading third-party developer for the Wii. We're one of the leading developers on virtually every platform. Their battle is good for us and the consumer, because the level of innovation there is spectacular. And I wouldn't limit it to the three. Remember things like the Nintendo DS. Remember the iPhone. Remember the PSP. Note that last year one of the top-selling platforms was the PS2.
What's happening is there's more platforms and more choices. And as there's more platforms and choices, there's consumers involved in our industry. And that's really what's best, all that innovation. Don't forget the PC. The PC is one of the fastest growing platforms for games - full stop. Not the packaged good at retail, but businesses like Pogo Online -- go to Pogo.com and you'll see it -- advertising models, subscription models like we've got right out the door here with "Warhammer." It's just a dynamic exciting time for the industry.
Soulcalibur IV has battled to the top of the UK all-formats chart this week, becoming the fastest-selling game ever in the fighting series.
The title (we're using publisher Ubisoft's spelling, before you put the dogs on us) also becomes only the second in the series to hold the top spot, after Soulcalibur II held the lead for a week back in 2003.
PS2 sales of Soulcalibur II were dwarfed by PS3 sales of Soulcalibur IV by more than three to one, although Xbox 360 took the lion's share of the latter with 56 per cent of the money-pie.
The popularity of this latest instalment could be put down to a ballsy early August release after a barren patch on the release schedule, or perhaps the inclusion of Star Wars favourites Yoda and Darth Vader. Our Soulcalibur IV review will fill you in on the rest.
Elsewhere in the charts it was business as usual; Wii Fit surged in sales but slipped to two, Mario Kart Wii held on at three, Wall-E stuttered at four and Big Beach Sports leapt from 10 to five.
Wii Play extends an age-defying sales record at six, and Mario & Sonic at the Olympics proves you can launch the November before your mimicked sporting event and still be on the blocks for the starting gun. Test its wee.
Then comes Brain Training, followed by former chart-topper LEGO Indiana Jones dropping from five to 10.
Elsewhere are few surprises; perhaps Need for Speed: ProStreet speeding from 40 to 28, or the reappearance of LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga at 31.
This week waves goodbye to Alone in the Dark, which should reappear in November with the arrival of the rumoured-to-be-improved PS3 version.
Soulcalibur IV (Xbox 360, PS3)
Wii Fit (Wii)
Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
WALL-E (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS)
Big Beach Sports (Wii)
Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS)
Wii Play (Wii)
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii, DS)
Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
LEGO Indiana Jones (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS)
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PC, DS)
Kung Fu Panda (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
Carnival: Funfair Games (Wii)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, DS)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Xbox 360, PS3)
Sports Party (Wii)
More Brain Training (DS)
FIFA 08 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii, PS2, DS, PSP)
Beijing 2008 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, Xbox 360)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)
Top Spin 3 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii)
The Simpsons Game (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS)
The game that started the popular survival horror genre returns better than ever! Players control Edward Carnby, the main character from the original Alone in the Dark, on a thrilling journey through a dark and terrifying re-creation of New York’s Central Park where Carnby must discover the truth behind a dark conspiracy.
With inspiration from the presentation style of popular action TV dramas, Alone in the Dark will be split into a number of distinct episodes. With approximately 30-40 minutes of gameplay comprising each episode, the structure of Alone in the Dark pulls you into world that delivers a fiercely gripping and terrifying experience.
Each time the player launches a saved game, the episode will begin with a video summary of the previous episode to quickly re-immerse the player in the story and removing the need to remember where they were or what they were doing. Every episode will close with a nail-biting cliff-hanger ending to rattle players’ nerves, and if the player is leaving the game a video teaser of the next episode will play to leave them wanting more.
Alone in the Dark will provide a complete next-generation, action packed experience within a highly detailed, free roaming environment, featuring a mixture of real-time physics and full environmental interaction. The game will mark a new beginning for the Alone in the Dark series.
Lose a few nights of peaceful sleep by spending time Alone in the Dark. The Asian version of the game for Xbox360™ is sold at the bargain price of US$ 34.90 only.
Please note that the game is playable on NTSC J and NTSC U/C consoles but not on PAL ones and spots a multi-language system.
You can now dance to the music from your magical fantasies. Nobuo Uematsu, the renowned music director of the quintessential RPG series Final Fantasy have rearranged the themes from the games as a real club remix.
Some of the tracks feature music from the Famicon or Super famicon era while others are from newer releases such as the Piano collections and the Black Mages albums.
The disc is produced in collaboration with DJs throughout the clubs of Tokyo, America and Europe. Aside from DJs, Ian Hartley and Matt Baggiani from the music production group Ante are also invited to work on this rich volume.
The long awaited Final Fantasy Remix is now available for US$ 23.90 only.
Realistic and thrilling criminal cases
Single race mode with more than 40 tracks
Battle friend in split screen mode
Advanced opponent AI
spectacular replay system
Halo 3 has done it again, keeping it's top stop for the 3rd week after COD4 ruling the chart for months. New entry is Soul Calibur IV in 8th
In the arcade, unsurprisingly Geometry Wars Evolved² (check out our review) takes the top spot and 10th most played game on live. While 1945 has a good second week, dropping to 2nd.
Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based on UU’s)
1 Halo 3
2 Call of Duty 4
3 GTA IV
4 Gears of War
5 Guitar Hero III
6 Rock Band
7 Battlefield: Bad Company
8 SOULCALIBUR IV
9 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2
10 Geometry Wars Evolved²
Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Geometry Wars Evolved²
2 1942: Joint Strike
3 UNO
4 SOULCALIBUR
5 N+
6 Golf: Tee It Up!
7 DOOM
8 Marble Blast Ultra
9 Worms
10 Texas Hold 'em
Posted at Major Nelson site
A few minutes ago, the team released a system update for the Xbox 360 over Xbox LIVE. Sometime over the next few hours when you sign in to Xbox LIVE you’ll recieve a prompt to accept this mandatory update. This update contains code to ‘prepare for future growth of the service.’ There are no other changes or enhancements in this update…in other words no new features.
To be clear: This is not the new Xbox experience update. That will come in the Fall.
We know “Guitar Hero: Metallica” is coming. “Guitar Hero” publisher Activision announced the game in a financial filing (odd, we know) a couple of months ago.
That didn’t stop Metallica co-founder Lars Ulrich from getting a bit secretive about it when one of our MTV News reporters asked him about it recently.
“Let’s put it this way,” he told MTV News. “[Our next album] Death Magnetic comes out in September, and the day it comes out, it will be available in the ‘Guitar Hero 3‘ format, which we’re obviously super-psyched about. As I’ve born witness to in my house, its all about the next generation. My kids play ‘Guitar Hero’ every day, and to be able to get the Metallica record the day it comes out, that’s super cool.
“There’s an Aerosmith game out there that’s super successful, and if somebody’s gonna follow that up…we’re talking, and its exciting, and the people at ‘Guitar Hero’ and Activision are rapidly becoming our best new friends in the world. You can put the rest of it together yourself.”
Sounds like “Guitar Hero: Metallica” is indeed still in the works, no?
"We're investing to win in Europe," the VP of strategic marketing and Live, David Gosen, explained.
"We can do better and we're incredibly well-placed to drive success in the region. We've got to make sure we tailor our resource needs to the games we are making."
He added: "We're going to invest in more ways than we have before." That includes more cash supporting Xbox Live Marketplace and Arcade content deals, he said, plus more money to support internal and external studios.
But Gosen's views differ with Sony's on one key point - which next-gen console will rule the generation.
"We're going to invest in this region to ensure we win," he said, leaving attendees to look at his last presentation slide, which bullishly proclaimed 'We WILL outsell the PlayStation 3'.
Speaking to VideoGamer.com at the Develop conference in Brighton last week, Nick Burton, a senior software engineer at Rare, has assured Xbox 360 gamers that there's plenty more to come from the console.
"You never can push them as far as they can go. The reality of the peak performance of the console is yes, you could look to a generation beyond where we are now and think, yeah, I could use that power. But the reality is in 360 and the PS3 and the latest generation PC graphics, the amount of power in the GPUs is such that you're more bound by your creativity and the aesthetic you're going for than you're really bound by polygon pushing power," said Burton. "You're probably actually more bound maybe by art authoring and the amount of data throughput that, just the amount of memory you'd need, but I don't think 360 has reached its limit."
It's time to throw out the old playbook, says THQ president and CEO Brian Ferrell, because the the industry's traditional hardware cycles no longer exist.
"We used to always think of this industry as 'the cycle.'" said Ferrell. "I think the reality now is there are several sub-cycles."
THQ's leader sees at least three separate sub-cycles: 1) the handheld market, 2) what Nintendo's done with Wii and 3) the continued competition between Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. There's even an emerging sub-cycle in the online world, he said.
"It's hard now to talk about 'the cycle' -- I think we have to talk about all of the cycles," he said. "The way we think about it at THQ is we plan our business around each of those platforms, not around 'the cycle.'"
Konami announced today that Argentinian midfielder Lionel Messi will be on the cover of Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 when it is released in North America in the fall of 2009. The 21-year-old Messi, who plays his club football for legendary Spanish side FC Barcelona, will be heading to the Olympics for Argentina later this month.
Curiously, Konami chose to announce versions of Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 for the PS3, PS2, 360, PSP, and PC, but not for the Wii or Nintendo DS. It remains to be seen whether PES 2009 will rear its head on the Nintendo platforms this upcoming season.
"Most modern players are aware of the realism and skill of the Pro Evolution Soccer series," said Messi. "It is a game that truly mirrors the pace and control of real football, and as a die-hard fan of the series, I am delighted to be working with Konami on the latest version."
Downloadable content on the Xbox 360 has brought in USD 240 million, according to Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business manager Kevin Salcedo, who also revealed that games with extra downloadable content see a 16 per cent increase in their life span.
Talking at the company's Gamefest event, Salcedo reported that USD 180 million of the total was made in the last 12 months alone and that, on average, games with paid downloadable content sell USD 21 million more at retail - so long as the content becomes available in what he refers to as the "sweet spot" of the first 30 days, reports Gamasutra.
"Right now we have over 12 million users in over 26 countries, with USD 240 million in transactions revenue so far, with USD 180 million in the last 12 months alone," Salcedo said.
"On average, titles that have downloadable content on XBL marketplace have seen a 16 per cent [longer] period of people holding onto that title, which keeps them from selling to second-hand stores."
Second-hand stores selling pre-owned games have recently been under fire from Frontier Development's David Braben, who called for the industry to act against the practice.
Braid creator Jonathan Blow is "less happy" Microsoft insisted on charging 1200 Points (GBP 10.20 / EUR 14.40) for the game, rather than 800 Points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.60).
But the increased price does help Blow guard against what he describes as the "Space Giraffe problem", where Jeff Minter offered his equally non-mainstream and unadvertised game at a low price, but still sold barely any copies.
"There is a significant possibility that Braid would have been the next Psychonauts or Beyond Good and Evil (critically acclaimed but nobody played it), even at USD 10. If that happens at USD 10 then I am in debt and have to get a job and can't make games any more. If that happens at USD 15, maybe I can still make games. That is the difference," said Blow on the Braid blog.
"And again, I don't know if I would have been able to convince Microsoft to release the game at 800 Points anyway, so it seemed my best move was to make the agreement and keep a good relationship with them."
If he could, Blow argues he would offer the game for as little as possible, but he has borrowed money in order to see the project through, which "makes the nature of the decision a little different".
Braid, wonderful Braid, was released today on Xbox Live Arcade and is due sometime soon on PC. We gave the game 10/10 for stretching intellect and emotion as well as being "beautiful, entertaining and inspiring". The price tag should be no obstacle here.
Microsoft may be footing the bill for porting Final Fantasy XIII from the PlayStation 3 to the Xbox 360, if internet rumours are to be believed.
According to Kotaku, the latest issue of Famitsu discusses the exclusivity breach, claiming that Microsoft will be paying for the game to land on Xbox consoles.
The article allegedly says that FFXIII will be out by next summer and in Europe/US by the end of next year.
Square-Enix also makes a comment, claiming that porting the game should be easy. If it's that easy, it makes you wonder if they ever considered keeping the expensive title on a single-platform anyway.
Gears of War 2 will ship with a 'family friendly' parental control option, which waters down the game's awesome, sorry harsh, language for our younger gamers.
According to MCV, the parental control option, when turned on, substitutes blood and violence for sparks, and moves all bad language.
Also planned for the girls and kids are new co-op options which let two players select different difficulty settings in the same game. That way the girlfriend can stroll through Casual while you scream and sprint head-first into Hardcore.
You can't blame Microsoft and Epic for putting the options in - just look at the amount of cash coming from the 'casual' games market. But are there really any parents out there that are going to be more comfortable putting their kids in front of Gears, if the blood's replaced with sparks?
Four new fighters have been added to the roster of playable characters in Midway's Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe.
The Joker, Kitana, Jax and Green Lantern join all sorts of family favourites in the cross-over beat-'em-up, which is due out this autumn on PS3 and 360.
The announcement of their inclusion was made alongside the release of a new gameplay video from Comic-Con, which we had the foresight to snatch and publish last week.
The video shows off some of the shiny new whizz-bangs players will have at their thumb-tips. First there's Klose Kombat, a toe-to-toe palaver where you'll see 'progressive damage' on each fighter (what progressive damage means, we're not sure, but that's another great name for a thrash-emo band gone to waste).
The most eye-catching new ability is probably the Freefall Kombat, which involves throwing your opponent down onto the next stage of the level and beating them vigorously on the way down, calling to mind Killer Instinct and Dead or Alive to some extent.
This is illustrated in the video by a clip of handsome misogynist The Flash pummelling Sonia in the face, chest and abdomen as she plummets into one of the lower circles of hell. Charmer.
You'll also see Superman knocking seven bells out of Scorpion as he crashes him through several brick walls and "Bats" (superfan parlance) taking on Sub-Zero in a lycratastic man-on-man love fest that will have even the hardest hearts melting.
"Firmware update" sounds like something you'd want. Something solid, yet fresh and new. But lately deciding to update is getting more complicated. The newest firmware is no longer just a nice downloadable present from a benevolent electronics overlord; on many devices, it has been buggy or downright dangerous to install. Manufacturers like Apple, Nintendo and Sony are increasingly releasing firmware that disables functionality for business reasons—or that just make products worse by being halfbaked. Here is a rundown of firmware updates that weren't exactly beloved by users.
Sony PSP: A healthy and thriving homebrew community had sprung up around Sony's PSP, with alternate, user-made firmware adding new functionality like a wider range of supported media codecs and the ability to share music. Oh, and, well, there was also that little issue of mass piracy of games. Sony issued a number of firmware upgrades—a whopping six each in 2006 and 2007—designed to curb the little thieves, but which had the unfortunate side effect of discouraging the more creative, less piratical wing of the homebrew community. Sony used the "carrot and stick" method, enticing users with marginal new functions when the real purpose of the upgrade was to stop the homebrewers. This led to users actually trying to downgrade, or move back to an earlier firmware. Sony in turn tried to make it harder to downgrade, escalating the squabble into a war with its own customers. Degree of Evilness: High. This is a deliberate attempt to harsh PSP users' buzz.
Sony PlayStation 3: The PS3's anticipated firmware 2.40, on the other hand, was a simple disaster. The famously expensive console was due to receive a major update, adding the flashy XMB interface to the mix. Unfortunately, while the update did work for some, it bricked a lot of PS3s, producing some very upset gamers. Sony pulled the update and re-released it, repaired, as 2.41, but Sony's mucked-up firmware was the Story of the Day. Bad press, ill will and useless hulking black machines. Not a great moment for Sony. Degree of Evilness: Low. Simple incompetence from a corporation that should know better.
Apple iPod: Back in 2004, Real cracked Apple's FairPlay code in order to allow music purchased from Rhapsody to be played on iPods. When Apple released an update blocking Rhapsody users, Real cracked it again. Apple released another block update, and so on until Real ran out of steam. We doubt there was much demand for the service at the time, but Apple's clampdown was shameless. Hell, Apple could have played Real compatibility as yet another reason to buy an iPod. Degree of Evilness: Medium-High. In the end, it was more bratty than evil.
Apple iPhone/iPod touch: When the first iPhone/iPod touch software was jailbroken, a few updates came out under the guise of bug fixing that just happened to make unauthorized use a lot more difficult. This time around, with the 2.0 release, the setbacks were more accidental than deliberate. The new 2.0 firmware may have creaked open the floodgates for third-party applications, but it also resulted in a lot of instability. Thanks to the update, iPhones have crashed at a rate never seen before (well, outside of my last couple Windows machines, that is), the keyboard gained a frustrating lag, "backing up" takes almost as long as the Iraq occupation (zing!), and, in a total affront to common sense, THERE IS STILL NO COPY-PASTE. Degree of Evilness: Middle. A mix of self-preservation and circumstance, with some brazen stubbornness from His Steveness thrown in.
Nintendo Wii: In Nintendo's Photo Channel 1.1 firmware update, the game maker quietly removed support for MP3 playback in their Wii console. They replaced it with support for the iPod-friendly AAC codec, a far-too-obvious hint at what we all suspected: Nintendo has been taken over by the White Devil. How else do we explain the move from that GameCube controller that was clearly designed for some moon octopus to a remote control so simple I can operate it with my genitals? What about the new and incredibly racist all-white color scheme, the minimalist design aesthetic, and the cavalier and haughty attitude toward competition? Readers, watch out, or Jobs will get you ne-AAAACK! Degree of Evilness: Nintendo can do no wrong. (And Steve Jobs is perfect.)
Firmware updates that leave you worse off than you were before are a kick in the crotch. But what about the slow, increasingly painful wedgie of unfulfilled promises? Electronics companies often promise to deliver features in firmware updates that, for whatever reason, aren't included at the time of purchase. In the best of cases, this is frustrating: Samsung's P2, for instance, promised Bluetooth compatibility, games, skins and more upon release, but was only achieved, finally, months later. But what if, as in Samsung's Blu-Ray/HD DVD combo player, the product line dies before the promised features (Blu-Ray 2.0 compatibility) can be updated? Firmware updates should be a surprise, a freshly-wrapped hand-me-down present that makes your crappy old gadget seem somehow new again, not a license to shove an unfinished product out the door.
This is just a short list of troubling firmware updates—if you have some firmware horror stories of your own to share, be our guest. And for all of you who immediately click "YES PLEASE!" to all auto-updaters, take heed, and maybe wait 24 hours before doing the upgrade.
It must be getting close to release time for Square Enix's Infinite Undiscovery, because it's just realised its got loads of screenshots left over and thrown them all onto the internet. Here are 30.
developed (Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile) RPG is an epic RPG where "various situations unfold in a world that changes in real time, with players' choices leading to unknown discoveries," says the studio.
It's out in Europe on September 5, with North America getting it on September 2. That counts as a "simultaneous worldwide release", we're told. Close enough.
Check Hell, because we think it's official frozen over. That right there was the line at the Akihabara Yodobashi Camera earlier this morning for Xbox 360 exclusive Tales of Vesperia. It was over a hundred people — small potatoes for, say, a Poké launch, but shocking for an Xbox 360 title in Japan. The game and an Xbox 360 went on sale, and there was a stage event with the game's creative producer Yoshito Higuchi and producer Tsutomu Gouda, telling fans how that they created a beautiful looking Tales for the Xbox 360. Joked Gouda:
Even though the Olympics are starting, everyone please enjoy playing Tales of Versperia.
Pro wrestler Wataru Sakata, who is married to Wii Fit spokesperson Eiko Koike, was also on hand to help promote the game and do the countdown to game's sales launch. Reader Jamie, who emailed us from the event, puts it in better prospective: "Queues are small but they're selling a steady stream of consoles."
If you need further proof that the Xbox 360 is your shooter console, here ya go: Raiden IV has been announced for the Microsoft machine. Developer Moss is porting the arcade shmup to the home console and will offer new aircrafts via DLC. For a limited time, the game's soundtrack will be included as well. Raiden IV is out September 11th in Japan.
This week Microsoft released a very minor Xbox 360 dashboard update. They said that there were no new features and this was to help insure the future growth of the system and Xbox Live. Now this is intentionally vague but if you read the tea leaves a bit it might shed a light about their plans running into the fall and holiday 2008 video game shopping season.
I suspect that this most recent dash update might just add a list of new servers for first logging into the Xbox Live service. If you listen to E on the last episode of the Major Nelson podcast he said that his team at Xbox Live is getting ready to work their tails off an add servers and network infrastructure. Xbox Live does this when they expect they are going to have a big new number of sales of new Xbox hardware. They have occasionally done this around the launch of GTA IV size games to insure that the Xbox Live service does not get overwhelmed again like it did in December 07/ January 08.
There is the rumored price cuts expected to happen on September 7th. They are probably going to sell a lot of consoles for that. This update might be to get Xbox Live ready for the sales jump they expect when they lower the price of the Xbox with a 60 Gig Hard Drive to $299 and drop the cost of the Xbox 360 Arcade to $199.
Also the Jasper motherboard based Xbox 360s are due almost the same time. So the first week or so of September is going to be a very interesting time for Xbox.
Plus there is Madden 09, Fable 2 and RockBand 2 coming soon.
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Interesting products that came in this week are mostly RPG and strategy games. The Tales of series has made its debut on the third generation consoles via Tales of Vesperia [standard and Super Premium pack version].
With a new upgraded real-time battle system and HD graphics, you can experience the old school RPG in a refreshingly new way.
Transform yourself into a summoner wherever you are via your Nintendo DS in Summon Night 2. Summoners have brought chaos to a once utopian world, and your people are now wary of your special powers. Through your journey, show the world that you are using your powers for the good of the people and not for corruption.
Fire Emblem is also revived on Nintendo's newest handheld system. Prince Marus made himself famous for being one of the strongest player characters in Mario Smash brothers and redirects some of the attention he recieves to his own series which has been laying low for a long while.
Make use of your Nintendo DS functions to plan out how to reclaim your country, in the revival of this completely new game.
Start out by reclaiming your lands in Fire Emblem and move on to conquering the whole continent in Spectral Force 3. At the death of the late emperor, you are entrusted with leadership and the fate to unify Neverland under yourself.
Since this week is largely about military strategy games, we cannot miss Sangokushi Taisen Ten [standard or bundle pack versions].
The card game is based on its arcade predecessor and this portable version comes with new card(s) drawn by famous illustrators or manga artists such as Clamp.
Learn how to direct military matters from the warriors and highly acclaimed strategists from the era of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Everybody starts off their journeys at some point and Marl Oukoku no Ningyou Hime is a good point to start your journey in RPGs. The battle system is simple and the game eases you gently into its fun through its use of music. Take a break from the excitement and just relax to the beat of the songs.
A good RPG excel in all sorts of elements aside from gaming and strategy, and Final Fantasy, one of the best RPG series in gaming history has it all. The music producer Nobuo Uematsu joined forces with talented DJs from Tokyo, US and Europe and produced a Club remix disc.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week
Xbox360™
NBA 2K8 JPN US$ 59.90
Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution ASIA US$ 49.90
Spectral Force 3 US US$ 64.90
Tales of Vesperia JPN US$ 74.90
Top Spin 3 ASIA US$ 49.90
Xbox 360 Tales of Vesperia Super Premium Pack JPN N/A
PlayStation3™
NBA 2K8 JPN US$ 59.90
Ninja Gaiden Sigma (Greatest Hits) US US$ 34.90
Nintendo Wii™
Imabikisou: Kaimei Hen JPN US$ 59.90
Survival Kids Wii JPN US$ 54.90
PlayStation2™
Aoikuro no Kusabi: Hiiro no Kakera 3 JPN US$ 64.90
Aoikuro no Kusabi: Hiiro no Kakera 3 [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.90
Ar tonelico II: Sekai ni Hibiku Shoujo Tachi no Souzoushi (PlayStation2 the Best) JPN US$ 34.90
God of War II: The End Begins (Best Price!) JPN US$ 34.90
Grim Grimoire (The Best Price) JPN US$ 34.90
Ikkitousen: Shining Dragon (Best Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes (PlayStation2 the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Super Robot Taisen OG: Original Generations (PlayStation2 the Best) ASIA US$ 29.90
Super Robot Taisen OG: Original Generations (PlayStation2 the Best) JPN US$ 34.90
True Tears JPN US$ 69.90
Nintendo DS™
Chou Shittou Caduceus 2 JPN US$ 48.90
Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch R2 - Banjou no Geass Gekijou JPN US$ 48.90
DS Pico Series: Sanrio no Party e Ikou! Oryouri - Oshare - Okaimono JPN US$ 48.90
Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Ken JPN US$ 48.90
Gakkou no Kowai Uwasa: Hanako-San Gakita!! JPN US$ 34.90
Gintama: Gintoki vs. Dokata (Banpresto Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Marl Oukoku no Ningyou Hime: Tenshi ga Kanaderu Ai no Uta JPN US$ 48.90
Mite wa Ikenai JPN US$ 42.90
Monster Farm DS 2: Yomigaeru! Master Breeder Densetsu JPN US$ 48.90
Nazo Nazo & Quiz Ichi Kotae Jikkon Q Mate! JPN US$ 48.90
Ron-Q! Highland in DS JPN US$ 42.90
Sangokushi Taisen Ten JPN US$ 58.90
Sangokushi Taisen Ten [Arcade Shutsujin Pack] JPN US$ 69.90
Summon Night 2 JPN US$ 48.90
Wantame Variety Channel JPN US$ 48.90
Zettai Onkan Master (Hudson the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Nintendo DS™ Accessories
Charge Stand DS Lite (Black) JPN US$ 16.90
Charge Stand DS Lite (White) JPN US$ 16.90
Hello Kitty Custom Hard Cover (Red) JPN US$ 12.90
Hello Kitty Soft Card Case (Red) JPN US$ 7.90
Hello Kitty Soft Card Case (White) JPN US$ 7.90
Sony PSP™
Daisenryaku Portable 2 (Genki the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Goku Makai-Mura Kai (Best Price!) JPN US$ 19.90
Hayarigami 2 Portable: Keishichou Kaijiken File JPN US$ 48.90
Quiz Mobile Suit Gundam Ton Senshi DX (PSP the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Game Guides and Magazines
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Meibamen Sousa File JPN US$ 6.90
Mobile Suit Gundam VS Gundam Kouryaku Guide JPN US$ 22.90
Pokemon Card DP Official Visual Book - Hakuu no Gekitou hen JPN US$ 10.90
Sakutto Asobetu KORG DS-10 KORG DS-10 Synthesizer Official Guide JPN US$ 22.90
Summon Night 2 Guide JPN US$ 19.90
Totsugeki Famicom Wars VS Guide Books JPN US$ 18.90
Weekly Famitsu No. 1026 (2008 08/15) JPN US$ 7.90
Video Game related Soundtracks
Final Fantasy Remix JPN US$ 23.90
Massiah Paranoia Paraxo Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 23.90
Oretachi Ni Tsubasa Ha Nai Drama Series Vol.1 Misaki Hayashida JPN US$ 20.90
Pachislot Biohazard Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 18.90
Rock Musical Bleach [CD+DVD Limited Pressing] JPN US$ 18.90
Phantasy Star Universe for the PlayStation Portable was number one on the Japanese software sales chart for the week ended August 3, according to figures from Media Create.
This was followed by two more handheld titles for the Nintendo DS, with Rhythm Heaven Gold in second place and Dragon Quest V taking third.
Soul Calibur IV appeared on the chart in both fourth and sixth places for its PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions respectively, while Gundam Battle Universe by Namco Bandai dropped seven places from last week to close the chart off in tenth.
The full top ten list is as follows:
1. Phantasy Star Universe (PSP)
2. Rhythm Heaven Gold (NDS)
3. Dragon Quest V (NDS)
4. Soul Calibur IV (PS3)
5. Powerful Pro Baseball 15 (PS2)
6. Soul Calibur IV (Xbox 360)
7. Fatal Frame IV (Wii)
8. Wii Fit (Wii)
9. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
10. Gundam Battle Universe (PSP)
"Some of that criticism is probably warranted," said Sega's Sean Ratcliffe, in an interview with GameDaily, when asked about the poor quality of recent Sonic games. "We recognize it, which is why you're seeing us this year taking the first steps in making sure the quality is right."
He added, "This time around, with Sonic Unleashed, we got a great new engine that allows us to truly deliver the Sonic experience as it arguably should have been on next-gen. For fans of Sonic that have been looking for a next-gen experience, this is the game they've been waiting for."
Since debuting in 1991 on Sega Genesis, Sonic the Hedgehog has been plagued with checkered past. With exception to select portable and compilation games, very few sequels have been well-received by either critics or fans.
The newest game in the series, Sonic Unleashed, arrives on Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, and PS2 this November.
Although we already knew Fable 2 was arriving in October, Lionhead Studios has revealed the awaited title will hit US store shelves, then proceed to raise a family while it waits to be purchased, on October 21. European gamers can expect the game days later on October 24. For those who want to start padding their virtual wallets early, the Xbox Live Arcade Pub Games will land August 13.
Lionhead also unveiled an image of all that you can expect to get if you pick up the Limited Edition copy of the game. Details of the LE after the break.
Bonus DVD – Includes new 'Making-of Feature' with Peter Molyneux and the team at Lionhead Studios and concept art viewer
Bonus In-Game Content (Requires LIVE account) – Includes "The Hall of the Dead" Dungeon, "The Wreckager" Legendary Cutlass Weapon and Otherworldly Bonus
Collectible Hobbe figure with accessories – From the Qee Collection comes this one-of-a-kind Hobbe figure. Nasty, brutish, and short, he roams the countryside, preying on travelers and spiriting away the children of the unwary.
48-hour Xbox LIVE Gold Trial Card – With Xbox LIVE Gold, players can show off their individual hero by inviting friends into their unique version of Albion or they can visit their friends' Albion, and earn additional gold, experience and renown to take back into their own.
Five printed Fate Cards – These five beautiful cards foretell the Hero's great destiny to journey across all of Albion, encountering deadly enemies and enigmatic allies. The path leads to a choice that will change the world forever.
Microsoft has added a brand new feature to the Xbox website that lets visitors hear the Community Voices of its paid employees. Hold on just one second.
The Voices include Major Nelson, who has no real name any more, celebrity interviewer TriXie360 and Dirty Diva, who manages the community. Then there's Xbox Dad, who has children to think of, and some Editer bloke who writes weekly columns about games.
Opinions will be broken into various categories such as family, hardcore, TV and movies, and casual games. Adding their thoughts are some less well-known staffers schooled in technology, multiplayer, and hardcore gaming.
While some may understandably be concerned that Microsoft may have taken its cost-cutting measures a bit too far with its new 60GB Xbox 360, our pal Ben Heck has cracked one of the new models open and found that there's apparently nothing to be worried about. In fact, while the console packs the same 65nm CPU and heatsink seen in the most recent SKUs, and the same old "super" GPU heatsink, it ditches the bottom-mounted memory chips that have been commonplace until now, which some claim to have been the source of a few heat problems.
Ben Heck also notes that if you want to make sure you have a 65nm CPU, you can just check out the power supply, which should be marked 175 watts, while any future model with a 65nm GPU would likely be 140 or 150 watts.
As you are probably aware we retired from making Xbox modchips some time ago and have only made a few add-ons for the 360 here and there. However we have been barraged with requests regarding the new Liteon drive.
So we're being sent a couple and have agreed to at least have a look. We'd prefer there to be some flashing solution of course then the FW guys could do what they do best, however it looks like a read only masked rom. From what we can see atm there is nothing that looks any more complicated than the original Xbox hacking we did, so we'll see what we can do. The motivation hasn't been there for a long time but maybe this will kick us in the ass like the old days
Note: C4EVA may have made some progress so if he needs anything from us or if we will be wasting our time - just get him to drop us a line - thanks.
But despite the similarity, Xbox 360 users still pay subscription fees for the Xbox Live Gold multiplayer matching service, while PC gamers will not. Does Microsoft see a dichotomy here?
"What we've got is two different groups who are trying to do what's best and offering value for their customers," Unangst (Microsoft's Games for Windows head) said. "The Games for Windows team and the Games for Windows Live team looked at this and said, 'What do we need to do to make sure this adopted broadly and has value?'"
"And that's all those changes -- the UI, the Marketplace, the fact that we're not going to have the same content. On Xbox Live, I think they've done everything to continue to add value to the Gold subscription."
With same friends lists, Gamertag and a shared currency in Microsoft Points, Unangst points to what he calls a "common underpinning." On the Xbox 360, however, Unangst says the focus is more largely on "things that make sense for the console."
"So those services will evolve in different directions. You'll have different types of content that we offer."
This issue of Weekly Famicon covers developments of the gaming industry from around the world. News about game companies are reported with description on their developing products and existing best sellers. It contains reportages on marketing research, for example, what game genres are most popular in what area etc.
Aside from market information, it also carries news on the E3 2008 conference. All in all, it is an article that all involved in the gaming industry could not miss. .
Another market research article is based on female gamers. Delve into the minds of girl gamers and see that they are a force to be reckoned with in the world of gaming.
Carrying on from the last issues, the strategy guide section contains in depth information on hit games such as Dragon Quest V and Siren: New Translation and new projects such as Tales of Vesperia and Fire Emblem have just started.
Besides global scaled events such as the E3 conference, Square Enix also hosted their own private party. DK Sigma 3713 is an event that only their club members are allowed to attend. It focuses on the newest installments of their hit franchises such as Final Fantasy XIII and Kingdom Hearts as well as games that are to come out soon such as Dissidia Final Fantasy, and Sigma Harmonica.
Since the magazine covers everything that happens in the Japanese entertainment world, it features interviews with idols and premier events for new movies.
The newest issue of the number one selling Japanese game magazine Weekly Famitsu (1027) has arrived and is available for US$ 7.90 only.
To ensure that you get the next issue of Weekly Famitsu, preorder it via our system here. For more information with regards to the world of gaming, Famitsu Wave and Arcadia are very good portals too.
Other than the magazines mentioned above, Play-Asia.com has discovered an array of other gaming magazines that is going to catch your interests. Please find here the full list of them.
The weekly console data update from Japan is in once again with the following figures:
Playstation Portable: 61,181
Nintendo DS Lite: 57,398
Nintendo Wii: 41,109
Playstation 3: 9,508
Playstation 2: 9,045
Xbox 360: 5,359
PSP maintains top position, drops roughly 6,300. DS is second, up 600. Wii follows, up 85. Forth is PS3, down 1,100. Playstation 2 comes along at 5th rank, down 250. Last is Xbox 360, down 400.
Microsoft has released ten last screenshots from the World Serpent area of Too Human, before the game's (finally) released next Friday.
The World Serpent is a mile long submersible battleship long forgotten beneath the waters. The twist is the ship is actually alive, filled with robots to hack and slash through.
The Xbox exclusive has been ten years in the making, but should be released next Friday. Just in case you didn't know, it's about a gritty Nordic future where machines battle guys with massive hammers.
You can check out the latest video here, and we'll have a verdict for you some time before release.
Five new Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts 'n Bolts screenshots have cropped up via CVG distant cousin Xbox 360: The Official Magazine.
These ones should please the few people who went mental when the game was first unveiled. Look; proper platforming, huge environments and more colours than a Crayola play set.
We're still waiting for pics of Banjo Xbox Live Arcade... (even though we've still got the textures burned into our retinas from 1999).
Microsoft marketeer Albert Pennello has claimed Xbox 360 sales were the pivotal factor in bringing Final Fantasy XIII to the console - not any funny goings-on behind the scenes.
"I think the most obvious reason that [Square Enix] made the announcement is just looking at the success of our console. I mean, we're the leading console on a worldwide basis, we're more than double the install base on the US," Pennello told MundoRare (spotted by VG247) .
"I think it's easy to assume that something is going on behind the scenes, I think the more obvious answer is we're doing really well and the game creators want their games to be where the most people and the most consoles [are], and right now that's the Xbox 360."
Square Enix announced Final Fantasy XIII for Xbox 360 during the Microsoft press conference at E3. Rumours suggest the platform holder had to pay for Square Enix to breach the exclusivity contract with Sony.
Final Fantasy XIII will remain a PS3 exclusive in Japan, and is yet to be dated for the West. Game director Motomu Toryiama said his team had not begun work on the Xbox 360 version yet, which could hold up the PS3 version in the West, as Square has committed to a simultaneous platform launch.
Silicon Knights boss Denis Dyack said hitting the level 50 limit in Too Human may take anywhere between 50 to 80 hours.
"First play through is probably around 15 hours, I guess, it depends. To get to level 50, it's anywhere from 50 to 80 hours. It's a lot! There's a lot there to want to dig! And to get all the epic loot - I don't even know if it's possible to get everything in the game, it's probably not - not for a single person," Dyack told Kikizo.
The ambitious Xbox 360 role-playing game, based on Norse Mythology and set in an ancient but technologically advanced civilisation, is finally finished. And Europeans will get the game on 29th August.
Dyack, surprisingly, then said work on the two following instalments in the trilogy was already quite far in advance.
"The story was done a long time ago," he said. "The theme of the first game is discovery, the theme of the second game is revenge, and the third game, enlightenment.
"And the trilogy and the whole idea of focusing on the Norse mythology and effects on technology we think is really going to turn people's heads."
The Silicon Knights boss was also optimistic of timely turnouts for the rest of the trilogy; it is "very possible" we will see them before Microsoft replaces the Xbox 360 hardware.
If not, Dyack revealed Too Human was built to be scalable, "So even if another platform does come out, we're not very worried about it."
Here we go! Talk time. That's right, it's Friday. Time for another round of Tell Us Dammit. No, make that TELL US DAMMIT. And here's how it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn't some marketing survey or whatever. It's an emotional investment in you. Yes, we're interested in knowing you, Kotaku reader person. You probably know ****tons about us — more than you even want to, we're sure. But, hey, we'd like to know about you. That way you won't be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your ass. Or not, because really we're incapable of human emotion. We think.
The Olympics have started! And we all oh so very excited!! So much so that Gawker Media is aggregating all the network's Olympic coverage in one place on sister sports blog Deadspin. That place is right here. ANWYAY, here's my question:
Do you think gaming should be an Olympic sport? And why?
After performing in countless sold-out arenas and amphitheatres throughout the world, rock's defining frontman Ozzy Osbourne – who has sold over 100 million records worldwide in his four decade career – will be playing to a new audience this fall as he makes his videogame debut in Activision Publishing, Inc.'s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero World Tour.
Budding rockstars around the world will have the opportunity to live out their ultimate fantasy on the virtual OZZFest stage, playing as Ozzy, or alongside him, as he wails to iconic rock track "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley," both from his quintuple platinum debut solo album Blizzard of Ozz. OZZFest, now it its 13th year, has also been created digitally as an in-game venue exclusively for Guitar Hero World Tour to host the heavy metal rock legend.
Joining Ozzy in Guitar Hero World Tour as a playable character is his lead axe-shredder and founder of Black Label Society, Zakk Wylde, performing their hit track "Stillborn."
In addition to Metallica releasing their highly anticipated Death Magnetic album in its entirety as downloadable content in both Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero World Tour, the 2008 OZZFest performers and GRAMMY winning recording artists will be appearing for their on-disc encore with "Trapped Under Ice." Finally, taking the Guitar Hero stage for the first time is fellow OZZFest artist, System of a Down with their 2006 GRAMMY for Best Hard Rock Performance winning single "B.Y.O.B."
When the house lights go down this fall, a new generation of guitarists, drummers and fearless frontmen will come together and rock with Guitar Hero World Tour. The latest installment in the #1 best-selling video game franchise of 2007, Guitar Hero World Tour transforms music gaming by expanding Guitar Hero's signature guitar gameplay into a cooperative band experience that combines the most advanced wireless instruments with new revolutionary online* and offline gameplay modes including Band Career and 8-player "Battle of the Bands," which allows two full bands to compete head-to-head online for the first time ever. The game features a slick newly redesigned guitar controller, drum kit controller and a microphone, as well as an innovative Music Studio music creator that lets players compose, record, edit and share their own rock 'n' roll anthems. Music creators will also be able to share their recordings with their friends online through GHTunesSM where other gamers can download and play an endless supply of unique creations.
Guitar Hero World Tour is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. The Wii™ version is being developed by Vicarious Visions. The PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system version is being developed by Budcat. The game is rated "T" for Teen by the ESRB. For more information on Guitar Hero World Tour, please visit www.guitarhero.com.
According to a report from newspaper La Vanguardia, by way of GamePolitics and Google's Spanish to English translator, Spain's cabbies are calling for a ban on Grand Theft Auto — Grand Theft Auto IV, we presume. After a Thai teenager was arrested on suspicion of murdering a taxi driver, claiming to have been inspired by GTA, the game was pulled from shelves in Thailand.
Now, Josep Maria Goñi, secretary general of the Catalan Taxi Federation, is asking the Spanish government to do the same, citing the Thai murder case.
We're going to make an ass out of ourselves and assume that Mr. Goñi knows as much as the Grand Theft Auto series as just about everyone else in his position and hope that cabbie murder hysteria blows over before it gives the series a bad rap. We can't have our games being scapegoated for society's ills, now. What a horrible precedent that would set.
WWE man-mountain Randy Orton last night became an unlikely defender of the industry's creative freedoms, urging developers to fight back against critics with a rallying cry for "more violence" in videogames.
The fantasy wrestling superstar, who's currently sidelined with a broken collarbone, was in London to promote THQ's SmackDown vs. Raw 2009, and revealed to Eurogamer how he was sick and tired of the bad press gaming receives, insisting that the makers of adult titles had nothing to be ashamed of.
"Violence sells. I want to see more violence in games - the more blood the better," he told us. Orton argued that videogames were the least of parents' worries, when some "don't know their kids are watching South Park".
He cited the example of the Scorcese gangster flick Goodfellas as evidence that movie violence could be far more shocking than anything in a videogame, calling Grand Theft Auto "just a cartoon" in comparison.
"The violence [in Goodfellas] is against human beings. There's rape in movies - you see all kinds of f***ed up s*** on film," he observed. Playing Mortal Kombat underage, added the man who now hits people for a living, hadn't done him any harm.
Orton, in true narcissistic WWE fashion, enjoys "playing with himself" in the game, and is particularly pleased with the accuracy of his tattoos in this year's update. He owns an Xbox 360 and Wii, his favourite recent game being Mario Kart, although he sticks to the regular controller as "the wheel is just a gimmick".
The birth of his baby daughter last month has meant he's been "too covered in poop" to play much else, though. Give the man a column.
The Yuke's-developed WWE series remains THQ's most successful property, the last one shifting over 6 million copies, despite only strangling a six out of us in our review.
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw is out on PS3, 360, PS2, PSP, Wii and DS on 11th November, with THQ keen to flag up a new tag-team mechanic, Create-A-Finisher feature, co-op storylines, the belated introduction of downloadable content, and online play in the Wii version.
When we think back on our proudest achievements throughout our video gaming careers, a few notable moments come to mind -- for instance, the first time we caught 'em all. Or when we topped our friends' high scores on Pac-Man Championship Edition. The first time we beat the wretched wind tunnel level in Battletoads. Oh, and how could we forget -- that time we shuffled robo-Hitler off this mortal coil in Wolfenstein 3D. That guy was a jerk.
Unfortunately, the satisfaction one feels after putting the kibosh on a genocidist won't be present in Id Software and Raven's next installment in their Nazi-stomping franchise, Wolfenstein. In an interview with Eurogamer, Id lead artist Kevin Cloud confirmed that the Fuhrer will not be present in the upcoming title, claiming that the developer needs to "save something for future Wolfensteins." Who could possibly replace him as the game's nefarious evil boss, though? Eva Braun? Bowser, perhaps?
I was chatting with a fellow Chinese historian this weekend when he confessed that his interest in Chinese history could be traced back to receiving a copy of Romance of the Three Kingdoms for SNES. I thought of that while reading Duncan Fyfe's essay on the potential 'educational' uses of regular, AAA titles — which isn't really so much on the potential to educate as much as inspire (as insipid as that sounds) in subtle ways:
Video games can be gateways to higher learning. Is it idealistic? Sure. But the base repudiation of idealism is so often used as a shield against saying anything interesting. Anti-idealism is what keeps triple-A games generic, and the reversal of that trend should already be a good enough target.
Compare the social value of these games to that of Halo or Oblivion. They're just as entertaining, but they are not relevant to any humanitarian or political discussion, and are certainly not literary. The Wire and The West Wing will not reform government but they will challenge and galvanize their viewers.
I'd be curious to know how many people actually went out and tackled Ayn Rand after playing BioShock; I'm also a little skittish about the idea of heavy handed philosophy and the like making a strong appearance (one Xenosaga series was enough, thank you). Fyfe's opinions aren't new by any means, and can be found in just about any essay talking about more 'grown up' themes in games. Interesting essay and worth a look.
A friend of mine is currently putting together a new game related TV show. Naturally he's asked my advise on what I think should be in the show (because I'm so awesome) and i have given him thousands of revolutionary ideas, but even my genius has limits. So I would like to throw the question out to you, the DCEmu Public.
Indie game developer Cliff Harris has long waged war against games piracy, but has issued a call to pirates to tell him why he is wrong. Assuming that developers are missing out on potential sales from disgruntled pirates, Cliff wants to hear specifically from people who have pirated his games. Not to criticize or lecture them, but to answer a simple question. Why? The reasons people give for copyright infringement/piracy are many and varied, but much of the debate has centred around music and movies, with big 'Triple-A' games an occasional consideration. With specific application to the world of small budget 'indie' games like those Cliff makes, he wants to know the thought processes behind people pirating the games. What puts people off buying? Is it quality, cost, DRM, ease of access? Is there anything that can be done to convert those people to buyers? While many pirates often make good general points about the reasons for the widespread pirating of PC games, it's unusual to get a chance to address specific developers with specific reasons. If you knew 100% that the developer would read your email explaining why you pirated their game, what would you say?
Dustin Waller, of Cleveland, N.C. (this is where my mother, I shit you not, foxhunts) got a Playstation 3 from his fiancee, who bought it either used or refurbed for $350 from an independent games retailer at a mall down the road in Salisbury. Tuesday, Waller gets a visit from the police up the road in the other direction, Statesville, who said the PS3 was stolen goods. They'd tracked him after he unwittingly signed on to PSN using the previous owner's ID. After the police confiscated the PS3, Waller went back to the store to get a refund. He got a 360 instead, and thinks the cops asked the store to provide it.
Now that we have THREE major consoles out at one time we seem to have a battle royale for who gets the most sales and can call themselves the winner of this epic battle. Well let me tell you, as someone who owns all three (Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii) I have to say that I think no one is winning this battle yet and I will tell you why.
The Wii while fun for parties sees absolutely no play from me any other time. It has some nice games, but with such a small selection of games that are for people older the 3, my choices are extremely limited. Adding friends to the Wii is a huge annoying chore and don't even think about then trying to play a game with those friends, you will be there all day reading numbers to each other and trying to figure out why it still isn't working. They have stepped up to fix one big problem which was the lack of voice chat. Nothing is more annoying then trying to play Smash Brothers with someone and having to stop play to call them on their cell phone to see if they have time for one more round.
The 360 is admittedly the most used console in my house but this is mostly because of the fact that friends are easy to add, games are easy to join, and most of my friends already have a 360 because its cheaper then the PS3. The major issue I have with the 360 is also game selection. Its major titles are shooters and I'm no big fan. I play them because my friends play and its something we can play together so we play. As an RPG fan I feel like I am kind of lost among these games but I play anyway. I admit I am kind of a picky gamer but the selection is rather small. You have shooter, action RPG/shooter, and some other stuff that might be ok. My day as an RPG player might be here soon though if all these E3 announcements seem to deliver the goods they are selling.
And oh dear my PS3, what did you do!? You held so much promise and now are really nothing more then a glorified PS2 which I use to play all my Atlus games. Home keeps getting pushed back and we just seem to keep hearing “just you wait we will rock”. Well PS3, I have had you for a year now and my socks are still firmly on my feet. Lets get a move on!
So as you can see, I don't think anyone gets to call themselves the winner of this war yet. I think they all need to step out of the batting cage and swing the bat already! Where are the innovations? Where is the pushing of the boundaries? Why are my socks still on my feet!?
Product Features
Drop-in design allows for easy and rapid recharging of wireless controllers
2 custom NiMH rechargeable batteries supply up to 25 hours of play time
Rapid recharge base stores two wireless controllers
Plugs into any wall outlet for a faster charge than USB
LED charge indicator lights
Design matches the d�cor of the Xbox 360 console and controllers
Today, 60 officially becomes the new 20 as Xbox 360 announces a 300% increase in storage capacity of the original console from 20GB to 60GB for the same price - £199.99 ERP.
The NPD Group has published its Games Segmentation report, detailing seven different gamer demographics and habits - revealing, among other things, that only 10 per cent of PlayStation 2 owners also own a PlayStation 3.
In the report, the estimated 174 million gamers are broken down into seven groups: 3 per cent are "Extreme gamers"; nine per cent are "Avid PC gamers"; 17 per cent are "Console gamers"; 14 per cent "Online PC gamers"; 15 percent are "Offline PC gamers"; 22 percent are "Young Heavy gamers"; and 20 percent are "Secondary gamers'.
Young Heavy gamers - the largest group at over 38 million people - play for above average amounts of time on every videogame system but show a strong preference for portable games platforms. Six out of every ten Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable owners fall into the category of young heavy gamers.
The report also details the cross-platform gaming habits of PlayStation owners. PS3 owners were found to be more likely to own other next-generation consoles when compared to Wii and Xbox 360 owners, however only 10 per cent of PS2 owners also own the PS3. While 45 per cent of PlayStation Portable owners also own a DS, only 21 per cent of DS owners also own a PSP.
The growth of digital distribution is reflected in the report, with 14 per cent of games purchased in the past three months through digital downloads, with Avid PC gamers making 27 per cent of their purchases through digital means.
Microsoft has hit back at claims made by Nintendo that the Wii sells the most third party games, saying instead that it's Xbox 360 sells the most.
Last week, Nintendo of America's vice president of corporate affairs, Denise Kaigler, defended the Wii's third party sales saying, "We are selling third party games and they are doing very well, and better than our competitors."
But according to NPD information obtained from Microsoft by GamesIndustry.biz, that Nintendo claim appears to be wrong:
Total third party sales for the Xbox 360 since launch is currently 67,929,999 units, followed by the Wii at 33,394,311 units and the PlayStation 3 at 19,976,325 units.
Third party sales for the Xbox 360 since the launch of the Wii and PS3 is 54,065,728 units, still almost double the Wii's 33,394,311 units.
If you take the total number of units sold and divide that by the number of titles released since November 2006, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are selling more units per title on average than the Wii. This puts the Xbox 360 at 217,252 units per title, the PS3 at 156,065 units and the Wii at 132,517 units.
"No matter how you slice it, the Wii third party game story is not a pretty one," commented David Dennis, group manager of corporate PR at Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business.
Epic Games has confirmed that the replica Lancer gun from Gears of War, which was prematurely revealed at the end of last week, is official and has been selling like "hot cakes".
The 36-inch plastic weapon shakes and growls when you slot three C batteries (the chunky cylindrical ones) in its chamber. Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski poses with the replica on Amazon, maybe in an attempt to distract from the USD 139.99 (GBP 70) asking price.
Still, fork that out on a pre-order and a copy of Gears of War 2 is chucked in for free - plus the option to upgrade the game to a Limited Edition for USD 10 (GBP 5).
NECA, the company behind the plastic Lancer, has also made a "Headshot" Locust Drone action figure, which depicts an unfortunate insect-person-baddie taking a sniper bullet to the face. This comes complete with replica metal COG tags and costs USD 19.99 (GBP 10).
Both Lancer and "Headshot" Locust Drone go on sale alongside the Gears of War 2 game on 7th November.
We're waiting to hear back from NECA about European plans for the toys.
Jonathan Blow, the man behind the award-winning XBLA title Braid, has revealed that the new deal structure put in place by Microsoft could be enough to prevent him from working on Arcade titles in the future.
"What would keep me from putting another game on Arcade again is just that they've changed the business deal - at least as I've heard," he told Gamasutra. "If it's as I've heard that it is, I couldn't even necessarily break even."
Braid was signed long before the new deal structure was put in place, and while Microsoft has been coy on the details, some sources have cited a drop in royalty levels from around the 75 per cent mark to around the 30 per cent level.
Blow added that he had no plans to develop any additions to Braid in the future, regardless of how well it sold.
"Money is not really my goal, so even if Braid does very well... that's not my concern," he said. "I'm not going to do a sequel to Braid -- I don't care how many copies it sells.
"I mean, maybe in five years when I'm motivated, if I have a really fresh idea for it. But I'm not waiting in the wings with a level pack, or DLC or anything."
And he also revealed that while he'd been thinking about designing a Braid theme for the new Xbox Live, the intrusion from advertisements had put him off anything on the current system.
"I didn't want to do them on the old Dashboard, because it's covered with ads everywhere," he said. "Braid is about setting a mood and a feeling, and you can't do it while there's like, a Burger King ad there, flashing... I just felt that juxtaposition would have been bad for the game."
The list of unlockable Achievements for Fable II has appeared on the internet and as you can imagine for a Lionhead game, it's full of fun and debauchery.
There's orgies, Goths, chicken-kicking and... well see for yourself.
The full game is out on October 24, and the Pub Games arrive on Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday. Here's our pick of the Achievements:
The Bigamist -10g
Get married a second time, whilst still married to your first spouse.
The Swinger -5g
Take part in an orgy, responsibly
The Romantic -10g
Take a villager on a perfect date. You will need the right location and expression.
The Goth -5g
Dye your hair black, wear an outfit made entirely out of black clothes, and wear some black make-up.
The Chicken kicker -5g
Kick a chicken a respectable distance. As if kicking chickens was remotely respectable.
If those pesky Achievements for the game are to be believed, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise will support four player online co-op. 360sync.com lists all the "bleep bloops" for the upcoming candy-filled animal simulator and one 10-point achievement, named "Full House," comes with with the description: Play 4 Player Online Co-op for 1 hour.
We're still not exactly sure what co-op entails, as there also Achievements listed for playing two player co-op, both online and off, for one hour. We should get more details soon before VP: TiP starts getting whacked at retail on Sept. 2.
When asked for a single choice, parents are more concerned about their children’s exposure to games such as Grand Theft Auto than alcohol, violence, and pornography, according to a recent online poll conducted by family-centric consumer game site What They Play.
A separate survey also showed that most parents considered viewing violence as more acceptable than exposure to content involving sex and sexuality.
The initial poll, conducted April 4-10, 2008, found that, asked 1,266 participants what they are most offended by in video games. 37% responded that they were most offended by a man and a woman having sex, whereas 27% answered “two men kissing,” 25% responded “a graphically severed head,” and 9% chose “multiple use of the F-word.”
The second poll, conducted August 1-6, 2008, and - like the first - only tracking single answers, as opposed to letting people pick multiple choices - asked over 1,600 respondents what they’d be most concerned about their 17-year-old child indulging in while at a sleepover.
49% revealed that they’re more apprehensive about their child smoking marijuana, and 19% responded that they are most concerned with their children playing Grand Theft Auto. 16% answered that they are most disturbed by their children watching pornography, while 14% are most concerned with them drinking beer.
Said What They Like president John Davison: “These poll results demonstrate that parents are as apprehensive about their children’s media diets as they are about traditional social issues such as alcohol, drugs, violence and sex."
features
Unique character design
Comprehensive character customization tool
Two main game modes: Arcade & Realistic
description
Summer Athletics offers multiplayer fun for the entire family and brings the action and excitement of the most popular summer sport disciplines right into your living room!
The charming 3D comic style, varying levels of difficulty and intuitive controls will make Summer Athletics great fun for beginners and experts alike.
Customize your character and develop your career as a professional athlete in career mode or challenge your friends in head-to-head competition
It's a race that won't be finished until 2011, according to Chris Deering (former head of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe), but he's already calling it a tie between Sony and Nintendo. Keep in mind, this was after week ending numbers came out showing over 40,000 Wii units sold in Japan, with the PS3 a distant 9,500 units sold. So, clearly there's a lot to do in three years.
Deering arrived at these figures "by triangulating Screen Digest and IDG data. He also took into account factors such as the growth of hi-def and the grey gamer market, the emergence of new game engines and increasing ubiquity of wi-fi access" and we imagine he probably tried out runestones, tarot cards, and a ouija board just to be safe.
What's impressive are the sheer numbers alone. He predicts that by 2011 both Sony and Nintendo will have sold 230 million total machines each (Sony: PS3 + PS2 + PSP, and NIntendo: Wii + DS), and that the Xbox 360 will have reached a user base of 40 million. The only thing is, the 360 has already reached the 20 million mark, so he thinks it'll continue on that track for the next three years at exactly the same pace, due to the "set-top box hi-def phenomenon."
He also concludes that the number of potential gamers will reach 2.5 billion due to the amounts of consoles, computers, and mobile phones sold, to which we say... isn't everyone a potential gamer?
UK outlet Edge has declared that Bungie's mega-blockbuster Halo 3 "does most to further the creative culture of gaming" by awarding it the Edge Award for Interactive Innovation at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival today. The Xbox 360 game beat out Grand Theft Auto IV, Portal, Rock Band, Super Mario Galaxy and Wii Fit to secure the honor, with Edge writing that it's "the integration and coherence of Halo 3’s online content that makes the game stand apart."
"Space marines? Again?! Innovative?!?" you may be thinking. Edge obviously responds "Yes!" declaring that the sci-fi first person shooter demonstrates an "unparalleled understanding of the potential for console online play." Should you need further justification to help calm your nerves, Edge has 'em. Whether you'll agree... well, that's up to you.
Sony boss Chris Deering has surprised many by predicting that the firm's PlayStation 2 console, which launched in the UK in the year 2000, will have more active users than Nintendo's Wii by 2011.
Speaking at the launch of Edinburgh's Interactive Festival, the games chief said all platforms will see major growth by 2011, predicting there will be 2.5 billion gamers worldwide.
Deering said the DS will have rocketed to 150m users, but top of the home console market will be the PS2 with 90m active users.
The Sony boss added the Wii will be second with 80m users, the PS3 and PSP will be at 70m and the Xbox 360 at 40m.
Celebrating 20 Years of Innovation and counting, Madden NFL 09 delivers its most complete NFL football package ever.
Whether you're a seasoned veteran or picking up the game for the first time, players of all skill levels will enjoy a unique, yet challenging experience with the innovative Adaptive Difficulty Engine, which tailors the game to match your playing style.
Instantly improve your game with the all-new virtual Training Center or incorporate feedback with EA SPORTS BackTrack, allowing you to learn from your mistakes on the fly.
With a new broadcast presentation and online leagues, plus more than 85 new features and enhancements, Madden NFL 09 is the most authentic and adaptable game in sports video game history.
Game Features
An all-new Adaptive Difficulty Engine assesses your proficiency in the core skills areas of football, then tailors the experience to match your playing style.
Set your sights on the Vince Lombardi Trophy in an all-new network television-style broadcast as Cris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond call the action from the booth
Make a run for the postseason for the first time online
With an enhanced graphics engine and new player models, linemen battle in the trenches with more bulky physiques while backs and receivers fly around the field with a more sleek and slimmer look
Built from the ground up, an all-new Total Control Animation System allows for instantaneous combo moves while bringing new aspects to the game, including missed field goal returns and bobble catches
The innovative sports game is available on several platforms in various versions:
Xbox360™
Madden NFL 09 US US$ 64.90
Madden NFL 09 ASIA US$ 49.90
Madden NFL 09 [20th Anniversary Collectors Edition] US US$ 99.90
Madden NFL 09 JPN US$ 64.90
PlayStation3™
Madden NFL 09 US US$ 64.90
Madden NFL 09 ASIA US$ 49.90
Madden NFL 09 [20th Anniversary Collectors Edition] US US$ 99.90
Madden NFL 09 JPN US$ 64.90
Please note that while the US and Asian versions of the game have either arrived or will be available soon, the Japanese edition is expected to come in September.
Nintendo Wii™
Madden NFL 09 All-Play US US$ 59.90
PlayStation2™
Madden NFL 09 US US$ 44.90
Nintendo DS™
Madden NFL 09 US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™
Madden NFL 09 US US$ 44.90
Xbox™
Madden NFL 09 US US$ 44.90
Aside from the more common US, Asian, Japanese versions, the hit sports game is also available as Spanish editions for the Xbox360™ and PlayStation3™ for the same price of US$ 64.90. The Spanish editions are expected to arrive in September and is currently available as a preorder.
To those new to American Football/Rugby, get some advice and tutorials from the official guide book, available for US$ 19.90 only.
The previous installments of the highly acclaimed sports game are still available at Play-Asia.com, please find them here at the complete list of Madden NFL games.
Proper Games CEO Paddy Sinclair, who's company announced a key deal with Capcom for downloadable title Flock! at E3, has admitted to GamesIndustry.biz that he has "mixed emotions" about Microsoft's title cull for Xbox Live Arcade.
Sinclair, formerly at Visual Science before establishing Dundee-based Proper Games in 2006, feels that while he's worried that his company's title "could just get lost in the morass of arcade conversions", he also sympathises with companies for whom those games that get cut are their "bread-and-butter...trickle of income".
"Well, it's with mixed emotions really," he said of Microsoft's plans. "At the moment there is a little bit too much junk on there - that's not to denigrate the guys who have stuff there, but a way to tier and rate content would be nice.
"Obviously as we're coming to Xbox Live for the first time, it would be nice to be prominent, and we could just get lost in the morass of arcade conversions... So to a certain extent I'm behind the concept of delisting games that aren't selling, aren't well-received, but I think it's a combination of the two.
"But it's also the bread-and-butter for those companies - it may not be huge sales, but that thousand or so per month they are selling is a trickle of income, and it's just going to get sliced off...
"Flat-out delisting perhaps isn't the solution - it's a step in the right direction - but hopefully they'll come back and have a facility whereby if it's been on Xbox Live Arcade, you can always pick it up from somewhere.
"That's what I'd like to see, but I'd also like to see a way of properly categorising games - what's the most-downloaded game at the moment? What's been most bought?"
Flock! was announced to acclaim at E3 this year, and is scheduled for release at the end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009 for the XBLA, PlayStation Network and WiiWare platforms.
The full GamesIndustry.biz interview with Paddy Sinclair is available now.
Wondering how to transfer money into Fable 2 from the Xbox Live Arcade "Fable 2 Pub Games" due out tomorrow? Good news then, because Lionhead's been in touch to tell Eurogamer how it works.
When you begin one of the pub games, you pick a gambler to represent you across all of the challenges. We'll call ours "Bertie". You can stick with one of these or swap between multiple personalities, and we're told Lynch, Daphne, Maya, Mongo and Poe will be some of the faces on offer.
When you buy Fable 2 in October, create a hero - we'll call ours "Clert" - and then find a Gamesmaster either in a tavern or wandering wistfully down a road. Start playing whichever game variation the Gamesmaster offers, and you will be given the option to merge your hero ("Clert") with your gambler ("Bertie").
Once merged, "BertieClert" will gain access to all the Live Arcade gambling funds you previously accrued. But be warned, "BertieClert" cannot be undone, just like a chemical reaction.
Now, if you decide to go back to the Live Arcade pub games, you will play as "BertieClert", your hero from Fable II, who gambles directly using in-game gold. Clever.
The Live Arcade pub games also let you merge several gamblers together, which can be combined with any of your heroes from Fable 2.
Fable 2 is due out exclusively for Xbox 360 on my birthday, 24th October.
OXM must have too much time on its hands. So much so that the guys can sit around, after deadline, staring a blank lobby screens in a variety of games to see who's playing what and more importantly who's not playing what. Surely everyone can't be playing Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3.
The website asks what happens to the lesser known games as time marches on and the smaller games are squeezed off the shelves.
Do the communities live on? Do the hardcore refuse to let go? Do newcomers to Xbox Live wander into empty lobbies and try to figure out why nothing is working?
Hit this link for a list of games that have deserted, empty lobbies.
Wii Fit has reclaimed the top spot in the UK all-formats chart, bending past last week's winner, Soulcalibur IV, at two.
Following them are faces so familiar we suggest they form a family: Mario Kart Wii at three, Big Beach Sports at four, and Wii Play at five.
Store promotions and big trucks with posters on helped Guitar Hero III take six and Guitar Hero: On Tour occupy seven.
Then came Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, although they're not - the title is misleading. Wall-E, the speechless robot, fell to nine as movie popularity dwindled, and the chart was rounded out by Brain Training at 10.
This week waves goodbye to Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08.
And that's about it.
Wii Fit (Wii)
Soulcalibur IV (Xbox 360, PS3)
Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
Big Beach Sports (Wii)
Wii Play (Wii)
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PC, DS)
Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS)
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii, DS)
WALL-E (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS)
Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
LEGO Indiana Jones (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS)
Kung Fu Panda (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, DS)
Beijing 2008 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
Carnival: Funfair Games (Wii)
Sports Party (Wii)
More Brain Training (DS)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, DS)
Battlefield: Bad Company (Xbox 360, PS3)
FIFA 08 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii, PS2, DS, PSP)
Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3, Xbox 360)
The Simpsons Game (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS)
Geometry Wars fans will be pleased to hear that it doesn't look like the psychedelic shooter series will end with the second game.
Speaking to MTV's Multiplayer blog, Bizarre Creations' Craig Howard revealed that the series is "not going to stop," and that the developer has "enough game ideas to do Geometry Wars for probably about 10 games".
"It depends on what will work," said Howard. "Geometry Wars is definitely a franchise."
According to Bizarre there have been many "experiments" left on the cutting room floor from the second game, but it doesn't want to reveal them because the developer might "use them in the future for god knows what". Arcade games in new racing games?
"We were initially like, 'Ooh let's get a Geometry Wars out next year'," he said. "When we sat down, we realized we didn't really know what we wanted to do with it."
The eventual goal for Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 was to present to players only the modes with the most "pure" elements, he said.
With two successful years of pomp and glitzy bluster under its belt, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced that its British Academy Video Games Awards are set to return in March 2009, following a leave of absence this year.
With its videogames award ceremony scheduled for March 10 at the London Hilton, Park Lane, the Academy aims to "support, develop and promote the art forms of the moving image by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and benefitting the public."
To this end, BAFTA has unveiled its 13 nomination categories, with awards being dolled out across Action & Adventure, Artistic Achievement, Best Game, Casual, Gameplay, Multiplayer, Original Score, Sports, Strategy, Story & Character, Technical Achievement and Use of Audio. 2009 also sees the introduction of a new Handheld category, recognising development excellence across mobiles phone, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and Nintendo GBA titles.
Next year's ceremony will also see prizes awarded for the BAFTA Ones To Watch Award in association with Dare To Be Digital - aiming to recognise new gaming talent - and another for games or gaming technology worthy of special recognition. The evening will also see another industry member's indoctrination into the Academy's prestigious Fellowship, the highest accolade it can bestow on an individual for outstanding achievement and contribution to the industry through a body of work - last year awarded to Will Wright.
Nominations are voted for by industry "experts" and the final nominations list in each category is set to be unveiled on February 10, 2009 - one month before the official award ceremony.
V8: Arcade, the XBLA re-imagining of the Vigilante 8 series, has finally been submitted to Microsoft for certification, which means the game should arrive in late summer or early autumn.
Vigilante 8 started as a spin-off series of Interstate '76, and first appeared in 1998 on PSone and N64, before Dreamcast got in on some sequel action.
Smashing up opposing cars was the plan, using all manner of weaponry tacked on to your 1970s-inspired rides.
Isopod Labs, the developer behind the Live Arcade version, has the original creators onboard to help re-imagine the themes and gameplay from the V8 series, only using much more powerful technology.
This means significantly improved physics and graphics, plus the addition of four-player split-screen play and online battles for up to eight drivers.
Specifically there will be five arenas to dart around, eight cars to write off, and a bunch of classic V8-style personalities to play as, each with unique special weapons.
Vigilante 8: Arcade will cost 800 Microsoft Points, or GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.60 in human money.
Whether or not we think Braid is brilliant (and we do) no game is too angelic to escape our probing eye. We dig deep to find the real dirt that the big boys don't want you to know about, like bugs. We've used our investigative skills to find out about two from a secret source who ... oh, who are we kidding? They came from Jonathan Blow, the guy who created the game.
The bugs are a bit too specific to fully explain here, suffice it to say that if they hit you it's going to mean a fair amount of backtracking. They don't seem to be especially common, but they're serious for those who've been afflicted. The good news? While Jonathan Blow is spilling the beans he's also working with Microsoft on solutions.
Game Developer Research has surveyed more than 2,000 members of the videogame industry to find out which gaming platforms they were spending most of their time with. All of the participants polled were from North America and read either gaming industry site Gamasutra.com or Game Developer magazine.
According to the survey, 70-percent of all the applicants who replied said that they were making games for either the PC or Mac. The console platforms, combined as a whole, amounted to 43-percent of the pie; while 28-percent said that they were designing games for Web platforms. Rounding out the last place was the handheld platforms with 16-percent of the pie.
Upon further analysis of the console figures, 73-percent of the console developers surveyed said that they were making games for Microsoft's Xbox 360. In second place was Sony's PlayStation 3 with 58-percent. It is important to note that these percentages include cross-platform games. In third place was Nintendo's Wii, with 42-percent responding that they were working on a Wii game. Rounding out the fourth spot was the PlayStation 2 with 15-percent.
On the handheld side, 75-percent of handheld developers said that they were making games for the Nintendo DS. 45-percent responded that they were designing games for Sony's PSP.
In summation, the PC/Mac is the most popular game development platform among the participants surveyed; while the Xbox 360 and DS are the leaders of their own respective fields. It is important to note that while the Xbox 360 recieves the most console development support from game designers this does not necessarily mean that the console will provide the most games. Other factors such as team size and game development cycle must be put into consideration.
It was a bit late to the party with its 16GB SDHC card, and Kingston looks to be playing catch-up again when it comes to 32GB cards, with it only now releasing its first such high capacity wonder. It's also not making any attempts to contend with the fastest cards around, as this particular one is only a Class 4 card that promises to maintain a speed of 4MB/sec, which is a good deal off the pace of Panasonic's 20MB/s Class 6 SDHC card. Of course, at "just" $308, you can also get two of these for the price of one of Panasonic's speedy cards, which should tide you over until the inevitable 64GB SDHC cards start showing up.
The chequered history of Rock Band in Australia could be set to take yet another turn, as an undisclosed retail source told us today that the game's release may be delayed indefinitely. Word is that retail buyers simply aren't interested in stocking a bulky product that's a year old and will cost more than its similarly bulky – and up to date - competitor Guitar Hero: World Tour.
This is dire news if true, yet that's not the worst of it. Further rumours suggest that - for similar reasons - Rock Band 2 may not come out either, and that the Guitar Hero series has the market sewn up. Whether EA would simply cede control of such a lucrative genre to a competitor remains to be seen, however, and we're hoping that it will still push to release the second game in Australia.
We've approached EA for comment but have been unsuccessful so far. Stay tuned for more info.
Nintendo has dominated the Australian software chart for the week ended August 10, with Wii and DS titles taking up the top seven places, according to data from GfK Australia.
Wii Fit sat at the top of the chart, with the Wii Play bundle at number two. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games on the Wii, and Mario Kart Wii took the third and fourth places respectively.
Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii sat in fifth place, while the DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games was at number six and Dr Kawashima's Brain Training, also for the DS, comes in at seven.
The bottom of the chart was occupied by PlayStation 3 titles, with Soul Calibur IV in eighth place, Grand Theft Auto IV in ninth and at ten was Beijing 2008 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games.
The top ten Australian software sales chart for the week ended August 10 follows:
1. Wii Fit (Wii)
2. Wii Play bundle (Wii)
3. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
4. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
5. Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii)
6. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS)
7. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain (DS)
8. Soul Calibur IV (PS3)
9. Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3)
10. Beijing 2008 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games (PS3)
Bizarre Creations has flicked the switch on a cool little webpage for Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 online Leaderboards. Be warned though, they make for upsetting viewing...
If, like me, you're the sort of person who's only goal in life is to top all six leaderboards on his friends list at whatever cost to his social life, then DON'T HIT THIS LINK.
It'll only make you despair. Like being in first place, thinking you're about to win a marathon, until you realise you've got to run all the way back to the start. You might have been king of the castle in the small pond full of your rubbish friends, but going up against the world if another story.
Take Pacifism for example. We all think it's the best game mode in there, even if you don't fire a single bullet, which kind of defeats the whole 'Wars' point of the game. The office high score is a whopping 84 million. That wipes the floor with everyone on our friends list too. But 1.6 BILLION? Surely someone's having a laugh...
Read our Geom Wars review here but DON'T look at the leaderboards. You've been warned.
Tales of Vesperia wasn't the biggest game in Japan last week. But it's debut at over 100,000 units was certainly good news for the Xbox 360.
As reported by Media Create, the number one game for the week covering August 4 to August 10 was Phantasy Star Portable. Now in its second week, Sega's PSP hit sold an additional 148,000 units for 490,000 units total.
The DS remake of the original NES Fire Emblem game debuted at number two with 145,000 units. Below it was another Nintendo-branded DS hit, Rhythm Tengoku Gold (to be released outside Japan as Rhythm Heaven), which sold 130,000 units in its second week for a total of 343,000.
Tales of Vesperia came in at fourth with 108,000 units. This figure includes both standalone versions of the game and a bundle that combined the title with the 360 hardware and some limited edition goodies.
Below Tales was Dragon Quest V (Square Enix, DS, 73,000 units), Sangokushi Taisen Ten (Sega, DS, 33,000), Summon Night 2 (Bandai Namco, DS, 30,000), Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii, 27,000), Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii, 23,000), and Soul Calibur IV (Bandai Namco, PS3, 23,000). Of these, Sangokushi and Summon Night were new. DQV, notably, topped a million over the period.
Media Create's hardware charts won't be released until Friday, but a few unofficial reports indicate a big boost to 360 hardware sales, even pushing the system above the PlayStation 3, although not above the Wii.
Capcom has identified three key bugs in the beta version of Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and offered a workaround for people experiencing them.
Following the release of a patch last week, some HD Remix players have had to put up with background "jitter", and throw and fireball animations lagging behind their execution.
However, wrote Capcom in a blog post this week, this is all down to "smoothing" and the company has already figured out ways to fix it. "The character frames are actually playing much better than before, but the background jittering is making is seem like there is lag when there isn't," the Capcom-Unity post explained.
Fortunately there's a way to sort it out right now for those of you playing along. "To turn off smoothing, just hold LT, RT, RB, and LB. While holding them, press start and you should hear a tone indicating it has turned off." So do that.
"There are still other netcode improvements that have been implemented that should improve the gameplay, but for some, it seems the smoothing is making the game feel laggy when it isn't," the blog observed.
So it's not a perfect answer, but it's yet another piece in the feedback puzzle that Capcom's solving ahead of HD Remix's release for Xbox Live and PlayStation Network later this year, which should be pretty flawless if all this good work is anything to go by.
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is a sexified 1080p rebuild of Capcom's classic 16-bit 2D beat-'em-up, and the beta test is an Xbox Live promotion designed to iron out all the online-multiplayer kinks before release. To get involved, you have to buy Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 on Xbox Live Arcade, which opens the door to the HD Remix download.
We now have the Xbox 360 Special Full Cases by XCM Live. These cases are flashy and will definitely make your 360 stand out from the crowd. You can order the case in red, blue, or green.
Buy the Xbox 360 X-Red Special (and other Colours) Full Cases for only $64.99 at Gp2xstore.com
Bullet 3D Game Multiphysics Library provides state of the art collision detection, soft body and rigid body dynamics.
Used by many game companies in AAA titles on Playstation 3, XBox 360, Nintendo Wii and PC
Modular extendible C++ design with hot-swap of most components
Optimized back-ends with multi-threaded support for Playstation 3 Cell SPU and other platforms
Discrete and continuous collision detection (CCD)
Swept collision queries
Ray casting with custom collision filtering
Generic convex support (using GJK), capsule, cylinder, cone, sphere, box and non-convex triangle meshes.
Rigid body dynamics including constraint solvers, generic constraints, ragdolls, hinge, ball-socket
Support for constraint limits and motors
Soft body support including cloth, rope and deformable
Bullet is integrated into Blender 3D
Supports import and export into COLLADA 1.4 Physics format
Support for dynamic deformation of non-convex triangle meshes, by refitting the acceleration structures
The Library is free for commercial use and open source under the ZLib License.
Overview : This cable converts the analog singal to a digital signal and acts as a HDMI digital signal solution for HDMI-less Xbox 360 consoles, while also sporting an extra RCA socket and digital optical audio output socket for connection to your audio source. The cable also comes with an HDMI to DVI adapter so it can be used on a PC as well as HDTV.
Features :
Easy connection - Plug & Play!
Can change the analog signal from the older model Xbox 360 consoles into a digital signal, effectively decreasing signal loss, and upgrades the picture quality and hardware performance.
Auto identifies the consoles signal, no need for manual settings.
Built in optical and analog sound outputs, adaptable to various multimedia devices.
High quality cables. Uses gold plated plugs for superior contacts, guaranteed picture quality and stability.
Does not require an external power supply.
Includes Super Thick High Quality Braided & Shielded HDMI cable ($50-60 Value) - No additional HDMI cable needed! (Comparable to Monster Cable HDMI Cables selling for $99+)
Also includes HDMI to DVI Adapter.
Automatically detects and plays any Xbox 360 Game or DVD Movie disc.
Quality/Usability : The XCM White 360 HDMI 1080p Cable is an upgrade to its predecessor, XCM White 360 HDMI 1080i Cable. Instead of only being able to display 1080i, it can now display 1080p for Xbox 360's without HDMI port built in (1st Generation).
Design and setup is exactly the same as its previous version. Included is HDMI cable, HDMI to DVI adapter, and XCM's nifty device that converts signal to HD.
Setup is fairly easy (video below). With the HDMI 1080p Cable, you'll get up to 1080p output from your original white Xbox 360. The same as if you were to get a Xbox 360 Premium, Elite or Halo 3 edition. To get this setup, simply connect the device to the back of the Xbox 360. Take the HDMI cable and connect it to the other end of the device and the other end of the cable to your monitor/HD TV. If you dont have a HDMI port on your monitor, you can use the included HDMI to DVI adapter.
Just remember that HDMI supports digital audio through the cable but DVI does not, so you'll need to connect speakers. The device has two RCA audio jacks (red/yellow) for those who are using DVI. If you have speakers that also has RCA audio jacks, simply plug it into the HDMI device.
Once all cables are connected, simply turn on the Xbox 360 and you will now have an original white Xbox 360 capable of running in HD via HDMI/DVI. The HDMI device also has a power indicator to let you know that the product is turned on and in use. From what I have tested, the visual quality is the same using this adapter and connecting the Xbox 360 directly to the HDTV via HDMI. Like the 1080i version, I didnt notice any loss of quality.
Conclusion : Overall, the XCM White 360 HDMI 1080p Cable works just like the 1080i version. Only difference between the two is color and instead of 1080i, it outputs to 1080p. This is by far the best solution for those wanting to play in HD on their original white HDMI-less Xbox 360. MadCatz has their own version that is sold at electronics stores like Best Buy but it costs $99.99 and is smaller. XCM used the same design. I still wish they made a smaller version of it.
SEGA® Europe Ltd. and SEGA® Germany GmbH today announced the titles which will be presented to the public and industry professionals at Games Convention 2008. Two SEGA heroes will dominate events in the consumer area (Hall 5, Booth F02), which will strongly and positively stand out from the usual trade fair booths thanks to its special design. Amigo, the clever monkey from the Samba De Amigo game series celebrates his comeback exclusively on the Wii, and at the same time, his public premiere. For the first time customers will be able to shake their Wii remotes to the beat, next to, and on the stage – 40 well-known songs and new game modes provide long-lasting enthusiasm. Samba De Amigo will also be the primary element of our professionally moderated stage show – with full audience participation.
Sonic will also be taking the trip to Leipzig and presenting himself to the public in two games. Along with his role-playing game premiere Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, developed exclusively for the DS by BioWare, the cool hedgehog will play up his strengths in Sonic Unleashed. Visitors to the Games Convention will get to experience the new and, in many areas, heavily improved gameplay for themselves. With the Olympic Games in mind, the SEGA booth will also showcase the athletic field – along with Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Beijing 2008 will also be waiting for medal-worthy video game athletes. The booth will be rounded out with Dinosaur King, the game to the new TV series, and Space Siege – another thrilling PC adventure from cult designer Chris Taylor.
In the Business Center (Hall 1, Booth I31), SEGA will provide an outlook for more up-coming highlights. Notable developers from Japan (Platinum Games), the UK (Headstrong Games, The Creative Assembly), and Australia (The Creative Assembly Australia) will give media representatives a sneak peek at forthcoming SEGA titles for all platforms.
Besides a world premiere, which will be announced in time for the start of the trade fair, new versions and demos of the presented games have been developed especially for GC. The titles presented in the business area include the epic Empire: Total War, the action packed espionage RPG Alpha Protocol, Platinum Games' highly anticipated Madworld and Bayonetta, the long-awaited comeback of Golden Axe, the Japanese strategy eye-catcher Valkyria Chronicles, and Stormrise – an all new kind of strategy game designed specially for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. In addition, all titles from the consumer area will also be available in the Business Center.
According to the 2008 Game Development Survey, a new 180-page report from Game Developer Research that questions nearly 2,000 developers from North America and elsewhere (mostly Europe), the PC still rules the development roost. 70 percent of those surveyed said they are making games for the PC/Mac, compared to 43 percent who are making console games, 28 percent who are making games for web platforms and 16 percent who are making portable games (DS, PSP).
Interestingly, on the console front, console developers seem to show a preference for Microsoft's Xbox 360. 73 percent are creating games for 360, 58 percent (including some of the same respondents) for PS3, and 42 percent for the Wii. 15 percent are also still creating games for the PS2.
Microsoft has confirmed to Videogaming247 that the company does not intend to hold a Xbox 360 press conference during the Games Convention next week in Leipzig, Germany. Instead, Microsoft's booth will have demos available for the convention goers as well as a few behind closed doors.
Core Cooler V2 is a high end version of XCM popular Core Cooler. Now compatible with all Xbox 360 and also coming with Twin Fans for double cooling power, it still features great lightning to add a custom look to your console
Buh. So, this is getting confusing. According to sources over at ShackNews, the Rock Band 2 Special Edition bundle that was originally set to launch on September 14 exclusively on Xbox 360 will hit stores on October 19. For you fanboys keeping score, that's the same date that the game will hit for other consoles. It's still not clear if the game and instruments will still show up on retail shelves on September 14, but if you were looking to get your groove on in September, you may want to chill.
We've be hearing a lot about the Thai cabbie killing lately and how it was (or wasn't) caused by Grand Theft Auto. In the wake of that tragic murder, there have been two major groups of outcries. The first has been the call to regulate games; one we have heard all too often. The other has been a call to revise criminal penalties; one which is not only new, but speaks to the core theory behind criminal law: the theory of punishment. Criminal law theory is something that is universal in all of our criminal codes, but isn't often discussed. It's this "theoretical" approach that we'll look at today. You may agree or disagree with my particular thoughts on the theory of criminal law, but it's more important for everyone to understand a theoretical approach to criminal law so that we can come to our own conclusions about true "justice."
The concept of criminal law starts with some basic political philosophy. In order to have a society, there has to be a set of rules by which that society operates. Whether you want to view this as the social contract in a Locke/Hobbes/Rousseau manner or through some other philosophical lens, the basic need for rules and order in a society is more or less the same. This need for rules gives rise to the concept of the law, and one of those concepts is the boundaries of behavior that stray into what we, as a society, feel need to be punished. This is the basis for all criminal law, be it a crime against a person or a crime against property.
Once you've placed theoretical constraints on acceptable behavior, you have to decide what are acceptable punishments. There have been, over time, many theories on which punishment is based. One of the oldest is athe classic "eye for an eye," but more modern interpretations have attempted to balance the idea of actual punishment with the idea of deterrence, the concept that the threat of punishment will keep many from committing crimes altogether.
There is also the question of whom to punish and to what degree should all involved parties be punished. Remember, the actual criminal actor is not always the only one punished. This is the basis behind accomplice charges, among other criminal penalties that involve far more complex issues of mitigating and aggravating circumstances, or particular factors that make the punishment more or less severe. Which brings us back to Thailand and two particular thoughts I've seen presented with respect to game-related violence: games as a mitigating or aggravating factor; and liability for game manufacturers for crimes that copy games. "Both of these ideas border on lunacy."
Both of these ideas border on lunacy. First, games as an aggravating or mitigating factor in deciding punishment seems to be a loss. Does it make sense to punish a gamer more because he or she killed someone in a way based on a game? Of course not. The fact that the perpetrator is a gamer doesn't make the victim any less dead, nor does it make the crime any different from any other murder. So there's no benefit to giving the perpetrator an extra 40 years because they acted out a game. From the opposite approach, should a gamer be able to claim that the game made them do it? I say this is equally pointless unless it is tied to some concrete mental illness that would otherwise give rise to a potential insanity defense. If you can tell right from wrong (generally the standard for insanity), exposure to a particular game doesn't make right any less right or wrong any less wrong; it's just an excuse to attempt to reduce punishment.
The secondary thought, applying liability to game manufacturers for "copycat" crimes committed by those who play their games is a blatant contradiction to free speech in the US. That's not to say it can't happen in other countries, but the law is relatively clear in the US. In fact, the Supreme Court specifically invalidated hate crime laws that were in conflict with free speech in R. A. V. v. City of St. Paul. More importantly, speech has traditionally only been limited in the case where the speech itself presents imminent lawless action, such as yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater, or consists of "fighting words," or words likely to instigate a fight. To think about this from another perspective, if game makers are allowed to be held accountable for the actions of players, then why not movie makers? Or authors? Catcher in the Rye has been tied to several people who have committed criminal acts, and yet not only is it still sold freely, to my knowledge no one has ever brought suit against J. D. Salinger, the publisher, or the book seller.
More importantly, these two ideas tie together. If you don't believe that the perpetrator should be able to claim the "game made him do it," then why should the game's maker be liable? On the contrary, if the game maker isn't responsible for what people do with their game, then does it really matter if the game motivated the crime in someone who can tell right from wrong? Doesn't the idea of free speech in and of itself demand some personal responsibility from those who are in their right mind?
These finer points of criminal theory are ones you have to resolve within your own mind, not just with respect to these proposed game laws but with respect to all criminal laws. It's a legal area that few people analyze thoroughly, but everyone should have thought about as it should shape your personal and political actions. After all, if you disagree with a candidate's particular theory of criminal punishment, shouldn't that be a factor in deciding whether to vote for that person, just as you would likely consider the candidate's stance on video games in making an educated decision on whom to vote for? Hopefully much of the fervor will die down as more time passes from the tragic murder in Thailand, and as that dies down so will the hasty calls to revise the criminal system based on games.
Disney Interactive Studio VP Graham Hopper thinks Disney needs more role-playing games. Speaking with GameDaily, Hopper says the company has an RPG in the pipeline, but can't yet make an announcement. Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts series is probably the only RPG we can think of that uses Disney characters, but that was more of a dalliance on the house of Mickey's part.
Hopper goes on to say that RPGs fit with Disney because the company believes storytelling and character design are important. He notes the company isn't looking to make "the hardest core RPG," but a blend, which he believes the studio is fully capable of. May Diablo help us if Disney's answer to role-playing is something like High School Musical RPG.
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Catching onto the Olympics hype, a number of sports games are published this week. These include the hot Madden NFL 09 released by one of the leading game developers, Electronic Arts. The game is available on many consoles so footballers/rugby players, get ready for the game for there is no stopping it even if your family has hogged the TV for the Olympic events.
Other team sports you can join with friends is MLB Power Pros 2008 [Wii™ & PlayStation2™] and Women's Volleyball. While the Wii version of the baseball game makes use of the Nintendo Wii's motion sensing capabilities to give you a lifelike batting and pitching experience, Women's Volleyball depicts the excitement and red hot battle between atheletes that you can participate in.
Although the Olympics has directed most people's attention to sports, it is not the only activity you can participate in. For those who desires a bit more variety, the King of Clubs is a game for you.
Golf takes center spot with this game along with fashion taboos, and its actually encouraging you to play the game in the most unorthodox ways, so people who enjoy wacky games without constraining rules, pick up your Wii remote controls and get ready to wield it!
Take a break from all the sports and sweat and set off on an adventure, the Asian version of Tales of Vesperia has arrived this week amidst the plethora of sports games.
A journey to your memories is another trip you can take via your Sony PSPs. Memories Off: Sorekara [limited & standard editions] and Omoide ni Kawaru kun (kimi) [limited & standard editions] will take you through your teenage romance and let you relive the sweet times you have spent with your girlfriends.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week
Xbox360™
Madden NFL 09 US US$ 64.90
Madden NFL 09 ASIA US$ 49.90
Madden NFL 09 [20th Anniversary Collectors Edition] US US$ 99.90
Summer Athletics The Ultimate Challenge US US$ 34.90
Tales of Vesperia (Japanese language Version) ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™
Call of Duty 3 (Greatest Hits) US US$ 34.90
Madden NFL 09 ASIA US$ 49.90
Madden NFL 09 US US$ 64.90
Madden NFL 09 [20th Anniversary Collectors Edition] US N/A
Monster Madness: Grave Danger US US$ 44.90
MotorStorm (Greatest Hits) US US$ 34.90
Resistance: Fall of Man (Greatest Hits) US US$ 34.90
Warhawk (Greatest Hits) US US$ 34.90
Nintendo Wii™
King of Clubs US US$ 34.90
Little League World Series US US$ 54.90
MLB Power Pros 2008 US US$ 44.90
Madden NFL 09 All-Play US US$ 59.90
PlayStation2™
Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka: Parareru JPN US$ 69.90
Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka: Parareru [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.90
Analog Strike Wireless Controller Exteme 2 (Black) JPN US$ 39.90
Ford Racing: Off Road US US$ 24.90
MLB Power Pros 2008 US US$ 24.90
Madden NFL 09 US US$ 44.90
Summer Athletics The Ultimate Challenge US US$ 24.90
Women's Volleyball Championship US US$ 24.90
Nintendo DS™ GRID US US$ 34.90
Little League World Series US US$ 34.90
Madden NFL 09 US US$ 34.90
Quick Yoga Training US US$ 34.90
Rock Blast US US$ 24.90
Nintendo DS™ Accessories
Chara Pure Cover (Jack) JPN US$ 12.90
Chara Pure Cover (Stitch) JPN US$ 12.90
Chara Pure Cover (Winnie the Pooh) JPN US$ 12.90
Charge Stand DS Lite US US$ 14.99
Sony PSP™ Crazy Taxi: Double Punch JPN US$ 48.90
Ford Racing: Off Road US US$ 24.90
Madden NFL 09 US US$ 44.90
Memories Off Sorekara JPN US$ 58.90
Memories Off Sorekara [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 69.90
Omoide ni Kawaru-Kun: Memories Off JPN US$ 58.90
Omoide ni Kawaru-Kun: Memories Off [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 69.90
Sony PSP Accessories™ Monster Hunter Multi Bag JPN US$ 29.90
Xbox™
Madden NFL 09 US US$ 44.90
PC Game
Hide & Secret 2 US US$ 24.90
Game Guides and Magazines
Charaberrys Vol.5 JPN US$ 12.90
Madden NFL 09: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Madden NFL 2009 Limited Edition Bundle: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 34.90
Nobunaga no Yabou DS 2 Guide Book JPN US$ 23.90
Sangokushi Taisen Ten Tactical Guide JPN US$ 20.90
The Madden Phenomenon US US$ 24.90
Weekly Famitsu No. 1027 (2008 08/22+29) JPN N/A
Zero no Tsukaima: Knight of Twin Moon Illustration Book JPN US$ 27.90
Sure, Namco Bandai's latest Tales RPG had to settle for a fourth place finish, but it faced strong competition. Phantasy Star Portable, with its Monster Hunter Portable-like appeal, still holds down the number one spot, with the newest Fire Emblem and Rhythm Tengoku Gold placing and showing, respectively, with well over one hundred thousand units sold. Tales of Vesperia's 100K-plus debut week is certainly going to move some Xbox 360s in Japan, as gamers there were lining up en masse to secure the 360 exclusive RPG.
Not much in the way of new, notable entries, but it would appear that Metal Gear Solid 4 won't be returning to the top 30 any time soon. Maybe when that "Best Price" version hits.
01. Phantasy Star Portable (PSP) - 148,000 / 490,000
02. Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Ken (DS) - 145,000 / NEW
03. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS) - 130,000 / 343,000
04. Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360) - 108,000 / NEW
05. Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu No Hanayome (DS) - 73,000 / 1,019,000
06. Sangokushi Taisen Ten (DS) - 33,000 / NEW
07. Summon Night 2 (DS) - 30,000 / NEW
08. Wii Fit (Wii) - 27,000 / 2,470,000
09. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 23,000 / 1,656,000
10. Soulcalibur IV (PS3) - 23,000 / 97,000
This wouldn't look out of place as one of Viz Magazine's Top Tips:
Graphic Designers! Don't waste money on expensive Apple Macintosh desktops - just gut your Xbox like a fish and stuff its innards into a Lan-Li PC-XB01!
The Lan-Li case really does look like one of Apples more industrial numbers with the cheese grater effect on the front. It has plenty of room inside to let air flow around your now warranty-free Xbox, plus housings for a water cooling system if you are really paranoid about getting the RROD or live on the Sun.
The PC-XB01 will be available later this month for around $150. Time to start looking for a minimalist Phillip Starke controller to go with it.
We now have the Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death kit by Team Xecuter. Get rid of the Red Rig of Death syndrome on your Xbox 360. The single version kit includes screwdrivers, printed instructions and retail packaging. We also have the bulk version which will allow you to repair 10 consoles but you will need to supply your own tools.
New figures for Japan's weekly console data released each week are in as follows:
Nintendo DS Lite: 60,434
Playstation Portable: 58,501
Nintendo Wii: 38,506
Xbox 360: 24,962
Playstation 3: 9,673
Playstation: 2 8,503
The DS Lite manages to crawl to the top of the list, up roughly by 3,000 while the PSP is down 3,000 going to second place. The Wii still is in 3rd place, taking a 2,600 hit. The Xbox 360 is 4th, increased by 19,000 most likey by the sales of Tales of Vesperia. The PS3 comes next, up 100 and PS2 is last in line, down 500.
Following the release of NPD's US software and hardware sales data for July, the three platform holders were quick to post reactions on their respective performances - here is a brief summary before a more detailed examination follows:
Nintendo, which had the most to celebrate following more stunning success in the hardware chart plus a number of titles in the software top ten as well, restricted its victory speech to a simple quote from Cammie Dunaway.
Sony, which will undoubtedly be delighted at a platform victory for the PlayStation 3 over the Xbox 360, detailed a variety of statistics on its PS3, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Network and PlayStation 2 platforms, rounded off with a note from Jack Tretton.
Meanwhile Microsoft focused on its overall market share since launch, a solid software sales percentage and the level of third party sales that the Xbox 360 has provided to other publishers.
Nintendo
The brief statement mentioned the hardware sales figures for DS and Wii, noting a 49 per cent market share for Wii in terms of living-room consoles, and a 73 per cent market share for the DS for handhelds.
The statement also noted the five titles that made the NPD software top ten for July: Wii Fit, Guitar Hero: On Tour, Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii and Rock Band.
"Great hardware goes hand-in-hand with great software," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive VP of sales and marketing. "Various types of games for the Nintendo systems are represented in the top 10, demonstrating how we continue to break down the barriers between veteran and new players."
Sony
A rather longer statement began by trumpeting the "momentum" for the PS3, with 1.8 million units sold in the US in 2008 - a 99 per cent growth year-on-year.
Additionally PS3 software showed a 206 per cent growth level for the year to-date, and SCEA promised over 140 Blu-ray titles by the end of the fiscal year.
The PlayStation Network now has over 10 million registered accounts, with over 200 million pieces of content downloaded worldwide.
The PSP sales were spurred on to 16 per cent growth over the first six months of 2007 by the God of War: Chains of Olympus promotion.
More than 42.5 million PS2s have now been sold in North America across the console's lifetime.
The PlayStation brand has now yielded more than USD 3.3 billion in the year to-date; July hardware sales hit USD 609 million in July - 22 per cent growth; July software sale hit USD 184 million - 28 per cent growth.
"Our year-to-date sales growth of 99 per cent for the PS3 reaffirms that consumers are indeed embracing PS3 as their entertainment hub-of-choice with its feature-rich offerings like Blu-ray and our recently announced video delivery service," said Jack Tretton, president and CEO of SCEA. "With an unmatched software line-up that includes LittleBigPlanet, SOCOM: Confrontation, Resistance 2 and MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, and the anticipated launch of our new 80GB PS3 model, we're confident in a strong second half of the year and look forward to quickly addressing any inventory shortages due to the transition."
Microsoft
Microsoft's reaction began by hailing a strong E3 showing, and noting a profitable year with USD 2.1 billion "in growth" for the Entertainment and Devices Division.
Since launch consumers have spent over USD 10.4 billion on the Xbox 360 in the US, giving the platform a 49 per cent market share.
Xbox 360 titles accounted for USD 129 million - 34 per cent share - in software sales for July.
Third party revenue generated by the Xbox 360 platform was USD 121 million - 42 per cent of the market.
Xbox 360 now has an attach rate of 7.9, which Microsoft stated as the highest attach rate in history for any console at this point in its life cycle.
The statement closed with a look ahead to the rest of the year, including the Netflix deal in the US and a games library of over 1000 titles, including Lips, You're in the Movies, and Gears of War 2.
On Thursday, Hollywood studio Warner Bros. announced that it had pushed the release of the feature film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from its previously scheduled November debut to July of next year, a delay of more than six months.
Publisher Electronic Arts, meanwhile, has been underway with videogame adaptations of Half-Blood Prince for everything from Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to DS and PSP, all previously set to launch alongside the movie this November. However, such an event is looking far less likely in light of Warner's new movie date.
We asked Electronic Arts if Half-Blood Prince for videogame consoles and handhelds would be pushed alongside the movie and a spokesperson for the company offered only a cryptic response. "We are making a great game that Harry Potter fans will really enjoy -- we are evaluating the impact of the movie date change," the rep said. Pressed on the issue, EA's spokesperson offered no further comment.
As we understand it, EA now faces two hurdles if it still intends to ship Half-Blood Prince this November. First, it'll be a game without a movie, a licensing faux pas that software publishers try to avoid at all costs. And second, EA's title may feature content from the movie that the publisher could be contractually obligated to keep secret until the film itself debuts, thereby forcing the software giant to remove the content or sit tight with its Potter games until next July.
We will continue to monitor the story and update readers with any developments.
IGN spoke with Eric Brosious, audio director for Harmonix, about selecting songs for the upcoming Rock Band 2 release. He talks about balancing difficulty between instruments, bringing a wider range of genres to the game, and his view on the competition for songs and artists between Harmonix and Activision.
"We prefer not to sign exclusive deals with artists because while it seems like the competitive 'business' thing to do, in the long run, it's really not good for anyone. We think we should be working to get more music out to more people."
Jeff Coe tips us to news that a group of Sega employees recently stumbled upon a storage room in the company's product development department that contains just about every piece of hardware and software Sega has ever released. They were also kind enough to snap some photos and share them.
"We asked around about how the room came together and couldn't get a straight answer. Some had said our old legal department had run the archive and given it up to someone else to manage. Others said that the legal archive still exists in another room in the office, and this was pulled together over time from producers and product managers. We don't know the exact how or why, but we love that it exists and immediately accessible."
Develop Magazine has posted a fascinating multi-part interview with Sam Houser, president and founder of Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games. Houser is rarely quoted outside of press releases, and almost never does interviews. So, reading his frank views on things like Rockstar's critics, the creative secrets that make games like GTA IV a success, and how the developer rejects things like focus testing — a common practice at the likes of EA but an 'anathema to creativity' according to Houser — is very interesting. Houser has even written a mini biography of his career with some fun references to the Hot Coffee scandal: 'July 2005: Residue code found in San Andreas. Hackers modify it and it turns into scandal known as "Hot Coffee." Get dragged into legal nightmare, ending in trip to Washington in February 2006 to sit in front of federal trade commission staff — for nine hours
We're not exactly sure if it was supposed to be a secret, considering we've seen his ginger likeness in media for the game before, but Capcom recently revealed a few Street Fighter IV screenshots featuring the series' crimson-haired big bad, Akuma. Apparently, he only rears his nefarious head when an arcade player is doing a little too good, and hasn't fed the machine any precious quarters in a while. While he may seem like SFIV's official toll collector, the video posted after the jump proves that he can, in fact, be whooped up upon -- and that he's also a Hadoken-spamming jerk.
The obsession began as most obsessions do -- with a simple observation. Perhaps it was the perfectly arranged row of tulips, or the masterfully grown monkeynut trees. Perhaps it was the stunning flock of Chewnicorn that resided in that breathtaking place. One is never sure of how or why these feeling develop, but the end result is always the same -- your neighbor's piñata garden is too beautiful to exist, and has to be razed. It must be returned to the loam from whence it sprung, its candy-filled inhabitants scattered to the sweet-smelling wind.
Fortunately, word from Rare confirms that in addition to a slew of races and other contests, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise will indeed feature a four player co-op mode over Xbox Live, in which three players can enter and "edit" the host's garden. Players will have access to all the tools afforded them in the single-player mode, meaning you can use your trusty multi-purpose shovel to wreak a path of destruction through a friend's garden, carving a scar into its well-tended landscape.
Or you could help them out, we guess. We're not really sure why anyone would want to do that, though.
A recent issue of Famitsu revealed a startling fact about the upcoming demo for Final Fantasy XIII -- the playable preview will apparently last longer than the film that it is packaged with, Final Fantasy: Advent Children Complete. For those of you keeping score at home -- the original Advent had a runtime of 101 minutes. Assuming this length will only increase with the director's cut of the film means Square-Enix's eagerly anticipated demo could last longer than two hours.
To put that in perspective, here are a few things that the demo (which the same Famitsu article revealed will cover the very beginning of XIII) will likely last longer than: an expeditious playthrough of Portal, the Anglo-Zanzibar War, an international soccer match (barring any lengthy penalties), and the celebrity status of Lou Bega. (Who? Exactly.)
Let's try to keep the bad parenting bait to a minimum for this one, folks, but holy crow, I can't not show you this story. Yesterday reader tooji tipped me off to the story of Blake Peebles, a 16-year-old in Raleigh, N.C., whose parents have let him drop out of school so that he can focus on a professional gaming career via Guitar Hero.
Blake convinced his folks (that is, "We couldn't take the complaining anymore," said his mom) to let him drop out last September. They hired in-home tutors to continue his education there, at least, but there's no doubt priority number one is Guitar Hero. There's a vaguely defined goal of Blake playing it professionally, either through Major League Gaming or by winning prizes in a national and international competitions. But so far he's only made about $1,000, most of that value realized in meals and other freebies won at local competitions. The other pro gamer the reporter contacted for this story said he's cashed in about $25,000 in his entire career.
The description of Blake's room, his interests (or lack thereof) , and his folks' decision to let him do this just ... well, the don't make anyone look good. It would be one thing if the guy was a bona fide music or athletic prodigy. However quixotic a career in either field might be for the majority who pursue it, at least there's a long history of it paying off if you are that good enough. But Blake's never touched a real guitar (cue up the get-a-life bait). He didn't seem interested in much of anything in high school (a Christian academy where his parents had enrolled him) and wheedled his way out of going by complaining that it was a waste of time. (That line should sound very familiar to my folks. If only playing Master of the Lamps on the Commodore 64 could have won me some free Chik-Fil-A. I might have had better luck.)
You gotta read it to believe it, and nearly three weeks after it was first published, it is still one of The News & Observer's top e-mailed stories. Try to keep it civil in the comments, gang, especially if you aren't a parent. I'm not, but I'll admit this blows my mind.
Independent developer Cliff Harris, of Positech Games, asked pirates why they choose to pirate his games, promising them immunity and anonymity in exchange for their honest rationales, which he would aggregate and post on his blog. They reciprocated, and of about six reasons, a righteous indignation at DRM seemed to lead the list. Harris is actually responding to the gripes in both the pricing and de-DRMing of titles in the future, with his own reasoning why it's a good idea.
The reasons pirates traffic his games, Harris found, were roughly (list quoted from Ars Technica)
• The information wants to/free anarchists think copyright shouldn't exist.
• Games are too expensive.
• The quality of gaming is too uneven.
• DRM is hurting the legitimate customers.
• Going to the shops is annoying.
• Because piracy is easy to do with low risk for getting caught.
Harris' response:
• Zero DRM. He said he only used it in one game before. He sees it as counterproductive, giving honest gamers an experience that treats them like criminals while the pirates have a cleaner, superior version.
• Longer demo game experiences.
• Reduced pricing: He dropped the cost of Kudos to $9.95 and will consider selling its sequel for far less than he'd planned.
• Regarding quality:
I get the impression that if I make Kudos 2 not just lots better than the original, but hugely, overwhelmingly, massively better, well polished, designed and balanced, that a lot of would-be pirates will actually buy it. I've gone from being demoralized by pirates to actually inspired by them, and I'm working harder than ever before on making my games fun and polished.
It's an intriguing back-and-forth involving pirates who aren't treated like thieves, and a victim who won't portray himself as such.
It's Friday! Time for, that's right, TELL US DAMMIT. here's how it works: We ask a question, you answer it. Simple and no strings attached! This isn't some marketing survey or whatever. It's an emotional investment in you. Yes, we're interested in knowing you, Kotaku reader person. You probably know ****tons about us — more than you even want to, we're sure. But, hey, we'd like to know about you. That way you won't be some faceless blob — and we might feel a tinge of guilt when we ban your ass. Or not, because really we're incapable of human emotion. Not sure!
There are many different game genres. We don't want to know which is your favorite, but rather:
Question: Which game genre is easiest for you or which one do you excel at?
Gamers first heard of the intriguing service that the Xbox 360 was going to offer all the way back in January 2007. At the time it was seen as a first for consoles and a very innovative step forward in the home console market but now Playstation have their own method for delivering television to the living room.
So just where did the console's IPTV go?
IPTV was supposed to allow Xbox 360 users the ability to watch and record television on their console, as well as simultaneously allowing recording and gaming. The service was meant to launch Fall 2007 but never materialized.
Towards the end of 2007 there was at least some help for people in the United Kingdom. British Telecom announced a partner ship with Microsoft which would see BT's Fusion television service available to 360 users who currently had a Fusion subscription. Fusion is essentially BT's anwser to TiVo or Sky+ and allows subscribers to record and view television content as well as granting access to Video-On-Demand.
Cineplex Entertainment is renting out downtime at its theatres to video gamers looking to play their Xbox 360 titles on a giant screen.
Beginning on Friday, gamers will be able to book two-hour sessions at 29 Cineplex theatres across the country [Canada] for $179 plus taxes. Up to 12 people will be allowed into the session to play their own games, or those from a supplied library, on the theatre's giant screen with surround sound. The Xbox 360, however, can only accommodate four players at a time.
At this point, it seems unlikely that we'll be seeing an Xbox Portable any time soon. Even so, we can go ahead and pursue this pipedream, just for the sake our own imagination and curiosity. What form factor would be the most appropriate for an Xbox Portable?
Some combination of the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP would probably be the best, I think. You can map the standard Xbox controller on the bottom half, and then have a large widescreen display that flips up in a clamshell kind of way. In the center of the controller portion, you could have a touch-sensitive section that adjusts to the current situation, like the Motorola E8. I don't think a touchscreen is needed, nor is a full QWERTY keyboard. This is a gaming machine, not a messenger.
Not that it matters. I don't think Microsoft is going to grace us with an Xbox 360 Portable. Prove me wrong, Redmond. Prove me wrong.
Have you ever wondered how Microsoft provide those services for you? XBOX LIVE for instance surely must need more horsepower than a general website would need, wouldnt it? It's probably safe to bet that all of Microsoft's online operations doesn't run off a single server in the basement of Gates' house. However, a recent promotional video produced by Microsoft's Environmental Sustainability group may have accidentally spilled the beans.
Some quick stats: 15 datacenters hosting 148,357 servers sitting on 17,406 racks consuming 72,500KW of utility power as of the end of January 2008 (as indicated by the bar chart).
On the same page there's also an interesting graph showing the distribution of servers per "property". Live Search is in the clear lead with approximately 75,000 (50%) of the servers pushing out those less-than-desirable search results, followed by Hotmail. The other notable property occupying a large chunk of the servers would be "other" (appropriately named), which one could assume be dedicated to XBOX Live services and the like.
Justin over at Game With a Brain wrote up a list of 25 reasons gamers annoy non-gamers. Not sure if he's a non-gamer, as the knowledge is pretty specific. But I agree a lot of these are pretty palpable reasons I get hacked off at my own people. He should have thrown something in about inscrutable Asian MMOs. I get that it's an acquired taste but, really, blowing your own head off to activate your powers? Ummm ...
Here's the first 10. The other 15 are on the jump. The comments on Game With a Brain absolutely crucify the guy. I don't know if they get the point of the satire, but they take it way too seriously, and that could be reason No. 26
1. Halo is not a sport.
2. The controllers are indeed too complicated.
3. No, I have no clue what happened in Mega Man 4.
4. I don’t need 502 ways to decapitate my opponent.
5. No, I do not need to read a FAQ to find all 502 ways.
6. Zelda games do not need to be hard edged.
7. Resident Evil 2 is not the best in the series.
8. Final Fantasy VII is the best Final Fantasy.
9. I find Wii Sports to be incredibly fun.
10. I own a PSP and have not installed custom firmware.
11. I really like Guitar Hero.
12. I don’t really like drawing maps to play video games.
13. Madden Football is good enough.
14. Portal was a fun game and not a religion.
15. I need help playing games sometimes.
16. You are not persecuted.
17. Sorry, but dressing up as Cloud makes you a nerd.
18. $600 is a lot to play video games.
19. I will ask if you have Pac-Man or Donkey Kong.
20. I don’t want to join a clan.
21. I like licensed games.
22. Game stories bore me.
23. I will not read a book or watch a film based on a video game.
24. I have no idea what a PokeMAN is.
25. I enjoy Bejeweled.
The newly revised Xbox 360 Pro console will be hitting Australian retailers today, following on from its recent release in Europe and North America.
The price of the new Pro console won't change, with it still coming in at a recommended retail price of $499. The unit still comes with all the stuff in the old model - headset, ethernet cable, HD AV cable and, of course, a controller. The pricing of the Elite and Arcade bundles won't change either, remaining at $349 and $649 respectively.
It just keeps going wrong for poor old Fable 2 Pub Games, which we gave 3/10. Now it turns out that you can bet 600 gold coins for the price of 60, massively improving your odds in one of the card games.
The Fortune's Tower card game involves laying down a few gold coins and hoping the random drop of card combinations will multiply your investment. You will then be able to merge the winnings with your Fable 2 character to gain an advantage in Lionhead's upcoming Xbox 360 RPG, due out on 24th October.
And what handsome winnings they will be if you follow one wily YouTuber's example (thanks Joystiq) and press LB just as you hit A to place a bet. Doing so quickly sets the amount wagered to maximum, and the game pays out accordingly - but only takes the amount you had specified before you hit LB, which can be as little as 15 coins.
In other words, any winnings will be ten times what you expected, and any losses will be virtually insignificant by comparison. And we've confirmed it works on the copy we have at the office.
Presumably this will be patched out, but there's nothing to suggest you will be parted with your winnings when it is, so if you've forked out the ludicrous 800 Microsoft Points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.60) asking price, get in there.
They have the 4GB MicroSD Card with SD Card Adapter for a staggering USD 15.58 (£7.30) for those with PSPs you could get the Micro SD Converter and you have 4GB of space for less than $20 or say a tenner.
Silicon Knights boss Dennis Dyack has dropped the first vague details on the dev's next game with Sega, which he says will be nothing like Too Human or Eternal Darkness.
Speaking in an interview with CVG, Dyack said he wants to continue to keep Silicon Knights' line-up "fresh", and continue making new IP.
"We've been lucky enough to make Legacy of Kain, Eternal Darkness, Too Human and if you look at all of those they're all really different," said Dyack. "The next game that we're going to announce, not including the sequels to the trilogy, it's nothing like anything else we've ever made before.
"We want to continue to do that to keep fresh. That's really what's important, and making sure that we continue to make new IPs but also continue to innovate in the genres that we try to... create content in, I suppose is the best way to describe it."
The Too Human developer is already known to be working on a new IP with Sega, which will be the studio's first partnership with a non-platform-holder in ten years.
Media create have published the console sales in Japan for the week ending 10th August. The big news is the Xbox 360 outsold PlayStation 3 in Japan by more than 2:1, but then the 360 was outsold by the Wii by 3:2 (about).
This is thanks to Namco's exclusive Tales of Vesperia - currently number four in the Japanese charts with over 100,000 sales.
But the handhelds continue to leading Japanese market, with the DS selling 60,434 (just under 2,000 more than the PSP)
DS Lite 60,434
PSP 58,501
Wii 38,506
Xbox 360 24,962
PS3 9,673
PS2 8,503
A British woman who put a game on a file-sharing network has been ordered to pay damages to the game's creator.
Topware Interactive has won more than £16,000 following legal action against Isabella Barwinska of London, who shared a copy of Dream Pinball 3D. Three other suspected sharers of the game are awaiting damages hearings.
The test case could open the floodgates for litigation against thousands of other Britons suspected of sharing the game. In the case heard at London's Patents County Court the game maker won damages of £6,086.56 plus costs of £10,000.
"The damages and costs ordered by the Court are significant and should act as a deterrent," said David Gore, a partner at Davenport Lyons who acted for Topware. He added: "This shows that taking direct steps against infringers is an important and effective weapon in the battle against online piracy."
"This is the first of many," said Mr Gore. "It was always intended that there would be a lot more." Mr Gore said details of "thousands" of suspected file-sharers of the game who might now face legal action were known.
Topware Interactive started its campaign against pirates of Dream Pinball 3D in early 2007 after legal action forced 18 British net firms to pass on details of suspected pirates that it had identified.
Following this it sent out about 500 letters to Britons it had identified as making the game available via file-sharing networks such as eMule, eDonkey, Gnutella and many others.
In the letters the company asked for a payment of about £300 as a "settlement" figure that would head off further legal action. Some of those accused of sharing the game chose to fight the legal action and it was in one of these contested cases that Topware Interactive won its claim for damages.
Brash Entertainment announced that it is bringing The Tale of Despereaux, an interactive game based on Universal Pictures’ animated adventure of the same name, to Europe. The game shares the fairy-tale look and feel of the upcoming film about a chivalrous mouse, full of courage and honor.
The Tale of Despereaux game is in development for X360, PS2, Wii, PC, and will release in conjunction with the film, which arrives in theatres on December 19, 2008.
Lead your brotherhood to the great war in Command & Conquer 3 - Kane's Wrath - sold at a bargain price of US$ 29.90 - offer valid for 1 week only.
From the publisher: In the name of Kane! The Command & Conquer™ series continues to thrive on the Xbox 360 with Command & Conquer™ 3: Kane’s Wrath.
As the stand-alone expansion pack to the critically acclaimed and fan favorite, Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars™, gamers will be able to continue the Tiberium saga without first owning Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars™.
This Real-time Strategy (RTS) game returns to the Tiberium Universe with Kane at the center of an epic new single player campaign spanning 20 years – from the rebirth of the Brotherhood of Nod after the Second Tiberium War through the dramatic events of the Third Tiberium War and beyond.
The story will be told through a new set of high-definition, live action video sequences starring a celebrity cast including Joe Kucan, playing the megalomaniac leader of the Brotherhood of Nod, alongside new talent Natasha Henstridge and Carl Lumbly. With your help, Commander, the Dark Messiah may rise again!
Push yourself and the capabilities of your Xbox360™ to the limits as you raise the Dark Messiah in Command & Conquer 3 - Kane's Wrath.
The Asia version of the epic Real Time Strategy game is sold at a bargain price of US$ 29.90 only.
Please note that this game works fully in English and is playable on NTSC J as well as NTSC UC consoles but not on PAL ones.
As usually, this weekly special is valid for exactly 1 week (if not sold out earlier) and this time limited to a maximum purchase of 1 unit per customer. As a small restriction, please also notice that you cannot use any further discount coupons along with this special offer.
Other versions of Kane's Wrath are available on different platforms and are sold at regular prices:
Xbox360™
Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath US US$ 49.90
PC Game
Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath ASIA US$ 24.90
XBOX Live member ForceTrainer says that after he forgot to update his credit card information, Microsoft shut down his XBOX Live account. He was fine with this, but when he tried to update his info, pay his balance, and convert his account to silver, Microsoft demanded he pay an entire year's fee to settle the two months he was delinquent.
The biggest story this month is clearly in the hardware category, with all the major consoles posting lower than expected results. For today, we will specifically analyze the Xbox 360, as it posted one of the most disappointing results of the year.
So, why all the fuss about July's performance? Because analysts like myself expected a lot more.
Our reasoning behind it was -- at the time -- logical. Price cuts typically increase sales 20-30 percent in the short-term, but we reasoned that because this was a "temporary" offer, consumers would rush to retailers to get an Xbox 360 before inventory ran dry.
This is exactly what happened, but, in hindsight, we forgot to take into consideration a few crucial factors.
First, this was a clearance sale on only the Pro model, which means that consumers who planned to purchase the Elite model would not likely be enticed by this offer.
Those who had planned to buy an Arcade model in July, however, were likely attracted by the offer. But keep in mind that this does not add more Xbox 360 sales -- it only shifts market share between the models.
We were right when we speculated a 20-30 percent increase in short-term sales; however, we applied that to overall sales when we should have just applied it to the Pro model market share. Working it out, mathematically, adds a little more clarity.
At a keynote session during this year's GC Developer Conference, taking place in Leipzig, Germany, Crytek president and CEO Cevat Yerli revealed his belief that the new next generation of consoles from Microsoft and Sony will hit the market in 3-4 years' time.
"The PlayStation 4 and Xbox '720' will arrive in 2011 or 2012, we think," said Yerli. "But this is just our estimate - we don't know, and even if Microsoft and Sony told us, I couldn't say because it would be under NDA.
"But we think in three to four years' time, although there are good reasons why it should be 2010 already...but we'll see."
Yerli, giving a talk on "The Future of Gaming Graphics", also explained Crytek's plans for a new version of its in-house engine to be released in 2012, but stated his belief that the effective current gaming maximums would remain at resolutions of 1920x1080 and 60 frames per second until that time.
He also added that he believed GPUs and CPUs were on a collision course, with the former becoming more effective at general computing, and the latter more effective at parallel tasks - and that software such as DirectX 11 would help that collision to happen towards the end of 2009.
The first title to use Crytek's current development technology, CryEngine2, was last year's Crysis, with a new title - Crysis: Warhead - to be released in a few weeks. CryEngine 2 took 25 engineers four years to put together, and used the original CryEngine as a base - which itself took an average of 20 engineers three years to build.
An exclusive interview with Cevat Yerli will be published on GamesIndustry.biz tomorrow.
Microsoft is aiming to continue its run of quality games on Xbox Live Arcade with the release of Galaga Legions tomorrow for 800 Microsoft Points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.60).
This is a modern take on the vintage blaster moulded by the same team behind the excellent Pac-Man Championship Edition.
Heading the feature list are slick, high-definition visuals, plus more enemies and some "table-turning game dynamics", whatever they're supposed to be.
Galaga is, of course, already available on Xbox Live Arcade, in a no-frills and arcade faithful port. We weren't so keen.
You can expect our thoughts on Galaga Legions soon.
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts goes on pre-order sale today for $40 and if you place your order for the Xbox 360 game before it hits on Nov. 14 you'll get a free download code for the original Banjo-Kazooie hitting Xbox Live Arcade later this fall.
Better still, that code gives you access to the Live Arcade game two weeks before it hits the Arcade for everyone else. The XBLA title will include something called Stop N' Swop, which rewards players' accomplishments in the new game with extra content and features in the Live arcade game.
Microsoft also sent over some pics from Nuts & Bolts' game world, named Jiggoseum.
The newly revealed game world Jiggoseum (formerly dubbed World of Sports) will have you taking on a series of Olympic-inspired events for the jiggy gold!
This giant stadium evokes themes of ancient Rome and Greece with modern day sports activities. The Jiggoseum, common stomping ground for Mr. Fit and Trophy Thomas, will include 17 challenges to test Banjo’s (and his contraptions’) athletic abilities. In order to successfully complete his adventure in this world, Banjo must transport the Olympic Torch across a large body of water to help Captain Blubber light the Olympic Cauldron. A boat may seem like the vehicle of choice for the job… but with tons of options, it’s up to the player to decide.
Nintendo's Mario Kart Wii has returned to the top of the UK charts as sales climb 6 per cent, according to the latest data from Chart Track.
The racer beats out Wii Fit at two, which saw sales drop 24 per cent, and a pair of titles driven by the summer Olympics – Beijing 2008 at number three and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games at number four.
Wii Play is a non-mover at five this week, as is Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock at six.
Namco's SoulCalibur IV drops down the chart at seven, with THQ's Big Beach Sports at eight, Nintendo's Dr Kawashima's Brain Training at nine and Guitar Hero: On Tour at ten.
Microsoft has officially halted the distribution of all Xbox Live-related iPhone applications via Apple's App Store -- not to quell creative coding, but instead to mandate that all such programs must be offered to users free of charge.
The creators of an application dubbed "1337pwn Friends List" that allows users access to their Xbox Live Friends List via Apple's multi-function handheld revealed the news this morning, as per a recent conversation they had with Microsoft's developer relations department.
I was forwarded a link to an article on the Playstation Blog this morning that stated Sony has announced that all of the instruments in three upcoming music games (Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution) will be compatible with each other.
At the bottom a Gamasutra article about the blog post it stated:
"Similar music game peripheral enforcement has yet to be enacted (or at least officially announced) on the Xbox 360 platform."
For the record, we also do that, so consider this an official announcement.
All the instruments from Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution will be cross-compatible.
In other words, welcome to the party.
Over at a German games convention going on now, IGN has come across a new Xbox 360 controller by Microsoft. Apparently it looks pretty much identical to the old one (pictured here) but includes an entirely redesigned directional pad (which makes sense, because the current d-pad isn't so good)...
Mike and Mike are hip-deep in Games Convention 2008 coverage as we speak, tackling press conferences and getting all handsy with games. Midway just announced what we can expect to see from them. On the list, not a whole lot new, though This is Vegas is included. I wonder if that means hands-on?
Midway's press conference, set to start right about now, will be hosted by German entertainer Oliver Pocher and a guest line-up that includes: TNA iMPACT! star Christy Hemme, as well as the creators of Wheelman and This is Vegas. Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon will also be presenting the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, and will be revealing a selection of new characters.
Sounds like the presser will score us some news. Make sure to check back to read what surprises they unveil and check out our running list of Games Convention 2008 coverage here.
Yes, yes, we know. Square Enix has confirmed Final Fantasy XIII on the PS3 for Japan only. While it's multi-platform in North America and Europe, there's been no official announcement of the Xbox 360 getting that title there. That doesn't stop this Japanese retailer from teasing the possibility of an Xbox 360 version of the game being released. A prophecy of things to come or merely wishful thinking? YOU DECIDE.
No, wait. SQUARE ENIX DECIDES. Hit the jump for a close-up of the store made box art.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 console has completely sold out in Japan, with no new units due until September.
Hardware sales have rocketed in the region following the release of Namco Bandai's Tales of Vesperia, released last week.
"Currently, the Xbox 360 is sold out, and retailers are unable to restock their supply," reads a statement from the company, translated by Kotaku.
"This is a result of our own sales targets being exceeded by the actual customer sales. We deeply apologise for this inconvenience to our customers, retailers and business partners.
"Here at Microsoft, we are moving forward quickly with console production, and plan to ship the standard Xbox 360 model out this September. Furthermore, we will sequentially be shipping out the Elite and the Arcade models. We ask that you please patiently wait until the console is shipped," added the company.
The Xbox 360 sold 24,942 units for the week ended August 10, outselling rival PS3 for the first time in the region.
Mario Kart Wii is once again sitting pretty at the top of the UK charts, marking its ninth week at the number one slot.
The office favourite racer saw a six percent jump in sales (that's probably the rest of the our building hearing how much fun we're having) to beat Wii Fit to the top slot, which itself slumped 24 percent in the sales department this week.
Sitting at the number three and four slots, expectedly, is Sega's Olympics double-whammy Beijing 2008 and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Unlucky Australia, by the way.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise lead programmer Will Bryan confirmed details regarding a Trouble in Paradise demo releasing to the Xbox Live Marketplace saying that it will release "as soon as possible."
According to Bryan, the demo is finished and is currently in the hands of Microsoft's certification team. Then, once it's approved by cert, it will be released to the Xbox Live masses. As far as demo specifics go, we're being told that it'll include 25 minutes of gameplay from the core game including a few Live features and the "Just For Fun" game mode. Sadly, the demo will not include any co-op support, local or Live, so we'll just have to imagine playing with three other piñata gardeners. Imagination FTW!
Hidden at the end of a press release for Microsoft's impressive holiday line-up is word that there'll be news on the GTA IV DLC this autumn. That's 'news' and not a release date.
Whether that means we can expect a release around then or later in the year (dare we mention '09?) we still don't know.
Microsoft says: "In autumn there will be news from Liberty City; the first episodes of GTA IV will be available for download exclusively on Xbox Live, underlining Xbox 360's leadership role in the field of digital entertainment."
Five games companies are to demand 25,000 file-sharing internet users to pay GBP 300 immediately or risk going to court.
The users are being targeted for downloading and sharing games illegally, according to The Times.
Atari, Codemasters, Reality Pump, Techland and Topware Interactive have appointed legal brain Davenport Lyons to take action on their behalf.
Operation Flashpoint by Codemasters was apparently downloaded over 691,000 times in one week, according to internet watcher Peerland.
"Our clients were incensed by the level of illegal downloading," said Roger Billens from Peerland.
The quintet make their stand after the successful prosecution Isabella Barwinska, who has been fined GBP 16,000 for uploading and sharing Dream Pinball 3D by Topware.
The group will begin by targeting the first 500 file-sharers to ignore the GBP 300 demand, and have applied to the High Court to demand internet service providers deliver the names and addresses of all 25,000 breaking the law.
According to The Times, 5000 addresses have already been obtained.
EA announced today that FIFA 09, much like NBA Live 09, will be updated constantly with ratings and performance data in a system known as the adidas Live Season.
Unlike NBA Live 09, which updates daily, FIFA 09 will update on a weekly basis. The updated data will be available for England's Premiership, Spain's La Liga, France's Ligue 1, Germany's Bundesliga, Italy's Serie A, and Mexico's Primera Division. The updates will be made available for PS3, 360, and the PC.
EA promises that a "global network of scouts" will be monitoring players in their respective leagues and adjusting attributes on a weekly basis; what's interesting, though, is that the service might have a fee. EA notes that gamers "…will have access to one league of their choice for a free trial from the moment they activate it to the end of the 2008-2009 season", which certainly implies that receiving updates for all leagues would incur fees.
In addition, EA also announced that they'd acquired an exclusive licensing agreement with Spain's La Liga to implement their teams and players in their games.
Stay tuned to IGN for more details on FIFA 09 and how Live Season will be integrated in.
Speaking to CVG, Silicon Knights head Dennis Dyack mentioned the company's next title that isn't part of the Too Human trilogy. Mentioning some of Silicon Knights titles (including the likes of Eternal Darkness and Legacy of Kain), Dyack emphasized the diversity of the company's catalog. Apart from the remaining Too Human titles, Dyack noted that the company's next title will be "nothing like anything else" Silicon Knights has done before. Could this be the Crucible title that was leaked earlier this year? We don't know, obviously, but there is one thing that we can surmise here: whatever it is, Silicon Knights' next title won't be Eternal Darkness 2. Sigh ....
Well, maybe 2 months ago, I wrote an article about the State of Homebrew on 7th Generation Consoles. Well, I decided to do an update on the State of Homebrew on the 6th Generation consoles.
Lets begin:
Microsoft Xbox:
Lately, the Xbox hasnt gotten many homebrew releases at all. Still, it does once in a while.
Since 2007, there's been:
- Many updates to ZSNEXBOX, which now features near-perfect SNES emulation,
- A CPS3 emulator was released (CPX3) that plays CPS3 arcade games (like JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Street Fighter III) near-fullspeed with some skipping here and there,
- An update to the excellent N64 emulator, Surreal64XXX
- Updates to all of the XPort emulators (that includes SNES9Xbox, NeoGenesis, MedafenX NES, and PCSXBOX).
- Several updates to Xbox Media Center.
Right now, there are two methods of running unsigned code on the Xbox:
Method #1 - A hardmod (taking apart the Xbox and installing a modchip, be it a soldered or solderless install). Some Xboxes have the holes where modchips are installed filled in, but there's tutorials on how to get around that online.
Method #2 - A softmod through game exploits. This is done by using an Xbox Memory Card/Flash Drive and XBox Male-USB Female cable along with an copy of either Splinter Cell, Mechassault, or 007: Agent Under Fire.
Xbox is currently the best homebrew console, and very tantalizing when you can get one for so cheap . Xbox can also perform (N64, MAME, and CPS3) even better if you install more ram.
The only downside to Xbox Homebrew is that the vast majority of it is made with a leaked Microsoft SDK, which makes it illegal to distribute, so it's more complicated to get a hold of homebrew for it.
Nintendo Gamecube
The Gamecube homebrew scene started out very slow, but has now really picked up the pace thanks to sharing a similar architecture with the Wii.
In just a mere year, we've gotten so many emulators and updates (much better SNES, Genesis, NES, Neo-Geo CD, Sega CD [apparently coming soon], and even N64 emulation).
I think it's pretty funny that the homebrew GC scene didnt really get going until after it's commercial scene was dead.
As of now there are three methods of running unsigned code on the Cube:
Method #1 - Hardmod it. Remember that taking apart the Gamecube is difficult at first. and even the modchips are small (XenoGC is the size of a quarter).
Method #2 - Buy SD Media Launcher. It's pretty much the same price as a modchip, but a lot easier to work with. Just put the SD Media launcher disc in, put the SD Card in the SD Memory Card Adapter (which then goes in your GC's Memory card slot), and boot applications off of an SD card.
Method #3 - Use the Phantasy Star Online Exploit (requires a BBA and an original copy of Phantasy Star Online for GC). The oldest method of booting homebrew on the Gamecube. You pretty much exploit the game and stream homebrew to it through the BBA.
Gamecube has some great games that you can pick up for a mere $5/£3. If you want to play some SNES and Revenge of Shinobi along with those games, then I'd recommend following one of these methods.
Nintendo Gameboy Advance:
Before the PSP, before the DS, GBA was running homebrew, and was actually doing a very good at that. GBA has a fullspeed NES emulator, a decent TG-16 emulator, and even a SNES emulator! You can also watch videos, listen to music, and run other decent and unique apps on the GBA.
All you have to play homebrew on GBA is buy a GBA homebrew cart. It's very simple and worth it .
The GBA doesnt get that much attention as it's overshadowed by the DS, PSP, and other homebrew consoles, still, it has a decent homebrew library, and if you have a spare GBA laying around, I'd recommend getting a flash cart!
Sega Dreamcast
What can someone say about the Dreamcast?
Was it underrated? Yes. Did it have an amazing library of unique and innovative games? Yes.
Well, you could also say that it was the first voyeur into the homebrew scene for many people (including myself). Many forums were created to discuss and release DC applications, emulators, and other homebrew (such as DCEmu.co.uk, DCEmulation.org, b00b!, Screamcast, and SegaKatana, DCEvolutionary, etc). Dreamcast has several emulators, such as: NesterDCSE, DreamSNES, GenesisPlus, GENS4ALL, Neo4ALL, AES4ALL, NeoDC, MAME4ALL, CrabEmu, and even PS1, Saturn, and N64 emulation (the latter two more or less being fancy tech demos). There's also a DivX player, MP3 CD players, and Web Browsers (which some CURRENT gen consoles dont include :rolleyes).
Running homebrew on the Dreamcast is very simple.
You simply burn the homebrew to a CD-R and play (unless it's a Revision 2 Dreamcast, which was ridden of Mil-CD support).
The Dreamcast homebrew scene is still doing alright (still not half as strong as it used to be). With newer and more powerful consoles overshadowing it, more developers seem to program away from the DC. You really have to thank the Dreamcast scene, I myself couldnt imagine where the homebrew scene would be without it.
Sony Playstation 2:
While Playstation 2 was definitely the best-selling console of the last gen with what most say is the best collection of games of that gen, it never really had a big homebrew scene. While it has a smaller scene then the rest of the consoles of last-gen, it still has a good selection of emulators: NES, SNES, Genesis, Neo Geo CD, and GBC/GBA emulators.
Now, I actually think it's picking up the pace a little bit and now has a PS1 emulator in development.
There are several methods of running homebrew on PS2:
Method #1 - Once more, a hardmod. You can get modchips for pretty cheap these days, and you can also get solderless modchips for a little more if you're not so good at soldering yourself .
Method #2 - Swap Magic with a Slider Card and custom faceplate or additional modchip. While it is more difficult to boot homebrew/backups, it is probably the cheapest method of running homebrew on PS2.
Method #3 - The Independence Exploit. This involves modding files on a PS1 memory card, which crashes it somehow and allows you to boot unsigned code.
Method #4 - Memor32. This is simply a memory card that you can hook up to your PC via USB. There is a modding tool called memento that modifies the memory cards firmware and pretty much is a plug-in modchip. It's rather pricy, but probably the easiest method of booting unsigned code on PS2.
Method #5 - HDLoader with PS2 Network Adapter and compatible HD. That allows you to boot anything off a Hard Drive, including Linux.
Once again, PS2 has never had a huge scene like many other consoles did, but I still think it's worth modding if you have a spare one laying around.
There might be a lot more to happen on the PS2 eventually. It's powerful, popular, and could probably handle a lot more homebrew that what it currently has.
Well, that concludes my article. I hope you enjoyed reading it.
Word coming from the Leipzig Games Convention is that Microsoft has an Xbox 360 60GB HDD bundle planned for Europe and, relatively speaking, it's pretty decently priced.
A Microsoft produced flyer is making the internet rounds that was supposedly sent to Xbox Live Gold members in Germany. The flyer informs us of a new Xbox 360 Live 60GB HDD Starter Pack will release in November and will include the hard drive itself, a wired headset and three months of Xbox Live all for 79 Euros. Not too bad, seeing that a standalone 120GB HDD costs a whopping 129 Euros already. We aren't certain if this is an European exclusive offer or if it'll be sold in North America as well, but we'd totally welcome a cheaper 60GB HDD bundle. With open arms.
As info for all things other than the Xbox 360 arrives fresh from the Leipzig Games Convention, Microsoft took the opportunity to tease Grand Theft Auto IV gamers with the upcoming exclusive downloadable content. "In autumn there will be news from Liberty City; the first episodes of GTA IV will be available for download exclusively on Xbox LIVE, underlining Xbox 360's leadership role in the field of digital entertainment."
While the obvious assumption is "news from Liberty City" points at an Autumn launch for the first episode of the content, the "news" referenced in the quote could be a solidified release date for the long-awaited content. Take-Two previously noted that the DLC is expected to arrive during Fiscal Q109 -- which for Take-Two falls between the beginning of November 2008 and the end of January 2009 -- but Microsoft has stood firm on a 2008 release for Episode One.
Infinity Ward community guru fourzerotwo has once again posted an update on the upcoming Call of Duty 4 playlists in production. Fans will be disappointed to hear that we still don't know when the new playlists will actually be implemented. Still, fourzerotwo drops some info on new playlists and where they currently stand as far as testing. One interesting note is that there are some playlists in testing that would actually require a patch to implement, which may be more than Infinity Ward's current schedule can handle. Still, there are some playlists that might not require a patch, so we're hopeful that we'll actually get to see them soon. Check out descriptions of each new mode at fourzerotwo's blog. (be sure to check out Hardcore Ricochet, in which friendly fire damage is reflected back to the team killer).
You bought Rock Band 1, you love playing Rock Band 1 then, oh no, they go and release Rock Band 2. What are you going to do with two Rock Bands? You can't possibly change discs during play - that's just silly - so Harmonix have had to come up with a workaround. That workaround allows you to transfer all your RB1 songs onto your HDD, and works a little something like this...
1) On the day Rock Band 2 is released, Rock Band 1 will receive a title update. That update will add an "export" command in the RB1 menu.
2) Hit "export" and you'll need to enter a password, which you get with your copy of RB2. Enter the password and you have to pay. Harmonix promise it won't be more than $5.
3) Pay the $5 (or less), and your RB1 songs (well...the ones on the disc...and the ones they're allowed to port over, as Harmonix can't guarantee that all songs will be available) will be transferred to your HDD.
And that's it! Note this doesn't work for your DLC, since that already works in RB2 anyway. It's just the songs on the disc. Also note that this is for the 360 version only; the PS3 should be the same (though this isn't confirmed), but Lord only knows how the Wii's going to manage.
The rumor that wouldn't die has once again reared its ugly head as a new advertisement hints at Xbox 360 price-drops across the board. According to an ad from Radio Shack the Xbox 360 Pro (60GB) and Elite units will receive a $50 price drop by the week of the Sept. 7, making the 60GB model $299 and the Elite $399 while the Arcade bundle will drop $80 to $199. Source spies within the retail industry have given Joystiq similar intel from other retailers hinting at the same rumor. Check out the flyer in the gallery below.
Eden Studios has said that it is working on a patch for the Xbox 360 version of Alone in the Dark to bring it into line with the heavily reworked PS3 version.
The developer was at Games Convention in Leipzig this week to show off the new PS3 version and own up to all the things we said were insanely rubbish during our Xbox 360 review.
Changes include streamlined inventory systems, more coherent integration of the irritating final section of the game with those flipping trees, and a better camera system and controls for on-foot and driving sections.
Eurogamer's Kristan Reed, who did not enjoy the 360 version, reports that it feels much better now that he's played a bit of the PS3 one.
Eden has not specified precisely which tweaks will appear in the 360 patch, or given any idea when it will come out, but if you want to build up a wish-list then head over to our just-published Alone in the Dark PS3 hands-on and get a pen out.
In its original form, Alone in the Dark was a flawed but occasionally brilliant stab at survival horror with just about enough going for it to squeeze a 7/10. Although the same couldn't be said of the hilarious Wii version.
If the PS3 version is genuinely an improvement, it will be very interesting to see how it scores relative to its older brother...
How I've avoided to avoid touching Street Fighter IV for this long is a mystery to me, but today marks the very first time I've gotten to play the next chapter in Capcom's venerable fighting franchise. The company had an early Xbox 360 build available in their press room, which they were using to highlight focus attacks, a new feature in SFIV that gives players a rather powerful new way to beat their foes into submission. It has been a long time since I had actually gotten to play Street Fighter in any incarnation, but it's like riding a bike - you never completely forget. Once Ryu was in my control I immediately jump kicked, foot swept and fireballed. Ah yes, it's all coming back to me.
So what are Focus Attacks? Every character has access to these powerful moves, which are as simple as holding down the mid punch and kick buttons. A quick tap equals a simple attack. Charging the attack leads to a powerful attack that knocks down and stuns your opponent, opening him up to all sorts of juggle combos. Fully charging the attack makes the knock down and stun move completely unblockable, so once you hear the telltale charging sound you'd best either try to interrupt or get the hell out of the way.
Each character has their own Focus Attack with varying power and range - Ryu's is a powerful punch, Ken unleashes a spinning kick, Blanka swipes animalistically and masked wrestler El Fuerte is sure to annoy opponents with the longest range focus attack of them all.
Despite the early build, gameplay was fast and fluid on the Xbox 360, with each Focus Attack accompanied by a nifty ink-swath effect, as if the move were being drawn on screen. Very impressive.
I mainly played as Ryu, but towards the end of the session I decided to see what sort of moves the bulbous Rufus had up his sleeves. I don't remember exactly what his move was, however, transfixed by his undulating flab and the shock of golden hair spiking up from the crotch of his outfit.
"It's just his treasure trail," explained the Capcom rep, after the horrified look on my face was noticed. Gathering up my things I shook my head. "There's no treasure to be found there. Not for us."
A patch to rectify the money-making exploit in the Fable 2 Pub Games "is on the way".
Developer Lionhead prepared us for the fix alongside some general hints and tips for the card games that are based entirely upon luck.
"If you are wondering about a 'much talked about' exploit, just ignore it (and know that a patch is on the way)," reads a Lionhead post on the Fable 2 blog.
The Fable 2 Pub Games exploit allows you to craftily bet much more money than specified by pressing a shoulder button on the Xbox 360 pad at a specific itme. Money won will be transferable into Fable 2 this October. Oops.
The Fable 2 Pub Games cost 800 Microsoft Points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.60) from Xbox Live. Check out our Fable 2 Pub Games review.
In the midst of a booth filled with old demos and mislabeled kiosks sat a lone Xbox Live Arcade title that has not yet been released. Lode Runner, a visually updated release of the classic arcade game, is at the Microsoft booth at this year's German Games Convention. The gameplay feels much the same as it did in the past, but no amount of staring at the German text on screen could tell me which features this release sports. Thankfully, the intrepid Charles Onyett previously previewed Lode Runner and lays out the details here.
The sole new detail comes courtesy of the placard on the kiosk in which Lode Runner was housed. That card had a snazzy "coming soon" descriptor just below the game's name. The build on the show floor looked largely done (and translated for the German audience no less) so we might be seeing this one tossed up on the Live Arcade quite soon.
How Sega likes to play with us. It seems every time a new Sonic game rolls around we're blabbing on about how it looks "much better" than the last, and "maybe this time Sonic will return to its roots".
Well maybe, hopefully, this time we won't be disappointed. Sega's just released these Sonic Unleashed screenshots from Leipzig, complete with blue skies, 2D-esque platforming and absolutely no animal friends in sight.
The Werewolf bits look questionable, but we can just pretend those don't exist. Right?
Here's Atari's latest shots of Xbox 360-exclusive race Race Pro, from the motor-obsessed blokes at veteran studio SimBin.
It sounds (and looks) decent; powered by its own physics engine Lizard, the developer promises "unrivalled realism" and "deep immersion", plus Xbox Live games for 12-players.
It's also sporting all the WTCC tourneys, which someone, somewhere, must give a monkeys about.
Here you are then; nine new screenshots from Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe, straight from Midway's lovely Leipzig press disc.
You can see the Sub-Zero chinning The Joker, The Flash getting flying kicked into a wall and all sorts of cross-universe scuffle madness.
No glimpse of the new mid-air combat though, which has you exchanging blows during a DoA-style plunge through the scenery. Check that out in the latest footage here.
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
"Give up your human body for humanity" is the catch phrase of Too Human, the highlight of the week. Adventure as the cybernetic god Baldus and fight against the machines and evil intentions that threatens the existence of mankind.
The game takes place in a world modelled after Norse mythology with familiar names such as Loki, Hel and Odin popping up frequently. By comparing the flawed gods to the war machines (e.g. Loki and Hel are both immoral while Odin is really a computer system), the topic of humanity is questioned.
The clever blend of hi-tech machines and mythical elements produced a world which is both rustic and dazzlingly futuristic and provides plenty opportunities to show off the capabilities of your Xbox360™ systems.
The Asia version of Too Human has arrived and is available for US$ 49.90 only. Likewise, the US version will be arriving later this week and is sold for US$ 64.90 only.
Other versions released next week are the Japanese version and the First Print Limited Edition, both selling for the same price of US$ 64.90.
Be careful about loosing your way in the intriguing world of Too Human, let the official guide book point you to the right way to victory. The guide is available later this week for US$ 19.90 only.
Aside from Xbox360™, the other third generation console that gets a hot action adventure is PlayStation 3™.
Be a hero and save mankind in Vampire Rain: Altered Species [JPN and Asia versions]. Instead of preventing killing machines from swarming over the human world, you work in the dark in a Special Force Unit to kill Night Walkers and Blood Suckers from feeding off humans excessively.
A lot of action are available for Nintendo DS™ gamers. Let's start off with the US version of the highly acclaimed shooter, Bangai-O Spirits. With more highly capable weapons and more freedom with stage editing, this shooter is not only turning your portable console into an arcade, but a real battle field!
Save the world again in Sigma Harmonics and Tokyo Majin Gakuen: Kenfuuchou [Limited and Standard Editions]. While Sigma Harmonics took on a splendidly grand atmosphere reminiscent of the Taisho period in Japan, Tokyo Majin Gakuen took place in the modern days.
Find out the culprit who has been rewritting history and wiping out humans in Sigma Harmonics and discover the Fenshui veins in Tokyo Majin Gakuen and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.
Escape from the wrath of the heavenly warriors in Harukanaru toki no naka de: Yume no ukihashi [Standard, Premium Box, Treasure Box]. Everybody in the first three installments of the hot romance game are coming together to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their parent company.
Cross the bridge from reality to the Japanese mythical world and date the guardian of your choice.
Take a break from your tasks of saving the world. Lead your team to victory in J-League Winning Eleven 2008 Club Championship. All the Japanese teams in the J-1 and J-2 leagues as well as quite a number of foreign teams make their appearance in the game. The controls are smoother and the games carries more modes. It is never too late to learn about soccer.
Fate/Tiger Colosseum Upper, the next game in the series is coming out next week, for those who has missed the first installment, here's your chance to grab a copy and save some cash. Fate/Tiger Colosseum came out as a best priced edition for your PSP, learn about the system and the moves and prepare yourself for the second installment.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week
Xbox360™
Too Human ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™:
Vampire Rain: Altered Species ASIA US$ 49.90
Vampire Rain: Altered Species JPN US$ 64.90
PlayStation2™:
B-Boy US US$ 24.90
Cake Mania: Baker's Challenge US US$ 24.90
J-League Winning Eleven 2008 Club Championship JPN US$ 68.90
Jeep Thrills US US$ 24.90
Memories Off 6: Trial Wave JPN US$ 64.90
Memories Off 6: Trial Wave [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.90
Need for Speed Carbon (EA:SY! 1980) JPN US$ 20.90
Professor Brainium US US$ 24.90
Secret Game: Killer Queen JPN US$ 64.90
Secret Game: Killer Queen [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 84.90
Tsuika AS+ Eternal Name (Sweet so Sweet) JPN US$ 34.90
WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008 (Greatest Hits) US US$ 24.90
Nintendo DS™:
Bangai-O Spirits US US$ 34.90
Fushigi no Dungeon: Furai no Shiren DS (Bargain Edition) JPN US$ 28.90
Harukanaru Toki no Naka de: Yumenoukihashi JPN US$ 48.90
Harukanaru Toki no Naka de: Yumenoukihashi [Premium Box] JPN US$ 69.90
Harukanaru Toki no Naka de: Yumenoukihashi [Treasure Box] JPN US$ 129.90
Inazuma Eleven JPN US$ 48.90
Sigma Harmonics JPN US$ 54.90
Super Monkey Ball DS (Bargain Edition) JPN US$ 28.90
Tokyo Majin Gakuen: Kenfuuchou JPN US$ 48.90
Tokyo Majin Gakuen: Kenfuuchou [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 79.90
Uwasa no Midori-kun!! 2 Futari no Midori!? JPN US$ 48.90
Sony PSP™:
Burnout Dominator (EA Best Hits) JPN US$ 29.90
Fate/Tiger Colosseum (Best Price!) JPN US$ 29.90
WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008 (Greatest Hits) US US$ 24.90
Game Guides and Magazines:
Bakurestsu Pachinko Perfect Capture Book JPN US$ 11.90
Derby Stallion DS Complete Guide JPN US$ 25.90
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice The Official Strategy Guide US US$ 19.90
Dragon Quest V Official Guide Book (Nintendo DS Edition) JPN US$ 22.90
Famitsu DS + Wii [October 2008] JPN US$ 9.90
J-League Winning Eleven 2008 Club Championship JPN US$ 25.90
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Official Guide: The Complete JPN US$ 26.90
V-Jump [October 2008] JPN US$ 8.90
Yu-Gi-Oh! Koushiki Catalogue the Valuable Book 11 JPN US$ 13.90
Video Game related Soundtrack:
Anthology Drama CD Tales of the Abyss Vol.2 (~Chihiro Suzuki, Yukana, Takehito Koyasu) JPN US$ 27.90
Custom Beat Battle: Draglade 2 Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 17.90
J-League Winning Eleven 2008 Club Championship Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 28.90
Raiden Fighters Aces Orginal Soundtrack [3CD+Booklet] JPN US$ 39.90
Tales of Vesperia Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 37.90
Well, here it is again with more data for weekly sales in Japan and everyone gets a raise from last weeks' reading except for one:
Nintendo DS Lite: 78,666
Playstation Portable: 64,413
Nintendo Wii: 53,036
Playstation 3: 11,393
Playstation 2: 10,168
Xbox 360: 7,358
DS lite is on top, up roughly 18, 200. PSP increases by 5,800, in 2nd place. In 3rd is the Wii, rises by 14,500. In 4th and 5th ranks, PS3 and PS2 go up by 1,800 and 1,500 respectively. Last is the Xbox 360, sliding back down to 6th, reduced by 17,000.
Owners of the Xbox 360 version of Team Fortress 2 will be scarfing down sandviches and delivering payloads later this year, as Valve is finally bringing all the updates delivered via Steam to the Xbox Live Marketplace. That means new, class-specific Achievements, new unlockable weapons for the Pyro, Medic and Heavy, new gameplay modes and new maps, all on your Xbox 360.
Valve marketing director Doug Lombardi got that piece of business out of the way just before our latest Left 4 Dead demo, saying that the developer wanted to build up a massive update for Xbox 360 users before delivering. Given that Valve is being forced to charge for the update, they wanted to ensure that 360 owners were getting their money's worth.
So, how much? The price isn't final, but Valve is hoping to go as low as possible, aiming for a ten dollar price tag. Not too shabby. Sorry, PS3 owners, no word on when or if Valve will be giving you the same Team Fortress 2 updates.
Duke Nukem 3D will sport a saved-film feature when the game launches on Xbox Live Arcade next month.
Or so say Microsoft representatives speaking at X08 in Canada, according to Joystiq.
Saved films do what you expect, and will be shareable with friends and maybe family if they play games or maybe just want to see how you are getting on in life.
3D Realms popped Duke Nukem 3D into Microsoft certification earlier this week. We still know fairly little about what to expect, but hope split-screen and Live multiplayer make an appearance, if not two appearances.
3D Realms boss George Broussard told us to expect a price of "about what you'd expect", which we expect means we'll have to remortgage the house. Or possibly pay 800 Points (GBP 6.80 / EUR 9.60).
Do you happen to be a PS3 owner who enjoys tanks, machine guns and RPGs? You are? Well then, have we got an announcement for you. Sega has confirmed that Valkyria Chronicles, an acclaimed and anticipated PS3 exclusive, will be arriving in the US on November 11. The title, which has been described as Advance Wars meets Mass Effect, has been garnering a following in Japan for some time now, and the US release will likely bring the phenomenon overseas.
In addition to confirmation of the PS3 release date, Sega is also hinting at a possible PSP port of the title. During E3, a clip of the game was mistakenly shown during the PSP portion of Sony’s press conference, sending many a fanboy into a fervor over the idea of the game appearing on the handheld. While that may have been a mistake, it could have turned out to be inspiration, as associate producer Christopher Kaminski stated, "Well, you know, the response we got from that accidental announcement was very interesting. I’ll have to leave it at that for now."
So from the sounds of things, a simple faux pas might result in the game appearing on a whole new platform. Not bad for someone falling asleep in the editing room. Oh well, sometimes mistakes can turn out great, just ask my parents.
Building on reports of an impending Xbox 360 price cut, which allegedly will drop the Arcade SKU below Wii to $199, comes the reemergence of Microsoft's elusive motion controller, now rumored to be included with the Xbox 360 Arcade this holiday. A source "close to Microsoft's marketing department" detailed the bundle to X3F, claiming the new Arcade system will feature a 512MB memory card (in place of a hard drive), the New Xbox Experience pre-loaded and a motion controller, along with a few compatible minigames developed by Rare.
The motion controller supposedly will be sold separately as well, in a package that includes even more minigames. The controller is said to be compatible with all versions of Xbox 360. So how 'bout it, Nintendo -- you gonna trump this by tacking on HD?
Sega and Platinum Games have dropped the first screenshots of Bayonetta, the 360 and PS3 action game from Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya.
Bayonetta stars a girl lead character with guns strapped to her feet - and that's about as deep as public information on the title goes at this point.
A short trailer screened at Sega's unveiling event in London earlier this year showed the female lead flip out and fire bullets into the faces of her foes. It was all very DMC-like, which we weren't expecting at all.
The XBLA port of Duke Nukem 3D is to include some new features intended to spice up the classic run 'n' gun 'n' make-sexist-pun gameplay.
First up is the ability to record and share video clips of multiplayer games and share them with other players via Live. This is, frankly, genius - multiplayer was always Duke 3D's ace in the hole and the ability to record your friend's humiliation for posterity is an excellent idea.
Secondly -- and slightly bafflingly -- the single player elements of the game will incorporate a 'time rewinding' mechanic that we assume will be like that found in Prince Of Persia - Sands Of Time or perhaps Braid. Whether this is intended to make the game a bit easier or just to allow you to replay a particularly explody battle is unclear. It sounds a bit unnecessary, but perhaps it will all make sense when we actually see it.
Nintendo has snagged the top spot for another week, with Rhythm Tengoku Gold -- Rhythm Heaven in my neck of the woods -- beating out a host of back catalog releases, including Sega's unsurprisingly popular Phantasy Star Portable. It debuted at #2, dropped to #3, then leapfrogged to #1. That's Nintendo software for you. Older titles creep higher up the charts in this slow week, as Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G threatens to return to the top ten.
Not much in the way of new Japanese software releases for the week of August 11 to 17. Hit the snooze button and save your excitement for next week.
01. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS) - 137,000 / 480,000
02. Phantasy Star Portable (PSP) - 74,000 / 564,000
03. Dragon Quest V (DS) - 74,000 / 1,092,000
04. Wii Fit (Wii) - 47,000 / 2,516,000
05. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) - 36,000 / 1,692,000
06. Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Ken (DS) - 35,000 / 180,000
07. Band Brothers DX (DS) - 24,000 / 280,000
08. Meccha! Taiko Drum Master DS: 7-tsu no Shima no Daibouken (DS) - 20,000 / 282,000
09. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 15 (PS2) - 19,000 / 161,000
10. Wario Land Shake It! (Wii) - 18,000 / 76,000
11. Tales of Vesperia (360)
12. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP)
13. Wii Sports (Wii)
14. Soulcalibur IV (PS3)
15. Powerful Pro Baseball Portable 3 (PSP)
16. Mario Kart DS (DS)
17. Densetsu no Stafi: Taiketsu! Dire Kaizokudan (DS)
18. Gundam Battle Universe (PSP)
19. Bimoji Training DS (DS)
20. Fatal Frame IV (Wii)
21. Bokura wa Kaseki Holder (DS)
22. Wii Play (Wii)
23. Mario Super Sluggers (Wii)
24. New Super Mario Bros. (DS)
25. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 15 (Wii)
26. Sangokushi Taisen Ten (DS)
27. Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka: Parareru (PS2)
28. Mame Goma 2: Uchi no Ko ga Ichiban! (DS)
29. Crazy Taxi: Double Punch (PSP)
30. Persona 4 (PS2)
What we'd seen of Left 4 Dead at Games Convention, we'd mostly seen before. Just prior to E3, we played through the entirety of the game's first scenario, a sprint to the roof of a hospital through a cluster of zombies, where the four survivors await evacuation by helicopter. And, should you be too lazy to check out our impressions from that gameplay session, we'll just tell you it was tight, adrenaline pumping stuff.
There were only a few noticeable changes in the Games Convention build. It was our first look at the updated models and skins for the four playable characters, each given a new coat of paint to help further distinguish them from the hordes of undead.
But it was the new touches of detail -- and the promise of more Left 4 Dead -- that sparked our interest once again.
Taking a page from the book of Portal (and Half-Life 2, really), Doug Lombardi from Valve told us that Left 4 Dead would feature subtle hints fleshing out the game's back story. Graffiti and scratches peppered the walls of the zombie filled city, with messages to and from survivors scrawled upon the walls of the game's safe rooms.
Since we don't know much about the who, what, when, where and how of the zombie apocalypse the game is set against, we look forward to rooting out the details.
And like Team Fortress 2, Valve plans to feed Left 4 Dead players with regular updates. New scenarios are definitely in the works as future downloadable content through Steam, but new monster types and new weapons sound like a distinct possibility.
But we'll save our fervor for Left 4 Dead's bonus content for later. For now, we just want the game.
Embedded after the break is freshly squeezed, off screen gameplay footage of Call of Duty: World at War straight from the Games Convention. What's our first impressions of the video? Well, it doesn't look too bad. Really, it doesn't look all that bad. The initial jungle crash landing sequence is intense, the visuals (from what we can tell) look satisfying enough and even the "bunker clearing" seems enjoyable. Give the gameplay a looksy and judge for yourself.
Microsoft has announced that it has partnered with Rock the Vote to bring several new political features to Xbox Live just in time for the last leg of the U.S. presidential race. Some of the new features include letting gamers register to vote, participate in special online forums and take part in presidential polls. The new features are set to go live starting August 25, the first day of the Democratic National Convention. Xbox will also be promoting the Rock the Vote message at both the Democratic and Republican conventions while also "educating delegates about creating a safer entertainment environment on Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE." Specifically, the press release is referring to the Xbox 360's "industry-leading" parental controls.
The press release also makes mention of Xbox Live's 12 million members, noting that if Xbox Live were a state, "it would rank as the country's seventh largest, giving it approximately 20 electoral votes." An impressive statement, even though Xbox Live's 12 million members aren't all located in the United States.
All of it sounds pretty neat but, frankly, we're holding out for some presidential candidate "Game with Fame" sessions, or at least some video chat town hall meetings.
Update: It seems GameSpot has pulled this story, though as of this update the story headline is still displayed on GameSpot's 360 page. For what it's worth, Kotaku is reporting the same thing, so we're not sure exactly why GameSpot's article has been pulled. See our original post below.
Gamers with the Xbox 360 version of Team Fortress 2 have had kind of a rough time. First we see the PC version get Medic updates and achievements, then the Pyro gets the same treatment, and now our good friend the Heavy is getting his own update (not to mention the Sandvich). We 360 gamers have sat idly by as PC gamers get to romp about with new weapons and there's a even a new map on the way. It's time to cheer up fanboys, because Valve has confirmed to GameSpot that all of the TF2 content released thus far should be hitting the Xbox 360 before the end of the year.
And now be sad again, because it looks like it's going to cost you. In an interview with VideoGaming247, Valve boss Gabe Newell spoke about the updates saying, "On the consoles, they want us to charge money for them, because that's in their model, and our model is very much more to grow the community by giving out free updates." Boy, we like the sound of Valve's model much better. From the sound of things, it's soundling like Microsoft wants Valve to charge for their content even if Valve doesn't want to (now that sounds familiar).
1Up has a video of a detailed demonstration of Guitar Hero: World Tour's music creation system from GamesCon 2008. Activision shows off its robust note-recording system, which features dozens of different tones and sounds as well as the ability to play full musical scales. Tilting the guitar up and down can change octaves (or loudness for the drum machine). Users will also be able to record loops and tweak them for inclusion in full songs, which can accommodate all four players. The songs can then be uploaded and shared with the community.
Gamepolitics notes that starting next Monday, Xbox Live users will be able to register to vote using their game console. They'll also be able to participate in polls and "voice their opinions to the presidential candidates." Quoting the press release:
"This is the first time that Rock the Vote has joined forces with an entertainment partner such as Xbox to reach voters under 30. Xbox LIVE is the largest online social network connected to the television, with membership totaling 12 million -- if Xbox LIVE were a state, it would rank as the country's seventh largest, giving it approximately 20 electoral votes. Xbox also will have a presence at both the Democratic and Republican conventions, promoting the Rock the Vote partnership and educating delegates about creating a safer entertainment environment on Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE using the built-in parental controls known as Family Settings."
The Xbox 360's Japanese victory over its hi-def console competitor was short lived. Xbox buying fever has broken in a big way overseas, with the flagging console returning to last place on the Media Create hardware charts. Not that Sony's PlayStation 3 is doing that much better right now. At least Microsoft can blame its drop on depleted stock.
The success story this week though is that of the Nintendo DS, which extends its lead over the PSP by a hefty margin. The numbers you need are below.
Nintendo DS - 78,666
PSP - 64,413
Wii - 53,036
PlayStation 3 - 11,393
PlayStation 2 - 10,168
Xbox 360 - 7,358
The latest Bungie Weekly Update is an informative "doosy", chock full of matchmaking playlist updates, a title update release date, PAX 2008 plans and some rumor squashing. So, let's dive in.
First on the list of Bungie news, some rumor squashing. According to team Bungie, the Halo 3 acceptance videos that fans across the internets have picked apart and analyzed have been picked apart and analyzed way too much. Bluntly put, Bungie informs us that "there will be no insertion of Campaign objects, enemies or friendlies via the Forge as folks have speculated" and that there will be no "new feature that implements Campaign objects into multiplayer." Bungie then gives everyone some life advice, telling us all to "calm yourselves down, pump the brakes, and take a breath." Consider us calmed, breathed and our brakes pumped.
Other than some rumor busting, there's a list of September Halo 3 matchmaking updates (the removal and addition of various playlists) and confirmation that, come September 16th, the second Halo 3 title update will be released. Finally, for PAX attendees, Bungie plans on doing a few autograph signings, a few Recon competitions and selling a limited number of PAX-exclusive Bungie t-shirts. Phew! We're out of breath, make the jump to get your weekly (double) dose of Bungie news ...
We've already heard plenty of talk about the Xbox 360 Arcade dropping to a mere $199, but a tipster to Xbox 360 Fanboy is now claiming that there's more than just a price cut in store for the entry-level bundle, with it also supposedly in line to get a motion controller as a pack-in. According to the source, who's supposedly "close to Microsoft's marketing department," the new bundle will include the usual Arcade games and 512MB memory card, as well as the forthcoming Fall update pre-installed, said motion controller, and some motion-controlled mini-games developed by Rare. Supposedly, it'll be released in time for the 2008 Holiday season, which may or may not mean that it's the same $199 Arcade bundle that's rumored to be on track for a September release. That same source also says that the motion controller will be sold separately and bundled with an even more expansive list of games, but word on a price or release date for it seems to be a bit harder to come by.
arcticstoat sends a link to an interview with the CEO of id Software, Todd Hollenshead, in which he suggests that hardware manufacturers count on piracy to help drive profits, rather than doing something to prevent it. Quoting:
"...I think that there's been this dirty little secret among hardware manufacturers, which is that the perception of free content — even if you're supposed to pay for it on PCs — is some sort hidden benefit that you get when you buy a PC, like a right to download music for free or a right to download pirated movies and games. ...And I think that just based on their actions...what they say is one thing, but what they do is another. When it comes into debates about whether peer-to-peer file-sharing networks that by-and-large have the vast majority, I'm talking 99 per cent of the content is illicitly trading copyrighted property, they'll come out on the side of the 1 per cent of the user doing it for legitimate benefit."
Pretty much anyone who reviewed Alone in the Dark on the Xbox 360 heaped hatred on the game's controls and camera system, and developer Eden Studios have learned their lesson. Not only is the forthcoming PS3 version going to have better movement and non-claustrophobic views, the 360 will get a patch that Eurogamer says "will implement most of the changes that have been made to the upcoming PS3 version."
Earlier this week, the long anticipated action-adventure game, Too Human, was finally released for the Xbox 360. After being in various stages of development for about a decade, the game made its US debut to overall lackluster marks. Gamespot weighed in with a 5.5/10, while IGN gave it a slightly more favorable 7.8. Developer Denis Dyack from Silicon Knights defended the game, saying players didn't yet "get it," and that it was "so innovative that we have put some people off." The game's reception in Japan has been similar.
Whoops! Hey, we missed TUD on Friday because of all the hoorah with GC 2008, so looks like I am the temporary caretaker of the giraffe this weekend. I got a question you can answer one of two ways. Or two questions and you can answer one. Or both. Who cares, here it goes.
So I'm hideous about staying current with popular culture. Lots of times people will ask me if I've seen a movie, or if I watch the latest HBO Original drama that everyone's raving about. (I never saw Borat. I don't watch Entourage.) And I'd rather avoid the horrified expressions and fulminating evangelism, so I make a non-committal statement in the affirmative and then dodge my way out of the conversation.
But last week, I had to admit I've never played Halo 3. (Well, never played it in multiplayer. I played it a little in singleplayer mode.) I felt like I had no good reason for that, especially as a games blogger, but that was a choice made before I came to Kotaku. So that leads us to today's TUD:
Have you ever bought and not played a video game because of peer pressure?
and/or Have you ever told someone you played a game even when you hadn't, for any reason?
I'm especially curious about the second one. And for the record, I do have Halo 3. I bought it late last year when I was too busy for gaming. I'm working on that one.
Just checked my emails before i get down to some C&C and found one from Amazon UK and couldnt beleive some of the prices, especially when you go around shops in the UK and realise how damn expensive they can be, heres a few tasters:
SANDISK 8GB SECURE DIGITAL CARD
Buy new: £7.05
Sandisk MicroSDHC 4GB Card
Buy new: £8.17
SanDisk for Wii 2GB SECURE DIGITAL (GAMING)
Buy new: £2.63
Nintendo DS " EDGE " Super Card (R4 Revolution Version 3) + 4GB Micro SD Card
Buy new: £27.98
A Florida man has been sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay US$415,900 in restitution for selling video game systems that were preloaded with more than 75 pirated copies of games."
If that fine sounds a bit steep, note that his profits on the devices "exceeded $390,000
An image showing up on several forums allegedly shows the Sept.7 Kmart flyer featuring the rumored Xbox 360 price cut. This latest ad comes a week after a Radio Shack flyer featured similar information.
If this Xbox 360 price cut plays out anything like the one from last month, we'll continue receiving a steady stream of retail ad and system confirmations without a word from Microsoft until the 11th hour. Expect another gallery post with all the retail information if that's what happens.
Play the ultimate doubles game with the biggest names in tennis!Join #1 ranked Roger Federer, the world famous Maria Sharapova, and over a dozen other well known and up-and-coming tennis stars in the smashing follow-up to the popular Smash Court series!
Learn how to play from the pros – each one plays with their real-life styles. Don’t want to use Martina Hingis and her All-Rounder style? Once you perfect your approach shot, try your skill at one of the inventive mini games, or take aim for the #1 spot on the Pro Tour.Any way you slice it, Smash Court Tennis delivers an Ace on every serve!
features
The excitement of an action game is combined with the creative economy features and social experiences of a typical RPG
With a wide array of weapons, armors, cybernetic implants, and skills, players have an unprecedented level of customization with their characters
Using a sophisticated blend of seamless melee and high-tech weapons combat, players have the power to vanquish foes near and far
Experience the full excitement of combat through a dynamically driven presentation system that portrays the combat with cinematic quality
Perform Baldur's elaborate and complex combat maneuvers, and chain together rapid-fire attacks and combos with ease
Conquer the world alone or with friends in advanced, online two-player co-op gameplay through the Xbox LIVE service
description
Step into the world of Too Human, the epic action-game for Xbox 360™ from famed developer Silicon Knights®. As the Cybernetic God Baldur, you get thrust into the midst of an ongoing battle that threatens the existence of mankind.
An ancient machine presence has forced the God’s hand. In the first of a three part trilogy, Baldur is charged with defending mankind from an onslaught of monstrous war machines bent on eradication of human life.
features
Platform: X-Box 360
Full Weapon and Armor Upgrade Info - Prima will provide full details on all weapons and armor available, with stats and effective tactics.
Maps - Every area mapped with way points, pick-ups, and event points labeled.
Moves Breakdown - Special moves become available as you battle. Prima will analyze them, allowing you to figure out which to use in any situation.
Boss Battle Tactics - Prima will provide the strategies to defeat the biggest enemies with the least amount of damage, from recommended moves to best use of cover and the environment.
Microsoft's just went on the record with RPG-TV and said the Fall Xbox 360 Dashboard Update will be hitting in November, which technically is still a part of Fall. Previous updates have also been released in late November (as close to Winter as you could push it while still being Fall), but all those new features coming this time might be cause for delay, even though they skipped the Spring update for this reason. Seriously Microsoft, will we have to wait another three months to get the ability to make a little avatar that looks like ourselves? You're forcing us to turn on our Wiis?
We'd like to see games as art. Even those of us who'd personally rather just shoot stuff, thank you very much, realize in general that "games as art" might be a simple way to vault them into the sphere of mainstream relevance, earn them appreciation and understanding from an audience that currently, unjustly, looks down on them.
We love, of course, when games have themes and messages, when they offer the player a choice - this equates to more complexity, we feel, this places a game on level with other media that aim to make us feel. There's an entire segment of the audience that devotes itself to finding the emotional moments in games; we write essays, post blogs and have forum discussions about Little Sisters, about holding hands with Yorda or getting rid of GLaDOS.
And many of us have even accepted, to some extent, that games are currently a little bit self-referential and insular. They often tread dangerously in the direction of comic books, which by giving comic book fans only and exactly what they wanted, ended up being of interest only to comic book fans and no one else. We see that games, as an interactive medium, have much greater potential than this.
But what happens when a game doesn't create the message from inside its fictional world, but uses a message that already exists?
What if "games as art" in the real world actually looks like something we really, really don't like?
Bungie may be unveiling a new map for Halo 3 at Penny Arcade Expo later this week, but don't forget that's not the only Halo goodness coming our way.
Microsoft Games Studios recently unveiled this fancy new Halo Wars box art and three pretty enticing screens for their upcoming Halo-themed real-time strategy title.
Microsoft's Games Convention floor space was dominated by music games. It was, after all, the "Xbox 360 Summer of Music" according to the vinyl banner that loomed overhead. But tucked away next to Disney's Sing It! was Lode Runner, the remake of the classic puzzle platformer, announced for Xbox Live Arcade earlier this year. Having played every other Xbox 360-bound offering on hand at events prior, we decided to dig into it.
Newly released on nearly all Major consoles today:
In Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, Hank Haney will be there from the start to assess your skills, help you tune your clubs and give you feedback after every round as you attempt to climb the leaderboards and win the FedEXCup.
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09, the next installment of the world's #1 selling golf video game franchise, will feature dynamic, personalized gameplay via Tiger Woods' personal coach, Hank Haney. Looking to drive the ball long and straight? Trying to nail the pin with the approach shot? An all-new addition to this year's game, Haney will assist gamers as they hit the links and try to advance their career to win the FedExCup.
In Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09, a player's skill level is dynamic, constantly adjusting throughout the round just as it would during a real afternoon out on the links. Following each round, Haney will deliver customized feedback on a player's performance. This feedback system allows all gamers, rookies or PGA TOUR pros, to compete and enjoy the game at any level.
Step into Tiger Wood's golf shoes and give your club a swing. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 in available on these platforms in these versions:
Xbox360™ Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 ASIA US$ 49.90
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 US US$ 64.90
PlayStation3™
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 ASIA US$ 49.90
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 US US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 All-Play US US$ 59.90
PlayStation2™
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 US US$ 44.90
Sony PSP™
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 US US$ 44.90
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 ASIA US$ 42.90
Prior to developing Clannad, Key has released two immensely popular dating simulation games, Kanon and Air. While Kanon sets stage in a snowy city, Air takes place in a coastal area in the summer, Clannad starts at spring term in a school located on the top of the slopes.
The hero Tomoya is a delinquent with a strained relationship with his father. When he gave up basketball, one of his passions in life, after wounding his shoulder during a fight with his parent, he has lost his aims. Unwilling to go to school, he dawdled at the bottom of the slopes only to meet Nagisa, a girl who is just as hesitant as he is about going to school.
Nagisa has been sick all her life, and during her third year of high school, she has to take a year off to nurse herself back to health. Due to this, she is not only a year older than the rest of her classmates, since her friends in her class have all graduated, she is all alone in school.
Key specializes in interweaving all sorts of human relationships into their plot, aside from the growing romance between Tomoya and Nagisa, the protagonists' relationships with their parents and friends are included to form a well rounded and touching story.
Software sales in two of the key European markets continued to be utterly dominated by Nintendo for the week ending August 17, according to data from Media-Control GfK International.
The list in Germany was topped by Mario Kart Wii, with Wii Fit in second, while PC game Drakensang: The Dark Eye was the only non-Nintendo platform title in the entire top ten in third.
Brain Training and the DS edition of Mario Kart took fourth and fifth positions, followed by Mario & Sonic at the Olympics and Guitar Hero: On Tour in sixth and seventh.
Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii was eight, with More Brain Training and Summer Athletics finishing the top ten list.
In Spain the list was barely less Nintendo-dominated, with Wii Fit in first place and Beijing 2008: The Olympic Games for the PlayStation 3 in second.
Wii Play and Mario Kart Wii were third and fourth, while the PSP's Buzz! Master Quiz was the only other non-Nintendo platform title in fifth.
It's probably safe to bet that all of Microsoft's online operations doesn't run off a single server in the basement of Gates' house. However, a recent promotional video produced by Microsoft's Environmental Sustainability group may have accidentally spilled the beans.
