1 week and 12 staff members later - we have our mega review up for Grand Theft Auto 4. It's the biggest game of the year, and we have the biggest review ever.
Didn't see this one coming, despite knowing its EA in question here :
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Criterion is bringing its hit arcade racer, Burnout Paradise, to PC.
The developer says that the new version is being "rebuilt specifically for the PC". Although it didn't specify exactly what changes would be made, it promises "expanded multiplayer, enhanced online features, and community driven content".
Burnout Paradise "will combine all the open world racing, intense speed and action of the original game with new gameplay for the PC version," says Criterion.
Source
Can you imagine how awesome this can become with user-made mods/content?
TG Daily did some digging and found a bit of controversy surrounding Ubisoft's recent decision to remove DirectX 10.1 functionality from the PC port of their swords and stealth Crusades epic. Certain features of DX10.1 were detrimentally effecting performance of Nvidia cards, while Radeon cards experienced no problems. The latest patch rolls back the engine to DX10, thereby removing the problem, but downgrading the experience for Radeon owners. TG Daily contends that manufacturing partnerships may have been involved in the decision.
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Sadly, this is the way PC gaming is: There is a great game, but it is burdened with technical issues and ends up getting caught in marketing wars. We have no doubt that the development team made a mistake in QA process and integrated a feature that caused instabilities with Nvidia cards. Given Nvidia’s market share, Ubisoft had to patch it. What we do not understand is the reason for an explanation that left more questions than answers.
Where is Altair when you need him to dispense some justice?
In what may be one of the more shocking non-announcements in the last decade, Activision has confirmed that they will not be releasing a new Tony Hawk game for consoles this year. They will be releasing a DS Tony Hawk, but for the first time since 1998 there will not be a new iteration of the series on consoles.
Why no Tony Hawk this year? It has to have something to do with the success of EA's Skate last year, which outsold Activision's Tony Hawk game by a 2 to 1 margin. But don't worry, they still plan on releasing another game in the venerable franchise in 2009.
GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy director Gore Verbinski is set to helm a movie based on the Bioshock video game. Would you kindly read this excerpt from the article.
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Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick was responsible for negotiating the deal with Universal. "BioShock has been hailed as one of the most highly cinematic and richly plotted titles in interactive entertainment, making it extremely well-suited to film," he commented.
"In partnering with Universal and Gore Verbinski, we have assembled a team that respects the uniqueness of BioShock and will translate it into a powerful movie experience. Our ability to attract a major studio and unparalleled creative team speaks volumes about the strength of our BioShock franchise.
Very cool. So who's going to play the main character? Better yet - who's going to play Andre Ryan?
The Register is reporting that Microsoft has begun ordering 65nm versions of the GPU.
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The original 360 has a 90nm GPU and a 90nm CPU. Last year, console based on the 'Falcon' platform incorporated the 65nm CPU. With the debut of Jasper and its 65nm GPU, the over-heating problems - manifested most clearly in the infamous Red Ring of Death - that have plagued no small number of Xbox 360 owners will evaporate.
I wonder if this will coincide with a revamp of the size?
Eurogamer has a rather large and good preview of the next big thing in WoW.
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A stunningly brave revamp of raiding is the big surprise; every raid dungeon in the expansion will be playable with either 10 or 25 players, opening the full sweep of the game to far more people.
Then there is the new vehicle combat technology. And the fact that the Death Knight, the new hero class, will grant a 55-level head start on any server. And a raid encounter which changes over time.
Hmmm... impressive. I am happy Blizzard continues to go down the path of smaller raiding. My guild can handle big raids, but a lot of us prefer small raids.
For all the people screaming doom for Midway allegedly abandoning fatality, comes this glimmer of hope :
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Originally Posted by Joystiq
When Midway announced that DC characters were splicing worlds with Mortal Kombat for a T-rated fighting game, we prepared our eulogy for the fatality, a staple of the MK universe that seemed to run against the DC philosophy. Not so fast, says MK series creator Ed Boon, who hints that the violent sendoffs will still be there, albeit in a tamer fashion.
In an interview with GameTap, Boon notes that the developer never explicitly stated fatalities were going away. "We did acknowledge that we won't be able to do the same kinds of outrageous moves, like tearing someone's head off and the spine being attached to it," he says, adding, "My response is that, no, we're modifying fatalities. But I have every intention to keep finishers."
Gameplayer has gone to see Gearbox Studios and have had an exclusive look at the upcoming Aliens: Colonial Marines. In this article they discuss the gameplay, design and mythology with the developer.
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In fact, the whole place looks more like a movie studio than a games house, no doubt a result of Gearbox’s success in aligning with Fox Studios to acquire original scripts, artwork, design elements, and even sound effects from the Aliens film.
Popular Opinion is a weekly poll designed to gauge the Evil Avatar community's overall opinion of a game that has been on the market for at least a month. See previous poll results and a summary of how it works.
AQ Interactive sends word that they will be bringing Vampire Rain: Altered Species to PlayStation 3:
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May 8, 2008 - Tokyo, Japan - AQ Interactive announced today that it will bring Vampire Rain: Altered Species to the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. The exciting stealth action game will be developed by industry veteran Artoon, which has developed such blockbuster titles as Blue Dragon, Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Yoshi's Island DS and many more.
"We are very excited to bring Vampire Rain: Altered Species to the PlayStation®3," said Artoon President Naoto Ōshima. "The incredible power of the PS3, will allow us to give gamers a fully immersive experience. This will include: 5.1 channel audio, over 50 hours of gameplay, extra bonus levels, a lot of completely revamped animations, character interactions and much more."
Vampire Rain: Altered Species is an intense game that takes place during a dreary night in a suburban, west coast city in the US. For some time now, mankind has been battling the ferocious and terrifying Nightwalkers, a race of superhuman vampires who crave human blood. People have been disappearing at night; the lucky ones are found dead, but those less fortunate are reborn as Nightwalkers, and are bound by instinct to forcefully recruit unwitting victims into the Nightwalker army. Gamers take the role of John Lloyd, a member of a US special government unit created to defeat the Nightwalkers, and the only human to ever survive a physical encounter with them.
Aside from featuring a blood-chilling, story driven single player campaign, Vampire Rain: Altered Species will also feature a robust multiplayer mode.
About 20 percent of underage teens were able to buy Mature-rated games during a recent nationwide undercover shopper survey conducted by the FTC, down more than half from last year, the FTC reported today...
According to the FTC's study, ratings enforcement at retail has increased steadily since 2000, when 80% of its undercover shoppers successfully purchased M-rated games.
The ESRB conducts its own secret-shopper studies using the same surveyors as the FTC. Its most recent survey in November 2007 found 76 percent compliance with store policies.
"Video game retailers have clearly stepped up their efforts to enforce their store policies, and they deserve recognition for these outstanding results," said ESRB president Patricia Vance, in a statement released today. "We commend and applaud retailers for their strong support of the ESRB ratings, and will continue working with them to help ensure that these levels of compliance are sustained if not further increased."
That's right, video games have a better enforcement rate than R rated movies and explicit CDs.
Editor's Note - I was about to post this at the same time as cp#, so I edited it to reflect a combined effort - fitbabits
When last we heard about the Skype-on-PSP initiative it was being delayed due to headset hardware that wasn't up to Skype standards. but now, according to Engadget, the kinks have been worked out and the headset is now available stateside.
There is a small catch though:
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Sony has finally brought its Skype-friendly PSP headset to US retail. Unfortunately, it won't work with those original fatty PSPs, and at $30 you've gotta ask yourself how much you'll really be using it for -- the original price was set at $20. That said, it's undoubtedly the easiest way to get up and running with Skype and in-game voice chat on the PSP, since it used to require two separate accessories to pull it off.
Everyday Shooter is an album of games exploring the expressive power of abstract shooters. Dissolute sounds of destruction are replaced with guitar riffs harmonizing over an all-guitar soundtrack, while modulating shapes celebrate the flowing beauty of geometry.
Play through different levels each with a completely unique musical, graphical, and gameplay style. Shoot to trigger musical sounds and riffs that combine to form the final soundscape of the game. Use points earned in the game to unlock extra lives, shuffle mode, and different visual filters.
PS3Fanboy had a chance to talk with the developers of LittleBigPlanet and are reporting the game will NOT have a beta anymore.
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Sam Bennett (Community Development Manager) and Pete Smith (Producer) maintained that a public, open beta will sadly not be happening. The game will go through a beta phase, obviously, but this will be performed by an internal group at Sony.
I'm pretty disappointed by this news since by all accounts the game is a lot of fun. I guess we'll get our LBP fix in October.
David Reeves, President of SCEE, revealed to CVG today the reason why Home was delayed until this fall. It's pretty straight forward, albeit a little strange.
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"It is definitely coming out in autumn," assured Reeves. "Whether that's October or November, I don't precisely know, but it is an open beta."
"We've realised that maybe we were too ambitious with the non-gaming applications within Home, getting sponsors and stuff like that," he went on to confess.
Why they would focus more on advertising and in game clothing (I assume) is beyond me. At least they corrected the course in time.
It's been years since the last Lord of the Rings movie (and years at least before the Hobbit movie graces screens) but that doesn't mean the license is dead. Electronic Arts announced today a new title incorporating the Lord of the Rings property, but this time with a bit of a twist. Pandemic studios is giving it the Battlefront treatment.
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Judging by the info, Pandemic's aiming to have every man, dwarf, elf, orc, troll, good guy, bad guy, hobbit yadda yadda you can think of the from the story and chuck them into mass confrontations that can support 150 on-screen characters.
Only eight players will be supported on the head-to-head multiplayer, but the game will support 4 person co-op play
The MTV Multiplayer Blog contacted iSuppli, a company that estimates actual cost to manufacture and package a product to a company to find out just why those damn Xbox 360 hard drives are so expensive.
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Unlike an off-the-shelf drive that can simply be loaded into your standard PS3 the Xbox 360 drive’s pricing also includes color tuning and packaging. This begins to drive the price up from what you might see at an online retailer like NewEgg.
The software-loaded drives are then sold to what’s called Value Added Resellers (VARs). These folks take the base drives and apply the casing and packaging. iSuppli expects VARs purchase the drives for $75, before charging $5 to add their part to the final package that ends up appearing at your local games store.
These drives are then delivered to Microsoft. iSuppli believes the markup on the drives could be as much as $20, making the drives $100 a pop for Microsoft.
But..but...they sell the drives for $179.99. This $80 price difference obviously doesn't go all to Microsoft, and actually falls on the retailer. A good guess is Microsoft is making between $40 and $50 a drive sold, because even though the MSRP is $180 sites like Amazon sell the drive for $150.
There are plenty of arguments as to why the drives should be cheaper, but as long as Microsoft is making this kind of money on the drives - and they are selling - it just ain't going to happen.
Major Nelson is reporting that a demo for GRID is up on Xbox Live Marketplace.
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It's time to get on the GRID as this superb demo showcases racing in the three regions playable in the full game; Europe Touring Cars at Jarama Circuit, U.S Muscle cars at San Francisco and Japanese Drift Racing at Yokohama Docks. Compete online in the European and U.S races and check out the time trial competitions for the chance to win a car and other ace prizes.
Gameplayer are reporting that Sony has decided not to continue its licensing agreement with Formula One and that the franchise is now up for grabs.
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According to inside sources, when Sony attempted to renew their original arrangement with Formula One there was a considerable gap between what they were willing to pay for this new license – and what Bernie Ecclestone’s company was demanding they fork out for it. As a result Sony has refused to pony up the dough thereby leaving the official license up for grabs with rival publishers Codemasters, Ubisoft, and EA all poised to secure a new five-year contract.
Last year, when EA Chicago was shuttered, we though we had seen the last of the Fight Night series. EA's later announcement of the arcade boxing title Facebreaker seemed to put the final nail in the coffin. But fight fans can rejoice, because Fight Night Round 4 is on the way, and this time with a friend - Mike Tyson.
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Electronic Arts officially unveiled EA Sports Fight Night Round 4, which will feature a pre-rape conviction Mike Tyson and floating, stinging Muhammad Ali.
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Fight Night used to be a well-regarded staple of EA Chicago, but after that studio was shuttered last year, EA has handed development duties over to EA Canada.
The studio will be adding some of history's best boxers into the mix in the form of Tyson and Ali as playable characters, time periods be damned.
Fight Night Round 4 is slated for a 2009 release on both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
My style is impetuous. My defense is impregnable, and I'm just ferocious. I want your heart. I want to eat his children.
Nintendo has just released the Nintendo Channel. From Gamasutra:
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First released in Japan in November of 2007, the channel has launched with a wide variety of promotional videos, including Wii and DS game trailers and video interviews with personalities like Shigeru Miyamoto, explaining the design behind the company's forthcoming Wii Fit.
Also included is a comprehensive catalog of Wii and DS games both first- and third-party with information, streaming video where available, and a link which re-directs users to the Internet Channel, where they can choose from a number of online retailers including Amazon, Wal-Mart and Best Buy to purchase the game.
The channel also lets users rate and rank titles they have played -- provided they have put more than an hour into the game -- and turns the Wii into a DS demo download station, serving a number of third- and first- party demos including Cooking Mama 2, Crosswords DS, Ninja Gaiden and Brain Age 2.
I will also link to Wii.com if anyone wants to know more about the Nintendo Channel.
For a game that is glitch free, it sure is odd to see a patch come out. But that's just what happened. Rockstar Games have sent along word that the Playstation 3 version of Grand Theft Auto 4 has been patched to fix various issues. The culprit in all this? Gamespy.
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Rockstar Games has released a GTA IV patch for Playstation 3 today that prevents Gamespy’s servers from being overloaded and therefore reduces the impact on those servers that were causing the game to stutter and lock up. We continue to monitor the performance of the game both on and offline and will provide further updates as necessary. We want to assure everyone that, together with our hardware partners, we continue to strive to give our fans the best possible interactive entertainment experiences possible. This update will ensure that everyone will experience Grand Theft Auto IV the way it was intended. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.
Cue the Microsoft press release touting the benefits of premium online gaming in 3...2...1...
Update: It should be noted that this patch hasn't fixed ALL the lockup issues as some forums members are still having problems with the game locking.
Bethesda sent along a press release announcing the upcoming Fallout 3 title's soundtrack will be scored by Inon Zur. This might come as a dissapoint to some as Jeremy Soule, composer of Morrowind and Oblivion, does not seem to be involved.
To ease our fears, Bethesda has put up 3 tracks from the game including the game's theme song. You can find these here.
Zur has quite a list of games he's composed already, including Crysis and the Prince of Persia titles.
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“Fallout 3 is one of the most engaging and demanding projects I've scored,” said Inon Zur. “It was very rewarding to put all my creative energy into supporting Bethesda's vision for the game. I’m very proud of the outcome, and look forward to sharing the music with the players."
I'm disappointed that Soule isn't involved, but the stuff on the site seems half decent.
"You don't even have to worry about how it's going to look on PS3 or 360. Right now we've got it running cross-platform running 60 hertz, and it looks really good," said Cloud. "In terms of what artists are available to achieve--it's something you have to see for yourself. I can say this, but you still won't get it until you see it."
I for one am excited. Always been a Doom/Quake man. Unfortunately though in this day in age I have to ask the question: PC version?
tvshowsondvd.com reports that the DVD set of South Park's 11th season will include a 3 song download pack for Rock Band while supplies last.
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For the first time ever on DVD, every episode is UNCENSORED! While supplies last, every DVD will include a 3-song download pack for the MTV Games sensation ROCK BAND!
That's a direct copy-and-paste from the material the studio sent to multiple retailers, so now you know as much about it as we do!
You may remember that season 11 contained the episode "Guitar Queer-o" so one has to ask why Rock Band instead of Guitar Hero III? No track listing is available at this time.
The previous opening week record holder was 2004’s PS2 exclusive GTA: San Andreas, which sold 677k units in just two days, generating £24.2m. At the time it was released, the PS2 had an installed base of approximately 6.6 million. San Andreas still holds the week one record for an individual format, but GTA IV is the new record holder for all formats.
And then word comes today (from Take-Two, no less) that "Grand Theft Auto IV's first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment".
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According to publisher Take-Two, Grand Theft Auto IV sold approximately six million units globally with an estimated retail value of more than $500 million in the first week. The game sold approximately 3.6 million units on its opening day with a retail value of approximately $310 million globally.
Halo 3 set the previous videogame box office launch record, generating $300 million in first week sales, while Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End held the all-time entertainment launch record after grossing $404 million in six days.
Good news for X360 owners who are getting to play this game late, coming straight from the Woohoo!!1 department :
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Originally Posted by IGN
It's hard not to love World in Conflict, Sierra and Massive's epic World War III real-time strategy game for the PC. Between the dazzling visuals, the thrilling gameplay, and Alec Baldwin's soothe narration--not to mention an awesome tactical nuke or two--it was easily one of the very best games of 2007. Just about the only thing missing--as noted by many gamers--was the lack of a Soviet or Red Army campaign to let you have fun pummeling those snooty capitalists. Well, that's about to change, comrade.
The latest cover story in the Czech-language edition of The Official Xbox Magazine has revealed the next game in the series: World in Conflict: Soviet Assault. Rest assured PC gamers, just because it was revealed in an Xbox-centric magazine doesn't mean that Sierra or Massive are abandoning you. An Xbox 360 version of World in Conflict was announced last year. Now the 360 version is getting a new name, and it will include both the original World in Conflict along with the new content in Soviet Assault.
Since World in Conflict already shipped for the PC last year, Soviet Assault will be treated like an expansion pack, according to a Sierra representative that we checked with. So if you already own World in Conflict, you won't have to buy the game again to get the Soviet Assault campaign. Just pick up the expansion separately, though Sierra will undoubtedly combine them into a single PC package at some future date.
