Heute
Curious what tricks Capcom has up their sleeves for the final additional character in Super Street Fighter IV? Wonder no longer, because IGN got the first glimpse at Hakan -- a totally original brawler created specifically for the updated version of Street Fighter IV.
From the looks of the footage, Hakan appears to be a grappler along the lines of Zangief or Abel. Don't let that mislead you into believing he's just another musclebound clod in impossibly tight shorts, however. What separates this new guy from the rest of the pack are his bright orange, Jersey Shore-esque...
If you couldn't get enough of White Knight Chronicles, more quests will soon be coming your way. The new missions will start arriving this week, and will continue all the way into the summer.
Most of the new quests will be available via the White Knight Chronicles quest map, and will be permanently accessible. There will also be limited quests, which will be available for two weeks at a time.
The PlayStation Blog also has information on how to win a 12-inch tall White Knight figure. To add it to your shelf, you'll need to complete specific quests during the weekend of...
With Ferrari having finally returned to the Need for Speed stable of automobiles, Electronic Arts is releasing even more DLC for last year's Shift.
The new Exotic Racing Series Pack will be launching next week on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network, and will run you 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00). It includes the Honda NSX and the BMW M1 Procar, among others.
You can find the full list below. The pack will be available March 18.
Gestern
The newly-announced Bodycount could be considered a spiritual successor to Black, but not too long ago the real thing was under development. Speaking with GameSpot, designer Stuart Black said that Black 2 was being worked on at Criterion, but was ultimately shelved.
"I certainly did some preliminary pre-production work on Black 2 once we finished Black, the first three or four months," Black said. "I moved on quite quickly after that."
He continued, "A lot of the guys on the team I'm working with here now carried on with that and did a lot of pre-production for about...
Moving beyond the tabloid fodder of the past several months, Electronic Arts has a series to market. EA Sports has started spinning up the hype machine for Tiger Woods 11, announcing that will feature support for the PS3 Motion Controller as well as the inclusion of the Ryder Cup.
As was the case with the Wii MotionPlus-enabled Tigers Woods 10, this year's PS3 edition is aiming for "an authentic interactive swing experience." The Wii version will continue to support MotionPlus, and will also be adding an "Advanced Plus" swing difficulty that reads rotation and swing...
For the longest time, since before their console was even released, Sony was quick to point out this generation of "console wars" would be a marathon -- with the PlayStation 3 the slow-and-steady tortoise that would eventually outlast their seemingly speedier competition. Now, it looks like they're starting to convince some industry experts that may be the case: MCV reports that StrategyAnalytics analyst David Mercer predicts the PS3 will outsell the Wii by 2013.
Mercer spelled out his reasoning in a blog post ahead of the release of the company's Global Video Game Market...
Steel yourselves, plastic guitar aficionados, for all is proceeding exactly as the vulgar prophet Eric Cartman foretold nearly six months ago -- relentless hordes of Lady Gaga DLC loom over Rock Band's horizon. A four-pack of tracks from the flamboyant pop star will besiege the Xbox 360 and Wii next Tuesday, March 16. PlayStation 3 users have a bit more time to prepare, as the DLC isn't projected to hit the PlayStation Store until that Thursday, March 18.
Miss Gaga's not alone, however. Just in time for season 14 of South Park, Cartman's cover version of Lady Gaga's...
Here we are, at zero hour, and you still can't decide whether to pick up Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3? Well here's one more piece of info to consider: PlayStation 3 copies of the game include a special card that will unlock bonus items (and possibly beta access) for Final Fantasy XIV.
U.K. gaming site MCV first reported on the cards, which feature unique codes for entry on the Square Enix Members website. From there you'll earn access to an unspecified in-game item for Square's upcoming MMO, as well as a shot at getting into the beta.
Which...
Codemasters has officially announced their spiritual successor to 2006's Black. Titled Bodycount, it will feature a "clandestine global power struggle" highlighted by online multiplayer and co-op.
"We?re all massive FPS fans," said creative directory Stuart Black, "and believe that there?s room for a refresh of the shooter experience. If GRID was all about the purity of racing, then everything in Bodycount is absolutely centered on the bullet and its impact on the world.
He continued, "Our shredding tech enables us to create a different kind of gameplay, where...
05.03.
As if yesterday's deluge of Rock Band Network tracks wasn't enough, Harmonix has announced next week's slate of regular DLC for Rock Band. Coming up next Tuesday, March 9 on Xbox 360 and Wii (March 11 on PlayStation 3), fans will be able to download songs from The White Stripes, The James Gang, and a handful of others.
Individual tracks will go for the usual $1.99 (160 Microsoft points; 200 Wii Points) apiece, save for the two songs by Shaimus and Rush drummer Neil Peart's rendition of "The Hockey Theme," each of which will run you just 99 cents (80 Microsoft points;...
Developers have often struggled with game demos, and for good reason: It can be enough of a challenge hand-picking the segments that best represent a game, but if the demo winds up being too good, players might not ever invest in the retail product at all.
Sony aims to fix some of that, assuming they ever act on a patent recently discovered by Siliconera. Their plan is to offer something called "degradable demos" -- complete or nearly complete games in demo form, allowing players free access to a product's full breadth of content for a limited amount of time. As time...
04.03.
Sony has officially announced its "secret sequel," and as it turns out, it's a proper follow-up to the beloved SOCOM series: SOCOM 4. The game is being developed by Zipper Interactive, and it's due out this fall. Many assumed MAG was the developer's next step in military action, but apparently they plan to keep the two running concurrently. The blog promises to continue to support MAG after SOCOM 4 launches.
The plot revolves around a military coup in a South Asian country. Players take control of a five-man squad to stop him in the single-player campaign. IGN...
The passion of gamers knows no bounds. The latest labor of love to make its way on the Internet is a replica of Sega Rally's Celica ST205-GT-Four, which began life as an ordinary 1995 Toyota Celica (via Jalopnik).
An AtariAge user transformed the ordinary vehicle using roughly $300 in decals and some used parts. It's not a real race car by any means, but it sure looks like one.
Sega fans will fondly recall the developer's domination of the racing genre during the mid-nineties thanks to Sega Rally Championship, Virtua Racing and Daytona USA. It was one of the Sega...
Sony has coveted Apple's spot at the top of the handheld electronics for much of the decade, having positioned a wide variety of gadgets opposite the iPod. Now it seems they may be readying an answer to the iPad and the iPhone.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Sony is working on a device that's described as being part netbook, part e-reader and part PlayStation Portable. Sources within the electronic giant also report that Sony is working on a "PlayStation Phone," which would be capable of downloading and playing PlayStation games.
Sony has been trying to overtake...
God of War creator David Jaffe is no stranger to litigation, and according to his latest blog post, the outspoken designer thinks Sony should be more willing to go to bat for their intellectual property. Specifically, he believes Microsoft's upcoming Scrap Metal for Xbox Live Arcade sounds a little too much like Twisted Metal -- a series Jaffe himself helped establish.
"...if I owned the rights to TWISTED METAL and GOD OF WAR, I sure as hell would at the least send a sternly worded legal letter," reads the latest post on Jaffe's blog. "Heck, I'd send two legal letters...
Sega and Platinum Games held a press event in Tokyo last week to show their shooter Vanquish for the first time, and when we arrived we noticed something unexpected: the game was running on PlayStation 3.
Given Platinum's history with their last PS3/360 title Bayonetta -- where they developed the 360 version internally and Sega ported it to PS3, resulting in a lower quality game on PS3 -- this struck me as a good sign. A few interview questions later, and I can say officially that they are developing Vanquish on both platforms in-house, with the PS3 version as the lead...
03.03.
Today's quarterly financials call from publisher Take-Two revealed much of their release schedule for the coming year, including their plans for Red Dead Redemption. The Rockstar developed Western, which was originally scheduled for a late April launch, has been pushed back to May 18.
Take-Two president and CEO Ben Feder had the following to say about the delay (via Kotaku): "We shifted the launch of the game by several weeks into the third quarter. We believe this is the optimal time frame to release what is being hailed as the next generation of sandbox games."
This...
If Star Wars, Batman, and Indiana Jones haven't sated your thirst for Lego games, you'll be happy to know there's plenty more where that came from. Warner Brothers Interactive and Traveller's Tales announced today that they've extended their deal with Lego until 2016. That leaves six more years to turn pop culture franchises into adorable block men, so we're sure to see some other Lego-fied titles on the horizon. To put this in context, if your wife or girlfriend is pregnant right now, Lego games will be coming out until the child is old enough to play them.
We...
Vanquish, the latest title from Platinum Games and Sega, also marks the first game in nearly four years with Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami sitting on the director's chair. "The game is about 80 percent done," he told Famitsu magazine this week. "The foundation is all together, but we still have to work out details on player and enemy AI and so on. Work's going to be a real slog from here on in!"
As shown in the trailer above (released back in January), Vanquish toes the line between Japan-style action and Western-style shooting. "Vanquish is a shooter, but...
Vanquish, the latest title from Platinum Games and Sega, also marks the first game in nearly four years with Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami sitting on the director's chair. "The game is about 80 percent done," he told Famitsu magazine this week. "The foundation is all together, but we still have to work out details on player and enemy AI and so on. Work's going to be a real slog from here on in!"
As shown in the initial trailer (released back in January), Vanquish toes the line between Japan-style action and Western-style shooting. "Vanquish is a shooter, but...
It's been a nearly two years since Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden guru Tomonobu Itagaki left Tecmo and sued his former employer. "It's already been two years? I haven't been playing around or anything," he said in an interview printed in this week's edition of Famitsu magazine. "I've been working on new game concepts, taking photographs, building model-train layouts, all sorts of things. I just figured it was about time I got back to games, my main line of work."
The interview, the first he's given to the Japanese game press in two years, gave Itagaki the chance to...
02.03.
Sony has officially purchased Media Molecule. The announcement went out today on the PlayStation Blog, where Worldwide Studios Europe senior vice president Michael Denny praised the studio for their "massive ambition to redefine video games as we know them."
"The acquisition will enhance the talent pool within SCE, protect past and current investment and ensure a solid base for future investment. Media Molecule have exciting projects in the pipeline and we're looking forward to sharing these with you in the not too distant future."
Denny continued, "The most...
Sony's been using the very literal placeholder name "Sony Motion Controller" since they revealed the wand-like PlayStation 3 device last June, but it's looking more and more as if they've finally settled on a real name -- and that name is Arc.
As Siliconera reports, Sony has filed a trademark for "PlayStation Arc" in Japan. This is only the latest evidence that the device will be called Arc, as it corroborates a report from VG247 earlier this year that an anonymous "concrete source" told them "Arc" would indeed be the final name. This also follows reports that Sony...
01.03.
Like Mega Man teleporting into a stage, word of downloadable content for Mega Man 10 came almost instantly. No sooner was the game released on WiiWare than the official Nintendo page detailed DLC plans to take place during April. "Bass Mode," which presumably will let you play as Mega Man's musically-named rival, will come on April 5 for 200 points ($2). Three "Special Stages" are scheduled for 100 points ($1) each, the first of which will hit April 5, followed by the...
Rumors of Final Fantasy XI's demise appear to have been greatly exaggerated. Square Enix has announced three new add-ons for the venerable MMORPG, despite the Final Fantasy XIV beta being just around the corner.
Titled Vision of Abyssea, Heroes of Abyssea and Scars of Abyssea, the add-ons will raise the level cap to 99 and cost $9.99 each. Visions of Abyssea will be the first to go on sale, and will get a simultaneous release in the U.S., Europe and Japan. The release...
Hidden mini-games in which Kratos engages in various sexual acts has been a series staple since the first game. Speaking with UGO though, director Stig Asmussen admitted that he wanted to leave that tradition out of God of War III.
"It was more a debate between me and several of the story writers," Asmussen said during a God of War III press event in Los Angeles last week. "I was like, 'I'd rather not have it in there at all.'"
Asked what the purpose of the...
Aliens: Colonial Marines was put on hold by Sega last year when the publisher decided to focus on getting Rebellion's Aliens vs. Predator out the gate first. With that game now out of the way, can we expect to finally get a closer look at Gearbox's take on the franchise? MCV sure thinks so (via Big Download).
Gearbox president and CEO Randy Pitchford spoke with the U.K.-based gaming site about what's next for his company. "We have an Aliens game with Sega and 20th...
PlayStation 3 consoles around the world appear to have gone on strike. Reports have been coming in since Sunday that the PlayStation Network is now inaccessible, and that certain PS3 games have been rendered unplayable.
The issue appears to be affecting systems that came out before 2009's PlayStation 3 Slim. Trying to load up PS3 games on one of those systems will result in an error code and a notice that trophies cannot be loaded.
A 1UP 60 gigabyte PlayStation 3 was...
UPDATE #2: It appears that it's now safe to turn on your PlayStation 3. Word is currently circulating of a fix, and our launch PS3 is indeed working just fine now. As of right now, it appears that no data has been lost. We'll let you know when Sony comments on the situation.
UPDATE: Sony has released a statement confirming that the problems are caused by a clock error. They hope to resolve the issue in 24 hours, but in the meantime, they've warned PS3 users not to...
One week from today, we'll have a God of War 3 review on 1UP, marking the third Sony Santa Monica-developed God of War in five years, and the end of the "original God of War trilogy," as Sony likes to call it. That quote, of course, leaves some wiggle room should they want to continue Kratos' adventures with a side story, introduce a new playable character, or find some other loophole to keep the series going.
But from the sound of it, current director Stig...
28.02.
Why do Nintendo games, on average, sell so much better than third-party games on the Wii? There are probably a number of ways to answer that question, but according to Disney Interactive Studios executive VP and general manager Graham Hopper, it's about giving games the time and care they need to reach the "Nintendo level" of quality -- and they intend to do so with Epic Mickey.
"I think we've tried to learn from the things Nintendo does well," Hopper said in an...
Sony's PlayStation 3 marketing has touted that their system "only does everything," but here's one thing no one would ever want to a see PlayStation used for: detonator for an improvised explosive device.
During a Fox News report (yes, Fox News, but bear with us) of a raid of a home suspected of stocking bomb-making materials in Afghanistan, a PlayStation controller was found that one soldier explained would have been used to detonate an explosive. "Something as simple...
27.02.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is instituting a few intriguing new ideas for the MGS series, and according to recent tweets from Hideo Kojima (yes, Hideo Kojima is tweeting now), they may be the precursors to what could eventually be another new Metal Gear Solid game on a different platform.
"It's not that PSP is the main platform for the future MGS series," Kojima wrote (via Andriasang). "Peace Walker is a test to see what type of expansions are there if MGS is brought...
It seems that Naughty Dog has truly arrived. With the massive success of Uncharted 2, the studio is moving to a "bigger, better kennel."
"We've built out our new studio from a raw and open floorplan to a killer new studio that provides us with more flexibility in space, layout and adjusting to fluctuating staffing needs - not to mention there are some significant upgrades to help us keep developing cutting-edge, award-winning games," a representative posted in the...
The first details for NCAA Football 11 have emerged, along with an early screenshot. Seems like EA Sports is focusing on graphics this time around, because many of those details are cosmetic.
ESPN has the game's first image, which you can see above. New visual details include dynamic helmet numbers, different sleeve lengths, hand warmers, knee braces and on-field officials who will jump out of the way of the action. In addition, if a team switches conferences, the logo...
26.02.
Yakuza 4 will be out in Japan a little more than a week after Yakuza 3 arrives in North America. But you don't have to wait another year to get your hands on the next sequel -- you can just download the demo that's slated for next week.
The Yakuza 4 demo will feature the start of Shun Akiyama's storyline, and will include a battle mode in which you can test out all four characters. If you're still upset about the removal of hostess clubs from Yakuza 3, you're in luck...
Yakuza 4 will be out in Japan a little more than a week after Yakuza 3 arrives in North America. But you don't have to wait another year to get your hands on the next sequel -- you can just download the demo that's slated for next week.
The Yakuza 4 demo will feature the start of Shun Akiyama's storyline, and will include a battle mode in which you can test out all four characters. If you're still upset about the removal of hostess clubs from Yakuza 3, you're in luck...
Next up on Rock Band's weekly DLC release schedule are downloads from Silversun Pickups, The Mother Hips, and Rock Band first-timers TRUSTcompany, as well as a three-pack of songs by Disturbed.
Each track will set you back $1.99 (160 Microsoft points; 200 Wii Points) apiece, while the Disturbed bundle will go for the somewhat discounted rate of $5.49 (440 Microsoft points) on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. They're set to debut on the Xbox Live Marketplace and the Wii's...
With only about two months to go before Super Street Fighter IV launches in North America, it seems about time to start talking about pre-order bonuses. Capcom is answering the call, offering a plethora of items ranging from DLC to "Super Thumb Fighters."
The DLC is a "Super Classic Costume" pack which contains alternate looks for Dhalsim, Guile, Blanka, Gen and Fei Long. Basically, if you've ever wanted Fei Long to wear a Kato mask, then check out BestBuy.com and...
25.02.
Sega hopes to rejuvenate their flagship franchise with Sonic the Hedgehog 4, but one group in particular isn't on board: deranged Sonic fans. Destructoid discovered an internet petition by a sect of gamers who believe -- based entirely on the exceedingly brief footage that's been leaked -- that their money would be better spent on downloadable versions of the original Sonic.
That's right -- they intend on punishing Sega by throwing money at them. Here's their spiel...
Professional guesser extraordinaire Michael Pachter has said some silly things in the past, but no matter how frequently his prophesies get called out after the fact, the Wedbush Morgan analyst rarely publicly acknowledges any miscalculations on his part. Hindsight's 20/20, of course, but even Pachter himself looked back at his recent $50 Natal prediction and thought it sounded a bit off.
"I probably aimed too low with my $50 Natal comment, as I'm sure that consumers will...
Bungie is currently focusing on Halo Reach, but there's no doubt that they're also looking ahead to the day when they really go independent. For now though, the studio remains vague about their future projects, including whether or not they will be going multi-platform.
Asked by Computer and Video Games whether or not the studio is planning to work with the PlayStation 3, Bungie community manager Brian Jarrard said, "I mean, I think our whole future's kind of...
PlayStation Home has seen a somewhat frosty reception from gamers since its launch, but according to a recent report from BrandWeek, advertisers are starting to give it the cold shoulder as well. The report notes that Sony sat out this year's Engage Expo, an annual youth entertainment technology conference, and that Home now has only a few non-endemic (i.e. not game-related) advertisers. "From moment one, it felt kind of clunky," said John Rafferty of Publicis' Denuo....
The PlayStation Network boasts some great RPGs, but Grandia has been a notable omission up until now. That won't be the case starting tomorrow though, as Sony has confirmed the PS1 port for an American release.
Originally released for the Sega Saturn back in 1997, Grandia made it to the PlayStation two years later. It received considerable acclaim on both consoles, and eventually picked up two sequels. It's arguably downhill from the first game, but the combat is a high...
24.02.
Some of the highlights among the console games coming next week to Japan, courtesy of Famitsu magazine's review pages:
- Keroro RPG (8/8/8/7, 31 points): "Basically it's Tales of Keroro," one reviewer wrote -- in other words, an RPG in the vein of Namco Bandai's Tales series with Sgt. Frog characters thrown in. "The took the charm of the [anime] series and built the Tales system around it, creating a very orthodox but still well-made game. The battles are a little...
Japanese game devs care about music a lot. They always have. The first game soundtrack (Namco Video Game Music, above) came out on LP way back in 1984 over there, and CDs for popular Japanese arcade and console games became the norm, not the exception, in Japan starting around the late 1980s.
It makes sense, then, that Japan's game composers are still so well known around gamer circles these days. Here are a few tidbits from some of them, as featured in the enormous...
Nobuo Uematsu is 50 years old. 51 in a month. He can't really believe it, either -- but what's even more unbelievable to him is that he's spent nearly half of his life composing music for video games.
"I wanted to be a composer, but I had no way of becoming one," Uematsu told Famitsu magazine in an interview published this week. "I had no connections, so I just bummed around my hometown of Hiyoshi [in Kanagawa prefecture]. This was before video games were really a...
Fans of classic adventure games have had their pick between the PC, Xbox 360, and Wii when it comes to getting their Sam & Max fix, and now it looks like the PlayStation 3 could be next on that list. GamerBytes noticed that The Penal Zone, the first episode from Telltale's third season of Sam & Max, had been rated on the ESRB website, and the PS3 was listed as the platform.
In fact, the PS3 currently stands as the only platform checked off for the season's...
23.02.
Storage space on today's consoles can come at a bit of a premium, especially for those of us still rocking the 20 GB PlayStation 3 from the system's launch. A few years of DLC, PlayStation Network games, and mandatory installs are enough to make any hard drive cry out for mercy. Fortunately, mercy often comes from where you least expect it; God of War 3 will not have an install option when it releases next month.
MTV Multiplayer spotted a Twitter post from Sony Santa...
It's tough developing more than one quality a game a year, even for larger studios. BioWare seems able to handle the workload, but Visceral wants to be reasonable.
Visceral Games general manager Nick Earl recently spoke with Gamasutra about some of the lessons he's picked up over the years, "What I've learned being general manager of the studio for the past nine years is you can overload a studio, and conversely, you can do extremely well financially, and at the end...