Ars Technica reports that a Sony insider has tipped them off to an update for the multiplayer problems that have been plaguing gamers since release. At this time they have confirmed that there is indeed a 18mb download ready.
The Xbox Live Inside has been updated with two updates special for mothers day. The first of the two updates is the “Xbox LIVE’s Top 5 Most Memorable Mothers”
1. Sarah Connor - Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
2. Edna Turnblad - Hairspray
3. Dahlia Malloy - The Riches
4. Bree Van De Kamp - Desperate Housewives
5. Queen Narissa - Enchanted
The second of the two updates is a spotlight on a gamer mom. KilaMOMjaro is spotlighted for various reasons including running a charity organization called Gaming4others.org. An organization that organizes turnaments and events centered around gaming for other organizations. A most worthy cause.
Second quick media update. As announced on the official Xbox website yesterday, the first footage of Gears of War 2 has been released. It looks a lot less grey than the first game.
Quick media update. Famitsu has the first screen shots and character artwork of Cross Edge up today. I couldn’t confirm this, but from what I’ve read, looks as if you can customize the looks of your characters. Two of the screen shots show the same character with a different outfit.
Black Box’s next generation skateboarding game, Skate, is getting a spin-off game which is heading to the Wii and DS. It is titled Skate It. The game will still use the core of the original game’s engine, but developed from that point on for the Wii. It sports 480p, widescreen, support the Wii Balance Board and will have a few multi-player modes alongside it’s in depth single-player career mode. The game will be released sometime in 2008. EA is expected to officially announce the game next week.
IGN had the chance to interviewScott Blackwood who is the executive producer of Skate It and ask him a few questions about the game.
Despite failing to buyout Take-Two before mega-blockbuster Grand Theft Auto 4 was released, EA is still determined to assimilate the company. EA took out a loan; a big one. 1 billion U.S. dollars. They will have until August 9th of next year to repay the loan back plus interest, assuming they buy out the company in it’s entirety. The banks that lent the money are also on standby to provide further funding for EA’s conquest of Take-Two Interactive.
The Playstation Blog has announced this weeks updates for the store. The highlights include the PixelJunkies Monster Encore Add On and a new Haze Demo.
PixelJunk Monsters Encore ($5.99)
PixelJunk Monsters Encore is an expansion pack to the popular and addictive tower defense game, PixelJunk Monsters. Encore includes 15 levels on a new map, “Toki Island”, as well as the ability for players to track their score across both maps. Just as in the original game, Encore continues the simple real-time strategy concept of building, researching and base defending that made PixelJunk Monsters an instant classic.
File size: 67 MB
HAZE Demo
Play the beginning of the Haze campaign in single-player or in cooperative mode (up to 4 players).
ESRB Rated M
File size: 1.43 GB
Yay, the latest figures are in, and thanks to Japan’s Golden Week, hardware sales increased quite a bit in the week ending 4th of May.
It shouldn’t come as a shocker that the PSP dominated the charts, it’s been doing that for some time now after all. It managed to move a staggering 100,870 units this time, which is 8500 more than last week.
The Nintendo Wii managed to sneak in at #2, moving an impressive 71,518 consoles. Additionally, the DS saw an increase of 10,000, selling 52,542 units. More after the jump.
If you own a PSP-2000 model (PSP Slim & Lite), this could be of some interest to you. Sony has brought its Skype-compatible PlayStation Portable headset to North American retailers.
Sadly it will not function on the older origina (fat) PSPs, and if you still want it you’ll have to dish out the slightly harsh sum of USD $30.
Worth it or not, that’s up for you to decide. But it is currently the simplest way of talking to your friends on Skype via your PSP.
Contrary to previous reports, the next installment in the Call of Duty series may not be set in World War II after all. Ativision CEO Mike Griffith has revealed that Call of Duty 5 will take the incredibly popular series to a “new military theatre”.
He stated that they plan to bring the intensity of the more recent COD4: Modern Warfare into a new military theatre, to engage their significantly larger user base which “nearly doubled last year as new users came into the franchise.”
Whether this means it will take place in a futuristic setting or not, we don’t know. But it’s good news for those of us who are tired of all the gritty gray WWII-inspired games.
Criterion Games today announced that their critically acclaimed and award-winning Burnout Paradise is being re-adjusted for a PC release.
This will be the very first Burnout title ever released for the PC platform, and it will include expanded multiplayer gameplay, new enhanced online features and introduces community driven content.
Criterion promises that the PC version will mix the elements and experiences from the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, while adding new and interesting twists of PC gameplay.
Sean Decker, the general manager of DICE (the studio behind Mirror’s Edge) has stated that developers haven’t even begun pushing the limits for the PS3 and won’t until the end of its life cycle.
Decker draws paralels between the PS2 and PS3, saying that “it’s not until several years down the road that you’re able to squeeze every drop” out of a videogame console.
This goes well with Sony’s claims that the PlayStation 3 will stay alive for at least the next ten years, and Decker comments that gamers will have to be patient to see what the Sony console is capable of.
Let’s set the record straight first. Kaz Hirai never says that Sony is or isn’t in very early development cycles of the next Playstation. Microsoft already confirmed the next Xbox, but Kaz thinks it’s best to focus on the current generation, which I wholeheartedly agree with. Kikizo recently interviewed the Sony front man and asked him about future console development and when we could possibly see the next Playstation.
To say, OK, what is the consumer wanting to do in interactive entertainment five years from now, what can we as a platform holder propose, if you will, to the consumers, to say maybe we should so this or that, and make sure that we keep the consumers engaged, and really also make sure that we are leading the market as opposed to following it. So discussions are happening all the time, about both our short term plans - what are we doing this fiscal year, next fiscal year - as well as, what is the world going to look like, what is the landscape going to look like five years from now, or ten years from now.
Hirai then goes on to basically make the point that we really should not be preoccupied with the next generation of consoles when the current generation has only just begun. Many great games have been announced for all of the current generation consoles and are still quite a ways off. Hopefully ones even greater will appear later in this generation’s life cycle.
Wednesday, the Video Games Ratings Enforcement Act was introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by Jim Matheson (D-Utah) and Lee Terry (R-Neb). We’ve seen this before. Basically it’s purpose to stop minors from buying and renting games rated M or AO by the ESRB. If stores don’t check ID’s, they could be slapped with a $5,000 fine.
“The images and themes in some videogames are shocking and troublesome. In some games high scores are often earned by players who commit ‘virtual’ murder, assault and rape,” Terry continued. “Many young children are walking into stores and are able to buy or rent these games without their parents even knowing about it. Many retailers have tried to develop voluntary policies to make sure mature games do not end up in the hands of young kids, but we need to do more to protect our children.”
Not much different here from the amendments introduced at the state level, which are usually stricken down by judges because they are deemed unconstitutional. This is a federal bill, so it being ratified could affect retailers across the U.S.
Ars Technica reports that a Sony insider has tipped them off to an update for the multiplayer problems that have been plaguing gamers since release. At this time they have confirmed that there is indeed a 18mb download ready.
Kotaku has just published some scans from Famitsu of new PS3 RPG called Cross Edge. The game is a turn based RPG featuring characters from a variety of companies such as Capcom and Bandai that come from classsi games like Disgaea and Darkstalkers. The game is slated for it’s Japanese release in September.
Roy Taylor, who works at NVIDIA, recently told Eurogamer about the ever apparent problem with the PC game market and how he believes that people pirating the game are sucking the very life out of the industry itself. But he’s not going on one of those rants most industry figureheads do. He is truly disappointed with the said pirates because he realizes how passionate most PC gamers really are.
“One of the things that I find frustrating is that PC gamers tend to be very passionate, and they love the people that make great PC games. If you ask any PC gamer what they think of John Carmack, they’ll say he’s a hero. What do they think of Tim Sweeney? He’s a hero. Ken Levine is a hero. And yet many of them, sadly, will go and steal from them. I just don’t get that, I really don’t.”
Electronic Arts has announced that they are launching a new sub-brand to their Sports line. This brand is going to be featuring a casual emphasis on sports. The first title that will be released is Face Breakers. A copy of the press announcement follows.
UPDATE: Ars Technica adds that this new brand will also be the home of Wii-focused games;
These versions will go further than the “Family Mode” included in the Wii version of Madden, adding simpler graphics and motion controls to make the overall game easier and more fun.
