Today Game Developer magazine announced Nintendo has been selected as the top videogame publisher for the second year in a row. The top 20 list is determined by a survey of over 300 game industry professionals and takes into account factors like revenue, average review scores, and number of releases. Electronic Arts (EA) long held the number one spot until Nintendo unseated the company last year, although EA is still at number 2.
"Nintendo's second chart-topping appearance in a row underscores the extraordinary popularity of the firm's first-party Wii and DS franchises – we congratulate them on their achievement," said Simon Carless, director, Game Developer Research.
Rounding out the top 5 are Activision in the third spot for the third year running, Ubisoft holding onto fourth, and Sony Computer Entertainment in fifth. Sony was able to leap into the top 5 by releasing more games, bettering its review scores, and preserving positive relationships with those surveyed.
Codemasters (Grid, Overlord) reappeared on the list at number 18 after a two-year leave, bumping last year's new addition, Atlus, off entirely.
EA has abandoned work on Command & Conquer shooter Tiberium.
"It is confirmed that Tiberium has been cancelled, as the game was not on track to meet the high quality standards set by the team and the EA Games Label," the publisher told Eurogamer. "Work on all other projects is continuing as normal."
The result will be sackings for a fair amount of the EA Los Angeles staff, although the publisher has promised to try and reposition them internally.
Tiberium last hit headlines in July when EA held the title back for quality purposes. The shooter had been poised to grant players control over ground troops, vehicles, air squads and ion cannon strikes in order to fend off nasty aliens.
Tiberium's demise follows a much more stringent EA quality control policy put into effect by silver-haired boss-fox John Riccitiello.
Worryingly, the move also suggests shooters based on the famous RTS series will never really work, as Command & Conquer: Renegade proved in spectacular fashion back in 2002.
After the great success of our previous competition, we are delighted to announce our second competition
This time around the Competition is taking a fairer route, you can only enter Games into this competition. The rules are changed too. The games you can enter are no longer tied to being "Retro themed", no. You can now enter whatever type of Game you like, but you can still gain a 15% judging bonus for having "Retro elements/level" in your Game.
The Prizes this time around are a little different but still awesome. First place is Rock Band 2 + Drums, Guitar, and Microphone! The other places are Retro Consoles all in there Original Boxing and complete with games & controllers! We decided to offer these as the additional prizes due to the nature of our "Retro" orientated site.
As an added bonus the top poster here between now and the end of the competition (staff excluded), will receive a copy of Halo: Combat Evolved for the Xbox + a mystery gift!
The Competition Starts Now (October 1st 2008) & will run until January 1st 2009.
So without further delay, here are the Prizes on offer this time around.
1st Place:
Rock Band 2 for the console of your choice.
Includes game, drums, guitar, and microphone.
2nd :
First pick from the Retro Game Systems listed.
3rd Place :
Second pick from the Retro Game Systems listed.
4th Place :
Remaining Retro Game System listed.
2nd > 4th Place Prizes:
Nintendo 64 Console + 1 Controller & Games.
Games include : Super Mario 64, Goldeneye 007, Zelda ocarina of time, Diddy Kong racing & Castlevania 64.
All games are boxed.
Or :
Sega Dreamcast Console + 2 Controllers, 1 VMU, 1 Dreamkey & Games.
Games include: Fighting Force, Sonic Adventure & Sega worldwide soccer 2000.
All games are in cases.
Or :
Sega Saturn Console + 1 Controller & 6 Games.
Games include : Destruction Derby, Command & Conquer, Virtua Fighter 2, Daytona USA, Sega Rally Championship & Loaded.
All games are in cases.
5th Place:
Final fantasy VII for PSX.
Top Poster (From Oct. 1 to Jan. 1) Prize:
Halo: Combat Evolved for Xbox + A mystery gift!
Competition Start Time & Closing Date :
The Competition will run from October 1st until January 1st.
Platforms Allowed :
We accept entries for the following consoles :
Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS, and PC (XP/Vista).
Programming Languages Allowed :
You may use any programming language you wish. However, you must make sure to include any additional data files needed
in order to run your game (ie. .dll's).
Competition Rules :
1) You MUST include the RetroEmu Winter Coding Competition 2008 Splash screen in your entry. There is no exception to this, if your entry doesn't include it, it isn't entered.
2) There is a 10% Judging bonus for the quality of the Splash screen implementation.
3) You may post about your entry at other sites, but you may NOT upload the file to any other site bar RetroEmu during the duration of the competition (if you are having issues uploading your entry please contact me).
4) You can update your game as much as you like during the competition.
5) There is a 15% Judging Bonus for having "Retro Themed Elements/level" in your Game.
6) The Competition runs from now (1st of October) until January 1st, 2009.
7) The Judges are Zack & HardHat while users will account for 10% of the overall judging.
8) Both open source and closed source entries are allowed.
9) Your entry should include a screenshot and sufficient information regarding your Game.
10) The deadline is set to the date specified above, unless there is significant demand for this to be extended it will not be changed.
Splash Screen Images :
The Splash screen images, including PSD and Font files used are available to view/download Here
Entry's :
Please submit your entry or comment on other entry's Here
Spread The Word :
Help the competition grow & help RetroEmu at the same time by DIGGING This Story
Eurogamer breaks news that German games publisher DPT Entertainment will be making an MMORPG based on Tad Williams' Otherland series of books. As anyone who has read the books will know, this could be an interesting new spin on virtual worlds. Quoting:
"For want of a better soundbite, let's call it the first cyberpunk MMO: a virtual world about virtual worlds, in which your avatar is an avatar, the NPCs play NPCs, and you explore a multiverse in which you might be in realistic historical surroundings one minute, and cartoon fantasy ones the next. Everything changes, even your own appearance, and nothing is even pretending to be real. ... You start the game as one of those consciousnesses in a place called the Land of the Lost, a nightmare scenario which you're trying to escape. You'll run, be killed, and reborn in a 'baby' state as a simple, low-rent sim (though we suspect the game won't be using that term, for obvious reasons) - a blank, featureless avatar that can be male, female or even neither."
The makers of MMOGlider have been found in breach of the World of Warcraft terms of service and are forced to pay Blizzard $6M in damages."
There's a lot of sticky issues on this one. Mostly I'm amazed that MMOGlider had that kind of cash.
New titles have dominated the Japanese software sales chart for the week ended September 28, taking up six of the top ten places, according to data provided by Media Create.
Super Robot Wars Z for the PlayStation 2, by Namco Bandai, broke into the chart at number one by selling 366,000 units. Pokemon Platinum for the Nintendo DS has fallen to second place, followed by Rhythm Tengoku Gold, also for the DS, maintaining its spot at third.
Sega's World Destruction for the DS debuted on the chart in fourth place with 56,000 units and Namco Bandai's Kinikkuman for the PS2 secured fifth place at 35,000 units. Dragonball DS came in seventh, preceding another new title, X-Edge, for the PlayStation 3, selling 22,000 units.
Wii Fit dropped two places from last week to eighth, while the chart was closed by two new titles, Aquanaut's Holiday for the PS3 with 18,000 units at nine and Disaster: Day of Crisis for the Wii with 14,000 units at ten.
Japanese software chart follows:
01. Super Robot Wars Z (PS2)
02. Pokemon Platinum (DS)
03. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS)
04. World Destruction (DS)
05. Kinikkuman (PS2)
06. Dragonball DS (DS)
07. X-Edge (PS3)
08. Wii Fit (Wii)
09. Aquanaut's Holiday (PS3)
10. Disaster: Day of Crisis (Wii)
Konami has popped out a PC demo of Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 to go alongside the previously announced PS3 and 360 versions, also out today.
The sampler weighs around 1GB, and lets football fans jump into the collective boots of Man United, Liverpool, Madrid and Barcelona. Italian and French national squads are also playable. But no Arsenal 1/10.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009, we're promised, has been rebuilt to sport new visuals, models, animations and more. Konami certainly talks a good game.
We'll see just how good when the game appears on PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2 and PSP on 17th October.
With all of the furor whipped up in the wake of Spore's restrictive digital rights management system, DRM is a hot-button issue with PC gamers the world over. In an interview with Shacknews, Bethesda spokesman Pete Hines reveals that Fallout 3 - one of the year's most anticipated games for the PC - won't come with any sort of DRM at all.
Pretty similar to what we did for Oblivion, which was—we basically don't do any—we do the mildest form possible. I actually don't know if I even want to get into what it is that we exactly do, but we try to be really noninvasive when it comes to that stuff.
Note that Oblivion only required the disc in the drive, a restriction that even players who buy a copy are likely to overcome with a hack for the sake of convenience. Not as good for Bethesda as something more secure, but the fans will surely appreciate the hell out of it.
The Sony PlayStation Portable was the fastest selling piece of hardware in Japan between March 31 and September 28, according to Famitsu, and reported by Kotaku.
Mario Kart Wii was named the highest selling software title for the first half of the year. However this came as news broke that the Japanese home videogame market shrunk 21.3 per cent during the same six month period.
Developer Mythic Entertainment has released patch 1.01 for its popular MMO, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The update "contains enhancements and fixes that you have rightly identified and brought to the forefront of our attention. Target Nearest has been revamped, the pesky "Target Out of Range" bug has been squashed, we've fixed bugs with /ignore and your friends list, resolved an issue with disappearing pet windows on zoning - and more," wrote the game's Live Producer Destin Bales.
Highlights for the patch are posted below
Players no longer need to scroll down through the EUALA when logging into the game. The window now defaults to the bottom, and players need only check the Agreement box and click accept.
The war against the gold sellers continues! We have made improvements to the Appeal system to allow players to report spam messages from gold sellers more quickly.
TAB-targeting should now more consistently select the nearest enemy in the player's field of view.
Corrected an issue that was preventing players from adding new friends to their friend list even while the number of existing friends was below the list's size limit.
Fixed the issue that was causing players to sometimes get stuck in a particular animation state.
Monsters which change velocity while moving in combat should no longer return "Target is Out of Range" sometimes when attacked by players.
The /ignore command will now work more consistently.
In response to player feedback, we have made improvements to player pet movement and behaviors.
The Pet window should no longer disappear when its master is zoning or entering the game.
We made many UI fixes including a new "autoloot" feature requested by many players.
Guild cloaks will now display their heraldry properly.
We have made several improvements to the chat window, and it should now be more intuitive to use and set up. A number of chat window issues were resolved in the process. We are continuing to work on your requests about chat, with more improvements to come in the future.
For a more comprehensive list of patch notes, visit Warhammer Online's official web site.
It's that time of the week folks and again sales for consoles in Japan have another miserable week as the data and rank changes below imply:
Nintendo DS Lite: 57,847
Nintendo Wii: 26,314
Playstation Portable: 25,671
Xbox 360: 11,291
Playstation 2: 9,848
Playstation 3: 8,275
In rough figures, first off: the DS Lite stays on top, down 4,000. The Wii is 2nd, down 3,600. The PSP goes down 3,000. The Xbox 360 comes 4th, down 2,500. The last 5th and 6th places see a change; the PS2 increases by 1,700, swapping places with the PS3 which slides downwards into 6th by 500 units. Stats via Media Create
UK publisher Codemasters is to shut down the servers for the massively multiplayer online game RF Online in Europe and North America.
The company said that it was unable to reach a deal with Korean developers of the title CCR, and will not be renewing its contract.
"Our licence for RF Online is due to expire shortly and unfortunately, despite several weeks of negotiations with CCR, the Korean developers of the title, we have not been able to reach an agreement to renew the contract," said the company in a statement.
"This means that Codemasters will no longer have the right to operate the service in the Western territories it currently provides service in and therefore we are obliged to shut down all associated game services before the licence expires."
The last full day of service for the game is November 9, with servers shut down for good on November 10.
New accounts can no longer be opened, and the company will not be selling any more in-game credits.
RF Online was Codemasters first MMO title and has been running for three years.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has topped the US PC sales chart for the week ended September 20, according to data provided by NPD.
Mythic's MMO was followed by Spore in second place, which dropped a place from last week, and Warhammer Online Collectors Edition at third. Crysis: Warhead debuted on the chart in fourth place and The Sims 2 Apartment Life took fifth place.
World of Warcraft: Battle Chest came in at number six, Spore Galactic Edition came in seventh and The Sims 2 Double Deluxe secured a spot at eighth place.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky took ninth place and closing off the chart at number ten was World of Warcraft.
US PC chart follows:
1. Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning
2. Spore
3. Warhammer Online: Age Of Reckoning Collectors Edition
4. Crysis: Warhead
5. The Sims 2 Apartment Life
6. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
7. Spore Galactic Edition
8. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
9. Stalker: Clear Sky
10. World Of Warcraft
There's a few months left until the latest title in the 100 million selling Sims series releases, but just in case you'd forgotten, EA's released a bunch of new screens.
Built on a new engine and three years in development, The Sims 3's initial feature-set will include a new "seamless, open neighbourhood". This ,coupled with fresh environments including a beach, mountains and town centre, and a new Create-A-Sim mode allowing for "unlimited" character customisation.
The game's out at stores and via download worldwide on February 20, 2009.
Anti-Globalism writes with this excerpt from AFP via Yahoo! News:
"Seoul-based 'free-to-play' computer game titan Nexon on Wednesday blasted into the US videogame arena with a 'Combat Arms' online first-person shooter title that makes its cash from optional 'micro-transactions' by players. The game makes its money from players that buy animated helmets, outfits, emblems or other virtual items to customize in-game characters. To keep the battlefield even, players earn experience or advanced weaponry by skill so people essentially can't pay for power. ... Startups and established game makers including Japanese goliath Sony are venturing into the free computer game market, according to DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole. 'It looks like it could be very big,' Cole told AFP. 'It's one of the things everybody seems to be looking at. The challenge is it is a very new model and it remains to be seen whether customers used to a free model will be tight when it comes to actually spending money on it.'"
Massively takes an interesting look at the server model used by EVE Online. It's unusual for a MMOG because it doesn't divide the player load among different servers or "shards." Instead, the same cluster handles the entire EVE universe and all 300,000 subscribers (total; record concurrent load is around 40,000). The EVE Dev Blog recently announced some upgrades to keep things running smoothly and allow for battles involving over 1,000 ships. They call the technology StacklessIO.
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
The tide of games are still coming in, flooding our warehouse. Raiden IV, the highly anticipated newest installment to the exhilarating shooter Raiden has arrived on your Xbox360™ consoles. Fly your craft, shoot down enemies, save the planet from invasion and admire the cutting edge graphics displayed by your 3rd generation system.
Eeriness is permeating the air even before Halloween arrives. Come home to Silent Hill and rediscover the resort town's disturbing history and residents as you search for your brother. With the graphical and audio capabilities of the PlayStation3™, the line between your nightmare and reality will be forever blurred.
Quite a lot of Japanese adventure games spot engaging storylines and by localizing them for English speaking audiences, more people can enjoy them. Time Hollow is a good example of such games. Stepping into the shoes of the protagonist, you right the errors that happened in the past in order to retrieve your disappeared family.
Aside from Time Hollow, the comedic RPG Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure and Disgaea Afternoon of Darkness [Nintendo DS™, Sony PSP™]are also localized for English speaking audiences. Save Prince Charming from the witch's clutches and claim your rightful place as the overlord of the netherworlds.
Although this summer has already passed us by, it is never too late to spend time at the beach with a team of pretty girls.
Rito, plagued with bad luck in the romance department is finally getting a break in To Love Ru Trouble: Rinkaigakkou-Hen [Limited, Standard Editions]. He is sent by the school master to spend time at a seaside academy. But again, paradise can always turn into a nightmare and vice versa with the team of alien girls around.
Namco Bandai Games has released fighter compilations for PlayStation2™. Namco Classic Fighter Collection and Shonen Jump Naruto: Ultimate Collection both feature three exciting games. It is your great chance to try out the games you have meant to play but missed and save some cash in the process.
Besides classic games, new fighters are released on Sony's newest portable console. Ikkitousen the hit manga is converted to Eloquent Fist [Limited, Standard versions] for Sony PSP™. The voluptuous girls are rebirths of warriors from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms era and their conquests have just begun, enjoy the fan service provided along with the adrenaline pumping combat.
After pummeling the living daylights out of your opponents in fighters and destroying enough air crafts in the shooters, its time to contruct something. In SimCity Creator [Nintendo Wii™, Nintendo DS™] you have absolute power over a city, after all, as its creator you can make additions to it and destroy it at will.
Last but not least, something for the whole family. The high ranking quiz show Buzz Quiz TV came out on PlayStation3™, complete with 4 buzzers. Test who is the most knowledgeable person in your family by challenging each other in the game show. Aside from using the TV, you can take your favourite program with you wherever you go as Buzz! Master Quiz is available on Sony PSP™.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™
Baja: Edge of Control US US$ 64.90
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway US US$ 64.90
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway [Limited Edition] US US$ 79.90
Lego Batman ASIA US$ 49.90
Madden NFL 09 (en Espanol) US US$ 64.90
Raiden IV JPN US$ 64.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (Chinese language Version) ASIA US$ 64.90
Warriors Orochi 2 US US$ 54.90
PlayStation3™
Baja: Edge of Control US US$ 64.90
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway US US$ 64.90
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway [Limited Edition] US US$ 79.90
Buzz Quiz TV (w/ 4 Wireless Buzzers) US US$ 79.90
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PlayStation3 the Best) ASIA US$ 39.90
Madden NFL 09 (en Espanol) US US$ 64.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 (Chinese language Version) ASIA US$ 64.90
Silent Hill: Homecoming ASIA US$ 59.90
Warhawk (PlayStation3 the Best) ASIA US$ 29.90
Nintendo Wii™
Brothers in Arms: Double Time US US$ 54.90
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts '09 US US$ 44.90
Jikkyou Powerful Major League 3 JPN US$ 59.90
Lost in Blue: Shipwrecked! US US$ 34.90
Margot's Word Brain US US$ 34.90
Pitfall: The Lost Expedition US US$ 44.90
Samba De Amigo US US$ 44.90
Sim City Creator US US$ 54.90
de Blob US US$ 59.90
PlayStation2™
Jikkyou Powerful Major League 3 JPN US$ 64.90
Kanuchi: Shiroki Tsubasa no Shou JPN US$ 64.90
Kanuchi: Shiroki Tsubasa no Shou [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.00
Kanuchi: Shiroki Tsubasa no Shou [Special Limited Edition] JPN US$ 99.90
Namco Classic Fighter Collection US US$ 34.90
Pac-Man Power Pack US US$ 34.90
Shin Sangoku Musou 5 Special JPN US$ 64.90
Shonen Jump Naruto: Ultimate Collection US US$ 34.90
SingStar Pop Vo.l 2 US US$ 34.90
The Magician's Academy (eb! Kore) JPN US$ 34.90
Warriors Orochi 2 US US$ 34.90
Nintendo DS™
Babysitting Mania US US$ 24.90
Brain Quest Grades 3 & 4 US US$ 34.90
Dinosaur King US US$ 34.90
Disgaea DS US US$ 34.90
Drop Cast US US$ 24.90
My Little Pony: Pinkie Pie's Party US US$ 24.90
My SAT Coach with The Princeton Review US US$ 34.90
My Secret World by Imagine US US$ 34.90
Nakamura Sumiko Tettei Shidou: Shin Toeic Test 1-hi-1-fun DS Lesson JPN US$ 29.90
Nancy Drew: The Hidden Staircase US US$ 34.90
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure US US$ 34.90
Shaun the Sheep US US$ 34.90
Sim City Creator US US$ 34.90
Time Hollow US US$ 34.90
Unknown Soldier: Mokuba no Houkou JPN US$ 48.90
World Destruction: Michibi Kareshi Ishi [ebten DX Pack] JPN N/A
Sony PSP™
Buzz! Master Quiz US US$ 24.90
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness ASIA US$ 14.90
Dragoneer's Aria ASIA US$ 14.90
Ikkitousen: Eloquent Fist JPN US$ 48.90
Ikkitousen: Eloquent Fist [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 95.00
Lego Batman US US$ 34.90
To Love Ru Trouble: Doki Doki! Rinkaigakkou-Hen JPN US$ 48.90
To Love Ru Trouble: Doki Doki! Rinkaigakkou-Hen [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 74.90
PC Games
Mount & Blade (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 39.90
The Settlers VI (Gold Edition) US US$ 34.90
Video Game Soundtracks
Ayakashi No Miya Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 27.90
Chocobo Racing Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 19.90
Crest of Z's Toshin No Monsho (Super Robot Taisen Z Intro Theme) (~Jam Project) JPN US$ 11.90
Fate / Tiger Colosseum Upper Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 19.90
Hakuoki - Shinsengumi Kitan Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 27.90
Knights in the Nightmare Perfect Audio Collection Plus JPN US$ 29.90
Neo Angelique Abyss Neo Angelique Abyss Second Age Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 30.90
Tears To Tiara Kakan No Daichi Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 28.90
Yuu Kobayashi's Monthly Fumiaki Kobayashi Radio CD October Issue (~Yuu Kobayashi) JPN US$ 32.90 Game Guides and Magazines
Aoikuro no Kusabi: Hiiro no Kakera 3 Official Visual Fan Book JPN US$ 38.90
Arcadia Magazine [November 2008] JPN US$ 12.90
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Codes & Cheats Fall 2008: Prima Games Code Book US US$ 9.90
Dengeki PlayStation Final Fantasy XI Dengeki Ryodan Chronicle 2 2004.6-2006.12 JPN US$ 29.90
Famitsu Connect! On "Connect! On" Vol. 23 November JPN US$ 11.90
Famitsu PSP + PS3 [November 2008] JPN US$ 10.90
Famitsu Wave DVD [November 2008] JPN US$ 16.50
Famitsu Xbox 360 [November 2008] JPN US$ 10.90
Guilty Gear 2 -Overture- Setting Sourcebook JPN US$ 43.90
Hoshizora no Comic Garden Official Visual Fan Book JPN US$ 33.90
Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 15 Perfect Guide JPN US$ 26.90
Labyrinth City Night Wizard 2 Source Book JPN US$ 32.90
Lego Batman: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Maple Story Master Book 2008.1 Version JPN US$ 23.90
Maple Story Master Book Ikusei Hen 2008. 01 Version JPN US$ 23.90
Memories Off 6: Trial Wave Visual Guide Book JPN US$ 36.90
Nobunaga no Yabou Online Souha no Shou 2008.8.27 Official Guide Vol.1 JPN US$ 32.90
Soul Calibur IV Perfect Guide JPN US$ 29.90
Street Fighter IV Master Guide JPN US$ 23.90
Super Robot Taisen Z Player's Bible JPN US$ 18.90
Tales of Symphonia: Knight of Ratatosk Perfect Tour Guide JPN US$ 31.90
Tech Gian Brilliant 2008 Vol.1 JPN US$ 35.90
Weekly Famitsu No. 1033 (2008 10/10) JPN US$ 7.90
Here is a quick outlook what's expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™
NBA Live 09 US US$ 64.90
NBA Live 09 ASIA US$ 44.90
Silent Hill: Homecoming US US$ 64.90
PlayStation3™
NBA Live 09 US US$ 64.90
NBA Live 09 ASIA US$ 49.90
Silent Hill: Homecoming US US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility US US$ 59.90
PlayStation2™
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts '09 US US$ 34.90
Onimusha: The Essentials US US$ 39.90
Nintendo DS™
Kirby: Super Star Ultra US US$ 39.90
Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood US US$ 39.90
Sony PSP™ Macross Ace Frontier JPN US$ 48.90
Valhalla Knights 2 US US$ 44.90
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has dominated the Spanish and German software sales charts for the week ended September 21 by taking up seven places across the two regions' top ten, according to data provided by Media-Control GfK International.
PC MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has assumed the top spot of the German chart, followed by Crysis: Warhead in second place and Civilisation IV: Colonization at third, also for the PC.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the PlayStation 3 took fourth place, Mario Kart Wii secured fifth place, Wii Fit took sixth place and Spore for the PC came in seventh.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the Wii, PlayStation 2, and Xbox 360 closed off the chart at eighth, ninth and tenth places respectively.
Nintendo's Wii Fit topped the Spanish software sales chart, preceding Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the PS3 in second place and Warhammer Online in third.
Wii Play came in at number four, Mario Kart Wii at five, and Star Wars the Force Unleashed for the PS2 and Wii came in at six and seven respectively. Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction for the PS3 came in eighth, Play Chapas: Football Edition for the PlayStation Portable came in ninth, and Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? for the DS took tenth place.
German software sales chart follows:
1. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC)
2. Crysis: Warhead (PC)
3. Civilisation IV: Colonisation (PC)
4. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS3)
5. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
6. Wii Fit (Wii)
7. Spore (PC)
8. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Wii)
9. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS2)
10. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Xbox 360)
Spanish software sales chart follows:
1. Wii Fit (Wii)
2. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS3)
3. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC)
4. Wii Play (Wii)
5. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
6. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS2)
7. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Wii)
8. Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction (PS3)
9. Play Chapas: Football Edition (PSP)
10. Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? (DS)
The RPG of the Year is back - in a Premium Edition packed with Powerful Extras!
Assume the role of The Witcher, Geralt, a legendary monster slayer caught in a web of intrigue as he battles forces vying for control of the world! Make difficult decisions and live with the consequences in a game that will immerse you in an extraordinary tale like no other!
Representing the pinnacle of storytelling in role-playing games, The Witcher shatters the line between good and evil in a world where moral ambiguity reigns. The Witcher emphasizes story and character development in a vibrant world while incorporating tactically-deep real-time combat like no game before it.
King’s Bounty: The Legend is a knight saga, an exciting blend of role-playing adventure and tactical battles reviving glorious traditions of the legendary “King’s Bounty” game.
A hero (warrior, mage or paladin) and a whole army of his loyal companions in arms travel across a huge continent made up from dozens of linked locations. Setting kings on the throne and overthrowing them, saving princesses from the claws of dragons, searching for pirates’ treasure chests, vanquishing villains who are attempting world domination. These are the everyday challenges the player will face in the game.
It's the Ultimate! For the first time ever, all the animals and all the thrills of Zoo Tycoon 2 and its four fun-filled expansion packs—Extinct Animals, Marine Mania®, Endangered Species, and African Adventure—are combined into one most excellent zoo. Welcome to Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection!
Make way for more than 100 of the most awesome animals ever—from the aardvark to the zebra. And don’t forget those dinos, from the toothy T. rex to the spiky doedicurus. Play minigames galore, create marine shows, and more in this zoo of zoos. It’s the ultimate and it’s yours!
Have you ever needed to solder something but the nearest power outlet was too far away, out of reach, or simply not available? Then the modPRO MP-61 Cordless Soldering Iron is the perfect tool for you!
You can use it to solder almost anything that needs soldering but electricity is out of easy reach or unavailable. Over 140 solder joints with fresh batteries.
This lightweight, cordless soldering iron is powered by 3 AA batteries(included), which means soldering without the hassle of cords! Order your MP-61 cordless soldering iron from ConsoleSource.com today for only $24.95.
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Replacement tip: modPRO MP-62
Kit Includes:
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3 x Duracell AA batteries
Safety cap
Small tip-changer tool
1m thin lead-free solder (0.8mm)
Instructions in English, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and French.
I've been on a big Worms kick lately on my Xbox 360. It's the perfect game for four semi-sober dudes to play together, as its full of dicking each other over and explosions while being slow paced enough for even those with the most dulled reaction times to still participate. But when I've tried it with friends via Xbox Live, it just hasn't been as fun.
Kotaku reports that the closed beta for Stargate Worlds, an MMO based on the popular Stargate television shows, will begin on October 15th. Registration is open at the game's website. Gamespy has some new screenshots available, and a Youtube channel has been opened for videos about the game. We discussed the early plans for Stargate Worlds a couple years ago.
AusGamers spoke with Blizzard's Jay Wilson recently about Diablo 3's multiplayer experience. Among other things, Wilson said the developers were making an effort to encourage cooperative gameplay. For example, each player within a particular game will see different loot drops from monsters, which prevents competition over who can click an item the fastest, and encourages trading. He also mentions that a team is already working on methods to prevent cheating, and he discusses why Blizzard games tend to be announced so long before they're completed. "One of the reasons why we actually prefer a really long window before we release a game is because we want a lot of feedback; we want to hear what people like and don't like about it; we want to give them several opportunities to play it before release."
Time to Tell Us Dammit, no make that, 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. Who knows! Not I, not I.
Question: What's the most you've shelled out for a game?
ShackNews reports on an emerging trend which sees game publishers offer one-time bonus codes to unlock extra content for certain titles. Rock Band 2, for example, comes with a code which will allow free 20-song download, but is only usable once. NBA Live '09 has functionality to update team rosters on a daily basis, but will only do so for the original owner. "'This information and data is very valuable and it wasn't free for us,' an EA representative explained on Operation Sports. 'T-Mobile is paying for it this year for all users who buy the game new. This is a very expensive tool to use, and if you don't buy it new, then you'll have to pay for this. It isn't greed at all.'"
Readers currently residing in the United Kingdom -- your wait is over. At long last, you'll be able to experience one of 2007's best selling, most critically acclaimed titles -- Rockstar's controversial thriller, Manhunt 2. After being turned down by the British Board of Film Classification for its "unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone," a reworked, SFEurope version of the game will be launched in the UK for the Wii, PS2 and PSP on October 31. We know, we can barely contain our excitement either.
Sure, it may lack a few of the more grisly elements included in the inappropriate North American version, but if your hands are shaking with anticipation as you read this report -- as we're sure they are -- we imagine you'll be able to overlook a few omitted acts of power drill-related violence.
Before beginning this post, we have a number of important announcements to make:
It is currently October.
Sandwiches, when prepared correctly, are delicious.
Salt is salty.
There are five items in this list.
You are currently reading Joystiq.
What's that? You're not sure why we're announcing things you already know? Perhaps you'll be equally flabbergasted by a rumor that LucasArts and Bioware will likely soon reveal the Knights of the Old Republic MMO that EA CEO John Riccitiello already totally confirmed. The rumor originates from a blurb in UK newspaper Daily Star, the author of which claims he's coming stateside to check the title out at LucasArts HQ. If the author is on the level, we certainly expect one of the two developers to "reveal" the title before his article goes to print. Perhaps they can still surprise the eleven people on the planet that don't already know about it.
Square Enix's Final Fantasy XI is the latest MMO to become available via digital download.
The company's European arm has struck a deal with Metaboli and its partners, including Virgin Media, to sell the PC version of the game online.
For GBP 29.99 or EUR 39.99 you get the 2008 Edition of the game - that's the original release plus all four expansion packs: Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promathia, Treasures of Aht Urghan and the relatively sensibly-named Wings of the Goddess. Plus the standard one-month subscription, naturally.
FFXI follows Age of Conan and EVE Online into the brave new world of non-physical media - both those games are available from Steam or from their developers' websites. You can also buy World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusade as a direct download from Blizzard.
You can now download classic shooter Full Spectrum Warrior for no money at all - legally and everything.
The game is available from FilePlanet as a 1.62GB download.
It was first released four years ago, so youngsters will probably laugh uproariously at the olden days graphics. But it's worth remembering how well Full Spectrum Warrior was received back in the day - Kristan gave it 8/10, no less. So why not give it a go?
Lego Batman is shipping to retailers this Friday, and we've got a bunch of new screens for you.
Featuring an original storyline and 30 levels, TT Games' Lego Batman allows you to play as either a hero or villain, from Gotham favourites such as the Caped Crusader, Robin, Alfred and Batgirl, to The Joker, Two-Face and Mr. Freeze.
The game's out on 360, PS3, Wii, PC, PS2, PSP and DS, so there's no hiding from it.
Me? Loads. Picross DS for one, the world's greatest time consuming, least noticeable time wasting game for the Nintendo DS. I also played... *deep breath* Street Fighter IV, Rambo, Gals Panic S, Deathsmiles, Tenchi Wo Kurau II - Sekiheki No Tatakai, Crush Roller (at various Japanese arcades) and some Cube Runner (on the iPhone). On that last one, I was slightly drunk in a cab and wanted to see how well I'd do while en route to Shibuya. All that other stuff — just for fun. Did pretty well at Deathsmiles, given that it was my first time at it.
Picked up a few things gaming related, an Opa-Opa gashapon, plus a Darkstalkers collection and Fantasy Zone Complete for the PlayStation 2. Can't wait to see both alphabetized on my shelf at home!
Oh yeah, what'd you play this weekend? Sorry for not preemptively asking!
The DCEmu Prize Give Away (Worldwide edition), will be ending on Friday, so if you want to get you hands on one of 3 R4 Revolution R4SDHC DS cards or one of 20 runner up discount codes for Colourful-zone.com enter the contest NOW!
In a fashion not dissimilar from one tiny multitouch device (save the outcry), Microsoft's large multitouch device -- the Surface -- will be getting its very own SDK at Microsoft's Professional Developer Conference this month. The package, which the folks in Redmond have apparently been promising since April, will introduce developers to "vision-based object recognition" and something called ScatterView, and a session at the PDC will detail how the kit "aligns with the multitouch developer roadmap for Windows 7." All exciting stuff, but if we don't see a giant, multitouch version of FreeCell soon, we might just stop paying attention.
Sure, we've seen projects like SplashTop boot a stripped Linux build quickly, but Intel engineers at the recent Linux Plumbers Conference took things a little farther last Thursday, starting up modified versions of Fedora and Intel's own Moblin Linux on an SSD-equipped Eee PC in just five seconds. That's all the way to an idle CPU and disk, not cheating and starting a window manager while background services thrash in the background, mind you -- and it's fast enough that the splash screen was removed from both distros. The changes are being sent back to the Moblin and Fedora trunks, but if you're curious, a detailed overview of the changes awaits at the read link.
FIFA 09 has taken the top spot of the UK software sales chart for the week ended October 4, according to data provided by Chart Track.
EA's football game outsold last year's game by 37.5 per cent, 42 per cent of which was on the Xbox 360 version making it the console's third fastest selling title. FIFA 09 pushed Star Wars: The Force Unleashed down a place to number two, with sales declining 40 per cent from last week.
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway climbed a position from last week to take third place, while Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii both fell two places to fourth and fifth respectively. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 came in sixth, up one place from last week, however Wii Play dropped a place to come in seventh.
Big Beach Sports jumped up one place to number eight, Disney's racing game Pure dropped a place in its second week to number nine and Carnival: Funfair Games came in tenth, down from seventh last week.
The UK software sales chart follows:
1. FIFA 09
2. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
3. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
4. Wii Fit
5. Mario Kart Wii
6. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09
7. Wii Play
8. Big Beach Sports
9. Pure
10 Carnival: Funfair Games
Riot Games has unveiled League of Legends, a competitive MMO attempting to blend RPG and RTS gameplay.
The idea is to occupy the persistent role of a Summoner (RTS general) that watches battles from a far and participates in them through Champion units, which gain levels, unlock abilities and gather items by being active.
Then, eventually, the Summoner will also gain rank, unlocking its own array of abilities to unleash on enemies.
Clans, statistics, rankings, anti-cheat systems and all the necessary features of an online PC game will be included. And Riot Games is even adding a single-player bot mode for people who do silly things like practice.
LOL (what a wonderful acronym) sounds rather like Warcraft III mod Defence of the Ancients, then - and looks like it. But that's no surprise, seeing as staff from Riot Games made the mod.
League of Legends is due for beta testing next year. Until then, pop into our League of Legends gallery for the very first shots.
NBA LIVE 09 is back with the game that rewrites the book on authenticity and connectivity, but is still accessible enough for new fans to get in on the ground floor.
New features like Pick and Roll Control, Defensive Lockdown Control, Signature Playcalling, and Quickstrike Ankle-Breakers make the Xbox LIVE® experience fun, long-lasting, and satisfying.
For those in need of some extra coaching, NBA LIVE 09 takes you to training camp with the NBA Academy that gives you a chance to hone your skills.
Game Features:
This new two-man game mechanic lets you control both the ball handler and the screener, as you set screens and run two-man plays, with on court instructions popping up to guide you through each play
Introducing an accessible in-game playcalling system that pushes on-court visualization to guide you through the play
the most out of your game and hone your skills when you jump into the game with an all-new practice facility
Force your defender to step up and guess what you'll do next
This new risk/reward system locks in your check on defense
With 24 national teams to choose from, you can compete in an international tournament using authentic FIBA rosters and teams, including, the United States, Spain, France, and more
Create your own online league, with all-new drafting, trades, and a single-elimination playoff format
Create your own highlight reel and upload the video to EA SPORTS World to show your passion to the world
Basketball is an unstoppable force and NBA Live 09 is available on these platforms:
Xbox360™
NBA Live 09 JPN US$ 64.90
NBA Live 09 ASIA US$ 44.90
NBA Live 09 US US$ 64.90
PlayStation3™
NBA Live 09 JPN US$ 64.90
NBA Live 09 ASIA US$ 49.90
NBA Live 09 US US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™
NBA Live 09 All-Play US US$ 54.90
PlayStation2™
NBA Live 09 JPN US$ 64.90
NBA Live 09 US US$ 44.90
Sony PSP™
NBA Live 09 ASIA US$ 42.90
NBA Live 09 US US$ 44.90
NBA Live 09 JPN US$ 48.90
While the US versions have arrived, the Asian versions will come within this week and the Japanese versions will be recieved within this month.
A new version of OpenTTD has been released a few days ago.
Quote: "OpenTTD is a clone of the Microprose game "Transport Tycoon Deluxe", a popular game originally written by Chris Sawyer. It attempts to mimic the original game as closely as possible while extending it with new features.
OpenTTD is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 2.0. For more information, see the file 'COPYING' included with every release and source download of the game."
In celebration of the economy being so bad these days (sarcasm), we are having a sale. From now until the 15th of October you will get 10% off your order if you use the promo code screwed when checking out on www.Extreme-Mods.com. There is no minimum, just place an order and use the fore mentioned promo code and you will receive the discount. Tell all your friends and family!!
if you dont know extreme mods heres the site info:
We are your friendly one-stop-shop for all video game console personalization & modification hardware and accessories. We stock a full selection of Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PSP, Nintendo DS case mods, repair parts and gaming accessories. We offer ultra quick delivery to your door, and extra friendly customer service you can count on. Feel free to drop us a line if you have questions regarding any of our products or services. You can put your faith in us to deliver your products quickly and in perfect condition. We take pride in our ultra high level of customer satisfaction, and you will to. So what are you waiting for? REAL Gamers NEED Extreme-Mods!
Spore has regained the top spot of the US PC chart for week ended September 27, according to data provided by NPD.
EA's MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning dropped a place to number two, having previously deposed Spore, followed by Civilization IV: Colonization at three and Crysis Warhead at four.
The Sims 2 Apartment Life held onto its position from last week in fifth place, as did World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest at sixth place.
World Of Warcraft climbed three places to settle at number seven, The Sims 2 Double Deluxe came in at number eight and LEGO Batman debuted on the chart in ninth place.
World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade closed off the chart at ten.
US PC software chart follows:
1. Spore
2. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
3. Civilization IV: Colonization
4. Crysis Warhead
5. The Sims 2 Apartment Life
6. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
7. World Of Warcraft
8. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
9. LEGO Batman
10. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
Ubisoft Shanghai's creative director Michael de Plater has said that piracy is killing the PC gaming market.
The reason the studio's latest title, Tom Clancy's EndWar, isn't being released for the PC on the same day as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions is because users will steal the pirated PC copy, rather than pay for a console version, according to de Plater.
"To be honest, if PC wasn't pirated to hell and back, there'd probably be a PC version coming out the same day as the other two," he told VG247.
"But at the moment, if you release the PC version, essentially what you're doing is letting people have a free version that they rip off instead of a purchased version. Piracy's basically killing PC."
"You know, the level of piracy that you get with the PC just cannibalises the others, because people just steal that version," he said.
Sierra/Vivendi plans to close 21 game servers on 1st November.
Fortunately, these all belong to old titles not yet old enough to be considered retro-cool like stupid plastic sunglasses.
The Sierra site gave no reason for the closures; it could be something to do with the Activision Blizzard merger, or just be because these games are knocking on a bit now.
The DCEmu Prize Give Away (Worldwide edition), will be ending on tomorrow, so if you want to get you hands on one of 3 R4 Revolution R4SDHC DS cards or one of 20 runner up discount codes for Colourful-zone.com enter the contest NOW!
With a Total of 23 prizes up for grabs and only 98 entries so far, that currently about 1 out of 4 chance of winning!! What are you waiting for!!
EA has told Eurogamer that Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 will be arriving first for PC on 31st October and then for Xbox 360 on 14th November.
There's no mention of the PS3 version, which was officially put on hold back in June.
Red Alert 3, unveiled back in February, is nothing if not true to the series' tongue-in-cheek origins, most notably thanks to its live-action cut-scenes starring the likes of Gemma Atkinson, Jenny McCarthy, George Takei, JK Simmons and Jonathan Pryce.
Head over to our Red Alert 3 hands-on preview to see why the game to which they're attached might live up to their admirable daftness.
Microsoft has realized having a feature specifically designed to annoy you is not so great for user happiness, so they're redesigning User Account Control in Windows 7 to be less horrible. Specifically, there will be fewer pop-ups (since there won't be as many dupes, like from IE) and when the red flag goes up, it'll actually tell you why it's stopping you, supposedly in English. More importantly, you'll have a greater range of control over when you get a UAC pop-up, rather than simply "on" or "off." If they do just half of that, it'll be way more tolerable.
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Basketball is one of the most exciting sports to participate in, and doubtlessly most people have played in matches either in gym class or under more official circumstances. For those who excelled in the sport, try your hand at it in the cyberworld, get a feel of what being inside the league is like via NBA 09: The Inside.
For those who are less fond of the sport, you might change your mind after playing a game or two in NBA 2K9 or NBA Live 09 in your own private quarters, without the stress of being under the critical gaze of teachers and other spectators.
Although quite a number of basketball games came out this week, they are by no means the majority of the releases, so for those who have preferences for other genres, please rest assured as there is definitely something to cater to your tastes.
Get involved in inter-galactic action in Macross Ace Frontier on your Sony PSP™. With 40 mechs to pilot and 30 player characters to choose from, build up your CV as an invincible pilot as you complete various missions set out for you throughout the history of Macross. You can even enlist the help of your friends when you get into trouble.
Master a range of hi-tech weaponry in Fracture, where the United States are no longer united. Due to environmental disasters, the east and west of the States are separated from each other. Dissent over the other end's mode of survival arise and war ensues. See if the war will bring an end to the difference between people or will it amplify it?
Everthing has to be fast, action, wits, strategy and combat with Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. Banding together with his friends, Sonic is off to save the world again from a menace that is tearing the world apart and destroying it bit by bit. Gather another three of your friends and prevent the world from suffering the same fate as in Fracture.
After you are done blowing the world up and saving it from total destruction, its time to shake it. Step into the shoes and smelly skin of Mario's alter ego Wario who always ended up doing something good with evil intentions. Find treasure, defeat enemies and save people from deprivation in Wario Land: Shake.
Appearance can be decieving, the pink, round, soft Kirby is a match against King Dedede the huge penguine and Meta Knight the winged sword wielder. Make use of the local Wi-Fi connection to have a Kirby: Super Star Ultra adventure with a friend and DS download to enjoy the mini games with 3 more selected friends.
Aside from all the adventures and action, enjoy what the world can offer in a more peaceful sort of way. Tour the land, namely Japan and appreciate the services and comforts provided to you by the ladies of the railroad industry in Tetsudou Musume [Standard & Limited Edition].
While you are on the trains, take a break from admiring the railroad ladies, whip out your Sony PSP and continue your counter crusade against the Goddess of Judgement in Valhalla Knights 2. The goddess has woken up after eons of enchanted sleep, its time for you to become a hero and act against her.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™
Fracture US US$ 64.90
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock JPN US$ 64.90
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith JPN US$ 64.90
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Bundle JPN US$ 129.90
NBA 2K9 ASIA US$ 54.90
NBA Live 09 US US$ 64.90
Rock Band 2 Wireless Guitar US US$ 89.90
Silent Hill: Homecoming US US$ 64.90
PlayStation3™
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts '09 US US$ 44.90
Fracture US US$ 64.90
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock JPN US$ 64.90
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith JPN US$ 64.90
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Bundle JPN US$ 129.90
NBA 09: The Inside ASIA US$ 59.90
NBA 09: The Inside US US$ 64.90
NBA Live 09 US US$ 64.90
Silent Hill: Homecoming US US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™
NBA Live 09 All-Play US US$ 54.90
Star Wars The Force Unleashed JPN US$ 59.90
Wario Land: Shake It! US US$ 54.90
We Cheer US US$ 44.90
PlayStation2™
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts '09 US US$ 34.90
Daito Giken Koushiki Pachi-Slot Simulator: 24 - Twenty-Four JPN US$ 49.90
Dragon Ball Z Trilogy US US$ 34.90
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock JPN US$ 64.90
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith JPN US$ 59.90
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Bundle JPN US$ 129.90
Infinity Plus [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 95.00
Kamiyo Gakuen Makorouku Kurunugia JPN US$ 64.90
Memories Off Duet - 1st & 2nd stories (Love Game Selection) JPN US$ 19.90
Memories Off Sorekara (Love Game Selection) JPN US$ 19.90
NBA 09: The Inside US US$ 34.90
NBA Live 09 US US$ 44.90
Omoide ni Kawaru-Kimi: Memories Off (Love Game Selection) JPN US$ 19.90
Pipe Mania US US$ 24.90
Star Wars The Force Unleashed JPN US$ 59.90
Will O' Wisp: Easter no Kiseki JPN US$ 49.90
Will O' Wisp: Easter no Kiseki [Twin Pack] JPN US$ 89.90
Nintendo DS™
Brain Quest Grades 5 & 6 US US$ 34.90
Family Tool Attach Case JPN US$ 18.90
Hi! Hamtaro: Ham-Ham Challenge US US$ 34.90
Kawaii Koinu DS2 JPN US$ 48.90
Kirby: Super Star Ultra US US$ 39.90
Margot's Word Brain US US$ 24.90
Nihongo de Asobo DS JPN US$ 48.90
Pipe Mania US US$ 24.90
Pop Cutie! Street Fashion Simulation US US$ 34.90
Snoopy DS: Snoopy to Chuugen Taichi ni Ei ni Iku! JPN US$ 48.90
Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood US US$ 39.90
Tetsudou Kentei DS JPN US$ 48.90
Tetsudou Musume DS: Terminal Memory JPN US$ 48.90
Tetsudou Musume DS: Terminal Memory [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 74.90
Unsolved Crimes US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™
Macross Ace Frontier JPN US$ 48.90
Mahjong Haoh Portable: Jansou Battle (Mycom Best) JPN US$ 19.90
NBA 09: The Inside US US$ 34.90
NBA 09: The Inside ASIA US$ 29.90
NBA Live 09 US US$ 44.90
Pipe Mania US US$ 24.90
Umewaza Ykari no Yasashi Igo JPN US$ 48.90
Valhalla Knights 2 US US$ 34.90
PC Games
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 39.90
Kings Bounty: The Legend US US$ 44.90
Pipe Mania ASIA US$ 29.90
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition US US$ 54.90
Game Guides and Magazines
Araara no Tanpen Koushiki Handbook JPN US$ 17.90
Hyper Hobby [November 2008] JPN US$ 16.90
Infinite Undiscovery Official Complete Guide JPN US$ 32.90
Infinite Undiscovery Signature Series Guide US US$ 19.90
Persona 4 Official Setting And Painting Collection JPN US$ 26.90
Pokemon Platinum Official Perfect Guide Book JPN US$ 18.90
Silent Hill: Homecoming Signature Series Guide US US$ 19.90
Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Weekly Famitsu No. 1035 (2008 10/17) JPN US$ 7.90
Video Game Soundtracks
Harukanaru Toki No Naka De Yumeukihashi - Kumo Tsumugi JPN US$ 29.90
Infinite Undiscovery Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 28.90
Oretachi Ni Tsubasa Ha Nai Drama Series Vol.3 Hiyoko Tamaizumi JPN US$ 20.90
Rockman 9 Arrange Album JPN US$ 28.90
Sekaiju no Meikyuu Piano To Gengakki No Namaensou Ni Yoru JPN US$ 29.90
Side Girls Complete Disc (D.C.Girls Symphony) JPN US$ 28.90
Here is a preview of the very hot games that are coming out next week
Xbox360™
Dead Space US US$ 64.90
Dead Space ASIA US$ 49.90
FIFA Soccer 09 US US$ 64.90
FIFA Soccer 09 ASIA US$ 44.90
PlayStation3™
Dead Space ASIA US$ 49.90
Dead Space US US$ 64.90
FIFA Soccer 09 US US$ 64.90
FIFA Soccer 09 ASIA US$ 49.90
NBA 2K9 ASIA US$ 59.90
NBA 2K9 US US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™
Wii Music JPN US$ 59.90
PlayStation2™
Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Gundam Meisters JPN US$ 64.90
Sony PSP™ FIFA Soccer 09 ASIA US$ 42.90
FIFA Soccer 09 US US$ 44.90
Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida Or 2 JPN US$ 39.90
Is Japan's video game industry recessionproof? With stock markets swinging as violently as a fantasy warrior's sword, it's a significant question.
According to data collected by Enterbrain, the publisher of Famitsu magazine, combined sales of video game hardware and software for the first half of 2008 fell to just 78.7 percent of the level for the first half of 2007, dropping from 3.03 billion yen to 2.39 billion yen.
Year-on-year, hardware sales dropped to 66.5 percent of previous levels, while software didn't fare quite as badly, dropping to 89.7 percent.
The figures were presented by Hirokazu Hamamura, Enterbrain's president and Famitsu's executive editor, at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo on Tuesday. Hamamura shared the podium with another industry expert, Hiroshi Kamide, director of the research department of KBC Securities Japan.
"The software situation in Japan is not so bad," Hamamura said, pointing to four games--Mario Kart Wii, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, Pocket Monster Platinum, and Dragon Quest V--that have sold more than 1 million copies each so far this year, compared to eight to hit that mark in all of last year.
With Wii Music and other highly anticipated titles still to come in 2008, "this half is going to be very good for software," he said.
Hamamura said that thanks to the popularity of Monster Hunter, "PSP [PlayStation Portable game hardware] sales in Japan took off dramatically."
"I think the phenomenon is very similar to what happened with Game Boy many many years ago...I think Game Boy had almost died out at that time, and Pocket Monster basically rescued this hardware. I think it's similar to what's happening with Monster Hunter and PSPs," Hamamura said.
He said the game, played through a network by four people, often in separate locations, is "the beginning of a new trend." Another of the year's top games is the multiplayer Phantasy Star Portable, which sold 606,480 copies in the first half, about triple the number expected. Hamamura attributed this to Monster Hunter having changed the gaming environment.
Despite such success stories, Kamide said the 100-day trend in software sales in Japan has been angling downward for the last year and a half.
"I do believe we are in a global recession at the moment, and the gaming industry does like to have a tag that it's recessionproof," Kamide said. "I think there's two ways of looking at this. Yes, obviously Christmas comes every year and hence the need to buy the next Pocket Monster...The other way of looking at it is, if people can't afford to buy Starbucks coffees anymore, are they really going to go and buy the next Brain Training game?"
Kamide said the industry's recent emphasis on casual gaming is changing. "I think now there's going to be a return to core games...as a lot of companies in the industry realize that core gaming is resilient, [while] casual gaming is actually seeing a slowdown in Japan."
Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced a strong opening to its FIFA Soccer 09 season. More than 1.2 million copies of the critically-acclaimed game were sold through in its first week on shelves at European retail, making it the fastest start in the history of the award-winning franchise.
"FIFA Soccer 09's great kick-off is a testament to our loyal fans across Europe who simply can't wait to get their hands on the game," said Peter Moore, President of EA Sports. "FIFA Soccer 09 is EA's best soccer offering to date featuring game modes such as Be A Pro: Seasons, 10 vs. 10 Online Team Play, FIFA 09 "Clubs" and the adidas Live Season service*. This is our fastest selling FIFA game of all time and it's rewarding to see the game so high on the list of must-have titles this holiday."
FIFA Soccer 09 launches in North America and Asia on October 14, 2008. It will be available on Wii and Nintendo DS in North America on October 28, 2008.
This year FIFA Soccer 09 delivers unique, platform specific experiences that take advantage of the hardware specifications of each available platform -- the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, Nintendo DS, PSP (PlayStation Portable) system and mobile.
Developed in Burnaby, B.C., by EA Canada, FIFA Soccer 09 is localized into 17 languages and sold in 37 countries -- it is the most popular EA Sports franchise globally. FIFA Soccer 09 is rated "E" for everyone by ESRB and 3+ by PEGI.
UK gamers will need to get up early in the morning if they are to take advantage of heavily-discounted consoles at several supermarket chains. So impressive were the price cuts that a number of games retailers have been dispatching staff to their local Sainsbury's to pick up some new stock.
Sainsbury's has been knocking £30 from the price of the Xbox 360 and Wii, bringing the 360 to below £100 for the first time. Staff from GAME, Gamestation and other retailers, both chain store and indie, quickly descended on the bargains and re-upped their own stocks.
“With 360 and Wii on sale at these prices we allowed our store managers to supplement their stock,” explained GAME CEO Lisa Morgan.
Shame the gamers didn't get to enjoy the same benefits, really.
The PC version of Football Manager 2009 is to be made available via STEAM from its retail launch date of November 14th.
Sports Interactive's wildly popular soccer stat grinder will make full use of the digital distribution network, letting would-be cup winners patches and player stat updates as well as videos and other DLC.
The ability to run the game without a copy of the DVD will likely prove popular with hardcore addicts who can't bring themselves to leave the Premiership at home and need to keep a copy on their work PC for just one little go in between, y'know, work. http://kotaku.com/5061128/football-m...ets-steamed-up
Well, what can I say this time, other than the usual round of console sales figures in Japan for last week? Crashmania prehaps? Seems to be the case for the ongoing fall of sales for the region, with the details obtained from Media Create below:
Nintendo DS Lite: 42,385
Playstation Portable: 26,045
Nintendo Wii: 25,330
Playstation 2: 8,618
Xbox 360 : 8,271
Playstation 3: 7,232
Rough figures as usual, DS lite still tops the list, suffers a 15,500 unit drop. PSP comes back to second place, actually up by 400. Wii is 3rd, down 1,000. PS2 overtakes the Xbox 360, down 800 while the latter is down about 3,000. Last in line is the PS3, down 1,000 as well.
This doesn't speak for volumes for Nvidia's credibility. As you might recall, a huge swath of Nvidia's notebook graphics cards—ones with the G84 or G86 chipset—fail at "higher-than-normal" rates. MacBook Pros have the GeForce 8600M GT, which uses the G84. Nvidia assured Apple that MacBook Pros were totally cool. Turns out, they were lying! After doing their own investigation, Apple "has determined that some MacBook Pro computers... may be affected."
The specific models affected are MacBook Pros with the GeForce 8600M GT manufactured between May 2007 and uh, last month. You know you've got a crappy video card if you see screwy or scrambled video, or worse, no video, even if the computer is turned on. Apple will fix any Nvidia graphics card problem for free within two years of the original purchase date. If you've had to pay to get the problem fixed before, Apple will give you a refund.
The fact that Nvidia apparently misled Apple is deeply disturbing, especially as they counter the Inquirer's continuing reports about defective chips. If you've had video problems with MBP, raise your hand please.
Finally we can publish the winners of the very first Scenery Beta. There has been a lot of good Homebrew over our 4 communities (PSP, NDS, Wii and PC), a nice fair play and the feedback of hundreds of user who have been voting and posting in order to improve all the works. Here it is, the final list with all the winners. Congratulations.
We remember you the awards, described in the Scenery Beta 2008 Rules:
1st place: 150€ + Pendrive 2GB
2nd place: 100€ + Pendrive 2GB
3rd place: 50€ + Pendrive 2GB
4th place: Pendrive 2GB
5th place: Pendrive 2GB
We will also give a 2GB Pendrive to those Homebrew which have been presented to the off-contest section, to try to encourage those coders to finalize their projects.
The organization is very happy with the Scenery Beta, so there will be a 2009 edition. Prepare your consoles.
We also want to thank you all the users, Staff Members and specially coders, this little homage wouldnt be possible without them.
Long live the Scene!!!
I give you link to the final results article. We have already send the cash prizes, and we want to inform all the winners that the pendrives will be sent along this month.
Ahead of its release at the end of the month, Fallout 3's PC system requirements have been released have been officially released by Bethesda... and they're not that scary.
Surprisingly, if you're running on a battered old Pentium 4 you'll still be able to get the post-apocalyptic RPG running, but Bethesda would match rather you use a Core 2 Duo and shed-loads of RAM, obviously.
Basically if you can run Oblivion, you'll probably be able to run this.
That game's out on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on October 31. Here are the specs:
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows XP/Vista
1GB System RAM (XP)/ 2GB System RAM (Vista)
2.4 Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor
Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 256MB RAM (NVIDIA 6800 or better/ATI X850 or better)
Recommended System Requirements:
Intel Core 2 Duo processor
2 GB System RAM
Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM (NVIDIA 8800 series, ATI 3800 series)
Supported Video Card Chipsets:
NVIDIA GeForce 200 series
NVIDIA Geforce 9800 series
NVIDIA Geforce 9600 series
NVIDIA Geforce 8800 series
NVIDIA Geforce 8600 series
NVIDIA Geforce 8500 series
NVIDIA Geforce 8400 series
NVIDIA Geforce 7900 series
NVIDIA Geforce 7800 series
NVIDIA Geforce 7600 series
NVIDIA Geforce 7300 series
NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series
ATI HD 4800 series
ATI HD 4600 series
ATI HD 3800 series
ATI HD 3600 series
ATI HD 3400 series
ATI HD 2900 series
ATI HD 2600 series
ATI HD 2400 series
ATI X1900 series
ATI X1800 series
ATI X1600 series
ATI X1300 series
ATI X850 series
Ars Technica did an in-depth investigation into the numbers behind the war against piracy and found that Congress might as well be telling people counterfeit goods cost the economy eleventy billion zillion, for all the truth behind its figures. The oft invoked $250 billion and 750,000 jobs lost because of intellectual property theft have been repeated for over a decade, with virtually no research to back it up.
It's not just industry groups like the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition that's quoting them either. Everyone from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the Patent and Trademark Office to the FBI will repeat the same numbers back at you, pointing evasively to each other when asked which body funded the extensive economic analysis needed to arrive at such figures.
Ars pointed out that, even without looking for their sources, the numbers don't make much sense. 750,000 would mean 8% of all unemployed people in the U.S. lost their jobs to counterfeiting. $250 billion is more than the combined 2005 domestic revenues of the movie, music, software and video game industries. Yet policies are made from this information every day.
Here at Kotaku Towers Shibuya, we'll be playing just about anything with an English language menu. Tomorrow morning, which is Saturday, Japan Time, we'll be sprinting to the Resident Evil 5 and Street Fighter IV stations at Capcom's booth. After about 10:01 AM on the public days of Tokyo Game Show, expect to stand in line for at least 45 minutes to play anything. Even Gardening Mama will have a wait.
With Otomedius Gorgeous, Let's Tap and Space Puzzle Bobble already played, what else is there, really? What you're playing this weekend, of course. Let us know in the comments!
These four days, from Thursday, October 9th to Sunday, October 12th are the highlight of the year for many people as Tokyo Game Show 2008, one of the biggest gaming events in the world, is launched.
The four day period provides a small reverie to everyone suffering under the plunging stock market and the force of the credit crunch. Games are about dreams, the leading developers of the industry say, and the attendants are certainly enjoying this little paradise.
No Earth shattering news is announced, everyone is a little wary, if not completely tired of those and are ready to take delights in small spoonfuls. These small spoonfuls, of course, come in the form of games and related products, be they large scale RPGs or music/puzzle games for casual gamers, everyone is glad for these distractions.
Leaving the gloom outside the gateway of the great halls, let's see what fun the developers are bringing us this year. Since handheld devices are in vogue, a majority of the games announced are on them.
Sega announced an array of games such as Phantasy Star Zero for Nintendo DS™ and Koei featured their famous Musou game launches on Sony PSP™ such as Maou Sairin and Shin Sangokushi Musou Multi-Raid.
Nintendo Wii™ gets new action and sports games such as Naruto Fighters and GI Jockey while the third generation consoles are ready for cross platform sensational games such as Resident Evil 5. Halo 3 and Star Ocean 4 are launching on Xbox360™ while the highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII are coming out on PlayStation3™.
Besides games, products such as figures and even jewelry get their spotlight as you can see on the large catalogue placed in Square Enix's stall.
Last, but definitely not least, are the mood makers of the event. Without them, game shows will definitely be less lively and appealing, they are the booth babes and cosplayers.
Enough talk, as pictures are worth a thousand words, to do the event justice, we will give you a tour around the grounds via our picture galleries:
features
A massive, seamless and dynamic world delivering hundreds of hours of free-form exploration
Two campaigns: play as the “Light” or “Shadow” side, complete with distinct skills, rewards and story-elements tailored to the chosen path
Six exceptional, playable characters, each with a distinct look, capabilities and in-game motivation
Modifiable combat arts: change, upgrade and link together your alter ego’s combat skills to match your playing style
Fight effectively from the back of a number of mounts under your control; equip and upgrade your character’s unlockable special mount.
Deities offer unique combat disciplines and unlock additional quests.
The ultimate multiplayer experience – seamless transition between single- and multiplayer gaming modes via LAN, the Internet, or Xbox Live
Captivating online modes of play challenge gamers in cooperative, PvP and PvE play
description
The fast 3-D action, a multitude of effects, realistic physical features and beautiful animations of the intricate Hi-Res models create a huge and realistic game world, which does not require any reloading.
An innovative emotional system and the depiction of an authentic world give life to both friend and foe. A further striking component of the graphic presentation is the unique Gore Feedback, which displays the strength and power of the player's own game character.
"Sacred 2" is the superb 3D enhanced sequel to the original Sacred, and provides more action, monsters, scenes, weapons, combos and feedback for even more fun.
features
Secrets\Collectables: Learn the locations of all hidden collectables and all secret "mutant-only" areas.
Achievements: Detailed strategies for obtaining every Xbox 360 achievement.
The Fast Track: Fastest 100% completion secrets.
Maps: Labeled maps of the entire Crash Bandicoot universe!
Platform: Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation3, PlayStation2, Nintendo DS
Blizzard just announced that StarCraft II's single player campaign would be split o three separate products! The scope of the single-player experience was so huge they decided to deliver three different products. The first product will focus on the Terrans, with the Zerg next and finally the Protoss. The story will stretch across all three titles.
Wings of Liberty - Terrans
Heart of the Swarm - Zerg
Legacy of the Void - Protoss
Each campaign is treated as a full-fleshed out game, with each title ending the same way. The change will allow for more characters, more missions, and more complete experiences overall.
Mr Modchips the main UK Modchips and Console Modifications/Repairs store has today reopened after a year of being shut down, those who remember will know that Mr Modchips somehow won a court case against them selling Modchips in the UK.
Anyway Mr Modchips sell a massive range of parts and mods and modchips for all these consoles:
PSP
PS2
PS3
Xbox
Xbox 360
Gamecube
GBA
Nintendo DS
Nintendo Wii
On the site they have stated that they will be adding new items all the time so good news for those who liked this shop from before.
Just as the banking markets are in tatters the whole world seems to be plumetting towards a very real recession, i cant speak for other countries but the very high price of fuel which has come down lately but still exceedingly high coupled with every single thing taxed in every area of life and the rather dangerous costs of Gas and Electric which have seemingly tripled.
Add all these together and the very low if any pay rises and its no wonder that people around the world are struggling and that everywhere a massive downturn in sales is inevitable.
Has the Credit Slump Hit you and Your familys ?, i personally foresee that no one hasnt been affected and if anyones to blame who in your eyes is to blame ?
Don't think of it as a split. That's main point StarCraft II lead producer Chris Sigaty was trying to get across during our brief interview following the StarCraft II panel at BlizzCon where it was announced that the single player campaign would be delivered as three separate products - first Terran, then Zerg, and finally Protoss. "Effectively each game in the will be an expansion," Sigaty explained when I told him of our reader's initial concerns about buying the same game three times with a different single player component. Think Warcraft III's The Frozen Throne, or the original StarCraft's Brood War.
Each new single player campaign will come with upgrades and changes to the multiplayer. The main difference here is that instead of giving you a tacked-on extension of the single-player experience as you often find in an RTS expansion, each title comes with a fully realized campaign.
A bunch of Church and charity leaders gather around a table to discuss video games and their impact on society - surely a recipe for military-grade Moral Outrage, no?
Well, no, actually. To interrupt your scheduled grumblings about know-nothing moral guardians and anti-games cliches I bring news that several figures from Church of England groups and charities met at a round table chat organised by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) and came to the conclusion that this gaming lark might actually have something positive to contribute to society.
Mike Royal, national director of the Lighthouse Group said that games can encourage children to talk about 'boundaries' and what behavior is good and acceptable, not only in gaming but other aspects of their lives.
Up next - Jack Thompson "really getting in to Tales of Vesperia".
World of Warcraft player/dorkmaster supreme Prepared has caved to his smack addiction-like dependence on WoW and created 36 separate accounts that he plays simultaneously on an epically ridiculous rig. He claims to spend over $5700 per year just on the game, and plans to pick up 36 copies of the new expansion pack Wrath of the Lich King when it's released.
Despite what that affront-to-mankind-in-motion-picture-form, Spider-Man 3, may have tried to make you believe, merging with a dreaded symbote doesn't turn you into a mopey jerk with an unfashionable haircut and nightmarish dance moves. We feel that the upcoming Activision web-slinging simulator, Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, depicts a much more accurate account of the side-effects of fusion with tar-like alien lifeforms: A widening of the eyes, an elongation of the teeth, and tendrils -- oh, so very many tendrils.
The launch trailer for the aforementioned title, posted above, gives us a good sampling of the symbiotic adversaries we'll be pummeling come Web of Shadows' October 21 release date -- and with a classy touch of Moonlight Sonata to boot. We highly suggest checking it out -- perhaps you'll find some place in your heart that hasn't eternally sworn off games featuring the titular, charismatic wall-crawler.
Bash left the TUD Giraffe in my care this weekend, so I'll close out my shift by asking the juicy question. Here's one for a good discussion: What's the lamest game, or game-related, gift you've ever received? Reaching back, I'm well past the get-gifts-as-games age, although my brother one year gave me a gift certificate to GameFly and then we realized it was only good for paying for a subscription, not used games, so that sucked. But I'm sure there's plenty of you out there with aunts or grandmas who gave you bargain-bin dreck that was camo-marketed to look like that latest game all the kids want. Or, worse, someone knitted you a "World's Biggest Super Mario Fan" sweater and you had to wear it whenever they visited. Anyway, tell us, dammit, in the comments.
There's an interesting article over at The Escapist on the rights of players in virtual worlds — covering a myriad of issues (recourse for theft, ownership of items, DRM, etc) on a global scale, Erin Hoffman has a nice look at some of the issues that have been rearing their ugly heads and what players, companies, and even governments are doing about it. Whatever the resolution ends up being, 'virtual' rights are an increasing problem for parties on all sides of the issue(s) at stake:
The many, many promises that Asus would release a touchscreen Eee by the end of this year have been fulfilled—by pasting an Eee sticker on a touchscreen all-in-one (also promised, though not with touchiness). This all-in-one touchscreen Eee, which you can pre-order in the UK for £399.99, is pretty hobbled: 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive and 15-inch screen running Windows XP. I can only imagine how atrocious the touch experience is, but we'll find out on Nov. 20, or thereabouts, according to Play. And it only kinda apes the old-school iMac aesthetic.
Mythic and Electronic Arts have confirmed that 750,000 players have registered for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.
The MMO was released last month, and broke the publisher's record for the most pre-ordered PC game, with 1.5 million copies shipped to retailers.
"Thanks to our players, the war between the Realms continues to escalate at an incredible pace," said Mark Jacobs, co-founder and general manager of Mythic Entertainment.
EA confirmed that they're working on two different expansions for Will Wright's universe-in-a-hard-drive Spore this morning, both the previously revealed Spore: Creepy and Cute Parts pack and a new expansion for the game's "Space" phase, which is already exponentially larger than its co-levels.
Expect Cute and Creepy to add around 100 new parts -- some cute and cartoonish, some monster-like. "Cute" and "creepy" is fine as a title, but at a price of $19.95 those parts had better be nauseatingly adorable and perversely horrifying. It's due on Nov. 18 and will also work for those who only own the Spore Creature Creator.
The untitled Space expansion won't arrive until spring of 2009, but it sounds substantially meatier than the parts pack. According to EA, "players' space faring creatures will be able to beam down from their spaceships to explore new planets and earn rewards for completing challenging missions" and "a new Adventure Creator will allow players to build and share online their own custom missions."
So, yeah, EA is flogging Will Wright's new creation. If this comes as a surprise, we'd kindly direct you to the Sims aisles of your local game store.
We just got these printouts that supposedly show the fresh SKUs in Best Buy's inventory for the MacBooks that'll be unveiled tomorrow (which we'll be bringing to you live). Besides using colors for codenames, much of the info, like dimensions and stock dates are placeholders, according to the tipster. The real point of interest is the model/pricing breakdown—it's exactly the same as the current lineup, so if true, it means there won't be any price drops at all, much less an $800 dollar MacBook running around.
Here's the color/price/model list, according to the tipster:
GREEN = $1,999.99 - 15" MacBook Pro base model
PURPLE = $2,799.99 - 17" MacBook Pro base model
YELLOW = $1,499.99 - 13" MacBook top end model
BLUE = $2,499.99 - 15" MacBook Pro mid model
ORANGE = $1,299.99 - 13" MacBook mid Model
RED = $1,099.99 - 13" MacBook base model
If any other Best Buy employees out there want to confirm or help us make some more sense out of these, please shoot us an email (about this, or anything else).
features
Get orders from HQ, go on patrol, spot the enemy, and set up a devastating ambush. For the first time, finding the enemy before they find you is part of the challenge
As the squad leader, interact with and get to know your brothers
Players can use or command combined arms teams—machine gun crews create intense fire, bazooka crews destroy buildings and tanks
Hit the dirt and get prone, rip grenades from your chest, and hurl them at your enemies
Team up with your friends online or in your living room and find out if you have what it takes to become fire-team leaders
description
In Brothers in Arms Hell’s Highway you join Matt Baker, Joe Hartsock and the rest of the 101st Airborne Division in Operation Market Garden as they fight to open the infamous Hell’s Highway in a daring bid for a quick end to the war. The classic authentic, squad-based combat series explodes on next-generation hardware, offering unprecedented graphics and features.
Blizzard plans to break StarCraft II into a trilogy of games focusing on the three factions and their stories: Terrans: Wings of Liberty, Zerg: Heart of the Swarm, and Protoss: Legacy of the Void.
The decision was made at the end of last year and nothing to do with the Activision merger, according to lead producer Chris Sigatay (talking to MTV Multiplayer). Apparently more and more cuts were needed to fit all of the stories into one game - something at odds with what Blizzard wanted to do.
The developer said expansions were something it always "intended" to do, anyway - now they're simply set in stone.
Terrans: Wings of Liberty will be the first game released, and Sigatay said there could be a year or more between subsequent instalments. Each game will feature around 26-30 missions and be a full, standalone product in its own right.
And while multiplayer will not require all three games to work, each release will seek to expand the options and units available - a similar sort of system to World of Warcraft and its expansions.
StarCraft II is due out sometime next year. Pop over to Eurogamer TV for a fancy new StarCraft II cinematic trailer.
There's yet to be any official confirmation that the upcoming Diablo 3 will be released on anything other than the PC, but according to recent comments made by Blizzard president Mike Morhaime, it certainly seems like they're strongly considering console versions of the highly anticipated sequel at some point in the future.
"Every game we have the discussion about which platforms make the most sense," said Morhaime in an interview with Shacknews at BlizzCon. "As Diablo 3 takes shape, I think we'll do an evaluation. I think there is a pretty good argument to be made that that type of game might work very well on consoles. There might be some technical limitations though that we might need to get past."
Backing up Morhaime's comments were those made by Diablo 3 director Jay Wilson, who also thinks console versions of Diablo 3 could work well. "We haven't really decided to take the [console] plunge," Wilson said. "We've really come to the conclusion that [Diablo 3] is probably the best fit because the control scheme is actually not that incompatible. So if we were to make that decision, Diablo would be the natural choice."
What Blizzard won't do, however, is do a quick and dirty port. "If we did it, we would want to do a really high quality version -- we wouldn't just want to do a port," Wilson said. "We would never make that decision if we thought we had to compromise the overall quality...we could probably do it at any time, we could release the game and then decide we wanted to do an Xbox 360 version or a PlayStation 3 version."
Seeing a console version of Diablo 3 down the line wouldn't be unprecedented -- the original Diablo eventually received a port on the PlayStation, and there have been countless action RPGs in the Diablo mold released on consoles as well (Phantasy Star Online comes to mind). And that was back in the Dark Ages when online gameplay on consoles was mostly unheard of.
EA’s FIFA 09 holds onto the No.1 position in this week's ELSPA/Chart-Track’s official UK All Formats Top 40 – despite sales being down 47 per cent.
The football title – which has been garnering exceptional reviews – holds off the stern challenge of Lego Batman, which takes second spot in its debut week.
Lego Batman is Warner’s biggest ever video game launch, released across all 7 major formats with 22 per cent of sales on Xbox 360, 22 per cent on budget PS2, 20 per cent on Wii, 17 per cent on PS3, 12 per cent on DS, six per cent on PSP and one per cent on PC.
There are seven different publishers represented in this week’s All Formats Top 10, with four titles selling best on Xbox 360, and the remaining six top sellers on Wii.
Wii Fit steps up one place to No. 3, bouncing back after last week’s dip in stock, while Star Wars: The Force Unleashed slips two places to No.4.
Ubisoft also drops two places as Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway falls to No.5.
Performance of the week goes to Atari’s Family Trainer, which climbs from No.2- to No.9.
The full All Formats Top 20 for the week ending OCtober 11th reads:
1) FIFA 09 – EA
2) Lego Batman – Warner Bros
3) Wii Fit – Nintendo
4) Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – LucasArts
5) Brothers In Arms – Ubisoft
6) Mario Kart Wii – Nintendo
7) Wii Play – Nintendo
8) Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 – EA
9) Family Trainer – Atari
10) Big Beach Sports – THQ
Microsoft is expected to be handing out pre-betas of Windows 7 to devs at WinHEC and PDC soon, and it looks like it's settled on an official name for its next-gen OS -- ahem, Windows 7. Yep, the code name is the real name, which is a first for Windows. According to Mike Nash on the Vista blog, the company went with Windows 7 because it "just makes sense" as the seventh release of Windows, and MS doesn't want to come up with a new "aspirational" name like Vista -- it "doesn't do justice" to the goal of staying "firmly rooted" in the ideas of Vista. Which probably explains why it looks so much the same. Sure, call it whatever you like, just get it out the door on time, okay?
Over the last couple of days I've briefly touched on Diablo III's new rune system, but after talking a bit with the game's lead can designer Jay Wilson for a bit I figured the system warranted it's own post. You see, while past games have featured items that augment the powers of your abilities, the massive scope of the rune system sets it apart.
The basics: As you play through Diablo III you will come across various runes, which can be slotted into active power slots to enhance their powers. Rather than just increasing the damage or range of an ability, however, the runes radically change the form and function of said abilities, almost creating completely new skills with completely different uses.
President George W. Bush signed into law on Monday a controversial bill that would stiffen penalties for movie and music piracy at the federal level.
The law creates an intellectual property czar who will report directly to the president on how to better protect copyrights both domestically and internationally. The Justice Department had argued that the creation of this position would undermine its authority.
The law also toughens criminal laws against piracy and counterfeiting, although critics have argued that the measure goes too far and risks punishing people who have not infringed.
The Recording Industry Association of America and Motion Picture Association of America backed the bill, as did the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
"By becoming law, the PRO-IP Act sends the message to IP criminals everywhere that the U.S. will go the extra mile to protect American innovation," said Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Counterfeiting and piracy costs the United States nearly $250 billion annually, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Rick Cotton, general counsel for NBC Universal, said the bill would give movie and music makers more tools to fight what he called a "tidal wave" of counterfeiting and piracy of everything from medical devices to automobile parts to media by organized crime.
"That is at the core of what this discussion is about," he said. "It is not about teenagers."
Uh oh. ASUS just issued a recall for all Eee Box PCs sold in Japan due to a nasty pre-installed worm. The malicious code dubbed "recycled.exe" may attempt to download additional malware while attempting to replicate itself to attached USB storage devices at the first opportunity. Of course, this isn't the first time that ASUS has been embarrassed by its image burns. Who could forget the the illegal keygen and confidential documentation shipped on those brand new laptops last month? Apparently, only ASUS who has yet to clean house.
As part of the London Games Fringe (an indie adjunct to the full-blown London Games Festival), female gamers will be able to compete head-to-head in the first Grl Gmr Tournament.
Taking place on October 25th at the Rocket on Holloway Road, the tournament will consist of Wii Tennis, Tekken, Unreal Tournament, Kuri Kuri Mix and Mario Kart competitions. Five individual winners will be named, with one overall winner being crowned Champion.
The event is free and supporters and spectators of either sex are welcome.
FIFA 09 has dominated the software sales chart for the week ended October 5, according to data provided by Media-Control GfK International.
The Spanish chart saw the football title take the top three spots on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 respectively. Wii Fit came in fourth, followed by Wii Play at fifth and Mario Kart Wii at sixth.
FIFA 09 for the PlayStation Portable took seventh place and FIFA 09 for the PC came in ninth, preceded by Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the PS3 at eight.
Closing off the top ten of the Spanish software sales chart was the PC MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning at number ten.
Similary, the German chart saw FIFA take a dominant lead on most platforms, claiming the top four spots on PS3, PS2, Xbox 360 and PC respectively.
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, for the PC, came in fifth, followed by Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning at sixth and the Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Collector's Edition at seven.
Wii Fit took eighth place and Mario Kart Wii took ninth, while Crysis Warhead for the PC closed the chart at ten.
The software sales chart for Spain follows:
1. FIFA 09 (PS3)
2. FIFA 09 (Xbox 360)
3. FIFA 09 (PS2)
4. Wii Fit (Wii)
5. Wii Play (Wii)
6. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
7. FIFA 09 (PSP)
8. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (PS3)
9. FIFA 09 (PC)
10. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC)
The software sales chart for Germany follows:
1. FIFA 09 (PS3)
2. FIFA 09 (PS2)
3. FIFA 09 (Xbox 360)
4. FIFA 09 (PC)
5. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (PC)
6. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC)
7. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Collector's Edition (PC)
8. Wii Fit (Wii)
9. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
10. Crysis Warhead (PC)
Step onto the pitch and play professional soccer your way in FIFA Soccer 09.
Experience the most authentic soccer simulation EA SPORTS™ has delivered as you live the fantasy of playing as a professional player and customize the game to suit your style and ability.
Powered by the third generation of the EA SPORTS football engine, FIFA Soccer 09 features more than 250 core gameplay additions and enhancements that deliver the most responsive, intelligent and realistic action ever for the series.
Enjoy turning defenders with more controlled dribbling and ball control, snapping off precision shots with improved first-time shooting mechanics and firing beautifully timed passes with greater accuracy, placing the ball exactly where you want it.
The realistic soccer game is available on all new consoles:
Xbox360™
FIFA Soccer 09 US US$ 64.90
FIFA Soccer 09 JPN US$ 74.90
FIFA Soccer 09 ASIA US$ 49.90
PlayStation3™
FIFA Soccer 09 JPN US$ 74.90
FIFA Soccer 09 ASIA US$ 49.90
FIFA Soccer 09 US US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™
FIFA Soccer 09 All-Play JPN US$ 59.90
FIFA Soccer 09 All-Play US US$ 54.90
PlayStation2™
FIFA Soccer 09 JPN US$ 59.90
FIFA Soccer 09 US US$ 44.90
Nintendo DS™
FIFA Soccer 09 US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™
FIFA Soccer 09 JPN US$ 48.90
FIFA Soccer 09 ASIA US$ 42.90
FIFA Soccer 09 US US$ 44.90
PC Game
FIFA Soccer 09 (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 39.90
Most of the Japanese versions will arrive in November but the PlayStation2 version is coming in December. The US versions are arriving later this week while most of the Asian versions have arrived today, the remaining ones will come within this week.
BattleGoat Studios and Paradox Interactive are pleased to announce the release today of a downloadable update and patch for the strategy title Supreme Ruler 2020 which introduces many changes, refinements, and new content to improve this already outstanding game.
"Once again we've made sure to incorporate many of the great new ideas that our players have suggested on our forum," commented Lead Designer David Thompson.
"The constructive feedback we continue to get on the game is fantastic, and it helps us to continue to evolve this title."
Access to the patch could not be simpler, with players simply clicking on the 'Check for Updates' button via the game's program group.
Features of this Update/Patch include:
A new Scenario, "Saudi Invasion": The Saudi Royal Family has been overthrown, and the U.S. must act quickly to prevent the new militant regime from gaining a foothold in the Middle East and disrupting oil supplies worldwide.
New 'Provocation' reporting in the scorecard to better assess threats from other regions
Multiplayer additions and enhancements including new chat features and enhanced stability
New Units and New Technologies added
New Spy Espionage Missions to enable stealing technologies and designs
Blizzard is still aiming to release World of Warcraft expansions annually, but following Wrath of the Lich King fans won't see another for more than a year, says the developer's chief executive, Mike Morhaime.
"That's still the ideal goal," he told Eurogamer, when we asked if Blizzard still planned to release an expansion each year. "But as with anything, there is this underlying rule that trumps everything, which is that we'll take as much time as we need until... it reaches the expectations of ourselves and our players."
"Right now we're on the longer-than-a-year plan," he explained. "The next one, I think it is still unlikely that we're going to get it down to a calendar year."
Blizzard's boss added: "We're going to continue to try and decrease that, but really the content of the expansion is more important, and I think you guys are going to find with Wrath of the Lich King that it's going to be worth the wait."
Konami has told Eurogamer that Silent Hill: Homecoming has been pushed back to February 2009 in Europe.
The spooky PC, 360 and PS3 game was expected at the end of the month, on Halloween. No reason was given for the delay, and the publisher was reluctant to discuss the matter further.
We suspect regional localisation issues are to blame. Or, perhaps, Konami simply wanted out of a busy release period. Maybe the extra time will even be used to address a few issues.
Silent Hill: Homecoming was released in the US at the end of September and has earned decent critical applause - resulting in a Metacritic average of 73 per cent.
Homecoming is the sixth instalment in the long-running and successful Silent Hill series (Silent Hill: Origins on PSP being the fifth). Team Silent, however, no longer has a hand in the games, having backed out after Silent Hill 4.
Publisher Ubisoft has confirmed that the PC its open-world shooter Far Cry 2, which hits alongside the PS3 and Xbox 360 editions on October 21, will use a slightly different configuration of the SecuROM DRM technology found in Spore and Crysis Warhead.
Ubisoft forum manager bukowski113 posted the details on the game's official forum:
You have 5 activations on 3 separate PCs.
Uninstalling the game "refunds" an activation. This process is called "revoke", so as long as you complete proper uninstall you will be able to install the game an unlimited number of times on 3 systems.
You can upgrade your computer as many time as you want (using our revoke system)
Ubisoft is committed to the support of our games, and additional activations can be provided.
Ubisoft is committed to the long term support of our games: you'll always be able to play Far Cry 2.
Upon Spore's release, the game's DRM generated a fair amount of controversy, to the point where someone filed a class action lawsuit against publisher EA.
EA CEO John Ricitiello recently spoke out on the subject, admitting that while he doesn't personally like DRM, it is needed to fight piracy and is "something that 99.8 percent of users wouldn't notice."
World of Warcraft fans stuck at their desks for another few minutes will be glad to know that the game servers are back up, and players are diving into the Echoes of Doom patch.
There were several delays during the afternoon, but European players got off lighter than their North American counterparts, who were waiting well into yesterday evening to start playing with new skills and earning WOW's first in-game Achievements.
We wouldn't ever log in during work hours, naturally. But friend of Eurogamer MMO, Morten Skovgaard of Denmark's PCplayer magazine, informs us that "it's insane out there".
"Mages and Retnubs are killing left, right and centre," Skovgaard said. "It's a bit like the old days before Resilience. They had better enjoy it before the nerfhammer hits 'em hard!"
News from the front line. Thanks Morten. It's home time, what are you waiting for?
In an about-face not uncommon for the outspoken politician, Mayor of London Boris Johnson has praised the UK games industry while backing this month's upcoming London Games Festival.
It was December 2006 that Johnson publicly blamed videogames for a variety of ills, laying into games consoles as a cause of "ignorance, underachievement... and poverty," amongst young people.
"It is about time, as a society, that we admitted the catastrophic effect these blasted gizmos are having on the literacy and the prospects of young males," Johnson wrote in The Telegraph.
"Millions of seven to 15 year-olds are hooked, especially boys, and it is time someone had the guts to stand up, cross the room and just say no to Nintendo."
However, today, the London Mayor has put his weight behind EA's Be The One event scheduled for October 31 and November 1 in Trafalgar Square.
"I'm delighted that the London Games Festival is back in our city for its third year. It demonstrates the creativity and range of the gaming industry, which, as an important part of London's creative sector, makes a vital contribution to the economy as a whole," said Johnson in the official press release.
"With events across the capital, the festival has something for everyone and illustrates the popularity of this thriving form of entertainment. I am pleased to see EA's Be The One event is returning to Trafalgar Square.
"It was an undoubted highlight of last year's festival, which reinforces London's position at the centre of one the most fastest-growing creative industries in the world."
The 'Be The One BattleDome' will boast multiple gaming pods and screens and will host a series of celebrity and public gaming challenges, as well as live music performances.
As well as EA Sports competitions and the chance for the public to play Mirror's Edge, Spore and Warhammer Online, Johnson will no doubt be pleased that there will also be a number of titles for Nintendo formats, including Littlest Pet Shop, Boogie and SuperStar.
This survey, sent to a random sampling of Windows users, seems to indicated that MS is at least thinking of integrating an instant-on mode to Windows. Existing quick-start features like Splashtop, found on the Voodoo Envy, Eee Box and a number of other machines, are usually Linux-based systems that stick their finger into the BIOS. A Windows-native solution would be a similar setup—giving you access to a limited feature and application set after a few seconds boot. That is, unless the respondents to this survey overwhelmingly select "1-2 minutes" as their definition of "instant."
In the works for quite awhile, primitive though still wildly popular among fans free MMO Runescape has just launched PVP worlds, special PVP servers where players can fight against other players with their precious, precious items at risk. Characters are required to have a combat level of 20 to even enter a PVP world, where combat may be initiated anywhere but a few choice safe areas such as banks, a fact that is sure to make banks very crowded indeed.
Not only is player killing encouraged, it is even rewarded, with item drops pulled from the opposing player's inventory and a special PVP world loot table which includes new PVP specific combat items and XP increasing gloves. The more time you spend in open PVP, the better the rewards. If you can get past Runescape's dated look and feel it could very well be a free PVP paradise. Hit the link for more details.
I wasn't even aware that EA's The Sims 3 was anywhere near the point where they could announce a collector's edition of the game, but here we are, with an official press release and everything. Select North American retailers are now accepting pre-orders for The Sims 3 Collector's Edition, $69.99 worth of virtual people, a drop in the bucket compared to how much fans will spend on expansions over the course of the game's lifespan. Included in the super mega mega edition of the game is the game itself, which is always handy, a The Sims Plumbob USB drive with a matching green Carabiner, an exclusive in-game sports car, a tips and hints guide, and some Plumbob stickers.
The whole shebang should be hitting stores on February 20th, giving The Sims 2 fans around 4 months to collect all of the expansions for that version and then uninstall them to make room for the next batch.
Speaking at the Dow Jones/Nielsen Media and Money Conference, CEO John Riccitiello vetted issues facing Electronic Arts and the industry as a whole. As he sees it, properly targeting in-game ads and piracy are major concerns in growing the industry. He also commented on the Spore DRM controversy, saying that it was blown out of proportion.
"We're still working out the kinks. We implemented a form of DRM and it's something that 99.8 percent of users wouldn't notice. But for the other .2 percent, it became an issue and a number of them launched a cabal online to protest against it," commented Riccitiello, according to Yahoo! Finance. "I personally don't like DRM. It interrupts the user experience. We would like to get around that. But there is this problem called piracy out there."
Commenting on the difficulties of in-game advertising, he said, "There are large hurdles to doing it successfully. Some companies don't recognize that consumers paid $60 for a game. That said, we believe in in-game ads. We just ran one for Barack Obama's campaign, not the typical sort of ad for a game."
Saint's Row 2 might be a very tongue-in-cheek take on the GTA-style sandbox genre, but the New York's police unions are taking the game very seriously indeed, calling for it to be pulled from store shelves because it glorifies the sort of things you should really only do in video games.
New York's powerful police unions say that a violent new video game called "Saints Row 2" is an abomination. In the game, the player controls a gang member who can steal, do drugs and kill as many characters as possible, including police officers.
Yesterday Manhattan District Attorney candidate Leslie Crocker-Snyder spoke out against the game, which I am positive she has never touched, but I am sure the police unions appreciated it and will put in a good word for her when voting comes around. I sigh.
A few months ago, millions of nerds suffered the ultimate blow -- Activision announced that it would not be publishing Ghostbusters, a title the company came to own after taking over Sierra. However, a ray of light has broken through the clouds this morning thanks to Ray Stantz.
Dan Aykroyd says Atari will be publishing Ghostbusters: The Video Game.
Apparently, Aykroyd lets the beans spill today during an appearance on Live 105.3 KLLI, a Dallas-based radio station. Although Aykroyd's appearance on the station hasn't been posted on the channel's official Web site, reports of the conversation -- in which Aykroyd said the game is a year away -- are cropping up all over the Internet.
Terminal Reality, the developer behind the Ghostbusters game, offered IGN a no comment this afternoon, and a message with Atari was not immediately returned. When we have more information, this story will be updated, so be sure to check back.
With HP's touchscreen laptop looming on the horizon, out come the leaks of an ASUS touchscreen lappie scheduled for launch in the first half of 2009. Touchscreen Eee PCs too (finally, right?) if DigiTimes' sources at panel makers are correct (which they tend to be with regard to ASUS). According to the Taiwanese industry rag, ASUS will likely use either a 12.1-inch or 11.6-inch touchscreen panel developed by AU Optronics (AUO) or Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO). What's odd here is the claim by sources that the touch-panel notebooks "are expected to take advantage of Windows 7" and presumably the new Microsoft OS's multi-touch capabilities. Strange, since Windows 7 isn't officially expected until sometime in early 2010 -- a date looking more and more like a publicly padded goal to avoid the bashing Microsoft received for its Vista delays. The whispers certainly add a bit more credence to rumors of a 2009 release as expressed by Bill Gates himself, or more specifically June 3rd, 2009 as allegedly marked in the internal Microsoft calendar.
Numbers time! Japanese game site Dengeki Online is running results of a poll that was composed of 86.3 percent men and 13.7 percent women with an average age of 25.46 years old. Questions included things like "Have you cried during gaming?" or "What game are you looking forward to?" In the poll, three of the games that made Japanese gamers cry are"adult visual novels" — two of them are erotic game ports and one is a straight up PC erotic game. That's not that surprising as many Japanese gamers do play erotic games for the story. No, really.
Also from the data, which do you think Dengeki Online readers are more excited about: The Last Remnant or Final Fantasy XIII? That and more, after the jump.
Have you been moved to tears during game play?
No (53.5 percent)
Yes (46.5 percent)
What game made you cry
1. Final Fantasy X (PS2)
2. Clannad (Xbox 360)
3. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)
4. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PS2)
5. Kanon (PSP)
6. Tales of the Abyss (PS2)
7. AIR (PSP)
8. Dragon Quest V (DS)
9. Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation)
10. Little Busters! (PC)
Please tell us what game you have purchased in the last month.
1. Super Robot Taisen Z (PS2)
2. Quiz Magic Academy DS (DS)
3. Infinite Undiscovery (Xbox 360)
4. Pokémon Platinum (DS)
5. World Destruction (DS)
6. Aquanaut's Holiday (PS3)
7. Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360)
8. Cross Edge (PS3)
9. Eternal Sonata (PS3)
10. Nights in the Nightmare (DS)
Please tell us what upcoming game title you are looking forward to.
1. The Last Remnant (Xbox 360)
2. Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
3. Crono Trigger (DS)
4. White Knight Chronicles (PS3)
5. Gundam vs. Gundam (PSP)
6. Star Ocean 4 -The Last Hope- (Xbox 360)
7. Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon (PS2)
8. DISSIDIA Final Fantasy (PSP)
9. Dragon Quest IX (DS)
10. Gundam Musou 2 (PS3)
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
One of the bigger events that happened this week is the release of the Sony PSP 3000 consoles.
Designed to be a device for communication, the handheld comes with a microphone for Skype. People have complained that they found it difficult to see what is happening on the screen under strong sunlight, therefore the developers remedied this problem in this version by reducing the glare.
More is done to improve the already superb screen, the refresh rate, contrast are very much worked upon. The consoles came out in three styles, Pearl White, Piano Black and Mystic silver. For the full range of packages, please see here.
A number of interesting US games have arrived. One of them is the survival horror Dead Space. To retrieve an ancient relic, you have travelled through the galaxy only to have your communication cut off and pit against regiments of monstrous aliens. Slash and hack your way through the horror to emerge victorious.
Danger lurks not only out there in space, but within every corner and crevice of the society. Betrayed by your friends, you are disfigured and exiled from the street kingdom you have built. Full of righteous fury, you are ready to strike back and claim what is yours in Saints Row 2. If turning the streets into a blood bath is the only way, so be it.
Ride back on your beasts to the medieval times in Golden Axe: Beast Rider where duels are carried out in the most extravagant and noisiest of ways. Clash weapons with your opponents and exchange blows. Tyris Flare from the first installment is back to wreak havoc to her enemies.
Excitement need not come in torrents of blood and guts. To the less violent and blood thirsty of you, FIFA Soccer 09 is a perfect game to stimulate your reflexes and pump your adrenaline. Form your own team and see what being in the league truly means.
Popular Japanese games are made into US versions to recieve a wider sphere of audiences. Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility, Bleach: Dark Soul, Legend of Kage 2 are such games. Assume the roles of a farmer, a death angel and a ninja for a small reprise within these times of gloom.
It is proving true that you are omnipotent and can become anything in the world of video games. A lot of people have longed to become musicians, realize this romantic dream of yours on your Nintendo Wii on Wii Music. Pick up an instrument from the wide range of choices and start playing.
Energy problems may not be the sole source of conflicts but a lot of violence has certainly stemmed from it. This is especially true in Gundam 00 where the large countries have full control over solar power. Keep things from escalating to a massive galactic war with your mobile suit in Gundam Meisters.
More than one realm is in need of protection in these days, as the demon lord, prevent the heroes from taking over your land by making a fool out of them first in Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida 2 [JPN & ASN vers.].
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™
Crash: Mind Over Mutant US US$ 54.90
Dead Space ASIA US$ 49.90
FIFA Soccer 09 ASIA US$ 49.90
FaceBreaker JPN US$ 64.90
Fracture ASIA US$ 49.90
Golden Axe: Beast Rider ASIA US$ 49.90
Guilty Gear 2: Overture US US$ 64.90
NBA 2K9 US US$ 64.90
Saints Row 2 US US$ 64.90
Saints Row 2 ASIA US$ 49.90
Silent Hill: Homecoming ASIA US$ 59.90
PlayStation3™
FIFA Soccer 09 ASIA US$ 42.90
FIFA Soccer 09 ASIA US$ 49.90
FaceBreaker JPN US$ 64.90
Fracture ASIA US$ 49.90
Golden Axe: Beast Rider ASIA US$ 49.90
NBA 2K9 US US$ 64.90
NBA 2K9 ASIA US$ 59.90
Saints Row 2 US US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™
Crash: Mind Over Mutant US US$ 54.90
Daikaijuu Battle: Ultra Coliseum JPN US$ 59.90
Game Party II US US$ 34.90
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock JPN US$ 59.90
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith JPN US$ 59.90
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Bundle JPN US$ 129.90
Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility US US$ 59.90
Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces JPN US$ 64.90
Wii Lens Cleaner Kit JPN US$ 9.90
Wii Music JPN US$ 59.90
PlayStation2™
Arcana Heart (AQ the Best) JPN US$ 19.90
Mobile Suit Gundam 00: Gundam Meisters JPN US$ 64.90
Mortal Kombat Kollection US US$ 39.90
NBA 2K9 US US$ 24.90
Nintendo DS™
Animal Paradise US US$ 24.90
Away: Shuffle Dungeon JPN US$ 48.90
Barbie Fashion Show: An Eye for Style US US$ 34.90
Bleach: Dark Souls US US$ 34.90
Crash: Mind Over Mutant US US$ 34.90
Culdcept DS JPN US$ 48.90
Imagine Fashion Designer New York US US$ 34.90
Imagine: Babysitters US US$ 34.90
Nazo Nazo & Quiz Ichi Kotae Jikkon Q Mate! JPN US$ 48.90
Prey The Stars US US$ 34.90
Rekku no Houmonsha Deokishisu senyou (DSVision) JPN US$ 29.90
Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals US US$ 34.90
The Legend of Kage 2 US US$ 24.90
Yattaman DS 2 JPN US$ 48.90
Sony PSP™
Dead Space ASIA US$ 49.90
My Spanish Coach US US$ 34.90
PSP Accessory Pack JPN US$ 39.90
PSP Cradle & D-Terminal Cable (for PSP-2000/3000 Models) JPN US$ 69.90
PSP Cradle (for PSP-2000/3000 Models) JPN US$ 49.90
PSP PlayStation Portable Battery Pack (2200mAh) (Mystic Silver) JPN US$ 54.90
PSP PlayStation Portable Battery Pack (2200mAh) (Pearl White) JPN US$ 54.90
PSP PlayStation Portable Slim & Lite - Mystic Silver (PSP-3000MS) JPN US$ 249.90
PSP PlayStation Portable Slim & Lite - Mystic Silver Value Pack (PSP-3000KMS) JPN US$ 279.90
PSP PlayStation Portable Slim & Lite - Pearl White (PSP-3000PW) JPN US$ 249.90
PSP PlayStation Portable Slim & Lite - Pearl White Value Pack (PSP-3000KPW) JPN US$ 279.90
PSP PlayStation Portable Slim & Lite - Piano Black (PSP-3000PB) JPN US$ 249.90
PSP PlayStation Portable Slim & Lite - Piano Black Value Pack (PSP-3000KPB) JPN US$ 279.90
PSP Pouch (Pearl White / Mystic Silver) JPN US$ 19.90
PSP Pouch (Piano Black) JPN US$ 19.90
Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida Or 2 JPN US$ 39.90
Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida Or 2 ASIA US$ 36.90 PC Games
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (DVD-ROM) US US$ 54.90
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (DVD-ROM) [Limited Edition] US US$ 69.90
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel ASIA US$ 39.90
The House of the Dead III ASIA US$ 17.90
Game Guides and Books
Crash: Mind Over Mutant: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Dead Space: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Fracture Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Golden Axe: Beast Rider Official Strategy Guide US US$ 17.90
Gyakuten Saiban Tokubetsu Hout Orchestra Concert 2008 Official DVD Book JPN US$ 44.90
Soul Eater: Monotone Princess Official Complete Guide JPN US$ 22.90
Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals Official Strategy Guide US US$ 17.90
Weekly Famitsu No. 1036 (2008 10/24) JPN US$ 7.90
Video Game Related Soundtrack
Rhythm Tengoku Gold Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 49.90
Here is a preview of what are expected to be hot next week, as you can see, quite a lot of them:
Xbox360™
Fable II ASIA US$ 49.90
Fable II US US$ 64.90
Fable II [Limited Edition] US US$ 89.90
Fable II [Limited Edition] ASIA N/A
FarCry 2 ASIA US$ 49.90
Midnight Club: Los Angeles ASIA US$ 49.90
Rock Revolution US US$ 54.90
PlayStation3™
Eternal Sonata US US$ 64.90
FarCry 2 US US$ 64.90
LittleBigPlanet US US$ 64.90
Midnight Club: Los Angeles US US$ 64.90
Midnight Club: Los Angeles ASIA US$ 59.90
Rock Revolution US US$ 54.90
SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Confrontation US US$ 44.90
SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Confrontation (w/ Headset) US US$ 69.90
Nintendo Wii™
Dokapon Kingdom US US$ 44.90
Tenchu 4 JPN US$ 64.90
PlayStation™
Devil Summoner: Kuzunoha Raidou tai Abaddon Ou JPN US$ 64.90
Devil Summoner: Kuzunoha Raidou tai Abaddon Ou Plus JPN US$ 99.90
Dokapon Kingdom US US$ 44.90
Nintendo Wii™
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia US US$ 34.90
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia / Akumajou Dracula: Ubawareta Kokuin JPN US$ 48.90
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia / Akumajou Dracula: Ubawareta Kokuin [Konamistyle Limited Edition] JPN US$ 119.90
Ketsui Death Label JPN US$ 58.90
Kimi no Yuusha JPN US$ 48.90
My Japanese Coach US US$ 34.90
Soul Eater: Medusa no Inbou JPN US$ 48.90
Sony PSP™
Bleach: Soul Carnival JPN US$ 48.90
Bleach: Soul Carnival ASIA US$ 42.90
Star Ocean: First Departure US US$ 44.90
Access our preorder lists for further upcoming games, movie, and music releases.
Namco Bandai's Macross Ace Frontier has debuted at the top of the Japanese software sales chart for the week ended October 12, according to data provided by Media Create.
The PlayStation Portable title sold 104,000 units, keeping Pokemon Platinum for the Nintendo DS in second place at 86,000 units, as Rhythm Tengoku Gold, also for the DS, came in third having sold 49,000 units.
The PlayStation 2 titles Dynasty Warriors 6 Special and Super Robot Wars Z came in fourth and fifth respectively at 48,000 units each. Wii Fit for the Nintendo Wii sold 16,000 units and took sixth place, while Mario Kart Wii sold 10,000 units and came in seventh.
Konami's Powerful Major League 3 for the PlayStation 2 came in eighth, followed by Dragonball DS in ninth place and Daigasso! Band Brothers DX for the DS in tenth place, each claiming 8000 unit sales.
Japanese software chart follows:
01. Macross Ace Frontier (PSP)
02. Pokemon Platinum (DS)
03. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS)
04. Dynasty Warriors 6 Special (PS2)
05. Super Robot Wars Z (PS2)
06. Wii Fit (Wii)
07. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
08. Powerful Major League 3 (PS2)
09. Dragonball DS (DS)
10. Daigasso! Band Brothers DX (DS)
Valve has begun taking PC pre-orders for co-operative zombie shooter Left 4 Dead, ahead of the 18th November launch on Steam.
Those taking part will be offered a 10 per cent discount, taking the price down to USD 44.99 (GBP 22.50).
Valve mouth Doug Lombardi also narrowed down the demo date for Shacknews. The sampler should arrive in early November, with a specific date to be set on Halloween: 31st October.
The demo, remember, will most likely be the first two maps of the hospital campaign.
"With just over four weeks until launch, Left 4 Dead is showing every sign of topping The Orange Box on both the PC and Xbox 360, at retail as well as on Steam," added Lombardi in a statement.
Left 4 Dead launches on PC and Xbox 360 in European shops on 21st November.
Wow, those console sales are really falling in Japan across all platforms. I suspect it's to do with to global economic slowdown which isn't good for business. The figures for the week Oct 6th-12th from Media Create are down below as usual:
Nintendo DS Lite: 31,914
Playstation Portable: 23,901
Nintendo Wii: 22,877
Xbox 360: 7,763
Playstation 2: 6,982
Playstation 3: 5,734
Slight change to 4th and 5th positions but anyway, in rough figures: DS Lite is on top, takes 11,400 hit. PSP is second, drops 2,000. Next is the Wii, loses 2,500. Xbox 360 comes 4th, reduced by 700 while the PS2 slides into 5th place, down 1,700. Last in line is the PS3, down 1,500.
All in all, yet another week of slow console hardware sales
Price cuts for the Xbox 360 have helped the console surge ahead of the PlayStation 3 in the US, but Nintendo's formats are still way ahead of both Microsoft and Sony.
However, the lower price for hardware has meant a decline in the market, with hardware sales at USD 498 million for the month of September, compared to USD 546 million for the same period in 2007.
According to data from NPD, the Xbox 360 sold 347,000 units during September, up from 195,200 in August. PlayStation 3 sales were 232,000, compared to 185,000 the previous month.
Nintendo continues to leave its rivals in the dust, with the Wii notching up a further 687,000 sales in the region.
DS sales were more than double the PSP, with 537,000 units sold, compared to 238,000 of Sony's handheld.
"Compared to August, nearly all hardware systems realised an increase in unit sales in September," commented Anita Frazier of NPD.
"The price reduction on the Xbox 360 helped deliver a month-over-month unit sales increase for that platform of 78 per cent."
The entire market for the US, including software and accessories, was down seven per cent to USD 1.27 billion, compared to USD 1.35 billion for September 2007.
"It's important to keep in mind, however, that this month's 7 per cent decline is against a month that itself was up 75 per cent from the prior September. Last year, Halo 3 released in September 2007 and that game had a huge impact on hardware and software sales," added Frazier.
Patrick Marchal, technical director at Cities XL developer Monte Cristo, has told CVG that the grave risk PC devs are facing from piracy often means that strict copy protection has to be enforced.
"We have looked at what happened with Spore and, even if we are not fans of DRM, we think that the outcry was a bit over the top," he said.
The Spore controversy erupted when it emerged that owners were only able to install the game on three computers, something that put off a number of potential buyers.
"I think that people need to recognise that piracy is going to kill PC game developers," Marchal warned, adding that his company hadn't yet finalised copy protection plans for its upcoming city-building sim.
"We will have to find the best way to defend our property without being harsh on legitimate clients," he said.
Marchal's views echo those of EA boss John Riccitiello, who said earlier this week that he wasn't a fan of DRM either, noting that "it interrupts the user experience... but there is this problem called piracy out there."
Look out for the full interview with Marchal, in which he tells us how Cities XL's online functionalities will help revolutionise the city-building genre, soon.
Empire and Dark Elf Warhammer Online players rejoice! Two of the classes cut from the game back in July are set to make their triumphant return in December, and your races shall soon have tanks! In his first State of the Game post, Mythic's Mark Jacobs announced that the Dark Elf Black Guard and Empire Knight of the Blazing Sun are both returning in a big way.
I’m happy to announce that in December, the Black Guard and the Knight of the Blazing Sun will officially be part of WAR. We have very special plans around their appearance and in our next newsletter we will provide full details about that exciting and rather novel event.
Having played a Dark Elf for a good 10 levels, I can say that yes, we noticed we had no tanks, and it hurt, badly. Soon those damn High Elf Swordmasters will get what's coming to them! (*hides his Swordmaster alt*)
Check it Donnie, Nvidia just launched its Quadro CX accelerator card for Adobe's Creative Suite 4. The optimized GPU fits into your PC's PCIe slot to smooth image navigation and manipulation in Photoshop while accelerating effects in Adobe's After Effects and Premier Pro.
Nvidia claims that the new GPU helps encode H.264 video at "lightning-fast speeds" when using Nvidia's Cuda-enabled CS4 plug-in while giving professionals accurate video previews with uncompressed 30-bit color or 10-/12-bit SDI (for professional video equipment) before final output. The Quadro CX features a 1.5GB (GDDR3) frame buffer and 76.8GBps memory bandwidth with dual-DisplayPort connectors (up to 2560 x 1600 pixels) and a single dual-link DVI with support for panels up to 3,840 x 2,400 @24Hz.
Look, we know this sounds all stupid-hard advanced to those of you using Photoshop to hotten-up your Facebook pic, but the pros are going to love it. $1,999 and available today -- video demonstration just beyond the read link.
If you're seriously considering a MacBook over a MacBook Pro, one of the major sniggles is the fact that it no longer has FireWire, an omission seemingly designed to stratify the more-alike-than-ever models. So, it's natural users would take to the Apple forums to talk it out (or, let's be real, bitch). But Apple isn't having any of that apparently: MacFixIt is reporting that Apple is yanking threads from its forums that talk about the lack of FireWire on the new MacBooks.
Says one of their readers:
Apparently, Apple doesn't want anybody talking about the lack of FireWire ports on the new MacBooks, because they keep deleting every thread that people are posting about the lack of FireWire ports on the New MacBooks! I was participating in 3 different threads on the Apple Discussion Boards regarding the lack of FireWire from the new MacBooks, and Apple has removed every single thread regarding this topic. There are no threads left on the Apple Discussion Boards regarding this issue!"
It's possible that these threads were totally unproductive circle jerks, but there are legitimate technical issues to discuss here—workarounds for Target Disk Mode, what to do with FireWire cameras, etc., so if they're deleting every thread, it's definitely overboard. The official Apple word from an employee in at least one thread though, regarding how no FireWire gimps out some camcorders with iMovie '08, is that "USB is the preferred interface for iMovie '08." You know, even though a ton of cameras use it.
Apple might not let users talk about the loss of FireWire, but their message seems to be loud and clear: Deal with it.
You wouldn't know it by the vast array of spin-offs and iterations, but the Eee PC has only just now turned one year old and, whether by coincidence or design, it's also now finally dropped under the ever-elusive $300 mark. That doesn't come in the form of that rumored new sub-$300 model, however, but rather an existing Eee PC 900A that's now available from Best Buy for $299.99. Not that we're complaining, as this particular model packs an 8.9-inch display compared to the 7-incher on the 701SDX spotted yesterday, along with a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB or RAM, a 4GB SSD, and Linux pre-installed. Now, about that $200 Eee PC.
It's been years since we first heard of Blizzard's plans to make a movie out of WoW. In that time a bunch of game movies have come, disappointed and faded away, and still we have no WoW movie. So what's the deal? Has it been Starcraft Ghosted? Nope. Turns out the project's just been moving along at a snail's pace, Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime saying "there are still plans for a World of Warcraft movie...the script is being written but if they say anything more than that they will be shot". Being Blizzard, we kinda hope they go the CGI route. Imagine a 97-minute Blizzard cutscene!
Despite World of Warcraft continuing to conjure millions out of thin air, Blizzard are already hard at work on their next MMO. The burning question being: what is it? Is it World of Starcraft? World of Diablo? World of Lost Vikings? No idea. We know what it’s not, though: it’s not a World of Warcraft sequel. Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime:
So let’s just say it’s going to be different and it’s not going to be a sequel to World of Warcraft. It will be different.
We’re not trying to replace World of Warcraft with this new MMO. We’re trying to create a different massively multiplayer experience, and hopefully World of Warcraft will still be going strong when that one is released.
So…they’ll still be making millions off WoW, then making more millions off a new experience that catches everyone who doesn’t play WoW? That’s one hell of a sound business plan.
features
The Ultimate Medal of Honor Value Proposition features 5 landmark First-Person Shooter titles in a single box.
Bonus Features including strategy guides covering every Allied Assault mission, interviews with WWII Veterans, exclusive in-game weapons, documentaries on the use of propaganda and battlefield training, and behind the scenes footage of the making of Medal of Honor titles.
Exclusive Medal of Honor 10th Anniversary Soundtrack CD- Fourteen tracks covering a decade of Medal of Honor excellence all composed by the award winning Michael Giacchino.
Over 50 single-player missions and dozens of multiplayer levels spanning two theaters and 3 continents of World War II history. The opportunity to invade the beaches of Normandy, lead the fight for Guadalcanal, and airdrop into enemy territory as part of Operation Market Garden all in a single package.
description
Earn your stripes, soldier! The Medal of Honor™ series returns in a single bundle for those that missed out on the action the first time around in addition to those looking to relive the franchises’ first decade of gaming. Immerse yourself in the European Front with the Medal of Honor Allied Assault and its two expansion packs, then transition to the Pacific Theater in the Medal of Honor Pacific Assault Director’s Edition. Finally, take to the skies and airdrop onto the great battles of WWII with Medal of Honor Airborne. From the D-Day invasion on Omaha Beach, across the seas to defend Pearl Harbor, and finally the last push towards Berlin, wage war in a massive variety of explosive single and multiplayer missions in what has been widely hailed as the definitive World War II first-person shooter franchise.
Yeah, that's right. I'm playing Wii Music. Nearly snapped these puny wrists off last night, wailing away on the Dog Suit to the tune of "Grandfather's Clock." A rollicking good time that you'll hear more about next week when the review hits. Also on deck is Midnight Club Los Angeles, which... you'll hear more about next week when the review hits. There might be a little Peggle Nights thrown in there, just for giggles.
What about you? Got some heavy gaming plans for the weekend? Let us know in the comments.
There's a very interesting article over at Eludamos, one of the open-access academic journals that's done a nice job of getting fascinating articles in each issue; this volume is no exception, and the article I found particularly thought provoking is on the issue of death in narrative-driven games. Jason Tocci isn't arguing that the death mechanic has no place in games, but it's a cop out for many narrative-driven games — and can create frustrating gaming experiences for end users. This is, in Tocci's view, a hold over from earlier design decisions when games were more limited in what they could do:
The way that videogames have dealt with failure, primarily through protagonist death and trial-and-error, has generally been more concerned with games as rule sets than with games as narratives. As a result, games which appear to tell stories often become incoherent, bringing narrative progression to a halt, eliciting frustration with gameplay rather than engagement with fiction. Despite what some may charge, however, this is not an inherent bias of the medium. The die-and-retry approach is a shortcut in game design, a holdover from an era when games were more limited in their ability to tell stories. This convention now imposes an artificial limitation, even as alternative methods of dealing with failure have been exercised in some games.
This argument should not be taken to suggest that all games ought to be narrative-oriented games, that trial-and-error has no place in modern videogames, or that all games should be so concerned with preserving an illusion of boundless choices .... This article simply seeks to argue that universal models of game enjoyment that would lump such a game in with Tetris fail to acknowledge that such games ultimately offer different appeals.
I don't agree with all of his points, but it's certainly a thought provoking article (if lengthier than the usual posted on Kotaku). The design-related conversation over the role of death in games is one worth having, and this is one of the more well-written pieces I've read on the issue. Eladumos in general is worth having bookmarked — it's a young journal, but a solid one.
Hi, there. time to pull up a chair, pour yourself a drink and chat. No, wait. Pour yourself two drinks and pull up three chairs. That's right, time for Tell Us Dammit — rather, 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. Yeah.
As we lurch towards the end of the year, what releases are you looking forward to the most?
Cast your minds back to February, and you'll remember some excitement surrounding the revelation Starbreeze had been tapped by EA to work on one of the company's "classic" franchises. Some comments by EA boss John Riccitiello made it seem like that franchise was Road Rash, but CVG now say that - according to a "secret agent" - it's not. It is instead Syndicate, which EA didn't develop (Peter Molyneux's Bullfrog did), but which they do own the rights to. Exciting news, if also a little terrifying, since the chances of another studio capturing the feel of the original are - as we've already seen - slim.
As you play your beloved Super Mario game tapes, your Nintendo Box drains energy from earth's dwindling supply. It's a well-known scientific fact that at our current rate of consumption, Earth will be returned to an archaic wasteland within thirty years, when feared energy pirates will travel between the planet's ruined cities, plundering precious fuel for their own contemptible settlements. Luckily, the Environmental Protection Agency has a plan to combat our wasteful ways.
The EPA hopes to include modern home gaming consoles in their Energy Star plan which has been regulating the energy usage of certain home appliances since 1992. The latest draft of the plan addresses the power consumption rates of Wiis, Xbox 360s and PS3s, requiring an auto-off function, a sleep mode, and low-energy network settings in all consoles produced after July 1, 2010. We certainly hope the plan is adopted, lest we be left to our seemingly inevitable, Mad Max-esque fate.
Remember the PC Gaming Alliance? Yeah, formed back at the Game Developers Convention, it has representation from pretty much all of the big hardware brands in PC gaming, plus publishers Activision and Epic. And its president, Intel's Randy Stude, just went off on LucasArts for not creating a PC version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
So this week I bought MLB Stickball on XBLA. There's only one reason I'd do that, and you correctly guessed it. You see, in the old days, when you came home from a bar lit up, your impulse buys were limited to 1-800 blue screen ads. And calling an operator and fishing out a credit card for Time/Life's series on the Old West, Kitchens and Bathrooms and Daddy-What's-Vietnam ("A question a child might ask ... but not a childish question.") just doesn't pack the kind of instant gratification wallop of buying a video game instantly with fake currency on XBLA.
Attempts by supermarket chain J Sainsbury to boost sales by selling Wii and Xbox 360 game consoles at a loss have backfired after store managers from a rival retailer hijacked the promotion by buying nearly 1,000 of the discounted consoles.
The promotion, which was launched on the final day of Sainsbury’s second-quarter trading period, saw the retailer slash £30 off the price of the Xbox 360 and reduce the cost of the popular Wii from £179.99 to £149.97.
Retail executives estimate that Sainsbury’s was losing around £10 on every Wii sold.
Below-cost selling is a rare, but not unknown, tactic used by supermarket chains to drive shoppers into stores.
It is a high-risk tactic, which can prove costly, if shoppers only buy the discounted item.
Details of Sainsbury’s promotion leaked onto the internet two days before it launched allowing Game to alert its store managers
Lisa Morgan, the chief executive of Game, confirmed that the retailer’s store managers had bought almost 1,000 of the estimated 2,000 consoles sold by Sainsbury’s. The consoles were later resold in Game stores.
“With 360 and Wii on sale at these prices we allowed our store managers to supplement their stock by buying consoles from their local Sainsbury’s,” said Morgan.
“Availability was very inconsistent, but on the whole it was a worthwhile exercise.”
Reports in the gaming industry claim that staff from other retailers including Gamestation and Chips also bought up the consoles, as well as managers from Game.
A spokesman for Sainsbury’s claimed it was a very successful promotion. “We sold out,” she said. The spokesman refused to comment on whether the consoles had been sold at a loss or whether they had been snapped up by Game managers.
An emulator for the Microbee Z80 Premium/Standard FDD and ROM based microcomputers.
Heres whats new
13 October 2008 - SJK
---------------------
uBee512 v3.0.1
Fixes:
* Fixed a bug when toggling full screen mode under Unices when using SDL
video rendering failed to switch modes and would freeze.
uBee512 v3.0.0
New for this release:
* Ubuntu Debian binary package added to the distribution packages.
* Added OpenGL textured video rendering mode, SDL remains the default mode. To use OpenGL mode specify '--video-type=gl' on the command line or set the required system's video type by changing the assignment inside the new sample configuration file. See the README file if OpenGL results in a white display.
* The OpenGL mode permits 4:3 and other aspect ratios in a window, full screen and maximised modes fill completely.
* Added --gl-filter_fs, --gl-filter_max and --gl-filter_win options to select soft or sharp filtering modes in OpenGL mode.
* Added --gl-aspect-bee option to set the Microbee aspect ratio.
* Added --gl-aspect-mon option to override the monitor aspect ratio.
* Added --gl-max option to enable/disable maximised window on start up. This currently does not work for Windows. Maximised windows can be set after starting the emulator.
* Added --gl-vsync option to enable/disable vertical sync swap buffers every n'th retrace.
* Added --gl-winpct option to set the initial window width by percentage.
* Added --gl-winpix option to set the initial window width by pixels.
* Added EMUKEY+F hot key to toggle the current filter mode when in OpenGL mode.
* Added EMUKEY+KP1 to EMUKEY+KP9 hot keys to select 10-90% width windows when in OpenGL mode.
* Added EMUKEY+KP_PERIOD to use the Microbee's 6545 screen width for the window width when in OpenGL mode.
* Added window resize feature using mouse to set window size when in OpenGL mode.
* Added 'gl' parameter to the --video-type option to select OpenGL mode.
* Added internal variables that can be created and accessed using options.
* Added scripting language options for uBee512 configuration files. The options relevant are described below:
* Added --varset and --varuset options to set and unset variables.
* Added --exit to allow emulation to exit during start up.
* Added --echo and --echoq to send string and/or variables to stdout.
* Added --if-end to terminate a test condition.
* Added --if-else to divert on a --if-test = false condition.
* Added --if-egt to test if string is equal to or greater than.
* Added --if-elt to test if string is equal to or less than.
* Added --if-eq to test if string is equal to.
* Added --if-gt to test if string is greater than.
* Added --if-lt to test if string is less than.
* Added --if-negt to test if string is not equal or greater than.
* Added --if-nelt to test if string is not equal or less than.
* Added --if-neq to test if string is not equal to.
* Added --if-ngt to test if string is not greater than.
* Added --if-nlt to test if string is not less than.
* Added --if-set to test if a variable has been set.
* Added --if-nset to test if a variable has not been set.
* Added --if-system to test for underlying system type.
* Added --if-true and --if-false to set the condition to true or false.
* Added --if-cmpmode to set the method used to compare values.
* Added preconfigured variables UBEE_VERSION, UBEE_HOST, UBEE_SYS_MAJOR and UBEE_SYS_MINOR to the existing UBEE512 (ubee512) variable. These are all created using the --varset method so this also means they can be removed with --varuset.
* Added joystick C_WINI and C_WIND commands for increasing/decreasing window size.
* Added joystick C_GLFILT command for toggling of OpenGL filter mode, and C_VSIZE1 command for video resizing.
* Added joystick C_MWHEEL command to select mouse wheel association.
* Added +video and +options to the --modio option arguments.
Changes:
* Changed --snd-freqlow default to 20Hz to improve re-sync on quiet periods.
* Some improvements made to the audio holdoff code.
* Recoded the vdu_colcont_w() function to test RGB intensity bits and VDU PCG/colour RAM selection bits separately, this prevents a change in either leading to unnecessary time consuming updates.
* Changed version checking to skip a new version install if a later version ID string is found. This allows older version binaries to run without modifying the version ID. This will only work with emulator versions 3.0.0 and onwards.
* Changes made to ubee512rc and games.ini.sample files making use of the new scripting language options added to this release.
* Comment lines in configuration files may now have leading white space.
Fixes:
* Fixed issue when changing screen sizes from within a Microbee program that could possibly cause the emulator to crash under certain circumstances.
* Added code to correctly handle double quoted command line arguments when using win32 before being processed by getopt_long().
We're already well acquainted with the idea of Wiis (and their remotes) injuring humans and TV sets. Now the UK's Telegraph is reporting that game systems are also causing a veritable epidemic of injuries to pets. A survey of 3,000 British pet owners shows that a full 10% of pets were injured by a Wii , while 8.3% sustained PlayStation-related injuries and 5.8% got injured by a DS.
Even accounting for some overlap between systems, those numbers would seem to suggest that British veterinarians are being overrun by little critters who chewed through component cables, swallowed portable systems, tripped on controller cords and the like. The numbers are much less worrying, though, when you consider the source for the survey: pet insurance provider PetPlan. Reminds us of that used car dealer who told us rust-proofing would increase the resale value of our car by 50% -- just not that credible. We still got the rust-proofing, though. When it comes to our Fiat, our motto is: better safe than sorry.
Game developer Yoshiki Okamoto is best known for his years at Konami and Capcom, where he worked on titles like Gyruss and Forgotten Worlds as well as his involvement in Final Fight and Street Fighter II. He's an industry vet and has been around. When he looks at the current Japanese game landscape, Okamoto says there's at least one thing that does not compute:
Rockstar is not unsuccessful in Japan, but their success here is on a much smaller scale than elsewhere in the world market. The low Japanese sales of the sandbox-style GTA series simply do not make any sense to me.
features
3D regatta simulation; the ultimate in sailing in computer games.
Whether you are a novice or seasoned navigator, the game will satisfy your appetite for the open sea thanks to its four game modes (Arcade, Tactical, Simulation and “no rules”).
Skipper four types of boats: the Class ACC, the Trimaran Open 60, the Offshore Racer or even the Melges 24.
Navigate the 14 legendary ocean water courses, including Valencia, Marseille, Trapani and Malmö, San Francisco, Sydney, Porto Cervo, Auckland, Vancouver, the Isle of Wight, Quiberon and Qingdao. We have the exotic in store for you with the Bay of Rio and the mouth of Vesuvius!
Included are the famous Nadeo Editors: Seascapes Editor and the Mediatracker (camera, text, graphics).
Multiplayer modes (LAN and Internet), with a world ranking system for players (Internet)
description
Considered to be the ultimate in nautical simulations, the Virtual Skipper series has enjoyed huge critical and commercial success over the past few years.
Take part in thrilling regattas aboard world-class boats on a sea surging with realism in single- and multiplayer games.
Virtual Skipper 5 enables you to skipper the finest competition boats currently available in over 14 different ocean water courses; the settings for the most prestigious international competitions such as Valencia, Auckland, Rio, Marseille…
If the regattas at the helm of the Class ACC boats is the highlight of this new Virtual Skipper title, the other class of boats are also featured in the game. Players can therefore take the helm of four types of competition boat, each behaving differently on an ultra-realistic sea modelled and animated to perfection. Though the “Class America” boats are the stars of this new episode, players will appreciate the variety offered by the inclusion of other types of boat, such as the Trimaran Open 60, the real “formula ones” of the sea, the Offshore Racer and the Melges 24.
An editor will also give you the ability to create integrally your own regattas and ocean water courses which will guarantee renewed and continued gameplay fun in the Internet multiplayer games.
As we reported earlier this month - and the month before that - BioWare is due to lift the veil off of its hotly rumoured Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMO tomorrow, so stay tuned.
As we know from various job ads and EA blabbing, the online game is being pieced together by BioWare Austin, a spin-off studio founded specifically for MMO development.
An event invite backed up insider reports that the mystery game is indeed a Star Wars-themed affair, concentrating on Jedi versus Sith battles in a very World of Warcraft-esque KOTOR world.
It will be shown at an event in California, USA tomorrow afternoon. As big fans of Star Wars Galaxies's freeform design, we're excited. Check back here for all the details first.
Dr. Phil loves the video games, or rather the amount of attention gamers give him when he talks about them. In today's episode he tackles the dangers of computer game addiction, with the entire show dedicated to people who play games when they probably shouldn't be. The show starts with a virtual Dr. Phil complete with a sword and hair talking about how virtual games let you escape from reality before launching into the story of l34-year-old Fred, who sits at home and plays World of Warcraft all day while his wife supports their three children.
“Apparently he’s got you supporting him and taking care of the house. I wonder what level that is in the real world,” Dr. Phil quips.
Other stories include a 41-year-old man who accumulated $24,000 in debt and attempted suicide, the author of the book "Game Widows", and the return of special guest Liz, whose 21-year-old son killed himself while playing Everquest. Hit the link for the full show notes.
Dousing your gaming rig in oil is a technique we've seen from custom shops before, but not quite like the offerings from Minnesota-based start-up Hardcore Computer. Its Reactor line of submerged gaming rigs, shipping to real, live customers in about a month, use custom enclosures to dunk everything from the CPU to the SSDs in a blue-dyed, non-conductive concoction that we hope is mineral oil (it doesn't break down and go rancid like canola). A pump circulates the liquid through a side-mounted radiator for cooling while all the wet components slide out of the top for potentially mess-free maintenance. You can get your choice of Core 2 Extreme processors, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, and even three GeForce GTX 280 GPUs stacked right on top of each other if you have the bank. Prices start at about $4,500, which isn't as bad for a crazy setup like this, with a well-spec'd, triple-SLI machine coming in just under $10k. We'd certainly call that hardcore -- despite the gushy center.
Update: It looks like Maximum PC spent some time soaking in this one and posted some early impressions and a bunch more pics. As it turns out the goo inside isn't blue after all; it's just lit-up that way.
Are you at work? Really? Didn't you know today was a holiday? Yep, in Redmond at least, it's Global Anti-Piracy Day. To celebrate, there will be simultaneous "legal actions, education efforts and customer reactions announced across 49 countries." Microsoft has actually picked a pretty great way to fight pirates: If there's one thing they hate besides ninjas, it's the law and schoolin'
After the DIY options, and initial hints, official word is out that there'll be a touchscreen Eee PC next year. And that's from none other than the CEO, Jerry Shen, himself. The guys over at Laptopmag got the low-down from Shen, who confirmed the machine will exist by "early 2009," and will actually be running Windows 7 by mid 2009. That's pretty interesting stuff, and though he wouldn't specify a form factor for the touchy Eee, Shen also spilled the beans on a few other aspects of the Eee success story
According to a report by market researchers Odyssey, music games have now overtaken sports titles as the second-most played genre/category in video games. While 62% of surveyed gamers said they played sports games in 2005, that figure was down to only 50% in 2008. Which puts them behind the increasingly popular music games – such as Rock Band, SingStar and Guitar Hero – that 58% of surveyed gamers said they’d played. The decline in the sporting market would be troubling for EA if they, you know. Didn’t also help put out Rock Band. As for the top-selling category/genre, that’s still “action games”, which 65% of surveyed gamers had partaken in.
Yes! Let's! A report issued by Famitsu publishers and all-round industry analyst types Enterbrain has given us the lifetime sales figures for the current generation of Japanese consoles. Handhelds, too. And, just for good measure, the PS2. They serve to put a few recent trends into perspective. For one, the 360 - which is the fastest-growing console in the country, with sales up 157% in recent months - has still been outsold by the PS3 3:1. And for all the PSP's recent chart domination, the DS is still kicking its ass. And that's not even counting DS Phat sales.
In a poll marking the launch of this year's London Games Festival, more than 500 UK gamers voted for their favorite video game character of all time, and the results may shock you. Or they may not. Sonic the Hedgehog came out on top in the poll with a whopping 24%, which isn't all that surprising really. After all, despite his rash of bad games lately, Sonic is still a rambunctious little scamp, and if there's anything the UK likes it's rambunctious little scamps. Hell, they pretty much invented them over there.
Filling out the list we have Super Mario (none of this normal Mario bullshit) with 21%, Lara Croft with 16%, with Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Link, Max Payne (what?), Pikachu, Niko Belic, and Blanka taking up the rear. Hit the jump for the percentage breakdowns.
FIFA 09 has dominated the German and Spanish software sales charts for the week ended October 12, taking up ten of the 20 places available, according to data provided by Media-Control GfK International.
The Spanish chart saw FIFA 09 for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 and PlayStation Portable take the top four places respectively. Wii Fit came in fifth, followed by Mario Kart Wii at sixth and Wii Play at seventh.
FIFA 09 for the PC took eighth place, while Spore, also for the PC, took ninth and NBA 2K9 for the PS3 closed the chart at ten.
Germany saw FIFA 09 for the PS3 take the top spot, with Sacred 2: Fallen Angel for the PC coming in second place. FIFA 09 on the PS2, Xbox 360 and PC came in at third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Wii Fit took sixth place, Warhammer Online for the PC came in seventh, and More Brain Training for the DS came in eighth. Mario Kart Wii secured a spot at number nine and FIFA 09 for the PSP took number ten.
Full Spanish chart follows:
01. FIFA 09 (PS3)
02. FIFA 09 (PS2)
03. FIFA 09 (Xbox 360)
04. FIFA 09 (PSP)
05. Wii Fit (Wii)
06. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
07. Wii Play (Wii)
08. FIFA 09 (PC)
09. Spore (PC)
10. NBA 2K9 (PS3)
Full German chart follows:
01. FIFA 09 (PS3)
02. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (PC)
03. FIFA 09 (PS2)
04. FIFA 09 (Xbox 360)
05. FIFA 09 (PC)
06. Wii Fit (Wii)
07. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (PC)
08. Dr Kawashima: More Brain Training (DS)
09. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
10. FIFA 09 (PSP)
Dynasty Warriors 6 for the PC isn't scheduled for stores until November 18th, but those with a little bandwidth to spare can download a 320MB demo of the game today via the nice folks at Filefront and Fileplanet. The system requirements for the game are relatively modest, with the PC version sharing more in common with the PlayStation 2 version than the more resource intensive PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. You'll need at least a 1.6GHz Pentium 4 with a 128MB video card, and honestly if you don't have those you're probably not too concerned about PC gaming.
Hit the jump for the full system requirements, or click the links above to snag the demo now.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Minimum: Pentium® 4 1.6GHz, Windows XP/Vista, 512MB, 5GB or more of free space, 640×480 High Color enabled, 3D Accelerator with Hardware T&L and Pixel Shading supporting 128MB or more of VRAM, DirectX 9.0c+, DirectX 9.0c+ compliant, 16-bit stereo with 44KHz playback supported by Windows XP/Vista, keyboard
Recommended: Intel® Core™2Duo 2.4GHz, Windows XP/Vista, 512MB, 5GB or more of free space, 1280×720 True Color enabled, 16:9, 3D Accelerator with Hardware T&L and Pixel Shading supporting 128MB or more of VRAM, DirectX 9.0c+, DirectX 9.0c+, DirectX 9.0c+ compliant, 16-bit stereo with 44KHz playback supported by Windows XP/Vista, DirectX 9.0 compatible, 12-button gamepad
The Mac mini may be pronounced dead as soon as today's Apple earnings conference call, as two major retailers in Europe have confirmed to me that they can't order any more of the little computers. While this could signal an updated model coming in, they have been told by Apple to expect no more of it. Their impression is that—once again—the Mac Mini may be dead dead DEAD for real, even while you can still order it at the Apple Store.
It would be weird to see it go in this time of crisis, but being their worst-selling computer, I'm not surprised.
The Mac mini was first introduced in January 2005 at the Macworld Conference & Expo. Labeled by Steve Jobs as the "most affordable Mac ever" it was well received by the critic and public. Apple positioned it as a cheap alternative to the Mac Pro for every PC user who wanted to switch to the Mac without having to buy new peripherals.
However, the son of the Apple Cube failed to grab traction, just like its predecesor. As the iMac and MacBooks kept being the number one sellers for the Cupertino company, the Mac mini kept receding into the background, even while receiving six hardware updates since its introduction. The last one was in November 2007, and it's quite outdated compared to the current hardware: Unlike the rest of the Mac hardware, it lacks 802.11n support, uses the older 667 MHz front side bus and 945GM chipset, which is two generations behind everything else.
If the termination of the Mac mini is finally confirmed, it will be sad to see it go. Hopefully, this may mean that a new update is in the works or that it will get replaced by something else, but seeing how most people don't seem to give a damn about the Apple Tax, judging from the MacBooks selling like hot cakes at the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, I won't count on it.
I have this thing about instruction manuals. For some reason, I refuse to look at it when setting up a new gadget no matter how complicated things are. I break down eventually when I get stuck, but there is no reason why I shouldn't go to it right off the bat and save some time. Maybe it's a man thing, maybe it's because I'm not patient enough to read before digging into a new device—maybe it's both. Whatever the reason, I don't think I will ever change. But what about you? Do you read your gadget or Games instruction manuals?
Dear retailers, we're so sorry that you're running low on space on your shelves for music games. Sadly (for you, at least) it simply doesn't matter. See, we just surpassed sports in the battle for most popular genre. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed say they play music games, compared to a paltry 50 percent for sports. The only one left to topple is the action genre and, like 27 pallets of Guitar Hero Aerosmith, it too will fall.
So if you need more shelf space, tell Madden to move his tubby ass to the bargain bin, because we're not going anywhere.
Looks like someone snuck in ahead of everyone else! Don't even pretend you're surprised. Before today's LucasArts and BioWare press conference, IGN and Gamespot let slip Star Wars: The Old Republic -- you know, the MMO based on BioWare's massively successful Knights of the Old Republic series whose name was trademarked back in July.
What we know so far: The project originated just after KOTOR II launched in 2005. SW:TOR is reportedly the reason Electronic Arts paid $860 million to purchase BioWare and Pandemic. The MMO takes place 300 years after the first KOTOR II, which puts it about 3,500 years before the film.
You can choose between two factions, the Galactic Republic or the re-energized Sith Empire. You can also align yourself as a Dark or Light Side character in either situation. Two classes have been revealed: Jedi and Sith, both of which can use lightsabers and the Force early on. No release date, and no word on console releases.
We also happened to see the name printed on t-shirts worn by BioWare's Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. Meanwhile, the official press conference is about to begin. Here's hoping the game has better luck than Star Wars Galaxies! http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/21/st...-mmo-unveiled/
Activision and Treyarch have announced details of the Call of Duty: World at War PC beta - and by extension multiplayer in general.
All you have to do to get on the beta is sign up on the official website, by the sound of it, although there's no specific start date just yet.
"All registered users", the site says in bold, including people who sign up after the beta starts, will receive a special key that enables them to create a unique profile name and play.
The profile name is necessary because Call of Duty 5 introduces friends lists and invite options on the PC side (for the first time, apparently). "We didn't want the new squad mechanics we've developed to get watered down on the PC," the post explains.
However, you will be able to add in a clan tag as a prefix.
The beta will allow you to host your own servers, and service providers will be able to do the same, although the site notes that the dedicated server will be Windows-only for this testing period.
Finally, we're told that accounts will be deleted after the beta finishes, just as they will be on Xbox 360, so your experience, friends and other details will be lost.
For more on the Call of Duty beta, check out our Call of Duty: World at War multiplayer beta hands-on from the Xbox 360 version.
The full game is due out for Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii, PS2 and DS on 14th November. Look out for our full review soon.
In the Netherlands, as you may already be aware, some laws can be a little...different. One of those instances is related to gaming, in that if you're an MMO player, your virtual goods are - according to Dutch law - as good as real goods. Which is why two Runescape players, aged 15 and 14, have been convicted of coercing another player, aged 13, out of a "virtual amulet and a virtual mask". For their crimes, the 15 year-old copped 200 hours community service, while the 14 year-old was given 160 hours worth. Remember, virtual deviants: in Holland, you do the crime, you do the time.
If,on your way to work/school this morning, you saw a bunch of hung-over warriors and bedraggled mages blearily waking up in a shop doorway they were probably just on their way home from the 30th birthday pub crawl they organized for the Massively Multiplayer genre.
On October 20th 1978, Roy Trubshaw of Essex University threw the switch on MUD - the original Multi User Dungeon. This simple game was the first to let users experience a shared virtual world - albeit one depicted purely through text descriptions - but still featured the core elements of the modern MMO - collecting loot, gaining experience and killing the other guy first.
Although the original server is long since buried in a landfill, MUD games are still running on UNIX and VMS boxes in th e depths of the internets.
features
The extensive artistic research combined with the next-gen engine will allow you to explore over 50Km2 of seamlessly rendered African landscape. No game has ever provided such freedom of movement!
The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry® 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montréal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more…
Real-time story telling, systemic auto-healing, minimal in-game interface are just few of the features that will make you feel the tension of being alone against barbarous warlords that threaten thousands of innocent lives.
Choose from a wide range of weapons to make your way to your primary target. Meet the fight head-on with your machine-gun, go berserk with your machete or make stealth kills as a Sniper. If you feel that the atmosphere is not warm enough, light up your flamethrower and let your enemies and everything around them feel the heat.
Fly, Drive, Run, slide and hover over the huge open world with your glider, trucks, cars, boats and much more.
description
Far Cry® 2, the next-generation first-person shooter from Ubisoft, will take you deep into the most beautiful but also most hostile environments in the world: Africa! More than just a visual and technological achievement, Far Cry® 2, the true sequel to the award-winning PC game, will provide you with an unprecedented gaming experience.
Caught between two rival factions in war-torn Africa, you are sent to take out "The Jackal", a mysterious character who has rekindled the conflict between the warlords, jeopardizing thousands of lives. In order to fulfil your mission you will have to play the factions against each other, identify and exploit your their weaknesses, and neutralise their superior numbers and firepower with surprise, subversion, cunning and, of course, brute force.
Wii Music has debuted atop the Japanese software sales chart for the week ended October 19, according to data provided by Media Create.
The Nintendo Wii title broke into the chart with 92,000 units, followed by Pokemon Platinum for the Nintendo DS, which holds onto its position from last week at second place with 72,000 units.
Sony's Dungeon Keeper-like title, Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida Or 2, for the PlayStation Portable sold 59,000 units in its first week on sale and secured its position at number three on the chart. Rhythm Tengoku Gold for the DS sold 51,000 units and dropped a place from last week to number four.
Sega's Culdcept DS and Namco Bandai's Kidou Senshi Gundam 00: Gundam Meisters for the PlayStation 2 both debut on the chart at fifth and sixth place with 50,000 and 43,000 units respectively.
The PS2 title, Shin Sangoku Musou 5 Special, came in seventh at 27,000 units, while Macross Ace Frontier for the PSP fell from first place last week to eighth, with 26,000 units
Wii Fit saw sales hit 18,000 units and came in at number nine, down from number six last week, and Super Robot Wars Z for the PS2 dropped five places from last week to number ten, selling 13,000 units.
Japanese software chart follows:
01. Wii Music (Wii)
02. Pokémon Platinum (DS)
03. Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaikida Or 2 (PSP)
04. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS)
05. Culdcept DS (DS)
06. Kidou Senshi Gundam 00: Gundam Meisters (PS2)
07. Shin Sangoku Musou 5 Special (PS2)
08. Macross Ace Frontier (PSP)
09. Wii Fit (Wii)
10. Super Robot Wars Z (PS2)
The hotly anticipated Street Fighter IV will release on consoles and PC "this winter", the game's producer Yoshi Ono has confirmed.
However, this winter could still mean early 2009, and Ono was referring to the game's US release.
"There is no official North American arcade release, so we kind of feel bad that you guys have to wait for it," Ono told X-Play.
"We don't want to start rumours that it's this year, but definitely this winter. At some point you'll be sitting in you winter coat looking at snow out the window...and right then we'll kind of heat you up a little with some hot Street Fighter action so look forward to that."
Can't wait. Check out our Street Fighter IV game page here.
Microsoft has expanded its latest WGA initiative — you know, the one that turns your computer off screen black every hour — to China. An guess what! Since the majority of Chinese computer users run unauthorized copies of Windows, they're kind of upset. Of course, there are plenty of good discussions to be had about how measures like this could affect Microsoft's image and limit computer access in poorer parts of the world, but one awesome Chinese blogger/aspiring economist sees things differently:
If the price of genuine software was lower than the fake one, who would buy the fake one?
Someone should tell Microsoft!
A 43-year-old Japanese piano teacher found herself in jail after viciously murdering her ex-husband...in MapleStory. According to reports, the woman's virtual, big-headed anime husband suddenly divorced her in mid-May, which lead to her logging on with the 33-year-old man's username and password and deleting his character. When the man discovered the death of his character, he called the police. The alleged virtual murderer has now been jailed for suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, which could carry a five-year prison sentence or a fine of up to $5,000.
"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.
My god, do you know what this means? I need to start playing Maple Story immediately!
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Just as forecasted last week, torrents of games are washing into our warehouse despite the delay of our next big thing, Little Big Planet. Africa is falling into chaos in Far Cry 2, take up arms to stop it from escalating to the distopic level as displayed through the horrors in BioShock.
The future rests in your hands, take part in a self sacrificing mission set by the U.N in a war torn world in Ketsui Death Label. Learn what the Kamikaze spirit truly means in the tragic storyline of this shooter.
Before you decide upon the fate of the world, however, you should be able to decide your own fate. In Fable II, you have the freedom to join anyone's camp, rescue the world or sink it into eternal darkness. This is a game that deserves to be played repeatedly just to see how many alternate lives you can live.
Two star highly anticipated music games came out. Rockband 2 is a tribute to all the artists who have contributed to the growth of the industry that affected our culture so much. But moreover, it is a game that give you a taste of what being rock star is really like.
The newest DJ MAX game, Emotional Sense came out this week. Listen to the new tracks and see how techno can be mixed with classical music to form a new style. While still highly challenging, the game will ease new gamers into the fun through encouragement.
For those who have graduated from the Clazziquai edition [Special & Standard Editions], move on to the Black Square version expected to come out this November.
For more information regarding DJ MAX Emotional Sense, please see this special feature.
With Halloween coming nearer and nearer, a series of cool, cute, creepy, and absolutely fun games came out.
Students in Shibusen in Soul Eater: Medusa no Inbou are assigned with new, dangerous field work, this time on the DS. Get to know the characters and their strengths to carry yourself through this crisis with your touch pen and direction buttons.
Bleach: Soul Carnival [JPN & ASN versions] is another game that suits the Halloween atmosphere, just think of a super deformed Ichigo with his orange hair and black costume. As a horizontal action, this time, see the cute characters dash across the screen and battle with their enemies.
Less cute and comedic is the newest Castlevania game, Order of Ecclesia [Limited & Standard Editions]. The Belmont clan has disappeared and its up to other people to devise ways to undo the harm of the dark lord.
Taisho is a period where Western influences Japan most deeply. Spending Halloween in such a city is quite a thrilling experience, as you could see how the gap in the society beckons demons and monsters to come through. Join Katsunoha Raidou in Devil Summoner [First Print & Plus Editions] on his quest to quench evil forces that infest the city.
Stealth is a skill you may find useful during Halloween when you need to dodge between all the ghouls moving about. Train yourself in Tenchu 4. Be a real ninja, hide yourself from the preying eyes of the enemies and ambush them when they have their guard down.
Follow the scent of gold in the family games, Monopoly and Dokapon [Wii & PS2 versions]. Although never quite as violent as all the games mentioned above, in the world where money rules, you have to be ruthless.
Xbox360™
Blitz, The League II US US$ 64.90
Blitz, The League II ASIA US$ 49.90
Dead Space US US$ 64.90
FIFA Soccer 09 US US$ 64.90
Fable II US US$ 64.90
Fable II ASIA US$ 49.90
Fable II [Limited Edition] ASIA US$ 59.90
Fable II [Limited Edition] US N/A
FarCry 2 ASIA US$ 49.90
Golden Axe: Beast Rider US US$ 64.90
Gundam Musou International (Platinum Collection) JPN US$ 39.90
Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition ASIA US$ 44.90
NBA Live 09 JPN US$ 64.90
Rock Revolution US US$ 54.90
Saints Row 2 [Collectors Edition] US US$ 89.90
WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008 (Platinum Hits) US US$ 34.90
Xbox 360 Accessory Bundle - Wireless Controller + Play & Charge Kit (Red) US US$ 69.90
PlayStation3™
Bioshock ASIA US$ 49.90
Blitz, The League II US US$ 64.90
Dead Space US US$ 64.90
FIFA Soccer 09 US US$ 64.90
FarCry 2 ASIA US$ 59.90
Golden Axe: Beast Rider US US$ 64.90
Gundam Musou (PlayStation3 the Best) JPN US$ 39.90
NBA Live 09 JPN US$ 64.90
Rock Band 2 US US$ 64.90
Rock Revolution US US$ 54.90
SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Confrontation US US$ 44.90
SOCOM: US Navy SEALs Confrontation (w/ Headset) US US$ 69.90
WWE Smackdown Vs. RAW 2008 (Greatest Hits) US US$ 34.90
Nintendo Wii™
Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune US US$ 34.90
Avatar: The Last Airbender - Into the Inferno US US$ 34.90
Boogie Superstar US US$ 64.90
Bratz: Girlz Really Rock US US$ 34.90
Dokapon Kingdom US US$ 44.90
Ginsei Table Games Wii JPN US$ 39.90
Happy Dance Collection JPN US$ 59.90
High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance US US$ 54.90
Pro Golfer Saru JPN US$ 59.90
Tak: Big Dose of Gross US US$ 44.90
Tenchu 4 JPN US$ 64.90
PlayStation2™
Baroque International JPN US$ 39.90
Devil Summoner: Kuzunoha Raidou tai Abaddon Ou JPN US$ 64.90
Devil Summoner: Kuzunoha Raidou tai Abaddon Ou Plus JPN US$ 99.90
Dokapon Kingdom US US$ 44.90
Ever 17: The Out of Infinity (Love Game Selection) JPN US$ 19.90
FIFA Soccer 09 US US$ 44.90
Gundam Musou Special (PlayStation2 the Best) JPN US$ 39.90
Hakugin no Soreiyu: Contract to Future JPN US$ 64.90
Hakugin no Soreiyu: Contract to Future [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.90
Kateikyoushi Hitman Reborn!! Let's Ansatsu!? Nerawareta 10 Daime! (Best Collection) JPN US$ 34.90
MX vs ATV: Untamed (Greatest Hits) US US$ 24.90
NBA Live 09 JPN US$ 64.90
Never7: The End of Infinity (Love Game Selection) JPN US$ 19.90
Nitrobike US US$ 14.90
Remember 11: The Age of Infinity (Love Game Selection) JPN US$ 19.90
Sakura Taisen 3 (Sega the Best) JPN US$ 34.90
The DOG Island US US$ 14.90
Nintendo DS™
100 Kiri Golf DS JPN US$ 48.90
Bratz: Girlz Really Rock US US$ 24.90
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia / Akumajou Dracula: Ubawareta Kokuin JPN US$ 48.90
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia / Akumajou Dracula: Ubawareta Kokuin [Konamistyle Limited Edition] JPN US$ 129.90
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (Ultimate Hits) JPN US$ 29.90
FIFA Soccer 09 US US$ 34.90
Final Fantasy III (Ultimate Hits) JPN US$ 29.90
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings (Ultimate Hits) JPN US$ 29.90
Galileo JPN US$ 39.90
High School Musical 3: Senior Year Dance US US$ 34.90
Josei no Hinkakujuku DS JPN US$ 39.90
Ketsui Death Label JPN US$ 58.90
Kimi no Yuusha JPN US$ 48.90
Layton Kyouju to Fushigi na Machi (Friendly Version) JPN US$ 48.90
Morinaga Takurou no Okane no Shin Joushiki DS Training JPN US$ 48.90
My Japanese Coach US US$ 34.90
Naruto: Path of the Ninja 2 US US$ 34.90
Rock Revolution US US$ 34.90
Saihai no Yukue JPN US$ 48.90
Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest 2 (Ultimate Hits) JPN US$ 29.90
Smart Boy's: Toy Club US US$ 24.90
Smart Girl's: Party Game US US$ 24.90
Smart Kid's: Party Fun Pak US US$ 34.90
Soul Bubbles US US$ 34.90
Soul Eater: Medusa no Inbou JPN US$ 48.90
Tak Mojo Mistake US US$ 34.90
Wagamama Fasion: Gals Mode JPN US$ 48.90
Sony PSP™
Bleach: Soul Carnival ASIA US$ 42.90
Bleach: Soul Carnival JPN US$ 48.90
Crimsongem Saga ASIA US$ 39.90
DJ Max Portable Emotional Sense - Clazziquai Edition KOR US$ 49.90
DJ Max Portable Emotional Sense - Clazziquai Edition [Special Package] KOR US$ 59.90
FIFA Soccer 09 US US$ 44.90
Garnet Chronicle JPN US$ 48.90
Gundam Battle Chronicle (PSP the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Hard Pouch Portable 3 (Black) JPN US$ 9.99
MX vs ATV: Untamed (Greatest Hits) US US$ 24.90
Minna de Dokusho: Keatai Shousetsu Desu JPN US$ 39.90
Moeru Mahjong: Moejong! JPN US$ 48.90
Moeru Mahjong: Moejong! [Premium Box] JPN US$ 95.00
NBA Live 09 JPN US$ 48.90
SD Gundam G Generation Portable (PSP the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
SSX on Tour (EA Best Hits) JPN US$ 29.90
PC Games
Battle Rage: The Robot Wars ASIA US$ 32.90
Europa Universalis III Collection ASIA US$ 34.90
FarCry 2 (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 44.90
FarCry 2 [Collector Edition] (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 59.90
Medal of Honor: 10th Anniversary Bundle ASIA US$ 49.90
Space Rangers: Reboot ASIA US$ 32.90
Swashbucklers ASIA US$ 32.90
The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft ASIA US$ 29.90
Virtual Skipper 5 ASIA US$ 34.90
X3: Terran Conflict ASIA US$ 42.90
Game Guides and Books
Fable II Limited Edition Guide US US$ 29.90
Famitsu DS + Wii [December 2008] JPN US$ 9.90
Naruto Path of a Ninja 2: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Confrontation Signature Series Guide US US$ 19.90
Saints Row 2 Signature Series Guide US US$ 17.90
V-Jump [December 2008] JPN US$ 8.90
Weekly Famitsu No. 1037 (2008 10/31) JPN US$ 7.90
Wii Fit Official Guide Book JPN US$ 19.90
Zero: Gesshoku no Kamen Nintendo Wii Official Guide Book JPN US$ 21.90
Video Game Soundtracks
Afrika Original Soundtrack [CD+DVD] JPN US$ 29.90
Culdcept DS Original Soundtrack Deluxe JPN US$ 31.90
DJCD Sengoku Basara Special (~Tomoyuki Morikawa, Seiichi Morita) JPN US$ 27.90
Hototogisu Ran Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 23.90
Nijiiro No Ojisama Drama CD Vol.1 (~Toshiyuki Morikawa, Kenichi Suzumura, Takahiro Sakurai) JPN US$ 27.90
Pop'n Music 16 Party Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 27.90
Prawf Clwyd Soundtrack JPN US$ 19.90
Siren Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 27.90
Your Memories Off - Girl's Style - Drama CD Road of the Your Kanzen Ban (~Hikaru Midorikawa, Ryotaro Okiayu, Kenichi Suzumura) JPN US$ 22.90
Here is a preview of what are expected to be hot next week, as you can see, quite a lot of them:
Xbox360™
Fallout 3 US US$ 64.90
Fallout 3 ASIA US$ 49.90
Fallout 3 [Collectors Edition] US US$ 89.90
Guitar Hero World Tour ASIA US$ 59.90
PlayStation3™
Eternal Sonata US US$ 64.90
Fallout 3 US US$ 64.90
Fallout 3 ASIA US$ 59.90
Fallout 3 [Collectors Edition] US US$ 89.90
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III JPN US$ 49.90
Guitar Hero World Tour US US$ 64.90
Guitar Hero World Tour ASIA US$ 59.90
LittleBigPlanet ASIA US$ 59.90
LittleBigPlanet US US$ 64.90
LittleBigPlanet JPN US$ 59.90
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift US US$ 64.90
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift ASIA US$ 59.90
SOCOM: Confrontation ASIA US$ 39.90
SOCOM: Confrontation (w/ Headset) ASIA US$ 64.90
Nintendo Wii™
Wii Music US US$ 59.90
PlayStation2™
Thunder Force VI JPN US$ 59.90
Nintendo DS™ Aruite Wakaru: Seikatsu Rhythm DS JPN US$ 58.90
Chocobox JPN US$ 19.90
Dr. Slump & Arale-Chan JPN US$ 48.90
Valkyrie Profile: Toga o Seoumono JPN US$ 48.90
Sony PSP™
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) ASIA US$ 26.90
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Star Ocean: First Departure US US$ 44.90
PC Game
Fallout 3 (DVD-ROM) US US$ 54.90
Fallout 3 (DVD-ROM) ASIA US$ 44.90
Fallout 3 [Collectors Edition] (DVD-ROM) US US$ 89.90
There’s no doubt that software piracy is rampant in China. Microsoft attempted to remedy the problem with its new version of Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy program, which will turn the screen black every hour if the system fails the validation test. Previous versions just notified the user that they were using pirated software. You can imagine this didn’t go over too well with the Chinese, who were outraged by the inconvenience and more than one even accused Microsoft of hacking into their computers. A genuine, unpirated version of Windows costs over 1000 RMB, which is more than most Chinese make in a month. Contrast that with the 5 RMB (less than one US dollar) for the pirated version, and you’ve got a no-brainer.
In uncertain times such as these, it ought to be reassuring to turn to British successes. The UK video games industry – or at least its development, as opposed to the publishing side – is a rare example of Britain punching above its weight. At least, that's the popular perception. Speak to any independent British games developer and you will find a considerably more apocalyptic prognosis. Recently, the situation has deteriorated so badly that a coalition of British development studios, backed by developers' trade body Tiga and ELSPA, the publishers' body, has embarked on a campaign to lobby the government, entitled "Games Up?".
Games Up? seeks two things: tax breaks for UK developers in line with those enjoyed by the film industry, and institutional change in universities, designed to re-establish a flow of graduates with skills that are relevant to the game development process. But hang on: according to Games Up?, games made in the UK between 2006 and 2008 alone are on track to generate global revenues of £4bn, and the global games market is worth £18bn and growing at 9% per annum. The credit crunch isn't even an undue worry: consumers are known to turn to games in difficult times, as they offer protracted entertainment for a smallish outlay. So why are UK developers looking to the government for help?
Seductive benefits
The most pressing problem is that the UK development scene has slipped down the global pecking order since several other countries decided to seduce games companies with tax breaks. Ian Livingstone, creative director and head of acquisitions at Eidos, one of the few remaining British games publishers – and not a man ordinarily given to doom-mongering – explains: "We've recently slipped from third to fourth in world development behind Canada. We're now the most expensive country in the world in which to develop. Other countries – not just Canada, but two states in the US, Scandinavian countries, France, Singapore, Korea and others – offer salary subsidies. Canada saw games as a clear opportunity to invest in the future, as traditional manufacturing was disappearing, and made a conscious decision to invest in games. They don't see it as a handout but as an investment. They have actually given out, in salary subsidies, 37.5% to every employee in games companies, and up to 40% R&D tax-credit.
"Over 10 years, they have invested C$500m (£244m). But that has actually generated $1.5bn of inward investment from companies like EA, Ubisoft, and Eidos. It's paying off, because they have a great infrastructure there: they've got great universities providing skilled students, and they are generally pro-games. The difference between there and here is that our government clearly sees any state support as a handout, not an investment. It seems to me the UK government would rather see our great industry go into decline than help it maintain its prominent position in the world, and that is madness."
Livingstone paints a bleak picture of the future of UK games development. "In the past six years, half of the independent UK development studios have already closed or been bought by foreign publishers who see more value in our studios and intellectual property than we do ourselves. We'll end up being a work-for-hire nation. The inherent intellectual property that is created at those studios will be foreign-owned, and they can move that IP to be produced wherever they want in the world, if it suits them."
Richard Wilson, chief executive of Tiga, is the spokesman for the Games Up? campaign. He has been meeting civil servants from the departments for Culture Media and Sport, Innovation, Universities and Skills, Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Children, Schools and Families and the Treasury, among others. He doesn't, however, sound enormously optimistic that the government will heed his call for "20% production tax credit, like that approved by the EU and already found in France". Not to mention that enjoyed for many years by the British film industry.
He adds that "the government understands that UK games developers are not competing on a level playing field" but is "reluctant to introduce tax breaks for games production unless it can be shown that there is an issue of market failure or that there are strong cultural reasons for supporting UK games developers".
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the economic circumstances, the various government departments proved unreceptive to inquiries; the Department of Culture, Media and Sport was particularly dismissive. The Treasury did manage to produce a stultifyingly generic response although, promisingly, it says: "Following approval of a cultural tax relief for games in France, the government is now working with the UK gaming industry to collect and review the evidence for introducing such a credit in the UK."
Battle for breaks
Don Foster, Liberal Democrat spokesman on culture and media, points out that the games industry is competing with others for tax breaks, notably fashion and tourism. He also believes the games industry suffers from an unjustifiably poor image: "I hardly play any games – I'm not from that generation – but because of my job, I had to research the industry. The vast majority of my parliamentary colleagues are always wanting to ban the latest game, but they don't know the details of the industry. Few people in this country realise how important it is to the UK economy." Livingstone agrees: "We're still seen as the red-headed stepchild of the creative industries, one notch up from pornography in the eyes of most of the establishment. They forget that half of the world and half of the UK's population play games. Games help define who we are as human beings – they are as important, culturally and socially, as music and films."
There's another problem, though, which Foster highlights: a shortage of university graduates with the requisite skills. Which brings us to the second prong of the Games Up? campaign. There are 81 videogames courses on offer at UK universities, but only four are accredited by Skillset and therefore taken seriously by the games industry. Livingstone says: "These universities are churning out people who know a bit about games design and the history of games, but what we need are computer programmers, artists and animators: people with real skills who can start work tomorrow. It's better for us to go to somewhere like Imperial College and employ someone who has just done a computer science degree and knows how to program in C++."
This problem ought to be easy to solve collectively, Livingstone says: "The government, industry and education establishments have to come together to find a way to move forward." But Wilson says the government seems to have difficulty grasping the nature of the skills needed.
Bad law?
Jon Hare, director of development at Ukrainian developer Nikitova (and the co-founder of legendary UK developer Sensible Software) says that legislation of a decade ago which says developers must take contractors on as full-time staff after a year, or stop using them, has been economically damaging. Previously, such contractors would be paid a fixed amount for their work on the project, whether it overran or not, which allowed small developers to control their costs. Hare argues that tax breaks would merely offset extra costs which the government has introduced by that legislation.
The Games Up? campaign may not be perfect, but, says Foster, it needs to make its case "robustly". But given how beleaguered the government is by the ongoing financial and banking crisis, Livingstone is pessimistic: "The perception is 'why do we need it, as clearly we're doing well?' But do you put a new roof on your house when it's raining? Surely you should do it when it's sunny?"
After taking a breather from consuming video game hardware last week, Japanese gamers return to the electronics stores of their choosing, snapping up almost 160,000 new PSPs. That's substantially more than Famitsu estimated. The PSP-3000 model took Japan by storm, outselling every other platform combined. And multiplied by two.
As good as Sony's fortunes were on the PSP front, PlayStation 3 sales continued to drop. Weekly PS3 sales sink to a Media Create chart all-time low, with less than 5,000 units sold. It's the only hardware platform to drop in sales this week, possibly due to the soon to be released 80 GB model, which arrives alongside a pair of LittleBigPlanet and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III bundles.
• PSP - 159,816
• Nintendo DS - 29,839
• Wii - 26,024
• Xbox 360 - 7,856
• PlayStation 2 - 7,261
• PlayStation 3 - 4,725
- Wireless. Supports 2 channels.
- Supports windows Vista (32bit) / XP (32bit) / 2k / ME / 98 SE / 98.
- The 1st lightgun for All Screens (includes CRT / LCD / Plasma / Projector…etc)
- Supports PS3, PS2, PC (Note: In PS2/PS3, only GunCon2 compatible games are supported.)
- Compatible with MAME and more than 100 Flash games.
- Provide Turbo / Auto-Reload mode.
- Recommend screen size : 14 – 120 inch.
- Note: For 16:9 screens over 42 inches (with LED stands mounted beside the screen), or 16:9 screens over 52 inches (with LED stands mounted above and below the screen), TopGun Blaze Stand II is recommended to be used.
- Supports 52 inches 16:9 screen at 7 feet from the screen (with LED stands mounted above and below the screen)
Go big or go home. That's what I always say, and EA must have been thinking the same thing when they announced their new Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic. But you need subscribers to have a successful MMO, and everyone right now is playing World of Warcraft. So how do they plan on becoming a serious contender? LucasArts executive Tom Nichols told VG247 he thinks storytelling may be the key to winning this online battle.
“When World of Warcraft came out, everybody thought, ‘No, the market is only this big, because that’s as big as EverQuest was.’ Blizzard showed that it could be much larger. Our goal is to show that by bringing storytelling to the genre that we can attract an even wider audience. Plus, we have the benefit of this huge brand, which has done very, very well for nearly 30 years.”
Nichols also said there's great potential here with Bioware behind the project and the use of the ever-popular Star Wars license. Still, that's a pretty steep mountain to climb. Good luck, sirs.
Or, to be more precise, puts the Mickey into Mario, in this figure by Dave Bondi, which actually has zero Disney/Nintendo involvement whatsoever. We know, we know, it's another pretentious "urban vinyl" figure, but the sheer horror of seeing Disney's and Nintendo's flagship mascots thrown in a bucket together makes it worth a closer look. *looks closer*. Oh, the horror.
Good news Voodoo 3 owners: Valve has downgraded its system requirements for co-op zombie shooter Left 4 Dead.
The list is basically identical to the last one, except the video card requirements have been lowed from 256MB to 128MB. Oh and we were joking; and it won't actually work with a Voodoo 3, by the way.
Left 4 Dead is out on November 21. See the revised specs below:
Namco Bandai Games America Inc., today announced that they will continue to support customers of PC game Hellgate: London with online server support and play through January 31, 2009 despite the closure of Flagship Studios. In a further gesture of support, Namco Bandai Games will provide this server support free of charge to all fans and players of the game up until the shut down date.
Namco Bandai Games appreciates the enthusiasm of all the Hellgate: London players and looks forward to providing them with future entertainment products.
For questions regarding the shut down or additional information about Hellgate: London, please visit the game's official website at www.hellgatelondon.com.
It's hardly a scientific test, but when a Cnet editor's 8 year old daughter was given the choice between an OLPC XO laptop running Windows XP or the Linux-based Sugar UI, Sugar was the winner. As Cnet points out, either OS when properly incorporated into the teaching curriculum should serve the children of developing nations equally well. Only one, however, promises to prepare our youth for middle management.
P.S. Amazon's Give One, Get One program will be limited to Linux according to Cnet and confirmed in the OLPC Wiki -- no dual-boot for you Santa.
Fallout 3's radiation sickness hasn't even begun to set in and already people are talking about another sequel. Understandable, given the pause between Fallout 2 and next week's post-nuclear follow up stretched on for a decade, a wait that Bethesda's executive producer Todd Howard even admits was a touch much.
"I think it's good for people to miss things," Howard commented to Reuters. "Ten years between 'Fallout' is a bit long, but I think there's this nostalgia factor." In fact, the report notes that Howard thinks waiting three years or so is about right, though Bethesda's Pete Hines gives the inevitable sequel a wider berth. The company's VP of public relations tells Edge that it would be more accurate to expect Fallout 4 "before 2018" (since Howard did say 10 years was too long to wait). Geeze, by that time, we'll probably be living in our own apocalyptic wasteland, and Fallout will just be the game we play when we go outside.
Highly-anticipated sequel BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams is getting a multiplatform release, 2K Games has confirmed.
The FPS follow-up will be released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, a 2K statement said (what, no DS release?!)
The first trailer for Sea of Dreams, which is little more than a CGI willy-wave, was spotted at the end of the PS3 version of BioShock last week. We've finally got our hands on a lovely hi-res version now, which you can find below...
The first game was famously released exclusively on Xbox 360 and PC, and after a year of rumours and anxious speculation, it finally hits PS3 today. It's good news then that PS3 owners probably won't have to suffer a long wait next time around.
With Tokyo Game Show behind us, it's time to move on to the flood of Q4 releases. That would explain Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and Fable II being unceremoniously plopped on the stoop of Kotaku Towers West. Both will get a good gameplay session thrashing this weekend from yours truly and then ultimately reviewed — as will as the recently acquired Portal: Still Alive — but there are some non-obligation games here too. Finally picked up Call of Duty 4 (I know, I know), The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (I know!!), LittleBigPlanet and Dead Space. So many games!
I'm going to put in a request for some time off from my job writing about games to play some of these games. How about you? Halloween parties planned this weekend?
features
Japan's No.1 selling video game magazine
Weekly news, reports, reviews, interviews and much more
100% video gaming coverage from Japan
Approx. 200 pages or more of footage
Far Cry® 2, the next-generation first-person shooter from Ubisoft, will take you deep into the most beautiful but also most hostile environments in the world: Africa! More than just a visual and technological achievement, Far Cry® 2, the true sequel to the award-winning PC game, will provide you with an unprecedented gaming experience.
Caught between two rival factions in war-torn Africa, you are sent to take out "The Jackal," a mysterious character who has rekindled the conflict between the warlords, jeopardizing thousands of lives. In order to fulfil your mission you will have to play the factions against each other, identify and exploit your their weaknesses, and neutralize their superior numbers and firepower with surprise, subversion, cunning and, of course, brute force.
With the economy being the way it is, many of us need to face the fact that we must cut back a bit on our gadget budgets. However, that doesn't mean that we need to go cold turkey. If you are currently in the market for a new laptop, have you ever considered buying refurbished/recertified? Keep in mind that refurbished/recertified laptops were either returned, overstocked, defective or functioned as demos before heading back to the manufacturer for repair and inspection. Many of them come with warranties and should be good as new. However, there is a stigma (and horror stories) that go along with purchasing refurb gadgets for the discount. So, my question is: Would you buy/ have you bought a refurbished laptop?
If you didn't get all up on the Good Old Games beta, you (and the rest of the public) now have a crack at the open beta of the service, which lets you purchase classic, DRM-free PC games for $5.99 or $9.99 a piece.
In addition to previously announced Codemasters and Interplay titles, GoG is now sporting games from Strategy First (e.g. Jagged Alliance) and Pluto 13 (Gothic). Oh, and if you need to play a little catch up with the Fallout series before the third game drops, you can get the pair of predecessors for $12 on GoG.com.
Prepare Lord of the Rings Online fans. It's almost time for you to get your hands on Mines of Moria - the first expansion for the MMO - is coming November 18th. There will be plenty of new features to look forward to such as the game's level cap being increased, new items, and the addition of two new classes, Run-keeper and Warden. You'll also be able to have the option of purchasing a massive collector's edition with all sorts of goodies. In the mean time we got a new trailer which gives you a fly through the ruins in Durin's Way.
It's almost Halloween. Well, not almost, but almost, time for 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. Who knows!
Question: What's the scariest game you've ever played?
Q-Gears is an attempt to make a clone of Squaresoft's Final Fantasy 7 game engine. It is designed to be cross-platform and run on modern operating systems such as Win32 and Linux. QGears 0.00a3 has been released at Sourceforge. You can also keep track of the progress at Akaris Q-Gears Final Fantasy Engine Blog.
It hasn't been too awfully long since Windows Vista SP1 hit the intertubes for real, but the Vista team is already talking up SP2. Granted, we all know Redmond is focused on moving beyond all of this Vista hoopla and forging ahead with Windows 7, but there's apparently still some work to do on the outfit's current OS. Unfortunately, the latest update isn't exactly enthralling, as we're given no set time frame for launch and we're not shown any forthcoming changes that really get our juices flowing. For instance, Vista SP2 will add Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved relevancy in searches, the Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack, ability to natively record data on Blu-ray media and Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify WiFi configuration. Wait, did you just yawn? You did. We saw it.
There's been a number of pleasant surprises that have come out of Treyarch's upcoming installment in the wildly lucrative Call of Duty franchise -- such as the inclusion of Jack Bauer, and its uncanny resemblance to the previous, well-received chapter in the series. However, last night's episode of GameTrailers TV brought another shocking (yet welcome) revelation, straight from the mouth of Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia -- Call of Duty: World at War will contain a four-player, co-op zombie (of the Nazi variety) survival mode.
Those who currently aren't busy scraping pieces of their blown mind off of the wall behind them will probably be interested in a few details Lamia mentioned -- the gameplay mode (which is unlocked upon the completion of the single player campaign) will place four players in a central structure, then assail them with wave upon wave of undead national socialists. Throughout the game, players will collect money which can be used to fortify their compound, or purchase new weapons. Also, there will be Nazi zombies.
Gamasutra's been publishing an interesting series on what the non-target audience gamers want out of their gaming experience; this week's is on the 'missing gamers,' the ones who played when they were younger and have 'grown out of' the habit (or have they really?). After sitting down with a few play sessions with these gamers (age 25 to 35), the Gamasutra team came to a couple of conclusions about what these gamers really want and what would drive them to get back into gaming in a meaningful, non-Facebook attached way; they also established why this is a segment that developers and marketers should be taking note of this demographic:
This group of 25 to 35 Missing Gamers is perhaps one of the most socially motivated cohorts we have come across. From a desire for integrated social experiences to a love of playing games next to each other they certainly have plenty of time, money and motivation to play.
Although easily discouraged from the pursuit of gaming experiences because of the hard-to-get "assumed gaming grammar", get them playing something without thinking about it too much and they soon rise to the occasion.
Get them playing something that presents a sizeable and complex challenge and you discover a whole different side of their personalities.
Wrap all this up with some packaging and marketing stories that look and sound like the lives they are already leading, rather than a cartoon or juvenile version of themselves, and they soon "get" why games are still applicable.
The other two pieces in the series (on 'family gamers' and 'silver gamers') are likewise worth a read; there are some interesting tidbits scattered about the articles in regards to play styles, game design, and marketing efforts.
People who call me an elitist are quite mistaken: I'm actually a misanthrope. It's not that don't associate with certain people, I don't associate with most people. Present company excluded of course. Or included. However you want to read it. John Walker at Rock, Paper, Shotgun feels somewhat the same way, and that's why he's fired up about The Old Republic. And he has a novel argument for why it'll save MMO gaming, for antisocial types like myself.
An MMO where you get NPC party members? Good grief, yes. A thousand times yes. I get the extra hands I require to tackle a stronger foe, but without them bitching and whining at me because I didn’t use my double-cloaking no-hit AOE poison buff at exactly the point they would have used it if they were playing on their own. See? SEE? Every single bugger in these games just wants the others in their parties to be the over-qualified AI companions that perform the tasks they don’t have time for. If you don’t play like they would have done it, you’ve failed them, you’ve let them down, you’ve spoiled their game. ... But if my party members are NPCs, they’ll do what they’re programmed to do, or when I tell them to do it. That’s great for any of the above frustrations I might experience. But more importantly, when I don’t do what they might want when they might demand it, they’re not going to storm off in a giant pissy huff and block me on IM.
John deflects the "then you don't want an MMO," argument — "I really do want an MMO of KotOR’s world, because then I’ll have myself a KotOR game that doesn’t end! And Bioware, mightiest at the RPG, utterly suck at endings."
This does make a lot of sense, and BioWare's shrewd for implementing the NPC party member option. I haven't gamed MMOs ever partly because — well I don't even own a PC, but that's beside the point — I'm just not that into what other people are doing with their game experience. I have enough on my hands just managing my own. And holy shit, Walker's right when he talks about people playing Team Fortress 2, "screaming - and I mean SCREAMING - in anger at a Medic’s failure to uber-charge them the very instant they wanted it." Go through that, or anything close, and you start to question whether multiplayer really is fun.
Anyway, you can tell I'm in something of a pissed mood this AM, so the argument resonates. Check it out.
While it still won't operate on our trusty Macintosh Performa 5200, PC gamers with less-than-stellar rigs will be pleased to know that Valve recently lowered the previously announced system requirements for Left 4 Dead. Well, okay -- the only thing they lowered was the video card memory requirement from 256 MB to 128 MB, but we imagine that this will allow access to a much larger number of casually outfitted PCs. To find out if you'll be able to join in all the zombified reindeer games upon Left 4 Dead's Nov. 18 release, check out the full list of requirements we've posted after the jump.
And you thought MapleStory was all fun and games. A Japanese woman has found herself in jail, potentially facing charges of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating data, after deleting the character of her in-game 'husband' who divorced her rather suddenly. "I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry!" she is quoted as saying:
The woman, a piano teacher, is in jail in Sapporo waiting to learn if she faces charges of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating data.
She was arrested on Wednesday and taken 620 miles (1,000 km) from her home in southern Miyazaki to Sapporo - where her "husband", a 33-year-old office worker lives.
If charged with the offences, and convicted, she faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000 ....
A Sapporo police official, according to the Associated Press news agency, said the woman had used the man's ID and password to log in to the game last May to carry out the virtual murder.
I love the fact the BBC is describing this as murder (though I imagine it would be quite upsetting to log in and discover your character had gone 'poof'); for those of you considering virtual revenge, tread carefully.
When it hits stores Sunday, the fourth installment of the wildly popular Guitar Hero video game could become a test of the game industry's ability to weather the broader economic storm.
Activision Blizzard Inc.'s Guitar Hero World Tour is one of the company's most important games of the year. At $189.99, it will also be one of the most expensive games the Santa Monica publisher has ever released.
"In this economy, people will be a little more frugal," said Ricardo Torres, editor of Gamespot, a website that reviews games. "This fall, it's all about value."
For Aaron Green, who plays Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock with his 9-year-old son, Alex, the new game is still a good value.
But the price tag makes him pause. Instead of splurging on the game right when it comes out, as he would have in years past, the 43-year-old audio-visual coordinator from Rancho Mirage said he would wait to give the game to his son for Christmas.
"The price is a little steep," Green said. "But we still need our creature comforts to help us feel better."
That's music to the game's creators, who are pitching it as a great bang for the buck. It comes with a guitar controller, drum kit, microphone and software that lets players create and edit their own music.
"It's like several games in one," said Brian Bright, one of the lead developers. "So you get a lot for your money."
Sarah Wright-Killinger, 30, an operations manager from West Los Angeles, isn't convinced, though she likes to play music games with her husband.
"I'm afraid if I spend money on Guitar Hero, I'm just asking for it," she said. "It's just not the time to be spending money on things like that."
To persuade reluctant consumers, Activision is releasing several versions of the title, including a stand-alone game disc for as low as $49.99, which can be played using guitar controllers from previous versions of Guitar Hero or Rock Band, a competing franchise from MTV Networks. There's also a $90 version of the game that comes with a guitar controller only.
For Activision, hitting the right notes with consumers with World Tour is crucial. The Guitar Hero franchise is "one of the three biggest profit generators" for the company this year, Activision Chief Executive Robert Kotick said.
The company currently leads the music simulation category, but MTV is catching up fast, said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities.
Guitar Hero III, released last October, sold 9.1 million copies in the U.S., said Anita Frazier, an analyst at NPD Group, a market research firm. Rock Band, which came out last November, has sold 3.5 million copies.
"Activision needs this game to keep Rock Band from gaining market share," Pachter said.
I really have no idea what the tone of the national mood is in Canada regarding the Brandon Crisp disappearance. It's a big enough story on the Canadian news sites, but then, it could be that way because they say so, not because Canadians are actually gripped by this story. In the States, if we didn't have a campaign, this has all the markers of an overcovered 24-hour news cycle bender that makes everyone nauseous.
That said, Toronto's National Post has a story up this weekend that does a good job at knocking this down from a sensational video game controversy story to what it really is — a disturbed kid gone missing and terrifying his parents. The lead to the story:
Blaming video games for the woes of teens such as Brandon Crisp, who disappeared after his parents confiscated his Xbox, might be missing a bigger point, child psychologists warn. Obsessive behaviour in any form, combined with sudden shifts in habits, could indicate deeper, emotional turmoil that often eludes many parents.
The reporters, Craig Offman and Natalie Alcoba, then seek out Harvard psychologist Dr. Lawrence Kutner, whose book Grand Theft Childhood had a provocative title but really gave an evenhanded, well researched look at child behavior and video games.
Dr. Kutner said the overwhelming majority of children who play video games do not suffer any psychological damage. If anything, he added, the consoles provide an effective means to be burn off excess adolescent energy and anxiety.
"In essence, it's a way of self-medicating," he said. "Kids play for a variety of reasons: for the fun of it, for the challenge. Or they play for emotional regulation. They can get their anger out."
Of course, "self-medicating" is the watchword. One can self-medicate with alcohol, pot, or other behaviors. It doesn't completely exempt gaming; it remains associated. But it's interesting to see a newspaper of record and an authoritative source combining to back this story away from hysteria.
In the latest post on the Tabula Rasa website, lead designer Susan Kath has revealed that the next major update to the science-fiction MMO, Deployment 15, will take players to Earth for the first time.
Tabula Rasa's setting has humans fighting for survival on an alien world after Earth was invaded and presumed destroyed by the Bane race. However, the next update will see players return to a ravaged Caprica, sorry Earth, and fight alongside a resistance force formed by the humans left behind.
Screens show combat in a ruined urban landscape, apparently "one of the most iconic cities on Earth" (New York City, going by the skyline silhouette, and the label on the minimap which reads "New York City").
The Earth map will feature "epic control point gameplay for level 48 to 50 players", new monsters including Epics and mini-bosses, opportunities to use mechs, and new armour sets.
Kath also promises that future maps will continue the Earth storyline. It's an encouraging sign of creative life from a game that has been rumoured to be on the chopping block many times in the year since its launch.
Meanwhile, Tabula Rasa's creator, Ultima legend Richard Garriott, has also returned to Earth from his own adventures in space, in a coincidence so perfect a PR couldn't make it up (well, maybe).
The Associated Press, via MSNBC, reported late on Friday that space tourist and second-generation astronaut Garriott had touched down safely in Kazakhstan with his Russian cosmonaut colleagues. He'd spent two weeks aboard the International Space Station.
"I'm fresh and ready to go - again," Garriott reportedly told his NASA astronaut father Owen. "What a great ride that was." At USD 30 million, you'd hope so.
Still haven't found an Eee PC to your liking? Then perhaps ASUS's new 10-inch Eee PC 1002HA model will be more to your liking, with it bringing some of the S101's stylings to the company's standard 1000 series. Otherwise, you can expect most of the usual specs that now haunt our dreams, including a 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor,1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and, apparently, a two-cell, 4200 mAh battery. No word on a release 'round here just yet, but it looks like this one will be available in Europe in the not too distant future for €449, or about $565. http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/27/a...t-weeks-model/
We should be getting a much bigger dose of Windows 7 details on Tuesday when Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference gets underway, but it seems that some tidbits just can't be kept under wraps, and ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley now has word of a few more features that are apparently in the forthcoming Windows 7 pre-beta. Chief among those is a so-called Device Stage, which promises to let users more easily interact with a whole range of different devices -- assuming those devices are "Device Stage-enabled' devices, that is (yes, really). Other features supposedly in store include an Action Center that promises to help you troubleshoot problems, a new animation framework to allow for custom animations (which should tie in nicely with the rumored GPU acceleration), tighter integration of the Windows taskbar, an expanded use of Microsoft's so-called "ribbon" interface and, of course, plenty of multi-touch and gesture support.
Wednesday sees the return of our old friend Leland Yee as he and California Governor T-101 attempt once again to get their violent video game law passed, this time in the Federal Court of Appeals. The law, which was shot down last year in federal court for being unconstitutional, sought to prevent children from purchasing games that contained "especially heinous, cruel or depraved" violence, putting in place $1,000 fines for retailers who sold such titles to minors. In preparation for this Wednesday's appeal, Senator Yee practiced his spiel.
"This is the same technology the armed forces use to help soldiers kill the enemy," said state Sen. Leland Yee, the San Francisco Democrat who wrote the legislation. "All we're saying is, 'Don't sell it to kids.' "
I predict this appeal will get them absolutely nowhere, though I suppose we can't fault them for using taxpayers' money to check back every now and then, just in case the Constitution changed while we weren't looking.
SimBin has whipped up a demo for GTR Evolution on PC.
Inside the sampler are the English course Brands Hatch and the Spanish supercar Sunred, which looks very nice and fast and shiny and expensive. There's full online support in the demo, too.
GTR Evolution was released back in September and takes the simulation approach to racing. Swedish developer SimBin has a proven track record in this area, and this latest instalment rather impressed us. Head over to our GTR Evolution review to find out why.
Alternatively, head over to the official GTR Evolution website to buy a very expensive authentic racing chair to go with the game.
features
Official Final Fantasy Statue
Height: approx. 36cm
Limited availability
description
One wrong turn, these long time partners would tumble down to the their respective dooms. Balthier and Fran have gone through all sorts of hardship with their wit and combat prowesses and the statue captures all of these in this momenteous scene.
To portray their daring spirit, the sculptors of Kotobukiya took this one dramatic moment in the game and freeze it for all the fans to admire and collectors to drool for.
The falling rubble and the partners on the air bike are precariously suspended in mid air. Every minute detail of this polystone statue is sculpted to perfection, from the smallest carving on the arch to the direction in which the building crumbles.
Publisher Activision and developer Treyarch have revealed a four-player co-op zombie-killing mode for Call of Duty: World at War. In this mode, players and three of their friends will get a chance to kill wave after wave of Nazi-zombies.
CVG reports that waves are infinite and get progressively harder. Reportedly, Treyarch developers never got past the 23rd wave. Giving players a fighting chance, the mode rewards kills with cash. Gamers can then use their money to purchase barricades, equipment, and weapons.
While the fifth installment of Call of Duty is set during World War II, the developers did tease a scenario never seen before in a Call of Duty game on its web site. "Now, what exactly will Call of Duty: World at War bring the players in the way of Co-Op? Let's see... Unfortunately I can't talk about everything just yet; however, I can tell you that we do have a third Co-Op experience in store, which I promise is like nothing you've ever seen before in a Call of Duty game…"
You can try your hand against the Nazi-zombies when Call of Duty: World at War releases on November 11.
We knew good and well Microsoft was gearing up to drop a pre-beta release of Windows 7 in developers' laps at its Professional Developers Conference, but now we're being treated to a host of details from Redmond itself. For starters, it's showing off (for the first time, mind you) its new Web applications for Office. As you'd expect, said apps are "lightweight versions of Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote that are used from within standard web browsers." According to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft, it's aiming to bring "the best of the web to Windows, and the best of Windows to the web." 'Course, we're also told about improved navigation, a new taskbar (preview shown), support for multi-touch gestures, Device Stage and enhanced AV integration -- all things that have our interest decidedly piqued
Responding to Dr., Tanya Byron's findings that parents in the United Kingdom don't seem to be familiar with the PEGI rating symbols, the Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) are introducing a traffic light system, reasoning that parents know that green means go, yellow means caution, and red means stop. Obviously they've never driven in my Atlanta suburb before, where yellow means "Go faster" and red means "Oh screw it, I'm late for pilates!"
“The world of gaming is fast moving and it is vital that we have a clear ratings system that is up to date with consumers’ needs. It has already been proven that everyone understands traffic light labelling, making it the perfect scheme for the industry to adopt.”
I suppose if the bright colors fail they can always force publishers to shape the game boxes based on the ratings, forcing parents to push them through the correct hole in order to buy them. Hit the jump for a larger version of this new, possibly but not actually parent-proof system.
You know how when you and your friends get into arguments over which MMO is the best, and they pull out the old "World of Warcraft has 10 million subscribers" argument? Prepare for them to get even more insufferably obnoxious as Blizzard tacks on another million to their bragging totals. With the launch of the game's third expansion imminent, the company reports that worldwide subscribership has broken the 11 million mark.
“It’s been very rewarding to see gamers around the world continue to show such strong support for World of Warcraft,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment®. “We remain fully committed to responding to that enthusiasm with a high-quality, constantly evolving game experience.”
Nice Mike! While you're at it, how about making the venue for next year's BlizzCon a bit larger, to accommodate all these new fans? Move it from the Anaheim convention center to say, the entire state of Montana. I hear they're renting it out on the cheap.
So says Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian, and in the interest of providing a counter-point to the endless stream of "gaming is totally safe from the recession!" stories, let's hear what he's got to say.
We interpret this trend to suggest that the core market remains healthy, while more casual/mass market consumers are spending more cautiously or waiting to make purchases closer to the holidays.
What's that mean? Means people like you and me will keep on buying games, no sweat. But the kind of people snapping up Wii Fit, they'll hold off. Which has a knock-on effect! It means that retailers might hold off on buying games they think might not sell, and only buy games they know will sell. Madden, yes, Patapon, ehhh, maybe not.
Speaking at the Games 3.0 event in London earlier in the week, Microsoft's Neil Thompson went on a little rant against education in games. Said it's just not for him, not for his company, and really, shouldn't be for this industry.
We're in the business of producing fun, not education. It so happens that certain products we produce have educational value. We're in the business of creating fun entertainment and the moment we try to pretend we're in the business of education we've crossed the line and it's dangerous for us as a company and as an industry.
Whatever. We both know, Neil, if it hadn't been for VIva Pinata I'd have no idea about the whole worm incest thing.
Play-Asia.com Removal Sale: 15% OFF ALL in-stock items - Only until Friday, October 31st 2008
Come hitch a ride and drive away from the gloom. We know these are not the happiest of times with the force of the credit crunch and stock market plunges bearing down on all of us. But that is precisely why we are having this Removal Sale, let our wealth of entertainment goodies lift your spirits and remove some stress and tension from your shoulders.
Play-Asia.com will soon be moving to a new premises and to make our move easier, we need your help. How? Simple, just get on our trucks and make a grab at our wonderful deals.
Get ready to hail one of our trucks. The sale will commence from this very moment onwards towards the 31st of October, all in stock items will be reduced by 15%, just spot our blue and silver truck on our many product pages, stick out your thumb and get on.
The trucks are driving on the highways on our network but will only stop at a product page for as long as it is in stock. Some products are restocked regularly so the trucks drive back and forth on schedule while others have limited availability so the trucks never return once they drove off.
To avoid disappointment, get to your nearest highway and hail them as quickly as you can spot them. This truck riding activity is only going to last for a couple of days, start catching now and save plenty of cash in the process. After all, the prime objective of hitch-hiking, in most cases is to save cash.
We have carefully selected around 300 of our top selling products from throughout our complete catalogue in this news post to show you just a few examples of how the discount looks and feels like. There are a total of more than 10,000 different products at Play-Asia.com that have been discounted, so make sure to take your time for your bargain hunting (... eh hitch-hiking).
A whopping 15% discount has been applied to Play-Asia.com's regular selling price. This means that already discounted products have become even cheaper. Prices listed in this news post already reflect the latest sales price. Only products listed as "shipping within 24h" availability are still discounted, while others have already been grabbed by someone else.
Please also note that to get the most updated status for a product, you will be required to add this to your shopping cart. Product pages and category listings are subject to caching and may not reflect the current situation where the last piece of an item has been picked by another customer just minutes ago.
Plenty more discounts can be found in our constantly updated Bargain Pages.
From the publisher: In Crash's latest adventure, the villainous Cortex has teamed up with N.Brio and created a monstrous mind controlling device that has taken over all the bandicoots and mutants on Wumpa Island.
Crash sets out to stop the madness by destroying Cortex's evil device using his quick wits, lightening agility, and the hijacked mutant in his pocket!
Adventure with Crash and his mutant in Mind over Mutant. The game is available on several platforms:
Xbox360™
Crash: Mind Over Mutant US US$ 54.90
Crash: Mind Over Mutant ASIA US$ 49.90
Nintendo Wii™
Crash: Mind Over Mutant US US$ 54.90
PlayStation2™
Crash: Mind Over Mutant US US$ 44.90
Nintendo DS™
Crash: Mind Over Mutant US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™
Crash: Mind Over Mutant US US$ 44.90
Game Guide
Crash: Mind Over Mutant: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
From the publisher: New York City has been invaded and only Spider-Man™ can save it.
Control everything. Spider-Man™: Web of Shadows gives you an unprecedented level of gameplay choice, including, for the first time, control over the game’s direction and outcome.
Choose how Spider-Man fights, which powers to upgrade, who in the Marvel universe to fight with or against, and the fate of New York City itself.
Choose wisely.
Spider Man is here to save the day, let the super hero take you out of the gloom, or grant you a brief reverie, at least.
The cross platform game is available in various versions:
Xbox360™
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows US US$ 64.90
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows ASIA US$ 59.90
PlayStation3™
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows US US$ 64.90
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows ASIA US$ 59.90
Nintendo Wii™
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows US US$ 54.90
PlayStation2™
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows US US$ 44.90
Nintendo DS™
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows US US$ 34.90
Sony PSP™
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows US US$ 44.90
PC Game
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (DVD-ROM) US US$ 34.90
Game Guide
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows Official Strategy Guide US US$ 17.90
All games and game guides are expected to arrive within this week, for a more concrete shipping schedule, please keep yourselves posted.
features
Take in the sights and sounds of the vast Capital Wasteland! See the great monuments of the United States lying in post-apocalyptic ruin! Make the choices that define you and change the world
No longer constrained to just one view, experience the world from 1st or 3rd person perspective
Witness the harsh realities of nuclear fallout rendered like never before in modern super-deluxe HD graphics (protective eyewear encouraged)
Facial expressions, gestures, unique dialog, and lifelike behavior are brought together with stunning results by the latest in Vault-Tec technology
description
Vault-Tec engineers have worked around the clock on an interactive reproduction of Wasteland life for you to enjoy from the comfort of your own vault. Included in Fallout® 3 is an expansive world, unique combat, shockingly realistic visuals, tons of player choice, and an incredible cast of dynamic characters. Every minute is a fight for survival against the terrors of the outside world—radiation, super mutants, and hostile mutated creatures
ShockBall is two player turn-based arcade game, where you have to score three goals to win the match. You can play against computer opponent (three levels of difficulty) or another player on same computer or via LAN/Internet. Interactive tutorial explains rules of the game and basic gameplay.
Blizzard has announced the number of people playing World of Warcraft has now exceeded 11 million.
And just think, new expansion pack Wrath of the Lich King hasn't even launched yet. It's due to arrive in shops on 13 November.
"It's been very rewarding to see gamers around the world continue to show such strong support for World of Warcraft," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment and father of children who will never want for shoes. Or helicopters.
"We remain fully committed to responding to that enthusiasm with a high quality, constantly evolving game experience," he added, while throwing diamonds in a bin.
WOW first debuted in 2004 and has since become the most popular MMORPG in the whole wide world. It was the best-selling PC game of 2005 and 2006, and was only beaten to the post in 2007 by WOW expansion The Burning Crusade.
PopCap has announced the release of Bejeweled Twist, the sequel announced last month, for GBP 14.95 online.
Twist's not entirely unpredictable variation on the classic match-three Bejeweled gameplay is to have the player rotate 2x2 groups of gems clockwise to try and form groups that then disappear.
There's a 45MB trial version or you can spend your fifteen quid straight off, and the full game includes various modes, like a five-minute time attack, a stress-free "Zen" mode and the more structured Challenge levels.
There are also bonus multipliers, new gem types and new obstacles, and a facility for action replays.
PopCap evidently hopes Twist will follow successfully in the footsteps of the massively popular Bejeweled 2, which is available on every format ever invented and about which even my mum is dimly aware.
features
The Return of Red Alert! - After seven years, the most popular series in EA's 25-million unit-plus selling Command & Conquer franchise has returned with a vengeance. Red Alert 3 brings back everything fans loved about the series, the humor, the popcorn style story and the franchise?s fast, action-oriented gameplay, while breaking new ground for the genre, with an entirely co-operative, story-driven campaign campaign mode and an increased emphasis on naval gameplay.
Co-Op Done Right - Every mission is designed from the ground-up with co-operative gameplay in mind. Join forces and strategize with friends online or join forces with nine AI commanders, three for each faction, all of whom have their own unique personality and style of play that might come in handy depending on the situation.
Command the Seas, Conquer the World - Experience Gameplay as for the first time in the series, waging war on the water will be every bit as important as dominating by land and air. Gain strategic advantages by controlling resources in the seas and mounting three-pronged attacks from all directions.
A New Threat from the East - The Empire of the Rising Sun is a technological terror, with unit designs influenced by a mixture of science-fiction, martial arts and robot culture. The Empire?s futuristic units can transform into alternate forms, and they specialize in naval warfare.
Star-Studded Storytelling - Command & Conquer's trademark live-action videos return in HD, with over 60 minutes of footage featuring the largest cast in the history of the Command & Conquer franchise.
CommandStick 2.0 - Improving on the CommandStick interface first pioneered in Command & Conquer 3 Kane's Wrath, 360 owners will get an unparalleled console RTS experience, with controls that continue to bridge the gap between the PC and 360 and a game designed to meet the needs of the console gamer.
Is There Any Doubt Red Alert is Back? - Armored War Bears, Sonic Dolphins, Tesla Troopers, Vicious Attack Dogs, Man Cannons and Tanya. Welcome back!
description
Welcome back comrades, it's been far too long.
EA is traveling seven years back in time to bring back the most-beloved series in the storied Command & Conquer™ franchise. The light-hearted, over-the-top, wacky world of Red Alert™ has returned with Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, shipping this holiday for the PC and Xbox 360™.
After years of conflict, the Allies are finally on the brink of victory. Cowering behind the walls of the Kremlin, the Soviets decide to turn to one last act of desperation - the use of an experimental time travel device. The mission: to go back in time to eliminate Albert Einstein before he creates the technologies that will lead the Allies to ultimate victory. After a successful mission, the Soviets return to the present, discovering the Allied position has weakened. But before they can truly celebrate, they find out their actions have spawned a new threat and global superpower, the mysterious, technologically advanced, Empire of the Rising Sun. Welcome to World War III.
In Red Alert 3, all three factions will have their own hand-crafted story-driven campaigns, with co-operative missions designed solely around coordinating attacks and developing strategies with an ally. Hook up with a friend online to go through the entire experience or choose from a group of AI commanders, each with their own distinct playstyle and personality.
While most RTS games keep naval gameplay at the periphery, Red Alert 3 is not shying away from the high seas. The oceans now hold essential resources, and with many units and structures capable of becoming amphibious, players who turn their backs to the oceans will find conquering the world a daunting task.
For Xbox 360 owners, Red Alert 3 continues EALA's quest to increase accessibility of strategy games on the console. Featuring a new, enhanced version of the revolutionary CommandStick interface, Red Alert 3 on the Xbox 360 brings the speed and efficiency of the keyboard and mouse to the palm of your hand.
Sony Computer Entertainment UK director Ray Maguire gives fans of Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3 and Tomb Raider: Underworld hope for the future of "exclusive" downloadable content on the PlayStation 3 platform. Each has promised DLC only for Microsoft's Xbox 360, but Maguire tells VideoGamer that "One thing to remember, nothing is ever exclusive."
He has a point. We've watched exclusivity deals dissolve more than once during this generation (BioShock, Final Fantasy XIII).
Maguire, who's been chatty lately, explains to the less big business strategically inclined, "Things get wrapped up for a period of time for a large amount of money and if it's a strategic decision by competition to do that then we have to live with that."
Sony, Mr. Maguire says, has better things to do with its money.
"I would much rather that we were investing money into making sure that we've got great R&D and we start producing games like LittleBigPlanet," he adds, "rather than paying other people a huge amount of money to stop people playing their product."
We're glad that Sony is investing internally, even if it means things like EyePet get greenlighted, but we'd bet some PS3 owners certainly wouldn't mind a well-secured exclusive or two of their own. For the record, we're 99.44% sure this doesn't apply to Metal Gear Solid 4, give or take a few percentage points. Haze, maybe. Definitely maybe.
Gaming seems to be more popular than ever, doesn't it? It might surprise you, then, to learn that the percentage of U.S. households containing a videogame console has remained relatively the same since 1995. A recent report from Odyssey LP called "The Homefront Study" reveals that, while July 2008 saw the highest penetration at 40 percent, that's only two points higher than it was 13 years ago. But why read about data when you can look at a handy graph?
Data was collected from over 1,500 households in a survey asking about different types of home media. We wonder what happened in 1997 that caused a bunch of households to chuck out their consoles. Also, where is the mysterious data from 2006?
IGN suggests America throws a big party the day that 50 percent of our households own a gaming system.
Mythic Entertainment has patched its popular MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning to version 1.0.4. The patch launches The Witching Night live event, adds new guild rewards, fixes bugs, and more. The patch's highlights are posted below:
The Witching Night live event has begun! For details, see the Warhammer Online Herald.
With the arrival of 1.0.4 we are now one step closer to offering Character Transfers from low population servers to medium population servers and the final stages of testing have begun. We're excited to share all the details, keep an eye on the WAR Herald for more information and to find out how you can help us test the Free Character Transfer service in the coming days!
We have added three new guild rewards in the form of dungeon teleport scrolls. Each scroll can be purchased from a guild quartermaster, and is a single-use item that will teleport the player to a dungeon:
Gunbad Teleport Scroll - This reward is unlocked at guild rank 29, and will teleport the player into the entrance lobby area of the Gunbad Tunnels.
Bastion Stair Teleport Scroll - This reward is unlocked at guild rank 32, and will teleport the player into the entrance lobby area of the Bastion Stair.
Lost Vale Teleport Scroll - This reward is unlocked at guild rank 35, and will teleport the player to just outside the entrance to the Lost Vale.
Once a city has become contested, the attacking realm will now have 6 hours to capture it. If the invaders do not conquer the city in that time, the defenders will be declared victorious and the campaign will reset.
Pets set to follow will now path properly to their master, and will no longer teleport instantly to their master's side.
Fixed an issue that was causing pets to stop attacking their current target and return to their master's side. This issue would occur when a pet was ordered to change targets in mid combat, and the previous target subsequently died.
Fixed an issue that could sometimes cause trainer icons not to appear on the minimaps.
The successful capture of an enemy battlefield objective now rewards the capturing players with experience.
In response to player feedback, the amount of renown earned from healing players has been increased slightly.
For a more comprehensive list of patch notes, visit the game's official web site.
Windows 7 is what Windows Vista should have been, what we hoped it would be. The Batman Begins to Vista's Batman and Robin. While superficially both are kinda the same (Batman!), there's a completely different thought process at work. Our walkthrough and videos showed you how the new user experience is something to be excited about; now we want to show you what it is under the hood that enables the wholly hypeworthy experience to be all it can be. And why Windows 7 will totally smash Vista's kidneys.
Fallout 3 developer Bethesda has made a sudden email request to numerous game websites to "immediately remove" all trailers for the highly anticipated RPG.
In a seemingly forlorn email to multiple websites hosting the videos, Bethesda Softworks marketing VP Pete Hines has requested the offending trailers are to be removed "in connection with ESRB's advertising guidelines."
The emailed request did not state precisely why the trailer has been flagged by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, though it is very likely that one particular trailer - the developer walkthrough at this year's E3 - has been identified by the ratings board as a breach of 'Principles and Guidelines for Responsible Advertising Practices'.
The E3 trailer, which can still be found on user-content sites such as YouTube, featured a number of shootouts with various enemies, and on several occasions showed a camera zooming in on an enemy head exploding in slow motion.
It is highly likely that this was seen as a breach of the ESRB's advertising principles, which state that no adverts should feature "graphic and/or excessive depictions of violence ... graphic and/or excessive depictions of blood and/or gore".
The controversy could not have come at a worse time for Bethesda, who see the release of Fallout 3 today in the US and Friday in the UK. Though, some observers have noted, that for the very same reason the controversy and column inches couldn't have come at a better time.
Bethesda has hinted that the next instalment in the tip-top Elder Scrolls series won't be released until 2010.
Speaking to our friends at GamesIndustry.biz, publishing exec Paul Oughton also said there are no current plans to release any Bethesda titles for Nintendo consoles.
"At the moment we've got Fallout 3 for this year and potentially there's a new Elder Scrolls title in 2010," said Oughton. "At the moment we're not that interested in the Wii. We're going to stick to PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
"We'll continue to pursue three or four titles a year and go for big titles," he added. Oughton acknowledged that Nintendo has done a great job of expanding the games market to a mass audience - but said he expects things will soon reach saturation point.
"We've seen game selling in the past 18 months that we never thought we'd see. We wouldn't have thought that pet games and cooking games would have a viable market five years ago. No publisher would have taken those products on," he said.
"But Nintendo bought new products in with vast amounts of marketing money to launch these into the minds of the consumer and made a market for them. Every other publisher then very quickly developed DS and Wii products and we're getting to saturation now."
Never mind all that - 2010, you say? Oh well. At least there's Bethesda's Fallout 3 to be getting on with in the meantime. It's out this Friday for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, and it's well good.
Fable 2 has gone straight in at number one on the UK all-formats software chart, making it the fifth fastest-selling Xbox 360 game of all time. (GTA IV's the fastest ever, if you were wondering. Probably not.)
According to data providers Chart-Track sales of last week's chart-topper, Pro Evolution Soccer 2009, have fallen more than 50 per cent - leaving the game in fourth place. FIFA 09 sales are also down, this time by nearly a quarter, and it's at number three.
So who's in the No. 2 spot? Why, it's Far Cry 2, making its chart debut this week. A third of copies sold were for PS3, while 43 per cent were for Xbox 360 and 24 per cent for PC. Other new entries in the top ten include Dead Space at No. 6 and Midnight Club: Los Angeles at No. 10.
Nintendo's maintaining a presence in the top ten with Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii at 8 and 9 respectively. However, what's more unusual is to see is Microsoft claiming the best-selling version of five out of the top six games in this week's chart. Gosh.
Fable 2 (Xbox 360)
Far Cry 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
FIFA 09 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS)
Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
Saints Row 2 (Xbox 360, PS3)
Dead Space (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)
LEGO Batman (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS)
Wii Fit (Wii)
Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
Midnight Club: Los Angeles Xbox 360, PS3)
Wii Play (Wii)
Dr Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, DS)
If you're anything like us (and we assume you are, otherwise what are you doing here?) you sort of forgot Lord of the Rings: Conquest existed. And who could blame you? With all the Fables about DeadFalloutCry, who had time for a Star Wars Battlefront-esque take on a license that's sooo 2003? Well, hopefully you will on January 13, when the game arrives in North America on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.
The release date notice emphasized how Conquest allows you to join either the forces of good or evil. As Pandemic boss Josh Resnick said, "What The Lord of the Rings fan hasn't fantasized about joining Sauron's army to slay Hobbits?" For the record, we haven't, you sicko.
Maybe the Internet really is serious business - being banned from Electronic Arts' support forums may carry more serious consequences than previously thought.
According to a post in the Red Alert 3 forum by 'eeapoc' (Apparently, C&C Community Manager Aaron Kaufman) EA is implementing a new policy that will tie your forum login to your Master EA Account. If you get hit with the ban hammer for misbehaving in a forum, you could find that you are locked out of your purchased games as well.
"Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since its all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It's all one in the same, so I strongly recommend people play nice and act mature."
Welcome to this week's Games Update, our weekly summary featuring all new product arrivals from the last seven days.
Quite a few big titles are released this week. The delayed LittleBigPlanet has arrived in its full wool and yarn glory. Create your paradise and explore others' patches. Afterall, creativitiy is part of the playing experience and playing is part of the creative experience.
With the network facility enabled, you can wonder into other people's realms or get batches of updates for existing games. The developers of GT have released their newest patch, Spec III, for GT5 Prologue which players can download. But for those who never owned the original game, get the completely updated GT5 Prologue Spec III via our site.
Another racer that blurs the line between reality and the virtual world is Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Race through the city, transform it into tunnels of lines and lights and face off with all the super cars and their drivers. Feel the adrenaline that runs through your veins as you drive recklessly through the city in your safe haven.
Visit New York after you have finished the races in L.A. As one of the most glamourous cities in the world, it's once again being invaded by evil forces. As Spider Man, ensnared in the Web of Shadows you have to save the city and yourserlf. But how you proceed about your business is entirely up to you. So choose wisely.
Fallout 3 paints an apocalyptic world destroyed completely by a nuclear fallout where only the fittest can survive. Granting the players a high amount of freedom, the game allows the players a feel of being truly in charge of their lives and the world. combat mutants, opposition forces and and other hostilities in this game.
Blow things up to galactic proportions, the war between the Ohn Empire and the Federation is still in full swing in Thunder Force VI. Pilot your craft, shoot your enemy planes off the sky and bring an end to all wars with your powerful cannon blasts.
A couple of hot Japanese titles are localized for English speaking gamers. Eternal Sonata, Star Ocean: First Departure and Master of Monster Lair are some of these. Follow the engaging storylines and endearing characters on their exciting adventures. Enjoy the fantasy and magic that are weaved before your eyes.
Another much anticipated game is the localized Wii Music. Spend some time with your family and broaden your music horizons. Play to the beat and train your reflexes, conduct an orchestra, play to the melodies of well known games such as Super Mario Brothers' themes or even compose your own tracks.
Last but not least is the new DS release of Chocobo's Dungeon. Learn what Cid did when Choco is busy retrieving memories for the town's folk.
Besides a fuller story, the Pop up Card Duel is compatible with the Wi-Fi card game of the still developing Chocobo to Mahou no Ehon: Majo to Shoujo to 5-Jin no Yuusha which gives you more incentive to look out for the new game.
Besides the game, to go with the chocobo hype, dress your DS as your favourite mascot with Chocobox. The package comes with a sunny yellow protector case that spots Choco's smiling features at one corner. Aside from the case, there is a matching yellow touch pen that you can lengthen and shorten as well as a screen cleaner.
As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.
Xbox360™
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway JPN US$ 68.90
Crash: Mind Over Mutant ASIA US$ 49.90
Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3 Bundle (w/ Dance Mat) US US$ 89.90
Fallout 3 ASIA US$ 49.90
Fallout 3 US US$ 64.90
Fallout 3 [Collectors Edition] US US$ 89.90
FarCry 2 US US$ 64.90
Fracture JPN US$ 64.90
Grand Theft Auto IV JPN US$ 78.90
Guitar Hero World Tour US US$ 64.90
Midnight Club: Los Angeles ASIA US$ 49.90
Midnight Club: Los Angeles US US$ 64.90
Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition US US$ 44.90
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows ASIA US$ 59.90
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows US US$ 64.90
Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon US US$ 54.90
Xbox Live 12-Month Messenger Gold Card with Project Gotham Racing US US$ 69.90
PlayStation3™
Bioshock US US$ 64.90
Eternal Sonata US US$ 64.90
Fallout 3 US US$ 64.90
Fallout 3 ASIA US$ 49.90
Fallout 3 [Collectors Edition] US US$ 89.90
FarCry 2 US US$ 64.90
Fracture JPN US$ 68.90
Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III JPN US$ 49.90
Grand Theft Auto IV JPN US$ 78.90
Guitar Hero World Tour US US$ 64.90
Guitar Hero World Tour (Guitar Bundle) US US$ 129.90
LittleBigPlanet JPN US$ 59.90
LittleBigPlanet US US$ 64.90
LittleBigPlanet ASIA US$ 59.90
LittleBigPlanet (With Dual Shock 3 Pack: Black) JPN N/A
LittleBigPlanet (With Dual Shock 3 Pack: Silver) JPN US$ 79.90
LittleBigPlanet (With Dual Shock 3 Pack: White) JPN US$ 79.90
Midnight Club: Los Angeles US US$ 64.90
Midnight Club: Los Angeles ASIA US$ 59.90
Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition US US$ 44.90
PlayStation3 Console (HDD 80GB LittleBigPlanet Dream Box) - Ceramic White JPN N/A
PlayStation3 Console (HDD 80GB LittleBigPlanet Dream Box) - Clear Black JPN N/A
PlayStation3 Console (HDD 80GB LittleBigPlanet Dream Box) - Satin Silver JPN N/A
PlayStation3 Console (HDD 80GB Model Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III Bundle) - Ceramic White JPN US$ 549.00
PlayStation3 Console (HDD 80GB Model Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III Bundle) - Clear Black JPN US$ 549.00
PlayStation3 Console (HDD 80GB Model Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III Bundle) - Satin Silver JPN US$ 549.00
Rock Band 2 Wireless Drum Set US US$ 129.90
Rock Band 2 Wireless Guitar US US$ 89.90
SOCOM: Confrontation JPN US$ 39.90
SOCOM: Confrontation (w/ Headset) JPN US$ 79.90
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows US US$ 64.90
Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon US US$ 54.90
Wireless Headset JPN US$ 49.90
Yamasa Digi World SP: Bounty Killer JPN US$ 74.90 Nintendo Wii™
Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader: Make the Grade US US$ 34.90
Backyard Football 2009 US US$ 44.90
Boku to Sim no Machi Kingdom / MySims Kingdom JPN US$ 59.90
Bokujou Monogatari: Waku Waku Animal March JPN US$ 64.90
Carnival Games: Mini-Golf US US$ 44.90
Celebrity Sports Showdown US US$ 44.90
Circus Games US US$ 34.90
Dancing with Stars: Get Your Dance On US US$ 54.90
Guitar Hero World Tour US US$ 59.90
Guitar Hero World Tour (Guitar Bundle) US US$ 129.90
Hula Wii: Minna de Fura Oodorou!! JPN US$ 49.90
Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 US US$ 44.90
Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition US US$ 44.90
Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 US US$ 54.90
Penny Racers Party: Turbo-Q Speedway US US$ 34.90
Petz Rescue Wildlife Vet US US$ 44.90
Sam & Max: Season One US US$ 34.90
Shape Boxing: Wii de Enjoy! Diet JPN US$ 59.90
Spongebob Squarepants featuring the Nicktoons: Globs of Doom US US$ 44.90
Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon US US$ 54.90
Wii Music US US$ 59.90
PlayStation2™
Scarlett: Nichijou no Kyoukaisen JPN US$ 68.90
Scarlett: Nichijou no Kyoukaisen [DX Pack] JPN US$ 89.90
Thunder Force VI JPN US$ 59.90
Yumemi Hakusho: Second Dream JPN US$ 68.90
Yumemi Hakusho: Second Dream [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 79.90
Nintendo DS™
Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader: Make the Grade US US$ 34.90
Aruite Wakaru: Seikatsu Rhythm DS JPN US$ 58.90
Avalon Code JPN US$ 48.90
Back at the Barnyard: Slop Bucket Games US US$ 34.90
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia US US$ 34.90
Chocobox JPN US$ 19.90
Cid to Chocobo no Fushigi na Dungeon: Toki Wasure no Meikyuu + JPN US$ 48.90
Dancing with Stars: Get Your Dance On US US$ 24.90
Dr. Slump & Arale-Chan JPN US$ 48.90
Ener-G Dance Squad US US$ 34.90
Ener-G Horse Rider US US$ 34.90
Ener-G: Gym Rockets US US$ 34.90
Liquid Crystal Protection Filter DSi JPN US$ 6.99
Lovely Lisa US US$ 34.90
Master of the Monster Lair US US$ 34.90
Mechanic Master US US$ 34.90
Naked Brothers Band US US$ 34.90
Screen Guard DSi JPN US$ 6.99
Seikatsu Rhythm Meter JPN US$ 19.90
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows US US$ 34.90
Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon US US$ 34.90
Tales of Innocence (Welcome Price 2800) JPN US$ 29.90
Tokyo Shoukou Kaigisho Kanshuu: Kankyou Jidai no Koushiki Kentei: Eco Kentei DS JPN US$ 39.90
Touch Panel Screen Protection Filter DSi JPN US$ 3.99
Touchmaster 2 US US$ 34.90
Transformers Animated US US$ 34.90
Valkyrie Profile: Toga o Seoumono JPN US$ 48.90
Vitamin Y JPN US$ 44.90
Yes! Precure 5 Go Go Zenin Shu Go! Dream Festival JPN US$ 48.90
Sony PSP™
Cardinal Arc Portable JPN US$ 48.90
Crash: Mind Over Mutant US US$ 44.90
Midnight Club: LA Remix US US$ 44.90
Midnight Club: LA Remix ASIA US$ 34.90
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) ASIA US$ 28.90
Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) JPN US$ 29.90
Rockman Rockman (Best Version) JPN US$ 19.90
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows US US$ 44.90
Star Ocean: First Departure US US$ 44.90
Suigetsu Portable JPN US$ 48.90
Suigetsu Portable [First Print Limited Edition] JPN US$ 79.90
The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga ASIA US$ 39.90
PC Games
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 ASIA US$ 49.90
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 [Collector's Edition] ASIA N/A
Fallout 3 (DVD-ROM) US US$ 54.90
Fallout 3 [Collectors Edition] (DVD-ROM) US US$ 89.90
FarCry 2 US US$ 54.90
Game Guides and Magazines
Arcadia Magazine [December 2008] JPN US$ 12.90
Castlevania: The Order of Ecclesia Official Strategy Guide US US$ 17.90
Code Geass - The Complete - Official Guide Book - Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 JPN US$ 18.90
Fable II Signature Series Guide US US$ 19.90
Fallout 3 Collector's Edition: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 34.90
Fallout 3: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 24.90
Famitsu Wave DVD [December 2008] JPN US$ 16.50
Far Cry 2: Prima Official Game Guide US US$ 19.90
Figure King No.129 JPN US$ 14.90
Lamento - Beyond the Void - Official Visual Fan Book White Notes JPN US$ 34.90
LittleBigPlanet Signature Series Guide US US$ 19.90
Midnight Club Los Angeles Signature Series US US$ 17.90
Nobunaga no Yabou Online Souha no Shou 2008.8.27 Official Guide Vol.2 JPN US$ 32.90
Phantasy Star Portable FAA Book Guardians Maniacs JPN US$ 21.90
Shimada Fumikane Art Works JPN N/A
Star Ocean: The First Departure Official Strategy Guide US US$ 17.90
Weekly Famitsu No. 1038 (2008 11/07) JPN US$ 7.90
World Destruction: Michibi Kareshi Ishi Complete Guide JPN US$ 24.90
Video Game related Soundtracks and Movies
DJ Max Technika Card Collection [Platinum Package] KOR US$ 18.90
DJ Max Technika Card Collection [Technika Package] KOR US$ 18.90
DJ Max Technika Exclusive Collection [Limited Edition] KOR US$ 29.90
Dead Space: Downfall US US$ 34.98
Fate / Tiger Colosseum Upper Theme: "Try Real!" (~Yui Sakakibara) JPN US$ 11.90
Inazuma Eleven Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 26.90
Kanuchi: Shiroki Tsubasa no Shou Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 27.90
PS3 Aquanaut's Holiday-Kakusareta Kiroku- Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 22.90
Playstation 2 Game - Memories Off 6: Trial Wave Personal Collection 4 Rainbow Highway (~Rein Suzushiro (CV.Rie Tanaka)) JPN US$ 13.90
Playstation 2 Game - Memories Off 6: Trial Wave Personal Collection 5 Haruka Kanata (~Yuuno Kasuga (CV.Ui Miyazaki)) JPN US$ 13.90
Seishun Oden (Inazuma Eleven Opening & Ending Theme) (~twe'lv) JPN US$ 9.90
Sorgerian Mega Drive Version Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 39.90
Tenchu 4 Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 21.90
The Idolm@ster Master Live Encore JPN US$ 19.90
Togeki '08 Super Battle DVD Vol.1 Tekken 6 JPN US$ 39.90
Togeki '08 Super Battle DVD Vol.2 Virtua Fighter 5 R JPN US$ 39.90
Togeki '08 Super Battle DVD Vol.3 Melty Blood Act Cadenza Ver.B2 JPN US$ 39.90
True Fortune Original Soundtrack JPN US$ 29.90
Vocal Shu Neo Angelique Special 1 JPN US$ 28.90
Here is a preview of what are expected to be hot next week, as you can see, quite a lot of them:
Xbox360™
Gears of War 2 ASIA US$ 49.90
Gears of War 2 US US$ 64.90
Gears of War 2 [Limited Edition] ASIA US$ 59.90
Gears of War 2 [Limited Edition] US US$ 79.90
Legendary ASIA US$ 49.90
MotoGP 08 US US$ 64.90
PlayStation3™
Legendary US US$ 64.90
MotoGP 08 US US$ 64.90
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift ASIA US$ 59.90
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift US US$ 64.90
SingStar Vol. 2 US US$ 54.90
SingStar Vol. 2 Bundle (w/ 2 Microphones) US US$ 69.90
EA ran into two separate, yet equally important, serial key problems with the release of Red Alert 3. The first issue was that the serial key pinged back as being "invalid," while the other involved a missing digit in the 20-digit code. Here are the solutions from the EA site:
Invalid key issue: EA says the issue should be resolved by now. It involved a "small amount" of keys not being pre-loaded to the company's "backend." Coincidentally, the same place where customers probably felt like they were kicked.
Manual has 19 digits instead of 20: Either click here to contact customer service, or resolve the issue by trial and error. The only thing missing is the last digit, which is either "a number from 0 - 9 or a letter from A - Z." That leaves only 36 possibilities.
EA apologizes for the inconvenience. In Soviet Russia, inconvenience apologizes to EA!
ODAMEX is a source port based on sources of Doom. Supported platforms are Windows, Mac, Linux and FreeBSD. A new version has been released on October 8th.
The SCI FI Channel announced today it will produce an eight-episode, elimination-style reality show in which 12 gamers will compete in a series of challenges to find the "Best All-Around Gamer" in the United States.
The show, currently called "WCG GameQuest," will be shot in Los Angeles and is scheduled to premiere in the first quarter of 2009. The show will have "top game titles" from different studios and include physical challenges in an arena in front of hundreds of spectators. These elimination contests are designed to "bring video games to life" -- whatever that means -- with the champion of the event winning $100,000 and trips to future World Cyber Games events worldwide.
The announcement fails to mention what any of these physical challenges will be, but more conspicuously absent is the mention of any of the games these players will have to play. If the Cyber Games is so involved that it's initials are in the title of the show, I'd assume that organization's roster of official games will be involved, and if that is indeed the case, likely candidates would include "Starcraft," "Counter Strike," "Command & Conquer 3," "Guitar Hero III" and "Halo 3."
A quick call reveals that the show isn't announcing what games will be involved because the producers don't want to spoil any content ahead of time. But one example offered up is that in a show featuring an action game, contestants could first be required to run through a spy-themed obstacle course, zip-lining, racing down fire escapes, etc... before actually playing the action game. Scoring from both virtual and real-life competitions would determine who would have to be involved in the elimination event for that show.
I'm curious how these "gamers" are being selected for the show. The final contestants will be chosen next week, but there are no details available right now as to where they are from and whether any might be from Wisconsin.
