Editor/Founder:
Jon Christensen
Writers:
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Kyra Sawyers
Sony has whipped out a new TV spot with “Sony’s” Kevin Butler, which advertises God of War III. It’s pretty much a fair warning to all the girlfriends/boyfriends’ of the world, whose significant other is about to play the third installment, in just a few days.
Also while you watch, check out the names and titles of both people in the video — it might make you chuckle.
Some news is starting to trickle out of Nintendo’s US Media Summit in San Francisco. The company has confirmed dates for two highly-anticipated videogames for their Wii console. And let’s say summer is gonna be a good season for Wii gamers, which is generally unusual for the industry.
The sequel to arguably the best Wii title to date, and perhaps this generation of consoles as a whole, Super Mario Galaxy, is dated for May 23. Super Mario Galaxy 2 was predicted to be a huge holiday title for the Big N when it was first announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, but it never saw the light of day — nor mentioned much after the convention.
Another big title which was also first shown at E3 — Metroid: Other M – now officially has a date. The title, which is being co-developed by Team Ninja — makers of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden — will be in stores on June 27th of this year. The next installment of this particular Metroid game, will experiment with the combination of both first and third-person action sequences, a departure of the recent Metroid games, which was almost all in a first-person prospective.
It’s interesting to see Nintendo release these games before or right after E3, considering not much has been talked about them. With that said, it’s going to be hard for Nintendo to gain E3 hype for both titles. While I don’t see that being to much of a problem for Mario because well…it’s Mario, I do see Metroid having some advertising problems.
When Metroid is released, it pretty much is right after E3 ends, which doesn’t sound like a horrible idea at first; however, it’s risky. The reason is because the title could get lost, with all the other gaming announcements by various companies. And if the game doesn’t impress gamers when it’s showed off, they might forget it even exists when it ships a few weeks later.
I hope Nintendo has something HUGE up their sleeve for the expo because these are two games that would normally be considered Christmas titles. With that said, Nintendo is certainly not forgetting about the ever-so-important holiday season. So I fully expect some major announcements by Nintendo at the famous videogame convention in June.
God of War III won’t require a HDD install, like a lot of other games published by Sony. The news comes straight from Christer Ericson who is the head of technology at Sony’s Santa Monica Studios, the developers behind the anticipated third installment. Mr Ericson tweeted the confirmation a little while ago:
“God of War 3 does NOT do a HD install. The 5MB listed on box back is for save game only.”
This news comes after the revealing that the game will fill over 35GB of data on one single Blu-Ray disc. I’m actually happy that the team figured out a way of fitting the full game on one single disc. Between owning a bunch of titles for the PlayStation 3 and having a first generation system, I only have limited space on my hard-drive, and each blockbuster game that is released, I see less and less room available for extra goodies like Demos and movies.
So, kudos to Santa Monica Studios for working diligently on making the game work on just the disc, without the need of an install.
Summer is universally known as a slow time for gamers. Most of the anticipated titles skip the warm season and generally come out when the weather gets colder, just in time for the holidays. However this year, Electronic Arts has decided to change up the theory “when games should be released.”
Barring no major setbacks or delays, EA is set to release both the reboot of the Medal of Honor game, which is set in modern times and Realtime World’s ambitious title APB (All Points Bulletin) will be released this summer. The publisher expects to release both games between July through September; however no exact date was announced.
The company also announced vague dates for a couple other important games as well. From October to December, Crysis 2, Criterion’s (Burnout) first take on Need for Speed and EA’s MMA game will all be launched. Following December and ending in March, Dead Space 2, a sequel to Dragon Age, an unnamed Epic Games shooter, along with a unannounced action title, are all scheduled to ship.
Yikes! Sony as just announced that the anticipated, yet super innovative title Heavy Rain, is going to require a 4.2GB install, when the game is first put inside PlayStation 3s. That obviously means gamers who purchase the game will have to wait an extensive amount of time before they even can experience the universe that Quantic Dream has developed.
Unlike most games that require the dreaded install, the guys behind the game will try and keep gamers entertained for however long it will take. It has been confirmed once the install screen appears, players will be able to create a swan origami. Sure, it’s nothing special and I’m sure most gamers would rather play the psychological-thriller right when they pop the game inside their PS3, it’s better then having to wait and watch a loading screen appear for what seems like an eternity.
Heavy Rain is shipping into stores on February 23rd and 24th in both North America and Europe, receptively. A demo is also expected to hit the PlayStation Network on February 11th.
When EA became the parent company for BioWare, gamers across the universe were relentlessly nervous over the fear their beloved studio would take a hit in quality. Then just a few short days ago, Mass Effect 2 was released and was met with unbelievable reviews from critics and currently holds a 96/100 score on Metacritic. So the brief protest was quickly proven wrong; however the next question was, would EA’s wallet help the developer sell more titles? The answer is yes.
EA just sent out a press release announcing the sequel to the space RPG is “hailed as the 1st blockbuster of 2010,” and they just might be right. According to their numbers, Mass Effect 2 has already sold over 2 million units worldwide. A mighty feat indeed — considering the game came out last Tuesday in the States and today in Europe.
“Mass Effect 2 is poised to be one of the biggest games of 2010,” said Ray Muzyka BioWare’s co-founder. “We could not be more proud of the game’s universal acclaim and early commercial success.”
As a whole, this is great news for the videogame industry. It’s proving even in the economic recovery, games that aren’t already considered established franchises can still sell.
The creator of the original Resident Evil, Shinji Mikami, has been directing his next project titled Vanquish and last night the first trailer premiered on GameTrailers TV, which I have embedded up top. Apparently, Mikami has been working with the talented Japanese studio Platinum Games, who was the team behind the newly released Bayonetta game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Much like a lot of debut trailers, this one doesn’t show any gameplay; however it does something a tad different and doesn’t follow the exact same unwritten rule of a first trailer. The clip mixes CG, along with real human actors, and is getting some flap for doing it. Some people are quickly to comment that maybe Platinum Games doesn’t have enough faith in their own CG and have decided to use ‘real life characters,’ in hopes to disguise what they can’t do. This is just ridiculous to assume.
If anyone remembers the very first Resident Evil for the original PlayStation back in 1996, they should recollect a lot of the scenes used real-life actors. To me, it looks like Shinji Mikami is once again going back to his roots and doing something similar with actual actors, rather than CG in Vanquish — which is fine by me. However, that doesn’t excuse my hatred for a publisher, Sega in this case, releasing a debut trailer and not showing us gameplay whatsoever. I would rather them give us something rather than some fancy cut-scenes, so we would have more to talk about the next day.
Anyway, when you watch the trailer, America is being heavily attacked by either an alien race, terrorists, or another country. Unfortunately for us Americans, especially for the ones who live in San Francisco, it’s up to an albino Master Chief clone to save the richest country in the world. I say “unfortunately’ because most albinos have poor vision or are legally blind, which — in my opinion — doesn’t bold to well in a devastating war.
Santa Monica Studios’ John Hight, has been making the Internet rounds, talking to various sites about the companies anticipated upcoming third installment of God of War. While speaking with MTV about how long the game will be in terms of length, he promised God of War III will be “considerably longer” than the previous entries. He even joked a ten-hour game wouldn’t be that long, when compared to the other two.
John Hight: “We’ve done a lot of play testing on it. We know, for a really hardcore player, it’ll take them longer than it took them to play either of the previous “God of War” games.”
MTV: “Longer than seven hours?”
Hight: “Oh yeah.”
MTV: “Considerably longer than seven hours?”
Hight: “I think so.”
MTV: “Is ten…um…longer? [This is me trying to be sneaky]”
Hight: “Ten is longer, but ten might not be considerably longer! [laughs] It’s more than 10 hours.”
While I would love to take his word for it, I’ve been burned so many times by developers promising a certain game would be “x-amount” of time to play through it; and later, only to find out it wasn’t anywhere near the estimation. However, I do have to admit, it’s exciting to read what he feels the length will be, but I’m trying so hard not to get my hopes up.
Eidos has announced that gamers who buy the PlayStation 3 version of Just Cause 2, will be able to record a 30-second clip from their own game and upload it onto Youtube. If you’re unsure why this could be a neat feature for the game, than chances are, you have no clue what the sequel to the 2006 sandbox game is about.
The story follows Rico Rodriguez, a CIA black ops agent, whose main purpose in the first game was to overthrow a evil dictator who controls a fictional island inspired by Panama. While the landscape inside “San Esperito” is realistic looking, the action is way over-the-top; however, that is not necessarily a horrible thing either.
Rodriguez is once again sent out to another island, this time it’s geographically inspired by both New Zealand and Hawaii. From some of the footage we’ve seen, Rodriguez was see doing crazy acrobatic stuff like, jumping onto a flying plane or skydiving off a mountain. Sure, it’s totally unreal, but you can see how it could be fun in a videogame. And having the ability to upload some of your more crazy stunts onto Youtube — you can easily see how that could be a fun feature.
To be honest, I don’t know why more videogame companies haven’t taken an initiative to allow a similar feature. It also doesn’t make a lot of sense why they haven’t done this, especially considering many of the home consoles out there are hooked up to the Internet one way or another. Hopefully this is the beginning of more to come.
Alan Wake is one of those titles hardcore gamers have been waiting for — literally. The title was announced during the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo and most watching the press conference couldn’t wait because the talented studio Remedy, creators of the fantastic Max Payne series, were developing it. These same people are now counting down the days because finally, the “psychological action thriller,” is set to launch this spring, presumably May.
Sadly, CFO of Remedy Entertainment Mika Reini, has stated during a live chat that we won’t see a demo for the game. “Demo before the launch, most likely not,” he wrote to the viewers attending the online chat.
Just like Sony’s Heavy Rain title, I think this would be hard to demo to an audience. Unlike most games, Alan Wake heavily relies on the story and picking out a single scene that gives you a feel of the game, might be near impossible. So, both Microsoft and Remedy have both elected not to release a tease, which was probably a good idea.
Sorry guys and gals, we’ll just have to wait a few more months until we all get are hands on the game.
via: Game Rant
One of the most successful franchises Sony has given to PlayStation owners is the God of War series. Since the first game debuted back in 2005 for the PlayStation 2, they had not only gained critical reception, but sold extremely well. You would think Sony would continue to grow the franchise, but lately, we have heard rumblings that the third installment would be the last in the series.
Joystiq had a chance to chat with Santa Monica Studios’ John Hight and asked them if God of War III was truly the last in the series. According to him, this next game in the series will conclude the story that has been told since the original game launched; however, it won’t be the last game in the franchise.
“It is certainly the end of the trilogy,” he told the gaming website. “We’re capping off the story that we started in God of War 1. Can you expect other things God of War? Yes. We’re not going to let it go, just like that. Are we going to proliferate the market with tons of God of War? No. We’re going to be really careful about what we do next, and make sure we have something interesting to show and tell.”
To be honest, even if the studio wanted to completely end the franchise because they felt it would ruin the image of what they created — I doubt Sony would ever agree to their wishes. God of War is a money maker, and for a first-party company to have a series that would be considered a blockbuster in the industry, is a rare thing to own. So if Santa Monica refused to develop another God of War title, even if it was told in the same universe but leaving out Kratos, I think Sony would have no problem giving another studio the rights to create a whole new game based on GoW.
Now, Mr. Hight already confirmed this won’t be the last God of War — just the end of this particular adventure. Does this mean in a few years the next God of War will not include Kratos? Or will we see a whole new story, maybe even a prequel to the already existing games? Either way, the design of God of War isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.
It was confirmed awhile back that the psychological thriller Heavy Rain would have a demo available on the PlayStation Network before the title makes its way onto store shelves, come February 23rd. The game is going to be one difficult game to market towards non-hardcore gamers around the world; however one way the studio, Quantic Dream, hopes to overcome the hurdle is by having those same gamers try a tease of the PS3 exclusive title.
Today, Sony has announced the demo will be available to download on PSN February 11th — in Europe anyway. A North American date has yet to be revealed, and quite honestly, be confirmed if we’ll even see one. Of course, if for some insane reason we don’t get it over here in the States, there are still ways to download the demo through the PlayStation Network, but that’s up to you to figure out. But to be honest, I can’t see that even being a issue, my guess we’ll get one around the same time as the countries across the pond.
Nintendo releasing a Mario 2D side-scroller, rather than a 3D platform adventure, was probably a great move on their part. According to the latest numbers from NPD, New Super Mario Bros. Wii has already outsold Super Mario Galaxy, which is ridiculous because Galaxy has been out for over two years. While the newest installment of Mario has been out for a little over a month. As of today, Super Mario Galaxy has sold about 4.1 million copies, while the New Super Mario Bros. Wii has moved about 4.2 million.
Now we can blame a number of reasons why NSMBW has already outpaced what the critically acclaimed Galaxy has done, since it launched way back in 2007. One obvious answer could be contributed to the fact the Nintendo Wii has a much larger install base then when Mario Galaxy debuted to gamers. However, I think it goes much deeper than just numbers.
Nintendo has been marketing their system to not only the casual gamer, but also insuring it would be a family friendly console. Many of the moms and dads who purchased the system, as well as a person who wouldn’t normally buy a videogame system, but felt compelled to own a Wii, probably saw the New Super Mario Bros. Wii and fell in love with the nostalgic look to it. I’m pretty sure these ‘people,’ who probably don’t buy many games to began with, pretended to go back in time and play with a game that reminiscent their growing up days. Now combine that with a fun multiplayer aspect, and Nintendo has a hit on their hands.
Either way, it was smart for Nintendo to go back to its roots once again with Mario.
Nintendo of America has gone out of their way to once again trademark the 2001 launch title for the Gamecube, Luigi’s Mansion. Obviously, reading that sentence would sound like Nintendo is planning on making a sequel for the less-than-steller videogame starring Mario’s brother, but I wouldn’t jump to a conclusion.
Nintendo has always been a company that protects its own property, even if they plan on not developing it. According to Kotaku, a few trademarks for Luigi’s Mansion were about to expire or already did in 2009. So this could be nothing more than protecting what they feel is theirs. Although, the website pointed out that maybe we could possibly see the re-release of the original title, under the Play Control label, something Nintendo did with a few titles including Pikmin 2.
The game could work well with the Wii, considering you could move around the Wiimote just as Luigi uses his vacuum in the game. Sadly though, I don’t think the game would be enhanced dramatically — so if this the idea, I’m not looking forward to it.
I didn’t think Luigi’s Mansion was a terrible game, in fact I think a lot of gamers unfairly blasted the title because they wanted Nintendo to make an sequel to Mario 64. Instead, they got Luigi doing his best Ghostbusters impression. Although, if we just get the same game, I won’t be excited because we’re talking about a first-generation Gamecube game. If Nintendo is planning on releasing that has something to do Luigi’s Mansion, I just hope it’s a brand new title altogether. It should take advantage of the Wiimote, instead of using the exact same control scheme — but instead of using buttons, you wave your hands around the air, which is what other Play Control games gave done in the past.
Since the dawn of inventions, everything has been inspired by something else. It’s just the way nature works and videogames are no exception. All of us have no choice but to be okay with that because that’s the way it’ll always be. However with that said, I’m not okay with people bluntly steal/copy from a videogame and call it their own.
Up top is footage from a game called Duludubi Star and I think the Chinese developer who created it, was a little more than inspired by Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. The game follows an unimaginative blue dragon, who collects coins on small planets where its gravity is a staple point in the game, which is the exact premise of Super Mario Galaxy. Hell, even the menus are exactly the same — couldn’t they have at least not make it so obvious and change them!?
Yeah, it’s pretty pathetic. Watch that, and click here to see what Nintendo did with Mario two years ago.
via: cubed3
