Wednesday, August 27, 2008
News
British Sales Charts
11:20PM Luke Plunkett | The top eight spots are all games for Nintendo platforms. Again. BORING. So this week, figured I’d try something different. Let’s talk about the other end of the chart. The end that has literal shovelware, like “42 All-Time Classics” on the DS, propping the whole thing up. That and Imagine : Babies, which actually moved up a spot from last week, from 39 to 38. Actually, this end’s just as uninteresting as the top end. Sorry. More »
Next Far Cry Could Be In Africa (Again)
11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Ubisoft’s Patrick Redding, Far Cry 2’s narrative designer, confirms that the next Far Cry game will take place in Africa — just like Far Cry 2! Keep in mind that the team is still in the “preliminary stages”, but does have a “commitment to the African setting”. Redding says: For us Africa still has a huge amount of promise… There are still things we want to do with the African setting, and I think it’s safe to say we’ll continue to explore it… That said, we might find something new and compelling about the Antarctic setting that wants us to make the next game there, but honestly, we’re still at the preliminary stages. If we wanted to make the next game set in the… forest of South America, we could do it. But I think to save time, for us, one of the reasons we chose to use the African setting is because we felt that in order to retain the Far Cry brand value, of an exotic, dangerous environment, a place that maybe people haven’t had a chance to see themselves, or have seen extensively in film, television and other games, we wanted to choose Africa. Let’s face it, jungle islands are probably less exciting as they were four years ago. But a slowly melting Antarctica? Man, sign me up for that game. Third Far Cry game confirmed, dev team has “commitment to the African setting” [VG247] More »
Gothic Lolita Shooter Death Smiles Getting Xbox 360 Version
10:40PM Brian Ashcraft | Shooter speciality developer Cave is bringing its Gothic Lolita arcade shmup Death Smiles to the Xbox 360. The game is a scrolling horizontal shooter — something of a rarity for developer Cave. While not as insane as other Cave offerings, the game does put a nice spin on the horizontal shooter by having players shooting objects that are coming in from the right and the left. Cave is currently 60 percent finished with development of the Xbox 360 version, and the game is slated for a Spring 2009 release in Japan. Thanks for the tip, Weils! More »
Natasha Bedingfield Is Your Boogie SuperStar Spokesperson
10:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Today EA announces that Wii title Boogie SuperStar has a superstar of its own: Pop singer Natasha Bedingfield has signed on to be the game’s official spokesperson. What’s more, she’s lending tunes “Angel”, “Love Like This” and the title song from her new album Pocketful of Sunshine. Says the songstress: Boogie SuperStar brings to life all the fun and excitement of performing. Being on stage is such a thrill and it’s great to be a part of an EA video game that lets girls experience how much fun it is to express themselves and explore their own creativity by performing. The North American and international version are packed with tons of pop songs. Hit the jump for the rundown and screens: More »
News
Kojima: There’s A Responsibility To Make Hardcore Games
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | I know. Anything Hideo Kojima ever says publicly gets over-exposed and over-analysed, all to satisfy the insatiable hunger of raving-mad Metal Gear fanboys. You’re probably getting sick of reading about the guy. But you know what? This is genuinely interesting, so it’s going up. When asked by Eurogamer what he thought about the recent industry trend in moving away from epic, big-budget, “hardcore” games, Kojima responds: I still think that there are gamers who love these epic games or hardcore games…Now, as long as these gamers exist I feel a responsibility that someone has to do it, to create these games, so I’m not really worried. Besides if I, or someone else, keep bringing out these epic games, it might change the flow of the industry; people might realise that these are really fun games. And time ever changes, and the flow or demand will change, but if you just look at the current trend, and you see it shrinking and you just stop, it will just become zero, so I don’t think that is a wise decision to make. There’s a huge user difference. I could back this up with GTA IV, which is a smash hit, and Call of Duty 4 was a smash hit and this season, Gears of War 2 will also probably be a smash hit, so that is proof that there are still gamers out there waiting for these epic games, and I think that will continue. I’m not saying casual gaming is bad, I think that casual games will continue as well as a trend, which is also good. But I think these will coexist. Exactly! Konami’s Hideo Kojima [Eurogamer] [Image] More »
Brain Age Breaks UK Sales Record
9:00PM Brian Ashcraft | British people, hello! Apparently lots of you own Brain Age. Like a lot a lot. According to compilers Chart-Track, the game has spent 80 weeks in the UK’s top ten. 80. Eighty. 8. 0. The grey matter DS title has now surpassed the original Tomb Raider’s benchmark. Perhaps British folks keep losing their copies of Brain Age and keep buying replacements? Perhaps they’re just crazy for brain games? Perhaps. Sales Figures [Chart Track via Eurogamer] More »
News
8:30PM Logan Booker | Australian Gamer is reporting that Pandemic’s sandbox Batman game (sssh, it’s a secret) may have been given the flick. Never a good thing, especially for a title that hasn’t been announced yet… and by the looks of things, never will.
From the AG post:
The word is that their game has been cancelled by the higher ups due to it running behind schedule, which means there’s going to be a whole bunch of people either moving to the Pandemic LA offices, or looking for work elsewhere later this week.
Rumour and speculation it is for now, but it certainly adds weight to the discouraging info we heard earlier.
As soon as we know more, you will too.
Why so serious Pandemic? [Australian Gamer] More »
Pandemic Batman Game Cancelled?
8:30PM Logan Booker | Australian Gamer is reporting that Pandemic’s sandbox Batman game (sssh, it’s a secret) may have been given the flick. Never a good thing, especially for a title that hasn’t been announced yet… and by the looks of things, never will.
From the AG post:
The word is that their game has been cancelled by the higher ups due to it running behind schedule, which means there’s going to be a whole bunch of people either moving to the Pandemic LA offices, or looking for work elsewhere later this week.
Rumour and speculation it is for now, but it certainly adds weight to the discouraging info we heard earlier.
As soon as we know more, you will too.
Why so serious Pandemic? [Australian Gamer] More »
News
75% Of Games This Quarter Are Coming From…Two Publishers
8:30PM Luke Plunkett | This ain’t no monopoly. It’s a duopoly. A Screen Digest report has found that for the year’s third quarter, which runs from July to September, around 75% of all games released come from two publishers. Can you guess which two? If you said Atlus and Taito, sorry, you won’t be taking any prizes home with you after the show. No, it’s EA and Activision, the glut prompted by EA’s packed sports game release calendar, which sees 21 games – and all major sports series barring FIFA – released during the quarter. Activision, for what it’s worth, could only manage 19. EA, Activision Responsible For 75 Percent Of Q3 Console Releases [Gamasutra] More »
You Too Can Decorate Hatsune Miku’s Room
8:00PM Brian Ashcraft | In the upcoming issue of Famitsu, SEGA announced that it’s making a PSP game starring Hatune Miku. Hatune Miku is a character for Vocaloid2 Character Vocal Series software, but has gone on to appear in manga, anime and even get a cameo in a DS game! Here, you can listen to her sing the Portal song in Japanese! Anyway, about the PSP game, it’s a rhythm game which lets players win stuff and decorate Miku’s room. Beside rhythm games, you can watch her walk around. Oh, and it’s called Hatsune Mikue -Project Diva-. Thrilling title. Hatsune Miku on PSP [Canned Dogs] More »
