Saturday, May 3

The End Is Near (No Wait! It's Here!)

Happy Saturday fellow gamers! It's finally the end of the week and boy was it a big one, what with Grand Theft Auto IV coming out. Phew.

What are you all playing? I just got Red Faction for the Playstation 2 so I'm working my way through that, while also trying to blast away all the aliens on the PSX game, C12: Final Resistance.

What you missed:

- Playstation 3 owners will get a Haze demo on May 6th.
- The final chapter in the Spyro trilogy was announced.
- New Prince of Persia game details.
- EA-Land goes down.
- And a bunch of merger, financial, and ESA and E3 related things.





-Undrallio


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Haze Demo Soon


Haze, Free Radical's FPS set to show up on store shelves sometime in mid-May, should be getting a free demo on the PSN on May 6th to get everyone excited for it again.

How will the sales of Haze do after such a lack of media coverage, especially being released after Grand Theft Auto IV, or rather, will the demo be enough to pique the interest of the consumers?





-Undrallio


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A Sliver Of Flash Memory Hope?


So then, who's excited for WiiWare? Pretty much everyone with a Wii I'd assume, well there's still no updates on when it's coming out, but there might be a solution to the Wii's notoriously small amount of flash memory sneaking it's way onto the market soon.

There has been no official confirmation, but during a Financial Q&A with Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata, there was a hint, a glimpse, a glimmer of hope that Nintendo is recognizing they need to add more memory for those gamers who want to download, and keep every Virtual Console and Wii Ware game they possibly can.

Q6 I am personally enjoying WiiWare and Virtual Console but feel Wii’s flash memory size is not enough and annoyed that I need to use a SD memory card. Will this situation be improved?

A6 Iwata:
Statistically speaking, it is true that there are a small number of customers who feel that the flash memory is too small, while many others find that they have plenty of memory. However, because this small number of people are none other than the most avid players, we know we have to review the best possible solution to eliminate their inconvenience.


Could this mean that gamers don't have to worry about running out of memory space anymore on their Wii with the help of an external accessory? It's anyone's guess at this point in time.

[Nintendo Q&A]



-Undrallio


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Friday, May 2

Activision and Vivendi Discontinue Membership with ESA

Fresh on the heels of yesterday's news of Activision not attending E3, it seems Activision and Vivendi have discontinued their membership with the ESA.

The ESA's senior VP of communications and research, Rich Taylor had this to say,


"While the Entertainment Software Association remains the preeminent voice for U.S. computer and video game publishers, we can confirm that Activision and Vivendi Games opted to discontinue their membership. The ESA remains dedicated to advancing our industry’s objectives such as protecting intellectual property, preserving First Amendment rights, and fostering a beneficial environment for the entire industry. Our high level of service and value to members and the larger industry remains unchanged."


-- Rich Taylor, Senior Vice President of Communications and Research, Entertainment Software Association





-Ryizzel


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Pole Dancing Game Announced for the Wii

"You know what the world needs? Some sort of video game that simulates pole dancing, but a simple controller just won't suffice. We'll need to develop this truly revolutionary game on a console that employs the use of motion sensors..."

Thats exactly what I think went through the minds of the folks over at ( I swear this is real) Peekaboo Pole Dancing when they decided to make plans for a Pole Dancing game for the Wii.

When MTV Multiplayer Blog decided to inquire about the game they were given this response,

“Peekaboo will be all about fun and fitness for a new generation. Peekaboo wants to make the fitness benefits of aerobic pole dancing accessible to millions of Wii users. The goal is to encourage men and women of all shapes and sizes to improve their pole dancing skills while having fun, toning up and burning calories. Ultimately Peekaboo and AT New Media want to do for pole dancing what ‘Guitar Hero‘ did for rock n roll!”


Yea...its official, you can make a game out of anything for the wii, sad part is that this game will probably sell like hotcakes...sigh.





-Ryizzel


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Thursday, May 1

New Prince of Persia Details

The latest Edition of a French gaming magazine called joypad has a preview for the recently announced prince of Persia game.

Scheduled for to hit the PS3, 360, PC and Nintendo DS later this year, the game will feature cel-shaded graphics and and bits of time controlling powers from Sands of Time.

The gameplay centers around healing a corrupted world in the style of Okami, Shadow of the Colossus or The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. After defeating a boss, the world will transform in real time around you.

This time around combat will be handled differently, emphasizing on one-on-one sword fighting as opposed to slaying swarms of enemies. The game was described being more like Soul Calibur than God of War.

Taking a page from Assassin's Creed, the game will be a mix of open ended exploration and linear missions.

The prince is free to roam the world map, taking on challenges at his leisure. Dynamic settings will be in place to regulate the difficulty curve. The challenges themselves will basically be linear assault courses, emphasizing fluidity of combat and acrobatics, leading up to a boss confrontation.

source






-Ryizzel


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Infogrames-Atari Merger Comes To A Conclusion

Infogrames has finally acquired all of Atari's remaining shares in a trade of eleven million dollars today. Infogrames had previously owned the majority of the Atari company, 51.4% in fact.

The first act of business from Infogrames was to lend Atari $20 million to help out with Atari's month-after-month loss record.

"Bringing Atari US and Infogrames businesses together will enable us to create a simplified global structure for our business as we seek to re-build a well-managed, cohesive and financially disciplined company," said Infogrames CEO David Gardner.


It's going to be interesting to see what Phil Harrison can do for Infogrames and Atari now.



-Undrallio


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Activision Not Attending E3

It's official, Activision won't be showing up at E3 this year. When questioned why, Activision responded with this:

"After careful consideration, for business reasons Activision has decided not to participate in any official E3 activities. We wish the ESA best of luck with the show."


Along with Activision, Atlus, Bethesda, Majesco, NCsoft, Vivendi Games and Warner Bros. Interactive also seem to be bowing out of the event.

Though it seems Activision isn't going to be involved with E3, this doesn't mean it won't hold it's own event nearby to showcase their latest projects.





-Ryizzel


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Sims Online; Goes Offline

After a 6 year running period of constant online support, EA-Land's The Sims Online will be shutting down. Not right away, subscribers have till August 1st to continue playing, but now for free.

EA is canceling the billing of all subscribers and allowing them free play until the ultimate demise of The Sims Online.

If you are a paying subscriber as of April 29th 2008, EA would like to offer you one of the following two gifts as a token of our appreciation:

* $15 off any game at the EA Store at www.eastore.ea.com, or

* Three months of Club POGO(tm) Subscription Time


Read the whole announcement after the jump.

It is with mixed emotions that today we are announcing the EA-Land experiment will soon draw to a close. Since 2002, EA-Land / TSO has attracted a very special group of players (of which you are one) and we certainly appreciate your participation in the EA-Land community. The lifetime of the game has drawn to an end, and now we will be focusing on new ideas and other innovative concepts in the games arena. We’d like to thank everyone who has taken part in this online community as a unique experience in the virtual world.

Below are some facts about how the site and service will be closed. Please see also a special message from the team that maintained EA-Land, to the community that played it.

Key Facts:

* On August 1, 2008, the game EA-Land / TSO will no longer be in service and EA will focus these resources on future games

* Your subscription billing will end now, so that at least 60 days of your EA-Land experience will be at no cost to you

* You may cancel your account and subscription at any time by contacting customer service or by managing your EA account online. To do this, you must log on to EA-Land / TSO to cancel within the game

* Starting immediately PayPal cash-in will not be available anymore

* EA Customer Support at support.ea.com is available to help answer any questions you might have regarding your account

If you are a paying subscriber as of April 29th 2008, EA would like to offer you one of the following two gifts as a token of our appreciation:

* $15 off any game at the EA Store at www.eastore.ea.com, or

* Three months of Club POGO(tm) Subscription Time

Paying subscribers please insure your email contact information is up to date as details of this offer will be sent out to you within 30 days.

Again, thanks you to all of you.

Electronic Arts




-Undrallio


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Wednesday, April 30

Guitar Hero: On Tour Track List Announced


The latest Guitar Hero track list has been announced; Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS of course!

What? You didn't know about the DS version? Well that's because we completely forgot to write about it for you poor reader, we'll make it up to you by actually telling you the track list! Isn't that nice?

Guitar Hero: On Tour for the DS features 15 -announced- tracks of 25 that Activision previously claimed were in the game, the rest will either be unlock able or download able(maybe). See the list after this convenient break.


# Do What You Want - OK Go
# All The Small Things - Blink 182
# Spiderwebs - No Doubt
# Are You Gona Be My Girl - Jet
# We’re Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister
# All Star - Smash Mouth
# Breed - Nirvana
# Jessie’s Girl - Rick Springfield
# Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
# This Love - Maroon 5
# Heaven - Los Lonely Boys
# Helicopter - Bloc Party
# China Grove - The Doobie Brothers
# Rock and Roll All Nite - KISS (cover by Line 6)
# What I Want - Daughtry

It looks like for the most part they went with a more kid-friendly list (Kidz Bop anyone?) to go along with the silly 4 button add-on that you need to play the game.





-Undrallio


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Echochrome Released Tomorrow



Following the release of the demo last Thursday, Echochrome will be available for download on the Playstation Store tomorrow in North America. The 3d Puzzler will set you back 9.99 and features 56 levels unique to each platform.

Judging by the demo, this game is pretty fun...if only I could get past stage 3 on the demo.





-Ryizzel


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Tuesday, April 29

GTA IV Was Released Today

Ryizzel's got it, I don't.

The game's out now...so maybe we can stop clogging our posts with GTA? We did our best to only take the best of the GTA news, but it was all pretty good news anyways.

Ok, on with the week.





-Undrallio


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Monday, April 28

The Next Portal Should Be Placed.....Well, Not There


Alright, so you never got the Orange Box, shame on you. But you really want to play this silly Portal game that the World has been raving about right? Would you like to be able to have the chance to download it off of the Xbox Live Arcade for Microsoft Points?! You would?!

Too bad.

Valve apparently brought up the idea with Microsoft and got a big fat No(period) for their brainstorming genius.

"We'd love to do that. Right now it's something we'd love to do. I'd love to sell Portal on Xbox live," said Doug Lombardi, marketing director at Valve. "[But] the platform holders aren't doing that right now. There's a size limit and all kinds of other things.

"We've asked them, we said we were open to it. So it's a decision for the platform holder and how they want to make the games available and how much bandwidth they want to [allow]."

However Lombardi is not to be deterred, he was quoted saying "I think it's a trade-off, we'll see it one day. It always happens once it's been proven and I think it's been proven now on Steam, so I'm sure it'll migrate back to the consoles just like everything else does."




-Undrallio


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Next Prince of Persia Game to Come out Holiday Season

It seems this holiday Ubisoft will be blessing us with another Prince of Persia game, which will appear on the PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS.

The game is currently being developed by Ubisoft Montreal, who made Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and the more recent Assassin's Creed.

Many are speculating the game's title will be "Prince of Persia Prodigy," after the creator of the series filed the name for a trademark.






-Ryizzel


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The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon

Spyro's back in the final chapter of the Legend of Spyro trilogy, Dawn of the Dragon coming to the PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, and Nintendo DS.


In the final chapter of the trilogy, players find Sypro teaming up with an unlikely ally - Cynder, his former enemy, to face his most challenging mission to date. As the Dark Master's (voiced by Mark Hamill) evil envelopes the world like a plague, Spyro must fulfill his destiny and unlock the true power of the purple dragon within him to stop the Dark Master in his tracks.


The game features a few new voice actors too, the most notable one being Wayne Brady the once-was star of Who's Line Is It Anyway and now the host of Fox's game show, Don't Forget The Lyrics.

You'll have the ability to fly whenever you want, and also to play as either Spyro or Cynder at any point in the game. Both are firsts for the Spyro series.

We'll be sure to update you more on The Legend Of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon as information is revealed.

Spyro Trilogy Culminates with Premiere on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 ; Elijah Wood, Gary Oldman, Christina Ricci, Blair Underwood, Wayne Brady and Mark Hamill Provide Voice-Over Performances

LOS ANGELES (April 28, 2008) - Sierra Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, today announced The Legend of Spyro™: Dawn of the Dragon, the third chapter in the popular Legend of Spyro trilogy. Developed by Etranges Libellules and Tantalus, the game will be released this fall for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Wii™ home video game system, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and Nintendo DS™. Reprising their roles as the characters of Spyro and his mentor Ignitus, are two popular Hollywood leading men, Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy) and Gary Oldman (Sirius Black from the Harry Potter films). Joining the Spyro roster this year are Christina Ricci, Blair Underwood, Mark Hamill and Wayne Brady, rounding out an all-star voice cast.



In the final chapter of the trilogy, players find Sypro teaming up with an unlikely ally - Cynder, his former enemy, to face his most challenging mission to date. As the Dark Master's (voiced by Mark Hamill) evil envelopes the world like a plague, Spyro must fulfill his destiny and unlock the true power of the purple dragon within him to stop the Dark Master in his tracks.



The game introduces two never before seen elements into the Spyro universe: Spyro can now fly at any time and players can drop-in/drop-out with the new cooperative feature. The co-op feature allows players to have the option of completing the game as either Spyro or Cynder, giving them more freedom to explore Spyro's world in completely new ways.



"Spyro has grown up a lot since his debut, and players are going to notice advanced gameplay, character design and story lines in Dawn of the Dragon," said Al Simone, senior vice president, Global Marketing for Sierra Entertainment. "The game takes some exciting twists and turns - fans of the series and newcomers alike will experience non-stop fun, a renewed sense of intensity and the type of challenging adventure only Spyro can overcome."



Developed by Etranges Libellules, The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon will ship this fall for the Xbox 360®, PLAYSTATION 3 system, Wii™ and PlayStation 2 system. The Nintendo DS™ version is currently being developed by Tantalus. Vivendi Games Mobile is also making The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon available for mobile phones throughout Europe and North America.






-Undrallio


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Sunday, April 27

New Battlefield Heroes Trailer

Howdy folks, DICE has released some new Footage of it's upcoming F2P online shooter, Battlefield Heroes, enjoy!







-Ryizzel


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