It seems like now's the time to talk about release dates and Ubisoft joined in on the fun, announcing Prince of Persia's day of retail for December 5th, just in time for the Holidays.
The game will be released on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. While a DS title, Prince of Persia: The Fallen King will be coming on the same day.
-Undrallio
Turn on your PS3s and tune in, that is click on Folding@Home on the XMB and your Playstation will be updated to a new member of Life With Playstation. The newest thing from Sony that allows a more connected feel with Playstation users and the world as well.
Life With Playstation will let you view the weather, cloud coverage, news articles, street view of over 60 cities, and Sony claims they're going to be adding to the list of features as well.
The final upgrade will be a ranking system for Folding@Home so you can now compete with people for helping out on the research. Those who've contributed the most time/power will be higher ranked.
-Undrallio
I was planning on buying the Survival Edition of Fallout 3 on the PS3 from Amazon.com (only place you can get it dontchaknow) but it seems that the old saying is true. I snoozed, and I losed. Er..lost...
The whole stock of the Survival Edition has been snatched up by excited Playstation 3 owners, no doubt wanting the life-sized Pip-Boy 3000 replica, but the 360 and Games For Windows remain up for grabs.
If you missed it, the Survival Edition includes:
* Fallout 3 (yes, it has the game)
* A life-size replica of the Pip-Boy 3000, the wrist-mounted device worn by characters in the game.
* Vault Boy Bobblehead: Your very own Vault Boy collector’s item is direct from Vault-Tec.
* The Art of Fallout 3: Features nearly 100 pages of never-before seen concept art and commentary from Bethesda Game Studios artists.
* The Making of Fallout 3 DVD: An exclusive, inside look at Bethesda Game Studios and the team behind the game.
* Vault-Tec Lunch Box: A fully customized metal lunch box.
The Playstation Blog has just revealed that their newest project Life with PlayStation is going through some final paperwork, but what is Life with Playstation you might ask?
Convenient paragraph from the PSBlog ahoy!
We’re going to offer this as a free service that will be easily accessible directly from the XMB. Life with PlayStation will feed live content to your PS3 with updates on news and weather on a visually stunning and interactive global map. Imagine being able to wake up to your PS3 to see if you need to pack an umbrella for the day. Or just relax as you listen to your favorite tunes while reading up on top news from around the world.
Everyone's ready to run, leap, and roll around in the upcoming parkour-esque game Mirror's Edge; but it seems that Playstation 3 owners will have some extra goodies to gain with their version of the game due to PS3 exclusive downloadable content on the Playstation Network.
Nothing has been said about what the DLC will end up being, whether it be more missions, levels, guns, or whatever but we do know that yes, it will be coming.
This bit of news was released by Sony when they crushed the rumor that Mirror's Edge would be getting an early PS3 timed release.
-Undrallio
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
2K Boston may be bringing Bioshock to the PS3 finally, at least according to a rumor in the next issue of EGM they will be.
If it turns out to be fact and not fiction, then the expected release date for Bioshock on the PS3 will be somewhat close to the same date as Bioshock 2, which will be coming for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
IGN had this to say: "The port will supposedly feature the previously released downloadable content and will have improved visuals over the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game. We contacted 2K Games for a statement on this new rumor and were told, "No comment."
Looks like PS3 owners wait-out for the game will be worthwhile with that extra content and even prettier graphics.
-Undrallio
GamesIndustry.biz: My next question was are you looking at working with other publishers and other formats?
Nina Kristensen: Yes, our new game is going to be PS3 and Xbox 360. We have actually signed it but we're not announcing to who at the moment.
Q: GamesIndustry.biz: Can we start by quickly looking back at Heavenly Sword. There was quite a lot of build up to the release of the game but after release did you get good feedback from Sony and from retail?
Nina Kristensen: We did. We're really proud of what we were able to achieve and we did some breakthrough stuff, particularly in the story-telling and cinematics and we were able to work with some absolutely incredible people like Andy Serkis. We were able to pioneer the performance capture and so forth. So the reception for it has been absolutely brilliant.
Q: GamesIndustry.biz: Did you find that Serkis understood what you needed from him from a games development point of view, and did you get a better understanding of the acting and film business from that relationship?
Nina Kristensen: As a person to work with you couldn't ask for better. He's extremely professional and really knows what he's doing. Andy had never worked in games at all and I don't think he'd ever played a game when he first came on board. It was really interesting to him because he's seeing a media that he hasn't worked in before and saw some big opportunities to push his craft forwards. He was able to bring a huge amount to the project. He didn't just act in the game but was our dramatic director, so he directed all of the cinematics while Tameen Antonaides (co-founder of Ninja Theory) directed the gameplay.
But then Andy also bought a huge amount of other stuff to the game – he was involved in the story quite heavily, particularly the character art, he also did the casting which was done exactly like a film. He did workshops with all the actors who did complete read-throughs on set. They did a complete run through of the entire game acting it all out like a theatre production, so they really understood what they were doing, and he ran it like a film production in a really professional way. He brought a lot more to the team than just playing a character.
Q: GamesIndustry.biz: Those high production values and attention to detail were praised in the finished game. That's important for Ninja Theory, to be quite lavish with the production of the game?
Nina Kristensen: I think you can only do that if you've got professional talent from those other industries. It's something we did across the board, we brought people in from other industries and media who'd never worked in games. There's a company called Play It By Ear out in New York who do sound effects and they had never worked in games before. We worked with them on the sound effects – they actually did the sound effects for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Q: GamesIndustry.biz: And that's a philosophy you're going to continue with future titles?
Nina Kristensen: Absolutely. If you want to make something's that really high-end and really engaging if you get the best talents from each discipline and you're able to integrate them effectively into the game then you're going to get the best possible results. So there's a lot of these relationships that we very much intend to maintain going forwards with our new games.
Q: GamesIndustry.biz: Are you working on a sequel to Heavenly Sword?
Nina Kristensen: No we're not, we're working on a new IP.
Q: GamesIndustry.biz: What can we expect from the new project – can we expect another three year production with a massive budget?
Nina Kristensen: Yes, we're looking at doing something really big and ambitious and absolutely build on our strengths in storytelling, cinematics and combat.
Q: GamesIndustry.biz: Heavenly Sword was a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Do you feel that you've really mastered that system now as a developer, because there were all these stories and rumblings that the PS3 was a tricky machine to get to grips with...
Nina Kristensen: There's always more stuff to learn but I think we know the PlayStation 3 very intimately now. We had to build everything from the ground up because when we started there simply wasn't any middleware or anything like that.
Q: GamesIndustry.biz: Looking back would you say making Heavenly Sword exclusive to a single platform was the right decision to make or would you have preferred to see it on more formats?
Nina Kristensen: It was nice to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive going in to new generation of consoles. From a practical standpoint it was very helpful for us to be able to get the most we could out of the PS3 at the time. Going forwards we are going cross-platform with this new game.
Q: GamesIndustry.biz: My next question was are you looking at working with other publishers and other formats?
Nina Kristensen: Yes, our new game is going to be PS3 and Xbox 360. We have actually signed it but we're not announcing to who at the moment.
Q: GamesIndustry.biz: You've said that this new IP is going to be looking at new concepts for a videogame – can you expand on that? Do you mean new concepts in terms of genre and gameplay, or in terms of delivery to consumer, or business models...
Nina Kristensen: We're looking at several things. We're certainly targeting a triple-A blockbuster, with two and a half years in production. We're actually looking at something in addition to that - we're considering opportunities in creating a CGI movie using the game engine alongside the game itself. The game is certainly the most important thing and we haven't decided for sure to do this, but it's something we're looking at. It's an interesting idea.
Q: GamesIndustry.biz: So you're looking at taking Ninja Theory beyond games development
Nina Kristensen: I think there's a lot of opportunities there and it's something we'll be exploring over the next year or so.
Q: GamesIndustry.biz: Are you interested in other routes to market? Because those games that take three year's to create are very time consuming and expensive. Do you see opportunities for Ninja Theory to take advantage of downloadable content or smaller development models – PSN of XBLA where team sizes are smaller, titles are cheaper to make?
Nina Kristensen: It's very interesting but it's not something we're doing right now. It's something we might consider doing a little bit further down the track.
Q: GamesIndustry.biz: There was a rash of indie developers being snapped up by publishers last year, and recently a number of smaller outfits have been forced to close. Is Ninja Theory confident it can remain comfortably independent in the coming months?
Nina Kristensen: It's a brutal environment out there for an independent, particularly considering the size of the games that we're developing. But we've now signed up the new game and the future looks pretty rosy for us.
Ps3 owners, are you excited? Playstation Home is on it's way in Spring '08 (that's this year); the date draws near! The tension and anticipation is unbearable!
Well worry no more, because *wait for it* Home got delayed. Again. This time all the way back to Fall of 2008. I think I can hear non-beta players groaning from here, sorry guys.
"We have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today," explained SCE president and CEO Kazuo Hirai.
"Spending more time on the development and on the Closed Beta testing reaffirms our commitment to bringing a quality service, maintaining the PlayStation tradition."
Are you willing to take a giant delay for a little refinement and making it nicer? Personally I would have been fine with taking it as it is and just getting updates as things get tweaked, but...that's what a Beta player is for.
-Undrallio
A week or two ago I was watching some of the gameplay footage from the Iron Man game that's coming to the 360 and PS3 with ryizzel and we agreed on one thought. Looks 'effing fun, but how long would the initial awesome-factor last?
PS3 owners, don't be alarmed when you go to log onto the Playstation Store tomorrow and you find you can't. Believe it or not, this is a good thing.
Sony is finally going to be fixing the Store and making it much more function able (hopefully). The maintenance will start at 8 a.m on the 14th, and end at 11 p.m. on the same day, if all goes right.
A new patch will be available after the fixing has been done, so get your bandwith ready.The PLAYSTATION®Network will be taken offline for a scheduled maintenance to our network during the following times:
Start: April 14, 2008, beginning at 8:00 a.m., Pacific Time
End: April 14, 2008, ending at 11:00 p.m., Pacific Time
During this time, the new PLAYSTATION®Store upgrade will be taking place. As a result access to the PLAYSTATION Network will be restricted, including:
* No access to the PLAYSTATION®Store
For information regarding the changes to the PLAYSTATION Store, please visit the PlayStation.Blog.
It is not anticipated that this will affect other PLAYSTATION Network services
Once the new PLAYSTATION Store upgrade is complete, a new system software version will be available for download. This new system software must be installed before you may access the PLAYSTATION Network.
[via Playstation Knowledge Center]
-Undrallio
[UPDATE: The Xbox version of the song got released early! Go get it now 360 users!]
In a follow-up from a post ryizzel made back in February, I'm here to announce that Rock Band owners for both the 360 and the Ps3 will be able to download Still Alive for free!
360 owners should be able to get it tomorrow, but Sony users will have to wait a few weeks due to the face-lift that the Playstation Store is going through.
-Undrallio
Sony will be working on a new look for the Playstation store in April.
As of April 3rd, for about 2 weeks or so there will be no new updates to the Playstation Store. You can still buy and download all the stuff already on it, but until a firmware update for the new store comes out sometime in Mid-April, nothing new will be released.
The wait will be agonizing for Rock Band users who want their free Still Alive song, but hopefully the new interface will be worth the wait.
-Undrallio
C'mon, do I really have to tell you what the ESRB has rated GTA IV? Mature. Surprise!
Mature for the fact that it contains the following: partial nudity, strong language, strong sexual content, use of drugs and alcohol, blood and intense violence. That's a pretty long list isn't it? After the break there's a comparison chart of the ratings given to all the GTA games.Grand Theft Auto
Rated Mature based on:
* Animated Blood
* Strong Language
Grand Theft Auto 2
Rated Mature/Teen (depending on platform) based on:
* Animated Violence
* Strong Language
* Suggestive Themes
Grand Theft Auto 3
Rated Mature based on:
* Blood
* Strong Language
* Violence
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Rated Mature based on:
* Blood and Gore
* Strong Language
* Strong Sexual Content
* Violence
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Rated Mature based on:
* Blood and Gore
* Intense Violence
* Strong Language
* Strong Sexual Content
* Use of Drugs
Then San Andreas got bumped up to an Adults Only rating thanks to the hot coffee mod and was the best topic of conversation for months after that.
Grand Theft Auto IV
Rated Mature based on:
* Partial Nudity
* Strong Language
* Strong Sexual Content
* Use of Drugs and Alcohol
* Blood
* Intense Violence
I guess Rockstar is getting more hardcore with every passing year.
-Undrallio
The sequel to one of the best racing games on the Playstation 3 (Not too much competition however...) has been confirmed and announced with some details about it already and it should be coming in Fall of this year. Check out what the original article has to say after the break (and my prediction at the very end of it all).MotorStorm returns this autumn on PLAYSTATION 3. Prepare for the next installment of the world’s most brutal off-road racing festival:
* A brand new location: experience the grandeur, diversity and unpredictability of a remote Pacific island
* 16 new diverse multi-route tracks hosting MotorStorm’s unique mixture of vehicles
* The aggressive monster truck now joins your garage
* Split-Screen Multiplayer racing
* compete with up to four buddies on the same screen
It’s the best selling PLAYSTATION 3 title to date and now, it’s time to take to the starting grid again as the MotorStorm festival heads to the tropics.
The first MotorStorm wowed critics and gamers alike with its heady formula of brutal, unpredictable off-road racing, festival vibes and stunning Monument Valley desert scenery. This new outing takes you to a solitary tropical paradise in the Pacific Ocean, ready for a whole new take on no-holds-barred racing action through thick swamps, dense jungle, towering peaks and steaming volcanoes.
Not just pretty backdrops to the action, these environments take centre stage in challenging players with everything in Mother Nature’s arsenal. Thick mud, tangled undergrowth, swift flowing rivers, choking volcanic clouds and searing lava pools all test the drivers to their limits and beyond.
Using the power of PLAYSTATION Network, 16 players can race head-to-head online and, for the first time in the series, racers can hit the gas in four-player split-screen mode. All of the vehicle classes from the first MotorStorm are here again: ATVs, rally cars, buggies, motorbikes, race trucks, mudpluggers and Big Rigs – as well as the newly arrived monster trucks that climb, sprint and roll over any other vehicle in their way.
Delivered to you on Blu-ray Disc, expect a rich festival of off road racing, along with a host of game modes and rewards. It’s brutal, dangerous, relentless, and unpredictable and more than a game - MotorStorm is way of life so stay tuned, the festival is back this autumn and promises to be larger than ever before.
Alright, here's my sum-up of what we know about Motorstorm 2. It is the same game but with slightly prettier graphics, offline multiplayer, and some nice tweaks and small add-ons here and there.
The first MotorStorm game was fun, crazy, and explosive. Literally. But I feel that the obsessive fans from the first game wont be enough to make the second one a huge selling game as well. I also think that the only reason the first one sold so well was because of the fact it was packaged directly with the 80 gig Ps3 in the first place.
Now with games like Burnout Paradise, Grand Turismo 5, and all the other racing sequels that come out every year or two are on their way, MotorStorm wont have much of a chance here. Though there's always the chance that my gut instinct is 100% wrong and MotorStorm 2 will go multi-platinum and win awards upon awards.
-Undrallio
Criterion Games already has a biiiig patch in store for Burnout Paradise that'll fix all sorts of problems in the game (even though there weren't that many to begin with), which we should be getting...when? Well, right now all we know from the main site is that it's "nearly done". Patch Notes after the break. Burnout Paradise v1.2 Patch Notes
The Top 10 problems reported by you have been fixed, these are:
* PS3 game can crash when a player is taken down and the player that has performed the Takedown leaves the game.
* The game indefinitely displays "Connecting to Paradise City Servers" if it's having problems pinging the rebroadcast server.
* Disconnecting the controller before a race begines can mean that race timings can be manipulated with players who didn't cross the line first being awarded the win
* Repeatedly joining and leaving a game with 8 players can cause the game to hang.
* Hammering the A (360) or X (PS3) after unlocking a car can cause the game to hang.
* East Crawford and Watt St achievements can not be achieved if the player goes online and sets road rules before attempting them.
* Audio distortion when using 5.1 / DTS and looking rearwards.
* Enhanced 360 streaming performance stops instances where the game seems to pause for a second or so.
* Total time driven in player stats would stick at 145 hours :)
* VoIP connection problems with 8 player games.
Game experience enhancements
* We're going to be running road rule timers in all events and online challenges.
* Tuning Online Takedown logic & physical behaviour to iron out instances where it doesn't feel fair.
* Increase online race timer timeout so players have a greater chance of finishing the race.
* Fix drifting bug when drifting and boosting there wasn't any real control on the brake so players would grind around the walls of the corners. Getting better control.
* Boost fix, stabbing the boost has too much of a jerky behaviour in the car handling.
* Surround sound fix
* Centre speaker was 4dB louder, ruining the mix and the speech has now been positioned correctly.
* Tweak Marked Man gameplay AI, was easy to exploit by driving in reverse.
* Increase the # of search results returned for online games.
* Increase Picture Paradise timer so it doesn't kick in so quickly.
Other high priority issues being fixed
* Some online race start points face the players in the wrong direction
* Instances where Barrel rolls were not registering correctly in Stunt Run
* Instances in Stunt Run where players would crash but not wreck & score multipliers by driving away
* Fixed instances where the counting of Boost Chains would drop out
* Some instances where Revenge Rivalries desync & don't get fixed until players are updated online.
* Some instance where the Host couldn't change the game access if the game was created through an invite.
* Achievements, Awards and Challenges numbers sometimes not updated if the player didn't leave the game cleanly
* Online challenge issues where the challenge couldn't be completed if it was started at the exact time that a player left the game.
* Incorrect rivalry updates when European players played against English or Japanese players. Online connection issues
* Force timeout if the 360 gets stuck on "Connecting to Paradise City Servers"
* NAT error
* Rich presence on 360 didn't change correctly when there is a change in the game parameters.
* Instances where Friends were not being displayed on the mini map. 
-Undrallio
source
The next game in the Guitar Hero series has been confirmed by Activision, and this time we're getting specific. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will feature one band, you guessed it, the drugged up 80's band Aerosmith.
To market for the next sequel in the ever-bloating Guitar Hero franchise, users of both Xbox Live and the Playstation Network could download a free Guitar Hero 3 song "Dream On" over the weekend.
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is set to hit the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, and the Nintendo Wii.
With a GH game being based solely on one band you may want to be a fanatic before you pick up a copy of it, but maybe they're working towards a new direction for the franchise. Another money-whoring direction, but a new direction nonetheless.
I mean, I love Aerosmith just as much as any other foot shuffling, lighter swaying, eighties head out there. They're one of my favorite bands from that time period, but I can say with much confidence that I would not fancy playing through a whole game dependent on their song listings. Maybe that's just me though, how does everyone else feel about this?
If you want to read the whole press release here it is.WORLD RENOWNED RECORDING GROUP AEROSMITH ROCKS THIS WAY TO GUITAR HERO(r): AEROSMITH(r)
Epic Collaboration Creates First Music-Based Game to Feature One Band
Free Download of “Dream On” Offered to Commemorate Alliance
Santa Monica, CA - February 15, 2008 - Fire up the fret board, crank the
amp to 11 and get ready to rock this way with Activision, Inc.’s
(Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero(r): Aerosmith(r), the first game built around
the legendary music of America’s Greatest Rock ‘N Roll Band: Steven
Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer. Slated
for release this June, this latest installment from the franchise with
the #1 best-selling video game in 2007, puts players in the shoes of
Perry (guitar), Whitford (guitar) and Hamilton (bass), as they rock out
alongside frontman Tyler and drummer Kramer. Gamers will experience
Aerosmith’s GRAMMY(r) winning career, from their first gig to becoming
rock royalty, in a way that no other entertainment vehicle offers.
To celebrate this historic, ground-breaking collaboration, Guitar
Hero(r) III: Legends of Rock fans will have the opportunity to download
and jam to Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” The song will be available for free
from February 16-18 on Xbox LIVE(r) Marketplace for Xbox 360(r) video
game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION(r)Store forthe PLAYSTATION(r)3 computer entertainment system. For more
information, please visit www.guitarhero.com
.
“Having a game built around Aerosmith has been a huge honor and really a
great experience for us,” says Joe Perry. “We’ve put a lot of ideas into
the game so that fans can have fun interacting with our music, getting
inside our body of work and learning about the band’s history.”
Steven Tyler says, “Any band that can go from ‘Don’t Want to Miss A
Thing’ (Aerosmith’s #1 smash hit) to the ass-kicking ‘Sweet Emotion’ to
the cheekiness of ‘Love in an Elevator,’ to the classic ballad ‘Dream
On’ shows why Activision chose us to headline this game based on the
diversity of the Aerosmith catalog. Not only is songwriting a bitch, but
then it goes and has puppies.”
Perry adds, “On a larger scale, it’s cool for us to be pioneers helping
to rebuild the music industry through a format like video games. It’s
great for rock since the record companies are struggling to make sense
of how things are changing. Fans want to get and experience music in
new formats–and there are going to be some of them who will play the
game, then pick up the guitar for real and start bands. It’s what’s
happening now, and it’s only going to build more momentum in the future.
It’s a massive change for the music business.”
“We are extremely excited that Aerosmith chose to team up with Guitar
Hero, bringing one of the world’s all-time best-selling artists together
with one of the biggest video game brands, to deliver a new and unique
interactive way for our customers to connect with artists and their
music,” said Dusty Welch, head of publishing for Activision/RedOctane.
“This partnership will give Aerosmith, a band that has sold more than
150 million albums worldwide, a powerful and innovative platform to
reach their fans and new audiences.”
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith brings these quintessential rock legends to the
interactive realm to create the ultimate gaming experience. As fans
progress through their careers in the game, they can rock out to scores
of Aerosmith’s greatest hits, as well as songs from celebrated artists
that the band has either performed with or has been inspired by in some
way. Venues from historical moments during the band’s illustrious
career offer the experience of “sweet emotion” and further capture the
essence of the band’s rise to fame.
PS: Devil's Got a New Disguise is an Aerosmith song....
-Undrallio
