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All Entries Tagged With: "News"
Darksiders 90 Minute Demo On The Way
Ah yes, Darksiders: Wrath of War, a game synonymous for it’s love-hate relationship all across the internet will finally make it’s way to the PSN and XBL this month. The game, which is revered by some and loathed by others is a hack and slash title by start up studio Vigil games. Why should you be excited about a demo hitting the networks?
Mass Effect 2 Sells Over 1 Million in 1st Week
According to DFC Intelligence Bioware’s latest Space RPG Mass Effect 2 has sold an estimated 1.1 million copies in the month of January. Fueled by positive reviews across the gaming community and key TV advertisements, Mass Effect 2 outsold the majority of the XBox 360 competition 6 to 1 which included Darksiders (150,000) Bayonetta (170,000) and Army of Two: The 40th Day (175,000).
We shall see how sales figures change in the month with new releases including Bioshock 2, Dante’s Inferno, and Aliens Vs. Predator. And let’s not forget the RPG behemoth called Final Fantasy XIII is coming out on March 9th.
Xbox 360 owners this is a must have game if you haven’t played it. Check out Dual Shockers own Chad Awkerman’s 5 star review here
(Via Joystiq)
The Sims is Now a Decade Old
Want to feel older than you already do today? Then it’s my pleasure to inform you that EA’s the Sims series has just turn 10 years old. Sit back and take that all in for a second, and like me, just try to think to yourself: where did that time go? The idea of the Sims (gibberish speaking families of avatars in which you can live vicariously through, and dictate their every move) is crazy enough. And of someone told me that it would have lasted this long when it originally launched I would have thought they were out of their damn minds but here we are now.
In its 10 years of existence the game has turned itself into an industry power house. It has even rivaled sales numbers of the highest grossing motion pictures of all time. It has earned over 2.5 Billion dollars in revenue. It is available in 60 countries and in 22 different languages. One thing about The Sims it is an almost perfect social parody of art immitating life, and with that in mind I’ll leave you with a quote from the official press release.
If the games were buried in a time capsule, when unearthed in 100 years, The Sims would give future generations an instant understanding of how people lived between 2000 – 2010.
On behalf of the DualShockers Team, I’d like to wish The Sims a Happy 10th Birthday! They’ve earned it!
Def Jam Rapstar Info and Trailer
I have been wanting a game like Def Jam Rapstar for a long time, yes we have Rock Band and Guitar Hero which every once in a while throw a Public Enemy song our way, but it never caters to the hip-hop enthusiast. Def Jam Rapstar is for the true hip-hop fan, a game that has you spitting lyrics like Kanye and does not allow for you to hum along with the song. Not much is known about the track list just yet, but “Put On” from Young Jeezy and “Gold-digger” by Kanye West are confirmed.
Def Jam Rapstar is beyond just a karaoke game, it is a full experience where you can make a video of your performance, edit it and upload for the community to see. You can also battle friends to see who is the top spitter in your crew.
This title is for the true hip hop head and is boasting songs that will be “Bridging the Gap”:
Golden Age. Platinum Age. Old School. New School. Veteran. Rookie. Def Jam Rapstar has the hits no matter what style you represent.
DJ Hero look out, there is a new kid headed to the hip-hop block and he looks serious. So far it is still scheduled for a winter release and there is definitely DLC to come after as well.
Check out the newly launched official Def Jam Rapstar site here.
Hotel Giant 2 in January 2010
Southpeak Games, along with Nobilis Games announced that Hotel Giant 2 will be hitting PCs in January of 2010. Eager hotel owner wannabes will be thrown into strange and unusual situations with 1 thing on their mind, guests’ happiness. However, owners will not just have to worry about guests, but employee payroll, hotel budget, and hostage negotiation as well. Well, not the hostage negotiation part but that could be an interesting add-on. To make sure hotel budget and guest satisfaction are met, players will have access to many options, from in-room amenities to what kind of tile goes in the bathroom. So make sure to put on your commerce caps!
Mega Man 10 – Now With More Sheep
Mega Man 10 is officially announced for WiiWare. Pause… Take that in…
Ok what we do know is that there are three playable characters Mega Man, Proto Man and one mystery character yet to be named. There is also one confirmed robot master that goes by the name of Sheep Man that looks like a ball of wool but can turn into four clouds and zap your ass from up above. Also confirmed is the plot of the game, you are on a quest to save the robots of the world from a virus known as Robotenza, think Swine Flu for robots and you need to find a vaccine.
Expect more classic 8-bit-style Mega Man action and a level of difficulty that will make you tear your hair out.
I am excited to see more Mega Man, seeing as it is the blue crusaders 22nd birthday December 17th it is great to hear these kinds of announcements. The only thing I can hope for is a Meg Man movie or MMO, come on Capcom make my dreams come true.
Valkyria Chronicles 2 PSP Bound
It’s a sad day to be a PS3 owner, however if you also happen to own a PSP you’re in luck. Out of all of the RPG’s released last year (2008), the best in my opinion also happens to be the one that no one else played (or obviously bought for that matter). The game in question is Valkyria Chronicles, which was released around this time last year and received a warm welcome by both the public (those who actually played it) and critics alike. With a Metacritic score of 86, it doesn’t take a genius to fiigure out that most if not all reviews of the title were very positive. Well the Producer of the series Shuntaro Tanaka is trying to make sure they keep this good thing going, however it will have to happen on another platform. The main reason being time, with the producer quoted as saying
“PS3 sequel would probably takes around three years to make even after taking into consideration that certain assets can be reused and their hardware know-how is better now. This is because the amount of time it takes to produce new content could be quite lengthy too”
Someone has to tell this guy about true RPG fans (especially those in the western hemisphere) being well aware about playing the waiting game. Tanaka also goes on to describe how other series’ like Metal Gear and Yakuza have built up their following since the PS2 days, and it’s an advantage that Valkyria Chronicles just does not have. I can understand where he is coming from because at the end of the day, publisher SEGA just cares about the bottom line, but what if this sells even less than it’s predecessor did on the PS3, then what? Guess we’ll find out soon enough when Valkyria Chronicles hits Sony’s handheld in 2010.
(VIA PSPHyper)
Dead Space Sequel Confirmed
Although we reported rumblings about this for quite some time now, yesterday it was announced by EA that Dead Space, will in fact be receiving the sequel treatment. Dead Space takes place in the future and follows the story of Isaac Clark, an engineer who responds to a distress call sent out by a spaceship by the name of the Ishimura. Spoiler alert – there were some really bad mofos on board! The game itself didn’t quite meet EA’s expectations in terms of sales. At the time of it’s release EA was transitioning into a quality over quantity initiative, as titles from the publisher before that point and time seemed to have suffered the consequences of multiplatform development ( a.k.a releasing games for every system from the PS3 to the Leapster, ok maybe not the Leapster but you get the idea). One interesting fact about the original to note is that something like 10 times more trophies and achievements were earned than games sold, in other words, after release the game gained somewhat of a following and more and more people rented and borrowed the game, always a good sign and a clear indicator that a sequel is needed.
More Green Day Tracks for Rock Band
Harmonix and MTV Games has announced that Green Day is adding more songs to the constantly growing Rock Band track catalog. Green Day will be bringing three tracks from their album 21st Century Breakdown. “Christian’s Inferno,” “Last of the American Girls,” and “¡Viva La Gloria!” will be the songs arriving on the Rock Band Music Store in a few days, with the latter of the two also arriving on the LEGO Rock Band Music Store. The tracks arrive December 15 on XBox 360 and Wii, and arrive December 17 on PS3. You can download the tracks as a pack titled “Green Day Pack 02″ or as individual downloads. Unfortunately, again you cannot download the pack on Wii, but only as individual packs. Here is the pricing:
Price:
$1.99 USD, £.99 UK, €1.49 EU (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) per track
$5.49, £2.49 UK, €3.99 EU (440 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for “Green Day Pack 02”
$2.00 USD (200 Wii Points) per track
Microsoft Slams The “Ban Hammer”1,000,000 Times
As a gamer that enjoys online gaming, I am fully aware that I am subject to the powers that be while playing these games. Usually knowing what the repercussions of my actions are, I know better than to do things that are frowned upon by those in power.
It has been confirmed (by MSNBC) that up to 1,000,000 Xbox 360 users, will be subject to the almighty ban hammer of Microsoft. The justification is that Microsoft is cracking down on users that have modded their Xbox, bought pirated games, or unlawfully downloaded games.
If anyone remembers, Major Nelson tweeted about Xbox users to get legitimate Xbox hard drives. It looks like this may be the reason that he warned Xbox users against having any non Microsoft hard drives, so that they would not be banned from Xbox Live just because they had an unofficial hard drive. Also, with pirated copies of Modern Warfare 2 floating around, this is going to really screw some people.
The biggest problem with Xbox bans, is that it bans your MAC address, so some users may have an Xbox that they received from someone else and be banned for something they were unaware of. A backlash may be people with warranties returning their console and getting a new, fresh console in order to fix this problem.
Although Microsoft’s actions are extremely justified, it seems bullshit in certain senses, because the hard drives offered are smaller capacity while being exorbitantly more expensive than a normal HDD.
(Via MSNBC)
God of War III Ultimate Edition and Pre-Order Goodness Announced
Yesterday, it was announced by Sony that God of War III would be receiving the special edition treatment, which has become somewhat of the norm this generation. This won’t be some cheap Kratos figure/keychaing. No, that would be too easy. Instead Sony will be blessing us all with a highly detailed Pandora’s Box with the game packed inside, as well as a limited edition art book featuring exclusive art and interviews. Most of the time these art book special edition “throw ins” never really get my attention, but if anyone knows about the God of War franchise, you know how epic in scale everything is, and the art in this book should be no different. If the game looks like a painting, just imagine the art that inspired it! In the Ultimate Edition which will retail at 99 greenbacks, you will receive the following:
Netflix Hitting the Wii Within 12 Months, According to Pachter
I know most don’t like to hear about Michael Pachter and his ramblings, but the latest seems like it makes a lot of sense. Following the news of Sony’s (now slim) black box, receiving Netflix’s “Play Now” streaming service, and according to a recent write up on Afterdawn, it seems that the Nintendo’s Wii will be getting in on the action as well. Just not right away. Read below to see what I’m talking about, as it also provides insight to this whole “streaming disc” business as well.
Video game industry analyst Michael Pachter has called Netflix’s recent move to bring their streaming service to the Sony PlayStation 3 as an “intermediate step” mainly designed to allow the service without breaking an exclusivity deal the company has with rival Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
For the time being, users will have to insert a disc into their PS3s to have the streaming features as it will not be part of the actual firmware until 2010.
Pachter believes the disc is a necessity to avoid breaking the deal with Microsoft.
“We believe that the exclusive arrangement limits Netflix’s ability to appear on the ‘dashboard’ for the PS3 or the Wii but because both devices have open architecture Internet browsers built-in, the solution proposed for the PS3 would likely not violate the terms of Microsoft’s exclusivity,” says Pachter.“We anticipate that a similar arrangement will be announced for the Wii in the next 12 months.”
Well there you have it folks, heard from the horse’s Pachter’s mouth. I know most of us saw this coming a mile away (especially with the surveys that we saw circulating earlier this year) it was just a matter of when. Now we know…and knowing is half the battle. (I’ve always wanted to write that)
(VIA Afterdawn.com)
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