Sunday, July 19, 2009

What Have You Played This Week?

Football Manager 09PC – Still playing, still going. It is my vice and will be for many years to come.

Gottlieb Pinball ClassicPSP – Another game I found cheap at my local Morrison's, £4, this pinball game maybe fairly old but it's still good. Load times are annoying, but gameplay is solid, there are plenty of camera angles on each of the tables, and each table is very different from the last. For pinball fans, there are plenty of facts and pinball games, and for the casual, there's plenty of different tables to play

Odin Sphere PS2 – The last game I found at Morrison's, for £5, this rare Atlus game shows well the power of the PS2. It is sprite based, and the sprites are huge and very detailed. The gameplay is hack and slash, but there are RPG elements which add some interesting gameplay mechanics. Moving around the map is a little tedious and requires some back tracking, but the stages are fairly small and can be quickly completed. I like this little gem but are no where near completing it.

Killzone 2 – PS3 – it ahs been a whilst since I last played this game, and initially started it to keep it updated, but it didn't take long to get back into the swing of things. Still fun, still loads of people playing it. I'm just annoyed I don't have enough money to buy the new maps.

Pokèmon Platinum – DS – finally decided upon my 6 Pokèmon, got 7 badges, and now working my way up Mt Coronet.

Ghostbusters – PS3 – I didn't know what to expect with this game. Reviews had been mixed and so had user reviews. Now i'm playing it I can understand why. I like the “Ghostbusterness” about it, the humour and characters. But it hasn't exactly gone well into a videogame. There is a chance this is purely down to the developers behind the game. The Ai isn't great, and have a tendency to go to great legnths to revive the player ignore the closer computer characters. There was a point where I was moving a key from a to b. only during that, when I had the key above me, a cutscene started, a battled ensued, and the key had gone missing when it was all over. The weapons are Ghostbusters all over, and look great. Its just a shame that the enemies can take too long to be killed. the load times, even after a faily large install, are long. and if you die alot, which is very possible, the music and lenght of the load can be quite annoying. i have been playing this game on normal difficulty. The story is good enough to get past the hard parts, the poor AI, the moments where you don't know where to go...but only just. I can't help that whilst this is good, it could've been soo much better.




Saturday, July 18, 2009

Re-Cap of Yesterdays News (oldest to newest)





Friday, July 17, 2009

There Are No Plans For The Full Game Of Fallout 3 To Be Released On The PSN


After a recent conversation with a reader, i asked Bethesda if Fallout 3 is coming to the PSN, in the same way as Burnout Paradise did. they have replied that:
" We have no current plans for releasing Fallout 3 (the full game)on PSN."

This came up because of the similarities between this and Burnout Paradise. both games have received alot of updates, Game and DLC, and continued support much longer than most games. Burnout Paradise has the option to buy the game or buy the game with all the DLC, and with the amount Fallout 3 has/is getting, i wondered if Bethesda would follow Criterion's example.

EA Announces A 10 Game Strong Lineup For Comic Con



EA Has announced that at this years comic-con they will be bringing 10 games. of these, Brutal Legend, Dante's Inferno, Dead Space Extraction, G.I. JOE The Rise Of The Cobra, The Saboteur and Warhammer online will be playable.
Also they have the comic artists behind Dead Space Extraction, Dante's Inferno and Army of Two 40th Day will be there signing.

Press Release

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Jul 17, 2009 Action and fantasy explode at EA’s Comic-Con booth! Today, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) revealed the titles that it will showcase at San Diego Comic-Con International from July 23 – 26, 2009. EA’s booth can be found in stall #5213 in the San Diego Convention Center and will feature over a dozen open, playable kiosks of blockbuster holiday games Brütal Legend™, Dante’s Inferno™, Dead Space Extraction™, G.I. JOE™ The Rise of the Cobra™, The Saboteur™ and Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning®. At the booth, consumers will also find a signing station for the comic artists behind Army of Two™: The 40th Day, Dead Space Extraction and Dante’s Inferno, as well as a retail corner with unique EA merchandise for sale (http://www.easpecials.com/).

In addition to the booth at the show, EA will host the ‘EA Gaming Lounge presented by Xbox 360’ at the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter Hotel (401 K Street, San Diego, California 92101) that will run from Thursday July 23 to Sunday July 26. The ‘Gaming Lounge presented by Xbox 360’ will be open from 2pm – 9pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday 6/25; 12pm – 5pm on Sunday. At this all-access venue, show-goers will get hands-on play with Dragon Age™: Origins, Battlefield 1943™, Battlefield: Bad Company™ 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 from Valve.

“Games are a powerful force in pop culture and EA’s presence at Comic-Con proves it. The line-up of titles we’re bringing to the show demonstrate best in breed action, adventure and RPG interactive entertainment,” said Mike Quigley, Group Vice President of Marketing, EA. “Our footprint at Comic-Con is designed to give show-goers hands-on time with the holiday’s hottest titles, and even give non-registered attendees a chance to get a sneak peek at the ‘EA Gaming Lounge presented by Xbox 360’.”

In addition to the games on display at the show, EA’s development teams will be participating in the following panels in the conference program:

Sunday July 26; 3:15-4:15 Army of Two: The 40th Day — Bridging Video Games with Comics. In this panel Reid Schneider (Executive Producer - Army of Two) and Alex Hutchinson (Creative Director - Army of Two) will discuss how they have been working with comic artists to show players the consequences of their moral choices throughout the game, and how the in-depth involvement of these artists in the production of Army of Two changes the feel of the game. Room 6A

Thursday July 23; 12:30-1:30 Dante's Inferno — Jonathan Knight (executive producer, EA), Ash Huang (art director), Brandon Auman (writer), Christos Gage (writer), and Victor Cook (director) talk about the adaptation of this literary classic into pop culture. They will discuss how they translated the various aspects of The Divine Comedy into a video game, an animated feature, and a comic series, where they were faithful and where they invented, and how each of the mediums differs. Also get a peak at EA's game in development, and also watch the world premiere trailer for the animated feature Dante's Inferno co-produced by EA and Starz Media. Room 8

Friday July 24; 6:00-7:00 Dead Space Extraction — Chuck Beaver, Producer from the award-winning game Dead Space and the creator of the award-winning Dead Space, Ben Templesmith, Dead Space comic illustrator and Antony Johnston, Dead Space comic writer, will discuss utilizing interactive gaming medium to portray emotion of story in ways that books & film traditionally display. Visceral Games executive producer Steve Papoutsis discusses the implementation of story and talent into games and the art of crafting a believable, epic story into this fall's Wii exclusive Dead Space Extraction. Room 2

Saturday July 25; 2:00-3:00 The Saboteur — Rethinking the WWII Gaming Genre — Pandemic Studios™ lead designer Tom French and art director Chris Hunt discuss how historical events served as the foundation for their upcoming action sandbox game The Saboteur, who the Saboteur is, and how the innovative combination of game design and artistic style were employed to develop a unique experience. Room 2

The games on show at the Convention Center and the ‘EA Gaming Lounge presented by Xbox360’ are described below. Screenshots and fact sheets for each game can be found at info.ea.com.

ARMY OF TWO™: THE 40th DAY
The ultimate two-man private military team of Salem and Rios return in ARMY OF TWO™: THE 40th DAY, where they must fight to survive a carefully orchestrated series of catastrophes that are dragging the city of Shanghai to the brink of disaster. The game has been built from the ground up with a focus on an incredible cooperative experience. A bigger playbook of features and a new arsenal of co-op moves are available to both players to perform at any time, opening up fresh strategies and choices. The result is a bigger, deeper, more organic and immersive co-op experience that lets players put their best two-man tactics to use whenever and wherever they want.
Platforms – Xbox 360®, PLAYSTATION®3 and PSP®
Ship Date – 2010
ESRB – Rating Pending
Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/army_of_two

Battlefield: Bad Company™ 2
Specializing in online vehicle warfare since 1942 -- In Battlefield: Bad Company 2, DICE brings its best-in-class onlinevehicle warfare to a spectacular new level. By pushing destruction to new heights and delivering a host of land, sea and air vehicles, players will experience all-out-warfare like never before. Whether its intense battles online or in the single player campaign, players must use every weapon and vehicle at their disposal to survive and conquer. This unprecedented action unfolds on the battlefield to bring a new level of excitement to vehicular warfare never before experienced in a modern warfare action game.
Platforms – Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and PC
Ship Date – Q1 2010 (calendar year)
ESRB Rating – Rating Pending
Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/OfficialBFBC2

Battlefield 1943™
Battlefield 1943 is a critically acclaimed download-only game that delivers endless hours of 24-player First-Person Shooter action on popular maps inspired by Battlefield 1942™. The game will have players battling over four tropic locations: Wake Island, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Coral Sea. These maps have now been updated with the DICE Frostbite™ engine, providing destructibility to the Battlefield and leaving players with almost nowhere to hide. Gamers will have the freedom to compete by land, air and sea as either the US Marines or the Imperial Japanese Navy. Whether they choose to play the role of a rifleman crawling through the trenches, a steel-fisted tank commander, or a dog fighting ace pilot, gamers will have the power to rule the Battlefield.
Platforms – Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and PC
Ship Date – Download Now on Xbox LIVE™ Marketplace and PlayStation®Network
ESRB Rating – T for Teen
Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/OfficialBF1943

Brütal Legend™
From the mind of Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions comes Brütal Legend, a 3rd person action game starring Jack Black as the ultimate roadie Eddie Riggs. Rich in combat, imagery and storytelling, Brütal Legend delivers lighter-flicking fun sure to melt your face off.
Platforms – PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360
Ship date – Rocktober 13th in North America, Rocktober 16th in the UK and Europe
ESRB – Rating Pending
Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/brutallegend
Dante’s Inferno™
From Visceral Games, award-winning creators of last year’s critically-acclaimed Dead Space™, comes one of 2010’s most highly anticipated 3rd person action adventure games, Dante’s Inferno. Based on part one of Dante Alighierei’s classic poem “The Divine Comedy,” EA’s Dante’s Inferno takes gamers on an epic adventure through Dante’s nine circles of hell – limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud and treachery. The game features a highly responsive, addictive combat system, which players will need to take Dante through a gauntlet of unimaginable evils as he fights to recapture the soul of his beloved Beatrice.
Platforms – Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and PSP
Ship Date – 2010
ESRB – Rating Pending
Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/danteteam

Dead Space™ Extraction
From Visceral Games comes Dead Space Extraction, the thrilling prequel to last fall’s award-winning Dead Space, built from the ground up exclusively for the Wii. In Dead Space Extraction, gamers will experience the panic before the terror through the eyes of a handful of space colonists desperately struggling to escape from a horrific infection on the Aegis VII mining colony. The game introduces Lexine, a new heroine in the Dead Space universe, and it quickly becomes clear that protecting her may be the crew’s only hope for survival in one of the most cinematic action-horror game experiences ever made for the Wii.
Platforms – Wii™
Ship Date – Sept 29th in NA & Oct 2nd in Europe
ESRB – Rating Pending
Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/isaacclarke

Dragon Age™: Origins
Award-winning RPG developer, BioWare™ invites players to experience their deepest RPG to date. For thousands of years, the Grey Wardens have been the guardians of the land. Now with an ancient evil on the rise again, it is up to players to unite the shattered lands and slay the corrupted dragon known as the Archdemon. In Dragon Age: Origins, players must make ruthless decisions and be willing to sacrifice their friends and loved ones for the greater good of mankind.
Platforms – PC, Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3
Ship Date – October 20, 2009 (North America), October 23, 2009 (Europe)
ESRB – Rating Pending
Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/dragonage

G.I. JOE™ The Rise of Cobra™
G.I. JOE The Rise of Cobra for all major video game consoles features an exclusive storyline that picks up where the live-action movie, from Paramount Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment, in association with Hasbro, leaves off, allowing players to re-create and re-live the greatest moments from the film, cartoon series and action figure toy line. The game offers 16 playable characters – four of which are unlockable COBRA characters – each with unique abilities and weapons. Adding to the adrenaline rush is an intense single-screen co-op mode allowing two players to easily unite as a team in a classic struggle between good and evil to defeat the powers of COBRA.
Platforms – Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3, Wii, PlayStation 2, PSP, Nintendo DS™ and mobile devices
Ship Date – August 2009
ESRB Rating – E10+ for Nintendo DS; T for console and PSP

Left 4 Dead 2
Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2 is the sequel to the best-selling, critically acclaimed co-operative multiplayer smash hit, Left 4 Dead. Set at roughly the same time as the original Left 4 Dead, players assume the role of 4 new “Survivors” as they are lead through the southeastern region of the US – from Savannah, Georgia thru the bayou country, and climaxing in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Introducing melee weapons, new zombies and advanced technology -- such as the AI Director 2.0, which procedurally changes weather effects, world objects and pathways, in addition to tailoring the experience to match the players’ performance -- Left 4 Dead 2 promises to be one of the top game releases of 2009.
Platforms: Xbox 360 and PC
Release: 11/17/09
ESRB – RP
For more info please visit www.l4d.com

The Saboteur™
Fight, climb, and race your way through a uniquely stylized version of Nazi-occupied France in Pandemic Studios upcoming action sandbox game The Saboteur. Meet Sean Devlin, the daredevil hero of The Saboteur – a street-tough Irish racecar driver turned resistance fighter in 1940s Paris, where the women are sexy and the action is epic.
Platforms – PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360 and PC
Ship date – Holiday 2009
ESRB – Rating Pending
Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/pandemicstudios

Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning®
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning features revolutionary Realm vs. Realm conflict that will provide players with an engaging battleground for years to come. Available now for PC, WAR is rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB. For more information about the game and to download the 10-day free trial, visit www.warhammeronline.com.
Platforms – PC
Ship Date – Available Now
ESRB – TEEN
Follow us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/warherald
Comic-Con International is a nonprofit educational organization dedicated to creating awareness of, and appreciation for, comics and related popular art forms, primarily through the presentation of conventions and events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art and culture.

About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EATM, EA SPORTSTM, EA Mobile TM and POGOTM. In fiscal 2009, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $4.2 billion and had 31 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile, POGO, Dead Space, Dante’s Inferno, Saboteur, Realm vs Realm, Army of Two ,Visceral Games and Pandemic Studios are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Battlefield: Bad Company, Battlefield 1943, Battlefield 1942 and Frostbite are a trademarks or registered trademarks of EA Digital Illusions CE AB in the U.S. and/or other countries. Dragon Age and BioWare are trademarks or registered trademarks of EA International (Studio and Publishing) Ltd. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Brütal Legend is a trademark of DoubleFine Productions, Inc. Warhammer and Age of Reckoning are registered trademarks of Games Workshop Ltd. GI JOE and The Rise of the Cobra are a trademarks of Hasbro and are used with permission. “PLAYSTATION”, “PlayStation” and “PSP are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Wii and Nintendo DS are trademarks of Nintendo. Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


A Way For iPhone Users To View Pictures In A Blog Post.

I was requested to provide a way for iPhone users to view the pictures on the site. as i use a flash slideshow, the iPhone is unable to view it.
Whilst i can't change this, i will provide a link above each slideshow, from now onwards, which iPhone users can use to go to the gallery and view the pictures from there. above each slideshow will be a title which has the link to the gallery.
A side note, the site is fully viewable by the PS3 browser, videos and pictures.



Xbox 360 Summer Of Arcade Screenshots and Trailers.

Microsoft has released pictures for all their upcoming Summer Of Arcade Xbox Live Arcade titles as well as Shadow Complex And Marvel Vs Capcom 2 Trailers.

Splosion Man


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time Reshelled


Trails HD


Shadow Complex





Marvel Vs Capcom 2





Upcoming Xbox 360 Dasboard Update Screenshots

Microsoft has released some pictures of their upcoming Dashboard update. this update is not the one that includes Twitter, Facebook and Last FM. this most likely gets the console ready for the update, whilst providing small changes to the current Dashboard.
most of the pictures show the name change for Community Games to Indie Games, changes to viewing the Achievement Browser, and how to sort your friend list differently.
Each Of the pictures in the album has a caption, accessed by hitting the speech bubble, saying what the picture shows.



Engadget has a very indepth look of the upcoming update with a breakdown of every little feature. if your interested, i do recommend you look at it.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/16/xbox-live-update-rolling-out-includes-games-on-demand-netflix/