Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Screenshots for Reflections On The Nintendo DS

Konami have released new screenshots for their upcoming Nintendo DS game, Reflections.

Reflections



Re-Cap of Yesterdays News (oldest to newest)





Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Forza 3 ScreenShots Of European Sports Cars And The Circuit de Catalunya

Microsfot have released new screenshots of the European sports cars and the Circuit de Catalunya which are in Forza 3.

Forza 3




NBA 2K10: Draft Combine Pictures And Information

2K Have announced a new XBLA and PSN game called NBA 2K10 Draft Combine. it is a download only game that is coming out in September. before the Fall release of NBA 2K 10.
In NBA 2K10 Draft Combine you get to create your own player, which has over 300 different customisations, and play with them at either a famous Chicago gym, ATTACKS Athletics Gym, or on court playing 5-on-5 games.
The game also gives players a early look at upcoming features in NBA 2K 10, like new gameplay features, player progression system, and a My Player Career mode.

NBA 2K10 Draft Combine


Press Release

NEW YORK --(Business Wire)-- Jul 28, 2009 2K Sports today announced NBA® 2K10: Draft Combine, a download-only title that will provide pre-season fun for basketball fans leading up to the fall launch of NBA 2K10. Planned for release this September on Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®Network for PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system,, NBA 2K10: Draft Combine will allow fans to create their own custom player with the utmost detail and, for the first time in the NBA 2K series, begin their career by experiencing the on-court life of an NBA hopeful going through the NBA Draft Combine at the world-renowned, ATTACK Athletics gym in Chicago.
“We’re giving our dedicated NBA 2K fans an incredible opportunity with NBA 2K10: Draft Combine,” said Greg Thomas, senior vice president of sports development for 2K. “Gamers will have exclusive access to online content and get to test drive NBA 2K10’s new gameplay features, advanced player progression system and the all-new My Player career mode before the game launches this fall.”

Features of NBA 2K10: Draft Combine include:
Building custom players by working with a mentor, the 2K Insider, and increasing their NBA stock through a variety of challenging basketball drills and 5-on-5 games.

Over 300 different signature customizations, including player-specific shooting animations, dunk and dribble packages and more to allow each created player to have his own unique personal style.

Ability to strengthen all parts of the created player’s game with a variety of drills, such as shooting, post offense and defense, attacking the basket, dribbling, challenging shots, boxing out for rebounds and more to progress through the NBA Draft Combine.

Organized games that will allow players to gain valuable skill points and offer a variety of specific in-game objectives that will need to be accomplished in order to gain them. At the end of each game, a full analysis will be available for gamers to review their player’s performance and strategize their further improvement.

All players created in NBA 2K10: Draft Combine will wear a special patch on their uniform throughout the rest of that player’s career to denote that they have completed the NBA Draft Combine.

Online leaderboards to track the highest ranking custom built players, and where a player stacks up against the competition.

Opportunity to unlock special achievements on Xbox 360 and trophies for PLAYSTATION 3 system.

Fans can take their custom built players from NBA 2K10: Draft Combine and use them in the all-new My Player career mode in NBA 2K10 launching this fall, allowing them to continue their journey of becoming an NBA legend.

NBA 2K10: Draft Combine, developed by Visual Concepts, is planned for release in North America, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and India this September on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 (400 Microsoft Points) and PlayStation Network for PLAYSTATION 3 system ($4.99). For more information about NBA 2K10: Draft Combine, please visit www.2ksports.com/games/nba2k10dc.
2K Sports is a division of 2K, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO).

About Take-Two Interactive Software
Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a global developer, marketer, distributor and publisher of interactive entertainment software games for the PC, PLAYSTATION®3 and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment systems, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Wii™ and Nintendo DS™. The Company publishes and develops products through its wholly owned labels Rockstar Games and 2K, which publishes its titles under 2K Games, 2K Sports and 2K Play. Take-Two also distributes software, hardware and accessories in North America through its Jack of All Games subsidiary. The Company’s common stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO. For more corporate and product information please visit our website at www.take2games.com.
NBA

The NBA and individual NBA member team identifications used on or in this product are trademarks, copyrighted designs and other forms of intellectual property of NBA Properties, Inc. and the respective NBA member teams and may not be used, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of NBA Properties, Inc. (C) 2008 NBA Properties, Inc. All rights reserved.

Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and the Xbox logos are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies and are used under license from Microsoft.
"PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks and “PS3” is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. The PlayStation Network Logo is a service mark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
All trademarks and copyrights contained herein are the property of their respective holders.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
The statements contained herein which are not historical facts are considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws and may be identified by words such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "potential," "predicts," "projects," "seeks," "will," or words of similar meaning and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the outlook for the Company's future business and financial performance. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs of our management as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to them, which are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may vary materially from these forward-looking statements based on a variety of risks and uncertainties including: our dependence on key management and product development personnel, our dependence on our Grand Theft Auto products and our ability to develop other hit titles for current generation platforms, the timely release and significant market acceptance of our games, the ability to maintain acceptable pricing levels on our games, our reliance on a primary distribution service provider for a significant portion of our products, our ability to raise capital if needed, risks associated with international operations, the matters relating to the investigation by a special committee of our board of directors of the Company's stock option grants and the claims and proceedings relating thereto (including stockholder and derivative litigation, actions by governmental agencies and negative tax or other implications for the Company resulting from any accounting adjustments or other factors) and risks associated with the Company's concluded process to evaluate its strategic alternatives including stockholder litigation arising therefrom. Other important factors and information are contained in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended October 31, 2008, in the section entitled "Risk Factors," as updated in the Company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2009, and the Company's other periodic filings with the SEC, which can be accessed at www.take2games.com. All forward-looking statements are qualified by these cautionary statements and apply only as of the date they are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.


NHL 10 Developer Blog Discussing Fantasy Draft

EA has released a new Developer Blog post for NHL 10. In the blog post, the games Associate Producer, Andy Agostini discusses the return to the series of the fantasy Draft and the improvements to it.

For Fantasy Draft, The season mode will pick the best players from the season and put them in the Stanley Cup. However, in the GM Mode the computer has many more different factors to consider when it comes to the draft. because of this, the players who are called into the draft as the computer looks further into the future.

For the he new Be A GM mode, the players aim is to become the best General Manager. it is similar to the games Be A Pro, but the differences here are that over 140 tasks which need to be completed during your career. To help the player, there are now 4 types of staff, amateur scouts, pro scouts, trainers and assistant coaches.


NHL 10


NHL 10 Blog 4

Andy Agostini, associate producer

Fantasy Draft: Season Mode and Be a GM

As you may have heard the Fantasy Draft is now back in NHL 10.
When we worked on putting the Fantasy Draft back into the game we wanted it to be smarter than in years past. We looked at other sports games’ fantasy drafts and decided to try something different and it’s something that worked very well.

We have two different logics for our Fantasy Draft.

One is the Season Mode Fantasy Draft logic. This mode will have the fantasy draft pick the best players overall and put them on their team and battle for the Stanley cup over 1 year.

The second version of the logic is our new Be a GM mode Fantasy Draft logic that actually takes into account many factors in the CPU’s picks. In other sports games it can be quite easy to select 5 top young players when the draft starts and the CPU will be picking by which player is the best overall. This makes it a bit tougher on the user at the beginning but in the long run the CPU will start to see a ton of retirements as these great older players start to retire and the user’s young team grows and becomes unstoppable until the salary cap starts to bite them then they just trade away their stud get more youth and start all over becoming a great dynasty.

Now with our new logic the CPU actually takes into account five things: the players overall, his age, potential, what players he has already drafted and his contract. This changes the dynamic of who is selected in the draft. So with the new logic Nicklas Lidstrom is being drafted around the third round as he is 39 years old and on the end of his career. Does this mean that all the older good players don’t get selected in the first round? No, overall is still a major factor in the fantasy draft but now they consider what their team will look like in 2 or 3 seasons in past years they kept taking that older veteran that was at the top of his game with no foresight into the future for their franchises.

With the new logic we are seeing that the game is much more balanced when going into Be a GM mode and a lot more challenging as the other teams have emerging superstars just like you do. So we hope everybody enjoys this new/old feature that is back in NHL 10.

Be a GM Mode.
Be A GM is our new mode this year where we took the idea of becoming a legend player in Be a Pro and associated it with being a Legend GM. Some real life legend GM’s are Glen Sather (Edmonton Oilers Dynasty), Toe Blake (Montreal Canadiens Dynasty), Bill Torrey (New York Islanders Dynasty) and Ken Holland (Detroit Red Wings). These men are famous for putting together franchises that had great success for a very long period of time.

To work your way to becoming a Legend GM you will need to complete GM Tasks. There are over 140 tasks to complete and they are wide ranging. Some are as easy as completing one trade and some are as hard as winning five Stanley Cups in eight seasons. Each task gets you task points which you earn to unlock the 6 different levels of your road to Legend GM. Another thing that the task points are good for are for upgrading your staff. New to this year we have 4 staff types that will help you in creating a dynasty franchise. These 4 types of staff are Trainers, Amateur Scouts, Pro Scouts and Assistant Coaches.

Each staff member helps in doing the following things.
Trainers help heal your players faster as well as help your players durability to long term injuries.

Amateur Scouts will provide information on the upcoming draft class.

Pro Scouts help you know about rumors around the league in regards to who is up for trade on the all new trade block and rumor mill.

Assistant Coaches will help your player development so that you can develop superstars thru the draft and your system.

So doing well as a franchise allows you to improve your staff. These staff members will be able to provide a lot of extra information and will make your franchise stronger.

Another aspect of the GM Tracker that is brand new to Be a GM is GM Reputation. Every GM in the league will have a relationship with you and depending on how you work with them when it comes to making fair trade offers they will have a relationship with you. Free agents also are aware of your reputation. Nobody will want to come to your team if you sign players and then trade them away right away. This reputation is extremely important when it comes to one of our newest features.

The Entry Draft and Trading Deadline this year are extremely important as you will now be able to trade on Draft day as well as on the Trading Deadline. Your GM Reputation plays a part on these days as the better your reputation the more phones you will have at your disposal to make deals with. This is one of my favorite features in Be a GM as you only have so many phones to make something happen during each round and if you can’t finish a deal then you have wait till the next round. The CPU teams are making deals during this time as well so the deal you thought you were close to completing with a team might not be available any longer, as that player might have been traded during the round and you will have to restart negotiations to get him with his new team. Also once a team gets a player it might take a lot more to get him now as the new team wanted him for a reason.

The screenshot below shows you one of the phones that will be available to you on the Entry Draft and the Trade Deadline

To go with the new trading mini games we have also rewritten our Trade AI from the ground up. This AI now takes into account so many factors that we have been shocked at which players show up on the trading block. We had Ryan Whitney on the trading block in our game the day before he was traded to Anaheim. I was actually laughing at Pittsburgh’s trading block thinking I don’t think the Penguins would ever trade him. I was ready to make some minor tuning tweaks to the logic then the next day he was traded. Shows you how much I know about what teams will do.

The basic fundamental of the trade AI is every team knows what type of team they are. There are 5 types of teams.
Rebuilders
Playoff Hopefuls
Playoff Bubble
Playoff Contender
Championship Contender

Depending on where a team is in their development cycle they will all be looking for different things when it comes to making trades. This along with knowing its team’s strengths and weaknesses led us to trades that will actually make more sense.

So a rebuilding team is probably looking for draft picks and prospects over older veterans and a team who is a championship contender is more than likely willing to give up a prospect or pick for another veteran to add to their team for the final playoff run.

Now as the season progresses if a team is doing better or worse than their original season prediction for itself it will change its team type on the fly and will react to their situation accordingly. This makes our new Trading Block much more important.

The trading block in other games that I have seen were mainly about which players are you willing to trade. Ours has that as well as sliders which tell the CPU what you are looking for and what you are willing to give up in return. This makes it easier to get a lot of offers or very few offers if you are looking for something very specific. The screenshot below shows that the sliders are by position as well as what type of player or pick you are willing to give. This makes the trade offers be tailored to what you are looking for.

In addition, you can get fired and hired by other teams. You will have a contract that you will have expectations each year laid out for you, depending on how you do you will either get a renewal or you might be let go and have to find another team to run.

We have added contract buyouts to the game. I have read on some message boards saying we don’t have a way to cut a player during the year. So just to clarify the CBA rules says you are not allowed to release a player during the season. The only way you can release a player is to buy him out in the offseason or put him in the minors during the season but still pay his full salary while he is there. Attached below is a screenshot of our new contract buyout screen which shows you what the salary cap penalty will be for buying out a player.

Good luck becoming a Legend GM.

Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island, Nintendo DS box Art And Information


NIS has revealed the Nintendo DS Box Art for their upcoming release, Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island.
The game is the latest in the Atelier series and has new improvements for the Nintendo DS. Previous titles were only RPG in style, this game has a Sim based SRPG system.
There are many rare items to collect as the player explores the world of Annie.




Fact Sheet

ESRB/PEGI
Pending

RELEASE
10/27/2009

GENRE
RPG

PLATFORM
NINTENDO DS

PLAYER(S)
1

PUBLISHER
NIS

DEVELOPER
GUST

ATELIER SERIES EVOLVES TO THE DS!
With its strong support from the hardcore gamer crowd Atelier Annie the latest incarnation of the Atelier series will be heading for the Nintendo DS handheld system. Unlike the previous series which were strictly RPG, Atelier Annie adopts a unique sim based SRPG system. Characters will explore the world of Annie to collect many rare items. As the head of a alchemy resort
you must go on quests to collect, create, and sell alchemy items to arriving customers at your resort.
1. Unique quest based item customization
2. Sim game like resort ownership
3. Simple yet intuitive strategy RPG battle system
4. Quick mini games through out the game for extra quests

Collect and sell your creations to help grow your resort village. What you do and make will affect how this village expands.

Players will search and fight to collect ingredients from throughout the world to create rare items.

Simple yet exciting. Atelier Annie adopts a strategy RPG style battle system for the first time.

Planet 51 Playstation 3 / Xbox 360 Screenshots

Sega has released screenshots of the Playstation3 and Xbox 360 version of the Planet 51 Movie Tie-In Game.

Planet 51