EL33TONLINE: News archive for November, 2009
Ubisoft has just announced that a new installment in the popular Prince of Persia: Sands of Time series will be available in May 2010.
The new game, titled Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, is currently in development for consoles and handhelds.
So far we know that The Forgotten Sands will feature “many of the fan-favorite elements from the original series as well as new gameplay innovations that gamers have come to expect from the Prince of Persia brand.”
Today, Xbox LIVE Gold members are being offered the chance to buy Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the negligible sum of 240 MS Points.
What kind of trouble has Sonic got himself into this time? From the description:
“Dr.Eggman (AKA Dr.Robotnik) begins his zealous search for the Chaos Emeralds to fuel his new ‘Death Egg’ contraption. One afternoon, he launches his full-scale attack on the island. Dr.Eggman imprisons all of the helpless animals of the island and turns them into mindless worker drones.
“Fortunately, Sonic will thwart the Doctor’s plans at all costs. This time, he isn’t alone, as Tails decides to aid him in the battle. Together they must locate the Chaos Emeralds before Dr.Eggman does, and put an end to this diabolical scheme.”
If you’re an Xbox LIVE Gold member and you don’t have this classic platform title yet, now’s your chance!
Better hurry though, the offer only lasts until next Monday!
Bioware, a division of EA, recently announced that it has set new records for site traffic in EA’s substantial network of affiliated sites this year with its DragonAge.com domain, while a new record for new user registrations has also been set with the developer’s social networking site, Social.bioware.com, with over five million users signing up at the site after the release of the developer’s latest game, Dragon Age: Origins.
Additionally, 30 000 people have signed up at the Dragon Age fan page on Facebook since June this year, making it the fastest-growing EA property on the social networking site.
Now that Dragon Age: Origins has been released, the anticipation for Mass Effect 2 is clearly leading to similar statistics for that game - a 33% increase in traffic has already been observed since the Special Edition announcement early in November.
EA has been making strides in recent years to move towards an online model for the distribution of its games with the implementation of its own digital distribution network and the continued experiment of the third-person free-to-play action shooter, Battlefield Heroes.
These online ambitions were recently hammered home with the publisher’s acquisition of social online gaming company Playfish, as well as
the company’s restructuring process (resulting in 1500 jobs being cut) to specifically target the online, and even social networking, arena.
Now it seems the Command & Conquer series is set to follow EA’s online strategy, if words from head of the franchise, Jon Van Caneghem, are anything to go by.
When discussing a range of topics including the future of Command & Conquer, the idea of ‘software as a service,’ the strategy genre in general and attempts to popularise the brand, Van Caneghem said:
Unsurprisingly, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has once again claimed the No. 1 spot on Chart Track’s UK Software Sales Chart this week, beating last week’s contenders Assassin’s Creed II and New Super Mario Bros. Wii to the punch.
Modern Warfare 2’s sales are down 32% from the previous week, which it seems is more than enough to keep Assassin’s Creed II at No. 2 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii at No. 3, both of which are non-movers from last week.
After the release of the recent multiplayer trailer for the upcoming James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game, Ubisoft has felt the need to follow it up with a video developer diary, which includes a bunch of the game’s developers, as well as James Cameron himself, speaking about the mysterious, beautiful world of Pandora and the struggle for survival taking place on the planet’s surface.
The developers (and Cameron) also detail some of the advanced weaponry you’ll have access to during the game while playing as the militaristic RDA Corporation, as well as how the tribal N’avi can hope to survive against such weapons.
Watch the intriguing James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game developer diary below:
From information provided to consumer site IGN, the classic arcade side-scrolling beat ‘em up, Final Fight, will be making a comeback early next year in the form of a high definition remake.
Last week saw the announcement of three of the new (but old) characters to appear in Super Street Fighter IV, in the form of some scans from Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, but now we have proper visual confirmation by way of a new trailer to show off Cody, Guy and Adon in motion.
The upcoming Street Fighter IV revision, arriving early next year, also includes characters such as T. Hawk, Dee Jay and Juri, who are also featured in the colourful, crushing trailer below:
Even though the ‘final’ Final Fantasy XIII trailer has been released, that doesn’t stop a surge of new screenshots from appearing on the ‘net, as usual courtesy of Famitsu.com.
The new screenshots show off a range of visual treats for eager Final Fantasy fans, with great looks at some environments, snapshots of battles in progress, a menu pic or two, and a glimpse at the inimitable Cactus family.
Continue on down below to see the rest of the new Final Fantasy XIII screenshots:
According to an entry appearing on Media Molecule’s official Twitter account, the new 1.21 update (known as Leerdammer) for LittleBigPlanet is now live and available for PS3 owners to download and enjoy. From the tweet:
“LittleBigPlanet’s huge new update 1.21, aka Leerdammer… is now LIVE! Right now! GET! :)”
What exactly do you get in the new update? A whole bunch!
Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling recently tweeted that, despite the studio’s holiday festivities, a title update for the all-conquering Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is on the way. From Bowling:
“… at the moment [we’re] on Holiday (Thanksgiving) but playing and tracking feedback for the first major title update.”
A new multiplayer trailer for SEGA and Rebellion’s upcoming Aliens VS Predator has surfaced.
The trailer shows gamers putting the different multiplayer modes through their paces at a Multiplayer Gamers Day. Enjoy the action between the three species below:
According to Activision Blizzard’s internal sales data, as well as third-party sales data from sales trackers NPD Group, Chart-Track and Gfk, the publisher’s Call of Duty franchise recently surpassed 55 million units sold worldwide, resulting in over $3 billion in sales.
These numbers were achieved with the release of the latest iteration of the Call of Duty series, Modern Warfare 2, which launched on November 10th worldwide and generated $550 million in sales during its first five days on sale.
If these numbers weren’t enough, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick added, “Call Of Duty has become one of the greatest entertainment franchises of all time. If you consider the number of hours our audiences are engaged in playing Call of Duty games, it is likely to be one of the most viewed of all entertainment experiences in modern history.”
Source: Gamasutra
The promised update for the official No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise website has arrived, bringing with it a host of new content including character bios, as well as lots of blank spaces to provide opportunities to learn about the PS3 and Xbox 360 edition of the series in the future.
It’s all in Japanese at the moment, but as the clever gamers you are, you’ll be able to navigate your way through the pages with ease.
Capcom has unleashed an enormous bounty of new screenshots from Lost Planet 2, all of which show a large variety of gigantic alien life forms (as well as their characteristic - in the Lost Planet universe, anyway - glowing weak points for players to destroy) making their presence known on the environments.
Incredible stuff! Subject your retinas to the rest of the newly released, highly impressive Lost Planet 2 screenshots below:
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