EL33TONLINE: News archive for March, 2010
With the announcement that Capcom’s third-person action shooter, Lost Planet 2, would in fact be releasing one week earlier than anticipated came the news that a new multiplayer demo would soon become available too, kicking off on April 21st and 22nd on Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network respectively.
You can, however, get early access to the demo right now by claiming a voucher code on the Lost Planet community site over here. While you do that, you can peruse a massive new batch of awesome Lost Planet 2 screenshots taken from the ‘Turbulent Jungle’ map featured in the demo.
If you look hard enough, maybe you can even discern some workable strategies… maybe…
Get the rest of the new Lost Planet 2 screenshots below:
As we get closer to this year’s E3 event, where Microsoft has promised to more fully reveal and demonstrate its Project Natal motion-sensing and voice recognition technology, the competition is heating up between two different schools of thought with regards to motion-based interaction for videogames: device-based, or hands-free.
Sony’s PlayStation Move and Nintendo’s Wii are both device-based, while Microsoft’s Project Natal technology is completely hands-free, able to sense and recognise the movements of every part of your body in 3D space. How is this possible? In part, thanks to hardware and specifications provided by Israeli company technology company, PrimeSense.
Guess what game has been added to Xbox LIVE Arcade’s already considerable line-up of games and content? C’mon, guess. Oh, the headline gave it away? Well, I’m going to tell you anyway…
It’s Mega Man 10! Mega Man 10 has been added to Xbox LIVE Arcade’s already considerable line-up of games and content! And wouldn’t you know it, the fine folks at Capcom are thanking you, the fans, for making it happen, as the official description reads:
Creat Studios and TikGames have teamed up yet again, this time to launch a Publisher Page on the PlayStation Network in North America.
The TikGames/Creat Studios page will feature their games, videos, themes and wallpapers. And with nine titles between them, the companies have released more PS3 games for the PSN than any other company so it’s well worth checking out.
“From the imagination of Linkin Park comes 8-Bit Rebellion, the only iPhone App game that turns Linkin Park’s world into your gaming reality.”
If that sentence made you at all excited, then the upcoming release of the iPhone and iPod Touch (as well as iPad) game, Linkin Park: 8-Bit Rebellion, is going to send you into a spin.
According to internal memos obtained by LA Times reporter Ben Fritz (and later confirmed by an Activision spokesperson), Activision Blizzard has quietly gone about reorganising its internal structure to effectively divide itself up into four discrete segments, each focussing on its own brand and market.
A single division will focus on Call of Duty (as noted in the recent Infinity Ward scuffle), another will handle owned properties such as Guitar Hero, DJ Hero and Tony Hawk, yet another will centre around licensed properties (such as games based on movies, cartoons and comic books), while the fourth division will be the independently run developer, Blizzard Entertainment.
According to Sony’s R&D manager, Dr. Richard Marks, while researching different and new methods of motion control for videogame interaction, the team at Sony pursued technology similar to Microsoft’s ‘hands-free’ Project Natal, but ultimately ended up going down the path that lead to the current iteration of the PlayStation Move (which uses a physical hand-held device) as it allowed the publisher’s game teams to deliver more “robust” experiences.
Speaking on the Engadget Show, Dr. Marks said:
THQ has announced that its apocalyptic action adventure game Darksiders will be coming to the PC this June.
While Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers have been enjoying their romp as War, the first Horseman of the Apocalypse, since January, developer Vigil Games has been hard at work crafting the PC version of the game to “deliver the same great art style and dynamic gameplay.”
Splinter Cell: Conviction is but a mere two weeks away from release, launching exclusively for the Xbox 360 on April 13th in North America, April 15th in Europe and April 16th in the UK.
When the game does become available (after a series of unfortunate delays), we’ll finally be able to get our hands on the full, unfettered stealth-action vision that developers Ubisoft wish to deliver, with a few evolutionary (and some may argue, revolutionary) features thrown into the singleplayer and multiplayer campaigns.
While none of those features (such as ‘last known position’ or the use of image projections for story exposition) are shown in the newly released launch trailer for Splinter Cell: Conviction, it’s still well worth a watch, and if the game isn’t on your radar on the minute, the video may just inspire you to look a little further:
At the beginning of the week, Bioware (Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins) announced an initiative called the Bioware Bazaar, a mock online auction in which members of the Bioware community are able to earn tokens for completing certain tasks, and then spend those tokens on special prizes and rare, sponsored collectible items.
The problem is that this event is currently only available to citizens of the United States due to a last-minute legal snag, effectively locking out Bioware’s truly global community of fans from participating.
Fear not, though, as in a very special forum post, Bioware’s co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk addressed the situation, first by apologising to the developer’s fans, and then by announcing that, pretty soon, international members of the community will get their own version of the Bioware Bizaar. From the post:
Capcom has revealed what it calls the “final, final” box art that will grace the cover of the North American version of Super Street Fighter IV.
According to the publisher fan feedback on the previous box art was both hot and cold, so “additional touches” were added to “warm those cold hearts.”
Capcom has announced that videogame industry veteran David Reeves will be joining the company as Chief Operating Officer of CE Europe, Capcom’s European subsidiary.
As of April 1st (what a day to start), Reeves will oversee all aspects of European operations at Capcom, with the responsibility to “maximise potential revenue and explore new areas for growth throughout the region.”
Much like what the full experience is sure to entail, the latest batch of screenshots released for Microsoft and Remedy’s psychological action thriller, Alan Wake, will take you on a mini emotional rollercoaster, showing you scenes of serenity one moment and then plunging you into tension and terror the next, as enemies of darkness chase Wake with dangerous implements.
Next stop - a stand-off:
Update Nintendo has since announced that Jam with the Band has been postponed internationally and will now be released in South Africa later this year. End of Update
As has become the custom at the launch of anything Nintendo in South Africa, Core Gaming (distributors of Nintendo in SA) revealed a few interesting stats at the recent launch of the DSi XL that are bound to get gamers of different platforms talking.
Matthew Grose, General Manager of the group, was pleased as punch to announce that the Nintendo Wii is now the number 1 third generation console in South Africa, having overtaken the Xbox 360 over the busy Christmas period.
Hardcore PC gamers will do anything to improve their game. Back in the day it was all about bigger monitors with higher resolutions for crystal clear detail so you can see the sweat on your opponent’s face. It was about graphics cards that tap enough power to power a small third-world country, and cost enough to settle its debt. It was about water-cooled CPU’s so you can squeeze that extra frame per second out of the silicon. But often a good mouse is the second to last item on the list of required upgrades, right before the mouse pad. But that is in the past. These days mouses (or mice, depending where you are from) are as integral to a good gaming system as everything else.
Continue reading El33tonline’s review of the Verbatim Rapier V2 Mouse.
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