This week pretty much rounds out our PAX 2008 coverage. We've got interviews with The lead artist and writer behind Gears of War 2 as well as an interview with the creator of Schizoid. Let's not forget our hands-on look at Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball and a chance to win a copy of Smash Court Tennis 3. Click on.
Now that Harmonix has released a title update to allow users to transfer songs from the original Rock Band into Rock Band 2, we thought it might be helpful to post a video walkthrough of the whole process. It's pretty simple, actually. All that's required is about 10 minutes and 400 ($5). Check out the video above to see the whole process from start to finish (minus the boring bits).
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Fanboys who are 18+ and live in the United States, point your browser in this general direction. Why click? Because the Xbox Live and Rock the Vote campaign has officially kicked off, allowing Xbox Live gamers to register to vote for the November election. Don't think voting is an important activity and refuse to take time out of your "busy" November schedule to cast your ballot? Then we advise watching the latest Red vs. Blue PSA to witness the horrendously bad consequences that will result of your non-voting actions. Oh, and don't forget to sport those Obama and McCain gamer pictures, because politics are all the rage right now. So is voting, now get registered!
Hey kids, don't forget that there's still time to win a copy of Smash Court Tennis 3. Featuring real pros, not so real courts, a create-a-player option and online play, it's ... well, it's tennis (and it has achievements). If that sounds like your cup of tea, head over to the official giveaway post and enter. Remember that we have three copies to give away and you can enter once a day, so come back tomorrow for one last chance before the giveaway ends at Noon (ET).
Today, Harmonix officially announced that the Rock Band disc export, the update that allows most all Rock Band songs to be available in Rock Band 2, is now available for download off the XBLM. Though, it doesn't really do anything until Rock Band 2 releases. The disc export update will set you back 400 Microsoft points ($5) and will import 55 of the Rock Band songs into the game sequel. 55 songs seem a little light? Well, you're correct. Sadly, "Enter Sandman" by Metallica, "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath, "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden and the European exclusive "Monsoon" by Tokio Hotel will not be a part of the transfer. We can only speculate to why a re-license agreement couldn't be made.
Fresh from his travels to Seattle for the Penny Arcade Expo, Infinity Ward's own fourzertwo posted an update on his blog, announcing a Call of Duty 4 double XP weekend that they have planned. The weekend of double XP is scheduled to run from September 13th through the 14th and, even though the weekend fun has nothing to do with the upcoming CoD4 playlists, fourzertwo mentions that it's their goal to release them prior to the event. So, there's a distinct possibility that we'll be experiencing twice the XP and new CoD4 playlists in a few week's time. Keep those toes crossed.
Activision and Treyarch just sent out press materials announcing that they have a Call of Duty: World at Warbeta scheduled for release on the Xbox 360 and PC this October, following in the footsteps of its older Call of Duty 4 sibling. Registration for the beta can be completed via www.callofduty.com or through any game pre-order at Gamestop stores nationwide. Also, in the same press release, we receive confirmation that World at War will release to retailers in North America on November 11th. So, mark your iPhone calendars for that.
It should also be noted that this World at War "beta" is more of a glorified demo, because the beta's release is extremely close to the retail release of the game. So, no matter what kind of feedback they receive from the beta, Treyarch probably won't have time to change the final code. Then again, they don't promise to use any beta feedback at all, mentioning in the press release that the beta is just an "early chance for players to practice the tactics needed for survival." As you can see, it's more of a multiplayer demo than anything else ... not that it's a big deal or anything. Full press release after the break.
Recently, the master list of all games to be shown at the Tokyo Game Show 2008 was released and on it is a listing for SNK Playmore's King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Matchfor the XBLA. Yes sir, fighter fanboys can get excited for SNK Playmore's fighting franchise King of Fighters on the Arcade. Delicious, ain't it?
Seeing that the game hasn't been officially announced, we aren't certain when it'll release, how much it'll cost or what 360 improvements have been made. But that's what the actual TGS event is for. You know, game specifics and game announcements. Time to practice the fighting art of patience ...
Over the past few months, we've been hearing all kinds of conflictingreports regarding the Xbox 360 exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable content and its release date. All of which has led us to question whether the DLC will release later this Fall, sometime next Spring or later in 2009.
Thankfully, Eurogamer had a chance to chat with "sources close to Rockstar North" and learned that the DLC is still on track to release sometime this November. Just as Microsoft promised. Sadly, we are still in the dark regarding what will be included in the DLC or its pricing, but seeing that MS reportedly spent $50 million on it, we doubt it'll be cheap. We're starting our own rumor based on our own speculation which is based on absolutely no facts and predict that the GTAIV DLC will end up costing a whopping 1600 Microsoft points. Tell your friends, you heard it here first!
As we've come to expect, the latest Halo Warsmonthly update doesn't contain much in the way of juicy information. No new UNSC units have been uncovered. There are no details about how the Covenant plays. No, what we get is some general info that the game is coming along nicely. There are promises that more info is on the way soon though, along with some significant changes to the Halo Wars website. And then there is the image at right (click here for full size), which is undoubtedly the most intriguing part of the update. It's accompanied by the text below.
What does it all mean? We have no idea. We're fairly certain that the image is some kind of environment. Dare we hope it's a Flood containment facility? Given the presence of human lettering in the lower left corner, we're inclined to think it's not. Thoughts?
Taking a looksy at last week's Xbox Live activity report (courtesy of one Major Nelson), one can spot Castle Crashers taking home the number one most played XBLA game award and even breaking into the overall most played 360 games list at the number seven spot. All of which we fully expected. But one thing that we didn't expect, and found rather interesting, was the appearance of Alien Hominid HD on the Live list.
Alien Hominid, The Behemoth's other year old XBLA game, landed in at the number nine spot on the most played XBLA game on Live list, after being absent since its release. An appearance that is probably a direct result of Castle Crashers' release and (possibly) the fact that a certain unlockable yellow alien is in the game.
Those lucky sons of guns over at Joystiq got the chance to spend an entire hour with the full version of Fallout 3. Not only that, but they got to do it in a tricked out Airstream trailer at PAX. Remembering the half-hour we had in a crowded room at E3, we've decided that we're jealous. Anywho, the 'Stiq has recorded its impressions of said hour -- for the record, it chose the Evil route -- and listed some important and interesting facts about the experience. For instance, not every lock can be picked by any player. This is counter to Oblivion, in which any lock could be picked if you were good enough at the mini-game, regardless of a character's skill level. Oh, and character Karma is universal, so don't think you can stay Good just because nobody's watching.
This past weekend, during our PAX 2008 coverage, we got the opportunity to sit down and chat about all things Gears of War 2 with Epic Games senior artist Pete Hayes and lead writer Josh Ortega. During the twenty minute conversation, we learned all sorts of information about Gears 2's art, discussing with Pete the changes that were made to improve the Gears 2 Lancer. Improvements including a complete remodeling to make the Lancer nearly three times the polygons as the Gears 1 model. No joke!
During the second part of our interview, we talk about Gears comics, character inspiration and other general story related bits the with Mr. Josh Ortega who also opens up about the hype surrounding the "new and improved" Gears 2 storyline We were also promised that Gears 2 will not leave us with a Halo 2-style ending. A promise we fully expect Mr. Ortega to live up to.
Put on your reading glasses, click towards the break and read our complete Gears of War 2 interview.
We're being told that there's this a new shift in our industry for how video game reviews are being done. With old iron side, Peter Molyneux leading the movement, gone are the days where game reviews are done by those who haven't worked on the game, and in are game reviews actually done by the developers themselves.
And following in Molyneux's footsteps is James Silva, The Dishwasher: Dead Samuraicreator who figured he'd do his own review of his own game. But before you scream "bias!", understand that most every developer is an honest soul (it's true). This developer honesty can be seen in Silva's review of The Dishwasher, where he gives his own game 1 out of 10, calling it "a mess" admitting that "not only are 2D graphics completely inadequate at capturing our imaginations, but 2D–by definition–is not HD." No truer words have been spoken. Make the jump to read creator James Silva's review of his own game and learn how truly bad it is. Any game that doesn't have a reasonably sized manskirt or nudity is "basically broken."
After months and months of rumors, speculation, leaked adscans and insider whispers, Microsoft just announced that the Xbox 360 price cut rumors are, in fact, true. Beginning this Friday, September 5th the retail pricing for Xbox 360 consoles in the US will drop to all time lows. The new console pricing puts the Xbox 360 Arcade at $199 (cheaper than the Wii!), the 60GB Xbox 360 Pro at $299 and the Xbox 360 Elite at $399. Remember though, this is only for the US as any other territories (Europe, Australia, etc.) have yet to announce any console price cuts. We can now also pretty much debunk that motion controlled Arcade bundle rumor. Happy shopping!
($5). Check out the video above to see the whole process from start to finish (minus the boring bits).
