Thursday, March 29, 2007

Resident Evil 4 for Wii shows up on Gamestop.com



















A reader of dedicated Nintendo blog GoNintendo noticed this listing on Gamestop.com, which will undoubtedly be removed post-haste, that reveals a Wii enhanced version of Resident Evil 4 shipping June 25th for $29.99.

RE4 is one of my favorite games of all time and I always wanted to play through the PS2 version with it's Ada Wong missions and widescreen support. The widescreen support came at the price of the game not looking as good as the Gamecube original however and I never bothered with it.

If they're bothering to bring the game over to Wii, widescreen 480p support is likely with visuals at least as good as Gamecube, possibly slightly enhanced (although at $30 it probably is untouched), and of course the extra content from the PS2 edition and maybe a little extra(new costumes?). Sign me up!

If the game is more than just a listing on Gamestop.com expect it to be announced at Capcom's Gamers Day event in mid-April. A Capcom rep has already previously hinted there will be "some Wii surprises" at the show...

via GoNintendo

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Holy **** Batman, we're Legos!




















It was rumored late last year but is now confirmed: Lego Star Wars developer Traveler's Tales' next game will indeed be Lego Batman...

The Lego Star Wars games were surprisingly fun and playable so I'm onboard for something a little different. It'll probably lean more towards Adam West and Burt Ward Batman as opposed to say Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, but there's nothing wrong with that...


Source: Gamasutra via Game|Life

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

360 WILL Cry












Capcom has been one of the 360's biggest supporters with both Dead Rising and Lost Planet being major exclusives for the system. With future titles like Resident Evil 5 long confirmed for release on both 360 and PS3 it seemed more than possible that the publisher's Devil May Cry 4 would end up on the 360 as well.

Today Capcom made it official, not only confirming DMC4 will be making an appearance on the 360 but that it will do so simultaneously with the PS3 release, adding to the list of former PS3 exclusives that are now multiplatform.

So, any bets on what the next formerly PlayStation exclusive game/series will be making its way to 360? Metal Gear Solid 4? Final Fantasy XIII? Tekken 6?

Well, that was quick: it's Ace Combat 6!

via 1up

GAME INFORMER: Black 360 coming in April




















These Black 360 stories have been popping up for months and now the latest issue of Game Informer is insisting that it is rumor no more and the HDMI enabled, 120GB HDD equipped Box will hit in late April.

They list the price as $479.99 which is consistent with earlier reports of the SKU appearing in some retailers POS systems at that price, but something tells me it could be a placeholder price. Microsoft has yet to drop the price on the 360 and with a new system revision coming now is the perfect opportunity to do so without actually doing so.

If they did away with the HDD-less Core system, which was a mistake right from the beginning, and lowered the price of the Premium system to the Core's $299 price then the new system could take over as the Premium at $399. Extra features aside, raising the price of the system would be a dubious strategy. The new system is also apparently still Wi-Fi free, adding $100 to the cost if you need to buy Microsoft's absurdly priced Wi-Fi adapter.

Get with it MS, the DS Lite has built in Wi-Fi and doesn't cost much more than your adapter! Either package it with the system or lower the price to under $50.

GameInformer also reports that the 120GB HDD will be available separately for under $200, for those of you out there who are getting close to filling up your 13GB HDD's on your current 360.

via Kotaku

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Halo 3 targeted for September

If IGN's sources are to be believed we could all be "Finishing the Fight" much earlier than anticipated. Owing to a crowded holiday release schedule, Microsoft and Bungie are allegedly striving to get the biggest game of this generation out before the annual flood of holiday titles begins.

While no date has been given for Halo 3 outside of "Fall 2007", November seemed to be the likeliest release month as it has traditionally been the month of the Xbox: from the launch in 2001, to the release of Gears of War last year you can almost always expect a defining release in November.

A September release could be as much political as anything. Back in 2004, Halo 2 released only 2 weeks after Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a PS2 exclusive. This fall sees these two uber-franchises facing off again, only this time Grand Theft Auto IV is a fellow 360 title.

Halo 3 is obviously the 360's most anticipated exclusive title yet and will undoubtedly move a lot of systems off of store shelves whenever it's released. This would be a tremendous pre-emptive strike against the PlayStation 3, the biggest Fall title for which, exclusive or not, is...Grand Theft Auto IV. Releasing before GTA boosts the installed base and sets up GTA (and everything else) for even bigger sales than if Halo 3 came out afterwards.

It's a big statement to consumers: the two biggest titles of the year, one is on PS3 but BOTH are on 360. More importantly, it leaves the normally packed November time frame free for other major titles to release without having to get lost in the frenzy that will surround both titles.

Source: Halo 3 Slated for September -IGN 360

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

RUMOR: Condemned 2 coming this fall...















Xbox 360 launch title Condemned may be getting a sequel this fall if a product listing on UK based retailer play.com's website is to be believed.

Play.com even has an eleven word review of the game, calling it "A superb sequel of brilliantly brutal bloody hand to hand brawling..."

Uhhh....what? That sounds like something translated from English into Japanese and back again by V from V for Vendetta.

In any case, this pretty much must happen, because I wish it to be so. Condemned was arguably the 360's best launch title, displaying next-gen graphics and sound like no other title. It was very much a launch title though. You could tell there was a lot more Monolith wanted to do with the game. The forensic tools, for instance, seemed like something that could've been better integrated into the gameplay and the environments, while gorgeous, weren't particularly interactive...even if you could rip signs off of subway walls and beat crazed hobos with them.

Probably the most fun thing you could do in the game was whack one crazed hobo with something to piss them off, and then run away, often causing them to attack other crazed hobos.

Condemned 2 really should have a subplot where you get to play as a crazed hobo. That would be awesome. Hobo.

Source: 360s Condemned again? - Gamespot

Thursday, March 8, 2007

Shivering Isles gets bone-chilling price tag...


Oblivion fans are going to need a couple of 1600 MS point cards come March 27th as that is the newly announced release date for The Elder Scrolls IV's first and last expansion pack, which has the dubious honor of being the single most expensive download in the Live Marketplace: The price was revealed yesterday in a post on elderscrolls.com's forums, to be 2400 Microsoft Points, or roughly $30.

The price is in no way outrageous since Morrowind's two expansions, Bloodmoon and Tribunal, both debuted at $30 and Shivering Isles is also the most substantial update to ever appear on a console. However, I do think that since it is only available as a download for 360 owners the price should be slightly lower, say $25.

The idea of paying the same price for a download as you do for a retail game with a box, disc, manual etc., has never sat well with me. It really makes no sense at all. If there is no physical costs associated with the game, no shipping from a warehouse to a store, no margin for retail profit, then that savings should be passed on to the customer who is no longer receiving anything tangible. They could easily lower the price of the download and still make the same profit or more as they are on the $30 retail box.

This is something publishers are going to have to address if they expect digital delivery to take off as a viable alternative. If a games costs $60 in the store, why would you pay $60 for a download that you're not going to have a box or manual for?


Source: Oblivion gets Shivering Isles this month - Gamespot

Fable 2's interface is Bitchin'!

Or should I say Fable 2's interface IS a bitch, literally? One of the new features in the sequel has been revealed to be a dog sidekick who will have a more important role in the game then one might expect (or desire?). From the mouth of Fable master mind Peter Molyneux:

"...your dog will act as a sort of living HUD. The game has no map, no other user interface on screen. Instead you will have to rely on the dog and what he sees and does."

Ummm...is the main character in Fable supposed to be blind? It sounds like they've got a seeing eye dog.

"
You come upon two bad guys and pull our your gun (yes, the game has guns) and the dogs knows automatically attack the closer targets.”

OK, so now we have guns AND dogs, which of course begs the question: Will your dog laugh at you if you miss said bad guys and (this is the important part) will you be able to shoot your dog when he does?



Source: New Fable 2 Feature: Dog Sidekick! - GWN (via removed Kotaku post)











Well that didn't take long, only days after the rumor surfaced we have confirmation that TMNT will indeed be appearing on XBLA by the end of March in conjunction with the new Ubisoft multi-console game and the movie it's based on.

The best part? It's only 400 MS Points ($5) and will include online (and offline) co-op play for 2-4 players! The worst part about the otherwise surprisingly good NES port of the game was that it only supported 2 players at a time. Hopefully unlike Contra's XBLA co-op play, TMNT's will actually work.

In light of this news I think it's pretty reasonable to expect Turtles in Time to appear on XBLA around the time the DVD hits stores later this year...and we can still keep our fingers crossed for The Simpsons this summer. If TMNT sells well you can count on EA calling up Konami to offer their publishing services, if they haven't already.


Source: It's True: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on XBLA - 1up.com