Yes that is what you think it is. No I won’t type it out for you so you can read it. But it is indeed that. But moving on Game Informer has acquired an exclusive and non-embeddable trailer for Saints Row: The Third and has it up on their website you can find here. The interesting fact about the trailer is it shows actual gameplay footage and is nearly a minute long so you better be in the mood for plenty of information.
Well… at least a little bit of information anyways. When the company names and warnings take up most of the time it is always a bit of a let down but in this case it is more of an early April Fool’s joke.
You know a company is standing behind its product when even the retailer specific DLC starts to get their own trailers. This comes as Rockstar Games has released a new trailer for L.A. Noire, this time focusing entirely on the “A Slip of the Tongue” DLC that people will be getting if they happen to buy the game from Walmart when it arrives on May 17th in the U.S. or through other retailers worldwide on May 20th.
The DLC appears to focus around a car theft ring and Cole Phelps being place don the case in an effort to try to crack the case through interrogation and plenty of gun fights. You can catch the full trailer below.
Now we usually don’t report about sales statistics of various game systems from different countries around the world. If we did that would be all that you actually would read on the site probably. Regardless, though the Nintendo 3DS has just been released worldwide and made major sales, Japan has had the hand held for over a month now. The interesting thing about this is that, while the 3DS is currently in the lead for sales in the 3DS the PSP is actually only a few hundred sales behind it this week.
The calculated week ended on March 27th and the Nintendo 3DS pushed out 50,710 sales in that week while the PSP managed to sell 50,479 as reported by Gameindustry. Now the boost in sales for a handheld that has been out for many years can be credited to the fact that Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection was just released in Japan but it is still interesting to see an older handheld nearly topple a brand new device. Obviously the disasters in Japan have effected everything and the price of a PSP is cheaper than a 3DS but perhaps Nintendo needs to reevaluate their marketing/development.
It certainly is hard to get gamers to welcome in a new property and give it a chance, but it appears that it is certainly harder to even make sure that property comes out. Also it doesn’t help that Sony Online Entertainment has issued an official statement regarding their workforce. The company will be closing three of its studios, Denver, Seattle and Tucson will close and 205 people will lose their jobs in these closures.
Also announced alongside the company layoffs is the cancellation of the long delayed The Agency. It has been quite a while since we have even heard of The Agency, which would have been a cross platform MMO revolving around spy work and espionage. The studio that was developing The Agency was SOE Seattle, and apparently the company will be focusing more on PlanetSide and EverQuest instead.
Below you can read the full statement from SOE:
“As part of a strategic decision to reduce costs and streamline its global workforce, SOE announced today that it will eliminate 205 positions and close its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios. As part of this restructuring, SOE is discontinuing production of The Agency so it can focus development resources on delivering two new MMOs based on its renowned PlanetSide and EverQuest properties, while also maintaining its current portfolio of online games. All possible steps are being taken to ensure team members affected by the transition are treated with appropriate concern.
“This strategic decision will have no impact on SOE’s current portfolio of live games; additionally SOE will transition development efforts for the Denver and Tucson studios’ suite of products to its San Diego headquarters. This strategic alignment of development resources better positions SOE to remain a global leader in online gaming and deliver on its promise of creating entertaining games for players of all ages, and servicing the 20 million players that visited SOE servers in just the past year.”
RIFT players are being given codes to pass on to friends in the hope of introducing more players to the MMO. Newcomers who recieve this code can then play the game for free this weekend during the ‘Allies of the Ascended’ special event.
They’re called ‘Ally Codes’ and will only grant access from April 1 through April 4. After this period, new players will need to purchase it along with a monthly subscription fee in order to carry on playing.
To use an Ally Code (if you have a friend who can give you one) just follow these instructions:
Log in to your Trion Worlds account, or create a new account if you do not already have one.
If you are not automatically redirected, click the “Apply Code” menu item.
Enter the Ally Code you received from your Ascended ally.
Download the RIFT patcher by clicking the “Download Client” button in the “Manage Account” section of your Trion Worlds account, or click here.
Install the RIFT patcher, update the game, and you’re ready to play!
Event schedule: 10am PDT April 1, 2011 through 10am PDT April 4, 2011.
The codes will grant new players a digital download of RIFT, enabling access to certain features of this game during the Allies of the Ascended special event. You will need to create a Trion Worlds account if you don’t already have one to participate in this event.
Sega has said that PS3 owners will be receiving a few exclusive goodies in Virtua Tennis 4.
PS3 owners who buy the game will gain access to three exclusive ‘Legend’ players in the form of Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Pat Rafter. On top of these exclusive characters, the PS3 players will also get two exclusive party games called Pin Crusher and Net Blitz. The latter, Net Blitz will make use of the PlayStation Move controller, the trailer of which can be seen below.
Sega also has plans to release a PlayStation Home mini-game around the time of and relating to the French Open. It has described the game as having a “Space Invaders feel to it”. It will be available from May 22.
It looks like those wacky Rabbids are back again, with a trailer for their latest appearance, a 3DS game called Rabbids 3D surfacing.
This game sees the Rabbids travel through time, invading locations in the past from the likes of the Middle Ages and Ancient Egypt. On their journey, they will also collect bits and bobs as they navigate their way through the enviroments. It’s a 2D side-scrolling platformer, which seems and odd choice for the 3DS. As only the 3DS screen can display the 3D images, unfortunately we can’t see exactly how the 3D is put to use in the trailer, but it will be interesting to see how the 3D has been factored in by Ubisoft when the game releases on the 1st April (no joke).
BSkyB and Microsoft/Rare have signed a product placement deal for the Xbox 360 Kinect game, Kinect Sports, to appear in the pre-title sequence of sports panel show A League of Their Own on television channel Sky 1 and Sky 1 HD.
Kinect Sports was already sponsoring the show, but now the product placement deal will mean a short sequence before the programme starts, showing members of the panel and audience members playing Kinect Sports. The Kinect Sports product placement will feature from this Friday 1st April, becoming the first product placement deal to air on Sky.
Jason Hughes, Head of Branded Content at BSkyB, commented, “We’re delighted to be able to build on our broadcast sponsor partnership with Kinect for Xbox 360 and Kinect Sports in this way, especially as it is the first product placement deal we’ve agreed to make it on air. Both Kinect Sports and A League of Their Own are all about people having fun with sport, and we look forward to working with Xbox to innovate and develop our relationship further over time.”
Does anyone else from the UK watch the show? Although there are way too many quiz shows being televised nowadays, this is probably one of the funnier ones with the casual sports theme
Activison and Marvel have teamed up once again to create a new Spider-Man game titled ‘Spider-man: Edge of Time’. The game will be developed by the Activision-owned studio Beenox, who last brought us ‘Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions’ last year. “The first Spider-Man entry by Beenox, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, was touted as one of the wall-crawler’s best Spider-Man games to date from both critics and fans,” said Vicharin Vadakan, Director, Global Brand Management. “Beenox is once again taking a fresh and different approach to bring a fast-paced and high-octane adventure and unexpected story to life in Spider-Man: Edge of Time.”
A follow up game of sorts, ‘Edge of Time’ will once again delve into the Marvel Comics Multiverse, putting players in the roles of both classic Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099 to correct a timestream that has gone awry, in order to prevent a catastrophic future brought on by the early, untimely death of Peter Parker. The game’s story is in good hands with acclaimed Marvel veteran Peter David (co-creator of the comic book series Spider-Man 2099) on board creating a rich narrative for the action to take place. Gameplay wise, players can expect an action-packed adventure with new “cause-and-effect” gameplay, where players will be able to see how their in-game actions will affect the timeline of the other Spider-Man.
Spider-Man: Edge of Timeis set to release later this year in fall. If you’re lucky enough to be attending WonderCon 2011 in San Francisco, California, you’ll be able to get a sneak peek of the game at the Activision/Spider-Man panel on Saturday, April 2, at 4:30 pm in Room 103.
For more information on Spider-Man: Edge of Time vist HeroHQ page on Facebook
It has been a long time since we have heard anything from BloodRayne, which first seen life on the Gamecube over nine years ago. The series since has spawned a sequel and a fan following that have been thirsty for another title for years, and now the wait is soon to be over as today Majesco revealed the newest installment in the series, “Bloodrayne Betrayal”, which will be headed to the XBLA & PSN this summer.
Nothing much is known at the moment except for the fact that Wayforward seem to be behind this new installment and it will be a hack ‘n slash adventure, which is sounds fantastic to me. For those who have never heard of Wayforward, they have been behind what in my opinion is one of the greatest platform series of all time, Shantae & Shantae: Risky’s Revenge. This combination of a new BloodRayne and seeing the Wayforward logo is seriously the highlight of my week for sure, so you can bet we will stay on top of this title as more news and updates eventually trickle out. For now though, you can drool over the 18 second long trailer that Majesco have left to tease us terribly below.
