No more guessing anymore because Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam has finally gotten a solid release date. No more vague Winter 2010 release, now we know that the release date will be on December 21st. PC users will luckily be able to eaccess this content a bit earlier on December 18th by downloading the DLC through the EA store.
But that isn’t all because DICE also announced that fans of the game will be getting a nice little present tomorrow on December 1st in the form of the VIP Map Pack 7. The map pack will be free to those with the VIP Pass and free on PC in general. The map pack will add four new maps to the game, though they are somewhat familiar. Harvest Day and Oasis are from Bad Company 1, and Cold War and Heavy Metal are both levels from Bad Company 2’s single player. There is even a trailer for these maps to get you nice and excited for the download tomorrow.
Feel like spending a little extra? Well we just saved a bunch of money on all of those Black Friday deals now how about spending an extra $10 to get the Augmented Edition of Square Enix’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution? The Augmented Edition announced today by Square Enix will come in at a price of $70 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and $60 for the PC. If you feel like purchasing this you will be getting a premium packaged box, a 40 page art book, a motion graphic novel, a making of the game DVD, and the soundtrack for the game all for that extra $10.
But that isn’t all, if you feel like pre-ordering the game you will be getting additional bonuses depending on whom you pre-order from. Gamestop pre-orders will give players the Explosive Mission Pack which gives them a Lineback G-87 multiple shot grenade launcher, a M-28 Utility Remote-Detonated Explosive Device, an automatic unlocking device, and a full new mission to play through with a cameo from the original Deus Ex game. You can see the pre-order weaponry in action below.
If you don’t feel like pre-ordering from GameStop or are unable to then you will still be getting a bonus to your game. Any other retail pre-orders will provide players the Tactical Enhancement Pack. This pack will give players the Huntsman Silverback Double-Barrel Shotgun, the Longsword Whisperhead Extreme Range Sniper Rifle, and extra credits to spend in game. Just like before you can also see the pre-order action below for this pack.
Talk about good but abrupt news huh? Capcom announced today that Dead Rising 2: Case West, which can be seen as an epilogue to Dead Rising 2, will be released next month in December. No actual set date in the month, but it’s going to be a good present either way! Also no news of a pricetag, but one can hope that it will retain the price tag of the Case Zero DLC of 400 MSP.
But if you are a bit wary on what they could have added then you don’t need to worry because we’ll not only seeing Frank West from the first Dead Rising teaming up with Chuck Greene, but we’ll see cameo appearances from other characters as well. Will be interesting to see who is still around and fighting against the zombie outbreaks.
Chuck Greene and Frank West will be infiltrating the Phenotrans Facility which is outside of Fortune City and players will be given cameras again. Yep photograph is back. Players will use their cameras not only for the standard picture taking that they grew accustomed to in the first game, but will use them to take pictures of evidence to prove that Phenotrans was involved in the zombie outbreaks. On top of that we are going to see new combo weapons, primarily the Reaper that you can see above and the Zap ‘n Shine.
Sounds awesome, but don’t take our word for it catch the gameplay trailer below to get your first look at Case West’s content.
Sony has a pretty big number to boast about because they have announced today that they have shipped 4.1 million units worldwide. With there being only two months since the Move controller was released this is great news for the motion gaming peripheral. The core Move controller was the product listed for the 4.1 shipping number.
This came at first with some confusion as a press release earlier from Sony stated that they had sold 4.1 million units that would have been a huge achievement, but later was retracted as the Japanese press release of the same information instead talked about units shipped. Joystiq was able to get a hold of a Sony representative about this inconsistency and was told that the number actually meant shipped.
While the difference in meaning between the two announcements is large, it does still show the success of the Move. Because after all… why would they be having to ship so many units to stores if there wasn’t a high demand in the first place?
WRC FIA World Rally Championship Publisher: Black Bean Games Developer: Milestone Platform: Xbox 360, (PS3, PC) Genres: Racing, Simulation Released: 8th October
In recent years there has been a decline in the rally-sim, usually ousted in favour of something a little more arcade-like and a little less simulator-like. Even the Colin McRae franchise, which was once a very ‘core experience with an emphasis on precision driving and steady navigation of each course, has been turned into a more arcade-style driving experience recently through the DiRT series. Thankfully, spotting the gap in the market, developers Milestone with the help of publishers Black Bean have put their offer on the table in the form of WRC FIA World Rally Championship, the official licensed rally game of 2010.
As the license holders of everything rally-related, they’ve been able to bring World Rally Championship back to our consoles, and the license really does work wonders for the game; the same calendar and tour of the real-life sport; official cars with sponsors emblazoned on each and every free space; all four official categories of the sport (WRC, JWRC, PWRC, SWRC); and real rally driver names racing on real-world tracks. These all add up to give the game an authentic feel, further backed up by other realistic features which aren’t linked to the license. Such as 32 types of car damages, a variety of weather conditions out on the track over a wealth of different course surfaces, and just generally a huge choice of different game modes to play.
Then there is the gameplay, which is just phenomenal. The handling is great, the courses are well designed and most important of all, it is challenging but to a point where it is still enjoyable. Instead of putting you off playing with unwelcome levels of frustration, it challenges you in order to stimulate your enjoyment of the game, causing you to aspire to improve rather than abandon it as a lost cause. You are more inclined to practice and perfect one corner you are struggling with, rather than give up. However, this is partly down to the superb handling. It’s realistic and reflects the surface you are racing on, staying true to the sport. If you are racing on tarmac then the tyres grip to the track, offering responsive and sharp turning, but if you’re racing through a forest in wet conditions or on dusty track in the desert (more common occurrences given the title’s off-road nature), you will quickly find that power sliding becomes key, but if you aren’t careful, you can easily lose control and spin out of control. The handling, when combined with the responsive controls, makes for brilliant rally experience with the realism putting it under the ‘simulation’ category and, in turn, setting WRC aside from the competitors on the market.
Don’t get me wrong though, just because it is classed as a rally simulation doesn’t mean it is boring, nor does it mean it is inaccessible. In actual fact it is an exhilarating game to play, working out how to manoeuvre through corners at speed, and demanding quick response times as you react the instructions of you’re co-driver. That’s right, one of the defining features of rally games are the co-drivers, and WRC is no different, with helpful audio notes guiding you through all sections of the courses. Occasionally it is a little behind the actual race action, with your pal in the opposite seat saying something like “handbrake turn, rocks-don’t cut” just as you are ploughing into said wall of rocks, but in general it is very good, in-time with the course, with concise instructions which manage to portray exactly what lays ahead.
Although it does have a steep learning curve, it also isn’t as inaccessible as you might think. This is mainly down to the thoughtful inclusion of the mode known as ’WRC Academy’, which is basically just a short school of rally driving. It provides 16 different challenges over two different categories, basic and advanced, ensuring to cover all aspects of the racing so when you race for real you will be able to cover the course at speed and reduce errors, shaving off precious seconds from your final race-time.
Once you graduate (the WRC Academy is optional, but highly recommended if only to get a feel for the gameplay), you can then embark on your journey into the unbelievably in-depth ‘Road to the WRC’ (Career) mode, a unique feature of WRC, on top of traditional time attack and single rally races you would expect to see in other games. Road to the WRC, given the fact that Black Bean landed ownership of the lucrative World Rally Championship license, has the official scoop on the rally racing sport. It follows the official WRC calendar as you see out the season, driving in a range of locations around the world. These settings are hardly what you’d call exotic, due to the fact the sport seeks out the most challenging off-road tracks they can find, so expect to be racing everywhere, from Wales to New Zealand to Spain over plenty of different types of race course. The mode gives a huge amount of play time, with your rally career starting as a Junior until you progress enough to enter the big league of the WRC by earning the elusive contracts with official teams. In-between races there are a whole host of other detailed settings to indulge in. From the customisation options to just repairing the vehicle if it got a bit beaten up in a race, they all add to the authenticity of the career and provide a decent level of depth.
There are also multiplayer options included in the game, both Xbox Live and Local for those who want to put the pedal to the metal and human opponents. The Xbox Live settings are nicely done, with simple interfaces to operate in the lobbies, and from then on it’s a standard race. As WRC is one of the more serious rally games, ghosts are used of your rivals, rather than the physical body work of the car. As a result of this, there is no ramming and shunting during the course of the race. While the more serious rally gamers will appreciate this choice made by the developers, it alienates the more casual gamer, as it loses the excitement that comes with the physicality of barging your way into pole position. This revelation particularly negatively affected the local multiplayer options. You play in what is know as ‘Hot Seat Mode’ which in other words, is turn-based play. This is disappointing as it loses all the thrill of racing simultaneously, and in all honesty, it can’t have been that hard to implement split-screen play, unless of course it only missed out because it would have ruined the frame-rate.
All in all, WRC FIA World Rally Championship is a fantastic game which utilises it’s ownership of the official license to the fullest extent. It is an example of a great ’core rally racing game, a style which hasn’t been seen since the last ‘real’ Colin McRae game. It can be a little forgiving at times, which more serious players might not appreciate, but it still keeps it in the running as a game for more casual players too, and there’s a great amount of difficulty available, with a slider to precisely control the level of the AI. As a single-player game, it promises a lot of game time through the Career alone: it’s lengthy and detailed. Multiplayer isn’t bad and while it loses some casual appeal due to the ghost opponents and therefore no collisions, it still has a nice level of competition. The same cannot be said for the local multiplayer, which loses it’s thrill due to the turned-based style of play in place of simultaneous racing, rendering it unenaging. However, this is the only substantial negative factor in the game, and anyone looking for a rally game should look no further, as this is the best rally game released for years.
Finally, we have a release date! Epic Games’s first game for the iOS devices, named “Infinity Blade”, will hit the App Store as a universal app in just 9 days! That is 9th of December for ya. The best thing is, the game is priced at only $5.99 on the US iTunes Store, a very unexpected low price as its console-quality graphical presentation and game-play is certainly a WOW factor here. Sadly, the game can only be play on the newer devices (specifically, the iPad, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3rd and 4th generation), as the Unreal Engine 3 that powers the game is not supported by the older devices.
“Infinity Blade” is developed by Epic Games’s critically acclaimed studio, chAIR Entertainment, also the creator of Xbox LIVE Arcade game of the year “Undertow” and “Shadow Complex”. Epic Games is also the maker of Gears or War on the PC and the Xbox 360. This game would be their first attempt to bring Unreal Engine 3 on the Apple devices. As said by Epic Games President Dr. Michael Capps, “This is a testament to the sheer power of iOS devices as up until now, Unreal Engine 3 has typically been used to create high-end gaming experiences on game consoles and computers.”
I am really looking forward to play this on my iPhone 4. I know you are too! While we wait, check out the stunning debut trailer below!
(You can follow them on twitter (@InfinityBlade) or on Facebook (Infinity Blade) for any latest news about the game.)
December is near, which means Christmas is coming! The very nice peoples at Gameloft have decided to gives you some early Christmas presents during this month of celebration! Starting from December 1 (that’s tomorrow!), they will offer ONE surprise gift each day until Christmas day for their fans. This comes to a total of 24 presents for ya’all!
Here comes the best part, you can get stuff varies from a free game (for Apple portable devices, Android devices, or Facebook), some exclusive sneek peeks, crazy game discounts, cool goodies for their upcoming Christmas games, and special free in-game content. All you have to do is to follow them on twitter (@Gameloft) and wait for the special tweets! Don’t miss out this special giveaway!
Q&A (courtesy of Gameloft):
1.How can I participate? What do I have to do?
This is not a contest! There are no questions to answer and no lotteries to enter. You can grab a present once you see the Advent Calendar tweet of the day and time hasn’t run out yet. Just click on the link in the tweet to access your present.
2.Is there a limited supply of free presents you’re giving out?
No, there will be no limit to how many people can download or access the daily present. Just be quick!
3.Is Twitter the only way to hear about the daily gift? Is there anywhere else I can find out about the gift of the day?
We’ll only let you know what each daily gift is and how to access it on Twitter, because it allows for instant communication with our fans and because the availability of each present is limited. You may find news about it elsewhere on the web, but we can’t guarantee the gift will still be available when you see it.
4.How long will each gift be available?
All gifts will expire after 24 hours, so be quick!
5.I don’t have a Twitter account. What should I do?
We suggest you create one. It takes only a few seconds athttp://twitter.com/! Once you’re done and connected, go to http://twitter.com/gameloftand click on “Follow”. You’ll then receive all our tweets on the home page of your Twitter account. You can also download one of the many Twitter clients for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android. Plenty of them are free and they allow you to receive tweets directly on your device.
Game Name: MotionSports – Play for Real
Platform(s): Xbox 360 – Kinect Required
Publisher(s): UBISOFT
Developer(s): UBISOFT
Genre(s): Sports
Release Date: November 10, 2010 (US) November 4, 2010 (EU)
Price: $89.99 AU
The Kinect has definitely turned some heads in the gaming community, and with its introduction to the world – a whole new demographic of gamers have emerged eager to try out and see what this motion, controller-less peripheral has to offer. With only a handful of launch titles, (all of which are quite basic) showcasing what the Kinect is capable of doing, newcomers can familiarise themselves with how to move, jump, kick, punch roll over, sit, play dead and whole lot of other fun and whacky things that they’d never thought of doing whist playing a video game! If you thought video games were bad for you , you won’t anymore.
UBISOFT’s MotionSports introduces you to six sports – some we’ve played to death on other consoles and some which I personally would never have imagined playing whilst standing in front of the tv. Each of the sporting challenges (I’d like to call them mini-games) don’t take very long to complete but do gradually get more challenging and a little frustrating at times – due to the unresponsive nature of your movements being captured onto the screen.
With Kinect titles you are the controller, so everything you do in front of the camera is relayed back into the game as quickly and as accurately as possible. I know that at times you wish the game would respond a little quicker to your movements such as ducking, jumping or punching , but something we all have to understand and appreciate is that even though the technology is amazing and truly revolutionary, it’s not perfect. Take for example stepping into the ring in for MotionSports Boxing – swinging at 100miles an hour will result in you simply wearing yourself out physically and you will probably only end up hitting your virtual opponent about 2-3 times if that. If you took a more conservative approach on the other hand, keeping your guard up and counter punching with jabs, a few wild left hooks and uppercuts – you will most likely achieve a far better result. It’s not how you’d expect to play a boxing game but due to the not so great motion tracking, you have to meet half way and improvise to get the results and the KO you need to unlock harder challengers, obtain high scores and medals and also build up your “fame”. “Fame” is and works similar to the Wii Sports professional ranking / grade system. The ranking (shown to you in a graph form) raises or falls according to how well you perform at the end of each challenge. In MotionSports, you start off as a local hero and by performing well, you can rise to a national star and then to an international/professional superstar.
The five other sporting challenges in MotionSports are : Soccer, Skiing, Hang Gliding, American Football and Horse Riding (similar to equestrian events you see in the Olympics). American football was a little disappointing – initially I thought I’d be playing a real game of football but this wasn’t the case. All you’re actually doing is running towards the goal line, ducking or jumping over tacklers with a pass or two thrown in. In the first basic challenge you run through a fairly simple looking obstacle course where you have to duck and jump over hurdles which in turn will represent opponents coming at you in the harder challengers. This sounds very simple, but it wasn’t – the game failed to register ducking under hurdles even though I was actually crouching as low as I could go without dropping to the floor, the jumping part worked fairly well most of the time, but the ducking had me frustrated as to why it was not registering my movements.
The Hang Gliding and the Horseback riding challenges we quite interesting and fun. I’ve never really seen either before in other games and I surprisingly handled both quite well, especially the hang gliding where you have to glide through the air using only your arm motions to lower (gain speed) and raise (gain altitude). You tilt your hands to move the glider left and right through gusts of air to reach a landing zone that looks like a giant dart board where you must land as close to the centre as possible to obtain the best result / score. Riding the horse was also very fun – a little challenging at first but once I got the hang of the controls for steering the horse and the motion for performing the jumps – it all felt very fluid and I was picking up some great diamond medals and unlocking the rest of the challenges in no time.
Just a note on the challenges – not all of them are available to you at the beginning of the game. You only get the basic challenge for all the six sports. There aren’t really any details on how to actually unlock them apart from just performing well in the previous challenges that you have unlocked. If you score well you earn gold or diamond medals and you may unlock the next challenge within that sport. This may not always happen but I could only assume this is the case as there are no actual guidelines explaining this.
Multiplayer mode is only available to you via split screen, there isn’t any online play so you won’t be able to punch some random on xbox live player in the head if you are boxing, which is quite disappointing – but you can do it split screen (which is better than nothing). Some games allow up to four players to participate and play challenges one after the other. This was cool but I found that Motionsports was constantly having problems working out which player/guest was on the screen. I also had to login and re-select my player profile (xbox profile) on several occasions when playing with other people.
As a launch title, UBISOFT’s MotionSports has provided us with a fair effort. It’s a little rough around the edges with its control system not registering specific movements on certain games. A lack of online multiplayer oprtions does kill the fun a little as you’re forced to play offline with friends or family that come to visit. Some of the sporting events are great fun and the ranking system ability and achievements will keep you busy for quite some time – especially if you want to become an international superstar.
Gameloft is set to venture into the RPG scene by introducing its first Japanese RPG title for the Apple portable devices several days ago. The name is Eternal Legacy, and it will be available soon on the App Store for the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad. As of now, we don’t have the release date yet, but we do have a teaser trailer for you to watch. The graphics looks stunning in the video in my opinion, as expected from Gameloft (remember Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus? They are THAT good :P). Do look forward to it; we will update any news about the game as soon as we get it. Stay tuned! (Astrian looks hot though, I love him already :D)
Two of the UK’s rising rappers, who have experienced a surge of popularity after emerging into the mainstream this year, have recently put definitive hip-hop game Def Jam Rapstar to the test in special play sessions in a secret location.
These road test videos are available to view now, and though both artists songs feature on the game so they may not be the most honest source in the world, they have both come out with positivity towards the title. There is also short interviews in the video with the rapstars, where they talk of how they think it will fare when it is released to the public.
They’re both interesting watches, getting a bit of time with the stars as well as another look at the game in action.
