Archive for August 3rd, 2007
Sales Charts: European Sales Charts 23-29 July
Many people are under the impression that the lovely Dr. Angela Merkel is the leader of Germany. WRONG. Nintendo own Germany. Nintendo dominate last week’s German charts, with 9 of the top 10 spots taken by DS and Wii games. Even Eidos’ Pony Friends makes the grade. Pony Friends! Amazing. And it’s a similar story in Spain, just without the Pony Friends. Click through for both charts.
GERMANY
1) Pokemon DIamond
2) Pokemon Pearl
3) More Brain Training
4) Brain Training
5) Pony Friends
6) Civ IV: Beyond The Sword
7) The Settlers
Mario Party 8
9) Harry Potter & OMG does he die at the end?
10) Animal Crossing
SPAIN
1) Pokemon Diamond
2) Pokemon Pearl
3) More Brain Training
4) Big Brain Academy
5) Pro Evo 6 (PS2)
6) Brain Training
7) Wii Play
Pro Evo 6 (PSP)
9) SingStar Pophits Bundle
10) Fifa 07
[charts courtesy of GfK]
Rock Band Almost Done: Harmonix “Dying” to Release it
Everyone is excited about Harmonix’s Rock Band. Hell, even Harmonix! And with good reason: The developer snagged three Game Critics Awards: Best of Show, Best Hardware/Peripheral and Best Social/Casual/Puzzle. The game has definite buzz. But when the heck will it be out? Alex Rigopulos, CEO and co-founder of Harmonix, says:
All of the major systems are complete. As is normally the case in beta, there’s plenty of bug-fixing to be done, finishing off of various details, and lots of play-testing, polishing and tuning. We’re dying to cross the finish line and get this thing out into the world!
Hurry, hurry, hurry
Alex Interview [Level Up!]
Changed Our Mind: Ziff Davis No Longer Courting 1UP, Mag Buyers
You know the Ziff Davis Group? They own 1UP, EGM and Games for Windows Magazine. If so, you probably also know Ziff have been trying to offload their gaming group for a while now. With no success. Nobody wants it! At least, not under their conditions: Ziff will only sell the group as a whole, print AND online, but buyers only want the online stuff. Well, Ziff now have a new CEO, Jason Young, who’s decided to scale back that particular operation:
…while the sale process has been a very sharp focus over last 12 months, now that becomes less of a focus. The clearer focus is now on operating the business ourselves.
Quite the about-face, that. Time to roll up those sleeves, Ziff.
Young Appointed Ziff Davis CEO, Game Group Sale ‘Less Of A Focus’ [Gamasutra]
Blizzcon07: Details On The StarCraft II Single Player Campaign
During the StarCraft II Live Demo at BlizzCon 07 today, Blizzard employees Rob Pardo and Dustin Browder walked attendees through the game in a semi-live demo with Browder revealing new unit features and Pardo spending a good portion of his time detailing the game’s single-player campaign. Pardo first walked us through the evolution of the single-player storytelling method from the original Warcraft through the original StarCraft through to Warcraft III, finally showing off portions of these elements in StarCraft II.
Using the in-game engine, a cinematic rolled, panning across a yellow planet, through a window and into the bridge of the Battlecruiser Hyperion. On the bridge were Terran Vulture pilot Jim Raynor, star of the original StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War campaigns, his second in command Matt Warner and marine Tychus Findlay, featured in the StarCraft II cinematic teaser.
The fully 3D bridge has a number of interactive areas on screen, allowing you to speak to other bridge and crew members, check out display panels for further information, or view the Star Map. More on that later.
Raynor, in command of the Hyperion, interacted with the ship’s crew, rubbing shoulders with a surly engineer, revealing one of the game’s subplots. It seems the crew hasn’t been paid in months, an issue Raynor says will be resolved once he’s collected the bounty on the Protoss artifact he recently recovered (presumably in the mission prior). Part of the campaign in StarCraft II will be focused on Raynor’s efforts to make money but taking jobs like this one, missions that ultimately tie into a larger plot.
As you earn money, those funds will be put into purchasing technology—upgrades for units and units themselves. Pardo purchased (read: unlocked) the Viking ship for his next mission. This has been done to give players control over the tech progression of the game, instead of following a locked down set of upgrades.
Hiking back up to the bridge, Raynor checks out the Star Map. This is where you’ll choose your missions. They’re much more open ended than in the previous StarCraft campaigns. You’ll be able to pick the planet or system you want to tackle next, progressing the story in your own way. Mission briefings provide the summary, objectives, bonus objectives, mission bounty, and recommended technology, so you’ll have to choose which best suits your current needs and matches your current level of tech.
Following a trip to Sar Mara, in which Pardo cheated, adding extra Thor mechs and Battlecruisers to his compliment to secure the next artifact, it was back to the Hyperion. And since Jim Raynor’s had a rough go of it lately, he heads down to the ships canteen, only to run into an old friend, Zeratul, who warns of something rather dire.
The real-time cinema showed the engine’s impressive graphical tricks, with real time shadows, bump mapping and realistic lighting painting a believable ship corridor.
The single-player presentation ended there, promising a glimpse at the future of the storyline, including a return from the Queen of Blades, Kerrigan and hinting at unraveling the mystery of the Xel’Naga.
The free form, open ended progressive storyline planned for StarCraft II looks like it could be a refreshing change of pace for fans of the Blizzard RTS formula.
Sponsors: Sponsors Thanks
Home. Our time away made us nothing but homesick. It’s good to be back in Kotaku Tower. Even better to have Sponsors waiting for us with our opens and cookies. For that, we thank them. This week, Kotaku was welcomed by Flash Gordon, Porsche, TiVo, Verizon, WAR from Lionsgate and Zune. The cookies are delicious.
Interested in advertising with Kotaku? Click here to find out how.
They Hunger: Left 4 Dead Flees 2007 For 2008
Think we’re all on the same page as far as Left 4 Dead goes. It looks wonderful. Like it’s going to fulfil any of your zombie apocalypse fantasies left unfufilled by Frank West’s daring exploits. Well, don’t get too excited. Valve reckons Turtle Rock’s game won’t be done until 2008. Good news is they reckon early 2008, bad news is that’s still next year. Still. Valve are involved. You had to expect this.
Left 4 Dead slips to 2008 [Eurogamer]
Quakecon07: Announcement Round-Up
Wow, that was a packed keynote!
During today’s QuakeCon keynote John Carmack unveiled a flurry of announcements including id Software’s newest franchise, Rage, and confirmation of a Return to Castle Wolfenstein movie. They also told the crowd that the new Wolfenstein game is being developed by Raven Software for the PC, 360 and PS3. The mutiplayer portion of the game is being worked on by Threewave Software.
Here’s the breakdown:
id Software’s New Game Unveiled
Quake Zero Announced
Quake Arena Headed to XBLA
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Dated
id Forges Deal with Valve
Hollenshead Talks Wolfenstein Movie
Orcs & Elves II Hits Mobile this Holiday
Click And Type: Unreal Tournament III to Have Mouse/Keyboard Support
Some gamers shudder at the idea of playing shooters with a controller. Some don’t care. But for those who do, good news! Epic knows this, and Epic cares. Unreal Tournament III for the PS3 will support keyboard/mouse gaming action. Over at Epic Game Forums, company honcho Mark Rein dishes:
Folks,
I checked with Steve Polge and he said that YES we are supporting keyboard and mouse in Unreal Tournament 3 on PS3. He is confident we are doing it in a way that will be balanced without feeling “gimped” for either side. We’ll also allow people to choose whether or not they want to allow mixed controller vs. keyboard/mouse games or not.
I think you guys are going to love UT3!More details to come later.
Debate time! Controller vs. keyboard/mouse: Which will you be using to play UT3 on the PS3 and why?
Unreal Tournament III to use mouse/keyboard [UT Forums]
You Can’t Stop Progress: Newfangled Wii Straps In The Wild?
NintendoWorldReport are reporting (this is yet to be confirmed) that the Wii Remote’s wrist strap is now onto its fourth version. And this one’s all-new. Instead of the little sliding clip, it now appears the straps have a cute little lockable clip with cute little lockable jaws. Yeah, it’s overkill, but let’s also call it progress.
New Wii Wrist Straps Circulating [NintendoWorldReport, via Go Nintendo]
PS3: Warhawk Gets Date and Price
Everyone’s favorite game developer Dylan Jobe just hopped onto the official Playstation Blog to announce both the date and the price(s) for the Warhawk. The game will go on sale in stores and on PSN on Aug. 28. The game will sell for $39.99 online and $59.99 in a store. The boxed version will come with some extra video content a manual and a Jabra Bluetooth headset.
Jobe points out that the game, while multiplayer only, is quite robust and says he feels it can easily deliver more than 70 hours of enjoyment. Most beta testers logged more than 30 hours and many more than 70.
Finally Jobe announced that the top 100 player in the beta are going to be receiving a fancy, very limited edition metal Warhawk Wings pin.
Warhawk Goes Gold [Playstation Blog, thanks Freneil]
Game Club: Mr Robot Assignment Two
Oooops, I almost forgot to post this. I’ve been so busy with Kahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhn! That I nearly forgot we need to know what to play to in Mr. Robot for our meeting next Thursday. This one should be fairly easy. Just play until you get through the Cryo level and return to the holo deck. I’d like to think it won’t take 11 hours this time around, but I don’t dare say that. See you then.
The Mr Robot Discussion Part 1
Day Note: BrianCon
To: Ash and Flynn
From: Crecente
Re: Bashcraft on Japanese TV, Hates It
TV you say? I think you did fine on the GameHead stuff and I never noticed the reek of vomit in the room after you were done so I’m going to assume you never spewed either. You’ve got to make sure and send me the vid when it hits tv.
Man today was busy. We had three conventions to babysit, both remotely and up close and personally. McWhertor headed out to BlizzCon to cover all things WoW and Starcraft II (and unfortunately no things Diablo-ish) and I sat at my computer doing phone interviews, emailing and basically doing what I could to try and keep a handle on the news and info pouring out of QuakeCon and Fan Faire. Someone needs to talk to these companies about spacing some of this stuff out.
What you missed:
BlizzCon
QuakeCon
Fan Faire
Ready at Dawn Snags Naught Dog creative type
The Optimus Prime case mod
Len Wiseman may direct Gears Flick
Totilo, so brainy….braiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny
Stranglehold was pricey
Heavenly Sword dated, but sadly, not by me.
Oh, I forgot to mention last night, but the first Game Club meeting went swimmingly. I really quite enjoyed myself. Flynn, make sure to keep an eye on the various cons as they run through the weekend. I’m outtie…mostly.
Xbox: XBox Fall Update Bricking Lawsuit Settled
It has just come to our attention that Microsoft and Kevin Ray have settled their lawsuit out of court, kissed and made nice. If you don’t remember, Ray proposed some class action finger pointing after the Fall 2006 update bricked his 360. The thing is, Kevin was actually able to get a warranty repair on his Xbox 360 after Microsoft moved the then 90-day warranty to 1-year, in December. (Of course, that was a long time ago, and we all know that the Xbox warranty stands at 3-years right now.) The kicker: since they settled out of court on an individual basis, and since Microsoft’s already addressed the warranty issue, none of us are getting any scratch out of the deal.[Seattle PI]
Date Of Release: Heavenly Sword: September 12
Sony have announced that Heavenly Sword is going to be released in North America on September 12. For the numerically challenged, that’s in five weeks. Pretty exciting! This is the first PS3 game I’ve actually looked at, looked into, and thought “yes, yes, I may actually part with money for this”, so here’s hoping it lives up to the hype. Or at least gives the hype a run for its money.
Heavenly Sword Date Set [IGN]
Clips: Rage
Here it is, your first look at id’s Rage using their new id Tech 5 engine.
Fanfaire07: The Smed Talks to Fan Faire
John Smedley is at Fan Faire talking to the masses about the past, present and future of all things Sony Online Entertainment. I’ll be remote liveblogging it for those of you too lazy to watch it yourself.
Hit the jump to follow along.
The Denver SOE guys are talking up Legends of Norrath right now. Check out our feature on the in-game online trading card game that is free to Everquest players.
OK, now they’re showing two SOE Denver guys playing the game. Keep in mind this will be a free game to Everquest and Everquest II gamers. Cards for the game will show up as loot drops as you play. Loot drops in the card game will also occasionally give you the occasional Everquest items. I think this is a really cool idea.
Looks like they’re having some technical issues with the game. Wait a second isn’t it supposed to launch today? Ah, actually they will be beta testing starting tomorrow with a soft launch next week, allowing attendees to play the new game online. The best part? All beta cards and dropped loot earned in the beta can be kept.
Annnnnd the video stream just crapped out.. or maybe it’s over. Man, that was short.
Feature: Everquest’s Online Trading Card Game Unveiled
I had a chance, last month, to meet with Sony Online Entertanment’s Denver studio and check out their now-announced online trading card game: Legends of Norath: Oathbound.
The Legends of Norrath game is based on the worlds of Everquest and Everquest II and, in an interesting twist, will be playing inside both of the massively multiplayer online games at in-world taverns and such.
Oathbound, the first set in the Legends of Noorath game, has more than 350 virtual cards in it and comes in both 60-card starter decks and 15-card booster packs. The Oathbound set was designed to tell the story of the servants of the Tribunal that rules the Plane of Justice. These masked and hooded servants swear an oath to Justice and must help preserve the balance between Order and Chaos.
The SOE Denver team did several things to try and distill the essence of Everquest into a viable online trading card game. Chiefly they went with the Everquest II model of using archetypes rather than classes. The first set has four.
In the game you control an Avatar which can summon up creatures, use items and cast spells. Another of the game’s unique twists is that as you play your avatar gains experience. As you gain experience the actual attributes and text of the avatar changes. Of course you can always play several different avatars, working to level each up.
The game has two ways of winning. You can either take out your opponents avatar out in the tradition card game way, or you can complete your four quests. At the beginning of each round, the players place one of their quests on the table. As soon as you complete any four of your or their quests you win.
As you play through a match you can either choose to take the path of good or evil, based on the sorts of cards you play. As you continue to use one type of card or another, your half of the playing field starts to change and you get bonuses playing cards that match your field’s alignment.
On top of what appeared to me to be a rather sophisticated and interesting take on online trading card games, The Legends of Norath will also come with a single-player campaign. As you play through this campaign you can build up your avatar and earn reward cards for use in play later on.
While the thing that initially most interested me was the idea of playing an Everquest Online Tradiing Card game inside of Everquest, what ended up really captivating me was the look of the cards the SOE team showed me.
The art is very reminiscent of the sort of art used to convey the Everquest games, but not the kind found in the game. In other words, it’s not computer graphics, its quite beautiful art.
When I last spoke with SOE, they idea was to launch the game today with the announcement at Fan Faire. The game will be free for Everquest gamers but booster packs will sell for $3, while starter packs will likely run for $9 to $10. And with 70 unit cards alone, there’s going to be plenty to buy.
The devs also tell me that the game will include loot drops, loot that will sometimes be cards but will other times be actual items used in either Everquest or Everquest II.
Most interesting is the fact that the game engine, designed from the ground up by SOE Denver, has the potential to support many other types of in-game, MMO-themed card games in the future. So expect to see a lot more of this if things work out.
Personally, I kinda like the idea of sitting down in a tavern to play a deep card game with another player. But I am a big nerd.
Quakecon07: Orcs & Elves II Hits Mobile this Holiday
At the end of the QuakeCon keynote Todd Hollenshead had Katherine Anna Kang, founder of Fountainhead Entertainment, take to the stage to show off a bit of Orcs & Elves for the DS.
After a bit of play, she announced that Orcs & Elves II will be hitting mobiles this holiday.
Quakecon07: Hollenshead Talks Wolfenstein Movie
While not totally finalized, Todd Hollenshead confirmed with me today rumors that id Software has indeed licensed the film rights to an adaptation of Return to Castle Wolfenstein and that Roger Avary will both be writing and directing the movie.
“We are super excited to have Roger Avary attached to the project,” Hollenshead told me. “I met personally with Avary and he has an enormous amount of enthusiasm for the project. That makes us incredibly excited. Movie projects are tough unless you have a really good writer and we want this to be great.”
When I mentioned the mixed reaction to the Doom film, Hollenshead first said he loved the movie but then went on to say that they always want to take their previous experiences and “learn to do things better.”
Before penning the deal, id folks met with the studio to agree to some “creative guidelines” for the upcoming picture.
“We want to make sure things like BJ is the hero, it’s set in World War II and the Nazis are the bad guys,” he said. “But a movie does need to be different than the game, so there is going to be some changes made.”
He added that id will stay involved in the project as the movie is being made and technically, the deal is still in the works. id just wanted to get the word out there during their annual Quake Con.
Quakecon07: id Forges Deal with Valve
Looks like the rumors are true, id and Valve have decided to partner up to sell all of id Software’s library, well almost all of it.
Todd Hollenshead told me today that that all of (well like 99 percent of) id Software’s games from Commander Keen on up to Quake 3 will now be sold on Steam. The distribution deal also includes a mega pack, that lets you download all of those games for $70. Or $60 if you use the $10 discount code given out at QuakeCon today.
The games should be available now on Steam. Hit the jump for the full list of games and packs.
id GAMES on Steam
• Commander Keen, Episodes 1 through 5
• Wolfenstein 3D
• Spear of Destiny
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein
• Ultimate DOOM
• DOOM II
• Final DOOM
• DOOM3
• DOOM3: Resurrection of Evil
• QUAKE
• QUAKE Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon
• QUAKE Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity
• QUAKE II
• QUAKE II Mission Pack: The Reckoning
• QUAKE II Mission Pack: Ground Zero
• QUAKE III Arena
• QUAKE III: Team Arena
• Heretic
• Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders
• HeXen
• HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel
• HeXen II
id PACKAGES on Steam
• DOOM 3 Pack: Includes DOOM 3 and DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil
• QUAKE III Pack: Includes QUAKE III Arena and QUAKE III: Team Arena
• Wolf Pack: Includes Wolf 3D, Spear of Destiny and Return to Castle Wolfenstein
• DOOM Pack Complete: Includes all DOOM games released by id
• QUAKE Pack: Includes all 8 QUAKE Titles available on Steam
• Heretic\HeXen Pack: Includes Heretic, Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, HeXen, HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, HeXen II
• Id Super Pack: Every id game on Steam
Select packages are 10% off until August 10.
