January 2007

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Def Jam: Icon demo comes to XBL
Posted by White_Pointer at 16:25:35 CST
EA has confirmed that a demo of the latest incarnation of it's cult fighting franchise that puts players in control of rapper personalities in 1-on-1 fights is on it's way. The Def Jam: Icon demo will be hitting the Xbox Live download service this coming thursday.

The demo will feature Big Boi and TI as playable characters, complete with music tracks from each of them.

The complete game is expected to hit store shelves for the Xbox 360 and also the Playstation 3 in March.
Post or view comments

Gamespot interviews Ed Boon on MK:A for Wii
Posted by White_Pointer at 20:47:19 CST
Midway have been hard at work the last few months as they have been preparing Mortal Kombat: Armageddon for a release on the Nintendo Wii in April. Gamespot have recently interviewed Ed Boon on the upcoming game, and a few cool things about the Wii version were revealed.

For starters, some of the kombat has been enhanced, as Midway listened to the fans after the game was released on PS2 and Xbox last year and made some changes where they felt necessary. The biggest change though is the use of the Wii Remote, and it seems as though Midway have really gone down the right track here. Boon remarks that there would have been no point developing for the Wii if they didn't make use of the controller. The Wii Remote is used for all super moves and fatalities in the game, simply by swinging it around. Scorpion's spear for example is executed by swinging the remote away from the opponent then back towards the opponent, in an "away-towards" motion. Don't worry if you are an old-school MK player who prefers the more traditional control setup, because Midway have accomodated for you too by giving you the choice to plat with the Wii Remote, the Classic controller or the Gamecube controller.

Also added to the Wii version is a brand new Endurance mode. Unfortunately however, the tools for the Wii's online support were not available at the time they needed them, so the Wii version will be lacking online play.

To read the entire interview, click here. If you want to see a video of MK: Armageddon for the Wii in action, including how it works with the Wii Remote, Ed Boon has provided this as well. Click here, and select Official Movie 11.

Thanks to Andrew Hord for the heads-up!
Post or view comments

Namco Bandai teams with Sony
Posted by White_Pointer at 15:15:12 CST
Back to the news after a public holiday on Friday in Australia and a long weekend.

Cellius Inc. This is the name of a new company that has resulted from a joint-venture between Namco Bandai and Sony. The goal of Cellius is to apparently develop PS3-exclusive titles to help bolster Sony's marketshare.

The company begins operations on March 6th, and will be aimed at taking "full advantage" of the Cell, the chip that is found in the PS3 and has been touted by Sony as the big difference between the PS3 and the 360. This means though that Cellius may not be working exclusively with the PS3, since the Cell is also used across mobile devices and PC's.

Does this mean the next instalments of the Tekken and Soul Calibur series will remain Sony exclusive despite rumours that they are going multiplatform (especially Tekken, since SC already made the multiplatform leap with SCII then went back to be Sony exclusive with SCIII)? We'll have to wait and see.
Post or view comments

Pope speaks out about violent games
Posted by White_Pointer at 15:28:57 CST
The debate against violent games just doesn't see an end in sight. On one hand we have nutjobs like Jack Thompson doing everything in their power to prevent violent games being sold, and on the other you have the story we reported on last week where there is a push to ban violent games across Europe altogether.

Another voice has joined the anti-violent game numbers now: The current head of the Catholic church, Pope Benedict XVI. In a recent public address, as part of World Communications Day, the Pope spoke on the subject of "Children and the Media: A Challenge for Education". He's quoted as saying:

"Any trend to produce programs and products--including animated films and video games--which in the name of entertainment exalt violence and portray antisocial behavior or the trivialization of human sexuality is a perversion, all the more repulsive when these programs are directed at children and adolescents. How could one explain this entertainment to the countless innocent young people who actually suffer violence, exploitation and abuse?"

VF5 goes gold for PS3
Posted by White_Pointer at 00:58:02 CST
Finally, the home version of Sega's acclaimed Virtua Fighter 5 is not far from reaching store shelves. The PS3 version has gone gold according to Sega, and will be arriving for Sony's console as planned on the 20th of February.

But wait...what about the recently announced Xbox 360 version, you ask? That's on it's way too, though there will be a few months delay before the game hits Microsoft's console. Sega are currently saying the 360 version will be a "fall" release, so 360 owners will need to wait for it for a bit longer.
Post or view comments

Two new DBZ games coming to handhelds
Posted by White_Pointer at 14:53:14 CST
Atari have announced that not one, but two new games based on the Dragon Ball Z license will be hitting portable systems in the coming months.

Releasing in March, Dragon Ball Z Shin Budokai: Another Road is coming to the PSP. It is the sequel to last year's Dragon Ball Z Shin Budokai, and adds more than 50 new skills and ultimate attacks, an enhanced fighting engine, and a new story mode.

The second game, releasing a month or two later, is coming to the DS and will be titled Dragon Ball Z Harukanaru Densetsu. This however will not be a strict 3D fighting game like Another Road, and will instead combine card battles and RPG elements.
Post or view comments

MK: Armageddon set to hit Wii's in April
Posted by White_Pointer at 01:50:32 CST
A couple of days ago Midway released a press release to announce that the Wii version of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is on track for a release in April 2007. The game has of course been out for the PS2 and Xbox since last October, but the Wii version promises more features and a possible updated control scheme to make use of the Wii's unique controller.

If you are a Wii owner, and have been hanging out to play the seventh incarnation in the MK series, you don't have much longer to wait.
Post or view comments

Violent games pushed to be banned across Europe
Posted by White_Pointer at 19:29:11 CST
If you live in a European country, and you enjoy violent games, then this news may not sit too well with you.

We know that there's currently debate happening in Germany about banning violent games nation wide. Now this debate is stretching across international borders with a proposal to create a unified ratings and restrictions system across the entire European continent that will ban violent games. Not just restrict the selling of them to minors - no...this is banning them completely, across the 27 nations that Europe comprises of.

Don't get us wrong we completely support restrictions that are meant to prevent minors playing violent games. But banning them completely and stopping adults buying them is in our opinion completely ludicrous.

That opinion isn't shared by many of the larger European countries though. So far the proposal for this unified ratings system has been backed by Germany, France, Spain, Britain, Finland and Greece.
Post or view comments

Neo Geo games coming to PS3
Posted by White_Pointer at 00:53:37 CST
In some news that will be sure to excite SNK fans, Computer and Video Games is reporting that the said company have announced that they have been given approval from Sony to offer some of their classic Neo Geo games as part of the PS3's downloadable service. While we don't know what games will be made available, and when and how much they will be, this can be taken as a positive sign.

SNK have also apparently been trying to contact Microsoft to strike up a similar deal, but so far at least, the software giant has not been interested.

Thanks to David King for pointing us towards this!
Post or view comments

THQ lands UFC license
Posted by White_Pointer at 15:12:02 CST
THQ have long been the publishers of numerous wrestling games, and now they are expanding with a new license that will see them publish games based on something that is not scripted and choreographed.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship is a real-life fighting competition where combatants enter an 8-sided cage known as The Octagon and fight in a pretty no-holds barred contest. Many fighting styles are on display as the competitors fight which is one of the attractions the UFC brings. It has been airing as pay-per-view events for almost 15 years and has recently also been building a strong support base on Spike TV.

This isn't the first time the UFC have made the transition to video games, with previous efforts generally not doing so well. This is however the first time THQ have had the license.

THQ have the license until 2011 and will be able to create games for all current and next-gen systems. Nothing as of yet has been announced about the first game that will be taking advantage of the license, including what system it will be on, who will be developing it and even what it's title will be.
Post or view comments

SFII coming to PAL Wii's
Posted by White_Pointer at 14:40:43 CST
Just before Christmas last year, we reported that Street Fighter II: The World Warrior was coming to the Wii's Virtual Console and releasing on Christmas day. Despite Christmas day falling on a Monday, Nintendo and Capcom came through for the fans and delivered it as promised as a nice Christmas present.

As it turns out, it appears PAL gamers aren't going to need to wait much longer before they can also download and play the grandfather of 2D fighting games. Over the next couple of months Nintendo UK are planning on delivering 36 more titles to the Virtual Console, and in the list of titles that have been revealed so far, we see Capcom's classic fighter.

While an exact release date isn't known yet, be rest assured it's coming.
Post or view comments

Microsoft NOT buying Capcom
Posted by White_Pointer at 11:14:20 CST
By now, if you were a loyal fan of Capcom (and perhaps even if you weren't), you would have heard the rumours flying around the internet that Microsoft was considering buying the giant Japanese publisher in an attempt to get a foothold and push the Xbox 360 into success in Sony and Nintendo's home ground. Despite Microsoft investing tens of millions of dollars trying to promote the Xbox 360 in Japan, when the console finally launched over there in late 2005 more than half of the launch stock remained on store shelves, and the sales have remained mediocre at best since then. So it would make sense for them to make such a move if they were really serious about breaking into the market in Japan.

The rumours that Microsoft has their eye on Capcom aren't new and have been floating around the online world in some form or another for several years now, but this new wave of rumours have originated from a Japanese blog that claimed something big was happening on the 11th of January. Because Japanese blogs seem to be a credible source (note the sarcasm for those that missed it), news spread fast and before we knew it the rumour was rampaging again.

While Microsoft have refused to comment on the subject, Capcom have at least been a bit more helpful, telling gaming website Gamespot "It's a 3-year-old rumor, most likely refueled by our recent spate of 360 titles".

So...no, Capcom are not going to be owned by Microsoft, or anyone else for that matter, for the foreseeable future.
Post or view comments

Killer Instinct on Xbox 360?
Posted by White_Pointer at 01:18:24 CST
When Microsoft acquired Rare back in 2002, there was at first some speculation as to who had retained the rights to Killer Instinct, whether it was Rare or Nintendo. As it turned out, it was Rare, but since the aquisition there hasn't been any word on what might be happening with the franchise.

New evidence has surfaced through a leaked list of games supposedly being developed for the 360 that KI may be headed to Microsoft's new console...although, it must be said, at this point this is PURE speculation. Even if the rumour is true, we don't even know at this point whether it's a full fledged sequel or simply a port of the arcade original for Xbox Live Arcade.

Remember, take this as a grain of salt. Do not consider this any kind of confirmation that KI is coming to the 360 in any form.

Kudos to forum member masta-Dante for finding this piece of news!
Post or view comments

MK and SF named in top game franchises
Posted by White_Pointer at 00:48:52 CST
The Independent, a British newspaper, has recently published an article in their "Extra" pull-out section on the top 20 most successful video game franchises of all time.

Topping the list was Mario, followed by Pokemen in 2nd place and Final Fantasy in third. Rounding out the top 20 however was Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, in 19th and 20th place, respectively. Capcom has sold 25 million SF games whereas Midway have sold 20 million MK games.

To read the article in full and to see the whole list, visit the newspaper's official site (the list is at the end of the article).
Post or view comments

Tekken vs Virtua Fighter...maybe?
Posted by White_Pointer at 01:47:17 CST
Gamers Reports is reporting that in a recent interview with "G wie Gorilla.de", Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada has reportedly said that if given the opportunity, he would be totally for the idea of a Tekken vs Virtua Fighter crossover fighting game.

"I would make such a thing with the Virtua Fighter series actually gladly times. We already thought that we could do something with the Virtua Fighter series on Dreamcast years ago together with the Virtua Fighter team. Unfortunately we couldn't make it at that time."

MK: Armageddon sells a million
Posted by White_Pointer at 00:05:06 CST
A double-dose of MK news to start the new year off.

Today's news is better for MK fans out there. Midway have announced that Mortal Kombat: Armageddon has sold one million units worldwide since releasing on the Xbox and PS2 last October.

Midway also revealed that 2005's MK spinoff game Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks has also hit the 1 million milestone.
Post or view comments

No MK on the DS
Posted by White_Pointer at 02:24:06 CST
Happy New Year everyone!

Let's kick off the new year with some unfortunate news for any MK fan and DS owners. While the Wii version of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon is still on track to be released in the coming months, Midway Chicago's studio head Scott Bayless has dismissed any idea that Nintendo's latest handheld, the DS, will be home to any 3D MK game in a recent interview with Gamasutra. He's quoted as saying:

"The same is true of Mortal Kombat. I'm not going to be a big fan of putting it on Nintendo DS. It would be hard for me to believe that's a good idea. It might even be able to make some money, but it's not a great use of our time."

"The other thing all fighters live and die on is responsiveness," he continues. "Right now, there are some profound questions about that controller and timing. But is it interesting? Is it an interesting problem? Heck yeah!"