Last night, the highly anticipated…what am I saying here? The most anticipated video trailer ever, was released after a painful, almost
1 month long countdown: GTA IV Debut Trailer. This morning, you couldn’t even click to see it on the official site (in HD that is), due to lag, as every gamer on the planet wanted to view it and more than once I’m sure. After roughly everyone saw the footage (sadly not as long and as in-game as hoped), questions whether Rockstar would finally say something about it started to arise. But no. Rockstar ain’t saying nada.

They had us waiting for so long, watching that sadistically set countdown timer while biting off our nails, knees to the chin and they’re quiet about it now? Not fair, I tell you. As the trailer begins, the game appears to be set in the present day and there is no indication whatsoever that it is in another timeframe. Modern stuff can be seen everywhere, like ads glowing on buildings, cars are modern, from what I could see, and so on. People’s outfits I couldn’t see, because at the time people are shown, the video goes fast forward on you. The Russian dude’s appearance is pretty much all the trailer counts for, other than that, all that gamers see is The Big Apple and superb visuals.

Anyway, as much as we’d like to hate Rockstar for shutting up, we can’t. The fourth installment of the GTA series promises to be an even more successful title, adding that this one launches on both PS3 and Xbox 360, as Sony has lost/let go of (I’m not sure really) of the game’s exclusivity. The trailer speaks for itself, showing why a next-gen console porting was necessary to keep fans hooked on the series. I’m still recovering from the water effects I saw at the end of the trailer.
Source: softpedia.com

Earlier this week, Cult of Rapture, 2K’s official Web site for BioShock, drew attention to an online petition asking the publisher to release a collector’s edition of Irrational Games’ upcoming first-person shooter. In the posting, a 2K representative said that if the petition received 5,000 signatures, the publisher would indeed make a limited edition of the game available.

e.

According to a follow-up post on the site today, the petition met its
goal of 5,000 later that night, and kept going. As of this writing,
more than 18,000 people have added their names to the request. Today’s
update confirms that there will be a collector’s edition of the game
available for both the PC and the Xbox 360, but it indicates that the
specific bonuses to be included in the package have not yet been
determined.

To that end, Cult of Rapture is hosting a poll asking users to select
from a number of optional goodies, with the winning choice being
included in the collector’s edition package. The slate of possible
bonuses includes a soundtrack CD, an artbook, a figurine of the game’s
Big Daddy characters, a "making of" DVD, posters, better packaging, and
an art print with the team’s signatures on it.

As of press time, nearly 10,000 visitors had submitted their choices,
with the Big Daddy figurine receiving 37 percent of the votes. The
"making of" DVD, soundtrack CD, and art book followed at 16 percent, 15
percent, and 14 percent of the vote, respectively.
Source: gamespot.com

Four months ago, Sega released Medieval II: Total War, the latest installment in the long-running real-time strategy series. Developed by the British studio The Creative Assembly, which Sega bought in 2005, the game has players vying for control of Europe during the Middle Ages via massive battles with individually animated soldiers.

Medieval II received solid reviews, including an upbeat assessment from
GameSpot. It also enjoyed decent sales for a PC game unrelated to The
Sims or World of Warcraft, moving just under 200,000 units in the US in
two-and-a-half months.

Today, Sega surprised few by announcing that it is readying the first
expansion pack for Medieval II. Developed at The Creative Assembly’s
Australian studio, Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms will supplement the
original game with four all-new single-player campaigns, including:

–The Americas, which casts players as Spanish conquistador Hernán
Cortés or the Aztec and other indigenous peoples who resisted his
ruthless conquest of Mexico.

–The Teutonic Wars, which saw Christians and pagan tribes clash violently in Northern Europe.

–Britannia, which sees five factions fight for control of the British Isles.

–An expanded Crusades Campaign, which sees new opponents enter the infamous series of Christian-versus-Saracen conflicts.

Besides the new single-player campaigns, Medieval II: Total War
Kingdoms features six new multiplayer scenarios and 20 new custom
battle maps. It also adds 13 new playable factions and more than 150
new units to the game. It is due out in the US and Europe this fall.
Source: gamespot.com

What the hell is going on? Capcom won’t tell us. "Capcom has not made any announcements about a new Resident Evil title," is all a company representative would say — not surprising considering official announcements are just weeks off.

The rumors stem from listings on both EB Games/GameStop and a Japanese
retailer. Both listings have since been removed, but the magic of
copy-and-paste allows us to show what the listings did look like,
before the powers that be intervened.
Source: gametab.com

Retailers in Italy have broken a very sacred rule concerning gaming consoles: don’t sell before launch date. Not two days early
anyway. Small-scale retail chain Darty took out adverts in national newspapers. They said that customers would be able to get their PS3 at Darty stores from 7pm on Wednesday, even though the official launch date is set for Friday March 23, as everyone already knows.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz Davide Sher of Trade Interactive Multimedia (TIM) magazine (the leading specialist publication for Italian retailers) said: "It’s a strange situation. This is the first time retailers have broken street dates by two days." "It’s a strange situation. This is the first time retailers have broken street dates by two days."

But wait, there’s more. You wouldn’t even guess what happened next.
Rival retailer Media World (a 20 per cent shareholder of the market),
announced immediately that its doors would open much earlier, at 9am on
Wednesday. Now, speaking of retail chains, all this turned into a chain
reaction, as retail chain GameStop stated that even though their policy
clearly states they sell right at launch date no matter what, they may
be forced to open their doors to customers early too.

Hey everybody, let’s go to Italy! Sher also said: "The mainstream
consumer electronics retailers get their PS3 stock early, so they can
start selling early. But many specialist retailers don’t have any units
yet and won’t receive any until Friday morning. This puts them at a
real disadvantage," thus confirming that PS3s did sell this morning at
Media World. Needless to say this will present other retailers with a
real problem.

Sony spokesmen also talked to GI and said that "Sony Computer
Entertainment Europe is deeply disappointed by the unilateral decision
of some Italian retail chains to commence the sale of PlayStation 3 to
consumers before this official launch date. Such decisions run counter
to our policy of consumer protection which seeks to ensure that all of
our consumers have an equal opportunity to purchase PlayStation3."

Sony also implied that they will be extra careful from now on, in
choosing retailers to distribute their machines: “[Sony to] carefully
consider all available options in relation to retailers who have
commenced sale of PlayStation 3 prior to 23rd March 2007".
Source: softpedia.com

Again: buy your PS3 but rent the games. Don’t laugh. With a £425 price tag, UK gamers don’t have much of a choice.
Earlier this week, news about Gametart Direct having two offers regarding Sony’s PS3, immersed. The first one said: PS3 + 6 months of unlimited games rental at the incredible price of £499.99. The second: PS3 + 12 months of unlimited games rental at only £549.99. The store calculated that if you bought 3 PS3 games per month for six months, it’d cost you £810. They say their deals allow you to play the same amount for just £75, saving you £735!

Now, specific games rental site, rentps3.co.uk has been set up as a
special outlet of PS3 games rentals, to help people get the most out of
their PS3, after reaching so deep in their pockets for the machine.
They also have some good start-up deals for people who still haven’t
ordered their system.

Rob Savin, Marketing Manager at PS3 Games
Rental UK says, “The PS3 is amazing. The problem is that it’s so
expensive for most people to afford. Until games prices come down we
see games rental as the only way that most people are going to be able
to get the most out their investment – the cost of just two games will
buy people over six months of unlimited rentals.”

What can you
do? Until Sony lowers down the price on that way-too-smart-for-this-era
machine, gamers will rent their games at 43p per day, in UK. Also a 10
day free trial is available for all new users of the service. Think
this isn’t cool? Some of Italy’s gamers already have the machines in
their homes, although that wasn’t planned until 23 March, this Friday.
because of a retailer’s opening its doors early, in a greedy attempt to
sell more units than its rivals. Crazy world huh?
Source: softpedia.com

With all these Duke Forever stories suddenly poppin’ up all over the place like spring locusts, it’s almost starting to look like the Viscount of Vaporware may (finally) see the light of day.

How appropriate then to hear (via DS Emulation) of a recent successful port of the original Duke Nukem 3D to… (wait for it)… the Nintendo DS?

The ambitious effort appears to be the work of a modder known to the Internet as "GPF" — one of the entrants in the 2007 NeoFlash Coding Contest. I don’t know what kind of coding chops you have to have if you plan on going up against a submission of a fully-functional DS Duke Nukem 3D — obviously ’strong kung-fu’. Looks like GPF is set up to win a Wii if the judges take a shine to his handiwork.

k.

The project’s name is Duke3DS. You can check out its homepage here
along with some barebones installation instructions. Since the original
Duke dates from the "pre mouselook" era, the game may actually play all
right on a handheld. As always, don’t expect sympathy from Nintendo
Cusomer Care for any broken lampshades, pregnancies or black screens of
death which may occur as a result of attempting to bring Duke Nukem
into the happy world of Nintendo.

    Play Instructions:
    dpad move Duke
    a fire
    b jump
    x look up
    y look down
    lefttrig strafe left
    righttrig strafe right
    select use item
    start select
    touchscreen look around, change weapon

…touchscreen? Shake it, baby.
Source: gametab.com

"Do you guys have (the circuit) Long Beach in this game? I’ve never driven it before and I need to learn it for the next race," asks professional racer Mika Salo on the Risi Competizione Ferrari racing team while checking out a build of Forza Motorsport 2. The game and its three screen, wheel-enhanced setup were brought to the first race of the 2007 season at Sebring International Raceway in Florida to some surprisingly interested drivers who deal with the real thing every day.

.

Community man Che Chou guides us through the journey. "I can say with a
high degree of certainty that, outside of one or two of the younger
tech crews, nobody on the Risi team plays (or have played) videogames.
This conjecture, combined with the fact that these folks work on and
drive the real thing day in and out made me even more apprehensive to
pull up the Risi F430GT in the game for hotlaps on Sebring," he says.
"After all, it’s one thing to impress gamers and bystanders with your
simulation — it’s another altogether to put the simulation up against
the real thing (which was parked literally about 10 ft. away from our
triple-screen setup)."

Things worked out for the best, however, as professional drivers and
crew members lined up to check out the Forza Motorsport 2. "[The]
gameplay session with the Risi drivers was an absolute success story
for Turn 10. We not only discovered that our game met their quality bar
in terms of realism, but also that Forza 2 was actually useful in
helping them memorize their lines and hone their reflexes on Sebring."
Source: gametab.com

To anyone following Capcom (or the industry), last night’s revelation that Devil May Cry 4 is no longer a PlayStation 3 exclusive came with little shock. And yet, the announcement’s spawned message board threads spanning dozens and dozens of pages — half filled with celebratory remarks, the other damning Sony for losing the game. Others went so far as to accuse Capcom of dumbing the game down in the endless pursuit of money.

Thus far at least, Capcom offers little allegiance to any platform this generation. Dead Rising and Lost Planet both seemed to arrive on Xbox 360 because Capcom was willing to take a risk with Microsoft on jumping into the next-generation pool early. Even then, their zombie thriller didn’t show up until nine months after the machine launched in the US. The risks have paid off for companies like Capcom and Ubisoft (see: Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter). And, as of January, Dead Rising had sold over a million copies and talk’s already underway for sequel.

l.

Rumors puttered about in EGM that Sony was surprised at Dead Rising’s
success and working with Capcom to secure a PS3-exclusive sequel. To
date, that’s not come to fruition and DMC4 makes it all the more
unlikely. Lost Planet found similar success when it launched in
January, allegedly pushing more than a million copies across Europe and
North America combined. The NPD Group numbers put sales for the
adventure across the frozen tundra at 329,000 in January — still
mighty impressive.

Japanese publishers have flirted with Xbox 360 because of its head
start in North America. Japan is still an important stomping ground,
but there are more dollars here. Why would Namco Bandai have given
Ridge Racer 6 to Microsoft, a historically Sony-exclusive franchise,
and then drop the almost identical Ridge Racer 7 a year later on
PlayStation 3? And, today, the publisher revealed they’re bringing the
Ace Combat series to Xbox 360 first, too, with no indication of a PS3
version. Sure, it’s probably coming, just later.

Capcom made their intentions clear from the outset with Resident Evil
5. They may have taken a gamble with Nintendo on the last outing, but
they won’t risk the marbles this time — the next sequel will arrive on
both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 simultaneously. Dead Rising and Lost
Planet were experiments to see what kind of success they could muster
by sinking some time and money into Xbox 360 (more with the latter,
given its intense marketing push) and it’s proven a successful formula.

Not that they’ve been explicitly public about the matter, either. Even
in January, rumors started circulating that DMC4 had left the
exclusivity camp, but Capcom stuck to their guns, telling Kotaku:

    "Capcom does not comment on rumors. Devil May Cry 4 is exclusive to PS3. No other announcements have been made."

Yet, that’s exactly what happened last night. Microsoft is clearly
pleased, but how indicative is this of future third-party attitudes
towards support aligned with Xbox 360 and PS3? Other rumors have
suggested Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is just waiting to
be ported, and while Konami’s remained silent, so did Namco Bandai and
Capcom — originally. Boris Schneider-Johne, Xbox product manager at
Microsoft Germany, pasted the this check list on his blog in response
to the news:

    1. Devil May Cry
    2. Final Fantasy
    3. Metal Gear Solid

Schneider-Johne quickly claimed it was only a wish list and not
representative of franchises Microsoft is actively pursuing. That
would, of course, be a lie — they would kill for them. The question’s
whether Konami and Square Enix are already taking that next step. In
the next year, we’ll find out — but try to hide your surprise.
Source: gametab.com

"Welcome to high definition lifestyle" is the first subtitle in the new Consoul Magazine, launching in Germany on 06/03/2007 with a run of 500,000 copies. High definition all right, but I’m not so sure if it’s the gaming as much as it’s the girl sitting on the john with her panties pulled down, flushing
it at the same time. What is she doing anyway, flushing the toilet while still sitting on it? Oh…yeah. OK, never mind.

The press release was translated by Consoul Games for which we deeply
thank. The new monthly trend magazine appears in Germany, Austria and
Switzerland and is distributed through stores catering to the gaming
& internet scene and other selected outlets free of charge. “With
Consoul we look directly at the lifestyle of our customers. We address
all, the fun of new emerging gadgets, the digital life of the internet,
and naturally our outstanding games and films", said Uwe Bassendowski,
Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment Deutschland GmbH.

Of course you do, and why not put the almost naked girl, peeing and
flushing the toilet at the same time on the cover, while you’re at it?
What better recipe to sell the magazine dedicated mostly to the PS3
than sex? Is there anything that sex can’t possibly sell? It figures
though, if the PS3 can’t do it on its own, maybe naked girls on first
magazine issues will.

Although we haven’t yet seen what the Consoul Magazine is all about
(for now it’s just the cover), gadgets, games and films should be
presented in the same manner, only different girls, right? Maybe even
different panties, not just pink, but black and red.
Source: softpedia.com