Editorial written by Paul Govan of Family Gamer.
Every year the games industry gathers around the collective camp fire and tells stories of their past and future. E3 has long stood as the biggest and most exciting of these, garnering not only the best people and games but the most engaging fireside tales. These days, it stands as a revised and reconfigured happening - perhaps more of a jamboree than a centralised cook out.
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Electronic Arts has confirmed that a demo of its arcade boxing game Facebreaker will hit the Xbox Live Marketplace next week July 31. A release on PSN will follow suit on August 7.
The demo promises to give players a taste of the game’s solo mode and offline multiplayer, featuring three playable characters and two boxing arenas. Additionally, players will be able to upload custom photos of themselves or others to create their own unique character. Created characters can then be imported into the final game.
Over on the Xbox Live Arcade front, Activision has bumped up the release date of Geometry Wars 2 to next Wednesday, July 30.
Hothead Games today announced that its successful humor-filled XBLA title Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness will hit the PlayStation Network later this fall as a digital download.
“We keep getting emails asking why our Penny Arcade game is not on PSN,” said Hothead’s CEO, Vlad Ceraldi. “We have always said we wanted to have our games on as many platforms as possible to give choice to gamers. All good things take time and we are very excited to be debuting our first PS3 title and look forward to bringing more games to this platform in the future.”
No specific word on pricing, but Hothead says the PS3 port will be “priced in line” with the game on other platforms. Considering the XBLA edition cost 1600 Microsoft Points, expect to shell out around $20. Hit the jump for the full release.
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Titles based on the fabled 007 license after the release of Rare’s oft-heralded N64 masterpiece Goldeneye have been, for the most part, forgettable. Now with Activision in control of the license, developer Treyarch is determined to break this troubling trend with Quantum of Solace, the new Call of Duty 4 engine-powered Bond game based on the upcoming movie of the same name. Says executive producer Garrett Young:
We’re not trying to fix anything EA did wrong, because that’s just what they did. I’m sure the series pissed off a lot of gamers over the last few years as the games started to go downhill, but we have no control over that.”
The pressure we feel is more about launching this franchise in the right way. We know that you only have one chance to make a really great first impression, and this is it.
Indeed. Let’s hope it turns out well. Gamers across the globe been waiting for a Bond game that lives up to the standards set by Goldeneye.
‘Second-rate James Bond games a thing of the past’ [MCV]
Publisher Atlus has sent over a selection of all-new screenshots from upcoming Wii and PS2 title Dokapon Kingdom. A board-game RPG hybrid developed by Sting, the game is slated for a North American release on October 14.
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Namco Bandai may be stepping in to continue support of Flagship’s demon-laden online action RPG Hellgate: London. Namco senior business development director Zack Karlsson today posted a brief message on the game’s official forums, promising that an announcement regarding the status of Hellgate will be made soon:
Atlus has a two page advertisement spread in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu (pictured above), hinting at a game announcement on August 1. The ad contains a brief message that reads:
On the day when Yin and Yang come together a new jiken will begin.
According to the folks over at GAF, this may be a sequel to Atlus’ action RPG title Kuzunoha Raidou. We’ll find out soon enough, I suppose.
There isn’t a whole lot to say about Nintendo’s E3 conference this year. It mainly focused on the casual market and aside from a quick mention of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, nothing else with the “core” gamer in mind was announced (no, we’re not counting Animal Crossing, Reggie).
Speaking to Forbes, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata says the company is sorry for this, noting that the “big titles” require a longer development period and as such, simply weren’t ready for prime time.
We are sorry about [the E3] media briefings, specifically for those who were expecting to see Nintendo show something about ‘Super Mario’ or ‘Legend of Zelda.’
However, the fact of the matter is the so-called ‘big titles’ need a long, long development period. … We really didn’t think this year’s E3 media briefing was the time to do so.
That’s certainly good to hear. It’s hard to get excited without laying eyes on the actual titles, though, but we’ll take your word for it. Let the waiting commence!
A Wii Bit Short On Supplies [Forbes]
Effective immediately, Microsoft has dropped the regular subscription-based Gold plan on its Games for Windows Live service, allowing PC gamers to play titles under the GFWL banner online with others completely free of charge. The move includes titles that support cross-platform gameplay between the PC and Xbox 360, such as Lost Planet: Colonies and Universe at War.
Additionally, Microsoft plans to introduce a completely new marketplace interface for GFWL this fall, featuring a variety of both paid and free content, ranging from playable demos to downloadable content for existing games.
Homebrew developer Zack has released an update to his excellent Wolfenstein 3D port for the PSP. Notable features include improvements in audio processing, as well as the ability to quick save/load game data while playing and VSync support, to diminish the effect of ghosting.
Unlike the previous release, version 4.8 supports both the retail and shareware versions of Wolfenstein in one package. Of course, in order to play the retail edition, you will still need the original WL6 files from id Software’s Wolf3D. Installation instructions can be found in the included readme file.
For the full changelog, hit the jump.
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