January 2010
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City Announced For PlayStation 3 And PC
Submitted By: Mike McMullan on January 30, 2010 - 5:58pm
Rockstar Games has finally given the other GTA IV fans some love and officially announced that Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City will be coming to the PlayStation 3 and the PC.
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City was originally exclusive to Xbox 360 due to the DLC deal made between Microsoft and Rockstar before GTA IV was released. The retail disc includes both DLC episodes, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony which were originally only available to Xbox 360 owners. PlayStation 3 and PC owners will now be able to play these very well-received episodes themselves and not have to act like they weren't bothered by the original announcement. Many people believed that the episodes would eventually make their way to other consoles once the exclusive deal expired or that maybe they would receive their own. In addition to the retail release, PS3 owners will be able to download the individual episodes on PSN.
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City and the individual episodes will be released for PlayStation 3 and the PC on March 30th.
New Heavy Rain Trailer Released
Submitted By: Mike McMullan on January 28, 2010 - 11:41pm
We are inching closer to the release of Heavy Rain and Quantic Dream has released a new trailer to keep us occupied for now.
Heavy Rain has been created to invoke emotions in the player and this trailer really helps highlight that point. The trailer was completely built with in-game footage and it looks amazing. The new Heavy Rain trailer asks how far will you go to catch a killer and save your loved ones. That question couldn't be illustrated better than in the opening sequence of the trailer. One of the playable characters from the game, Ethan Mars, is faced with a really tough decision to save his son that is straight out of a Saw movie.
Along with the new trailer, Quantic Dream has announced that Heavy Rain has gone gold and will be shipping out to retailers soon. Sony followed up that announcement with a release date for the game's demo. The Heavy Rain demo will be hitting PSN on Thursday, February 11th. It will include two chapters from the game and will allow you to play as Norman Jayden, the FBI profiler, and Scott Shelby, the private detective.
Heavy Rain is going to be released exclusively for the PlayStation 3 on February 23rd. Check out the new trailer after the break.Read more...
Apple Officially Announces The iPad Tablet
Submitted By: Mike McMullan on January 27, 2010 - 11:03pm
Apple hosted a huge press conference today to announce their newest gadget, the iPad, a super-sized version of the iPhone.
Rumors and speculation have been flying around for months now about whether or not Apple would release a tablet computer and today it finally became official. The iPad has a 10 inch widescreen multi-touch display and will be compatible with all current and future apps in the App store. The screen will support a resolution of 1024 X 768 pixels. The base model will be a 16GB Wi-Fi only tablet for $499 and there will be 32GB and 64GB models going for $599 and $699 respectively. You can add 3G to any model for $130 plus a monthly fee from AT&T to use it. Apple released a SDK today that will allow developers to create specific apps for the new iPad as well as adapt their current ones to take advantage of the new real estate.
So what does the new tablet mean to gaming? Apple brought out EA during their presentation to show off Need for Speed: Shift running on the new tablet. You control the car by turning the tablet like a steering wheel and you can tap the screen to change the camera to an in-car view. From this view you can shift the car by sliding over the gear shift and look behind you by tapping the mirror. We have no doubt that the iPad will affect gaming in some way much like the iPhone but to what degree we're not sure yet. I'm excited whenever someone creates another avenue for people to enjoy games on and I can't wait to see what developers come up with.
The Apple iPad 16GB Wi-Fi only model will be available in March with the other models following along in April.
Lost Planet 2 Gears of War Trailer Released
Submitted By: Mike McMullan on January 27, 2010 - 12:50am
A Lost Planet 2 trailer featuring Marcus and Dom from Gears of War has been released by Capcom.
Lost Planet 2 has had a busy day of announcements today. They first came out and announced that Lost Planet 2 will released in North America on March 18th. The second big announcement was a new quick teaser trailer for the upcoming sequel. What made the quick teaser trailer so big was that it included Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago from Gears of War. In the trailer the two GOW characters fight alongside the Lost Planet 2 team. The conclusion a lot of people are drawing from this trailer is that we may have some exclusive DLC for the Xbox 360 that will include character from the best selling game. No official confirmation of this has been released but it seems like that might be the likely conclusion. Many people point towards a recent Twitter from Cliff Bleszinski that stated there was some big GOW news coming real soon which turned out the be the new trailer.
Lost Planet 2 will be released on March 18th for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the PC. Check out the teaser trailer with the Gears of War characters after the break.Read more...
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars iPhone Debut Trailer Released
Submitted By: Mike McMullan on January 24, 2010 - 10:58pm
Rockstar Games has released the iPhone version of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars along with a debut trailer.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars has previously been released on the Nintendo DS and most recently on the Sony PSP. Both versions were released to great overall reviews but the number of units sold was not so great. Rockstar Games is trying it again with their release on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The original release still holds the top spot on Metacritic for the all time highest overall review score for the Nintendo DS. It is second on the all time list for the PSP. You can't argue with those numbers or with Rockstar's history so it should be one to pick up.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is available now for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It will cost you $9.99 in the App store right now. Check out the debut trailer after the jump.Read more...
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Single Player Story Trailer Released
Submitted By: Mike McMullan on January 22, 2010 - 12:42am
Battlefield: Bad Company 2's single player game gets an exclusive reveal trailer on the recent GTTV episode.
Most trailers that have been released for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 so far have focused on the multiplayer gameplay. Now we get a new trailer centered on the single player campaign which I was a big fan of from the original. It will feature the same four main characters and will feature maps based in the snow, sand, and jungle. The buildings are completely destructible this time around so expect that to add a lot of cool moments to multiplayer matches. How cool will that be to drop an entire building with an enemy sniper up on the roof?
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is going to be released on March 2nd for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the PC. Check out the NSFW single player campaign after the break.Read more...
Mass Effect 2 Launch Trailer Released
Submitted By: Mike McMullan on January 20, 2010 - 10:50pm
Mass Effect 2 is getting really close to its release date and now BioWare has graced us with a launch trailer to keep us drooling in anticipation.
The Mass Effect 2 launch trailer is really cool and brings a nice dramatic feel with it. It reminded me a little of the trailers we saw for the new Star Trek movie when it was released. It shows us off some more cool gameplay footage from the game and also sums up the basis of the sequel's story.
Commander Shepard has put together a team of mercenaries to rise up against The Collector's, the main enemy of the game. As in other trailers this one hits upon whether Shepard will be able to trust his new team and whether or not they will stick by him. There are some character spoilers in the trailer, so consider yourself warned.
Mass Effect 2 is hitting store shelves on January 26th for Xbox 360 and the PC. Check out the launch trailer after the break.Read more...
Crackdown 2 Demo Confirmed By Ruffian Games
Submitted By: Mike McMullan on January 19, 2010 - 10:36pm
Ruffian Games has confirmed they will be releasing a demo of Crackdown 2 before its release.
Crackdown 2 was one of those games that a lot of people wanted but thought might never happen. When it was announced at last year's E3, fans of the first game rejoiced even though the game was in the hands of another developer. Microsoft had decided to go with newly formed studio, Ruffian Games, which was formed by former members of the original Crackdown team at Realtime Worlds.
James Cope, the Producer on the upcoming sequel, was interviewed by IGN where he reveals more details about the game. During the interview he confirmed that they will be releasing a demo of the game on Xbox LIVE before its release later this year. He stated that "The Crackdown demo was fantastic and we want to carry on in that form". That is great news for anybody that might want to try out the game before they buy it. Fans of the original game will tell you that if it is anything like the original, this will be one to pick up.
There is no official release date for Crackdown 2 yet but some outlets are pointing towards a possible May release though. It will be released exclusively for the Xbox 360.
Alan Wake DLC Announced
Submitted By: Mike McMullan on January 17, 2010 - 10:11pm
Microsoft announced that the long-awaited game Alan Wake will be receiving DLC after its launch in May.
The announcement was made during Microsoft's keynote address at the recent CES 2010. It shouldn't come as a surprise since every other game is receiving DLC, but Alan Wake is joining the club and will offer extra content after the game's release. No word on what it will be or what it will cost you yet though. Alan Wake is being developed to be episodic like a TV show, so post-launch episodes for the game just make sense. Alan Wake is on the home stretch towards its release this spring so hopefully this episode strategy works out better than Alone in the Dark's and comes out quicker than Half-Life 2's.
Alan Wake is hopefully going to be released this May exclusively for the Xbox 360 for now unless it runs into another delay.
Splinter Cell: Conviction Delayed
Submitted By: Mike McMullan on January 17, 2010 - 1:01am
Ubisoft has pushed back the release of Splinter Cell: Conviction yet again so the waiting game continues for everybody.
Splinter Cell: Conviction has had a really bumpy development since it was announced back in 2007 including a huge visual reboot. When the newest version of the game was shown at last year's E3, everybody was really excited. The reboot was set to be released in November of last year but was pushed back to February 23rd. Now Ubisoft has delayed Splinter Cell: Conviction yet again back to a vague April 2010 release window. The delay was announced during the same press release as the sweet Assassin's Creed 3 announcement.
Ubisoft has told Eurogamer that the delay was to give the game a little more polish. If that is the case then we can't be that upset unfortunately. We always welcome when a developer wants to turn out the best game they can rather than push it out unfinished. That doesn't mean we're not disappointed though.
Splinter Cell: Conviction will hopefully be released sometime in April 2010 for Xbox 360 and the PC.
