If you were waiting to get your hands on Tom Clancy’s first foray into the flight combat world, you may have to wait a little longer. Ubisoft has now confirmed that the game has been delayed until early next year. Originally, the game was set to release in September, but apparently Ubisoft wants to keep that title inside a little longer. Unfortunately, they didn’t specify why they chose to delay the game. Guess you’ll just have to keep playing Ace Combat 6 for a few more months.

Via CVG

A new article addresses the increasingly prevalent problem among video gamers. The author calls it “nerd rage” equating the phenomena to gamers finally getting the acceptance from the mainstream and hating the consequences.

It comes down to the games industry wooing casual gamers while seeming to forget the core gamers that brought these companies to where they are today. Whether you call them old-school or hard-core gamers, the traditional target market is getting overlooked in the industries rush to bring in new customers.

If E3 is a sign of the times, things will get worse for core gamers before they get better. Nintendo completely ignored core games and although Iwata claimed that the company no longer considered the expo the appropriate place to premier core games; core gamers are angry just the same.

“It’s like Nintendo has forgotten the people who got them here,” Andy McNamara, editor in chief of Game Informer, a top American game magazine, said in an interview. “If you’re a serious Nintendo fan, what are you supposed to do all year, play Animal Crossing and throw Frisbees in the new Wii Sports? We understand that Nintendo has to reach out to that new mass market, but would it really cost so much to acknowledge the fans who have stuck with them for decades?”

Attendees at Ubisoft’s news conference “couldn’t stop giggling as the company explained why it was making fashion designer games and sports games for girls.”

John Davison, president of What They Like, a start-up that hopes to explain youth media to ignorant adults tried to tactfully put the rift into perspective.

“There is definitely a feeling of betrayal among hard-core gamers as the industry matures and comes to realize that the growth opportunities are not in solely catering to 18-to-34-year-old men, but in also appealing to the rest of the world.”

So, is this “nerd rage” a case of core gamers needing to put up and shut up now that they have more broad societal acceptance; or is their anger at an industry that seems to have used them and cast them aside justified?

via The New York Times

It took much longer than some would have liked, but the first wave of Greatest Hits game for PlayStation 3 have finally arrived. Starting today, this line of budget games can be picked up in extremely ugly red boxes for the price of $30, which puts it $10 higher than the PS2’s Greatest Hits, but also $10 less than where Microsoft tends to discount its first-party 360 titles.

The nine games are Warhawk, Motorstorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, Call of Duty 3, Fight Night Round 3, Need for Speed Carbon, Rainbow Six Vegas, Assassin’s Creed, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Not a half-bad assortment, but which ones are worth buying?

PS3 Fanboy has assembled a buyer’s guide for the nine titles, giving you a quick rundown on what to expect from each game and which ones are worth buying. Unsurprisingly, Warhawk and Oblivion get a thumbs up, while Motorstorm should be avoided with the sequel, Pacific Rift, not that far off.

They do however refer to Ninja Gaiden Sigma as “THE definitive NG experience,” something that I think Itagaki-san would disagree with.

Last week during E3, a video from the upcoming survival game I Am Alive was sent our way and I would have posted the thing if any information was available for it at the time – because it was a pretty interesting trailer to say the least. It reminded me of the the original Resident Evil for some reason. Maybe it was because you saw a guy walking around in what looked to be an abandoned house that was a bit decrepit looking, and the atmosphere seemed to reek of doom and gloom. However, since no information was available on the game, even on the developer’s website, I could not in good conscience just post a trailer and say “watch it, but don’t ask anything about it because I have no fricking clue”

Today, however, we know a bit more about the game. When a Chicago is left in ruins without anyone understanding why or the cause, players take control of a character named Adam and when playing, gamers must “think, react and take risks that will directly affect themselves and those around them” as they navigate Chicago.

The game is currently targeted for release on “current generation video game consoles” during Spring 2009, and according to a source speaking to VG247, the game will make its official debut at the Game Convention in Leipzig next month. Ubisoft had no comment one way or the other on that information.

Ubisoft is working on the project and it had been rumored that this was Jade Raymond’s latest baby, but those rumors were put to rest by Ubi pretty quickly. Thank bloody hell.  I am still sick of hearing about that chick (sorry guys).

Thanks: VG247

We just got the E3 trailer in today for the new DS game Prince of Persia: The Fallen King.

To be honest with you, when I heard that they were making a DS version of PoP I was not very interested in the game, but I have to say that after watching the trailer it does look like it will be pretty fun. Of course, I felt the same way when I first heard about a Ninja Gaiden game for the DS and ended up loving it.

Prince of Perisa: The Fallen King is expected to hit stores in November.

Some of the games industry’s most influential people are aiming some sharp criticism at the Entertainment Software Association’s E3 Expo.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, EA boss John Riccitiello has had enough of E3’s more intimate setting.

“I hate E3 like this.”

“Either we need to go back to the old E3, or we’ll have to have our own private events.”

Ubisoft US boss Laurent Detoc was less kind.

“E3 this year is terrible. The world used to come to E3. Now it’s like a pipe-fitters show in the basement,” he declared.

The E3 Expo has gone from a must attend gala every May hosting 60,000 souls to a much smaller event. Although the E3 2008 was relocated back to LA, only 5,000 attended and several regulars dropped out of the line up including Activision, Codemasters, Her Entertainment, id Software, Lucas Arts, NCSoft and Vivendi.

Nintendo had previously assured its support for E3. However Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that the company’s core games will no longer be showcased at the expo according to GamesIndustry.biz.

“For a very long time, E3 was an event where — and certainly Nintendo included — catered specifically to the core gamer. Now we look at more … an opportunity for us to introduce new concepts and new types of play that we intend to bring to the broader audience, particularly because of the media that gathers at E3 now,” said Miyamoto to MSNBC.

It seems that the E3 Expo of today is missing more than just booth babes. The message from the industry is becoming clear; either the ESA restores E3 to its former glory or the expo will continue to fade away.

So the big question is… will E3 return to its hay day or will PAX take its place as the US expo to attend?

via Eurogamer

A pair of downloadable games have been released on the PlayStation Store for PC: the PS1 Classic Rayman and the formerly available-only-on-UMD PSP title Star Trek: Tactical Assault. Rayman is just $6, while Star Trek is available for the much higher price of $20, which seems pretty high for a game that’s nearly two years old and wasn’t received well by critics.

You can also find Sony’s E3 press conference in three chunks, just like on the PS3 Store, but you better have quite a lot of free space on your memory sticks — they each take up between 1.17GB and 1.5GB.

Downloadable Games

STAR TREK: Tactical Assault ($19.99) (also downloadable via PS3)
File size: 140 MB

Rayman ($5.99)
File size: 97 MB

E3 Video

PlayStation E3 2008 Press Conference – Part 1
File size: 1.26 GB (HD)

PlayStation E3 2008 Press Conference – Part 2
File size: 1.17 GB (HD)

PlayStation E3 2008 Press Conference – Part 3
File size: 1.5 GB (HD)

I thought I’d present this press release to you in a style Gordon himself would be proud of, so here goes nothing………

We all !@#$ing knew that Hell’s Kitchen would be headed to the Wii, but today, Ubisoft announced that it will also be publishing Hell’s Kitchen: The Videogame, for the bloody Nintendo DS, the god!@#$ PC and !@#$ing Mac too, for !@#$’s sake.

Developed by Ludia, Hell’s Kitchen: The Video Game is based on the hit television program featuring world-renowned chef and general !@#$%^! Gordon Ramsay. The game will allow players to experience the show’s high-pressure kitchen and dining room challenges as a faithfully rendered 3D Gordon Ramsay watches their every move. Stupid fat cows.

After executing the three phases of an order – preparation, cooking and service –Gordon Ramsay will score each meal and you need to be careful that it does not look like a pile of dog!#@$. As they progress through the game, players will be rewarded with access to recipes from Ramsay’s own repertoire.

Hell’s Kicthen will be !#$ing out in !@#$ing September. !@#$.

Via: !@#$ Press Release

The more I see of this game, the more I want to play it. For the PC of course, but for those of you who prefer a console, FC2 will be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 as well. Coming this Fall, gamers will get to experience a more realistic destructible environments, real-time night-and-day cycle, and a dynamic music system. In this sequel players are placed in war-torn Africa where the mission is to kill the mysterious character, “The Jackal.”

You can also view another Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway trailer by clicking through the link below. The game is slated for an August release for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

E3 2008 Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway