Just Cause 2 Vertical Gameplay Trailer
Check out how gameplay goes vertical in the upcoming shooter, Just Cause 2.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Launch Trailer
This is the launch trailer for Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and also features a glimpse of the Prologue Digital Comic title ‘The Vampire War.’

Get a glimpse of the cooperative play in the upcoming action title from Tecmo and Team Ninja, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2.

http://www.filefront.com/14142995/NGSigma2_Hayabusa_Momiji_Co-Op_Trailer.wmv/

This week’s Zero Punctuation has Yahtzee Croshaw slashing through the stew of blood and boobs that is Ninja Gaiden 2. As usual, he’s bringing his regular wit and humor to essentially ripping the game apart. Let’s face it: when you’ve got a game about a ninja teaming up with a scantily-clad CIA agent to fight more ninja that are summoning demons, there’s plenty to make fun of. Out of all of it though, it seems like he actually likes the game, which is kind of a rarity.

Those who downloaded the the mission pack DLC for Ninja Gaiden 2 last Friday likely ran into a number of things they weren’t counting on their $10 to provide them with — namely, achievement problems and freezes.

The DLC was taken off the Marketplace following reports that it was causing issues for those who purchased it. It’s back up on the Marketplace although apparently the freezing issue has yet to be resolved, which makes me wonder why they would release it back onto the Marketplace.

From Gamerscore Blog:

I know many of you have been waiting patiently for an update to the two problems experienced with the game itself and with the achievement weirdness. The Mission Mode pack is now back up on Marketplace.They are going to need a little more time to figure out the freezing issue.

For those who downloaded the pack when it was available last week but didn’t unlock achievements before the fix was posted, you should be good to go. For those who ran into problems with unlocking achievements, we’ve seen that many have had luck fixing things by either clearing the cache or recovering their gamertag. This removes the first update and allows the fixed one to be downloaded instead. (Please note that by clearing the cache, you will be prompted to update any game that has receieved updates in the past. Not really such a bad thing – at least everything will be up to date.)

The few times I’ve had to deal with recovering gamertags has been nothing short of hellacious, so if you’re looking for a fix, I’d highly recommend trying to clear your cache before resorting to it.

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.

Nevermind all that Tecmo and Itagaki soap opera nonsense — there’s more Ninja Gaiden 2 to be enjoyed, even if you’ve already completed the game, collected all the crystal skulls, and unlocked all of the achievements.

A new mission pack has been released today for 800 Microsoft points ($10). There are 24 new missions in total, split up into two different mission sets: Karma and Survival. In Karma, you’re trying to get the highest score possible, while Survival has you fend off as many enemies as possible with a single weapon. You’ll get 10 new achievements along with the missions for those of you who are infatuated with your gamerscore.

800 points seems like a lot for something that could very well have been released as free DLC, so I don’t think I’ll be buying this until I feel like I’ve truly gotten my money’s worth out of NG2.

More drama has unfolded in the Itagaki/Tecmo suit.

Supposedly, according to various sources (notably Kotaku) Itagaki was fired on June 18th and did not quit as he has alleged. According to Tecmo, he was fired just a few weeks after he announced he would be leaving and suing the company- so either way you look at it, he was out the door.

Itagaki is suing Tecmo over “special incentives” for Dead or Alive 4 that he was never paid. According to Tomonobu Itagaki, he was to receive 6.66% of profits generated from the sale of the game, but Tecmo president Yasuda says that those incentives were never approved. Itagaki was also supposed to receive his summer bonus and yearly incentives, which he left the company without being paid.

Now comes evidence presented by Ninja Gaiden II producer Yoshifuru Okamoto, which is an actual tape recording of Yasuda calling Itagaki a “money grubber” and saying that Itagaki was owed incentive money after all – which was in reality approved by the Tecmo board despite his claims to the contrary.

Okamoto recorded the conversation with Yasuda because he was continually harassed by him, was called  names and and told he had no class. Great way to motivate your employees there Yasuda.

Itagaki has since decided to increase his claim from 148,000,000 yen to 164,000,095 yen thanks to that wonderful bit of evidence produced by Okamoto (providing it holds up in court, which Japanese courts may differ greatly from ours).

You know, Itagaki may rub people the wrong way sometimes, and while I personally detest people who blow their own horn constantly, it is no matter. If he is owed the money, just pay the guy already.

Thanks: CVG [via Kotaku]

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.

As if the hardware numbers didn’t clue you, Metal Gear Solid 4 dominated the software charts for last month here in the United States. The game sold 774,600 units, but if you combine that number with how many Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3 bundles were sold (which include a copy of the game), the NPD estimates that about a million copies of MGS4 were sold last month. I guess people really wanted to know whether or not Snake and Otacon would have that dreamy ending they’ve been wanting since the end of the original Metal Gear Solid.

There are a few other easy-to-predict things in the top ten, such as Guitar Hero On Tour selling quite a few copies, as did Wii Fit and Wii Play. Battlefield: Bad Company (on 360) and Ninja Gaiden 2 both had strong sales, as did Mario Kart Wii.

But the major surprise — aside from GTA IV’s disappearance — is just how well Lego Indiana Jones sold. With the new movie being released, it was assured a good number of sales, but the Wii, PS2 and DS versions of the game combined for 822,600 copies sold, or in other words, straight cash money.

Kris Pigna over at 1UP made a good point regarding On Tour, suggesting that the game’s sales may have been much higher if the DS bundles were included in the figures. It’s worth keeping in mind, but I’m sure Activision is happy with selling 400k copies of a game that will likely have legs.

June 2008 Software Sales

1. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3) — 774,600 (Roughly 1 million including bundles)
2. Guitar Hero On Tour (DS) — 422,300
3. Ninja Gaiden II (Xbox 360) — 372,700
4. Wii Fit (Wii) — 372,700
5. Wii Play (Wii) – 359,100
6. Battlefield: Bad Company (Xbox 360) — 346,800
7. Mario Kart Wii (Wii) — 322,400
8. LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure (Wii) — 294,500
9. LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure (DS) — 267,800
10. LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure (PS2) — 260,300

Downloadable content for Ninja Gaiden II has been revealed and will be released via XBL on July 25 and will cost you 800 MS Points

Available for the Xbox 360, the DLC is basically a Mission Mode and includes 25 self-contained high-score and survival stages. Some tutorial guides showing the locations of the crystal skulls will also hit XBL sometime around July 11th – which is tomorrow in case you do not own a calender or are date confused like I am.

Details:

Mission Mode, a brand-new gameplay expansion for Ninja Gaiden II. In this all new game mode, challenge your skills in self-contained missions featuring trials and tribulations not found in the standard story mode. Karma Attack missions task you with obtaining the highest score, while Survival missions give you a single weapon to fight off as many enemies as possible. Take your high scores online with Xbox LIVE and compete with players around the world on the mission leaderboards.

Skull Videos

30 videos that reveal the locations of hidden in-game skulls. Will split up into 3 packs and each contains 10 videos and they are free.

• Skull Video #1: This video shows the location of the first third of the skulls.

• Skull Video #2: This video shows the location of the middle third of the skulls.

• Skull Video #3: This video shows the location of the last third of the skulls.

Thanks: Shacknews