A title like that doesn’t write itself very often, so I’m happy to take advantage. The new Rocketmen expansion pack, It Came From Uranus, is now available on the PlayStation Store. You’ll also now find two new Hot Shots Golf characters, each of which cost $.99, and are small enough that I reckon they’re already on the Blu-ray disc you hold in your hands.
Rounding out the DLC scene is this week’s installment of Rock Band tracks and 21 new Karaoke Revolution: American Idol tracks.
Activision has announced a new milestone Guitar Hero has achieved. Not to be upstaged by the former guitar heroes at Harmonix, who recently announced that Rock Band had passed the 10 million songs downloaded mark, Activision announced at a recent conference call that Guitar Hero has surpassed the 15 million downloaded songs mark.
That’s certainly an impressive figure that’s larger than Harmonix’s, but these numbers do, after all, include Guitar Hero II on Xbox 360. A commenter on Xbox 360 Fanboy made the keen observation that these don’t necessarily reflect the number of songs purchased, and Guitar Hero has seen several free tracks released.
But it seems clear that both companies are finding DLC to be a profitable form of business. Not profitable enough, though, as the cash-in known as Guitar Hero: Aerosmith proves.
Microsoft’s certification process is a pretty long-winding and complicated one, so who really knows with them how long something will take to pass through it. What we do know is that Vigilante 8 Arcade is essentially complete and has just finished its pre-certification with Microsoft.
Isopod expects it to be no longer than 2-4 weeks, and then the game will simply need a release slot — they’re guessing early June, but it could be sooner or later depending on the release schedule.
There are plans for “some neat DLC” which I’m going to go out on a limb and guess include new vehicles, maps, and/or modes. Daring, I know, but that’s just the kind of guy I am.
Project Gotham Racing has always been published by Microsoft and developed by Bizarre Creations, who was also responsible for Geometry Wars. When Bizarre was acquired by Activision this past September, the recently released PGR4’s future — as well as that of the series’ — became unclear. We’ve seen some installments of downloadable content since then, including a new game mode and a variety of cars. But a post on Bizarre’s forums has revealed that we won’t be seeing anymore DLC for PGR4, or at least not from Bizarre.
Sorry but you won’t see any more PGR4 DLC from Bizarre Creations. We’ve handed over the reigns to Microsoft now. It’s possible that they may create some more content in the future, but we haven’t heard of anything in the pipeline I’m afraid.
It’s rather disappointing to see support cut off so soon, but don’t underestimate Microsoft’s interest in trying to get a few more dollars out of PGR4’s DLC scene.
The Xbox Live Arcade version of Bungie’s old FPS (no, not the first Halo) will be getting some DLC support in the form of new maps and accompanying achievements. Marathon will be getting a grand total of ten new maps and three new achievements worth 50 gamerpoints.
360Sync landed some videos of the new maps in action, which you can check out here and here. It’s cool to see an old game get all this love so long after it was released. Ah, the wonders of downloadable content.
MTV and Harmonix have landed themselves a sponsor to temporarily drop the price of various songs in Rock Band from now through June 1. The songs will cost just 80 Microsoft Points, rather than the usual 160. Just who is sponsoring, you ask? Why, McDonald’s, of course. Because when you think rock music, you think McDonald’s.
The sales schedule is as follows:
5/6/08-5/12/08 :
Crushcrushcrush - Paramore
Rock ‘n Roll Band - Boston
5/13/08-5/19/08 :
Shockwave - Black Tide
Sugar Magnolia - Grateful Dead
5/20/08-5/26/08:
We Care A Lot - Faith No More
All the Small Things - Blink 182
5/27/08-6/2/08:
Gimme Three Steps - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Dirty Little Secret - All-American Rejects
Hopefully this sale works out well and we see future advertisers do something similar (and with a broader selection of music). Another point goes to Rock Band in the ongoing battle with Guitar Hero.
This week’s new helping of Rock Band tracks includes a variety that’s been slapped together into a pack called Scene Pack 01. That includes “This Ain’t A Scene, It’s an Arms Race” by Fall Out Boy, “It Hurts” by Angels & Airwaves, and “Date with the Night” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I’ll be frank and say I’ve never even heard of those last two songs or their respective bands, but hey, at least Rock Band is doing a good job of introducing people to new music. (Even if you do have to pay extra.)
The songs cost 160 Microsoft Points individually, or you can save some points and go with the Scene Pack which costs 440 points.
Jonathan brought word earlier that owners of the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions of Rock Band would be able to get their hands on some downloadable content, in a sense. Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1 won’t require you to own a copy of the original Rock Band game – you’ll simply be able to pop in your Track Pack disc and get playing those 20 songs.
Of course, then you won’t have access to all of the good songs that were originally in Rock Band, but maybe this Track Pack has the only songs you’re interested in playing.
As Jonathan reported yesterday, no new Xbox Live Arcade games were released today, thanks to Grand Theft Auto IV’s release yesterday. The day after Halo 3 was released we also saw an XBLA release of Jack Squat, so today’s lack of any releases doesn’t come as much of a surprise. After a rocky start to the whole Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday campaign, we’ve had just four weeks (not including today) since August that didn’t bring any new games – and that was due to new games becoming ArcadeHits, Undertow being temporarily released for free, or Halo 3’s release. So I won’t go too hard on Microsoft.
What you can find new on the Xbox Live Marketplace today is a totally free Dr. Pepper theme! Please, hold your applause, because there’s more. A bunch of Turok themes have also been released (although they’ll run you the ridiculous standard price of 150 Microsoft Points each), a free F-16C -PJ Emblem- download for Ace Combat 6 owners, an Alone in the Dark trailer, and some sort of Raving Rabbids invasion of Chessmaster Live that will run you 150 points. I have no idea what it’s all about, but I’m jealous that Chessmaster gets it and not Spyglass Board Games.
You may now resume your regularly scheduled GTA session.
If you’ve been enjoyed the tower defense-styled PS3 game PixelJunk Monsters, you’ll be happy to hear that an expansion pack, called PixelJunk Monsters Encore, is in development. We’ve learned some new details about the game in addition to what you may have already heard, the most important of which is that Encore will be releasing in May.
The quick rundown of what to expect in Encore:
1 new island, Toki Island
15 new levels
5 new music tracks from Otograph
Ice Tower is now a stock item
Reduced gem cost to buy the Tesla Tower
Releasing in May 2008
PlayStation.Blog has an interview with the developers, including what inspired the game’s art style. There’s more information to come on the game next week, and I’ve got my fingers crossed (however futile it might be) that an online co-op mode will be a part of the expansion.
I imagine most people are going to be busy with Grand Theft Auto today, but that didn’t stop Harmonix from doing their weekly Rock Band DLC thing. Three new songs are now available, each for 160 Microsoft Points.
“Zero” - Smashing Pumpkins
“Red Tandy” - The Mother Hips
“Time-Sick Son of a Grizzly Bear” - The Mother Hips
Is anyone going to be tearing themselves away from GTA IV to download any of these? Personally, it would have taken the very top of my wishlist to manage that task, and it’s not often that there’s even so much as a single song released that I’m all that excited about, and this week is no different.
The release is just days away; our collective mouths are watering, and I think we are all of us ready to play the newest Grand Theft Auto. But there’s much more importance to the release than discovering Niko’s tale in Liberty City – Microsoft and Sony are both relying heavily on the game to give their respective system a leg up on the other. Microsoft is hoping the promise of exclusive downloadable content and the convenience of Xbox Live will be enough to woo gamers into going the 360 route, while Sony is banking on GTA being associated with the PlayStation brand for its edge.
With predicted sales of $400 million in the first week, suffice it to say that this is going to be big.
Analysts are chiming in with their prediction of which of the two console manufacturers will come out the victor in this particular battle. My adversary, Michael Pachter, explained his prediction quite simply, telling Reuters, “I think PS3 ‘wins’ this battle.”
“So many people who owned the PS2 went into PlayStation family because of GTA. The release of GTA4 could expedite their decision to upgrade,” said BMO Capital Markets’ Edward Williams.
Analysts weren’t all in agreement, though, as IDC’s Billy Pidgeon proved. “Online is such a strong part of the game and Microsoft has done such a great job of developing the online community, so for people who own multiple consoles, they will buy it for the 360,” he said.
One way or another, there’s one thing that’s undeniable: no matter which system you play the game on, it’s going to rock.
Those of you who have been enjoying (or not enjoying, in my case) the Bad Company beta who are also longtime fans of the core Battlefield franchise will know that the game is sorely lacking in the game modes department. In particular, the lack of the classic Conquest mode is a real bummer; Gold Rush is a fun mode, especially with the destructible environments, but some of us yearn for that classic Battlefield gameplay.
Luckily, DICE will be addressing this concern through some free downloadable content (free DLC from EA – shocking, I know) that will be available as soon as the game is released. And as Eurogamer points out, it’s being added because gamers wanted it.
You’ve gotta love that they were willing to implement the mode in response to community feedback. And the fact that it’s free makes it that much sweeter; it’s nice to see what amounts to a fairly significant gameplay feature being added through DLC for free in an EA published game.
Now, if they’ll just stop selling cheat codes, we’d really be in business.
Everyone loves free stuff, so just in time for the weekend comes several new free features for Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds. Just pop the disc into your PS3, head to the online features section, and you’ll be able to download the new content.
The main addition is the ability to wander the course during online games while waiting for your turn. You can even taunt your opponents, so that should help spice things up online — especially since there’s still no voice chat feature to be found. (Although it’s being seriously considered, according to SCEA associate producer Chris Hinojosa-Miranda.) New items are going to be added as times goes on, but for now you’ll find soccer balls awaiting your feet in the lobbies.
The recent server issues have been ironed out, and they’ve promised more in the way of DLC news soon. Expect it to be the same two new characters and course Japan already got.
Ivy and her giant sweater meat be damned, the main draw in Soul Calibur IV is the the gorgeous imagery and the fighting styles -not the massive knockers - and these new screens prove it.First off, we have Rock (Nathaniel) wearing his Rhino head. Then comes Talim who looks like a cross between a genie and a pirate, and last but not least is Yoshimitsu who, if I am being honest with you, scares me a little bit.
Soul Calibur IV will finally be released on July 29 and the limited Premium edition package will hit that day as well. Both editions will be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360. For more details on the game, check out our previous posts here.
Def Leppard’s Guitar Hero IIIouting and the obligatory weekly dose of Rock Band tracks (now finally with a full album!), there’s a ton of great new content now available on the PlayStation Store. The biggest release is certainly the Variety Map Pack ($10) for Call of Duty 4 which naturally includes four new multiplayer maps.
A new PS one Classic was also released today with R-Types ($6), ending that particular drought. (Even though you and I both know we probably won’t see another Classic for weeks.) There’s also the Biolith Rebellion 2 expansion set for The Eye of Judgment, whichs adds more than 100 new creatures, spells and abilities, so that sounds like a must-buy for fans of The Eye.
There’s also plenty of videos, demos of both echochromeand Iron Man, a map pack for Army of Two, downloadable songs for Karaoke Revolution, and more. So hit the break and check out everything now available for download.
Ruling out the extreme possibility that Rockstar could at some point release a Hot Coffee mod for GTA IV, MTV Multiplayer has learned that the ESRB will not allow downloadable content to go beyond the limits of the game’s original ESRB rating. So in other words, you’ll never see anything that would qualify as Adults Only in an M-rated game through the release of DLC.
This becomes more of an issue now that significant DLC releases — such as expansion packs, in the case of Oblivion with Shivering Isles, which was released through the Xbox Live Marketplace — are growing closer to the norm rather than the anomaly.
ESRB president Patricia Vance spoke at an MI6 Conference a few weeks ago, and explained the policy.
“If a game submits a game to us and it gets a teen rating and then wants to add downloadable content to that game in the future, which is obviously happening a lot today, they have to keep the content in the downloadable product consistent with the core rating. It can’t go out of bounds,” she said.
Should DLC go beyond those restrictions, the game would have to be re-rated. That would likely mean games getting pulled from store shelves, which costs time and money — in other words, something a business isn’t likely to let happen.
It could be portrayed as unfair, but the need to actually exceed the game’s original ESRB rating doesn’t seem like a situation that would arise all that often. Besides, the last thing we need is another reason for Jack Thompson to tell on Strauss Zelnick to his mom.
There’s still no release date attached to Unreal Tournament 3 on Xbox 360, but Epic is already telling people what they’ll find in this version of UT3 that they won’t get elsewhere. Five new exclusive maps that aren’t in either the PC or PS3 versions of the game, two new characters, and support for two play splitscreen play. You’ll also find the free downloadable content Epic released a few weeks ago on the disc right form the get go.
That’s all well and good, but it’s not going to matter much if Microsoft doesn’t allow Epic to enable mods in the 360 version of the game. All the exclusive content in the world doesn’t mean squat when modders can easily recreate both the maps and characters for the PC and PS3 versions of the game.
Epic’s Jeff Morris talked about how UT3 is a twitch shooter, and is just what people need that have tired of the more tactical shooters on the market. While he might have a point about that, it’s still going to leave a lot of people in the dark on a feature that has been a mainstay of this series since its inception.
It’s been two weeks now since there’s been a real update to the PlayStation Store, so much of what’s been released today is catching up for missing out on the past few weeks – Rock Band songs, videos, and a UEFA Euro 2008 demo.
Of course, the big news is that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has been released. I’ve spent some time today playing it, and I think it’ll be a fine holdover for diehard Gran Turismo fans.
The new Warhawk Broken Mirror pack is also now available for $8, as well as a bundle with both the Broken Mirror and Omega Dawn DLC packs.
Despite all of the when, where, and what, Activision has confirmed which Def Leppard tracks will be available on April 24th for Guitar Hero III this morning through a gushing press release.As predicted, the band got it wrong, these are downloadable tracks - not tracks coming to Guitar Hero IV. This only proves that sometimes you cannot trust a burned-out rock star to get their facts straight. But you know what? That’s ok, because as long as we DO get to rock out to Photograph and Rock of Ages, Phil Colin can say anything he likes.
Def Leppard’s newest single “Nine Lives”, which is currently being played to death on my local rock stations, will be available for download five days before their upcoming studio album “Songs from the Sparkle Lounge” releases on April, 29th. The single is the result of Def Leppard’s collaboration with country star Tim McGraw, and will be featured on their upcoming record which is the band’s first new studio release since 2006’s CD titled “YEAH” .
The track pack also features live versions of “Photograph” and “Rock of Ages,” from the awesome “Pyromania” album.
“Being involved with Guitar Hero is very exciting for us and adds a whole new layer of appreciation,” says Joe Elliott, lead singer, Def Leppard. “I know from personal experience how much more you get into the music by playing the game - which is why we were keen to explore this opportunity. Guitar Hero is extremely popular with all kinds of music heads, which includes a lot of our fans- and we think releasing ‘Nine Lives’ this way first is just fantastic!”
“We are extremely thrilled to be partnering with Def Leppard, who are true rock icons,” said Dusty Welch, Head of Publishing for RedOctane. “The band’s participation in offering ‘Nine Lives’ to fans exclusively via Guitar Hero III downloadable content before their album hits store shelves, before the single is available for purchase on iTunes, demonstrates the level of commitment these legendary artists are making to Guitar Hero and how the franchise is transforming the music landscape.”
See, I told you the press release was “gushing”. The track pack will be available on PSN and XBL on April 24, 2008. Rock on!
Ruling out the extreme possibility that Rockstar could at some point release a Hot Coffee mod for GTA IV, 
