Obviously, if you’re going to make a new rhythm game, you have to make it stand out a bit from the rest. So how does Konami plan to do this for their upcoming Rock Revolution? Well, for one, they recently revealed the most complicated fake drum set out there. The drum kit for Rock Revolution will feature six plates to bang on, plus a kick pedal, for a grand total of seven different buttons you’ll have to keep track of. Personally, I’m terrible at the drums on Rock Band, which has a now-measly four pads and a kick pedal, so the idea of three extra things to worry about isn’t exactly a selling point for me. Well, that and the fact that I’ve already got two rhythm games in my house, and I really don’t need anymore damn peripherals.
Konami is all over the place this morning, and the best thing I have seen so far are the assets they released for Silent Hill: Homecoming. Maybe I am just prejudiced because I like the whole horror genre better than anything else, or maybe it is just because Rock Revolution (the Wii Version) has left a horrible taste in my mouth.
What ever the case may be, here are some lovely screens for both of the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions and two trailers featuring exploration and a cemetery where you encounter an evil demonic dog that looks as if it has been turned inside out.
PS3 Screens
The Xbox 360 screens and the exploration trailer are posted after the break.
Konami today announced Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia exclusively for Nintendo DS which will introduce the all-new “Glyph” attack system which allows players to use special attack combinations as they attempt to defeat Dracula and his horde. Also new to the series are the outdoor locales ranging from forests to the ocean, giving players the chance to explore outside of Dracula’s Castle.
In Order of Ecclesia, players take the role of a member of the Ecclesia, an organization that has sworn to defeat the evil forces of Dracula. By using the Glyph attack system, players can unleash more than 100 different combinations to battle Dracula’s minions throughout 20 explorable areas. Utilizing Wi-Fi , players can choose to compete head-to-head, or trade items and equipment they have found while exploring the environments. Multiple endings that can be unlocked depending on how the player completes the game adds to the game with plenty of exploration, combat and items to discover.
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is planned for release in the Fall 2008.
Konami has announced the availability of a limited edition Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots PS3 bundle for North America. Featuring a Gun Metal Gray 40 GB PS3 with matching DualShock 3 wireless controller and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Limited Edition game. The bundle will be exclusively available at Konami’s website for $599.99.
Pre-sell for the bundle begins on May 19th and limited supplies are available.
Here are the stats pulled from the Konami site:
Due to limited quantities, orders will be limited to 1 (one) bundle per household
Shipping costs are higher than normal on this item, due to product size. Please review the shipping costs, during your order process
Please review our Return and Warranty policies before purchase
Gun Metal Gray PLAYSTATION 3 with a 40GB Hard drive
Gray DUALSHOCK 3 wireless controller
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Limited Edition
The Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots game, which includes Metal Gear Online, enabling you to take part in the ultimate multiplayer squad based tactical shooter
Exclusive Blu-ray disc including over 2 hours of additional content - “Hideo Kojima’s Gene” a behind-the-scenes vision of Hideo Kojima’s production team & game and “The Making of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots” documentary
The official Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots CD Soundtrack, including 16 never-before-released tracks by Harry Gregson-Williams (Shrek, Armageddon, The Rock), Nobuko Toda, and Ennio Morricone
To order, get more information, or just salivate over it, click here.
Coming to the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 is Konami’s Rock Revolution. Described as an “unprecedented, authentic music-based video game that will re-define the rhythm genre”, the game will come with its own drums. You can also “rock out” with the bass, guitar and vocals. Take THAT Harmonix!
According to Konami, Rock Revolution will be available with the most realistic drum peripheral on the market when it launches for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Featuring a supposedly extensive music selection on the game disc, along with a wide variety of downloadable songs available at launch, the game will also have single player modes as well as the prerequisite multiplayer.
The Wii version will be quite different from its Microsoft and Sony counterparts due to its “interactive use of the controls” where you will have the definitive “air-drum and air-guitar experience”plus the DS version will let you use the stylus for rhythm matching sessions.
Rock Revolution is scheduled to launch this Fall, and to quite honest with you, I cannot see anyone choosing the Wii version over the others if all you get to do is “air drum” and “air guitar” - I mean, “air guitar” and “air drums” what a crock… I am not paying over $40 for something I can see a mullet coiffed redneck in a beat up trans am do at a stop light here in my hometown.
I hope to the gaming gods that I read the press release wrong, I really do. Anyway, check out the trailer for yourself.
The gaming site Jeaux France has posted some scans for the upcoming Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Because they are so blurry and full of Japanese characters I decided not to post them on here and have instead supplied you with the link.
Over on Destructoid, which I got this lovely bit of info from, has provided a link to a cool Castlevania game-name generator, which most of you may already know about but I am just seeing it for the first time - and I found it to be hilarious. My Castlevania name game? Castlevania: Polka of Testicular Cancer. Gotta love that.
Konami Digital has announced that they are seriously trying to move forward with a feature film adaptation of Metal Gear Solid, but they aren’t just throwing it out into the depths of Hollywood to let just anyone take on the job. After all, this is one of their most cherished franchises, so they’re choosing who gets the film rights very carefully. The man currently working on the film project at Konami, Aki Saito, explains his views on the matter:
Often Hollywood adaptations have the original game creator involved at the beginning, but somewhere along the line they fall out of view. This is why it’s very important for us to carefully pick the studio for this project.
On this note however, he did mention that Hideo Kojima would not be directing the movie. All he did manage to say really was that Paul Thomas Anderson, director of There Will Be Blood, had expressed interest in helming the feature film. Personally, I hope he does end up directing, at least so I can make a “Snake Drinks Your Milkshake” t-shirt, and have it make a little sense.
Hideo Kojima, the man behind the Metal Gear Solid series, has always acted like a Hollywood movie director. So it kind of makes a lot of sense that this new trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4 looks like something you might actually see in a theater, right down to the “movie trailer voice.” The trailer basically sums up the general story behind the game: Liquid Snake (through Revolver Ocelot) has found a way to control soldiers mind, and Snake is sent to stop him. Okay, that’s like the most incredibly basic way I can explain the story; if I went into further details, I’d probably have to write a full novel. As always though, the game looks awesome and makes me even more excited to finally get my hands on it.
Konami has revealed the first ten minutes of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4, and I think this goes without saying, but still: SPOILER WARNING. Obviously if you want to wait to get the full experience when the game comes out, don’t watch the video above. But if you’re more like me, then you’re too excited to wait that long. The video shows the opening cut scene along with some short gameplay moments, which sets up how Old Snake made his way to the middle of a raging battlefield. The footage also reveals that hiding in boxes will most likely just get you killed this time around (particularly if you’re Hideo Kojima, apparently). This game just cannot get released quick enough.
2K Sports and Konami are teaming up once again to hit MLB Power Pros 2008 out of the park. This game depicting super-deformed caricatures of Baseball greats is a favorite in Japan, and will be making its second appearance in the US.
Players will be able to choose from ten different game modes including Practice, Exhibition, League and Home Run Challenge. They can also choose to play the part of a team’s General Manager in Season mode.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Konami again, and with the Baseball™ season now in full swing, we’re proud to offer our fans a refreshingly smart and exciting baseball game that is easily accessible for all ages,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Baseball enthusiasts will appreciate the variety of newly added features, intuitive game modes and improved overall feel, and we look forward to hitting one out of the park this season with MLB Power Pros 2008.”
Gamers can catch MLB Power Pros 2008 for the Wii and the PS2 this July. The game will be available for the DS this fall.
G4 TV has released a new gameplay video of the long awaited Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The footage demonstrates The new recon droid for MGS4. It also gives gamers a good look at the real time gameplay and the wide variety of weapons that are available. You can ship to a weapon and auto to first person with ease. In this video, your allies, Meryl’s Rat Patrol team, demonstrate smart AI that will actually help you in combat.
Check out the footage narrated by G4’s Adam Sessler:
You can look forward to grabbing MGS4 for the PS3 June 12.
The weekly “Metal Gear Mondays” post on PlayStation.Blog yesterday revealed the new content that has been made available to those in the Metal Gear Online beta: a new gameplay type, Sneaking Mission, and a new map, Midtown Maelstrom. The new map, pictured to the right, is a Middle Eastern level that focuses on combat in the streets and various back alleyways.
Sneaking Mission is a bit complex, as PS Blog explains: “In this rule, there will be one character and two teams in the game. Snake, Red team, and Blue team. Snake’s mission is to collect a certain number of dog tags, by having other players stunned or held up. Red and Blue teams’ mission is to defeat Snake certain times or defeat more players in the opposing team. If more than 10 people are in the game, another player may play as Snake’s mini robotic sidekick Mk. II, to assist the Snake player. If you are playing as Snake, you have many of his incredible abilities available to you – such as the camouflage!”
Some various concerns were also addressed in the post, including microphone problems, accessing the community site, training modes, and adding friends. You can check all of that out here.
We received some new screens for Silent Hill: Homecoming today. Konami’s first next-gen SH title was originally called Silent Hill V, and is expected to be released sometime in September for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Silent Hill: Homecoming follows Alex Shepherd, returning to his hometown of Shepherd’s Glen to investigate the sudden disappearance of his brother. From Shepherd’s Glen to Silent Hill, Alex must face the darkest of horrors in order to find his brother. Struggling with his own grip on reality, Alex must unravel the mystery behind his nightmares, discover the truth behind his brother’s disappearance, and confront the evil lurks in the seemingly empty streets of Silent Hill.
Alex must survive attacks from the misshapen denizens of the town using an all-new enhanced combat system that provides a wide array of attacks and counters. Along the way, Alex will encounter a variety of weapons to battle these horrific monsters and must also solve deadly puzzles as he uncovers the darkest secrets of Silent Hill.
It took a few more days of waiting than we first expected, but you can now head online and get in on some Metal Gear Online action. But be forewarned — you’ll have to download another patch that was released earlier today, but it’s much smaller than the previous one.
Folks have been reporting that there’s been some trouble connecting, which is (unfortunately) to be expected. Just keep trying, and you’ll get in. Make sure to come back afterward and let us know what you think, and if the wait was worth it.
Konami has announced that Target: Terror has shipped to retail stores across North America. Developed for the Wii, Target: Terror brings the classic arcade shooter with features including unlockable mini games and the new “Justice Mode,” allowing a single player to use two weapons. Fans can experience this classic one-of-a-kind game with updated controls for the first time in their own living room.
Target: Terror puts players in the place of an elite counter-terrorist agent who is charged with protecting the U.S. from all terrorist activities. With a full-scale assault spanning the entire U.S., players are given the chance to show terrorists who’s in charge by eliminating the seemingly endless waves of enemies with an assortment of high-tech weapons in their arsenal.
Utilizing the motion sensing controls of the Wii Remote, fans can enhance the experience even more if they are the proud owners of the Wii Zapper which will supposedly “replicate both the arcade light-gun as well as the elite, tactical weapons used by counter-terrorist agents”.
Yeah, I really feel like I have a sniper rifle or a machine gun in my hand when playing with my Wii Zapper.
Target: Terror is rated “M” for Mature. For more information, click here.
Not content withCastlevania:Order of Ecclesia coming to the DS, Konami has filed another trademark for our favorite vampire franchise.
Over on the lovely and boring USPTO site, you will find that Castlevania: Judgment was filed for trademark on April 11th. Whether this one will be for the DS as well or for a full fledged console remains to be seen, but I am sure we will find out once they apply for a rating through the ESRB.
Here is the trademark info in all of its boring glory, just like last time.
Word Mark: CASTLEVANIA JUDGMENT
Goods and Services: IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038.
G & S: Video game software, video game programs, computer game software, computer game programs, electronic game programs
IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Entertainment services, namely, providing on-line video games; providing information to game players about the ranking of their scores of games
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code: (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number: 77446112
Filing Date: April 11, 2008
Current Filing Basis:1B
Original Filing Basis:1B
Owner: (APPLICANT) Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. CORPORATION JAPAN 9-7-2, Akasaka, Minato-ku Tokyo JAPAN
Attorney of Record: Jeffrey H. Kaufman
Type of Mark:TRADEMARK. SERVICE MARK
Register: PRINCIPAL
Live/Dead Indicator: LIVE
Posted by Daniel on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 pm under Hands On, Videos
This past weekend, I headed out to the New York Comic Con to see all of that latest and greatest in the Comic Book community. To my surprise, Komani was there showing off Metal Gear Online. Not only did I have to play it, but I made sure I got footage of myself completely sucking at… er.. I mean pwning the enemy! We all know that folks who play video games for a living must be good at all of them…right?!
I must say that I was completely surprised at how well the game handled. It stayed true to how Metal Gear Solid feels, while finally adding a multiplayer component to it. The game was setup as a local 4v4 LAN match. As you’ll see in the video above, this was the first time I ever played MGO, so I didn’t quite have a grasp on what the controls were yet. I did like how you can change weapons or accessories by simply press the R2/L2 buttons instead of having to hold it down in order to select what you want to use (even though I can’t recall at the moment if that was something previous Metal Gear Solid games did).
Playing Metal Gear Online was fun for the short time I got to try it out. Thanks to this hands-on impression, not only am I looking forward to MGS4, but I’ll also probably be checking out MGO whenever I have the chance.
Before we knew it was delayed, those of us who were lucky enough to secure a (working) beta key for Metal Gear Online were left to deal with a variety of problems. Some people had trouble downloading the client. Nearly everyone found the huge patch download to be slow and unresponsive at best. Then the Konami ID site that you have to register on stopped working.
With the beta now delayed, the site has been patched up and seems to be working as it should. If you’re in the beta, make sure to sign up now so that you don’t have to mess with it once the beta finally goes live, or just in case the site decides to break again.
Today, PS3 owners the world over eagerly fired up the new Metal Gear Online beta…and promptly found themselves denied. The beta was supposed to begin worldwide today, but it seems Konami has been forced to limit it to Japan for now, due to an overwhelming demand. They plan to re-open the beta in other regions once they can stabilize the servers in Japan first; and who knows when that will be? On the plus side, the developer has stated they will now be extending the beta period by five days. Konami released this notice on the issue:
IMPORTANT NOTICE for all
METAL GEAR ONLINE PREMIERE BETA players
We would like to thank all players for their keen interest in taking part in the beta test. However, we regret to inform you that due to extraordinary levels of traffic from all around the globe, we have been unable to run the service to the level we expected. As a temporary measure, we will be deferring the start of the US public beta test until we are able to stabilize our server.
We would like to apologize for all inconveniences as well as confusion caused. We would like to add that due to the above reasons, we will be making the following changes to the schedule:
1) Starting date: TBA. We will be making another announcement on 22/4/2008 23:00(PDT)
2) Beta Test closure: This will now be on 11/05/2008 at 24:00(PDT) rather than 06/05/2008 at 24:00(PDT)
IMPORTANT: Please note that your voucher code will only be valid up until 05/06/2008, so please make sure to register them by then.
Well, I suppose it’s a good thing this is just a beta test and not the actual release of the game. Right now, someone in Konami is holding a clip board with some note paper, and right next to the words “More Servers?” he’s checking the box marked “Yes.”
The beta for Metal Gear Online starts tomorrow, at which time we’ll probably start to hear it’s actually any good. Until then though, it looks like Konami has posted the entire instruction manual for the game online. The instructions are also included in the beta program itself, but for those of us that aren’t in the beta, they offer a closer glimpse of what to expect from the final product. You can check out the instruction manual by clicking the link below, and the final version of Metal Gear online should ship with Metal Gear Solid 4 on June 12th.
Obviously, if you’re going to make a new rhythm game, you have to make it stand out a bit from the rest. So how does Konami plan to do this for their upcoming Rock Revolution? Well, for one, they recently revealed the most complicated fake drum set out there. The drum kit for Rock Revolution will feature six plates to bang on, plus a kick pedal, for a grand total of seven different buttons you’ll have to keep track of. Personally, I’m terrible at the drums on Rock Band, which has a now-measly four pads and a kick pedal, so the idea of three extra things to worry about isn’t exactly a selling point for me. Well, that and the fact that I’ve already got two rhythm games in my house, and I really don’t need anymore damn peripherals.
Konami today announced 
The gaming site 
Konami Digital has announced that they are seriously trying to move forward with a feature film adaptation of Metal Gear Solid, but they aren’t just throwing it out into the depths of Hollywood to let just anyone take on the job. After all, this is one of their most cherished franchises, so they’re choosing who gets the film rights very carefully. The man currently working on the film project at Konami, Aki Saito, explains his views on the matter:
The weekly “Metal Gear Mondays” post on 
Konami has announced that Target: Terror has shipped to retail stores across North America. Developed for the Wii, Target: Terror brings the classic arcade shooter with features including unlockable mini games and the new “Justice Mode,” allowing a single player to use two weapons. Fans can experience this classic one-of-a-kind game with updated controls for the first time in their own living room.
Today, PS3 owners the world over eagerly fired up the new Metal Gear Online beta…and promptly found themselves denied. The beta was supposed to begin worldwide today, but it seems Konami has been forced to limit it to Japan for now, due to an overwhelming demand. They plan to re-open the beta in other regions once they can stabilize the servers in Japan first; and who knows when that will be? On the plus side, the developer has stated they will now be extending the beta period by five days. Konami released this notice on the issue:
