With the news of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition: Colonies Edition going gold, comes some new screens. The Colonies will include the following additions to the game:
“Score Attack”, all enemies have points assigned to them and the score awarded will change depending on how they are defeated, with skilled marksmen being rewarded.
“Trial Battle Mode” pits players against all of the game’s bosses, one after another.
Players of both “Score Attack” and “Trial Battle” modes will be able to compare their skills and compete via the online ranking system.
“Off Limit Mode” will allow players to take on Lost Planet’s harsh environments and enemies with super-charged weapons and a powered-up grappling hook.
Multiplayer gamers will have 4 new maps, 5 new playable characters, 10 new weapons and 7 new multiplayer modes. Players become poachers as they attempt to steal opponents’ alien Akrid eggs in a number of individual and team play modes, while the addition of “VS Annihilator” mode assigns one robotic Vital Suit to each team, which must be defended at all cost.
The game also includes the ability to play as a gigantic marauding Akrid where gamers can turn the tables on the Snow Pirates as they assume the role of one of E.D.N. III’s indigenous creatures in “Akrid Hunting” mode.
Hitting shelves on May 27th, all of these modes can be played across a total of 20 maps, including a number of brand-new multiplayer arenas set in areas such as the confines of an ancient coliseum or the broad expanse of desert. For the first time, Xbox 360 owners will be able to join up with or play against Windows-based PC gamers.
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I guess to celebrate Rock Band’s launch in Europe this week, fans of the game here in the States will be getting the full-on Eurorock treatment. Other than Blur, Muse, and Oasis have no idea who the rest of these bands are, but I am sure some of it is pretty good.
“Beetlebum” - Blur (Cover, 160 MS Points / $2)
“Hier Kommt Alex” - Die Toten Hosen (160 MS Points / $2)
“Countdown to Insanity” - H-BlockX (160 MS Points / $2)
“Perfekte Welle” - Juli (160 MS Points / $2)
“Manu Chao” - Les Wampas (160 MS Points / $2)
“Hysteria” - Muse (160 MS Points / $2)
“Rock N Roll Star” - Oasis (160 MS Points / $2)
“New Wave” - Pleymo (160 MS Points / $2)
“Monsoon” - Tokio Hotel (160 MS Points / $2)
Those wanting to check these titles out can expect them to hit the Xbox 360 and PS3 on Tuesday and Thursday respectively. The Cars are also expected to hit next week as well so that might make you feel a little less “meh” or maybe even more “meh” depends on your tastes.
As expected, Microsoft continued to tout the fact that the Xbox 360 has surpassed 10 million units sold in the United States. Since they first made the announcement a few days ago, they’ve bumped that figure up to 10.1 million sold.
Surprisingly little from the press release Microsoft sent out had to do with figures that would stem from the 360 having been on the market for a year longer than the competition. That could be because they dedicated an entire portion of it to talking about how wonderful Grand Theft Auto IV has been performing on the 360. They even say it’s “outselling the other platform’s version by nearly 2:1 in the U.S.” — “other platform”? What’s up with that?
As it turns out, GameStop’s claim that 64% of all copies of GTA IV sold were on Xbox 360 was spot on — 64.9% is the exact number if you do the math with NPD’s numbers for the month of April. Between the 360 and PS3 versions of the game, GTA IV managed to sell 2.85 million even though it was released on April 29 — not too shabby.
Mario Kart Wii, meanwhile, sold more than a million copies. That’s a million plastic wheels out there in the wild, imparing people’s ability to control the game properly. And of course, with the number of Wii systems that sold in April, you know you’re going to see a lot of Wii Play sales, and that we did. Smash Bros. had a big drop off, from 2.7 million in March down to 326k in April. Not that Nintendo should be complaining, with five of their games in the top ten, with six of the top ten on Nintendo platforms.
April 2008 Software Sales
GTA IV (360) - 1.85M Mario Kart Wii w/ wheel (Wii) - 1.12M GTA IV (PS3) - 1.00M Wii Play (Wii) - 360,000 Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) - 326,000 Gran Turismo 5: Prologue (PS3) - 224,000 Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness (DS) - 202,000 Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time (DS) - 202,000 Guitar Hero III (Wii) - 152,000 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) - 141,000
Call of Duty 4 on 360 continues to do its best Mustafa impression, as it just refuses to be kicked out of the top ten. Could next month finally see it kicked out? I’m going to go ahead and predict a bold “no.”
I’m at a loss to really explain what happened in April; if you’re anything other than a Nintendo fan, you’re not going to be pleased with the hardware sales figures. Not a single system other than Nintendo’s duo managed to crack 200,000 units for the month of April in the US, according to the NPD Group.
April 2008 Hardware Sales (March numbers in parentheses):
Nintendo Wii - 714,200 (721,000)
Nintendo DS - 414,800 (698,000)
PlayStation Portable - 192,700 (297,000)
Xbox 360 - 188,000 (262,000)
PlayStation 3 - 187,100 (257,000)
PlayStation 2 - 124,400 (216,000)
Talk about a 50-50 split for the PS3 and 360 here in the US; just 900 units separated the two systems. Oddly enough, the rankings turned out to be exactly the same as in March, which is, in a way, good if you’re in the market for a Wii as Michael Pachter’s prediction that the Wii shortage would be resolving itself seems to have come true. Nearly 1.5 million consoles sold in two months means the system is out there in fairly large quantities.
Unfortunately, my archrival’s other predictions weren’t quite so accurate. The 360 and PS3 sold roughly 90k and 100k less, respectively, than he thought. But really, who would have thought the numbers would be so low this month?
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.
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.
We may not have any definitive screens for the game, and we may not have all the information on it yet, but Game Informer sure does in the June Issue. Here are some tidbits regarding Prince of Persia: Heir Apparent, which is scheduled to hit this fall:
Elika, the female, is expected to revolutionize the role of a supporting character
Vast outdoor spaces as opposed to mainly indoor exploring like in past games
Graphically, it will be cell-shaded, like a storyboard
If you subscribe to GI, you can look forward to some more information on the new PoP game, and according to Game Informer “the cell-shaded art approach is not the only exciting change the newest iteration has to offer.”
Ubidays is coming up pretty soon, so expect to see loads more information pop up for Heir Apparent in the not so distant future.
Heir Apparent is really confusing me - why did the name Prince of Persia Prodigy get patented? Is this a second game coming or did they just have two different titles ready for the game a the toss of a coin decided which it would be? Or is this the name of the much ballyhooed movie coming out? Hopefully we will find out soon enough.
While Nintendo might be trying to get the indie developer crowd’s attention, mainstream developers have been taking advantage of WiiWare, too. Next Gen spoke with a few developers to see what they thought of the young platform and how it stacks up with the competition.
Why did you choose to develop the game for WiiWare rather than Xbox Live Arcade or PlayStation Network?
David Braben, founder of Frontier: It was the way that you control the wind that was important and the control of the Wii was absolutely defined by that. We didn’t immediately think, ‘ah yes, it’s a WiiWare game,’ but we did think ‘oh, it’s a Wii game.’ There are games that use two Wii controls, where you have button combinations across the Wiimote and the Nunchuck, and that’s something that feels quite uncomfortable in my opinion. Then there are games that use the Wiimote purely as a pointer and don’t use the Nunchuck at all, but what we’re doing is subtly different in the sense that you’ve got one character controlled by the Wiimote, which is the wind, and the other where you’re directly controlling the character talking, and so it feels very natural to have the two controllers separated.
From a development point of view WiiWare is great. It means we can take bigger risks, we can experiment with new control mechanisms at less financial and commercial risk and I think that’s a fantastic thing.
Dave Grossman, Telltale Games design director: I do think that the Wii lends itself in particular to the kind of idea based gameplay that we do although ultimately I think we’d like it to be on all of the downloadable channels. The interface is meant to be very, very simple. You don’t need tons and tons of buttons but if you have something you can just point with that’s just great, so it was kind of an easier mindset for us to be on the Wii then perhaps on the other platforms, but obviously our games are meant to be simple and have a broad appeal and would probably be good on any of the downloadable channels.
Bill Swartz, Mastiff: The Wiimote was the killer, period. Does Xbox have a Wiimote? Honestly, we wanted to do a Wii game, we wanted to do a WiiWare game, that was really very much in the front of our minds, and we wanted to do something with a license attached. Tony Hawk was already taken. No seriously, I really didn’t want to go out there and just make up some random sport by myself, you know, let’s do a Marble Madness rip-off because no one’s done one for six months. That was really what we didn’t want to do. We wanted to do something with a license attached but the last thing I wanted to do was try to be a mini EA or a mini Activision or a mini Ubisoft because we’d get creamed. So we were looking for a sort of minor but cool license that had some value that would let us use the controls in a unique way and ideally something that hadn’t been done before. No one has done an eating game - well, at least an eating game like ours, and it has the advantage because it is so hand to mouth and that is a really neat way to use a Wii control.
I wonder what would happen if the 360 really did get its own Wiimote rip off. You can see more about what they had to say over at Next Gen.
Along with its announcements regarding the financial results for fiscal year 2008, Electronic Arts has also revealed that Sony systems dominated EA’s sales in the fourth quarter.
Surprisingly, the PlayStation 2 led the way with $166 million worth of sales, followed closely by the PlayStation 3 with $152 million. On the other consoles, EA did $128 million worth of sales, and just $75 million on Wii. Combined, the two Sony systems accounted for 61% of EA console games sold, which is a pretty substantial amount.
This news certainly bodes well for the continued move towards making the PlayStation 3 the lead platform on multiplatform games.
Apparently, a 13 year-old Texan who ordered a credit card in his Dad’s name, ordered two hookers from an escort agency, bought an Xbox 360 and played Halo 3 with said hookers in a hotel room has been convicted of fraud and given three year’s worth of community service.
Ralph Hardy from Newark, Texas confessed to ordering an extra credit card and subsequently took his friends on a $30,000 spending spree, and the credit card company involved said it was not liable for him getting a hold of the card because it is common practice to send them out providing that all security questions are answered correctly.
It does not say whether Ralph ordered the card via an automated system, or actually spoke with a customer service rep who could not tell the difference between a 13 year-old’s voice or a grown man.
Luckily the hookers were not charged in this case because according to the “escorts”: “the kids said they would rather play Xbox than get down to business.” Looks like some hookers do not adhere to the “13 is not an adult” rule, and were most likely willing to “do the deed” providing they were getting paid.
Thank goodness the boys did not want to have relations, because not only would the gals be charged with prostitution but sex molestation charges as well due to the kids being underage.
The narc in this case was hotel management, whom after delivering supplies of Dr Pepper, Fritos and Oreos had been asked by the kids “where they could score some chicks and were willing to pay”. Saying that they had just made a “big score at a “World of Warcraft” tournament and wanted to get some relaxation”, the clerk notified the police after realizing the boys ages.
Upon arrival to the hotel room, the police found $3,000 in cash, electronic gadgets, an Xbox 360, numerous games, and two hookers. Ralph told police that his father wouldn’t care because it was his birthday and his Dad has forgotten to get him a present. The father, who is a lawyer of all things, stated that while he had indeed been busy and did not buy him a present, he had planned on making it up to him by going on a surprise trip to Disneyland.
Apparently, the father is not only forgetful, but out of touch with what 13 year-old boys really like - loose women, video games, and Dr. Pepper.
Denis Dyack, big bossman for Silicon Knights, spoke with Eurogamer recently, and divulged the gaming company’s plans to release a demo of Too Human via Xbox Live.
“We haven’t announced a date yet. Our goal is to try to get it out obviously before the game releases, and we’ll announce the specific timing of that shortly. But a demo is absolutely planned. We think it’s critical for the game. If things go as planned, gamers should get a demo well in advance before the game’s released.”
Too Human is slated to hit the States on August 19th and Europe on the 29th, and Dyack has says that the demo will hit sometime before August although Silicon is still working out what will and will not be included with the demo.
“The more we put in the demo, the more challenging it’s going to be. We’re probably going to focus on the first level of the game. We really want people to focus on the gameplay, because the fusion between RPG and action is something really new. You can’t really tell what the game’s like till you sit down and play.”
Sounds like Silicon Knights really cares about what gamers want, and that is a demo. It’s always nice to get an idea of a game before handing over your wallet to a snarky clerk behind a counter.
Capcom announced today that Lost Planet: Extreme Condition COLONIES EDITION has gone gold and will be available for the PC and Xbox 360 on May 27th.Lost Planet COLONIES EDITION provides the single player experience found in the original Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, with the addition of three new modes.
“Score Attack”, all enemies have points assigned to them and the score awarded will change depending on how they are defeated, with skilled marksmen being rewarded.
“Trial Battle Mode” pits players against all of the game’s bosses, one after another.
Players of both “Score Attack” and “Trial Battle” modes will be able to compare their skills and compete via the online ranking system.
“Off Limit Mode” will allow players to take on Lost Planet’s harsh environments and enemies with super-charged weapons and a powered-up grappling hook.
Multiplayer gamers will have 4 new maps, 5 new playable characters, 10 new weapons and 7 new multiplayer modes. Players become poachers as they attempt to steal opponents’ alien Akrid eggs in a number of individual and team play modes, while the addition of “VS Annihilator” mode assigns one robotic Vital Suit to each team, which must be defended at all cost.
The game also includes the ability to play as a gigantic marauding Akrid where gamers can turn the tables on the Snow Pirates as they assume the role of one of E.D.N. III’s indigenous creatures in “Akrid Hunting” mode.
All of these modes can be played across a total of 20 maps, including a number of brand-new multiplayer arenas set in areas such as the confines of an ancient coliseum or the broad expanse of desert. For the first time, Xbox 360 owners will be able to join up with or play against Windows-based PC gamers.
The Rocketmen: It Came from Uranus expansion has been released on PSN and XBLA. The next chapter of Capcom’s Rocketmen: Axis of Evil is 400 points on Xbox LIVE or $4.95 on PlayStation Network, and Rocketmen fans will have access to new maps, weapons, and enemies.
To download the add-on you must have already purchased Rocketmen: Axis of Evil in order to play It Came from Your Uranus.
Ahead of last month’s NPD numbers being released, Microsoft has announced that the Xbox 360 is the first console this generation to surpass 10 million units sold in the United States. Global sales have now topped 19 million, which Microsoft claims is more than either the PS3 or Wii has sold. That’s what a year’s head start will do for you, I guess.
“This year will be the largest in the history of the video game industry, with Xbox 360 leading the charge in the U.S. and abroad,” said Don Mattrick, Microsoft senior VP of Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. (phew) “History has shown us that the first company to reach 10 million in console sales wins the generation battle. We are uniquely positioned to set a new benchmark for the industry.”
The press release also boasted the 360’s leading attach rate, naturally. But with enough optimism to make a Brett Favre comeback seem like a good idea (that cynicism literally just killed half of Wisconsin), it’s definitely a big achievement for Microsoft. They’re going to need to work hard to fend off the competition and maintain the lead their head start provided them with.
Hardware revisions are constantly going on underneath the hood of the Xbox 360 (as well as the competition), and while this August will be bringing about a system comprised of all 65nm parts (known as “Jasper”), next year could see a much more drastic change.
According to TG Daily, the Valhalla chip will be the foundation of the mid-cycle refresh for the system (think Xbox 2.5 or Xbox 540). The chip will contain the CPU, GPU, and eDRAM when it’s produced next year, which could allow Microsoft to redesign the system a la the PS2 slimline.
That’s purely speculation, but it would make sense for Microsoft given the notorious Red Rings of Death that are associated with the current box. A redesign and newer components could help change that perception. Couple that with a price drop(s), and the Xbox’s future looks fairly bright.
There have been the highs (Conker’s Bad Fur Day) and the lows (Perfect Dark Zero) for developer Rare. Going from what was essentially a second-party position to a Microsoft-owned developer, the company has gone through some dramatic changes, and yet with the announcement of a Viva Pinata sequel and a third game in the Banjo series, we find ourselves in familiar but somehow new territory.
1UP recently spoke with Rare’s Gregg Mayles about how Rare has always set itself apart from the rest of the game development world, where the inspiration for Banjo’s new game mechanic came from, and how things have changed between being Microsoft owned and developing for a single system rather than dragging games through several generations. (See: Perfect Dark and Kameo)
So for Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, did the idea of making your own vehicles, which is a central game mechanic, evolve from coming up with new things to do with Banjo? Or was that a separate idea that made you think, “Hey, this works for Banjo“?
It came from a separate idea. It came from a very simple idea of wanting to combine pieces with different abilities. The beauty of the concept was [that] the player could combine those pieces in any order they wanted to, and at the end of it, whatever they created, you’d put into the game. It would just work. The player wouldn’t need to calculate very complicated processes; the software would do that. And no matter what you built, the size, the weight, the shape, you’d be able to put it in the game, and it would just work. But until Xbox 360, we’d never had a piece of hardware that’s been capable of doing that. So that’s where the idea in its infancy came from. It’s been around for a while, and at the same time, we were considering doing a new Banjo game but didn’t want to just do what we’d done previously.
The platform-game genre…has probably not had a lot of games in it recently. Obviously, Super Mario Galaxy has come out and it’s very nice, but it’s quite traditional in its approach, and apart from that, there probably aren’t too many major releases in that genre. So we thought, ‘If we’re going to reenter that genre, we need to do something that’s going to make people look twice at it,’ rather than just dismissing it as, ‘It’s Rare, there’s going to be millions of things to collect, and everything’ll have googly eyes.’ We had to do something different, so we wanted to take a different approach to platform games.
We looked at how traditional games have approached that — the designers create the abilities, we give them to the player, and the player can only use the abilities as we’ve defined. So we thought, “Can we approach that from a different direction, where the players actually get to define their own abilities so they can choose how they want to complete whatever task they’ve been set?” And then, suddenly, we had this concept sitting here, this idea of approaching platform games from a different direction, and then we brought the two together. The result is the new Banjo game.
Considering how long it’s been in development, the public has never gotten a really good look at Too Human. Sure, there was that infamous E3 demonstration and the EGM cover story, but compared with most games, Too Human’s been a phantom. Now that the game is locked in for a release in just a few months, we can expect media coverage to ramp up on the game. For you right now, we’ve got some new screenshots showing off the game’s combat, including a weapon that looks a whole lot like a Spartan Laser being fired.
You can check out the full sized version of the screen above and all the rest on FileFront.
We’re over four months into the year, but Shane Kim still believes that 2008 will be another landmark year for Xbox 360. Speaking with GI.biz at yesterday’s Microsoft event, the head of Microsoft Game Studios pointed to the exclusives we’ll be seeing this year as proof of his claim.
“What we’re really trying to communicate is that this is going to be another landmark year for Xbox 360,” Kim said.
“Mainly because we are really focused on the strategy of tremendous exclusive content. Titles like Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Banjo,et cetera. as well as the continuing leadership we have in the online space with Xbox Live.”
He claimed the battle between Xbox 360 and PS3 in Europe was a “horse race no matter what,” but also said, “I understand that Sony has declared leadership already. We’ll let the data speak for itself.”
Kim admits that Europe has always been a dominant market for Sony, and claims that with that in mind, any progress Microsoft has made is great progress. Japan, however, has few bright spots for the 360.
“Look, we’ve acknowledged for a long time that we probably wouldn’t win in Japan and that it was going to continue to be a tough market for us.
“We took some different steps in this generation - our partnership with Sakaguchi-san produced two very well-received and critically reviewed titles in Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. Unfortunately, it remains a difficult market for us.”
With that in mind, Microsoft isn’t about to give up on that market. Kim knows it’s critical and that there’s nowhere to go but up.
“I’m not going to go out and say our hope is to win in Japan because that’s not realistic. Do I think we have room for progress and improvement? I absolutely do.
Recently, a demo for LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures was released for the PC and it left console owners hoping for a version to hit their systems soon. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it is not going to happen.
According to Eurogamer, an Activision representative told the site that a console demo is not in the works or will there be one at all. So, if you are reading this, that means you have access to a PC, which means that you can still play a demo and that should give you an idea if you want it for your console, so try not to be so glum about it.
You can get the demo by clicking on the badge below.
Hardware revisions are constantly going on underneath the hood of the Xbox 360 (as well as the competition), and while this August will be bringing about a system comprised of all 65nm parts (known as “Jasper”), next year could see a much more drastic change.
We’re over four months into the year, but Shane Kim still believes that 2008 will be another landmark year for Xbox 360. Speaking with 
Recently, a demo for LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures was 
