News
Confirmed PlayStation Move games
More coming
With Sony's motion controller set expected in stores sometime this holiday season, more than a dozen games are currently in development that should be available in the first few weeks of its availability.
Most of the game being worked on are coming from Sony, though a few titles are the product of third-party publishers. Sony says that 36 publishers will support PlayStation Move with games this fall, though the majority of these games have yet to be revealed.
Confirmed retail games include: EA Sports Active 2.0, Tiger Woods 2011, The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition, LittleBigPlanet, and SOCOM US Navy SEALs 4. A number of downloadable games will support PlayStation Move as well such as Flower, Echochrome 2, High Velocity Bowling, and Pain.
More games are expected to be announced during E3 in June.
Micro-transactions soon on Steam
Nickels and dimes
With a rise in popularity and a debut on Mac impending, Valve's Steam platform looks to evolve further with micro-transactions.
According to a report by BigDownload, Valve is releasing new development tools that support micro-transactions. In short, the ability to sell content from within PC games at low prices such as 59p/99c.
The concept of micro-transactions isn't a new one - it drives the gaming market in China, for example - but its introduction to Steam would be a big step toward adoption in the US and Europe.
While micro-transactions are now supported in Steam, no developer has announced plans to utilise the feature. Expect someone to step forward and tinker with them soon, though.
Deluxe Dojo Edition for SSFIV
Super expensive
So what if you've emptied your wallet on God of War III, Mass Effect 2, and Final Fantasy XIII? What's another $79.99 for the premium Super Street Fighter IV Dojo Edition?
Capcom understands Street Fighter fans and so is offering a high-priced special edition of Super Street Fighter IV that is sure to take those last remain notes from your pocket.
Detailed on Capcom's online store, the Dojo Edition comes wil a copy of the game (which is priced individually at $39.99), a branded gym tote, T-shirt, aluminium water bottle, head band, and 1 GB USB flash drive.
When it ships starting on April 27, you can be sure that ardent fans of the franchise will fork over the bucks.
Kane & Lynch flick has unlikely star
Ray of hope
Liberties taken with the script for the upcoming Kane & Lynch movie will see Academy Award-winning actor Jaime Foxx cast in the role of psychotic criminal James Lynch.
Shacknews wrote about the casting decision based on a tweet from screenwriter Kyle Ward. Apparently, Foxx's role in the film is a done deal.
While the addition of Foxx to the cast brings some credibility to the production, he's an unusual choice for the role given that he doesn't look like a balding, pasty white schizophrenic. How the character of James Lynch is being reinterpreted is certain to be a point of interest for anyone who played the game.
No theatrical release date has been set, though game sequel Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days has been announced for release on August 24.
Ports, not original games rule PSP
Original sin
Despite an effort to encourage the release of original content for PSP, the most popular titles for the handheld are ports of older games such as Final Fantasy VII and Tetris.
The latest episode of video magazine Pulse lists the best-selling PlayStation Network games for PSP and the results illuminate a worrying trend. Trumping original games like God of War: Chains of Olympus and Gran Turismo are PSone ports of Final Fantasy VII and VIII, as well as Tetris.
While this means people are downloading games for play on their PSP, it's a concern that they're less interested in games specific to PSP.
Sony maintains that PSP is doing just fine in the US, but when the top downloaded game is a 13-year-old RPG and not the slick driving simulation that debuted alongside PSPgo in October, something's not going quite right.
Killzone 3 in the works
Hel(ghast) yeah
Sony Computer Entertainment America president Jack Tretton has publicly confirmed development of Killzone 3, though hasn't offered insight into when the anticipated shooter will see release.
Given the last game's cliffhanger ending, is a sequel all that much of a surprise? Killzone 2 was built to be followed up and solid sales for the shooter justify Sony and developer Guerilla investing money in a new game.
Tretton made the announcement on GameTrailers TV stating, "I don't know when you'll see announcements about it, but I can promise you a Killzone 3."
It seems like you just made the announcement right there, Tretton. A more formal debut might be in the works for E3 in June.
Miyamoto reveals work on Pikmin 3
Game still en route
Nintendo veteran game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, in London to pick up a BAFTA fellowship, has revealed that Pikmin 3 is in the works.
The Nintendo man didn't wow the BAFTA crowd during his acceptance speech, instead opting to drop word to the Official Nintendo Magazine later in the evening.
"ONM is at the BAFTAs! Miyamoto just told us Pikmin 3 development is 'well under way,'" teased the publication in a Twitter update.
We'll have more on Pikmin 3 just as soon as we can get it.
Batman takes best game BAFTA
Blam!
The annual videogame BAFTA awards were held last night at a glittering ceremony in London, Batman: Arkham Asylum taking home the best game gong.
Rocksteady's opus may have taken the award for best game, as well as 'gameplay', but Uncharted 2 took home the awards in four categories: Action game. Original score, Story and Use of audio.
Flower won for artistic achievement, with Left 4 Dead 2 the multiplayer winner, LittleBigPlanet best on a handheld.
Empire: Total War was the top dog in the strategy category, while Wii Sports Resort was top family game and FIFA 10 made best use of online.
Nintendo veteran Shigeru Miyamoto joined the Academy as a fellow, and the public vote (the GAME award) went to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. More BAFTA news as we get it.
Flying start for Final Fantasy XIII in UK
Best-seller of 2010 so far
Final Fantasy XIII is the fastest selling title in the long-running series released in the UK so far, that's the word in from Square Enix.
The publisher has stopped short of offering up official sales figures, but are happy to tell us that the game's made an assured start.
"It's great to see Final Fantasy XIII hitting the top of the UK charts and setting the pace as the fastest selling game of the year," enthuses UK Marketing Director, Jon Brooke.
"With high profile TV spots playing out beyond Easter and branded buses still travelling the country I'm positive this title is only going to get bigger and bigger."
The game was released on PS3 and Xbox 360 last week.
New tricks in Mass Effect 3
BioWare bosses talk up third outing
Speaking online this week, in an interview conducted at GDC, BioWare bosses Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka have a few tricks up their sleeve for Mass Effect 3 - the third title in the hit RPG series.
"We've got some tricks up our sleeves," enthuses Muzyka. "We have new tricks."
"It's also flexible, too," offers Zeschuk. "A lot of the features in Mass Effect 2 came directly from player feedback, and we totally changed what we were planning to build because of that feedback. So we knew we had to make it awesome, and we're going to change some of the features and some of the approaches we thought we were going to take from ME1 to ME2.
"We focused a lot more on action, and it really amped the shooter aspects of this game. It's a stand-alone experience, so you don't have to play Mass Effect 1. It's a great shooter. You can play it as a shooter. It's a deep, rich shooter with a lot of customization options, exploration and story that just make the experience that much richer. But it's a shooter at its core, and that's the way the combat unfolds."
More Mass Effect 3 news just as soon as we get it.
Heavy Rain DLC begins April 1st
Chroniclesed
No joke, Quantic Dream and Sony have confirmed that the first slice of DLC for Heavy Rain will land on April 1st, and this first release will be called Heavy Rain Chronicles: The Taxidermist.
As per usual this new content will be offered by the PlayStation Store, and it'll feature the photo-journalist Madison Paige, investigating the strange goings on demonstrated in Sony's Games Convention 2008 presentation on the game.
This DLC was pre-included in the Collector's Edition of Heavy Rain, and we're expecting new Chronicles to follow in the coming months, including other big characters from the adventure.
We'll have more Heavy Rain news soon.
Why the PS3 motion controller is called Move
It's complicated
Sony have been waxing lyrical this week on why their new PS3 motion controller - due this autumn - is to be called 'Move', rather than Arc, Gem or any of the other speculated titles.
"It's great - everyone's so interested in how our company names products. It's like at any other company, everyone dumps in their ideas and you've got agencies out there coming up with names," VP Scott Rohde tells IndustryGamers.
"At the end of the day, we really felt that Move conveyed what the controller is all about. It's a word that the smallest kid understands, and it's a really good name. I'm happy with it."
Rumour on the grapevine has it Microsoft might in fact control the name 'Arc'.
BioWare eye new IPs
Dragon Age cheers founders
Chatting to Game Informer at GDC, the two doctors behind BioWare have said that they would be only too happy to work on new IPs, following the success of Dragon Age - another new creation.
"We would love to build some new IPs and settings that are different than the ones we've currently got while continuing to build within the frameworks of the franchises we've got, too," Dr Ray Muzyka offers.
"We're going to have a mix of all those things going forward."
In the interview, both BioWare bosses also express their concern over current litigation surrounding Infinity Ward and Call of Duty, stating that "it's not good" given the key role of the developers involved.
DRM sees Ubi titles dropped from Steam?
Or not, in fact
Ubisoft's connection-requiring PC DRM has caused more than a little controversy, and now it seems as if games including the controversial copy-protection software are being dropped from Steam.
According to CVG, both Assassin's Creed II and Silent Hunter 5 have been dropped from the popular online content delivery platform - bad PR surrounding the DRM to blame.
Word has it that Steam don't want to anger their userbase by digitally delivering the problem titles, Valve keen to hang on to their hard-won reputation for good service.
More on this controversy as we get it.
Update: Ubisoft have told VG247 that the omission of these games isn't related to DRM: "The games listed are available for sale in all other countries on STEAM. The fact it is not available on STEAM UK has nothing to do with the DRM but is linked to a local business discussion between Ubisoft and Steam in UK."
Houser: Westerns tough to get right
But Rockstar is on the case
Dan Houser has been talking about the challenges of bringing the Wild West to life in a sandbox video game.
In an interview with GamesTM, Houser spoke about their upcoming title Red Dead Redemption and the trials and tribulations that have beset the game on it's journey to market.
He started by talking about previous efforts at making a western video game: "People were trying to do something that was fundamentally impossible."
The Rockstar supremo continues: "This project has been long, gruelling and enormously challenging for us, despite our massive experience at making open world games, the big team we have on the project, our strong technology base in RAGE and experience of making Red Dead Revolver."
Houser says that part of the challenge was down to the tools and the hardware that were available. He goes on: "There is simply no way someone could have made a game like this twelve months ago, let alone on previous generations of hardware."
Nevertheless Red Dead Redemption promises to be something very special indeed. "For the game to be fun and engaging and everything we hoped it could be, we had to include a huge range of classic western moments - stand-offs, duels, stagecoach fights, gunfights on trains, hold-ups, bounty hunting, and so on," Houser adds. "This is the strength of the game, but doing this in a seamless way in a massive open world was a huge challenge."
Rockstar's western epic is set for release in Europe on May 21st for Xbox 360 and PS3.












