MAR
20
2010
12:30

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.

MAR
20
2010
12:28

Batman takes best game BAFTA

Blam!

Batman takes best game BAFTA Batman takes best game BAFTA

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.

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MAR
20
2010
12:25

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.

MAR
20
2010
12:19

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.

MAR
20
2010
12:17

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.

MAR
20
2010
12:13

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'.

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MAR
20
2010
12:10

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.

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MAR
20
2010
12:08

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."

MAR
19
2010
9:16

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.

MAR
19
2010
9:15

Alan Wake makes a UK 15 age rating

BBFC gentle with Remedy's long awaited thriller

The British Board of Film Classification seem to have been generous with Remedy's Xbox-exclusive thriller Alan Wake.

After the BBFC's scrutiny the game scored a 15 rating with no cuts required.

The classification also mentions a limited content edition which features an extra half hour of 'linear elements' such as cut-scenes and non-gameplay elements.

This probably means that there will be an extra DVD with the special edition featuring some making-of documentaries. Or at least that's our best guess.

Thanks CVG.

MAR
19
2010
9:12

Old Republic pricing may hold some surprises

BioWare hoping to shake up MMO pricing

Dr Ray Muzyka, GM of BioWare and EA's RPG guru has been teasing pricing structures for their upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

While speaking to Kotaku at the GDC last week Muzyka mentioned that the new Star Wars MMO's pricing plan will be "be more of the traditional business model with maybe some twists as well."

This would seem to indicate that EA are looking at a subscription model for SWTOR but there have been some indications that microtransactions could feature in the game as well.

"With Star Wars: The Old Republic, we haven't announced anything yet," Muzyka adds. "What we're striving to do, to clarify what I said earlier, is to make sure the fans and the audience that we're trying to reach feel they are getting something they understand and feel that it is a good value for their money - and feel that there is a way they actually want to engage in the experience, both in how they play it and how they pay for it. That's our high-level goal."

Ray wasn't getting pinned down to a specific explanation on their planned pricing strategy but at least we know that, as far as BioWare goes, value for money is a phrase that still means the same to them as it does to us.

More on this as we get it.

MAR
19
2010
9:10

Spotify wants in on the Xbox Live party

Music streaming service could bolster Xbox Live Gold services

Spotify could be winging its way to an Xbox 360 near you if CEO Daniel Ek has his way.

The free to use music streaming service has already found a large audience on home computers and laptops and is currently attempting to conquer the mobile phone sector as well.

Speaking to Techradar at the SXSW festival, Ek told of their vision for connecting people to music through as many platforms as possible.

"We want to enable your library on all these devices," enthused Ek. "Whether it is a set-top box, whether it's an Xbox or a mobile phone - that doesn't really matter for us. We want to make music like water."

We'll let you know as soon as we have more on this.

MAR
19
2010
9:09

USB mass storage support coming to Xbox 360

Finally

Very reliable rumours have surfaced that Microsoft will be adding USB mass storage device support to the Xbox 360 this Spring.

According to Joystiq there are documents that exist that show Microsoft are readying an update to allow USB flash drives and hard drives to be attached to the 360.

Apparently these drives would be fully compatible with the 360's existing features allowing players save games, download DLC and even Games on Demand and XBLA games to USB devices, rather than on the machine's own HDD.

This will be welcome news to many Xbox users who begrudge having to pay over the odds to upgrade their 20GB and 60GB HDDs to find space for the 360's growing need for storage space.

It also re-affirms Aaron Greenberg's comments that Microsoft are committed to a digital future for the 360.

MAR
19
2010
9:05

Design a kill for Dead Space 2

Immortalise you favourite kill move

Visceral Games are offering Dead Space fans the chance to design a kill move that will feature in Dead Space 2.

The contest offers players the chance to have their signature kill featured in the game and, as if that wasn't enough, the winner will also be immortalised in the game as an NPC.

The contest is running until the 26th of March and entries are being accepted in text, still image or even video form.

Entries are made via the Dead Space Facebook page. The contest is open to residents of The UK, US, Canada (except the province of Quebec), Australia, France, Italy, Spain and Sweden. The full contest rules are also available via the Facebook page.

MAR
19
2010
9:03

International Cricket 2010 announced

Cricket bowls its way back to the consoles

For anyone who fancies themselves as the next Shane Warne or Andrew Flintoff this year is the time for this dream to become a digital reality as Codemasters announce International Cricket 2010.

Following hot off the heels of the surprisingly successful Ashes Cricket 2009, International Cricket 2010 is the official title endorsed by the England and Wales Cricket Board and Cricket Australia.

International Cricket 2010 brings in a whole raft of new features including the new 'Action Cam' which promises to make players feel the pace of every fast ball.

John Szoke, producer for Codemasters, explains IC 2010: "With a focus on taking gamers into the action like never before, International Cricket 2010 will deliver the most authentic cricket gaming yet. Codemasters enjoys an unrivalled heritage in producing cricket games, and International Cricket 2010 will build on this success with a range of innovative gameplay features and enhancements."

International Cricket 2010 steps up to the crease this summer for Xbox 360 and PS3.