Archive for May 3rd, 2008
May 3, 2008
Nintendo is set to launch the Wii Balance Board as a bundle with Wii Fit on May 19, but the first game compatible with the peripheral will actually arrive in stores a bit earlier. Namco Bandai Games America today announced that We Ski for the Nintendo Wii has gone gold and is set for retail release on May 13.
More sedentary gamers will have a choice in controls, as We Ski supports the Wii Remote and Nunchuk as well as the board. It also includes freestyle, slalom, mogul, and downhill racing game modes, more than a dozen different tracks, customizable characters, and support for gamers’ own Mii avatars.
We Ski is rated E for Everyone and will retail for $29.99. For more on the game, check out If Its Games’s previous coverage.
May 3, 2008
There are jumps, and then there are jumps. The former you can find in nearly any off-road racing game these days: tiny little heaps of dirt that toss your bike or ATV in the air for a few feet, then bring you back down to earth with little more than a clank and a cloud of dust. As for those other kinds of jumps–the gravity-defying, seat-of-your-pants suicide leaps that feature the kind of airtime usually reserved for base jumpers–well, there’s only one place to find those kind of jumps: in Pure, the new off-road racing game from publisher Disney Interactive and developer Black Rock Studio. We first saw the game back in February and could already tell that this was a different take on the well-worn ATV racing genre. Earlier this week we got an updated look at the game–though sadly, no hands-on yet–and are happy to report that things are coming along nicely.
Jumps don’t get much bigger than in Pure.
Pure is going to have some fun features to keep you busy when you’re off the track, but the game is at its best when the tires are spitting dirt. During the demo, we were treated to updated looks at a couple of the tracks we’d already seen–Wyoming and Italy–and a brand-new track too: New Mexico. For the familiar tracks, visual improvements such as better particle effects were immediately obvious; the ATV bikes now kick up lots of dirt in the corners, and the developers have added a better sense of speed to effects such as trails coming off the ride when using the boost option.
Although you might expect a New Mexico track to be flat and featureless, the new track we saw in Pure is anything but. Built into the mountains, it’s a challenging-looking series of fast straights and torturous switchbacks over arid, dusty tracks, with scrub grass everywhere and rocky outlets just looking to topple your rider from his or her perch with one wrong move. It’s far from flat, too; in a game full of huge jumps, the New Mexico track features the most extreme cliff we’ve seen yet. This monstrous leap starts way up high, as you come off the edge of the cliff, leaping between the support cables of gondolas hundreds of feet in the air, and then eventually plummeting down to earth in the gorge below to continue your race. To give you a sense of the distance, the producer playing the game managed to turn four full flips on his ATV in midair before landing his bike on the ground.
One of the most compelling features in Pure will be the ability to construct ATV quad bikes from scratch, using the metric ton of parts you’ll earn as you make your way through the game. Parts you’ll be able to assemble include the frame, swingarm, A-arms, shocks, handlebars, among many others, and all of the parts will be actual licensed products from real parts manufacturers. They’ll also have a real effect on how your ATV performs and, as you assemble different parts together, you’ll get constant information on how a certain part will affect your bike’s attributes such as maximum speed, acceleration, handling, boost, and tricks ability. If you’re not interested in putting together your ATV piece by piece, you can choose to automatically assemble a bike that’s built for either racing or stunts with the press of a button. You’ll start out with two garage slots to save your assembled bikes, and you’ll be able to earn up to 10 as you progress through the game.
Aggressive AI will mean you’ll have to fight for every position.
The core of Pure’s single-player experience will be the World Tour mode, which will be a series of tournaments across the seven locales found in the game. These tournaments will consist of between five and seven events. There are three event types: traditional races, sprints, and freestyle events. Race events are your typical multilap events, whereas sprint races put the emphasis on raw speed, with shorter tracks that feature fewer jumps and fewer opportunities to get away from your opponents. As a result, expect there to always be a lot of traffic, especially in the corners. Disney wasn’t prepared to talk about how the freestyle events will work but, considering the game’s emphasis on tricks, we expect the developers to have some tricks up their sleeves for these events.
There’s still work to be done on Pure, including an entirely new HUD, the addition of all eight signature tricks for each of the prebuilt riders found in the game, as well as various spit-and-polish work leading up to its release later this year. We’re curious to see how the 16-player online mode will work, especially with regard to frame rate, which seems pretty solid in the single-player experience. Expect to see much more on Pure in the coming weeks.
-If Its Games
May 3, 2008
Sony’s game division has had its fair share of financial woes, with losses “arising from the strategic pricing of [the PlayStation 3] at points lower than its production costs and PS3-related inventory write downs” being blamed as recently as last October. However, the worst may be over. Japan’s Nikkei newspaper has credited Sony Computer Entertainment’s performance for contributing to an expected boost of Sony’s current profitability.
In the financial year ending March 2007, SCE posted an operating loss of ¥232 billion ($237 million at the time), but Nikkei is reporting that this year, that loss will have been trimmed by ¥100 billion ($967 million), helping the company post an overall operating profit of ¥380 billion ($3.6 billion). This is five times the profit of the previous year, with strong sales of digital cameras also credited by the Japanese business daily.
Though in the black, Sony’s performance would be lower than analysts’ expectations and the company’s own forecast of ¥390 billion ($3.71 billion). Sony’s shares were up 3 percent at ¥4,920 ($47.58) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange at time of writing, though this falls far short of their peak this time last year of ¥7,190 ($68.36).
There was other good news for Sony coming out of Japan today, with Reuters reporting that the PlayStation Portable outsold the Nintendo DS 2-to-1 in Japan in April, shipping 380,867 units to the DS’s 169,911. Monster Hunter Freedom 2 led the way for Sony’s handheld from the top of the software charts for a second successive month.
The PlayStation 3 didn’t fare so well, according to the same report. It was outsold 5-to-1 by Nintendo’s Wii, which shipped 187,121 units to the PS3’s 37,676.
May 3, 2008
After the original Guitar Hero came out, diehard fans had to settle for playing the same setlist over and over again for an entire year before new songs arrived in Guitar Hero II. Things have changed significantly for rhythm-game fans since then, given that Guitar Hero III and Rock Band have both supplemented their libraries with downloadable songs since their releases last October and November, respectively.
Next week sees both games receive a trio of new songs. On Thursday, Guitar Hero III players on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will be able to download three more songs from Muse, whose “Knights of Cydonia” was included in the original game. The new songs–all of them master tracks–include “Exo-Politics,” “Supermassive Black Hole,” and “Stockholm Syndrome.” No price was announced, but previous three-song packs have sold for $6.25 (500 Microsoft points).
Xbox 360 and PS3 Rock Band players will also be getting a more in-depth peek at some of the artists featured in the game’s initial setlist. Fall Out Boy and Yeah Yeah Yeahs each have a new track arriving in the game’s store next week. “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” is the new Fall Out Boy track, and Yeah Yeah Yeahs are contributing “Date With the Night.” Another group is making its Rock Band debut: Angels & Airwaves’ “It Hurts” will round out the week’s offerings.
All of the songs are master tracks and will be available individually for $1.99 (160 Microsoft points), or together as the Scene Pack for $5.49 (440 Microsoft points). The songs should go up on the Xbox Live Marketplace on Tuesday, with the PS3 versions becoming available as part of Thursday’s weekly PlayStation Store update.
May 3, 2008
While there’s a good chance you’ll hear your favourite rock band’s music in a game these days, it isn’t every day that you get to go questing for the band in-game. That’s exactly what fans of the German fantasy-metal band Blind Guardian will get to do in the hack-and-slash action RPG Sacred 2, planned for release on PC and Xbox 360 in late 2008.
The German band has been around since the mid-’80s, and is famous for lyrics and album covers inspired by its favourite fantasy and horror authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Michael Moorcock, and Stephen King. In keeping with Blind Guardian’s fantasy style, the group’s members are even called bards by their fans, thanks to an early definitive track called “The Bard’s Song,” inspired by the 1985 game, The Bard’s Tale.
If Its Games UK caught up with Blind Guardian vocalist Hansi Kursch, and the band’s guitarists, Andre Olbrich and Marcus Siepen, during their motion-capture session for Sacred 2 in Hungary last week. In between filming, the band members talked about their music in Sacred 2, being in the game, and their opinion on music-based games.
If Its Games UK: How did Blind Guardian get involved with Sacred 2?
Hansi Kursch: That’s quite an interesting story. Having three very active fantasy computer game nerds in the band, it’s easy to imagine the big impact Sacred 1 has had on us. Because of their passion for Blind Guardian, some of the people at Ascaron in charge of Sacred 2 saw it as an opportunity to have us in the game musically. Coincidence or predestination? We’ll never know. Fact is, when we were finally contacted by Ascaron, asking if we were interested in doing a song for the game, we immediately agreed to do so. So far the whole thing has been great fun for us. The reason for that is quite simple: Blind Guardian’s music and the world of Ancaria perfectly blend together.
IIG UK: What exactly can we expect from Blind Guardian in Sacred 2?
HK: At first we were only asked to do a song which would be used in the game. Later on, the Ascaron guys came up with the splendid idea of having us as resident [non-playable characters] in the world of Ancaria. We perform in the game as a kind of prize after a quest which our characters are involved in. We’re here today to do motion capture for that performance, so it’s a big challenge, and the first time we’ve ever done anything like this.
IIG UK: You’re all big fantasy fans and some of you are avid gamers; how do you feel about being in a game like this?
Andre Olbrich: We’ve always wanted to do music for a video game, but now that we have the chance to actually appear in a game, it’s like a player’s dream come true.
Marcus Siepen: I’ve been playing video games since I was like 10 or 11 years old, and obviously if you play a good game you identify with the character you’re playing. But meeting myself in a game? I’m thrilled! I’m not so thrilled about doing the motion capture, putting on those suits is not nice!
IIG UK: What can you tell us about the track you’re doing for Sacred 2?
HK: It’s called “Sacred”–the easy stuff always works best! It’s about six minutes long and there are a lot of musical changes in there, but I’m sure the hook line, which contains the word “Sacred” of course, will make it very easy for the listener to get into the track, even through it’s quite a complicated number.
IIG UK: What sort of things influenced the creation of the song?
HK: There was a combination of things, including seeing the Sacred 2 concept art and playing the previous game. I started the music prior to playing the game, so initially the music was inspired by regular video game music, or at least what I understood as computer game music. I started playing the game, to be honest it was the first game I’ve really played, I’m not really a computer games pundit! Andre and Marcus are the band’s gamers, but I did four or five levels to get an idea, and then focused on the music. There was a certain amount of inspiration from Sacred 2 itself, as I asked the programmers and writers to give me an idea of where the game’s story was going, so we wove that into the song.
IIG UK: We heard you got to choose what your characters will be wearing in the game. What was that like? Are you happy with the end result?
HK: You’d be surprised at how picky we were! The lead designer was laughing, as she could see that we appreciated the work and development going in, but we were really picky about small details. But we’re really satisfied with the work in progress. My 3D model was being handled by the lead artist, so I knew I was in good hands–my belly has disappeared, it’s a miracle!
MS: We were involved from day one. We got sketches of how our characters would look and could give feedback and make changes. In the beginning my character had warriorlike armour, which I didn’t like. I thought they should remove all that metal and make it more natural. They did that and I like it. Today we saw the first 3D models, they look awesome and I can’t wait to see them in motion. That’ll be great!
AO: Yes, yes it looks awesome, they have some really great artists doing the graphics, and I’m impressed at how quickly they got such great results. The armour’s not too heavy or too light for our characters, it’s a little bit elfish and leather based, which we thought was fitting for bards like us.
IIG UK: This isn’t your first game-related project, is it? Didn’t Uwe Boll’s recent game movie, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, feature Blind Guardian music?
HK: It was slightly different with the Dungeon Siege movie–our record company came up with the idea because they’d been in contact with the German film company looking for bands like Blind Guardian to be involved in the movie. In the end it turned out they just needed some music for the credits. One of our songs they used was “Carry the Blessed Home,” based on Stephen King’s Dark Tower. We were willing to give them some of our stuff, but didn’t have any creative input; it was music from our previous albums.
IIG UK: Following these experiences, would you be interested in doing more game music?
HK: Yes, we’d like to. In the past we were always really looking to do things like movies and games, but as an independent band on a major label with EMI and Virgin, we never got the chance–they always gave anything like that to one of their major bands. But we terminated that contract in 2000 and luckily they let us go, which leaves us open to this kind of thing.
IIG UK: Who are the hardcore gamers in the band and what are you currently playing?
MS: Andre and I are the addicted ones! For about three years it’s all been about World of Warcraft, the global addiction! It’s the leading game at the moment, and it’s a brilliant game, so they deserve the place they hold.
IIG UK: As professional musicians, what do you think of music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band? Would you be happy to see Blind Guardian’s music in them?
HK: Sure, but to be honest I’d be more comfortable if we had the chance to create something particular for the game. I know that in most cases they use an existing song and put it in the game, but Andre does a lot of challenging stuff on guitar and it’d be important for us to make it interesting for the guys being guitar heroes.
AO: I think we would be a good fit in games like that. Those games are great, especially for kids, although just as many dads play too, I think it’s a great thing bringing music into the video game genre. There isn’t the same emphasis on music as entertainment this generation; it’s switched towards video games and movies. Music feels like it’s lagging behind sometimes, so I like that music, and rock music in particular, is coming through in this medium.
MS: I have Guitar Hero myself. I was kind of sceptical about it in the beginning, until my wife and I played Guitar Hero II at a friend’s place, and found it was actually a lot of fun. We went out the next day and bought Guitar Hero III and played through, unlocking all the songs! As a party game Rock Band looks like fun; the only danger I can see with it is kids thinking, “OK, I’ll buy this game for my PlayStation as a way to be a musician”–No you’re not!
IIG UK: Don’t you think that these kinds of games could help inspire a passion in people, for playing real music?
MS: That might be the case of course. If they grab Guitar Hero, play a little plastic guitar and love doing that, they might get attracted to it and say, “I’d like to try the real thing”–which would be a good thing. As I said, the game is fun, it’s entertaining and that’s OK, it just shouldn’t be confused with being a musician.
IIG UK: Blind Guardian’s music is driven by your guitar work, but are you any good at playing Guitar Hero?
AO: No! I tried it once and couldn’t figure it out! It’s strange; I think I just need more time to get used to it.
MS: The funny thing is that if you’re actually able to play the guitar, the game’s more difficult, because what the game expects you to play is not what the real guitars are playing. As a real guitarist you tend to try to play what you hear–it gets complicated! We wouldn’t miss the chance of putting a song into something like Guitar Hero IV, it would be fun, but if I played our song in the game, I’d fail! I’d be trying to play the real song–either that or it would mess up our live performance on the next tour. I’d be screaming things like, “Where’s the green button!” Perhaps I should speak to Gibson about getting us guitars with buttons!
May 3, 2008
Yesterday, selected members of the gaming press were sent an invitation to register for this year’s E3 Media & Business Summit. The invitation offered a nontransferable registration to the 2008 event, which will return the Los Angeles Convention Center from July 15 to 17. It didn’t take long for visitors to notice that though Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft were all listed as participating companies, a number of high-profile publishers did not appear on the list. Vivendi, Warner Bros, Bethesda, and several others are all currently missing from the Entertainment Software Association’s E3 Web site, as is international superpublisher Activision.
If Its Games has since reached out to several prominent publishers that attended last year’s show but were omitted from the ESA’s recent list, and can confirm that Warner Bros., Bethesda, id Software, Majesco, and D3Publisher still plan to attend the event.
However, at least one publisher will not be in attendance at the ESA’s annual event, which underwent significant downsizing last year. Activision has confirmed for If Its Games that not only will it not be attending this year’s E3 Media & Business Summit in LA, but also that it has pulled out of the industry trade body entirely.
“After careful consideration, Activision has decided not to renew its ESA membership for business reasons and will not be participating in any official E3 activities,” an Activision representative told If Its Games in a statement. “We appreciate the work that the ESA has done over the years in promoting the interactive entertainment industry with state and federal governments and wish the ESA best of luck with the show.” The publisher did not clarify for If Its Games whether it would be holding an event in the LA area during the E3 time period.
Activision’s pullout of the ESA indicates that impending merger partner Vivendi Games will follow suit. A statement from the ESA addressing Activision’s move confirms that Vivendi has decided to not renew its membership with the lobbying and representative body.
“While the Entertainment Software Association remains the preeminent voice for U.S. computer and video game publishers, we can confirm that Activision and Vivendi Games opted to discontinue their membership,” said Rich Taylor, senior vice president of communications and research, in a statement. “The ESA remains dedicated to advancing our industry’s objectives, such as protecting intellectual property, preserving First Amendment rights, and fostering a beneficial environment for the entire industry. Our high level of service and value to members and the larger industry remains unchanged.”
Vivendi has not responded to If Its Games’s request for comment as to whether it or its subsidiaries, including Blizzard Entertainment and Sierra Entertainment, will be attending this year’s show. However, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has recently said that he expects the near-$19 billion merger to conclude by the end of June, weeks before the annual industry event.
May 3, 2008
The Electronic Entertainment Expo has been in a serious state of flux in recent years. At the behest of many top publishers and hardware makers, the E3 Media & Business Summit organizer Entertainment Software Association said in July 2006 that it would be dramatically downsizing the annual trade show–reducing attendees from approximately 60,000 to a mere 5,000–and changing the venue from the spacious Los Angeles Convention Center to segmented locations in Santa Monica, California.
In December, the ESA said that the E3 Media & Business Summit would be returning to the LACC, but that this year’s show would remain a scaled-down affair in line with the 2007 expo, which was invite-only. Though the ESA no longer plans to occupy the LACC in its entirety, the convention center will have at least one noticeable void on its show floor. Earlier today, Activision (and by proxy Vivendi) said it would not be attending this year’s media event, and in fact would not be renewing its membership with the trade body at all.
With Activision and Vivendi pulling out of this year’s show, it now appears as if at least some other studios are following the soon-to-be merged giants’ lead. If Its Games has learned that NCsoft and Foundation 9–both of which participated in last year’s show–will not be attending this year’s event.
“No, we’re not attending E3 this year,” said a Foundation 9 representative. “We just didn’t feel like we got enough out of the investment last year in order to justify the expense this year.” Foundation 9 has 11 internal development studios, including Backbone Entertainment, Double Helix (nee Shiny and The Collective), Amaze Entertainment, Sumo Digital, and Digital Eclipse. Upcoming games from Foundation 9’s various studios include Silent Hill: Homecoming, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, and Monster Lab.
[UPDATE] Following If Its Games’s original report, a Foundation 9 representative clarified the developer’s absence at the show. “Our decision not to exhibit at E3 this year, was in no way in response to Activision
May 3, 2008
Reuters - Forget the flowers and candy — Nintendo Co Ltd’s (7974.OS) highly anticipated “Wii Fit” video game will debut in the U.S. later this month, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s online division is trying to persuade shoppers to order the game as “a perfect gift” for Mother’s Day.
May 3, 2008
Reuters - Sony Corp’s (6758.T) PlayStation Portable (PSP) handheld game gear outsold Nintendo Co Ltd’s (7974.OS) DS portable player more than 2-to-1 in Japan in April, game magazine publisher Enterbrain said.
May 3, 2008
Reuters - Viacom Inc (VIAb.N) said on Friday its first quarter net profit rose 33 percent on strong sales of “Rock Band” video game and higher advertising revenue at MTV Networks.
May 3, 2008
Reuters - Viacom Inc said on Friday quarterly net profit rose 33 percent, beating Wall Street forecasts, on strong sales of the “Rock Band” video game and higher advertising revenue at MTV Networks.
May 3, 2008
NewsFactor - As most people are probably aware, 2008 is a presidential election year. One of the things political analysts will be looking at closely is whether the winning candidate has “coattails,” or the ability to boost the vote totals of fellow party members running for the House and Senate.
May 3, 2008
AP - Strong sales of the video game “Rock Band” helped lift first-quarter earnings 33 percent at the entertainment company Viacom Inc., a major cable network operator which owns MTV and Nickelodeon.
May 3, 2008
Reuters is reporting that Wal-Mart\’s online division will be heavily marketing Wii Fit as the perfect gift for Mother\’s Day in an attempt to cash in on the special day. Wal Mart will be offering a $10 online gift card to use at Walmart.com for those who pre-order by May 11. \”Initial response is extremely strong, and we\’re feeling really good about Nintendo Wii Fit dominating the home page,\” said a Wal-Mart rep.
May 3, 2008
A USB Mass storage device file/folder lister demo has been released on the #wiidev channel by svpe, the same person who made the first SD elfloader. More information is available at wiibrew.org.