3 May 2006
by Ferry

Half-Life 2: Episode One downloadable June 1

Half-Life 2 has sold over 4 million copies worldwide, and earned over 35 Game of the Year Awards. Episode One is the first in a series of games that reveal the aftermath of Half-Life 2 and launch a journey beyond City 17. Also features two multiplayer games. Half-Life 2 not required.

You can download Half-Life 2: Episode One onto your PC from June 1, 2006, at 10% below store price.

2 May 2006
by Josh

SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters comes to DS

More great news out of SNK Playmore following the announcment of Metal Slug Anthology coming to Wii. Some of you may remember a portable system released way back in 1999 called the Neo Geo Pocket Color. While the system itself ended up failing due to the colossal might of Nintendo’s Game Boy and the power of Pokemon, the system had a nice little life and due to it’s home support from SNK, a small library of mostly great games.

Now at long last, one of the system’s best games is finally being ported, finding it’s new home on Nintendo’s DS. Thankfully the game isn’t a straight port but SNK Playmore will be updating it to take advantage of the DS’ unique capabilities. The game is titled SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters DS and is an updated version of Neo Geo Pocket Color’s SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters Clash.
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2 May 2006
by Josh

Metal Slug Anthology coming to Wii

SNK’s first title for Wii is Metal Slug Anthology, a compilation of classic Metal Slug projects. Best of all, these games have been enhanced to take full advantage of Wii’s innovative free-hand style controller, which translates gestures made by players into on-screen movement.

“Fans worldwide have been looking forward to our return to Nintendo platforms and what better way then to bring our complete Metal Slug arcade collection to Wii,” SNK Playmore USA Corporation president Ben Herman said in a statement. “The Wii controller will be used in a new and unique way that enhances the gameplay. Our fans have demanded that we support Nintendo platforms. Let the celebration begin.”
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2 May 2006
by Ferry

Xbox Live offline today for maintenance

UPDATE: On Tuesday, June 16th 2009, from 7:01AM UTC* (12:01 AM PST) for up to 24 hours, Xbox Live will be offline for maintenance. As a result, Xbox LIVE and the ‘My Xbox’ section of Xbox.com will be unavailable, and the Xbox forums will be in read only mode.

*Note: Not sure what time that is in your timezone? Check Timezoneconverter.com.

No features will be added to Xbox Live today. This service maintenance is to prepare for some of the recently announced Xbox 360 features that will be available later this year.

ORIGINAL 2006-2008 INFO:

According to Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, users of Xbox Live, Xbox.com (and their forums) will be down today for approximately 13 hours.

Starting at 5:00AM EDT (2:00AM PDT) and ending at 6:00PM EDT (3:00PM PDT).

During this time the Xbox Live network is expected to install a epic update to the service, which coincides with their plans to allow users to download videos and other E3 coverage directly to their Xbox 360.

To everyone reading this Xbox Live offline article from 2006, I would like to redirect you to today’s “Xbox Live Service Maintenance” article, which explains Xbox Live will be offline all day on September 29, 2008.

2 May 2006
by Ferry

God of War 2: Divine Retribution developer interview

Sony is getting ready to unleash the God of War sequel at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in May, 1up.com went to the new director on the game, Cory Barlog, who’s replacing well-known director David Jaffe (now the creative director) for an exclusive first look at what to expect from the upcoming sequel.

1UP: Obviously the first had lots of action, but it had lots of adventure. Would you say that this one has a little less adventure?
Cory Barlog: No…from an adventure standpoint there’s some pretty amazing stuff we’re holding close right now. We’ve got a year until we’re releasing, so we’re going to start releasing stuff intermittently, but we wanted people to understand that first and foremost I understand where we are with the franchise and where we were in the beginning so that people [don't think] we’re going to come out with that dual analog thing or something like that. We’re not changing it.
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2 May 2006
by Ferry

Another World remastered for Windows XP

PC gamers will have the chance to travel once more to the weird and eerily beautiful World with the original 1991 vector graphics and background art now retouched, reworked and scalable to appropriately epic resolutions (from 320×200 to 1280×800 pixels).


The remastered Windows XP version of Eric Chahi’s Another World (known as “Out of this World” outside Europe) became available for download on April 14th for just €7. Both demo and full versions of Another World for Windows XP can be found at www.anotherworld.fr. You can download the official Another World demo here.

2 May 2006
by Ferry

LucasArts working on Darth Vader game

In a recent New York Times interview with LucasArts staff, this tiny nugget of info seems to have leaked out on the second page:

Their excitement was palpable on a recent afternoon, when Mr. Ward, Mr. Hirschmann and Haden Blackman, the project leader of a forthcoming “Star Wars” game, reviewed all of the company’s recent projects. Mr. Blackman outlined a new storyline that delved deeper into Darth Vader’s history. Hmmm, I wonder when this will get officially announced.

2 May 2006
by Ferry

George Harrison interview about the Wii launch

George Harrison is Nintendo’s senior vice president of marketing and communications. Here are some quotes of a recent interview with him:
-Harrison admits that a mere over-powered Gamecube would wind up doing just as bad as the GameCube. Because of this, Nintendo decided to do something totally different.
-Their main goal was to revive the Japanese market. The DS was to be the first shot at this (and it has clearly succeeded).
-Art direction can be just as expressive as photo-realistic graphics. He mentions that the Simpsons wouldn’t be nearly as funny if it was live action.
-Wii will be a multiple of the GameCube in terms of capabilities.
-Nintendo is still deciding what will be packed in the Wii. Right now a controller and a nunchuk add-on will be, but Nintendo is thinking about adding another controller as well. No mention of the shell.
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2 May 2006
by Ferry

Ubisoft gives Red Steel Wii gaming control details

Here’s a ton of new details for the Wii’s Red Steel game. Ubisoft released Red Steel pictures before. Here we go:

-Game development started shortly after E3 2005. Ubisoft saw and demoed the controller before E3 2005
-Ubisoft Paris took their idea directly to Iwata and Miyamoto, and were given the go ahead. After that meeting they were given prototype controllers. The article states that Ubisoft worked “closely” with Nintendo’s engineers in Japan on the title
-Game Informer mentions that while conducting the interviews with Ubisoft, they were handed the “latest version” of the controller
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2 May 2006
by Ferry

Sony promising equal PS3 shortages globally

According to Sony Europe boss David Reeves “The US, Japan and Europe will be equally served, It’s my job to make sure Europe gets equal billing. I can’t specify the numbers but we’ll work hard to ensure that it’s equal.”

Good news for PS3 lovers then? Well maybe, especially when Reeves added, “Europe is on track and I think the third party publishers should recognize that. But for us, we’ll have four to six first party titles at launch.”
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