Archive for February 7th, 2007
GTA Vice City Stories officially ported from PSP to PS2 in March
Rockstar Games announced today that Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories will be coming to the PlayStation 2. The title will be available in North America on March 6, 2007 and will be on European retail shelves on March 9, 2007.
Since its release in October 2006, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories for the PSP has garnered praise and acclaim worldwide. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories offers PS2 owners a big screen experience of the same storyline and missions, featuring the open-world, innovative gameplay, incredible production values and diverse music that are the trademarks of the Grand Theft Auto franchise.
The sales numbers not being mentioned above explains the PS2 port of this originally to be “PSP exclusive”. We’ve known for a while now GTA: VCS would be ported, but sadly there’s no mention if the multiplayer will stay in the PS2 version.
4 comments »Kingdom Hearts series hits 10 million worldwide
Square Enix today revealed that the Kingdom Hearts series has shipped over 10 million copies worldwide, making it one of the most popular video game franchises ever. It’s not sold numbers yet, but it can’t be far off.
“When we first started developing Kingdom Hearts, we never imagined we would pass the 10 million mark so quickly,” said series producer Shinji Hashimoto. “We are delighted and extremely grateful for the support from our fans around the globe. We hope to continue to provide games which fulfill your anticipation in the future.” Let’s hope so, because everybody wants Kingdom Hearts 3 and we already know there are multiple Kingdom Hearts games for console and handheld coming.
The sales numbers divided per region per game are:
Kingdom Hearts on PS2
Japan: 1.5 million+
North America: 3 million+
Europe & PAL territories: 1.1 million+
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories on GBA
Japan: 400,000+
North America: 900,000+
Europe & PAL territories: 200,000+
Kingdom Hearts II on PS2
Japan: 1.1 million+
North America: 1.7 million+
Europe & PAL territories: 700,000+
Half-Life 2: Episode Two delayed to end 2007, now comes with ugly boxart
EA and Valve, the award-winning studio behind the blockbuster franchises Half-Life and Counter-Strike, today announced the naming and product configurations The Black Box and The Orange Box, two of the most anticipated action game offerings shipping worldwide this Winter 2007.
The Black Box will ship for the PC, and includes Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal and Team Fortress 2. The Orange Box will ship for the PC, PS3 & Xbox 360, and includes all the content of The Black Box, plus the original Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One.
Games included in The Black & Orange Box are:
* Half-Life 2: Episode Two — the second installment in Valve’s episodic trilogy advances the award-winning story, leading the player to new locations outside of City 17.
* Portal — a pioneering type of single player action game that rewrites the rules for how players approach and manipulate their environment – much like how Half-Life 2’s Gravity Gun reinvented the way gamers interact with objects in the game.
* Team Fortress 2 — an all-new version of the legendary title that spawned team based multiplayer action games. The game’s daring new art style features the most advanced graphics of any Source-based game released to date.
Half-Life 2 and its expansions are amazing games, so they will sell well regardless of how their boxes look. But this bland yet bright orange boxart seems more like a marketing trick to get people to notice it in stores, because everyone who likes the games will be buying them anyway. This is only the European boxart, so there’s hope for the rest of the world to get some artwork on theirs. — Via EA UK & GTR.
Real Killzone 2 in-game footage will be shown soon
In May 2005, at the E3 tradeshow Guerrilla Games showed off a trailer for their PS3-exclusive FPS game Killzone 2. Sony claimed it was real-time on the PS3, but it was later revealed that was a lie and the trailer was really a CGI pre-rendered target for the action-filled game.
The Killzone sequel will be unveiled at next month’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) says C&VG. So expect a video of the game that might go head-to-head with Halo 3 at the end of the year, to be shown on March 5th. And fingers crossed it will look as good for real as it does in the below shown CGI trailer from two years ago.
At the same conference Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto will talk about a creative vision, and Sony’s Phil Harrison about developing and creating for the third age of videogames. Both will be showing their latest games and it’s likely the latter, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, will reveal the first in-game footage of Killzone 2.
Supreme Commander PC RTS demo out
The Supreme Commander PC RTS game demo is out. The demo includes a portion of the Cybran Nation singleplayer campaign, as well as the “Finn’s Revenge” 2-player skirmish map where you play against an easy, medium or hard opponent. The full game will be released on February 20 in the Americas and on February 23 in Europe.
Download the Supreme Commander demo on: Filefront, Fileplanet, or at the top of our Downloads page to your left.
In the 37th Century, the galaxy is torn apart by three rival factions, each vying to eradicate its enemies from the universe, end the Infinite War and become the reigning power supreme. Read Supreme Commander’s full story here. Supreme Commander is the so-called next evolution in the Real Time Strategy genre through its truly strategic and tactical gameplay thanks to its scale and scope, which is coupled with handy zoom and control features.
Sega announces new Petroglyph PC RTS game Universe at War: Earth Assault
Sega announced the development of Universe at War: Earth Assault for the PC. Developed by Petroglyph, this combat-intensive real-time strategy (RTS) game enlists players in an epic struggle to prevent total alien domination of planet Earth. Universe at War: Earth Assault is scheduled to ship to retailers in North America and Europe in the fall of 2007.
Universe at War: Earth Assault is set in the near-future in 2012, when multiple factions from across the galaxy have come to Earth to wage epic warfare. Containing numerous features and customization options never-before-seen in the RTS genre, Universe at War: Earth Assault will create an exceptional strategy experience for single-player and especially multiplayer battles.
“Universe at War: Earth Assault will surpass the limits of what gamers expect to see in an RTS game,” said Scott A. Steinberg, Vice President of Marketing, SEGA of America, Inc. “Petroglyph has a proven pedigree of critically acclaimed RTS title creation under its belt with team members that have worked on the original Command and Conquer, Command and Conquer: Red Alert, and Star Wars: Empire at War. Universe at War: Earth Assault will be the culmination of years of development expertise in creating exciting and innovative RTS titles.”
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Root Beer Tapper is the Xbox Live Arcade release this Wednesday
Root Beer Tapper is one of the free webgames you can play on your PC at Midway’s Web Arcade page. The other playable flash games on that page are: Bubbles, Defender, Defender II, Joust, Rampage, Robotron 2084, Satan’s Hollow, Sinistar, and Spy Hunter. The reason I’m mentioning all that is because, instead of buying today’s new Xbox 360 Live Arcade release Root Beer Tapper, you should be saving your money for the 9 other new Xbox Live Arcade games that will be released in weeks to come.
Of course Midway’s Xbox 360 port of Root Beer Tapper will have added online play in co-op and versus modes. The game will be available for download worldwide (except for Korea and Japan) on Xbox Live Arcade after 8AM GMT (1AM PST). Costs: 400 Microsoft Points (that’s $5 / €4.80 / £3.40).
The key features include: Article continues »
Xbox 360 Replacement Shells in black, chrome and transparent
Banish the plain vanilla color casing of the Xbox 360 and replace it with a glossy black, shiny chrome, or transparent case.
Installation is relatively simple, the full instructions have been linked on NCSX, but be aware that opening your Xbox 360 will void your warranty. At a price of $49 for each replacement shell, the transparent case is the best deal as it includes a matching replacement joypad case for an additional look at the inside of your controller (including extra lights).
Game Intro – Omega Boost
Believe it or not, Polyphony Digital, the creators of the Gran Turismo series, did develop a game on the Playstation that didn’t involve cars.
Called Omega Boost, it was a 3D shooter similar to something like the Panzer Dragoon games and was released by Sony in August of 1999.
I’ve never played the game but you gotta love the cheesy, yet cool, live-action intro taken from the Japanese version.
