It looks like somebody at the FCC let something slip about a new PS3 model coming to the market. NeoGAF forum members have spotted that their website had a different ID for another 80 GB model of the console. (If you happened to be wondering, it’s AK8CBEH1101. As opposed to AK8CBEH1100. You’d think they could put a little more creativity into the task, no?) Anyway, digressions aside, look for better Bluetooth and Wi-fi functionality with improved antenna gain. More specs are being withheld until April 14, but stay tuned for what could be an outrageously exciting development, or a tragic letdown. At the very least, be happy with what you actually get.
Since I wasn’t expecting to be able to rock out to Johnathon Coulton’s awesome Portal theme song until tomorrow, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the ‘Still Alive’ Rock Band DLC available for download on the XBLM when I was strolling around on it a few minutes ago. Having just played through it on each and every instrument, I can safely assure you that this download is worth every penny it costs and then some. Wait a second, I forgot: its free too! Best. DLC. Ever.
There is no reason not to pick this gem up, so make sure you jump online and grab it pronto. Rock responsibly people.
For those not initiated, Sony has a Playstation blog where developers post updates about their games and upcoming features. Most of the time the comments pretty much bog down to fanboys praising developers and anti-fanboys bashing the PS3, but every so often you find some gold! This could be one of those times, as Dylan Jobe, producer of Warhawk, has made a post about a new Warhawk update coming April 17th for $7.99. It is a definite pick-up for Warhawk fans; however, that isn’t the juicy part. In a response to a comment on the story Jobe says:
I know! April is crazy right? New store, new games…
…and GT5 is wicked fun! I’ve been playing it way too much!
The gist of the original comment is about the slew of titles coming to the Playstation 3 in April(GTA IV and GT5: Prologue), and Jobe’s response not only address’s the subject of the new games, but also talks about a new ’store’. One can only assume that he is talking about Playstation Store, right?
So is this an inside leak of a huge update to the PSN that will (hopefully) attempt to bring more functionality and incorporate Playstation Home that is coming next month? Or is it just a horrible misunderstanding by me? You decide.
Update: Turns out Sony confirmed this one a little while back… hooray, new Playstation store next month after all for Europe. This morning Sony confirmed the store update for the US just this morning. Check after the break for both the press release and some new pictures of new store. Continue reading ‘New Playstation Store In April’
Earlier today, some pics popped up on the web which displayed what appeared to be a GTA IV achievement comparison between an anonymous gamer and a Rockstar employee who had played a build of the game online. Suspiciously, the comparison showed only the names of each achievement on the list while the companion pictures, descriptions, and gamerscore values were nowhere to be found.
But just when I was about ready to call hoax on the whole thing, a member of the xbox360achievements.org forums posted the same list, this time with respective descriptions and gamerscore amounts for each achievement . They sound pretty legit too, as many Rockstar-esque references and inferences can be found throughout the post. Maybe these are the real deal after all…
Check them out at the x360a forums and judge their validity for yourself. As for us, we’re still labeling this one a rumor for now.
Sometimes everyone is right. These instances of universal correctness may only come once in a blue moon mind you, but they do exist. In fact, one of these miraculous events appears to have happened today, as Harmonix has announced Rock Band for the Nintendo Wii, just like we all knew they would.The Wii version will hit store shelves on June 22nd as the ‘Rock Band Special Edition’, and will bundle the game with a drum set, a microphone, and a wireless guitar. Going against the oh so common special edition mold however, the title will have the standard price tag of $169.99. Nice!
Oh, and for you Wii gamers who don’t trust bundles, Harmonix has gotcha covered. A disc only version will retail on the same day along with standalone versions of each instrument for the Wii.
With the release of Mario Kart for the Wii right on our heels (April 27, 2008), everyone has been eager to get some details on this game because not many have been released. I mean sure we know there will be online and the ability to play with Miis and motorcycles. But what else is there? This video may reveal some new things or just confuse even more. It’s the intro to the Japanese version of Mario Kart.
Well, if I simply go by this video I’ve gathered that half of the game will be spent in white space, an eighth of the game will be spent carting around like it should be, and the rest will be using your motorcycle. But don’t let me influence you. Decide for yourself.
Many people feel that spending $10 on map packs for games is overpriced and silly. I am not so sure I agree, but usually every map pack goes free and everyone can enjoy them. And Bungie announced in their weekly update that their Heroic Map Pack of yesteryear will be free as of Tuesday, probably to make way for their new map pack, Legendary. The heroic map pack features three maps: Foundry, Stand Off, and Rat’s Nest. The map’s are fun and a great addition to Halo 3, but you might not even be playing Halo 3 seeing that Call of Duty 4 is getting so popular.
While I was away, Sega took it upon themselves to trademark the name Sonic Unleashed for use as a title for their next Sonic project. Their was speculation abound of course, but most people quietly assumed that this would probably end up being just another Sonic The Hedgehog-style let down while sobbing on the inside (me). But today, gaming site Sega On has given old school Sonic fans some hope by releasing a video which they claim is made up from Unleashed game footage, and it looks like what a next-gen Sonic game should look like.
A 3D/2D side scroller Sonic game on next-gen platforms? It sounds a little too good to be true. We’ll keep you updated.
You may or may not have noticed, but I haven’t really shown my face around these parts for about a fortnight (that’s old English for two weeks by the way), as I have been on vacation over in the U.K. since the 6th. Yeah yeah, I know I didn’t announce that I would be away, but lets be honest, you didn’t really miss me all that much did you?
Well anyhow, straight down to business then. Here’s a flashback of some of the most important stuff that hit while I was overseas.
And so another episode of Hollywood VS. video games begins. Hollywood is finally beginning to realize that they are not the only type of media entertainment anymore and it’s not the television that is telling them that. It’s video games. Remember last year when Halo 3 came out and Box Office numbers plummeted? Well, Hollywood was pretty angry at Microsoft at the time and who wouldn’t be angry at dangerously low profit levels. But they also failed to realize that the numbers could have been attributed to movies like Dungeon Siege and Norbit. Then again, what do I know?
A similar situation is being predicted for the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV on April 29th. Mike Hickey of analyst group Janco Partners is predicting that GTA IV will have a significant impact on the sales of the Iron Man movie. Hickey also predicted that Grand Theft Auto IV will sell more than Halo 3 ($300 million) in the first week–more specifically that GTA IV will gross $360 million in the first week. This is probably due to it being available on both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3. Maybe the $360 million in profit for GTA IV could help the movie studios to wake up and start making good movies for a change.
KontrolFreek’s novel device can only be described as a godsend for all gamers who are accuracy-challenged. The company who brought you SpeedFreek has developed a crutch dubbed FPS Freek for all Xbox 360 controllers. It’s meant to be used in FPS games (of course), to nudge along anyone who just can’t line up those headshots. The add-on fits on top of the original 360 thumbstick, and works by lengthening the stick to provide less resistance. Apparently, moving the thumbstick in the first 20% range of motion is the hardest because of a all the spring resistance. With FPS Freek, you should be able to make small adjustments to your aiming with less effort. Even though anyone who uses this will most likely be called out by their friends, it is may still be legal in competitions. Not many have actually verified the benefits, but IGN did review an earlier prototype. Wait for June 1, 2008 if you want to try it out. And put your gaming reputation on the line.
All the classic Nintendo franchises finally seem to be making their way onto the Wii lately. Nintendo just announced that Mario Kart Wii will be coming out on April 27th, 2008. If you think about it, that’s not much of a wait. The game comes with the Wii wheel which has been described by those who have used it as a bad encasing for the wheel (I assume more so than other Wii attachments). I wouldn’t be getting too excited for the wheel, but there are plenty of other things to be excited for. The game will allow you to play as your very own Miis, play against your friends via a 12-player online mode, and–this one is a little iffy– use motorbikes. The game will also be launched with a new channel that is basically a leaderboards channel, although you can do some cool things like download ghosts and see what your friends are playing. This may be a pseudo-friends list substitute that many Wii owners have been waiting for.
Super Smash Brothers Brawl has been out for two days and everyone is extremely excited. You can unlock all the characters by playing through Subspace Emissary if you really want to, but three characters have special caveats to have them join your party in Subspace Emissary. There is an alternative way to unlock every character, usually playing a specified number of Brawl matches. After the jump you can find those methods. Everyone at RotPod has been playing Brawl almost religiously, so much so I can’t contact anyone else. But here is my Brawl friend code, if you want to play online any time: 4167-4198-0706. Happy gaming! Continue reading ‘Spoiler: Character Guide for Super Smash Bros. Brawl’
It’s hard to meet someone that has ever played Starcraft that isn’t looking forward to Starcraft II. I know there have been big disappointments in the past and rumors that never came to be, but the announcement and the screens that have been coming out in the past months definitely seem to suggest that we will be seeing a finished product at the end of 2008 or beginning of 2009. Now, all we can do is cross our fingers and wait for more details about the game. Here are some of those exact details, more specifically about the Zerg. The first is a teaser about the game and the race and after the break you will find some more gameplay videos. There is also a Terran demo because Terrans rock.
The day is here! Super Smash Bros. Brawl has finally been released in the good ol’ USA. For those of us that have been waiting for this moment for the past 2-3 years, today is probably more exciting than the release of Halo 3, Gears of War, Drakes Fortune, etc. So get those pre-order receipts out and head to your local game store. And remember, you don’t really need that strategy guide for SSBB, so put that money towards a pre-order for Mario Kart Wii!
We have some a very hardcore Team Fortress 2 player on the RotPod staff, so I’m sure if we didn’t, Team Fortress 2 would not seem as popular to us as it does. It seems to have fallen out of favor among some of the less dedicated players. I have no idea why. Clearly Valve knows this, but they aren’t just going to shut down all support for the game. In fact they are doing the exact opposite: they are releasing an update! Here are the main points of the update
Added “Custom” tab to the server browser
Servers can now specify metatags describing the custom rules they’ve adopted
Players can use tag filtering to find servers running the custom rules they want to play
Added options for servers who want to become custom games: Disable critical hits (tf_weapon_criticals), eliminate respawn times (mp_disable_respawn_times), and raise maxplayers above 24
Initial release of Tournament mode (mp_tournament)
UI for handling team naming, ready mode, and win results
Disables team player limits, autobalancing, and intermission
Class balancing
Reduced Soldier’s maximum rocket reserve ammo from 36 to 16
Reduced Demoman’s maximum sticky bomb reserve ammo from 30 to 16
Reduced Demoman’s maximum grenade launcher reserve ammo from 40 to 24
General
Added protection against voice command spamming. Dramatic reduction in teleporters needed
Damn. There really is something to this month’s issue of EGM isn’t there? Not only did it deliver us tons of rumors, but it also contains a huge 13 page GTA IV preview which covers pretty much every aspect of the game that one could imagine. After some quality hands on time with the title up at the Rockstar North HQ, the magazine has a writeup that will answer any questions you could possibly have.
If you didn’t get a chance to pick the issue up yet, you can check out some scans of the GTA IV article here. But uh, I didn’t send you okay?
The latest issue of EGM has an interesting little rumor hidden inside which states that Resi 5 could be hitting consoles as early as Q4 of this year. And we’re not talking about late Christmas rush Q4, more like PGR4 Q3/Q4 territory. I guess that would be like, around early to mid October…
Why do we break the year into quarters anyway?
In any event, the magazine does not name a specific source, and we are talking about the infamous April issue, so I would take this rumor with an entire spoonful of salt. We’ll just have to wait and see if some more sources come in to back this rumor up, but if that doesn’t happen, color me skeptical.
There is a great writeup by John Walker over at Games Radar for anyone who is interested in Age of Conan, one of the coolest looking MMOs we’ve seen in a long while. The detailed preview takes you on an in depth textual safari through the world of Hyboria, and discusses everything from the combat system to the types of quests you will be able to embark on when the game ships later this year.
The preview is a great read for anyone interested in the upcoming Funcom game, especially if you are having doubts about the innovative combat system. Head on over to Games Radar to check it out.
Try to wrap your head around that for a second. Read that headline just a few more times to make sure that you aren’t confusing it with one of the ads on the side of the page of something. Got it? Good, because Kojima-san is not playing around when it comes to the file size of MGS4. In an interview with a Japanese mag, the Metal Gear Solid creator claimed that a 50GB Blu-ray is not sufficient for his upcoming title. Apparently, the team had to compress certain parts of the game to get it to fit on the Sony format, and foreign voice tracks were cut completely.
Kojima : I am not satisfied with the quality yet, however…there isn’t enough space.
Interviewer: Not enough space on Blu-ray?
Kojima: Yes. [laughter] Not enough space.
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