Funcom’s Age of Conan has been at the top of the PC NPD charts since its release last month, and has shipped over 1 million copies to retail outlets in that short time. In short, the game is damn successful. The developers love it, we love it, and the players love it. But how many players there are exactly? According to Sales & Marketing Veep Morten Larssen:
With more than 700,000 accounts created so far we have a fantastic platform to build from
Now before you say ‘But WoW has fourteen gajillion players’ it is important to realize that on the regular MMO scale, 700,000 accounts makes a behemoth of a game. In fact, Funcom believes that AoC is now the 2nd largest western MMO. Its good to see a new MMO seeing this kind of success, but could AoC ever become as huge as WoW?
If you were thinking about snatching up an Xbox 360 console in the next few weeks you might want to hold off for a little while, as we have been seeing more and more evidence pointing to an upcoming price drop each day. First there was a K-Mart ad which displayed the 20GB Xbox 360 bundle priced at $299 clear as day. Next we saw a similar ad from Radio Shack which also seemed legit. And now our latest piece of evidence comes via the folks at Hollywood Reporter, the same people who correctly predicted the last 360 price cut. The site claims that a major retailer has informed them that the price will drop to $299 right before E3 starts on July 15th. Believing this one yet?
If the 20GB console’s price does indeed drop to $299 in the coming weeks, it would be retailing for precisely $100 less than the 60GB Playstation 3 bundle. Sounds like a good deal for Microsoft and the consumer. Lets just hope this one comes to fruition.
In what may be one of the least surprising moves we have ever seen, EA and Harmonix have announced that Rock Band 2 will be hitting consoles not too long from now. While no specific timeframe (other than ‘this year’) has been revealed for PS3 and Wii versions of the game, Xbox 360 owners can look foreword to rocking out first when the game is released for the platform on September 30th.
The game will include all new set and tracklists, and will be able to play all of your downloadable songs from Rock Band 1 as well. In fact, Harmonix says that all current and future Rock Band DLC will be compatible with both titles, and that the weekly flow of new content will not be slowing down at any time in the foreseeable future. As far as peripherals go, players have been promised a set of quieter, more realistic instruments that will be more reliable than the ones that were shipped with the first title in the series.
Can the franchise that redefined the rythm genre strike again when put up against the newly band oriented Guitar Hero series? We will have to wait until E3 to find out if Rock Band 2 has what it takes.
Many people will argue this, but in my opinion Gears of War 2 is the biggest blockbuster coming out this year. And yet, there has hardly been any information on the game thus far. I mean there has been the occasional video and a few small tid bits of knowledge from game creators, but I feel that information on the game has been kept relatively quiet for such a major release. I am also fairly bias because I am REALLY excited for this game, as I’m sure many of you are. Well here is a pretty cool multiplayer video with a lot of information, as opposed to the same information that been continously released. Check out the multiplayer video here:
Here it is; our first glimpse at the next installment in the Call of Duty series. Treyarch has promised to take a new, grittier look at WWII with World at War, and although they may not be Infinity Ward, they have been known to pop out a gem or two. Just try to be nice to them, okay?
Information about the game which will take the Call of Duty franchise back into the trenches of World War II has been pretty scarce since we first heard about it. Other than a few co-op, multiplayer, and weapon details, all we know is that the title will be set on the Pacific front of WWII and will be grittier than any other game on the market today (eep!). All of that is about to change however, as COD: World at War’s worldwide reveal trailer will be premiering exclusively on the Xbox Live Video Marketplace tomorrow.
Here’s hoping we get some juicy gameplay footage with this one! You can check out what Microsoft has to say about the game and its trailer after the jump.
Guitar Hero: World Tour is due out this holiday season, but before you decide whether or not to spend a bucketload of cash on another Band game, we are here to show you what Rock Band’s competition has up its sleeve in the hardware department. We have already seen Activsion’s attempt at upstaging Rock Band’s drum kit, but their newest Guitar peripheral has been a mystery up until now. As you can see from the picture above, the GH team is shooting for a much more realistic visual style with their latest Axe, and some of its new features add a certain degree of realism as well.
The most promintent new feature on this guitar controller is the touch sensitive slider located right next to the regular fret buttons on the neck. This sensor will allow players to alter the sounds of sustained notes by sliding their fingers back and forth across five frets, and can also be used to hammer rapid fire notes during difficult portions of songs. There is also a new button located where the bridge would be (on a real guitar) which can be used to activate star power for those times when you don’t feel like flipping the guitar up like a real rockstar. That is how real musicians activate star power, right?
The slider is the seller for me personally, but do these new features do it for you?
The Spore Creature Creator has been available for private beta for a week now and it is pretty cool. The customization is amazing and the penetration that the game will have when released in September is probably going to be insane. But, now Big Download is offering the Trial for download for both Windows and Mac users, you guys should definitely check it out. Check back later for pictures of all of RotPod’s creatures.
A new update for the Pyro class in Team Fortress 2 is due out this Thursday, June 19th. The update will feature three new weapons, including the antinguisher, and 35 new achievements. Along with the update, Valve will be offering a free TF2 weekend, so any steam user will be able to try out the update for free. So be sure to check it out.
Activision seems to be ditching the old number based installment naming system for a new, hipper, subtitle centric approach. Thanks to scans from the upcoming issue of UK OXM, it has been revealed that the project known up until now as COD 5 will be launched under the title Call of Duty: World at War, and will be set the Pacific Theatre of WWII. The development of this fifth instalment in the series is being handled not by COD4 dev Infinity Ward, but by Treyarch, the team behind COD 3 and COD 2: Big Red One.
World at War will run on the COD4 engine, and will feature Co-op play, squad based multiplayer gametypes and vehicles. On the singleplayer side of things, the story will apparently focus on the darker side of the war, with elements like cutscenes involving POW torture making it ‘as gritty as any game out there’.
The title will be hitting the Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and Wii sometime in the not so distant future.
Update: Well, 9am has come and gone in Cupertino and we have not heard anything out of Microsoft. We’ll wait a few more hours before we declare this one dead. Until then, consider it as being on life support.
In what could be an attempt to steal the show from Apple right before WWDC, rumor has it that Microsoft will announce a new Xbox 360 SKU with a built in BD drive at 9am Cupertino Time tomorrow. This little nugget comes to us via CrunchGear, who reports that a tipster by the name of ‘JJ’ has informed them of the possible announcement. According to JJ’s ‘close friend at Microsoft’, the SKU’s pricetag will be below that of the current Xbox 360 Elite, but other than that details are apparently scarce.
You can read JJ’s full report to CrunchGear after the jump.
Afrika has mesmerized me since we first caught a glimpse of it at E3 ‘06, even though we knew next to nothing about it back then. Since then, every time a detail or gameplay video has emerged, my excitement level has risen exponentially. In the latest trailer, we finally get a good look at what the game is all about, and a Japanese release date for the game is thrown in there as well. Our readers in the land of the rising sun can look for this PS3 exclusive this August, but here in North America, the long wait for a release date continues.
Some people have said it was impossible to get 100% on “Through the Fire and the Flames” by Dragonforce. Others said that we would have to wait for some sort of messiah to grace their godly fingers upon a Guitar Hero guitar. Chris “iamchris4life” Chike may be that guy. I mean this guy is no small cookie. He currently holds a world record for most points in any Guitar Hero song. But, he topped even himself with the following video.
The song is basically an endless stream of notes coming 4 at a time. To normal people, this can only be looked upon as a far, far, far, far, far possibility, but to Chris it’s an afternoon. This is the stuff of legends guys. Enjoy.
It looks like Yoda and Darth Vader are not the only Star Wars characters to be featured in the upcoming Soul Calibur IV, as this new trailer for the weapon based fighter reveals that Vader’s Secret Apprentice will be playable as well. While the other two force sensitive combatants are exclusive to the consoles which share their color schemes, the protagonist of The Force Unleashed will be usable in both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions.
Could this get any weirder? I can’t wait to see the story that Project Soul throws together around this set of characters.
Itagaki’s final Ninja Gaiden game was released for the Xbox 360 in North America today, but does it live up to all of the hype? In today’s second Review Roundup, we take a look at what some of the biggest media outlets thought about this highly anticipated sequel to the Xbox action classic.
“Ninja Gaiden II is easily one of the best action games on Xbox 360. The depth in combat is as exciting as ever and the new gameplay additions and changes only add to the experience. The game has been focused from its predecessor into a more pure action affair, for better or for worse, but the formula remains the same — frustrating camera and all.”
“Ninja Gaiden II isn’t perfect, but it’s an incredible attempt. Lame English dialogue, a somewhat limp story and awkward camera angles aren’t nearly enough to derail the splendid gameplay and eye-popping visuals.”
“Ninja Gaiden II sharpens what made the original Xbox title so fun. The new health recharge system is really just an excuse to throw enough enemies at you to populate a small country, but the system is balanced well. The game still provides a solid challenge; like a real martial art, it takes practice to master the finer points of Ryu’s different weapons, combos, and magic.”
“Playing Ninja Gaiden 2 is a very different experience to playing the majority of games. No other game I’ve ever played is as rewarding so often. Whether it’s for simply beating a wave of blood-thirsty bats or for finally slaying a boss you’ve been tearing your hair out over for more than an hour, the sense of reward and gratification is practically unrivalled.”
Codemasters made quite a splash last year with the release of their off-road racer DIRT, and now it looks like they have brought their magic to the circuit and street racing subgenres as well. The game that is being described as a ‘Simulation/Arcade Racer Hybrid’ hit store shelves today for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, and will be getting a DS version in August. But what do the critics think? We’ve rounded up some of the major reviews, so that you don’t have to.
“An intense, highly focused experience that offers nearly everything a road racing game should – speed, drama, precision, competition, and a sense of hard-won progression. And it does it all with impeccable style.”
“Although the drift racing is too dependant on the hand brake and I’d like more emotional investment in the cars in my garage (some tweaking would be nice, as would more of a sense of pride in each car I own), Grid is a shining example of how to make a fresh racing game that captures that age-old, fundamental desire to go screaming down the asphalt like a rubber-shredding, hell-bent maniac.”
“And it’s all so pretty! This whole game is gorgeous: everything from small moments like fog lingering over hills to ruined parts exploding off your wrecked car to the lightning-fast sense of speed is built to dazzle — and does.”
“With an emphasis on speed and some rather competitive AI drivers you’re going to be having a lot of fun, but will also find yourself buried in a tyre wall fairly often. Heavy crashes can even result in your car being totalled, so being able to rewind is a huge relief.
Yesterday, highly praised producer and creator of the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden franchises, Tomonobu Itagaki, announced his resignation from Tecmo, effective July 1st. On top of that, he also announced that he is suing the company for refusing to pay a bonus which was agreed to be rewarded to him upon completion of Dead or Alive 4. This sudden announcement comes to us via a statement made by Itagaki to Kotaku, in which it is made clear that the famed creator will not be working on any Ninja Gaiden or DOA games in the future.
Details are currently scarce, but we will be bringing you more as this story develops. You can read the full statement after the jump.
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