via Kotaku


There was a time in the development cycle of Grand Theft Auto IV that Niko Bellic had a cell phone that could play music, MTV Multiplayer reports, but the option was cut.


I wonder how much having a mini-stereo with you at all times would have changed the experience? It must have been something that the Rockstar folks thought would have had quite an impact to remove it. Why else would they cut the thing entirely instead of allowing gamers to go out and buy a phone with the feature in game?

Actually, I'm still surprised at the limit of phone tech in the game. I was expecting that the phone, because it plays such an important role in the game's interface, would come in a lot more flavors and that at least one of the was going to support video capture. Maybe next time. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Opoona, the lifestyle RPG developed by the team behind some of the Dragon Quest titles, won't be hitting Europe until September, distributor KOEI has confirmed.

The title was previously dated by KOEI for July 25, but it seems that it won't be making the date.

Localisation and production delays are said to be the cause after the game hit Japanese shelves last November.

Originally unveiled back in March 2007, Opoona took our interest by breaking with the traditional grind of Japanese RPGs and claiming to only use the Nunchuk as the method of input. ...

via Games Industry


GAME has announced the results of its recent online poll to determine the best 100 games of all time, with Call of Duty 4 beating out the opposition to take top spot.

It was followed by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in second, Final Fantasy VII in third, Grand Theft Auto IV in fourth and Super Mario 64 in fifth place.

The results also pointed to Mario as the greatest gaming icon of all time, with 11 per cent of titles containing Nintendo's plumber, while the PlayStation 2 was crowned "Most Popular Console" with 10 per cent of all titles in the top 100 being exclusive on that platform.

Meanwhile the highest-ranked film tie-ins involved James Bond - GoldenEye was in sixth place overall - and Star Wars, with two titles in the list.

Over 100,000 votes were cast in the vote, which was open to anybody visiting the game.co.uk website, with the Final Fantasy franchise listed as the most popular gaming series, and RPGs the most popular type of game.

The top ten titles were as follows:
1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
2. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
3. Final Fantasy VII
4. Grand Theft Auto IV
5. Super Mario 64
6. GoldenEye
7. Halo 3
8. Metal Gear Solid
9. Half-Life 2
10. Gears of War ...

via Games Industry


Nintendo UK has unveiled a series of over 30 'DS Centres' to be housed in a variety of retail outlets across the country, in which gamers will be able to try out new games and download demos to their own consoles.

The Centres can be found in a number of different retail chains, including GAME, Argos, HMV, Zavvi, Toys R Us, Woolworths and ASDA, with the majority falling in specialist retailers in London and the South East.

Titles available to demo at launch include a number of existing best-selling titles, such as Big Brain Academy, New Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, with others available to download as demos.

Downloaded content will remain on the user's own DS while on sleep mode, but will disappear if the power is fully switched off. More DS Centres and demo titles will be available over time. ...

via Eurogamer


The first footage of the next instalment in the Call of Duty series will be shown exclusively on Xbox LIVE this weekend.

Call Of Duty World At War is being developed by Treyarch whilst Modern Warfare's creators, Infinity Ward, presumably take a well earned rest. It's purported to be a darker, grittier game, swapping some of the 'Boy's Own Adventure' stylings of the previous games for a sense of real endangerment. In fact, according to Treyarch head Mark Lamir, "This is a scarier Call of Duty than we've ever seen."

Speaking to Official Xbox Magazine, Lamir also talked about the changes they'd made to the AI system to reflect the battlefield tactics of the Imperial Japanese army. Apparently there will be less hiding in trenches and flanking manoeuvres, more hiding in trees and suicidal sword charges.

The game will use an improved version of the engine which powers the truly excellent CoD4, with lighting and physics getting a facelift. A fire propagation model features too, allowing the new flamethrower weapon to toast all and sundry.

World At War has had a significantly longer development time than CoD3, being boiled on the ideas hob for twice as long as its elder cousin. Everyone is being a bit coy about details so far, especially as World At War is somewhat optimistically scheduled for this Christmas, but we do know that vehicles will feature again and that co-op campaigning has been introduced. Local co-op will be a 2 person split-screen affair, whilst online will be a hairy foursome.

World At War will be available on 360, PS3, PC and Wii. ...

via IGN


Pick your favourite character, choose your controller and get ready to jump into Nintendo's biggest and baddest brawl ever! On 28th June, selected Gamestation stores nationwide will host the 'Super Smash Bros. Brawl Showdown'. Be one of 64 players in each of our 20 chosen stores to battle it out not only to prove you are the biggest and best brawler of them all and be crowned a Super Smash champion, but to compete for the ultimate prize - a Samsung Home Entertainment Centre.

In order to be eligible to brawl, you'll need to register online before the 21st June at www.gamestation.co.uk/supersmashshowdown - you'll then be contacted by someone at Nintendo to confirm your entry into the tournament.

The tournament itself will see two draws of 32 players at each store battle it out in Super Smash Bros Brawl's 'Tourney' mode where you'll punch, kick and brawl your way, knock out style, through each round. The winners of each draw will play in a two player final for the grand prize. The winner from each store will win a fantastic top of the range Samsung Home Entertainment Centres, consisting of Samsung 40" Full-HD LCD TV and a Samsung Home Theatre System, including a DivX-compatible DVD player, subwoofer and 5 Dolby Digital stereo speakers. Runners up in each store will receive an iPod Nano.

Remember – you need to be over 12 years of age and register at www.gamestation.co.uk/supersmashshowdown to take part.

A full list of participating stores can be found below… Good Luck!

Participating Gamestation stores in the UK:

LEWISHAM 212 Lewisham High Street, Lewisham
HULL 59-60 Propect Centre, Hull
EDINBURGH 134A Princess Street, Edinburgh
BIRMINGHAM 138 New Street, Birmingham
SHROPSHIRE 40 Southwater Way, Telford shopping centre, Telford, Shropshire
BRACKNELL 40 High Street, Bracknell
ERDINGTON 90-92 High Street, Erdington
LEEDS 58 Crossgates Shopping centre
CAMBRIDGE 11 Fitzroy Street, Cambridge
MIDDLESBROUGH 108 Lindthorpe road, Middlesbrough
GATESHEAD Unit 112 Lower Blue Hall, Metro Centre, Gateshead
SHEFFIELD 37/39 The Moor, Sheffield
GLOUCESTER Unit 8B Market Way, Eastgate Shopping Centre, Gloucester
BURTON ON TRENT 6-8 Dame Paulet Walk, Burton on Trent
LIVERPOOL 72 Lord Street, Liverpool
BRIERLEY HILL Merry Hill Centre, Brierley Hill
DUNDEE 40 Murraygate, Dundee
GLASGOW 83 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
CANTERBURY 33 St George Street, Canterbury
GWENT 46 Commercial Street, Newport, Gwent


Full terms and conditions here ...

via IGN


Taito provided an update today on Space Invaders Get Even, the new Wii adaptation of the classic shooting franchise that was first announced back in March. In addition to a release period, the company shared one major bit of news: the game is now being readied as a WiiWare download.

Space Invaders Get Even turns the play field upside down, placing players in control of a force of 100 invaders who are out to destroy a human city. You move your UFO around with the nunchuck, and use the Wiimote for point and click destruction. Your goal is to defeat the boss of each stage before time runs out.

As far as we know, the title was originally meant to be released as a standard Wii release, unless Taito was purposely keeping mum about it being a downloadable game.

Whatever the case, Japanese Wii owners can look forward to this latest WiiWare game some time this Summer. ...

via Joystiq


It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Here is the Metal Gear Solid 4 tale of two regions. In Japan, Famitsu reports that MGS4 sold 476,334 copies in its first few days, becoming the best-selling PS3 game to date in the region. Snake also boosted sales of the PS3 itself, with Japanese sales hovering around the 10K mark; the console sold 77,208 for the week.

The UK tells a slightly different MGS4 sales tale. MGS4 is the second fastest-selling PS3 title behind Grand Theft Auto IV and was 14,000 short of MGS2's initial sales in 2002. Although the UK's Chart-Track apparently did not release actual numbers, the company's director did say that MGS4 had a "minimal impact" on hardware sales and that "there's not a lot to say about it."

Unless Sony or Konami sends out a release, we're not expecting US sales figures until NPD's June report releases sometime next month. ...

via Games Industry


When it comes to taking the best out of the PSP and delivering it to consumers so they can use it every day for many things, Sony is still early on the curve according to Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida.

"Like when we started with PlayStation One, with videogames as being a toy, and looking at the individual countries when it comes to introducing new aspects to the platform - in our minds we're doing the same sort of thing with the PSP since 2005," he told GamesIndustry.biz.

"It's too early to make judgments - we know there's a lot more that we can do, and with the massive growth of the industry we understand that third party publishers have so many choices, many more than they have resources. Sometimes we struggle to convince them to put more resources into the PSP."

Even so,Yoshida thinks that there are still a lot of good business opportunities on the PSP that will continue to be viable because there are no competing platforms.

"...We've always thought that the PSP as a platform is standing on its own - there's no direct competition, although some people think that the DS is its rival simply because it's portable, but the positioning and the main user base are totally different."

The PSP is outperforming Sony's short-term expectation - mainly due to its success in Japan, where it continues to be the highest-selling platform week after week.

Yoshida says they are really pleased that the system is the most exciting games platform in a major territory, and doesn't seem too concerned that it hasn't achieved the same measure of success in Europe or North America.

"So we continue to support the platform, and we've been doing really well with first party software, and I hope that more developers and publishers see some of the things that the PSP can uniquely offer to them, and its reach into consumers' lives," he said. ...