via Kotaku


If you're in the PAL or Asian territories, you may have discovered that your 1.2 GB download of the brand new Uncharted: Drake's Fortune demo won't @!#?@!ing play on your PlayStation 3. It's not a bug, despite it's somewhat awkward behavior. It's intentional. Yes, the Uncharted demo is sadly region specific and won't play on anything but a North American PS3. It's the kind of slap in the face that hurts so much worse after a 1200 MB wait in line.

We contacted Sony Computer Entertainment America who confirmed that the US version "does not allow for cross-region play" and that "the Japanese and PAL demo will both be released soon, but we don't have confirmed release dates." Unfortunately, the delay in the non-North American enjoyment of the Naughty Dog adventure can simply be chalked up to Uncharted's release date in its respective territories. Cold comfort, I know. ...

from Next Generation


The compilation of the data, shown below, is especially timely due to the NPD Group’s recent decision to scale down its release of monthly sales figures. Everyone loves knowing who’s selling how many consoles and games, and Next-Gen is always happy to provide our own monthly statistical breakdown of NPD numbers. To that effect, like many, we’re none-too-pleased with NPD’s recent announcement.

Hopefully these numbers will do for now, and serve to provoke some healthy debate on the likes of the 360’s high installed user-base and software attachment rate, the increasing momentum of the Wii approaching the holiday season, and the continued efforts of Sony’s PS3 to stake more than just a Bronze place on the podium.



Note that the totals shown are lifetime, not yearly sales. Having totted up the yearly sales figures, the Wii is leading the trio of next-gen home consoles during 2007 having shifted 3,439,400 units, followed by 2,222,900 Xbox 360s and 1,172,500 PS3s. ...

via Kotaku


It is a day of great celebration in the countries of Greece, Poland, Saudi Arabia, and the Czech Republic, as Sony Computer Entertainment Europe launches for new iterations of the PlayStation Store for these poor, underprivileged areas.


I would have thought they'd have gotten to this sooner, seeing as Europe is the most important continent, but you can't complain when four new countries get access to the most awesome rubber duckie game ever created. ...

via Games Industry


Midway's CEO David Zucker has said that Stranglehold has provided the company with an indication of its return on investment in European sales and distribution.


Stranglehold has been a top-ten selling Xbox 360 title in the UK since its launch, according to Chart Trak data. Zucker said that it has also done very well in France, Germany, Italy and other territories.

He noted that Midway went direct into Germany and France about two years ago, and has always been direct in the UK. Those three territories combined represent almost 70 per cent of European sales, Zucker said.

"With our European distribution now in place, we feel really good about our ability to perform there looking ahead to 2008."

Although the company has been struggling, Zucker said that the infrastructure is in place for a turnaround.

During the past few years, the company has invested over USD 100 million in a standardised next-gen technology platform built around the Unreal Engine 3.

"We wanted to make sure that we avoided the mistake of reinventing technology for the same functionality," he said.

Midway's CEO again pointed to Stranglehold as an example of the company's 'distributed development methodology.' Although the game was developed by the flagship Chicago studio, the audio was done at the Austin, Texas studio, and many of the special effects were done by the Seattle, Washington studio.

The Stranglehold team is now helping the Newcastle studio working on the Wheelman title, something that is only possible because Midway's studios are using the same underlying technology and code base.

The primary advantage to shared technology is lower cost of development for the second batch of next-gen titles.

"But, more importantly," Zucker added, "our teams will be able to spend more time doing the things that matter to sales - which is improving the quality of the game, gameplay, level design - and less time on reinventing technology as we go forward." ...

via Games Industry


SouthPeak Games has announced a studio license agreement with Epic Games for use of the Unreal Engine 3 in the development of its upcoming videogame titles worldwide.

The agreement is in effect throughout the life of the UE3 technology application across all major platforms including downloadable content.


The next SouthPeak release under the new studio license is Monster Madness EX: Battle for Suburbia, currently under development by Psyonix Studios for the PS3. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Sega is leaping on the brain-train wagon with Brain Assist, a DS game "filled with a variety of ways to test mental ability".

Apparently, it's derived from Touch de Uno!, which we're reliably informed is a classic Japanese arcade game.

Anyway, the idea is that through a series of fun challenges that test your memory, concentration, reflexes, deduction and analytical abilities, your, er, memory, concentration, reflexes, deduction and analytical abilities will be improved.

And we're additionally reliably informed there are nurses in the game that offer you assistance and guidance - "Oh yes, that's it. Put your stylus there. Just there. Faster! Faster!"...

The ultimate challenge is the Lightning Round, "where the pace and difficulty of gameplay becomes even more challenging" Sega explains.

It adds, "Brain Assist takes full advantage of the Nintendo DS Touch Screen technology and allows for an addictive interactive gameplay experience in either two-player co-op mode or fast-paced competitions for up to four players via the Nintendo DS Wireless Connection".

Brain Assist is out spring 2008.


Screenshots here ...

via Eurogamer


SouthPeak Games has released a 566MB demo of Oblivion wannabe Two Worlds, giving you a chance to explore "a huge portion" of the game's "expansive single-player map".

You'll get to tackle "numerous" quests and various monsties as you try and make your mind up about whether to buy it or not. You can also read our Two Worlds review for additional pointers.

Or, if you've already bought it, you might be interested in the PC and Xbox 360 patches being lined up to address "issues some players have experienced", including problems with "horse steering" among other things we've copied and pasted below.

For more on Two Worlds, check out our Two Worlds gamepage. The full changelog for the upcoming patches follows:

Both platforms (PC and Xbox 360)

• Horse steering has been improved
• Character development curve not as steep over level 25
• HP regeneration slower for max values above 2000
• Death strike skill executable by strike button while in sneak mode
• Critical hit skill fixed
• Damage is now allowed over 32000
• There is a cap on damage and armour at 99999
• Necromancer spells have been balanced
• Magical boosters effect restricted to 5 boosters
• Stacking potions with different statistics fixed
• Objects stacking objects can't be stacked up if result has higher level requirements than current player level
• Equipment Class cap on 50
• When killing in towns after you leave the town and go back guards will ask you to pay instead of immediately attacking you
• NPC's in towns don't resurrect
• Tweaked hilevel monster balance
• Wing Membrane ingredient added to Helllord
• Dragons strike not breakable by player hit
• Bomb traps attached to some chests and wardrobes
• Balanced number of lock picks in chests and wardrobes
• Walking under water and not dying has been fixed
• Inaccessible Cave north of Ashos has been fixed
• Multiplayer Lag issues have been improved
• Multiplayer too many skill points generated due to combat stats has been fixed
• Friendly fire disabled in RPG mode (players cannot damage each other)
• Resurrect spell on players has been disabled
• Experience points for killing players has been removed
• Disarming skill disabled against other players
• Freezing/stopping spells disabled against other players
• Multiplayer RPG quests given to all, reward splitter between players
• Team assault main monuments 50 times stronger
• Barbarian berserk skill in PvP reduced to 5
• Chest and wardrobe lock levels improved in multiplayer

PC-specific

• Issue of moving money between servers has been fixed
• Maps D2,E4,F4, Multiplayer Tharbakin missing triangles or flying objects have been fixed
• Enter opens console in single player
• Horse steering stopping horse by back key changed
• Cloning character when logging on new WarNet server is fixed
• Boosters disappearing in Arena modes
• Atmospheric fog for multiplayer towns added
• Chat over open dialogs possible (by F11 chat dialog)
• All PVP arenas unlocked from beginning

Xbox 360-specific

• Improved single player framerate
• Interface repeat changes selection left stick hold added
• Game HDD cache cleaning possibility RB + A + B during game launch
• Achievements for 5 elements is fixed
• Map interface improvements only one open quest at the time, quests selection box better visibility, hero location on map better visibility, quest name on tooltip
• Hit info fonts larger
• "BACK - Show Instruction" text disappears
• Double saving multiplayer characters to protect character lost from power-off or hard-locks
• Interface no controls after "server refused connection" is fixed
• Doubling gold in multiplayer is fixed
• Doubling objects in multiplayer is fixed

...

via Eurogamer


EA may be making a big song and dance about the full albums it will be selling as downloads for Rock Band, but Activision's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is due out this month and already there are downloadable songs built around particular bands - with Foo Fighters and Velvet Revolver packs going up today.

The former gives you access to "The Pretender", "All My Life" and "This Is A Call" for 500 Microsoft points (GBP 4.25 / EUR 5.82 approx), while the latter offered "She Builds Quick Machines", "Slither" and "Messages" for the same amount.

Guitar Hero III is already out in the States, hence the release, and will be with us here on 23rd November for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and PS2. PC and DS versions are also planned, although we've heard suspiciously little about the latter. For more on the game's progress, check out our recent Guitar Hero III Xbox 360 first impressions, and watch out for a review in the near future. ...

via Eurogamer


Call of Duty 4 erupts onto PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 screens later this week, so we've been rolling around in the mud and grass getting beads on contacts and foxtrotting tangos so you can watch some videos!

First up on Eurogamer TV here in the UK is an exciting montage featuring an escape from a sinking ship, riding around on a helicopter and then crawling around on a farm realistically. Reminds us of the good old days up at Hereford swimming through caves watching out for the Grenade Danger Indicator.

Meanwhile, over on Eurogamer Germany there's all sorts of things happening in a smoky street assault, which even looks a bit like Killzone 2. Then things get brighter in the side alleys, before we sweep off to Eurogamer France to fire rocket launchers at tanks using satellites, before pressing up on the d-pad just like our grandparents did to use night vision goggles.

For more on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, check out our Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Not Modern Combat Get It Right review, in which Kristan describes the game as "consistently spectacular", "something that keeps you engaged right to the very end" and "fruit".


Trailers here ...