via Eurogamer


Sony has confirmed the contents of the MotorStorm: Pacific Rift demo due to be distributed to Qore subscribers in the US and randomly selected European PSN users starting this Thursday, 11th September.

The track you get to play is Rain God Spires - an Air Zone track that takes you along a bumpy coastal mountain circuit with plenty of ups and downs to highlight the game's massive draw distance.

There's no online play in the demo, but you will be able to play it in two-player split-screen as well as single-player.

If the name sounds familiar, it should; Rain God Spires is a sort of sequel to Rain God Mesa, the mountaintop track that starred in the original MotorStorm demo and gave us our first glimpse of what Evolution's racing game - now series - has to offer.

Check out today's MotorStorm: Pacific Rift hands-on preview for a bit on Spires, and more on the Cascade Falls and Wildfire tracks, along with some of our observations about track layout in general, the game's visuals and the new monster truck. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Sony has launched a competition for you to design your own Sackboy, with the winning entry making it into the game for all to download.

Over on the PlayStation community page you can print out a blank Sackboy on which to scribble your creations.

"Send us your inspired outfit ideas for Sackboy or Sackgirl, and Media Molecule will pick out the best one and transform it into new attire. The winning design will be available to download for free from the PlayStation Store for use in LittleBigPlanet," says the dev.

The competition runs until September 30. ...

via Eurogamer


Square Enix plans to release Wii role-playing adventure Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon across Europe on 31st October.

Here we have Chocobos, the bird creatures from the Final Fantasy universe, dressing up in wizard and knight outfits and collecting the lost memories of a town from various dungeons.

The result was a Metacritic average of 77 per cent from summer US reviews. Conclusions pointed to rather old-fashioned design based around challenge rather than plot, although the childish presentation was lauded for the usual Square Enix polish. ...

via Computer and Video Games


Insomniac has began taking applications for the Resistance 2 multiplayer beta, due to kick off in October.

It's a limited beta though, which means that once applications are in the studio will choose which users will get in on the action - based on what, we're not sure. How cool your PSN ID is ior how many trophies you've got, maybe?

"We'll notify you via e-mail if you are accepted into the Public Beta. Space is limited. So, if you want to get a chance to try out all the new multiplayer features in Resistance 2, such as the 8-player co-op and up to 60-player competitive multiplayer, apply now," says Insomniac.

Applications are being taken on the official site, where you'll need to log into your PSN account, if you can remember your friggin' password. ...

via Eurogamer


EA and DICE have announced that Battlefield: Bad Company will be patched with Trophy support on PlayStation 3 during a future round of fixes.

Meanwhile, PS3 and 360 owners will soon be able to access the three weapons given out exclusively to pre-orders, newsletter sign-ups and demo users for free.

Announced yesterday, albeit quietly, forthcoming Bad Company updates will also address server lag, dog tag lag and PS3 VOIP issues, among other tweaks.

The developers are also currently hard at work at transforming the winner of the Battlefield: Bad Company Cast Your Vote thing into a Conquer map fit for a new map pack. Par for the Course and Acta Non Verba were the winning maps after more than 36,000 votes were cast. ...

via Games Industry


LittleBigPlanet for the PlayStation 3 is one of Sony's key software titles in the build-up to Christmas this year - and while it's a platform exclusive, Media Molecule's Alex Evans has told GamesIndustry.biz that it's not a game that could have been made on the Xbox 360.

That's principally because of two things - the larger capacity on the Blu-ray disc, which LBP is taking full advantage of, and the fact that every PS3 ships with a hard drive as standard.

"With LBP as it is, we couldn't have made it on the Xbox 360 and the reason for that is actually because we designed it around the PS3's strengths," explained Evans in a recent interview.

"In other words, if you're a game designer, from day one you know your platform, and you just cane it on that platform. You're not worrying about cross-platform, you're not worrying about anyone else's hardware design."

But Evans was quick to play down that such a statement was any criticism of Microsoft's console.

"The 360 is an incredibly capable machine, and you could make a user-generated content game on it, no question - just as you could make one on the PS2 or the Megadrive, or any platform," he said. "But because we picked our platform, you go and you use every available bit of space, every little processor cycle."

However, he did concede that the presence of a hard drive on every PS3 SKU was a significant positive factor in allowing the Media Molecule team a certain freedom of design.

"The design decisions on the PS3 are huge, and I'm sure you realize that having a hard drive on every unit makes a difference," he said. "That's another thing - if we didn't have a hard drive on every unit, we'd have to scale back the ambition of what you could save and do. So yes, you could make this game on the 360, but it'd be a different game.

"I love certain things on the PS3, and the hard drive is one of them. And it's not just that it exists, it's that it's on every single SKU."

The full interview with Alex Evans, in which he also talks about the pressure of working on a game that's become a buzzword, and how Sony's E3 press conference nearly ended in disaster, is available now. ...

Just thought I'd let you guys know I've found some killer discounts for wii games.

The UK supermarket 'Morrision's are currently offering all Wii chart games for just £15.

...that in its own is a bargain but if you go to PCWorld they'll price match it plus give 10% off (or something like that) making games just £12.50!




The other cool thing is PCWorld didn't check what games I bought were from the morrisons chart so I was able to purchase any wii game I wanted in-store for the bargain price of £12.50!

I picked up Lego Indiana Jones, House of the Dead 2&3, Metroid Prime and Capcom's Super Swing Golf for 12.50 each! ...I guess you could probably take these to Gamestation and get a trade-in price for more than £12.50 for some of these games! lol

Thought I'd share the info with ya! ...ohh and apparently at Morrisons PS3 games are £25...not sure about PC or 360 though (I was on a lunch break in work and didnt get time to look).

These discounts are not available online so you have to go to Morrisons supermarket or get your asses down to PC World!

Ta ...

Publisher affirms rumors that it will dissolve Halo Wars dev upon game's completion; leadership team to form new studio that will "work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios."

Confirmation has come fast in regard to rumors surfacing earlier today that Microsoft would be closing its internal developer Ensemble Studios upon the completion of sci-fi real-time strategy game Halo Wars. In a statement issued today, Microsoft confirmed that Ensemble will be shut down once the Xbox 360-exclusive RTS set in the best-selling Halo franchise ships out early next year.


Though Microsoft will close the studio, Ensemble brass plan to soldier on. As part of today's statement, Microsoft said that Ensemble's "leadership team" will form a new development house, and has already entered into an agreement with the publisher to continue supporting Halo Wars post-launch, "as well as work on other projects with Microsoft Game Studios."

Commenting on the reason for the closure, Microsoft said, "This was a fiscally rooted decision that keeps MGS on its growth path. While the decision to dissolve Ensemble was not an easy one, Microsoft is working to place as many Ensemble employees who do not move to the newly formed studio into open positions within Microsoft as possible."

As noted earlier today, the Age of Empires brand has sold more than 20 million units since the first installment debuted on the PC in 1997. According to the NPD Group, Ages of Empires III for the PC has sold 1.15 million units in the US alone through July 2008, with The Warchiefs expansion tallying nearly 305,000 more. (The second expansion, Asian Dynasties, was developed by Rise of Nations creators Big Huge Games.)

Ensemble has been a Microsoft-owned studio since 2001.

via gamespot ...