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. ...

via Eurogamer


Shuhei Yoshida, the man who recently replaced Phil Harrison as head of Sony Worldwide Studios, has conceded the PS3's been lagging behind when it comes to third-party software - until now.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz Yoshida admitted there was "disappointment" during launch year over the number of third-party games available. "I'm sure that third party publishers had planned to release their titles day-and-date with the launch of the PlayStation 3, or day-and-date with the launch of the title on the Xbox 360, but because the 360 hardware was out earlier, the games were built based on 360 architecture," he said.

"But still, they must have been planning, thinking they have enough time, to port the second game to PS3 and release at the same time with the same quality. So they massively underestimated the effort that was needed to re-architect the game to properly take advantage of the PS3's multi-core architecture."

Yoshida said Sony was "pretty happy" with the first-party titles that were released in launch year, even if they didn't all arrive on time. "But it's impossible to bring the level of support that we feel is important for the PlayStation 3 platform without the third parties' continued support," he went on. "That was the miscalculation by both us, and from third parties.

"But I think after the end of last year, there are more and more titles are coming out on the same day [as Xbox 360] and the same quality, and we can start to see some additional things on PS3 because of the space available on Blu-ray."

Full interview here at Games Industry ...

via Kotaku


The Wii just isn't big enough for all the stuff it offers. That's not conjecture, that's fact. So what are Nintendo doing about? Well, when Nintendo's Laurent Fischer isn't pissing you all off by calling you names, he's promising that - snide comments aside - Nintendo know there's something wrong, and are working on it.


Great! So we're getting an external storage solution, then?

Uhh...no.


How terribly cryptic. And terribly unhelpful. ...

via Kotaku


Chalk this up as pure rumor for now.

An inside UK source tells us that Heavenly Sword 2 has been canned by Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe. The game was axed after months in development because it is no longer seen as commercially viable, our source tells us.

The news came during an emergency meeting set up for the Sony Cambridge team which was working on the game.

On a side note, Ninja Theory, who have already said they weren't working on the sequel to their Playstation 3 exclusive, have grown increasingly bitter about their treatment at Sony's hands, our source tells us. I'm told that the development studio, which once had offices in the same building as Sony Cambridge, have started packing up to move to a new location.

I guess when they said they wanted to move away from Sony and get into multi-platform development they weren't kidding.

If true, this marks the third major project, counting Eight Days and Getaway 3, that has been canned by SCEE. Is the Europe arm of Sony in trouble? No clue, but we've asked for comment. ...

via Eurogamer

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