Activision to bring a dose of nostalgia to the popular game series, with 30 tracks from the era including originals from Flock of Seagulls, Twisted Sister.

One of the worst-kept secrets in the games industry is finally out. After weeks of rumors, Activision has finally confirmed that Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s is in the works. So far, the game has only been confirmed for the PlayStation 2 and will take the retail stage in the US and Europe sometime this summer.

Seven songs out of the total 30 have so far been announced, but they run the genre gamut. It will feature "as made famous" covers of "Round and Round" by Ratt, "I Want Candy" by Bow Wow Wow, "Metal Health" by Quiet Riot, "Holy Diver" by Ronnie James Dio, and "Heat of the Moment" by Asia. It will also sport two original tracks: Flock of Seagulls' "I Ran" and "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister. The game will also feature retro rock venues, unlockable guitars, and a variety of "intense" gameplay modes.

RedOctane's head of publishing, Dusty Welch, commented, "The 80s features an amazing variety of rock genres from hair metal to punk to new wave, and our dedicated Guitar Hero fans will definitely appreciate the opportunity to play all the new and exciting content we've added."

One thing Welch didn't comment on was the fact that Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s is being developed by Harmonix. Though it developed the first two guitar heroes, the rhythm-game studio has since been purchased by MTV, and announced in March it is making a Guitar Hero rival called Rock Band with Electronic Arts. Activision-owned Neversoft, maker of the Tony Hawk series, has since taken over Guitar Hero development. It will presumably be making Guitar Hero III, due out later this year for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii.

RedOctane founder and president Kai Huang had previously confirmed to GameSpot that the company would be looking to work on a variety of different genres for upcoming Guitar Hero, and that one of the options would be to offer these packs as extra downloadable content. However, the PS2 edition of Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s edition will be coming out in the more traditional boxed format.

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Sequel to popular Grand Theft Auto-style free-range crime game to debut on both Sony's and Microsoft's consoles next year; PS3 port of original canceled.

Saints Row for the PlayStation 3 is no more. During a conference call with analysts after THQ's earnings report today, CFO Edward Zinser revealed the port, which was originally slated for release during this quarter, has been canceled. He said that as a result the California-based publisher is revising its guidance for the April-June quarter, the first of its fiscal year, downward.

THQ CEO Brian Farrell explained the logic behind the cancellation thusly to analysts: "We think the most important thing for the Saints Row franchise is to have a simultaneous ship into a larger installed base next year," he said. "We think the bigger opportunity is a multiplatform launch."

As one might deduce from Farrell's comments, THQ has reallocated all Saints Row resources at its internal studio, Volition, to work on a sequel. The game, which currently has no official title, will ship simultaneously on the PS3 and 360 sometime next year. Further details on the second Saints Row were scant, with THQ saying only that the game would "utilize Volition's proprietary open-world engine and deliver an all-new cross-platform gaming experience." Farrell did tell analysts the game had been in the works for "some time."

Released last August as a 360 exclusive, Saints Row was praised by critics as being the first free-roaming urban crime game to be worthy of comparison to Grand Theft Auto. It also benefited from the fact no GTA game was released for next-gen consoles in 2006, selling nearly 700,000 copies in the US alone, according to industry research group NPD Funworld. The game has topped over 1 million copies worldwide, and recently achieved Platinum Hits status. Perhaps not so-coincidentally, there are no console versions of Grand Theft Auto planned for 2008.

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via gamespot

Source: A variety of reports linking back to the console partisans at Xbox Evolved.

What we heard: Even skeptics of Halo 2's sales potential on the PC--which is limited only to Vista-enabled machines--can't contest the fact the game is a monster hit on the Xbox. As of March 31, it has sold nearly 5.7 million copies in the US alone, according to the NPD Group. The industry research firm pegs combined retail sales of Halo 2, the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack, the Halo Triple Pack, and both versions of the original Halo: Combat Evolved at a grand total of 11.6 million. And, again, those are just the US retail figures: On its first day on the market in 2004, the game shipped 2.38 million copies worldwide, generating over $125 million in 24 hours.

Needless to say, the level of interest in Halo 3 is somewhere in the stratosphere. Between 60,000 and 80,000 inquiries about the game are made on GameSpot each day, and the mere mention of its title sends story comments into the hundreds. So when reports began to surface today that at least four million people have pre-ordered Halo 3, they seemed perfectly reasonable.

However, at second glance, the news of Halo 3's preorder milestone seems much shakier. They stem from a single report on Xbox Evolved citing "information at five different Greater Cincinnati Gamestop locations." The console fan site claims the four million figure was "verified at all locations" even though "a document showing this information was not revealed." Also, the report claims four million people preordered the game via GameStop alone. That figure seems awfully high, given the fact that GameStop only accounts for around one quarter of US game sales, and there were only 10.4 million Xbox 360s worldwide as of January.

The official story: Calls to six different San Francisco GameStop and EB locations produced an almost uniform answer. "We don't have access to that kind of information," one manager said incredulously. "And even if we did, we wouldn't give it out without the OK from corporate." For its part, GameStop's corporate office had not responded to inquires from GameSpot as of press time.

Furthermore Microsoft--who presumably would want to tell everything with an opposable thumb about four million Halo 3 preorders--refused to even address the report. "No comment," was all a recalcitrant rep would say.

Bogus or not bogus?: Bogus that four million Halo 3 GameStop preorders have been officially confirmed in any capacity. Not bogus that at least four million gamers worldwide will scoop up the Master Chief's adventure in its first few months on the market. ...

via slashdot

The biggest news of GDC 2007 was almost certainly the bright future of the PlayStation 3. Home was interesting, to be sure, but the title that captured the imagination of attendees was Little Big Planet. Edge had a thorough look at the game in their April issue, and now it seems like there might be a downloadable version of the four-player game used to demo the community/toybox at the conference. This 'games 3.0' thing has a lot of people sitting up and taking notice, including Flash and Shockwave developers. GameDaily spoke with MTVN's David Williams about the user-generated content possibilities being added to Shockwave.com and the AddictingGames sites.
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via slashdot


Newsweek's N'Gai tackles the allegation that the Wii is a glorified GameCube. He specifically looked at recent comments by Microsoft's Robbie Bach saying that 'the video graphics on it aren't very strong; the box itself is kind of underpowered; it doesn't play DVDs; there are a lot of down-line components [that] aren't actually that interesting. ... They don't have the graphics horsepower that even Xbox 1 had. So it makes sort of the comparison set a little bit difficult.' LevelUp spoke with a pair of technical experts at third party publishers and learned that, essentially, Bach's comments about horsepower are accurate. However,
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via engadget



In case you're interested in yet another unsubstantiated image (e.g. ZOMG PHOTOSHOPPED / faaaake / etc.) of future Zune firmware builds, here's a couple more shots. Apparently WiFi syncing still isn't in the cards, but the source that sent these along notes that WiFi encryption will work, as will subscription, but you can't send it to another player until you sync back to your PC. Sounds kind of annoying -- so we're not ruling it out. ...

via engadget

Just over a year ago, Nyko busted out a lucrative solution to the world of overheating problems that hordes of Xbox 360 users were experiencing, and even after being lambasted for causing consoles to draw an unsafe amount of electricity, the company hasn't learned a thing. Unlike Pelican's attempt at a snap-on cooling solution for the PS3, Nyko's two-piece Intercooler (larger picture after the break) holds tight to the problematic power pass-through design which could presumably put undue stress on your machine's power supply when running things in high gear. Nevertheless, IGN's review saw no scorching problems during the time it was used, and while it did manage to cool the unit down during hardcore gaming sessions, it came at a cost. The noise level experienced a noticeable increase, but they were impressed by the user-controllable fan speed knob that allowed them to ratchet things down whilst watching a Blu-ray movie. In a brief comparison between the two current options, there didn't seem to be a decisive winner, but judging by Nyko's previous mishap and its refusal to update the design, the choice should be fairly clear.

More Info ...

via engadget

What's a 17 year old doing presenting a study before a gathering of heart specialists? Why, drawing the connection between iPods and heart implants, of course. According to student Jay Thaker, the findings of his study showed that of 100 installed pacemakers, electrical interference was detected 50% of the time when an iPod was held at a distance of 2-inches from the chest for 5-10 seconds. We'd really liked to have been there to see him try and pitch this study of his to the variety of seniors with heart problems who participated (they averaged 77 years of age), but don't get alarmed, we have a feeling your grandparents -- who've probably never even heard of that newfangled iPoddie doohickie -- won't find out first hand whether this is the real deal. ...

Mercury Meltdown Revolution has been confirmed for release on 8th June in Europe.

The Wii port of the PSP and PS2 title has been generating a lot of interest among the console's growing installed base, which makes sense, since it's excellent.

The idea is to move a blob of liquid metal around a maze, dodging through obstacles, dividing into smaller blobs and solving problems of coloured gates and tricky-to-navigate platforms.

It's a bit frustrating from time to time, but the game's brilliant structure, which gives you plenty of levels and objectives to tackle while rewarding persistence and those who play it to perfection, and general solidity ensured that we loved it on the PSP.

via eurogamer ...