Slashdot Mirror
Domain: videogamesblogger.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to videogamesblogger.com.
Stories · 25
-
New 2D, HD Sonic Game Coming In 2010
Anonymouse writes "Sonic the Hedgehog is going back to his roots, but with a fresh coat of HD paint. 'An all-new 2D side-scrolling High Definition Sonic game is coming with a 2010 release date, according to a new teaser trailer from Sega.' Sega's Ken Ballough had this to say: 'Old-school Sonic fans have long asked to see Sonic return to a more 2D style of gameplay. Many liked the daytime stages in Unleashed but wanted to see a game that plays purely similar to the early games of the Genesis. Project Needlemouse is that critical first step that brings Sonic back to his 2D roots.'" -
Spore Games For Wii and DS, PC Expansions Due In 2009
Supa writes "EA UK has confirmed new Spore games for the Wii, DS and PC, as well as four more Spore expansion packs. From the article: 'Spore fans are finally getting that Wii version of Spore in Spore: Hero. Another new game tie-in will be Spore: Hero Arena for DS, a standalone Spore: Creature Keeper (PC), and four more Spore expansion packs with the first of them titled Spore: Galactic Adventures.' All of them will be arriving in 2009." Kotaku has a more in-depth look at the details of the first expansion, saying, "As with most of what comes from developer Maxis, there's a lot of stuff to soak up whenever they make something new. Adventures is way more than just slapped-on content or a single new feature; you really have to play it to even get a feel of just how much is going on." -
Complete Set List for Guitar Hero III
Wowzer writes "Early leaks have revealed the complete 74 numbers set list in Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock . Developer Neversoft had hoped to keep the last remaining 14 songs a secret until the American launch of the game on October 28th for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. From the article: 'Tier 1 - Slow Ride (Foghat), Talk Dirty to Me (Poison), Hit Me with Your Best Shot (Pat Benetar), Story of My Life (Social Distortion), Rock and Roll All Nite (Kiss), Sabotage (Beastie Boys). Tier 2 - Mississippi Queen (Mountain), School's Out (Alice Cooper), Sunshine of Your Love (Cream), Barracuda (Heart), Tom Morello's Original Boss Battle Recording, Bulls on Parade (Rage Against The Machine), Reptillia (The Strokes).'" -
MTV to Invest Over $500 Million in Video Games
Wowzer writes to mention that MTV is planning to invest over $500 million in video games over the next two years. In addition to incorporating games into all new programming plans, MTV is also seeking "ways to link their upcoming game Rock Band to its traditional cable networks and Web properties. But they are fearful of alienating players by cramming TV and other content into the game." -
World of Warcraft Hits 9 Million Users
Wowzer writes "Blizzard today announced that their MMORPG World of Warcraft is now played by more than 9 million gamers around the world. From the article: 'That's half a million more than the number of monthly players WoW had back in March five months ago. — It's interesting to note that if the World of Warcraft were a nation, CIA's World Factbook says that out of 236 listed countries it would be the 90th most populated country on Earth above Haiti, but behind Sweden.' Also revealed this week was that DC Comics are creating World of Warcraft Comic Books based on the MMORPG, with the first issue appearing on November 14th. The ongoing monthly series will be written by industry veteran Walter Simonson (Thor, Orion) and feature art by Ludo Lullabi and inker Sandra Hope." -
World of Warcraft Hits 9 Million Users
Wowzer writes "Blizzard today announced that their MMORPG World of Warcraft is now played by more than 9 million gamers around the world. From the article: 'That's half a million more than the number of monthly players WoW had back in March five months ago. — It's interesting to note that if the World of Warcraft were a nation, CIA's World Factbook says that out of 236 listed countries it would be the 90th most populated country on Earth above Haiti, but behind Sweden.' Also revealed this week was that DC Comics are creating World of Warcraft Comic Books based on the MMORPG, with the first issue appearing on November 14th. The ongoing monthly series will be written by industry veteran Walter Simonson (Thor, Orion) and feature art by Ludo Lullabi and inker Sandra Hope." -
NiGHTS Wii uses Forecast Channel for Game Weather
Wowzer writes "Sega Europe updated their NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams page, and in doing so accidentally briefly listed the new features the Wii-exclusive will have when it gets released in winter 2007. From the article: 'Wii connect 24 features: Exchange items with friends via the network and change the scenery according to real-world seasons using the Forecast Channel.' You'll also get three new shape-shifting masks (dragon, dolphin, rocket) to explore the game's seven worlds." -
Half-Life 2 Orange/Black Delayed to End of 2007
Wowzer writes "EA and Valve today announced the product configurations of Half-Life 2's The Black Box and The Orange Box, while at the same time confirming another worldwide release date delay from summer 2007 to winter 2007. If you thought the delay was the only bad news, then artwork fans haven't seen the ugly new boxart yet." -
Half-Life 2 Orange/Black Delayed to End of 2007
Wowzer writes "EA and Valve today announced the product configurations of Half-Life 2's The Black Box and The Orange Box, while at the same time confirming another worldwide release date delay from summer 2007 to winter 2007. If you thought the delay was the only bad news, then artwork fans haven't seen the ugly new boxart yet." -
35 Million DSes Sold, 6 Million Wiis By End of March
Wowzer writes "Nintendo just announced its quarterly sales for the end of 2006. Sales for the 9 months were up 72%, while net income was up 43%. From the article: '[There will be] worldwide shipments of 6 million Wii systems by the end of March 2007. Nintendo has sold 35 million DS and DS Lite to date ... As for the next fiscal year, Nintendo expect to sell around 23 million DS Lites, bringing the estimated total of DS units to 58 million by March 31, 2008.' New Super Mario Bros. seems to have legs of its own with 8.64 million copies sold worldwide and continued strong sales. But they seem slow to ship out those Wii with 4 million manufactured last year and 810,000 of those not arriving to stores until now." -
Sony Behind Fake YouTube Viral Campaign
Wowzer writes "Sony is up to the same old tricks again. Following in the footsteps of their fake PSP Graffiti campaign, Sony has hired marketing company Zipatoni to set up a YouTube-based viral marketing scheme for the Sony PSP. The company did this by registering the domain alliwantforxmasisapsp. There are no disclaimers to show it isn't 'real', but the website's whois points out it's setup by Zipatoni." From the C&VG article: "The lies don't end there, fake comments have been posted at Kotaku only linking to the Youtube video to increase its pageviews: 'Good call on DJ max. Regarding music: if changes were to be made for westerners, this guy should be considered - LOLZ'" Update: 12/13 02:37 GMT by Z : The Washington Post has an article stating that the FTC will look into situations like this, if they perchance to come up. -
Final PS3 Launch List Shows 13 Games For America
Wowzer writes "Sony's PlayStation 3 is set to arrive this week on November 17th. With just 400,000 units available at launch in the USA, and an unknown number of game consoles arriving the rest of year. The total is expected to be below 1 million units in 2006, as a result many publishers have decided to delay their games so more time can be spent polishing them. From the article: 'Remember you'll have other ways to entertain yourself with the PS3 aside from it's multimedia capabilities. From day one you'll be able to download small games (plus their demos to give them a try first) and while Sony hasn't announced any specifics like price and release dates yet, count on Sony's PS3 download games like flOw & Blast Factor to be there.' From minor delays like Need for Speed: Carbon being delayed until November 20. To big launch lineup losses like MotorStorm which was delayed to March, 2007. The PS3 launch will now have 13 titles including Resistance: Fall of Man, Call of Duty 3, Genji: Days of the Blade and Ridge Racer 7." -
PS3 Lines Already Forming In America
Wowzer writes "Nine days until Sony's PlayStation 3 launches in America, and lines are already forming. From the article: "Someone went to Best Buy this morning and saw about 7 people waiting outside. He went inside and one of the workers told him that they had been there since Monday. It must be a tough job being such big PS3 fans and being the butt of many passer-by jokes like 'Where is the line for PS4? Is it on the other side?'" -
WoW Burning Crusade Delayed until January 2007
Wowzer writes "Blizzard today announced that the release date for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the first expansion for World of Warcraft, is delayed until January 2007. From the article: 'By adding a few extra weeks to the development cycle beyond its original target date, Blizzard will be able to extend the closed beta test and further refine the new content that will ship with the game.' While disappointing now, what will this mean for the yearly WoW expansions long term? As Blizzard COO Paul Sams revealed plans in August that 'Starting with The Burning Crusade, every year thereafter we plan on bringing out a new expansion set.' 2008, 2009, ad infinitum?" -
Almost Complete Set List for Guitar Hero II
Wowzer writes "MTV's Overdrive game site show G-Hole got a preview of Guitar Hero II for the PS2. MTV wasn't supposed to share the song names they saw, though, and they were quick to remove the new song names from the video. Lucky for us all 38 Guitar Hero II songs were captured at VideoGamesBlogger. From the article: 'Opening Licks: Strutter — Kiss, Mother — Danzig, Monkey Wrench — Foo Fighters, Shout At The Devil — Motley Crue, Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight — Spinal Tap.'" The article points out that between the songs listed here and previously announced tracks, there are only two songs as yet unrevealed. -
Wii Opera Browser is Free Until Next Year
Wowzer writes "Nintendo is serious about giving casual game console users multi-functionality by offering not just a weather, news, and photo channels, but a free internet browser with the Wii at the November 19th U.S. launch. From the article: 'Opera's full Web browser is available for download from the Wii Shop Channel. Nintendo has stated that they will offer Opera free of charge as a temporary promotion for all [worldwide] Wii users until June 2007.'" -
DS Has 2 Million Wi-Fi Users Play 70 Million Times
Wowzer writes "Nintendo's wireless gaming service has reached two million unique DS players online. Together they logged more than 70 million individual game sessions in just more than nine months of operation. From the article: 'To put that number in perspective, the population of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection users now surpasses the population of 15 different U.S. states, including Montana, Nebraska and New Mexico.' The more you know, right? Also mentioned are the DS online games released so far: Mario Kart DS, Tony Hawk's American Sk8land, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Tetris DS, LostMagic, Metroid Prime: Hunters, Tenchu: Dark Secret, and today Star Fox Command." -
New Guitar Hero 2 Info
Heartless Gamer writes "New Guitar Hero 2 info revealed. The game will feature in-game endorsements and real-world venues. There will be at least two new characters: Dax DeVille, the Rockabilly formerly known as King Kendall after Harmonix' Jason Kendall, and a still unnamed Norwegian death rocker." -
Smash Bros Brawl Creators Hint at Sonic
Wowzer writes "Nintendo hopes that Solid Snake's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii will encourage other publishers to allow their characters to join the Smash Bros. line-up, and is already actively negotiating for the rights to include at least one or two other non-Nintendo character. The plot thickens when Smash Bros. series director Masahiro Sakurai and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto say that 'Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog is the character that Smash Bros. fans have requested the most.' This begs the question, which non-Nintendo characters are most likely to appear?" -
Spore Coming to Consoles?
Wowzer writes "EA was previously planning to bring Spore from PC to handhelds. In an interview this week Spore creator Will Wright was quoted as saying they are looking at bringing Spore to all platforms. From the article: 'You might be playing part of the game on a handheld platform, you might be playing the entire game but maybe more avatar-based on a console. The consoles are getting kind of different now, I think there's a really interesting distinction between the Wii and the Xbox 360 and PS3. Something like the Wii offers a lot of interesting creative opportunities for the editors, with the controller.'" -
DS Sells 20 million, 17 Million More by March 2007
Wowzer writes "Nintendo announced today that sales of its hand-held, dual-screened video game player, the Nintendo DS, have topped 20 million worldwide (guesstimates say 21,270,000). Nintendo expects DS (Lite) sales to be 17 million between April 2006 and March 2007. From today's financial report: 'The company raised its full-year sales forecast of the DS handheld game players to 17 million units for the year ending March 2007, up from 16 million unit sales projection made in May. Sales of DS game titles are projected to rise to 75 million units, from 70 million.' The report refers to PSP owners as just combat-game fans, while the DS is said to target a wider audience with more diverse games such as the 6 million seller Nintendogs." I will say, I was very skeptical when I first heard about the DS and the split screen — but having played a number of different games, I've found I like it. But I have not played Nintendogs, unlike some other people I know. -
Half-Life 2 Pack Announced for Xbox 360 & PS3
Wowzer writes "Valve's Gabe Newell revealed at EA's annual summer press event that Half-Life 2 will be coming to the Xbox 360 and PS3. It will include all extra content released on the PC and a new puzzle/fps game mode where you blast Prey-like portals into floors and walls. If that wasn't enough, Team Fortress 2 showed up in cartoon-style. From the article: 'The console versions will include: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life 2: Portal, and Team Fortress 2. The latter and possibly both will also be included in Half-Life 2: Episode Two on the PC.' Release TBD, but it's in 2006 alongside the PC's Half-Life 2: Episode Two." -
A Lost Miyamoto Project - Super Mario 128
Wowzer writes "After the 1996 release of Super Mario 64, magazines for years mentioned Super Mario 128 - a game that would feature both Mario & Luigi for release on the N64 or its 64DD add-on. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto lays the game to rest as one of his lost projects. From the article: 'Super Mario 128 was just one of many experimental games we had. Suddenly, everybody started talking about it. I'm in the all-too easy habit of starting a project only to later on not do much of it. There is a great deal of unfinished work on my desk. I worked on a prototype for the Nintendo 64 game with Mario and Luigi in it for some time." As it turns out elements of Super Mario 128 live on in Super Mario Galaxy on Wii.'" -
Over 12,000 black Nintendo DS Lite Systems Stolen
Wowzer writes "$2.32 million worth of black Nintendo DS Lite systems stolen in Hong Kong when their shipment making its way from China, where the DS Lites are made, to Europe where the black DS Lites are launching on June 23rd. The Hong Kong police suspected that the black DS Lite units sold in Hong Kong recently were part of the same theft and offers one million Hong Kong dollars ($128,840 or 102,138) to anyone with a tip. So next time you see one being sold on eBay from Hong Kong, give the cops a call." -
Nintendo Announces Japanese Wii Price
Wowzer writes "Nintendo has revealed to Famitsu.com, at the company's recent press conference unveiling its financial results, that Wii would arrive in Japanese stores with a maximum price tag of 25,000 yen. After taking in account various factors, the conversion to other currencies comes down to a launch price of: 225 dollars, 225 euros, and 150 pounds." Update: 05/25 13:45 GMT by Z : GamesIndustry.biz points out they hope to ship 6 million units by next March, and an Opera exec has said you can browse the internets with the wiimote.