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GTA: Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories spin yarns on PSN next week
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories ride onto PSN next week for $9.99/£7.99 each. The last half-year saw the arrivals of GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas on PSN as PS2 Classics, so it's no shock to see the two other PS2 GTA games join them.Both games originally released on PSP, of course, but it's the PS2 versions (playable on PS3) coming to PSN next week - the PSP versions are already there.
LA Noire hits PC on Nov. 8 in US, Nov. 11 in EU; specs revealed
Rockstar revealed this morning that its crime drama slash adventure game, L.A. Noire, will become available on PC in North America on November 8, and in Europe on November 11, nearly six months after it debuted on consoles. There's no mention of a Mac port, but it is launching on OnLive the same day, allowing Mac gamers one potential avenue into this gritty city. The "Complete Edition" was handled by Rockstar Leeds (Liberty City Stories), and adds 3D support, includes all the DLC missions, and asks for a lot in terms of recommended specifications. Head past the break for the full rundown.
iOS devs appear in new Develop 100 listing
The Develop 100 is a list put together every year of the top video game developers in the world, and this year there's a surprising trend showing up: a lot of iPhone and iOS developers are starting to make the grade. Touch Arcade spotted around 50 iPhone and iPad developers in the list, which is more than I've ever seen in a list usually populated with the likes of Bioware, Nintendo and Blizzard Entertainment. Sure enough, Nintendo is number one this year, but World of Goo creator 2D Boy is in the second spot, with Cut the Rope developer Zepto Lab in third. A little further down, there's Chaos Rings developers Media Vision, along with 1337 Game Design (Dark Nebula), Rockstar Leeds (GTA: Chinatown Wars for iOS) and The Coding Monkeys (Carcassone). That's pretty amazing -- these little iOS developers are beating out much larger devs, like Halo's Bungie and Call of Duty's Treyarch, for the top spots on a pretty prestigious list. One reason for the changes is probably that the list is now weighted more towards the ratings on Metacritic, where iOS games tend to do very well compared to other video game titles (for a number of reasons, from a lower price to a completely different type of media and market). Still, it's interesting to see upstart iOS developers we know and love stacked up in such a favorable way against much larger and more experienced traditional game developers.
Mothers Against Violence discuss GTA, emphasize parental responsibility, on BBC
During a BBC Radio Leeds discussion on violent video games earlier today, a spokesperson for Mothers Against Violence urged parents to take responsibility for their children rather than blame the games themselves. "I'm not directly blaming games, I'm blaming parents. If someone doesn't do something, where does it stop?" Eurogamer transcribed pieces of the discussion, which range from the relatively mild, positive quote above, to the misinformed ("Why is it okay to beat up a prostitute, but not okay to pick up a normal civilian?" -- regarding the Grand Theft Auto series), and even to the legalese ("[Rockstar Games] submits every game to the appropriate ratings body. [GTA is] 18-rated and is entertainment clearly aimed at an adult audience." -- Rockstar's response). The MAV spokesperson reiterated that, while she worries about the effect violent games have on children, the onus is on parents to "study what games are all about." We're just gonna put this out there -- hear, hear!
Interview: Rockstar vets Lee Hutchinson and Matt Shepcar on their new studio, Double 11
Having put to bed a past with Rockstar Leeds -- and helping to turn out a laundry list of triple-A titles, including the portable Grand Theft Autos, while working there -- lead engineer turned studio director Lee Hutchinson and soon to be ex-lead programmer Matt Shepcar recently announced their new development studio: Double 11. Like so many other game devs these days, the two grew tired of big-budget projects with huge staffs, leaving in favor of creating their own smaller, mobile titles. "Our small size also means that every single team member is of paramount importance to their success or failure," the pair told Joystiq in an interview this afternoon. That isn't to say that the two have any complaints with Rockstar relating to the recent quality of life allegations. "We had a great time working at the Leeds studio and there are a lot of really talented people there," they told us. Hutchinson further expanded on his time at Rockstar to Develop. "Rockstar Leeds and the spouse allegations had no effect on our decisions to leave." In fact, we asked the two how they'd feel about working with Rockstar again in the future, and they told us, "We'd love to work with Rockstar again ... our split was very amicable and we hope Gordon [Hall] would consider working with us again in the future." To find out more about the studio's plans -- including a prospective Summer release for the its first game and where we might find said game, not to mention an explanation of the "Double 11" name -- join us past the break.
Beaterator now keeping time on iPhone
Amateur songwriters and frequent impromptu freestyle rap battlers take note: the iPhone version of Rockstar's Timbaland-ized beat creation software, Beaterator, is now available from the iTunes App Store for $4.99. The iPhone release features a redesigned interface, of course, since the PSP version relied on futuristic "button" technology. Other than that, it sounds similar to the original, though we don't know if it features everything from the PSP title: the press release announcing the product mentions that it features the ability to alter and add effects to sounds, as well as transposition and layering of loops. You can also upload your composition to the Rockstar Social Club! What seemed like an interesting curiosity as a full-priced PSP game sounds a lot more impressive as a five-dollar download, doesn't it? Beaterator ($4.99): %Gallery-79765%
Rockstar and Adult Swim offer free Beaterator tunes Dec. 7
Starting Monday through the end of the year, people who bust a funky move on over to Adult Swim's site will be able to download a free mix tape, courtesy of Rockstar's Beaterator. The tracks were hand-selected by both Rockstar and Adult Swim, and two of them -- Cee-Lo's "Hello Miss (Armani XXXChange remix)" and Good Time Guys' "Is That You God? (Dabrye remix)" -- will even be compatible with the PSP game. Hit the break for the list of all 17 tracks you'll be able to score from December 7 until January 1, 2010.
Rockstar's Beaterator subbing for music teachers in some NYC public schools
Despite a relatively low-key launch on the PSP this past Fall, Rockstar Games' Beaterator is showing back up in the news this week for reasons that we couldn't have seen coming from a mile away. It turns out that kids in some NYC public schools are getting their music education by means of the beat making application and PSPs, with a custom workshop being taught by Dubspot. CBS2 News reports that students from the East Side High School in Manhattan are being instructed on not just using Beaterator's tools, but also creating fully fleshed out tracks. "They're able to learn music theory in a different format ... it's the same information, just a different way of presenting it," the class' teacher says. Copies of Beaterator and PSPs are being provided for free, as is the classroom. We've contacted Rockstar to see if it plans on expanding the program into other cities. [Via Rockstar Games]
GTA: Chinatown Wars losing nothing in PSP port
Meeting with Rockstar yesterday for our first hands-on with the PSP "remastering" of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, we kicked things off with a question that's on everyone's minds: What's happening to the DS version's touch-based minigames? The answer: They're all still in the game, just adapted to a button-based format.We hotwired a car to try it out and were presented with a comic book panel-like inset that had us rotate the analog stick, time L and R button presses and rotate the stick again. According to Rockstar, similar mods have been made to all the minigames, but no minigames have been added exclusively for the PSP release. (Developer Rockstar Leeds did, however, deem the need to pay bridge tolls unnecessary.)We were quickly pointed toward some added elements, specifically a new aiming "arc" for lobbing grenades and Molotovs while driving, copious bloom lighting (it was a rainy night) and punched-up explosions. The in-game "PDA" has also been redesigned slightly to mimic the PSP XMB interface.Check out freshly captured new screens in the gallery below:%Gallery-71116%
Beaterator is perfect for your awful friends
From: Dwight Slappe, marketing intern To: Jeff Bukovinski, head of Rockstar marketing NARRATION V.O. COPY FOR BEATERATOR PROMO, FIRST DRAFT: "Do you have an awful friend named Jason who's constantly tapping on stuff and making your life a waking hell? Well, now you can put Beaterator into his awful stupid hands for a few, precious moments of respite from his oppressive tooliness. But be forewarned, at the end of your brief reprieve, Jason, swollen with grotesque pride, will return with his miserable creation, and force you to listen to it repeatedly in its entirety, providing the final impetus you need to shear off his awful haircut and smother him with it. Beaterator: It'll make you kill your friends!"
Girlz play Beaterator too
Here's something Sony should add to its Girlz Play Too page: Beaterator. Timbaland's collaboration with Rockstar hits PSP (and iPhone) soon. While a supposedly fully-featured music creator may sound intimidating, Rockstar proves that Beaterator is easy enough for children to use. One of the cooler aspects of Beaterator is the ability to use the built-in PSP microphone (available on PSP-3000 and PSP Go) and create your own sounds. Finally! With Beaterator, we'll be able to make a club song made exclusively of our favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger quotes. Timbaland gives an overview of the game in a new trailer posted after the break.
Rockstar's Beaterator kicks it on the iPhone this fall
Timbaland's beat-blasting PSP game Beaterator is exclusive to Sony's platform no more, as Rockstar just announced the music-making application is headed to the iPhone, alongside Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Set for release sometime this fall, the title "features thousands of loops and sounds made by both Timbaland and Rockstar, and puts the power to make professional-level music at your fingertips in a format that's portable, accessible and fun." Sadly, no price has been mentioned, but we're sure you won't have to pony up that much scratch. Get it? Hey, where are you going?
Timbaland shows off Beaterator, explains lengthy dev time
Beaterator isn't really a game. It is, however, an interesting new music app designed specifically for PSP. Here, we see music producer Timbaland checking out Beaterator on his PSP Go. In addition to showcasing gameplay, this new video from Rockstar explains what took so long to get the project finished. According to the music producer, streamlining the experience is behind the game's lengthy development: "We made it very easy. It took time to make it easy. We've been putting this game together for three years, almost four years." Beaterator's long road to release will finally end when it launches on UMD and PSN on September 29th, a few weeks before Rockstar's other PSP game.
Beaterator is actually coming out -- and soon
You may not remember Beaterator, Rockstar Games and Timbaland's unique PSP collaboration. Why? It was announced over two years ago, in March 2007. Originally a Flash application on the Rockstar website, Beaterator allows players of all skill levels to create "professional-level music" through the thousands of loops and sounds included in the application. The PSP version of Beaterator is being developed by Rockstar Leeds, the team behind the PSP and DS Grand Theft Auto games. In preparation for the launch of the all-digital PSP Go, Rockstar will be releasing Beaterator on both UMD and PlayStation Network on September 29th in the US and October 2nd in Europe. This is actually the first of two PSP games expected from Rockstar Leeds this year: a PSP version of Chinatown Wars is also planned for release this holiday. Check out the trailer above, and the box art after the break.
Rockstar, Media Molecule lead 2009 Develop Awards nods
Rockstar Leeds and Rockstar North, together with LittleBigPlanet dev Media Molecule have netted an impressive eleven nominations for the 2009 Develop Industry Excellence Awards, the UK's annual prize patrol for all things excellent in the industry. The Rockstar houses pocketed six of their own for work on GTA: Chinatown Wars and GTA IV: The Lost and the Damned, including nods for visual arts, technical innovation and audio. Rockstar Leeds is also up for the award for best handheld game studio, while both are in the running for being recognized as the best in-house team. Media Molecule is up for five awards as well, including best indie studio and best new IP. The Guildford studio is also up for the technical innovation award, where it's not only up against the Rockstar folks, but the teams behind Killzone 2, PlayStation Home, Football Manager Live and Fable II. We wish all nominees the best of luck and remind them not to forget to thanks their moms should they take the stage and accept an award during the July 15 ceremony.
No, really? Analyst believes GTA: Chinatown Wars will move 2M in US
Get this: Cowen and Company, a bunch of folks in suits who get paid a lot of money, are predicting that gaming's best-selling franchise -- Grand Theft Auto -- is going to sell really well on the industry's best-selling platform, Nintendo DS. According to GamesIndustry.biz, the aforementioned MBAs believe GTA: Chinatown Wars will sell two million copies in the US. Only two million?Doug Creutz, an analyst at the firm, is quoted as saying, "Although the handheld platform has a younger-skewing installed base, we believe many core gamers own the DS." Hmm. We see, please continue. "The strong critical rating will likely increase the game's chances of becoming a commercial hit." So, good scores equal good sales? Not always the case.We'd like to take a moment to go as far out on the limb as Cowen and make a few crazy predictions of our own. No. 1: In 10 years, people will still need water. No. 2: Parachute pants will never come back into style. No. 3: We'll never make as much as these analysts do for our predictions.
Metareview -- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
As of right now, according to aggregate Metacritic scores, Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is the best game on the Nintendo DS. There are currently four 100-percent review scores on the list. It looks like Rockstar may have done the right thing by treating this as a real game and not just simply outsourcing a cheap spinoff. After all, it's one of the most popular game series ever, on what is by far the most popular platform this generation. There is a bit of sales potential here. We'll include just one of the 100s here, from Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell. Eurogamer (10/10): "Those hoping for another gritty, complex narrative spine bound in the flesh of an openworld action-adventure may be disappointed by the rather more frivolous and silly antics of the Chinatown Wars cast, but even cynics should be converted by the huge, densely packed action playground we've been given instead." IGN (95/100): "Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is tried-and-true GTA design. Rockstar Leeds took nearly every aspect of the console design and jammed it into a Nintendo DS cartridge, tweaking the presentation to fit the restrictions and limitations of the Nintendo hardware." 1UP (A-): "In bringing GTA to the DS, Rockstar Leeds makes an installment that's less about exploration and more about the actual, structured game that's underneath. On the surface, it's not so different: pull up to a location, get a new mission, and do the job (be it shooting down some rival gang members, following someone to a secret spot, or just racing cars for respect). And it helps that missions in GTA games have always been generally bite-size, so it translates well to Chinatown Wars -- pick the game up, clear a few missions, then come back to it later." GameSpy (4.5/5): "When we think of GTA, we think of blockbusters built to massive specifications. Chinatown Wars proves that much of the stuff that really draws us to these games can be realized without expending millions of dollars and man-hours." %Gallery-44051%
Beaterator's PSP exclusivity a little unclear
You may (though you probably don't) remember all the way back to late 2007, when Rockstar picked a young producer by the name of Timbaland up off the streets and gave him a shot at his own PSP game, Beaterator. It's a year-and-a-half later now and, though the sheer power of the announcement was enough to catapult Timbaland to super-stardom, we still haven't seen the game. Now it seems there's a chance even more people can look forward to a digital Timbaland apprenticeship: Yesterday's Take-Two financial report listed the game's system as TBA rather than PSP. Does this mean DS, Wii or PS2 owners may soon experience the thrill of remixing music with Timbaland breathing down their necks? We'll keep you posted.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars 'far bigger' than PSP installments
Speaking to Nintendo Power, the developer of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Rockstar Leeds, revealed that while the game may be on the small screen, its scope is anything but diminutive. Studio president Gordon Hall uses the two PSP Grand Theft Auto games – which it developed – for comparison, saying "this game is far bigger."According to Hall, Chinatown Wars outclasses the PSP games with "more odd jobs, deeper missions, and more moments of over-the-top action," adding that it features "huge interaction with the Rockstar Social Club [and] a massive [narcotics trafficking] game that would stand alone on its own." Game? Surely he means a motivational tool.[Via DS Fanboy]
Beaterator and Timbaland pushed to 2009
Yes, we know, we're as crushed as you are. The musical beatmaking and music-mixing PSP game, Beaterator, by Rockstar games has been shoved back into 2009 because of fiscal year '08's robust lineup of titles, says the company. We're fairly sure that robust lineup constitutes mainly Grand Theft Auto IV, but we digress. The title was getting produced right along with Timbaland, so we'll assume both of those are pushed to 2009. It's all right, though, we'll find a lot of other things to tide us over until these games come out. Either way you look at it, though, 2009 is a long ways off, especially if you calculate time using the Blog-o-scheduler, which is approximately fourteen human years.
