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Rumor: Go going to Xbox Live Arcade
Forum posters at Eurogamer unearthed a job posting seeking a C++ programmer for the development of Go for Xbox Live Arcade. According to Eurogamer, the job posting stated that, "this role will involve writing a Xbox 360 title for Xbox Live Arcade. The game will be an adaptation of the classic board game Go, and will support a 3D view and networked Xbox Live play."The job posting looks to be missing from the page, so we're going to have to take Eurogamer's word that it once existed. Because of that, and since the project may never come to fruition, we're going to treat this as a rumor until we hear something through some more official channels. That said, we're extremely amused by the thought of Xbox Live younguns trash-talking their way through this traditional Chinese board game.Microsoft had a Go variant, Reversi, packaged with Windows XP, but it does not seem to be included with Windows Vista.[Via Eurogamer]
Nintendo now not confirming DVD playback console for US and Europe?
It appears that Nintendo's earlier claims of releasing a Wii with DVD playback included outside of Japan next year might have been incorrect. Turns out, it's confirmed that only Japan will receive the console and no other territory, despite a worldwide agreement with Sonic Solution to provide its CinePlayer CE DVD Navigator for Wii consoles. Eurogamer asked a Nintendo UK spokesperson to elaborate on the situation:"We have previously confirmed that an enhanced version of Wii capable of playing DVD's would launch at some point in the future in Japan. This release simply confirms Sonic as the partner in that venture and that the new version of Wii will come to market in the second half of 2007. It does not confirm where it will launch. We are simply not making any further region specific announcements at this time."
You can chat with Tetsuya Mizuguchi [Update 1]
Do you want to talk to the man behind Lumines, Rez, Space Channel 5, and more? Of course you do. Eurogamer is giving its readers the chance to chat with the legendary game designer, Tetsuya Mizuguchi. If you couldn't figure it out, Eurogamer is a European website, so make sure you adjust for the time difference. If it's 12:30PM there, what time will it be in your part of the globe? I think according to my calculations, it'll be early morning for most of America. Will you be staying up to talk to this gaming visionary?[Picture via Siliconera][Update 1: Unfortunately, Mizuguchi had to reschedule his webchat to a later date. Stay tuned for more information.]
David Yarnton speaks on UK launch
Nintendo UK's David Yarnton recently said during an interview on Eurogamer TV that Europe would receive the biggest launch in the company's history. He's quick to cover his keister, however, by stating that even "20 million [units] wouldn't be enough" to cover the demand for the system.David says that with the Wii "we're looking at about four million units before the end of the year globally and Europe will get a reasonable proportion of that. The stock that we're looking to get we believe will probably be more than we've ever had for any console launch. But from the feedback we've had from our retailers, whatever we have won't be enough as the demand from people is really heating up for it."Yarnton absolutely expects there to be shortages at retail come this holiday season. Considering Nintendo has had the finalized Broadway chips for some time now, are we to expect the types of shortages the Xbox 360 suffered from and the PS3 will undoubtedly face?[Via gameindustry.biz]
Gran Turismo Mobile shoved aside for PS3 dev
Devil May Cry for the PSP made a brief reappearance today, as did Gran Turismo 4 Mobile. The "indefinitely delayed" game was pushed aside so that the development team can finish their work on the PlayStation 3 follow-up in the Gran Turismo series. Once they're done with that (and who knows how long that'll take?), the development team expects to move onto finishing the PSP game.Sadly, it appears that the game probably could've been released much earlier: "We've reached the stage where a GT4 equivalent runs on the PSP hardware," Polyphony Digital commented to Eurogamer. While the PSP doesn't suffer from a lack of racing titles, it's disappointing to see one of Sony's premiere development studios simply abandoning work on the handheld.[Via PSP Vault]
Hype begins and ends with the gaming press
Wanna see a hype fest? Do you? You do?! Well just head over to Eurogamer, where the site decided to give Peter Molyneux a free license to hype up his unannounced projects. In an "interview" that in fifty years will be regarded by scholars as the definitive example of hype creation, Eurogamer asked Molyneux "what's your next game, and when are we going to find out about that?" The rest of the interview consists of Molyneux spouting hyped, fluffy nonsense about how he can't tell us what the game is about, but that it'll definitely be awesome+1 to the max! I just can't blame Molyneux for this mess -- if you give one of the game industry's most savvy game developers/marketers an open microphone, it's practically a law that he will use it to hype his product. Since Molyneux didn't actually say anything about his next game that might not be included in the game (like what happened with Fable) Molyneux is totally covered. The real blame lies with Eurogamer. This goes way beyond them failing to rein him in; they've gone out of their way to construct hype out of the interview. The accompanying article is dedicated to encouraging readers to guess the word that defines Molyneux's next project. Do they think that the average Eurogamer reader is five years old?! As Winston Smith says in 1984, "if there is hope, it lies in the proles gamers", so it's encouraging to see commentators calling Eurogamer out on this trash. Stoatboy says "Oh ffs - that was a terrible interview. Love him or loathe him - that interview said NOTHING above any beyond "it'll be GREAT", which is the very least anyone would say about any game they happened to be working on." See also: Joystiq's interview with Peter Molyneux
More maps and modes for your Sin Episodes
Ritual Entertainment is about to release four extra maps and a new gameplay mode for Sin Episodes, at no extra charge for auto-download via Steam (the "no charge" bit will no doubt make many console owners jealous). The four new maps will be dedicated to the new mode called "Arena"--which is a single player experience akin to many games' survival modes--and will be designed around typically generic first person shooter situations like an office, a turbine room and a processing plant. Shawn, the lead game designer of Sin lays it down on his blog; "It's an infinitely repayable single player mode where you continually try and beat your high score". Our translation: "shoot loads of people and then obsess over the number of enemies you shot in the groin".Other bits mentioned on Shawn's blog include a comprehensive stat tracking system, enabling yourself and other players to compare their groinshot score, the mention of the impending release of a Software Development Kit (SDK) and a Sin development Wiki, and absolutely no news about when Episode 2 is going to hit Steam; Shawn got a little excited and forgot to give us any information beyond saying that he'd "be on the look out for some Episode 2 media in the near future" if he was you. We want dates dammit![Via EuroGamer]
A look back at Nintendogs
While they eagerly await the release of the DS Lite this Friday, the fine folks at Eurogamer have taken it upon themselves to review Nintendogs: Dalmation & Friends and, in doing so, reevaluate the praise they heaped upon the game when it was first released. Though they still find it to be an innovative and remarkable achievement, they also discover that the repetition inherent in raising a puppy can be somewhat ... dogged. Nintendogs certainly makes for an excellent showcase of the DS' technical abilities, but it's considerably less effective as a game. The interaction between polygonal puppy and player is amusing, even fascinating at first, but keeping your best friend happy soon starts to feel like a chore. And chores are never fun. We already struggle to cram a few games into our hermetically sealed schedules -- a game that depends on you and requires constant attention doesn't quite fit in there. As a result, we now find ourselves in a situation exactly like the one Eurogamer is faced with. "The fact is, we haven't touched our original copy of Nintendogs for months now. As painful as this is to admit, our puppies are probably now completely, irretrievably mental and riddled with fleas. We're too frightened to boot up the game and find out, haunted by visions of their emaciated corpses being stripped to the bone by gargantuan rats (even though we know that Nintendogs cannot actually die on account of how much it would upset the kiddies)."Poor Gonzo. If only your little puppy eyes could see my cold and uncaring heart.
GTA IV dumps renderware, picks up RAGE
Rumor has it that Grand Theft Auto IV (or GTA4 as the kids call it) will be using Rockstar's RAGE engine (that's Rockstar Advanced Game Engine). Many of you are already familiar with the RAGE engine if you own a copy of Table Tennis. The previous engine, Renderware, is seriously showing its age, and I doubt many will lament its loss. And it doesn't hurt that Table Tennis already looks mighty fine. Is there any chance we might see Tommy Vercetti both pinging and ponging?
PS3 price point initially "irrelevant" in UK
When we brought you news of the PS3's £425 UK price point, we speculated that the British public wouldn't react too well to it. Both the price and US/UK differential are down points, but Eurogamer has been talking to British retailers who have a much more cheerful outlook on things.From calling the price point "irrelevant for the first six months" to "anticipating that demand will outstrip supply", retailers are confident that the PS3 will sell well, with the head of Action Replay even saying that the console could have been "twice the price and still sell-out twice over".
Online bakery sim heading to PC
Anyone interested in the success of online titles may do well to watch Cake Mania, a downloadable puzzle game set in a bakery. Developer eGames, Inc has partnered with Sandlot Games to bring this online game to retail outlets.Apparently spurred on by its online popularity, the boxed version will feature new levels. Lars Batista of eGames claims that Cake Mania "strikes the perfect balance" between "fun and educational" -- however, we doubt running a bakery is much like the clean-cut cartoony world of this game.
These aren't the releases you're looking for
The recently-leaked list of upcoming titles from the house that Rainbow Six built first appeared via Gamepro.com and later was denied by Ubi (and even later denied by Gamepro). Thankfully it has made its way to Eurogamer where the inclusion of some supposedly upcoming Revolution titles caused a stir here at Revolution Fanboy HQ. Some of these titles include: - Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 5 - Rayman 4 - Brothers in Arms 3 - Assassin - Ninja TurtlesSo is this an Ubi slip-up or a complete fallacy?
A whole range of Guitar Heroes to be available
Why have one hero when you can have them all? While Accordion Hero may not be your thing, perhaps this will mollify Guitar Hero fans keen to expand their repertoire. The CEO of RedOctane has revealed to UK trade magazine MCV that several Guitar Hero sequels are in the pipeline, from Guitar Hero 2 to country'n'western and metal, following SingStar's successful genre-themed-spinoff model. Guitar Hero launches in Europe in a month's time, giving gamers this side of the pond the chance to finally see what all the fuss is about.
Blizzard Europe on server problems and more
The folks over at Eurogamer have managed to sit down with Shane Dabiri and John Lagrave to talk about the technical side of things. There have been login issues with many European realms for some time now; I've experienced unexpected outages, sudden queues caused by a lower player cap, and thirty-minute delays between entering my password and seeing my characters.According to Blizzard, it's a problem of concurrency -- with additional players signing up over the holidays, the servers are under more stress, but they're working on new, improved hardware and network infrastructure. These things don't happen overnight but as a player affected by these issues it is nice to know that something is being done.Other tidbits from the interview include the unveiling of "some exciting stuff" at E3 and the fact that expanding outside the PC is "not something we're planning on doing at this point". Also, if you're wondering when the Lunar Festival is going to clear off, that's February 14th -- just in time for the planned Valentine's events.
