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Gaijin announces World of Planes MMO
Is the World War II aviation-based MMO market big enough to support multiple titles? We'll soon find out, as Gaijin Entertainment has just announced its upcoming World of Planes MMO (not to be confused with Wargaming.net's World of Warplanes title, which took a bow earlier this month). Gaijin's press release calls World of Planes a "flying simulation game," and the company will be drawing on its previous genre experience thanks to titles like Wings of Prey and Wings of Luftwaffe. According to the new World of Planes website, the game will feature "hundreds of historically accurate planes" and "flying skills that can be honed and improved with each mission." The site also hints at ground- and sea-based combat along with co-op missions, solo play, and a realistic damage model. The game will operate under a free-to-play business model, and you'll want to check out our screenshot gallery below before heading to the official World of Planes website to sign up for beta. %Gallery-126603%
IL-2 Sturmovik DLC dive bombs PSN, XBLM
Attention virtual pilots: New DLC for IL-2 Sturmovik is now available on Xbox Live and PSN. The DLC adds six new missions to the game, one for each theatre. Also included in the pack is a new plane to fly, the American P47D. According to the Xbox Live Marketplace description -- though curiously absent from the press release -- the pack also adds the German Ta 152 H-1. The mission pack DLC will set you back 400 or $4.99 on Xbox Live and PSN, respectively.
Rez meets Pong? The game behind the 'Commander' viral campaign
Just as we were preparing to play along with the "Commander" viral campaign for months on end, Nintendo Power came along and saved us from a lot of tedious guessing by just revealing the damn game. And, hey, the once-mysterious title sounds way cooler than its viral marketing.The Gaijin-developed, Aksys-published Bit.Trip: Beat is a rhythm-based WiiWare game in which you rotate your Wii Remote to control an on-screen paddle and bat away colored blocks to music. As blocks hit your paddle, they create sound effects of their own that blend into the "pumping" tunes.According to the magazine, good timing is crucial, because you'll need to deflect blocks in sync with the soundtrack. Play well, and the visuals become "flashier." Play poorly, and the visuals lose their color, and the sounds dwindle down to mere, simple bleeps. Throughout the three levels (each of which has a boss battle), the block invasions become more complex. Finally, there'll be a four-player co-op mode, and five other releases in the series to look forward to.So there we go: mystery solved, and an awesome new WiiWare title to look forward to!
New shots of X-Blades, Things on Wheels, and Roogoo
Southpeak has released some new screens from their upcoming lineup of 360 titles All told, there are new screens for X-Blades, Roogoo, Things on Wheels. A quick refresher: X-Blades is an action game starring a typically sexy heroine with big weapons. Roogoo is a colorful, intriguing puzzle game. Things on Wheels is a racer featuring RC cars racing through household environments. X-Blades is a retail release, while both Roogoo and Things on Wheels are Xbox Live Arcade titles. Check out the galleries after the break for all the new media.
Getting lost in Tokyo's media immersion pods [update 1]
New York Times reporter Virginia Heffernan writes about her experience in a Shinjuku "media immersion pod," where an unlimited, nine-hour supply of comics, television programming, porn, movies, and (of course) video games are available for just $10. We were typing really fast, so we'll run that by you again, more slowly: ALL YOU CAN EAT MEDIA BUFFET: $10! Wow. And to think we paid $100 per night during our TGS visit for a hotel that had none of those amenities. (The pods actually look like office cubicles, not futuristic techno-wombs like the photo at right, just to be clear.) Too bad an establishment like this would never survive in NYC. Within a week of opening, nutjobs, drug addicts, drunkards, and thieves would completely wreck the place. We're looking forward to experiencing some of this media bliss at this year's Tokyo Games Show, where readers can expect blog posts to be filed from such a pod, if they'll admit Gaijin. [Image credit: www.technovelgy.com] [Update 1: made it clear that the photograph that accompanies this post is not a picture of the pods the NYT writes about.]
