The Year In Review

So as 2010 passes us by and 2011 knocks on our door, we leave him standing there while we muse over the events and general happenings of the last year. Click on through to find out what we had to say about the games, music, movies and general life events of 2010.

ITS OVER!

It's over!
Thank Zombie Jesus it's over...

So yeah 48 hours, about 5 hours total sleep...I think 21 movies in total!
All part of a series. We capped it off with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade...After the movies (because after movie after movie we started dying inside...) we saved our minds with some good old fashioned constant video gaming!
So lots of Xbox, lots of people and good old fashioned (once again) drinking.

It was a grand old time of movies for hours and hours...

BYE!
Sleep time now...For a long time.
*Edit* 24 movies total..The last list was the lot...The rest was halo from there...We got sick of movies as would be expected.

Day two or something.

It has reached the second day. My brain continues to let me down but on the whole I very highly recommend that you gather your friends, and sit down and watch a shit load of movie trilogies/series.

We have covered:
Both Bill and Teds.
Back to the Future Trilogy
Night At the Museums (So we could still have the marathon going while I slept!)
Austrin Powers Trilogy
Die Hard (only the first three!)
Jeepers Creepers Movies
Evil Dead Trilogy
Original Star Wars Trilogy
Indiana Jones Trilogy.
And we must press on!

I think we still have Pirates movies and Bad Boys etc...
Also We decided not to do Lord of the Rings because that takes up it's own day.
Bye!

And A Happy New Year!

Hey readers,

 I just thought 'd take a moment to let everyone know roughly what i want to do with The Arkhive going into the new year, and beyond. First up on the list is a layout change, woot. Nothing drastic, just going to give the blog a fresh new face for all those who might be sick of seeing the current one (like me). Secondly, while i do enjoy pumping out as much gaming news as possible, i'm going to try to get more posts coming on other topics including movies, music, personal stuff and anything else i can think of, which also brings me to the third thing. More posts from Mike and Steve (although they don't know it yet). So if there's anything you'd like to see on The Arkhive then drop a comment below and let us know what we can do, otherwise, continue into the new year you awesome reader you.

P.S. You can also expect some major changes over at The Gamers Pad for next year, and i'm sure Mike will keep up his insane ramblings and musings over at The Mikey Inflection. If Steve was working for another site, you'd find that link here too ;)

Day One

It is as I feared. I am beginning to lose my strength and I continue to fear I cannot hold on any longer. The Marathon is only in it's early days but it is taking it's toll on my body. The spirit is willing but the flesh grows weary and sore.

So that's entry number one!
I figure you ought to be aware of the situation. For those that don't read my tumblr (HOW DARE YOU!) me and some of my high school friends have started a Marathon Marathon...More technically it is a Marathon of Movies with multiple parts. Such as the Back to the Future trilogy, then the Die Hard series...You get the point. So we've started at 12am Midnight on Monday the 27th and have planned to finish some time on say Thursday or something.

Ah so far we have clocked out the Bill and Ted movies and are now just about finished the first Back to the Future movie.

So far the event has been quite awesome and we plan to keep it going. So I highly recommend you get a bunch of your friends together and do something like this. Currently it is 5:01 am and my sleeping shift is about to start. So I have to make a video soon!

Cheerio!

The Internet is wonderful.

So as you may have guessed, the internet is a wonderful thing. (Aren't titles helpful!?)
Happy Christmas, Merry New Year to all those who will read this.
I was writing because as I so often do, on those long lonely and to add real insult to injury, cold nights, browsing the Internet for entrainment and what not when I decided I love the sheer vastness of it.
I can talk to a thousand people a day and still find someone new, something different of a puppy trying to lick its own ear because there was jam smeared on it...I wonder if that exists...Challenge accepted.

Regardless, I was just chatting to people on Omegle. You may know of it, you may not. It is a fun site if you get bored just be warned...Video chat is 99% NSFW....Cocks...Lots of Cocks...Like the animal. Roosters...You know...Nothing sinister.
But yeah the complete anonymous chat is always fun and you can seriously have some fun/enlightening conversations. Or if you get bored fuck with peoples heads. It's all up to you.


And that is just part of the reason the Internet is wonderful.

Love, me.

And A Merry Christmas To All

Christmas is a time for family, a time for friends and a time for giving. More importantly it's a time to forget the bad things in the world and have a day or two of joy and jubilation (depending on how hard you drank on the first day). So from Steve, Mikey and Myself, let all your Guitar Hero sessions be played drunk, all your deathmatches end in yelling, screaming and rematches and all your races end in a close finish. To one and to all, have a great game, a merry christmas, and a happy holiday.

Inflections

Our very own Mikey has been hard at work on his own Tumblr page, which you can find HERE. The Mikey Inflection appears to be a random account of anything he can imagine, so you never know what you might find there. It's like a lucky dip for the mind. Check it out and let him know what you think (oh, and i'll still leave him as an author here in case he randomly decides to drop by :P).

In The Blue & Out The Orange

In customary Valve fashion, Portal 2 was delayed some time ago and now once more we have a set release date for it... woot. Portal 2 SHOULD be hitting shelves (and Steam, of course) around the 21st of April 2011.

The Return of the Lawsuit

Just when you think a certain news topic has finally been laid to rest, some stupid company (i'm looking at you Activision) decides they haven't had enough bad press yet. So with that said, Activision have added EA to their lawsuit again ex-Infinity Ward heads, Jason West and Vince Zampella. Activision are claiming that EA actively interfered with contracts, engaged in unfair competitive practices and aided and abetted breaches of fiduciary duty (yes, i had to google that too) by the executives. Basically Activision is saying that EA were courting West and Zampella while they were still under contract with Infinity Ward and encouraging their exit from the company. The claim of the lawsuit is now $400 million dollars against West, Zampella & EA, with the countersuit by West, Zampella and 40 other ex-Infinity Ward employees still happening too. Jeff Brown, of EA, said that this action "is a PR play filled with pettiness and misdirection. Activision wants to hide the fact that they have no credible response to the claim of two artists who were fired and now just want to get paid for their work." I guess neither Activision nor EA will be having a very merry christmas... As for the fans, i'm wondering if anyone even cares anymore.

Beta Be Ready

I'm pretty sure i once promised to tell everyone when i had more info on the Gears of War 3 beta... Well guess what, I have news on the Gears 3 beta... Obviously. So it has been announced that the public can get exclusive access by buying the Epic Edition of Bulletstorm. Yep, that's it. The only way into the beta will be to pick up the special edition of Epic's other new release. Can't say that it interests me a whole lot, but i'm sure there will be plenty of people willing to drop the extra cash to get into the beta (just look at the Halo 3 beta). The Epic Edition of Bulletstorm also includes a bunch of extra DLC, including extra experience, weapons and outfits. Bulletstorm hits shelves at the end of February, and Gears should be hitting shelves later in the year.

[Insert Joke Using The Word Noire Here]

So as the new year approaches, we have to turn our gaze to the games of 2011. What are we looking forward to? What will be a hit? What will fail? There's really no way to know, but a new game by Rockstar is always an event and next year, that event will be L.A. Noire. I mention this because i just watched a video which was amazing. So how will Rockstar make L.A. Noire different from every other game they've made? By giving you the ability to tell if people are lying or not, with your own eyes. The new MotionScan system in use for the game captures the most lifelike facial movements i've seen in any game before, and with over 400 people scanned for use in the game, i have to believe your interactions in L.A. Noire will be quite entertaining. Check out the video showing off the tech below...

A Second Serving Of Humble

After the success of the first Humble Indie Bundle, the promotion has returned and is happening right now. For those who don't know, the idea behind the humble indie bundle is simple. Assemble a handful of the latest and greatest indie games, throw them into a pack and let people purchase the pack for whatever price they choose, with proceeds being split between the developers and charities. The Humble Indie Bundle 2 includes Braid, Cortex Command, Machinarium, Osmos and Revenge of the Titans... All of which could be yours for the low, low price of... Well, how generous are you feeling? The current average price paid for the bundle is $7.19, with Windows users being the cheapest overall and Linux users being the most generous. If you're interested, then head over to humblebundle.com and check it out. Remember the price is in US dollars. Oh, and so far the bundle has raised over $500,000 but it's not just ordinary gamers getting in on the action. Records show Notch (of Minecraft fame) donated $2000 to the cause.

Updated Synch

All you Brotherhood players out there should head on over to the marketplace to grab the first piece of DLC. Animus Project Update 1.0 adds a new map and game mode to Brotherhood's multiplayer and is available now for the great low price of free. You can add it to your download queue HERE.

Keep On Dreaming

As many have suspected, not only are Sega refurbishing some old Dreamcast games for the digital download crowd, there is a Dreamcast collection game in the works that will be available in disc form. Sega are yet to confirm the exact lineup of games that will appear on the disc, but presumable Sonic Adventure, Crzy Taxi, Space Channel 5: Part 2 and Bass Fishing will all make an appearance as these titles are already available or will soon be available on the Arcade marketplace. Gamestop had a listing up for a short amount of time (before pulling it back down) which listed the release date as February 15th and the low price tag of $29.99... Presumably there won't be too many games included for that price, but i'll let you know when the line-up is announced.

Ubisoft Are In For A Fight

Zuffa, the parent company to UFC have filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft over a slogan that appears on the back of the NTSC version of Fighters Uncaged. The back of the case boasts the tagline "Become the ultimate fighting weapon" which the UFC feels wrongly creates an association with their brand and could be damaging to their image. No word on how much they're suing for just yet, but they ARE demanding that Ubisoft stop producing the game and destroy any remaining materials and/or games that have the offending slogan on them.

Meta-Announcement

More and more games are being announced as the VGA's roll on. The short and sweet version is that the following games are now official and confirmed... Protoype 2, Insane (by Guillermo Del Toro), Forza Motorsport 4 and SSX Deadly Descents. On top of that, we now have a release date for Resistance 3, which will hit shelves in September 2011. Check back a little later and i'll add more details / trailers if possible, for each of the games.

Reach For The Sky

On the slightly more exciting side of VGA announcements, Bethesda took to the stage to reveal The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Skyrim will be a direct sequel to Oblivion and take place in the lands of Skyrim (duh). Now that it's announced, how long will we have to wait for it, you ask? a little under a year. Bethesda have currently set the release date to the eleventh of November next year, or 11/11/11.

ME3 Confirmed... Not That We Didn't Already Know

So, the VGA's are underway and the announcements are rolling in, including Bioware making a shock announcement and revealing Mass Effect 3 :O... /sarcasm. So we already knew it was coming, but now it's 100% confirmed, and as predicted, you'll be taking the fight to Earth as the Reavers descend to wipe out humanity.

Prepare To Frag

Hold onto your hats FPS fans, because Bethesda and ID Software are about to take console shooter back to an age they missed out on. Releasing on December 15th (yes, in 3 days time) is Quake Arena Arcade... An Xbox LIVE Arcade update of the ever popular Quake 3 Arena from the PC. With online support of up to 15 players and boasting 30 classic maps, 12 new Xbox exclusive maps and a whole new single player campaign Quake Arena Arcade is already looking to be one of the top Arcade games.

I've come to notice a new world...

Hey all very long time no see. I could feather this up with excuses because I'm living at my cousins at the moment with limited internet usage or university work until now etc or even a real job...(A GAMER WORKING?!) But the truth is...I just get hit with writers block all the time. Scoot knows this so I'm sure he's been silently cheering for me. I am just lazy as well.

But in my time away from writing gaming articles or just plain gaming I've come to notice the outside world.
It scares me.
There are lots of people out there...And some of them do not...I repeat DO NOT, game.
I don't like them. Make them go away.

So yeah in my time off I've played a few games and read more books. I just recently as in so very just the other day recently, bought myself a new DS game. The first on the DS, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. I could not be more pleased. The Golden Sun series (when I first played it on Gameboy advanced way back when) is I think one of the only Turn Based games I've ever liked. Even a little.
Suffice it to say, I am so far loving this game. To those that know the first two games, Dark Dawn (DD) is like the second generation saga. It's all about the Heroes of yonder kids; how they have to set out on a new quest to save the world since the Golden Sun Event 30 years ago.
It is awesome so far and I highly recommend you pick it up or at least give it a go. The most awesome thing I've found so far is all the endearing sound effects are back from the first game which is just plain awesome and makes me reminisce a little. The graphics remind me highly of Zelda Phantom Hourglass/Spirit Tracks and the story is engaging through and through.
If you like the idea of world exploring, puzzel solving, leveling, and using Psynergy (Basically psychic energy with disciplines in Earth, Fire, Wind and Water all about that Alchemy baby) then I think you should give it a go. (It doesn't ring true for me but I suppose it is similar to some Final Fantasy games on DS so if you like them give it a go. But I hate FF so yeah...)

Regardless I thought I'd post because well I can seem to write at the current moment.
Lots of love, your really bored writer,
Mikey.

P.S. I'll hopefully be posting soon about some books I'm getting into because I think I could bring that to this blog while Scoot gets all heavy on the gaming! I do mostly reviews any how...

Mass Effect The 3rd

The online store for EA Games just loves doing it's own thing. Although it has now been removed, an entry appeared on there for Mass Effect 3. The entry detailed that you'd be taking control of Shepherd on a quest to Earth to save humanity from a race of terrifying machines. This seems to match up with the teasers that have been coming out of Bioware recently, so look forward to Bioware's VGA announcement of Mass Effect 3.

/Rant Returns... Gaming Solo

/Rant is back purely because i want to blast some rage in EA's direction over statements that the single player game is dead to the games industry.

SCAG Avoid The Argument... Again

Many of you were eagerly anticipating today, knowing that the Attorneys-General were meeting and the proposed R18+ rating for video games was on the agenda. The rest of you probably don't play games (in which case, why are you here?). After the federal government gave their backing to the plan earlier this week you would think that SCAG would surely have to make a decision today, but alas, no. Once again the committee remains undecided on the issue and has asked to see a set of guidelines defining what would be R rated before making a final decision. Sadly this was the last SCAG meeting for 2010, so we'll be waiting into the new year to see if we finally get an outright answer to the issue.

More SSX Rumours Abound

The rumour mill continues to swirl around the possibility of a new SSX game. A source close to the game has apparently told Kotaku that a game is well into development and will return the series back to it's roots, but include use of Skates stick flicking control style. Supposedly members from the Skate team have been working with the game's creators, presumably to integrate the Skate control scheme into the world of snowboarding. Look forward to a possible reveal at the VGA's, along with reveals for just about every other game you currently think might be in production.

Lara Leaks

So i already showed you the GameInformer cover revealing the new Tomb Raider, and told you i would bring you the details when i got them... Well, turns out that is a bit of a lie. Someone over at a blog labelled Playstation Informer has been kind enough to scan and upload every page from the GameInformer article, and rather than copy them to here, i'm just going to point you in Playstation Informer's direction. As expected the article tells about how the game will show us a whole new Lara Croft, fresh to the world of tomb raiding, etc. so it's not really much you couldn't have already guessed, but if you've got a few spare minutes, why not read through it and let me know what you think.

The Busters Are Back

Next year will mark the return of the Ghostbusters once more. Don't go hoping for the familiar team though, as the new game (Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime) will see 4 rookie ghostbusters strap on their proton packs in a top down arcade shooter similar to Alien Swarm. Check out the trailer below and keep an eye out for it to hit the arcade around March-May 2011...

Out Of Harms Way

As part of a Dorito's promotion encouraging people to send in ideas for games they'd like to see on the Xbox LIVE Arcade, Microsoft have released 2 new arcade games free of charge. Following in the footsteps of Dorito's Dash of Destruction, both are small arcade games aimed towards multiplayer but both are radically different in idea. The first game is Dorito's Crash Course, which sends you (and your avatar) off on a race through an obstacle course. With 15 levels and 200 gamerscore to be earned, you can't complain about getting something for nothing, so head HERE to download it. The second game is called Harms Way and pits racers against snipers in a race to the death. Racers will have to try to complete 3 laps safely, meanwhile snipers have to try to take out the racers cars before they can cross the line. Sadly it seems like Harms Way is not currently available in Aus, but if you have a US or UK account then head HERE to get it.

Return To The Tomb

A few days ago i went ahead and posted what would technically be a spoiler by suggesting that the next GameInformer magazine would reveal a new Tomb Raider game...

Guess who was right. The new Tomb Raider is looking to be a gritty reboot to the series, with this game acting as an origins story to Lara Croft and supposedly "takes her on a character defining journey like no other" (according to Darrell Gallagher of Crystal Dynamics). You can find out more in the January issue of GameInformer, or wait till i pick up the details and post them here.

Showing Off The Prototype

A couple of days ago people stumbled upon the website murderyourmaker.com and speculation started about what it could be for. Now however, a 5 second teaser has appeared on the site which seems to include flashes of gameplay from Prototype, suggesting that Prototype 2 could be on the way. As with many more gaming mysteries at the moment, all will be revealed at the VGA's.

Adults Only

It has been revealed that the federal government is backing the plan to bring in an R18+ rating for video games. This doesn't mean the rating is approved yet, but with the attorneys-general meeting on friday, they'll be pushed to make a decision either way. Stay tuned and check back on friday to see what happens.

Reach: Combat Evolved

According to 'industry chatter' there is something underway at 343 Industries (Microsoft's new studio in charge of the Halo franchise). Word is that the studio is using the engine from Halo: Reach to create a remake of Halo: Combat Evolved. I'll just let you think about that for a second. OK, So at the moment i'm definitely taking this as a rumour and nothing more, but it certainly is an interesting concept (until you realise that online multiplayer on the game would actually just be Halo: Reach). Following that, it's also rumoured that the studio is working on an actual sequel to Halo 3, but that's also nothing more than rumour right now although it wouldn't surprise me. Microsoft releasing another game with Master Chief is like a pig rolling in mud... It doesn't need to happen, but you know it will.

Rewarding

Microsoft have launched a new Xbox Rewards scheme, but before you get too excited, currently it seems to only be available for players in the US and UK. The scheme seems simple enough, all you have to do is sign up at the site HERE, and you'll automatically earn extra MS Points for doing stuff you'd normally do anyway. Ways to earn points include renewing your Gold subscription, buying select DLC and answering surveys. Sadly it also seems that Microsoft's horrible refund policy is still in effect, so regardless of how many points you've earned, you won't actually receive them until the end of each month, and all rewards points have to be used by the end of June 2012. Stay tuned for more info should any other regions be added to the program.

Industrial Augmentation

A viral advertising site has popped up for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and it looks very shiny. sarifindustries.com is the website for fictional company Sarif Industries and gives plenty of information on the type of augmentations we'll likely be seeing in the game. Plus, keep your eye out for a fun little hacking game which will give you a few pieces of concept art.

Back To 'Nam

The highly anticipated expansion/add-on, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Vietnam, has been priced and dated. The expansion will bring with it new maps, guns and anything else Dice can think of adding to make you want to play Black Ops less. Vietnam will be available from the 21st of December (earlier for those pre-ordering PC gamers out there) for 1200 MS Points.

DLC Roundup

There have been a few pieces of DLC that have hit the marketplace this week and i thought you might like to know. First up is Halo: Reach's Noble Map Pack which brings 3 new maps to the Reach online experience. The Noble Map Pack is priced at 800 points and  brings with it some new achievements and 250 gamerscore. Secondly is the long overdue Big Thrills Pack for Trials HD, which brings another 40 levels to the game, including 10 created by the fans. Finally we have the Spunky Cola Special add-on for Monday Night Combat, which adds an extra arena, game mode and some general improvements to the game. The best part is that this one is completely free to gold subscribers, so go grab it now.

[EDIT] I forgot to mention that VIP Map Pack 7 for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 should be available now too.

Kinecting To Millions

Microsoft's Kinect may have only just been released in Australia but it's already been out for nearly a month in the U.S. and after it's first 10 days, it had managed to sell a million units. So how does it's sales fare now? Well, apparently after 25 days on the market, Kinect has sold 2.5 million units. While it's not going to be outselling Black Ops any time soon, it certainly seems there is some interest in Kinect and hopefully this will push Microsoft (or any other studio) into making some games that aren't just shovelware. Have i played Kinect? Yes, i have, and if i stop being so slack, i might even write up a nice review for it.

Gearing Up

Epic Games are set to make an announcement at the VGA's along side the many other announcements we're waiting for (I'm looking at you, Bioware). Cliffy B has said they'll be showing new gameplay footage, but it's not what we're expecting. He might be right, unless you're up to date with the rumour mill, in which case you'll likely be expecting the reveal of the Gears of War Kinect title which IGN has been told is in the making. It's also entirely possible that there will be an announcement about the Gears 3 beta which is set to happen in early 2011. Either way, keep checking back for more news.

Lara's Back

If you're one of the people who read Gameinformer (but seriously, why would you when you can just wait for me to poach their info and put it up here for free) then you may have caught a big double page spread at the back. The picture shows a large oil tanker which seems to have run aground and the line "A Survivor Is Born". The meaning behind this will be revealed on the cover of their December issue, but allow me to jump right ahead and spoil it (oh wait, i probably already did with that title, my bad). Rumour is that next month's GI will reveal the brand new Tomb Raider game which is RUMOURED to be going back to Lara's roots and showing how she got her start in the tomb raiding business.

Super Secret-ish

A short time ago i caught a trailer for an upcoming game called Ilomilo and my thoughts after seeing it were pretty much along the line of, "0_0... What... was that?". Well the cutesy game is already available on Windows Phones, but has yet to receive a release date for the Xbox Live Arcade. A point which seems pretty redundant considering you can go to the super secret webpage found HERE, and get a free download of the trial, which then, like all arcade games, can be upgraded to the full version for 800 MS points.

Missing Your Portal

I choose to believe Valve are the second worst company in the world for sticking to release dates (second only to Blizzard who don't even bother releasing release dates till the last second) and it seems they're aware of that fact (that they miss deadlines, not that i... nevermind). They have announced that Portal 2 will slip from it's February 9th release date for a release in the week of April 18th. Joking about the situation Valve had his to say... "This two month slip not only marks the shortest delay in Valve's proud tradition of delays, it represents the approaching convergence of Valve Time and Real Time. Though this convergence spells doom for humanity, it will not affect the new Portal 2 release date."

Mass Teasing

Bioware have been teasing a new game that might just be a Mass Effect spin-off. Check the trailer down below for the teaser, although there's not much there. Current rumour seems to be that the game will be a Mass Effect related multiplayer game... which is supported by the job listing found back in June (read the post HERE).



[UPDATE] So Bioware dropped a few other little clues that ended up leading people to the website for MI6, but the focus of this story has been stolen by the twitter account for Sony Russia who dropped a tweet saying the teaser showed first footage of Mass Effect 3... The tweet was later deleted, so whether this was a misunderstanding or an accidental spoiler, we don't know, but check back here soon.

Two Worlds Collide

Marvel vs Capcom 3 is shaping up to be the fighting game of the year (or, best fighting game since Street Fighter 4) and it looks to be aiming for a launch early next year. The official word is Spring 2011 (March-May) but Gamestop are advertising the release date as February 15th. Either way, a collectors edition has also been confirmed for the U.S. which includes:

• Steelbook Case featuring Exclusive Artwork
• Prequel Comic
• Two Character DLC-Card (Jill Valentine & Shuma Gorath)
• 1 Month Subscription to Marvel Digital Comics

The DLC will be available 4 weeks after launch and there is also a preorder bonus of some console decals. Pictures below... (and a reminder, this is all for the U.S. so it may or may not be available here in Australia)

Collectors Edition

Console Decals

Bizarre Ending

Hold onto your hats (and controllers) Project Gotham Racing fans, as Bizarre Creations time may be running out. Rumour broke out over Twitter that Activision had closed the studio down today, firing 200 people. Naturally, this wasn't true. Activision have responded to the rumour saying that since their purchase of Bizarre Creations the fundamentals of racing games has changed and despite their efforts to create a new IP (Blur) they haven't had much success with the company. As such, they ARE looking into selling the company and other alternatives, and under U.K. Statutory requirement, Activision has given the staff a 90 day notice saying some type of restructuring or closure will occur.

Diabolic Concept

A few job openings were noted on the Blizzard website for people with console experience to join the Diablo 3 team... Naturally everyone's mind jumped to the same conclusion. However, Blizzard has stated they're only looking into the possibility of making a Diablo-related concept for consoles and wanted to see what sort of talent would be interested in taking up the task. Oh, they also ensured complaining PC players that the PC/Mac version is their main priority and wouldn't let a console version delay or otherwise slow down the production of Diablo 3... because after waiting over a decade they're still concerned that the production might be slowed down.

Kinect of War

The latest rumour to come out of IGN is that there is a Gears of War related Kinect title in the works. Apparently it is set to be revealed at this years VGA's. This may be true, and it may not be, but one thing is for sure, it is NOT Gears of War 3. Everyone's favourite Epic employee, Cliffy B, has already confirmed that the delay of Gears 3 has nothing to do with adding Kinect to it. So if there is a Kinect product in the works, it will either have to be an entirely new game, or a remake of an older one.

Cost To Kinect

So Kinect is slowly making it's way into stores around the world (next week here in Aus) and seems to be selling pretty well. Have you ever wondered how much Microsoft is making off the product though? According to UBM TechInsights it costs Microsoft $56 U.S. to produce a device, while you pay $150 U.S. in stores ($180-$200 in Aus). Before you start thinking Microsoft is over charging though, remember that $56 is only to make the unit... It would have cost them a whole bundle more to develop it, advertise it and even ship it to all the stores across the world. Even then, I'd bet they're already sitting on a tidy little profit. Kinect will hit shelves November 18th, but be sure to keep an eye out here and over at The Gamers Pad for a review of it shortly after.

Viacom Rocking Out?

Viacom, the awesome media conglomerate it is, is apparently looking to sell Harmonix, the creator of Rock Band. Viacom have been performing well financially, but apparently Harmonix has been dragging them down a bit. Could it be people aren't willing to spend $150 just for one instrument now? Perhaps so as Rock Band 3 sales are said to be down. It'll be interesting to see who would be prepared to buy Harmonix out if Viacom IS looking to sell.

The Numbers Roll In

Activision seems to love telling us how much money we're giving them. They spammed us endlessly with the monetary figures Modern Warfare 2 was making upon launch and it looks like it will be the same with Black Ops. Activision has announced that made 360 million dollars on day 1... That's about $50 million more than MW2, and Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision, is confident that Black Ops will continue to outsell Modern Warfare 2.

Sporting A New Structure

EA Sports have revealed plans to restructure their development process after NBA Elite 11 was recently cancelled. From what i understand, each studio will now report to a single supervising team, as opposed to the old system where each different game would be completely developed by a single studio.

Mini-Celebrity Douche-Bags

David Vonderhaar, Multiplayer Design Director on Call of Duty: Black Ops has struck back at people posting videos of glitches in the game. On the game's release day players had already found a number of glitches including a new version of the care package glitch. Naturally players done the first thing anyone does when they think they found something cool before the rest of the world... Post it on Youtube. Videos have now been removed by Activision/Treyarch and the care package glitch has been patched but Vonderhaar felt the need to leave a charming message on the CoD forums concerning the situation. You can read the full rant HERE but the short version involves him telling people he probably knows more about the glitches than those who have watched the videos and saying he didn't want to speak on the matter after this post because he has no interest in making mini-celebrities out of douche-bags. Douche-bags or not, maybe he needs to be reminded that the people he feels so strongly about happen to be the ones making the game such a success.

May The Force Be With You... A Little Later

So if you're one of the people looking forward to picking up Kinect for the upcoming Star Wars title that was demo'd at E3 (like me) you may want to hold off for a bit. The man who is quickly becoming the face (or should that be glasses) of Kinect, Kudo Tsunoda has recently revealed that the Star Wars Kinect title will be looking for a release around christmas... in 2011.

Moving Forwards

In case any Rock Band players out there don't know yet, ALL Rock Band DLC released from the launch day of Rock Band 3 on will ONLY be compatible with Rock Band 3. Rock Band 1/2 players can still look forward to new music fresh from the Rock Band Network however... unless you're an Australian. So if you love your Rock Band and want to keep up with the DLC, you'll need to purchase the new game, plus if you intend to play pro guitar or bass you'll need to pay an extra 80 MS Points per track (plus you'll need the pro instruments, which last time i checked, aren't available in Australia)... Oh Harmonix, how we love thee, and your obvious lack of care for the Australian market.

Back To The Slopes

When rumour broke out that Criterion Games was working on a new SSX title recently, EA Games was quick to deny the rumour, however multiple web domains including ssxdeadlydescent.com and ssxfirstdescent.com have recently been registered, giving more sign that a console return for the SSX series may be imminent. No official word from EA yet, but i'll be sure to let you know when there's more info.

The End Of War

If you were looking forward to seeing what happens after the end of Darksiders, you may have to wait a little longer. In a recent interview, Danny Bilson, THQ's VP of Core Games, revealed that the sequel will follow a new character. He has said there is only one apocalypse, so the sequel will focus on another character with events taking place at the same time as the first game. it would make sense for the new character to be another of the 4 horsemen, so now the only question is, will it be Pestilence, Famine or Death?

Prestigious Opening

It's no secret i'm not a big fan of the Call of Duty franchise (or any realistic FPS's for that point) but my friend over at the iGooseGamer Youtube Channel loves it and upped an unboxing video of the prestige edition of Black Ops, fresh from the midnight launch... check it out below



and here's a second video of the RC car being tested (and possibly damaged)...

New Vegas Hits The Jackpot

Bethesda have been kind enough to reveal that Fallout: New Vegas has had record breaking sales since launch. NV managed to sell over 5 million units across all platforms around the world... A feat which helped put the official strategy guide as one of the top selling books on Amazon. Digital Downloads alone pulled in $300 million for the company. I guess all this goes to prove that a brand name will sell anything these days as everyone i've spoken to has labelled New Vegas as the buggiest title they've ever played.

Slowly Rising

What takes longer to complete than a Metal Gear Solid Game? The development of a Metal Gear Solid game apparently. Rumour has it that the latest Metal Gear Solid title, Rising, will be pushed back to a release date in 2012. If the rumour is true then you can still look forward to slicing enemy bodies up into tiny little chunks... you'll just have to look far onto the horizon.

Oh Behave

Artificial Mind & Movement, the studio that brought you such wonders as Wet and Naughty Bear, are rebranding themselves. To fit their shift towards original IP's and digital games, the studio will now be known as Behaviour. There are still a few games in the pipeline for Behaviour so look out for Rango (the game adaptation of an upcoming CG film), Wet 2, and Naughty Bear 2.

Down For The Count

Upcoming FPS Bodycount has been pushed back from it's early 2011 date to summer 2011 (June-August for us aussies) after the General Manager, Adrian Bolton, departed from Codemasters. He isn't the first person to walk out from the Bodycount team though as Creative Director Stuart Black and Executvie Producer Tom Gillo both left the team earlier. Codemasters have told Eurogamer the games release would be pushed back and they would not provide a more accurate release date because they're not prepared to compromise the quality of the game.

Are You In Control?

For all i've heard about Mindjack until now, it may as well have not existed... However, Square Enix's shooter is now firmly on my radar and will definitely be something i look out for next year. Mindjack sees you take control of... well some sort of floating cloud-like thing. OK, that may sound stupid but the idea seems to be that through this cloud you can take over the body of anyone you find, be it a happy civilian who was passing by, a trained soldier or what appears to be the early predecessor of the Brutes from Halo. Check out the trailer below and see if you can explain things better than me...

Kinect With Your Controller

One of the masterminds behind Kinect has confirmed in an interview that while the plan is to expand the library of Kinect games as much as possible, not every game will be completely prejudiced against buttons. Alex Kipman has confirmed that there are hybrid games in the works that will make use of both Kinect and the standard xbox control. No idea what these games might be and how they'll be implemented, but it's certainly possible they might be a little less casual than the library of Kinect launch titles. Oh, and he also confirmed that Project Milo was never going to be a product.

Marketing Black Ops

Once you've finished playing Call of Duty: Black Ops next week, you might want to consider you're always carrying a bit of Black Ops with you... How would you do that? By purchasing the soundtrack off iTunes. The soundtrack will be released via most major digital download distributors and include 30 songs from the games score. This just seems to be the next step in what i feel has been a completely over the top marketing strategy for Black Ops... Which reminds me, don't forget to stock up on V before next tuesday, and make sure your new Black Ops jeep is securely locked up and your RC Bomb Car is on charge.

Borderlands 2.0... or 1.41

The latest title update patch is available now for Borderlands. How exciting you must be thinking (and if you're not, then start). The title update applies fixes to some bugs that were stopping a few players from getting achievements in the latest piece of DLC, but the title also ups the level cap for all players and re-adjusts the game to match. Owners of plain old borderlands will now be able to raise their level from 50 to 58, with enemies and loot scaling up along with them, and owners of the General Knoxx DLC will now be able to take their character to level 69. This may be the last major patch we see for Borderlands as Gearbox continues work on other projects, so if you haven't played Borderlands or were thinking about getting back into it, now seems to be the best time.

I'm Back... But Where Did I Go?

Honestly... Nowhere. I've been a bit pre-occupied gaming and sleeping and kept getting sidetracked from posting updates here, so that's why there hasn't been anything new over the last week. Luckily for me it hasn't been too news heavy this week anyway. Here's what you may not know but probably would if i hadn't been slack...

Several major games have released including Fable 3, which has eaten up over 10 hours of my life already and apart from being a bit glitchy is an excellent game. Fallout: New Vegas has also been out for a little while and was extremely glitchy at launch, however was slightly improved when Bethesda released a patch to address over 200 bugs (surely there must be quality control restrictions in place that stop them from shipping a game with over 200 bugs, which they had to have known about). Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 is out and doesn't suck as much as i thought it would. TFU2 is still very similar to the original but receives a significant graphics upgrade as well as more variety in all things from enemies to lightsaber crystals.

On the more newsy side of things, the CEO of Take Two Interactive, Ben Feder, has resigned from his position to spend time travelling Asia with his family. Take Two is the parent company to multiple games studios which can best be summarised as all the Rockstar and 2K Games studios. The current Executive Vice President, Karl Slatoff, will take over top job as CEO effective from January 1st.

Also pulling the plug on an epic career is Keiji Inafune, who has announced his departure from Capcom. Inafune's current job title is Head of R&D Management Group, Consumer Games R&D Division and Contents Management Division, which means his hand has been pulling the strings behind pretty much every Capcom game you can name of late, but his early career included creating Mega Man. He announced via his personal blog that he will be leaving Capcom in order to look for his next challenge and start his life over.

With Great Power...

There is no R18+ rating for video games in Australia. A fact that most gamers are aware of, most gamers want to correct, and yet the Australian government still won't bring the topic to light. People who oppose an R rating do so on the grounds that it opens up our industry for adult content which they believe can't currently come into games, However i find this trail of thought typically comes from those who most rely on the ratings system... The parents who allow their children to play games purely based upon the rating on the front cover and with no knowledge of the games actual content. Thus, i come to the actual point of this post, i found a great article by a mother who learned the hard way that ratings aren't always what they seem and has taken the responsibility of herself being the censor for her family. You can read the article HERE.

Line-Up To Kinect

The launch of Microsoft’s motion control, Kinect, is just around the corner and if you’re planning on buying it then you’ll likely want to pick up a few extra games to go with it. Well, here is the list of games coming out at, or around the same time as, Kinect.

• Kinect Adventures
• Kinectimals
• Harry Potter and the Death Hallows – Part 1
• Game Party: In Motion
• Dance Central
• Your Shape: Fitness Evolved
• The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout
• EA Sports Active 2
• Zumba Fitness
• Get Fit with Mel B
• Dance Evolution
• Dance Paradise
• Kinect Sports
• MotionSports
• Sports Island Freedom
• Kinect Joyride
• Fighter Uncaged
• Sonic Free Riders
• Crossboard 7

I can’t guarantee all of these titles will be available in Australia (some seem to be UK exclusive) but so far the line-up looks pretty impressive, until you notice that half of the games are all the exact same thing. Will we see some decent non-fitness games from Kinect soon? I hope so.

Robots In… Your Body

EA have announced a new title heading to the Xbox LIVE Arcade and PSN in early 2011. MicroBot will see you taking control of a prototype microscopic robot (cleverly called a MicroBot) as it enters a persons body to fight off other MicroBots that have malfunctioned and started spreading disease through the hosts body. Looking like a cross between Asteroids and the first stage of Spore, MicroBot will send you through perilous areas of the body such as the heart, lungs and brain. Not to worry though, as you’ll have 20 pieces of technology to unlock in order to build up your MicroBots attributes and really take the war to your robotic brethren. If none of the above made sense to you, then check out the launch trailer below…

See more Game Videos at EA.com.

Write up

Just making a quick post to let everyone know I’m trying out a new program that will hopefully allow me to update here on The Arkhive and over at The Gamers Pad much quicker and easier. If everything goes according to plan, then much of my news feed here will likely start appearing on both sites, meaning you’ll be able to visit whichever page is more convenient for you and still get the latest random bits of news from gaming and/or whatever other random stuff i think to post. So… yeah… I’ll keep everyone updated on how it goes.

Cutting Encouraged

What do you love more than a limited edition bundle that includes a ton of DLC you'll never use? A limited edition that includes a ton of physical items you won't use, of course. Behold the limited edition of Dead Space 2, which recently popped up on Amazon, before being removed once more...

The special edition will include the game (obviously), bonus armour, soundtrack, an art cell and, yes, a replica plasma cutter. Just a hunch but i don't think it's going to be working, so don't get excited thinking of how you could mount this to your buggy from the Black Ops special edition and drive around chopping peoples feet off. That's what you were thinking of doing right?

[UPDATE] It is now confirmed the above edition will be exclusive to North America. Australia will likely get the same edition revealed for European gamers, which includes everything above but the plasma cutter and adds an in game rivet gun. Even more confusing, while the N.A. version is advertised for both Xbox and PS3, the European special edition is currently only advertised for PS3. Keep an eye here for more details if they become available.

The End Of The Road

Have you bought Outrun Online Arcade off the Xbox LIVE Marketplace yet? If not then you might want to think about snapping it up before the end of next year. Outrun has already been pulled from the Playstation Network and will also be pulled from the Arcade by December 2011. This may well be the first time a game has had to be permanently removed, so why are they removing it, you might ask... Sega no longer holds the licence to use Ferrari vehicles. The exact vehicles than Outrun is full of. So if you like you're racing games, or just want to grab it up as something of a rarity, might be better to grab it sooner rather than later.

Going Crazy

If you were disappointed by Sega's first attempt to bring the Dreamcast's greatest hits back, then fear not as at the end of November they'll be taking another crack at it. While Sonic Adventure may have been a bit of a failed attempt, Sega will be releasing the Xbox LIVE Arcade version of Crazy Taxi on November 24th. This time they've put in the extra work and the Arcade re-release will be complete with a 720p upgrade and transition to 16:9 screen ratio. On top of that you'll also get another 2 game modes on top of the original, and all for a reasonable price of 800 Points.

Banking Some Extra Points

Microsoft's whole point rebate idea for Winter of Arcade must have went well, as they've decided to do it again. Any person who buys at least 2400 points worth of arcade games or add-on content during the month of October will net themselves an extra 800 points. While this may not be much encouragement to make everyone spend more, it's a nice bonus for people like me who end up spending that much most months anyway (Sonic 4, The Writer DLC and Costume Quest pretty much cover it). Just remember if you DO spend over 2400 points, you won't recieve the bonus points until the end of November.

Writing An Ending

Just a quick reminder that the last piece of DLC for Alan Wake (The Writer) should be out some time today. In my opinion, Alan Wake still stands as my choice for game of the year, and i'm very interested to see how this final piece affects the story of the game. Keep an eye out for a review tomorrow.

Returning From The Future and Still Arriving Late

In news that is surely unrelated to the previous post (...right?) it seems DC Universe Online has been delayed from it's November release to a 2011 release. The delay is apparently to "address community feedback", so i guess they need extra time to iron out some bugs and finish developing it. Guess this will be arriving just in time for all the WoW players who manage to finish of Cataclysm then give up on it once more.

A New Age Is Upon Us

There is a world other than ours... A world of magic, of mythology, of warcraft. All World of Warcraft players know that Azeroth will soon tremble and be divided by an all mighty Cataclysm, but until now, we had no idea when that would be. Blizzard has finally lifted the veil on it's "you'll get it when it's ready" policy and announced World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be hitting shelves on the 7th of December. So if you've played WoW before, then grab your time cards and prepare your Death Knight (or whatever class you choose to play as) and if you haven't then now would be as good a time as any to give it a shot... whats the worst that could happen?

A Wealthy Inheritance

It's already been discovered that the rank's on Halo: Reach seem to have been capped off at Lt. Colonel grade 3 for now, but no-one actually believed that would be the top rank. Well thanks to MLG we now have an entire list of ranks and amount of credits needed to get there. Click 'Read More' for the full list, but for those wondering, the top rank is Inheritor and you'll need to amass 20,000,000cr to get there... yes, twenty MILLION. With me approaching Captain, that puts me at about 1% of the way there. Have fun grinding that out, and remember not to cheat, unless you want to end up like the 15,000 people in the previous post.

The Banhammer Strikes

Bungie has started to make true it's claims of not letting players cheat on Halo: Reach. Just days ago, Bungie performed a credit reset to 15,000 players, who were apparently using an exploit that allowed them to complete a challenge more than 20 times in one day via network manipulation. The affected players will lose all credits and progress, however will still hold their commendations and will need to redownload any extra DLC armour they had. Reach players be warned, Bungie is shining up its banhammer, and they WILL use it.

Hits and Misses

Everyone loves to have a bit of fun, even game devs. Lately the main source of fun for Xbox players has been Halo: Reach, and Bungie has stepped up to show everyone that it doesn't matter who you are, sometimes bad things just happen... but as long as its happening to someone else, it's always hilarious. Check out the video below for some hilarious fails, and some insane hits by Bungie employee's.

The Ultimate Of Ultimate Editions

I may be a bit biased in saying that Bioware is one of the best RPG creators, and Dragon Age: Origins is one of the best RPG's of recent years. Anyone who agrees with me will be interested in the now confirmed Ultimate Edition that will be hitting shelves at the end of the month and will include the original game, Awakenings expansion, plus all 7 extra DLC chapters (plus the feastday packs). If you haven't played the game before, or you have but don't have any of the DLC, i HIGHLY recommend you pick this up. The price tag looks to be set at around $100, so for no more than the standard price of a game, you'll get hours upon hours of fun, fighting and fantastic story.

It's Not Like Locust Have Watches

Gears of War 3 has officially been delayed. As much as we were all anticipating the final invasion this coming April, the game will now be released closer to the end of 2011. This also means we'll be waiting a few extra months to find out the fate of Carmine.

Forza Motorsport Shifts Gears

To Top Gear that is. Turn 10 and Top Gear (the BBC tv show) have entered into a long term partnership that will see Top Gear branding coming to future Forza Motorsport games, plus a heap of Top Gear related DLC coming to Forza 3.With the Ultimate Edition of Forza 3 coming out in October, so too will the first such piece of DLC, 'Stig's Garage Pack' will bring 3 more cars to the already massive line-up (Koenigsegg CCX, Lexus LFA and Mercedes Benz SLS-AMG) but personally i'm just wondering if the Kinect support for future games will include a Kinect controllable Stig :D

EA Strikes Back

Yesterday i mentioned an interview where Activision head Bobby Kotick made some rather pointed comments about EA. Well it seems EA aren't prepared to take that treatment lying down as more than a few pointed words have since been returned. Jeff Brown (EA's VP of Communications) had this to say of Koticks work, "His company is based on three game franchises – one is a fantastic persistent world he had nothing to do with; one is in steep decline; and the third is in the process of being destroyed by Kotick's own hubris." The three games mentioned are of course World of Warcraft (a game now owned by Activision Blizzard after the two companies merged), Guitar Hero (which Activision has admitted to cutting back on due to a decline in the market) and Call of Duty (do i really need to mention the Infinity Ward troubles again?). Regardless of who is right or wrong in this whole conflict, i don't imagine this will be the end of it.

Pull your Striped Sneakers On

The next chapter in the long lived story of Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic 4: Episode 1) will be hitting the marketplace soon... October 13th to be exact. Sonic 4 see's the blue blur returning to his sidescrolling roots for the first time in decades. The game will set you back 1200 points, a slight markup from the recently released Sonic Adventure remake, which i should have already reviewed by now but have been a bit slack. Keep an eye out for that soon.

Activisions Business Advice

Bobby Kotick (big boss of Activision) had a lot to say in a recent interview and decided he wanted to tell the world what makes EA a bad company... No, that isn't a Battlefield joke, Kotick actually went ahead and explained why he believes Activision's management of smaller studios is better than EA and says that no-one great wants to work for EA. I won't go about copying everything he said here (instead, you can check out the interview on EDGE) but saying EA smothers its developers and doesn't know how to handle employees all sounds a little stupid when coming out of the mouth of the man who runs Activision, a company that got sued over the whole Infinity Ward debacle... or had he forgotten the 20+ people who walked out of their nice Activision jobs and sued the company for not paying them properly? Perhaps Kotick would like to hook up with Sony, it seems they have nothing better to do than attempt to put their competitors down too.

The Writer Returns

I hope everyone is prepared to jump back into the twisted nightmare world of Alan Wake, as the second and final piece of DLC (named The Writer) will be available in about 2 weeks. Hitting the marketplace on October 12th, The Writer promises to give us answers to the questions remaining from the main game. My only question now is, can we expect it to answer ALL questions, or will a few be left unanswered to keep us guessing until Alan Wake 2 comes out?

The Monkey Is Back

it would seem the two master's of bizarre comedy games will be reuniting. Tim Schafer (Brutal Legend creator) will be teaming up with ex-Monkey Island partner Ron Gilbert (Deathspank creator)on a new game that we currently know nothing about. Gilbert has been working out of the Double Fine offices lately and accepted a friendly suggestion to make his next game there, so while the team aren't ready to drop anything other than the fact it's a Gilbert game with Schafer providing input, we can probably assume it'll be full of the humour and sheer ridiculousness the two are now known for.

338 Posts Young

So this will be post number 338 here on The Arkhive, and it's widely known that i have a fascination with the number 338 for no apparent reason, so i want to use this post to quickly thank anyone who is reading this and hopefully any other posts on The Arkhive. Also thanks to Mikey and Steve for their contributions and while i don't know how many people actually bother to visit this blog anymore, i can say that i will continue writing on here even if it's for no purpose other than fending off my own boredom. Thank You.

Rock Bands Fender Arriving Fashionably Late

So i still don't honestly know if we'll even be seeing Rock Band 3 here in Australia, however if we do get it and you want to play the pro guitar mode, you'll either have to pick up the Madcatz Mustang pro-guitar controller or wait till some time in 2011 when the Fender Squier controller launches. It seems the Fender guitar will not be ready in time for the release of the game and even when it is ready, it's gonna set you back over $250, compared to the Mustangs $150+ pricetag (remembering this isn't just a controller, but also a fully functioning guitar). As for you keyboard/piano players out there, you should be prepared to pay over $100 for your instrument, and that's not even including the game. Rock Band 3 is due for a late October release in the U.S. and Europe.

A Look At The Future

Microsoft is now taking entries for the preview program for the new Xbox dashboard. According to a certain Major, several thousand entries will be accepted so there is a good chance of people getting in. If you're interested in testing out the new dashboard before it's public release (likely very early November) then head HERE to sign up, HOWEVER, be aware that once signed up, you won't be able to revert back to the old dash, and will lose all voice functionality (except in game chat, of course) with people not participating in the program. This means no voice chat, no party chat and no voice messages. The reason behind this seems to be because of an upgrade to the voice codec to increase the quality of voice chat. If none of that bothers you, then head to the above link and enter in your details to register. No wait necessary, you'll either be accepted or declined on the spot, however the dash won't be available for another week or two.

P.S. Forgot to mention the preview is strictly 18+... Sorry kids.

The Revolution Begins

The latest trailer has been released for Deux Ex: Human Revolution and it continues to make the game look absolutely amazing. Check out the trailer below and leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Revealing A Fable

The great people over at Lionhead Studios have provided a video of the Collectors Edition of Fable 3 being unboxed... Yeah, that's pretty much the whole point of this post, don't know what else to say. you can find my original announcement and list of contents in the collectors edition HERE, and check out the video below. If you haven't already pre-ordered then go out and do it now, as Fable 3 will be hitting shelves at the end of October.

Kittens And Knives... What Could Go Wrong?

If you've been craving a bit of sidescrolling platformer action lately (or just have a thing for catwomen) then keep an eye out for Blade Kitten, the latest arcade title from Atari and Krome Studios. Blade Kitten is part 2D platformer, part puzzle game and part action... with a little bit of anime thrown in for the fun of it. Check out the trailer below and feel free to leave your opinion via the comments section... I think it certainly looks weird and has a high potential to fail, but it's always nice to see something a bit different hitting the arcade.


Trailer courtesy of IGN, because i couldn't find the official Atari / Krome youtube channel.

Project Dark Heading Out West

From Software (the group behind the epicly difficult Demons Soul on PS3) have announced their next game, currently titled 'Project Dark', which while not a sequel to Demons Soul, is said to be a spiritual successor. While the studio will be handling the games release strictly for PS3 in Japan, it's been confirmed than Namco Bandai will take over the publishing rights for what appears to be a U.S. / European release on Xbox 360. No further information on the western release at the moment, but it IS coming.

Reaching up

Halo Reach is amazing...However today is the 17th...

It's my birthday.

That is all!

Rawr!

Reaching For Gold

Halo: Reach released today in case you didn't know... but this post isn't actually about that. Instead i just wanted to mention Xbox is running a promotion to celebrate offering a 40% saving on a 12 month gold subscription to anyone paying by credit card. You can find a panel for the deal on the Xbox dashboard, which lets you subscribe for an extra 12 months at just $47, plus you'll get a Noble 6 avatar helmet free.

Bloody Good Drive

Take any game today and you'll be able to say "well it's just like a mix of THIS and THIS"... Well what happens when you cross Twisted Metal with the zombie Freak splattering fun of Crackdown 2? That seemed to be the question on Activision's mind when they came up with Blood Drive. Heading our way in November, Blood Drive will say players take to arena settings in heavily armed cars to destroy each other and the horde of zombies walking around. Promising 4 player drop in / drop out competitive multiplayer, Blood Drive will certainly attempt to fill that hole in Xbox gamers hearts that Sony put there when they announced Twisted Metal for PS3.

Epic Puts It's Cheating Cap On

In case you don't know, Gamespot are currently running a poll to find the all time greatest villain in video games. The latest round sees Gears' General RAAM take on Half-Life baddie Dr. Breen. It's been a close battle, with RAAM lagging behind most of the way, but Epic want to change that. Earlier today, Gears Executive Producer Rod Fergusson decided it was time to call in the cavalry and laid down the terms for the next Gears of War 2 multiplayer multiplier event. "Every % pt RAAM wins over Dr. Breen = the XP multiplier for the next event. e.g. 60% vs 40% = 20x XP" tweeted Fergusson. So, if you've missed the previous events and want to get that multiplier up, then all you need to do is head HERE and put in your vote for RAAM.

UPDATE: It would seem Fergusson underestimated the power of PC gamers as General RAAM is STILL losing, so Fergusson has now said to forget about the % multiplier... If RAAM wins, it'll be a 30x XP bonus. As i write this, RAAM is down by about 1,100 votes, so if you want that XP, head on over there and get your vote in.

Multi-Platform Dreams

Let's just say for a second that you're a Sony fanboy and need to quickly name an exclusive PS3 title... you'd name Heavy Rain, right? (to be fair, MS fans would name Halo, thus proving the point that all fanboys are idiots, regardless of preferred console). Well, while the PS3 may have Heavy Rain to fall back on, David Cage (Director of Heavy Rain and founder of Quantic Dreams) has told GamesIndustry.biz that the company will be looking into going multi-platform with it's next title. While still unannounced, Quantic Dreams' next work in progress is not likely to be Heavy Rain 2, but with the companies previous works (Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit) being so similar, it wouldn't be a surprise to see another game cut from the same cloth. So Xbox and possibly even Wii players might possibly look forward to getting some hands-on time with an 'interactive drama'... or they could go back to playing Halo / Mario, which for once might actually be a better idea.

P.S. upon spellchecking this article, it would seem 'fanboy' isn't recognised as a real word... I beg to differ.

The Hands Of Fate

If anyone was wondering, Epic Games little save/kill Carmine campaign has now officially come to an end and his fate has been sealed (although we won't know what it is until Gears of War 3 releases in April). Even if you weren't on the winning side though, you can hold your head high because the campaign in general raised over US$150,000 for the Childs Play Charity. At least you can't say gamers are selfish.

Good Times For All

If you're the type of person who likes a bit of the bizarre with their FPS experience, then keep an eye out for Ubisoft's upcoming arcade title Bloody Good Time. Set on a Hollywood movie set, the game will see players navigating levels taken from their favourite stereotypical horror movies and attempting to take each other out with a range of weapons including some more bizarre choices, like an exploding remote control rat. The game runs on the ever popular source engine and will be hitting the Xbox LIVE Arcade and Steam on October 27th. Check out the trailer below... It doesn't show you any gameplay, but you get an idea of the level of ridiculousness they're going for.



Sidenote: the copyright information along the bottom at the end mentions Kinect. Whether this game will be Kinect compatible or Microsoft has just decided to mention Kinect in all of it's copyright material is yet to be seen.

Capping It Off

With one more piece of DLC and the recently revealed Game of the Year edition of Borderlands heading our way, Gearbox have decided another raise to the level cap was required. Unexpected however is that the level cap will be free to anyone who owns the General Knoxx DLC and won't actually require you purchase the new pack. The level increase will be heading our way included in a patch with some balance changes a bit before the GotY edition releases and will add an extra 8 levels, taking the max up to 69.

Forever Is Now

Rumours have been breaking out all day, but i didnt want to say anything till i could 100% confirm it... I'm watching the live stream as i type this and can say 2K Games and Gearbox Studios have just revealed Duke Nukem Forever. Not only is it on show, but people over at PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) can play it right now. Looks like we'll finally be seeing the game for real. Guess we'll need to find a new game to be a running joke. I really have to question how well Duke Nukem Forever will be able to stand up against the modern FPS franchises, but there seems to be a lot of fans still waiting for this, so in the words of Duke Nukem himself... Hail to the king, baby.

Feeling Less Kinected

It seems like Microsoft spent a little too much time creating hype for Kinect and not enough time creating the actual device. One more piece of the Kinect experience has fallen to the wayside as it comes to light that mainland European gamers (still unsure if this will affect Aus) will have Kinect's voice recognition system locked off until early-mid 2011. Currently the voice recognition system only supports British English, American English, Japanese and Mexican Spanish, and so Microsoft have decided that any regions not fully supporting these languages (including Canada) will have the voice recognition part of Kinect locked off from use until the Spring 2011 update (March - May) when they can get the full language library incorporated. In previous news it seemed like Microsoft were unsure of how well Kinect would sell upon release, and between this and Fable 3 announcing it WON'T have Kinect support at release, i think gamers are fast losing faith in Kinect too.

Xbox's Path Ahead

Today marks the end of the Xbox LIVE's Winter of Arcade promotion (which i should already have a review up for, but i'm being uber slack, sorry) but that doesn't mean we won't be seeing anything new coming to the marketplace over the next two months. In terms of Arcade games, keep an eye out for The Game Feast, which features the launch of 4 more arcade games between September 29th and October 20th. The titles will include Hydrophobia (1200 points / Sep 29), Comic Jumper (1200 points / Oct 6), Pinball FX 2 (tables purchased individually / Oct13) and Super Meat Boy (TBA / Oct 20). Plus before then you'll be able to get Plants vs Zombies for 1200 points from September 8th, and U.S. users should hit up the marketplace on September 15th to get Sonic Adventure for 800 points (not being released in Aus). If you're all arcade'd out, i can tell you that the Deal of the Week starting September 6th is a discount on various Resident Evil 5 stuff, including avatar gear and game content. Finally if you're just looking to waste some more time on a game you already have before a certain release on September 14th, keep an eye out for Crackdown 2's Toy Box expansion on September 2nd, and new content for ass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins on September 7th.

Light It Up

Movie tie-in games generally suck... Now that i've got that out of the way, Tron: Evolution. While the upcoming game will be hitting shelves around the same time as the movie (December) Tron: Evolution and Tron: Legacy will not directly tie in with each other. Why buy a semi movie-tie in game that's likely to suck then? The Collectors Edition of course...

The Collectors Edition of Tron: Evolution comes with a model lightcycle complete with cool bubble display case that also acts as a storage container for the game. If anything i've just said doesn't instantly sell you, then you were probably never gonna play the game anyway.

Bordering On Ridiculous

Gearbox have put out a tweet saying... "Borderlands Game of the Year Edition announced! Game + all FOUR DLCs and bonus map for 360, PS3, and PC. Available in October!"... ... I don't really know what else to add to this, it really says it all. So Borderlands will soon be available from retail complete with all 4 DLC packs, which seems a little ridiculous. I think most of the people who want the DLC for borderlands likely already have at least one or two pieces, so now they're left with the option to continue to download the packs individually from the marketplace, or cough up full retail price to buy a game that comes with crap they already have. I don't see this selling very well, but i guess Fallout 3 managed to make sales using this strategy.

Subscribe This

The xbox dashboard isn't the only thing seeing a change in November. Microsoft are set to increase Xbox LIVE subscription prices. While there doesn't seem to be any info on if there will be any change in Aus prices, U.S. gamers are looking at an extra $10 per year. While this is sure to be unpopular with gamers, November will also see new media and video services brought into effect, so U.S. players will still be getting their money's worth. Presumably most of those shiny new services won't turn up on the Aus marketplace under the usual excuse of licencing issues, so i imagine we won't see the increase, but if it turns out we do, be prepared to renew your subscription in october to save yourself a bit of money.

Be Heard

It's been a while since we've seen a Xbox console update, but there is finally one on the way and its bringing us a whole new level of communication... ok, well it's fixing one that currently sucks. The Xbox currently uses a low bit rate codec to encode voice chat because Xbox LIVE was originally designed to be running on 64k connections, but these days the vast majority of people are running faster connections (at least in most countries that aren't named Australia) so with the Fall Update (which actually comes in Spring for Aussies) we'll be seeing an update to the voice chat system that aims to make the audio a much higher definition. Will this make it possible to communicate in a team game like Halo or CoD without sounding like your mic is wrapped in alfoil? yes... will it reduce the pitch of the billion 12 year old kids on Halo? probably not. The fall Update will likely be released in the first week of November to go with the launch of Kinect, and thus update the dashboard for Kinect control as well.

Inspirational Choir Music Not Included

Next month PC gamers will be able to get their hands on the next installment of the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy XIV (14)  follows in the footsteps of Final Fantasy XI (11) in being a cross-platform MMORPG. However, due to some issues between Square Enix and Microsoft regarding the Xbox LIVE system, the game will be making it's way to PC and PS3. The PC version will be hitting shelves in roughly a months time, but PS3 gamers will have to wait till March next year. The whole point of this post though is to show off the shiny new trailer...



I've only just started getting into PC gaming and MMO's in particular, but i'm definitely considering giving this one a go... presuming my computer will run it. If not, look out for me on a realm near you come March. You can find me by looking for the character with a name relating to Scoot or 338... he'll probably also be acting like a noob :)

The End Of An Age

Dragon Age: Origins has been a massive success for Bioware and produced an insane amount of DLC. So with Dragon Age 2 now well into development, the original had to come to an end eventually... but not before the release of one final piece of DLC. Witch Hunt has been announced as the final expansion for Dragon Age: origins and will tie up the last remaining loose end from the main game... What happened to Morrigan. Witch Hunt will be available for 560 MS Points from September 7th.

Rock Out

The track listing for Rock Band 3 has now been officially confirmed. You can check it out by clicking 'Read More' but the short version (rather, my opinion) is that the listing is a rather mixed bunch covering pretty much every genre you can think of (and working in some songs for the keyboardists/pianists out there) but quite a lot of them have already been seen before in the Guitar Hero series. While it could be argued there is still all the DLC already available, it's still disappointing that they can't come up with something better to actually put on the disc, after all, you don't need Rock Band 3 to play the DLC either. Still no official release date outside of America, however EB Games have it listed as the 21st October (which i find unlikely considering the US date is the 26th).

DLC or Achievements

THQ have owned up to an issue with the latest piece of DLC for Metro 2033. Players who downloaded the 'Ranger Pack' DLC have found they can't earn any of the achievements related to the DLC. Unfortunately, the pack was released 3 weeks ago and THQ have only now admitted there is an issue and they are looking into it and ask for gamers patience. Better late then never i guess, but you think they might have actually looked into this during the months they spent actually making the DLC.

Vegas Stakes

Quite a while ago, Midway Studios announced a game that would allow you to take to the streets of Las Vegas and do pretty much anything you wanted, GTA-style. This Is Vegas seemed to be going pretty well but it hasn't been seen or heard from since Warner Bros bought out Midway. That's changed... Word now is that This Is Vegas has been cancelled. There had already been extensive work done on it (including cover art and screenshots) and it's been said that Midway had already dumped over $40 million into making the game, and it would only require another 8 months production, costing about $250,000 a month. If this does prove to be true, it means Warner Bros will be taking a hit of about $50 million dollars... Perhaps now would be a good time to take up that Mortal Kombat movie proposal?

Bloody Sequel

When the next and final sequel to the Saw movie franchise hits the cinemas around Halloween, you should also be able to get a bit more of a Saw fix, because that seems to also be the release date for Saw 2: Flesh & Blood. With that being said, the game has been pencilled in for an October 19th release in America, but there was a considerable wait between the American and Australian release of the first Saw game, and even then that's presuming Konami decides it's worth the money to try to put it past the ratings board and release it here. Saw: The Game got mixed review from media, but i've generally found that gamers who played it generally liked it (although arguably the only people who bought it were already fans of the movies).

Breaking Shadows

If Halo isn't your thing, then dust off your copies of Mass Effect 2 (as if you've put it down long enough to gather dust). The next piece of DLC, 'Lair of the Shadow Broker', will be hitting the marketplace on September 7th and see a familiar ally by your side, as you get to work with Liara T'Soni once more (and continue your romance if that's the way you went in Mass Effect 1). Lair of the Shadow Broker will set you back 800 MS Points.

Remembering The Fallen

Halo: Reach is still 3 weeks away, but that's no reason for Microsoft to wait. The Halo: Reach website is now live and you can enter your mark on the Reach remembrance memorial. Check out the site at rememberreach.com, link to your facebook and you can add a point of light to the memorial... If you look at it and CAN'T already tell what it is, don't bother getting Reach.

Racing Line

Gran Turismo 5 is hitting the PS3 soon, but it looks like Microsoft may be looking to keep a hold of it's racing gamers. The Ratings Board seems to have accidentally outed an 'Ultimate Edition' of Forza Motorsport 3. Currently no details on contents or release date, but it will presumably contain the original game plus a range of DLC... oh, and if anyone actually cared, it got rated G (with a warning that game experience may change online).

Disappointment And Rage Goes Here

Over the last week I've started playing World of Warcraft... I'll just pause here for a moment until the Rage and Disappointment dies down... Done?... Good, let's continue. So, WoW, in the past i've given it crap and much hate for being an MMORPG. Most of this comes from the fact i can't stand having to play games with other people. After a week of WoW, i've come to realise that while parts of it are still rageworthy, and indeed many players of the game are I'll let you finish that sentence), The entire game isn't bad. It's still possible to play solo, in fact the game may arguably be easier solo. Once you look past the MMO aspect, WoW becomes very similar to games such as Morrowind and Oblivion... Yes, i said that, now stop raging and listen... as much of the game just involves trekking across the land (easily as big as the world in Oblivion), slaying monsters, retrieving items and there's even some dungeon crawling you can do by yourself if you so wish. The amount of players running around will vary greatly depending on what server you decide to play on. I'm on a server for noobs, so there will rarely be more than 100 players online at once. In a world the size of Oblivion it means that running into other people out in the wild is pretty rare. Obviously there ARE the dungeons and raids that require you to be in larger groups (anywhere from 5 players to 25) but these are pretty much completely optional. I guess what i'm getting at here is, not everything about WoW sucks, and some people who hated it for being an MMO may actually like it if they give it a chance. I wouldn't recommend trying to download the free trial though, unless you've got several gigs of download limit to spare.

Oh, and for anyone wondering whats coming up, I'm going to be writing something up about the Winter of Arcade (I bought all the games and am going to do a mass 5-in-1 review i guess), I'm going to try to review Mafia 2 and possibly Kane & lynch 2, and there's a heap of new albums coming out so i might try to get some more music reviews up.

Other Stuff I Missed

People may or may not have noticed that i haven't posted in like a week. While Gamescom WAS underway, there wasn't really much new info coming out of it. Lots of screenshots sure, but those can be found with a simple google image search. The few little bits and pieces you may want to know about are mentioned below...

Fans of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 won't have to wait till the release date to get some saber swinging action, as a demo for the game will be released before the game. No exact release date yet, but Lucasarts are apparently just making a few tweaks on it before releasing it.

Valve finally seem to be getting the hang of Left 4 Dead DLC as the next announced item, 'The Sacrifice', will be playable from both Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2. Apparently the plot will be similar to that of 'The Passing' and see one of the team members bite the dust (or brains?) but who it is will be up to you. If that's not enough for you though, you'll also get your hands on a revamped version of 'No Mercy' from Left 4 Dead 1, complete with all the shiny upgrades of Left 4 Dead 2... So, some new zombies and weapons.

Dust off your turntables as DJ Hero 2 has now been given an exact release date (well, as close as we can get without them specifically giving an aus release date). DJ Hero 2 will be spinning onto shelves (see what i did there?) on October 19th/22nd (North America / Europe)

It's been said that Call of Duty: Black Ops may well take up the challenge of besting Modern Warfare 2's sales record. At the moment Black Ops is outdoing MW2 in the pre-order department, but i hardly think that's anything to go by... Let's wait till the game releases and see how it handles in the hands of gamers first. Oh and i've heard word that Agus (over at The Gamers Pad) is working up a feature article on Black Ops, so i'll link that when it's done)

Finally the arcade version of Scott Pilgrim vs The World is out this week (or like three weeks ago if you own a PS3). Paying tribute to the old look and feel of side scrolling beat'em ups, the game will let you take control of one of four characters to make your way through 7 levels of bad guy beating and boss battles. On the slightly disappointing side, if it matches the PS3 version, there will be no online co-op, but even without it, if the game is remotely as good as the comics or movie, it'll still be epicly epic.

Mister Chief

When Bungie released a picture of what will be available from the armory come launch day for Halo: Reach, people got a little excited over the included picture of Master Chief. Bungie have since confirmed that the included pictures will be unlockable voices to be used in firefight. HOWEVER, it's also now been said that with enough money spent and ranks earned, Master Chiefs MJOLNIR armour will be unlockable too. So while the chief won't himself be in the game, you can still make Noble 6 looks like him and even sound like him in firefight. Already i can hear the sound of people complaining that it still isn't THE Master Chief. To those people i say, then stop whinging, call him Mister Chief if it makes you feel better, and wait for the next game when 343 Studios undoubtedly brings him back for the purpose of saving mankind... oh, and making Microsoft some extra pocket money.

Opening The Toy Box

The first piece of DLC for Crackdown 2, titles Toy Box, has been given details. Toy Box will work much like the expansions to the original Crackdown, with there being a free portion and extra stuff if you're willing to pay a little money (560 MS Points to be exact). The free Toy Box download will give you a new multiplayer mode (Vehicle Tag), a reward for maxing all your agents skills to level 6 (Thruster, it's like a jetpack for your feet) plus access to the now famous Keys to the City mode. Keys to the City mode allows you to do all sorts of things that you shouldn't be able to. Just access the pause menu and add whatever you'd like... Need a weapon? Spawn one. Running out of ammo? check the infinite ammo box. Just want to blow stuff up? check the god mode box and never worry about dying again. For people who want that little bit extra though, the paid part of Toy Box will give you access to two new vehicles (the amphibious, wall crawling Agency ATV and the 4-man Squad Chopper, complete with proximity mine launcher, rocket launcher, twin machine guns and nose machine gun). If vehicles aren't your thing, then check out the 5 extra gadgets you'll get. The Mass Driver is a turreted weapon... that messes with gravity. Portable Launch Pads which allow you to make your own jump pads wherever you decide you need a little extra height, Stickler grenades which bounce along and release smaller explosions with every bounce, the previously mentioned Thruster, and to round it off, Character Mags... yep, Mag grenades which you can attach to characters. Finally to round out the pack and a probably well spent 560 points, Toy Box will include 10 extra achievements and 8 new suit colours. Colours are...

• Peacekeeper
• Terror Firma
• Agent Orange
• May Contain Nuts
• Minti-Sting
• Mega Agent
• Haz Mat
• Dem Apples

Rising Spartans

If you've missed it (yes, this post and indeed, half the ones i've just posted are a day or two behind) Bungie have released the next ViDoc for Halo: Reach. Titled 'A Spartan Will Rise' it takes a look at the members of Noble Team, and the epic mission laid out before them.

Brotherhood Beta Dated

The Assassins Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer beta has now been dated as starting October 4th... but remember it's exclusive to PS3 owners who have pre-ordered the game.

Song Central

Personally, I don't dance. I'd like to believe i make the world a better place by NOT dancing. Other people DO like to dance though, and for those people there is the upcoming Harmonix Kinect title Dance Central... Just so happens a few more tracks for Dance Central have been revealed. Dancers the world over can look forward to dancing away in front of their tv's to...

• Basement Jaxx – “Rendez-Vu”
• Benny Benassi – “Satisfaction”
• Cascada – “Evacuate the Dancefloor”
• Fannypack – “Hey Mami”
• Kool & The Gang – “Jungle Boogie”
• Kylie Minogue – “Can’t Get You Out of My Head”
• Nelly Furtado – “Maneater”
• Nina Sky – “Move Ya Body”
• Pitbull – “I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)
• Rihanna – “Pon de Replay”
• Technotronic – “Pump Up the Jam”

Cool, right?