Microsoft Confirms 360 Music Game Peripherals Will Be Cross-Compatible Too (via Gaming Today) -
Sony’s recent announcement that all the peripherals for future music games (Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution) would be compatible with each title elicited many sighs of relief among the gamer crowd. But it still the left one question hanging in the air: what about the Xbox 360? Well, that question has now been answered quite simply over at Microsoft’s Gamerscore blog, where they say quite simply, “For the record, we also do that, so consider this an official announcement.
Jade Empire SE Now Available for Mac (via Gaming Today) - Over on the Neverwinter Nights Forums, BioWare has given the word the Jade Empire Special Edition is now available for the Mac.
Gamers who love the Mac, but hate having few native games for it are slowly getting more options for videogames. EA Games has really lead the way.
BioShock PS3 Gets Official Release Date (via Gaming Today) -
PlayStation 3 owners rejoice. 2K games has finally confirmed a release date for BioShock PS3. Gamers can grab it in North America on October 21 and internationally on October 24.
Those of you who’ve grown impatient waiting for BioShock can console yourselves with all the PS3 exclusive extras included in the package.
Space Seige DVD Recognition Fix Available (via Gaming Today) -
Most gamers running Space Siege hopefully won’t have a clue what I’m talking about when I say Sega has issued a DVD Recognition Fix. For those unlucky enough to have had a drive running under Windows Vista SP1 reject your disc, you’re troubles should be at an end.
The Godfather II 'Debut' Teaser Trailer (via Gaming Today) -
Electronic Art’s upcoming third-person action sequel The Godfather II, goes beyond the film’s story by setting players in the world of organized crime in 1960’s Florida, Cuba and New York.
According to the game’s storyline:
“After being promoted by Michael Corleone to Don of New York, players expand to new cities, as they build up their families through extorting businesses, monopolizing illegal crime rings and defeating new families in an effort to become the most powerful mob family in America.
Tomb Raider: Underworld Trailer Takes Us to Thailand (via Gaming Today) -
Tomb Raider: Underworld is shaping up to be a very interesting game, which I for one am pretty excited about, and I have not been interested in a Tomb Raider title since the highly lamentable The Angel of Darkness. I have heard that Tomb Raider: Legend was palatable, but with the new turn that Crystal Dynamics is taking with Lara and her adventures, Underworld looks much more tantalizing than any Tomb Raider game released in years.
NOVASTRIKE Update to Add Trophies and Custom Soundtracks (via Gaming Today) -
Trophy whores (are there any of you out there?) rejoice! NOVASTRIKE is the latest game to announce Trophy support, which it will be adding through a sizable update coming in the next few weeks.
The sixteen Trophies are certain to be what attracts most people’s eyeballs to the update, there’s going to be a significant number of updates and changes made, which are laid out in a post on PlayStation.
Reminder: Dragonforce DLC Coming Thursday for Guitar Hero III (via Gaming Today) -
A friendly reminder from Activision-Blizzard arrived in our inboxes this morning regarding the new Dragonforce Track Pack for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
As you may recall, DragonForce will ascend the virtual stage once again to unleash “Heroes of Our Time” – the debut single off their new album “Ultra Beatdown” – in a three-song track pack which will be available on August 21 (Thursday) giving gamers the opportunity to download and play “Heroes of Our Time” in advance of the album release.
Bejeweled Passes the 25 Million Copies Sold Barrier (via Gaming Today) -
As if there were any doubt to how well PopCap Games is doing, they today announced that their biggest franchise, Bejeweled, has sold more than 25 million copies across all platforms since its release in 2000. It’s an astounding number, even if the game has appeared on countless platforms; for a game that PopCap was unable to sell to companies for as little as $60,000 in the early stages, it’s certainly had a major impact on the games industry.
Activison-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick Fires Back at Warner Music (via Gaming Today) - Despite music executives and the labels they work for commending the recent popularity of music games giving sluggish music sales a boost, Warner Music Group’s Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman recently spoke out against what he feels is “far too small” of an amount to license songs for the ever growing content included within the games.
Banjo: Nuts & Bolts Coming on November 14 for $40 (via Gaming Today) -
It’s time to jump back into the shoes (if he wore any) of good old Banjo, as he and Kazooie are set for their first adventure since 2000. Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts will be available on November 14 for the (strangely) low price of $39.99. I thought that had to be a typo, but Microsoft confirmed to me that the game is indeed going to be priced at $40, just like Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise — that should be a big boon for sales.
House of the Dead Overkill Trailer Channels Grindhouse Theater (via Gaming Today) -
It’s always entertaining when a developer takes a different approach to making a game trailer. For Sega’s new Wii shooter, House of the Dead Overkill, they decided to channel old grindhouse movies to put together this trailer. The actual game looks like your standard arcade shooter, but add a little film grain, a sepia filter, and a few random clips of insects and go-go dancers and the trailer for it is definitely full of win.
The Analog Gamer: Knights & Legends (via Gaming Today) - A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… no longer ago actually. Before the Rebellion against the Empire, before the emo Darth Vader years, before the Clone Wars and even before George Lucas destroyed the Force with Midi-chlorians there was an age of bold knights and heroes.
Dyack Confirms Too Human Sequels Already in the Works (via Gaming Today) - Too Human has been on store shelves for mere hours so far, but Silicon Knights prez, Denis Dyack has already confirmed they’re working on sequels to complete a planned trilogy. In a recent interview, he mentioned two more games were in the works along with some completely new and unannounced projects:
“They’re unannounced.
Gamers Can Shoot Down Mercenaries 2 Ads (via Gaming Today) -
When is in-game advertising not quite so annoying? When you can destroy ads at will; and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames will allow gamers to do just that.
According to GameDaily, Jay Sampson, VP of global sales for Massive isn’t perturbed at all by having the in-game ads placed in Pandemic’s Mercenaries 2 blown to bits.
Noble Master Presents The Java Game Tome (via Gaming Today) - Noble Master Games has presented gamers and developers with the Java Game Tome. The tome allows Java developers to showcase their work and gamers to check out the latest games for free. All games included in the tome will run under Windows, Mac or Linux as a Java Applet, Java Webstart or via download.
A Will Wright Minute - 2001: A Space Odyssey and a Dead Horse (via Gaming Today) -
I still think this is a great idea — just putting Spore and The Sims creator, Will Wright, in front of a camera for a minute to talk about whatever strange factoid is going through his mind. This time around, Wright dives into the world of film with Stanley Kubrick’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Chronicles of Spellborn Gets NA Publisher (via Gaming Today) - Spellborn and Frogster have announced that Acclaim will be bringing The Chronicles of Spellborn to North America. Acclaim, lead by Howard Marks and David Perry, has taken on TCoS as its focus title and will be launching a major marketing campaign leading up the late 2008 launch.
Behind the Scenes of Strong Bad's Game With Special Guest, Strong Bad (via Gaming Today) -
To promote the release of their newest adventure game, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, Telltale Games has begun a series of behind-the-scenes videos on the making on the title. And who better to give an insider’s look at the game development process than the star himself, Strong Bad? Naturally, this video brings some of the humor we’ve come to expect from the boxing glove-wearing character, but puts him in the real world.
Too Human's Success May Determine Future of Small Canadian Town (via Gaming Today) -
Silicon Knights’ long-awaited action RPG, Too Human, hits store shelves today. As with any new title, there are a lot of things to consider before you decide whether it’s worth your hard-earned cash: it it looks like the type of game you’d enjoy, what the reviews say, etc.
Finally: All New Music Game Peripherals Will Be Compatible With All Titles (via Gaming Today) -
Let’s face it: the music game genre is so muddled with peripherals now that it’s hard to keep straight just which ones will work for what games on what systems. To make matters worse, there’s a whole new batch of peripherals along with new games — Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution — set to hit store shelves later this year.
