In a short four weeks after its release, Battlefield Heroes has managed to get one million players, which isn’t surprising, considering the positive impressions of the game during the beta. EA & DICE’s stylistic Battlefield sequel is also free, which I can only assume helped to entice said one million players.

If you still haven’t signed up for the game, you should probably go do so now- maybe you can be a part of the second million. We got a chance to play the game during the beta, and even with its numerous delays, it was a lot of fun. The game’s multi-player only, so don’t count on a gripping story line or emotionally connected characters- but if you’re all about blowing stuff up and shooting foreigners, this is so the game for you.

Battlefield Heroes, EA’s new browser-based cartoony MMOFPS, has made the transition from closed beta to open beta.

Not only is the game in open beta now, but the NDA has also been lifted. Battlefield Heroes is going to be free to play when it makes its official launch, so the idea of an open beta makes me laugh. This seems like just the normal game, but a little early and slightly buggy.

Game Stooge

Square Enix’s latest in the Dragon Quest series (coming to the DS on March 28th in Japan), is all the talk.  Pre-orders are rampant at local 7-11’s and you see more and more people with slime toys every day.  A new feature that is being added uses the Nintendo WiFi technology to let you discuss the game with other people and gloat through your DS.

The article over at Famitsu really doesn’t go too deep into the information, but basically you meet other players that are playing Dragon Quest at a certain Inn, kind of like you would bump into new and interesting people at a hostel while traveling around.  These people have all setup a profile (hopefully) that shares a bit of info about themselves and maybe what they like about the game.  You can also see all the neat things they have done in-game and compare your advancement.

There seems to be a small chat function and the ability to possibly add friends.  So basically this is just like MySpace for your Dragon Quest character.  I guess that’s pretty neat.  Hopefully some more info about what else this game can do with Nintendo WiFi will surface, but maybe I am being optimistic.

Source:  Famitsu

Famitsu is reporting that on January 29th there will be a special edition DSi to go along with the release of the new game titled Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time.

This nicely designed DSi will come with the game in which it’s themed. There isn’t a price listed yet, but I’m sure it won’t be cheap. The new DS game will link with the Wii title of the same name. The selling point for me on this game is the online playability. You can link up to four players either locally or online over the world. The game itself is coming with a system similar to the translator found in Final Fantasy XI that can help with simple phrases, but just like in FFXI I’m sure people will create new phrases that everyone understands.

I like the look of this special edition DSi, but I really don’t go in for things like this nor do I have the money, but if someone would like to buy me one I would be more than willing to use it.

Source: Famitsu

I love MMORPG’s.  Everything about them is great.  They are massive, which gives me a lot of world to explore and learn about.  They are multiplayer which let’s me meet people from all over the world.  They are online which allows to me easier connect with those people all over the world.  They are lastly role playing games, which let me be someone I am not and allow me to escape the real world for a little while, or a long while depending on how much free time I have that day.  Ragnarok Online or RO, as fans of the game refer to it is a very time consuming but sometimes enjoyable game.  It’s DS counterpart however is just time consuming.

Ragnarok Online DS has many of the things you expect from Ragnarok.  Clicking on mobs, fighting mobs, cute character graphics, spells, items, fantasy… stuff.  The one part it really seems lacking is the ONLINE!  Basically they took and MMO and cut it down to a single player game, maybe I’m missing the point but when I think of MMO I think about playing with other people and you know playing the game with them.  This DS port of the popular game allows some multiplayer aspect but really only three people.  Maybe that is massive enough for some people but not me.  Right off the bat this lowers this game’s ability to be good in my eyes.

My second gripe with this game is the introduction.  I know games like to give story and get the player ready to be a part of the world, but the intro to this game took way too long, and that was with me skipping every speech bubble it would let me skip.  I think I clicked the screen with the stylus for a good twenty minutes before I actually got to play.  Again I didn’t read anything but from just watching the little animations I got that there was an army after a guy with a really cool sword, and two people got seperated and the main character’s parents were dead.  How long did it take you to read that?  Double it by ten and you get the length of boring dialog they put in this game.

But what about gameplay you ask?  Well, it’s standard MMO style click and attack which is great, a bonus to this being on the DS is the use of the stylus which moves your character.  They also added interesting ways to do special moves which all require drawing a specific symbol on the screen to do them.  This seemed fun at first but I got tired of doing it about an hour into the game and just let normal attacks do all the work.  You also get NPC’s which as I understand can be controlled by your friends through the DS Wifi, which begs to ask, why couldn’t they just have used the DS Wifi to actually make this an MMO?  Too much for the DS to handle perhaps?  Anyway, the npc’s do a pretty good job on their own so unless you have some friends who like RO and don’t feel like playing the bigger, better, more online version you can just stick with having fewer people involved.

I understand what they were trying to do with this game, but I think it could have been so much more.  Many people don’t like Ragnarok Online because it is known as a very long “grind” game where you are killing mobs forever.  This DS port I assume would be cutting a lot of that out, but if you play an MMORPG as opposed to a regular RPG you play somewhat to show off the character you have made.  To let people see you as a player in the world.  In this DS adaptation unless you walk around with your DS showing it off to everyone, it doesn’t matter what you do in the game other than beat it.  I do hope that soon they decide to actually release a real MMO for a portable device, though that could cause the end of the world.

Flipping through Famitsu just a few minutes ago and this was at the top page.  I had been looking foward to Ragnarok Online for the DS just to see how much like or dislike the PC version it would be.  Apparently if you are really into the PC game and like to do quests, you can get some special items for the DS version.

Raganarok Online comes out in Japan for the DS on December 18th.  According to the article at Famitsu there are some quests that you can do to unlock three special items in the DS game.  The items a  broken sword, ancient text of the shaman, and wings of visofuniru (sometimes katakana names don’t come to me quick enough).  Are unlockable as you progress through both games.

I don’t want to give away to much but Famitsu says it all starts with a Midguard Guidebook of some sort.  To be honest I couldn’t stand playing the game because of how time consuming it is, but the characters are really cute.

If you are interested in Ragnarok Online and the DS incarnation stay tuned.  I’ll probably pick it up the day it goes on sale and give a brief rundown of what I think.  I doubt I’ll be working for those special items though.

Source: Famitsu

With all of the first-person shooters flooding the market this coming holiday season, Shaun White Snowboarding offers a different sort of entertainment. With help from Olympic Gold Medalist and eight-time X Games Gold Medalist Shaun White, will this game be one that satisfies both hardcore gamers and snowboarding enthusiasts? Hit the jump for my hands-on impressions.

I was lucky enough to be previewing the Target version of Shaun White Snowboarding for 360 and Wii. Extras include a Target mountain with five extra trails and an open lodge area for your character to mingle with others. This version claims to have 20% more content than the regular version of the game but costs about $5 more. A pretty good bargain if you ask me. Besides the Target Mountain, there are four other locations: Alaska, Park City, Europe (Alps), and Japan. Fully customizable characters were only available in the 360 version (and I think it’s safe to assume this feature will be in the PS3 version as well).

Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip (Wii)

The first version I got to play of the game was the Wii version. After taking off my shoes, I asked if the board might have trouble picking up my weight shifts, since I am in fact a little girl. Trent Ward, the creative director of the game, explained that the Wii Balance board can be calibrated according to your weight. Apparently when they thought they had the controls down pat, someone brought their kid in to test the game and the board didn’t register the weight properly. Whoops.

The levels I got to play were on the Target Mountain. You wouldn’t know it from looking at the level — ads are surprisingly subtle. The controls were better than the average Wii game, and with good reason. Ward told me that the development team was split into two groups with one working on Wii remote controls and the other working on Balance Board controls. This shows in the gameplay as both methods of controlling the character feel pretty tight, and neither feels like a tacked-on extra.

The Balance Board controls are good in essence, but from what I played, very hard to master. If you are facing the right with the Balance Board perpendicular to the TV (as I was) leaning on your toes turns to the right, leaning on your heels turns to the left, and throwing your weight on the board will make the character jump. Leaning during a jump will rotate your character, and the A and B buttons on the Wii remote allow you to do tricks.

The problem with the controls is that you can’t use the board like a real snowboard. Ward noticed I had some difficulty and advised me to try to keep from turning my hips towards the TV. “People who really snowboard have the same problem when they start playing,” he commented sympathetically.

I can see how the controls in the game are not easy to pick up at first, which might be a little frustrating for the Wii’s target audience (no pun intended). However, even though I didn’t have a mastery of the controls, I still found myself having a lot of fun. At no point did I get stuck anywhere on the map or run into anything that broke the flow of game.

The gameplay itself is pretty straightforward. While sliding down the trail you can stop off at a floating backpack to pick up a challenge, or you can complete some of the level goals. Also included are somewhat environmentally-friendly goals where you collect pieces of trash around the mountain, or collect crown icons to gain respect.

One particularly unique aspect of the game is your camera person. As you make friends in the game, you can ask them to wield the camera for you as you hit the slopes. Each person will shout out different types of encouragement (or call you out when you suck) and each have different abilities that are unleashed when your tricks impress them.

The multiplayer in this version is a bit limited since it requires all of your friends to be in the same room. This has become a trademark for the Wii, so it’s not terribly surprising. My one worry is trying to fit four people and Balance Boards in one room without everyone falling all over each other (or just pushing your friend off so you can win).

Shaun White Snowboarding (Xbox 360)

The first thing I noticed about this version is that it has some gorgeous graphics. I won’t go into much detail here simply because there is a high standard for how our current-gen systems look, and this game certainly meets it. For a game that’s primarily filled with snow, it manages to fit a surprising amount of color and variety into the multitude of mountain trails.

The second cool thing I noticed about the game was the loading screen. It may seem like something small and trivial, but you can actually mess around in an infinite halfpipe while the game is loading. Hooray for making loading screens less tedious!

The game uses the Scimitar Engine, as seen in Assassin’s Creed and the upcoming Prince of Persia title. The physics in the game aren’t realistic, of course, but are also not as ridiculous as the Tony Hawk spend-three-hours-in-mid-air-type physics. It balances enough fantasy to be fun with enough realism to not feel ridiculous.

The controls are fairly simple, with R-trigger to jump and the right analog stick for various tricks. Jumping near a rail will automatically allow you to grind, etc., etc. Nothing really new in that department. There is more of a sense of speed in this version as well — the game is set up so that if you hit anything, you’ll continue to move forward (whether you’re on the board or not). This saves the annoyance of having to gain back all of the momentum you lost and also improves the overall flow of the game.

There are, however, lots of interesting little features present. You can set markers any place on the slope with a D-pad menu, which you can warp back to. From the D-pad menu you can also fiddle with the music (which happens to be a pretty cool collection of some of Shaun’s favorite tunes). You can press the B-button to scoop up snowballs and launch them at other random snowboarders, whose reaction time will depend on the NPC’s skill level (novices you can escape from pretty easily, but experts will almost instantly send one right back at you). There are actually races where this is an important part of gameplay, and it adds some extra fun to the multiplayer.

Speaking of multiplayer, the game gives you a good, wide variety of options. I think this is one of the coolest parts of the game actually. Online multiplayer can handle up to 16 players per map. You can hit the slopes and do your own thing, or you can stop at one of the floating challenger backpacks and invite friends to join in. There’s also a pretty cool option where you can pretty much say to your friend, “I bet you $50 I can get a higher score on this challenge than you.” You and your friend place your bets, run the course, and whoever gets the highest score wins the money. It’s a fun option that lends the game a bit of (slightly illegal) realism.

When I was there I didn’t really hear much about the game’s story. I know that as you progress through the game and earn a reputation, you get more friends and eventually are able to visit Shaun’s trailer on the mountain. To be completely honest, I have to say that the story really doesn’t interest me much. I find it much like asking a game like Madden or NBA Live to have a good plot. I’m sure you could do it but the real fun is in the gameplay.

Overall, I had a very positive experience with Shaun White Snowboarding. It has a ton of potential, and hopefully it can fill the void in snowboarding entertainment until the next SSX game is released.

After lauding Fable II’s cooperative gameplay as the best thing since whatever was previously the best thing (witty, right?), developer Lionhead went and pissed everyone off when they announced that it would not be available when the game released.  Instead, people were expected to wait another week and download a patch that would implement the online co-op mode.

Earlier today, however, Lionhead announced on their community blog that co-op would be available on day one, but it will still be in patch form.  Huh?  Isn’t there enough room on the disc for that extra 983KB of code?  Anyway, this is good news for me since I’m planning on killing my brother’s family ASAP– err, I mean I’m looking forward to conquering evil with him.

A new Fable II TV commercial is also available, so you can click through if you’re interested in watching it. Kinda neat.

Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online, an MMO based in the Shin Megami Tensei universe that birthed games like Digital Devil Saga and Persona, is coming to English-speaking countries. Aeria Games announced their acquisition of the game (which has been out since last March in Japan) on Wednesday, and are working on localizing it post-haste.

The game’ll be free-to-play with microtransactions being the potential revenue generator.

Gametrailers blogger LifeRPG has been doing some serious thinking about what would make online consoles just a little bit better, and some of these actually seem like they might work. Read on for the full list of most wanted features.

Here’s a rundown of the six suggested features:

1) Be able to watch a friend play, from your screen
To make myself clearer, let’s take an example: JUSTIN.TV
You play, recording yourself with your webcam and broadcasting your gameplay to the entire world. Anybody coming on your channel will be able to see you play. So basically, what i am saying here is a concept pretty much similar. When online on PSN/XBL , it would be great to have a feature that lets you connect to your friend’s game and watch him play….In other terms, i would be a ‘Spectator’.

2) Take in-game videos screenshots, and being able to host them online directly from the PSN/XBL
The PSN lets you (although still very limited) upload in-game footage directly to YouTube. Well, that’s good for a start isn’t it, but i mean….YouTube? No. Just no. SCE / Microsoft need to set up a private video sharing website, in which all content would not only be in HD, but also uploaded directly from our consoles.

3) Cross Platform Online Play
Take a multi-platform game, COD4 for example. Imagine a feature that would allow PSN gamers to play against XBL gamers. This sure sound ridiculously impossible, doesn’t it? But let’s think bigger..See this example: how about a multi-platform game developed by SCE themselves? A MMO for example, that would be out on PS3 and PC..maybe that would work.

4) Stuck in a game? Meet the Virtual Walkthrough!
Let’s admit it folks, we’ve all got stuck in games..and still do. One of the game i most used a walkthrough was Zelda: Twilight Princess. I can vaguely remember the number of pages i printed off the GAMEFAQ walkthrough, but it certainly was above 30. Aren’t you fed up with that? Moving to your PC to look for the solution ; Making sure you always have papers and cartridge ready, cause if you don’t you’d have to constantly come-and-go from console to PC ; Reading the walkthrough while playing..well believe me i am. I believe it is time we have a Virtual Walkthrough. In other terms, an in-game walkthrough that would help us in our ’stuck’ situations, and lead us to the solution.

5) Not an online feature, but a feature in general..a really important one: Game Cutscenes accessible anytime
Am i the only one who wishes i could re-watch all cutscenes from the games i play? I’m sure i’m not. I believe this is a game developer decision, and not a console manufacturer’s, but whoever it is they must hear us: We want to watch all cutscenes from the games we’ve completed ANYTIME. Whether it’s on the Disc itself (unlocked after completing the game maybe), or an option to have them all transfered to our HDD, we want it!

6) Organized Clan Management System
Clans Clans Clans..Numerous clans exist for nearly every online game available today. A great feature would be the integration of an Organized Clan Management System. The use of such a system would basically let console users to not only group the clan members, but actually manage the entire clan overall: Have a motto, a logo, statistics, …etc
In other terms, Clan Identification. That would be a great idea, eventually for future ‘clan leagues’.

Our own writer John Kershaw had this to say about these ideas:

Points 1 and 3 are just technically hard to do. You can already kinda do point 2 in Halo, but because of the server costs, it wouldn’t happen over the two networks, it’s a game-by-game thing. Point 4 has nothing to do with XBLA or PSN, same with 5. Point 6 is called a forum.

Use the comments below to let us know: What do you think of these proposed features? Would you use any of them?

Source: LifeRPG’s Gametrailers blog

This story starts with a young boy and a subscription to the MMO Final Fantasy XI. After a few months with the game, he grows tired of it and decides he’s going to cancel. Great, so how do you do that? What seems like should be a simple task ends up an exercise in frustration. Little did Square Enix know — they just messed with the wrong guy.

When Frank Edwards wanted to cancel his son’s subscription, he had a hard time finding out how to go about it. The Final Fantasy XI community website supposedly had no link to cancel an account, and he was unable to locate a phone number until he checked his credit card statement. A call to this number resulted in an hour and 45 minutes of elevator music while he was on hold.

Rather than just put up with this bullshit, Frank Edwards calls up his good buddy Illinois State Representative Raymond Poe. You see, Frank Edwards just happens to be an alderman in Springfield, and he’s learned that having a friend with bill-writing abilities is a good thing to have.

Frank gets his pal, the Senator, to propose a law that fixes this horse-swaggle, and that law ended up just getting passed earlier this week. The law states:

So basically, it says: “That’s what you get for fucking with me, Square Enix.” It’s actually kind of funny how the law is written to specifically address Frank’s problem.  To put things into perspective, though, Frank Edwards previously had asked Senator Poe to help him pass a law that “package delivery trucks are not permitted to park along the curb next to a driveway because the exhaust from said package delivery truck is harmful to the homeowner’s tomato plants and totally makes the homeowner’s wife angry.”

Okay, I made that up.

Having had a similar issue after canceling my World of WarCraft subscription a few years ago, it’s cool to think that I could do something about it if I decided to become more politically involved and make friends with a Senator. I won’t, but it’s still nice to know I could.

It’s strange to see videogame legislation pop up in the news like this and have it not throw me into a geekified rage. This one, however, seems to to be a win on both sides of the camp. What’s next, legislation that makes licensed games not suck?

Source: Silicon Alley Insider

An Australian man was arrested recently after he convinced a 15-year-old girl he met while playing World of WarCraft to run away from home to be with him. He even paid for the trip. How sweet.

The 31-year-old Anthony Taylor formed a relationship with the less-than-half-his-age girl, which eventually led to sexual messages and phone calls.  The girl’s father found out about the relationship and threatened to kill Anthony, so Anthony did what any self-respecting pedophile would do — he sent her a plane ticket and some money to cover the cab fare.

Obviously, the girl’s father doesn’t let her go, so Anthony is met at the airport by police instead. They question him about the girl, at which time he admits he “thought the age could be a problem.”  Really, you think?

Anthony is then brought before a judge, where we find out some interesting facts about his raiding past.  Turns out he met his current real-life girlfriend online, though thankfully she’s 27, and he has fathered a child with yet another girl who happens to be under the age of 16.

Anthony pleads guilty to “child stealing” and is sentenced to, and I shit you not, a “seven-month non-custodial intensive corrections order”. I don’t know what that means, but it certainly doesn’t sound like enough.

With rulings such as this, it seems to me that Australia is now the place for lovers… of underage teens at least. Virginia will be confiscating your wallabies since you stole their motto, and hopefully some of that old-fashioned redneck justice makes it down under as well.

Source: news.com.au

Rockstar has released a patch for both the PS3 and 360 versions of Grand Theft Auto IV today, addressing specific issues on each platform and in the game’s multiplayer modes. The full list of changes is as follows.

1. Fixed an issue where players were unable to enter or exit vehicles in GTA Race.
2. Fixed an issue where scripted vehicles were causing games to unexpectedly crash.
3. Improved reliability and frequency of PS3 online leaderboard updates.
4. Fixed a rare hang some players encountered when moving from a Race or GTA Race lobby into gameplay.
5. Fixed a hang that would occur when players were switching teams during the countdown in the lobby.
6. Fixed an issue where players were able to get ridiculously high scores from Cops ‘n Crooks matches.
7. Changed GTA Race and Race so that the last player remaining always receives a reward of $250.
8. Fixed an issue where spectating players would prevent the game from finishing.
9. Fixed an issue where players were unable to spectate in Round 2 of Cops ‘n Crooks games.
10. Changed countdown timer in lobby so that it no longer resets when new players join a game.
11. Changed the kick option so that kicked players are no longer brought back to single player.

Some of these issues sound fairly significant, glad to hear Rockstar has taken care of them. Given the success of GTAIV and this being its first entry into the multiplayer realm, it’ll be interesting to watch how the experience continues to grow. While these are merely fixes, hopefully the future will bring other additions.

For all you out there in the wilds of Liberty City online, let us know how the experience is treating you.

Source: Rockstar

Speaking with Famitsu Magazine, SFIV producer Yoshinori Ono revealed that the home versions of the game would feature online play and new characters not in the arcade version.

Although a release date has yet to be confirmed, Ono still offered a few details, saying that the development team is “watching the overall balance” in the home version’s roster and “won’t be adding unnecessary stuff” to online play.

The list of new characters for SFIV is now up to five including Rufus, El Fuerte, Abel, Crimson Viper and Seth. Seth is the game’s final boss, so it’s unsure if he will be a playable character.

To get a first look at the new fighters, head over to Famitsu.com.

Street Fighter IV is slated to land in homes for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Source: IGN

As a huge fan of the original SOCOM and SOCOM II, I was ecstatic to hear that new developer Slant Six (maker of PSP title SOCOM: Tactical Strike) are focusing on a close-quarters, tactical combat gameplay for the upcoming online shooter, SOCOM: Confrontation.

With a complete overhaul of the game and a huge leap forward in technology with the PS3, SOCOM: Confrontation is looking like the next-gen SOCOM experience we’ve all been waiting for.

The realistic gameplay made the earlier SOCOM titles two of the most popular online PS2 games, with a strong online community behind them as well. With the help of the original developer, Zipper Interactive, Slant Six Games is really determined to focus on what gamers enjoyed from the first two games and learn from what gamers didn’t like from SOCOM III and SOCOM: Combined Assault, like vehicles and massive-scale maps.

All-new features such as enhanced clan customizations, Sixaxis controls, six unique special forces, and seven maps at launch make September seem so long away. With strictly online-only gameplay and lack of a single-player campaign, there isn’t a story to SOCOM: Confrontation. Well, at least not much of one.

However, players will have the ability to envision their own story with the option to play as six different special forces (and more to come), such as U.S. Navy Seals and U.K. Special Air Forces, when they join a clan. Speaking of clans, Slant Six is introducing many new features aimed at supporting and strengthening the Confrontation community, particularly enhancing clan and group play.

For example, every player begins the game with two characters: a commando and a mercenary. Both characters can be customized with different weapons, outfits, and gear. But to really expand on your characters, you’ll have to join a clan to become a special force and really become part of a team.

Having special forces allow for different customizable equipment items such as camo patterns, different helmets, and of course, unique weapons for each particular special force. Clan leaders will be able to choose which special force the clan will be and will have access to clan customization to make your clan look like an actual team.

Clan management will also be improved with the launch of SOCOM.com, a website for the Confrontation community. Clans will be able to make changes to schedules and rosters, exchange info with clan members and even scout new recruits. And of course there will be an in-depth stat tracking system that will keep all players stats from ranked matches logged, which will be helpful when trying to recruit for clans. More importantly, Confrontation introduces a party system that allows groups to move from game to game and with open-mic chat in the lobby and during matches.

SOCOM III changed aspects of gameplay with the addition of vehicles and massive-scale maps, among other things, but the goal for SOCOM: Confrontation is a return to the classic SOCOM experience. Although Confrontation supports 32 players like SOCOM III, vehicles are gone and more close-quarter combat will be focused on.

Each of the seven available maps at launch will also offer a smaller 16-player version that will keep combat at close-quarters. But how about getting around in those huge 32-player version maps, you ask? Instead of using vehicles, Confrontation is introducing the ability to run and to keep on running.

Keeping the game on-foot, Slant Six thought it would be a wise idea to give players to run all they want throughout the map, but not without some repercussions. When running, you won’t be able to shoot, and once you stop running, your accuracy will be poor, thus making it extremely important to not always run around every corner. Some maps will be more focused on running and quick movement, but others will be focused on keeping cover, especially now that sniping is more realistic and accurate as ever.

One of the bigger changes in gameplay for Confrontation is the ability to use the Sixaxis controls to lean in and out of cover. While hiding in cover, you’ll just tilt the Sixaxis controller to the left or to the right for a glance around your cover. This is the kind of innovation that Slant Six is trying to implement into Confrontation.

Out of the seven maps planned for launch, only two have been revealed: Crossroads (a SOCOM II favorite) and Urban Wasteland. Other than making a bigger 32-player version, Crossroads looks a lot like the original map, involving mainly tight spaces and tons of cover.

Why all the cover? Well, the move to the PS3 has given SOCOM players the ability to finally see the whole battlefield with enhanced view distance. With a clear-cut view of the playing field, snipers will have an extremely big part in the game, but without dominating the game. The other map, Urban Wasteland, features many multilevel buildings, rooftop areas and the reliability on quick movements and running across wider streets for cover.

The fact that the game is still in early development, I was surprised at how well the environments, buildings and objects looked in the Crossroads map. I’m pretty sure there is still a need for some tweaking to get the game looking smoother and better. Of the clips I looked at, the characters and weapons looked really detailed and I can only imagine what they will look like in the final version.

And with 7.1 surround sound support, the sounds of the game will make it look even more beautiful. The novel audio sound system in the game will help define the sounds of the game according the source of the sound, the position of the players and any obstacles in between. This sound system will allow for an easier time to locate gunfire and to hear enemy movement near your player.

Even though a few months away, SOCOM: Confrontation is already looking like its going to shape up to be a very beautiful, detailed and thrilling game. With its focus on tactical, close-quarters and realistic combat, Slant Six is looking to a return to the classic SOCOM experience.

Getting rid of the vehicles and ridiculously large maps of SOCOM III really shows that Slant Six is serious about making the game a “real” next-get SOCOM game. And the new features and enhancements with clan and group play, is only going to strengthen the SOCOM online community. With a few more months to polish things up, SOCOM: Confrontation should be on the radar for every SOCOM fan and any PS3 owner looking for a promising online shooter.

The unique and enjoyable Sneaking Mission mode that debuted with Metal Gear Solid: Subsistence is returning in the new Metal Gear Online, due out with MGS4 on June 12th. Kojima Productions has taken the unique and enjoyable mode and revamped it, making some extensive changes to improve it further.

With the MGO beta nearly upon us now (along with the re-launch of the online PlayStation Store, the release of the Dualshock 3 controller and the arrival of the Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2 DVDs), a few more details on Metal Gear Online have begun to seep out.

While the two-week beta will be limited to a couple of stages, Ryan Payton has revealed during the Kojima Production’s Podcast that the Sneaking Mission from MGS: Subsistence will be returning with some exciting changes for the full release.

In Subsistence, the Sneaking Mission was a lot of fun and a very fitting mode for Metal Gear’s multiplayer debut. It was also quite unique among multiplayer online offerings, Behind Enemy Lines from the original Call of Duty being the closest comparison.

However, things often deteriorated into Snake being able to sprint for his goal if the opposing team was even slightly unorganized, or the opposite, with Snake being systematically hunted and shutdown fairly easily if the guards communicated and combined firepower. The new Sneaking mode looks to address some of these issues and add layers of complexity.

First of all, Snake’s ultimatum will no longer be to reach a set location alive; instead, he will be responsible for collecting a set number of dog tags. The number needed for Snake’s victory can be altered, but he will always attain the tags by incapacitating enemy soldiers controlled by other players. In turn, the enemies will be trying to kill Snake, needing to do so three times to succeed. The real twist though, is that there will be more than one enemy team hunting Snake.

Two teams will compete against each other to be the first to eliminate him and win the match, no doubt creating a nice backdrop of chaos for Snake to fade into—attempting always to complete his own objective. If no team eliminates Snake, the side that did the most damage to the opposing team will come out on top.

It seems Snake is chosen at random, which should help alleviate the tendency among players to compete against each other for the kill instead of working together to make sure their team is victorious as a whole.

Snake will of course have special tools at his disposal, including his Octocam. If the game is well-populated, someone can even control the Metal Gear Mk.II to support Snake. It will be fascinating to see how this scenario plays out—kudos to the guys at KP for continuing to be inventive with the Metal Gear universe.

MGO will also feature online matchmaking, so you can more easily find players of your skill level to play with.

Payton reiterated that more content will be coming for MGO in the future. He spoke of expansion packs including not only new levels, but new game modes, weapons and characters as well. No pricing has been mentioned, but let’s be thankful we’re getting the starter pack with MGS4 itself, which will include 5 maps.

Nostalgia should be in full effect with MGO, so here’s hoping for some fun stuff down the line. For those who feel they can’t wait, you better get out to pre-order MGS4 and hope you can snag a beta code while they might still be available.

I, for one, am lamenting the impossibility of going back and playing Subsistence some more. June 12th isn’t so far off!

Source: Konami

A fourth (and fantastic looking!) GTA IV trailer is now available if you aren’t already begging for its release April 29th, and Rockstar has announced a new online social club for Xbox Live and PSN that will track all kinds of usage data surrounding the game– plus more in the future.

GTA IV’s release is imminent. The new trailer is as exciting and dramatic as ever, and launching just ahead of the game’s release is the Rockstar Social Club.

Registration for the website is set to begin April 15 and will be open to both Xbox and PlayStation users. The future looks to bring more competitions and awards, but at first the site will track a lot of single-player related statistics as well as multiplayer leaderboards.

The press release details some features of the site:

LCPD Police Blotter – A virtual map and tracker of single-player criminal activity logged in Liberty City from the aggregated data of millions of connected players – showing the most dangerous areas of town, most commonly used weapons and more.

The Story Gang – This special single-player leaderboard recognizes players who complete Niko Bellic’s main story arc of Grand Theft Auto IV – The leaderboard ranks players according to the total amount of playing time it’s taken to complete the story, as well as a historical rank by who has completed it first. Members of this club will receive special online widgets and merit badges marking all of their in-game accomplishments.

The 100% Club – Watch to see who will be the first to complete 100% of the game. The first ten people to be identified on the Social Club as reaching 100% will be sent an ultra-rare commemorative ‘key to the city’ to mark their accomplishment. In the future, the 100% Club will then carry a historical leaderboard showing rankings of who has completed 100% of a game in the shortest span of playing hours.

The Hall of Fame — This area will dynamically recognize those singularly elite players who have reached the top of the hill on various statistical leaderboards, and will also contain a personal awards display of special in-game landmarks and successes in Social Club competitions.

The Liberty City Marathon — A ranking of special physical milestones achieved in the game – from the amount of miles walked, driven, or swam – to the number of bullets fired and stunt-jumps jumped. There will be additional special marathon-based competitions in the future from this area as well.

Sources: Rockstar, 1up News

Ever wanted to end world hunger? Here’s your chance to start, with just 20 grains of rice at a time.

FreeRice.org is an online vocabulary test (and ego booster, if you’re good with words). It’s pretty simple– you’re given a word, and then asked to pick the correct synonym out of four choices. Eventually you’ll reach the point when you realize you must take prefixes and suffixes, vaguely determine what they mean, and then make a not-so-educated guess.

For every word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated to the UN World Food program. It’s not much at first, but if you play for long enough you’ll make a significant contribution.

Even if you are terrible with words, go ahead – cheat. All you’re doing is helping end world hunger is all, no biggie. And nobody will call you foul words and/or names for cheating in this particular game, we promise.

When you look at how many grains have been donated, it’s really quite impressive and now when I’m slacking, I can just tell everyone to leave me alone because I’m ending world hunger.

Source: Free Rice

Indie developer Silverlode Interactive accosted me outside the press room at GDC to show me their new MMORTS (Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy) game, SAGA. The game looks interesting enough, and given the fact that it’s essentially free, it very well may be worth your time. I checked out the beta yesterday, and I have to say that I have no idea what I’m doing. There seemed to be plenty of people who did, however, so maybe I just missed something.

Either way, SAGA has just entered open beta for the public, so you can give the game a shot for yourself. Full press release after you click the link at the end of this sentence… wait for it… okay, now!

SAGA Enters Open Beta

Silverlode Interactive opened its servers to all players for SAGA– the persistent world MMORTS.

Provo, UT – February 26, 2008

The World’s First Collectible MMORTS entered Open Beta testing on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008. All players who sign up at www.playsaga.com will receive accounts, allowing them to create nations on the Beta servers. For the duration of the Beta test, all game features will be unlocked and available to testers. At release, a full unlocked copy of SAGA will cost $19.95; however, promotions will be available during the open beta period to purchase the full version of SAGA at a reduced price.

During the stress test conducted on Saturday, February 23rd, the servers performed excellently, with no crashes or other server issues. The SAGA servers are expected to support up to 20,000 players per realm with thousands of simultaneous users. Should a greater-than-expected number of players attempt to login to the world at the same time, a login queue will be implemented and additional realms will be brought online.

Go now to www.playsaga.com to check out SAGA Open Beta!

About SAGA – SAGA is a persistent world RTS in an epic fantasy setting. Players collect troops, build armies, conquer new lands and build up kingdoms, complete with resource collection, city building and peasant management. SAGA’s features include massive armies, multiplayer questing, guild wars, espionage, and an auction house for trading troops and spells.

SAGA has no subscription fees. Players pay as little or as much as they decide, by purchasing ‘booster packs’ of random troops and spells, which are traded and customized to create the strategic army of choice for each player. Visit www.playsaga.com

SAGA Screenshots

22 Photos

 

Starcraft 2, a PC sequel nearly ten years in the making, hasn’t been announced for any consoles. But that didn’t stop the wishful thinking of PSU, who hypothesize that the flexible Playstation Network, Bluetooth keyboard/mouse support, and required hard drive make the PS3 the best choice for porting Starcraft 2 to the console side.

We can’t help but imagine how great a console port of Starcraft 2 could be, given the reasonable success of RTS gems like Universe at War and Command and Conquer on Xbox 360. However, Blizzard hasn’t lost any money by sticking to its PC guns, with World of Warcraft and the original Starcraft enduring as some of the most widely-played games in the world.

PSU does offer some interesting evidence for a console shift, however. The recent Activision-Vivendi merger, which brought Blizzard under the umbrella of the industry’s largest third party publisher, could mean that Blizzard will be “encouraged” to release their products across multiple platforms.

PSU also cites a job posting on Blizzard’s website from 2006 that specifically urges candidates with experience working on console platforms to apply. Of course, this could always be for an unannounced Blizzard title.

Besides these job application and press release murmurs, the rest of the article doesn’t offer much in the way of hard facts. Many of the same arguments for Starcraft 2 on the PS3 could be made for the Xbox 360. The 360 already has experimented with RTS control schemes, to varying degrees of success, but there’s nothing stopping Microsoft or a third party from releasing compatible keyboard/mouse peripherals.

There’s also no question that Xbox Live could handle Starcraft 2’s online play just as well as the Playstation Network, as online games like Call of Duty 4 are equivalent across both platforms. And as for the hard drive requirement–well, we’ve already seen a few 360 games that require a hard drive for online play.

All in all, I don’t think it’s a matter of which console will get the coveted Blizzard port, but whether or not any console will see Starcraft 2. Following the disastrous Nintendo 64 port, I don’t think gamers will ever settle for less when it comes to Blizzard.

Blizzard is raking in tons of dough on the PC side, nearly single-handedly keeping hardcore PC gaming at the forefront, so any console ports announced would be very surprising indeed. Of course, if things do ever change, we’ll be eager to talk about it with all of you.

Source: PSU

So this Multiplayer/Community Expansion is on the store but says “Coming Soon”. Thus, it isn’t in the weekly PSN update list and is not yet usable. There is, however, a list of the expansion’s features:

There will be new game modes, split-screen cooperative, split-screen versus, an editor for the battling ships, remastered music and sound effects, enhanced visual effects, a music attack mode and clan support.

So there we go, exciting stuff. There has always been online leader-boards for Super Stardust HD, but clan support sounds – interesting. A Super Stardust Clan? Hard to get your head around that one, but it sounds cunning.

Oh and just a little warning – this add-on is purchasable now, but it’s an empty purchase, so do not buy it or you shall be out of pocket. Quite a few people have fallen for this “trap”, since the “Coming Soon” is only in the picture, which doesn’t load immediately. Some strange mistake by Sony there. It also doesn’t seem to be viewable by everybody.

Below is the rest of the US Playstation Store Update, followed by a screenshot of this new Super Stardust HD add-on.

Note the Need For Speed add-on file sizes – only 100KB. They are already in the game, but EA is giving you the opportunity to buy them instead of earning them through completing the Career mode for those of you who are lazy. Strange.  You’re just buying very expensive cheat codes.  Nice one E.A.

Demos

- Burnout Paradise Demo (free) - Welcome to the Burnout Paradise Demo. Explore Motor City, Big Surf Beach and Ocean View. Find the Burning Route junction in Motor City. Discover Jumps, Stunts and Smashes all over the map and if you’re online, invite friends to join you for some challenges. Remember, this is just a small part of Paradise City.
File size: 764 MB

Add-on Game Content

- High Velocity Bowling Bowler 1 ($0.99) – Add Amber Vorhees, a semipro softball player turned bowler, to your High Velocity Bowling roster. A San Francisco native, Amber’s prowess on the softball mound has translated into her unique bowling style: straight and fast with no fancy spin. File size: 40.6 MB

– High Velocity Bowling Bowler 2 ($0.99) - Add Mike “The Strike” Diaz, a well-rounded, ableit short, bowler to your High Velocity Bowling roster. Originally from East Los Angeles, Mike has a fiery attitude and unorthodox bowling style that is sure to spice up the game. File size: 40.8 MB

- Rock Band – Build your Rock Band library by purchasing “I Fought the Law” by The Clash, “Rockaway Beach” by the Ramones, and “Ever Fallen in Love” which is a cover of a song made famous by Buzzcocks. Rock Band Punk Pack 1 includes all three songs. Please note: you need to actually own Rock Band in order to play these tracks:

* “I Fought the Law” – The Clash ($1.99)

* “Rockaway Beach” – The Ramones ($1.99)

* “Ever Fallen in Love” – Buzzcocks ($1.99)

* Rock Band Punk Pack 1 ($5.49)
File sizes: 13 MB – 22.3 MB (singles), 56.5 MB (Track Pack).

- Need for Speed ProStreet – Unlock vehicles for immediate use. These cars can be achieved without purchase by progressing through Career.

* Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 ($2.49) File size: 100 KB

* Pagini Zonda F ($2.99) File size: 100 KB

* Nissan GT-R (R35) ($2.99) File size: 100 KB

* Muscle Car Bundle ($4.99) – This bundle includes the following cars: Chevrolet Camaro SS, Ford Mustang GT ‘03, Chevrolet Corvette ‘67, Plymouth Hemi Cuda, Pontiac GTO, Ford Mustang GT. Note: all cars in this bundle can be achieved without purchase by progressing through Career. File size: 100 KB

* Tuner Car Bundle ($4.99) – This bundle includes the following cars: Nissan 350Z (Z33), Ford Focus ST, Volkswagen R32, Audi S3, Lancer Evolution IX, Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Note: all cars in this bundle can be achieved without purchase by progressing through Career. File size: 100 KB

* Sport Car Bundle ($4.99) – This bundle includes the following cars: Audi S4, Audi TT 3.2 Quattro, Lotus Elise, BMW M3 E46, Porsche Cayman S, BMW Z4 M Coupe. Note: all cars in this bundle can be achieved without purchase by progressing through Career. File size: 100 KB

* Ultimate Performance Bundle ($9.99) -Don’t leave anything to chance. This ultimate performance bundle immediately unlocks EVERY performance package in the game. After you get the parts, the rest is up to you! Note: all parts can be achieved without purchase by progressing through Career. File size: 100 KB

Game Videos

- GT Awards at SEMA Video (free) – Go behind the scenes at the 2007 SEMA Show in Las Vegas to get an exclusive look at the Fifth Annual Gran Turismo Awards and see Gran Turismo 5 Prologue unveiled for the first time in North America. See which vehicle Gran Turismo™ creator Kazunori Yamauchi picked from among the finalists as the 2007 Best of Show vehicle that will soon be forever immortalized as a drivable car in the Gran Turismo™ franchise, available only on the PLAYSTATION 3 system. File size: 457 MB (HD)

- Burnout “Stunt Run” Trailer (free) – Take to the air to pull off boost-earning 360s, barrel rolls, and super jumps with Burnout Paradise’s most ambitious, high-flying cars. File size: 65 MB (HD)

- Tony’s Skater Story Trailer (free) – File size: 21 MB (HD)

- Ratchet BTS – Art (free) – Get a behind the scenes look at the art style and graphics of Ratchet and Clank® Future: Tools of Destruction™. File size: 223 MB (HD)

Movie and Blu-ray Disc Trailers

- Cloverfield Trailer (free) – Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives. File size: 25 MB (SD), 93 MB (HD), 130 MB (1080)

- Untraceable Trailer (free) - Within the FBI, there exists a division dedicated to investigating and prosecuting criminals on the internet. Welcome to the front lines of the war on cybercrime, where Special Agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) has seen it all……until now. File size: 109 MB (HD), 145 MB (1080)

Earlier today, Capcom brought forth the sad news on their blog that the (seemingly nameless) external company hired to support the online capabilities for two of Capcom’s top franchises will be pulling the plug at the end of the year, exiting the PS2 online business altogether after more than three years of providing service to virtual hunters of monsters and zombies alike.

Fortunately, unlike the ill-fated Steel Battalion: Line of Contact for the original Xbox, whose gameplay was limited strictly to online combat, the offline single-player campaigns for both Outbreak and Monster Hunter will remain intact and unaffected by this announcement, though one might suppose it’s purely subjective as to just how great a consolation that would be to owners of these two titles.

Capcom adds that, while these were indeed older titles from their catalog (relatively speaking, anyway), they did want to make an effort to keep their fans happy in continuing support for online play. Doing what they could, they attempted to extend the contract, to have it transferred elsewhere, but it was to no avail. Their hosting partner is quitting the business entirely, and apparently can’t be bothered to expend the time or effort to port the service somewhere else, and so everyone else can apparently go screw. Thanks, nameless/faceless company!

From Capcom, however, they wish to thank everyone who “kept these games fun online for so many years.” And with all due respect, I’m sure at least a few gamers will hope that Capcom picks a better partner with which to support any future online ventures.