Filed under: News

Our speculative speculation ended up being correct, Condemned 2: Bloodshot will not be releasing to Europe as planned and has again been pushed back a few weeks. SEGA confirmed the release date slip with Eurogamer and is now scheduling Bloodshot’s gruesome content to make a European debut in a few weeks on Thursday, April 4th. SEGA didn’t divulge the reason for the delay, but one could probably chalk it up to development and them not getting the game to certification in time rather than shipment issues. But we know you can handle the delay European friends, it isn’t like you haven’t been expecting Rock Band’s release for the past four months.

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Filed under: News

In a recent interview, Greg LoPiccolo of Harmonix shared his insight into what the company plans to do with Rock Band’s future. He said that the direction Harmonix is heading for is to make Rock Band more personal for gamers, giving them a superior car for musical self-expression. Greg spoke of one major potential change regarding this, and that’s the possibility of allowing users to create their own music in the game.

The biggest snag holding the company back from actually pursuing this is that there’s going to be a whole lot of paperwork and legal technicalities over IP claims and ratings. Despite this, LoPiccolo still feels that user-created music is the natural next step for the franchise. Rock Band as a stepping stone to fame, fortune, and most of all groupies? Sign us up.

On another interesting note, LoPiccolo also talked about potentially supporting the keyboard for use in Rock Band tracks. If Harmonix does decide to support this, our first request is to get more Queen songs on there pronto.

[Via Joystiq]

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Filed under: Peripherals, Hands-on

Click for high-resolution image.

Nyko’s Zero controller beats Sony’s DualShock 3 to the US market. Unlike any other third party controller out there, Nyko’s Zero features both tilt and rumble functionality. We received our test unit today, and found it satisfactory. For the impatient that need rumble now (and don’t want to bother importing a DualShock), the Zero will undeniably satisfy. However, there are a number of flaws in its design that make it hard to suggest whole-heartedly.

Firstly, we commend Nyko for creating such easy-to-open packaging. With a simple cut of a sticker, we were able to get the controller out — no plastic wrap packages that threaten to cut your fingers off. Another thing we were pleasantly surprised by: the use of a detachable battery pack. Two are included in the package: the standard rechargable pack, and one that accepts AA batteries. We appreciate the flexibility.

Continuing the unboxing, we were disappointed to see that the Zero uses a dongle, just like Guitar Hero III. You’ll need to sacrifice one of the USB ports on your PS3 in order to use this controller. For owners of the 40GB system, this simply won’t do. Sony’s Bluetooth solution is obviously much more elegant, as it allows the USB ports to be free, and it makes it possible to turn on the system by pressing the PS button. The Zero cannot do that.

Continue reading Hands-on with Nyko’s Zero controller

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Filed under: PlayStation Network, News

The official European PlayStation forums will be undergoing a big change this month. After three days of downtime, starting from March 17th, logging in to the forum will only be possible with a PlayStation Network ID. People who already have a username on the forums will need to link their PSN ID before March 17th or risk starting over with a new account.

The forum will also be updated with various unannounced new features. We hope that these new features are worth the hassle - it seems people aren’t very impressed with losing their usernames (which will change to your PSN ID after the switchover). One of the questions on the FAQ hints at future PSN functionality within the forums, but it won’t be this month.

[Thanks Mattias]

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Filed under: Business

Yesterday, Microsoft surprised the games industry with a significant price cut in the European territories. Our own UK-based writer, Jem Alexander, noted that the price drop was “tempting.” (However, he still hasn’t given in to buying a 360!)

Strategy Analysts’ principal analyst, David Mercer, commented on the situation. He believes that this will force Sony to play a price cut of its own in the territory: “Sony will be nervous that the PS3’s recent sales surge may fizzle out now that the premium Xbox 360 undercuts the PS3 by

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Filed under: News

Who doesn’t want to be friends with the man who almost killed Winston Churchill? Doing so could win you a PlayStation 3, courtesy of Codemasters. As part of their European marketing push for Turning Point: Fall of Liberty a facebook profile has been set up for Mario Contasino - the New York taxi driver who accidentally ran over Winston Churchill in 1931. In our reality Churchill survived to become one of Britain’s greatest Prime Ministers, but in the world of Turning Point Churchill died on that day and World War II played out very differently as a result.

So, add Mario Contasino as a friend on Facebook and you’ll automagically be entered to win a PS3. It’s as easy as that. Entrants must live in the UK and be sixteen or older. Turning Point is released in Europe this coming Friday.

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Filed under: e-Distribution Games

About a month ago we discovered that a new PSN game called NovaStrike snuck silently onto the ESRB website. Since then, developer Tiki Games remained hushed about the company’s new IP. Today, however, that silence is broken as Tiki is ready to spill the full bag of beans on this top-down sci-fi shooter.

The objective of NovaStrike is to defend your home world from an invasion of Draelus aliens — the very same aliens you’ve stolen military technology from. Ah, it’s a bit ironicly satisfying to blow up aliens with their own tech, especially when you’re piloting a highly customizable Scythe fighter with nine different weapon systems. As for your enemies, they’ve got a pretty good defense in that their ships won’t go down so easy — no, their ships are equipped with multiple destructible sections. So strategy-wise, focusing on what part of the ship to destroy first adds a bit of a spin on the usual arcade shooting experience, and it will definitely make the difference in a heated conflict.

Probably one of the coolest and most welcomed features of the game is that it supports the DualShock 3. Rumble support is always a win in our eyes. And superior yet, Tiki Games stated that the company will be developing additional content in the following months after the game’s release. While a fixed release date has yet to be cemented, gamers should expect to see this title floating up on the PSN sometime within Q2 2008. To find out more about NovaStrike, check out Tiki Games’ website.

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Filed under: Deals and Bargains

It’s nearly like we were anticipating another deal by naming one “morning” and this one “day”. We’ll keep it quick so we have the ability to get this knowledge out to you ASAP. A lot of people have been on the edge of a fence when it comes to getting Eye of Judgment — the big pack with the PlayStation Eye, a starter deck, and an extra pack of cards with the retail game. It was about $70, which turned a lot of people off since there was the whole collecting cards thing to worry about.

Amazon has a special deal on the pack right now where you can get it all for $47, a small jump from buying the PS Eye by itself! If you’ve been on the fence, now is the time to jump off.

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Filed under: e-Distribution Games, News

Don’t be put off by the fact that Sony America announced their release information for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Sony Europe have come through this day and confirmed the European release date and price. With just over two weeks to go, the wait is almost over - Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will be available on Blu-ray on March 26th (or, for some reason, March 28th in the UK) and on the PlayStation Store on March 27th. Price of admission is a very reasonable

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Filed under: Nintendo Wii, Fighting, Online

Nintendo’s chief explanation for Error Code 85010 goes something like: “Ours [sic] servers might be trying to handle an unusually high amount of traffic (especially if you are trying to play on the internet with a recently-released or popular game, or if there’s a new Wii system update). Please wait a few hours and try the connection again later.” That’s an oblique way of stating, simply: You’re trying to play Smash Bros., aren’t you?

Brawl’s online component isn’t entirely dysfunctional. If you’ve traded digits, playing ‘with friends’ is stable, and also permits more than one player from the same Wii to participate. Likewise, Spectator Mode is nearly always working if you’re the faceless voyeur-type who also likes to spend a tiny coin (in this case, on arbitrary betting). But when it comes to random brawls ‘with anyone,’ Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection tends to get, um, stressed. Good luck getting anything more than a few rounds with the sandbag before the service drops you during peak hours — also known as, ‘nights and weekends.’

When contacted, Nintendo assured us that its technicians are looking into the problem. See what happens when you hire a pair of plumbers to build your server farm out of warp pipes?

[Note: If you’ve received Error Code 85010 and are unable to establish any kind of on the internet connection, then the problem could be associated with your world wide web service (dude, dial-up is so not gonna work — ever) or your router (Wii can be picky). Refer to Nintendo Customer Service for more information.]

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