According to the British Board of Film Classification’s entry for Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV, the upcoming Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 title might have close to eight hours worth of cut-scenes. To be precise: “When submitted to the BBFC the work had a running time of 463m 0s.” That’s 7 hours and 43 minutes, folks.

Yesterday, Rockstar had Ron and I out to their New York City office to get some hands-on time with their highly-anticipated title. I’ll be getting some hands-on impressions up before the weekend (along with some screenshots, which I believe to be “new”). For now, I have to say that some of the pre-mission cut-scenes were pretty astounding. While we only saw a handful of pre-mission cinematics, the combination of believable animations and Rockstar’s traditionally killer script writing helped me connect with the game characters in a way that I never had with those found in previous GTA titles.

So if there really do happen to be eight hours of cinematics (can I get a “holy crap”?), let’s be glad that they seem to be shaping up to be so damned good. While you all wait patiently for my impressions, I’ve included one of the (possibly) new screens that Rockstar has provided us. Enjoy.

Via Destructoid

Share This

Share This

Despite the fact that Sony at one point downplayed the importance of rumble as a function in controllers, the DualShock 3 has entered the market in North America this week. Combining motion-sensitive controls with the fancy shaking and moving most gamers have come to anticipate from controllers, the DualShock 3 essentially makes the Sixaxis obsolete.

So it’s no surprise that Sony has confirmed to MTV Multiplayer that the reign of the Sixaxis is indeed over. “Sixaxis will no longer be offered after it’s completely sold through at retail (likely by the summer timeframe),” a Sony rep told MTV’s Stephen Totilo. No one, of course, is really surprised.

The Sixaxis will still be compatible with all future PlayStation 3 games … or at least we hope. Is rumble important enough for you to toss your Sixaxis in the trash and drop $55 on a new controller? We’re eagerly awaiting the arrival of our DualShock 3 in the Destructoid offices, and we’ll be sure to post our full impressions and all that jazz as soon as we have the ability to.

Via Destructoid

Share This

Share This

Mandatory installations of certain PlayStation 3 games (e.g., Devil Might Cry 4, Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds) have become a point of contention among gamers. We’ve certainly seen that happen here on Destructoid in a few c-blogs where things got heated at times. The typical explanation that gamers have been given is the PS3’s 2x Blu-ray drive, which has a much slower maximum read speed than the 12x DVD drive in the 360 (72 Mbps vs. 126.6 Mbps).

Blame it on Blu-ray, right? Well, not entirely — according to some research done by Patrick Klepek over at the MTV Multiplayer blog. Apparently, Capcom wasn’t anticipating the required 5 GB installation in Devil May Cry 4 to become as big of an issue as it did. (They’re going to take into account that reaction in the future.) When he pressed Capcom, Sony, and Ubisoft for more details, he didn’t get much. But he posted what little he obtained, and you can check it out (along with my analysis/commentary/whining) after the jump.

[Editor’s note: Just so you know what you’re getting into, I own a PS3 and I don’t have a 360.]

[via MTV Multiplayer]

Via Destructoid

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters, Online

So it turns out the Call of Duty 4 Variety Map Pack is coming out this week, after all. Despite the official COD4 Game of the Year website decreeing an April 10 release date for the downloadable content, Infinity Ward’s blogger extraordinaire fourzerotwo posted reassurances today that the map pack is “NOT delayed” (his emphasis) and that there’s a good chance the maps will be available tomorrow night or early Friday.

“For those of you asking when you should take off work, I’d take off Friday,” he said. It’s a good thing we at Joystiq can work and play Call of Duty 4 (we’re spoiled like that … and ambidextrous). For those with the Game of the Year Edition, the provided tokens will work as soon as the maps become available.

Read

Share This

Share This

Filed under: PC, Action, Online, MMO

Buried somewhere in Gamasutra’s interview with EA DICE producer Ben Cousins is the acknowledgment that Battlefield Heroes will only have two maps when the free MMO shooter launches. Cousins says that the studio is used to making 50 maps for other Battlefield games and finding out months later that people are only playing on two of them — so, they just cut to the chase for this free game.

Considering this is an EA product, the automatic impulse is to call microtransaction shenanigans. The only problem is that Battlefield Heroes is designed to have a business model like an Asian MMO where players join free and pay for content later. Cousins previously stated that players will only be charged for accessorizing their avatar and not for weapons, which could break balance in the game (a concept not shared by other Battlefield titles). At this point, we don’t even know if players will be charged for new Battlefield Heroes maps when they become available.

Update: Cousins left a tiny note in our comments saying, “We have no plans to charge for maps.”

[Via EvilAvatar]

Read

Share This

Share This

If this was Peter Moore’s idea of an April Fool’s joke, I don’t think many PC gamers found it very funny. In a post on his official blog yesterday, the EA Sports head honcho confirmed that EA won’t be releasing Madden NFL 09 on the PC:

We knew that our decision to not develop this year’s Madden for the Computer would be an unpopular decision in some circles. But I’ll reiterate what I stated a couple of weeks ago in this space…the Computer presents some very serious business challenges to us in the sports category, particularly because so many of you all are playing your favorite sports games on the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii. We’re committed to shipping a limited number of our games on the Personal computer this year, but we’ve also had to cut a few of our games from the platform. We do have ideas for how to revitalize the Personal computer for sports games and the types of games that are best suited to the platform, and we’ll continue to explore those.

Translation: the PC version sold very poorly in comparison to the console versions, so we’re scrapping it. According to an article from IGN-owned Computer gaming site Voodoo Extreme, the Personal computer version of Madden NFL 08 came in at number eight on the NPD sales charts for August 2007. It doesn’t specify the number of copies that the game sold, but whatever it is, it’s likely nothing when you look at the overall console sales — the 360 version moved nearly 900,000 units in August alone.

Though I’ve never really had a personal that was powerful enough to play games, I’ve downloaded a few demos of sports games in my time. I’m assuming that anyone who buys Computer sports games has some sort of gamepad, because trying to play Madden with a keyboard and mouse is a nightmare.

Still, it’s rather alarming to see that EA is alienating an entire market of gamers. And think about it: because they have that accursed exclusivity deal with the NFL, PC-specific Madden fans now have nowhere to turn for their football fix.

[via Peter Moore Blog — thanks, power-glove and Jonathan!]

Via Destructoid

Share This

Share This

theme music real myspace crazy lion sleep urban panic! guitar soccer mortal kombat korean scary movie popsicle solo dance family guy cartoon network nickelodeon disney xbox 360 gamecube preview spiderman music games sikitur superman super man hulk six flags water world john singer red vs blue smosh cody eric sam jake laptop kitty adorable small funny again hax counter strike bleach manga ani…

Share This

Share This

Recorded straight from the game with my craptastic MP3 Player.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: News

After a morning of frustrating countdowns we realize why our questions about the upcoming Ubisoft announcement went unanswered as IGN exclusively revealed the first title to be announced since the acquisition of the Tom Clancy name. Introducing the flight-combat title, Tom Clancy’s HAWX. That’s right spelling and grammar police it’s called HAWX.

Developed by Ubisoft’s Bucharest Studio, HAWX lets players control over 50 planes in dogfights across the sky. Set in 2012, HAWX includes your standard political storyline where private military companies are becoming increasingly more important in the fight for … freedom, we guess.

Featuring an Enhanced Reality System (ERS) HAWX features in-game assists made to keep the experience as fun and intuitive as possible. The innovative ERS allows gamers to turn on tactical maps, read damage control systems and do pretty much everything else a heads-up display (HUD) has been doing since the dawn of the gaming age it seems. OK, it actually does cooler things like weapons trajectory control too.

HAWX supports four-player jump in and jump out co-op throughout the entire campaign and also includes a Vs. mode for up to 16 players. Tom Clancy’s HAWX releases this fall on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Via Xbox360fanboy

Share This

Share This

Filed under: News, Xbox Live Arcade

Max Hoberman, Certain Affinity founder, sat down with Gamasutra for a Q&A about his studio and his projects, including the upcoming arcade title, Plunder. The interview is a great read and Hoberman touches on possible Left 4 Dead secrets, the inspirations for Plunder, and more. A good chunk of the interview is dedicated to the gameplay and design and should appeal to anyone interested in hearing a bit of behind the scenes of a game’s conception, tweaking and more. For more product-focused players, there is mention of the plan for map-sharing and match-making. The interview is well worth a read and touches on even more things than we could mention here, so get over to Gamasutra and read it!

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Via Xbox360fanboy

Share This

Share This