As many of you know, the beta for Metal Gear Online is nearly upon us, and unfortunately, it hasn’t exactly been as smooth as a baby’s bottom — even in the preliminary stages. If you’re like me, you had the unfortunate experience of getting one of those 9-digit codes that seem to work well in the land of the rising sun, but mean little in the land of the free.

Of course, you may have found yourself in the other group of outsiders. These folks are reporting that they’ve a valid code, but are unable to sign up for a Konami/Game ID. The good news is that Konami and Sony are well aware of these issue, and are doing their ideal to make things right before the festivities begin on April 21st. The bad news is that I emailed Konami’s customer support line early Thursday morning, and I’m still without a working code myself, and it’s Saturday.

Not sure if the mix-up is a result of crossed wires on Konami’s end, GameStop’s end, or both — but this is anything but cool. Being the trusting fellow that I’m, I’m going to rest easy knowing that both companies are doing their ideal to make sure that the perks of pre-ordering the game are not negated by not being able to use them in fhe first place, come April 21st. Anyone out there share my sentiments?

Via Destructoid

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Partying. Gambling. Driving. Fighting. What else is there to do while in Las Vegas? (Don’t answer that.) Seattle-based developer Surreal Software (The Suffering) thinks that that’s all you’ll really need to get immersed in the hyper-realistic world of their upcoming decadent open-world romp for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, This Is Vegas.

When tyrannical fast food mogul Preston Boyer wants to turn Las Vegas his vision of a family-friendly tourist trap, you’ve no choice — you have to party harder, race faster, and spray down girls in the occasional wet t-shirt contest. Oh yes, this is the world of This Is Vegas.

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Originally announced back in the beginning of 2006, things have been quiet on Midway’s front regarding their title, The Wheelman. The company broke its silence last night, showing us the latest, and giving us a hands-on with some of the game’s more interesting gameplay mechanics.

Now simply called Wheelman, the title puts you in the shoes of profession getaway driver Milo Burik (who shares actor Vin Diesel’s voice and likeness), as you tear ass through the streets of a digital recreation of modern Barcelona. With a focus on a cinematic, “ultimate car chase” experience (the team drew inspiration from films such as Ronin, The Bourne Identity, and Vanishing Point), Midway and Vin Diesel’s Tigon Studios are hoping you’ll want to tag along for the ride.

Ideal described as an odd mix of Burnout 3: Takedown and Grand Theft Auto, Wheelman is set to ship this fall for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Hit the jump for my early impressions of the title and to find out just what in the hell “vehicle melee” is.

Via Destructoid

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“I can confidently state that Midway LA contains some of the most belligerent, miserable, nasty people that we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with,” joked TNA Impact wrestling superstar, Samoa Joe, as he took the stage at Midway’s Gamers’ Day presentation yesterday.

Having worked closely with Midway since the title was in early development, Joe obviously feels comfortable enough to poke fun. The wrestler — along with other TNA talent – has been integral in the development of the TNA Impact! game from day one, bringing his passion for the art of wrestling and his love of videogames to the title’s production. (Many of the wrestlers, including Joe, will talk openly and confidently about their favorite wrestling titles, which includes games like WWE No Mercy and the cult classic Fire Pro series of games.) Originally slated to hit shelves in spring, the game’s release has been delayed in order to add extra “polish” and fine-tune various gameplay elements.

Since going hands-on with an early version of the game last year, that extra level of polish is already showing. The already gorgeous game (rendered in smooth 60 frames per second by Unreal Engine 3) is looking sharper than ever, with more modes, details, and animations than I saw last year. Hit the jump for details on what looks to be shaping up to be a solid first outing for the TNA franchise.

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Yesterday, at a Gamers’ Day event that took place in Las Vegas’ remote Red Rock Casino, Resort, and Spa, Midway’s Ed Boon finally pulled the cover off of the next chapter in the Mortal Kombat series.

Called Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, the Unreal Engine 3.0-powered title pits characters from Midway’s videogame universe against DC Comics’ iconic super heroes. The details on what brings the two universes together are being kept under wraps, but Midway’s creative team has joined with comic book writing talent Justin Gray (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight) and Jimmy Palmiotti (Painkiller Jane) to make sense of the peculiar mash-up. Presently, Midway are only confirming Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Superman, and Batman as playable characters in the upcoming title.

“Every console generation we like to wipe the slate clean with Mortal Kombat,” Boon stated, “With this generation we’re starting new with both the new fighting engine, and as you can see, the story mode. We’re very excited about the new fighting mechanic that marries the intense brutality of Mortal Kombat with the signature moves from DC characters like Batman and Superman.”

More (though not much) info after the jump.

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In an odd showing of brutal honesty within the gaming industry, Kojima recently told UK’s Edge magazine that he’s not 100 percent pleased with the way Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots came out, pointing at some of the PS3’s capabilities as part of the problem. From the interview:

“Game-wise, it’s pretty close to the original vision: you sneak into the battlefield and can choose whether to do a stealth game or interfere with the battle more directly. But the graphic, side things like motion-blending and the size of the map, absolutely wasn’t accomplished to my original vision — to my satisfaction.”

You can take this one of two ways: that Kojima is a perfectionist (and as most geniuses tend to be, extremely harsh about his or her own work), or you can go running down the street wailing at the top of your lungs that Kojima hates the PS3, banging pots together for dramatic effect and essentially blowing all this out of proportion. It’s your call, even though I guarantee you that the latter will keep you out of the better discussions that might be had about the topic.

A bit more from the interview:

“When we first showed the game engine at TGS, the staff were really proud and happy. PS3 was a dream machine, y’know, and we were going to work on this and that — and we had so many ideas. But when we actually started developing the game, we realized there were a lot of restrictions and so it turned out how you see it today. The original vision was to go ten steps further, the reality was just one step, which isn’t to state we didn’t progress.”

I’ve to state this piques my interest, if only because the Metal Gear Solid series has held such high standards of quality and produced such memorable gaming experiences. I do appreciate Kojima’s incredible integrity in voicing these concerns, as I have the ability to imagine the PR department behind MGS 4 are weeping into their keyboards right about now. Most gamers will likely still adore the game and may never have been privy to this were it not for Kojima’s candid words. Of course, the Japanese are known for having ridiculously high standards, so it’s hard to know how to measure comments like this anyway. 20-hour work days, anyone?

[Scan and source via Kotaku — Thanks, Justin]

Via Destructoid

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For those of you who are sick of the Madden monopoly on football games, here’s something that may pique your interest. Backbreaker is a football videogame under development by NaturalMotion. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because they’re the creators of Euphoria. It’s the “next-gen” physics engine that does away with canned animations in favor of simulating real bodies, and it will make an appearance in GTA IV and two upcoming LucasArts games: the still-untitled Indiana Jones game, and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

We don’t have many details on the game yet — there’s only a general release window of “2008”, and the fact sheet only says “next-gen console(s)” as the platforms it’s being developed for — but from these six 1280

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It’s that time of the month again, when I plow through the NPD numbers and try to make sense of each of the large three’s press releases.

Sony’s PlayStation 3 continues to have a good run, though they just barely lost the lead they’d over the Xbox 360 for the past two months. The March NPD shows sales of 257,000 PS3s vs 262,000 Xbox 360s. Sony attributes this continued success to strong software sales. In March, over 1.9 million units of software were sold, putting them up almost 140% over last year’s numbers. I’d guess this is only the begin for them.

Likewise, the PSP continues to kick ass, outselling both the Xbox 360 and PS3 with about 297,000 units sold in March. Sony says that Crisis Core and God of War were the two best-selling portable games in March.

Microsoft’s only system reclaimed that number 2 spot from Sony, and they attribute that to improved stock supply. They say that they plan to have fully stocked stores before the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. In March, both Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and Army of Two rocked software sales chart, showing that Xbox 360 is the king of multiplayer action. I think gamers will keep that in mind when they pick up GTA IV.

Oh, Nintendo. Of all of the press releases, theirs is the shortest. It basically says “we won.” You won’t be surprised to hear that the Wii and DS were the number 1 and 2 selling systems in March, with numbers of about 720k and 700k respectively. You also won’t be surprised to hear that Super Smash Bros. Brawl was the best selling game of March. Moving on — nothing new to see here.

Prediction time:

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The first full album downloads for Rock Band will be hitting consoles next week. Three albums have been announced so far and the first will be Judas Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance. The plan looks to be that one full album will be released each month. Cars’ The Cars will be coming out next month in Might and Pixies’ Doolittle will be coming out in June.

Judas Priest’s Screaming for Vengeance will run you $15 for all ten tracks and you can also buy the tracks individually for $1.99. Screaming for Vengeance will be available next Tuesday for Live and next Thursday for the PSN. With the news of the new album downloads, Harmonix also reminded us that Rock Band has seen over 8 million downloads since the release on both the PS3 and Xbox 360.

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I hated the original Siren (or Forbidden Siren as it was known here), but I wanted so desperately to like it. It looked great and was creepy as anything, but the voice acting was pathetic and the gameplay left a lot to be desired. Now with Siren: New Translation remaking the original horror game for the PS3, I hold some hope that I will finally be able to care about what was a mass of terrifying potential.

It looks as scary as ever, and the English voice acting shown seems miles better to the original. Here’s hoping the rest of the game is just as good and that New Translation is everything that its original incarnation wasn’t.

Via Destructoid

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