All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

Clearing up some confusion over how exactly gamers will get a hold of the Dead Rising 2 prologue, Case Zero, announced at yesterday's X10 event, developer Blue Castle Games explained to Joystiq that the term "add-on" used by Microsoft was, well, dead wrong. "It's not an add-on, because it's set before [Dead Rising 2] and you won't need [either] retail game in order to play it," the devs told us. As for pricing, they could only say that, "it won't be free, but we'll make it accessible for a lot of players."

When we asked about a possible Dead Rising 2 demo -- whether it be single- or multiplayer -- they replied, "We think the prologue is going to give gamers a good sense of how the game is going to play. We haven't announced a release date for it yet, but it's definitely before the retail game." They added, "It's not like it's a chunk of the main game -- it is unique content, so even if you want to look at it as a 'demo,' it's not. It's a unique experience."

Namco Bandai Monster Hunter killer tops the charts in first week.

You may have started to suspect this when it didn't release last year, but it seems that an Xbox 360 version of puzzle/action/platformer Trine is all but dead. Writing on the company's forums, Frozenbyte's Joel Kinnunen said "It's out of our hands but most likely will not happen. Sorry. (We probably won't comment on this any further.)"

We got a very similar statement from Atlus which told us it's out of the company's hands and probably isn't happening. So if it's out of Atlus' hands and out of Frozenbyte's hands, it would seem the only remaining mitts belong to Microsoft. To be fair though, none of the companies involved would even confirm it was coming, despite the fact it had once been announced by Atlus.

We've asked Microsoft for some more clarification, but don't be surprised if we never get the full story. The important thing to note here is that if you want to play Trine, it's almost certainly going to require a PC or PS3.

[Thanks, Booger]

Bring a date.

Sam Fisher's mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore.

Fixed.

Yes, Nintendo has returned with yet another entry in the Iwata Asks series. Surprisingly, Iwata and the gang had even more to talk about when it came to New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The interview is in Japanese for now, but I’m sure an English translation will pop up next week. Feature here (thanks [...]

Sony's senior director of corporate communications Patrick Seybold issued a statement after last night's NPD numbers for January, explaining that the company's flagship console may be a bit difficult to find at retail over the next few months. "We're working very hard with our retail partners to meet consumer interest, but the demand is tremendously high for the PS3 and we expect tight inventory in the coming months," Seybold notes in the statement.

As this is the first we've heard about any sort of PlayStation 3 hardware shortages, we followed up with Seybold to make sure he wasn't only warning about future supply issues, but also explaining January's sales of the console. He told us: "Yes. The strong demand carrying through the holidays was evident and early in the month we [knew] there was going to be limited supply of the PS3 at retail in January. We're working closely with the retail channel to meet this demand, but expect tight supply for the coming months."

The upcoming supply issues may also be a result of Sony's "upcoming line up of the industry's most anticipated games" -- games like Heavy Rain, God of War 3, and ModNation Racers. Seybold additionally points out that "this momentum is fueled by a stellar holiday" and the recent releases of games like MAG and BioShock 2. We here at Joystiq have yet to see the shortages at our local brick-and-mortars, but feel free to let us know if you do!

While this remake doesn’t use recordings of a live orchestra, the ZREO team’s 6-year effort to recreate all 82 of Ocarina’s songs with high-quality synthesized samples is so close to the real thing, you’ll barely be able to tell that it’s not the work of high-priced studio musicians.

Direct link here More Wii and DS screens and art in our Flickr set Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH has released the first trailer and assets for its forthcoming Gormiti: The Lords of Nature! title for Wii and Nintendo DS. The game also made its first public appearance on the Giochi Preziosi/Gormiti event at the International Toy Fair [...]

Does this whodunit bring the industry full circle?

Bungie's Marcus Lehto was grinning like a proud papa when we had a chance to chat with him during X10. The Halo: Reach creative director had been demoing his baby continually for around eight hours, but seemed excited just to be able to tell us more about the studio's final Halo game, his presentation of which had totally wowed us earlier in the day. We reached out, shook his hand, said Halo (okay, not really) and got cracking with our questions.

Joystiq: As a game that is intended to cap off Bungie's work on the Halo series, how do you end a story by going back to the beginning?

Marcus Lehto: What we wanted to do is kind of bring everything full circle. Going back -- to a prequel -- to delve into the stories of the Spartans on planet Reach and to tell their stories; What they did, what they did that transpired and led to the events of Halo 1, was such a cool thing for us to tackle. That's the thing that really got us excited about [Halo: Reach]. We came up with an amazing story tell tell.

For us, like I said, it does literally bring things full circle for us because we're doing things in Reach -- and telling this story -- that really help us encapsulate the entire series and make sense of everything.

Sony Online Entertainment spreads the love this Valentine's Day with in-game celebrations in EverQuest, EverQuest II, Free Realms, Legends of Norrath and Star Wars Galaxies!

Juri, Chun-Li and Cammy battle in this animated art trailer.

Mass Effect 2 takes number two spot.

Spaceball: Revolution, the innovative arcade game produced by Virtual Toys, brings fresh air to this genre.

I have no idea where these images really came from, but I’ll be damned if they aren’t really interesting. Even if these are all fake, someone put a hell of a lot of time into them. Trust me, there are some amazing things to see. Hit up this link to see the [...]

Enter the Square Enix members sweepstakes for a chance to win an invitation.

Capcom's idea of celebrating Valentine's Day involves watching some virtual women fight. That's not exactly the canonical interpretation of the couples' holiday, but on the upside, it does mean we get a new Super Street Fighter IV trailer. That makes us a lot more willing to look past the odd undertones. It's not in-game footage, but we do enjoy seeing the unique style of Street Fighter IV cinematics.

Capcom also released some (relatively) more appropriate Valentine's Day material: a set of Valentines made from Super Street Fighter IV screens. Actually, upon further review, forget the "appropriate" part.

Both of these games are being developed by High Voltage, and I think you can clearly see that one game is getting a little more love than the other!

I don’t understand the people that feel that No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle is a worse game than the first. I enjoyed the second game just as much as the first, and particularly liked the jobs and the lack of an open world. Some people just feel like Travis isn’t as likable in [...]

Sony has something up its sleeve for this year.