by Alexander Sliwinski Sep 8th 2008 1:10PM
Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360
EA has
announced a drop of £20/€30 from the recommended retail price for the
Rock Band Instrument Edition pack sold in Europe. This means the cost of the instrument bundle and
game, which sold separately for a combined price of £180/€240, will go from the
shocking price of $360 (when converted to American bucks), to the better-than-before price of $300.
EA also stated that the PS3, PS2 and Wii versions of the game will release this September on the continent. Hopefully, EA/MTV/Harmonix will work out better pricing for the
sequel when it's eventually released in Europe ... or at least come up with a
better excuse for the high price.
by Alexander Sliwinski Sep 5th 2008 9:30PM
Filed under: Culture
GameFly's first
open casting call for its next commercial will take place next Tuesday in LA. The event will be held at Hollywood and Highland Center, 6801 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood between 12-6PM. Those trying out should be in full cosplay mode.
For those who can't attend the LA, Chicago (Sept. 16) or NYC (Sept 23) events, there's always the option of submitting a
45 second video on GameFly's site. Best of luck to those who attend and try out!
by Alexander Sliwinski Sep 5th 2008 1:20PM
Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters
Ubisoft sent out a
press release this morning confirming that
Far Cry 2 will hit European retail shelves on October 24th. The company also announced a collector's edition, which comes in a wooden box. The fine wooden case, sure to be made from only the finest trees (not really), will deliver the game, t-shirt, art book, collector's map and "making-of" DVD.
We're still waiting to hear back officially from Ubisoft if North America should plan on getting the game on October 21st, which is what many retailers are currently showing as the release date.
Update: GameSpot confirms the date is the 21st.
by Alexander Sliwinski Sep 5th 2008 10:50AM
Filed under: Culture
While a
similar publicity stunt in LA went off with relatively little drama, it appears the
Mercenaries 2 petrol giveaway in London was "irresponsible and dangerous," according to local residents. The
BBC reports that traffic was gridlocked as drivers waited to get their £40-worth ($70) of gratis gas. The promotion started at 6:30AM and ran until
police apparently shut it down.
Local residents were quite upset about the traffic and honking the stunt caused in their neighborhood. Lynne Featherstone, MP for the district, stated that while a lucky few got free gas, "hundreds of residents have faced misery." She's demanding an apology. We're sure that EA is real sorry about all the free publicity and we're positive those people with tanks full of free gas are even more sympathetic.
[Thanks to all who sent this in.]
by Alexander Sliwinski Sep 5th 2008 10:20AM
Filed under: Culture, Business
Ghostbusters: The Game may
not have a publisher, and its fate may
not be clear, but that didn't stop the title from being advertised on lanyards at
PAX.
Variety spoke to Penny Arcade's business guy, Robert Khoo, who said that Sierra signed to do the lanyards in January and sent them in June. It wasn't even until two weeks before the show that Sierra, the
abused and neglected stepchild of Activision Blizzard, "pulled out of displaying
Ghostbusters."
Khoo explains that there wasn't enough time to get a new lanyard provider, so even though
Actilizzard isn't going to benefit from the promotion, they still paid the bill.
by Alexander Sliwinski Sep 5th 2008 9:00AM
Filed under: Culture
This is what makes us smile. Reader Olav sent us word this morning that the Norwegian post office switched its old logo (which we've placed after the break for reference) to something, he said, that "unmistakably looks like a pokéball." After checking it out, we believe Posten Norge's new symbol looks like the love child of a pokéball and the symbol from Bungie's
Marathon.
Coincidence, or conspiracy by some gamer in the art department?
Source - Article about new post symbol (it's in Norwegian)
Source - Norway Post in English
[Thanks Olav]
Continue reading Norway Post's new logo: Pokéball or Marathon symbol variation?
by Alexander Sliwinski Sep 5th 2008 2:00AM
Filed under: Culture, Rhythm
The Make-A-Wish foundation, in conjunction with a
slew of sponsors, will be holding a
Rock Band competition in Vancouver, Canada, starting Oct. 4. The $100 entry fee, along with pre-purchase tickets for the finals at the Roxy Nightclub, go straight to the Make-A-Wish foundation. The first round of the competition will be held at the EA studios located right outside of Vancouver in
Burnaby. From that event, the five finalist bands from each of the four divisions will then compete at the Roxy Nightclub on November 6 for prizes.
There are four divisions for competitors to
register their groups: Competitive, Social, Corporate and 18 & Under. There are currently no details about prizes, but it
sounds like a cool charity event. Isn't that enough?
by Alexander Sliwinski Sep 5th 2008 1:00AM
Filed under: Arcade, Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action
Taking a cue from
Peter Molyneux's Fable II review,
The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai's developer, James Silva, took the opportunity to review his own game before its release. Silva
declares that it's inexcusable for his game to have 2D graphics. 2D is "by definition" not HD and is "completely inadequate at capturing our imaginations." He also notes there are glaring omissions from the game like Blades of Chaos, a reasonably sized manskirt, nudity and a boss the "size of a large building." Silva's final verdict on his own game: 1/10.
OUCH! Well, we'll have to do a
metareview on
The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai when it eventually releases to see if the critics agree with the developer's harsh treatment of the title. We can only expect Silva will now put some
actual work into his game after giving it such a harsh review.*
*We pity the fool who doesn't see the tongues firmly planted in cheeks regarding all this.[Via
X3F]
by Alexander Sliwinski Sep 5th 2008 12:00AM
Filed under: PC, Strategy, Business
Stardock has revealed that its sleeper PC hit
Sins of a Solar Empire has sold over half a million copies. The company's CEO Brad Wardell tells
Gamasutra that 400,000 units were sold at retail, while 100,000 in sales came from digital downloads. Not bad for a full-bodied PC strategy game that cost less than a million dollars to make.
Wardell is certainly becoming an
interesting character in the narrative of this industry, with relatively small publisher Stardock really
stepping up. He explains part of
Sins' success is that it was designed to run on a "four-year-old video card" and still look good. He says there might be a "piddly super-mega effect" that gets missed, but the result is more sales for the game, a strategy which sounds similar to
Blizzard's take on being a PC developer.
Sins' first mini-expansion,
Entrenchment, will be available for $10 later this year.
[Via
Big Download]
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