Nintendo Wii Super Smash Brothers Brawl delayed

Instead of arriving in stores on February 10, Super Smash Brothers Brawl is scheduled to arrive on March 9 in North America. Japan’s release date is also pushed back a week, but only for a week.

The new release date is January 31 instead of January 24. The timing of the delay raised a flag because Super Smash Brothers Brawl must be mostly complete if it is only delayed a week in Japan. However, North America’s delay is nearly a month. Perhaps, localization is going slower than expected or Nintendo is tweaking network settings for a larger land mass.

Hmm… or Nintendo is trying to position Super Smash Brothers Brawl or Professor Layton and the Curious Village in a better place. With the Smash Brothers delay Layton should have a much better chance in the marketplace. Be sure to check it out on February 11.

Source: Siliconera

Atari Announces the Next Generation Chapter for Dragon Ball Z Video Game Series

Atari, Inc. one of the world's most recognized brands and a third-party video game publisher and distributor, today announced that Dragon Ball Z(R): Burst Limit is in development for Xbox 360(R) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION(R)3 computer entertainment system. Exploding into the next level of intensity with next-gen graphics, online gameplay and lightening fast action, Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit is being developed by NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. and is slated for a 2008 release.

Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit is revolutionizing the series by entering the realm of next-generation gaming. Complete with fierce online battles and radical 3D graphic effects only possible on Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 system, Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit will blur the line between video game and iconic anime series. Jam-packed with graphically enhanced playable characters, realistic battle stages and environments, players can take hold and experience Dragon Ball Z(R) as never before.

"Atari is excited and ready to offer fans the next iteration of the Dragon Ball Z video game series on the next-gen consoles," said Donny Clay, Producer, Atari, Inc. "With explosive cinematic graphics and online gameplay, fans of the series and of the fighting genre will surely enjoy Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit."

The immensely popular Dragon Ball Z(R) series is the gold standard of anime-based video games, with more than 30 different games and over 11 million units sold since May 2002.

For more information on Dragon Ball Z(R) video games, please visit http://www.atari.com/dragonballz.

Source: CNN - PR NewsWire

NINTENDO DS tops Japanese VIDEO GAMES chart

As sales numbers fall, Nintendo just pips Sony to the post

Nintendo's DS handheld was once again the best-selling hardware in Japan for the sales week ending January 13.

According to Media Create information it sold just over 97,000 units in that time, but the PlayStation Portable was much closer than it usually is in second, selling just over 96,000 units.

The Wii took third place, selling 84,000 units, as every platform experienced the usual post-end of year sales slump, while the PlayStation 3 was further back with just under 39,000.

The PlayStation 2 continued to sell despite its age and relative lack of software support, while the Xbox 360 tailed off in sixth.

The chart is as follows:

1. Nintendo DS (97,369)
   
2. PlayStation Portable (96,159)
   
3. Nintendo Wii (84,530)
   
4. PlayStation 3 (38,907)
   
5. PlayStation 2 (14,499)
   
6. Xbox 360 (4690)
   

'PT Boats: Knights of the Sea' Preview

File Front's preview Akella’s latest RTS naval simulator game PT Boats: Knights of the Sea, and if WWII games are your thing and you are tired of playing aerial or ground war titles; then this game was made especially for you.

With the video game market overly saturated with WWII games, Akella wanted to produce something different starring one of the most under-appreciated heroes of that era, the Patrol Torpedo Boat. Faster and easier to maneuver than a large battleship, PT Boats were used when accuracy and speed were of the utmost importance and they got the job done.

Being smaller did not mean that they could not cause serious damage to a larger vessel though, because they could take a tanker down with their torpedoes - and while they were indeed more vulnerable than their larger counterparts, they were essential to any maritime battle.

more from File Front

Official website... http://www.pt-boats.net/

4.82 million copies makes Halo 3 - 2007 top selling video game

The NPD Group has released its US hardware and software sales data for the month of December, bringing the year's total sales to USD 18 billion.

That figure represents a 43 per cent increase over 2006's total sales of USD 12.5 billion.

On the hardware side, NPD estimates that 8.5 million DS handhelds were sold in 2007, more than twice the 3.82 million PSP handhelds sold by Sony.

Nintendo sold 6.29 million Wii consoles, Microsoft sold 4.62 million Xbox 360 consoles, and Sony sold 2.56 million PS3 consoles during the year.

Sony also sold 3.97 million PS2 consoles in 2007, bringing its life-to-date sales to 41.12 million.

The year's Top Ten best-selling games in the US were:

1. Halo 3 (360) - 4.82 million
   
2. Wii Play w/ remote (Wii) - 4.12 million
   
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) - 3.04 million
   
4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) - 2.72 million
   
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 2.52 million
   
6. Pokemon Diamond (DS) - 2.48 million
   
7. Madden NFL 08 (PS2) - 1.90 million
   
8. Guitar Hero 2 (PS2) - 1.89 million
   
9. Assassin's Creed (360) - 1.87 million
   
10. Mario Party 8 (Wii) - 1.82 million
    

Source: Games Industry

Activision Ranks No1 U.S. Console and Handheld Publisher for Calendar 2007, According to NPD

Activision was the No1 U.S. console and handheld publisher for calendar 2007, according to The NPD Group. The company increased its market share for the year to a record 17.7%, a 7.2% increase over the same period last year. Additionally, Guitar Hero was the No1 best-selling franchise in the U.S. for the full calendar year and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, which was released on October 28, was the No1 title across all platforms in both units and dollars, according to The NPD Group.

For the month of December, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Call of Duty 4TM: Modern WarfareTM were the No1 and No3 best-selling titles respectively in dollars across all platforms, according to The NPD Group.



Robert Kotick, Chairman and CEO, Activision, Inc., commented, "For the first time in our history, we were the No1 U.S. publisher for the calendar year. We are well on our way to delivering sixteen years of record revenue growth and by far our most profitable year ever."

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Founded in 1979, Activision posted net revenues of $1.5 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007.

Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and South Korea. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's World Wide Web site, which is located at www.activision.com.

Disciples III: Renaissance Development Update

Now that we have all entered a new 2008 phase of our life, it’s time to reflect upon the progress made so far. Akella and .dat are pleased to report on completion of the set of important features in Disciples III: Renaissance that is drawing the game release nearer.

The storyline has been completed – there’s a script for all the 19 missions that’ll be featured in the game: 6 per race and one final mission.

The game will feature over 150 units. You can view some sample units in the game gallery.

All of the units and objects have been animated and textured.
The dev team has almost completed generating the game content: Elven Alliance and Legions of the Damned cities are templated; only minor fixing is ahead. Now the team is focusing on finalizing the city of the Empire.

The game designers are now working closely on perfecting the interface, completing the script (separate dialogues), making briefings movies, and finalizing arts.

About Disciples III: Renaissance

Genre: Strategy
Platform: PC
Publisher: Akella
Developer: .DAT
Release date: Q3 2008

Disciples III: Renaissance is the next title in the award winning Disciples series and represents a leap forward in the evolution of the turn-based RPG/strategy genre. Building on the successes of the first two games, DIII introduces a host of new features as well as the compelling gameplay that made the previous titles such hits.

As a Lord of one of the fantastical races of Nevendaar you must fight to restore your deity's rule over your world. There are three playable races to choose from; the Empire, the Elven Alliance and the notorious Legion of the Damned.

For the first time in the series the gloriously ominous and notoriously gloomy world of Disciples is rendered in full 3D, allowing the player to experience this realm as it should be. Disciples uses its own Virtual Dream engine to render the stunning 3D environments.

Key features:

Three playable races - The Empire, the Legions of the Damned and the Elven Alliance. Each race has its own unique units and city design.

Cities, locations, units and other game assets are now represented in full 3D.

Advances in the gameplay allow increased fluidity in multiplayer games and less downtime when playing alone.

A new upgrade system allows the player to assign attributes to your leaders. This RPG system employs inventories and new stats and abilities.

Visual representation of character's equipped armor, weapons and artifacts.

GUITAR HEROR III: LEGENDS OF ROCK - ROCK YOUR PARTY WEEKEND ON MICROSOFT XBOX LIVE ANNOUNCED

Gridiron fans get ready to rock out and win prizes on Xbox LIVER with Guitar HeroR III: Legends of Rock! Activision announced today that Xbox LIVE will host the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - Rock Your Party Weekend, a special event happening the weekend of the
big game, February 1-3, 2008 for U.S. and Canada residents. The 72-hour event gives players the chance to prove their axe grinding skills and includes a Play & Win Sweepstakes that offers gamers who register and play, the chance to win a multitude of prizes. Before the big game, fans can test their talents against Neversoft, developers of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, from 12 - 4 p.m. PST on Sunday, February 3.

Some of the prizes up for grabs include Microsoft points, Guitar HeroR Gear and an Xbox 360R wireless guitar faceplate signed by Slash. One lucky grand prize winner will take home the Ultimate Home Gaming Center, which includes an LG 50" 1080p Flat-Panel Plasma HDTV, an Xbox 360 Elite and a BoomChair -

Wi-FX Wireless Gaming Chair.

Fans can register for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock - Rock Your Party Weekend on Xbox LIVE by downloading the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock GamerPics exclusively through Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the Xbox 360R video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Players can also register by visiting http://www.xbox.com/rockyourparty/, where they can get additional details regarding terms, conditions and official rules.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock offers the ultimate rock experience with new wireless guitars, freshly added content and features including a multiplayer action-inspired battle mode, grueling boss battles, a host of exclusive unlockable content and visually stunning rock venues. Expanded online multiplayer modes allow axe-shredders worldwide to compete head-to-head for true rock status as they riff through a star-studded soundtrack including master tracks by legendary artists such as Aerosmith, Guns 'N' Roses, The Rolling Stones, Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine and Pearl Jam, as well as original songs by guitar icons Slash and Tom Morello. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is now available and is rated "T" for Teen by the ESRB. For more information visit.

http://www.guitarhero.com.

Painkiller: Overdose Update

SINGLE PLAYER
Stat counting fixed
Rebalanced idle comments

Tarot Cards
Assault functionality fixed
Ascendance functionality for Animal Farm and Ragnarok fixed
Ascendance color fixed
Hellish armor color fixed

Demon mode
Fixed bug allowing the use of demon gun after demon mode

Weapons
Fixed bug causing counting some destroyed projectiles as destroyable items

LEVEL CHANGES

ASTEROIDS

• Update of final battle (it's longer and harder)
  
• Fixed position of spawn points of Demon hands
  
• Fixed monster count
  

AIR COMBAT

• New holy item
  
• New secret
  
• Update of final battle (it's longer and harder)
  
• Item positioning fix
  
• Fixed spawn points under crashed plane
  
• New effects on crashed plane
  
• Changed the path of the plane meant to fly over
  

DESERT

• Fixed position of health
  
• New secret
  
• Proper monster count (you can get Star for killing all monsters now)
  

RIOT

• Small fixes in item placement
  
• Lights in fifth arena fixed
  

FIELD AMBULANCE

• Object number fix
  
• Missing collision fix
  
• Fixed monster count
  

RAGNAROK

• Hammers fixed
  
• Ammo moved to reachable area
  
• Cerberus slightly tweaked
  
• Spawn point of Snow giant lowered
  
• Fixed monster count
  
• Fixed possible lockup in arena before Cerberus
  

DEAD MARSH

• Fixed spawn in the air
  
• Balanced level difficulty
  
• Fixed some missing collisions
  
• Textures on gravestones fixed
  

ANIMAL FARM

• Total number of monsters corrected
  
• Fixed flying crates in storeroom
  
• Some items moved to areas where can be destroyed
  
• Health added
  

POWER PLANT

• Wrong monster number opening slab too early fixed
  
• Fixed position of fire particles on train
  
• Fixed size and position of hurt zone on train
  
• Fixed monster count
  

LOONY PARK

• Fixed position of Pirate boss in last arena
  
• Fixed monster count
  
• Destroyable items fixed
  
• Zones fix
  

CATACLYSM

• Added a danger zone in the fire in the collapsed room
  
• Stone shader on monsters is now correct after load
  

STUDIOS

• Difficulty tweaked for Nightmare and Trauma
  
• Total number of monsters fixed
  
• Items moved for better destroying
  
• Health and ammo added
  

VILLAGE OF DAMNED

• Added missing texture on grate
  
• Fixed monster count
  

HAUNTED VALLEY

• Fixed monster count
  
• Fixed potential blocker in arena
  

JAPANESE MASSACRE

• Blood decals fixed
  
• Fixed monster count
  
• Health added
  

SOUNDS

• Added missing sounds for:
  
• gong in Japanese massacre
  
• Rain in Field Ambulance
  
• Exploding barrel
  
• Crypt in Haunted Valley
  

MULTIPLAYER

WEAPONS CHANGES

• Fixed view distance on primary fire from the cannon gun
  
• Fixed Razor Cube’s appearance in opponent's hand
  
• You can now only place 8 Egg Bombs at a time.
  
• Gorgon shoots more pellets (18 to 23)
  
• Egg Bombs have larger damage range, but deal less damage
  
• The Ectoplasmer deals more damage (80 to100)
  

LEVEL CHANGES

DM SPHERE

• Fixed sticky corners
  

Miscellaneous

• Extracting packs in the editor now works
  
• Fixed localization of some hardcoded network error messages.
  
• Fixed sound in story video for Italian language
  
• Fixed many text bugs in localizations
  

Get it here: http://www.projectoverdose.com/

ROCK BANDTM DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT GOES "DOUBLE PLATINUM," SELLING MORE THAN 2.5 MILLION SONGS IN JUST OVER EIGHT WEEKS

Eight weeks after the release of the red-hot music video game, and while Rock Band continues to fly off store shelves, the response to the downloadable music is clear, as fans and gamers have propelled its downloadable content to “double platinum” status, purchasing more than 2.5 million game levels based on songs since its launch on November 20, 2007.

"Our goal with Rock Band was to create an entirely new way for people to interact with the music they love," stated Van Toffler, president, MTVN Music Group/Logo/Films. "The incredible response to the downloadable content we've released to date motivates us even more to establish this platform as a way for people to discover new, up and coming artists through the game - in addition to delivering great game play experiences set to the music of mega-artists."

A Metallica pack featuring three of the mega-platinum band’s most electrifying tracks—“Ride The Lightning,” “Blackened” and “And Justice For All”—is currently the game’s top-selling music download, followed by three-song packs from The Police, Queens of the Stone Age, David Bowie and a collection of Black Sabbath covers. Top-performing singles are Foreigner’s early ‘80s hit, “Juke Box Hero,” followed by a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s late ‘60s smash, “Fortunate Son,” Weezer’s mid-90s single “Buddy Holly” and a cover of The Knack’s blockbuster hit, “My Sharona.”

In addition to bringing mega-star and classic rock acts to Rock Band, this new distribution method for music has seen fans and gamers also embracing developing artists. The first selection of up and coming bands included 30 Seconds To Mars, All-American Rejects and The Sounds. These three bands were part of a special holiday promotion, offering tracks such as 30 Seconds To Mars’ “Attack” and “The Kill,” All-American Rejects’ “Dirty Little Secret” and “Move Along” and The Sounds’ “Song With A Mission” at a discounted price of $0.99 per song (80 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for the month of January. Fans can expect more music available for download every week through 2008 through a variety of song packs, albums and individual tracks with suggested retail pricing varying from $.99 to $2.99 per track (The equivalent of 80 to 240 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360), with the vast majority selling for $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360).