Handheld guitar gods - Guitar Hero Modern Hits Fact Sheet

Handheld guitar gods can now choose how they raise-up their band from the underground music scene to worldwide rock stardom in Guitar Hero Modern Hits. 

Featuring a set list comprised of more than 25 master tracks from influential artists including Coldplay, Fall Out Boy and Weezer, Guitar Hero Modern Hits expands on the innovative Guitar Hero gameplay on the Nintendo DS by introducing an all-new Fan Request system that challenges players to jam like never before.

Fret board fanatics can once again unleash their inner rock stars anytime, anywhere as they hone their shredding skills and jam to face-melting modern rock tracks from the last five years in Guitar Hero Modern Hits.

KEY FEATURES:

Rock out to today’s hottest tracks – Shred along to more than 25 master tracks, all modern rock hits from some of the hottest bands including Coldplay, Fall Out Boy, Tenacious D, Weezer, The Strokes and more. Players will tour through five all-new venues that are as extreme as the tunes played in them.

Choose your path to stardom – For the first time ever, players can choose how they take their band from the underground music scene to worldwide rock stardom with the exciting non-linear gameplay progression in Guitar Hero Modern Hits.

Do it for the fans – Guitar Hero: Modern Hits delivers an all-new gameplay experience with Fan Requests. By completing Fan Requests players build their fan base and open up new challenges to rock-out like never before including jamming to an entire song in Hyperspeed, battling it out in a Guitar Duel with active Bomb Notes or whammying every single hold note in a song.

Rock out anytime, anywhere – Fans can take the Guitar Hero experience wherever they go with Guitar Hero Modern Hits. The Guitar Hero Guitar Grip™ is an ergonomic extension that mimics a guitar fret board and fits seamlessly in people’s hands to deliver the same core gameplay that defines Guitar Hero.

The party never stops – Song streaming features allow players of Guitar Hero Modern Hits and its predecessors, Guitar Hero: On Tour and Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, to share songs via local wireless connectivity. Players can rock out together in multiplayer modes, jamming to tracks from all three versions of the game.

REVEALED VENUES:
Rusty Rocco’s Venue
Opening Act:
Wolfmother – Dimension
Coldplay - Violet Hill
Lenny Kravitz - Where Are We Runnin

Headline Act:
Evanescence - Sweet Sacrifice
The Strokes – Reptilia
The Bravery – Unconditional

Casino Vicarious Venue
Opening Act:
Fall Out Boy - This Ain’t A Scene
Weezer - Everybody Get Dangerous
The Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby

Headline Act:
12 Stones – Adrenaline
Tenacious D – The Metal
Atreyu – Falling Down


Publisher: Activision Publishing/RedOctane
Developer: Vicarious Visions
Release Date: TBC

Codename Panzers - Cold War Multiplayer demo download

Showcasing the Full Range of Multiplayer Features, the Demo Pits Players' Strategic Wits Against Opponents Online

Following the launch of the single player demo, the multiplayer demo for Atari’s forthcoming real-time strategy title Codename Panzers: Cold War is now available for free download via the game’s official website at www.codenamepanzerscoldwar.com.

With support for online and LAN play, the multiplayer demo showcases the Domination mode and features the Islands of Hope map in which the players are charged with seizing control of a nuclear weapon. Players will have access to the full range of units available in the multiplayer game, and will be able to capture several Points of Interest including a radar station, HQ and radio station, each of which affords special strategic and tactical advantages.

The multiplayer element of the full game features 20 varied maps and three gameplay modes: Domination, Co-op and Deathmatch.

Codename Panzers: Cold War represents the pinnacle of Cold War era conventional warfare including real world post-war heavy armor battles between heavy tanks like the American M103 and the Russian Troyanov. The signature Codename Panzers ‘Point of Interest’ system takes the gameplay beyond build-and-rush, while special urban warfare tactics and dynamic weather create even more gameplay depth and realism.

Codename Panzers: Cold War is scheduled to ship March 10th in North America and March 13th in Europe. For more information and to download the single player and multiplayer demos please visit the official website at www.codenamepanzerscoldwar.com.

PlayStation 3 Downloads add new demos and loads of content

Sony has updated the PlayStation Network store with PS3 demos of Wanted and WWE Legends of WrestleMania, along with downloadable content for Street Fighter IV, Lumines Supernova, Prince of Persia, Burnout Paradise and Skate 2.

The expected POP Epilogue pack (also on Xbox 360) costs £7.99 / 9.99 Euros on PlayStation, while SFIV's new Femme Fatale Pack, featuring alternate costumes for Chun-Li, Cammy, Sakura, Rose and C. Viper, is £3.19 / 3.99 euros.

Lumines Supernova, meanwhile, benefits from the Classic Pack, featuring 20 skins from the original Lumines PSP release for £3.19 / 3.99 euros, while Skate 2's Throwback Pack introduces retro clothing, accessories and gestures to New San Vanelona for free.

Elsewhere, Burnout Paradise continues to swim in new content thanks to the new Toy Cars pack, which costs £7.99 / 9.99 euros for nine toy versions of cars like the Hunter Manhattan and Nakamura Firehawk. Alternatively, there are two smaller collections for £3.99 / 4.99 euros apiece. Check Criterion's in-game Burnout news service for more specifics.

And that's about your lot, apart from the usual burst of Guitar Hero and Rock Band tracks, a few trailers and some wallpaper. You can also download a LocoRoco 2 theme for the PSP if you've got nothing better to do.

Source: Eurogamer

Capcom working on Street Fighter HD Remix patch for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

Details of the patch I announced a while ago. We've been working on it for a while and it's getting ready to be released in the next few weeks. Which means, we have a confirmed list of the issues that we were able to fix in a patch.

Please keep in mind, there are technical limitations to what a patch can fix, so we fixed as many as we could given these limitations. I know many users requested patching Akuma, but we didn't touch any balancing this time. This is mainly because I think the jury is still out on him. Sure, he's pretty powerful, but I don't think it's been 100% proven yet that he's unbalanced. I'm not saying that he's definitely balanced, but before we start tinkering with the balance, we want to make sure we're making the right move.

A big thanks to all you guys that were diligent in reporting the bugs that they encountered. Also, a big shot out goes to "The Furious One" who was a big help in compiling bugs and especially to "zerojay" who took his testing experience and actually created a bug data base to help organize the bugs.

Without further ado, here are issues that the patch fixes:

1. After a number of games, the HUD will be corrupt. Yellow lifebars will freeze, the round counter flags will all be on, and the names will show more than one name. (Both)
   
2. Frequent disconnects during VS transition screen. Often caused by selecting START color of character. (Both)
   
3. Title crashes if user has a large friends list and tries to access the friends list (PS3)
   
4. Rating being set to "0" and from then on, rating remains at "0". Once that patch goes live, we'll reset all leaderboards/scoreboards. (Both)
   
5. Vega sometimes causing desyncing, especially when using the fake wall dive. (Both).
   
6. Lobby list containing full rooms instead of only rooms that users can enter. (Both).
   
7. Zangief Super Motion not working on both sides and in both directions.
   
8. During the start of the match, there is slight slowdown. This has been minimized as much as possible. (PS3).
   
9. If connecting to a ranked match through the quick match function, it is best out of 3 rather than best out of 5. It should always be best out of 5.(Both)
   
10. Sending messages via XMB during a game causes a freeze. (PS3)
    
11. Players not added to "Players Met" list. (PS3)
    
12. Analog and D-pad can accept input at the same time. (Both)
    
13. Player stats not reporting correctly.
    

Source: Capcom Blog here...

Download Free Chronicles of Riddick demo on Xbox Live

Get your Chronicles of Riddick demo for free - download the Chronicles Of Riddick - Assault on Dark Athena demo now from XBox Live.

Players can get a taste of life as the galaxy's most notorious criminal, Riddick wielding Riddick's Razor-sharp Ulaks for the first time..

The demo plays out on the Athena Main Decks level and showcases the evocative art style and breadth of gameplay contained in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. If brutal combat and high-powered gunplay is your bag you'll get a kick out of this new game. The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena will ship for Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and PC on April 24 in Australia.

Source: CyberShack

Two free Watchmen tickets with Xbox 360 stuff...

Do you have your tickets yet? Microsoft and Best Buy are offering a code for two free Watchmen tickets if you buy any of various Xbox 360 doo-dads.

The cheapest way to get the code is by purchasing a card for one-month of Xbox Live for $7.99. But since any XBox Live user worth his salt is on an annual plan, buying a month isn't going to do you much good.

So click here to order a $20 card for 1600 Microsoft points good for Rock Band songs, next week's South Central expansion for Midnight Club LA, a copy of Braid, or anything else available from Xbox Live Marketplace.

Source: Dvice

Fallout 3 PC patch improves graphics - download it now...

The nondescript Fallout 3 update released to PC and Xbox 360 owners earlier this week has quietly restocked the 360 version with missing visual effects.

According to Eurogamer's Face-Off maestro Rich Leadbetter's blog, Inside Digital Foundry, the auto-update patch introduces specular maps to certain areas, delightfully illustrated with shots of bugs and a comparison video.

The Xbox 360 version was the better of the two console releases when Fallout 3 released in late October last year, but as Leadbetter points out, "despite its superior frame rate and full-on 4x MSAA, [it] had flaws of its own - notably some inferior textures when viewed close up, along with a lack of specular maps on the monsters and characters, resulting in a somewhat flat look compared to the other versions of the game".

Source: Eurogamer

Halo Wars goes on TV in Korea

Korea loves Starcraft so much that local television network MBC Game started broadcasting Starcaft matches on TV. The network expanded to other televised video game matches for Warcraft III, Tekken, and Counter-Strike.

Starcraft is still by far the most popular show on MBC Game with league matches frequently rerun.

Full story on Siliconera here...

Righteous Kill II - Everyone Respects the Gun sequel to the hit hidden object game Righteous Kill - The Game

Starz Media and Merscom announced details of two new upcoming casual games, including "Righteous Kill II: Everyone Respects the Gun," a sequel to the hit hidden object game "Righteous Kill: The Game," based on the September 2008 movie from Overture Films starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, and a time management game based on the upcoming Starz original comedy series "Party Down."

Both free trials and full retail purchases of the "Party Down" casual game download will be available at a wide array of leading gaming and entertainment online portals and sites, including AOL Games, Big Fish Games, MSN Games, Oberon Games, RealArcade, Shockwave, Yahoo! Games and Starz.com at http://www.starz.com/originals/PartyDown/game.

More information and screen art for the "Party Down" game is available at http://partydowngame.com/.

"Party Down" is set to debut on Starz on March 20 at 10:30PM ET/PT, and available by for early sneak previews beginning March 13 with several cable and satellite providers, including Charter Communications, which will be hosting a free trial of the "Party Down" game on Charter.Net.

"Righteous Kill II: Everyone Respects the Gun," is expected to be available for trial and purchase in June 2009, commensurate with the exclusive pay TV premiere of "Righteous Kill" on Starz.

"We are very pleased to expand our gaming relationship with Starz and Overture Films through these two appealing titles." said Lloyd Melnick, chief customer officer at Merscom, "They are a fantastic media company with multiple access points to consumers through theatrical release, premium television, DVD and more. They fit very well with our strategy of creating casual games based on properties that our audience already loves."

"Casual gaming is an effective way at both finding new and appealing revenue opportunities across the larger Starz family of media concerns, as well as building name recognition and awareness for the properties themselves," said Marc DeBevoise, senior vice president digital media, business development & strategy for Starz. "Merscom has proven to be an effective reliable gaming partner for us and we are delighted to extend the relationship for the future enjoyment of gaming fans.

"Party Down," a new 10-episode comedy series from creator Rob Thomas ("Veronica Mars," "Cupid"), follows a Los Angeles catering team - a sextet of Hollywood wannabes stuck working for tips while hoping for their "big break." "Party Down" stars Ken Marino ("Veronica Mars," Role Models), Adam Scott ("Tell Me You Love Me," Step Brothers), Jane Lynch (Role Models, The 40 Year Old Virgin), Martin Starr (Knocked Up, "Freaks and Geeks), Ryan Hansen ("Veronica Mars," Friday the 13th (2009)) and Lizzy Caplan ("True Blood," Cloverfield, Mean Girls). Celebrity guest appearances include: Ed Begley, Jr., Marilu Henner, Joey Lauren Adams, Breckin Meyer, Rob Corddry and Steven Weber.

In the "Party Down" game, the player takes over a team at the famous Party Down catering company as you serve the elite of Hollywood. Serve food, DJ the dance floor and keep conversations going as you schmooze with the stars and try and build up your reputation while waiting for your big break.

Work your way through 8 unique parties at huge yachts, extravagant balls, and exclusive night clubs. Appease the masses by dealing with all the issues that come along with high maintenance Hollywood stars such as rampaging dogs, angry boyfriends, and the paparazzi. Keep your cool, and show them what you got and maybe you can become the next big thing.

In "Righteous Kill II: Everyone Respects the Gun,"the player once again takes on the role of Erica Dean as she looks into a new rash of murders. The game is set about a year after the events of the first Poet Killer. A mob hitman is found dead, with a poem lying on his body. Erica Dean is called in to find the killer before things get out of hand. Work through multiple versions of varied locations looking for clues to the identity of the Poet Killer. Enlist the help of Mary Jacobs, a new forensic officer, to assist Erica in analyzing the items from the crime scenes. Hunt down the killer and put an end to his vigilante killings before it's too late.

Sho Online - War System Update 24 new weapons

New War System and twenty-four New Ultimate Weapons coming to you on March 11, 2009

Seoul, Korea – March 06, 2009 –Sho Online, Lizard Interactive’s free to play MMORPG, will be releasing a new War System powered by ultimate weapons series called “Treasure Weapons” coming March 12.

There will be some changes made to current War System and a new dungeon will be available for the winning side of the dynasty. Updated system will let victorious dynasty to receive 5% increase in money drops from monsters. For consecutive victories, money drops will increase by 5% for a total of up to 20%.

Winning side of every 20th war can gain access to the Raid Dungeon where generous drops and EXP can be found. The teleport NPC to the Treasure Dungeon will be located in Cheon-un and will be open for only 5 minutes to the winning dynasty. After 5 minutes, the teleport will close and mobs will start to appear. Players should also be aware there are traps and dummy monsters in this dungeon. These dummy monsters will give only regular EXP and will not drop anything.

Treasure Weapons were lost and forgotten ages ago, but the secret methods for making these magical weapons can be found in treasure chests. In order to get one of these ultimate weapons of power, players must find these secrets and gather the necessary materials by defeating menacing monsters.

Treasure Weapons are for players above level 20 and these are among most powerful weapons available in Sho Online. They have colorful graphic effects and can be enhanced. Total of 24 types of Treasure Weapons are available, four for each profession.