Sony had a playable version of Gran Turismo 5 at GamesCom, a brief and very limited demo that offered a look at one feature fans have been requesting for years-car damage.
Tesco, the UK retailer has listed the PSPgo for £199.97 ($329.98) that's less than Sony RRP of £224.99 ($371.34).
Most of the other retailers have stayed with RRP. The supermarket have not only undercut the price they also offer Free delivery on all pre-orders. So, the PSPgo will be more expensive that the PlayStation 3 slim!
Their release date is listed as October 2nd 2009 (one day later than Sony's).
Tesco listing...
The new PSP Go system is a sleek and lightweight system that is more than 50 percent smaller and more than 40 percent lighter than the original PSP system that launched in 2005. The sophisticated and stylish design incorporates a sliding 3.8-inch display screen, delivering the same high resolution and vibrant visuals as the current PSP-3000 model.
Leveraging PlayStation Network and digital content exclusively, PSP go system features 16GB of internal memory as well as expandable storage via Memory Stick Micro (M2) to store plenty of games, videos, photos, and music.
The PSP go system is designed for the digital lifestyle, offering on-demand entertainment to consumers who want to download content directly to their device anytime, anywhere over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
"Although we have seen some title slippage, we still see a strong fall line-up, led by Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, Assassin’s Creed 2, and Halo 3 ODST, and expect that Modern Warfare 2 could be the best-selling title of all time," said Julian Paul Raines, chief operating officer, in a conference call to investors.
Pre-orders for the game are strong, said GameStop, with consumers upgrading from the standard and Hardened editions, priced at USD 59.99 and 79.99 respectively, to the Prestige Edition, which ships with night vision goggles for USD 149.99.
"We believe that Modern Warfare 2 has a chance to be the largest title of all time and obviously we are basing that on the reservation activity that we are seeing in our stores, so we continue to see strong reservation activity," added Tony Bartel, executive vice president.
"We have very strong reservations on the Call of Duty Prestige Edition and that’s obviously a price point. There’s a lot of excitement around the goggles on that, so we have a very strong demand that we are seeing in our reservations. Once that was announced, we had a lot of reservations move from the base version to the Prestige version, which is a very good sign."
The company also gave an indication of titles it expects to boost sales in the first half of next year, including Halo Reach, Final Fantasy XIII, Gran Turismo 5, God of War III, Metal Gear Solid, Super Mario Galaxy II, Bioshock 2, Splinter Cell Conviction and Starcraft 2.
"Those are great titles, close to a dozen great titles that we have that will impact us favourably and impact the entire industry favorably in 2010," offered Bartel.
And following a number of high-profile delays, CEO Daniel DeMatteo added that it was unusual for retailers to have a clear indication of titles for the following year, which leads the company to believe 2010 will start with a bang.
"I never remember a time when we had as much knowledge this far in advance of titles that are going to be releasing into the following year," he told investors.
"Many of these titles have moved either because of they just weren’t complete or not ready, which I believe are probably the majority, or some of them may have moved just because of the competition in the back half of the year and maybe the economy."
He also said that hardware sales should start moving again now that Sony has announced a price cut for the PlayStation 3, and the company is assuming that competitors Microsoft and Nintendo will follow by reducing their own hardware.
"The recently announced Sony price cuts and most likely others should get the installed base growing again.
"Historically what has happened is that manufacturers follow the others with a price reduction. We assume in our forecast that some time in Q3 that that will occur, but we don’t have any data on that. We have an assumption it will," he concluded.
The announcement of a new S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, Call Of Pripyat, offers an intriguing prospect. It’s a trilogy-completing work – with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky acting as prequel – and it proports to show what took place in the zone after the events of Shadow Of Chernobyl.
The initial announcement seemed to promise a great deal: enhanced A-Life, more freedom, and more survival conditions to consider. But what else is in there? And what did the Ukrainian company learn from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky? GSC’s Oleg Yavorsky took some time out to answer our questions, and to reveal a bit more about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat.
Q: Do you think you learned any important lessons from the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky? Has that shaped how you’ve approached work on Call Of Pripyat?
Yavorsky: Clear Sky has been a good lesson for us indeed, primarily in the aspect of game stability and playability. There were a lot of changes both in technology and gameplay that we did for Clear Sky, but we had no time to polish and fix everything as proper before the release. With Call of Pripyat now we are taking a safer route by, firstly, building the game on the technology we’ve been polishing since Clear Sky, secondly, getting rid of some features which did not work out well – such as global war of factions, for example; and thirdly, by taking more serious approach to testing the game.
Q: Can you tell us about the new areas of the zone that Call of Pripyat will include? How much of this new material is taken from the real Chernobyl zone?
Yavorsky: We will present a complete set of new locations in Call of Pripyat. This includes the Pripyat river basin and its rusty fleet standing still for over 20 years now, the Kopachi village completely buried after the accident, Jupiter factory located on the outskirts of Pripyat, the railway station Yanov, and, to crown it all – an entire district of Pripyat, modeled in its real scope. Many players have repeatedly asked us to implement Pripyat in the game, so we decided to satisfy their wish.
I think Call of Pripyat will be the most photo-realistic, and hence, atmospheric S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game of all three.
Q: Can you explain how you’ve changed the A-Life system for this new game?
Yavorsky: Firstly, we picked the best-liked features from SoC and CS games to preserve them in Call of Pripyat. Secondly, we added a number of touches to make the world and its atmosphere more believable. Hence, day and night cycles will affect the behaviour of both monsters and NPCs: monsters will be more active and go hunting prey at night, while NPCs will try to find shelter and return to bases after seeking artifact and day-patrolling as night descends. To liven up the game world, each character/monster has been attributed their deadly enemies. Mutants hunt humans, bandits are after neutral s.t.a.l.k.e.r.s, Duty faction is after mutants.
Thirdly, hunger and sleep will have their effect too in the game: if the player is hungry, it will take him longer to restore his stamina. Sleep function will help you to refresh yourself, so as to speed up the time a bit (which may be useful in case you have a night mission designated to start at a particular time at night, for example).
This said, we gave all monsters an updated look, changed their behaviour in combat (so as to make them tougher and more interesting to fight with), added a couple new monsters – Burer and Chimera.
Q: How much inspiration do you take from the work done by the modding community on the previous Stalker games? Yavorsky: We are very pleased to see how active the modding community is with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – we’ve seen a number of interesting modifications done by the fans (AMK-mod, for example). When it comes to development of the next official games, however, I’d say we rather build them the way we see as proper and our own style, rather than copy mod-makers’ ideas. Our ambition is to present players our own S.T.A.L.K.E.R. as we see it (and we still have a number of ideas to get implemented). Nevertheless, we do listen to a lot of feedback received from players and their wish-lists. It helps us make decisions on which directions to take for the series.
Q: From the patch notes: “Sleep function added into the game.” That’s a function that was unlocked by several mods…
Yavorsky: As opposed to pure story presentation element, the sleep function this time will have its gameplay role. As mentioned, you can take a nap to save time and not walk about in wait for your mission to start at a certain time. After sleeping your character will also restore his powers. You will only sleep in safe dedicated spots, such as s.t.a.l.k.e.r. bases, for example.
Q: Can you explain how the game will be playable “after completion in a freeplay mode”? Is this tied to the extended side-quests?
Yavorsky: The free play mode is designed for those players, who prefer to stay in the game and explore as much as they want without the need to re-play it to see all of it. So, you’ll be able to travel freely, enjoy the A-life around and accomplish quests you missed during the play through.
Q: Do you expect to return to the underground “horror” sequences of the original Shadow Of Chernobyl?Yavorsky: We will provide a couple underground locations for players to explore in Call of Pripyat, so beware of spooky monsters!
Q: Replacing English dialogue with the original Russian dialogue seems like a popular modification – have you considered an all-Russian dialogue option with English subtitles, as CD Projekt did with Polish in The Witcher?
Yavorsky: Thanks for the idea! At least part of our S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games has been in Russian already (such as campfire stories, combat shouts (predominantly rude ones!)). We’ll consider adding even more of the language flavoured with vodka, bears and balalaikas.
Q: Is there much you still have to do with the original Stalker setting? Can we expect another “new” Stalker title from GSC one day?
Yavorsky: I assure you there’s a lot of ideas still untouched about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe and setting. We are building plans for the full-fledged sequel game, but it’s too early to talk about it at this point.
Call Of Pripyat is due for release in Autumn 2009.
The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks sets hero Link on a daring new adventure.
The game provides players with a new story, more puzzles and even a new mode of transportation. In this game, Link voyages by train, which offers up new possibilities for problem-solving.
The game has the same look and feel established in the hit Nintendo DS game The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass.
Key Features:
* Link has a valuable new companion. While navigating dungeons, he’s accompanied by a Phantom, a hulking suit of armor that responds to his commands. Players can tap the Phantom to take command of him, then draw a line on the touch screen to direct him where to go. The stout Phantom can walk through fire or lava, be used as a platform to carry Link above dangers, or even run interference to block Link from harm. * When Link conducts the train, players enjoy a satisfying combination of action and real-time puzzle solving as they determine which track to take and how to best manipulate their speed. When on the train, Link must plot the best route to the end of the line around ever-moving obstacles. While en route, Link might need to fire an onboard cannon at enemies who attack the train or sound the whistle to scare animals off the tracks. * Link uses a variety of new items and weapons, including the Whirlwind, which players activate by blowing into the microphone of the NDS or NDSi system. * As with The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, players can draw notes on the in-game maps using the stylus on the touch screen.
Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is currently scheduled for release in Holiday 2009.
Nintendo DS - The long awaited follow up to Professor Leyton and The Curious Village is the Nintendo DS video game - professor Layton and The Diabolical Box is out on August 24th.
IGN have published some screenshots to wet your appetite on their site here...
Watch the intro video after the link below...
More free download wallpapers here on gamezplay...
It seems the developers of Shadow Complex overlooked quite an important default when compiling the program. Many gamers have discovered that by simply pressing the ‘Start Button’ at the end of the Shadow Complex game trial allows them to play through every part of the game on demo mode.
SavyGamer who made the discovery reported on his blog...
Essentially, keep hammering the start button as soon as the big spider robot starts exploding, and as soon as it will let you, select “load last save”.
This glitch allows you to play the full game of Shadow Complex just from the Demo. It essentially skips the point where the demo ends, and lets you carry on for the rest of the game. I’ve tested it myself, and can confirm it works.
I assume you’ll need to play the whole game in one setting, since I don’t think you’ll be able to resume you game from the demo, but it’s not too long a game anyway.
I think it’s probably for the best if you treat it like an extended demo. If you play beyond the demo, and enjoy it, then buy it. You’ll probably want to replay it anyway.
EPIC, the game publishers, have removed the video from YouTube!
At the start of FIFA 10 pre-production (the Producers favourite time of the year – when we brainstorm ideas for the upcoming game) we found a lot of the dev team, along with our community, commented on how they enjoyed being able to create a player to use in Be-A-Pro Seasons, Manager Mode and the other game modes but found it a little frustrating that for many of the modes they’d have to create a new player and that none of their previous achievements counted for anything.
Other feedback included people wanting to use their created player online in team play, as well as suggestions that our create player feature didn’t allow you to achieve the same level of likeness you’re able to in other games. So the Producers gathered together and created Virtual Pro; a feature that would allow you to do all of the above and much more....
EA SPORTS Football World & Game Face
One of the first bits of feedback we started working on was trying to improve the level of physical likeness you are able to achieve when creating a player. I’m sure you’ve all seen Game Face in other EA SPORTS™ games and although it might seem like we just need to take what they’re doing, it’s far more complicated than that, with each game using different character models and other technology that as a Producer (we’re the ideas men!) I’m probably not the best to talk about. But anyway, we knew that getting Game Face into FIFA 10 would be a big win for Virtual Pro so immediately started discussing with our friends who run the Football World website how this could be achieved. Thanks to a lot of meetings with a lot of clever engineers we finally worked out how to get a head created on the web into the game and ‘Download Game Face’ was born.
The way this works for FIFA 10 is you can upload 2 photos to the web and using the Game Face tool, create your head and get it ready to download. Once you’ve created a Virtual Pro in the game you can download the head and it’s automatically applied to your player in game. You can make changes to your face on the web at any time and get your new face into game. Your Game Face will also be used as your Avatar when connected, and this can be viewed by others when playing online but maybe the best Game Face feature of all is that you can also download the faces of your friends if you’re playing in an online Club – seeing your friends smiling face after scoring a goal still gets me every time!
Growing your Virtual Pro
As I mentioned earlier, one of our goals for the feature was to allow you to play with and continue to grow your Pro throughout FIFA 10 – so you’ll be able to take him through the four Be-A-Pro Seasons, have him follow you around in your Manager Mode career or use him in Kick-Off, Tournament and Lounge Mode. You’ll also be able to use and grow him online, in a couple of specific modes which I’ll come to shortly, and unless you decide to select another player he’ll also be your man in the Arena.
In all the modes you can unlock EA SPORTS™ Football World Accomplishments to improve your player’s skills. There are over 200 Accomplishments to complete on the pitch with the rewards related to the challenge. For example you can improve your finishing by scoring different types of goals, passing by creating assists in various ways, and boost your tackling by winning the ball regularly. Of course with each player having 28 attributes it’s far more complicated than that and there is a wide variety of different challenges – learning skill moves, making a goal line clearance, or reacting 1st to a rebound off the post are just a few more examples of the type of things you’ll need to do to take your Pro to his best.
As well as improving Attributes you can also unlock player traits, new celebrations and kit. Some of the traits that you can unlock include the new ‘Giant Throw’ made famous by Stoke City’s Rory Delap, the new ‘Skilled Dribbling’ controls, as well as some old favourites such as ‘Outside of the Foot’, ‘Power Header’ & ‘Flair’. Whether you’re after a trait, a hand stand celebration or some shiny gold boots there’s lots to unlock to make your Pro unique.
As we know some people don’t have the same amount of time as others when it comes to improving created players, so we’ve tried our best to ensure that the difference between newly created players & those that have spent more time playing with their Pro is not too extreme, not just to give newcomers a chance but also because we believe at the end of the day when it comes to online play user skill level should always be the main reason for success. We’ve also tried to balance the effect of the Physical attributes so when you’re creating your Pro you’ll notice these change based on his Physical stature – so for example if you’re 6’7” you won’t be the fastest guy around (sorry Usain Bolt!) & likewise a smaller player will be less likely to win a physical challenge. You can change the course of your career at any time by altering your Pro’s preferred playing position and their build, so it’s not the end of the World if you realize you’re not the best Striker out there and maybe fancy a go as a full back.
Well that’s plenty about growing your Pro, but I did also want to mention the 1 last thing that will influence your players ability; recent form. All your Pro’s matches are tracked and the stats from your most recent games will be used to award you a small form bonus from match to match, so it’s not just about building up your Pro, being consistent also counts.
EA SPORTS™ Pro Club Championship
Online Clubs was a big success in FIFA 09, but also highlighted a lot of things we wanted to improve this year. Aside from addressing the issues raised by the community, one of the things we really wanted to do was give Clubs more ‘goals’ so that those that joined in at a later date, and those that do not play the game as frequently as others still felt there was something to achieve as a team. To do this we created a new League system. On top of the Leaderboard we had last year, that tracks every Clubs record over time, and places them in Divisions, we’ve added ‘Regional Leagues’ and ‘Seasons’. There are 11 Regional Leagues to join, with each having its own Leaderboard and each month is defined as a Season. So at the start of each month the Leaderboard is reset, and the new season and the battle for the title begins again, while at the end of a season the top clubs in each League are awarded trophies. Regional Leagues and Seasons means that whether you’re a newly created Club, or playing your 10th Season, there is always a goal for your Club over the next month. Of course, to prove yourself as the best Club around getting to number 1 in Division 1, in what is now called the World Standings, is still the ultimate goal.
Another of the big things we wanted to do this year was to make creating and joining a Club easier. When it comes to joining a Club you’ll now get a list of the Clubs your friends are in and can search for ‘Public Clubs’ – Clubs who are open to new players immediately joining without needing the Managers approval. As well as making it easier to find a Club, we wanted to improve Club Managers ability to find players. This year, managers can view players previous match ratings, recruit free agents (people who are not a member of a Club) via the Pro Leaderboard as well as play Pro Ranked Matches. Pro Ranked Matches are quick ranked Online Team Play games where 20 Pro’s are put together for ‘a friendly’, although with all your stats tracked and Accomplishments up for grabs friendly is maybe not the right word. Managers can use the Pro Ranked Matches to recruit new players, while others can take the opportunity to build up their stats in the hope a top Club will come calling.
I can’t talk about all the changes to Clubs, as I’d be writing for too long, but I did also wanted to mention how we’ve gone to town when it comes to Club and Player stats. This year the top players in each Club will be called out on the Club home screen – the top Goalscorer, the player with the most assists and the highest rated defender, midfielder and forward. All your teams’ match stats can be viewed in the Squad Stats screen, which along with the expected games, goals and assists stats, also has info such as Pass, Shot and Tackle success for each player. Lastly, along with being able to view your own teams’ stats you can also view the Pro Leaderboard and compare yourself against the top Pro’s from around the globe.
My Virtual Pro
As one of the Producers responsible for the feature of course I play with my Virtual Pro a lot, and for me it adds another dimension to my offline game modes as well as making me take my online play a lot more seriously, as now I’m playing with Mike Takla I have a reputation to keep up! As a United fan (yes I’m a glory hunter...) I normally assign myself to their squad, taking my hero Eric Cantona’s number 7 shirt (sorry Michael Owen but you haven’t earned it just yet). I also go and make myself Captain using the Edit Teams feature, and normally assign myself to corners, free kicks and penalties, which is a bit greedy but seeing as that spot is open now Ronaldo’s gone I thought I’d try to impress Fergie. Time to unlock some Accomplishments and get my Pro ready for the weekly Clubs match we have here in the studio...
I start off by trying to unlock some Accomplishments in the Arena, juggling the ball, a Free-Kick, a Penalty and scoring with both feet is a good way to get started. Juggling the ball unlocks some new Skill Moves so I practice those to get myself some more tricks – as I play the game a fair bit I can normally get myself to 5 Star Skill Moves pretty quick nowadays, but there’s a check list and instructions if you’re not sure what you’ve done or if you don’t know the controls for the new moves you’ve unlocked.
Next up, some Be-A-Pro Seasons. Let’s see if I can get myself in the United 1st team and maybe earn some England caps. I unlock a few Accomplishments and increase my rep in the mode but decided to play some of the new Manager Mode, as it’s just too tempting. I start in the Championship with my 2nd favourite team, Coventry City, as there’s an Accomplishment for helping get a team promoted. My Pro’s not bad for the Championship as I’ve still got the attribute improvements I unlocked in the Arena and in Be-A-Pro. After a long hard season, and a lot of unlocked Accomplishments (still haven’t scored a bicycle kick!), I’ve got a Pro who’s going to surprise a few of the guys in the office in the weekly Clubs match, and I’m sure they’re going to be jealous of my yellow boots!
The day of the big Clubs Match arrives, it’s the game modes guys versus the gameplay team, they normally beat us pretty bad, but I’ve got my improved Pro this time, they are in for a surprise! My boots get a few comments, some not as nice as others, and having Skilled Dribbling gives me an edge, but they’ve got a pretty good defence, despite playing with brand new Pro’s. Finally we win a throw in, I can launch a giant throw! I launch one into the box but there isn’t an attacker in site, what a waste of my talent! We end up losing, and my Pro’s superior skills didn’t quite make the difference I’d hoped, but only because of the opposition (the gameplay guys are good!). A bit more training and I’m sure I’ll get my 10th league goal of the season, it’s been a 3 game drought! Oh well, maybe next time, too early to give up on getting to the top of the Pro Leaderboard just yet! FIFA 10 video game Fact sheet here on gamezplay...
Sony were out in full force during GamesCom 2009, an event hosted in Cologne, Germany. As part of their booth, they had a section dedicated to their upcoming racing game, Gran Turismo 5. In Europe, this has probably been one of the most highly anticipated PlayStation 3 titles, and Gaming Union had a chance to try the game out.
The game had quite an impressive setup, with it hooked up to a fully functional force feedback peripheral. There's nothing like playing arguably the most attractive looking racing game with a steering wheel and pedals. The demo was actually quite limiting though, with players only able to sample the Tokyo Route 246 track for two laps in a Subaru Impreza WRC 2009. It would have been nice to get a feel for one of the super cars, but that will have to wait a little bit longer.
As expected, the game looks great. The cars have, as expected, an impressive level of detail and the scenery just gets better and better each time the game is seen. Players of previous Gran Turismo titles will instantly feel at home, as not much has changed with regards to the hub, and the menu system is reminiscent of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue.
The first surprising aspect of Gran Turismo 5 came with the AI. The opposition drivers are much more aggressive now than in previous games. They will have absolutely no problem taking you out of the race, and then further taking you out when you try to rejoin. It's easier to wait until the pack has passed and try to recuperate what's left. This in itself has made the experience much more challenging, and combined with the much tighter controls it looks like Gran Turismo 5 is going to need some dedication to master. Being aware of your opponent's position will be much more crucial in this game, so using the D-Pad to look around will become quite important, if you wish to remain on the track.
It's much easier to under-steer and over-steer in this version of Gran Turismo, leading to cars spinning when trying to go around a corner. However, once the correct line is nailed down, it's very satisfying to take corners with finesse and ease. There are the typical driving aids to help players out, such as suggested gear, and correct driving line. They can all be turned off, but it's unclear how it will affect rewards. There is a damage model implemented into the game, but it's actually quite difficult to notice. Unless the cars literally take some serious damage, nothing really happens to them. There are no minor dents and scratches, but the doors can sometimes take a bit of a beating.
Based on what we saw, Gran Turismo 5 is shaping up to be an extremely hardcore driving experience. The damage model doesn't really seem to be anything spectacular, which could put some people off, but in terms of a sheer racing simulation, it's hard to find a product with more detail.
NCsoft and ArenaNet thrilled fans today with the premiere of the first Guild Wars 2 teaser trailer at gamescom in Cologne, Germany. Show attendees were treated to a glimpse of whats to come in the much anticipated sequel, set 250 years after the original Guild Wars.
The teaser trailer reveals some of the world-shaking events that set up the story of Guild Wars 2 and also showcases the games fantastic graphics and environments.
Guild Wars 2 is a visually stunning MMO that will offer players the epic grandeur of a massive role playing environment combined with the challenge of world-class player vs. player competition. Building on the success and lessons of Guild Wars, ArenaNet is creating an MMO that lets gamers play the way they want, while at the same time retaining the no-subscription-fee business model that has made the original Guild Wars so popular.
Sony had a playable version of Gran Turismo 5 at GamesCom, a brief and very limited demo that offered a look at one feature fans have been requesting for years-car damage.
Tesco, the UK retailer has listed the PSPgo for £199.97 ($329.98) that's less than Sony RRP of £224.99 ($371.34).
That's what US retailer GameStop think...
The announcement of a new S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, Call Of Pripyat, offers an intriguing prospect. It’s a trilogy-completing work – with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky acting as prequel – and it proports to show what took place in the zone after the events of Shadow Of Chernobyl.
The Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks sets hero Link on a daring new adventure.
Nintendo DS - The long awaited follow up to Professor Leyton and The Curious Village is the Nintendo DS video game - professor Layton and The Diabolical Box is out on August 24th.
It seems the developers of Shadow Complex overlooked quite an important default when compiling the program. Many gamers have discovered that by simply pressing the ‘Start Button’ at the end of the Shadow Complex game trial allows them to play through every part of the game on demo mode.
At the start of FIFA 10 pre-production (the Producers favourite time of the year – when we brainstorm ideas for the upcoming game) we found a lot of the dev team, along with our community, commented on how they enjoyed being able to create a player to use in Be-A-Pro Seasons, Manager Mode and the other game modes but found it a little frustrating that for many of the modes they’d have to create a new player and that none of their previous achievements counted for anything.
NCsoft and ArenaNet thrilled fans today with the premiere of the first Guild Wars 2 teaser trailer at gamescom in Cologne, Germany. Show attendees were treated to a glimpse of whats to come in the much anticipated sequel, set 250 years after the original Guild Wars.