Access the Animus, Assassin's Creed 2 teaser

A small Assassin's Creed 2 teaser has been revealed by Ubisoft. While not much is actually shown yet, it appears that the next issue of Game Informer will have a bigger scoop on this thing, at least that's the assumption, based on the mirrored text and date that shows after the flash animation has played. Based on the animation, renaissance will be the next time period that the game will take place in. Sounds certainly interesting. That period certainly has its share of interesting people.

Also, some Assassin's Creed soundtrack news. Looks like an official soundtrack will finally be released. Few days ago a post at the official Jesper Kyd forums informed us that the digital soundtrack will be available on April 13, 2009 on both AmazonMP3 and iTunes. No news on a physical album yet, but I won't lose hope just yet on that either.

I'm totally excited for both news, even though I actually can't buy anything from AmazonMP3 and iTunes just sucks in general. If you buy the soundtrack from either service, hit me up at IRC, I want it.

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on April 06th 2009 at 4:33pm 0 Comments

Beyond Good & Evil still in development, a new IP also in development

A quick news from the Career Pavilion at Game Developers Conference 2009. Apparently Ubisoft Montpellier has 4 openings listed, two of which are specifically for BGE2, one for a new IP, and one vaguely listed for future AAA titles.

Good news is that Beyond Good & Evil 2, which we haven't really heard anything after the first teaser trailer almost a year ago, is still in development and hasn't been canceled or anything silly like that. I was starting to get slightly worried because of the lack of news. Hopefully we'll get some more at this years E3.

As for the job positions, Gamasutra has the listings. So, if you are looking for work and qualify, live near Montpellier France or are willing to move, and all that other stuff, now is the time to break into the business! Act now!

Quote: Senior Game Designer for Beyond Good & Evil 2 Technical Artist for Beyond Good & Evil 2 Lead Animator (for a new IP) Gameplay Programmer (future AAA titles)

Oh yeah, one other thing. You should buy the original Beyond Good & Evil from Good Old Games, DRM free, $9.99. Comes highly recommended by yours truly!

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on March 27th 2009 at 8:49am 1 Comment

Max Payne 3 announced, will be arriving at winter 2009

Lets kick of this news entry with a quote from Rockstar founder Sam Houser.

Quote: We're starting a new chapter of Max's life with this game. This is Max as we've never seen him before, a few years older, more world-weary and cynical than ever. We experience the downward spiral of his life after the events of Max Payne 2 and witness his last chance for salvation.

I'm interested in this. While I haven't actually finished Max Payne 2 yet, the story and the way it was told has always been interesting to me. And lets not forget that the first two games were developed by Remedy, a Finnish game development company, who is still working on Alan Wake I guess. Have to keep track of your countrymen.

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on March 23rd 2009 at 12:01pm 0 Comments

PlayStation Network Bandwidth Fee Slammed by Media

A recent fee introduced into the PlayStation Network for publishers of PS3 games has been seen by several media sources as a blow to publishers. The $0.16 per gb has been introduced to cover bandwidth costs of the network. Many media sources are spouting that this will ruin the network for free and paid publishers. I reality this fee is likely less then it would cost the publisher to host the content themselves and/or produce optical media such as a DVD or CD. The fee will be charged to free content publishers for only the first 60 days after release, while paid publishers will pay It on an ongoing basis.

What does this mean for you the end user? Almost nothing. The PS3 games will still be there, the free content won’t be going away anytime soon. The only difference one might see in their downloads is the price on some games will go up a fifty cents or something similar. The PlayStation network is still free when compared to the Xbox Live (which costs $49.99 US per year for the gold membership) is still a sweet deal.

Posted in Gaming by Baron on March 23rd 2009 at 4:22am 5 Comments

New and improved Square Enix Members

Check it out here.

Apparently the site has been around for a year now, according to the blog posts at least. Funny I've never heard about it before. Maybe it was under a different title or something. In any case, according to this blog post, it's now new and improved! Radical!

From a brief glance it looks like yet another social networking site, but this seems geared towards... Square Enix fans? Yeah, it looks like that the main difference between any other social network and this one is that you get to have a collection of Square Enix games you own, play or want to get your hands on. Other features include the usual journal, group functions, private messages and avatars. You can earn points by doing stuff I guess, and probably do something with those points as well. Like buy new junk for your avatar maybe.

This all sounds terribly interesting. I'm certainly not going to register, how about you?

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on March 18th 2009 at 4:35pm 0 Comments

World of Goo deal on Steam, get it while it's hot for $5

Just a quick news here while it's still hot. This weeks weekend deal on Steam is World of Goo, the awesome little indie puzzle game. Get it now just for $5. And remember, it's a weekend deal, so be quick about it.

Nothing else absolutely interesting has been happening lately on the gaming world. Some new and interesting games are coming out on March, so there probably will be some posts about those. I'm personally especially looking forward to Resident Evil 5, though I probably can't get my hands on it just yet, being that it costs money and all. The old/new Riddick game seems like it might be pretty good as well.

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on March 07th 2009 at 8:44pm 0 Comments

The Last Remnant PC demo, system requirements and benchmark available

Earlier today I got an email from Square Enix about The Last Remnant's PC version, and that demos for both the European and North American release are now available for download.

The Euro version of the demo is at The Official European Last Remnant Site. Since it's an European demo, it probably has some additional language options for you Italian, Spanish and German folks.

Additionally, both the North American and the European demos are available from FilePlanet. Both demos are about 1GB in size, so I don't know what exactly is the difference between them, but I guess the NA version also has some additional language options.

Continue reading »

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on February 28th 2009 at 12:25pm 4 Comments

Nintendo Wii website offers sneak peek at new style classic controller

The Japanese Nintendo website has released a glimpse at an updated style controller for their Nintendo Wii console. No, not the wireless Wii remote that most new titles on the console use, but instead an upgrade for the classic style controller, dubbed Classic Controller Pro.

This new controller offers two new shoulder buttons and extended hand grips, looking quite similar to a PlayStation controller. Like the original classic controller, this one will still need to be wired to a Wii remote. Many wonder what uses Nintendo plans to find for this new controller, as current virtual console releases do not make use of the new button set.

Although set for a summer release in Japan, there is no word on the controller coming to North America yet.

Posted in Gaming by Locke on February 26th 2009 at 9:31am 0 Comments

Last Remnant Steaming to PC, starts the fire

Get it? Steaming? It's Comedy Gold™

In case you haven't heard, The Last Remnant is coming to PC in a few months, apparently hitting retail March 20th in Europe and March 24th in North America. Yesterday Valve announced that the game is also coming to Steam, and paves the road for more Square Enix PC titles as it goes.

So, Square Enix games for PC? Aside from the Final Fantasy Online, I guess this might be the first non-multiplayer game? I haven't exactly been keeping tabs on them. In any case, this is good news for all Japanese RPG fans, and certainly gives hope that maybe Final Fantasy 13 will also come to PC at some point. Even though The Last Remnant is made with the Unreal 3 Engine and Final Fantasy 13 is made with the Square Enix's own Crystal Tools, they both support multiplatform releases.

So here's to hoping!

Posted in Gaming by Kilu on February 25th 2009 at 9:14am 0 Comments

New content, changes to premium services good news for Mabinogi players

Some exciting news was just released today by Nexon in regards to their North American version of the well known online game, Mabinogi. The final update of their online 'teaser' website known as Erinn Walker informed gamers of some changes to the premium game services offered in the upcoming expansion of the game, Generation 4: Pioneers of Iria. Also mentioned was an official launch date; February 26th, 2009.

Players have already been anticipating this new content, as G4 contains much to be desired. Two new races are being introduced to the game, elves and giants. A whole array of new skills also are introduced, including some specific to the new races. The land has also been expanded, to include a whole new continent to explore, including new dungeons and field bosses to challenge even the most advanced players.

The real sweet part of the deal however just came today with the announcement that many premium services will now be available to everyone for free. Characters who reach age 20 in the game will now be able to rebirth for free, previously rebirthing was only available to those with NX, and cost approximately $8.00 USD per use. This means players will be able to further expand their characters without the need for NX cash.

Continue reading »

Posted in Gaming by Locke on February 24th 2009 at 7:13pm 2 Comments