A demo isn't the finished product. But Andrew Bynum hilariously stuck in the Jordan Wings pose at midcourt is not what NBA Elite 11 wants to see less than a day into its demo. NSFW language in the players' reactions.
I can't remember the last sports title that didn't have a patch available day of release. Think this one gets fixed by then? Yeah, pretty sure it's on a priority list. Thanks to reader Vuman for the tip.
Telltale Games are hard at work on their new Back to the Future games with the help of Christopher "Doc Brown" Lloyd and Back to the Future screenwriter Bob Gale.
Telltale Games sent along these photos to Kotaku showing Lloyd hard at work in the audio studio yesterday on voice recordings for the game. Gale and several of the Telltale Games folks stopped by to look at their non-existent watches with the star too.
In this picture we see (L to R): Shaun Finney – Marketing and Media Producer, Dennis Lenart – Episode Director, Bob Gale – Producer and Screenwriter of Back to the Future film series and Supervising writer on the game, Christopher Lloyd, Brett Tosti – Executive Producer, Julian Kwasneski – Voice Director.
Below, a dozen more "action shots" of Lloyd bellowing at Marty McFly not to make out with his mom and cause freaky, in-bred time-space babies to be born.... or something like that.
Developer Vector Unit is injecting a dose of downloadable content to its high speed motorboat racing game, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, with the forthcoming Tempest Pack. What's new for the sequel to Midway's classic racing game? Stuff!
Specifically, three new race tracks: the volcanic Atlantis, Atlantis, the stormy Bermuda Triangle, and the exploding barrel-filled Castle Von Boom. What else, besides ownership of a track named Castle Von Boom, might make you want to download this thing? Oh, well how about new Expert class boats?
Psyclone and Whiplash join the line-up, which is swell, but the Tempest Pack also transforms six Novice and Pro class boats into more bad-ass Expert class versions. There will also be fancy new skins for boats, perfect for the aesthetically concerned Hydro Thunder Hurricane player.
The developer claims it's "ratcheting up the level of insanity" with the new pack, which will be available in October. Crazy!!
Thanks for the heads up, twinturbo!
Oddly coinciding with ArenaNet's article about allowing players to communicate with guild members using mobile devices, Blizzard reveals that offline mobile guild chat will be coming to World of Warcraft as well. Fancy that!
Yes, soon you won't have to be at your computer to bug the hell out of your World of Warcraft guildies, with an update coming to Blizzard's Mobile Armory app that will allow players to chat all day long on their iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Android devices.
The functionality isn't quite free, however, as you'll have to pay a $2.99 monthly subscription fee for a premium Remote Auction House in order to access guild chat. From the Blizzard blue post:
Coming soon in an update to the Mobile Armory app available in the iTunes App Store and Android Market, this new feature will allow all World of Warcraft Remote subscribers the ability to chat with their guildies right from their mobile device. Access to the guild chat feature is included for no extra charge in the $2.99 World of Warcraft Remote Auction House premium monthly subscription. In addition, soon after the launch of the mobile version we're planning on adding the ability for premium subscribers to use Guild Chat through any browser on the Armory website.
I'll say it again, I'm not sure this sort of functionality is a good idea. Hardcore World of Warcraft players don't need to be immersed in the game any more than they already are.
Guild Chat Coming Soon to Mobile Armory [MMO Champion - Thanks John!]
As we did with the Halo Reach Briefcase Edition and the StarCraft II More Expensive Edition, Kotaku is exposing the Civilization V Comes With Statues Edition (aka the $100 Civ V Special Edition) to the glare of sunlight. Here, unboxed.
For more of what's in the game, check out Kotaku's Civ V review and our original Civ V video highlights of the game's new features.
Your regularly scheduled PlayStation Store update hit North America on Monday, a bit earlier than normal, thanks to some scheduled PlayStation Network maintenance. So let's catch up on what's new.
Blade Kitten, DeathSpank, Sonic Adventure and a pair of PlayStation import titles lead the list of new additions, with a slew of PlayStation 3 demos rounding out the list of playables. Tons of new downloadable add-ons for Rock Band, Dead Rising 2 and Red Dead Redemption make it an update worth perusing.
So peruse!
Blade Kitten ($14.99)
Sonic Adventure ($9.99)
DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue ($14.99)
PS One Imports: Cho Aniki ($5.99)
PS One Imports: Gaia Seed ($5.99)
DJ Hero 2 Demo
Blade Kitten Demo
NBA ELITE 11 Demo
Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue Demo
Enslaved: Odyssey of the West Demo
Kung Fu Rider Demo
Sports Champions Demo
CLADUN: This Is An RPG! ($19.99)
101-in-1 Megamix ($14.99)
EyePet – Race Car Driver DLC (free)
EyePet – Farm Animals DLC ($2.99)
Clash of the Titans – Zeus Challenge Quest Pack ($1.99)
Red Dead Redemption – Liars And Cheats ($9.99)
Sonic Adventure DX Upgrade ($4.99)
Planet Mini-Golf – Stronghold Island ($2.49)
ModNation Racers: Nathan Drake Mod and Kart ($1.99)
Skate 3 – San Van Party Pack ($6.99)
Dead Rising 2 – Free Pack – Ninja (free)
Dead Rising 2 – Free Pack – Psycho (free)
Dead Rising 2 – Free Pack – Soldier (free)
Dead Rising 2 – Free Pack – Sports Fan (free)
Rock Band tracks
Medal Of Honor – The Mission
Medal Of Honor – Consulting
Medal Of Honor – The Wolf Pack
Medal Of Honor – Hammer & Scalpel
Medal Of Honor – The Catalyst
Medal Of Honor – Singleplayer
Pulse 9/21 Edition
Mafia II – Developer Diary #4
Bulletstorm – Announcement Trailer
Mass Effect 2 – PS3 Announcement Trailer
Shaun White Skateboarding – Transformation Gameplay Trailer
Tom Clancy's HAWX 2 Trailer
ModNation Artist Spotlight: Tanner vs. Tyler
TV Superstars Trailer
Sports Champions Archery Theme (free)
Sports Champions Beach Volleyball Theme (free)
Sports Champions Bocce Ball Theme (free)
Sports Champions Disc Golf Theme (free)
Sports Champions Gladiator Duel Theme (free)
Sports Champions Table Tennis Theme (free)
Sports Champions Theme (free)
EyePet Summer Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Kung Fu Rider Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
Sports Champions Dynamic Theme ($2.99)
NCAA Dynamic Theme – Army ($2.99)
NCAA Dynamic Theme – Wisconsin ($2.99)
NCAA Dynamic Theme – Auburn ($2.99)
NCAA Dynamic Theme – USC ($2.99)
NCAA Dynamic Theme – Michigan ($2.99)
NCAA Dynamic Theme – Michigan State ($2.99)
NCAA Dynamic Theme – Ohio State ($2.99)
PixelJunk Racers 2nd Lap Wallpaper #3
Mega Man 10 Avatars ($0.49) (x3)
Sports Champions Avatars ($0.49) (x10)
Sports Champions Avatar Bundle ($2.99)
PlayStation 15th Year Anniversary Avatar (free)
International Track & Field (PS3) – Sale (now $2.99, original price $5.99)
Mega Man 10 (PS3) – Sale (now $4.99, original price $9.99)
Zen Pinball (PS3) (free)
PSP minis: Echoes (free)
PS One Classics: Syphon Filter 3 (free)
Sword & Soldiers ($9.99)
High Velocity Bowling – Move Compatibility Add-On (free)
Shades of Autumn Theme (free)
Cuboid (PlayStation Plus Price $5.00, original price $9.99)
Savage Moon (PlayStation Plus Price $5.00, original price $9.99)
LittleBigPlanet: Monster Costume Pack (PlayStation Plus Price $1.50, original price $2.99)
Cho Aniki (PlayStation Plus Price $3.00, original price $5.99)
Gaiaseed (PlayStation Plus Price $3.00, original price $5.99)
LittleBigPlanet Avatar – Hugo (free)
LittleBigPlanet Avatar – Marvin (free)
New York Jets center Nick Mangold on the edge of his seat during a Halo: Reach event at the Jets' training facility earlier this month.
The news today that the PlayStation 3 and Steam/PC versions of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light will be out next week confirmed that online co-op won't be available at launch, just as it wasn't on the Xbox 360.
"We didn't want to deliver the subpar experience online," Karl Stewart, global brand director at Lara Croft development studio Crystal Dynamics told Kotaku during a phone interview today. He said that the online co-op will be added to the PS3 and PC versions "as soon as possible," but as with the 360 version, Crystal Dynamics' developers recognized late in development that the feature wouldn't be good enough for launch.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is a well-received top-down two-character twist to the traditional Tomb Raider style of games. It was designed to be played co-op and was promoted until nearly the eve of its Xbox 360 release as supporting both offline and online co-op. But prior to that August release, the game's creators said that online co-op would be delayed.
Online co-op for the 360 version is now slated for release at the end of September alongside the first of five planned packs of downloadable content. The first of those packs will be free for Xbox 360 users for the first 30 days of release. It will include a trio of new challenge rooms. Stewart said that Crystal Dynamics hopes to be able to offer the same kind of release for the PS3 and Steam versions but that such a plan is not set in stone yet.
Online co-op is not in every game, but it is surprising to see it bedeviling a studio, particularly one as experienced as Crystal Dynamics.
"This is our first time doing online co-op using our engine in the studio," Stewart said. "We were open that it would have the challenges... Whether it be lag, the ability to drop in and out or the ability for the leaderboard to update as you played, these are things that needed to [work.]"
Stewart said that online play is not being held back for any business reasons, it's simply a matter of polish and taking care of it at these late parts of the game's development cycle on the various platforms. "We're committed to online co-op," he said, saying there's no chance of the feature being dropped. "We're playing [the game] internally online. It is working and it is working well. We need to make sure we got that right."
He said that the studio wants to get online co-op added to the PS3 and PC versions as soon as possible, allowing for the possibility that Lara Croft gamers on those platforms won't have to wait as long as 360 owners have been for the feature.
The director of The Dark Knight and Memento wants to turn his latest film, the $750 million grossing Inception, into a video game. Just don't expect it any time soon.
Variety reports that Nolan has said "one thing we are looking at doing is developing a video game based on the world of the film, which has all kinds of ideas that you can't fit into a feature film." As a universe and gameplay mechanic, an open world Inception game sounds all kinds of right, given the right incubation period.
"That's something we've been talking about and are looking at doing long-term, in a couple of years," Nolan adds. "Long-term" sounds much better than trying (and failing) to build a quick cash-in game tied to a theatrical or DVD release, a la Pandemic's failed The Dark Knight adaptation.
Nolan is on deck to direct a third Batman film, due summer of 2012.
'Inception' grosses $753 mil worldwide [Variety]
Previously shown only to press behind closed doors, 2K has let slip nearly ten minutes of mind-blowing, vertigo-inducing gameplay footage from BioShock Infinite. You might want to have an air sickness bag at the ready.
This extended gameplay trailer is currently available on Xbox.com and through Xbox Live on your Xbox 360, but as reader Andrew points out, it's already all over YouTube and ready for mass consumption.
The game's hero, Booker DeWitt, seems to possess a great deal more character than the protagonists from previous BioShock titles, which should come in handy when dealing with the incredibly powerful (not to mention adorable) Elizabeth.
I'm just worried my fear of heights will keep me from making it through the game. Those roller-coaster hook travel segments nearly had my lunch painted across my computer monitors.
