VampireG’s Blog

Konami Digital Entertainment announced Metal Gear Online Premiere Beta for Kojima Productions’ online epic.

Konami Digital Entertainment has announced its plans for a public beta program across Europe for its forthcoming Metal Gear Online title for PLAYSTATION®3. Konami will release Metal Gear Online Premiere Beta via the PlayStation Store from April 17th, with online tests running from April 21st through May 6th. An all-new Metal Gear title specifically designed as a multi-player online experience, Metal Gear Online will be released worldwide as part of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots on June 12th.

The beta program will offer players a unique chance to sample the innovative multi-player experience of Metal Gear Online, which emphasizes cooperative team-based play. Those downloading the beta will be invited to explore two maps – “Blood Bath” and “Groznyi Grad” – each of which requires unique strategies in order to achieve victory.

Metal Gear Online will launch as part of Guns of the Patriots in June as a Starter Pack, comprising five unique stages: “Ambush Alley,” where trenches and sandbags litter an arena built for close and medium range combat; “Blood Bath,” a two-tier battle setting; and “Groznyi Grad,” the expansive Shagohod development complex from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater which features human catapults that propel players to different areas of the environment. Rounding out the five stage set are the dusty, Middle Eastern alleyways found in Guns of the Patriots entitled “Midtown Maelstrom,” and the rooftop settings of “Urban Ultimatum.” Konami is committed to the release of additional Expansion Packs to be released throughout the year.

Up to 16 people can play simultaneously, with game worlds created using Guns of the Patriots’s incredible 3D engine. Retaining the classic stealth combat gameplay of the Metal Gear series, players are dropped in a series of war zones wherein different challenges await. Five game modes await players on stages that span the globe and the history of MGS: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture and Base and Sneaking missions. Additional information on Metal Gear Online and the beta program can be found at www.konami-mgo.com.

Some, if not all this information is probably old news, however it was flagged in my inbox so here it is.

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures takes the fun and creative construction of LEGO and combines it with the wits, daring and non-stop action from the original cinematic adventures that enthralled audiences everywhere (Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). With a unique tongue-in-cheek take on the original adventures, LEGO Indiana Jones follows Dr. Jones escapades through the jungles of South America to the mountaintops of India. Fans can build, battle and brawl their way through their favorite cinematic moments, from Indy’s entanglements with snakes to his dashing boulder run.

Of course, pop culture’s most iconic archeologist will whip through all the classic moments with the help of a host of supporting characters including Marion Ravenwood and Short Round. Players can also mix and match the body parts of more than 60 playable characters to create new heroes just as they could in the best-selling LEGO Star Wars™ games.

PRODUCT INFORMATION

• Everyone’s favorite fedora wearing hero returns to theaters this May in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and families can celebrate the humor and excitement of the original films with LEGO Indiana Jones.
• Tongue-in-cheek humor presents The Original Adventures in a manner only LEGO can whip up, with comical reinterpretations of classic Indiana Jones scenes and elements.
• Use Indy’s signature whip as a multi-purpose tool to attack, disarm, swing across gaps, activate levers and interact with a world of LEGO objects and puzzles.
• For the first time, LEGO Indy characters are fully immersed in their environment; swim, climb, shimmy across rock ledges and pick up and carry objects.
• Use a variety of weapons from the environment to fight enemies (e.g., chairs, guns, swords, bottles).
• Unlock more than 60 playable characters, including villains and supporting characters (Marion Ravenwood, Short Round, Rene Belloq, Willie Scott, Marcus Brody, Jones Senior and Mola Ram).
• Character specific abilities include excavation by Satipo, an umbrella slide by Marcus Brody, and monkey access by Marion Ravenwood.
• Create unique playable characters like Sallah Scott or Mola Round by mixing and matching the LEGO body parts of all playable characters.
• Explore the globe and solve puzzles that encourage creative thinking through the use of teamwork and unique building situations only possible in a LEGO world.
• Cooperative gameplay encourages parents to share the legacy of Indiana Jones with their children in a fun and humorous way.

The ongoing excitement over Nintendo’s groundbreaking Wii™ system gets a surprise springtime boost with the announcement of a new game. Kicking off its semiannual media summit in San Francisco near the company’s new sales and marketing offices in Redwood City, Calif., Nintendo of America today revealed plans for Mario Super Sluggers™ for Wii, giving baseball fans even more reason to root this season.

“Mario is truly a one-of-a-kind character; clearly fans can’t get enough of him and his friends,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “We’re giving Wii users brilliant new ways to enjoy him while expanding our series of active-play games.”

In the same spirit as other sports-themed Mario™ games on Wii like Mario Strikers® Charged and Mario Kart® Wii, Mario Super Sluggers blends richly interactive baseball action with eccentric characters and elements from across the popular Mario universe. Players can swing the wireless Wii Remote™ just like a real bat or wave it toward the plate to deliver a masterful pitch, enjoying the same intuitive, easy-to-learn controls that helped make Wii Sports™ a living room hit. With Mario and his unpredictable pals filling out the roster, imagination and active-play innovation are sure to dominate the diamond in this lively title, scheduled for release later this year.

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.

Ok so, is anyone else getting really pissed off with the lack of games being released for the PS3? The killer titles such as Kill-zone 2, MGS, Home etc have yet again been delayed. I can understand there is some marketing bullshit taking place here!

Microsoft for example have announced that Gears 2 is being released in the latter part of the year and literally that week Kill-zone 2 gets pushed back to roughly the same time.

Yes I appreciate that games such as COD4 and Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 have been released, but the PS3 games that I went a bought a PS3 for are yet still to come out and seem to be constantly delayed.

I have recently purchased GT5 Prologue which is a great looking game but lacks any kind of punch til the real thing come out in 2009.

Gamecock Media Group announced today that due to pirated copies of Blazing Lizard’s upcoming Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball being on the loose the game will be revamped and held until later this Spring.

“We see the irony in all this,” noted Christopher Stockman, Studio Director at Blazing Lizard. “Rest assured, we have a crack team of Ninjas on the case and hunting down all pirates. On the positive side it gives us a chance to go back and add in additional content to the game.”

What this means for fans of Pirates (the sea-faring kind) and Ninjas is more bang for their buck when the game releases (this also includes fans of the other teams in the game, Robots and Zombies). In addition to the free-flinging arcade dodgeball events already in place (look out for Peg-Leg Stomps and Shuriken Attacks.), Blazing Lizard is adding more traditional rules dodgeball modes where teams stay only on their side and multiple dodgeballs are in play. Now we can settle the score once and for all.

For more info visit www.piratesvsninjas.com. If you are one of the pirates, watch your back!

[disclaimer: the game has not been pirated but they wanted an excuse to announce the wait for the game and the new game mode.]

Rock Band’s European tour will be hitting the UK this spring! Harmonix, the leading developer of music-based games, and MTV Games, a division of Viacom’s MTV Networks, along with marketing and distribution partner Electronic Arts, Inc. today confirmed plans to release the award-winning music video game Rock Band this spring in the UK.

The UK release of Rock Band will have an exclusive launch window on the Xbox 360 videogame console from Microsoft, beginning on May 23. Rock Band will be available for additional platforms later this summer.

Rock Band is an all-new platform for music fans and gamers to interact with music. The game challenges players to put together a band and tour for fame and fortune, mastering lead/bass guitar, drums and vocals. With more master recordings than any other music game, Rock Band features some of the world’s biggest rock artists and spans every genre of rock ranging from alternative and classic rock to heavy metal and punk.

In addition to the 58 tracks from the North American release, Rock Band will feature nine new tracks spanning German, French and UK hits including:

• Blur “Beetlebum” (English)
• Oasis “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” (English)
• Tokio Hotel “Monsoon” (English)
• Muse “Hysteria” (English)
• Les Wampas “Manu Chao” (French)
• Playmo “New Wave” (French)
• Die Toten Hosen “Hier Kommt Alex” (German)
• Juli “Perfekte Welle” (German)
• H-Block X “Countdown to Insanity” (German)

Rock Band’s unprecedented offering of over 70 songs to date currently available for purchase and download in the US will be made available in Europe beginning on Tuesday, May 27th. Each track will be available for 160 Microsoft Points on Xbox 360. Following that date, all new Rock Band DLC will be available simultaneously in the US and Europe on a weekly basis. For a complete list of Rock Band songs available for purchase to date, please go to http://www.rockband.com/dlc.

Unlucky if you are PS3 owner you have to wait

Football comes home as Sensible World of Soccer returns to Xbox LIVE Arcade.

“SWOS has currently been pulled from Xbox Live Arcade due to some issues, Apparently it will be available again at 9pm GMT on the 19th December 2007″ 

“Update: Apparently SWOS should be online today 20th December 2007, I am not too sure about this ‘Massive’ advertising engine that is built into it however, apparently takes anonymous information from your console whilst you play the game and the game also has in game marketing and adversts. Surely if there are ads within the game then the game should be cheaper for us to buy”

Codemasters Online have today announced their football game that shaped an entire generation Sensible World of Soccer has been re-released on Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.

Sensible World of Soccer brings with it all the classic elements to a new generation of players across Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360. The game keeps all of the original touches that made it such a genre defining title, as well as introducing all-new optional enhancements to bring the game bang up to date. Sensible World of Soccer introduces players for the first time to all-new online multiplayer modes allowing players globally to take up the challenge and compete in intense online football matches in true Sensible Soccer style. The game also includes both original & updated custom graphics modes from the original designer of SWOS allowing players to experience the game in all-new High Definition.
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Ok maybe I am a little slow in finding this game, and yes maybe everyone on this planet already has played it or is playing it.

But I have to say I have found one of the most fun car games I have ever and to make it even more appealing it is FREE!

TrackMania Nations can be downloaded for nothing from here and basically you have a car game with about 100 tracks in it and also an editor to create and make your own. Making your own tracks is a great laugh, at lunch times at work there is currently a group of us that play this trying out each others tracks. You can also put your tracks on an exchange site for other people to download, my first two efforts can be found here and here.

If you don’t have this game, I really can recommend downloading it, you will soon become addicted to it. I have also now purchased TrackMania United which contains even more tracks, different cars and different environments.

GripShift®, the award winning racing platformer developed and published by Sidhe Interactive is now available for download on Xbox LIVE® Arcade (XBLA), the premier destination for digitally distributed, high-definition original and classic games.

Featuring an extensive single-player experience, two multiplayer modes, stunning visuals and amazing sound, GripShift is available for 800 Microsoft points under the Games tab on the XBLA Dashboard.

“Bringing GripShift to the Xbox LIVE Arcade gives a whole new audience the chance to experience some frantic racing fun,” said Mario Wynands, Managing Director of Sidhe Interactive. “We think 360 owners will get a lot for their money with this game, as it offers a ton of content which can be played repeatedly for those who are intent on topping the leaderboards.”

Sidhe has also made available a list of Xbox LIVE achievements along with two new trailers from GripShift, showing fly-throughs of two intense Challenge courses.

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Welcome to Paradise! EA today released a fully explorable slice of the award-winning racing game, Burnout Paradise.

Available now at the PLAYSTATION®STORE and XBOX LIVE™ MARKETPLACE, the downloadable demo will allow players to experience a piece of Paradise City before the game hits retail stores in the UK on January 25, 2008.

Discover jumps, billboards and smashable targets all over Motor City, Big Surf Beach and Ocean View in search of the fastest Burnout Route in the Hunter Cavalry car. Also, attempt your shot at a race and check out the all-new Stunt Run mode. If you’re online, invite up to three friends into your game and connect with them instantly using the EasyDrive online system. Once online, players can work cooperatively to complete three FreeBurn challenges or simply smash each other up and grab their Burnout Mugshots with the PLAYSTATION®Eye and Xbox LIVE™ Vision cameras.

The development team at Criterion pushes the boundaries to make each Burnout game stands on its own – reinventing the franchise with every iteration. The Paradise experience is all about freedom and exploration. The game has been designed to embrace speed, freedom, social online play and spectacular crashing, but now with all new modes, a completely open world and events at every intersection.

So make action your middle name and take to the streets of Paradise City.