G-News

 There’s no doubt that ActivisionBlizzard is now big enough to be a serious competitor to EA, and it seems that the new giant is willing to go toe-to-toe even in the annualization aspect of publishing. Don’t look now but we may all see a new Call of Duty game every year from here on out.

This was hinted by Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick who said that they’ll be publishing a new Call of Duty in 20009. He said they’ll do this by “leapfrogging” studios.

The assumption is that Kotick means studios will be alternating between Call of Duty titles from now on. Treyarch is currently finishing up Call of Duty: World at War (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, DS), leaving Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) devs Infinity Ward free to develop the 2009 game.

We have no idea what the setting of the 2009 Call of Duty will be. At this point, this blogger is just figuring out how to squeeze in a new Call of Duty game to the yearly expense list.

• Call of Duty: World at War’s debut trailer ambushes gamers everywhere
• Call of Duty: World at War’s debut teaser

Buy: [Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3)]
Buy: [Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)]
Buy: [Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360)]

 While most people are referring to id Software’s next Doom game as Doom 4, the devs clarified that this wasn’t necessarily the case. Todd Hollenshead, the company’s CEO, said that they’re still in the process of deciding what the game will be about.

Hollenshead revealed that the next Doom is being built on id Tech 5 and is being directed by Kevin Cloud. He also said that the game will remain true to its core style that involves big guns, gore, and plenty of demons to blast. The only detail left unsettled is the story that the game will follow.

“We are working on what the story is going to be for the game right now, the logo (shown during QuakeCon) didn t have a four or a subtitle,” he told Kotaku. “We haven t made the decision about that yet. There is probably a let’s not make a numeral game and some say we should make it one.”

And though id aims to remain true to the Doom roots that made the franchise so big, they said there’s still plenty of room for innovation. How they’ll do that, he didn’t say. The only thing he did assure us that it’s their goal to make the next Doom game the absolute best of its kind when it comes out.

• More Doom 4 details revealed at QuakeCon

For the past few years, achievements have been all the rage on Xbox 360. The recent PS3 v2.4 firmware update added in support for trophies, Sony’s answer to achievements, and PlayStation Home has promised to make trophies a big deal.

So imagine the possibility of achievements in World of Warcraft; a scenario we learned would become reality with the game’s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. As it turns out, there’s more to Blizzard’s plans for achievements than just tacking on some goals to their insanely popular MMO — Diablo III and Starcraft II will be getting in on the achievement love, too.

“Eventually, our plans are for the Achievement system to become an account-based system,” WoW lead designer Jeff Kaplan told MTV Multiplayer.

With these new Blizzard Accounts, you’ll be able to earn points to add to your “Blizzard Level,” which Kaplan admitted is “basically a gamerscore” when the subject of Xbox Live’s system came up.

“For now the points are just a WoW character score. As we graduate to that Blizzard Account system, which is right on the horizon, it will switch over to a Blizzard Level.”

He added, “Your WoW score would be just one factor that will go into your Blizzard Level. And rather than call it a ’score,’ we just wanted it to be like you’re leveling up on Blizzard games… You’ll have this Blizzard identity, and you’ll be able to see things like ‘Oh, this guy was great at Diablo III, but he never played Starcraft and he was mediocre in WoW.’ That sort of thing.”

Sounds great, but wouldn’t it be better if this were plugged into Live where you could track achievements and points across a larger spectrum than just the latest Blizzard titles?

—Related Articles at Gaming Today:Blizzard Rumor: New Title Announcement Coming at 1 AM TomorrowWhat Bill Roper would do with Diablo 3Blizzard Battle Chests For CheapBlizzard: Starcraft II is "the Best Work We've Ever Done"Blizzard Launches Digital Download Store With Beta Lottery

Looks like High Moon Studios and Radical Entertainment have survived the storm over at Activision. This way made apparent during the Activison Blizzard conference call on July 29th when Publishing CEO Mike Griffith announced that the two studios would be added to to their development line-up:

“In terms of studios, our key strategy is to drive our independent model, as a long-term competitive model. And now, we’re adding two Vivendi Games studios to our model: High Moon, the studio behind the Bourne game, and Radical, the developers of Crash Bandicoot and Prototype.”

I am sure that the majority of the folks who work over at both High Moon and Radical are breathing a sigh of relief, and this is indeed great news for gamers who are fans of the developers as well. In the meantime, lets just keep our fingers crossed that Ghostbusters is not delayed any further into 2009 and that Brutal Legend finds a publisher soon.

To be honest with you, I really hope that Brutal Legend kicks ass when it hits retail, wins a zillion awards, and make Activision eat their feet with no salt or pepper to make the toe-jam taste better.

Thanks: GamerCyte

—Related Articles at Gaming Today:Activision to Offer Up Ghostbusters, Brutal Legend, World in Conflict to Other PublishersAttention Harvest Moon Fans: Prepare to Lose Your LivesBourne Conspiracy Heading to PS3 and Xbox 360Sierra and Radical Talk Prototype at GDC 2008Activision CEO: EA Did a Good Job "Taking the Soul" out of Studios

Over on PlayStation.Blog, PlayStation Store senior manager Grace Chen has posted up a list of some of the new TV shows and films that have been recently added to the PlayStation Store’s video section. She also points out that unlike game-related content, the video section doesn’t necessarily add content only on Thursdays. That’s definitely good for those who would like to make regular use of it — now we just need them to get rid of that Thursday-only release date for all of the other content.

Among the new shows that have been added are Family Guy, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mythbusters, and Weaponology (a fascinating Military Channel show about weapons and military groups). Episodes generally run you $2 a pop which I don’t think is too bad.

There’s also a good number of new movies that have been added; you can head over to PlayStation.Blog and check out the full list.

For those curious about what other people are downloading, here are the top 20 downloads for the week:

—Related Articles at Gaming Today:E3 2008: PlayStation (Portable) Store: Hope You Own a PS3PlayStation Store Remodeling Underway, No Updates till April 17GDC 08: PlayStation (Portable) Store to be Accessible Through PSP… EventuallyRevamped PlayStation Store Video WalkthroughFather Bonding with Video Games on the Rise

July came and went without the release of Life with PlayStation as originally promised, but Sony is now saying the new service will launch sometime in August.

“We know many of you are eager to try out the new service for yourself, but you’ll have to hold tight,” Sony’s Noam Rimon wrote on PlayStation.Blog. “Due to a few procedural matters, the new service will make its way to PlayStation fans in August.

“Rest assured, Life with PlayStation will be a service that introduces a new way to interact with your PS3. By bringing information from around the world into your living room, Life with PlayStation will offer a variety of interactive content and channels on a visually stunning worldwide map interface.”

Life with PlayStation essentially works much like some of the Wii’s channels, allowing you to view news and weather from around the globe. With the PS3’s extra horsepower, you can expect things to look a tad bit nicer than they do in the Wii’s weather and news channels.

We’ll have to wait and see if the release slips again. The news and weather features are nice, but I can’t imagine using them anymore than I did on Wii — which is to say, not past the first day or two of their release.

image via Kotaku

—Related Articles at Gaming Today:Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty Coming to PSN in AugustThe Orange Box on PlayStation 3 DelayedThis Year’s PlayStation 3 Downloadable Games List ReleasedSeptember Hardware NPDs: Xbox 360 Outsells WiiSony's Three Speech Announces PS3 Euro Release Dates

Sitting here on this computer chair, reading about the week’s that’s just passed, I’m amazed at how many updates have occurred in the interim. The spotlight happens to be shining on a few select games, with a number of updates, as well as surprising words from people in the industry.

Let’s go and forget the spectacle (and specter) of E3 from the previous Xbox 360 Weekend Warrior and focus on what’s been up this week.

Unfortunately, however, I have to say one thing before we start: contrary to what I said in the previous Weekend Warrior, doughnuts do not look to be in the agenda this week. Sadness.

A tale of souls, swords, cybernetic gods and spaceships

There are quite a few new game announcements this week, so let’s do them in the order they showed up in on the blog.

First up is Jordan Mechner, who says he’s working on a follow up to an old game known as Karateka. If this is a 3D action game that lets me pick my fighting style (like God Hand) I will be extremely pleased, eventually somersaulting in my seat.

Link: Comic-Con 2008: Jordan Mecher working on new Karateka game

Next up, we have Denis Dyack’s cybernetic deity Baldur. Too Human has been given a release date in Europe, has gone gold, and has over 900,000 demo downloads to date.

Link: Too Human dated for Europe
Link: Too Human goes gold

Star Trek’s also in the news this week, as Star Trek Online has been announced and will apparently get a console version.

Link: Star Trek Online announced, nine screenshots included

Also talking about a galaxy far, far away is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. A demo for the game has been slated for August, and it’s supposed to come with an ending unique for the demo.

Link: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo slated for August, will get unique ending

Delays are also in the news this week. The Afro Samurai game has been reset for a January 2009 release. Furthermore, Electronic Arts has pushed back the FPS known as Tiberium for fiscal year 2010. Lastly, the Ghostbusters game has been delayed to 2009 and is in need of a new publisher.

Link: Afro Samurai out January 2009
Link: Electronic Arts delays Battlefield Heroes and Tiberium
Link: Ghostbusters delayed to 2009, needs new publisher

Ubisoft is bringing robot action to the console this year as the company has announced that it will be publishing the sequel to Armored Core 4, Armored Core for Answer. Ah, robots.

Link: Ubisoft to publish Armored Core for Answer for US and Europe

Finally, we have Doom 4. More details have been announced for the game, though from certain perspectives, the details they’ve announced seem like hyped-up talking points. Not that hype is a bad thing, of course. Let’s just hope the finished product lives up to the hype.

Link: More Doom 4 details revealed at QuakeCon

---

Xbox Live talk… there’s a lot of it.

Strangely enough, all that talk of a tale souls and swords being eternally retold is nowhere in the previous section, so let’s start with that and move on to other Xbox Live business.

Let’s see… Soul Calibur 4. It’s a great game, and it’s been out a couple of days, but the news is all about the DLC for the game.

It’s been rumored that Vader will come to the Xbox 360 version of the game via DLC. More importantly, actual DLC out for the game includes tunes from the first Soul Calibur plus some extra equipment for character creation.

Link: Rumor: Yoda and Vader to become Soul Calibur 4 DLC?
Link: Soul Calibur 4 gets music and equipment DLC

Microsoft has big plans for Xbox Live in the next few months. They’ve announced the Summer of Arcade, bringing out some big-name games for the Live Arcade service. In related news, there was a quickly fixed rumor about Castle Crashers and Braid costing an obscene amount of MS Points. Luckily, the pricing for the two games is still being discussed.

Link: Microsoft announces Summer of Arcade, 100,000 MS Point promo
Link: Potentially expensive: Braid to cost 1200 MS Points, Castle Crashers going for 1800
Link: Castle Crashers and Braid still being priced, says Microsoft

Xbox Live Silver members are lucky this week. It’s been confirmed that Silver members will be allowed free online play on cross-platform titles for a limited time. When it ends, only Microsoft knows.

Link: Confirmed: Silver members get free online play for certain 360 titles

Here’s a fun factoid for all our readers. Microsoft’s John Schappert has said that video downloads are a growing industry for Xbox Live, with a third of Xbox Live paid downloads being videos.

Link: Fun fact: videos make up a third of Xbox Live downloads

Lastly, some grave news. Xbox Live users will have to keep on paying for their Gold status on Xbox Live. Microsoft has no plans of making Gold status free, sadly.

Link: Microsoft: no plans to drop Xbox Live Gold fees

---

This week’s talking points, in sandwich form. Delicious!

We have quite a number of talking points this week, beginning with a software hack and ending with a hardware hack, with some industry news of import sandwich in between.

First off, we picked up an intriguing news bit coupled with a rumor. Apparently, the current version of the Xbox Live Experience has been leaked to the public, and the rumor goes that some intrepid hackers managed to get the thing to run on a modded Xbox 360.

Link: Xbox Live Experience leaked, possibly running on modded Xbox 360s

GamePolitics brought some interesting legal talking points this week. After news of a new piece of videogame legislation getting introduced into the senate last week, this week brings us the actual legislation text. Read it and learn more!

Also of note is a new law that’s been passed in Illinois. It seems MMO companies are now legally bound to making cancelling one’s subscription a painless, easy process. We don’t know how they’ll implement this new bit of legislation though, but the law is a nice thought.

Link: Read all about it: Wicker’s Video Game Rating Enforcement Act of 2008
Link: New law in Illinois to make it easier to cancel MMO subscriptions

Here’s a Square Enix talking point for you. Yoichi Wada recently stated that Square Enix’s path is to become platform neutral, with the goal of the company being to reach as many gamers as possible. And yes, to make oodles of dinero as well.

Link: Wada: Square Enix is platform-neutral

Another talking point for some of you this week was the news that Opus motherboards were now circulating in repaired 360s. This motherboard is essentially a step up from older HDMI-less motherboards, so it should be a good thing, right?

Link: Opus motherboard showing up in repaired 360 units?

One bit of news that really got your guys talking was what a Sony VP said in relation to game development. He said that if games were developed on the PS3 first AND THEN port it to the 360, the 360 would get better games. Frankly, I have no idea what to respond, because it’s flamebait either way you put it.

Link: Sony: Developing on PS3 first will lead to better games on the Xbox 360

Now, we know that Google AdSense is an okay (though difficult to manage) source of revenue for QJ. What would happen, however, if you ported AdSense to the video game world? Anarchy from video game players, that’s what.

Link: Google cooks up AdSense for Games

Major Nelson also had a talking point this week. His talking point? That you guys can basically check your store at random points and pray for the 60GB Xbox 360 to come in from the shipping trucks. Why? Because apparently, there’s no street date for the Xbox 360 60GB console, that’s why.

Link: Major Nelson says 60GB Xbox 360 doesn’t have a street date

Naughty Dog’s Richard Lemarchand had a few words about the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 digital distribution networks. His thoughts? That the PSN would get a competitive edge over Xbox Live in the near future.

Link: Richard Lemarchand: PSN to get an edge over Xbox Live

Lastly, a hardware hack. I personally love the DualShock controllers on my PS2, so I was quite pleased to learn that someone had ported his Xbox 360 controller’s innards into a PS3 DualShock controller. Granted, the thing isn’t perfect, but it’s getting there. Now, if only it could be mass-produced…

Link: A nifty controller mod: a wired 360 controller into a DualShock 3 shell

---

QuickJump Musings: Some nifty original content for you to read

I’m ending this week’s 360 Weekend Warrior with some stuff you might want to read in your spare time. Yup, no questions this week!

The first original content article we put up was written by Gino D., basically looking at every Cid character that’s ever graced the media with its presence. It’s a thorough look into each one, including the Donald Sutherland-Sid, and the Robin Williams-Cid from FF8.

And yes, the debate rages on: Is FF8’s Cid a Robin Williams clone or an Elton John clone? The world may never know.

Link: Celebrating 20 years of Cid in the Final Fantasy series

To end this week’s Warriorliciousness, we have a primer that I did regarding hacking your Xbox 360. While I’m not a techie or an advocate of gutting out your 360 to make it better, I will admit that someone else’s ability to tinker with anything technologically superior to the human brain will probably make me jealous.

Link: Xbox 360 hacks: an introduction to thinking up useful extras for your console

That’s the Xbox 360 Weekend Warrior for this week. Next week, we’ll bring you more news, views, and hopefully, doughnuts. Mmmm…. doughnuts.

What a week it has been for major patches and downloadable content! Mass Effect patches and Bring Down the Sky - very cool, the Space Siege and Legend Hand of God demos were all pretty popular as well.

But what of the demos and patches that did not make “headline news” on Gaming Today? Well, that is what this weekly post tries to remedy, and while some of the content is not particularly mainstream, it at least deserves a look.  Otherwise you may be missing out on something you never thought you would be interested in the first place.

Without further ado, here are some of the demos that hit FileFront this week:

• Supernova 2: Spacewar v1.0.3 Windows: Supernova 2: Spacewar is a sci-fi strategy game featuring a main part mainly based on the macromanagement of your space empire, and a classical turn based wargame part when a fight occurs. You’ll have to manage carefully your resources, balancing several aspects like researching new technologies, training better troops, raising the people loyalty in your empire, and building the ultimate fleet to conquer the galaxy!

• Time of War v1.2: Oniric Games has released a playable demo of Time of War that includes two playable levels from the full game. Time of War is an old school 3rd person shooter focused on relentless action and addictive gameplay, with hundreds of enemies to combat, a vast arsenal at the player’s disposal and explosions everywhere.

• Reign of Swords v1.5.0 PC: In Reign of Swords, you are a newly made knight in the service of the Emperor. By reclaiming the imperial kingdoms of Carrone, you will be granted titles of nobility and even crowned King should your service be of the highest caliber. Reign of Swords is a collectibles multiplayer battle game for your mobile device. It is the first entry in Punch’s Mobile Battles series for multiplayer gaming-on-the-go. How to Install: Unzip the file and run the included Setup.exe to install Reign of Swords on your Windows PC.

• Arvoch Conflict v1.828: StarWraith 3D Games has released an updated demo for Arvoch Conflict, a squad-based 3D space combat simulator featuring elements of real-time strategy, resource management, and Dogfight, Squadrons, and Cooperative combat multiplayer modes.

Here are some of the patches that arrived this week:The Guild 2 v1.4 , IC: Children of the Nile v1.3.0.1 US and Guild 2: Pirates of The European Seas v2.1.

There are plenty more demos and patches on FileFront that hit this week. You can get them by clicking here and here.

See you next week.

—Related Articles at Gaming Today:The Week in Demos and Patches: February 17 - 23Blue Dragon 'International Demo' Available On July 20The Week in Demos and Patches: January 27 - February 2The Week in Demos and Patches - December 16 thru December 22The Week in Demos and Patches: Feb. 24 - March 1

After many a delay, the Codename Cagney update will finally be released to the Xbox 360 version of Burnout Paradise on Monday, August 4. After originally being scheduled for a simultaneous release with the PlayStation 3 release on July 10, Criterion Games hasn’t been particularly forthcoming about the situation.

Last Friday, a post on the game’s official blog said that they were aiming for August 4. They also added that it was “the EARLIEST we can expect it to be available,” which didn’t bode particularly well.

But at long last, those of us with the Xbox 360 version of Paradise will finally be able to check out this free update on Monday. You can see the full list of new content here; some of the highlights include two new cars, 70 new challenges, and three new Freeburn modes.

There’s a tremendous amount of new stuff in the update, but after having to wait nearly a full month, my excitement has understandably diminshed.

—Related Articles at Gaming Today:Cagney Update Not Coming to Burnout Paradise 360 Until at Least August 4Burnout Paradise's Codename: Cagney Update is LiveBurnout Paradise Update Delayed on 360; Criterion Experimenting with PlanesCustom Soundtracks Announced for Burnout ParadiseBurnout Paradise Demo Coming Next Thursday

Speaking with MCV after E3, Microsoft exec John Schappert revealed some interesting things regarding Xbox Live, specifically, about how video downloads now comprise a significant portion of content downloaded from Xbox Live.

Schappert notes that of all of Xbox Live’s paid downloads, videos comprise a third of the whole. While the service is still relatively new, it’s a good sign, and Microsoft wants to cultivate the idea that the 360 can be a user’s overall entertainment hub.

Says Schappert,

We would like nothing more than have everyone pick up an Xbox for these services on Live and turn them into gamers. We ve sold 20 million hardware units to date and we re very proud of that, but there s a lot more to sell and there are a lot of people who enjoyed other consoles last generation who have not upgraded yet.

Maybe they re still sitting on the sidelines because of content choices. They want different games that are not being offered yet, or maybe they haven t upgraded yet because of price. Hopefully they ll say it s now time to get an Xbox 360 because it s a great, approachable machine.

With the Xbox 360 getting a 60 GB hard drive for US 349 and short films and Netflix streaming making their way to the console in the fall, Microsoft is really pushing for the console to become an full-fledged entertainment center for the home. Time will tell if the media center initiative will become a strong one, but for now, we’re just happy that “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” is a downloadable title.

• Microsoft officially announces Xbox 360 20 GB price cut, unveils 60 GB unit
• Netflix and Microsoft formally announce video streaming service for Fall update
• Xbox Live Video Marketplace getting seven free short films this fall