G-News

Games industry analyst Michael Pachter has claimed Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV) will sell six million copies in its first week of sale.

He added that he expected the title would likely reach the nine million mark during its first year.

Mr Pachter, of Wedbush Morgan, also predicted GTA IV will be responsible for recouping $450 million (£221 million) of Take2’s expected $1.073 billion (£0.52 billion) revenue in 2008, generating a total of $135 million (£66 million) of the firm’s overall profit.

Three days from now on March 18th Harmonix will release an Earache Thrash Pack to XBL for 440 Microsoft points with three different master tracks from the metal music label. Here is the rundown:

• “Blinded By Fear” by At the Gates
• “Thrasher” by Evile
• “D.O.A.” by The Haunted

Each song will cost you 160 MS Points, or the usual 440 MS Points for the whole pack, same goes with pricing for the PS3 I am assuming since that information was not provided at the time of this post.

These are some pretty interesting choices for a game such as Rock Band considering you will have to scream the lyrics and I am wondering how well this will work on expert vocals. Regardless, the addition of Swedish Metal band The Haunted is some cool news. I am not much on the type of “singing” bands of their caliper drone out, but the music itself in “D.O.A.” is a great punch in the face to get you going in the mornings or the prefect tune to vent with when stuck in traffic.

VGChartz writes: “Yet again, N+ continues it’s dominance of the charts, with another solid week. Although it finally had a large drop, it was 1 week after typical drops. Brain Challenge also did a bit better than I expected, quite a bit better in fact. Some notes:

N+ records 4 weeks at #1, a record for our charts. With 1 week left, it looks like N+ will end with around 77,500 units first month, making it the 2nd fastest-selling first month since we started the charts, and well above current #2 Metal Slug 3.

Brain Challenge sold very well for the week - entering the charts at #4 for ‘Best first weekend of 2008′ - behind Rez, N+ and Poker Smash. It also had debut sales above the DS release in the US, according to VGC.
Triggerheart Excelica, as expected, had a massive 70% drop versus last week. With Japan leading the way in sales, the limited Japanese userbase of X360 owners has made this game have poor legs. It’s going to most likely DOA in a few weeks. “

While surfing Xbox Live this morning, GP noticed that the Inside Xbox section has posted a “Gamer Spotlight” on a user named borocouncilman. From the spotlight description:

“He’s an Xbox gamer and an elected official in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He’s also got a wife, two daughters, and a baby boy on the way.”

For the civil, Xbox Live can be a wondrous place. Chatting with friends, gaming with loved ones over vast distances, the crossing of cultural and national borders, it’s just great. Indeed, it’s probably the strongest weapon in Microsoft’s console wars arsenal. Thing is, a lot of people on Xbox Live aren’t civil. They’re Asshats. And I’ll have you note that’s with a capital “A”. Bigotry, unfair play and general, well, asshattery amongst a lot of users mean that for every pleasant experience on Xbox Live you may well end up having one that’s thoroughly unpleasant. Maybe even offensive.

I absolutely loved Mass Effect. If it weren’t for The Orange Box, it’d have been my 2007 Game of the Year, without a doubt. But while I loved it and did virtually everything there is in the game – I got the Completionist achievement without trying – I knew there were major problems with the side quests. Whether it was the boring driving segments that I would almost equate to grinding in an RPG or the cookie cutter quests once you got to where you were going, Mass Effect’s side quests were far from perfect.

Luckily, BioWare knows things weren’t really ideal and sees a lot of room for improvement with Mass Effect 2. BioWare general manager Greg Zeschuk spoke with MTV Multiplayer recently and explained how they might go about remedying this low point.

One of the things we’re looking at for sequels and some of our other games is better technical ways, smarter ways to auto-generate content, to create stuff that seems richer to the player. Another thing we’re looking at — again not specific to one game, but just generally — is a way of tying those additional moments back into the story: whether it’s having to gather certain things for those other planets, kind of making them more central to the story but making sure that they’re still the supporting cast. [We want to be sure] that there’s something really purposeful about them.

I think with “Mass” we just wanted to say, “Let’s make a whole bunch of planets for people to explore.” They all encapsulated, amongst themselves, some fun stories to do. Some kind of spanned among each other. But [next] we’re taking it to that next level of tying them into the central story as well.

Zeschuk admitted that side quests weren’t the number one priority in Mass Effect, and to simply get the game done in terms of technology was more of the focus. But like Baldur’s Gate and its sequel, he says BioWare is excited that they might be able to once again bring a sequel to a new level.

I’m dying to play Mass Effect 2, but I just hope that I don’t end up spending 10+ hours driving aimlessly and doing seemingly irrelevant tasks during the journey again.

SEGA Europe Ltd. today announced gamers can sample the highly anticipated Condemned 2™ video game from esteemed development studio, Monolith Productions, via a demo released on the Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®. Available for immediate download, the demo is taken from mid-way through the first level and gives players an opportunity to get to grips with Ethan Thomas, the former Serial Crimes Unit investigator, in his crusade to discover just what is going on in the sinister world around him.

Turok
Developer: Propaganda Games
Publisher: Touchstone
Price: $59.99
Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Category: FPS
ESRB Rating: M for Mature (Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language)
Release Date: February 5

Fighting dinosaurs might not be the most original concept anymore – it’s been a long time since the first Turok game saw the light of day. So it seems only fair to expect the surrounding game elements in Turok to compensate for that and help differentiate the game from the extremely bloated FPS market. And yet everything about the game screams, “Generic!” and manages to only surprise you with how it manages to be derivative in every fashion imaginable.

Perhaps its unoriginality could be forgiven if technical flaws didn’t further hinder the game, but the combination really manages to ruin any fun that might be had. And it’s really a shame, because there’s definitely a fun game under Turok’s skin.

The setup, while clichéd (like virtually everything in the story), works well enough: you’re being sent with a team of space marines to capture the former mentor of the game’s protagonist (whose name is, naturally, Turok). Things go wrong right away as your ship is shot down entering orbit, leaving you to put the pieces together and get off a planet teeming with dinosaurs and other monstrous creatures.

Almost immediately you can tell that the game is trying to force the story on you rather than letting you explore the story as you play. At times you’ll be slowed to a crawl to listen to radio communications and you’ll find yourself watching some of the game’s coolest moments rather than actually participating in them. None of the narrative comes through gameplay, and as this point in time that’s just unacceptable.

This week on Arcade is the minigame collection known as Bliss Island which features 2-player multiplayer – both split-screen and online – as well as the Brain Age-ripoff, Brain Challenge. It’s amazing it took this long, isn’t it? Publishers have been steadily pumping out Brain games (and training games of all sorts, for that matter) on DS since Brain Age proved to be such a success.

Bliss Island will cost 400 Microsoft Points ($5), and Brain Challenge, 800 points ($10). Both games will be available tomorrow. Hit the break for more details.

Brain Challenge

Get your brain in shape with fun daily exercises—these challenging and entertaining puzzles act like a vitamin boost for your brain. Brain Challenge™ is more than just a game, it’s your personal coach for mental fitness!

Twenty different games in five categories (Memory, Visual, Logic, Math, and Focus) will train all areas of your brain. Keep track of your progress every day, and easily evaluate your level of brain activity. Brain Challenge is the easy and enjoyable way to keep your brain alert.

• Multiplayer fun: Challenge friends with four-player offline and online multiplayer modes.
• Game variety: Thirty games are broken down into different categories—Memory, Visual, Logic, Math, and Focus.
• Training room: Play all the mini-games within each category freely.
• Creative mode: Relax by exploring your brain’s creative abilities through five games.
• Stress mode: Test your abilities under stressful conditions.
• Personal coach: Choose your favorite coach to accompany you through all your brain development steps and develop a unique relationship with him or her.
• Brain charts: View your overall performance and progression with detailed stats and graphs

Bliss Island

Bliss Island is a fun and engaging pick-up-and-play game, and once you pick it up, you can’t put it down! Delve into the world of Bliss Island and help Hoshi win a day off as you take on over 25 unique challenges, spread across nine crazy levels. Mastered single player mode? Challenge your friends online and see who really is the Bliss Island champion.

• Pick up and play: Experience more than 25 unique challenges across nine crazy levels.
• Play with friends: Jump into online multiplayer and challenge your friends online.

The April issue of Game Informer reveals that Obsidian Entertainment (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Neverwinter Nights II) is not only working on the Aliens RPG for SEGA, but also another third-person action-RPG. ‘Alpha Protocal’ is scheduled for spring 2009 and is a modern-day espionage that takes you on a suspenseful ride in the vein of James Bond, Jack Bauer, and Jason Bourne.

“Alpha Protocol” is a phrase that is used when operatives go underground to work off the grid. It is very dangerous and usually reserved for experienced and senior agents. You play as Michael Thorton, a fully trained but rookie operative whose world is turned upside down when a mission goes badly wrong and is forced to work off the grid.

Alpha Protocol will use battle and dialog systems that are similar to Mass Effect’s. The combat will emphasize on real-time gun fight and high-tech gadgetry. The dialog lets the player dictate Thorton’s tone in conversations, such as cool, suave, brash and impatient.

The game will also use a skill-based system that’s similar to Fallout. (Obsidian is made up of former founders and employees of Black Isle that originally created the Fallout series.) The player will have 10 major skills and 10 ranks for each skill, including enhancements to shooting accuracy and improvements in the way the character can evaluate situations.

It’s a large game too, with missions taking place in countries all over the world. The game involves plenty of subplots involving beautiful and dangerous women — think Bond girls.