Meeting with Rockstar yesterday for our first hands-on with the PSP “remastering” of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, we kicked things off with a question that’s on everyone’s minds: What’s happening to the DS version’s touch-based minigames? The answer: They’re all still in the game, just adapted to a button-based format.
We hotwired a car to try it out and were presented with a comic book panel-like inset that had us rotate the analog stick, time L and R button presses and rotate the stick again. According to Rockstar, similar mods have been made to all the minigames, but no minigames have been added exclusively for the PSP release. (Developer Rockstar Leeds did, however, deem the need to pay bridge tolls unnecessary.)
We were quickly pointed toward some added elements, specifically a new aiming “arc” for lobbing grenades and Molotovs while driving, copious bloom lighting (it was a rainy night) and punched-up explosions. The in-game “PDA” has also been redesigned slightly to mimic the PSP XMB interface.
Check out freshly captured new screens in the gallery below:
GTA: Chinatown Wars losing nothing in PSP port originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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All the half-joking Twitter talk of post-PAX con SARS actually culminated this week with confirmed cases of Swine Flu (H1N1) being the PAX pox affecting attendees. Rather than panic, take a look at the CDC’s documentation on the subject. Stay healthy, folks. What’s everyone playing this weekend?
Continue reading WRUP: Pork flu edition
WRUP: Pork flu edition originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We thought that everyone enjoyed the first few television spots for Sony’s new “It Only Does Everything” ad campaign — but apparently, the Nigerian Federal Government was none too pleased with the commercial’s jab at internet fraud. For those who missed the commercial, the offending line was, “You can’t believe everything you read on the internet. Otherwise, I’d be a Nigerian millionaire by now.” In response, government officials in Nigeria demanded an apology from Sony, as well as the immediate removal of the commercial.
Sony was quick to issue just such an apology, and has since replaced the original ad with a new version that swaps out the incredulous statement with a less controversial one: “That’s how World War I got started.” We can’t wait to see the next edit once the three surviving WWI veterans start raising a stink.
[Via MaxConsole]
Sony edits PS3 ad due to backlash from Nigerian government originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Don’t be a hater. Valkyria Chronicles 2 may not be on the PS3 (or 360) as many had wished, but it certainly looks fine as-is on the PSP. Sega has done a remarkable job of recreating the look and, more importantly, gameplay of the original game. Considering the limited power of the PSP, we’re positively surprised by the results.
With a brand new branching class system, and the promise of multiplayer, VC2 is shaping up to be the sequel we’ve all clamored for. Sure, it may not be in HD, but when was the last time you were able to play Valkyria Chronicles while on the toilet seat … of an airplane? Check out another clip after the break.
[Via PSPHyper]
Continue reading Valkyria Chronicles 2 gameplay footage looks as good as we want it to be
Valkyria Chronicles 2 gameplay footage looks as good as we want it to be originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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This year’s August NPD sales numbers were, as usual, dominated by EA’s monolithic
Madden franchise — but who’s that creeping out of the shadows? “I’m Batman.”
Rocksteady, Warner Bros. and Eidos officially have themselves a critical and commercial hit in Batman: Arkham Asylum, with the game having sold more than half a million copies across PS3 and 360 in its first week on sale. Even the Joker can’t laugh at sales like that.
Hardware saw a slight increase for the month, with the exception of PS3, which saw an impressive 72% jump in sales, no doubt due to early sales of the lower-priced 120GB slim SKU. Wii is still the best-selling home console, but its numbers are gradually dipping down into “maybe we should consider a price cut, too” territory. Here’s how sales of the stuff we play are games on stacked up:
-DS: 553K
14K (+2%)
-Wii: 277K24K (+9%)
-360: 215K12K (+6%)
-PS3: 210K88K (+72%)
-PSP: 140K17K (+13%)
-PS2: 106K
2K (-2%
Check out the software sales chart after the break.
Continue reading August NPD: PS3 sales soar as gamers go batty for Arkham Asylum in a Madden world
August NPD: PS3 sales soar as gamers go batty for Arkham Asylum in a Madden world originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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During Apple’s “It’s only rock and roll” event today, the company announced … well, nothing important — however, it did show off the nifty little graph above. During a section discussing how the iPhone/iPod Touch is a great gaming device, the company demonstrated the power of the iPhone OS by stating it had 21,178 “game and entertainment titles,” far above the number of games available on Sony’s PSP and the Nintendo DS.
Although Apple considers this grand number a triumph, it should be noted with cautious optimism. The great video game crash of the early ’80s had a little bit to do with the lack of quality control happening in the industry, which was an issue Nintendo rectified with its “seal of quality” soon after. Then again, more recently, Nintendo itself has acknowledged a more Darwinian approach to games on its consoles. Forget quality control: Go nuts, Apple! Just please don’t kill the games industry in the process.
Apple touts 21,178 entertainment titles in the App Store … did somebody just fart? originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It’s been a while since we’d last heard the term “SexBox.” Too long, in fact. Thankfully, Silicon Xtal Corporation is bringing it back, recently registering a trademark for the word first brought up surrounding the great Mass Effect sex debacle of 2008. According to the filing, SXC intends on making a video game system “which plays interactive Adult Only rated (AO) video game software titles.”
Considering only around 20 AO-rated titles even exist and no major game publisher currently publishes them, we were left wondering what exactly the business model here will be — that is, until we read the rest of the description. In addition to specializing in AO games, the SexBox will also give users access to “AO content and entertainment in all other digital forms,” which in this case means a ton of delivery methods. “Audio, video, HDTV, DVD, online, gaming, social networking, webcams, video on-demand, downloading, movie rentals, purchases …” and the list goes on. Finally, somewhere to go for all the mature content we can get! Unfortunately, it appears that someone beat them to it.
[Via Siliconera]
Silicon Valley company creating AO-only ‘SexBox’ console originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 05 Sep 2009 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Above, you can see the
actual ESRB listing for the upcoming DS write-em-up,
Scribblenauts. We’ve taken the liberty of blurring out the most boring bits. Left behind is just a
tiny sampling of the truly
wondrous things that
Scribblenauts is capable of. Trust us, developer 5th Cell
did its homework. We know,
we checked.
Seriously, any game that allows you to attach a steak to a baby in order to attract lions … that’s at least a rental, right? Scribblenauts drops this September.
[Via NeoGAF]
The Scribblenauts ESRB listing is hilarious originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Puzzling Moments In Gaming Sequel History
Sven Karrlsnod, lead producer on
Tetris 3: The Blockening: “Sure, I love
Tetris, you love
Tetris. But what our team had to ask ourselves was this: Could we make
Tetris work
without all the blocks? We knew we had to try.”
Trina Schwinn, design lead on Super Mario Universe: “In retrospect, making a Mario game set in Compton circa 1992 that didn’t actually include Mario was a little … brazen. But we had to follow our bliss.”
Yosuke Hayashi, director and producer of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 to GamesRadar: “Each game has its own concept and with Ninja Gaiden 2, the focus was on extreme violence. But with Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, we really questioned whether violence is a necessity for a game, so we decided to move away from that trend. So the violence ‘approach’ is not the way we approached the development of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. Being able to unlock higher levels of gore would be out of kilter with the concept of the game.”
[Via What They Play]
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 moves away from violence originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Potentially bad news for PC-toting Alan Wake fans, a recent forum post by Remedy’s MarkusRMD has left the release window of the PC version dangling in suspense. When asked directly about the development of the PC version of Alan Wake, MarkusRMD responded, “Unfortunately all I can say at this point is that we’re focusing all our efforts on the 360 version and will be making comments in regards to the PC at a later in time.”
While not an outright confirmation, it certainly sounds like the PC version could release later than the Xbox 360 version, which is currently scheduled to release in spring 2010. We’ve contacted Microsoft — the game’s publisher — and will update this post as soon as we hear anything new.
[Via Shacknews]
Alan Wake may scare up 360 first, PC later originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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