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So, remember that story back in December — about how the town of Derby was holding an internet poll to come up with a name for one of its roads? And Lara Croft was one of the options? Guess what? The buxom relic-gatherer won, and a brand new street connecting Osmaston Road and Burton Road (which we presume are not named after video game characters) will soon be known as Lara Croft Way.

Derby Councillor Lucy Care chalked up Croft’s 89-percent margin of victory to the fact that the Tomb Raider series was conceived by the now defunct, Derby-based studio Core Design. We personally think the name won because the poll was on the internet, where video game fans could easily flood the ballot box. Yes, you named a road in a town in the U.K. that you’ll probably never visit. We live in very, very strange times, friends. And it’s kind of amazing.

UK road to be named after Lara Croft thanks to internet originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Expressing their concerns on the PlayStation forums, several owners of the Euro-exclusive Special Edition of Heavy Rain have been unable to solve one of the game’s most sinister enigmas: “Where is the soundtrack that was supposed to be included with this thing?”

Heavy Rain product manager for the region Alex Pavey has provided an answer on PlayStation Blog post, saying, “I’m sorry to say that there has been a last-minute technical delay with the Official Soundtrack, meaning that if you redeem your voucher code before 4th March, you will be able to download Chronicle 1 and the Dynamic Theme, but not the Official Soundtrack.” Should players redeem the voucher after March 4th, they’ll gain access to all three pieces of Special Edition content: a dynamic theme; the first prequel Chronicle; and the game’s orchestral soundtrack (though it’s still unclear what format it will take).

If the code has already been redeemed (the theme and DLC are already available for download), Pavel asks that players contact their “local customer service teams,” which should be listed on the packaging. To pick up the phone or send an email, do a semi-circle with the right analog stick, hold R1 and Triangle and tap Circle.

[Thanks, Josh]

Heavy Rain Special Edition soundtrack suffers ‘technical delay’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Capcom is sweetening the deal for Super Street Fighter IV in both the US and Europe with some ridiculous pre-order bonuses. In the US, a timed exclusive download pack will be available from Amazon and Best Buy, featuring “Super Classic Costumes” for Dhalsim, Fei Long, Blanka, Gen, and Guile. Fei Long has a Kato (of The Green Hornet fame) costume! Blanka has a Dan costume! Insanity! Pre-ordering from GameStop will get you a set of … thumb covers with Street Fighter characters on them. For thumb wrestling. The game will be out April 27 in North America.

In Europe, where Super Street Fighter IV will be released on April 30, the choice is even tougher. Capcom has yet to reveal which retailers offer which bonuses, but the choice of items is between the Super Classic Costumes pack, some iPhone covers bearing World Warriors’ faces, or t-shirts that look like Street Fighter costumes. You can see all the choices in our gallery.

Super Street Fighter IV pre-order bonuses include costumes for your fighters, your phone, and yourself originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s some great news for those of you in Europe interested in playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Sin and Punishment: Star Successor. Nintendo announced that Galaxy will be available in Europe on June 11, not long after America’s May 23 date. And Sin and Punishment will be out in Europe (under the slightly altered title Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies) on May 7, exactly one month before North America gets its hands on that Treasure.

The bad news is that Metroid: Other M is dated simply “Q3.” It’s due June 27 in North America. We’ve collected all the European release dates for Wii and DS (including a “summer” date for Dragon Quest IX!) after the break.

[Via Eurogamer]

Continue reading Mario, Metroid, Sin and Punishment, more dated in Europe

Mario, Metroid, Sin and Punishment, more dated in Europe originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently recorded a podcast — yes, a podcast (mp3) — which aired right before the kickoff ceremonies for the Global Investment Conference held in London on Monday. During the podcast, Brown commended the efforts of the U.K.’s game developers and publishers, stating, “we’re leading the way in creative industries, by far the biggest producer of computer games in Europe.”

TIGA, the U.K. game industry trade organization, is hoping Brown’s address is a sign of support for the game developer tax relief plan the group has been trying to push through parliament for more than two years now. Had they listened to Brown’s other podcast, “The Uber1337 Video Game Talk Show,” they would have heard a much stronger sentiment much earlier.

[Via Edge Online]

Prime Minister Gordon Brown commends U.K. game industry originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 03:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Square Enix has filed a European trademark for something called “Voice Fantasy” — a trademark which, as Siliconera was quick to point out, applies to computer or video game software and not sound recordings. That completely ruins our first guess that it was some kind of a cappella Final Fantasy album.

Our next guess (and that’s all we have, considering we have no information to go on other than the title) is that this is another iPhone or iPod game from the publisher. Why those platforms? Both Song Summoner and Space Invaders Infinity Gene have proven that Square Enix is willing to do experimental things with sound in mobile and iPhone games, and “Voice Fantasy” certainly sounds like something that uses audio in gameplay.

Square Enix files European trademark for ‘Voice Fantasy’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With America’s Game Developers Conference 2010 only a few short weeks away, it has now been announced that GDC Europe 2010 will be taking place in Cologne, Germany again this year. The conference will open its doors on Monday, August 16 and run until Wednesday, August 18. The event will include a new area, the GDC Europe Business Lounge, which will “host a VIP lounge area for GDC Europe Plus members to convene and conduct business.”

Once again, GDC Europe will be taking place alongside GamesCom, which runs August 18-22. In case you don’t remember last year’s coverage of the two events, GamesCom and GDC Europe constitute a positively massive gaming event. Expect them to generate lots of late summer gaming news in the lull between E3 and TGS.

GDC Europe returns to Cologne on Aug. 16, 2010 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pre-orders for the European release of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger will get an “upgrade” to a limited edition package at no extra cost. The LE contains a 100-page art book and a bonus DVD with two hours of “detailed tutorial guides.” The LE is available for pre-order at Amazon, GAME, Gamestation, HMV, and Play.com with an official release date of “mid-March.”

The non-monetary cost for all these extras: the covering of the European box art with a plain slipcover. The art for the regular edition was painted by Daniel Lam, a fan who won an art contest held by Arc System Works. While that art will still be on the case, it’ll be obscured by the outer box. A shame.

European BlazBlue pre-orders to be rewarded with limited edition originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We usually think we’re too smart for FAQs, preferring the sort of random, only moderately relevant questions that no one ever asks. But the FAQ for Dragon Age: Origins Awakening does provide some pretty useful insight. For instance, we learned that the expansion won’t appear on disc for PS3 owners living in Europe. It seems like an odd decision to make, but perhaps you European PS3 fans can enlighten us. Do you guys just hate discs without us knowing it? If so, why did you let us keep buying you all those discs for Christmas without saying anything? [Update: We just heard back from an EA spokesperson, who told us "Apparently this is a Sony Europe rule - you cannot have expansion packs be available on PSN and at retail. You can in North America, which is why we have both here." Huh, who knew?]

Less perplexingly, we saw that lovably grouchy dwarf Oghren plays a “large role” in the expansion, which is great news for all thinking people.

Dragon Age: Origins Awakening on PS3 download-only in Europe originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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