Maybe it’s because GamesPress.com is a European site, but when I checked up online it turns out this news was only new last week.  But who cares?  I’m posting it anyway.

SEGA Europe has made official that House of the Dead 2&3 are coming back to the Wii in Spring of 2008, and because we all know that the gaming industry loves everyone but Europe, you can rest assured that it’s also coming out in America and Japan.  Probably earlier, too.

The game requires use of the Wiimote and Nunchuck, but is naturally intended to be played with the new Wii Zapper.

Now if only Typing of the Dead 2 would be announced for Xbox 360…

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

Recently, this new Mass Effect site appeared.

It first prompts you for your birthdate (because the game is rated M, I presume).
After you pass this screen, you get an interface that tells you that you have 3 new messages.
It appears that you are the the Bridge of Normandy and you can view the messages you have received in a video format.

I guess that there is probably some new game information somewhere in there, but I won’t be the one to find it.
I fear it might put too much information upon me that I don’t want until it launches.

Props to “A Reaver” on the forums, for the link.

Link once more
Discuss

-Thomas

The lucky super lucky writers over at Official Xbox Magazine were recently treated to a private showing of Rockstar North’s baby GTA IV. Words can not express how gitty the article made me and I can not put their article into better words. They were shown a hands on 20 minute build of the game which was said to only get better as they progressed. I suggest you take the time to read the article if you are the least bit skeptical on the turnout of the project. You better read it if you are a fan (keep tissues close by.) Here is just a brief snippet of the article.

If you’re getting the sense that this is a much more serious, hardcore Grand Theft Auto than you remember, your instincts are correct. Throughout our demo, Rockstar expressed a commitment to exploring new territory, and they’re leaving the over-the-top parodies of classic films like Scarface and Goodfellas in the last generation, shifting GTA’s focus to a much darker tale about Niko and his life in the U.S.

“It’s a story about the American Dream,� Rockstar told us.

So will GTA’s wry comic element go the way of Betamax? Of course not. Though you shouldn’t expect Rampages, eating yourself to obesity, or having to pump iron at the gym, you’ll find the usual plethora of fake-ad-infused radio stations, goofy billboards, and high-speed hit-and-run fatalities. And in case you’re wondering, the series hasn’t regressed to water being fatal.\

Read the article in its entirety after the jump. Do it!

OXM
Discuss

-Mike D.

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So Harmonix, EA and MTV have just gotten a big 1-Up on Activision, Red Octane and Neversoft, as they just announced their plans for weekly downloadable content.  First advantage: weekly.  Second advantage is pricing, as three song packs are going to be priced at $5.49, or 440 Microsoft Dollars…I mean points.  It may only be 60 points less, but that adds up over time.  Current pricing for individual tracks will be $1.99 per song, or 160 Microsoft Points.  However, other songs will be released either as low as $0.99 to as much as $2.99.

The second advantage is the sheer amount of songs they have coming.  Just hit the jump to see the weekly song release schedule from November 20th to December 18th.

Fortunately for me, I can still sleep easily as Guitar Hero 3’s song choices continue to be better than those chosen for Rock Band.  I mean, seriously, those Metallica songs?  Ride the Lightning is the only good one.  Where’s Sad But True, Unforgiven I or II, The Memory Remains?  I mean, come on.  The only good song on the “…And Justice For All” album was One, and I got that on Guitar Hero 3 already.

In the end, it looks more like Rock Band is simply looking for quantity over quality.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

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Lionhead studios has chosen to retire the old insult “Arseface” in Fable 2, and is calling out to the community to see what sorts of insults you guys can come up with.  This sounds like a perfect opportunity for my brother to become internet famous, as he is constantly throwing the weirdest names around at people.

The insult is to be used when the folks of the world hate the hero, and it should make sense for both genders.  It should also not “cross the line” across multiple cultures…which just makes it all the more difficult.

You can submit your ideas in the comments section of the developer diary.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

So a while before the announcement of the film, I remember reading about a foreign studio making their own Beowulf game.  Then the movie was announced, and later on Ubisoft said they were working on the video game adaptation.  “So what happened to that other Beowulf game?” I pondered.

Well, turns out they’ve been on quite a scuffle with Paramount Studios over things like assets and other such issues, but finally they decided to just cancel the game.  The developer, 4Head studios, made the decision due to publishers not wanting to even pick the game up due to the movie itself, causing money issues with the game’s development.

This is one of the saddest cases of receiving the short end of the stick I’ve ever heard in this industry, though.  Their game was announced before the movie was even in production, yet because it was big time Hollywood, they lost out.  Hopefully they can take the engine and all that code and try turning it into an original IP so all that time wasn’t a waste.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

Call of Duty 4

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC - Developer/Publisher: Infinity Ward/Activision
Genre: Tactical First-Person Shooter - Single Player Campaign, 1-4 Single System, System Link, Xbox Live

Review by Chris Cesarano (a.k.a. Grohdinger)

Introduction:

In the beginning, Call of Duty was a WWII franchise. However, gamers have proclaimed how tired they have been of storming Normandy repeatedly for the past several years, despite the paradox that they also purchase these games repeatedly. Nonetheless, Infinity Ward themselves were sick of that period in time, and thus decided to push forward into modern day. It turns out that it was the best possible decision they could’ve made for the franchise.

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So evidently there’s this Jumper movie coming out, and the only reason I know about it is because of a press release announcing there is a game to be based off of it.  Something tells me it’ll make for a better film, though, than an attempted well balanced game.

So the basic plot is that it is the future, and there are people called Jumpers.  These guys have some genetic anomaly which allows them to teleport places.   These guys have apparently existed for centuries, and in all that time been fighting a group of Paladins, an organization that is set on killing all these Jumpers.  You play as a character Griffin, who seeks to kill all of the Paladins because they killed his parents.  I’ll tell you, that’s some clever motivation there.  The game is set to release on February 12th in the U.S., and the film on the 15th.

The key features are:

• Jump Ability - Use your teleportation skills to “Jump� within hand-to-hand combat range of an enemy to start dishing out devastating blows.
• Combos - Exciting and intense layered combo fighting system
• Finishing Moves - Instantly teleport enemies to exotic perilous locations to finish them.
• Enemy classes - Deeply ranked hierarchy of Paladin enemy types.
• Exotic Locales - 5 combat arenas set all around the world – Colosseum, Griffin’s Desert Lair, Nepal, Tokyo Streets and Experimental Lab Facility
• Unlockable abilities - Unlockable skills and combos through gameplay.

Honestly, the title sounds more like it was meant to be a LARP game.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

Yep, Mcrosoft is  being quite generous. On November 15th you can receive Carcassonne free of charge! Thats a whole $10 value! Link after the pic.

SOURCE

DISCUSS

-Thomas 

After seeing some debate over Mark Wahlberg being cast as Max Payne in the film adaptation, as well as even more controversy over the director being John Moore, who is responsible for the likes of Flight of the Pheonix and the remake of The Omen (that’s right, I said “responsible for”, and I mean it in whatever negative way you can imagine), I began contemplating something simple.  Do we really NEED film adaptations of video games?  And so the latest WiiRanty focuses on the fact that, no, we don’t.

If you would like to submit a WiiRanty of your own, contact me over at ccesarano [at] wii60 [dot] com.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

Games Don’t Need Movies
by Chris Cesarano

It’s been almost fifteen years since the Super Mario Bros.: The Movie hit the silverscreen in America.  It was a film supposedly based on gaming’s biggest icon, the very mascot of Nintendo to have pumped new life back into an industry thought dead.  Such a movie would be expected to be given special treatment, right?  Yeah, right.  It was 1993, and video games were still kids stuff.  Someone created some odd post-apocalyptic alternate dimension of the “Mushroom Kingdom”, where Goombas are giant lizards with tiny heads in brown trenchcoats, Toad was some punk guitarist with bad hair, Yoshi was a spare animatronic pulled from Jurassic Park, King Koopa was Dennis Hopper and Big Bertha was just some angry, fat black woman in red.

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