Archive for February, 2010

Just Cause 2 demo date announced

Massive freeroaming demo planned for hotly anticipated action sequel

Square Enix London Studios announced an incredible, action-packed demo for the hotly anticipated freeroaming action game Just Cause 2 will release on March 4th, 2010.

Available for PlayStation® 3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PC, the Just Cause 2 demo will feature a massive 35 square miles of the Lautan Lama Desert, a vast expanse of stunning, sun-scorched scenery taking up just one of the many islands in the 400 square miles of the Panau archipelago. Packed with towns, villages, military installations, mountain ranges, missions and more, the demo will feature an astonishing amount of activities for the player… and opportunities for adrenaline-fuelled chaos are limitless.

Hunt down and assassinate one of the game’s 50 military colonels; devastate military bases, bio fuel chambers, government infrastructure and more; hijack tuk tuks, military 4x4s, armoured vehicles, mopeds, helicopter gunships, light aircraft, mini vans and numerous other military and civilian vehicles; freefall from desert outcrops or from burning planes at 20,000 feet; and unlock one full, multi-stage mission, traversing the mountains to a heavily fortified government radar station and ending in an unforgettable desert car chase.

“The Just Cause 2 demo is simply massive and with so much to do, the replay value is enormous,” said Lee Singleton, General Manager of Square Enix London Studios. “It’s easily one of the biggest freeroaming demos of all time and for fans of openworld games, it’s unmissable.”

The Just Cause 2 demo will be available March 4th, 2010, on PlayStation®Network, Xbox LIVE® Marketplace and Steam.

As Rico Rodriguez, the Agency’s most powerful weapon, players must take on the island of Panau and its military regime in order to track down Rico’s former boss and mentor, Tom Sheldon, who has gone rogue with millions in Agency cash and intel. Using a unique grapple and parachute combination, there is no vertical limit as the air becomes your playground: grapple a passing plane in flight, hijack helicopters, BASE jump from the tallest buildings or mountains and leave a trail of chaos and destruction in your wake. Just Cause 2 offers players the freedom to tackle missions any way they choose and, with over 100 vehicles and countless upgrades and collectibles, the choices for relentless adrenaline-fuelled action are limitless.

Just Cause 2 will be available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Games for Windows® and will be released under the EIDOS brand portfolio. All formats will release in-stores on March 23rd, 2010, in North America and March 26th, 2010, in Europe, Middle East, and Australasia. More information is available on the official website at www.justcause.com.

Street Fighter IV for iPhone

Street Fighter IV brings the legendary fighting series to iPhone and iPod Touch in uncompromising glory. Like the console namesake, Street Fighter IV for iPhone is played in the classic Street Fighter 2D perspective with additional 3D camera flourishes. A unique four-button control system has been created, with a host of new special moves and features integrated into the gameplay system.

  • Traditional “2D” Street Fighter gameplay redefined for the iPhone.
  • Play as eight Street Fighter favorites: Ryu, Ken, M. Bison, Chun-Li, Guile, Dhalsim, Abel and Blanka.
  • Robust move sets including Unique Attacks, Special Moves, EX Moves, Super Combos and Ultra Combos.
  • Seven amazing locations.
  • Fully customizable “Visual Pad” control system. Place the D-pad and buttons anywhere on the screen.
  • Execute moves through multiple key combinations and shortcuts making the game accessible to casual players, while still challenging to hardcore fans.
  • Play head-to-head with a friend via Bluetooth or master the game in single player “Tournament” mode.
  • Multiple training modes including “Free-Sparring,” Training Room” and the “Dojo” which teaches the player all the nuances of the game.

System Specs

  • iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 2nd generation and iPod Touch 3nd generation running 3.0 or better.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame

Hit Animated Series Brought To Life on Wii and Nintendo DS for Kids and Families to Play Together

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, on behalf of DC Comics, announces Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame, an action-adventure videogame based on the popular animated series, available this Autumn for Wii™ and Nintendo DS™. In the game, fans play alongside Batman and many of his allies in the DC UNIVERSE to take on dozens of popular villains.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame fully immerses fans into the vivid animated world of the successful TV series where kids can play as Batman or together with family and friends in two-player co-op mode. Players can choose from iconic characters ROBIN, GREEN LANTERN, BLUE BEETLE, along with drop-in heroes such as AQUAMAN to help solve puzzles and fight foes.

The game provides maximum replay value to those who own both the Wii and Nintendo DS versions by allowing them to connect the two systems to unlock BAT-MITE as a playable character. Players can control him with the Nintendo DS to wreak havoc or fight alongside the main characters in all levels of the Wii videogame.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame further illustrates the diverse appeal of the Batman brand and the gameplay is a fun, vibrant extension of the animated series,” said Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President of Development and Production, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “The game’s co-op play offers kids, families and Batman fans an interactive way of experiencing the cartoon’s iconic characters.”

In Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame, players embark on an exciting journey through crime-filled alleys, alien planets, abandoned underground cities and mysterious laboratories. Further lending to the authentic cartoon feel of the game is the inclusion of Batman’s iconic gadgets such as Batarangs and his Grapnel Gun.

For more information, visit www.BraveandtheBoldVideogame.com.

Ghosts of Ascalon, the first novel based on the award-winning epic fantasy game Guild Wars

NCsoft is proud to announce Ghosts of Ascalon, the first novel based on the best-selling MMO game Guild Wars.

Written by acclaimed authors Jeff Grubb and Matt Forbeck, Ghosts of Ascalon introduces readers to a fantasy world ravaged by war and chaos, and sets the stage for the release of the highly-anticipated sequel Guild Wars 2™.

Scheduled for release in North America and Europe in the summer of 2010, Ghosts of Ascalon takes place in the dangerous land of Tyria, the setting of Guild Wars. A mismatched band of adventurers, each plagued by ghosts from their pasts, journeys into the haunted, war-torn kingdom of Ascalon to retrieve a sacred relic that holds the promise of peace between humanity and their ancestral enemies, the savage charr. But not everyone wants peace, and the undead king who rules Ascalon won’t give it up easily!

In Guild Wars, one of the best-selling fantasy role-playing franchises of all time, players adventured through an epic storyline that spanned three continents or faced off against each other in head-to-head combat. Ghosts of Ascalon takes place in the same era as the upcoming Guild Wars 2, hundreds of years after the events of the original Guild Wars series. The sweeping storyline, richly imagined setting and dramatic characters will appeal to both fantasy readers and fans of Guild Wars alike.

For more information on Ghosts of Ascalon, please visit www.guildwars2.com.

Extensive downloadable content for BioShock 2

New Single Player And Multiplayer Additions Enrich The Rapture Experience By Adding A Wealth Of New Content And Features

2K Games announced an aggressive post-launch downloadable content plan for BioShock®2 that extends and enhances the single and multiplayer experiences by adding more glimpses into the award-winning world of Rapture. Downloadable content will be made available soon, beginning with the Sinclair Solutions Test Pack, available this March from the Xbox® LIVE Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Games for Windows–LIVE for 400 Microsoft Points and from the PlayStation®Network for £3.19. Future expansions into the world of BioShock 2 are slated to arrive over the coming months and will continue to expand on the stories of the denizens of Rapture.

“The fans who waited in the snow, rain and cold for the midnight launch of BioShock 2 have spoken and their message is that Rapture still has many fascinating stories to tell,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Downloadable content is a key part of our efforts to continue to entice the fans that have made 2K a household name – we intend to deliver single and multiplayer content that respects and expands upon one of the greatest fictional worlds ever created.”

Sinclair Solutions Test Pack, the first of several planned downloadable packages, contains a number of customization features that will allow players to further their character’s development in BioShock 2’s multiplayer modes and provide a deeper multiplayer experience. The pack includes:

• Rank Increase to level 50 with Rank Rewards
• New playable characters Louie McGraff and Oscar Calraca
• 20 new trials*
• A third weapon upgrade for each weapon
• Five additional masks*
*Some items are only available after a player achieves a rank of 41 or higher.

In the coming months, 2K Games will also be publishing downloadable extensions of the single player experience that provide new insight into the world of Rapture. These packages will include more narrative, new tools and new challenges that extend the lore and fiction of the failed Utopia under the sea.

BioShock 2’s multiplayer modes provide fans with an engrossing prequel experience that expands upon the fiction of Rapture’s origins. Set during the year before Rapture’s descent into chaos, players assume the role of a Plasmid test subject for Sinclair Solutions, a key provider of Plasmids and Tonics in the underwater city that was first explored in BioShock. Players will enter into areas from the original title as they struggle to gain superiority and fight for survival in franticly paced battles.

The single player mode serves as a sequel to the original game and provides fans with an unsettling storyline, dazzling visual design and the evolution of the genetically enhanced shooter gameplay. Set almost a decade after a grueling civil war consumed the once magnificent city of Rapture, evil reverberates through the halls and a wickedness once thought gone forever returns along the Atlantic seaboard. An unspeakable series of kidnappings from local seaside communities by an unseen monster leads to the repopulation of Little Sisters in Rapture’s failed utopia under the ocean. Players must step into the boots of one of gaming’s most iconic characters, the Big Daddy, as they traverse through the fallen city, fending off attacks from an army of genetically modified Splicers, while searching for escape and the key to their survival.

BioShock 2 is available now for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Games for Windows and is rated M for Mature by the ESRB. For more information on BioShock 2 please visit www.bioshock2game.com, www.cultofrapture.com and www.somethinginthesea.com.