When Sony’s PlayStation 3 first launched back in 2006 it featured an extraordinary price tag that translated into low sales figured. Luckily, the years have done the PS3 well and the console currently sits at a palatable $299.99 for a 160GB model. However, now that the console has been out for 4 years many have wondered what Sony’s plans are for their next generation video game console.
Well, according to SCE CEO Kaz Hirai, the company isn’t even yet thinking of this next generation console. Instead, he says, the company is focused on getting the NGP out the door and boosting the value of the PS3 – which, by his count, still has a good 5 years left in it.
Do you think you’ll be playing your PS3 for another 5 years or will you be craving a newer system?
If you’re any sort of self respecting gamer you’ve undoubtedly heard of Blizzard. This game company is one of the most successful currently on the market with titles like World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2 gaining positive reception across the board. However, the outfit also has another title coming to market (hopefully this year) that has been generating a ton of buzz dubbed Diablo 3.
While Diablo and 2 have been PC games, there have been some rumors that Diablo 3 would be making the jump to consoles. While Blizzard has yet to speak of the matter, they have just posted a job listing seeking potential candidates for a Diablo title that have a background in console development. Below is said listing:
Blizzard Entertainment is looking for a highly organized individual with outstanding communications and project management skills for the Diablo team. The ideal candidate has prior experience in console game development and has a keen knowledge of how each discipline operates and interacts. Self-direction and follow-up skills are a must, as well as the ability to anticipate production issues and find effective solutions. The candidate must be fully committed to seeing projects through from inception to completion, and delivering games on time with the highest quality.
Of course, this doesn’t official confirm that Diablo 3 will be coming to consoles it would make a bit of sense considering it would allow Blizzard to reach a whole new audience with their game.
Assassin’s Creed has become immensely popular and is currently on its third iteration dubbed Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Seeing how the game has been out since November 16th chances are you’ve already beaten it and are hungry for more. Well lucky for you Ubisoft has just come forth to announce the game’s latest DLC pack titled The Da Vinci Disappearance.
Included in The Da Vinci Disappearance is a whole slew of new content. First up is the single-player content which follows the story line of Leonardo Da Vinci getting kidnapped by an underground cult as Ezio searches for him collecting stolen paintings along the way. That’s not all though as there is also a new muiltiplayer map dubbed Alhambra which will provide multiple levels both indoor and out set in Spain’s Albaicin of Granada.
There will also be two new multiplayer game modes included in the pack dubbed Escort and Assassinate. Escort is probably exactly what you think it means: two teams of 4 attempt to protect the VIP while the other team tries to kill said VIP and vice versa. Assassinate, on the other hand, is a deathmatch game mode where 6-8 players will duke it out for 10 minutes straight trying to amass the most kills.
The Da Vinci Disappearance for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will be out this March for 800 Microsoft Points or $9.99 on the PlayStation Network. Check out a teaser trailer for the pack, included above, and let us know what you think.
We just got done telling you that Valve would not be including PS3 Move support with Portal 2 so you may be a bit discouraged. If you are, there’s some good news coming out of the company today too in the form of a DLC pack announcement for the critically acclaimed Left 4 Dead 2. While there doesn’t seem to be a specific name for this new pack it will feature the three remaining campaigns from Left 4 Dead 2 and will feature ‘Cold Stre’am – a campaign developed by community modder Matthew Lourdelet.
Unfortunately there was no price date pinned with this announcement with Valve only saying it will be out “when it’s ready”.
Valve is by far one of the most influential game developers of their time largely thanks to their Half-Life franchise. However, while Half-Life and its successor (appropriately named Half-Life 2) were immensely popular, their Source engine has come to power many big name titles including CounterStrike: Source, Left 4 Dead and Portal. As you’re sure to know, Valve is gearing up to launch Portal 2 come April 18th for the PS3, PC and Xbox 360.
Seeing how the game is basically a first person shooter (minus the shooter) many have assumed that Valve would be shipping the game with PlayStation Move support. Well, if you’re a hardcore Move enthusiast you may want to look away as Valve has confirmed that there will be no support for Sony’s motion controller in Portal 2. Below is their statement:
“There’s a story making the rounds regarding Portal 2 support for PS3 Move. Unfortunately this quote was “lost in translation” — Portal 2 does not include support for Sony’s motion controller.
For those currently shaking your hands in anger at the computer screen don’t worry as it’s completely possible that Valve will add Move support as a patch later on. Or, if you want to be fancy, you can just wake for folks to hack th Xbox 360 Kinect to work with the PC version. Your choice.
Despite being around for an incredibly long time, Pokemon continues to impress in terms of sales numbers just about every time a video game donning the franchise’s name hits the market. This looks to be the same with the forthcoming Nintendo DS titles Pokemon Black and Pokemon White. While we could sit here all day and tell you about the new game I’m sure you’ve already heard all about it. What you may not have heard, however is that from February 21st – March 6th Gamestop is handing out the Pokemon Celebi (to owners of one of the previous Nintendo DS Pokemon games) for use in the upcoming game. According to the press release, transferring Celebi to your Black or White save file will give you access to the brand new Pokemon dubbed Zorua.
We’ll give you a reminder again once the time rolls around just in case you forget.
As you probably already know by now Sony recently came forward to show off their next generation portable console codenamed the NGP. This device would take off where the PSP left off and introduce gamers to a whole slew of new technology including a quad-core processor, dual-joysticks, front/rear facing cameras AND touchpads (one being a screen) along with a whole slew of other features.
While we know quite a bit about the devices hardware what we haven’t been able to pinpoint is a solid price point or release date. Luckily, it was just made known today that SCEA’s David Coombes will take center stage during this year’s GDC (which takes place from Febrauary 28th – March 4th) to speak of the NGP.
While most of the talk will be targeted towards developers we wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some consumer friendly information come from the announcements as well. We’ll keep you posted.
Assassin’s Creed is one of Ubisoft’s most valuable video game franchises currently on the market. While the first title was largely thought to be monotonous and a bit boring, the developers listened to our woes and delivered an amazing game with Assassin’s Creed 2. Following the release of THIS game, they came out with the spin-off title Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood which has itself been garnering some positive reception.
However, currently, the only way to play Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is if you have an Xbox 360 or PS3 meaning PC gamers are generally out of luck. Well, lucky for them, it was just made known today that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will be getting released for the PC come March 17th.
No word on if anything new will be added from the console version but we’ll keep you posted as more information is made known.
If you’ve been paying attention to pretty much any video game related blog (including DigitalBattle) you’re sure to know that a hacker by the name of GeoHot cracked the PS3′s security making it possible to run unauthorized code on the console. While his intentions were to bring back the ability to install Linux on the device this obviously also a major piracy threat as, quite literally, games can download virtually anything they want, burn it to a Blu-ray disc and play it on one of these cracked consoles.
Sony is none to happy with this hacking and have already taken Geohot, and a few other hackers, to court. While the legal matter is still sorting itself out, Sony has come forth to announce that if you mod your console you will be banned from the PlayStation Network for life. Of course, if you’re going to crack your console you probably already knew this as Microsoft has been doing it with the Xbox 360 for quite some time.
When Crytek first released Crysis back in 2007 gamers everywhere were wowed by the ultra realistic graphical aspects along with the intuitive gameplay. Unfortunately, at the time, a PC that would actually be capable of running Crysis would cost an arm and a leg. Luckily we’ve come a long way since then with Crysis 2‘s March 22nd release date looming. This time around, Crytek will be releasing the game not only on the PC but on the Xbox 360 and PS3 as well meaning gamers who don’t have an ultra high-tech rig can still get down on the fun.
However, if you do have a computer that you believe is capable of running Crysis 2 you will be happy to hear that a demo for the game will be out on March 1st. According to Crytek this demo will give gamers the ability to participate in 6-on-6 multiplayer matches on two levels: Skyline and Pier 17. Furthermore, the demo will feature not one, but two game modes including Team Instant Action (seems to be like a sort of team death match) and Crash Site (which seems to be a sort of king of the hill type gametype).
Since we know you’re very busy, we’ll let you know as soon as the Crysis 2 demo goes live.
