Newspost for 01-18-08
Super Mario Fusion is a fan game combining Mario and Halo with odd results. Links to the demo can be found in the video's description.
Industry and multi-console news
New media: Highlander screenshots, Prototype gameplay footage, Tiberium trailer
- The newest Japanese and Australian sales charts have been released.
- US sales charts for December show that Mass Effect sold 401,000 units last month, with Uncharted selling 206,000.
- More than 2.5 million downloadable Rock Band songs have been sold so far, with the Metallica pack being the most popular.
- Continuing the trend, Harmonix has 200 more Rock Band songs in the pipeline for 2008.
- Scrambling to stay relevant, three new DLC tracks for Guitar Hero III have appeared on the GuitarHero.com leaderboards (which basically confirms they're coming out): Journey's "Any Way You Want It", Foreigner's "Jukebox Hero", and Boston's "Peace of Mind".
- The NPD reports that the game industry made $18 billion in 2007. They also reveal that Halo 3 was the highest selling game of 2007, with Wii Play (or probably more accurately "another Wii remote") coming in second.
- The CEO, managing director and managing director of studios have stepped down from SCi Studios after shareholders demanded it. SCi stock got a nice rebound out of it.
- The trailer got out a few days ago, but now Eidos has announced the Highlander for PS3, 360 and PC.
- Street Fighter IV will be playable at the AOU 2008 Amusement Expo in Japan.
- Video Games Live has announced over 40 shows for this year.
- The director of the King of Kong is looking to make a feature film out of it, and I really don't know why.
- The nominees for the Interactive Achievement Awards have been announced, with BioShock picking up 12 nominations.
- Gamasutra has an interview with Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov.
- It was only a matter of time: Someone has come up with a hack to use your Rock Band drums with your PC to use them as "real" drums.
- Not long after the ESA announced plans to write checks to various political campaigns, the Parents Television Council has said that any politician taking money from the game industry would be "exposed by the PTC as taking a stand against families."
- If you hate yourself you can read an article on the top 7 geek panties (for girls, it says, in case you need clarification) written by someone named "Raychul."
PC and mobile news
New content: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars updated demo
New media: The Day concept art
- NASA is looking for interested parties to develop an MMO that simulates space missions.
- PC Perspective has an article on ray tracing and its application in gaming.
- Mark Rein responds to questions about whether Unreal Tournament III is selling poorly on the PC.
- Two players have apparently reached the gold limit cap in World of Warcraft.
- Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an article on the making of the Sims, in which Will Wright reveals the game almost never came out at all. “It was referred to as 'The Toilet game'. It was the game where you clean the toilet."
Nintendo news
New PAL Virtual Console titles: 1080 Snowboarding and Riot Zone
- Gamespot has a Q&A with Goichi Suda on No More Heroes and his odd predilections. "The inspiration for Travis Touchdown actually came from Johnny Knoxville from Jackass. I really love that show."
- Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 will hit the Wii in March.
- Matt Casamassina talks about the continued problem of mature games on the Wii. Or the lack thereof.
- A Baroque artbook will go on sale in Japan on March 13.
- In Japan, a pre-order of Cooking Mama 2 nets you tupperware filled with plastic food.
- It turns out that stickers have a use beyond collecting in Smash Bros. Brawl -- they can be applied to your character in the Subspace Emissary mode and act as power-ups. The amount of stuff they're putting into this game is bordering on frightening.
- IGN has a new preview of Endless Ocean, with video.
Sony news
New content: Tori-Emaki, Mesmerize: Trace, and a Blast Factor Bundle, along with new Rock Band tracks and Turok and FIFA Street 3 demos
New media: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII CG trailer
- GamesRadar says studio insiders are telling them Crysis is coming to the PS3.
- NCSoft is working to port some of their titles to the PS3.
- After being thought to be dead, an Oblivion PSP listing popped up on Amazon recently.
- David Jaffe says a clue to his next game is hidden in Twisted Metal: Head On Extreme Edition.
- EchoChrome will be hitting the Playstation Store on March 19.
- Amazon's deal of the day is The Getaway: Gangs of London for $17.99.
Microsoft news
New content: Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom demo (Europe)
- Microsoft's free game as an apology for Live downtime has been announced: it's aquatic shooter Undertow.
- The Mass Effect Afterthoughts article that was in EGM can now be read at 1up.
- The Mass Effect N7 shirt is back in stock for people who like those sorts of things.
- Joystiq has a handy chart comparing the Live Video Marketplace to Apple TV.
- The Steel Battalion controller has a cameo as a control device at NASA in the b-movie Earthstorm.