2nd May 2010 - Welcome to the 37th instalment of our weekly gaming news summary aptly named “The Week That Was”. In releases this week we saw some excellent games released here in Australia on all 3 platforms. There was the excellent Super Street Fighter IV for the Xbox 360 and PS3. There was Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii, Iron Man 2 for all 3 consoles, God of War Collection for the PS3 and the 2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa game for all 3 consoles.
Xbox 360
One of the most anticipated Xbox games is Alan Wake. This week in a slight attack on second hand game sales, gamers won’t be able to enjoy the first game add-on for Alan Wake unless they buy the game new.
The biggest piece of news in regards to the Xbox 360 this week is the long running Xbox developer Bungie signing a massive 10 year deal with the huge and highly controversial (especially of late) publisher Activision. In what was a huge shock for Xbox gamers, the developer of the biggest Xbox franchise there is in Halo will now develop different games under the Activision banner which will be published on multiple consoles, paving the way for Bungie’s expertise to be enjoyed by the Xbox 360’s biggest rival, the Playstation 3. Although Bungie have confirmed that there will be no more Halo games made by them, Bungie have reportedly been working on a new IP since 2007. They have also displayed no concerns about the task of working on the Playstation 3 after being Xbox exclusive for many years now. I guess we will all have to wait and see how this new partnership deal goes, but what will be interesting is to see if the Halo series will continue on after Halo Reach is released later this year. I guess Xbox owners dreaming of a brilliant new Halo game made by Bungie being able to launch the next Xbox are going to be disappointed. Let’s hope Bungie doesn’t go the way that Infinity Ward have of late.
A surprise demo hit Xbox Live this week with Disney Interactive and Black Rock Studios Split/Second hitting the Xbox 360 and giving us a taste stunt driving. The Split/Second demo weighs in at 808 MB and features the Airport Terminal track wired explosives and other traps placed along the course.
Playstation 3
Gran Turismo 5. Just typing those words brings many thoughts to mind. When will it release? Will it ever release? Will it be worth the wait? So many questions. Well, this week it was revealed at the 3D Gaming Summit that 3D has been confirmed for Gran Turismo 5. This may explain some of the delay for the game as developers would have had to spend a fair amount of time implementing it properly. Will this enhance the Gran Turismo 5 experience when we finally get to play it? Only time will tell.
In regards to the implementation of the Playstation Move with Gran Turismo 5, Polyphony Digital has revealed they are still researching how to implement the PS3 motion-control peripheral to make for a realistic driving experience in Gran Turismo 5. So, Gran Tursimo 5 could have well implemented 3D and PS Move! Nice!
Those who are fans of the Playstation 3 exclusive infamous can start getting excited as IGN have reported that Sony has registered the domain infamous 2. This will hopefully mean that Sony will announce and show off the sequel to the world at this year's E3.
Obviously as discussed in the Xbox 360 section above, Bungie’s move to sign with Activision is going to be to the benefit of Playstation 3 owners. Even if you are a PS3 owner who has been dumping on Halo, there is no denying that Bungie are a quality developer and will hopefully bring something exciting and fresh in their first crack at developing a game for the PS3.
Nintendo Wii
In what is great news for those that have not ventured out and bought a Wii yet, Nintendo Australia announced during the week that the price of the Wii will drop from $399.95AUD to $299.95 AUD. That’s a pretty significant decrease and one that was very much needed due to the low price points that the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are at now and is perfect with Super Mario Galaxy 2 coming out sometime in June.
Speaking of Super Mario Galaxy 2, it has been revealed that just like the Japanese version of the game, the PAL version of Super Mario Galaxy 2 will come with a bonus DVD. According to aussie-nintedo:
“The disc is essentially an instructional video meant for people who have never played a 3D Mario game before. Not such a silly idea considering many older fans possibly only got back into the series thanks to New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Plus it would have created some new ones along the way.”
Sounds interesting and not a bad ploy by Nintendo. Either way, Super Mario Galaxy 2 should sell like hotcakes!
Also in Wii news this week, we learnt that Majesco Entertainment announced a new title called “Swords” for the Wii. According to the official press release, Swords pits players against some of the most formidable adversaries in history using the Wii Remote with Wii MotionPlus as their blade for accurate 1-to-1 motion-based battles. To read the full press release from Majesco, go HERE.
And now for the week’s other news in brief:
- Super Street Fighter 4 tops 1 million units shipped already!
- PS3 finally turning a profit on each console sold.
- Xbox Live Game Room content delayed.
- Just Cause 2 Black Market Aerial Pack out now!
- Call of Duty: Black Ops announced and due for release on November 9!
- Dead To Rights: Retribution GAC pack DLC announced.
- EA announces The Sims 3 will hit consoles and handhelds this fall.
- In the second F1 2010 developer video, Codemasters have revealed that F1 2010’s simulation-focused car handling will deliver the 'most authentic experience'.
Article by Craig Cirillo