2nd August 2010 - Well punters, it's been a little while since our last re-cap, but here we are again with another uber week of gaming news goodness to celebrate #40! It's seems like only yesterday we were reporting on the slew of news from E3 but this time the San Diego Comic-Con took centre stage in a mixed week that sees news on both the Tokyo Games Show and the comic panel itself.
Much akin to our own Supernova expo (except a lot larger), Australia can look forward to a rather hot sneak peak of Mafia II with home grown playboy bunnie Sheridyn Fisher, but for now- Onto the News:
Microsoft
With only just over a month to go, the big news being held back from E3 was of course Halo Reach with more information released this week. Pro Editing tools Forge 2.0, otherwise known as Forge World was announced- a massive empty sandbox map of which ¼ includes the original and now famous Blood Gulch of Red vs Blue fame. Bungie also showcased their nice 'metal' XBOX 360 Slim Halo:Reach style. Speaking of the Slim model, Australia got the final price tag on the Kinect/Slim 4GB bundle, down-under ($450).
While the cartoon characters kicked it old-school, Microsoft was also revealing their new logo for XBOX 360, Windows and Office over in Tokyo. It doesn't look like much except, well, a wire frame. The new look XBOX logo is extremely minimal to say the least! Other MS exclusives include the prequel to Dead Rising 2.
If Halo: Reach wasn't big enough, Gears 3 made a strong showing as well with new news on multiplayer modes and a unique opportunity to decide the fate of a particular player character. In a “choose your own adventure move” AI character Carmine could 'live' or 'die' in the game just depending on how many of the particular “live” or “die” T-shirt types are sold on LIVE. Attendees at Comic-Con could also buy real life shirts to support the cause. Tron Legacies also got a strong release alongside the new movie as well as even more screens of Fable 3.
Sony
The lines of difference began to blur even more as 2 of the biggest seminal fighting titles are now cross platform. For the sake of 'history' though the big news was not actually Capcom vs Street Fighter 3. No, Street Fighter X Tekken was also announced for a possible 2012 date, which seems to fit with 'one new street fighter game per year', using the same established tech as Super Street Fighter IV. This will mark the first time though that Tekken has faced off against Street fighter. If Capcom was really smart, they would just release DLC packs of each historic game, all in one Super-smash brothers style.
No news is good news on the PSP2 front, although that hasn't stopped people making up their own stories. And in more back flips after announcing that the Move wasn't as good as they would like, The good people making Infamous 2, have taken a backlash over their new leading man Cole and have had to start over, redesigning him simply because the fans say so. Although many magazines were first to jump on the news of Infamous 2, it seems that the publics reactions were not favourable to the art direction and changes have had to be made to start over and make the player character closer to Cole 1.0.
DC Universe online, God of War: Ghost of Sparta and Little Big Planet 2 were also well represented at Comic-Con proving perhaps that Sony does actually have more exclusives this year than MS. The PS3 will also receive a version of the original “Wii only”, Dead Space shooter: extraction, as precursor to Dead Space 2 in HD which the XBOX will not.
Nintendo
Somehow Nintendo always slips under the radar and the news comes off second to the other big names, but perhaps after such a strong showing at E3 that's how they like it. This was Nintendo’s first foray at the Comic-Con expo with free downloadable maps for all entrants with a DS console. The big news of course was Metroid other M with a full reveal literally of Samus Aran along with Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky, which features deep customisation and adaptive wireless technology.
Promises have also arisen on the 3DS front, that Nintendo is going a bit more 'hard-core', with a very positive reception to Resident Evil (5) 3D and a proposed port of Saints Row.
The weeks other new in brief:
- Microsoft new business slogan is “Be what’s next”
- Spiderman 4th Shattered Dimension revealed
- Oddworld to make a comeback (finally!)
- Shank now has co-op
- Starcraft II set to be a chart topper
- Dragon Age II has fixed character, spoken dialogue and different art direction
So that's all folks, for this our 40th “The Week That Was”. We still have Blizz-Con, Quake-Con and the Tokyo Games Show to get through, so this year `aint over yet! Until next time.
Article By Ian Crane