Carentan is one of the all-time favourite maps for Call of Duty 2. And guess what? It’s going to be one of the maps in the upcoming Call of Duty 4 map packs! They’re remaking it into Chinatown, and it looks great! Check out the video to see what I mean.

Gametrailers.com - Gametrailers TV with Geoff Keighley

There’s some info about the multi-player side of GTA IV courtesy of Spanish PSM, via GTAForums.com:

* There are 15 multiplayer game modes in GTA IV. PSM had an opportunity to play 7 of them. The rules of each game are determined by the host.

* Multiplayer supports upto 16 players.

* Your online character is fully customizable. You can alter his race, sex, hair, clothing etc.

* The game modes featured are as follows:
1. Hangman’s NOOSE
2. Car Jack City
3. Bomb da Base
4. Bomb da Base II
5. Mafia Work
6. Team Mafia Work
7. Deathmatch
8. Team Deathmatch
9. Turf War
10. Cops N Crooks
11. Race
12. GTA Race
13. Deal Breaker
14. Free Mode
15. Car Jack City

* In Race and GTA Race, the host gets to decide which vehicles are involved, and the number of laps to be played. You can shoot and throw molotovs from the window, and even steal your rivals’ car.

* In Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, the host gets to decide the number of pedestrians, the amount of traffic, the intervention of police (or not), and the type of weapons.

* In Cops N Crooks, one team play as cops and the other play as criminals. The cops must stop the criminals from escaping. They can monitor the locations of the criminals on their GPS systems, while the criminals don’t know where the cops are.

* In Mafia Work and Team Mafia Work, you play as one of Kenny Petrovic’s mafia henchmen. You must complete hits ordered by the boss (via the cellphone) before your rivals are able to do so.

* The map used in multi-player is the same map that is used for single player.

* A single-player mission called “Hangman’s NOOSE” features co-op. You and your friends will be able to escort a mobster, while being pursued by a SWAT team.

AWESOME!!

I may not play another game for the rest of the year (until Resistance 2 comes out ).

I’ve booked two weeks off work for the games release.

• These figures only include U.S. + Japan. Europe’s sales are significant, but reliable figures are harder to come by.
• The above NPD and MediaCreate numbers cover a four week reporting period.
• This is the second month in a row that PS3 has outsold the 360 in the U.S. Europe numbers would widen the sales gap significantly.
• The 360 still has a commanding software lead in the U.S with five of the top ten selling titles. On the other hand, sales of Devil May Cry 4 were close on both 360 and PS3, with the 360 version being only 26% ahead.

http://www.killzone.com/killzone/news.jspa

I linked mine just in case. Maybe this is gearing up for a Beta of Killzone? If you don’t have a account just create one and when you click on the activation link you’ll have the option to link with your PSN account. Just login to your PSN account and your done.

Hopefully the North American PlayStation Forums link with the PSN like Europe is doing soon. I remember on one of the Home videos, Phil Harrison showed us a quick personal Home web page. I would assume this would be linked to your PSN account. Maybe all the PSN linking is prep work for what’s coming in the next couple months?

www.killzone.com now connects up to your PSN account as of just now

Man what’s up with SCEE, another sad update. Hopefully the flood gates open when the PlayStation Store gets redesigned. For those that don’t have Rock Band or Guitar Hero III, these are boring updates.

Glad to see the Toy Home add-on has arrived. That’s good and bad news for me. Good news if that my GF will love it and play it. Bad news, less PS3 time for me, lol.

Games/Demos:
-MLB 2K8 demo
-Toy Home Expansion Pack - $6.99

DLC:
-Guitar Hero 3 - Drop Kick Murphys Pack - FREE
–”Famous for Nothing”
–”Flannigan’s Ball”
–”Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya”

-PAIN - Character “Muffy” (Cheerleader) - $0.99
-PAIN - Character “Ginger” (Nurse) - $0.99

-Rock Band tracks - SXSW - $0.99 each:
–Serj Tankian - “Beethoven’s C***” (Master)
–Black Tide - “Shockwave” (Master)
–Paramore - “Crushcrushcrush” (Master)

Trailers:
-Hot Shots Golf 5 - “Characters and Courses”
-Hot Shots Golf 5 - “New Shot System”
-Viking - “Battle for Asgard”
-Viking - “Episode 1: Skarin’s Calling”
-Viking - “Episode 2: Siege of Caldburg”

Other:
-Condemned 2: Bloodshot themes (2 of them)
-God of War: Chains of Olympus theme
-PAIN - Character “Muffy” theme
-PAIN - Character “Ginger” theme

DLC:
-Guitar Hero III: Modern Metal Track Pack - €5.99 / £3.99 / AUD 9.95
–Avenged Sevenfold - “Almost Easy”
–Thrice - “The Arsonist”
–The Deftones - “Hole in the earth”

Trailers:
-Elefunk

Other:
-PixelJunk Monsters theme

DLC:
-Dark Mist Expansions - ¥100

Trailers:
6 Trailers

Other:
-Dark Mist themes (5 of them) - ¥100 each (Ummm, why are we paying for themes???!)

via NeoGAF

It’s available now. I have it installed, but I’m not sure what it does yet. But I’ll update this when we have more info. Maybe Sony is preparing for Home stuff? Or it could just be something else.

[Update] Thanks Børten

If you’ve signed in to the PLAYSTATION Network tonight on your PS3, you probably noticed that you were prompted to upgrade the system’s firmware to v2.17. In case you were wondering what it’s all about (and a quick Google search indicates that yes, you are) the operating stability of some online PS3 titles has been improved.

Firmware Update (v2.17)

Update: Here’s some info from the Tiki website:

NOVASTRIKE is a top-down arcade shooter in which the player takes control of a prototype advanced Scythe fighter and combats invading aliens over various planetary surfaces. The player fights both air and ground opponents ranging from enemy fighters to capital ships and ultimately an end-Boss. As the player progresses the Scythe unlocks its full potential through upgrading its weapon systems and overall capabilities.
Features include:

1. Seven expansive challenging stages driven by objective-based goals
2. Free-roaming flight: there aren’t any rails here allowing flight in any direction
3. Progressive weapon acquisition and upgrade system: as the player successfully collects weapon drops from enemy ships the weapons themselves become available to the Scythe - there are nine base weapon systems, each with three subsequent upgrade levels
4. Air and ground targets: two separate weapon systems allow the player to combat both air and ground opponents
5. Multi-sectioned enemies where individual components can be destroyed; for example, Carriers have hangars that launch fighters - these hangars can be destroyed independently of destroying the Carrier preventing the Carrier from launching additional fighters
6. Multitude of enemies: the player will combat enemy fighters, bombers, kamikazes, aces, carriers, and destroyers, all leading to an end-Boss fight
7. You’re not alone: friendly fighters, bombers, and destroyers will aid you in your efforts to vanquish the Draelus invasion
8. DualShock 3 support
9. Uses Tiki Games own graphics engine technology
10. Continuing support: Tiki Games will be developing additional content for NOVASTRIKE

NOVASTRIKE is targeting a second-quarter 2008 release on the PLAYSTATION®3 via the PLAYSTATION®Network.

Looking forward to Rainbow Six: Vegas 2? I am. I decided to skip on Army of Two and go for Rainbow Six 2 instead. So now I’m impatiently waiting for this game to arrive. Luckily we have videos like these two to tide us over.

Mais dois trailers de Rainbow Six Vegas 2

What Type Of Game Is It?

Part graphic adventure, part character hack ‘n slash, and part collectathon. The graphic adventure elements are the strongest. The other two types of gameplay add to the game and make it a more interesting whole, but individually, they are the less fleshed out.

Pros

• Artwork: The artwork is fantastic. The creatures, characters, and scenery are all beautiful.
• Story: This has a dark, gloomy, rainy-day type story line. You meet with dead spirits and unravel mysteries. It’s engaging enough that I was always excited to beat each level to unfold more of the story. Story quality is very subjective, but I suspect that most adventure fans would enjoy.
• Atmosphere: The artwork and story combine very well to give this title a very moody and immersive atmosphere.
• Unique: This is definitely an original game. All of the individual elements have been done elsewhere, but as a whole, this is a unique and interesting title. Since graphic adventure are so rare these days, this is a nice change of pace.

Cons

• Some play mechanics are under-developed: This game provides several different game mechanics, but only the story elements are really well developed. The combat, exploration, and upgrade systems are fun at first, but they are too simplistic and they grow repetitive over the long length of the game.
• Too much repetiton: In addition to the issues mentioned above, you are supposed to play each “world” two times with the two different characters. The levels are significantly different depending on who you play with: I’d guess around 70% similar, 30% different, but that’s too much repetition. On the other hand, the game structure does change as the chapters progress, and the environments and story remain interesting throughout the game.
• Technology: Overall, the game looks excellent due to the artwork and special effects. However, the character animation, physics, AI, and environment geometry are all very simplistic. Compared to other 2007 games, the technology feels a little dated.

Conclusion

This game is very good, but short of great. If you like graphic adventures, and want a unique game with spectacular artwork, a moody atmosphere, an engaging story, I would suggest checking this out.

On the other hand, if you aren’t a big adventure fan and would only consider checking out the real best of the best adventure titles, I’d suggest waiting on something bigger.

PS3 owners recently got a native PS3 release of Lego Star Wars last November. If you aren’t familiar with the series, this game is perfect for an adult to play co-op with a child. The game is easy to play, fun, and extremely forgiving for children, while adults enjoy the Star Wars recreation, lots of jokes, and tons of unlockables and optional challenges.

Now, the Indiana Jones series gets the same treatment. In IGN’s preview, you can see they are planning several improvements to the formula as well.

Anyone else looking forward to this?

If you’ve been craving some action Blu-rays. Then this is a good week for you. Plenty to pick from this week. Anything for you?

Appleseed Ex Machina - Warner Bros.
August Rush - Warner Bros.
Dan in Real Life - Disney / Buena Vista
Dogma - Sony Pictures
Gattaca - Sony Pictures
Hitman: Unrated - 20th Century Fox
I, Robot - 20th Century Fox
Independence Day - 20th Century Fox
No Country for Old Men - Disney / Buena Vista
Sleuth - Sony Pictures

Blu-ray.com

Game journalism seems like the easiest job. It must be nice to arrive at work and hear your boss say, “Here, take these new games, play them all day, and then give me your opinion.” The only job that could be easier is a pillow tester, “Here, try out all these pillows and tell me which one is the fluffiest.”

Nevertheless, game journalism adds a substantial element of pleasure to what is a favorite hobby for many of us, so they deserve some recognition:

Best Game Reviews: IGN

Assigning games review scores is a very tricky job. Enthusiast gamers are notoriously opinionated and are almost impossible to please. A good game review is more than just a snapshot of someone’s personal opinion, it’s an approximation of group opinion. Some sites get swept up into hype and overrate some titles while getting emotionally angry and underrating others. Other sites hire reviewers who can’t write well or don’t know enough about games and their history to convey an interesting perspective. And some other sites take outright bribes in exchange for favorable reviews. In recent years, IGN has done the best job of giving balanced, level headed reviews, with reviewers who know what they are talking about. I definitely disagree with them on many reviews, but overall these guys are the best.

Best Podcast: 1UP Yours

Listening to a bunch of guys talk about video games sounds boring, but this is surprisingly good. Some of the dev podcasts are good (Insomniac’s Full Moon Show is very good), but these guys are the best. They have guys who really know a lot about games and their history, and most importantly have entertaining radio-friendly personalities, and an excellent sense of pace.

Best Interviews + Commentary: Level Up

Most sites spend most of their coverage regurgitating the same stuff on every other site on the Internet. Level Up, has a good record of making unique and interesting commentary, and conducting interesting interviews with questions other sites aren’t asking.

Best Game Previews + Media: IGN/GameTrailers

If you are willing to pay for the premium access, I think IGN does the best job at hosting a good selection of high quality game footage. If you want a free service, GameTrailers does a great job as well.

Public Discussion Board: NeoGAF

There are tons of game discussion boards out there, but these guys are the best. This site has two things going for it: A critical mass of quality contributors (by message board standards) and aggressive pruning policies to weed out most of the garbage that dominates most other popular game discussion boards. There’s still a ton of juvenile comments, but there are plenty of funny or informative threads as well.

Anyone have any other picks? Let’s hear them.