18th April 2010 - Hi fellow gamers, welcome to the 35th instalment of “The Week That Was”. We haven’t had one of these for a few weeks as the usual writer Phong Nguyen has taken off overseas and will not be doing these for a while. So I have stepped in and will be trying to fill his shoes.
So let’s get to it. This weeks game releases saw the highly anticipated and long awaited next instalment in the Splinter Cell series release. Splinter Cell: Conviction has finally seen the light of day and is being very well received by the critics. Our own John Elliott gave it a whopping 9.5/10! You can read his full review HERE. The other notable releases this week were Final Fight: Double Impact on XBLA and PSN and Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City on the Playstation 3. Finally PS3 owners can experience the extra content Microsoft paid so much money to be an Xbox 360 exclusive!
Xbox 360
Well unless you have been living under a rock and have not checked any game news this week, you will know that the biggest piece of news in Xbox 360 land this week is the confirmation that Gears of War 3 will be gracing the 360 in April 2011. While this surely was the worst kept secret in the gaming industry, fans of the series would have been sparked into excitement when Cliff Bleszinski appeared on the Late Night With Jimmy Fallon show and confirmed Gears 3’s existence and showed off the first official trailer for the game titled “Ashes to Ashes”. To view this trailer go HERE. The biggest addition to Gears 3 that was revealed was that a Gears game finally gets 4-player online co-op in the story mode! Cliff Bleszinski also revealed large improvements to the multiplayer mode as Epic finally revealed that they are sorry for the problems with Gears 2’s MP mode.
The other big story of the week is that the original Xbox’s Xbox Live service has now been switched off. You might say but who cares as we are well into the 360’s life? But the big issue out of this is that the large amount of Halo 2 players that were still playing online have now been shut out. What is arguably the best game in the Halo series, Halo 2 has still been very active online and Bungie put goodbye messages to all its players within the final online games of Halo 2. A sad day for dedicated Halo 2 fans and a definite sign that the original Xbox is now dead.
One of the most highly anticipated and severely long awaited titles that will hit the Xbox 360 next month, Alan Wake has been confirmed to run at 720p from the folks at Remedy. This is great news as a lot of games these days that are reportedly HD, seem to be actually running at sub-HD resolutions. Alan Wake is definitely one to watch when it hits our shelves.
In a boost for Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox 360 gadget, Project Natal, the device has been given recognition by the British show, The Gadget. The Gadget has included Natal in its Top 10 gadgets to watch in 2010. This surely would have brought a smile to the face of Microsoft.
With a lot of talk these days about how much better the Playstation 3’s graphics is becoming compared to the Xbox 360, the creators of Brink have given the Xbox 360’s graphics capabilities a shot in the arm with a new technology called " Sparse Virtual Texturing ".
Playstation 3
As you probably know, the Playstation 3’s motion controller, the “Move” has been in the headlines a lot lately. What most of us do not know is exactly how this new piece of technology will turn out. Well this week the guys at Gamesradar had a hands-on session with the Playstation Move.
In regards to the Playstation 3’s 3D capabilities, Sony revealed that thier first set of 3D TV’s will release in June, and the firmware update for the PS3 should be released in that month also. Along with this Sony revealed the first 4 games to have the 3D capability. They are: 1. Wipeout HD: full 3D game (not including WipEout HD Fury), 2. PAIN: 3 x 3D episodes + 1 x 2D tutorial, 3. Super Stardust HD: full 3D game (not including DLC) and 4. MotorStorm Pacific Rift: single level 3D demo. However, one bad bit of news in regards to 3D and the Playstation 3 is that the PS3 won’t be getting 3D Blu-ray support till later in the year.
God of War 3 was one of the most anticipated releases of 2010. In what must be music to Sony’s ears, it has been reported that God Of War 3 has sold 25% more than God of War 2, despite the Playstation 3 installed base being dramatically less than the Playstation 2’s, the console where the series started. This is a testament to Santa Monica studios and the quality of the game that they produced.
Whilst there hasn’t been any official announcement, IGN has reported that it appears LittleBigPlanet 2 to be definitely on its way with Electronic musician Ochre announced on his Twitter feed today that he has licensed a song called "Infotain Me" to Sony for LittleBigPlanet 2.
Nintendo Wii
This week in Wii news comes the announcement of Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road Victory. The Square Enix announcement comes as good news for Wii owners as they haven’t seen a Dragon Quest title since Dragon Quest Swords.
In what is great news for Monster Hunter fans, according to a news post on The Lost Gamer, the upcoming Monster hunter 3 Tri coming exclusively to Wii will include post-release content. Go to their news posting HERE to read all the details.
Netflix, the online movie download service which has been extensively used in Amercia by Xbox 360 owners is now reportedly coming to the Wii. This is great news for Wii owners who have their Wii connected to the Internet. Obviously though, streaming HD movies won’t be able to happen since the Wii doesn’t output in anything above 480p, but to be able to stream SD content is still pretty good.
In what is surely an issue for debate, IGN did an article on “Why Shooters Are Better on Wii”. The release of the excellent Red Steel 2 has obviously prompted the writer of the article to discuss why playing a shooter on the Wii is more realistic in terms of the movement of the body and states that “The simple act of moving in a Wii shooter has a slow gravitas suggestive of being in control of an actual human body and not a camera tripod on greased wheels." The article is certainly an interesting read and one that will surely raise plenty of debate. Click HERE to read the article in full.
And now for the week's other news in brief:
- EA announces new development studio headed by Zampella, West.
- Super Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono has told OXM that there are no plans to continue the series.
- Assassins Creed 2 Awarded Guinness World Record for being the most cover-featured video game.
- It has been reported that Crysis 2 PS3 'performs better than 360 version' Go HERE to view the Crysis 2 trailer.
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 details revealed!
- Ubisoft revealed new details for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.
- Ubisoft announced that free content for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction will be made available to gamers every Thursday.
- 2K Games Announces XCOM - Suspense and Mystery-Filled First-Person Shooter from Creators of BioShock 2. - Shrek Forever After the Game: Coming to your living room this June.
That's all for this week!
Article By Craig Cirillo