Daily News - 20th May 2011 - Dragon Age 3, Mortal Kombat and Chucky?!?

L.A. Noire Does Not Overheat Xboxs According To Rockstar

Reports were coming in earlier in the week that L.A. Noire was crashing consoles, mostly PS3s but the odd 360 aswell. Rockstar blamed the latest PS3 firmware update begging the question why the Xbox version was also crashing. Well, Rockstar today said that it actually isn't crashing Xboxs... well, not properly. No more than any other game the size of L.A. Noire can crash a console. So there. Another unfortunate kick to the PS3 groin.

That. Is. Weird.Hey! Wanna Play A 'Child's Play' Game?!? Me Either!

It will be a downloadable stealth-based (umm, what?!?) game featuring Chucky himself. I'm not motivated enough to wanna know more than that, just thought you guys should know.

That's chucky, right?!?Play Mortal Kombat Online Without Downloading A Pass!

Only on the PS3 though. Warner Bros. say that until the PSN Store is up (and you can buy an online pass for yourself) you can just play the game online longer than the 2-day free pass they usually offer. What this basically means is that renting or buying a used Mortal Kombat is an awesome proposition for the next week or so, as you'll get loads of days on free online play! Woo!

FreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeDragon Age 3 Is A Thing That's Happening

Revealed via a Twitter hashtag last night from Senior Director of Creative Development Alistair McNally it turns out that Dragon Age is a thing that's happening. No more info exists yet, the game's clearly barely started yet, but still... It's happening!

Remember this... there's gonna be another one!

Daily News - 19th May 2011 - No More Heroes and MORE Playstation Nonsense

No More Heroes Is Looking Good On The PS3!

I loved the original No More Heroes for the flawed madness that it was, and a HD version has me salivating, I may pick this up just to play it on my housemate's PS3. If you haven't played No More Heroes I highly recommend you do so when the games comes out on August 16th

"Travis Touchdown was here"Playstation Store Back Up Next Week. But Not.

Sony today sent out a lettter to it's content partners telling them to expect the store next week... and then promptly said "nawwwwwww". They're saying now that officially they don't have a specific date set... despite saying in their official letter than the store will have new releases "May 24, May 27, May 31 and June 3". Sony, you confuse the fuck out of me. I thought you handled the PSN recovery pretty well and with lots of transparency, so why all of a sudden be so unclear?

Things like this are why you're Super Meat Boy-less, Sony!

Daily News - 18th May 2011 - Valve at E3, Broken Xboxs and More!

So Sony's Password Reset Was Massively Unsafe...

Turns out that the way Sony re-jiggered their password reset meant that all you needed was someone's email address and date of birth to reset their password. Yeah. Pretty stupid. Fortunately the service would send you an email letting you know that you password had been reset, lucky for you! Sony have since fixed it but still, for a few hours there the internet kinda couldn't believe how daft that was. I should note that if you don't use any of Sony's web-based PSN services you should be fine. The password reset from consoles works fine. Blimey sony...

Bet you guys are glad to be seeing this sweet interface again..."Very Small Number" Of Xboxs Unable To Read Discs After A Previous Update

This came out today. Microsoft responded almost immediately with the offer of completely free replacement Xboxs but still, this is pretty weird. Here was their original statement:

"Following a recent update to our system software, we have become aware of an issue that is preventing a very small number of Xbox 360 owners from playing retail game discs. This issue manifests itself a as a unique 'disc unreadable' or 'disc unsupported' error on the screen. We are also able to detect this issue over Xbox Live and are proactively reaching out to customers that may be impacted to replace their console."

Although, later in the day they added:

"Additionally, this disc read error message is tied to a change in the disc reading algorithms in a recent software update and is not specific to older or newer versions of Xbox 360"

So it doesn't matter if it's a newer or older 360, if you were wondering. This isn't a Red Ring Of Death style problem, but it's definitely still a problem. Saying that though, it's funny how recent events can make a problem that affects "a very small number" of consoles seem almost like no problem at all...

Indescriminent Xbox disc-fucking is probably the best kind... for MicrosoftValve Say They Will Not Be At E3

OR, will they?...

Valve, why do you taunt us so!And Finally...

An amazing article about an American professor who used Portal to teach a lesson for a mandatory class called "Enduring Questions". The game was on a reading list along with such writers as Gilgamesh and Aristotle. The article is a great read, and really makes you appreciate how much Valve put into their games... makes their (alleged) absence at this years show all the more tragic!

Read the article at the link below:

Intro to GLaDOS 101: A Professor's Decision to Teach Portal

She wants to murder the fuck out of you, bytheway.

Daily News - 17th May 2011 - Sony 'Apologises' and Duke Nukem

Sony's "Welcome Back" Offer Not Going Down Too Well...

Turns out people aren't too thrilled with the free games Sony is offering. The list included such must-have titles as Little Big Planet and Infamous, which sounds good in theory, but the problem with must-haves is that lots of people have them already. Sony responded to people's unhappiness with the following slap-in-the-face:

"I’m really sorry that there is nothing there that you want. We’ve tried really hard to put together a list of high quality BD [Blu-ray disc] games, rather than simply offering cheaper PSN titles. The average metacritic rating for these games is over 84%, so these are high quality games. Unfortunately with a user base of 77m people, it is really hard to offer something for everyone."

- Nick Caplin: Head of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's Communications Division

Thanks for that Sony. Probably not the best time to be talking down to your users though...

Inamous for free is honestly a pretty sweet dealDuke Nukem: Forever Demo Less Than A Month Away!

So if you've pre-ordered Duke Nukem: Forever, good news! You get the Duke Nukem: Forever demo in 3 weeks! It's likely the rest of us will get it not too long afterwards aswell. Can you wait? Because I can't! Buying Duke Nukem 3D really gave me an appreciation for the stupid awesomeness of Duke Nukem so I'm pretty pumped for Forever.

He's done it all!

Daily News - 16th May 2011 - Mass Effect 3, Batman and PSN is BACK!

The (Hopefully) Final Daily PSN Update!!!

Well kiddies, it's the biggie, PSN's back! Although if you have a PS3 you almost definitely already knew that... So let's see what other tidbits I can muster:

• While the rest of the world is enjoying online Playstation gaming, Japan aint. And why is that? Because the Japanese government wont let them. Not until Sony prove it's safe anyways.
• Sony says that for the next few weeks, to catch up on recent releases, it will be updating it's store "multiple" times per week.
• Sony have let us know which games PS3 owners will eventually be getting for free. Remeber, they said you can pick 2 from each of these lists

PlayStation 3

• LittleBigPlanet
• Infamous
• Wipeout HD/Fury
• Ratchet And Clank: The Quest For Booty
• Dead Nation*

PSP

• LittleBigPlanet PSP
• ModNation PSP
• Pursuit Force
• Killzone Liberation

(I've only posted the European list, the US list is slightly different)

Mass Effect 3 To Allow Same-Sex Relationships

The headline really is the story here .Not too much more to say, other than if you swing that way, this is probably awesome news!

And I'm alllllllllllllll outta gum! ...Oh waitThe First Person, Online Multiplayer Team Batman Game You Never Knew You Wanted!

The game will be called Gotham City Impostors and will pit a team of Batman impostors against a team of Joker impostors, using gadgets and weapons to, well, hurt each other and apparently you'll be able to get some crazy costumes aswell. The Batman universe is one with a complex history, and as we've not seen anything on the game yet it could look like anything. Personally I'm hoping for campy 70's Batman but with tonnes of blood, you can stick your dark, gritty Batman up your massive A-hole.

Something along these lines...

Daily News - 15th May 2011 - PSN News and MW3 "Trailer"

Big PSN Progress Today

Sony came out with a press release today with some great news. PSN shizzle is on the mend! The news is below:

• Sony gave a press-release today, announcing their plan for ultimate system restoration, the plan goes a little something like this (in the order they will occur):

Sign-in for PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, including the resetting of passwords

Restoration of online game-play across PS3 and PSP

Playback rental video content, if within rental period, of PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service on PS3, PSP and MediaGo

Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity, for current subscribers, on PS3 and PC

Access to 3rd party services such as Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and MLB.tv

‘Friends’ category on PS3, including Friends List, Chat Functionality, Trophy Comparison, etc

PlayStation Home

• Sony release the Firmware Update as preparation for the network coming online. It prompts users to change their passwords and while it won't make you able to play multiplayer, it's pretty certain to include some essential security updates.
• Sony Online Entertainment services and games should be coming back online now. For more details you can see the SOE post, here.

Good news all round! Good on Sony for working their arses off and letting us see a light at the end of the tunnel!

Not long now!!!

Modern Warfare 3 "Trailer's" Here

They're more like teasers. There are teasers for France, Germany, England and America. They're all the same to be honest, with minor differences but I've only posted the England one, because, well, you know...

• Sign-i.n for PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, including the resetting of passwords
• Restoration of online game-play across PS3 and PSP
• Playback rental video content, if within rental period, of PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service on PS3, PSP and MediaGo
• Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity, for current subscribers, on PS3 and PC
• Access to 3rd party services such as Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and MLB.tv
• ‘Friends’ category on PS3, including Friends List, Chat Functionality, Trophy Comparison, etc
• PlayStation Home

Daily News - 12th and 13th May 2011 - Mortal Kombat, Modern Warfare 3 and PSN News

Today's Daily PSN Update Of the Day, Today!

• Edge have an interview with an anonymous manager of a UK-based retailer, in which they say that trade-ins on PS3s have risen by over 200 percent, with half of those taking the cash, the other half trading in for Xboxs. 
• PSN has taken a baby step today, by letting the developer version of their service online, although lots of their accounts were lost in the outage.
• The service has been out for 3 weeks, meaning game developers have lost 3 weeks of possible multiplayer testing (which is rigorous), probably pushing release dates back... or atleast affecting the quality of the multiplayer somewhat.

No doing this to strangers online yet!

Eidos Interactive Hacked - Resumes And Email Addresses Stolen

Adding to the shitstorm we've been forced to wade through recently, Eidos Interactive have unfortunately been accessed illegally and had some info taken. Among the information stolen are 350 resumes submitted for job positions and 25,000 email addresses from registered Eidos Interactive accounts. The resumes thing is the worst I think, imagine applying for a job you really want, and then finding out that your info was stolen... and then finding out you were 1 of 350 applicants and had basically no chance of getting the job anyway. That's a bad Friday the 13th.

Modern Warfare 3 Info Leaked - But No Spoilers Here

Details of the next Modern Warfare game have come to light, but are apparently filled with spoilers, so I've not delved too deeply into them. All I know thus far is that the game will follow directly on from MW2 and will take players to locales such as New York, Paris and London. Multiplayer will obviously be back and Spec Ops will make it's return. Other than that I wanna find out the rest when they actually officially announce the game at E3.

Modern Warfare 2 - The most successful mountain climbing simulator of all timeMortal Kombat "Finishes Him!"

Mortal Kombat beat out all competition in April, despite going up against Portal 2 and not being available on PC. The true order goes like this:

1. Mortal Kombat
2. Portal 2
3. Lego Star Wars III: Clone Wars
4. Call Of  Duty: Black Ops (WHAT?!?)
5. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters
6. Crysis 2
7. Just Dance 2
8. Michael Jackson: The Experience
9. Pokemon: White
10. NBA 2K11

Glad at that top 3, although personally I'd have preferred to see Portal and MK swapped round. Lego games still big in 2011, absolute dynamite!

Great game, one for the kids

Daily News - 11th May 2011 - Portal 2 and Soul Calibur V

Valve Release Portal 2 Authoring Tools To Everyone

So far the tools are in beta but if you've ever taken a look at a Portal puzzle and thought "I could do better than this!" Then now you can. While you can get this right now, bear in mind it's not the finished version so expect a few bugs here and there. You can find it in the "tools" tab on Steam.

Childsplay!

Soul Calibur V Is A Thing That's Happening

I loved Soul Calibur 2, it had Link in it and everything! But any Soul Calibur before or since, for whatever reason, didn't tickle my fancy at all (even with Darth Vader and Yoda in them), so imagine my (sarcastic) delight at hearing about a fifth entry in the series! The game will take place 17 years after SCIV and follow the story of Patroklos, Sophitia's son. Expect some old characters and some new and then expect Soul Calibur's fighting system and I imagine you've pretty much got the entire game figured out in your head but if you must have a visual aide, take a look at the god-awful trailer below.

Daily News - 10th May 2011 - Hitman, Alan Wake 2 and Bond, James Bond

Hitman: Absolution Is A Thing That's Happening

IO Interactive and Square Enix have confirmed that they are indeed making another Hitman game. While details are sparse, we do know that's it's up and running on a completely new engine, which means any minute fears we may have had of it running on the same engine as Hitman: Blood Money are nicely quashed. Blood Money came out 5 years ago, I like to think that in that time IO have come up with so many new ways to assassinate mafia bosses that it'll make even the most "hardcore" of gamers turn away in disgust. Hitman's one of the last franchises that can get away with ridiculous murder, so I hope they go the whole hog.

 this pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Hitman

Alan Wake 2 Is Another Thing That's Happening

Remedy, the guys behind Alan Wake today responded to yesterday's cat being let out of the bag byt saying yes, there will be a sequel to Alan Wake 2, but also kinda said there's a good chance it wont be called Alan Wake. I'll let you guys read it for yourselves:

"Fans of the franchise will be excited to learn that yes, more Wake is coming! But to be absolutely certain to avoid confusion, this next Wake installment will not be Alan Wake 2. But neither will it be DLC. The rest we're saving for our official announcement when we'll actually SHOW YOU.

We are really excited about this project which a slice of our team has been working on for the last months. It's something that'll definitely give more to the Wake fans out there, but just as importantly, this installment will also give an opportunity for players who aren't familiar with the franchise to finally jump on board.

We can't wait to show you more, bear with us. Release dates, platforms and pricing are unconfirmed as of yet, but Fall 2011 is probably a good guess. More coming soon!"

Pretty cryptic, but that's the fun of something like Alan Wake, you don't know what's going on right up until the end, and then maybe not even after that. The first one was a fun game so here's to another!

Shotguns make me less afraid of the dark too...A James Bond Game This Year... Is Happening

Basically all we know is that it'll be out before the end of the financial year 2011 and that it'll probably be terrible. Poor Bond, since Goldeneye (apparently even that Wii version of Goldeneye is good) his games have been a constant attempt to emulate that success, always falling horribly on their face. What we need is a Hitman-esque take on Bond, with Bond stealthing and mingling his way into secret bunkers and high-class balls alike, all the while ready to make love / murder at a moments notice. I'd be pretty happy with a Bond game with a little more downtime, I want the opportunity to explore the MI6 hub between missions, pulling the employees and testing out gadgets with so much dry British wit and so many double entendres you don't know whether to blush or wink at yourself in the mirror... preferably with a Mass Effect style conversation system. Is that really asking too much? Oh right, yes. Yes it is.

It'll probably have better graphics though, to be fair.

Daily News - 9th May 2011 - Diablo III, Alan Wake 2 and More!

Daily PSN Update

I'm glad I discovered how to make bullet points, makes this PSN outage a whole lot easier to handle!

• Despite early reports that Sony would definitely have PSN back up and running by May 31st, Sony were quick to point out that they said no such thing. Worrying.
• Vice President of Capcom Christain Svensson said that the PSN outage has probably cost Capcom hundreds of thousands of dollars in downloads. This also goes for every other game manufacturer who has games available to buy via Playstation Network.

Someone's CV Says They Worked On Alan Wake 2?...

The CV belonged to a pre-visualisation artist who claims to have worked on cinematics for the game for a company called Halon Entertainment, a company which did this (awesome) advertisement for Halo: Reach, so a link to Microsoft already exists. It seems almost inevitable that a game that did as critically well as alan Wake would get a sequel but this is fairly flimsy evidence to go on. Still, one more reason to look forward to E3! (As if there weren't enough of those already)

Hasn't he been through enough?!?Budgie Won't Be At E3 This Year

Not a massive news story, but one that's worth talking about. Since Budgie were released from the shackles of Microsoft exclusivity, they've laid pretty low on what they would do next, but it's been a while since Reach came out and you would probably expect them to have something. Still, no need to rush these things, so long as whatever they make has iron-sights, I'm sure it'll be fine...

 Let's be honest, the only good thing about the Halo games was their uncanny ability to contain Nathan Fillion

Yep, They're Making The Next Modern Warfare

Not a huge surprise but yep, it's coming, with details to come in the upcoming weeks. Activision sound like they're aiming to please aswell, with Activision's Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg saying:

"[We're excited by] the creative excellence and sheer scale of the game we are making," said Hirshberg, "and the unprecedented online universe that will accompany it will reset the bar for this genre, giving players a new level of immersion, connectivity, community and, of course, epic action. The game has exceeded every internal milestone and we look forward to sharing it with you soon."

Sounds ambitious, I look forward to it!

Remember this! Yeah, how mental was that!Diablo III Beta Out Before October

Yep, not being a  fella who's ever played any Diablo myself I find it hard to get excited by this, but I know alot of you guys will love it. Blizzard say the Beta will be out before the end of 2011's 3rd quarter and that they're aiming to have the full game out by the end of the year.

I hope this is a Diable 3 screenshot, I have zero frame of reference