E3, the video-game industry's big trade show, is next week, so a lot of the new software coming between now and Christmas. But there's a bit of a lull until Aug. 12, when "Madden NFL 09" unofficially marks the beginning of the fall game season. Here are the best of the year so far:

1. "Grand Theft Auto IV" (Rockstar, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3): The latest episode of "GTA" has its flaws, particularly in the storytelling department. But living a life of crime has never been more fun, thanks to much tighter gameplay and an exquisitely detailed vision of a decaying metropolis.

2. "Lost Odyssey" (Microsoft, for the Xbox 360): The epic tale of immortal mercenary Kaim is a delight for fans of classic role-playing games.

3. "The World Ends With You" (Square Enix, for the Nintendo DS): This adventure set in modern Tokyo is the most innovative RPG in years.

4. "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots" (Konami, for the PS3): It may be more of a movie than a game, but it's a dazzling finale for one of gaming's most fascinating sagas.

5. "Professor Layton and the Curious Village" (Nintendo, for the DS): Charming characters wrestle with clever puzzles in this beautifully written and illustrated gem.

Reference:

http://www.gamepro.com/

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 4:22 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Games, Nintendo, PlayStation, Wii, XBox

Aerosmith fans can finally get their chance to feel themselves as Steven Tyler and Joe Perry as video game developer Activision Inc released its Guitar Hero: Aerosmith game on Friday.

Dozens flocked to the Hard Rock restaurant in Times Square to see the legendary five-member rock band debut the game and try out the latest Guitar Hero addition. Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford even brought his sons to take a look at the band's creation.

The game features 30 of the band's most notable hits such as "Love in an Elevator" and "Sweet Emotion." It also includes songs from various artists Aerosmith performed and collaborated with over the years, including Run D.M.C.'s "Walk This Way" and "I Hate Myself for Loving You" by Joan Jett. There is even a special guitar controller emblazoned with the band's red-and-white logo for hard core fans.

The game and guitar controller bundle for Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Xbox 360, Sony Corp's (6758.T) PlayStation3 and Nintendo Co Ltd's (7974.OS) Wii sells for $99.99, with an additional PlayStation2 version for $89.99. The game is also sold individually for each of the consoles and costs $59.99 and $49.99, respectively.

The Aerosmith game is the first Guitar Hero edition that focuses on an individual rock band. The previous three versions of the game featured various rock music genres that ranged from grunge, classic rock, metal, punk and '80s hits.

During the game's creation, band members spent two weeks performing in a motion capture studio in order for their video game figures to move exactly as the group performs on stage. Activision is set to come out with a Metallica Guitar Hero edition in 2009, but declined to specify what month the game will be released.

The company will also release Guitar Hero: World Tour during the Christmas season, which will include a drum set and microphone in addition to the guitar controller. This version will rival Activision's biggest competitor "Rock Band," produced by Viacom Inc's MTV unit and Electronic Arts Inc.

Reference:

http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=318345

http://www.guitarhero.com/ghaerosmith/uk/#/media/

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 10:40 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Game Sharing, Games

Sony Corp. will win back its electronic leadership by improving its Internet-linked gadgets, wiping out losses in video games and TVs and pushing services and software, not just hardware. "This is not your father's Sony, “ - Chief Executive Howard Stringer said Thursday at Sony's Tokyo headquarters, outlining a strategy for growth.

Stringer said the company will become profitable in its TV and video game businesses during this fiscal year, which ends March 2009. Company wants to beef up networking gadgets, making sure 90 percent of Sony Corp.'s electronics products wirelessly connect to the Net by March 2011. Sony has rebounded from a bottom in 2005 by exiting or downsizing 15 product categories, reducing 10,000 global workers and shutting down 11 manufacturing sites.

Sony is going to come up with better software and services that match its longtime reputation for gadgets and entertainment content. A movie download service also will come for the PlayStation 3 game console in the summer in the U.S., said Kazuo Hirai, who heads Sony's video game unit. The service will be offered in Japan and Europe at later dates.

Sony is widely viewed as having erred in not pursuing flat-panel TVs soon enough, and in sticking to proprietary software with its gadgets, battering its earnings early in the decade. But it has posted a remarkable recovery recently, racking up a record profit of $3.5 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31. Now, executives said, Sony is investing $16.7 billion over the next three years for future technology. Sony made its announcements shortly after trading ended on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Its U.S. shares slipped 67 cents to $45.55 Thursday.

Reference:

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200806/08-080E/08-080E.pdf

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 10:45 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Games, PlayStation

What does it feels like when you are politics and doing your job? It’s like a big, serious game! U.S. presidential election year was an idea of a new computer game called "Political Machine" casts you as Democrat Barack Obama, Republican John McCain, or other politicians trying to win the White House.

The underlying mechanics of "Political Machine" will be familiar to veterans of strategy games that usually have players collect resources, build facilities and make weapons. Instead of weapons like nuclear cannons and energy beams, players deploy spin doctors and smear merchants to take down opponents and boost their own ratings. Instead of conquering planets, players must win over enough states to carry them to electoral victory.

The game also offers alternate scenarios, such as the 1860 election that preceded the U.S. Civil War, and more whimsical ones like seeing what Europe or an alien planet would be like if U.S.-style elections were transplanted there. The game had mixed success in predicting the outcome of the 2004 election: it picked Kerry over Bush but correctly foresaw that the contest boiled down to who won Ohio.

"Political Machine" went on sale this week for personal computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system. Luckiest one who loves politics!

References:

http://www.politicalmachine.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Political_Machine

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 9:16 PM | 1 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Game Sharing, Games, Microsoft

New research shows that U.S. retail sales of video games, consoles and game accessories hit $1.12 billion in May, a 37 percent rise over the same month last year. These parameters reported on Thursday by Market researcher NPD Group.


Take-Two Interactive Corp's Grand Theft Auto continues to be the No. 1 selling video game, and its version IV, released in April, sold 871,300 units in May. According to the research the top-selling hardware unit is Nintendo Co.'s Wii console. 675,100 units were sold in May. Nintendo's DS handheld player took second with 452,600 units sold. Those units have captured the top two spot's for four consecutive months. Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 trailed with 208,700 and 186,600 units sold.


As to hardware sales, they rose 34 percent to $428.6 million, while software sales rose 41 percent to $536.9 million, compared to the same month last year. Sales year-to-date come to $6.6 billion and the industry is on pace to bring in revenue between $21 billion and $23 billion for 2008.

Reference:
http://www.npd.com/corpServlet?nextpage=corp_welcome.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2008-06-13-video-games-sales-may_N.htm?csp=34

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 10:17 PM | 2 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Game Sharing, Games, Hardware, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, Wii, XBox

Dominate, sales, incredible demand, breaking records, these key terms are invariably showing up in headlines, and becoming synonymous with PSP. This hardware is continually dominating sales in Japan. Weekly Japanese hardware sales fell across the board once more, but PSP retained its place at the top of the chart by some distance.

Having outsold its nearest competitor, Nintendo's Wii, by 22,500 units the week prior, PSP sales came in at nearly 30,000 greater than those of the home console during the week ended May 18. Sales were likely boosted again by the success of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, which blue shelled Mario Kart Wii to reclaim the top spot in the latest Japanese software chart and pass the two million sales mark. While DS software is selling extremely well in Japan, taking 15 of the top 30 chart places during the week in question, sales of the handheld fell 16,000 units week-over-week, although the system was only 6,500 units short of the Wii's total.

PS3 sales were only 700 units greater than those of its predecessor, but should pick up in the coming weeks as new bundle offerings appear closer to Metal Gear Solid 4's June 12 release. Xbox 360 sold around 200 units more than it managed during the week ended May 11, but its total was still shy of 1,500.

- PSP: 70,536

19,348 (21.53%)

- Wii: 41,572

25,736 (38.24%)

- DS Lite: 34,905

16,323 (31.86%)

- PS3: 7,701

353 (4.38%)

- PS2: 7,022

422 (5.92%)

- Xbox 360: 1,47

196 (13.56%)

Reference:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/25/japanese-hardware-sales-may-12-may-18-deja-vu-edition/

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 10:02 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Games, Hardware, Nintendo, PSP, Wii, XBox

Gamers who play the new Grand Theft Auto IV are able to buy downloads of the music they hear through Amazon.com. It’s an interesting twist on music marketing.

When playing Grand Theft Auto IV, players can listen to over 200 songs across 16 in-game radio stations. A new GTA IV feature called ZIT lets customers 'tag' the songs they like. When a player hears a song that interests them, they can dial ZIT-555-0100 on their in-game cell phone, and a text message appears on the phone with the song title and artist. The ZIT number is recorded on the phone for easy one-key lookups of future songs.

After playing, gamers can log on to the new online Rockstar Games Social Club community site at https://socialclub.rockstargames.com/, where they can see their stats from their game play and the full list of songs they've tagged. The site will offer a link to a customized playlist of these songs on Amazon MP3, where they can preview, purchase and download the songs as 256 kbps MP3 files.

References:

http://rockstargames.com/IV/

http://xbox360.ign.com/objects/827/827005.html

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 9:32 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Sharing, Games

According to data released today by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association and compiled by Chart-Track, the UK games industry racked up a total of £418.4 million in software sales in the first quarter of 2008. It appears that Nintendo is the real winner of the increased sales, scooping up 37 percent of all unit sales thanks to the success of its Wii and DS offerings, which took the top two spots. The PC was the third most popular platform for game sales, followed by Microsoft's Xbox 360. The report also shows Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games to be the most popular game in the first quarter.

ELSPA's director general, Paul Jackson, used the release of the figures as an opportunity to petition the government for increased industry support. "The UK continues to blaze a trail in terms of creativity yet over the last few years it is becoming apparent that some talent is being lured away by more attractive prospects overseas. As it stands, the UK is already down to fourth place from third as the world's creative centre for games. It is time the Government recognised the massive financial contribution we make to the UK economy, especially when compared to the film, TV and music industries." - he said.

As previously reported on GameSpot, the UK games industry employs 25,000 people and contributes £2 billion per year to the country's economy.

References:

http://www.chart-track.co.uk/?i=543&s=1111

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 10:00 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Game Sharing, Games, Nintendo, XBox

Burnout Paradise is my favorite racing game. The game is fantastic both on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.


Criterion Games, the developer of Burnout Paradise has released an important update codenamed Bogart. The update will be available shortly on Xbox Live and PSN. As of writing this, a countdown on the Criterion's site is showing that 2 days and 15 hours (okay to be more precise 14 hours 53 minutes and 29 seconds) are remaining until Bogart's availability.

The update is quite comprehensive and you can read in detail here.

I believe it will be a real test for both Xbox Live and PSN servers once the update is available for download :)

Posted by George S. at 9:04 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Games, XBox