None
The Week in Review news piece summarizes and highlights the most important gaming related news and rumors over the past week. This weekly article will keep you plugged in and in-tune. A lot of nice gaming bits of info came to the forefront this week. Rockstar and Take-Two kicked us off with the release date announcement of GTA: Chinatown Wars. The DS exclusive will make a March 17th debut in North America and March 20th in Europe. In light of this announcement, GameStop proclaimed that GTA fans interested in the upcoming handheld title will be rewarded for pre-ordering GTA: Chinatown Wars. Pre-orders will secure consumers’ access to $10,000 of in-game cash as well as the entire arsenal of weaponry the game has to offer right out of the box. Finally, key members of Rockstar Games’ senior creative talent, including Sam Houser, Dan Houser, and Leslie Benzies have entered into employment agreements that will cede control of a host of new Rockstar IPs to Take-Two Interactive. The contracts are set to run through January 31, 2012 and should make all involved a lot richer. Hopefully, long-time fans won’t be left in the lurch. Also outed this week were the God of War 3 plans for PS3 . Following the debut of the first gameplay trailer at the 2008 VGA, notable improvements were fleshed out including a revamped graphics engine that quadruples texture resolutions since the series’ last effort. Dante’s Inferno , not to be confused with the Devil May Cry character, is officially in production at EA’s Redwood Shores ; the creative studio behind Dead Space. Details surrounding the game are scant, but the title will be based on the first part of Alighieri’s epic poem, Divine Comedy , that details the bowels of hell from a medieval European perspective. Executive Producer Jonathan Knight stated that “the time is right for the world of interactive entertainment to adapt this literary masterpiece, and to re-introduce Dante to an audience who, until now, may have been unfamiliar with the remarkable details of this great work of art. It’s the perfect opportunity to fuse great gameplay with great story.” Nintendo announced something that warped me back to my earliest gaming days filled with Cool Ranch Doritos and 64 ounce Lum-Berrr-Jack softdrinks. The Nintendo Fun Club has been rebranded and relaunched in North America. Club Nintendo allows Nintendo consumers to register their hardware and software with the big N and get coins to spend on some useful (and a lot of useless) Nintendo goodies, including games, trading cards, exclusive gear, and various swag. Confirming suspicions on the heels of last week’s release of the cryptic Kojima website, Konami announced it is to bring three of its most popular games to Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch platforms, including an all-new version of Metal Gear Solid. The publisher will release Metal Gear Solid Touch, Silent Hill: The Escape, and Frogger for the Apple unit in early 2009, with each game specifically designed to make full use of the iPhone’s unique touch screen capabilities. What would a week in review be without hearing from Square Enix? Dissidia Final Fantasy, exclusive to the Sony PSP, will be available in the middle of 2009 to North American consumers. Click HERE for the storyline and key features details. This brings us to this week’s big rumor. According to a Eurogamer report, “publishing sources” have mentioned that yet another PSP redesign will be released in 2009. However, no details surrounding the PSP-4000 have been fully fleshed out. Moreover, these sources have stated that games for the PSP2 are currently in development. This would point to a 2010 release for the next generation Sony handheld. However, SCEE boss David Reeves denies that he knows anything about the new hardware. Thanks so much everyone and we will see you next week! |