All Articles: PS3

Activision: “True Crime would’ve been an 85”

Posted on April 14, 2011 by John Scalzo

Activision’s Head of Developer Relations, Dan Winters, recently sat down with GamesIndustry.biz to talk a little about the megapublisher’s developer culture and possibly refute some of that “evil empire” talk. He also touched on the recently canned True Crime: Hong Kong and revealed that Activision actually had great confidence in the quality of the title. Its cancellation appears to have been strictly business (specifically, it wouldn’t have done as much business as Red Dead Redemption):

We think that the game was tracking to be a very good game. The question was really the size of the prize based on how good it could be. We are confident that thing would of been eighty plus. Eighty five maybe. […] But…The challenges in the market place right now, when you’re talking about open-world games that are going to compete with titles like Red Dead Redemption, expectations for the consumer are really high.

Winters would go on to hint that Activision might be willing to offer the nearly complete game to another publisher: “[True Crime: Hong Kong] would have been, and still might end up being, a very successful mid-tier opportunity for someone.”

Who can say whether Activision is really the evil empire or not? But if they’re cancelling a nearly complete game that they think is worthy of some great review scores, I’d say that’s pretty frickin’ evil.

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Madden NFL 12 blitzes stores on August 30

Posted on April 13, 2011 by John Scalzo

Rob Semsey, the Director of Public Relations at EA Sports, has tweeted that Madden NFL 12 will be released on August 30. Normally, the Madden series rushes stores during the middle of the month, but with this year’s labor problems between the NFL and the players union, perhaps the publisher wanted to give the development team at EA Tiburon a little more time before the season starts.

Semsey said the later release date was picked “to align closer to the start of the NFL regular season.”

Whatever the reason, the currently cover athelete-less Madden NFL 12 will be released for the PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360 whether the lockout is resolved or not.

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Street Fighter X Tekken gets trailer, adds PC version

Posted on April 12, 2011 by John Scalzo

Above you’ll find the first trailer from Street Fighter X Tekken, Capcom’s latest crossover event. Watch as Ryu, Ken, Guile, Abel and Chun-Li from the Street Fighter series take on Kazuya, Nina, King, Marduk, and Bob from the Tekken franchise. You’ll get a glimpse at the game’s Tag Battle fighting system as well as a view of the Capcomized versions of the Tekken cast.

Street Fighter X Tekken will be coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime in 2012. Capcom used their Captivate event to confirm that a version is in the works for the PC as well.

Head on over to the Capcom-Unity blog to see the first screenshots of SFxT and another trailer.

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Welcome back Frank! Dead Rising 2: Off the Record announced

Posted on April 12, 2011 by John Scalzo

Frank West is back! The photojournalist who’s covered wars will return to experience his second zombie outbreak in Dead Rising 2: Off the Record. Available for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this Fall, the game will reveal what Frank was up to during Dead Rising 2 in a brand new Fortune City attraction.

More than a mere spinoff, Capcom has promised that Off the Record will include “more twisted enemies” and “more outrageous combo weapons” as well as “enhancements to the save system and the co-op experience.” We also get to see Frank West deliver a suplex to a zombie while wearing wrestling tights. Oh yeah, welcome back Frank!

Frank’s return will also bring back the picture taking from the original Dead Rising and the Prestige Points (PP) exerpience system. And Frank’s camera will have plenty of new subjects as Capcom has said that Off the Record will include new enemies and new Psychos.

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CoD: Black Ops Escalation Map Pack coming May 3

Posted on April 12, 2011 by John Scalzo

Activision has announced that the second map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops, Escalation, will be available to download on May 3. As with all other CoD DLC, the Escalation pack will exclusively be available on the Xbox Live Marketplace before eventually being added to the PlayStation Store and PC download sites.

The pack will include four new multiplayer maps, along with something Activision is referring to as Call of the Dead, “a Zombies experience like none before it.”

“In crafting the Escalation multiplayer maps – Zoo, Convoy, Hotel and Stockpile – the team developed them to be distinct experiences in their own right, giving players the variety they crave in both setting and gameplay,” said Treyarch Studio Head, Mark Lamia. “And I don’t want to spoil any surprises for Zombies fans, but Call of the Dead takes it to a whole new level.”

To celebrate the upcoming release of Escalation , Treyarch will host a Double XP weekend beginning Friday, May 6th.

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Rodgers, Hillis, Vick, Peterson are the Madden NFL 12 final four

Posted on April 11, 2011 by John Scalzo

The third round of the Madden NFL 12 Cover Vote has come to a close and now only four names remain.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers emerged victorious over New England’s Danny Woodhead. He’ll face Peyton Hillis of the Cleveland Browns in the semifinals, who continued his cinderella run with a win over Kansas City’s Jamaal Charles.

The other half of the bracket includes Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick on top, Vick beat the 49ers’ Patrick Willis in round three. He’ll be challenged by Vikings wide receiver Adrian Peterson, who stomped Drew Brees with 62% of the vote.

Semifinal voting begins today and runs through April 17.

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Brink release date moved up to May 10

Posted on April 11, 2011 by John Scalzo

Bethesda Softworks has announced that Spalsh Damage’s parkour-inspired shooter, Brink, will be available in stores sooner than expected. The game, which was previously penciled in for May 17, will now be released a week earlier on May 10.

“Production wrapped on Brink earlier than we planned and we didn’t see any reason to keep gamers from getting their hands on this highly anticipated game as soon as it was ready,” said Pete Hines, VP of PR and Marketing for Bethesda Softworks. “It’s apparent from the tremendous reaction so far that people are eager to jump online and play, and if we can make that happen earlier – we’re going to.”

Getting a week’s headstart on the May 17 release of the hugely hyped L.A. Noire was probably a part of the decision process as well.

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Upsets abound in Round 2 of Madden NFL 12 voting

Posted on April 4, 2011 by John Scalzo

The second round of voting for the Madden NFL 12 cover athlete is complete and a ton of top seeds have been knocked out.

Jacksonville’s Maurice Jones-Drew (#3), Atlanta’s Matt Ryan (#2), Pittsburgh’s Hines Ward (#2) and San Diego’s Phillip Rivers (#1) have all escaped the Madden cover curse been voted out by the fans. The survivors of the second round include several Cinderella stories, though Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers is still alive as well in round three:

Aaron Rodgers (#1) vs Danny Woodhead (#4)
Jamaal Charles (#6) vs Peyton Hillis (#10)

Adrian Peterson (#9) vs Drew Brees (#4)
Michael Vick (#3) vs Patrick Willis (#10)

Voting for the third round begins today and runs through April 11th at ESPN.com/maddenvote.

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