1P Start

Metal Gear Solid 4 is now upon us, and it has been widely greeted as the best game ever to appear on any machine ever, which I think means it’s quite good. However, it is also relatively short, with many lucky PS3 owners having already finished it after clocking in 20 hours or so gameplay. While the more hardcore amongst you may be starting it all over again, many will now box up Hideo Kojima’s latest masterpiece and start looking to the future instead.

Luckily for those people, Metal Gear Solid 5 has already been mooted, although not officially announced by Kojima. Even though this fourth instalment is the last chapter in the Solid Snake story, it’s not the end of the franchise, or even the end of Big Boss.

In an interview with 1UP, MGS4 assistant producer Ryan Payton revealed some tidbits about the future of the franchise, and the possibility that the next game could well take the form of a prequel.

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Nintendo has always been the games company that puts fun above all else, sometimes at the expense of innovation, graphics, and moving the game industry forward. In that sense, you could say that Nintendo is the casual gamer to the hardcore gamer folk at Sony and Microsoft.

This generation has seen the casual gamer tag being applied to the Nintendo consoles more than ever, because both the Wii and DS have a much wider range of appeal than their competitors the PSP, PS3 and Xbox 360. But despite being inherently and unashamedly casual in their intent, I thought Nintendo would at least respect the more hardcore amongst us. But it seems not after comments from Nintendo of Europe managing director of marketing Laurent Fischer prove.

In an article about Wiiware, the downloadable games store for the Wii which features hundreds of small but highly playable games, NextGen.biz revealed that Fischer referred to the storage space problems on the Wii by saying how “geeks and otaku” were the only people who would want the issue addressed.

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When the PSP was first announced by Sony, all of the elements were there for it to be a huge success - brilliant graphics, a great games line-up, the Playstation brand etc. Unfortunately for Sony, sales never really managed to light up the world as they were expected to, and the Nintendo DS then came in and provided a cheaper, more casual alternative. The PSP has never really recovered, but is it now too late for a recovery?

GI.biz recently interviewed Ubisoft’s UK managing director Rob Cooper, and he had some not very pleasant things to say about the platform, and the direction, or lack of it, that Sony is heading in.

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Addiction of any kind is obviously a huge problem, and in these days when most of us can get hold of pretty much anything we desire, the range of addictions is growing massively.

It used to be that someone’s vice was sex, drugs, or drink, and that was about it. Now we have different forms of addiction, from porn, to the Internet, to gaming. However, out of those, I’d assume that gaming was the least serious, with less underlying reasons attached to it. But that’s not the case, at least according to Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist in Portland, Oregon, who recently spoke to Boston.com about the prevalence of addiction to games such as World of Warcraft.

Block specializes in treating gamers who get so caught up in the world of warlocks and elves that they can’t then drag themselves away. And he views gaming addiction as more serious, and more complicated to treat than porn addiction.

The reasons he claims are to blame for this are two-fold. Firstly, porn addiction is more tolerated than gaming addiction. People expect porn to be a factor in a huge number of people’s lives. Sex is all around us, and so when someone gets addicted to one element of that, it’s not wholly unexpected.

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At the beginning of last month, rumours emerged of Microsoft developing a Wii Remote style controller for the Xbox 360 in an attempt to grab a piece of Nintendo’s obviously huge market. The company has already started this strategy by releasing the Xbox Arcade pack, a cheap and cheerful package to appeal to casual gamers everywhere.

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of months, here’s a short rehash of the rumours. MTV News (not who I’d normally look to for gaming news, or any other news for that matter) reported that an inside Microsoft source has revealed the plans for an almost exact replica of the Wii Remote. It looks almost identical, although is thought to have a microphone included for future games similar to Singstar.

At the time, Microsoft refused to comment on the speculation, as they do with almost every rumour, but Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has chosen to speak out.

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We already know that the next instalment of Grand Theft Auto is going to be the biggest, the most graphically impressive, and probably the most violent to date. But it also looks set to be the funniest, as British comedian, star and writer of The Office and Extras has revealed he’s got a part in the game.

He recently spoke to Shortlist magazine, and told them how he’ll appear in the game as himself, performing at a stand up comedy club in down town Liberty City.

“It’s a first - which always interests me. It was shot in New York, my favourite place in the world, and I got to wear a tight lycra suit as part of the digital process. No, hold on, that wasn’t so good.”

“Unfortunately they captured the whole horror, except I look slightly tougher. It’s seriously a big deal, though. Games have outsold Hollywood for the past few years so it’s nice to be a small part of that.”

Which sort of gives it away a little that the only reason Gervais said yes to what must have been an odd approach from Rockstar was because he realised how much impact games now have on popular culture, and wanted a piece of the action. Hell, he’s got himself on or in every other type of medium over the past few years, including a particularly unmemorable part on The Simpsons.

His stand up is brilliant though, so the chance to watch never seen before rants from Gervais is yet another reason to buy the game when it comes out on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 next week.

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Gaming industry analysts are becoming more vocal, and consequentially, more listened to every month, with gamers hanging on every word some star names say. Michael Pachter, the analyst for Wedbush Morgan is one such name, and his latest prediction is about the forthcoming Grand Theft Auto game.

We all know Grand Theft Auto 4, or GTA IV if you’re down with the kids, is going to be huge, it’s almost guaranteed. It’s a game which is seeming to unite Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 owners across the divide that is the console format war.

Everyone is eagerly awaiting the release, which has now been confirmed for both systems on April 29th. Pachter believes that it will be by far the biggest game of 2008, selling an incredible 6 million copies in its first week.

According to NextGen.biz, he said:

“We think that GTA IV will generate around $450 million of the [Take-Two's] expected $1,073 million publishing revenue this year, and will generate an operating profit of around 30 percent, or $135 million. At the high end of company guidance, Take-Two will generate operating income of around $130 million, meaning that the game is responsible for 103 percent of overall company operating profit.”

That’s a pretty big claim, but it’s all part of Pachter’s continuing support for the Electronic Arts buy out of rival publisher Take-Two, which he seems to be all for.

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As work for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 finishes up, a designer on the game, Philippe Therien sat down with Eurogamer to discuss the series. The second sentence and first quote posted ends up being a huge “THANK GOD” heard worldwide across millions of computers as they read the news:

“We will never go back to Vegas - at least, not in the foreseeable future.”

Now does this mean the next Rainbow Six (After Vegas 2) will include a full game that sticks with one locale, that is not known at this moment. What is known, is that a lot of gamers were very happy when Rainbow Six was released and having the full game be set in Las Vegas = cool! However the novelty has worn thin, I think Xbox Live activity numbers can attest to that, Rainbow Six Vegas ended up being a rental rather than a buy for a lot (or at least CoD4 and Halo 3 has stopped everyone on my friends list from playing.. which I am sure is partly to blame as well).

Still, I have read Eurogamers’s preview of the game and I know at the very least I will be adding this to my GameFly queue right this second, the game is shaping up quite nicely, still not a “must buy” so far, but I can wait for full reviews to get behind that statement fully.

(Note: Literally 10-20 seconds after posting this news I was emailed a Digg story from the good folks at MEGATONik showing 9 new videos of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 in action.. I am off to check that post now because reading a preview of a game vs video of said game is no brainer)
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Interview, Leaving Las Vegas, Philippe Therien, Rainbow Six, Ubisoft

There have been rumours rumbling for months now about a version of Rock Band for the Nintendo Wii. Although Electronic Arts, who distributes the game for publisher MTV, wouldn’t confirm of deny the intense speculation, it seems EA’s chief executive John Riccitiello just couldn’t hold the news in any longer.

During a conference call discussing EA’s 3rd quarter financial results, he spilled the beans on what will be music (pun intended) to Wii owners ears, saying:

“In terms of pacing the next few quarters, you’re probably well aware of the more than $2.5 million music downloads that have occurred on Rock Band,”

“What’s probably the most interesting pieces right now is the coming launch on the Wii, the continued sale of the core platforms in North America, and then the fiscal ‘09 launch across Europe against all of the SKU.”

That seems pretty clear to me, and unless it’s a wind up of massive magnitude, I think a release on the Wii is almost guaranteed now.

There are obviously no further details present as of yet, including how the game would work, the control method it will use, a release date, and planned pricing strategy.

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The Manager over at Gamersyde was able to nab aside Hiroyuki Kobayashi, the producer on Devil May Cry 4, and get some pretty detailed information on the upcoming game. Below is some of the highlights from the interview, click here to read that in full, for now, here are just the facts ma’am:

Dante and Neros playing styles are very different.

PS3/360 Versions = No Difference (we’ll see). Content wise, they will be the same.

The backdrops to the game are inspired by some staff traveling to “Italy, Spain & Turkey specifically to research the gothic architecture of castles, cathedrals and other great buildings found in these countries”

If the DMC series were to be put in a time line, DMC4 would be the third in the storyline.

Nero is the focus, Dante still plays a part in the story of course.

No to Marionnettes and Scissor Sisters

Yes to Frost and Assault.

No co-op or multiplayer modes planned.

No DLC planned (woo).

Bringing DMC4 to the 360 instead of keeping it a Sony exclusive was purely to bring the series to a wider audience, not because of the PS3 install base at the time the game was developed (yeah right).

No unlockable characters.

Possible DMC5 if this game goes well.

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Ladies and Gents it pains me to say my farewells to 1PStart. I’ve been here only a short time, though I’ve been at Xbox 360 Rally (another 451 site) for just under a year. I will miss you guys, though you’re probably throwing a party, chanting “he’s leaving! Huzzah! Huzzah!”. If you do miss me, though, you can find me at my new home BingeGamer.net.

It’s been fun, and I hope to see y’all around.

P.S.: Qbix — E-mail me, dude. I’m still gonna get your GTA IV to ya.

With the massive success and popularity of the Nintendo Wii, it’s no surprise that developers and publishers alike are hoping that their next Wii-lease (heh, see what I did there? I made a… pun… moving on) will be the next big hit for the Nintendo platform. When you consider the unique controller the system uses, it seems like an obvious choice to make a game all about fitness and that is exactly what Hudson Soft, Namco Bandai and Nintendo themselves are doing. However, if you ask Namco Bandai’s Sayaki Mori, only one game will deliver a true workout experience.

In an interview with Gamasutra, Mori-san pointed out that “When it comes to Wii Fit, you use your feet. When it comes to DecaSporta, you just use the Wiimote and that’s it. But with this one, you use both.” He continued, saying:

It’s a combination between the mat and the Wiimote. So that’s the differentiation factor. And I’m pretty sure that this will be the only game out that uses a mat and a Wiimote at the same time.

While I applaud Mori-san for getting the word out about Athletic World, I still have a hard time not thinking that just about every game released for the Wii that is not published by Nintendo is going to be complete garbage. I hope to be proven wrong, but until I am I’m going to just stick with the N, thank you.

Especially when you’re the publisher responsible for Soulcalibur Legends… yeouch.

[Gamasutra]

Nintendo, Wii, Namco Bandai

Nintendo of America’s top boss, Reggie “I’ll eat your soul and you’ll like it” Fils-Aime has gotten himself into a rather precarious situation. Yesterday Fils-Aime told Pocket Gamer that anybody who wanted a Nintendo DS this holiday would have one, saying “Any consumer that wants a Nintendo DS this holiday season will have one”. Isn’t that what I just said? Nevermind, let’s move on.

However, as pointed out by CVG it appears that El Reginald has inadvertantly controdicted both himself and Nintendo as he told Reuters “The DS continues to perform exceptionally well, with some retailers voicing concerns about DS inventory going into the holiday”.

Now, I am not a scientist or anything, but this does seem like a conflict of beliefs on the surface. However, when you take a step back and look at what he said, you can see that Fils-Aime said nothing about Nintendo’s ability to fill stock demands. He simply said retailers are worried, as well they should be. If there is one game system that will smack the Wii around like a stepchild, it’s the DS.

Nintendo DS, Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo, Reuters

In an interview with Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, SCE’s Chief Executive Kaz Hirai said that Sony’s focus for the next year will be on software more than hardware.

[PlayStation 3] is starting afresh as a console to play games with. Although pricing strategy is important, now we would like to put out strength in the number of software games.

In the same interview, Hirai stood behind Sony’s goal of selling 11 million PlayStation 3 units by the end of fiscal 2008 (which is March, 2009 or something). While Sony and the PS3 was slow out of the gate, keep one thing well in mind before doubting Sony:

The PlayStation, and PlayStation 2 were also slow out of the gate. Don’t sleep on Sony just yet.

[GameDaily]

Sony, PlayStation 3, Kaz Hirai

GUI J of Platform Nation was able to have a sit down with the game director at Propaganda, Joel Manners, who is working on the newest Turok. Some questions I know I had on my mind were asked and answered, and here is the cream of the crop of information from the interview:

4 player co-op, with three specific co-op mission maps.

Dinosaurs will be part of the multiplayer game and will appear in all modes (a great quote from Manners on this, “Being able to lure hungry dinos toward your enemies is one of the most satisfying parts of our multiplayer experience“).

No cerebral bore.

Some DLC or update of some kind is on the horizon, but no specifics mentioned.

A lot more about the setting in Turok and why they decided to bring the franchise back out can be found at the full interview here. If you haven’t had enough Turok information yet, here is a new Gamersyde Diaries with lots of footage of the new Turok and some more on the development of the game:

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Turok, Propaganda Games, Unreal Engine