Qore

Qore Annual Subscription ($24.99)
Qore: Presented by the PlayStation Network is a monthly interactive video production covering the world of PlayStation. Qore provides its audience with exclusive behind-the-scenes access to developers and their games, from both the SCE Worldwide Studios and the third-party community, where the audience member can freely navigate through the content.
File size: 1.34 GB

Qore Episode 07: December, 2008 (free)
Episode 07 (December 2008) of Qore: Presented by the PlayStation®Network is being offered to all PSN account holders, 18 and older, for free! (*PSN registration required. user responsible for internet fees.) Download now to see what all of the excitement is about!
File size: 1.34 GB

Downloadable Games

Soldner-X: Himmelssturmer ($9.99)
Set in the distant future, Soldner-X: Himmelssturmer is a fast and furious shoot ‘em up with state-of-the-art graphics, driving soundtrack and classic fun gameplay sprinkled with fresh innovations. In the storyline, planet Earth’s resistance aims to stop a deadly infection consuming both life forms and technology alike, oddly having to rely on an anti-hero mercenary and bounty hunter to pilot a mighty prototype star fighter.
ESRB Rated E
File size: 845 MB

Add-on Game Content

LittleBigPlanet Kabuki Actor (free)
Download the winning Costume Contest submission from Japan. This free costume will dress your SackBoy in traditional japanese Kabuki attire.
File size: 1.04 MB

Age of Booty Map Pack 1 (free)
Download the new “Oasis” and “Slow and Stead” maps! These maps are available in the 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 playlists.
File size: 100 KB

Age of Booty Map Pack 2 (free)
Download the new “Tight Passage” and “Tug of War” maps! These maps are available in the 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 playlists.
File size: 100 KB

Age of Booty Map Pack 3 (free)
Download the new “Bombs and Whirlpools” and “Bloody Wake” maps! Battle Royal is also unlocked as a new gameplay mode. These maps are official maps and will appear in the 2v2v2v2 playlist.
File size: 100 KB

Far Cry 2 Fortunes Pack ($9.99)
Ramp up the terror with the Far Cry 2 Fortunes Pack. Loaded with 3 new weapons, 2 new vehicles and 4 new multiplayer maps. You get:

• Silenced Shotgun
• Craftsman Shotgun
• Crossbow (with explosive bolts)
• All-terrain Vehicle
• Heavy-duty Utility Truck

Plus 4 NEW MULTIPLAYER MAPS:

• Last Resort
• Cheap Labour
• Lake Smear
• Fort Fury

Let the mayhem begin…
File size: 61 MB

GRID 8-Ball Additional Content ($9.99)
The ‘8 Ball’ pack for GRID features 8 thrilling new cars and two new online events as the first in a series of three new extensions for the game. Car List: McLaren F1 GTR, TVR Cerbera Speed 12, Mitsubishi 2.0 Turbo Lancer Evolution X, Honda S2000, Nissan GTR GT500, VW Nardo, Pontiac Firebird Trans AM, Volvo C30 Green Racing.
File size: 171 MB

Guitar Hero World Tour
For all song credits please visit www.guitarhero.com

• “1979″ by The Smashing Pumpkins ($1.99)
• “G.L.O.W.” by The Smashing Pumpkins ($1.99)
• “The Everlasting Gaze” by The Smashing Pumpkins ($1.99)
• The Smashing Pumpkins Track Pack ($5.49) - Downloadable Track Pack for Guitar Hero World Tour featuring “G.l.o.w.”, “1979”, and “The Everlasting Gaze” by The Smashing Pumpkins.

File sizes: 36 MB - 45 MB (singles), 121 MB (track pack)

Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2
Expand your Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2 library by purchasing these tracks.

• Don’t You (Forget About Me) ($1.49)
• For You I Will ($1.49)
• Friends in Low Places ($1.49)
• Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door ($1.49)
• Midnight Train To Georgia ($1.49)
• Unwritten ($1.49)

File sizes: 15 MB - 54 MB

NARUTO: Ultimate Ninja STORM Pack 4 (free)
Download Storm Pack 4 and unleash legendary ninja Asuma as your support character in battle. The Storm Pack 4 also contains new Ultimate Mission to engage!
File size: 100 KB

Rock Band
Build your Rock Band library by purchasing these song game tracks. For song credits, visit www.RockBand.com.

• “Real World” - All - American Rejects ($0.99)
• “Ready, Set, Go!”- Tokio Hotel ($0.99)
• “I Don’t Want to Go to School” - Naked Brothers ($0.99)
• “Headphones On” - Miranda Cosgrove (free)
• “Hay Poco Rock N Roll” by Platero y Tu ($0.99)
• “Body I Occupy” - Naked Brothers ($0.99)
• “Are You Dead Yet?” - Children of Bodom ($0.99)
• “Tutto E Possibile” - Finley ($0.99)
• “Tempted” - Squeeze ($0.99)

File sizes: 17 MB - 40 MB

SOULCALIBUR IV Customization Equipment 3 ($1.99)
Christmas is here with with the Santa equipment set. Turn Santa sexy by picking Ivy or Amy. This equipment can be used for both female and male characters.
File size: 3.1 MB

Game Videos (free)

Soldner-X: Himmelssturmer Trailer
File size: 63 MB (HD)

Prince of Persia Dev Diary 2
File size: 221 MB (HD)

Prince of Persia Dev Diary 3
File size: 214 MB (HD)

Mercenaries 2 Blow It Up Again Trailer
File size: 43 MB (HD)

Facebreaker Audition Video #4
File size: 83 MB (HD)

Facebreaker Audition Video #5
File sizes: 82 MB (HD)

BAJA: Edge of Control - Launch Trailer
File size: 190 MB (HD)

Savage Moon Trailer
File size: 52 MB (HD)

Resistance 2 - Last Hours
File sizes: 91 MB (HD), 158 MB (1080)

Life in LittleBigPlanet: Ep 4
File size: 180 MB (HD)

LittleBigPlanet WELCOME TO MY WORLD Video
File size: 103 MB (HD)

PS3 Themes

Lingerie Girls Theme ($1.49)
File size: 6.77 MB

University of Florida Theme ($1.99)
File size: 5.15 MB

European Highlands Theme ($1.49)
File size: 6.25 MB

Bloodwork Theme ($1.49)
File size: 5.71 MB

Atomic Acid Theme ($1.49)
File size: 5.4 MB

Metal Battalion Maidens Theme ($0.99)
File size: 3.38 MB

PS3 Wallpaper (free)

Soldner-X: Himmelssturmer Wallpaper 1
File sizes: 220 KB - 660 KB

Soldner-X: Himmelssturmer Wallpaper 2
File sizes: 264 KB - 977 MB

SOULCALIBUR IV Holiday Hilde Wallpaper
File sizes: 2.99 KB - 1.09 MB

SOULCALIBUR IV Holiday Ivy Wallpaper
File sizes: 233 KB - 881 KB

PlayStation Store for PSP

Downloadable Games

* Archer Maclean’s Mercury ($9.99)
* Brain Challenge ($9.99)
* Super Stardust Portable ($9.99)
* Everyday Shooter ($9.99)

Game Videos (free)

* Ben 10 Alien Force - Making Of Trailer

Konami today announced the Spring release of Suikoden Tierkreis, the latest in the popular RPG series, whose previous iterations have mostly been on PlayStation consoles.

It seems there’s a wealth of characters to choose from, with the DS game containing 108 characters, all of whom function independently within the game world, but can be recruited to your four-man party. Each of these characters has a complete backstory, and these are revealed as your progress through the game. It has a traditional turn-based battle system, so hardcore JRPG fans will have a fair idea what to expect.

One particularly interesting feature is the ability to wirelessly assist other players - through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, you can send your character to another gamer’s world to tackle missions, in return for cash and special items which can then be brought back into your own universe.

Suikoden Tierkreis is released in Europe in March 2009.

Bookmark to:

One of Nintendo’s major reasons for not supporting HD and keeping the Wii’s specifications conservative was to make it a viable platform for original IPs. The argument was that developing games on machines with multi-core processors and complex architectures was increasing development costs to such a degree, that the appetite for risk was rapidly diminishing within the industry resulting in endless sequels and me-too titles. Two years have passed since the Wii was released and it has since gained many original IPs that allow us to see if Nintendo’s decision has borne fruit, or whether it was just an excuse to limit R&D expenses.

Be sure to also check out Part 1 of this series.

De Blob

VGChartz estimated worldwide sales:300,000

Originally created as a free downloadable pc game, De Blob first came to life in the hands of 8 students from Utrecht University, Netherlands. Publishing giants THQ were so impressed by what they saw, they bought the rights to the game and handed over development to Australian outfit Blue Tongue Entertainment. Despite slow initial sales in Europe and the U.S., THQ has come to regard De Blob as a critical and commercial success. Its sales are likely to close in on the important 400,000 mark through the holidays, and should easily exceed half a million going into next year. LittleBigPlanet and De Blob show that the platformer isn’t dead just yet.

No More Heroes

VGChartz estimated worldwide sales:360,000

The strongest indicator that No More Heroes is a sales success is that a sequel is on its way - Desperate Struggle. It also serves as the strongest lesson on why sales for Wii games should not be judged solely on their opening week, something Suda himself learned much to his relief. Even now, judging No More Heroes is difficult to say the least: how much should an ultra-violent, cel shaded, censored (in Europe), technically challenged, flawed masterpiece sell exactly? Enough to warrant a sequel and keep its developer in business, that’s how much.

Okami

VGChartz estimated worldwide sales:130,000

While obviously a port of a PS2 game, Okami’s inclusion on this list is justified by its sad legacy. This was the game that may have finally caused Capcom to terminate Clover Studios, despite their work on some of the finest games of the previous generation. Okami was to be Capcom’s attempt to take Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series head on. Critically the game succeeded beyond all expectations, with many reviewers rating it higher than Nintendo’s epic. At retail however Okami didn’t even begin to approach the sales of Twilight Princess, selling a total of 270,00 copies in the U.S.

Capcom handed over the reigns to the talented Ready at Dawn for the Wii port, but with a limited budget and schedule that ultimately did not allow the developer to add any additional content. Despite this, Capcom revealed that the game had sold 280,000 copies worldwide a mere 4 months after its release, bringing it approximately in line with PS2 sales. While it could be argued that the PS2 version of Okami had a greater amount of competition at the time, it also strongly confirms the existence of Wii gamers hungry for high quality, original content. Overall though, the case for a game like Okami is not strengthened even with the additional Wii sales - a port got the go ahead, but a sequel never will.

WiiWare

While there have been reports of some WiiWare games selling only in their hundreds, two of the best original games released on the platform have found success. LostWinds, released in May ‘08, has sold over 268,000 copies - significant success for a game developed by a small team in a matter of months. Frontier boss Braben has spoken in glowing terms about the project and has confirmed a sequel is on the way. World of Goo, despite piracy rates of 90% on the PC, has found an audience on WiiWare with sales of 44,000 in th U.S. after only being on sale a month. Arguably the best game WiiWare has to offer, World of Goo should go on to match LostWinds success after its European release and holiday sales. Encouragingly for 3rd Parties, Nintendo doesn’t have the stranglehold on the WiiWare market that it does on traditional software.

The Future

So where does this leave developers when it comes to original IPs on the Wii? The only million seller on the list is Red Steel - a big-budget game that was heavily advertised and most likely needed its large sales to cover its development costs. The rest have sold (or look likely to sell) between 400,000 - 750,000 across their lifetime, figures that neatly match up to the benchmark that Reggie used during E3 ‘08 when taking about successful 3rd party Wii games. WiiWare has also proved to be a strong platform for original content and not just a crutch for shovelware as many had feared.

The ability to turn a profit from original Wii games is evident, the biggest hurdle seems to be the runaway success of ports and mini-game collections that require fewer development resources and time to create. Why put enormous effort into a sequel to Zack & Wiki when a Zombie-lite port of Dead Rising from the 360 will likely make more money? Despite this looming question, a large number of developers have taken up the gautlet with titles like Little King’s Story, The Conduit, MadWord, Deadly Creatures and Arc Rise Fantasia.

Continue reading Video: Banjo visit the Eiffel Tower

Video: Banjo visit the Eiffel Tower originally appeared on Xbox 360 Fanboy on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The concept of the video game genre is one which is both a blessing and a curse on the medium. Video game genres categorize and describe games, allowing players to easily guess what games they will like and allowing developers to use a successful and proven formula.

That latter aspect, however, is what makes genres a limiting concept. A genre, in this context, is really just a collection of game design elements: a perspective, a mode of interaction, a game structure, and so on. An individual game might benefit from most of the elements in a genre, but be better suited by a different choice of perspective or gameplay style. However, a designer who blindly follows a genre will miss that fact, and shoehorn her game into a genre just for the sake of fitting the template.

Few games utterly ignore genre. There is, however, a long-standing tradition of genre fusion: taking two or more established genres and combining them into a game that is neither one nor the other. ActRaiser, Sacrifice, and System Shock 2 are among the many excellent games that take this approach.

This allows developers to pick and choose from the design elements of multiple genres without abandoning the benefits of easy recognition by players. Marketing can refer to a game as a "FPS/RPG" and appeal to the fans of both genres. Especially well-done instances of genre fusion can spawn genres themselves; The Legend of Zelda was originally an action/RPG hybrid, but it's now regarded as one of the first examples of the action-adventure genre.

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords is an excellent example of a game that mixes genres well. Created by Infinite Interactive in 2007, Puzzle Quest combines the color-matching puzzle genre with the RPG genre. As a pure concept, it's appealing: a strategic roleplaying game where battles are fought through a Bejeweled-like puzzle system.

However, what's remarkable about Puzzle Quest is that it actually works. Beyond being a high-concept novelty, Puzzle Quest is a good game. By looking at how it combined genres, one can get a deeper understanding of how to effectively create a genre-bending game.

Rune of Mastery

Part of Puzzle Quest's success is due to the skilled execution of both of its genres. The two game modes are sharply divided, with the exploration, questing, and roleplaying aspects serving as the high-level game mode and the puzzle game restricted to the battle system. There's never a point where the player is engaging in both game modes at once, so the experience is never confusing or unfamiliar. Remarkably, each game mode is a solid example of its respective genre.

The RPG mode presents a competent storyline involving the strange surge of undead in the world of Etheria. It helps that the game is set in the established Warlords fantasy universe. The player gains experience, levels up, gains spells and skills, and recruits companions. There's even a strategic aspect of this mode that allows the player to improve citadels and gain benefits from city upgrades. The quest structure is as compelling as many traditional RPGs, with plenty of side quests and optional objectives to pursue.

With the complexity of the RPG mode, it would have been easy to make the puzzle mode nothing more than a copy of Bejeweled match-3 gameplay. However, while the basic concept remains the same, Puzzle Quest adds an additional layer by assigning significance to the different kinds of game tiles. The basic goal is still to make rows of three or more by swapping adjacent tiles, but each type of tile yields a different benefit when matched. The overarching goal for each puzzle battle is to reduce the opponent's hit points to zero before they do the same to the player character, but the mana meters and special tiles mean that there is a strong element of strategy to which tiles the player should match in a given situation.

It's clear from Puzzle Quest's two well-executed game modes that the developers paid close attention to each genre. Instead of focusing on one game style and letting the other suffer, the developers made sure that each game mode is a solid example of its style of gameplay. This is a trap that is easy to fall into when blending game genres; even the classic Deus Ex has a weak FPS aspect to it. Running and shooting in Deus Ex is nowhere near as compelling as it is in, say, Half-Life 2, but both of Puzzle Quest's modes could hold their own against single-genre games.

A Perfect Match

The true cleverness of Puzzle Quest's design is how well the two game modes interact. The two modes are separate, but the player's actions in one mode affect the other. In the high-level RPG mode, the player collects equipment, skills, and allies which provide benefits and extra options in the low-level puzzle mode. In puzzle mode, the gold and experience tiles provide no immediate benefit, but they allow the player to buy equipment and level up in RPG mode. This interaction between the two modes is what makes the game a truly dual-genre title, instead of just an RPG bolted to a puzzle game.

The two modes interact so well because of the two specific game genres that the designers chose. The RPG genre already has a convention of a separate battle mode. In an archetypical roleplaying game, the player explores and interacts with characters in one mode, and battles in a separate, turn-based battle mode. RPG battles do not usually allow much freedom of motion or nuance of action, in contract to the often open-ended exploration mode. Because of this, it doesn't feel quite so jarring when the player runs into a skeleton and is suddenly dropped into a puzzle game. Experienced players of RPGs are used to being dropped into a simplified, separate mode of gameplay.

On the other side, puzzle games like Bejeweled often offer a segmented experience, where the gameplay is divided into levels loosely connected by a sequential or narrative structure. Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo orders and structures its Tetris-like puzzle bouts as if the player were progressing through a fighting game, and Magical Drop III has a branching story mode. A version of Puzzle Quest without the RPG mode but with the same story concept is easy to imagine; this method of structuring the puzzle progression suits the puzzle game genre.

The Missive

In creating Puzzle Quest, the developers did not just pick two random genres and drop them into a blender. They chose two genres that would interact well together, with the puzzle mode serving as the battle "minigame" for the RPG mode, and the RPG mode serving as the narrative and dividing structure for the puzzle mode. The two genres were then linked so that achievements and actions in one mode affected the player's strengths and options in the other mode.

When creating genre-spanning games, developers should follow Puzzle Quest's example. They should choose genres that can interact well with each other, and look at places where the tropes of one genre can be exploited, as with Puzzle Quest's use of puzzle gameplay as a battle system.

Additionally, developers should not fall into the trap of believing that the novelty of genre fusion will make players forgive a shoddy implementation of the individual genres. An FPS/RPG hybrid need not be the best FPS or the best RPG, but it should present each genre in a way that it could at least hold its own against single-genre games. Combining shoddy implementations of two genres does not lead to a single good game, but a sort of shambling Frankenstein's monster. Puzzle Quest, on the other hand, is a true hybrid, taking two well-executed genre games and combining them into an even better whole.

[Gregory Weir is a writer, game developer, and software programmer. He maintains Ludus Novus, a podcast and accompanying blog dedicated to the art of interaction. He can be reached at Gregory.Weir@gmail.com.]

The ‘End of day’ thoughts have been gone for awhile. For awhile, it was internet issues that was causing the missing feature. Now, it’s just the insane amount of work being done! Now, I am trying to budget my time a bit better. That’s why I needed to bring the ‘End of day’ thoughts back in style! This may very well be the biggest feature we’ve done yet! You guys enjoy this while I head off to get some sleep. See you in a few short hours, gang.

If you guys have been following my articles lately, you’ve noticed my recent issues with game reviews. Nintendo has been creating games that just don’t fit into traditional genres. When these games become popular, we see third parties put their own spin on these ideas. It is these type of expanded audience games, such as Animal Crossing and Brain Age, that really got me thinking. Are reviewers approaching these games in the best way they can?

Disregarding print media, many outlets receive games from Nintendo, and they have those titles reviewed a day or two later. In my opinion, Nintendo releases a fair amount of games that simply cannot be experienced in that amount of time. You guys know that I really take my time with my reviews. I may be much slower than other outlets, but I do what I feel is necessary to best review the product. If I was questioning other review methods out there, I thought Nintendo might be as well.

I am not trying to say that reviews done in the manners listed above are ‘wrong’ or ‘incorrect’. I simply believe that certain games require a different, unique approach. That’s what lead me to a Q&A with Nintendo’s Denise Kaigler, Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Nintendo of America Inc.. She was nice enough to take time out of her busy schedule to answer my questions, and let me know how she felt about the topic.

———————————————-

RMC: Nintendo has quite a few titles that present interesting dilemmas for media outlets when time comes for reviews. Titles like Animal Crossing: City Folk, Nintendogs, Brain Age, and others all involve a lot of time to invest. With that said, do you think that titles such as these can be accurately reviewed without a sizable amount of playtime?

DK: I understand that these nontraditional games can sometimes put video game writers in a bit of a bind. On the one hand, they want to get information about the play experience out to their readers. On the other, some of these games have no traditional “ending.” Obviously we want people to accurately report about their experiences. And you’re correct that a cursory run through of any of these titles cannot convey all the fun surprises and fascinating details gamers might find. Wii Fit and Brain Age in particular are built upon the idea that users track their progress over weeks and months. So a one-day experience cannot tell the full story.

It’s also true that as gaming moves towards becoming more social, gameplay experiences can also last over a much longer period of time. Friends across the world can visit and interact with each other in their respective Animal Crossing City Folk towns, race online against a vast group of diverse and challenging opponents in Mario Kart, or test their fighting skills against a global audience in Super Smash Brothers Brawl. How long does it take before one can accurately review these social experiences? It’s an interesting dilemma.

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It was one of the pet projects of one of the designers. The seed of the idea came out of casual [tower] defense games online. It was something that they [Treyarch] had been working on for a while and went back to when they had time.

• Activision: World at War will have more DLC confirmed, described as non-traditional
  

It was one of the pet projects of one of the designers. The seed of the idea came out of casual [tower] defense games online. It was something that they [Treyarch] had been working on for a while and went back to when they had time.

• Activision: World at War will have more DLC confirmed, described as non-traditional
  

It was one of the pet projects of one of the designers. The seed of the idea came out of casual [tower] defense games online. It was something that they [Treyarch] had been working on for a while and went back to when they had time.

• Activision: World at War will have more DLC confirmed, described as non-traditional
  

It was one of the pet projects of one of the designers. The seed of the idea came out of casual [tower] defense games online. It was something that they [Treyarch] had been working on for a while and went back to when they had time.

• Activision: World at War will have more DLC confirmed, described as non-traditional