Here are some latest games news Vice City Stories spied again xquater4 on 02/04/2007 at 12:16pm (UTC)   News Vice City Stories spied again GTA's first hit on the PSP, Liberty City Stories, has already sold well on the PS2, and it has therefore been assumed for some time that Vice City Stories will follow a similar path having also impressed on the PSP. But will Rockstar put us out of our misery? Despite persistent rumours, no, they won't. advertisement A couple of weeks ago the ESRB website carried a ratings certification for Vice City Stories on the PS2, with the page subsequently axed amid denials from the publisher about the game's existence. Today we get further proof of the game's existence, this time in the shape of a listing on the PS2 section of PlayStation.com. As before, the listing has been pulled... as if we're now not even more convinced the game is on the way. Speculation on the data highway network (waaa? - Ed) suggests that Rockstar parent firm Take-Two might want to keep a lid on chatter surrounding a new GTA title, before revealing pricing and dating to investors and the market as a whole. We're even receiving suggestions that the game is very early in development or has been canned... but this seems unlikely. More speculation and official word as we get it. GTA IV is out in October. Lest we forget.   World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (BC). 2 xquater4 on 01/29/2007 at 11:57am (UTC)   For the past few weeks PC User has been taking part in the closed beta test of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (BC). Blizzard's eagerly awaited blockbuster introduces a host of changes and here's what we've found so far. Please note that the information in this preview was accurate at the time of writing, but the game is about to be released, so there will inevitably be lots of changes and refinements in the weeks leading up to the game's official release. One of the first things we noticed is that Blizzard obviously wants to level the playing field. As many of us can attest, players who raid a lot obtain gear that makes their characters far more powerful than those who don't raid. We're here to tell you that in Outland the 'blues' (superior-quality items) from quests and the first five-man instance in Hellfire Peninsula are as potent as current Tier 2 'purples' (epic-quality items). That's right, level 60 players will be able to go through the Dark Portal, do a few quests, run a couple of instances and acquire gear rivalling that of hard-core raiders in fairly short order. The player versus player (PvP) rewards in BC also appear to be on a par with high-end raid items (about time, too). Player vs player Speaking of PvP, in BC the old Honour rank system has been totally scrapped. But before you Grand Marshals and High Warlords start crying in your coffee, take heart: you will still have the option of keeping your old rank title. We haven't yet had a chance to fully explore PvP in BC, but it looks like you'll now grind Honour and use it to buy rewards. Honour will become the new PvP currency. Furthermore, BC's ladder-based PvP component will be limited to Arena matches where small groups of players (two against two, three against three, and five against five) go head to head. Naturally, there will also be a stack of new PvP battlegrounds and plenty of fresh World PvP thrown in for good measure. Under the bonnet As an interesting sidenote, many of the important stats in BC have been given a major overhaul. Your character now has a Hit rating (a value of 10 equals an additional one percent chance to hit), a Critical rating (a value of 14 means an additional one percent chance to score a critical strike) and a Haste rating (which informs you if your character's attack speed has been increased). These ratings will apply to all the different character classes and we found them to be a lot more intuitive than the current system. Another big gameplay change debuting in BC is the new Looking for Group (LFG) interface — an intuitive menu system with built-in parameters that you'll use to assemble groups, for instance Dungeons. This is a godsend because everyone hates the current global LFG chat channel. The Outland We're sure you're all itching to know what the new Outland content is like, so here's a taste. After making our way to the Blasted Lands zone we approached the (now activated) Dark Portal and passed through into Outland. Upon arrival our first impression was that Outland has a distinctly epic look and feel. Picture a heavy metal mural on the side of a 1970s panel van and you'll have a good idea of what to expect. The start area is crawling with massive demons and mechanical monstrosities, all of which are engaged in a titanic battle with Horde and Alliance forces. Indeed, our first thought was: how the hell are we going to make it out of here alive? Thankfully we soon located a flight point, which safely transported us to the nearby Horde base, Thrallmar. In Thrallmar we found loads of non-player characters offering a variety of quests. These consisted of the usual 'find person/kill X amount of monster' with a few PvP-oriented variations thrown in for good measure. We've only just begun to explore Outland, so we'll reserve our final judgement on the new quest content. Like many of you, we're hoping Blizzard moves away from the much-maligned 'grind' formula. As we wandered around Thrallmar we noticed numerous Grand Master trainers scattered about the place. Not surprisingly, these trainers offer a significant skill increase (over the current cap of 300) in all the major professions. This includes the new Jewelcrafting profession. Out of curiosity we had a quick squiz at some of the trainers' new high-level patterns and found that they were as good as, or better than, the epic-level patterns currently available. Enchanters, for example, will be able to purchase recipes to add +12 Agility to a cloak or +15 Strength to gloves, and this is just the lower-end stuff. The Blood Elves and Dranei Aside from Outland, BC's other big drawcards are the two new character races: the Blood Elves (Horde) and the Dranei (Alliance). Blood Elves will be the only Horde race who can play as Paladins, while Dranei will be the only Alliance race who can play as Shamans. We used our time in the closed beta to take both races for a quick test drive. The Blood Elves are an extremely attractive race, which Blizzard hopes should appeal to people who previously wouldn't play Horde because the existing races were too ugly. After all, the disparity between Alliance and Horde numbers (we're guessing it's about four to one) has been a sore point since World of Warcraft's release. The Blood Elves' zone sits just above the Eastern Plaguelands and looks quite different to other areas in the gameworld. Blood Elves have some very cool racial abilities, which include Arcane Torrent (which can silence nearby magic users), Mana Tap (which drains the mana of nearby opponents), magic resistance and +10 to the Enchanting ability. The Dranei look like a cross between a Tauren and a Klingon, but don't let that put you off — they too possess some very nice abilities. For starters, Dranei have Inspiring Presence (which improves the 'chance to hit with spells' of other party members), Gift of Naaru (a modest healing spell), resistance to Shadow magic and +5 to the Jewelcrafting skill. The Dranei zone is located on an island northwest of the continent of Kalimdor.   Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Expansion Pack Announced xquater4 on 01/24/2007 at 7:48pm (UTC)   Bethesda has announced the creation of a new Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion expansion pack named Shivering Isles. The expansion pack will feature over 30 hours of new gameplay in an entirely new part of the world approximately one-fourth the size of Cyrodiil. “The Shivering Isles features a bizarre landscape split between two sides – Mania and Dementia – filled with vast, twisting dungeons mirroring the roots of the trees they are buried within. You’ll encounter more than a dozen new creatures including hideous insects, Fleck Atronachs, skeletal Shambles, amphibious Grummites. Throughout your adventure, you will discover all new items, ingredients, spells, and more, and have the talented craftsmen on Crucible and Bliss forge new armour and weapons just for you.” Xbox 360 users will be able to download the expansion pack from Xbox Live’s Marketplace and PC owners will need to pick it up from retail outlets. The game is set to release in the spring.   Nintendo Adds Zelda to Virtual Console xquater4 on 01/24/2007 at 7:43pm (UTC)   An exciting addition to Wii’s Virtual Console has been announced today. Nintendo has confirmed that The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is now available via Virtual Console. Here is Nintendo’s description of the game: “Return to an age of magic and heroes. When an evil magician named Agahnim begins kidnapping young maidens in Hyrule in a quest to break the imprisoning seal on Ganon, a young boy named Link is called upon to stop him. Link must venture into twisting mazes, dungeons, palaces, and shadowy forest as he searches for the maidens and Princess Zelda. Traversing both Light and Dark Worlds, he must navigate eight dark dungeons, fighting evil enemies and huge bosses. Help our hero prevent Ganon and Agahnim from shattering Hyrule forever.” Interested? We knew you would be. Be sure to log on and take advantage of this exciting VC addition.   WoW Expansion Packs Sells Millions xquater4 on 01/24/2007 at 7:42pm (UTC)   In the continuing successful tradition of World of Warcraft, Blizzard has announced that the newest expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, has sold 2.4 million units worldwide on its first day on store shelves. The company shipped 4 million copies. “The Burning Crusade has already exceeded even our most ambitious expectations,” stated Mike Morhaime, President and Co-Founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re pleased that so many players are eager to see all of the new content that the expansion has to offer, and we look forward to seeing everyone online as additional players continue to upgrade in the days ahead.” That is a pretty impressive number, beating even the number of Wii and PlayStation 3 consoles sold in the entirety of 2006   Wii Gamer Loses Weight xquater4 on 01/24/2007 at 7:41pm (UTC)   Video games are often cited as a cause of obesity in children. Yet, Nintendo may be the exception to the rule. Mickey DeLorenzo, a 25 year-old gamer, decided to put the console to the test. He played Wii Sports for thirty minutes every day for six weeks. He ate and drank as normal during the trial period. His conclusion? DeLorenzo lost nine pounds during the six weeks. His Body Mass Index dropped from 25.2 to 24.0, according to a fitness specialist. Finally! Good news about video games for the media to pick up.   <-Back  1  2  Continue ->