News

Crave Games bringing Samurai Jack, Ben10, PowerPuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory, and more together on Nintendo portable next spring; Xbox 360, PS3, Wii versions to follow in holiday season.

If there’s one thing crossover games have made absolutely clear, it’s that licensed characters’ first instinct upon meeting each other is usually to engage in fisticuffs. So it will be with the stars of Cartoon Network’s lineup of original TV shows, as Crave Games today announced that it will be publishing a crossover “battle game” featuring the stars of Ben 10 Ultimate Alien, The PowerPuff Girls, and more.

Ever wonder what happened to Bens 1-9? Step into the ring and find out.

The as-yet untitled game is scheduled for a spring 2011 launch on Nintendo’s 3DS handheld, to go along with the system’s North American release. Console versions of the game are expected to follow on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii during the holiday season.

Crave announced Papaya Studio as the game’s developer. Although the studio is best known of late for developing games like Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Cosmic Destruction and Ben 10: Alien Force Vilgax Attack, it didn’t always stick to family-friendly fare. Papaya was also the announced developer of Majesco Games’ ill-fated adaptation of the classic Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver.

A list of the already-announced Cartoon Network shows represented in the game follows below:

Ben 10 Ultimate Alien
Chowder
Codename: Kids Next Door
Dexter’s Laboratory
Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends
Samurai Jack
The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy
The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack
The PowerPuff Girls

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Konami bringing Grasshopper’s actioner exclusively to Sony’s console with new bosses, motion-control support in 2011.

Grasshopper Manufacturer won wide acclaim for its action game No More Heroes in 2008, but the game’s initial run was limited to the notoriously Mature-rating adverse Wii. However, in late 2009, reports out of Japan indicated that the title would receive a high-definition redux on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, an eventuality that occurred in the island nation in April of this year.

It would appear as if No More Heroes’ mechanics will be the same.

Now, North American audiences will also have a chance to experience Travis Touchdown’s exploits in high def–on the PlayStation 3, at least. Today, Konami announced No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise would be released exclusively on Sony’s console in the US. Developed by AQ Interactive, the game is currently scheduled for a 2011 release.

Directed by Killer 7 creator Suda-51, No More Heroes presents a hyperstylized and violent world of fanboy fantasies. The game’s protagonist, Travis Touchdown, is tasked with ascending the ranks of an assassin’s guild by murdering all of his competition. In addition to becoming the world’s greatest assassin, Travis hopes his efforts will win the affections of his beautiful and mysterious benefactor.

Along with a unique visual style, the game features motion-sensing controls to slash with Touchdown’s Jedi-esque lightsaber or perform pro wrestling moves on foes. Whereas these controls were handled by the Wii Remote in Nintendo’s version of the game, Heroes Paradise will make use of Sony’s Move motion-controller setup.

Move controls aren’t the only addition made by AQ. The studio has also added more boss characters to the game, as well as improved the artificial intelligence of No More Heroes’ enemies. Players will also be able to face off against previously defeated bosses in the newly added Rebout mode. Lastly, Viewer mode lets gamers watch the game’s cutscenes without playing through the game.

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Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood’s beta phase seems to have had the desired effect, with Ubisoft announcing that it’s made a long list of tweaks following user feedback.

The changes detailed on Sony’s EU PlayStation blog – listed in full below – include improved matchmaking and new visual and audio effects.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood sneaks onto PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 from 19th November. Eurogamer’s Simon Parkin recently went hands-on with Ezio’s new adventure.

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Armor Games would like all of our users to vote for your favorite game on the site and then submit your choice here. Flash Game Summit is hosting an award show called ‘The Mochis.” This is an award show recognizing the best flash games in the industry. If you need suggestions, here are a few […]

GTA publisher changes earnings report schedule to better align behind industry seasonality, improve comparability with peers.

Take-Two still won’t be following the calendar year to report its yearly earnings, but it will at least be moving more in line with other gaming companies. This week, the publisher announced that its board of directors had approved a fiscal year-end change from October 31 to March 31, meaning its fourth quarter will close on the same day as companies such as Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, and Sony.

Red Dead Redemption is just one title that has elevated Take-Two this year.

According to Take-Two, the change is meant to better align its fiscal periods with the seasonality of the gaming business, which traditionally sees the most activity during the October-December quarter. Take-Two also expressed an interest in improving its “comparability with industry peers.”

Take-Two’s desire to go apples-to-apples with its competitors is understandable, considering the string of positive earnings reports this year. Thanks to a standout performance from Red Dead Redemption, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick touted in September that the company was on track to achieve its first profitable year without the release of a major new Grand Theft Auto in almost a decade.

The profitability comes despite the delay of two high-profile titles, L.A. Noire and Max Payne 3. Originally announced by Team Bondi in 2005, L.A. Noire is now expected to see release sometime in the first half of calendar 2011. Rockstar Vancouver’s Max Payne 3 had previously been expected to ship later this year. Take-Two now expects the game to launch outside of its in-progress fiscal year.

Of course, the publisher also continues to benefit from Rockstar’s notorious open-world action adventure. In June, Take-Two said that GTAIV had sold 17 million units since its then-record-setting launch in April 2009.

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Pac-Man Party will open its front door to Wii revelers from 26th November, publisher Namco Bandai has announced.

The first full retail Pac-Man title since the PlayStation 2’s indomitable Pac-Man World Rally in 2006, Pac-Man Party does everything you’d expect it might: mini-games, and lots of them.

There’s a single player mode that sees you taking in the various games on offer in a board game setting, or a four player ‘Party Mode’, which will come as a welcome surprise to anybody who didn’t read the name on the front of the box.

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Raptr statistics indicate reboot of EA’s signature series didn’t dent online play of rival shooters.

Two weeks ago, Electronic Arts released its reboot of Medal of Honor, which transported the once World War II-exclusive franchise into the ongoing Afghanistan war. The game was the subject of controversy from its inception, given that it initially allowed players to play as the Taliban in multiplayer mode. Though that option was removed at the last minute, the game’s mixed reviews were blamed for a one-day, 6 percent drop in EA stock.

According to Raptr’s analysis, Medal of Honor didn’t take away any online play time from competitors such as Modern Warfare 2.

Last week, EA hit back, revealing the game had sold 1.5 million copies worldwide,
generating over $100 million dollars. Now, online game service (and GameSpot partner) Raptr has released play statistics garnered from its millions of users that show how the game was played–and how it stacked up against rivals in the first-person shooter genre.

According to Raptr’s study, which used data from the Xbox 360 version of the game, Medal of Honor did not disrupt play time patterns in other popular shooters–a trend Raptr described as “unheard of.” Not only did Medal of Honor’s launch fail to put a dent in Modern Warfare 2 and Bad Company 2’s online play time, those shooters’ average play times went up during the EA effort’s first week on the market. By contrast, when Halo: Reach launched, Modern Warfare 2 play time dropped by 40 percent and Bad Company 2 play time dropped by 50 percent. When Bad Company 2 launched, it took 20 percent of play time away from Modern Warfare 2, according to Raptr.

Raptr also found that Medal of Honor was played an average of 3.93 hours during its launch week. By comparison, 4.31 hours of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 were played during launch week, versus 6.17 hours of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and 6.19 hours of Halo: Reach.

Raptr, which also tracks achievement data, found that the roughly the same number of players completed Medal of Honor (35 percent) as did Halo: Reach (37 percent) in single-player mode in the game’s first week on the market. The game’s week-one multiplayer stats were also in line with Bad Company 2 and Halo: Reach, with between 61 and 62 percent of all players spending at least 15 minutes playing multiplayer mode.

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Anniversary of October 26, 2000 US and Canadian launch sees aging console’s sales top 146 million.

Old-school gamers will feel a little older today. One week after the NES console celebrated its 25th anniversary in the US market, the PlayStation is marking 10 years since it launched in North America. The system went on sale domestically on October 26, 2000, over seven months after it debuted in Japan on March 4. The system went on sale in Europe on November 24 of that year.

10 years ago today, the PS2 went on sale in North America.

Since its initial launch, the PS2 has gone on to sell over 146 million units worldwide. At the time of its launch, it was a cutting-edge machine, sporting DVD playback and then high-end graphics for $300. The high price point didn’t deter customers in the slightest, though, with retailers selling out of the console in a matter of hours. Hardware manufacturing bottlenecks kept the unit in short supply for months after release, with Sony only selling 1.3 million units in the US by the end of 2000.

The PS2’s long tenure saw it get several hardware peripherals, including an online gameplay add-on, the PlayStation Network Adapter, in 2002. The system was also augmented by the release of the EyeToy Camera in 2003. Software franchises that flourished on the system included Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, and Grand Theft Auto, which debuted exclusively on Sony’s console from Grand Theft Auto III to San Andreas.

Some 10 years on, the PS2 now costs just $100, and sells so few units each month the NPD Group ceased tracking hardware sales of the console earlier this year. (The NPD Group ceased releasing all hardware figures last month.) However, that’s not stopping Sony from continuing to push the device. Last week, it announced it would include a copy of Toy Story 3 with the console starting on October 31.

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Anniversary of October 26, 2000, US and Canadian launch sees aging console’s sales top 146 million.

Old-school gamers will feel a little older today. One week after the NES console celebrated its 25th anniversary in the US market, the PlayStation is marking 10 years since it launched in North America. The system went on sale domestically on October 26, 2000, over seven months after it debuted in Japan on March 4. The system went on sale in Europe on November 24 of that year.

Ten years ago today, the PS2 went on sale in North America.

Since its initial launch, the PlayStation 2 has gone on to sell over 146 million units worldwide. At the time of its launch, it was a cutting-edge machine, sporting DVD playback and then high-end graphics for $300. The high price point didn’t deter customers in the slightest, though, with retailers selling out of the console in a matter of hours. Hardware manufacturing bottlenecks kept the unit in short supply for months after release, with Sony only selling 1.3 million units in the US by the end of 2000.

The PS2’s long tenure saw it get several hardware peripherals, including an online gameplay add-on, the PlayStation Network Adapter, in 2002. The system was also augmented by the release of the EyeToy Camera in 2003. Software franchises that flourished on the system included Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, and Grand Theft Auto, which debuted exclusively on Sony’s console from Grand Theft Auto III to San Andreas.

Some 10 years on, the PS2 now costs just $100 and sells so few units each month the NPD Group ceased tracking hardware sales of the console earlier this year. (The NPD Group ceased releasing all hardware figures last month.) However, that’s not stopping Sony from continuing to push the device. Last week, it announced it would include a copy of Toy Story 3 with the console starting on October 31.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

MTV Games and Harmonix bringing late Beatles’ entire record to just-released rhythm game; release date, price TBA.

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