Max Payne Pre-Order Goodness
Good news for Max Payne fans, the deadline for pre-ordering the Max Payne 3 Special Edition will be extended to April 2nd. What’s so special about the Special Edition you ask? Well if you decide to pre-order before April 2nd you could get your hands on, not only a copy of the game but also, the “Disorderly Conduct” Multiplayer Weapons Pack, some Original Still Life Art Prints, a Classic Multiplayer Character Pack, a Bullet Keychain, an Official Soundtrack and, last but most definitely not least, a Max Payne 10” Statue. If you didn’t already have a good enough reason to buy Max Payne, now you do!
The Last Story Limited Edition Details Arise
Nintendo have announced an exclusive limited edition bundle coming for The Last Story , the latest action-packed RPG from legendary Hironobu Sakaguchi (founder of the Final Fantasy series), available exclusively on Wii across Europe from February 24th.
The limited edition The Last Story bundle will be available for pre-order while stocks last, featuring a copy of the game, an exclusive SteelBook cover decorated with stunning artwork, and a The Elements Of The Last Story package which includes The Premium Soundtrack CD and The Illustrations art booklet. The CD features a 7-track selection of music from the game composed by Nobuo Uematsu who has worked on many projects within the Final Fantasy series.
The Last Story adds a modern twist to the traditional RPG style, offering a strategic, real-time combat system and allowing you to customise your character and weaponry. By mastering a mysterious ability called The Gathering you will be able to help the main protagonist Zael and his band of mercenaries complete the many missions and battle vast bosses by discovering their weak spots and using teamwork to bring them down. The Last Story not only features a story-driven single player campaign, but also two online multiplayer modes, Deathmatch and Co-op, allowing you to battle against or alongside up to five other people across Europe.
Incoming! Copy That! Worms Plush now available!
Throughout the years the Worms franchise has evolved a number of times. Starting life on a 2D plane, you could literally count the pixels of each worm on both hands. As the years went by, they slowly moved into the 3D space with mixed feelings from the fans.
Thankfully, Team 17 now cater for both audiences as you can play the more faithful 2D titles on both the iPhone and through digital download services, but also with the recent release of Worms Ultimate Mayhem (through Xbox Live and PSN), you can explore the new fangled pixel based destructible terrains to your hearts content.
What remains the same no matter which game you play though is the characterisation of the Worms themselves. You have the ability to change their appearance and voices as you blast away the other team with such weapons as the standard issue Bazooka, to the more elaborate special weapons such as the Super Sheep!
Speaking of the Super Sheep, GameOn Stuff have collaborated with Team 17 to offer Worms plush toys! Available in keyring (11cm) or larger (18cm) varieties, head on over to GameOn Stuff’s Facebook page to see the selection…and go start filling your basket since..well, they’re kinda of awesome!!
You’d better head over quick though, as they are currently running a 10% discount for Facebook fans for a ‘limited time’
Officially licensed by Team17, the creators of Worms™ and made from premium quality materials, this highly detailed series of plush has 4 different characters to collect, Original Worm, Army Worm, Pirate Worm and Super Sheep, start your collection now! All 4 characters are also available as keyring plush.
Ong-Bak to Get a Game
2003 was a good year to be a teenager with an interest in martial arts films as the world was introduced to the brutal styling of Tony Jaa and Muay Thai. Now almost a decade later gamers are going to be able to enter this deliciously visceral universe in Thailand based Studio HIVE’s licensed tie in.
Details are still sparse on the game but studio HIVE have promised “an inspiring martial arts action experience for gamers”, and that the game will come to multiple platforms. Fingers crossed it isn’t going to be just another motion centric fitness game, otherwise we can expect a few more broken TV screens…
The Latest UK Video Games Chart
Well I’m back again with the Latest UK Video Games Chart and I’m trying out a new layout, below is last week’s list.
January 8th - 14th
| POS. | TITLE | PUBLISHER | LAST WEEK |
|
| 1 | - | FIFA 12 | EA SPORTS | 1 |
| 2 |  |
JUST DANCE 3 | UBISOFT | 4 |
| 3 | |
THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM | BETHESDA SOFTWORKS | 5 |
| 4 |  |
BATTLEFIELD 3 | EA GAMES | 2 |
| 5 | |
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 3 | ACTIVISION | 3 |
| 6 | - | ZUMBA FITNESS | 505 GAMES | 6 |
| 7 | |
ZUMBA FITNESS 2 | 505 GAMES | 12 |
| 8 | |
RAGE | BETHESDA SOFTWORKS | 9 |
| 9 | |
ASSASSIN’S CREED: REVELATIONS | UBISOFT | 10 |
| 10 | |
NEED FOR SPEED: THE RUN | EA GAMES | 7 |
| 11 | |
MARIO KART 7 | NINTENDO | 13 |
| 12 | YOUR SHAPE: FITNESS EVOLVED 2012 | UBISOFT | - | |
| 13 | |
FORZA MOTORSPORT 4 | MICROSOFT | 11 |
| 14 | |
SAINTS ROW: THE THIRD | THQ | 8 |
| 15 | - | SUPER MARIO 3D LAND | NINTENDO | 15 |
| 16 | - | FOOTBALL MANAGER 2012 | SEGA | 16 |
| 17 | |
RAYMAN ORIGINS | UBISOFT | 19 |
| 18 | |
MARIO & SONIC LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES | SEGA | 14 |
| 19 | |
KINECT SPORTS: SEASON TWO | MICROSOFT | 18 |
| 20 | WII FIT PLUS | NINTENDO | - | |
Prince of Persia Jumps Its Way onto the 3DS and Wii
Nintendo’s eShop (along with Nintendo DSi shop and Wii Shop Channel) gets an update this week, and included for 3DS and Wii owners are the retro Prince of Persia games.
Depending on where you shop, you will get a different version of Prince of Persia. Those who browse the eShop will find the Game Boy Color version while those who check out the Wii Shop Channel will find the SNES version.
For DSi owners…Yeah you’re screwed as you get no Prince of Persia. On the plus side you get 40-in-1 Explosive Megamix and a cute looking tower defense game called Come On! Heroes. Okay so that’s not much of a consolation, especially with the former sounding like a huge waste of time. At least the latter seems to be charming with a cute visuals and hopefully an amusing story behind it.
You can check out the prices and descriptions below.
For those using Nintendo Video, you’ll be pleased to hear that:
“Available this week via Nintendo Video, is the next instalment of the Circus 3D series. Circus 3D is a series of clips which will transport you into a world of a real life circus and put you the viewer in the heart of the action wherever you may be. Take in a birds-eye view of an acrobat on parallel bars or feel like you are with the artists on stage through innovative points of views. Watch an aerial performance from the floor or the point of view from inside a cage with tigers. Circus 3D will offer you an exhilarating experience which immerses you into circus life as if you were actually there, all in 3D and in the palm of your hand.”
“Also available this week via Nintendo Video is a 3D clip courtesy of Red Bull, showcasing some of the world’s best skiers taking part in the Hahnenkamm race in Kitzbühel, Austria. From the Start all the way down to the finish, this unprecedented 3D clip provides a breathtaking insight into the toughest downhill ski race in the world.”
Celebrate Valentine’s Day early with Catherine
Deep Silver have announced that those who pre-order Catherine will recieve some nice extra goodies.
Catherine is set to be released on February 10th and if you’ve pre-orderd before then you’ll get an exclusive artbook and a soundtrack CD. The artwork will not be available anywhere else (until someone makes scans of the exclusive artbook) and the same goes for the music found on the soundtrack CD (until again someone rips the CD and posts it to be downloaded).
The pre-order bonus will only be available through a “special retail partner” that Deep Silver have chosen. For the UK I would say it will most likely be GAME who will carry the pre-order bonus.
Catherine will be released in Europe on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on February 10th, 2012.
Japan video game sales charts – January 2nd – January 8th
The latest software sale figures for the Japanese video game industry have been released, seeing Nintendo dominate the charts.
According to Siliconera, the software sales benefited from a Japanese New Year tradition called “Otoshidama” where “children receive money from relatives after the new year begins” (I wish that was a British tradition).
As you can see on the sales chart below, Nintendo has benefited the most from this tradition, with two games in the top five (Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land taking the top two spots respectively), six games in the top ten and altogether ten games in the top 20. Namco Bandai and Capcom also got a good rub from Otoshidama as they had three and two games place in the charts respectively.
System wise, Nintendo again dominate as five Nintendo 3DS titles, two Nintendo DS titles and NINE Nintendo Wii titles take up the charts, leaving only two PSP and PS3 titles to fill the rest of the top 20. No surprises that no Xbox 360 titles are to be found in the top 20 as rarely do they remain on the charts for more then one week. No PS Vita titles appearing may be alarming but I’ll attribute that to early days.
Onto the games themselves. the aforementioned Mario Kart 7 retains its top spot while Super Mario 3D jumps up from 4th to 2nd spot. Monster Hunter 3G goes down one position but Capcom will be pleased to see Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP the Best) re-enter the Japanese software sales charts at number 18, after spending last week at the 26th spot. That’s not the only game to re-enter the charts; Rhythm Heaven (21st to 19th position), One Piece: Gigant Battle 2 New World (24th to 18th position) and Magician’s Quest: The Stylish Wizard (22nd to 16th position). However, the most impressive re-entry is Nintendogs + cats, climbing a whopping 10 positions to go from 23 to 13. Biggest drop was Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2012, which dropped from 17 to 20.
In other notes, Final Fantasy XIII-2 continues to do poorly (compared to the Final Fantasy XIII) and Level 5 will be please to see the Otoshidama tradition give them a much needed boost of sales for Inazuma Eleven Go: Shine/Dark, which had suffered compared to previous Inazuma Eleven installments.
Source: Siliconera
New Max Payne 3 Screenshots
Just when you thought our favourite ragged ex-detective couldn’t look any more badass, yesterday Rockstar Games released some new screenshots for Max Payne 3.
From the above and below screens you can gather a rough idea of how action packed the third instalment of the Max Payne series is going to be. It’s Max at his baldest, with explosions in the background and beard in tow.
The last two screens are different from the first two as they show a younger Max and highlights some slight Noire aspects of Max Payne 3.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Hits the UK in May
Today, Ubisoft announced that the upcoming Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will be available in the UK May 25th, 2012. I was fortunate enough to play Future Soldier at Eurogamer last year and I can safely say that it looked very promising. The game will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC. What’s that? You can’t wait that long? Well fear not as a multiplayer beta will be available sometime in April for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
“Ubisoft prides itself on creating some of the most compelling and innovative experiences in digital entertainment,” said Adrian Lacey, IP development director at Ubisoft Studios – France. “Today we are feature complete in our MP, Single player and 4 player coop campaign modes. We have taken the decision to move the date in order to ensure that all these ingredients are pushed to the highest level and provide a truly unique shooter experience. The Ghost Recon franchise is known for setting the standard of high definition gaming and we believe the extra couple of months will allow us to reach that goal. We would like to thank all Ghost Recon fans for their patience and look forward to unveiling some exciting new elements in the coming weeks.”
If you’re looking for more information on Ghost Recon: Future Soldier or for a message from the development team and ongoing updates about the game, please visit: www.GhostRecon.com and www.facebook.com/GhostRecon
