New PAL Releases Roundup

By Tom Bramwell Published 15 April, 2010

GTA Episodes! Splinter Cell! Volcanic ash!

Sometimes things in life are blatantly going to happen, but everyone pretends they won't until the very last minute.

For example, my mum went to the airport today to fly to New York, despite knowing that there's a volcano spewing ash out of Iceland, so nobody's flying that way. Or indeed at all. She knew that her holiday was ruined, but she still went to the airport. Then she rang me up and told me that she can't go to New York because of a volcano.

Similarly, Rockstar and Microsoft have long told us that the two GTA IV downloadable episodes would be exclusive to Xbox 360. "Microsoft and Rockstar Games are proud to announce a strategic alliance to provide exclusive episodic content for Xbox Live," they said in 2006. "Starting this autumn, Xbox 360 owners will also have access to exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV episodes," said Microsoft in 2008 (never mind that they were wrong about the date). They took out ads, they banged the drum. PC and PS3? Never gonna happen.

But of course it was always going to happen, because these things always go on to happen. You could make the argument, if you were in a cynical mood, that games publishers are beginning to wear down the concept of exclusivity. A bit.

Anyway, the episodes are very good, as you will know if you read our 8/10 review of Episodes from Liberty City, so PC and PS3 owners could do a lot worse when the shops open tomorrow.

Elsewhere there's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction. Apologies for failing to get our review up yet - it became apparent that with such a short single-player game it would be vital to play as much of the co-op and multiplayer as possible, and that wasn't possible before the embargo broke for one reason or another. As a result it's delayed the review, but we'll get it up as soon as it's ready.

This week in shops:

  • Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City (PC, PS3)
  • Men of War: Red Tide (PC)
  • Rugby League 3 (Wii)
  • Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction (PC, Xbox 360)
  • Samurai Shodown Sen (Xbox 360)

This week online:

  • Combat of Giant: Dinosaurs - Fight For Survival (DSiWare)
  • Final Fight: Double Impact (PSN, Xbox Live Arcade)
  • Hamsterball (PSN)
  • Mega Man (Wii Virtual Console)
  • Mr Driller: Drill Till You Drop (DSiWare)
  • Pocket Pack Words & Numbers (DSiWare)
  • Rage of the Gladiator (WiiWare)
  • System Flaw: Recruit (DSiWare)
Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (41) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Armoured_Gideon #1 2 years ago

    I believe that 'Volcanic Ash' is a phased release starting in the north and working its way down. Scotland rarely get exclusives first so good for them.
    Edited by 1 at 15/04/10 @ 10:27

  • bad09 #2 2 years ago

    Man I was gonna get GTA episodes tomorrow (and Lead and Gold) off Steam but the D2D month long spring sale has put my money on hold. Oh well they'll be there in 4 weeks time.

  • Zapatero #3 2 years ago

    What's coming out in stores or on handheld download is of less and less interest to me. With my new iPhone, all I'm interested in is what's coming out via App Store. The DSi is dead to me these days. I might just go and bury it in the garden.

  • OrgasmicMutton #4 2 years ago

    Congratulations Armoured_Gideon, you just won the comment thread!

  • YenooR #5 2 years ago

    Gta for me

  • Eraysor #6 2 years ago

    Nice to see some geography on EG for once! Splinter Cell isn't out on PC for a few weeks though, not that I'll be buying it thanks to Ubi's lovely DRM.

  • Armoured_Gideon #7 2 years ago

    @Orgasmic

    Thanks. I also hear the particle effects are amazing.

  • muscleblade #8 2 years ago

    Bought Final Fight and holding off new retail purchases until SSFIV relases in two weeks.
    Need to finish Darksiders and Blazblue + complete Mega Man 10 without getting damaged :-D

  • Murton #9 2 years ago

    Nothing for me this week. Can't be bothered with the GTA episodes, my interest in GTA4 ceased a long time ago, this is exclusive DLC will never work out. (unless you get paid 50 million obviously) DLC coming out two years after the core game? You have to expect a certain degree of "meh" response to a move like that.

  • menage #10 2 years ago

    Bah, now I want to buy Liberty CIty on my PS3, all of a sudden I've been playing GTA4 again for the last 3 days.

  • jonsaan #11 2 years ago

    Drill till you drop. LOL.

  • 00.00.01 #12 2 years ago

    @ Armoured_Gideon
    Am in Glasgow, viewing the skies. Pleased with this Exclusive, however Norway is getting a good bit as well atm. Also there's nothing to see as skies are almost always this grey... Hoax-alert? Am pretty close to G'gow Airport and see planes and copters evry day on fly-by level.

  • Bealsy #13 2 years ago

    I love this article. The total can't be arsed attitude is pure win.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #14 2 years ago

    There is a typo: 'Samurai Shodwon Sen'

  • Madafunkola #15 2 years ago

    I think I'll just rent Spinter Cell, finish Just Cause 2, borrow Heavy Rain from my brother and get Alan Wake in 4 weeks. That'll be one whole pay packet without "buying" any games!

  • tachometer #16 2 years ago

    Ahead Winos Rum Snows = samurai showdown sen

  • Agent_Llama #17 2 years ago

    I rather like the title 'Samurai Shodwon Sen'.

  • Rodchenko #18 2 years ago

    @Murton

    You're missing out on the better part(s) of GTA IV then, imo. I have yet to finish the main game myself, but I really liked TBOGT and, to a lesser extent, TLATD much much more than the half I've played of Nico's adventures so far.

  • Murton #19 2 years ago

    @Rodchenko: maybe so. I'll admit that there's a little bit of principle involved in my decision, Rockstar "snubbed" PS3 and PC users by selling out to MS, though kudos for them to admitting it unlike other companies I could name. It's just that with this particular DLC I've also lost all interest in the core game.

    That's not to say that I won't pick it up at a later date if I see it cheap and nothing else is out at the time, but I'm certainly not excited at finally being invited to this party a year after it started and I don't see a reason why any other PS3 or PC user should be either.

  • rotmm #20 2 years ago

    @Murton,

    So can I assume you'll show no interest in Rockstar's Agent, due to the fact that they've "snubbed" 360 owners too?

  • jambo74 #21 2 years ago

    @Armoured_Gideon

    guess what those GTA developers that come from Edinburgh, Scotland did?

  • bad09 #22 2 years ago

    "Rockstar "snubbed" PS3 and PC users by selling out to MS"

    Short memory there Murton. I seem to remember a certain Sony console held on to GTA for a while last gen. Was it OK back then?

    As for PC it's just the norm. We always get screwed these days anyway, remember we are ALL pirating scum who don't want to buy their games....apparently....

  • Bigglesworth #23 2 years ago

    @ @00:00:01
    Are you suggesting Volcanic Ash is vapourware?

  • muscleblade #24 2 years ago

    Splinter Cell: Short but good singleplayer. Amazing Coop. I should punish myself for not buying it. I just dont have the time right now.

  • Murton #25 2 years ago

    @Rotmm

    I don't see a point for comparison between The Agent, a PS3 exclusive title and these DLCs, which were 360 exclusive expansion packs to a multiplatform game. In order to snub someone you must first acknowledge them, this hasn't happened with The Agent just like it hasn't happened with Splinter Cell or any other full title exclusive on either platform.

    In my opinion having exclusive expansions to multiplatform games is wrong and I'd like to think that many other people agree with me on that regardless of which side of the equation the publisher in question puts them on.

    EDIT:
    "Short memory there Murton. I seem to remember a certain Sony console held on to GTA for a while last gen. Was it OK back then? "

    Defective memory there Bad09. GTA3 pre-dated the Xbox and Vice City had already long been in production before the Xbox hit the market, and both games were ported to the Xbox later that year. San Andreas I'll concede was a true 6 month temporary exclusive. But the point I'm making is about expansion content, not core games.
    Edited by 2 at 15/04/10 @ 12:41

  • metalangel #26 2 years ago

    I just bought Glasgow Airport 2010 for Flight Simulator X and the draw distance is terrible!

  • Moribundman #27 2 years ago

    @Murton Oh come on, get over yourself... If MS hadn't paid that £50M the expansions wouldn't be coming out on any platform, certainly not at the level of quality on offer with TLAD and TBOGT, which are to all intents and purposes a game the same size as GTAIV between them.

    That agreement was clearly that R* developed the episodes with the £50M, were sworn to secrecy over potential multi-platform release and 6 months after the release of the last bit of DLC they were free of that obligation and could release on other platforms once MS had recouped their investment. MS have paid for the content you can now buy for your PS3. Look at it like that and its a whole lot sweeter...

  • bad09 #28 2 years ago

    @ Murton

    Fair enough I'll give you that on 3 and VC on the box :)

    But wasn't the PC versions late to?

  • IkariW #29 2 years ago

    I'm pretty sure the 'exclusive episodic content' for Xbox Live regarding GTA was always a timed exclusive.
    And I'm also pretty sure MS and Rockstar said this at the time, maybe I just imagined it though.

    Games are getting crazy this and next month eh?!
    Big 4 for me:

    Splinter Cell
    Super Street Fighter 4
    Alan Wake
    Red Dead...

    Great stuff, long may it continue! :)

    Ikari

  • vyseofhr #30 2 years ago

    @ armoured gideon

    It was obviously always going to be a timed exclusive though, wasn't it?

  • muscleblade #31 2 years ago

    @IkariW

    and Lost Planet 2.

    Edited by 1 at 15/04/10 @ 12:48

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #32 2 years ago

    seems strange that you always do this round up hours before the ps3 store gets updated, there was actually 9 new games for ps3 on the PSN store today.

    Might be worth holding off on these articles for the sake of a few hours.

  • richardiox #33 2 years ago

    @muscleblade

    ...and Alpha Protocol and the Halo: Reach Beta. 'Nuff good games init.

  • makeamazing #34 2 years ago

    Got it in the post today, not sure when i will play it yet, as i havent got very far in the original... and have tons of games that i want to get a second play through, decisions decisions :D

  • Murton #35 2 years ago

    @Bad09
    Same time as the Xbox editions I believe.

    @Moribundman
    There's no way of knowing what would have happened if MS didn't wave that 50 million around. Rockstar and Take2 may have released some DLC, or they may have started work on another game. I'm merely saying that I disagree with the premise of exclusive content on multiplatform games as it totally disregards the fans on the platforms that are left behind whether they eventually get that content or not.

  • taurus82 #36 2 years ago

    Sam & Max S03 E01 is also released on PSN today, as is Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee.

  • GamesConnoisseur #37 2 years ago

    Multi platform games with exclusives contents or DLC are a very different beast to exclusive from start or even timed exclusive game.

    As you are actually playing a game that had been held back with extra juicies that are only available to rival console, people damning MS and Rockstars need to look at other games as well.

    Batman: Arkham Asylum with Joker
    Mirror's Edge with extra levels
    Lost Planet 2 on PS3 with extra contents (If I understood that right)

    So people getting upset are they also taking same stance with all above games or just anything against their favourite console? If so then there would be quite a lot of people hurt on either platform and either MS or Sony are just as guilty.

    I would prefer for a straightforward exclusives in term of Gods of War 3, Splinter Cell 5 and so on or come the day in future where we all will be able to play any game irrespective of the platform. That would be perfect but not gonna happen pretty soon!

    Which is why I m a multi platform gamer through and through and damn the exlusives.... they not gonna stop me!

  • adzengland #38 2 years ago

    GTA?! Pah! Rugby League 3 in all it's blocky, granulated Wii beauty! EG don't look like to be bothered to even review it, obviously based darn sarf!

  • Ranger101 #39 2 years ago

    Samurai Showdown Sen? More like Samurai SHODDY sen!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA Who's with me guys!? Eh? Eh?!

  • Moribundman #40 2 years ago

    @GamesConnoisseur Amen to that. I definitely agree. Exclusive games are different from exclusive content which in turn is different from that farcical EU timed exclusive that Sony forced on Ghostbusters. No excuse for that.

    As for sticking to fully exclusive games I definitelty agree. Given the fact you don't always know which consoles will get exclusive/timed DLC at the point of purchase it just seems mean spirited - I can preorder Arkham Asylum on the 360 and MW2 on the PS3 and then once they're released I find out they've released the DLC or additional content on the other platform.

    Devs should realise that this is NOT the way to fight second hand sales - it actually encourages it (sell your 360 game and buy the PS3 version of the same game 2nd hand or vice versa...)

  • Hyoscine #41 2 years ago

    Sorry to hear about your mom's holiday. : (