Eurogamer in blog format

They say money makes the world go round, but this is somewhat inaccurate. Leftover momentum from the solar nebula makes the world go round. Money, in fact, is not responsible for rotation, gravity, nor indeed any number of other phenomena in the galaxy. It does, however, occasionally make games less interesting.

You simply couldn't make No One Lives Forever today. You couldn't because it would be too long, require far too many assets, and most significantly of all, risk all the cost of development on a comedy game - a genre that no longer exists. Its international scale, its enormous volume of content and its emphasis on making you laugh add up to something that feels like it's from another age - an age before an FPS lasted six hours and cost $250 million.

Set in the 1960s, Monolith's spoof of spy fiction starred Agent Cate Archer in the lead role - a female spy in a male-dominated career, fighting not only for her country, but also for some respect from her doubtful superiors. Her story in a game everyone has forgotten was called The Operative (the 'No One Lives Forever' intended to be a James Bond-style episode title) sees her trek around the world in pursuit of H.A.R.M., an evil organisation murdering UNITY operatives. Read more...

I got it all wrong at the time, but quite a lot of other people did too. Almost everyone who saw Sony's PSP prior to release assumed that it spelled the end for Nintendo's long domination of the handheld market.

Why wouldn't it? Sony had been on a roll for over a decade by this point, transforming consoles from things children played with before going to bed - at least in the popular imagination - into chic accessories professional clubbers, DJs, models and probably even sexy drug dealers wouldn't mind leaving lying around on the coffee table next to a copy of ID or the UTNE Reader.

The PSP was beautiful: it was exotic and smooth and shiny and it looked, in fact, like it had slipped through a wormhole and tumbled into the present day from some point in the future. Nintendo's handheld tech, on the other hand, always tended to resemble something that had just been decommissioned by a particularly unglamorous facet of the Russian military. Read more...

Published as part of our sister-site GamesIndustry.biz' widely-read weekly newsletter, the GamesIndustry.biz Editorial is a weekly dissection of one of the issues weighing on the minds of the people at the top of the games business. It appears on Eurogamer after it goes out to GI.biz newsletter subscribers.

1.7 million people in the UK bought Modern Warfare 2 last week, a figure almost lost in the controversy which has surrounded this game for months. Amidst voices raised by the controversial airport level, it's almost possible to forget that a few months ago, it wasn't the content of Modern Warfare 2 that concerned us all - it was the price.

In the end, the higher price-point which fermented so much debate over the summer meant nothing to consumers. While specialist retailers fumed, some supermarkets discounted the game down to £26 and online behemoth Amazon dropped its price tag to £32 a few days before launch. Even considering the buying power of such retail giants, it's likely that some outlets were treating the game as a loss leader. Read more...

The Creatures series has been added to GOG.com. For $9.99 you'll get Creatures: The Albian Years (Creatures 1 & 2), Creatures Exodus (Creatures 3 & Docking Station) and Creatures Village (Creatures Adventures & Creatures Playground)

Creatures is a game that used clever programming to simulate life and allow players to breed animals with unpredictable results, which itself resulted in a strong online following and lots of sequels. You could think of it as a precursor to Spore.

But the only review on Eurogamer is for Creatures 3, and it's not exactly a recommendation at 2/10. Read more...

War's road to redemption begins.

Square Enix will release Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers in Europe on 5th February.

The Wii adventure has just launched in Japan and will be available in the US on Boxing Day, bizarrely.

Crystal Bearers was revealed at E3 2005 long before the Wii (then the Revolution) had gone on sale. The idea, we presume, was to use the momentum generated by GameCube's excellent Crystal Chronicles from 2004. Read more...

The PC version of licensed shooter Aliens vs Predator will support dedicated servers, according to a new statement made by British developer Rebellion.

"Despite rumours, Rebellion has always been planning to support dedicated servers for Aliens vs Predator PC and we can now officially confirm that this is the case. Rebellion has always appreciated fan support," said Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley. "We're really looking forward to the release of Aliens vs Predator as much as you guys are!"

Previously senior producer David Brickley had remained uncommitted on the question, commenting: "You know what the internet's like. We're obviously used to getting things for free over the years. I guess on our side the thing we're focusing on is whatever your set-up at home, you get the best possible experience from it. We're just trying to use our time and resources wisely." Read more...

Brad Wardell, boss of Stardock and digital distribution platform Impulse, reckons Valve's Steam is miles ahead of any competition in the PC gaming download market.

"Our estimation is that Steam - as the current market leader - enjoys approximately 70 per cent of the overall digital distribution market with Impulse at 10 per cent and all others combined at 20 per cent in terms of actual dollars generated per month," wrote Wardell in a company report this week (spotted by Gamasutra).

Wardell also feels Valve is beginning to monopolise on its position by integrating Steamworks tools into games at an early development stage and essentially locking them out from other digital distribution platforms. Read more...

I'm both the best and the worst guy to be reviewing this. The best because last year's strategy/role-playing curio King's Bounty: The Legend was comfortably my game of the year, and one I bent the ear of anyone unlucky enough to be in the same room as me about. The worst because, well, that. I know the thing inside out. Armored Princess is a standalone expansion for it, and as such it's pretty much the same game. If I'd come to it without already knowing how good King's Bounty is, I'd have been grabbing people in the street, staring at them with wild eyes, shaking them by the shoulders and shouting, "Princess! Armored Princess! Omi god it's amazing it's a proper PC game you have to play it you have to play it whoops I just had a trouser malfunction."

It is a proper PC game. You do have to play it. I have just had a trouser malfunction. It's just... it's the same game again. When you can pick up the first game (well, not the first - The Legend was a semi-remake of the old 1990s King's Bounty) for less than a tenner, it's very hard to tell you to spend £30 on this one instead. And that's the nub of it - if you haven't played the first King's Bounty, get that. There isn't anything in Armored Princess that's worth spending an extra £20 on, unless you particularly get off on inventory screens showing a girl in chainmail that cuts away to reveal an impossibly flat stomach. She might be an Armored Princess, but she's certainly not a Well-Armored Princess. As for whether you should pick this up if you do know King's Bounty intimately, I'll get into that shortly.

First, though, let's talk about what King's Bounty is. Heroes of Might & Magic is the easiest touchstone - a fantasy world which you roam around from a fairly birds-eye perspective, being sucked into turn-based strategic battles whenever you encounter an enemy. Whilst the battles are ostensibly Final Fantasy-esque, with two opposing sides taking turns to biff each other with wild abilities, the difference is that you're pitching armies against each other. You've got 68 archers, 108 snakes, 34 guard droids and three Cyclops and a bunch of werewolves; he's got a gaggle of ghosts, skeletons, dragons, pirates and bears. Fight! Read more...

KOEI has announced that Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce (PS3/360) will be released in Europe on 16th February.

Strikeforce takes the Dynasty Warriors series online for the very first time. Four of you can either raid together co-operatively or bash each other competitively. There are even - in a Monster Hunter turn of events - dragons and "other massive beasts" to tackle together.

Voice and text chat are supported, and you can play offline with AI bots where your friends would normally be. Extra features exclusive to PS3 and 360 include 40 new missions, an enemy Hyperbreak gauge, combat tactics, new character "Meng Huo" and online officer trading. Read more...

Croteam has announced that Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter will be released for PC on 24th November.

The announcement comes in an exclusive trailer on Eurogamer TV today.

"Over the past years we have had loads of fans requesting that we bring the world of Serious Sam up to date and give him a high-definition makeover," said Roman Ribaric, CEO. Read more...

Croteam's high-def update of the PC blasting classic gets a formal release date.

On the fourth Thursday of every November, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving by feasting and frolicking. That time is upon us again, and so Microsoft has put some seasonal Xbox Live deals together for all regions to benefit from.

This weekend (starting today and ending Monday) the new social features - Last.fm, Facebook, Twitter and Zune HD - will be usable by Silver Xbox Live members.

Next week Microsoft is going to snip the price of Fable II DLC See the Future from 560 MSP to 400 MSP (£3.40/€4.80), and the Death Tank cost from 1200 MSP to 800 MSP (£6.80/€9.60). The following week, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will be available for just 240 MSP (£2/€2.80)! Read more...

Gravity Crash will be released this Tuesday 24th November on the PlayStation Store. We had expected Just Add Water's much-touted retro PSN game in December.

The date arrives as part of this week's Store refresher and probably has something to do with Thanksgiving.

Out today are Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao, Critter Crunch and the original Metal Gear Solid. Invincible Tiger is the fast and fun Kung Fu game that supports 3DTV, should you have one, and Critter Crunch is a puzzle game you can find out more about on the PlayStation blog. Read more...

Jumping from Modern Warfare 2 to Bad Company 2 isn't recommended. While both are broadly similar in concept - modern military shooters set in an imaginary land war between America and Russia - the difference in style couldn't be more pronounced. Infinity Ward's big-bollocked blockbuster has the bone-rattling volume and GRAAAAAGH KILLING SPREE! adrenaline rush, but try those bombastic Hollywood heroics over in DICE's theatre of war and you'll be shot to ribbons before you can say "danger close".

Currently titillating PS3 owners with an exclusive multiplayer beta, a whopping four months from release, Battlefield looks set to continue its conquest of the middle ground between Call of Duty's crowd-pleasing mayhem and Operation Flashpoint's brutal realism. Even more than its predecessor, which marked the series' debut on consoles, Bad Company 2 is undeniably part of the PC lineage. This is smart, savage war-gaming, where a cool head and a steady hand are rewarded over grenade-spamming and shooting from the hip.

The beta is virtually identical to the one that heralded the first Bad Company game. Rush is the game mode, and it sets out the game's stall in convincing style. The attacking team must push into enemy territory and destroy two communication arrays. The defenders must stop them. Whenever both arrays are destroyed, the defenders must fall back to the next section of the map. Victory for the attackers comes when there's nowhere left to run, while the defenders benefit from infinite respawns and must whittle down the enemy tickets until they're forced to withdraw. Read more...

First, the good news: Buzz! is back! A new instalment in the hit series of quiz games has been released just in time for Christmas. It features 5000 new questions, three more round types and three new characters. There has been a host of minor technical improvements which enhance the overall experience to a significant degree.

Now, the bad news: Buzz is back. The eponymous quiz show host is as bouncy, bolshy and full of irritating wisecracks as ever. Once again it will be just minutes before you want to grab him by his silly hair, yank the top of his giant head as far back as it will go, stuff your Buzz! controller into his gaping maw, push it so far down his gullet the flashing red button pops out the other end, stab the sharpened end of a tree branch into each buttock and call him Rudolph. Or perhaps that's just me.

So putting Buzz to one side for now, let's start with those round types. Buzz!: Quiz World features old favourites such as Fastest Finger, Pass the Bomb and Final Countdown but now there are extras like Over the Edge, where every question you get wrong tips you closer to a giant gunge tank. In On the Spot you get to bet your opponents' points on how likely they are to get questions right, which is a good twist. Read more...

Sony's PSP and PS3 are still selling better than their Nintendo-made competition in Japan.

This week (ending 15th November) the PSP (45,197) and PS3 (38,498) combined to sell 83,695 units, whereas the DS (38,785) and Wii (26,764) banded together to sell 65,549 units, according to Media Create data.

That's about as exciting as the software charts. Those are dominated by SEGA's PSP newcomer J-League Pro Soccer Club o Tsukurou! 6: Pride of J (84,996). Read more...

Capcom has announced that the swathe of new downloadable content for Resident Evil 5, to be released early next year, will make its way onto a disc after all.

Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition for the PS3 and Xbox 360 - not the PC - will include the original game, two new episodes, new costumes, and eight new playable characters for a new version of Mercenaries Mode called The Mercenaries Reunion. It will be released on 9th March 2010 in North America at a standard retail price of $49.99, and 12th March in Europe.

The PS3 Gold Edition will pack it all onto a Blu-ray, while the 360 version will be the original game on DVD plus a DLC download token, so if your 360 is offline, then tough. Read more...

Rock Band gets light-hearted with the minifigs.

Dotnia experiences an expansion into an entirely new dimension.

Wheee! We're suckers for a bit of dog-fighting, especially with those crazy rear-prop driven Japanese planes.

Sneaky tactics and sharp headshots in the sequel to DICE's jolly battlefield romp.

Blood Bowl gets its first new race in the lithe and dangerous form of the Dark Elves.

As an ancient and powerful Umbra witch, Bayonetta has a few handy tricks up her tight sleeves. Here, learn about her flashy, demon-powered killer moves.

Video on demand streaming is coming to the PS3 very soon, with a massive wedge of entertainment waiting at your digital fingertips.

When you're heading into a life or death battle against uncaring robotic overlords, you want to be wearing the right dress.

Ever wanted a zebra-striped AK-47? Of course you have.

The PSP title slips out, somewhat in the shadow of its big brother.

Meet the two opposing forces of the Avatar world, and choose which one you'll be fighting for.

Series creator Chris Taylor discusses his sequel, and what improvements have been made over the original.

Two short CCTV vignettes with those lovable, psychopathic rogues, Kane and Lynch.

Tecmo KOEI offers a first look at Again, a DS game made by Hotel Dusk developer Cing. Story and contenxt are explained in this clip.

A fantastic job of a sequel, building on strengths and addressing weaknesses - AC II hits the shops this Friday.

The perpetually confined simians return in their first balance board title, jonesing for bananas like the dirty little potassium junkies they are.

With social network integration a hot topic, Sony pumps up its Facebook app.

The hub of all starship activity, the bridge is where the important stuff happens. That and engineering, but engineering is far less glamorous and doesn't have the comfy chairs.