http://www.elecplay.com 2009-01-05 -0400 2009-01-05 -0400 http://e3expo.com/ E3 2008 was without a doubt the most boring expo the industry had ever seen, and was so bad it even cast doubt on the future of the conference. Gone were the days of booth babes and excitement, traded for boring hallways and lackluster announcements. Honorable mention goes to Nintendo for what could easily be the most ridiculous press conference in the history of press conferences, overly-ecstatic http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13639 2009-01-05 http://www.littlebigplanet.com/ The popularity of downloadable content and digital delivery skyrocketed in 2008, seeing more and more people make the move away from hard copies of their games, music, and movies. User-generated content also grew in popularity, games like LittleBigPlanet are only the beginning, folks. http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13641 2009-01-05 Unfortunately, economic conditions in 2008 saw the closure and decline of many great game studios. Flagship Studios was the first on the chopping block, closing their doors after the abysmal failure of Hellgate: London. Microsoft announced that it would be shutting down Ensemble Studios after the completion of their latest project, Halo Wars for the 360. And what about Midway? The Mortal Kombat pu http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13643 2009-01-05 http://www.apple.com/iphone/ In more exciting hand-held news, Apple released the iPhone 3G, marking the computer giant’s entry into the gaming market. The sale of iPhone games has been a tremendous success, but it wasn’t all roses for the iPhone when Google released the new T-Mobile G1. Running on the new Android mobile operating system, the device has managed to take some of the steam away from Apple’s iPhone juggernau http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13646 2009-01-05 http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com/dvdsite/ We all knew the sequel to Batman Begins was going to be good, but no one thought it would be that good. The Dark Knight was released to rave reviews and killed the competition at the box office, quickly becoming the second highest grossing film of all time. No one, least of all those involved in the making of the film, could have predicted the mad success. As it stands, director Christopher Nolan http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13647 2009-01-05 http://www.rockstargames.com/ Sam Houser and other key members of the Grand Theft Auto team have signed a long-term deal to stay with Rockstar Games, a division of Take Two Interactive. As part of the deal, they’ll be part of a profit-sharing program and will even form a new company within Take Two. No word on what new properties they’ll be cooking up, but you should expect them to be as controversial as the GTA and Manhun http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13549 2008-12-19 http://www.champions-online.com/ Take Two Interactive may be sticking with the GTA team, but the publisher has dropped Champions Online. Take Two may have come to the decision to drop the title after Atari recently bought the game’s developer Cryptic Studios. And since Atari is already publishing Cryptic’s other big title, Star Trek Online, it would make sense that they’d step in to publish Champions Online as well. There� http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13550 2008-12-19 http://blog.us.playstation.com/2008/12/16/littlebigplanet-introduces-%E2%80%9Cle Sony has released the Festive Level Pack for LittleBigPlanet. Sackboy can now have Christmas cards, lights, candy canes and other holiday goodies to play with, and can even wrap levels in wrapping paper. Sackboy also gets two new looks, a Christmas tree head-piece, and a wraping paper costume. You can download the Festive Level Pack now, but you’ll have to keep waiting for that Metal Gear Solid http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13551 2008-12-19 http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP Sony’s Director of Hardware Marketing John Koller has splashed more cold water on the hopes for a new PlayStation Portable, telling Silicon Valley Insider quote “no plans for a PSP2 are underway.” Koller added that all the rumors are just the result of a misunderstanding, Sony wants developers to move away from UMDs towards digital downloads, and some people interpreted that as a move to a n http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13552 2008-12-19 http://www.easports.com/tigerwoods09/ Don’t you hate it when the ads for games look better than the game itself? Well, the British Government does too. The UK Advertising Standards Authority has forced Electronic Arts to pull a Wii ad for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 that shows in-game footage from the 360 version of the game. The Advertising Authority said quote “viewers would infer from the ad that Tiger Woods was playing the game on http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13553 2008-12-19 http://www.lionhead.com/fable2/KnotholeIsland The new downloadable content for Fable II has been delayed yet again. The Knothole Island expansion pack was supposed to be available on the 22nd, but has been pushed back to January 2009. Developer Lionhead Studios has cited technical difficulties as the culprit, and this means the upcoming Download & Win contest for Fable II is also delayed. http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13554 2008-12-19 http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com/dvdsite/ It turns out none of those dumb casting rumors about the new Batman movie are true. Regarding the potential follow up to The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. President Alan Horn says they’re still only talking with director Christopher Nolan, and that’s as far as things have gone. No one has been cast yet, folks. Alan Horns also says quote “The story is everything and we are very respectful of Chri http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13557 2008-12-19 Now here’s a rumor that’s a little more concrete. Tim Robbins is expected to play Tony Stark’s father in Iron Man 2. The sequel to last summer’s smash hit Iron Man is reportedly looking at Tim Robbins for the role of Howard Stark. If true, Robbins would be playing Tony Stark’s father in the film, and would appear in an important flashback scene. Keep in mind, nothing has been made offici http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13558 2008-12-19 http://www.touch.konami.net/mgst/pc/ We finally know what that Metal Gear teaser is all about. You’ll soon be able to touch the Solid Snake in your pocket. A hand-held, touch-screen version of Metal Gear Solid 4 is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch. Metal Gear Solid Touch will allow players to control Solid Snake using the iPhone’s touch-screen, and will feature characters and locations from the Metal Gear Solid 4 universe. Kon http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13531 2008-12-18 http://www.batmanarkhamasylum.com/ It’s official. Mark Hamill will reprise the voice of The Joker for Batman: Arkham Asylum. The game, currently in development at Rocksteady Studios, will see Mark Hamill return to the role he previously voiced for Batman: The Animated Series and Mask Of The Phantasm. Kevin Conroy will also be returning to the role of Batman, which he also voiced in The Animated Series. We’re going to have tons http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13532 2008-12-18 http://www.rockstargames.com/chinatownwars/ We’ve gotten our first look at GTA on the DS, sort of. No, Rockstar still hasn’t shown footage from Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, but they have released the box art. We’ll have to be content with GTAIV and it’s expansion, The Lost And Damned, until Chinatown Wars comes out for the DS in March 2009. http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13533 2008-12-18 http://projectorigin.warnerbros.com/ The Australian Classification Board has lifted its ban on the latest F.E.A.R. game. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin has been given a 15+ rating in Australia after Warner Bros. appealed the decision by the Board to ban the game in the country. This means you can now get the game legally in Australia, just as long as you’re 15 or older. Apparently Monoltih Productions didn’t even have to cut any of t http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13534 2008-12-18 http://www.sega.com/empire/index.php?t=EnglishUSA The release of Empire: Total War is being pushed back to March 2009. The good news is the delay will allow developers to add some extra polish, and even a whole new multiplayer campaign mode. For those who don’t know, Empire: Total War is a PC strategy game that lets players control the military and economy of their favorite 18th Century Empire. And if you hate playing games on the PC, a console http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13535 2008-12-18 If you plan on holding your breath for the next Zelda title, you might want to equip the Zora Tunic. The follow up to Twilight Princess could be a long way off. Shigeru Miyamoto recently told the Official Nintendo Magazine that he’s not even sure when they’re going to make a public announcement about the game, let alone a release date. Miyamoto-san said quote “I can't even say if the next E http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13536 2008-12-18 http://www.ghostbustersgame.com/ Atari President Phil Harrison says he wants to make Activision regret their decision to drop the new Ghostbusters game. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick once claimed Ghostbusters wouldn’t generate $100 million in revenue, and now Phil Harrison says quote “I would love to turn Ghostbusters into a $100 million franchise, just to prove him wrong.” Ghostbusters was dropped by Activision after the mer http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13537 2008-12-18 http://www.midway.com/ Midway has announced that it is closing Midway Austin, the studio that developed BlackSite: Area 51. And there’s more bad news, Midway is also laying off 180 employees, which is a quarter of its total US workforce. CEO and President Matt Booty said quote “The cost-reduction measures are vital for us to rationalize our operations and provide the resources necessary for our core properties to su http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13538 2008-12-18 http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/ The Watchmen lawsuit between Fox and Warner Bros. has been delayed. The trial was originally planned for January 6th, but Judge Gary Allen Feess has pushed the trial back to January 20th. The judge also refused to make a summary ruling on the case, which both Fox and Warner Bros. were asking for. The change shouldn’t delay the release of the movie though, Warner Bros. still plans to have Watchme http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13539 2008-12-18 http://www.macworldexpo.com/ Apple has announced that this January’s Macworld conference will be the last one they attend, marking a move by the computer giant to begin scaling back trade show attendance. CEO Steve Jobs won’t be delivering the keynote speech either, sparking rumors that he’ll soon be retiring. Maybe with all the games Apple’s been releasing for the iPhone lately, they should take out space at the next http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13541 2008-12-18 http://www.spike.com/video/god-of-war-iii/3077714 David Jaffe has weighed in on that new God Of War III trailer unveiled at the Spike TV VGAs. Jaffe says quote "the footage aired on Spike looked meh. It is not the thing I was raving about. The stuff I saw that I raved about looked about 25-30 percent better.” Loyal viewers will remember Jaffe’s rave, recently writing on his blog that God Of War III quote “looks like nothing you've ever pl http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13517 2008-12-17 http://www.timewarner.com/ Time Warner could be getting closer to buying up Eidos. 10 million shares of the British publisher have been bought by the media conglomerate. This could put Time Warner on top of the current bidding war for Eidos, which reportedly also includes Sqaure Enix, EA, and Ubisoft as parties interested in buying up the publisher. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment already has a distribution deal with http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13518 2008-12-17 http://www.505games.co.uk/ Some more details are coming in about the reported Michael Phelps video game. The game will be an action-oriented competitive swimming title developed by 505 Games, an Italian company that previously worked on Cooking Mama and the European version of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life. The game may also feature some of Phelps’ Olympic teammates, and is planned for release in Spring 2010 for all the http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13519 2008-12-17 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2008-12-14-metallica-game-qanda_N.htm One of the members of Metallica thinks the music and game industry will eventually become the same thing. Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett recently told USA Today that he has quote “a sneaking suspicion that the video game industry and the record industry are going to eventually just merge into one big thing… It’s enabling the artists to present the music in a very new and different and modern wa http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13520 2008-12-17 https://www.pearljam.com/max And in other digital news, it turns out the new re-mastered version of Pearl Jam’s Ten is gonna be added to Rock Band. The milestone grunge album that kicked off Pearl Jam’s career contains hits like Jeremy and Even Flow, and will be the first time the band’s music will be featured on Rock Band. Ten will join other full albums already available for Rock Band, like Rush’s Moving Pictures an http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13521 2008-12-17 http://www.cheechandchongtour.com/ 70’s stoners Cheech and Chong are reportedly getting their own animated flick. The cartoon, tentatively called Cheech and Chong\'s Smokin\' Animated Movie, will animate classic routines from the duo’s previous films, like Up In Smoke. Cheech and Chong are currently doing the Light Up America Tour, their first collaboration in more than twenty years, and had reportedly planned to do a new f http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13522 2008-12-17 There’s finally some new stuff about Tron 2. The sequel to the 1982 cult classic has just signed actors Olivia Wilde and Beau Garrett to join Jeff Bridges. You might recognize Beau Garrett, who played Frankie Raye in the Fantastic Four movies, while Olivia Wilde has appeared on House MD. The Tron sequel is currently known as “TR2N,” with a 2 where the O should be. Disney plans to release the http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13523 2008-12-17 http://www.t-enterprise.co.uk/flashgame/playgame.aspx?id=bushbootcamp There’s already a flash game based on the infamous Bush Shoe Throwing incident. The incident saw soon-to-be-former-President Bush narrowly dodging a shoe attack from an angry Iraqi reporter. Now you can join the fun too in this new flash game from T Enterprise. No, you’re not trying to shoot Bush, you use your guns to deflect the flying shoes before they hit the head of state. With the growing http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13524 2008-12-17 http://www.thedaytheearthstoodstillmovie.com/ 20th Century Fox has given The Day the Earth Stood Still a very wide release. The studio says that a satellite at Cape Canaveral will broadcast the Sci-Fi remake starring Keanu Reeves to Alpha Centauri, our nearest star. Possible residents of Alpha Centauri shouldn’t hold their breath, because of the distance between Earth and our stellar neighbor, the movie won’t arrive until 2012. So they’ http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13525 2008-12-17 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081211.weavan1211/BNStory/T As reported last week, EA has scrapped the Need For Speed series due to financial woes. Now the publishing giant has suspended plans to open a new development studio in Vancouver. The 20,000 square foot studio was to be constructed in Vancouver’s Yaletown district, and would have provided new office space for both EA Canada and EA Black Box. Now that plans for the new studio are canned, and with http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13504 2008-12-16 http://www.swtor.com/ BioWare and LucasArts have finally released the first footage of the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic on the game’s official site. The footage appears inside a short web doc alongside interviews with some of the game’s designers, like Director/Lead Designer James Olsen and BioWare studio head Ray Muzyka. The video doesn’t get too deep into what the game has in store, but does give a clos http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13505 2008-12-16 http://www.brutallegendgame.com/ Its official. Tim Schafer, the twisted mind behind Grim Fandango and PsychoNauts, is teaming up with Kung-Fu Panda and Tropic Thunder star Jack Black. Black will star in Brütal Legend, a 3rd person rock action/adventure game under development at Schafer’s Double Fine Productions. Jack Black will provide the voice of Eddie Riggs, a roadie who gets transported to a mythical world and has to assem http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13507 2008-12-16 http://www.sonypictures.net/movies/terminatorsalvation/ You’re going to be getting even more Terminator, whether you want it or not. A sequel to the still-in-development Terminator: Salvation has reportedly been given the go ahead by the studio. This will be the fifth film in the Terminator series, and will follow the same post-apocalyptic story line as the upcoming Salvation, where Christian Bale battles giant robots in the future. The powers that b http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13508 2008-12-16 http://thedarkknight.warnerbros.com/dvdsite/ Batman is making a big splash in the home video market, both legally and illegally. The Dark Knight is the most downloaded film of 2008, with over 7 million illegal copies floating around the internet. Ouch. On the other hand, legal DVD and Blu-Ray sales of the film reached almost 4 million copies in the first two days. An incredible 600,000 of those copies were sold on Blu-Ray in the first day al http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13509 2008-12-16 http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/newmoon.html They’ve already found a new director for New Moon. The upcoming teen vampire sequel to Twilight will be directed by Chris Weitz. Weitz has a lot of experience with the teen genre, directing American Pie and About A Boy, and more recently, The Golden Compass. Not to mention his role as Producer on last summer’s Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. It should be interesting to see where he takes t http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13511 2008-12-16 If you’ve been playing Left 4 Dead, you may have encountered something scarier than flesh-eating zombies: hackers. A video has surfaced on YouTube teaching ne’er-do-wells how to hack the 360 version to spawn weapons and other things the game’s designers didn’t intend. Since so many players are using the hack, Valve has responded quickly and released a patch. And it even looks like the hack http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13489 2008-12-15 http://www.swtor.com/ You might not need a lot of money to explore The Old Republic. EA CEO John Riccitiello referred to the new BioWare MMO as a microtransaction-based game, sparking rumors that the Star Wars game will be free-to-play. Most Asian MMOs don’t use subscription services, and make their money through the sale of weapons and clothing. EA has hinted that it might start leaning in this direction. EA hasn’ http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13490 2008-12-15 http://www.lionhead.com/fable2/ Gamers are going to have a lot of downloadable goodies this holiday season. Fable II players won’t be able to open their presents until closer to Christmas. Lionhead Studios has bumped the Knothole Island expansion back from December 12th to the 22nd. The expansion will add new quests and rare items for the player, and will still be out in time for Christmas. The Escalation Pac http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13491 2008-12-15 http://www.havok.com/content/blogcategory/20/37/ The creators of the Havok Physics engine have been dropping hints about their next project. Havok was recently used in games like Fallout 3, The Force Unleashed, and Fable II. David O’Meara, Managing Director of Havok, has revealed that their next product will focus on quote “in-game character behavior in dynamically destructible environments.” The only thing better than character developmen http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13492 2008-12-15 http://www.gamemechs.com/ There’s a new game developer on the scene. Game Mechanic Studios out of California has just opened it’s doors. While the company only has three employees, they’ve worked on games in the Tony Hawk and Medal Of Honor series in the past, and have worked at EA and Activision. No word on what their first title will be, but they’ve said it’s going to be an original IP. We can’t wait to see w http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13493 2008-12-15 http://uk.playstation.com/games-media/games/detail/item99986/echochrome/ The black and white world of Echochrome is getting a whole lot bigger. A new patch for the popular PlayStation Network title is adding trophy support and 1000 additional user-generated levels. Players can find the new levels simply by entering Freeform play, and the trophies you’ll win are sure to make a nice addition to your trophy room in PlayStation Home. And you know I can’t resists saying http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13494 2008-12-15 Some casting news from Spider-Man: The Musical. Yeah, you heard me. Spider-Man: The Musical. All you fans of the Spider-Man movies might want to get in touch with your musical side and check this one out. Actress Evan Rachel Wood will be playing Spidey’s girlfriend Mary-Jane Watson in the Marvel Comics musical. The Broadway production of Spider-Man is currently in the works from the same people http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13497 2008-12-15 http://www.needforspeed.com/ Oh, how the mighty have fallen. It looks like the Need for Speed series has run out of gas. EP has learned that Electronic Arts has cancelled the development of new titles in the once popular racing series. The cancellation has not yet been made official by EA. We've attempted to obtain confirmation, and at this time have yet to get an official response from Electronic Arts. The franchise's remo http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13469 2008-12-12 http://www.scee.presscentre.com/ There’s been some cold water splashed on recent rumors about the upcoming portable gaming devices. About the PSP 2, David Reeves, head of SCE Europe recently told MCV magazine quote “there are currently no plans for a PSP 2” and that Sony is going to stick with improving the original PSP. Now over to Microsoft. It turns out CEO Steve Ballmer, that guy from those funny web videos, will not be http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13470 2008-12-12 http://majornelson.com/ There’s some interesting new information about the New Xbox Experience. Xbox’s Major Nelson says that with the advent of the new interface, Xbox Live now has more than 14 million members. Since the launch of NXE, members have started interacting more, with the number of friends per Live user going up 33%. Movie downloads have gone up 49%, while TV show downloads have gone up 30%. Avatar-enable http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13471 2008-12-12 http://www.rockband2.com/ I love having my living room cluttered with game peripherals, but it looks like Harmonix doesn’t. Harmonix is currently working on a compatibility patch that would make the wireless Lips microphones compatible with Rock Band 2. Both Harmonix and MTV Games say they have an open-platform policy for controllers, and want all third party peripherals to work with Rock Band 2. No word on when the patc http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13472 2008-12-12 http://www.apple.com/search/?q=Little+Big+Planet%3A+Little+Big+Music+Musical+ It may be some time until we see it on the PSP, but LittleBigPlanet is already on iTunes. No, not the game. The album composed by Daniel Pemberton featuring all the original music from LittleBigPlanet is now available on Apple’s digital distribution service. Dubbed Little Big Planet: Little Big Music Musical, the album has 18 original recordings made for the game, some of which never made it int http://www.elecplay.com/news/read/id/13473 2008-12-12