I've always had a penchant for spamming up the VG section of Smash with my over excited postings related to VG news (Mtank took my mantle really), so I thought what the hey, how abouts we create another thread here just to post some news and cool links with the debating spreading into their own designated threads. Always been good to have in the past anyways, so I'll obviously get us started with some retro related stuff I've found on my travels.


Interesting little time killer here, where by they have recreated modern titles with a Atari/retro twist. Some of their other images are fairly funny on their main site. Enjoy.

I've always been a Sega fanboy (currently replaying back through JSR for kicks), and the guys over at Sonic Retro are partaking in an exciting project to recreate Sonic 2 in HD form, adptly to be titled Sonic 2 HD funnily enough. Over on their forums scores of fans and geeks alike are toiling hard together compiling ideas for things ranging from their versions of the soundtrack to the detail of Sonic's mouth, and the fruits of their labour thus far is very impressive as I think you will agree from this screenshot, and this video of the tech demo they have recently released. Alot more details and you can get involved if that way inclined at their forums.

There are also a couple of other Sonic projects from fanboys that have been running longer, Sonic Nexus and ProSonic.

One last thing, a plug to the now infamous Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. If you've not heard of him, he is a quirky video game reviewer for The Escapist. His gimmick is getting a tad tired now, but he's still tops when on form, although his older reviews are definately much improved over his newer ones which are mostly mere shadows of the former. Have a gander here. Zelda, Fable: TLC, and Assassin's Creed are among his better reviews for me.

Zero Punctuation is definately something fun to pass 5 minutes every week.

Does this mean that Sega might do STREETS OF RAGE HD?!

With Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts forthcoming, the release of the original Banjo on XBLA has been confirmed for release on 26th November. Price set at 1200 points, but is due to be a freebie for those who preorder the game although details of this haven't been confirmed yet. It is still looking lovely as you'll see from the video below, and Banjo Tooie is due next year too. Look see:

Did they explain how they're going to link the old games with the new one? I loved Banjo-Kazooie as a kid, and am excited to see this coming back. I wonder if they'll be able to port Goldeneye, but that may be a little harder since it's a licensed game.

Rare seems to be back in form. Perfect Dark Zero was okay, but Viva Pinata is an awesome game series.

I always plug them as I have been their fan since their humble beginnings (and they are a shade of their former selves), but Eurogamer.net have some great indepth interviews with the Rare team on the back of VP, Banjo and such like, what with both being based over here so them exploiting their easy access to them. I forget precise numbers, but Nuts and Bolts is said to be about 80% driving over platforming, and when it was actually presented at planning stage wasn't actually proposed as a Banjo title, which does raise a tinge of doubt. A collective challenge based affair featuring the Banjo world seems to be the case rather than a platforming follow on sequel, but to be fair at least they are attempted to evolve for the market today as sticking with the fan boys didn't bare fruit with Grabbed by the Ghoulies (really unfairly ignored that title).

From what I have seem, little features like the dream sequence intro featuring gameplay from the old Banjo's, the old theme etc; there seems to be enough links to the original titles so as not to seem as if it is another title with the Banjo tacked on to sell it, but with enough originality to stand on it's own footing and re-envision the Banjo franchise for the future.

On Goldeneye, it was all virtually done for XBLA release, but with Activision owning the Bond license and Ninty 'apparently' working their way in convincing them to stop it's release, it's been on hold for about three/four months now. Rare were even prepared to offer a VC release. It's the reason that Banjo isn't getting a VC release according to those said to be in the know.

If you enjoyed the Broken Sword games even half of much as I did then you are in for a treat. Broken Sword 2.5 (conveniently set between The Smoking Mirror, and The Sleeping Dragon), was released last night after being developed for a good while now by Mind Factory, a team of fan's of the series. I must say I've not got too far in but I am very impressed. Not sure what Charles Cecil's take on it is, but I'm sure he will be tipping his hat.

One problem is that at the moment the game is in German. It does have English subtitles though so more than enough to cope. It is in the style of the original two titles so not the 3D route some disliked.

If you're even slightly interested then give it a whirl. Or if you're an obsessive like myself, you better have already downloaded it.

http://www.brokensword25.com/news/news.htm

You can download GTA2 for free from [url]www.rockstargames.com[/url]

Nintendo announces new DS

The new unit looks almost exactly like the existing DS Lite, but it's some 12 percent thinner, partly because it doesn't have a GBA cartridge slot. The screens are also slightly larger, at 3.25 inches, and there are two cameras, at least one of which is VGA res.

I was disappointed when Jill Valentine wasn't returning for the next Resident Evil, but another character returns...

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/41037.html

It looks very good MTank...will probably buy it

Tokyo Game Show was really dull news wise. But then that's my fault for always believing every Shenmue 3 rumour nigh on every year, and this year getting excited a few months ago over the possible return to the Jet Set Radio franchise which didn't bare fruit. Basically:

• Halo 3: Recon was shown off. Stand alone expansion. New substory set before Halo 3. New character. Stealth game play. As you can tell, it didn't really click with me but looks interesting at least.
  
  
• Tekken 6 is to be released next year on both the 360 and PS3.
  
  
• No More Heroes 2 - Desperate Struggle announced. People warble on about the subtitle...D....S. Other people see the game running and confirm it's for the Wii. Myself, can't wait.
  
  
• Bayonetta shown off, the latest from Platinum Games (former Clover team, Devil May Cry etc). Very Devil May Cry, looks very good. Sega look to be onto a winner. Also Madworld also from PG and published by Sega, not looking as promising but still something to anticipate with the minds behind it and at the very least it's graphical style.
  
  
• Castlevania coming to the 360 and PS3, or is it.
  
  
• Alot of stuff reshown, reannounced, confirmed...drab and dull.

Forgot to mention that the 'New Xbox Experience' is coming on the 19th November, and Home is coming to the PS3 next month as well (although no specific date to doubtful what with Home's track record).

One for Rooq from Eurogamer:

Midway has told us Europe will get Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe special edition treats, just like the US.

"We have a full complement of different offerings for Europe," the publisher told Eurogamer.

"A reward pack with a drawstring bag, comic and Alex Ross poster will be available with certain retailers; EU-exclusive t-shirts with a few partners; exclusive litho prints; and there's one last unannounced item that may be coming. Final details are being ironed out now."

Those deals are still to appear on our regional retailers, although GAME now sports a holding page for a Special Edition priced at GBP 49.99.

The North American Kollector's Edition of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe features hand-painted and removable box art by comic hero Alex Ross. The game also comes with a prequel 16-page comic by MK co-creator John Tobias, plus all sorts of bonus video content that no one ever really watches.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe is due for PS3 and 360 release on 21st November.

...and one that at least interests me from Spong:

Sony has confirmed reports of a LittleBigPlanet PlayStation 3 bundle to SPOnG.

The bundle, which we first told you about nearly a month ago, will include a copy of the game, an 80GB PS3 and a Dual Shock 3 controller. It will all cost £299, the same as every other version of the PS3 for the last year or so...

SPOnG has a picture of the bundle to the right. Be warned, its neon glory may burn your eyes.

Click here for piccie of bundle.

Clarkey wrote:Tokyo Game Show was really dull news wise. But then that's my fault for always believing every Shenmue 3 rumour nigh on every year, and this year getting excited a few months ago over the possible return to the Jet Set Radio franchise which didn't bare fruit. Basically:

• Halo 3: Recon was shown off. Stand alone expansion. New substory set before Halo 3. New character. Stealth game play. As you can tell, it didn't really click with me but looks interesting at least.
  
  
• Tekken 6 is to be released next year on both the 360 and PS3.
  
  
• No More Heroes 2 - Desperate Struggle announced. People warble on about the subtitle...D....S. Other people see the game running and confirm it's for the Wii. Myself, can't wait.
  
  
• Bayonetta shown off, the latest from Platinum Games (former Clover team, Devil May Cry etc). Very Devil May Cry, looks very good. Sega look to be onto a winner. Also Madworld also from PG and published by Sega, not looking as promising but still something to anticipate with the minds behind it and at the very least it's graphical style.
  
  
• Castlevania coming to the 360 and PS3, or is it.
  
  
• Alot of stuff reshown, reannounced, confirmed...drab and dull.

I recently heard something interesting from Nintendo from TGS; they plan on retooling older Gamecube games with Wii controls. I thought that was rather interesting and could put a new spin on some of the older games.

I guess the answer to this question is a firm no, but if you delete a saved game from your 360 memory unit &/or hardrive, is there anyway of getting it back?

The Chosen1 wrote:I guess the answer to this question is a firm no, but if you delete a saved game from your 360 memory unit &/or hardrive, is there anyway of getting it back?

I don't believe there is a way, but I wish as I accidentally saved over my level 30, maxed-out-in-most-stats character in Oblivion...

If you're interested in how Fable 2 starts, Kotaku has posted the first 10 minutes of the game, obviously they'll be spoilers...

http://kotaku.com/5065434/the-first-10-minutes-of-fable-2-albeit-in-polish

Two great announcements made in the last week...

"The Old Republic," a MMO set in the KotoR universe by Bioware/Lucasarts. Looks very promising; Bioware is implementing separate stories for EACH class type, so you'll essentially be seeing multiple different stories from different perspectives (Ex. A Jedi's v. Smuggler's perspective.)

Also Bioshock 2 officially announced. Short teaser trailer not showing much but looks like it'll be on land this time.

Not really video game news itself, but there's a CG-animated Resident Evil movie called Degeneration coming out in December. It stars Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield in Raccoon City. Kind of wished for this instead of the live-action movies.

On that note, a Professor Layton film has been confirmed by Level 5. Probably be a DVD only release in Japan, but it is great to see the impact Layton has made, deservedly. Just a shame that the Phoenix Wright series while a success in itself hasn't hit similar levels here at least.

Here's one that would be good if Realtime Worlds are behind it still (might not be with their work on APB), and if it is actually going to happen obviously, from VG 24/7:

Microsoft’s given a less than subtle hint that a sequel to Realtime World’s beloved open-city 360 shooter, Crackdown, is a little more than fantasy.

“I’m here to tell you on behalf of the community, I want - we need - another Crackdown,” Xbox Live’s director of programming, Larry Hryb, told MGS boss Phil Spencer in the latest Major Nelson podcast.

“That’s all I’m going to say, so you don’t have to confirm for deny anything. I’m just saying we want it.”

“Yes, Crackdown’s one of my favourites,” said Spencer. “I’ll leave it at that.”

A sequel to Crackdown never materialized as “the numbers just didn’t add up,” we were told by Realtime Worlds studio boss Colin Macdonald told us this summer.

Macdonald himself said at the time that the studio was open to negotiations on a second game.

“I don’t think the door’s closed,” he said. “Obviously, right now we’re tied up with APB and everything else, but hopefully in the future we’ll have the resource and something can be worked out with Microsoft.”

Crackdown, a first-party Microsoft game, shipped in February 2007 to general critical acclaim.

Image on Konami... MGS4 on 360 eh? So much for Sony saying no.

EGM was shut down last week, which is kind of indicative of the printed media. I guess the magazine business for video games had a relatively short period of time in history and I fear my favorite gaming mag, Game Informer, will most likely go down the same road. They're latest issue is barely the minimal 100 pages.

Assassin's Creed 2, new Ghost Recon due by April '10; I Am Alive delayed

SOURCE: GameSpot
[UPDATE] Ubisoft confirms stealthy, heavily armed sequels will join postponed survival horror game on next year's release docket.

Next Assassin's Creed and Ghost Recon confirmed for next year.

Just a rumor, but the next Dead Rising could take place in a Las Vegas-esque atmosphere based on a short trailer released by Capcom. It sounds like Frank West will be back again as his voice is heard in the trailer. I kind was hoping they'd put someone new in it but meh.



Confirmed! Plus a new main character after all.

XBOX Live is having issues today, do NOT spend MS points.

http://www.examiner.com/x-4377-Philadelphia-Xbox-Examiner~y2009m3d19-XBOX-Live-Issues

The next Fallout game has been announced.

CoD4 on Wii