LBP Goes GOLD

Its official, LittleBigPlanet has gone gold, it is now completely finished. As well as this Sony has now nailed down what should be a final release dates for the game for territories worldwide.

Our date still stands as October 24, but the original Oct 29 date announced for Europe has changed to Oct 22. US gets it first on Oct 21.

As well as this Sony has revealed a Gears "Emergence Day" esk DLC event for the launch week.

"This is only the beginning," said Sony. "We won't be taking it easy just because we have started to manufacture the game! Media Molecule and SCE have a long-term commitment towards expanding the world of LittleBigPlanet and working hard to make sure that our fans get amazing new content and features via PlayStation Network.

"To start with, there will be a free Spaceman costume for Sackboy, perfect for preparing to launch! There will also be a rare "Week One" Sackboy t-shirt to prove that you were there at the start. Both items will be available for a limited time only."

The game comes with 50 pre-built levels on the disk as well as a fantastic level editor so the possibilities are nigh on endless.

Source: CVG

Race Driver DLC

Codemasters has detailed the upcoming '8 Ball' Downloadable Content pack for Race Driver: GRID, heading to the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 this autumn.

The pack provides eight new cars and two new online events. Additional cars include the McLaren F1 GTR, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X and the gorgeous Nissan GT-R.

For Xbox 360 the pack also deliver four new Achievements:

• Jack Of All Trades - Win an online race in each of the 8 Ball pack cars - 25pts
• Drift Master - Achieve a 99x combo in the Honda S2000 - 25pts.
  
• Gas Guzzler - Clock up over 250 miles in your favourite 8 Ball pack car- 25pts.
  
• Clean Passing - Win a clean race in an 8 Ball Pack car from last position - 25pts.
  

Further content is expected to be released for the game later this year, says Codies, including V8 Supercars featuring Ford and Holden cars and the Bathurst circuit.

Here's the full list of motors added in the DLC pack:

• McLaren F1 GTR
  
• TVR Cerbera Speed 12
  
• Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X
  
• Honda S2000
  
• Nissan GT-R (S-G2008)
  
• VW Nardo
  
• Pontiac Firebird Trans AM
  
• Volvo C30

Source: CVG

LBP Trophies Revealed

A list of all the trophies attainable in Media Molecules upcoming platformer with a difference, LittleBigPlanet, has been posted on PS3trophies.com.

There are a total of 48 trophies available, all of which are listed if you dont mind seeing a few spoilers, I do mind so if you want to know them you will need to check it out.

LitteBigPlanet is set to release on October 24th.

Source: Eurogamer

SNK Talks KOFXII Graphics

When it comes to graphical splender games like Killzone 2 and Gears of War always crop up near the top of the lists, however these games cant be described as art. King of Fighters, whilst maintaining its classic 2d art style can most definitely be described as art. The hand drawn characters and animated 2d sprites of the KOF seroes are regarded as some of the best in the industry.

Speaking at the Tokyo Amusement Show, King Of Fighters XII producer Masaaki Kukino talked about SNK upcomingh fighter and also their classic graphical style.

Overall, it's a very hard process that could take 16 months for even an experienced designer to do alone. In terms of data, the character size is about four times larger [than in previous installments]. But when considering the extra errors that come about in doing the [bigger] pixel art, the trouble is more than four times what it used to be.

Each character in KOFXII has around 400 to 600 [sprite] patterns. Every single one of them is hand-drawn, and it's something that we're proud of. I'll only say it here, but we believe that this is something that no other company can imitate, something that only SNK Playmore can do.

Source: Kotaku

Vote for Time Splitters 4

Free Radical Design is giving gamers a chance to vote on the future of one of its biggest IP's Time Splitters.

By clicking the link you will be taken to a poll, allowing you to vote on the possible future of Time Splitters 4, maybe the poor sales of Haze has made Free Radical re-think their stance in the market.

So, hit the link and vote for your favourite franchise, your console needs you!

Source: Free Radical

Mirrors Edge Gets a Release Date

EA has announced a release date for the console versions of its upcoming first person free running title Mirrors Edge.

The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will launch on 11th November. If you can't wait that long, a demo will be on Xbox Live and PSN next Friday 26th September.

The demo will feature the games prologue, including the tutorial and a taste of the main campaign.

EA have also announced that if you pre-order the game from "selected retailers" then you will be sent a special code allowing you to unlock the time trial mode in the demo, allowing you to compete against other players around the world, if you care for that kind of thing.

EA have said that the PC version will be out "later in the winter", so presumably pc gamers wont have to wait too long to get their grubby mits on the full version of the game.

Source: Eurogamer

Playstation Store Update

Its that time again, the time of the week where the Playstation store gets its weekly update (unless its running late like last week). This week we've personally searched the store to bring you the news first.

This week on the Playstation Store we have:

Demos:

• Fracture
• Soul Calibur 4
• NBA Live 09

Trailers:

• Fallout 3
• Resistance 2: Twisted History
• Pure Exhilaration
• PlayTV Product Trailer
• Amusement Park: Clown Toss (PAIN)
• Amusement Park: Hot and Cold (PAIN)
  

Themes and Wallpapers:

• Infamous Theme
• Pain Themes
• PlayTV Theme
• Pain Wallpapers
• PlayTV Wallpaper

Map packs and extras:

• Rock Band - All Over Again - Single Track
  
• Rock Band - Don't Make me Wait - Single Track
  
• Rock Band - Livin at the Corner of Dude and Catastrophe - Single Track
  
• Rock Band - She Does - SingleTrack
• Rock Band - Shhh - Single Track
  
• Rock Band - Skullcrusher - Single Track
  
• Rock Band - Locksley pack 01 - Track Pack
• Rock Band - The PAX 2008 Collection Pack - Track Pack
• Rock Band - Song Export Key - Game Pack

Source: Internal

Pokemon Platinum Hits 1 Million in Two Days

It looks like Japan has PokeFever, having releases just two days ago, the latest title in the Pokemon range, Pokemon Platinum, has sold nearly a million copies in just two days. It looks like the Japanese really do "gotta catch em all".

According to figures from Media Create, the pocket monster game sold 963,000 copies in the week ending September 14, easily outselling all of the other titles in the top 10 combined.

Pokeon Platinum is a spin off of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, judging from these figures the Japanese cant get enough of it.

Here's this week's Japanese top ten list in full:

01. Pokemon Platinum (Nintendo, DS) 963,000 / NE
02. Quiz Magic Academy DS (Konami, DS) 119,000 / NEW
03. Infinite Undiscovery (Square Enix, 360) 90,000 / NEW
04. One Piece Unlimited Cruise: Episode 1 - Nami ni Yureru Hihou (Namco Bandai, Wii) 61,000 / NEW
05. Rhythm Heaven Gold (Nintendo, DS) 56,000 / 723,000
06. Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) 25,000 / 2,635,000
07. D.Gray-man: Sousha no Shikaku (Konami, PS2) 15,000 NEW
08. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) 14,000 / 1,762,000
09. Daigasso! Band Brothers DX (Nintendo, DS) 14,000 / 340,000
10. J-League Winning Eleven 2008 Club Championship (Konami, PS2) 13,000 / 148,000

Source: CVG

Motorstorm Screens

Feast your eyes on this new set of screenshots from Sonys upcoming Brutal Off-road Racer Motorstorm: Pacific Rift.

The new screens show off new vehicles, new tracks and new mayhem. Also up for display in the screens is the newly featured and much needed splitscreen mode, allowing 2-4 players to play on one system, the lack of local multiplayer in Motorstorm was very disappointing. Finally, you can also see some of the more unconventional vehicles

Hit the source link to view the screenshots.

Source: CVG

Tekkn 6 Footage

A four minute long trailer of Tekken 6 has been shown at the current AM show in Tokyo, Japan.

With nearly four minutes of in-game footage being shown, the trailer shows off some f the new characters, their flashy moves and of course new stages.

Source: CVG

Nintendo Set to Make $1.6 million Per Employee

A report from the Financial Times has put the simply stunning recent success of Nintendo into a mind friendly figure. It states that Nintendo is currently set to earn $1.6 million this year, per Employee.

Given the publisher's latest revenue projections and a workforce of less than 3,000 permanent employees, the business-focused site believes the Wii maker will top the per-employee profit numbers of heavy hitters like Google and Goldman Sachs. The Financial Times believes the search engine giant pulled in about $626,000 for each of its employees, while the global investment firm managed $1.24 million.

Nintendo keeps its profits up a few ways, most notably by outsourcing manufacturing and some game development. It also saves a bundle on employee salaries. Where Goldman Sachs' average employee made $660,000 in total compensation for 2007, the average Nintendo salary clocked in at $90,900.

Now, if only the employees were able to get their hands on that $1.6 million, Nintendo would never have staffing issues again.

Source: Gamespot

Starc Wars Launch Events

Star Wars fans take note, if your planning on getting Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on launch then you may want to check out one of the midnight launches going on at the following locations:

Official launch party with LucasArts at Best Buy
When: Monday, September 15th, starting at 7pm until midnight.
Where: Best Buy, 1717 Harrison St. in San Francisco
Event features: Producers and actors from the game will be there.
Check out more information on it here.

GameCrazy Launch Events
When: Monday, September 15th, starting at 8 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Where: GameCrazy stores (see if there's one in your area here)
Event features: Costume contest. Best Star Wars costume gets to play it first at 10pm (first place and three runners-up)! Chance to receive one of 750 limited edition Force Unleashed action figures.

GameStop Launch Events
See midnight launch locations here.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed will be released in the US on September 16, 2008, in Asia/Pacific region on September 17, and in Europe on September 19. It will be available for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, PSP and Nintendo DS

Source: Gamingbits

Google Refuses to Comment on Valve Rumour

Internet Behemoth Google has stated reports that it is planning to acquire are simply "Rumour and Speculation".

A report by The Inquirer has suggested Google will announce an acquisition of the Half-Life developer imminently.

Central to the deal would be the Steam business, the market leading online distribution service for games on PC.

Yesterday, Google used its session at Austin GDC to reveal plans for games developers to incorporate games into the firms online virtual world Lively.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz

Rage on Xbox 360 to Use Two Disks

ID Software has had to rethink how content is presented in its upcoming title Rage due to restrictions of the Xbox 360's DVD size.

The original idea had been to spread the game across five-to-six wasteland environments, according to lead designer Tim Willits. But DVD restrictions have meant that's been turned into two larger areas; one for each of the two Xbox 360 discs.

"The PC is limitless in the amount of data you can put on it. The PS3 has about 25GB. But the Xbox 360 roughly has 6 to 8 GB of data. We're hoping we can squeeze the game down to two discs for the 360 version."

"I wouldn't say the overall story was changed in any way in order to fit on the Xbox 360 version," Willits said, "but how the player experiences Rage's story has been altered."

Rage is a post apocalyptic first person action game with driving elements, its set to release in late 2009 or possibly even early 2010.

Source: Eurogamer

Xbox 360 gets a euro price cut

Microsoft has officially announced that the xbox 360 will receive a European price cut, from this Friday the Arcade Unit will cost £129.99 / €179, the 60GB Premium package will cost £169.99 / €239.99 and the 120 GB Xbox 360 Elite will now cost £229.99 / €299.99.

"We're proud to be expanding the reach of Xbox as the first next-generation console to break the EUR 200 / GBP 150 barrier, making the platform up to EUR 200 / GBP 170 less expensive than competitors," said European Xboxman Chris Lewis.

"History shows that the majority of console sales happen after this price point has been breached, and we're well positioned to take advantage of this mass market pricing."

"Plus, with well over five million consoles sold to date the combination of the strongest games line up this Christmas, really innovative entertainment experiences and these groundbreaking new price points will ensure we continue to enjoy fantastic momentum in Europe," said Lewis.

Source: Eurogamer

Two New Tekken Characters

Two new characters have been revealed for Tekken 6 in a set of small and grainy images from a Japanese publication.

According to reports, the two characters are called Alisa Boskonovich, a skimpily-dressed girl with pink hair and (hopefully) the ability to kick very high, and Lars Alexanderson, an average-built dude who looks like he knows how to put foot to face.

No details have been revealed about the characters, however information is expected from the AM Show in Tokyo this week.

Source: CVG

XBLA Update

For the third week in a row we have multiple new games coming to Xbox Live Arcade, Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown and Domino Master both release for 800 ms points along side an expansion pack for Ticket to Ride, containing the 1910 map which will cost 400 ms points.

Source: 1up

Fifa 09 Demo Tomorrow

EA's David Rutter has confirmed that a demo of Fifa 2009 should be appearing on PSN and XBL tomorrow, 11th September.

"There is a Demo coming to both consoles in early September, the 11th to be precise," said Rutter, although he went on to warn: "it could slip a week or two."

Source: CVG