GamerNode: Latest Game and Console News

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm scheduled for 2010

In one of the biggest stories to come out of this year's BlizzCon, Mike Morhaime has revealed that World of Warcraft's next expansion, Cataclysm, is scheduled to be released sometime in 2010. The news came during a DirecTV interview with the Blizzard CEO, however no further details regarding the release were given.

Of course a 365-day release window is a little too wide to get excited about -- projections such as these represent only general plans for publishers to come to market with their products -- but at the very least it gives eager WoW fans a little more to look forward to for the coming year.

GamerNode will have more info as it becomes available.

[WoW.com]

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Play Policenauts in English now

Listen up, Kojima fans, because the long-overdue English translation to the popular game designer's 1994 Snatcher semi-sequel has finally arrived. This 15-year-in-the-making Policenauts localization is the work of a small group of fans, and is now being released to coincide with Hideo Kojima's 46th birthday. 

A North American Sega Saturn release was scheduled for 1996, but according to Kojima, work ceased on Konami's original port because developers were unable to sync English speech with the game's cutscene animations. A similar roadblock held up the fan translation, as the team searched for someone to insert the translated content into the game's code, only finding someone in August 2008 -- a year after the project had begun.

A patch for the PlayStation version is available now on the grou...

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Band Hero's first two guest stars are...

Band Hero, Activision's more family friendly entry into its Guitar Hero franchise, announced its first two guest stars from the music world. They are

Adam Levine, lead singer of Maroon 5...

AND

Taylor Swift, country music star hailing from the great state of Pennsylvania.

While I'm not huge fans of either of them, they certainly make great additions to a game centered around pop music as opposed to heavy shredding.

Though I will admit, both of those renders look great, very close to the source material.

Pictures from worthplaying.com.

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Fable III revealed at Gamescom

Peter Molyneux got the party started at Microsoft's Gamescom press conference with a semi-surprise unveiling of Lionhead Studios' in-development sequel, Fable III. The game is scheduled to arrive on the Xbox 360 in 2010, and Molyneux promises big changes for the series' second installment on the console.

"The kingdom of Albion is changing. The land needs a ruler. King or queen. Cherished leader or ruthless tyrant. That future has not been written. The race for the crown has begun."

This narration of the teaser trailer shown at the conference explains the premise of the new game -- to play the role of Albion's newest ruler. "You are going to become the ruler of the whole of Albion. You've played in this land in Fable I; in Fable II you became a hero; this time, why not rule Albion? Why not...

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Scribblenauts toots its own horn in trailer

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has got a good thing on its hands in 5th Cell's DS puzzle adventure, Scribblenauts. Nearly everyone in the gaming press has fallen head-over-heels for the game (check out vs. Node #6 for proof), and WB wants you to know it. With the newest trailer, not only do we get to see some of the game's wildly imaginative gameplay, but also boatloads of accolades from numerous gaming publications. Like Babe Ruth said, "It ain't braggin' if you can back it up."

Click through to see the trailer.

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Brutal Legend demo coming next month

Anyone who's been chomping at the bit to get his or her hands on Tim Schafer's Brütal Legend won't have to wait much longer; Electronic Arts and Double Fine Productions have announced that a demo of the game will be arriving on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network sometime this September.

The heavy-metal-inspired action comedy game hits stores on October 13th, so this demo will offer players a full month's worth of TEASE before the real thing becomes available. Said Tim Schafer, President of Double Fine Productions, "We just couldn't wait. Villagers have surrounded our offices with torches, demanding the game. So we're releasing a demo and hope that this taste of metal will keep the mob at bay until Brütal Legend comes out this Rocktober."

As for a specific date to expect this demo... no su...

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Official: PS3 Slim in September, price drop tomorr...

We all knew it was coming, but now it's official. Sony president Kaz Hirai announced at Gamescom today that the PS3 Slim will be available the first week of September, and existing PlayStation 3 models will receive a price cut starting tomorrow, August 19th.

The new unit will cost $299 (€299, ¥29,980), and will be 33 percent smaller and 36 percent lighter than the current PS3 form factor. It will also consume 34 percent less power than its big brother, while maintaining most of the features already in place... including the absence of backwards compatibility. The internal hard drive capacity of the new model will be 120GB, and all PS3 Slim units will come pre-loaded with Sony's recent 3.0 firmware.

Missing from the Slim is the "Install Other OS" option, which allows users to put Linux ...

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PS3 price drop detector: Kmart and FYE ads

It's only a matter of time before the long-rumored, longer-awaited PlayStation 3 price drop becomes a reality. A pair of new clues popped up yesterday -- one at FYE and the other at Kmart -- further indicating the imminence of the retail mega-event.

FYE is preparing to adorn stores with plenty of red-tag signage, advertising a $100 price reduction for both the 80GB PS3 model (from $399 to $299) and the 160GB Uncharted bundle (from $499 to $399). Although a start date for this price change has not yet been revealed, employees have the posters in-hand, ready to be displayed to the eager public.

Kmart.com gives us more to go on, with a front page ad promising "The Rumors Are Reality" regarding a "New Exciting Playstation 3." (Does it matter that PlayStation is misspelled? Naaahhhhh.) This lin...

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No instruments, no problem with SingStar: Beatles

Let's face facts: more people love The Beatles than are interested in playing plastic pseudo-instruments. For those individuals, Electronic Arts, MTV Games, and Sony will be working together to deliver an instrument-free version of The Beatles: Rock Band this fall. Sources at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany have revealed that SingStar: Beatles will be hitting store shelves "within days" of The Beatles: Rock Band's September 9th release, exclusively for the PlayStation 3 console.

Like The Beatles: Rock Band, SingStar: Beatles will be published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts, and is not meant to be a competitor to that high-profile game, but more of a toned-down alternative intended to deliver more Beatles to a wider audience. SingStar: Beatles will come bundled with Singstar m...

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LittleBigPlanet GOTY Edition boasts more content a...

According to an Amazon.com listing, Media Molecule's PS3-exclusivce hit LittleBigPlanet will be coming back to store shelves this fall.

The Game of the Year Edition will sell at 50 USD, $10 lower than the original release, and boasts "Bonus Content valued at over $30."

Though the phrase "valued at" makes most of us scratch our heads and wonder what exactly will be added, the lower price and extra content will surely sway any gamers who are on the fence to buy such a terrific game, one can only hope.

No information on a release date, but GN will update as more information becomes available.

[Amazon]

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New Left 4 Dead campaign "Crash Course" announced...

Containing both Survival maps and a Co-operative Campaign, the primary goal of "Crash Course" is to deliver a complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes, resulting in a streamlined version of the game's existing Versus campaigns.

It's targeted for release in September and bridges the gap between the end of the "No Mercy" campaign and the beginning of "Death Toll" in the original game, expanding the game universe with new locations, new dialogue from the original cast, and a frantic finale.

According to an article at Destructoid, whose author was the first person outside of Valve to play the DLC, the helicopter pilot who rescued the survivors on the roof of No Mercy hospital was infected. Apparently Bill, Louis, and Francis blame Zoey for the helicopter crashing because she shot the ...

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NPD says half of US population are gamers

The videogame industry is booming. According to the latest report from NPD Group, over half of the population of the United States -- 169.9 million out of 304 million, or just under 56% -- is now comprised of gamers. That's a 4.3 million-player increase since last year.

The 2009 Gamer Segmentation Report breaks down the US gamer population into seven categories, the largest of which is the "Secondary Gamers" category, totaling 33.6 million. These are individuals (mostly female, according to the study) who play less than four hours per week and do not own a console. "Console Gamers" (mostly male this time), who own at least one game system and play roughly 12 hours per week come in a close second at 32.9 million.

Other groups named in the report include "Heavy Portable Gamers" (30 million), ...

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UPDATE - Countdown has nothing to do with FFVII

Remember when I posted this story this morning? Well as it turns out, Square Enix's countdown website has absolutely nothing to do with a Final Fantasy VII remake, but with the company's card-based arcade strategy RPG, Lord of Vermilion.

First noted in a NeoGAF thread, the website contains images referencing the game and is likely to be counting down to the announcement of a home console port of the arcade title. Considering Square Enix's recent trademark registration for "Lord of Arcana," this seems far more likely than a next-gen remake of Final Fantasy VII.

GAF member Gilgamesh may have put it best with this handy graph plotting the internet's response to the news. I think most gamers will consider this quite a letdown.

[NeoGAF]

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Mass Effect 2 box art get!!

Bioware released the boxart for its upcoming game Mass Effect 2, the sequel to the highly-acclaimed 2007 shooter/RPG hybrid. If you like Mass Effect or old 80s' style movie posters, the cover art is for you:

It certainly underscores the more actiony feel that Bioware has been saying the game itself will be taking. I just have to wonder who those two in the background are, as Bioware has stated that our buddies Ashley and Wrex won't be in your party the second time around. Could that depend on choices made in the first game?! 

Also, who is Shepard so angry with that they deserve such an intense stink-eye?

The only way we'll know for sure is to play the game, which is scheduled for an early 2010 release.

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PS3 production costs have dropped 70 percent

Sony CEO and executive VP Nobuyuki Oneda has announced that production costs for the PlayStation 3 console have decreased by 70% since its 2006 launch.

In a recent conference call Oneda stated, "The cost reduction since we introduced the PS3 is very substantial and this is on schedule." He went on to clarify, yet still remain as vague as he could manage with an estimate of "about 70%, roughly speaking."

So does this mean that a retail price cut is in store for the near future? It's a possibility, but because the PS3 was rumored to have cost about $800 per unit to manufacture upon release, thereby costing Sony money with each sale, they may be interested in making up some of that lost revenue before passing along the savings. If the purported $800 figure is accurate, then one PS3 now costs ...

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Woman buys boy Vision Camera, now serving time

What's wrong with a little gift? When you're a 32-year-old woman who has live "shows" with a 16-year-old boy and keeps nude shots for later viewing, apparently 10 years' worth of jail time.

Ohio resident Kendra L. Sasser has been charged with the possession of child pornography after two months of photo and video exchange with a 16-year-old boy from Arizona. The two communicated via Myspace and Xbox LIVE, where Sasser likely found it easy to persuade the hormonal teen to oblige her with sexually explicit behavior. After admitting he lacked the funds to purchase an Xbox LIVE Vision Camera for their chat sessions, Sasser generously ponied up the dough in the form of a GameStop gift card, which was later confirmed to have been used for just that purpose.

It was Sasser's HUSBAND who prompted t...

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Final Fantasy VII remake to be announced in a week...

Videogame publishers, just love countdown websites. They build excitement, garner lots of traffic hits, and then typically disappoint everyone who has visited once the timer runs down. If this trend is to continue, then possibly the most epic letdown of all will occur in just under a week, when Square Enix's recently created "VII DAYS" countdown site reaches zero. Hopefully, the opposite will be true, and we will see one of the biggest announcements from the Japanese RPG giant in years.

Most gamers recognize the symbolism in the large, Roman numeral VII; today could potentially be the unveiling of a current-gen Final Fantasy VII remake, delighting millions of fan across the globe. FFVII is one of the most revered RPGs -- one of the most revered games, period -- in videogame history, and th...

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Star Ocean: The Last Hope no longer 360 exclusive

After nearly half a year of exclusivity to the Xbox 360, a GameFly listing has revealed that Square-Enix's Star Ocean: The Last Hope will be coming to the PlayStation 3 sometime in the future.

The Last Hope recently showed up in the popular videogame rental site's PS3 section with a "TBD" release date, indicating that there is at least a plan to bring the game to the platform. When questioned about the listing, a GameFly spokesperson confirmed, stating, "We simply post information as it is supplied to us by the publishers."

We are still waiting on a solid release date for the port, but eager, PS3-bound Star Ocean fans now at least have something to look forward to.

[Joystiq]

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Developers release Zeno Clash SDK

Who doesn't love Valve's Source engine? Not only is it the platform for a multitude of great games, but it also seems to encourage developers to release the source code for nearly everything that make use of it.

Such is the case with the strange and original Zeno Clash; ACE Team yesterday released the SDK for the general public to tinker with. Players who download the files from the Zeno Clash Wiki will be able to create custom levels and mods for the game. Documentation is also available on the wiki.

[ACE Team]

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Pre-order Scribblenauts and receive...

...a rooster hat.

That's right, if you put $5 down on the highly-acclaimed DS title at Gamestop (US) or EB Games (Canada), you will receive a free rooster hat to wear as you solve puzzles with flamethrowers, gas cans, and babies.

For those that don't know about it, Scribblenauts is an action puzzle game developed by the studio behind Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest. Players are tasked with collecting "Starites" from over 200 different puzzles. The main draw of the game is the ability to write virtually anything on the touch screen and summon it into the puzzle, so long as it's appropriate. Starite stuck in a tree? Write "ladder" and climb up to it, or write "axe" and chop it down. Have to get across the stage quickly? *Roller Skates" "Jetpack," or "Motorcycle" will get it done. Appropriatenes...

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