GamerNode: Latest Game and Console News

Blizzard trademarks "Cataclysm"

Yesterday Blizzard applied for a new trademark for the name "Cataclysm." The trademark would cover everything from online games to "paper-based products." Many have speculated that this indicates the name, or codename, of Blizzard's upcoming, uber secretive, next-gen MMO.

While Blizzard currently has a whole slew of unannounced titles coming in the future, I can't help but think that this is actually the name for Blizzard's next WoW expansion. Many people claim that the next expansion will be in the "maelstrom" region of Azeroth. For those of you who are not familiar with Azeroth, the Maelstrom is the big spinning thingy right in the center of the map. 

The Maelstrom was refered to as the "Great Cataclysm" in the Warcraft books, and it just makes sense to me that this would be the direction...

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Sony E3 2009 Press Conference Live Blog

Nintendo came out strong, Microsoft set a huge precedent yesterday, Can Sony keep up the stellar press conference vibe? We'll find out in 20!

Let's go! SONY TIME!!!

10:59 AM: My dad on Facebook: "It's geek central at my house!" Yes, yes it is. 

11:04: Sesslar and Kevin waxing poetic about Sony. Wee. 

11:05: PS3 Game of E3 '09: Fat Princess. Calling it now.

11:08: We've been minutes away for about 10 minutes. Come now, let's go.

11:09: FINALLY! Let's go! Cool montage of games set to Queen. Awesome.

11:13: Jack Tretton always reminded me of the nervous kid in grade school who fainted every time he went to the blackboard. His heart racing 230 BPM only enhances that.

11:14: Was that 364 games? Wow, that's a lot.

11:15: So every year from now until eternity will be the Year of the Playstation. Great.

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Nintendo E3 2009 Press Conference Live Blog

A message from GamerNode:

Stay tuned...

UPDATE: 20 minutes away!

UPDATE: 10 minutes away! Pumped yet?!?

It is time! Here we go!!!!

8:58 AM: G4 is on, my soda is poured, and I am raring to go. This better be good.

8:59 AM: I officially no longer care about Wiebe Watch. Bring the pain.

9:00 AM: Do it! DO IT NOW!!

9:03 AM:  Nintendo time!!Montage of various happy people playing various Nintendo games.

9:04 AM: Dear God, Cammie is starting it up. Not good.

9:05 AM: Cammie starts it off with what I like to call Corporate Wanking. NPD stats and sales figures. Wee.

9:06 AM: I will admit, my aunt bought a DSi and loves it. She has a point. "Create Surprise." I like that.

9:07 AM: Here coms the plucky plumber! What'd'ya got for me, eh?

9:08 AM: New Super Mario Bros. for the Wii. Hm..... I wanna play in...

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Ubisoft Conference E3 2009 Live Blog

Hollah, it's the Ubisoft conference left today, or tonight if you're on my side of the big ole' globe, and we're all eager to see a lot of titles from these folks: everything from the confirmed Assassin's Creed 2 to the heavily anticipated (and rumoured) Beyond Good and Evil 2.

The blog is no longer live, as the event is now finished. It was a great event full of animated speakers, and brilliant games.

For those not wanting to read everything, the following games were discussed and announced: Assassin's Creed 2, Raving Rabbids Go Home, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Petz Nursery, Style Lab, Shawn White Snowboarding: World Stage, Red Steel 2, Academy of Champions, Avatar,  along with footballer Pele and film legend Jame...

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EA Conference E3 2009 Live Blog

EA's live blog should be interesting - odds are we'll see quite a few IPs, though maybe not as many as tonight's (today's) Ubisoft conference.

Note: This is now over, you can see below the tons of words that would hint at said finish. It was a great conference, despite the rocky technical start.

For the lazy, we saw Mass Effect 2, Little Miss Petshop Online, Pajama Party, Fight Night Round 4, Saboteur, APB, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Crysis 2, Brutal Legend, Grand Slam Tennis, Madden NFL 10, EA Sports MMA, Dragon Age: Origins, Need for Speed: Shift, and Dante's Inferno, along with appearances from Pete Sampras, Tim Schafer (I know he's not a celebrity, but come on, he invented my damn avatar) and Alison Sweeney. 3:16 PM: And it's over. More Mass Effect 2, please, interwebs. That was tortur...

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LucasArts' Monkey Island returns

For all those missing the adventures of Guybrush Threepwood and friends, the Monkey Island franchise is being revived. LucasArts have just announced plans to not only graphically revamp the original title, complete with new voiceovers and new musical compositions, but an all new five-part Monkey Island title has also been announced, continuing on the latest trend of episodic gameplay.

No release dates for either as yet, but you can bet we'll keep you updated as and when we get more information.

[LucasArts / BigDownload]

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Trion World Network reveals Heroes of Telara MMO

Trion World Network has just announced its first MMO fantasy-based IP, Heroes of Telara.

Based in a dark fantasy universe, four rival factions struggle for supremacy (similar to EVE's four and twice the amount of WoW, though whether it works remains to be seen), using might and magic to topple enemies and, hopefully, other players. Personally, I just want to play the guy above. How great does he look.

[Trion Games Page / Massively]

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Microsoft Conference - E3 2009 Live Blog

It's that time again, and I'll be blogging like crazy to keep you up to date on the latest happenings in the Microsoft 2009 press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in LA. There have been many predictions, but only time will tell.

Note: The live blog is now not so live, as the conference has finished. However, it's now fully formatted and subject to your viewing pleasure. Enjoy the blog.If you're not into reading a wall of text, the "quick" recap is here. We saw Halo: ODST, FORZA Motorsport 2, COD4: MW2, Alan Wake, Left4Dead 2, The Natal motion control system, Rock Band: Beatles, Metal Gear Solid: Rising, Halo: Reach, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Crackdown 2, Joy Ride, FaceBook and Twitter apps, Tony Hawk, Ricochet, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Shadow Complex, Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney, ...

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Lego Harry Potter announced

Rejoice, you muggles. Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 has just been confirmed by developer Traveller's Tales as one of the various new Lego titles they're working on, and are expecting to release it to the wizard-loving public in 2010. The game eponymously focuses on Harry's first four years as a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and presumably will contain the vast range of explorable areas and unlockable characters that have become trademarks of TT's Lego games. More as and when we have it.

[BigDownload]

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Crysis 2 announced for Xbox, PS3, PC

A nice little note to start off this year's E3 - EA have announced Crysis 2 for the above three platforms, notably using the new CryEngine 3 for the best possible gaming experience.

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli spoke about the move from PC-only to multiplatform, saying it marked a "a major stepping stone" for the next game in the Crysis franchise. They seem very pleased to keep EA involved with the series, and EA declared they were most excited: "nothing speaks more to the success of the EA Partners program than when a studio the caliber of Crytek continues to work with us," said David DeMartini, Senior Vice President and General Manager of EA Partners.

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Official Black Mesa trailer

If you don't know about Black Mesa: Source (now just Black Mesa), now's the time to learn. BMS, as it's been fondly referred to by its followers, is a total conversion mod for Half-Life 2 that aims to recreate the original Half-Life using the Source engine. Black Mesa's website has exploded due to the high volume of traffic this video has already generated, and for good reason; it looks amazing.

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GDC Europe going to Games Con 2009

Think Services announced today that the company, in conjunction with gamescom, will be bringing the Game Developers Conference (GDC) Europe to Games Convention 2009 in Cologne, Germany.

Frank Sliwka, who recently joined Think Services through the company's acquisition of Global Games Media (GGM), will lead the event as Vice President of European Business Development and Event Director for GDC Europe.

Think Services' Executive Vice President of Global Events Kathy Schoback expressed her excitement for the event, stating, "We are thrilled to present GDC Europe during gamescom. A world class game developer event belongs at the premier European game industry event. With the support of Koelnmesse, BIU (the German Trade Association of Interactive Entertainment Software), and the City of Cologne, E...

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Resident Evil demo coming to Xbox Live this week

Be excited, but cautiously so.

The latest issue of Japan's top gaming mag, Famitsu, has revealed that a demo of Capcom's Resident Evil 5 will be hitting the Xbox Live Marketplace on December 5th. That's Friday. Two areas (likely the same ones from my hands-on E3 preview) will be available for solo or cooperative play, so make sure you tell your friends.

PlayStation 3 owners may not be so lucky, though, because the magazine doesn't make any mention of a PS3 demo. Famitsu also fails to explicitly note a North American or European release of this demo, so until further notice, it's really anybody's guess if Capcom will be giving the rest of the world a holiday treat, as well.

Let's just keep our fingers crossed.

[via IGN]

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Prince of Persia goes gold, ships 12/2

Ubisoft announced today that the highly stylized Prince of Persia for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 has gone gold, and will be shipping to North American retailers on December 2nd, 2008.

Pre-ordering the game will entitle gamers to a free limited edition upgrade, which includes the folowing items:

• Collectable Limited Edition packaging• An exclusive look at the making of Prince of Persia• A Prima® digital mini-strategy guide full of developer's secrets to help players master the year's best action-adventure game• A digital art book that chronicles the game's journey from concept to winner of Best Artistic Design at E3 2008• The original soundtrack scored by master composer Inon Zur

With the Sands of Time trilogy completed, the Prince will no longer have his sig...

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World of Goo has 90% piracy rate

While we're on the subject of piracy (and using PotC-inspired images), a sad fact has come out today: 90% of the people playing the wonderful World of Goo have pirated it.

It's easy to laugh at piracy when people pirate games using DRM or published by companies like EA, but when the game being pirated is the creation of an indie 2-man studio running out of the developers' own pockets... Well, let's just say it's very sad news. 

According to 2D Boy founder Ron Carmel, it's been a little disconcerning to see the number of people pirating the game, but the company is not entirely crushed by it. "We're doing ok, though," he said. "We're getting good sales through WiiWare, Steam, and our website. Not going bankrupt just yet!" A few people have emailed or commented on the 2D Boy site that they in...

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"Why are you pirating from me?" asks developer

The pirating of software is as sure to happen as the sun rises everyday. Piracy is maligned by software protection groups such as the ESA, and is generally a hot button topic among game developers and publishers.

But Cliff Harris took the issue of pirating very personally--he is a one-man game development company and owns Positech Games.

When the independent game maker saw two of his games, Kudos and Democracy, end up on torrents for anyone to download for free, it really bothered him, to say the least. Harris decided to take things into his own hands and get to the bottom of the problem. On his company blog, he posted an open letter to pirates and asked one question; "what are your reasons for pirating games?"

"I want to improve my business, and ensure I stay afloat, and to do that, it wou...

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Lionhead promises "good news" for Fable fans next ...

Ready for some good news? Well, Lionhead's got it for you.

An excited post on the Fable II development blog teases that Lionhead has some "good news" for fans that will be revealed next week.

"Normally, we don't like to tease too much. You know, all this hype being generated by teasing the announcement that there will be an announcement in X-number of days. Who cares? But in this day and age where a gazillion titles are asking for your attention, I felt it might be the right thing to do on the blog. We've got some G o o d [Good] news for all Fable II fans next week, dare I even say it's quite a big announcement? Yes of course I dare say it's a big announcement regarding Fable II, next week!"

There's not much to go on here, except that it's so important that Lionhead is doing something they a...

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Dead Space to get "premium" console DLC

Even EA's refreshingly new IPs can't escape the pull of money-gouging techniques, I suppose, as EA announced today an upcoming release of "Premium Upgrade Packs" for their hit sci-fi thriller, Dead Space. The packs will be available on Xbox Live worldwide on November 13, on the PSN in Europe on November 13, and on the PSN for the rest of the world one week later on November 20.

Rather than release one catch-all expansion/upgrade release, you'll instead be able to pick which ones you want, and ignore the ones you don't care for. All in all, purchasing all of the upgrades (and the two console-specific ones) will put a dent of about $28 into your wallet.

There's no word yet on whether or not PC owners of Dead Space will see the upgraded content, but given the pricing structure and nature of D...

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EA Casual Game boss quits. Casual Label shut down

Electronic Arts was hoping that the casual game market would be its answer to a successful money making opportunity.

But EA's Casual Entertainment development group has been shut down and will now be incorporated into The Sims game division and will be renamed the Sims Casual Label.

The former Casual Entertainment label was responsible for Boom Blox, Hasbro licenses, Pogo online games, and the Harry Potter franchise.

Kathy Vrabeck, president of the Casual Entertainment group has resigned, citing her departure "for personal reasons."

EA President John Riccitiello hired Vrabeck away from Activision last year. She served as president for Activision's publishing operations. Riccitiello hired her in hopes of charging up EA's company direction due to the gaming giant's downturns in earnings and wh...

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MGS 4 demo now available on the PSN

After a long wait, the Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots demo is now available on the PlayStation Network. The final game in the Metal Gear Solid saga (supposedly), it's easily one of the biggest selling games of the year and the main reason many people bought a PS3.

So am I the only one confused by the release of a demo at this point? I can understand wanting more people to try it and buy it ... but who would consider buying MGS4 that already hasn't? It's the fourth game in the series, so there aren't going to be a lot of newcomers going "This demo was fun, BUY BUY BUY!" And if you own a PS3 and are even remotely interested in Metal Gear, you've probably already played the game, or planned on buying it/receiving it in the near future around Christmas time. 

I'm definitely interested...

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