GamerNode: Latest Game and Console News

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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Left 4 Dead demo tomorrow, pre-load today

Tomorrow will see the release of the Left 4 Dead demo on Steam for those users who have pre-ordered the full game. For those of you who have pre-ordered Left 4 Dead on Steam, the demo can now be pre-loaded so you can access it as soon as it is unlocked tomorrow.

Everyone else will have to wait for the 11th before the demo is publicly launched on Steam and Xbox Live.

The demo will run from the 6th to the 18th, where upon it will conclude when Left 4 Dead is finally released. It seems a bit odd to have the demo no longer be available once the game comes out, but Valve must be hoping that their advertising, coupled with their reputation and word of mouth of customers will be enough to sell the game.

For all the 360 players it's not just the PC users who are getting special treats. The 360 demo w...

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Steam Cloud ready to launch with L4D demo

Steam just seems to get better and better every day. Tomorrow will see the launch of Steam Cloud, a group of tools that are set to make gaming even easier on Steam.

Steam Cloud saves things like configuration settings, key mappings, difficulty settings and even save games, and then ties them to your Steam account so that where ever you log in, your settings and saves will follow you.

"For some time now, Steam has allowed gamers to log on from any computer in the world and access their applications. This also makes it easy to upgrade a PC without worrying about losing your games," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "Steam Cloud is a natural extension of the portability Steam affords gamers and developers, and we intend to expand its feature set as it is used in Left 4 Dead ...

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Mirror's Edge completed EA ships gold disc to fact...

EA's new "Parkour-style" action game is headed to factories on time boys and girls. Mirror's Edge is set to be the first in a planned trilogy from EA and DICE.

The title looks to be on time for its November 11 launch in North America and November 14 in Europe.

While it looks like Mirror's Edge is definitely on schedule for release, PC gamers will be sad to discover that they're going to have to wait sometime this winter for a port of the title.

'Sometime this winter' is rather vague though, so let's not hold our breath until we get something a little more concrete from EA shall we?

If you haven't heard of Mirror's Edge, and yes there are some of you out there, here's the story. Mirror's Edge is going to put you in the shoes of Faith, a black-market 'mail lady'.

She takes packages from place...

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Waagh! What is it good for and what is it not so g...

It's been nearly a whole year since I last posted any of my opinions here at GamerNode. I've come back from a great deal of time off from writing, and as such I might be a tad rusty...so bare with me. I thought It would be a cool to take a look at Warhammer: Online and say what I believe the game has going for it and against it.

So let's start with what the game has going for it.

New-ness: Yes that's right, it has new-ness! Warhammer: Online is a breath of fresh air in the stale lungs of the MMO industry. Anything that looks new to gamers, looks cool, and seems to have some changes made to the way we play MMOs, is surely to have a crowd waiting outside of Gamestop to buy the game.

Features: From public quests, to the detailed tome of knowledge, you've got features upon features of cool th...

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Wii price drop coming? Nintendo prez says no way

There's an old saying that says there are two certainties in life: death and taxes.

For gamers, you might want to add "no price drops for the Wii." The Wii, almost two years-old, coming November 19, has maintained its launch price of $250.

Where it once stood proudly as the least expensive game console, the Xbox Arcade, at a paltry $199, has overtaken the Wii's status as the cheapest machine. The PS3 comes in at $399; a two hundred dollar drop from its former brain numbing launch price of $599.

Surely, with the gift-giving season almost upon us, Nintendo must be thinking price drop, right? Wrong. According to Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's president, he doesn't see the need or reason for doing this. Why? He doesn't want to "offend" those Wii-ites who have purchased the Wii at full price. He also ...

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Spore is on Time's Best Inventions of 2008 list

Most gamers have been touched by the concepts of super game designer Will Wright, either directly or indirectly. We've played his games (The Sims) or have played games that were influenced by his ideas.

Evidently, the effect of his work has transcended beyond the gaming world; Time magazine says that one of his recent creations, Spore, has secured a spot in its "List of Best Inventions for 2008."

We'll let Time speak for itself:

"It's blasphemy, brilliance or both to take the entire evolution of a species - from a single-celled animalcule in a drop of water to a space-faring, galaxy-exploring sentient being - and turn it into a video game.

"But that's exactly what Will Wright has done. Wright is the man who created The Sims, a game about everyday life in suburbia, but apparently he found th...

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Bethesda planning Elder Scrolls for 2010, avoiding...

With Fallout 3 on store shelves, in gamers' homes, and in critics' hearts, Bethesda Softworks is looking ahead to their next triumph in the action-rpg genre.

Speaking with GamesIndustry, Bethesda publishing executive Paul Oughton has revealed that the company plans the next entry into their acclaimed Elder Scrolls series for the year 2010. He also mentioned that they have no plans to develop for Nintendo's Wii console.

"At the moment we've got Fallout 3 for this year and potentially there's a new Elder Scrolls title in 2010. At the moment we're not that interested in the Wii. We're going to stick to PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. We'll continue to pursue three or four titles a year and go for big titles."

"Potentially" isn't exactly a guarantee that we'll see the sprawling world of Tamriel within the ...

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Sega publishing The Conduit

For months, High Voltage Software has been showing off a very impressive sci-fi first-person shooter in development exclusively for the Wii. Until now, however, the studio has been unable to secure a publisher for The Conduit, despite how promising the game does indeed look.

In a press release dated October 29, Sega of America and Sega of Europe have announced a worldwide partnership with High Voltage, and will be publishing the title as part of an impressive stable of future releases, ending the developer's search.

Said High Voltage Software's CEO Kerry Ganofsky, "SEGA shares our vision for the title and its tremendous potential, which is why we chose them from a long list of potential partners. With their support, we are confident that The Conduit will deliver the definitive shooter ex...

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EA forum moderator threatens game ban on members

If you own the games Spore or Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 and have been a malcontent on the associated forums, an EA forum moderator says that you may not only be banned from forum activity, but you could be banned from the games that are linked to your Master EA Account.

EA forum moderator eaapoc stated:

"Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since its all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It's all one in the same, so I strongly recommend people play nice and act matu...

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Obama in-game ads; how much does it cost?

It's the day after Barack Obama's multimillion-dollar infomercial extravaganza. The democratic presidential nominee bought half an hour's worth of television airtime across 8 cable and major broadcast networks to make his positions known to the American public.

Cost of this project? About a cool 5 million dollars.

But Obama is also buying up ad-space in video games too. The cost of this advertising is a mere drop in the bucket compared to what the infomercial's price tag was. According to information from the Federal Election Commission, the Obama election campaign spent $44,456.78 to game ad company, Massive Incorporated, for services rendered.

Interestingly enough, one of Obama's signature speech lines calls for parents to get more involved in their kids' lives by making sure they do their...

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The Beatles getting their own game via Harmonix

While early reports suggested that the Beatles, Apple Corps Ltd., MTV, and EA agreed to a deal placing the Beatles' music in the Rock Band catalog as DLC, the official press conference has now finished and given us even bigger news: the fab four are getting their own game.

The game, designed by Harmonix with input from the remaining folks in the Beatles' camp, will be "an unprecedented, experiential progression through and celebration of the music and artistry of The Beatles.""The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music. I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out," Sir Paul McCartney said.

Not much is known about the game yet, other than it will release in 2009 and will surely become a big seller. It may be Rock ...

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The Beatles coming to Rock Band

With the release of Guitar Hero World Tour, the battle of Rock Band vs Guitar Hero is more heated than ever. One side will likely deal a major haymaker to their opponent this week, though, thanks to some very unexpected (and British) help.

According to several insider sources, MTV, EA, and Apple Corps Ltd. have signed a deal which will allow the usage of the Beatles' songs in Rock Band 2. These sources have told the Wall Street Journal that the official announcement will come sometime Thursday, October 30. Not a bad birthday present for yours truly.

There's no question that the Beatles are THE prize catch for the music gaming genre. Hell, they're THE prize catch for any download-based music service; even Apple hasn't been able to secure the rights to use Beatles songs with the iTunes Store...

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Mortal Kombat vs DC story trailer

Today, Midway released the first story trailer for the upcoming Mortal Kombat vs DC fighter. It manages to explain (partly) what's going on, how Superman can get beat by people like Scorpion, and why the bad guys are teaming up with good guys. If nothing else, it's entertaining!

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Bethesda orders Fallout 3 trailers to be pulled

Bethesda sent out emails to various game sites that are running the trailers for Fallout 3 and requested that the ads be taken down immediately. Reason? It sounds as though the ESRB may have had something to do with it.

The email, sent by Bethesda VP Pete Hines said:

"In connection with ESRB's advertising guidelines, you are instructed to remove immediately any of our Fallout 3 trailers from your website, pending further notice. Thank you for your attention to this matter."

A quick look at the ESRB rules and regulations concerning game ads states that they should not "contain any content that is likely to cause serious or widespread offense... graphic and/or excessive depictions of violence."

The Fallout 3 trailer shown at E3 depicted an enemy head exploding in slow-mo and this may have turned...

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Sony says PS3 faster than Internet Explorer 7?

Are you tired of the performance of Internet Explorer when you're doing your online surfing? Never fear, you can always get better performance by upgrading.

No, we're not talking about Google's Chrome. What we're talking about is the PS3 firmware update--version 2.5.

According to Sony, the new update will bring Flash 9 support and increase the Javascript speed on the PS3 to almost 3 times more then before. End result of all this improvement? Surfing with your PS3 is faster than using Internet Explorer 7 in Javascript performance.

We wouldn't throw our computers out the window just yet because you'll still be limited to how fast you can type using the PS3's virtual keyboard. You may surf faster you probably won't type faster.

Firmware 2.5 will also have the Ad-Hoc Party feature for the PSP th...

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October 27th WiiWare/Virtual Console releases

Another Monday, another round of WiiWare and Virtual Console updates.

Whether Nintendo adds one game, ten games, or none at all, GamerNode will be here every Monday with the official details - titles, platforms, ratings, pricing, and even a taste of some corny marketing copy - keeping you up to date with everything from the online Wii scene.

Without further ado, the games:

WiiWare

Strong Bad Episode 3: Baddest of the Bands (Telltale Games, 1 player, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older – Alcohol Reference, Crude Humor, Mild Cartoon Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, 1,000 Wii Points): Rock and roll! Hurting for cash, Strong Bad sets out to dominate the “Battle Royale of the Bands.” Can he rule the stage and win the big prize? Or will ...

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Eat Lead gets two awesome voice actors

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard keeps looking better and better. First, D3 conducts one of the most entertaining promotional campaigns of all time with the invention (and hyping) of the fictional Matt Hazard series. Then, they go and announce the voice talent for Eat Lead, and it happens to have two of my favorite actors.

Who are those people? Playing the titular Matt Hazard is none other than Will Arnett. One of the stars of Arrested Development (and also in 30 Rock), Arnett is easily one of the greatest comedy TV actors in the last decade. Throw in his appearances in movies like Blades of Glory and Semi-Pro, and it goes up another notch. 

Joining him is another great comedy actor, providing the voice of Wallace "Wally" Wellesley, new owner of mega game publisher Marathon Megasoft: Nei...

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Fable II bug prevents players from finishing game

Those of you who are playing Fable II may want to take note of a bug that some gamers are reporting. The glitch happens during "Monk's Quest."

If a player goes into the Temple of Light in Oakfield and leaves the area before hearing the entire instructions from the Abbot, the game will refuse to let the player resume the quest. In short, you won't be able to finish the game.

Lionhead Studios is working on a fix to the problem. In the meantime, Lionhead is asking all players to make sure to finish listening to the Abbot and let the cut scene play out entirely before moving on.

Another bug, not as fatal as the Abbot glitch, was also reported recently concerning players who enter co-op mode with another player when starting a new game. When players leave the childhood stage, all gold and experie...

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Army of Two movie announced by EA and Universal

Despite the common wisdom among gamers that says movie adaptations of video games generally suck, it won't deter Universal Pictures and Electronic Arts from signing a deal to create a movie based on the EA third-person shooter, Army of Two.

And no, Ewe Boll will not be directing the movie. Sorry Ewe.

The film may have a chance among all the debris of failed video game movies; Scott Burns, who co-wrote the screenplay for The Bourne Ultimatum, will be in charge of the scripting duties for Army of Two. The movie will start production next year.

The game, Army of Two, pulled in over $100 million in sales since its release in March 2008 although it received rather mixed reviews.

Donna Langley, president of Universal Pictures said, "Army of Two is a great project that has already attracted top name ...

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