GamerNode: Latest Game and Console News

Subject Zero unveiled as Mass Effect 2's newest ch...

A new character was recently revealed for Bioware's Mass Effect 2, in addition to Thane and Grunt.

According to the trailer, her name is Subject Zero, and she appears to be an aggressive character in almost every way, including sexually.

"She's dangerous, powerful, and extremely violent... exactly what I'm looking for," says Commander Shepard in the trailer.

It's hard to tell if the foul-mouthed and volatile Subject Zero is a human character or not, but she looks to make an interesting addition to Shepard's party, regardless.

Also interesting at the beginning of the trailer is a "Mission Roster" screen, with ten character slots. The three new characters for Mass Effect 2 (Grunt, Thane and Subject Zero) are displayed in their respective slots, leaving the seven other slots empty and "classifie...

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Splinter Cell Conviction release date announced

From the floor of the 2009 Tokyo Game Show comes the news that Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction will be hitting store shelves on February 23, 2010. The publisher has also released a new trailer to coincide with this announcement, which can be found in GN's video section.

The street date applies to both the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the game, which sees Sam Fisher embarking on a personal mission to rescue his daughter and diffuse a terrorist plot after being betrayed by his former employers, The Third Echelon. From what we've seen thus far, the game looks very promising, and features all-new gameplay mechanics that should make this addition to the franchise a very exciting one.

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Microsoft denies rumors of plans to purchase EA

Stocks for Electronic Arts and Microsoft rose today due to rumors that the latter company was interested in purchasing the former. However, Microsoft has shot down those rumors in a statement issued to Kotaku.

"Microsoft has no plans to purchase Electronic Arts," said the comment from Microsoft. 

The now debunked rumors had EA's stock rise 8.1 percent to $20.01 and Microsoft's rise 1.1 percent to $26.05. It wouldn't be a surprise if the stocks drop back down tomorrow now that this "unsubstantial chatter" has been put to rest.

[Kotaku]

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Xbox 360 Elite to have $50 rebate offer

Microsoft is now offering a $50 rebate for all Xbox 360 Elites in an announcement made by the console manufacturer. The promotion will be for consoles purchased from today until October 5, but the mail-in rebate form can be sent out with proof of purchase until November 20.

This will make the Xbox 360 Elite just $250 given the recent price cut and will give the console a momentary $50 price edge over the $299 PlayStation 3. It will also make the Elite the same price as the Nintendo Wii during the promotion. However, the Wii is heavily rumored to have its price dropped after this coming weekend to $200.

[1UP]

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Release date set for New Super Mario Bros. Wii

LiveWii is reporting that Mario and Luigi's latest adventure, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, now has an official release date for both Europe and the US.

The site reports that the Europe release date will be November 27 and, according to the site's math, a November 15 release date in the US.

The game will feature co-op for up to four players and is the first Mario-themed game to hit the console since Super Mario Galaxy.

[LiveWii]

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NCSoft to give Aion major update every year

The newest MMORPG to come from publisher NCSoft, Aion, is going to be getting "at least" one major content update every year. This according to an interview brand manager Christian-Peter Heimbach conducted with VG247.

"There will be at least one major update a year," said Heimbach. "You know this from our previous titles. We're currently adjusting on how we're going to make these available, but there will be free content updates for all players, and we're looking then at how big the major updates will be."

The game has already gathered over 400,000 pre-orders and will go live in the US tomorrow and Friday in Europe.

[VG247]

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Gaming marathon to fund pediatric cancer research ...

Gaming is not really something that people associate with charities or fundraisers for good causes, but Extra Life is looking to impact that come next month.

Extra Life is a 24-hour gaming marathon that will start at 8 a.m. on Saturday, October 17, and end the following morning at 8 a.m. Its purpose is to fund pediatric cancer research and treatment through the donations of participating members. Any type of videogame can be played according to the website, from PS3 games to poker on your phone.

Last year, Extra Life raised more $120 for this cause.

100 percent of the money sponsors donate goes directly to Texas Children’s Hospital. There is an interface for your sponsors to make credit card or check card donations, as well as a way for you to register gifts that you personally collect ...

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This week's releases: 9/20 - 9/26

The fall quarter is finally upon us as the UNSC Orbital Drop Shock Troopers look to lead the charge. Halo 3: ODST is the big attraction in this week's releases along with NCSoft's MMOG Aion, sci-fi MMORPG Fallen Earth, and Shin Megumi Tensei: Persona on the PSP. Without further adue, here is the full list of titles coming out to game retailers this week.

DS:

Fabulous FindsJust in Time TranslationHidden Mysteries: TitanicScooby Doo! First FrightsThe Price is Right 2010 EditionWhere's Waldo? The Fantastic JourneyWomen's Murder Club: Games of Passion

PlayStation 2:

Scooby Doo! First Frights

PlayStation 3:

AfrikaCabela's Big Game Hunter 2010Katamari Forever

PSP:

Shin Megumi Tensei: Persona

Xbox 360:

Cabela's Big Game Hunter 2010Halo 3: ODST

Wii:

Animal Kingdom: Wildlife ExpeditionCabela's Big Game Hunter ...

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BioShock 2 gets a February release date

Those upset over the delay of Bioshock 2 from October 2009 to early 2010 can take solace now that it has a solid release date. The game, which puts players in the shoes of the original Big Daddy, will be released on PS3, Xbox 360, and PC worldwide on February 9.

As the original Big Daddy, players will awaken in the undersea city of Rapture and be tasked with taking down the Big Sister, who has been abducting little girls and bringing them to the city as new Little Sisters. The multiplayer compoment of the game will be set as a prequel to the first game, as players will see just how Rapture was when everything went so terribly wrong.

The game currently is not rated, but is expected to receive an M for Mature by the ESRB.

[Gamespot]

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Valve responds to Left 4 Dead 2 ban

News yesterday announced that the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification had refused classification for Left 4 Dead 2, essentially banning the game from the country. This of course came as quite a shock to developer Valve.

"We were surprised to hear of this news yesterday," said VP of marketing Doug Lombardi. "Obviously, everyone at Valve is pretty bummed."

The game was denied classification due to "realistic, frenetic, and unrelenting violence" and the gore that comes with severing limbs, decapitating, and killing the infected in other graphic ways. This, by law, prevents the game from being sold as it now lacks a rating in the country.

"It would be a shame if folks in Australia, or anywhere else, are unable to purchase Left 4 Dead 2 because of a ratings issue," Lombardi st...

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PS3 sales down from last week but have doubled yea...

Sales for the PlayStation 3 are still going strong despite a week-to-week drop-off. Sony's console has sold over 306,000 units this past week. The number is down from over 550,000 units the week prior but more than twice the 132,000-plus units from the same time last year.

The sales are also still up over 200 percent from the weeks prior to the new "Slim" model hitting store shelves, and are almost as much as the Wii and Xbox 360 sales combined. Xbox 360 sales dropped nine percent to 146,000-plus units and the Wii stayed at over 181,000 units sold.

On the software side, The Beatles: Rock Band sales for its first week beat out the sales for Guitar Hero 5 during its first week by 36 percent. The game based on the Fab Four sold a hefty 700,000 units worldwide.

Bringing in the top spot in sales t...

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Another big store circular hints at Wii price drop...

It would seem that Target has become the third major store chain to hint that a price drop for the Nintendo Wii is coming. A picture has surfaced online of a supposed Target circular showing the Wii with a $199 price tag and has joined pictures from Walmart and Toys-'R'-Us circulars doing the same.

The circular is for the week of September 27th, which has led to the belief that Nintendo will officially announce the price cut at either the Tokyo Game Show or Kyoto Cross Media Experience. Both are set to occur on the weekend before the circular's date.

Nintendo's only reply to this latest circular leak is the typical "Nintendo does not speculate on rumors or speculation."

[Kotaku]

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This week's releases: 9/14 - 9/19

The releases for this week will be flying, web-slinging, skating, slashing, and driving their way into stores as the first big week of the fourth quarter hits. Featured are superhero RPG Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, NHL 10 from EA Sports, third person action bloodfest Wet, and racer Need for Speed: Shift.

DS:

Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside StoryMy BoyfriendPrincess in LoveAnimal Planet: Vet LifeBleach: The 3rd PhantomCloudy With a Chance of MeatballsDreamer: Top ModelLearn GeographyMarvel: Ultimate Alliance 2Naruto Shippuuden: Ninja Destiny 2Our HouseScribblenauts

PC:

Age of Empires III: Complete CollectionBatman: Arkham AsylumCloudy With a Chance of MeatballsMajesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom SimNeed for Speed: ShiftRed Faction: GuerillaResident Evil 5Runes of Magic Chapter II: The Elven Prophec...

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New Pac-Man world record set

In order to achieve the world record for highest score in Pac-Man, it not only takes a perfect score, but being the fastest person to get to it. David Race has become the fifth man since Billy Mitchell to get a perfect score in a faster time, setting the new Pac-Man world record. He beat Chris Ayra's time of 3 hours, 42 minutes, and 4 seconds by a mere 42 seconds with a time of 3 hours, 41 minutes, and 22 seconds.

For those curious to know just what it takes to get the perfect score alone, it means getting every possible dot, special fruit, and blue ghost in the game until it crashes out at level 256. To do this, let alone in under four hours, is close to impossible. Just think about that next time someone is heard complaining about the difficulty of Ninja Gaiden 2 or Devil May Cry 3.

[Destr...

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Exploring Exploration or "Sinan's Crazy Ideas" on ...

I've served out another brief sentence over at Big Red Potion, where our friends Sinan Kubba and Joe DeLia have once again invited your VS Node Podcast host to join in the discussion, this time about exploration in games. GamerNode's own Christos Reid was also scheduled to be on the show, creating a spiritual successor to VS Node #1: Playing in the Sandbox, but due to personal matters was unable to join. Still, the three of us managed to hold down a barely on-topic, but very interesting conversation pertaining to exploration, rewards, linearity, sandbox design, and the ills of particular gaming conventions.

You can catch the episode on www.bigredpotion.com, and be sure to subscribe to the BRP podcast, right alongside the Versus Node podcast on iTunes.

[Big Red Potion]

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Wii may see price drop in first week of October

The first hints at a possible price drop for the Nintendo Wii have arrived. Kotaku is reporting that they have received an early ad from Walmart for the first week of October with an interesting piece of information on the console.

The ad lists the Nintendo Wii and loosely dates, without price, a "rollback" for the console. The fact that there aren't specifics could mean Nintendo is intending to cut the price of the Wii, which has been at $249 since its release four years ago, but does not want to specify exacly when or by how much.

Back in August, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stated that the company was not looking to announce a price cut. "Right now, there aren't a lot of discussions going on about what exactly to do about hardware pricing," said Iwata.

However, that was before Sony and ...

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G4TV.com: Halo: Reach Bungie's biggest game yet

G4TV.com staff writer Patrick Klepek is reporting that after speaking with Bungie community manager Brian Jarrad at the Penny-Arcade Expo about the developer's upcoming game Halo: Reach, the game is going to be much bigger than some people may have expected.

"To be honest, I thought it was a small, focused spin-off, ala Halo 3: ODST," said Klepek in the piece. "It's not. Halo: Reach sounds much bigger than I'd ever imagined."

Halo: Reach will be its own big release title and is going to give Halo fans an upgrade. Unlike Halo 3: ODST, which is a main series spin-off expansion set to hit stores on September 22.

"Reach is going to be a tough project for us to wrap just because the scope is really big -- it's up there," said Jarrard in the interview. "It'll probably be our biggest game ever just...

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August NPD report released: Madden 10 tops chart

The NPD Group has released their sales figures for both software and hardware for the month of August, with no surprise as to what software title topped the chart. Madden NFL 10 dominated the list of top ten software titles sold, with Batman: Arkham Asylum taking a good chunk of the chart itself.

August console software sales:

1. Madden NFL 10 (Xbox 360, EA Sports) - 928,000 units2. Wii Sports Resort (Wii, Nintendo) - 754,000 units3. Madden NFL 10 (PS3, EA Sports) - 665,000 units4. Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360, Rocksteady) - 303,000 units5. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3, Rocksteady) - 290,000 units6. Madden NFL 10 (PS2, EA Sports) - 160,000 units7. Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP, Square Enix) - 130,000 units8. Wii Fit (Wii, Nintendo) - 128,000 units9. Mario Kart (Wii, Nintendo) - 120,000 units...

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BioWare and LucasArts unsure of Old Republic payme...

One of the most highly anticipated games currently in developement, BioWare and LucasArts' Star Wars: The Old Republic, is still without a release date. It's also missing something else: a payment method.

LucasArts and BioWare are weighing a list of options, but they have yet to decide which they will use. These options range from subscritpions to micro-transactions, and the final method could also vary based on where in the world a player is playing.

"We're considering it all, absolutely," said LucasArts president Darrell Rodriguez. "You start looking at how different communities, territories such as Asia, actually play games, and we start to consider it all -- especially if we want it to be a worldwide phenomenon."

It seems interested gamers will have to be patient to find out just how th...

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Microsoft makes Valve price Left 4 Dead 360 DLC

Though the upcoming Left 4 Dead DLC campaign "Crash Course" is being released for free on Steam for PC players, Xbox 360 owners will have to pay for the content. But it's Microsoft, not developer Valve, that players of the Xbox 360 version have to blame for the charge, according to Valve's Chet Faliszek.

"We own our platform, Steam. Microsoft owns their platform. They wanted to make sure there's an economy of value there," said Faliszek.

Normally not charging the owners of their product for DLC, Valve was allowed to get away with letting players of both versions of the game have the first DLC, a survival mode and two new versus maps, for free.

"Well, they helped us get the first one out for free," stated Faliszek. "We had the one DLC out for free. And I think... they have to look and say, wow...

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