EA Release New Player Renders From Grand Slam Tennis

EA has released a few player renders of famous Tennis athletes you can play as in Grand Slam Tennis when it releases on Nintendo Wii in June.

Source: Internal

Bethesda Releases Fallout 3 Patch For Xbox 360 And PC

Bethesda has released a new patch for the Xbox 360 and PC version of Fallout 3 in preparation for the upcoming downloadable content expansion, Broken Steel, arriving next week. The patch includes:

New Features

• New achievements for Broken Steel

Bug Fixes

• Fixed issue with VATS calculations not appearing properly for perks (PC)
• Fixed crash related to altered references between master files
• LOD objects render properly when loaded from DLC worldspaces
• Fixed issue with companion NPCs not loading into cells immediately after player

Source: Official

Brutal Legend Was Always Going To Be Released

Double Boss Tim Schafer commented that his studio's comedy action title, Brutal Legend was always going to release, despite the fact it was dropped during the Activision-Blizzard merge:

“It’s always got a lot of support, and even when we were with one publisher we got a lot of interest from other publishers. In that period when we were changing publishers, we got so much attention for it."

“We had this game that we could show in a very finished state. So we always had someone who wanted to publish the game.”

Source: VG247

Dawn Of War II Official Soundtrack Available Free

Hardcore Dawn of War fans can rejoice as the game's developer, Relic, has published the game soundtrack for free on their community website and through Steam for free download. The tracks include:

• There Is Only War (opening title)
• Angels Of Death (Space Marine Theme)
• Primarch’s Honour
• No Mercy No Respite
• March Of The Waaagh!
• Purge The Xeno Scum
• Forged In Battle
• Ancient Rites (Eldar Theme)
• The Green Horde Rises
• Khaine’s Wrath
• Attack Of The Heretics
• Xeno Presence (Tyranid Theme)
• For The Craftworld
• They Come In Waves And We Push Them Back
• The Great Devourer
• To Battle Brothers
• Hunting The Hive Tyrant
• The Emperor’s Victory
• Show Me What Passes For Music Among Your Misbegotten Kind (credits roll)
• Meridian Nights (Noobie’s Grim Dark Future Remix)

Source: Internal

Games Industry Seen As Somewhere Between Bankers And Taxmen

Xbox’s head of European marketing, David Gosen has said the games industry still doesn't have the best image and that genera public perception sees the industry somewhere between corporate bankers and taxmen:

"I still get the sense we’re sandwiched somewhere between corporate bankers and taxmen in terms of society’s general perception. Ask people about what the industry provides, and they’d probably say: ‘I don’t really know.’ Or they’ll think we just stand for shooter boxes."

“There’s been improvement, but not the quantum leap there should have been. We should be as loved as Hollywood is or the music industry is. Yet we are not. That’s not because people aren’t trying. But there seems to be a barrier of acceptance.”

Gosen also commented that the games industry does continue to grow and 2008 saw an even better year:

“In ’08 the market grew about 30% year on year. That’s truly fantastic. And that growth has been driven by broadening, which is even more outstanding.”

Source: MCV

Microsoft Announces GTA IV Xbox 360 Elite Bundle

Grand Theft Auto IV is a year old today if you didn't know and to celebrate, Microsoft has announced an Xbox 360 Elite bundle that comes with the game. The Limited Anniversary Edition contains a copy of GTA IV, and two limited edition stickers featuring the GTA IV and Liberty City Swingers team logos.

Still waiting on a price and release date.

Source: Kotaku

Killzone 2 Reaches One Million Online Players

Killzone 2 has reached one million players online since launching two months ago. This means two thirds of the game owners are playing online. There's new downloadable content available from today too so go get it online players.

Source: PS3Center

New Mass Effect 2 Concept Art

BioWare has released a few more pieces of concept art for Mass Effect 2 for you to check out. Nothing mind-blowing but it'll keep you interested. The game's not out until early 2010.

Source: Kotaku

Sega Announces Wacky World Of Sports For Wii

Sega has announced Wacky World of Sports, an outrageous new sports game exclusively for the Wii. Wacky World of Sports brings some of the world’s most obscure sports to the videogame world for the first time, and will hit stores late 2009.

Wacky World of Sports takes players on a trip around the world to take part in some of the lesser known sports of countries like Italy, the Netherlands and Australia. The ten sports featured in the game all start easy enough but the more advanced a player becomes the more extreme the sports become! Tuna Tossing has been a popular sport down under for a number of years, but just how far can a tuna be thrown in the comfort of the living room? Drag out an old armchair to take part in Furniture Racing, but make sure Grandma is not still sitting in it because those chairs are fast! And if that’s still not bizarre enough, how about ironing a shirt while sky diving in the Extreme Ironing event?!

Compete in the mind boggling events of Wacky World of Sports with friends and family in the Multiplayer Party Mode which allows individuals to compete against each other to find out who will be crowned wackiest athlete. Alternatively, choose to play as one of a dozen larger-than-life characters in the Tour Mode and travel around the world defeating current champions to become the World Champion of Wacky Sports!

Check out a trailer, here.

Source: Internal

Reeves Sees The PS3 Being Dominant In 3-5 Years

Former Sony boss Derek Reeves has said he believes the PS3 will be dominant in the next 3-5 years:

“I don’t think it will be next year, but in three to five years it will become dominant on the market."

“The legacy will be that people will see a tortoise and hare situation. In a way, in the end it will be a dead heat. People will say PS3 took a while to get going but it really caught up very quickly and confounded many of the critics from the first year,” he said of the consoles position on the market."

“When I see the line-up ahead, when I see what’s lined up on the new product side, I’m very, very optimistic for what I see for PlayStation’s future in the PAL territories."

Source: GI

Zero Punctuation Review - Siren: Blood Curse On PS3

Updated every Wednesday, Yahtzee releases another Zero Punctuation review where he rips games apart very fast for The Escapist Magazine. Yahtzee is a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder. This week, it's Siren: Blood Curse on PS3.

Source: ZeroPunctuation

GameStop Exclusive Dragon Age: Origins Preorder Goodies

Preorder Dragon Age: Origins through GameStop and you'll get some extra in-game goodies exclusive to GameStop preorder customers, including:

The Memory Ring - An in-game item that allows your character to accumulate experience points at an accelerated rate and therefore level up more efficiently.

The Memory Band - Made by the Formari, these lyrium-infused rings are supposed to help apprentices retain their lessons.

Source: GameStop

2K Australia Employee Announces Resignation In Style

Jarrad Woods who works at 2K Games in Canberra, Australia has announced his resignation in style. Woods, who worked on BioShock created a Mario themed flash game and posted it on his website for everyone to play. In the game, players would see messages of thanks from Woods and the words 'I Quit' at the end of every level with a final messaging stating his princess was in another castle as his wish to pursue an independent career.

You can play Woods' game yourself at his website, here.

Source: Internal

Red Steel 2 Confirmed For Summer Release

Ubisoft has confirmed Red Steel 2 will be arriving this summer on Nintendo Wii, and was built from scratch to use Wii MotionPlus. Ubisoft’s John Parkes commented:

“Red Steel was a unique opportunity for Ubisoft to work in tandem with Nintendo to create a title exclusively for the launch of the Wii console."

“Red Steel 2 is another milestone for the company as it is the first Ubisoft title with full Wii MotionPlus integration.”

Source: Internal

Capcom Release Monster Hunter Freedom Unite Screenshots

Capcom has released new screenshots of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite at their Captivate event earlier this week. The game's down for a US launch in June.

Japan’s most successful PSP title, Monster Hunter Portable 2G, is heading to North America this coming Spring. Renamed Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, this latest installment in the epic Monster Hunter series delivers over 500 hours of gameplay spanning some 400 missions. Add in previously unreleased monsters, weapons and missions and you have the biggest Monster Hunter game to date.

Source: Internal

TimeShift Developer Working On New Titles

TimeShift developer, Saber Interactive is currently working on several new titles making use of Havok's Destruction engine. No titles were revealed but COO Andrey Iones was very excited about working with Havok's software:

“By implementing Havok Destruction, our team was able to easily and rapidly integrate large-scale destruction sequences, complex destructible objects, and events into the existing framework of our upcoming games that would have absorbed a much greater amount of development time and been nearly impossible to pull off without Havok."

Source: Internal