Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Night Note: DT Is Coming Along Fine

To: onAXIS Readers
From: onAXIS Administrator
Subject: [Codename DT]

I'm going to act FBI today and call our upcoming site and move from onAXIS "DT". As you know, I've been working on the template, which has been acting like kind of a bitch. I've managed to fix through most of the major bugs in the template I'm creating.

Right now, I'm working on a gray theme for it, but if you would like to suggest other colors for the site, go ahead and comment it in. If your going to suggest colors, make sure it's more than one and goes good together.

Anyway, for now, enjoy the PLAYSTATION news, and lets check out the highlights we have for today.

Highlights for November 14, 2007
NBA Ballers: The Chosen One Announced
Rock Band DLC Pricing & Dates Revealed
Ghostbusters The GameAnnounced
Chat With Naughty Dog Developers
Naughty Dog Can't Wait to Work on Next PS3 Title
UT3 & Optional Installation
PLAYSTATION Eye In The Lab
SingStore Pricing Revealed
Resistance 2 Maps & Details

Assassin's Creed: Stealth Action Gameplay on the PS3


Altair (oh, that was his name), the main character of Ubisoft Montreal's recently released Assassin's Creed, runs, jumps, and slices his way through one of the game's early levels being shown on the PLAYSTATION 3.

Howard Stringer: US PLAYSTATION 3 Sales Boost a "Breakthrough"

CEO and Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment, Howard Stringer, shared a little bit of details on the sales of the PLAYSTATION 3.

The console has experienced a massive sales boost in the United States after the release of the new 40GB model price cuts of the 60 & 80GB units. The console was only selling around 30-40,000 per week before the new model was launched.

Now, Stringer announced they sold 75,000 PS3s in the 40GBs first week, and 100,000 the week after. Stringer speaks:

"It's the breakthrough we've been anticipating. We've been holding our breath...Obviously, we've taken so much heat over the year on PLAYSTATION 3. Finally, the turning point has been passed."
Yes, a breakthrough indeed. Now if they can only wise up and start tuning up the PLAYSTATION Network.

[Via Kotaku]

NBA Ballers: Chosen One Next-Gen Announced

It seems Surfer Girl is on a roll! She told us this as insider news a while back, and today, not just the Ghostbusters story was revealed as true, but so was the NBA Ballers 3 story.

Next spring, Midway Games is releasing NBA Ballers: The Chosen One. The sequel to NBA Ballers will again feature one-on-one and two-on-two gameplay, with the focus being on becoming the "Chosen One" and living the NBA lifestyle. The game will feature new "action movie" style camera angles of moves, and like in the original Ballers, you'll travel around the world to a series of different courts, but this time as part of the "Chosen One Tournament". With the original Ballers' affection for referencing other Midway games, let's hope this is Shang Tsung-related.

You'll also be able to develop new super moves to shut down opposing stars while you play defense, and with online mode, you'll be able to play against other super balers and become the best on the virtual courts.

[Via IGN]

Surfer Girl: New Heavy Rain, Indiana Jones Details

Surfer Girl has updated us today with some new insider information, today's containing new details on Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain. Lets take a look:

1) Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer continues two things from Fahrenheit, the player plays as multiple characters and levels and areas players
have access are incredibly small, thus the game looks amazing and much effort is made to highlight even the finest details.
2) Tigon Games [Vin Diesel's "game production company"] has announced six games, but only three games have come to light, do the other games exist?
Beyond concept art and a prototype, no. Tigon only handles the creative side of things and outsources development to other studios. The Wheelman is, at earliest, nine months away, it has been pushed back from early next year for "expansion" (which I'm fairly certain is a codeword for "avoiding making a pretty version of DRIV3R).
3) Indiana Jones has "a brand new development team on board" and is "back on track." I now understand why someone who was working on the title was a bit nervous when I talked about it with them a few months back.
4) Rent-A-Hero No. 1 will be available on XBLA (on Microsoft's Xbox 1 game download service) next year.
There is something new, I never knew that Heavy Rain had a subtitle. It's also good to hear that Indiana Jones is back on track as well, perhaps we can see a release next year.

[Via Surfer Girl]

Rock Band: Downloadable Content Priced & Dated

Harmonix's Guitar Hero counterpart, Rock Band is releasing this upcoming Tuesday (November 19, 2007), so it's about time we had some pricing information on the downloadable content.

Rock Band will still feature pre-selected three-song packs for download, but they will cost $5.49. Songs will also be available individually for $1.99. Harmonix has said future songs will be sold individually for as little as $.99, and as much as $2.99. But most of the songs will come in at the standard $1.99 price point. Harmonix did not say how much full-album downloads would be, or when the first albums would be released.

Finally, Harmonix released a detailed release schedule of when exactly we will be getting these downloadable songs.

Week of November 20, 2007
Metallica Pack
"Ride the Lightning" - Metallica
"Blackened" - Metallica
"And Justice for All" - Metallica

The Police Pack
"Can't Stand Losing You" - The Police
"Synchronicity II" - The Police
"Roxanne" - The Police

Queens of the Stone Age Pack
"3's and 7's" - Queens of the Stone Age
"Little Sister" - Queens of the Stone Age
"Sick Sick Sick" - Queens of the Stone Age

Individual Tracks
"Fortunate Son" as made famous by Creedence Clearwater Revival
"Juke Box Hero" as made famous by Foreigner
"Bang a Gong (Get It On)" as made famous by T-Rex
"My Sharona" as made famous by The Knack
"Cherry Bomb" as made famous by The Runaways
"Joker & The Thief" - Wolfmother

Week of November 27, 2007
David Bowie Pack
"Moonage Daydream" - David Bowie
"Heroes" as made famous by David Bowie
"Queen Bitch" as made famous by David Bowie

Week of December 4, 2007
Black Sabbath Pack
"N.I.B." as made famous by Black Sabbath
"Sweet Leaf" as made famous by Black Sabbath
"War Pigs" as made famous by Black Sabbath

Week of December 11, 2007
Punk Pack:
"Rockaway Beach" - Ramones
"I Fought the Law" - The Clash
"Ever Fallen In Love" as made famous by Buzzcocks

Week of December 18, 2007
Individual Tracks
"My Iron Lung" - Radiohead
"Buddy Holly" - Weezer
"Brass in Pocket" as made famous by Pretenders

Get ready to rock! Rock Band is set for release November 19, 2007. Make sure you have a pre-order, or you probably won't get one.


[Via GameSpot]

Ghostbusters Game Spooks New Details

What was just brought up by Surfer Girl the other day is now officially confirmed. Ghostbusters the game was confirmed today by Vivendi Games and Sony Pictures.

This upcoming Ghostbusters game is set for a Fall '08 release by the Sierra Entertainment and Vivendi Games label.

The story of the game will take place after Ghostbusters II (film), in New York City, during a new ghoul invasion. Bruce Hack, CEO of Vivendi Games spoke:

"We noticed we did well on 'Scarface' and were alert for new opportunities to turn iconic film products into games in a way that is a new manifestation of the franchise, 'Ghostbusters' is unquestionably among the small number of movies in that class."
The game is being developed by Terminal Reality for the PC, PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360 aimed primarily at the core gamer demographic, while Red Fly Studios is making a version for Playstation 2, Wii and DS designed more for families and casual gamers.

[Via Variety]

GameTrailers: Kane & Lynch Review


GameTrailers have reviewed Io Interactive's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, and have scored it a good 8.0 out of 10. Lets take a look at the breakdown:
Design: 8.5
Story: 9.0
Gameplay: 8.1
Presentation: 7.9
Final Verdict: 8.0
Overall, that is a great score for the game, a score I expected as well. Once I get the game, I will be sure to get up a review as well. I'm sure Io Interactive has done a good job developing the title.

Uncharted: Chat With the Naughty Dog Developers

If you've checked your e-mail lately, and your a member of the PLAYSTATION Underground, you may have received this notification.

Tomorrow (November 15, 2007) at 4:00 PM PST (7:00 PM EST), you can chat live with the Naughty Dogdevelopers of the upcoming title, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The two highly known developers partaking in the event are Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra. This developer chat is not a normal chat where you just type your question and it appears. No, you'll have to type your question, and see if it gets picked. You can type as much as you want though.

Remember, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is coming out November 19, 2007. Be sure to get your copy.

Japan PLAYSTATION Store Receives Six New PSone Classics

Tomorrow, Japan will be receiving six new PSone Classic titles, as we still continue to receive one to none. Lets take a look at the titles:

PSone Classics
- Arc The Lad II [PSP Only] (Sony)
- Sanwa Pachinko Paradise 3 Wan Wan Daikoushin (Irem)
- Sanwa Pachinko Paradise 4 Sushiya da Minamoto-san (Irem)
- Velldeselba Senki: Tsubasa no Kunshou (Sony)
- Arcade Hits: Moon Cresta (Hamster)
- Blue Breaker Burst: Hohoemi wo Anata to (Hamster)
Well, there you have it, six new titles for Japan coming tomorrow, as we still keep getting one, if we are lucky.

[Via DENGEKI]

Naughty Dog Can't Wait to Work on Their Next PLAYSTATION 3 Title

In a recent 1UP interview with Naughty Dog's Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra, they talk about the developers moving on to their next PLAYSTATION 3 project.

Christophe Balestra states that everyone at Naughty Dog is incredibly eager to get sucked into their next project. They've used only 30% of the PLAYSTATION 3's SPUs for their upcoming Uncharted: Drake's Fortune title, and are eager to see what they can do when they harness the full power of the console.

When Naughty Dog first moved onto the PLAYSTATION 3, they had to learn new coding language, which took them some time, but now that they know their language, they are eager to get started on the next title.

[Via 1UP]

Unreal Tournament III and Optional Installation

Mark Rein struck again today on the official Unreal Tournament III forums. He writes:

"Yes there is an install option which places a bunch of the commonly used content on your hard drive to speed up loading and texture streaming times a bit. It does not install everything - you still have to put the disc in the drive to run the game. The install is absolutely not essential. The game runs just fine from the Bluray and load times aren't bad but if you're going to play the game a lot, and you've got an extra 3.5Gb on your hard drive, then you might as well do the install because the few seconds you save here and there will add up over time. If you want to free up space you can delete the installed data at any time."
So basically, if you want to shorten your loading by 2-4 seconds, then go ahead an use up 3.5Gb on your PLAYSTATION 3's hard drive, if not, then don't mind the installation. It's good to see the feature though.

[Via Epic Forums]

GamePro: Assassin's Creed Console Differences

GamePro hash reviewed the PLAYSTATION 3 version of Ubisoft Montreal's recently released title, Assassin's Creed. They state the differences between the PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the title.

"From walking around on the street to free running on the roof tops, the controls make it easy to manipulate Altair during his quests and that's a good thing as the game would have suffered dramatically had the developers not gotten such a firm handle on the controls. And in fact, the controls for the PLAYSTATION 3 version of the game are even tighter than those of the Xbox 360.

Graphically, the PLAYSTATION 3 version of the game suffers just a tiny bit, but both this difference--and the aforementioned difference in controls--are practically negligible."
Looks like Ubisoft Montreal worked pretty damn hard on making these two versions almost exactly the same. Great work guys!

Oh and a side note, Assassin's Creed scored a 5/5 from GamePro as well.

[Read: Assassin's Creed Review]

The Bourne Conspiracy: Emmanuel Valdez Interview


The guys over at GameTrailers got an interview with Emmanuel Valdez, the Chief Officer for High Moon Studios, developers of the upcoming game, The Bourne Conspiracy. Find out the fighting styles, the recreated scenes, and why this isn't just your average movie game.

PLAYSTATION Eye Shows More Possibilities


If you've been wondering what can really be done with the PLAYSTATION Eye, these are the videos to watch. The video above shows a tech demo called Sketch Lander (which will hopefully be a game soon enough), where you draw a sketch, and you can turn it into a game using the abilities of the PLAYSTATION Eye.

The next one below is called Physics College, where it scans on your image, and it falls out of the paper on the screen. Maybe for usage as stickers? I really don't know.

The last video is called Full Tanks, where you scan in your own tank from a drawing, or object or such, and just battle it out on the battlefield, quite innovative thinking.



Turok Jungles & Forests Gameplay Videos


It's nice to see man face off against dinosaur in blazing battle. The man using his gun, and the dinosaur going above the limit and using his mouth. Enjoy these new videos of TouchStone & Propaganda's upcoming dino-shooter, Turok.



SingStore Pricing Revealed

For all you singers waiting to get your voice online, this is for you.

Sony says that songs bought through SingStar PS3's online "SingStore" will cost GBP 0.99 / EUR 1.49 each when the service launches alongside the game on 7th December.

The songs available for download through SingStar's SingStore using the PLAYSTATION Network service will cost GBP 0.99 / EUR 1.49 / USD $1.99 (approx.). The game will be releasing Q1 2008 in the US, and December 7, 2007 in Europe.

[Via EuroGamer]

Surfer Girl: Resistance 2 Map, Classes, & Weapons Details


Surfer Girl is at it again, but this time, we have pictures. The picture above describes the classes and weapons of Resistance: Fall of Man 2's multiplayer online mode. Such weapons include the M4 A-1 Automatic Rifle, the SW59 Pistol, and more.


This image depicts the gameplay features and such in Resistance: Fall of Man 2. These include split screen (1-4 players), bots, and online play.

It also shows the vehicles of the humans and chimera, with the humans getting vehicles like the Heavy Tank, and Chimeras getting vehicles like the Air Fighter.

This also dosplays some of the online gameplay modes, including the regular deathmatch, last man standing, king of the hill, keep away, and capture the flag.

An interesting tidbit in this chart seems is in the Extended Community Features, which are game replays (which can hopefully be saved to the HDD), so now we may be able to put our chimera killings online. There are also clans, tournaments, "Frag of the Day" highlight reels, and Grudge matches, along with live scoreboards.


The chart above describes the levels in the game. We will be visiting places from San Francisco to the Badlands (not the Philly hood people). As of now, I have no reason to doubt Surfer Girl, one would not go this far.

[Via Surfer Girl]

Tekken 6 Releasing March 21, 2008?

According to HMV, a Unuted Kingdom online retailer, the PLAYSTATION 3 arcade exclusive, Tekken 6, will be releasing March 21, 2008.

This is just a site listing, so don't take it as an official date. Tekken 6 is an arcade fighter packed with 40 characters, online fighting, and much more.

[Buy: Tekken 6]

High Velocity Bowling Coming Next Week

In a new post by Sr. Producer of SCEA, P.J. Snavely, he reveals some new details about the upcoming PLAYSTATION Network title, High Velocity Bowling.

The SIXAXIS/DUALSHOCK 3 is used for the swinging of the ball, but the team at SCEA San Diego incorporated much more new gameplay experiences. You'll start with the low class, and move your way to the high class, it's the way of life, and bowling.

Each stage has 3 challenges that you’ll need to pass before moving on. You can see a couple of the “Trick Shots” challenges in the video posted above, with the ramp, chair & cone props. You will also need to beat each bowler head-to-head before being able to use them. Tournament mode makes you prove your consistency before moving on.

Thats all Snavely told us for now, but one last thing he told us is to expect the title on the PLAYSTATION Store next week (MSRP: $10.00).

[Via PS.Blog]