Second installment in EA’s bifurcated series dropping in European markets a day before the film is released this summer; retailers indicate July 12 US bow.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 was released last November alongside the film of the same name to a cold reception. Like the film, the video game adaptations were also bifurcated, and EA will have a chance at critical redemption this summer when Part 2 arrives during the week before the film drops this July.
The release date news stems from a new trailer for the game (embedded below), which is introduced by Emma Watson, who plays the part of Hermione Granger from J.K. Rowling’s magical universe.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 will arrive in theaters worldwide on July 15, which means gamers will have the first crack at the culmination of the Harry Potter universe.
July 14 is a Thursday, and the release date shown in the video is meant for the European market. Traditionally, games are released on Tuesdays in North America, which would make a July 12 release date likely for this region. A number of US retailers, including GameStop, are also listing the game for a July 12 bow.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, DS, and PC.
We take Lightning McQueen for a spin around the tracks in Disney Interactive’s game based on Pixar’s animated film of the same name.
As far as film-to-video game adaptations go, those based on Pixar’s animated works are on the more easily digestible end of the scale. With Pixar’s Cars 2 set for release later this year, Disney Interactive has knocked up a colourful arcade driving game based on the film, for ages 5 and up. We recently had the chance to sit down with a small demo of a very early build of the game.
At this stage, all the cutscenes we saw were still in the early stages of development (read: slow-moving drawings). but even though this is not what the final game will look like, it added a light and cartoony feel to the whole demo. Little is known about the story so far, but it looks like it will closely follow that of the film.
Because the main campaign is still being worked on, we were shown a few training missions from the start of the game, which are designed to get you acquainted with the different aspects of gameplay and the racing tracks in the game.
There’s an underlying spy theme running through the whole game, and so our first training mission took place in spy school. After picking from a variety of characters (Lightning McQueen, Finn, Sarge, Mater, and so on), we were shown a basic training mission that involves learning the controls of the game–steering, doing jumps and tricks, drifting, boosting, and so on.
Completing the missions well earns you points, which fill up an experience meter that can be used to unlock new missions and car skins. The best part about this bit was hearing actor Michael Caine’s voice giving curt, beautifully sarcastic instructions.
Plentiful new release slate led by puzzle, fighting, and shooting games; Conduit 2, Xbox Live Arcade Triple Pack, Final Fantasy IV: Complete Collection also out.
It’s a busy week at retail, as a slew of high profile new releases make their debut on Tuesday including Valve’s long-awaited puzzle game and Warner Bros.’ fighter reboot.
Leading the pack this week is Valve Software’s Portal 2. The game follows the events of the first Portal, which saw gamers taking on the role of a human lab rat, Chell, who used a portal gun to create interdimensional openings on ceilings, walls, and floors in an effort to escape the Aperture Science labs. Along the way, players were guided through the diabolical tests by the deceptively sincere, yet altogether sadistic, artificial intelligence known as GLaDOS.
The game will feature a single-player campaign billed as being twice as long as the original’s, but the real focus is on the new multiplayer cooperative mode. The co-op mode will tell a parallel story to the single-player adventure and last roughly as long. In it, players will take control of two robots, named simply Blue and Orange, and work together to tackle their own set of portal-related problems.
Also debuting this Tuesday will be NetherRealm’s gruesome fighter reboot Mortal Kombat. The game’s roster will be a throwback of sorts, full of fighters pulled from the first three games in the series. There is one particularly notable exception, as the PlayStation 3 version will feature God of War protagonist Kratos as a playable character.
Gamers looking to pick up a new contemporary shooter can grab SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs this week for the PlayStation 3. The game is set in Southeast Asia after a revolution endangers a vital shipping lane similar to the Strait of Malacca. Players assume the role of the commander of a five-man squad of NATO commandos dispatched to prevent international trade from being disrupted. Their mission will only last six days, a time limit that Sony says will add urgency into the campaign.
As is a staple for the series, SOCOM 4 will have an extensive multiplayer component, allowing for teams of players to shoot it out in 32-player matches. Terrain types will include a hostile jungle and half-ruined cities.
Wii owners wishing to continue their effort through the Conduit universe can grab the often delayed Conduit 2 this week. The single-player mode of Conduit 2 will pick up the original game’s alien invasion storyline, with Sega promising dynamic environments, player customization options, and giant boss enemies. As for multiplayer, Sega will introduce new co-op modes for online play, or offline with up to four players sharing a split-screen. The publisher is also promising “increased multiplayer security” for the game, in light of the cheating that undermined the online play of the original game.
On-the-go Final Fantasy fans can pick up Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection on Tuesday. This set includes Final Fantasy IV–with revamped visuals to take advantage of the PSP’s widescreen format–as well as its epilogue, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. The episodic series of downloadable titles was originally released in 2009 on the Wii; this will mark the first time it has been available as part of a retail product.
TUESDAY, APRIL 19
Arcana Heart 3–PS3–Aksys Games
Assassin’s Creed: Ultimate Collection–PC–Encore Software Inc.
Brothers in Arms: Complete Collection–PC–Encore Software Inc.
Conduit 2–Wii–Sega
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection–PSP–Square Enix
Majesty 2 Collection–PC–Paradox Interactive
Mortal Kombat–PS3, X360–Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Portal 2–X360, PS3, PC, Mac–Valve Software
Prince of Persia: Classic Trilogy HD–PS3–Ubisoft
SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs–PS3–SCEA
Triple Pack: Xbox Live Arcade Compilation–X360–Microsoft Game Studios
First of short series to debut on Machinima.com next week, one week before next game in franchise launches.
It looks like April will be a busy month for Mortal Kombat fans. On April 19, the latest game in the series, titled simply Mortal Kombat, will debut on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
The eagerly awaited next installment in the franchise–which just went gold–will see the return of the gruesome fatalities and hardcore violence that the series is known for.
Now, it appears that the prior week will also have something new for Mortal Kombat fans. Hadoken.net reports that at 4 p.m. PDT next Tuesday, Machinima.com will stream the first episode of a live-action series of shorts based on the Mortal Kombat universe.
The event will apparently be available via the network’s YouTube channel, on a page currently marked as private. However, the screening was tacitly confirmed by series director Kevin Tancharoen via his tweet.
The live-action series, first teased via an eight-minute film released last June, features a reimagined Mortal Kombat universe and will feature such characters as Reptile, Baraka, and Sonya. It will be produced by Warner Bros., which is also publishing the game.
The company promised that the series will “take gamers deep into the history of warriors they know and love such as Scorpion, Johnny Cage, and Liu Kang.” Black Dynamite and Spawn star Michael Jai White will reportedly play Jackson “Jax” Briggs in the series.
Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters is an action adventure that will be available in conjunction with Warner Bros. Pictures’ superhero feature film, Green Lantern – Rise of the Manhunters takes flight on June 7.
Beenox and Activision show off Spider-Man’s latest time-hopping adventure.
Following the success of last year’s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Activision crowned Canadian developer Beenox as the primary developer on future titles featuring the Marvel Comics icon. The first game to be primed for release following the developer’s “lead spider developer” status is the recently announced Spider-Man: Edge of Time. While the game isn’t a direct sequel to Shattered Dimensions, it shares its predecessors multi-Spidey vibe, albeit with a new twist.
Whereas Shattered Dimensions offered an action adventure ensemble, Edge of Time changes the formula by putting a buddy-cop-movie twist on the action and throwing in some time travel for good measure. We recently had the chance to get a proper run through the game by Beenox and Activision reps, which showed off what the game is going to offer.
As we noted earlier, Edge of Time is not a direct sequel to Shattered Dimensions. The game features an original story that revolves around Spider-Man 2099 and Amazing Spider-Man teaming up to stop a chronal catastrophe that threatens their worlds and just about everything in between. The time shenanigans kick off in 2099 when an evil scientist travels back in time to change the timeline to something a little more conducive to the evil scientist lifestyle. Unfortunately, this requires some murder, namely the death of Amazing Spider-Man.
While Spider-Man 2099 tries to stop the scientist before he starts, the futuristic wallcrawler just misses him and winds up getting caught in a time bubble that protects him from the timeline changes that happen around him. The good news is that he retains his memories of how things should be and is able to contact Amazing Spider-Man before his death.
The bad news is that the two don’t get along, which gets the cross-time team off to a rough start. Will the pair find a way to get along and save the day? Probably, but from the look of things, it’s not going to be easy.
Programmer of original football sim sues megapublisher, claiming he was excluded from series’ massive profits. Since its inception, Madden NFL Football has grown into the biggest sports franchise on the planet. Since it was introduced nearly 23 years ago, the series has sold 85 million units and generated in excess of $4 billion in profits, helping publisher Electronic Arts lock down a monopoly on the NFL franchise until 2013.
The riches EA has reaped from the franchise have apparently angered Robin Antonick, who helped create the original Madden game back in 1988. Now, according to Reuters, Antonick is suing EA, accusing the megapublisher of withholding royalties and demanding a share of the massive profits the series has generated over the years.
According to Antonick, even though the Madden series has become much more sophisticated, it is still based on his original game, meaning he is due a share of the franchise’s income. He claims he hasn’t received any form of payment from the game since 1992, the year before the franchise was renamed from Madden Football to Madden NFL Football.
“Only recently, as a result of publicity surrounding the 20th Anniversary of the ‘Madden’ videogame did Antonick become aware that Electronic Arts did not independently develop subsequent versions of its Madden NFL software,” reads the complaint. “Instead, according to recent statements by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins, the current generation of software apparently derived from software developed by Antonick.”
As of press time, EA had not commented on the matter.
New release slate championed by Nintendo’s new handheld and software for it; EA Sports’ latest golf game, Shift 2: Unleashed, WWE All Stars, Dynasty Warriors 7 also out.
It’s a bustling week at retail this week, but one product screams louder than the rest.
Today, Nintendo released the 3DS, its latest portable in the DS family. The system is already available in Japan and the United Kingdom, and sells for $250 in North America. Gamers can choose from two color options: cosmic black or aqua blue.
Hitting the green this week is Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters. The game is the first in the series to include the famed Augusta National golf course, home of the exclusive Masters tournament. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game will feature 16 courses, with Sony’s system also receiving a Collector’s Edition of the game, which includes an extra five courses at a $10 premium over the standard edition. As in previous years, the Wii edition offers the most holes in one game, with Augusta National and 23 additional courses to play. PGA Tour 12 will also let players relive memorable shots from the Masters’ storied history, including Woods’ four Green Jacket wins at the tournament.
Racing fans have two new options this week: Shift 2 Unleashed: Need for Speed and NASCAR 2011: The Game. As for EA’s game, Slightly Mad Studios developed Shift 2, and the game will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Within the package, gamers will find a number of different modes, including 40 single-type race events, where the playing field is leveled and gamers compete in the same make of car.
Gamers looking for a new NASCAR game can grab NASCAR 2011: The Game this Tuesday. The game will be a fully licensed NASCAR entry with over 22 real-world tracks. It will also support up to 16 players and have an experience system, which will unlock cars, decals, and sponsors in career mode.
Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio battle it out in this video explaining the depth of the combat system featured in each class, as well as the incredible array of moves, combos, reversals, and back-and-forth over-the-top fighting action you will perform in WWE All Stars.
