Video Games Daily News Digest

Waiting for the demo of X-Men Origins: Wolverine to hit XBL and PSN on May 1 to get your Jackman on? That’s for suckers — unless you’re on the Xbox 360 train. If you boot up your console and head to the marketplace (or via Xbox.com if you’re nasty) the 625 MB demo for the game has hit a little earlier than originally planned. Sneaky slip up or sexy fan love? Doesn’t matter. Go snickity schnick.

This latest trailer for Eidos and Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Asylum is all about one thing: ass kicking. Lots and lots of it. We get to witness Batman punch fools in the mouth, kick, flip and beat things with great aplomb. Even Bane makes an appearance for the circus of violence along with Batman’s ability to make lightning bolts pop out of a thug’s head. It’s all very pretty in a brutal, cinematic trailer kind of way with lots of camera moves, that “whoosh” sound which lets you know things have stopped being polite and Batman’s cape dancing about majestically. Oh yes, dance you dirty thing, you. Dance. Hopefully the gameplay looks and feels as good as what’s on display in this trailer come June 23rd.

Terrorists intending US soil harm better check their closets as they just might get a visit from the ghosts later this year. Ok, not so interesting intros aside, Ubisoft’s recent sales report has given us insight into some of the things to expect from the company and when, and it reveals that one of the company’s biggest franchises, Ghost Recon, is making a return in their 2009-10 lineup and is, for now at least, called simply Ghost Recon 4.

The report also reveals that Sam the spy is coming out of hiding and is getting ready for a holiday visit with Splinter Cell Conviction. Also mentioned were Assassin’s Creed II and Red Steel 2 which have already gotten separate announcements. Unfortunately, and this makes some of us here at TVGB terribly, terribly sad, there’s no mention of Beyond Good & Evil 2. Also unmentioned goes a new Rainbow Six title which was previously rumored to arrive this year.

Some other games that did get mentioned however include the deceptive R.U.S.E., the mysterious I am Alive and the movie-based James Cameron’s Avatar.

Despite the ongoing Golden Week holiday in Japan, during which news traditionally grinds to a halt, Square Enix Japan has opened a deeply intriguing teaser site.

Titled simply “NEW GAME” with the URL “mystery”, the page displays a blasted, futuristic New York City skyline with a thought-provoking quote by US President John F. Kennedy: “The world is very different now, for man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life”. There is nothing else — no date, no title, no countdown.

The fan clamor for a create-a-school feature finally caught the NCAA Football 10 development team’s attention: the upcoming sports game features a Teambuilder mode that makes almost everything –from helmet stripe to pad type — editable. And a new Season Showdown mode promises to weed out players who don’t follow the rules from online play.

For the customization options, EA has taken the controller out of the equation. Instead of hunkering down in front of a console to change the names of every player (from the starting QB to a dispensable 5th-string linebacker), players can do their editing on the web. All of it: edit rosters, team names, slap on pre-loaded logos (or Photoshop and upload original pictures), choose stadiums, toy with on-field logo placement, change the end zone text, tweak helmet colors, jersey colors, build mascots, and even tweak their team’s program (amount of TV exposure, the importance of academics, etc.). Sitting down on the couch to play college football should include playing college football. Making those types of adjustments doable on a PC (or Mac) will allow players to jump right into the game, and worry about the particulars when they’re sitting in front of a computer (at the office, ideally).

Despite its numerous rules and restrictions, Dungeons & Dragons, I’ve always maintained, asks this question: “How do you want to play?” The Neverwinter Nights series answers that question better than many role-playing games. In addition to content produced by BioWare and Obsidian, the games’ players have used the included toolsets to create hundreds of modules and items, from ambitious retellings of classic paper-and-pen D&D campaigns to simple dungeon tiles.

Ossian Studios produced one of the best modules for the first Neverwinter Nights: Darkness over Daggerford, an adventure (still available for free from the Neverwinter Vault) that felt more like Baldur’s Gate II than Neverwinter Nights. That shouldn’t be much of a surprise, considering that Ossian’s founder is Alan Miranda, a BioWare alum who worked on BG2 expansion Throne of Bhaal.

Between this and that whole DJ games lawsuit debacle, Activison sure knows how to piss off the competition. This one has less to do with games and assets, and exclusively to do with royalties and money. Maybe this is a new demoralizing strategy. Sadly, it sounds a little more complicated than that.

According to Gamasutra, the story goes back several years, 2002 to be exact. Valve filed copyright infringement claims against then-publisher Sierra Entertainment killing their agreement in 2005. In that same year, the two companies left it to an audit arbitrator to decide how much in royalties really belonged to Valve.

Since then, Activision acquired Sierra and thus took on all of its assets and contractual obligations. Fast forward to early this month, April 6, and the arbitrator stated, finally, that Valve was owed an even $2,391,932 with interest. Just one day later, going back to a claim they made last month, Activision allegedly claimed that Valve was overpaid to the tune of $424,136 in royalties, and so left that amount out when they cut the check.

Needless to say, Valve’s pissed. Savvy to that, Activision threatened to sue them if they tried any action to get that money back, which is exactly what they’re doing. They’re having Washington confirm the arbitrator’s judgement, everything they’re owed, plus the legal fees involved, and “other and further relief as the Court deems just and equitable.”

There’s no word yet from Activision on their take or where things will go from here, but it can’t be pretty. This raises concern whether relations sour to the point of Activision games disappearing from Steam. Let’s hope not.

If you haven’t gotten enough out of the first World at War map pack you may want to kick it into overdrive before June comes around. Today Treyarch has announced that the second map pack for WaW will be released in June on PS3 and Xbox 360. The new maps will also bring along ten new achievements and trophies to unlock. It will follow the pattern of the first map pack by offering three new regular maps and one for the zombies mode.

The maps will be called Banzai, Corrosion, Sub Pens and Zombie Swamp (Shi No Numa). It seems like we’ll be taking a break from killing Nazi zombies because the description suggests we’ll be fighting Imperial zombies and flaming Hell Hounds. The perk vending machines are coming back along with a new weapon called the Wunderwaffe DG-2. No word yet on pricing but it will probably cost the same as the last map pack.

It’s an exciting week for PlayStation 3 owners, with a whole slate of cool new content to be downloaded from the PlayStation Store today. First up is the PSN-exclusive demo of Marvel vs. Capcom 2. If this week’s Game Night wasn’t enough MVSC2 action for you, PS3 owners can try out the game for themselves ahead of the game’s release this summer. PSP owners also get a demo this week in Patapon 2.

Those willing to part with a few dollars for some downloadable content will find plenty more of interest. The Killzone 2 Steel & Titanium map pack ($6) adds two new maps to the game’s multiplayer mode; Burnout Paradise adds the long-awaited Cops and Robbers mode ($10); Little Big Planet grabs some new stickers and costumes in the Egyptian mini-pack ($3); Disgaea 3 gets a variety of content, including new characters ($1-2 each or $4 for a bundle) and a new survival mode ($4); Need for Speed: Undercover gets a free challenge series expansion and a boss car bundle ($5), Guitar Hero World Tour adds three new tracks from Nirvana ($2 each, or $5.49 for a bundle); Rock Band gets an entire album of Jane’s Addiction ($2 each, or $16 for a bundle); and PSP gets some rare downloadable content for Prinny Can I Really Be The Hero with the addition of a new stage and boss ($4).

Aside from that, the only noteworthy addition is an announcement trailer for Battlefield 1943 and some themes for PS3 and PSP.

Evil and mayhem is great. Codemasters knows this, which makes their upcoming Overlord II even better. Nothing like evil with a sense of humor.

Codemasters has announced that it will be arriving in North America on June 23. Wannabe overlords everywhere will be able to pick it up the on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It’s penned by Rhianna Pratchett, and promises to “put the laughter into slaughter.”

While you wait, feel free check out our preview. Apparently, Overlord II will continue the fine tradition of being “evil, or really evil,” so it should be good.

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