Video Games Daily News Digest

Summer has officially kicked off. For most, that means vacation, relaxation, and blockbuster movies. For us, that also means movie tie-in videogames.

Gamasutra has done some research through Nielsen on the subject, and found movie license games are at the top of “online buzz” and intent to purchase list. They concluded that movie license games are “finally getting more respect from gamers”.

From the study, the top of the games list is X-Men Origins: Wolverine, followed by Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and even Terminator: Salvation. What a strange turnout. Of all movie tie-ins, I didn’t expect Terminator to gain significant attention.

Also, The Godfather II and Ghostbusters have generated noticeable buzz for each of their respective release times. Batman: Arkham Asylum, despite being two months away from release is climbing the charts in buzz.

Lately, it seems that movie-related games have generally been doing better, in both critic’s eyes and the public. What this means for us is that people outside the industry are taking this videogame thing more seriously, and in turn we’ll (hopefully) have a higher number of quality games for the future. Considering the past, there were some really bad movie games back then, and some better left forgotten.

5th Cell’s Scribblenauts, the upcoming DS title that will conjure up more than 10,000 objects for your puzzle solving-pleasure,  has spawned some serious hype. The weird part is, it’s not the product of some contrived viral marketing campaign, but based on actual word of mouth from people who have played, and susequently fallen in love with the adorable graphics and original gameplay. Its paperdoll aesthetic has even spread to other genres, courtesy mostly of NeoGAF members turk128 and SpacePirateRidley, who have reimagined pop culture icons from Travis Touchdown to Tobias Fünke in the game’s signature style.  They’re currently taking suggestions on the avatar requesting thread, if you think you can get any more obscure than Tomba!, the pink-haired, pig-hating star of the best game you never played.

Today Evan Wells and Amy Hennig from Naughty Dog answered some fan questions about Uncharted 2: Among Thieves on the PlayStation.Blog, and a few tiny interesting bits of info came from it. Until now we’ve only gotten a Fall release window Uncharted 2 but that may be changing sooner than we may have thought — when asked about the release date, Wells said that “Fall” is still the official party line for the time being but assured that “an official date will be announced very soon.”

Another question asked dealt with the game’s multiplayer mode, more precisely whether or not it will have an offline multiplayer mode. It does not. “We didn’t want to compromise the visuals going from single player to multiplayer and to include a split screen option at this time would have meant making that sacrifice,”said Wells.

After a few weeks of beta testing, City of Heroes Issue 15: Anniversary launched today in the UK (after launching last Friday in the US) in succession with the game’s 5th year online. This issue marks the game’s 15th free content update and brings some additional features to the table. Players will now have access to even more costume options, new missions, new character faces, and new costume change animations. The update also put a little spit and polish to the last content update, Issue 14: Architect, by making it easier to create and find new missions. And if that wasn’t enough, NCSoft also announced that their next double xp weekend will take place at the end of July, from the 31st through August 2nd. So if you’re still working on getting that old katana/regen scrapper up to 50, this could be your chance.

It’s a frequent scene in television crime dramas: Clever police technicians zoom in on a security camera video to read a license plate or capture the face of a hold-up artist. But in real life, enhancing this low-quality video to focus in on important clues hasn’t been an easy task. Until now. Researchers in Israel have developed a new video “perfection tool” to help investigators enhance raw video images and identify suspects.

PlayStation 3 owners who were able to take part in the Uncharted 2 beta will soon be getting another treat. According to Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells, another multiplayer demo will be arriving before launch.

“Yes, we’re going to have another multiplayer demo before the game hits shelves,” Wells said during a live chat with the Official PlayStation Blog.

“The exact timing isn’t finalized yet, but it should be available to an even wider group this time, so if you missed the last one I don’t think you’ll have any problem getting in this one.”

The Uncharted 2: Among Thieves multiplayer beta ended recently, effectively saddening players involved and dashing the hopes for others to get involved. But fear not fellow treasure hunters because another chance to get involved in the action will be coming down the pipeline.

Speaking with fans on the PlayStation.Blog, Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells restored faith to the masses by saying that a multiplayer demo will be available before Uncharted 2 gets released. “Yes, we’re going to have another multiplayer demo before the game hits shelves. The exact timing isn’t finalized yet, but it should be available to an even wider group this time, so if you missed the last one I don’t think you’ll have any problem getting in this one.”

Could he have meant an open beta, not a demo? We could guess but let’s just wait until more details are released for now.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is already huge and immersive critical darling, but THQ is not about to let sleeping super-games lie. Today brought with it the announcement of Demons of the Badlands and two yet to be named DLC titles.

What we know so far about Demons ia that it’ll be a single-player expansion based about a new story arc and maybe a new character. More importantly, it will take place in a completely different section of the planet, meaning as of yet unseen Mars wilderness will be at hand. And what do the forums have to say? Educated guesser are thinking either a prequel starring Alec’s brother Daniel Mason or a parallel storyline a la Blue Shift or Assignment Ada. Both sound fun, especially if they bolster the player’s explosive arsenal.

But that’s all speculation. What we do know is that Demons of the Badlands will be 800 Microsoft Points or $9.99 on the Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively, and will be available August 13th.

If when you were playing the black and white with red all over gorefest that is MadWorld and thought, gee I’d like to take this soundtrack with me in my car, then this tid bit of news is for you. The soundtrack for the bloody Wii game is now available through iTunes and the record company’s website. Having never played the game myself, I fired up iTunes to give the soundtrack a quick preview and immediately called my chiropractor because my head bobbing would soon be causing neck problems.

I was surprised to find out that the entire soundtrack was entirely made up of hip-hop songs, good ones no less. Granted I have never heard of any of the soundtrack’s artists up until now, but I’m glad to be discovering them. The artist Ox dominates the soundtrack with the most songs and on a number of them he sounds like a young Jay-Z that’s laying down fluent flows over top a heavy metal influenced beat. According to iTunes, the song Ain’t That Funny by Sick YG is “popular” and I can tell why. It sounds like a well produced mainstream hip hop song with an aggressive underground sounding MC. It definitely piqued this hip-hop lover’s interest. Doujah Raze also has a few songs on the soundtrack and also features heavy metal influenced songs which seems to be the running theme of the soundtrack. Normally this gamer wouldn’t be interested in soundtracks but the MadWorld soundtrack is now sitting comfortably in my iTunes library and I’ve never even played the game.

The News: EA will be releasing more Skate 2 downloadable content, this time in the form of the Maloof Money Cup on July 9, reports Kotaku. It’s the largest purse available in professional skateboarding, and the DLC will include both online and offline events for 240 Microsoft Points, or $3 USD on the PlayStation Network. “Skate 2 has been embraced by the gaming and skateboarding community across the globe, making it the perfect stage for the Maloof Money Cup’s videogame debut,” said Joe Maloof.

Our Take: This is almost half the price of Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Plaza, which was released in February for $5, not to mention significantly less than most DLC packs in general. If Skate is your cup of tea, it’s hard to find a cheaper way to extend the life of a game.

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