Peoww News

Take-Two have announced that GTAIV has sold 22 million copies since it’s April 2008 release, bringing sales of the GTA series on the whole to 114 million since the original top down incarnation in 1997. If you ask us, the series peaked at Vice City and it’s been downhill since. GTA2 wasn’t a patch on the original either.

In other Rockstar shenanigans, they’ve also announced a forthcoming goatee edition of horse-em-up Red Dead Redemption including all the DLC (including some never seen before on tree sixty) and that bloody zombie nightmare tacked on too. It’ll be available on October 11th in the US, no doubt following here on the next  Friday. Ian

Peoww News

It seems Quantic Dream have convinced themselves that they missed out on €10m worth of Heavy Rain revenue due to the second-hand market.

In this interview with gamesindustry.biz, QD co-founder Guillaume de Fondaumiere, gripes that sales of 2m to date aren’t reflected by the 3m unique PS3 trophy unlocks.

His scribblings on the back of a Gauloises pack fail to grasp that people do tend to rent or borrow games too. Having a high-concept game of this sort be a PS3 exclusive can hardly have helped matters either. Either way, 2m sales for a brand new IP is hardly shabby is it?  Ian

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We don’t need to be persuadatroned in order to pledge our very lives to the original Syndicate game.  With it’s mix of action, strategy and cyberpunk, it was one of the best games of the 16-bit era.  Syndicate Wars only floated some of our boats though, lacking some of the cohesion and style of its predecessor.

There have been rumours of a sequel in the works for a while now and EA have finally confirmed this and, as in the fucking norm for this generation, it’s going to be a fucking FPS.  The game has been entrusted to Riddick and The Darkness developers, Starbreeze, and they’ve been making all the usual noises about how it’ll stay true to the originals (ie:  they’ll put in a gauss gun) but there will be none of the corporation building of the first game and instead we can expect “a challenging action shooter for today’s gamers as well as fans of the original.”

Oh God… most of today’s gamers are cocksuckers.  They also describe the game as a mix of “fast-paced, futuristic, action shooter”, with a setting and story combined designed to “immerse players in a unique digital world”.  What’s unique about it looking like Bladerunner (you know it will).

Still we remain hopeful.  Not because of this shit but rather the maybe EA will port the original Syndicate over to XBLA.  Or at least make it work on Windows 7. 

In the meantime, here’s the best review of Syndicate you’ve ever read. PWOPA! Rich

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Having been shown the door last year, Jason West and Vincent Zampella, co-founders of Infinity Ward have had a court date of May 7th 2012 set for their royalty claim against Activision.

The pair were acrimoniously dismissed amid allegations they were in illegal contact with EA, so along with the plaintiffs claim for $125m (£80m) in Modern Warfare 2 royalties, their former employers have counter-sued Zampella, West & EA for $400m (£250m) claiming that EA attempted to poach the pair.

While we hope the little guy wins, we don’t rate their chances against the throbbing multidimensional behemoth that rules from beyond the ultraworld. Ian

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According to EA’s Chief Financial Officer, Eric Brown, EA have made $10-15m in revenues since the Online Pass scheme’s inception. He also stated that “The revenues we derive from that haven’t been dramatic. I’d say they’re in the $10-$15 million range since we initiated the program.”

 At $10 (£6) a time, that’s a heck of a chunk of revenue if you ask us. No wonder Ubisoft have attempted to implement a similar system, only to hastily retract it due to a printing cockup on the Driver San Fran manual.

The solution is clearly to buy new, but heavily discounted. That way you stick it to the retailers who aggressively push pre-owned stock over new games to unsuspecting punters. For example, our correspondent bought Mass Effect 2 brand new six months after release for just a fiver. Ian

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Despite the reviews suggesting that its either quite poor or quite good (depending on how much advertising space they’ve bought), we’re tentatively excited about Dead Island – the zombie survive ’em up that hits UK shelves today.

That said, the game does seem cursed right now with plenty of technical issues plaguing the game (and eating its flesh).  The worst/most hilarious of which was them releasing a debug version onto Steam by mistake.  A version which has now led to further controversy when it was discovered that one of the early skill perks was called ‘Feminist Whore.’

Oh dear.  That said, if it had been in the full game, people probably wouldn’t have batted an eyelid.  The lesson here is that if you’re going to be a cunt, be Rockstar and base your entire marketing strategy and softography around it.  Rich

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Activision have given us yet more ammunition to dislike them. They’ve announced Dreamworks Super Star Kartz [sic]. Delightfully it’ll feature all your favourite animated Dreamworks characters.

Though if you’re anything like us, you’ll struggle to name one of them besides Shrek. In fact you’d probably have more luck naming the incidental characters in the Shrek series than you would the other Dreamworks IPs in the game.

For the record they include the titular Monsters vs Aliens, characters from How To Train Your Dragon and a myriad selection of Madagascar characters. At least the latter are charming, if forgettable. Even the zebra voiced by Chris Rock.

It’s due out on all major formats in time to be ignored by everyone with half a brain and subsequently given as presents to poor unsuspecting children (although you’ll be whoring them for the achievements – Ed). For once we feel sorry for them. Ian