GamesBloggo - Your source on game news! January 2009

Pandemic has published on the official forums the PC version requirements for The Lord of the Rings: Conquest, the newest title based on J.R.R Tolkien’s series.

For those who are interested in purchasing the game, here’s the minimum configuration in order to play the title on a PC:

FOR WINDOWS XP SP2 or Windows Vista

• 2.4 GHz Core Duo processor or equivalent
• 1 GB RAM
• A 256 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 3.0 - nvidia 7800 or equivelent
• The latest version of DirectX 9.0c
• A DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
• At least 6 GB of hard drive space for installation.

Although it’s not too far from normal standards, it still seems a little high for being the minimum requirements. It remains to be seen how much more superior the hardware will need to be in order to play the game with its full details.

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest will be launched on January 9th for PC, PS3, XBox 360 and Nintendo DS.

Capcom surely has nothing to be worried about, but Jun Takeuchi, Resident Evil 5 ’s producer, seems to have their own reasons to be worried. In an interview to Famitsu, Takeuchi has declared himself worried about Western developers and on the turns that the videogaming world is taking.

“I’m worried about the movements of Western developers. Japan is now their target - it’s the last big marketplace. The truth is that Western studios are making great games, and they’re going to continue to do so next year too”, he says. “”It’s not good if Japanese developers are making games that can’t be enjoyed by Japanese people”.

Takeuchi fears that the “westernalization” of the videogaming world will eventually annihilate the “Japanese Style” that has been loved by many fans for a long time.

In a long interview to Gameplayer, Red Faction: Guerrilla’s producer Rick White has answered questions about the stage of the game’s developing for the Microsoft console. One of the interesting comments was that, even though the developing continues to be done in schedule, there are some evident programming issues for the XBox 360.

“We’ve got it to the point where we can’t even put an extra vehicle into a world, because it’ll blow the memory. Every little change we make we have to be hyper-critical about it because it could just bring the whole system down”, says White.

In order to try and avoid “panic”, White underlines that THQ and Volition’s plans isn’t much about optimizing the resources in order to better manage the console. Their plans is to push the current hardware to the maximum levels as possible.

The full interview can be found here.

A new initiative from Eidos has made its appearance on the official Tomb Raider website. On the page dedicated to the serie’s soundtrack, it is now possible to download a good number of songs, extracted directly from the original soundtrack from many of the Tomb Raider chapters.

It’s possible to download mp3 file packs that are divided according to the chapter in which those appear, including the new Tomb Raider Underworld Deluxe Edition, that contains 71 mp3 tracks.

Everything is available for free too. Which is always a good thing.

There’s a small waiting atmosphere around the Ensembles Studios’ project Halo Wars, especially after the closure of the Studios three months ago. Now, however, some of the unlockable objectives for Halo Wars have been revealed and we’ll list it at the end of this article.

This real-time strategic will be based on the Bungie-created world and made famous by Master Chief, that became somehow an icon for the game.

Halo Wars should be available from February 27th, 2009 on. Below are the list of objectives that will be able to be unlocked on the game. Enjoy.

* Adjudicate the Arbiter 30
Complete the Campaign on Heroic Difficulty
* Detour the Great Journey 50
Complete the Campaign on Legendary Difficulty
* Momma’s Boy 5
Get a Gold Medal on any mission
* Crushed Colors 10
Improve your Score in any Campaign Mission
* Mr. Punctual 15
Finish all missions under Par Time on Heroic difficulty
* Own Worst Enemy 20
Get a Gold Medal with all Debuff Skulls Active
* Wall of Recognition 30
Get a Gold Medal on every Campaign Mission
* Epic Grinder 40
Obtain a Lifetime Campaign Score over 1,000,000
* Everything’s Better with Bacon 5
Mission 1: Ram 50 Grunts with Warthogs
* Endless Fun 5
Mission 2: Destroy every Methane Tank
* Covenant “Hot Drop” 5
Mission 3: Kill at least 5 Covenant Units with the Bridge
* The Real Winner 5
Mission 4: Save Adam
* He’s Got The Jack 5
Mission 5: Jack 6 Covenant Vehicles
* Rhino Hugger 5
Mission 6: Successfully protect every Rhino
* Micro Manager 5
Mission 7: Do not destroy any Power Node
* Ramblin’ Man 5
Mission 8: Use Elephants to train 100 Infantry
* Sweet Naptime 5
Mission 9: Put every Colony in Hibernation Mode at the same time
* The Procrastinator 5
Mission 10: Disrupt all Tractor Beams
* Battened Down the Hatches 5
Mission 11: Save all the Airlocks
* Handy with Tools 5
Mission 12: Repair the Power Core in less than 4 minutes
* Beaming with Pride 5
Mission 13: Destroy 25 units with the Scarab
* Didn’t Get To Second Base 5
Mission 14: Don’t claim an extra base
* Thinkin’ about My Doorbell 5
Mission 15: Open the Doors in order
* Backscratcher 10
Complete any Campaign Mission in Co-op Mode
* OMG BFF FTW 40
Complete entire Campaign in Co-op Mode
* Playin’ the Field 15
Win a Skirmish Game with every Leader
* Gallivant around the Galaxy 25
Win a game on every Skirmish Map
* Empire Builder 5
Win a game in every Skirmish Game Mode
* Titan 15
Get 20,000 points in any Skirmish Game
* Big Al’s Scooter 10
Win a Heroic Skirmish Game against the AI in under 10 minutes
* My Virtual Friends Love Me 10
Win a 3v3 Skirmish game with 2 AI Allies
* Walk-Off Winner 30
Use one of the 6 Major Leader Powers to destroy an enemy’s last unit
* 2 Bugs are Better Than 1 10
Win a Skirmish Game with Dual Scarabs
* Penny Pincher 10
Get a winning High Score with 10 or less Squads against the Heroic AI
* N00b n0 M0r3 10
Win a Matchmade Skirmish Game on Xbox LIVE
* So Lonely at the Top 20
Win and have the Highest Score in a Matchmade Skirmish Game on Xbox LIVE
* Basically Naive 10
Obtain the Recruit Rank on Xbox LIVE
* Officer on Deck 30
Obtain the Lieutenant Rank on Xbox LIVE
* Running the Show 50
Obtain the General Rank on Xbox LIVE
* Alas, Poor Andrew Thomas 5
Collect your first Skull
* Graverobber 30
Collect all Skulls
* Halo Academic 15
Unlock 20 Timeline Events
* Halo Historian 40
Unlock All Timeline Events
* Ready for the Sequel 75
100% Completion
* 24 Hours of Quality 20
Play Halo Wars for at least 24 Total Hours

Secret Objectives:

* Secret Achievement 10
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
* Secret Achievement 40
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
* Secret Achievement 50
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
* Secret Achievement 70
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.
* Secret Achievement 70
Continue playing to unlock this secret achievement.

The Volition staff has annouced the launch date for the PC version of Saints Row 2 on the game’s  official forum. The game will be finally available for PC on January 9th, 2009, bringing the wait of those players that do not have a console to an end.

In another post on the same forum, the moderator has also declared that a low-impact DRM system will be used. It should be based on Steam but mild enough not to cause any problems that have been found in other games.

Slightly earlier than what was announced, NCSoft has already made Tabula Rasa free to play and download, instead of waiting until January 10th as it had been previously established.

Unless things change once more, the game will see its last day on February 28th, the day when NCSoft will close the official servers definitely. In order to play Tabula Rasa, even if for just a few days, players will need to download it from the official game site, then use the code obtained from PlayNC’s website upon creating an account. Even though everything’s now free, a credit card is still required in order to prove one’s identity.

Capcom has released 40 new images for their new upcoming Street Fighter IV, amongst which we can find the characters that will be present inside the game.

The game should be launched for PC, PlayStation 3 and XBox 360 on February 20th, and needless to say, it’s already one of the most awaited titles for the next year, together perhaps with another Capcom release, Resident Evil 5.

Below are some of the images. Have Fun!

Click on the thumbnail to see the full image.

Capcom has announced on their Capcom-Unit forum that Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix has reached the 250.000 download mark.

The game was launched on November 25th on PlayStation 3 and on the 26th for XBox 360, and it’s on the right path to become the best sold digital game ever.

“It is with great pleasure to announce that Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix has sold over 250,000 units year to date. HD Remix has shattered both day one and week one sales records and will most likely break 30 day sales records as well.  It’s on its way to becoming the highest grossing digital title ever”, says John Diamonon, Capcom’s associate product manager.

Resident Evil 5’s demo, for now only available in Japan and sought after by the European players with a lot of fake accounts and BitTorrent donwloads, will arrive on the Western markets in the beginning of 2009.

Capcom has already announced that the download will be available in the first days of next year on the XBox Live and PlayStation Network, in the American servers of course. There have been no comments on an European deate, but it’s likely to assume that they won’t be too different from the American market.

The complete version of Resident Evil 5 will be launched on March 13th, simultaneously and worldwide on PlayStation 3 and XBox 360