GamesBloggo - Your source on game news! January 2009

It seems weird, but that’s how it goes. It seems, in fact, that the latest update for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV has created additional problems.

According to BigDownload, the update has introducted a few malfunctioning issues on the controls both in the usage of the XBox 360 joybad for Windows, but also on the mouse/keyboard combination.

Looks like players will need to wait for a patch to fix the patch. Due to that problem, it’s advisable not to install the current update unless you’re sure that the controls will still work after that. Or, you can check the workaround posted by RockStar on GTAForums.com.

After announcing the game’s postponing a while ago, Rockstar Games has announced, with a press-release, the launch date for Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, the latest title on the series developed for Nintendo DS. It’ll be available in North America on March 17th and in Europe on March 20th, 2009.

“Rockstar Leeds has once more created a product that excels our standards for its depth and innovation”, Sam Houser, Rockstar Games’ founder said.

Rockstar announces the upcoming arrival of an expansion for their action driving game Midnight Club: Los Angeles, expected for the first months of 2009.

The additional contents will arrive in two separate packets: the first one is the “South Central Upgrade Map”, that features a new area to explore, in fact, it’s a map of South Central that will add itself to the already vast game world. This map, according to what was reported on the press-release, should be very large, roughly one third of the entire game world, and it’ll be free, which is definitely appealling.

The second part of the contents is the “South Central Content Pack” that will be available for purchase (the actual price is still unknown) and it will feature new competitions, new characters, races, cars and music tracks.

Rockstar has communicated that the retail box version of Grand Theft Auto IV (not the digital delivery system that already uses different anti-piracy systems) will use the SecuROM security system, that has recently been the center of controversies among Spore users due to its rather invading system.

However, it seems that the version inserted inside GTA is a different SecuROM version, that imposes less limitations to the users. It will be necessary, however, to keep the disc inside the drive in order to play, and there will also be an online registration for the first installation, but it doesn’t look like there will be a limited number of installations on the hard disk.

It’s only a rumor for now, since nothing has been officially declared. An interesting rumor, nonetheless, passively spread by Gamestop, that features a boxed version of The Lost and Damned on their database for the price of $19.99. The boxed versions hould have, other than the announced expansion for Grand Theft Auto IV, a poster and a token card for XBox Live Marketplace that would feature a code to be used to buy the game on Live. There’s no CD included in the pack, only the token to buy the download, probably in order to protect those who don’t trust digital delivery systems, or that want to have the actual product box as a collector’s item.

We’ll be waiting for more information on the matter.

Finally, it has been announced that the additional downloadable contents for Grand Theft Auto IV will be available on February, more precisely on Februar 17th, 2009.

That’s what has been reported by USA Today, that also lists what should be found inside the package. It talks about a new “episode” of the game called “The Lost and Damned”, that has a protagonist called Johnny Klebits, belonging to a bikers’ tribe called The Lost. IT seems that Niko Bellic has, instead, a secondary part on the story.

“Johnny is a very different character than Niko, with a very different background,” said Rockstar’s Dan Houser. “I can’t go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City.”

It will be, as it seems obvious, something detached from the main GTA IV’s story, with disconnected events between the two narrative lines. Yet, many obscure sides of the original game will be revealed, according to what has been said.

February 17th, 2009 should be the worldwide release date for these downloadable contents for the XBox 360 version of GTA IV.

The Spanish magazine MarcaPlayer has published a few new details about GTA: Chinatown Wars, the newest episode for the Grand Theft Auto series, currently being developed for Nintendo DS. The scenario for the game will be the same as the GTA IV: Liberty CIty in all its size, except for the Alderney neighborhood which won’t be present.

According to what has been translated by Nintendo Everything, it seems that there will be a “big importance” to mini-games, such as the drug dealing. On the touch screen, there will be a sort of PDA that features a GPS navigator and many options that will be accessible with the pen, together with the radio controls and some special commands to be issued to the main protagonist, such as using the objects obtained. The action is completely focused on the top screen, with a camera that can be turned around in 360 degrees. It also seems that the microphone will be used, for example, to whistle to taxis and make them stop.

GTA: Chinatown Wars has been recently postponed to Spring 2009.

Take-Two’s executive chairman, Strauss Zelnick, has announced at the BMO Capital Market 2008 Interactive Entertainment Conference that the publisher’s plans have changed slightly. More specifically, the change is referred to the new GTA Chinatown Wars, the first chapter of the series developed specially for the Nintendo DS. Initially scheduled to launch at the end of January, the game has been postponed to the February-April 2009 period.

The same fate also awaits the famous downloadable contents for Grand Theft Auto IV. Zelnick has confirmed that the expansion is “close to completed”, and although it was also scheduled for the end of January 2009, it will probably be postponed as well, perhaps to the same February-April period.

Dan Houser has declared to Variety that the exclusive downloadable contents for the XBox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV might not be ready to be launched by the end of this year. “Everything is going well. But we still don’t have a possible date. We hope to be able to announce it on the next few weeks, but we’re still studying a number of things. We are more focused on the quality than the date, as we’ve always done. But the development is going really well, it’s taking a shape we’re very proud of. And that’s our goal”.

Houser has added that the content nature will be revealed before its release, so hopefully soon we will have more information on what those DLC’s will be, despite all the rumors that have been roaming the web for months.

Finally, the “arcade” version of Vigilante 8 has arrived on XBox Live, called, in fact, Vigilante 8 Arcade. It’s a remake of the original game created specifically for the Xbox 360’s digital delivery service. The original game was launched at the end of the 90’s on PlayStation and Nintendo 64, followed by a second chapter on Dreamcast. Players will find themselves driving 70’s-styled vehicles, with the peculiarity of being enhanced with mass-destruction arsenals.

Vigilante 8 Arcade proposes several different game modes for both the multiplayer (like Deathmatch adn team Co-op) and the single player modes (Quest, Custom Battle and Free Wheelin’), in five new arenas and 8 different vehicles.

The game is currently available on XBox Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points.