GamesBloggo - Your source on game news! January 2009

After a few hours of being online, the LittleBigPlanet servers have already been blocked by Media Molecule due to some problems, the nature of these wasn’t really specified. There have been no other details about the matter, no information about the reasons for the blocking or the estimated time to fixing them, but the Media Molecule people have told Kotaku that they’re currently working on the matter and trying to fix it as soon as possible.

As November 14th gets closer and closer, the Call of Duty fans can’t wait for the newest chapter release, and Youtube is filled with videos about the new episode of Call of Duty, World at War. Treyarch has released a video entitled “Fire & Destruction”, that can be found by the end of this post. The video shows a few game moments, such as the use of fire, with flamethrowers and tanks, and the use of molotov. The tank can also destroy part of the scenario, although it’s still not clear whether it’s done by pre-calculated scripts or physics simulation.

Activision has started the first batch of beta testing on October 13th, restricted to the XBox 360 users for now. Players that pre-ordered the game or booked their participation on the official Call of Duty website are able to play the beta-testing at the moment. There should be an announcement in the next few days for the PC beta-testing, for those who either don’t have an XBox 360 or missed the first batch.

While we wait, here are some scenes of explosions, cannon shoots, machine guns and flames: The “Fire & Destruction” video.

A demo version of Tom Clancy’s EndWar has appeared on XBox Live today. The file size is rather big (1.6GB) and contains one playable map for the multiplayer or single player modes. According to EuroGamer, the supported languages are currently English, French and Spanish, which leads to the assumption that they will also be the languages supported for the voice commands that characterize the game interface.

EndWar is a real-time strategic title, developed by Ubisoft Shanghai and signed by Tom Clancy. The full version is scheduled for release on November 7th for XBox 360 and PlayStation 3 (and probably for PC as well, after the console releases).

The announcement made by Blizzard about the StarCraft II distribution policy, that will see the title spread in three packages, one for each campaign, has raised a lot of polemic and reactions from users that felt it was likely to spend more than what they first intended to. Blizzard has quickly answered that it wasn’t their intention to try and “squeeze” money out of the game and that Activision had no influence in the strategy decision. Simply, they had already expressed their intentions of releasing two StarCraft II expansions, and the game structure remains the same as other Blizzard’s RTS’s: a main single-player campaign that allows players to have a little taste of each race. That’s how the first chapter of StarCraft worked, with 10 missions each for Terrans, Zerg and Protoss, and an expansion, Brood Wars, that added 8 more missions per race.

In StarCraft II the system will be a little changed, but not too far from the one used before: the first campaign will focus on Terrans, with 26/30 missions in which we will play as Jim Rainer. The first expansion will focus on the Zerg, with more 26/30 missions. The last expansion will be about the Protoss. It seems to feature, therefore, large campaigns for each product, but in order to give users a more epic experience, Blizzard decided to avoid putting all the three races together as done previously, but to focus more into the campaigns and stories for each race, one at a time.

It’s been a while that a demo for Left 4 Dead has been rumored, but now it’s been officially confirmed by Valve’s Gabe Newell. He has also announced the probable release date for the Zombie-based FPS demo. Newell has told Edge that the demo, that allows up to four players to experience a small portion of the game, will be available in the “first days of November”. The final game is expected to be launched on November 18th for PC and XBox 360 (in North America).

The game represents the videogame version of the classic zombie horror movies: based on multiplayer (but containing also a single player component), some players will be able to play the undead characters, while the others will be the humans inside and outside different scenarios.

The newest Computer and Videogames magazine talks about the multiplayer mode on the upcoming episode of the Call of Duty series, World of War. Here are some details about it.

The perk system will be enhanced compared to the previous title, Modern Warfare. New perks will be added such as Flat Jacket, that allows the absorption of the damage taken from a single grenade, a Gas mask perk that allows the players to be resistant to gas grenades, and the Shades perk, that negates the effect of flares. With the insertion of vehicles in the game, there will be other perks related to them as well.

Like the previous title, 18 players will be able to play simultaneously, and there will be new grenades such as gas bombs, signal flares, bouncing betties and sticky grenades.

The co-op gameplay mode will have two possibilities: a point-scoring system for each kill, and “Death Cards”, in which the co-op will unlock more modes and additional game features.

Call of Duty: world at War is scheduled for release on November 11th, for PC, PlayStation 2 and 3, XBox 360, Nintendo Wii and DS.

After the release date announcement, scheduled for November 27th in North America, there has been a lot of confusion regarding the payment fees to play the game. To clear any doubts, Acclaim has stated in an official press release that there will be a monthly fee, but the company explained exactly how the system will work. Soon enough, there will be a “starting zone” in which players can experience the game contents by simply registering to it. Those who enjoy the game and want to continue further, will be required to pay a monthly fee.

A few days after its official release, Warhammer Online has reached the 500.000 player mark. The Mythic’s new MMORPG is now, according to EA, the newest best-seller MMORPG. The half a million user mark has been achieved, as expected, by players that used that bought the game and used the 30-day free card that can be found in the box, and it’s not guaranteed that all of these players will remain in the game and pay the subscription fee.

However, it’s a great accomplishment for EA Mythic in North America, Europe and Oceania, considering that the game was launched only a few days ago.

Treyarch has announced the Hardware Requirements for Call of Duty: World at War, the fifth episode of the popular shooter series. The game will be available on November 11th on PC, but also Playstation 2, 3, XBox 360, Wii and Nintendo DS.

Here are the Hardware Specifications:

- Processor: AMD 64 3200+ / Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHZ or higher
- 8 GB available on the Hard Disk
- 512 MB RAM (Windows XP) / 1 GB RAM (Windows Vista)
- Graphics: Shader 3.0 or higher, Nvidia Geforce 6600GT / ATI Radeon 1600XT with 256 MB RAM or higher

World at War uses the same graphic technology used on the previous chapter of the game, Modern Warfare. The engine has been enhanced, however, and players will notice a better optimization and new characteristics such as the possibility of burning the grass and generate a fire. According to Treyarch’s programmers, “we reached a better graphical quality by raising the hardware requirements slighly, compared to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare”.

In World at War, the scenario is mainly Japanese- based, which also affect the gameplay. The Japanese soldiers follow military tactics that are more fierce and decisive compared to the American, British and Russian soldiers from the previous games. In that sense, the game will be slightly more bloody than the other Call of Duty. As for the other aspects, the game remains the same as seen in Modern Warfare.

After World at War, the series will go back to the hands of Infinity Ward. The American Software House is already working on the sixth episode, rumored to be set in a futuristic scenario.

Frogster Interactive has revealed the release dates for The Chronicles of Spellborn. The new fantasy MMORPG will be released in Europe on November 27th. Perhaps not the best of dates, since the new expansion for World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King, will be released on the 13th of the same month.

The Chronicles of Spellborn, however, presents itself as a very interesting product, with a real-time combat system that seems very innovative.