GamesBloggo - Your source on game news! January 2009

One week left until the release of Rock Band 2 for Wii, Harmonix has announced that the downloadable contents for the game will arrive in the first months of 2009. Contrarily to what it was previously announced, since the company had stated that they would be available from the first week after the launch.

The pack features 20 free songs, plus 30 more from the first Rock Band. The new songs will not be the same as those available on PS3 and XBox 360 and no further details were released about the “old” ones.

Harmonix has also declared that the test period is at its last phase, and they’re working hard in completing it for the next year.

After revealing the system requirements and posting a new video about the game, it’s yet another time for The Sims 3 in our blog, thanks to other images that were distributed by the developers.

It’s worth reminding that the biggest new feature on the third chapter of the series will be the possibility of exploring the local neighborhood, visiting buildings such as stores, bars, libraries, gyms and even other houses, giving the possibility to spy other Sims.

The launch date for The Sims 3 is scheduled for February 2009. In the meantime, here are the new screenies. Enjoy.

Click on the thumbnail to see the full image.

Only a few months for the launching of the game, and Electronic Arts has already launched a new video and new pictures for The Sims 3, trying to guarantee the same sucess to this new chapter as for the previous ones.

There’s not much to say about the game that isn’t already well known: in its first chapter, it became famous as the most purchased videogame for PC in the history, repeating the success with the second chapter. It’s useless to comment any further on a game series that is already famous and loved by many fans.

And it’s for these fans that EA dedicates the video that can be seen below. The video shows the graphics that will be present in the game for PC and Mac OS-x on February 2009.

You can also find the pictures in the end of this article. Enjoy.

Click on the thumbnail to see the full image.

The Playstation Blog has officially announced  the arrival of additional contents for LittleBigPlanet based on Metal Gear Solid 4. It also has published some details and videos.

The new material will arrive in the form of outfits and level packs next December 23rd, at least in America, but it’s easy to suppose it’ll arrive in Europe too. The price will be of $1,99 for each one of them and $5,99 for the whole pack. The sackboys will be able to dress up as Solid Snake, Meryl Silverburgh, Screaming Mantis or Raiden.

The true big new addition will be the level pack containing new game levels and many elements for their own home creation, including stickers, objects, but more importantly, the Paintinator: a weapon that gives the sackboys unexpected new potential, as it can be seen from the video below.

Electronic Arts has announced the minimum system requirements for The Sims 3, the next chapter on the social simulatioon series that should arrive on February for PC and Mac.

After many countless expansions for the very successful Sims 2, this new chapter promises to introduce new features (Such as exploring the neighbors’ houses) and a new graphic look. And it’s exactly because of that reason that many fans are wondering if their PC will be enough to allow the game to run. So here are the minimum requirements:

WINDOWS XP

* Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor (or similar)
* 1 GB RAM
* At least 6.5 GB of free hard drive space, with at least 1GB for extra contents
* 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

WINDOWS VISTA

* Windows Vista (Service Pack 1)
* 2.4 GHz P4 processor (or similar)
* 1.5 GB RAM
* At least 6.5 GB of free hard drive space, with at least 1GB for extra contents
* 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

For computers that have a built-in graphic card, the game needs at least:

* Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA X3000 o superior
* 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or similar
* 0.5 GB additional RAM

Video cards that are supported:

NVIDIA GeForce series

FX 5900, FX 5950
6200, 6500, 6600, 6800,
7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
9600, 9800, GTX 260, GTX 280

ATI Radeon™ series

9500, 9600, 9800
X300, X600, X700, X800, X850
X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
2400, 2600, 2900
3450, 3650, 3850, 3870,
4850, 4870

Intel® Extreme Graphics

GMA X3×00 series

The new experience on the rhythm game field is called DJ Hero, and after the already established guitar simulation games, players will be able to witness the arrival of the DJ simulation game, with this new title being developed by Activision.

Not much has been said about the game, but it appears to have a scheduled launch for Summer 2009. Some further details have been released as well, the first being that a personalized edition of the game, dedicated to “DJ Tiesto” should be released. According to Wikipedia, DJ Tiesto is a Dutch DJ well known in the Trance music world.

The second detail explains a little about how the game would work: A controller in the shape of a disc plate (DJ-like, obviously) with many buttons that players must press, following the rhythm and the information on screen.

Of course, we’ll be tuned for more information.

Microsoft has announced that the first batch of downloadable contents for the new musical game Lips will be available on XBox Live today, with another scheduled launch for the next week.

Here’s the list of songs available today and those that will be available next week:

Today:

* Adele - Chasing Pavements
* Estelle - No Substitute Love
* Jason Mraz - The Remedy (I Won’t Worry)
* Coldplay - Violet Hill

November 28th:

* Supertramp - Give A Little Bit
* Smash Mouth - All Star
* Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles

A Kingdom for Keflings, the first game to explore the new dashboard for XBox 360 and its respective avatars has been launched today. The release was done contemporaneously with the New XBox Experience launch. The game is available on Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft Points.

A Kingdom For Keflings is substantially a multiplayer simulator that allows from 2 to 4 players in HD that must build, cooperatively, their own small empire.

In occasion of the American release for the new “Creepy & Cute Parts pack” pack for Spore, Electronic Arts has decided to release a new patch for Will Wright’s “global simulator”. The update should solve some game issues, but also bring 24 new body parts (legs, arms, feet and others) in order to create new creatures with inedit combinations.

The “Creepy & Cute Parts Pack” should be available this week also in Europe, both on the EA Store and retail stores.

Blue Mars is an interesting project from Avatar Reality, an independent developer, that was presented during the GDC 2008. It’s a MMOG based on Planet Mars: in the future, the red planet will be no longer red; instead, there will be water and life on its surface. Players will thus find themselves living in that planet, in a sort of spacial Second Life, at least considering the descriptions for the game.

The main feature on Blue Mars seems to be the fact that the game is based on the CryEngine 2, the same used on Crysis, hence, players can probably expect a very impressive graphic aspect for this alternative world. It also seems that the developers are willing to open the game to third parties, that could eventually insert addons to the game, turning the title into a platform where to build new gameplay sections.

Avatar Reality has announced that the game will enter its beta testing period in January, and it will last three months. The definite launch is scheduled for April 2009.