This week saw a mixed bag of juicy gossip, ranging from the success of Rockstar’s latest sandbox effort, Red Dead Redemption, some disappointing developments on the David Jaffe front, and some decidedly bold claims from Guerilla Games.
Needless to say, expect things to kick up a gear as the industry moves inexorably closer to E3 in mid-June. For now, here’s the past week’s biggest stories, along with our two cents on each story. Be sure to let us know your personal highlights in the comments section below.
– – – – – – – – – –
Red Dead Redemption is UK’s 11th biggest videogame launch of all time
Given how much of a cracking game Rockstar’s Wild West romp is, we can’t say we were surprised to hear Monday’s news that Red Dead Redemption had taken the UK by storm, becoming the region’s 11th biggest videogame launch of all time in the process. Hats off to the developers for crafting such a mesmerising sandbox adventure filled with breathtaking visuals, gripping combat and heaps of exploration. Congratulations, Rockstar – it’s well deserved.
David Jaffe not working on Twisted Metal PS3
Every man and his dog wants to see David Jaffe lift the lid on a fresh instalment in the Twisted Metal franchise, so you can imagine our disappointment when we read this week that the God of War creator’s next project will in fact not be the long rumored PS3 Twisted Metal. On the flip side, we’re intrigued as to what Jaffe has up his sleeves, and it’ll no doubt turn a few heads upon its official unveiling. Still, we’re keeping our fingers crossed Twisted Metal does grace Sony’s black box at some point in the future.
Guerilla: Killzone 3 "pushes 100% of PS3’s max SPU load”
These days its common practice for game developers to hype up a forthcoming release by arbitrarily chucking around fancy numbers and complex technical mumbo-jumbo. Guerilla Games is no different, and this week’s news that mega sequel Killzone 3 will apparently be squeezing nearly all there is out of the PS3 certainly has got us salivating at the lips. To put it in to perspective, the game’s predecessor utilized roughly 60% of the PS3’s SPUs, and there can be no denying that Killzone 2 was a sumptuous looking game sporting some fine technical achievements. However, judging by Guerilla’s comments on its latest shooter, we ain’t seen nothing yet – though for now, we’ll remain cautiously optimistic just in case. Needless to say, E3 can’t come soon enough.
Insomniac going multiplatform
Having snuggled up to Sony for the past 16 years, Insomniac announced this week that the developer has decided to make the jump to multiformat development, having secured a deal with EA to produce a new IP for both PS3 and Xbox 360. Frankly the writing has been on the wall for a while as far as we’re concerned, as Insomniac has previously hinted many times in the past that it was considering developing games for other formats. Nonetheless, it still marks a significant turning point for the studio, though the good news is that the company will still churn out exclusive content for Sony’s black behemoth. With any luck, we’ll get our next exclusive in the form of Resistance 3.
Shadow of the Colossus/ICO getting HD treatment?
Now this is possibly the most tantalizing news we’ve read all week. Two of the PlayStation 2’s most compelling and unique works all rolled up in to one swanky HD package for PS3. What more could you want? With God of War I & II already available and ICO and Colossus on the way, is it too optimistic to hope that this may become something of a new trend in the near future? Images of Metal Gear Solid 3 and Final Fantasy X in glorious HD are already flashing through our minds even as we type this.
Analysts predicts PS3 to outsell 360 this year
Given the amount of triple-A offerings on Sony’s black behemoth during the first few months of the year, we can’t say we’re surprised to hear that sales of PS3 managed to account for 31 percent of global market share during the first quarter of 2010. Furthermore, analysts are now predicting that Sony’s flagship console will rack up 14 million sales this year, beating out the Xbox 360, which is poised to take 10.5 million. Thanks to the price cut issued in August last year, it appears that PS3 is finally starting to close the gap on Microsoft’s box and we can’t wait to see how the platform shapes up for the rest of the year. The gloves are well and truly off.
Namco unveils Tekken 7 in Madrid
Unless you haven’t already guessed by reading our in-depth review of Tekken 6, PSU Towers is particularly fond of Namco’s venerable beat ‘em up franchise, so needless to say we were pretty chuffed to hear that a seventh instalment is in the works. However, we feel that it’s about time Namco subjected the character roster to a considerable clean-up, as there’s more than a fair share of dead wood sitting about the place who would do well to retire from the proceedings. Quite what Namco has in mind is anyone’s guess, but we can’t wait to see the curtains rise on the seventh King of Iron Fist Tournament in the near future.