Welcome to another instalment in our weekly news digest where the team at PSU Towers picks our favourite slices of gaming gossip from the past seven days, before proceeding to offer our two cents on each story for good measure.
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The latest on the PSN crisis
As you’ve probably gathered by now, Sony didn’t quite deliver on its goal of having PSN partially restored by the end of last week. Nope, the saga still isn’t over, and from the look of things, won’t be until the end of this month – Bloomberg ran a story claiming that Sony said that it doesn’t expect to have the service fully restored until May 31. In an ironic turn of events, Anonymous, the hacking group that many believe were responsible for the external intrusion on PSN, were themselves compromised at the hands of a renegade member known only a “Ryan.” On Tuesday, Eurogamer ran a story suggesting that PSN matchmaking would be restored within the next few days, and Sony stepped up to the plate to dispel the May 31 restoration claims, stating that it had not in fact issued such any statement.
However, it did say that the process would be slowly phased in, and that online gaming would be among the first features to see the light of day. In addition, the platform holder also quashed previous rumblings of a third attack on the company, which was rumored to take place last weekend. Developers have also been offering their two pence on the matter as of late, with Q-Games’ Dylan Cuthbert warning that Sony could face losing the support of studios unless they offer compensation for the PSN outage. Dark Souls’ producer also admitted the downtime has ‘caused some problems’ for developer From Software, though didn’t think the game’s planned October release would be affected. The continuing downtime seems to be sending ripples through the retail world however, with several, unnamed high street chains confirming a substantial rise in the number of consumers trading their PS3’s in for an Xbox 360. Ouch. Murmurs of PSN’s imminent return soon reared their heads after it was claimed that the service had been restored for various developers and was in the process of testing ahead of its public restoration.
Finally however, after just over three weeks of downtime, Sony began its PSN restoration process with the introduction of PS3 Firmware 3.61, bringing back online play. The hardware manufacturer reiterated that the restoration process will be a phased, country by country affair, starting with the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East. Japan and other Asian regions will follow suite.
Analyst says EA could annualise the Battlefield series
These days its bread-and-butter to receive annual entries in the likes of the FIFA, Tiger Woods and Call of Duty series, but another triple-A juggernaut may be set to join the pack – Battlefield. That’s at least according to Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey, who thinks there’s a possibility that publisher Electronic Arts may annualise the critically acclaimed blaster at some point, putting it in direct competition with Activision’s FPS behemoth. To be honest, I hope this isn’t the case. Milking your biggest cash cow is an obvious choice from a financial standpoint, but from a quality point of view, your product is bound to suffer in the long run. As big of a fan as I am of Call of Duty, I’ll be the first to admit that the experience has been pretty much same old since its inception. Sure, the characters, locations and weapons change, but the nucleus of the action has remained highly formulaic. Had the developers taken their time – say, skip a year or so – then we’d surely get something substantially different. Assassin’s Creed doesn’t seem to have suffered greatly from being churned out on a yearly basis – after all, November’s Revelations will be the third game in as many years – but this seems to be an exception to the rule. Plus, if EA is content on churning out a new shooter each year, it’s got plenty of IP up its sleeves to dip into without having to cobble together a new Battlefield every 12 months.
OPM UK says God of War 4 will feature multiplayer
Blimey, there’s no stopping the rumor-heavy rumbles of thunder in God of War’s cloudy skies these days is there? Still, with the abundance of murmurs surrounding Kratos’ impending fourth adventure – especially given the clout that folks like OPM UK and PSM3 possess – it makes you wonder if they could be on to something. God of War 4 isn’t entirely off the chart, but I honestly expected SCE Santa Monica to take a breather and focus on something else for the next year or so before returning to the bald badass’ hack-n-slash antics. The latest gossip is that GoW 4 will feature multiplayer, something that has been rumored for some time now. A logical step for the franchise surely, though hopefully not at a detriment to the single-player shenanigans. Nonetheless, I’m intrigued to see how they’ll handle this one.
Call of Duty 2011 to ‘set a new standard in the franchise’
Activision’s quarterly earnings call Monday night was hotly tipped to play host to the long-awaited unveiling of 2011’s entry in the Call of Duty franchise – and to some extent, they did just that. Well, sort of. While not divulging any specific details on the anticipated military shooter – not even a name – the publishing powerhouse nonetheless couldn’t resist dangling a CoD-shaped carrot in front of investors. Specifically, the company teased that this year’s instalment would ‘set a new standard in the franchise,’ and boasted of a particularly meaty online infrastructure to boot. Obviously, the name on everyone’s lips is Modern Warfare 3, and with a reveal expected to drop in the next few weeks, we won’t have to wait long to find out what gun-toting, rough-shaven juggernaut we’ll mowing down pop-up bad guys again this holiday season. I’d like to see a Ghost-centric prequel myself, but I think we’ll most probably get MW3, complete with Price, Soap and another Craig Fairbrass-voiced grunt who bites the bullet a mission or so before the climax. Bugger. (And sure enough, MW3 is exactly what we got after Activision confirmed the game’s development via series of short teasers — see below for further info).
New James Bond game coming this year
Holiday 2010 saw the battle of the Bonds, namely Bizarre Creations’ Blood Stone duking it out with Eurocom’s vastly superior GoldenEye revamp. Sadly, the former marked Bizarre’s swansong before the esteemed studio was forced to shut up shop earlier this year. Not the best way to bow out, but Bizarre’s pedigree ensures it’ll be remembered for more than a dodgy spy fest. Anyway, everyone’s favourite tuxedo-wearing, martini-gulping spy looks set to sneak back into the spotlight again in the near future, with Activision confirming during its latest earnings call that a new James Bond title will roll off the conveyer belt later this year. No details have been revealed, though for once i’d like to think we have a stellar Bond outing in the pipeline rather than the usual dross we’ve been subjected to these past few years. We shall see.
Square Enix reveals Hitman Absolution
We’ve been hearing murmurs of a fresh instalment in the Hitman franchise for some time now, with rumors of a formal reveal popping up just last week. For once however, the gossips were right, as Square finally lifted the lid on the series reboot, Hitman Absolution, via a teaser trailer on Tuesday. Due out in 2012, the game received the trailer treatment which you can see in our weekly Hottest Videos digest here. Check it out.
Those of you who have been keeping up to date with Project Soul’s Twittering the past few months shouldn’t be at all surprised at Soul Calibur V’s reveal this week, and by the sound of things, it’s going to be a right corker. Details are a little thin at present, though the basis are in place – a refined combat system, a story set 17 years after Soul Calibur IV, a new hero Petroklas and a host of extra (as of yet unannounced) features. With E3 just around the corner, we shouldn’t have to wait long to find out more. Furthermore, Namco revealed to Eurogamer that guest characters are a possibility, and that the game is being billed as a ‘generational shift,’ featuring fresh characters and other surprises. Still, a fine batch of brawlers have arrived on the scene since the series’ last offering back in 2008, so it will be interesting to see how Namco intends to mix things up this time around. Can it compete with the likes of Super Street Fighter IV or Mortal Kombat? Let’s hope so.
Namco ‘hasn’t really started’ work on Tekken x Street Fighter
Can’t say I’m surprised to hear this, to be honest. Street Fighter x Tekken has very much been the poster boy for Capcom and Namco’s colossal crossover brawler as far as coverage goes, and has been doing the rounds since its unveiling at Comic-Con last year. Namco’s offering has been very much AWOL since the project was announced, and coupled with the fact they’ve got Tekken Tag 2 on the go and now a CG movie, I’d be surprised they had got very far on Tekken x Street Fighter. And indeed, this is the case, with Tekken overlord Katushiro Harada saying he’s ‘not really started’ work on the beat ‘em up. Still, Capcom’s effort looks set to arrive before April 2012, so we’ll have plenty to keep us busy while Namco beavers away on their eagerly-awaited offering. Hopefully we’ll get an update later this summer.
Mass Effect 3 info landslide: enhanced combat, fewer squad mates
The more we hear on Shepard’s sci-fi swansong, the more difficult news of Mass Effect 3’s delay is to bear. Still, we’ll find a way to cope – hopefully. This latest batch of info highlight some of the fundamental gameplay changes developer BioWare has been injecting into the sequel, specifically its poking and prodding in the combat sector. For one, the space-based RPG won’t feature as many squad mates as Shepard’s past excursions, with the developers trimming the amount of recruits up for grabs in order to put more focus on developing character relationships. However, while not reaching the dizzying heights of Mass Effect 2’s 12 squaddie line-up, the sequel still promises more than just Liara, Kaiden and Ashley. Elsewhere, armor set-ups have also been refined, and it seems there’s more ways to approach combat situations this time around. Indeed, all of this seems to tie in with BioWare’s plans to ensure the game is more suitable for mass market consumption. Bigger, better and bolder seems to be the name of the game this time around, with ME3 boasting sprawling environments large enough to accomodate six hundred foot boss battles and fifty foot Cerberus Atlas mechs. Blimey, this can’t come soon enough.
Warner announces Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection
Having grown up on a healthy diet of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter in the early 90s, this has put a whopping big grin on my chops. The original arcade MK trilogy is among the best 2D brawlers you could hope to get your grubby mitts on, and with the success of the series’ eponymous reboot released just last month, it makes perfect sense that Warner would want to indulge in a spot of nostalgia. And for a measly $9.99, you’d be hard pressed to find a better retro-flavoured treat on the market. Let’s just hope they’re a better port than the rather shoddy version of Mortal Kombat II that hit PSN back in 2007.
Sony unveils Starhawk, due out in 2012
Lightbox boss Dylan Jobe’s been about as subtle as a sledgehammer when it comes to teasing future projects, it was little surprise when the firm unwrapped its shiny new Starhawk game during a London preview event Friday. The sequel’s been rumored for well over a year now, and will finally be with us some time in 2012. Early impressions look positive, and the introduction of the RTS-flavoured “Battle and Build” aspect will surely inject some life into the proceedings. More pleasingly however, is the inclusion of a fully-fledged single-player campaign to accompany the mammoth multiplayer antics – after all, the game’s precursor, Warhawk, strictly online only. 2012 is shaping up to be pretty meaty by all accounts, and it looks like we’ll be tucking in to some mighty fine PS3 exclusives over the next 12 months or so.
Modern Warfare 3 gets massive info scoop
If the details Kotaku has managed to get their mitts on are indeed accurate, then I think we’re definitely looking at one of the boldest Call of Duty entries to date. Click the link for the full skinny on this year’s outing, though tread carefully — there are heaps of spoilers on offer, including substantial details on the game’s plot and locations. You have been warned.