That Gaming Podcast.com

22nd May 2008, was the date given by Ubisoft for it’s PS3 shooter Haze yesterday, but now today they’ve only gone and changed it back to just ‘May’ meaning we have no idea of the actual day it will appear.

Originally the game was set for launch at the end of 2007, but it then got pushed back to fiscal Q1 of 2008 (between April and June). It was also penciled in for release on 360 and PC too, but it now seems that it’s staying put on the PS3 after Ubisoft announced it was a permanent PS3 exclusive title.

Haze is a squad based first person shooter that offers up to 4 player co-op gameplay. The rough plot is that you play an ex-member of a private military corporation who send in their guys (for huge amounts of cash) to clean up a ’situation’ oh and to make sure they perform at optimum level while in the battlefield they also fill them full of a drug called nectar.

It’s the use of nectar in the game that makes the FPS different from the normal run-of-the-mill shooter. If a soldier gets high on the drug they will become arrogant and ignore you playing dead, or if you’re more the genocidal type you can cut their feed-tubes so they overdose and start killing each other.

Having seen the game myself at the recent play.com live event in London I can confirm that it looks a lot nicer than I had anticpated. 4 player co-op could see this one turn out to be a bit of a sleeper hit. I’ll keep my eye on it.

Word!

Following the request from british Prime Minister Gordon Brown to address the use of ‘innapropriate interactive content’ by children, a report will be published today calling for movie style ratings for games. In addition, retailers selling games to underage children will face stiffer penalties; a large fine and up to 4 years in jail.

The report, written by Dr Tanya Byron recommends that a new 12 rating (just like they give to movies) be used on games and that the current PEGI system of rating be abandonded as it uses confusing age rating symbols and the rules for deciding on the age rating a game should receive are not strict enough. A single statutory regulation has been recommended.

In her report Dr Bryon says: “We have to make child digital safety a priority. If you are under 18, you should not be able to buy an ‘18′ game and if you are under 12, you should not be able to buy a ‘12′ game.”

The BBC already have posted some extra details about the report on their website. According to them Byron recommends:

You can read the BBC article in full here

OK we’re on some kind of roll here because we’ve just finished recording yet another podcast episode for you guys (that’s 3 now).

Good news is, since our podcast is proving to be quite popular we’re going to carry on doing them too. WOOO! In this week’s show we’ll be talking about dirty filthy xbox 360 achievement cheaters, PS3’s latest firmware upgrade, WiiWare in Japan, GTA 4 multiplayer, and jumping out of our skins while playing the new condemned 2 demo on ps3. All this plus a whole lot more (too numerous to mention here).

So come on, what are you waiting for? You can download the podcast either directly from this site, or better yet by clicking on the iTunes logo and subscribing to it (that way you’ll get new episodes automatically).

Have you heard that gaming podcast?

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Epsiode 3 - 26th March 2008 Click here to download (87mb)

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Posted by Ian

CVG.com has stated that they have been told from a number of different retail sources including Costco, HMV and even Sony themselves, that an 80gb version of the PS3 will be launched ’soon’ in the UK, though no firm date was given.

Sony phased out the 20gb and 60gb versions of the PS3 earlier this year (though some retailers still have them in stock) and replaced them with a single SKU; the 40gb model, offering the machine at cheaper price for consumers. However, this was at the expense of a number of features including backwards compatibility with PS2 games.

The 80gb model, currently available in the US still has the software emulation features included, meaning that its possible to play PS2 titles on the machine. Will the UK model be the same?

If an 80gb model did launch here than that would be the 4th SKU for the machine since it’s launch last year. I believe Sony may be trying to beat Apple for the amount of times it updates a product!

Anyway, as I originally stated, this story was broke by CVG and so if you want to read the full details you should head over to their site by clicking here

Word!

Posted by Ian 

Eurogamer.net has the first batch of exclusive shots for Supreme Commander on the 360 and for that reason I’m not actually posting the screens on our site.

However, you can hop over to the Eurogamer website now to check them out. Click here.

Posted by Ian 

Everyone remembers the first time they heard about man cannons in Halo 3, the sexual references were too obvious to ignore. However, we now live in the future and Halo 3 is soooo 2007. Man catapults are now where it’s at and that’s exactly the kind of thing you’ll find in Metal Gear Online for the PS3 later this year.

Check out this gallery of images below

Images originally posted on JeuxFrance.com

Posted by Ian 

Great news, a demo of Operation Darkness is coming to the 360 on May 5th. Wooooo!

Hang on, what the hell is Operation Darkness? Well, according to popular belief it’s a tactical RPG by Atlus.

CVG said ” The strategy RPG takes place in an alternate reality, where instead of rolling panzers across Europe Hitler’s opted for the legions of undead and fire-breathing monsters. There’s also zombie Nazis and mecha Nazis, which must be worth a download. ”

To read the full article click here

Posted by Ian 

SCEA associate producer Chris Hinojosa-Miranda has revealed, through a post in the US playstation blog, that the full version of GT5 is ‘about a year away’.

“You should just decide now to buy it, enjoy it, go online and race against anyone and everyone, rank number one worldwide, get the girl (or guy) and become the most popular kid in town. The end.” he said in response to user’s questions about whether they should pick up Prologue now, or wait for the full GT5 experience.

I personally think that £19.99 (or £17.99 at some online retailers) is a fair asking price for all the content that GT5 Prologue provides and I’ll be getting my copy this Friday. (Rob won’t though)!

Posted by Ian 

Whilst trawling around the web I came across some images of GTA 4 that appear to show (in at least some of the screens) online multiplayer action.

The images were originally posted on the dutch gaming website XboxWorld, but they have now been removed from that site.

I managed to grab the images from Kotaku, who are also covering this story.

With the game being less than a month away from release now there’s not long for us to wait before we can all join in the fun (or becoming violent criminals and gunning down our own granny while riding a whore, if you believe the mainstream press and certain teaching bodies).

You can check the images out for yourself below in our super gallery. Woot!

Posted by Ian

GT5 Prologue is almost upon us (this friday its released) and I for one am super pumped about it.

This is my primary reason for uploading these nice new images of the game, well that and to show off our nice new Gallery widget.

Hope you like.

Word!