That Gaming Podcast.com

Posted by Ian
 
So you’ve burned around the streets, beeches and mountains of Paradise City and taken all of the advice offered by DJ Atomika but there’s still more to do in Burnout Paradise, well, there will be more to do later this year, that’s according to the developers of the game Criterion.

They say, on their official website, that the updates they’ve got planned are so significant that they’ve had to give them code names, because the usual number updating system just don’t cut it for these guys. The three updates will be rolled out later this year and in the order of ‘Cagney’, then ‘Davis’ and then ‘Eastwood’. But what could all this mean? Will we see new areas added onto the map, new events becoming available, different vehicles being added in? Maybe there’ll be weather additions or a day/night cyle? Who knows?

I would assume, at this stage, that these updates are coming for both the 360 and PS3 versions, though Criterion haven’t actually specified this as yet.

Guess we’ll just have to wait and see, in the meantime - get online and get those multiplayer challenges done!

Posted by Ian 

Eurogamer.net have a very nice article up at their site detailing all of the games released this week across all formats and we’ve gone and ‘borrowed’ the list for our site too so you can check them out for yourself:

Click on over to Eurogamer’s site to read their rather nice article in full

Word!

Posted by Ian 

At 10pm tonight the latest and last trailer for GTA 4 before it’s release next month went live.

Having watched the trailer several times now I can honestly say that I’m more excited about getting my hands on this game than I’ve ever been. Whilst the trailer follows in the tradition of the previous ones, i.e. no actual gameplay is shown, it’s comforting to know that all of the amazing visuals being presented are all running using the in-game engine.

The title of the trailer is “Good Lord, What are you doing? AKA Everyone’s a rat!” and the reason for this becomes clearer having now seen the trailer. It appears to give hints that some kind of double cross is going down in the game and that no-one can be trusted. Indeed, within the first few seconds of the movie an undercover cop (dressed in cool Hawaiian get-up) pulls a gun out shouting LCPD, just after a bank robbery has taken place. Also, the names of a number of gangs are announced with scenes seemingly depicting the leader of each gang claiming they’re the ones in charge and that this is their town.

Later, a large lady proclaims to Niko that “Everyone’s a rat!” “Not me” replies Niko.

I won’t ruin everything in the trailer by divulging the details of it all here, however, I will say that the graphical standard for sandbox games just got much higher. Explosions, gorgeous lighting, smoke trails, particle effects and smooth animation are all present and correct here.

Whilst there are a couple of occasions with slight slow-down, the game, on the whole appears to be running nice and smoothly - and this was confirmed a couple of weeks ago too by 1Up editors who’d been given the chance to play the game.

So GTA 4 is coming and it’s coming with a bang.

I for one cannot wait.

Watch the trailer now

You can watch the trailer at the official site by clicking here or by logging in to Xbox live, where’s its also available in HD.

Posted by Ian 

It’s a mere 2(ish) weeks away from release, the potentially biggest game of the year GTA 4 is nearly upon us.

To further celebrate this fact (or ram it down our throats), Rockstar will be releasing their final trailer of the game tonight at 10pm. The trailer entitled “Good Lord, what you doing? AKA Everyone’s a rat!” will be made available online (that’s the Internet) and presumeably Xbox Live too, seeing as that’s how all the previous trailers have rolled out.

No details have been provided about what we might see in the trailer, so to me it feels like Christmas Eve. Also, there’s been no word on when the trailer will appear on PSN either.

Posted by Ian 

There I was minding my own business, sitting in a northerly direction when all of a sudden there was a knock at the door!

Who could that be? I pondered as I made my way through the living room and into the hallway. As I approached the shining silver handle of our new UPVC door (white on the inside, brown on the outside - y’know like wood) a thousand thoughts raced through my mind, would it be something good, or would it be a middle aged woman asking for her Kleeneze kit back that she’s shoved through my letterbox the previous monday? This was all too much to take, so I just bit the bullet and opened the door.

Well blow me (no, not that way) it was only a UPS guy bravely battling the elements in order to return my repaired 360. What a man. Like an excited child who has just learned to write I scribbled my signature across the screen of his PDA delivery system thingy and snatched the box from his rain soaked mits.

As I opened the box I dared imagine the feelings I would soon experience if, instead of simply repairing my broken unit Microsoft had seen fit to raise me above the masses and elevate my status to ‘important’ by giving me an updated brand new 360 with a HDMI port.

Nope - it was my exact same 360 which, according to the enclosed documentation had had a new motherboard fitted.

So there you have it, I’m just run-of-the-mill scum to Microsoft and got my 360 repaired just like anyone else.

And irony of ironies I don’t even know if it works (and probably won’t find out till the weekend) cos I’ve just had GT5 Prologue drop through the door too. PS3 all the way for me later today.

WOOOO!

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 

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 

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

WTF is up with Britain? Rocketing fuel prices on an almost weekly basis, the worst customer service in the world (most of it is farmed out to poor middle-east countries) and now retailers charging a higher price for GTA 4 on the ps3 than they are for the 360 version.

Yes, that’s right, major high street retailer WH Smith has posted the cost of the upcoming mega-crime-a-thon fest that is GTA 4 and its £5 more on PS3 than it is on the 360 (even though no official price point has been given to retailers yet). The same thing happened a couple of weeks ago with Devil May Cry 4 costing £10 more on the PS3 than it’s 360 counterpart (and with a 22 minute install routine to go through on the PS3 version).

Videogame retail giants GAME and Gamestation have also said they they expect the PS3 version of GTA 4 to cost more than the 360 version. This isn’t good considering that the 360 version has the DLC coming and you get free MS points (worth real money) if you pre-order.

Things like this really wind me up and make me wish I lived in another country - stupid Britain.

Click here for the full story as reported on videogaming247.com

I have GTA 4 pre-ordered on 360 already - as does Rob.

Word!

Posted by Ian

Woooooo - the first map pack for the best online shooter ever (in my opinion) is only a few days away (for 360 owners at least).

Infinity Ward have confirmed that the GOTY edition of COD 4 will go on sale on April 3rd 2008 and will include a download code to get the bonus maps. This, coincidently, is also the date that the map packs will be made available for purchase via the gift of Xbox Live Marketplace.

Quoting directly from Kotaku (who are quoting from Inifitity Ward),

The Variety Map Pack includes four new multiplayer maps. “Creek” is a wide-open village ravaged by combat where concealment is the difference between life and death. In “Broadcast,” fight throughout an enemy communications building with confined corridors and wide-open parking lots. “Chinatown” is a foggy downtown district, lit only by a full moon and the neon glow of the city. “Killhouse” features a desolate training warehouse filled with a variety of building mock-ups and soft and hard cover points.

PS3 owners will have to wait a little longer than 360 owners to get their hands on the map pack, 21 days longer to be precise (that’s April 24th - now put your socks back on). Still at least you know when you’ll be getting it. Spare a thought for poor PC owners. They’ve currently been left in the dark with no specified date for the map pack. Ironic really, seeing as it’s usually PC gamers that enjoy the benefits of new maps first usually.

In your face PC dudes.

For more details on the map pack click here