Assassin’s Creed: Revelations:

Ubisoft have announced that the Assassin’s Creed: Revelations multiplayer beta will begin on the 3rd Sep 2011 for PlayStation Plus and PlayStation 3 Uplay users only. Sorry, Xbox 360 owners no multiplayer stabby time for you lot. The beta will run until the 11th Sep and includes:

• 3 maps – Constantinople, Knight’s Hospital and Antioch
• 9 characters – the Bombardier, the Trickster, the Champion, the Sentinel, the Deacon, the Vanguard, the Vizier, the Guardian and the Thespian/li>
• 4 multiplayer modes – Artifact Assault, Wanted, Manhunt, and Deathmatch

Portal 2:

Valve Software recently ran a competition asking people to create a music video for the Portal 2 track Exile, Vilify. You can view the winners here. There are a few Portal 2 spoilers in the videos, so don’t watch them if you’ve not played the game yet.

The video that caught my eye was this one featuring Megan Gardner (NekoNariko) as Chell and a giant squishy companion cube. I want that companion cube. It looks so comfy.

OnLive:

The cloud gaming service OnLive will launch in the UK on the 22nd Sep 2011. OnLive, which launched in the US in June 2011, steams videogames via a broadband connection so they can be played on a PC/Mac. You can rent or buy games individually or subscribe to the PlayBack service for a monthly free and play as many games as you want. There are currently over 100 games available. UK pricing has yet to be announced.

Eurogamer.net announced the date last night along with the bombshell that thousands of OnLive microconsoles will be given out free to Eurogamer Expo attendees. With the microconsole you can play OnLive games on your TV rather than being tied to your PC/Mac.

OnLive microconsole and wireless controller

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3:

GAME have announced that Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be playable at GAMEFest in Birmingham between the 16-18th Sep 2011. That’s a full 7 weeks before the game is officially released!

Here’s the latest Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 trailer showing off the game’s survival mode, purple smoke grenades and a poor doggie getting shot amidst all the carnage. Yeah, you could say this trailer is somewhat action-packed.

(Hat tip to @StickTwiddlers for the giant squishy companion cube link)

Super Ball Escape HD:

The popular iPad game about saving a robot ball from the evil corporation that created him can be download for free from the App store until the 30th July 2011. You tilt the iPad to steer the little steel ball around a series of increasingly complex mazes. It’s quite a tough game to master. Here’s a trailer for the game.

F1 2011:

Codemasters have tweeted that they are going to reveal at Gamescom in Aug if F1 2011 will feature the safety car or not. The safety car is something that fans of F1 2011 have asked to be included. If you’ve been watching this year’s F1 World Championship you will have noticed that the safety car makes an appearance in many of the races. A good example being the recent Canadian Grand Prix which started behind the safety car due to the heavy rain.

This not the Shepard you're looking for. Move along.

Bioware are running a voting competition on their Mass Effect 2 Facebook page to decide on what the 3rd default FemShep (Female version of Commander Shepard) will look like in Mass Effect 3. Rather predictably the blonde Shepard is winning by a huge margin.

Can you all please vote on the Shepard that looks like she will save the Universe rather than sing in a manufactured girl band ;-) Note: You need to like the Mass Effect 2 page first before you can vote. My vote went to FemShep 4.

GoldenEye 007: Reloaded:

We finish off the news with the reveal trailer to Activision’s latest rehash of the classic GoldenEye 007 Nintendo 64 game. GoldenEye 007: Reloaded is a remake of the Wii remake of the original game. Any fans of the N64 classic considering getting this?

The final episode of Solid Snake’s first adventure season has been posted on the Eight Bit Strange Site. If you’ve not seen one of these videos before, then grab a cup of tea/coffee, sit down and watch all 9 episodes. Almost everything you see is the product of a rather talented animator called Greg. Having a basic knowledge of the Metal Gear games is handy to understand all the jokes. Episode 9 in particular is jam packed with videogame jokes and references and even Chuck Norris makes an appearance! I love these animations. Really looking forward to season 2.

Sledgehammer Games have revealed that they are working on a colourblind assist option for their upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 game which is nice to see. Also we have an interview with a colour blind gamer going live tomorrow in which we discuss the difficulties playing games with red/green colour blindness.

Limbo is coming to PSN on the 20th July 2011 and to Steam on the 2nd Aug 2011 so now PC and PS3 owners get the chance to die horribly in lots of different ways. In the game, obviously.

There’s reports that a Space Invaders film may be hitting cinemas in the near future. Yes, Space Invaders, that game with that really, really complicated plot and massive back story about why the aliens were attacking Earth. No, wait, there was no story or plot, it was all just shooting. Quick get Michael Bay on board! The mind boggles about just how much this film will (probably) suck.

At this year’s E3, BioShock Infinite walked (or should that be staggered?) away with almost every award going. Now you can see what all the fuss was about as the behind closed doors gameplay video is made public. Let us know what you think about BioShock Infinite in the comments.

Following on from the success of Backbreaker Football and Backbreaker 2: Vengeance on the iPhone/iPad and the original Backbreaker Football on the consoles comes Backbreaker Vengeance on XBLA. Available now for 1200 MS Points and coming to PlayStation 3 later on this year, the aim of the game is to score touchdowns and not get splatted by the various waves of defenders and/or obstacles. The game features the real-time animation system (called Euphoria) that Rockstar Games have previously used in GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption, so according to the developers “no two tackles are the same.” Check out this Backbreaker Vengeance trailer.

Look, gazongas! Link is probably NSFW. You’ve been warned.

The PlayStation Blog has revealed the content of the welcome back package for PlayStation Home users which totals over £65 apparently:

• Anime Style Apartment
• Anime themed clothing and furniture sets
• Paris Modern Office furniture set
• nDreams Big Bash party bundle
• nDreams Fantasy Fashion and Funkster costumes
• Aurora OrbRunner Booster Bundle
• A cuddly Stitchkins Bunny Toy from Lockwood
• A Midway Green ticket (50 plays)
• Cardboard Cartel Furniture from Codeglue
• Fortune Cookie active item
• A selection of Tops, Shirts, Skirts, High-top trainers and glasses
• Go Fish – a new, free-to-play fishing game based in the Shopping Centre

Does anyone regularly log into PlayStation Home? If so, what do you think of this welcome back offering?

Activision are holding the ultimate Call of Duty event on the 2nd-3rd Sep 2011 in LA. Called Call of Duty XP, 6000 fans will have the opportunity to be totally immersed in a Call of Duty world and be:

first to witness the world premiere of Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 multiplayer. Attendees will be among the first to have the opportunity to get hands-on time with multiplayer and Spec Ops. Also on display for the first time will be the full feature set functionality of Call of Duty® Elite, the innovative new online service built from the ground up to support Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3. Supporting this epic reveal is a series of real-world Call of Duty action-experiences and gaming competitions as well as an unprecedented $1 million dollar Call of Duty tournament

Tickets cost $150 and go on sale on the 19th July 2011 and then 2 minutes later they will be all sold out, no doubt. The exact time of the ticket sale will be announced on the 12th July 2011 along with the 2-day event schedule. Travel and accommodation costs are not included in the ticket price and you have to be over 18 years old to attend. You can sign up on the Call of Duty XP website to be kept up to date with the latest event news.

Nintendo are continuing to ramp up the delivery of content to the 3DS with the availability of 3D trailers for upcoming 3DS games from the Nintendo eShop.

Batch 1 (available between 1st July-20th July):

• Mario Kart
• Resident Evil: Revelations
• Star Fox 64
• Super Mario
• Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Batch 2 (coming next week):

• Animal Crossing
• Kid Icarus: Uprising
• Luigi’s Mansion 2
• Metal Gear Solid 3D Snake Eater
• Paper Mario

Codemasters have released a Monte Carlo DLC pack for DiRT 3, adding 8 new stages and the foggy weather effect to the game. It costs 800 MS Points on Xbox LIVE and Game for Windows LIVE and on the €7.99 PlayStation Store. The video below shows just how scary driving one of these tight and twisty stages at night can be:

The New York Mission

Once you’ve climbed out of your crashed helicopter, it’s straight into the heat of battle. Huge missiles and helicopters thunder past as they fly around partially destroyed streets of Manhattan. We’re talking proper wrecked here too. Many of the buildings lie in tatters with piles of rubble blocking up whole streets. This is a major battle zone.

A soldier in the New York warzone

This being a Call of Duty game, almost everything either blows up or tries to shoot at you along the way. Once you’ve watched 5 minutes of people shooting at each other and stuff blowing up it all gets rather samey. The explosions are worth a special mention as they are very impressive, both in terms of realism and visual effect. Good job really, as you see them often enough. An alarming amount of helicopters meet their maker during this mission. They must be safer form of transportation, surely? The bits of fiery paper drifting down from the sky were a nice touch. It made New York look like there was like a fiery ticker tape parade in full flow.

Towards the end of the level you get to see a rather nice weapon called “The Reaper” in action. Once activated, this weapon gives you a birds-eye view of your little bit of the battlefield, allowing you to destroy anything that moves. At the click of a button, the tops of buildings previously teeming with enemy soldiers are suddenly engulfed in flames. As Leeloo Dallas would say – Big Bada-Boom!

Having never visited New York, apart from driving around it in GTA IV, I really couldn’t tell you how realistic the MW3 version of the city is. However, the enemy AI was shockingly bad. There were so many instances of Russian soldiers just standing or sitting around the level just waiting to be shot. Only the sheer force of numbers indicate the apparent level of difficulty. This is one area that really needs some improvement.

The level did feel like one long corridor, albeit a very pretty and action packed one. I didn’t see many places to explore or branch off from the main path. It was all very linear. Heck, even part of the level was an on-rails shooter during which you blasted other helicopters to bits with your mini-gun without having once to worry about where you were going.

The London (Docklands) Mission

This level starts off as a covert mission to collect intelligence on a convoy of trucks carrying some sort of dodgy cargo. The GPS coordinates that flash-up on the screen are: N 51° 30′ 10” W 0° 0′ 44′. Now this puts the team to the east of Canary Wharf according to Google maps. I took a photo at these coordinates earlier on in the week.

London Docklands mission start according to Google Maps

Modern Warfare 3 screenshot from the London mission. The building on the far right is supposedly HSBC tower

This real life location is certainly not where they started from in-game, as shown in the single mission screenshot from Activision. Here’s the actual real-life location at those coordinates.

Docklands mission start location in real life, looking towards the tower

The only place nearby that resembles the start of the mission is around the West India Quay area just to the north of Canary Wharf. I’ve tried to recreate the screenshot in real life but you can’t actually get a loading crane, Canary Wharf tower and the warehouse in the same picture. What you get is either the crane and Canary Wharf by looking south, or the crane and warehouses if you look north:

A crane and Canary Wharf tower (HBSC tower out of shot to the left next to Canary Wharf Tower) but no warehouse

Crane and warehouse but no Canary Wharf tower

The only building that is recognisable in the entire mission is the Canary Wharf tower. Every other building bears little resemblance to its real-life counterpart. They aren’t even the right size and shape. On top of this, following a short firefight that heralds the end of the covert action section, you find yourself chasing a tube train in a pick-up truck down a tube line that just runs just north of Canary Wharf. Trouble is, there is no Tube line that runs north of Canary Wharf. It could be a CrossRail tunnel, but that’s not due to open till 2017.

I was a little surprised to see the amount of artistic licence that had been taken with the look and feel of the Docklands mission. It does seem at odds with the other components of the game namely a hyper-realistic recreation of people and equipment that feature in armed conflicts. I was expecting to be wowed with Gran Turismo 5 (PS3) or The Getaway (PS2) levels of authenticity for the London missions but from what I saw, Sledgehammer Games still have quite a bit of work to do.

The level itself does feature some top-notch action sequences with the fast-paced and destructive tube train chase being one the highlights. Trying to keep up the chase whist avoiding oncoming trains looks like quite a good challenge. Watching all the carnage unfold on a giant screen with a kicking sound system was also really cool. Kudos to Activision for organising such a great set-up to show off the game.

Summary:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 looks like a Michael Bay film. It’s loud, brash, packed with explosions, has a dodgy plot and is very enjoyable once you switch your brain off.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is released on the 8th Nov 2011 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Elite has been built to fully integrate with Modern Warfare 3 as well as supporting earlier Call of Duty games like Black Ops.

Think of it as a Call Of Duty career management system. It keeps track of what you’ve been up to in-game and can help you improve through analysis of your own performance stats as well as providing detailed information on all the maps and weapons available. Or you could just nerd out on all the numbers.

Approximately 90 seconds after finishing a multiplayer match your record will be updated with all this new information. Given the vast number of online matches currently taking place, this is a pretty impressive feat.

Activision have said that Elite will be accessible from the internet, mobile phones (e.g. iPhone app), from your TV and in-game. I don’t know what the difference is between in-game and on your TV, as no further information was provided. The full premium service will be subscription based, the details of which, including pricing will be made available over the next few months. To sweeten the deal, all Modern Warfare 3 map packs (i.e. paid-for DLC) will be included in the subscription. It was stressed that multiplayer will remain free and part of MW3 when you buy the game.

Call of Duty: Elite is split into 4 distinct sections:

1. Career – This is where you can pore over all your performance stats like games played, win/loss ratio, personal bests, recent performance and a weapon performance matrix. You can also compare your self against other players. The feature I liked the the most was the heat map that is generated after every multiplayer match. This allows you to analyse the locations of every kill/death and spot bottlenecks.
2. Connect – This is the video section where you can link your YouTube account to Elite, post your favourite Call of Duty videos and also view those posted by the community and the developers themselves.
3. Compete – Sign up to all the Call of Duty events that are available here. You can search by event type, date etc. Some of the events I looked at had an iPad 2 as the prize or even the Call of Duty Jeep Wrangler. There were also a few screenshot events for those of us that don’t have ninja FPS skills.
4. Improve – Detailed maps and overviews, tips, stats and video guides for all the weapons and items in the game can be found here. This section should help you plan your tactics for each of the maps so you don’t get lost and know how to best use your weapons.

Here’s a video showing Call of Duty: Elite in action. I strongly suggest muting the video and just watch the pictures.

I was impressed with how well Call of Duty: Elite manages the huge amounts of data that is already available for each player and all the data that is generated from each game. It’s doing some serious number crunching in the background. However, I was a bit disappointed that you couldn’t save the heat maps for off-line analysis which could do with the maps from the improve section.

I will be interested to see how many people will sign up to Call Of Duty: Elite given that Valve Software’s Steam platform provides a similar level of service for free. I’m sure Activison would argue that Elite provides far more in terms of player stats that Steam does at the moment. But can you really be arsed to wade through and make use of all that data?

You can now register for an invite to the Call Of Duty: Elite beta.

Screenshots:

Call Of Duty: Elite will be available during Autumn 2011.

GoldenEye 007 is out on the 5th Nov 2010 only on Nintendo Wii.

Blood Drive is a gruesome-looking “vehicular-combat” game.

In Blood Drive, contestants must use their motorized death steeds of steel in a televised game show where drivers battle each other and hordes of revolting flesh eaters in an all-out fight to the death. Face undead frat boys, cops, strippers and bachelorette partiers, each with their own special brand of death and devastation – and ways to die!

While these rotting monsters wander the streets of a desert sin city craving sweet, succulent brains, your enemies have come equipped battle hardened armed vehicles, including heavily weaponized muscle cars, hot rods, and more. Amidst this gore-drenched mayhem contestants must use their head or lose it!

Sounds like a cross between Carmageddon and Terror Is Reality. I’m all for it.

Essential show information:

• Tickets – Phone 0845 270 1669 (9am – 5pm)
• Times – Morning session – 10am – 2pm, Afternoon session 2pm – 6pm on both days
• Location – Go to the Club Wembley entrance next to the Bobby Moore Statue
• Restrictions – Under 16′s must be accompanied by an adult

Also if you order tickets at this late stage, then Play.com say:

COLLECT YOUR TICKET AT WEMBLEY STADIUM: Please bring a print out of your order confirmation and the credit/debit card for proof of purchase to the Play.com Live information desk at the show for entry. For lost tickets please call Customer Support at 0845 270 1669.

Now some more show information. According to ThreeSpeech (semi-official Sony blog) the following games will be on show:

• GT5 Prologue – playable code
• Everybody’s Golf: World Tour – playable code
• Time Crisis – playable code
• Echochrome – playable code
• Killzone 2 – trailer
• LittleBigPlanet – trailer
• Play TV – trailer
• Buzz – playable code
• God of War: Chains of Olympus – playable code

It’s a real shame that we can’t get to play LittleBigPlanet or Killzone 2. Ho hum. As long as I can play Ghostbusters I’ll be happy. Also ButtonBandits are reporting that there is no boothbabe ban, if you needed any more incentive!

See you all at the show.

It’s very soon – 15th and 16th March 2008 – and will be in Wembley Stadium. Yes, once again, it’s in the South.

According to MCV, Microsoft, THQ, Ubisoft and Activision will be there. Play.com itself doesn’t have a dedicated site but I did find the following description on the VIP ticket page:

Packed full of top titles including Lego Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, Soul Calibur 4, Condemned 2 and Rock Band you’ll be able to get hands-on time with this year’s biggest game releases before they hit the shops. There will also be live music, celebrity appearances and massive competitions, plus a whole lot of surprises!

Upcoming also has a tiny bit of info: goodie bags for all attendees! :) Hopefully there will be new playable demos and fun stuff. I’d hate to be paying money for a bunch of videos and stuff that’s already available on Xbox Live. Wish I could tell you more but the supposed Play.com Live PR contact didn’t respond to my email a few weeks ago.

No matter. Lego Indiana Jones and the concept alone are reasons enough for me to go. I am very happy to tell you that tickets are now on sale. Hooray! Buy Play.com Live tickets from Play.com (No! Really?) There were VIP weekend tickets available but as of today, it says “Currently unavailable, please check again soon.” No word on whether or not they’ll be on sale again.

If the trickle of info suddenly becomes a deluge, I’ll be sure to post it. Otherwise, see you at Wembley!

Update 6th mar 08: TVG has a Q & A with the head of games at Play.com, which contains a few more bits about what you’ll be able to play and see at Play.com Live!