I mentioned in my Assassin’s Creed II review that 2 bits of DLC were going to be published by Ubisoft. Well, Battle of Forli (the first DLC) turned up last month to a fairly muted reception. Too easy, too short and therefore too expensive. Here’s hoping that the Bonfire of the Vanities DLC fairs a bit better.
Ubisoft’s Christophe Grandjean has posted 2 pictures taken from the latest Bonfire of the Vanities DLC via his twitter account. Take a look:
Interestingly, the action forms part of memory 13 in which Ezio gains a new move – spring jump – which isn’t available in the rest of the game. I guessing Ubisoft have come up with some suitably clever way of making Ezio “forget”" this new move before the end of the memory sequence. Mmmm, decapitation, head trauma, excessive exposure to lolcats maybe?
Update 18th Feb 2010: This DLC is now available in 2 flavours. For 360 MS points you can get the new memory sequence missions. But for 560 MS points you get 3 secret Templar lairs to explore which were includes in the black edition of Assassin’s Creed.
Assassin’s Creed II – Bonfire of the Vanities DLC is out now on Xbox 360 and PS3.
All registered Cerberus Network members (i.e anyone who didn’t pirate or buy the game second hand) will be able to download the Cerberus Assault Armor and M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun from 7pm GMT on the 9th Feb 2010 for free.
Cerberus Assault Armor:
Cerberus assault armor is designed for shock troops
Increases heavy weapon ammo capacity by +10%
Increases shields by +10%
Increases health by +10%
M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun:
The M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun is a longer-range shotgun with armor-piercing loads
This design also violates several intergalactic weapons treaties, so the M-22a is not distributed to militaries
The first expansion pack for WipEout HD is almost upon us. Sony have announced that it will available on the Playstation Network from the 23rd July 09 priced at £7.99 / €9.99.
Given the amount of new content Studio Liverpool has included in WipEout HD Fury it’s worth the asking price. Check out what’s included in my WipeOut HD Fury post.
There are 4 tracks that are playable in forward and reverse, these tracks include the zone variants and there are 4 zone specific tracks that are playable one way
That’s 8 brand new tracks with the “reverse” versions adding another 4, if I’ve understood Tony correctly. So 8 or 12 tracks depending on what you class as a new track.
Sony have announced that an expansion to WipEout HD called WipEout HD Fury (shockingly!) will be available this summer on PSN. The expansion contains the following:
8 new tracks
13 new ship models
3 new game modes
New trophies
Improved front end
Improved multiplayer functionality
The new game modes are eliminator (kill your opponents until you reach the target score), zone battle (achieve the speed target whilst avoiding obstacles) and detonator mode (take out the track mines and a bomb every lap).
Pricing and exact release date were not announced. Check out the trailer below for a sneak peak at the new tracks and game modes.
The latest Fable II downloadable content goes live tomorrow (12th May 09) for 560 Microsoft Points (or GBP 4.76). Priced 240 Microsoft Points cheaper than the first DLC Knothole Island. There’s estimated to be around 2 hours gameplay in there for your money, slightly longer if you want to collect everything (obviously).
See the Future returns to the beloved world of Albion, where a set of cursed items from Murgo the Trader unleashes new challenges for players to overcome, including encounters with kooky ghost hobbes, bloodcurdling necromancers, a cursed knight and the Coliseum, where only the greatest heroes will emerge victorious to claim the ultimate prize. Of course, what would travel be without a trusty companion? The Fable II dog returns with three alter egos to guide players on their quests to see the future, in the form of a Dalmatian, Bloodhound or Husky.
In addition to fantastical new quests, creatures, characters, events and legendary artifacts, See the Future also offers free unique items* to all, including a unique soldier helmet, braided ponytail hairstyle, psycho Jester make-up, a new hero expression, the back flip trick for canine companions, and a collectible Murgo the Trader gold statue.
Rockstar’s first of two exclusive Xbox 360 expansion packs for their mega hit GTA IV sees the light of day on the 17th Feb 09. It’s priced at a hefty 1600 MS points (~13 GBP), but Rockstar are claiming that you are getting about a third more content when comparing it to GTA IVs main story missions.
From memory, it took me about 50 odd hours to finish GTA IVs story missions, so I’m expecting this expansion to keep me occupied for at least another 10-15 hours. Given that some full price games have less than 10 hours gameplay (Halo 3) anyway, 1600 MS points doesn’t seem so bad.
So what’s included in this expansion then:
New main character – A Jewish biker called Johnny Klebitz
New weapons – Pick of which is an automatic 9MM pistol
New vehicles
New missions
New radio, internet and TV content
New interiors – Ooooh!
New mini-games – Including arm wrestling
Bike handling has been tweaked
Gang members accompany you on missions and level up if they survive
Everything still takes place in Liberty City, so don’t expect any Burnout Paradise Big Surf Island type update. Still, at least I know my way around and I’ve still not “collected” all those damn packages so plenty of exploring still to do.
GTA IV: The Lost and Damned expansion will be available from the 17th Feb 09 only on Xbox 360 (for 1600 MS points)
Criterion will be releasing a free update to Burnout Paradise on the 6th Feb 09. This coincides with the release of the Burnout Paradise party pack, which you have to pay for.
There’s quite a lot of good stuff in the free update though:
Restart - You can now quit or fail and event and restart it. Yay!!!!!
Self-righting Barrel rolls – Making them nice and simple to pull off
Vibrant visuals – Billboards, smashes and super jumps are now more obvious (via pulsation, and colour tweaks)
Road rage tweaked – Time is not added after you’ve reached the target car total
Stunt timer tweaked – Countdown is slower, making it easier to play at the start
Vehicle dynamics overhaul – First cars available are now easier to drive
Rebalanced events – To take into account all the other updates
Junkyard tweaked – Easier to view vehicle stats, now with added vehicle filter
In-game browser site – For PC and PS3 only to bring the upcoming Criterion Games Network
In-game store - Easier to browse and buy new content
I’m very happy to see that Criterion have finally given in and added the restart feature. This improves the game no end by vastly reducing the time I used to spend driving back to the start of an event. Also Criterion are going to announce more details about the upcoming Criterion Games Network next week.
Criterion have released details about all 4 cars in the legendary cars pack which is due to be released in Spring 2009 for Burnout Paradise. They are:
Jansen 88 Special – DeLorean DMC-12 from Back to the Future
Manhattan Spirit – Ecto 1 from Ghostbusters
GT Knighthawk – Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR used in the new Knight Rider
Cavalry Bootlegger – 1969 Dodge Charger from Dukes of Hazzard
No idea how much this pack is going to cost, but probably around the 600-800 MS point mark. Here’s some pictures of these iconic cars (3 are iconic, 1 is just not KITT. Boo) and a video of the Jansen 88 in action and a look at the other 3:
I mentioned in my Assassin’s Creed II review that 2 bits of DLC were going to be published by Ubisoft. Well, Battle of Forli (the first DLC) turned up last month to a fairly muted reception. Too easy, too short and therefore too expensive. Here’s hoping that the Bonfire of the Vanities DLC fairs a bit better.
All registered Cerberus Network members (i.e anyone who didn’t pirate or buy the game second hand) will be able to download the Cerberus Assault Armor and M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun from 7pm GMT on the 9th Feb 2010 for free.
The first expansion pack for WipEout HD is almost upon us. Sony have announced that it will available on the Playstation Network from the 23rd July 09 priced at £7.99 / €9.99. 
Rockstar’s first of two exclusive Xbox 360 expansion packs for their mega hit 
Criterion will be releasing a free update to Burnout Paradise on the 6th Feb 09. This coincides with the release of the Burnout Paradise party pack, which you have to pay for.
