Wii Gaming News

1UP’s Game Night: Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena


Time: Tuesday, March 31, 2009, 5 p.m. PST
Location: Watch the embedded video player here in this story.
Questions: Ask your question in the Game Night thread on the Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena boards.

During a panel at GDC last week covering the new technologies Blue Castle Games is using in the making of Dead Rising 2, one panel member managed to divulge two exciting pieces of information in one seemingly casual sentence: Dead Rising 2 will include a multiplayer mode, and in it, there could be up to 6,000 zombies on-screen at one time.

As IGN reports (via Shacknews), these details were given by Laura Scholl, the product manager of mental mill, a program being used to properly light and shade the large amount of characters appearing in Dead Rising 2. During the panel, Scholl recounted a conversation she had with lead character designer Izmeth Siddeek, in which Siddeek confirmed up to 6,000 characters could be on-screen during a multiplayer session in the game. This was, in fact, the first time multiplayer has been confirmed in Dead Rising 2 at all.

No other details on the multiplayer mode were given, so it’s uncertain exactly what form it’ll take — although given the nature of the game, a co-operative mode would seem to make the most sense (and sounds like it’d be the most fun). After all, if players are going to be taking on 6,000 ravenous corpses come alive, a little backup would probably be appreciated.

Sony has said there are no plans for a PlayStation 3 price drop, and may be trying to temper expectations for tomorrow’s planned announcement. Joystiq reports that in an official statement, public relations manager Al De Leon flatly denied any such plans regarding the PlayStation 3. “As we have stated previously, we do not have plans for a PS3 price drop, and any rumors to that effect are false and are the result of speculation,” the statement read. “SCEA remains focused on the long-term momentum of the PS3. With the industry’s best software lineup this year, combined with our most aggressive marketing campaign to date, we remain confident in our approach and the value we’re delivering with PS3.”

It’s notable that De Leon didn’t mention anything about a PS2 price drop, a rumor which seems almost certain to be announced tomorrow. He also didn’t comment on anything regarding the PlayStation Portable, which some have speculated will be included in tomorrow’s announcement to take some attention from the pending release of the Nintendo DSi.

While it’s not uncommon to deny rumors like this, we usually see it done further in advance to protect the current sales. If people expect a price drop in a month or two, system sales might lag in the meantime. Since Sony has an announcement planned for tomorrow, denying now would ultimately be more damaging to their image if a PS3 price drop were in the plans. For that reason the denial seems to be truthful, but we’ll know for sure tomorrow.

Country music fans have yet another batch of Rock Band DLC to look forward to next week; Toby Keith is lending a bundle of his greatest hits to Harmonix’ rhythm game. Spanning everything from his 1993 debut album to a track released just last year, the Toby Keith six-pack should appear on the Xbox Live Marketplace next Tuesday, April 7. PlayStation 3 users will have access to the DLC that Thursday, April 9.

The following tracks will be sold at the usual $1.99 (160 Microsoft points) apiece, while the full six-pack will go for a slightly discounted $9.99 (800 Microsoft points):

• “Beer for My Horses” by Toby Keith
• “I Love This Bar” by Toby Keith
• “She’s a Hottie” by Toby Keith
• “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” by Toby Keith
• “Who’s Your Daddy?” by Toby Keith
• “How Do You Like Me Now” by Toby Keith

At long last, Toby Keith devotees will have a Toby-approved videogame to play when they’re not busy watching Toby-approved movies, driving Toby-approved vehicles, and eating at Toby-approved restaurants. All things in moderation folks, lest you find yourself inexplicably jamming boots into the hindquarters of random passersby.

Sony’s big Tuesday announcement is still anyone’s guess, but we may be getting a sneak peak at what’s on tap. Kotaku reports that a tipster from a Kmart has leaked a shot of the store’s retail database. The picture shows the PlayStation 2 reduced to $99.99, which is said to show up in a Kmart catalog starting April 5 as well.

This is just a rumor until confirmed by Sony, of course, but it does seem to align with the announcement the company has planned for tomorrow. If this is part of Sony’s planned announcements, we can’t be sure that it’s the only one they’ll give tomorrow. A price drop to the PlayStation 2 has been expected for a long time, but a drop to the PlayStation 3 or an announcement for the PSP to compete with the DSi launch isn’t out of the realm of possibility. We’ll keep you posted when we find out more tomorrow.

[Image courtesy of Kotaku.]

Add another appendage to the multimedia extravaganza that is Dante’s Inferno. Not content with a feature film, Electronic Arts has announced an animated adaptation as well.

EA will be co-producing the project with Starz Media’s Film Roman, who also helped produce Dead Space’s animated film Downfall. Multiple studios will have a chance to offer their own take on Dante’s animated journey through the nine circles of hell, which will be arriving in 2010 alongside the game.

It’s all part of a major push by EA to make Dante’s Inferno a major IP, with even more multimedia projects undoubtedly to come. Expect the animated film to debut alongside the game when it arrives next year.

The playable debut of Punch-Out!! at GDC marked Nintendo’s hype machine kicking into high gear ahead of the game’s May 18 release date. Now we’re getting Super Punch-Out!! to further remind us of the adventures of Little Mac.

Super Punch-Out!! can now be downloaded for 800 Wii Points ($8), bringing with it a game markedly different from the NES original and its Wii follow-up. The likes of King Hippo, Glass Joe and Piston Honda are missing in action, replaced with Gabby Jay, Piston Hurricane and Bear Hugger.

Thank god they’ve still got Super Macho Man.

A lot of people play World of WarCraft. Millions of them in fact. So it stands to reason that they’d be doing a lot of quests, right?

Well, according to World of WarCraft lead designer Jeffrey Kaplan (via Kotaku), the multitudes playing WoW complete 16 million quests per day on average. And that’s not even the most impressive number.

From July 2007 to March 2009, WoW players have completed 8,570,222,426 quests. So more quests than the number of people on the Earth. Nice.

Gazillion has leapt into the market in a big way. The nearly four-year-old startup publisher currently boasts substantial financial backing as well as the Marvel license, and they aren’t letting it go to waste.

“We actually have six or seven titles that are in production right now,” Gazillion vice president of marketing Paul Baldwin told Joystiq.

One of those titles will be an original IP with “World of WarCraft-like” production values. This in addition to publishing Lego Universe, Jumpgate: Evolution and, of course, Marvel Universe Online.