New Lara Croft Game Will Be Download Only

There's another Tomb Raider in the works...well kinda.
The next game to come from developer Crystal Dynamics, will be about tombs and presumably raiding them. However, it won't be called Tomb Raider.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, is the name of the game(yes that rhymes), and it has a lot of changes aside from just a new title.
For starters, it will be a download only game for XBLA, PSN, and probably PC. Secondly, it sports a classy isometric camera angle, and so changing the way the game is played dramaticly.
These two screens give should give you a pretty good idea for what to expect come late this year.

 

I can really see myself getting into a game like this. It will probably be a bit shorter than some of the previous Tomb Raider games, considering this will be download only. On top of that, I really like the new camera angle, and the gameplay options that come with it. I'll be sure to report more on this interesting title as we draw closer to its release!

Sony Announces SOCOM 4

Sony had been teasing an announcement for a "big unexpected sequel" over the past weeks, and now we know what it is. SOCOM 4 has now been officially announced, and the guys at Zipper Interactive are developing it. Zipper Interactive was the studio who created the very first SOCOM game and so it seems fitting that they are back to develop the newest title.

 Your mission is to step into the well-worn boots of the Ops Com, a NATO Operations Commander of an elite, five-man squad. You must venture deep into inhospitable jungles, city streets and crumbling urban ruins to engage an army of rebel fighters and discover their plans. Although you’re vastly outnumbered, you’re armed with the latest weaponry and your men are second to none – but do you possess the stealth, speed and tactical thinking to lead them to victory? Time is not on your side: you have just six days to complete your mission. To emerge victorious, you must lead from the front, maintain control of the situation and fight with sheer intensity.


 You might also know Zipper from MAG, Sony's 256 people shooter. Zipper defiantly has a lot of experience with army style games, but I have to wonder, will developing SOCOM 4 slow down the support for MAG?
 SOCOM 4 is set to hit sometime this fall, and it will also include a full single-player campaign and 32 people online matches.

Here are some Xbox 360 Blur beta keys, as I promised yesterday. I'll be putting these into posts throughout the day, so stay tuned for more!

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Go here, to redeem the beta keys

Sony Buys Media Molecule

Here's some happier news for the day.
Media Molecule's extremely succsesfull debut title, Little Big Planet has gotten more than just fan attention.
Sony announced today that Media Molecule is now officially part of the "Sony family".

"Since Media Molecule's inception, we've had a uniquely close relationship with Sony. Over the years they have consistently shown their dedication to Creative Gaming and Media Molecule, not only through their support of the company, but their willingness to take risks and embrace our often unusual approach and ideas." said Alex Evans, co-founder of Media Molecule. "What we've achieved already with LittleBigPlanet has proved this to us and we're excited by this new chapter of innovation and creative gaming, for all involved."

It's not the world's biggest surprise, but its nice to know that Sony is backing Media Molecule for their creative efforts thus far. I'm sure we'll start to see even more Sackboy/Sackgirls on PSN soon, and maybe even something about the rumored Little Big Planet 2...who knows.

Little Big Planet Now Has Over 2 Million User Created Levels

Like many of you, when Little Big Planet (LBP) was first announced I immediately started to think of what kind of crazy stuff I could make with Media Molecule's creation/platformer game. However, when the game actually came out, I was too busy playing everyone levels rather than creating my own.

Although it seems that many of your level creation ideas never got translated into actual gameplay, there's still a lot of people out there making some very fun and innovative LBP levels.
Today LBP reached over 2 million custom level creations, which is a huge milestone for Sony, Media Molecule, and all of the LBP fans. It took about 9 months for LBP to have 1 million user created levels, and now they're already up to 2 million.









If your thinking of going to check out one of the these 2 million levels however, I'd highly suggest you wait a day for the "ApocolyPS3" to be over.

Mega Man 10 Endless Mode Is Still Not In Sight

Although Mega Man 10 came out today, there seems to be something "missing". Endless mode, a level of Mega Man that...has no end... is going to be offered as additional DLC on April 26.

I have yet to experience Mega Man 10, but from playing several hours of Mega Man 9 and not beating a single level, I'm not sure if I want to get Mega Man 10. Although Mega Man 10 will be offering an "Easy Mode" to allow some fresh blood into the Mega Man fan base.
The Endless Mode DLC is going to cost $3, which isn't much, but considering how hard Mega Man 10 will be, I'm not sure anyone would want to go through that knowing they can't win. Come to think of it, its starting to sound like a circle of hell from Dante's Inferno, "Play Mega Man 10...FOREVER!!!"
Yeah, no thanks, I'll pass that good sir.


P.S. I have nothing against Mega Man and I love the series very much. I'm just really really bad at Mega Man games :)

Some PSN Users Are Expericing Major Crashes

Sony's PSN (PlayStation Network) isn't doing too well today, as quite a few people are experiencing some pretty major crashes. The crash seems to be occurring for some when they try to start a game. Some quick forum searching shows that the error code 8001050F is the most common issue.
It's not completely clear as to what the internal problem is, but it prevents many users from playing their games.

On the brighter side however, Sony's official PlayStation Twitter account has recently tweeted that, "We're aware that many of you are having problems connecting to PSN, and yes, we're looking into it. Stay tuned for updates."
I checked to see if I was one of the unlucky ones, but the 8001050F error is no where to found on my system. If your having any trouble I'd recommend to check out Sony's official PlayStation forums here, and an update will probably come sooner than later.

Section 8 Headed To The PS3 Via PSN

Timegate Studios' Section 8 is still headed for the PS3 later this year, but it seems that its going to take a download only approach. When Section 8 launched on the PC and Xbox 360 platforms last year it was pretty well received for its unique ideas, but as far as sales numbers went, it didn't do too well.

It seems that Timegate Studios is taking another unique approach to only sell Section 8 through Sony's PSN Store. Ontop of that Section 8 will also be the first PS3 game using TimeGate’s TGNServer tech, allowing players to host 32-player matches using their PCs.
From what I have personally played of Section 8, I really enjoyed some of its ideas on how to change the FPS genere, but I feel that it could have been executed better. I hope that with the extra time Timegate Studios had for its PS3 release that Section 8 will do better this time around.

FlOw Is Free Today On PSN!

FlOw, ThatGameCompany's first PSN game, is free for everyone who has a North American PSN account. It seems that Sony wanted to so something a little "sweet" for Valentine's Day(which is tomorrow by the way), and what could be more romantic than sitting in front of your TV all day tomorrow...

Although FlOw will be free until midnight, its expansion pack will still set you back $2.99. For a price of free however, there's no reason why you shouldn't own this little package of joy.

Dead Space Extraction might be comming to PSN and XBLA

Dead Space Extraction was one of, if not, the best on-rails first person shooter last year. Unfortunately, it didn't make anywhere near the sale numbers that it needed to called a successful title. But Visceral Games isn't giving up on Dead Space: Extraction just yet.

 In recent news it seems that EA and Visceral Games are sending out surveys to see whether or not people might be interested in a re-vamped Dead Space: Extraction release on Xbox 360's XBLA and Playstation 3's PSN. The survey suggests that the title would go for $15 and that it will be "The same shooting experience in Full HD"

Project Needlemouse is offically Sonic 4!

Over the past couple months we have been speculating what kind of new Sonic game Sega would make out of Project Needlemouse, and now we know!

Sonic 4 is going back to Sonic's original roots with high speed 2D style platforming. The main differnce this time around however, is that Sonic 4's release is going to be cut up into several episodes. That's right, episodic Sonic.
At first I didn't see any good reason as to why putting Sonic 4 into individual episodes would be a good idea, but after some thought, it's starting to make a lot of sense.

Because Sonic 4 is going to a download game on XBLA, PSN, and WiiWare it's going to be competing with many other "quick game fix" titles. Cutting Sonic 4 into different episodes allows for quicker/shorter gameplay periods, but it also makes sure the player doesn't get too bored with Sonic's simplistic gameplay. I for one am looking forward to see what Sonic 4 has to offer, and I hope this is a new beginning for the Sonic franchise as a whole.