Image courtesy of the NY Times. 

Guitar Hero has been a massive success for Activision, so it only makes sense that they start to branch out into other areas of musical talent. While details on DJ Hero have been around for a few months now it was still an unannounced project until yesterday.

Speaking on the American news station CNBC, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick had this to say;

“We have this product called DJ Hero coming out later this year, which is a turntable that you actually can play competitively and spin discs and mix songs,” Kotick said, looking frosty at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland -CNBC (Via Eurogamer)

The game will be a musical rhythm game just like its predecessor, except you’ll be using a laptop turntable peripheral instead of a plastic guitar.  Kotaku has more to say on the controller’s design;

“In the latest form, the device looks a lot like a simplified DJ Deck. There is a platter for scratching which will act like the strum toggle on a Guitar Hero guitar. Above the platter are three buttons for sampling. The controller also includes a cross fader and a sound effects dial which will act like the whammy bar in Guitar Hero.“ - Kotaku

Interestingly Activision has also registered a trademark for Dance Hero. So, what’s next readers? Banjo Hero? Suggestions in the comments!

The only experience I’ve ever had with Blood Bowl is reading the novels put out by Black Library (the publishing arm of Games Workshop). However, I’ve heard it’s a pretty entertaining tabletop game. The game is a parody of American Football; populated with the likes of orcs, elves, and dwarfs instead of beefy men on steroids. Like the real game tactics are key, but unlike reality you can use excessive violence to win the game (no, that doesn’t mean you can punch the player across the table). Overall it sounds like it would be right at home as a video game, and developer Cyanide agrees.

The game seems to be trying to please both crowds by offering a tactical turn-based mode (a bit like the board game) and a more fast-paced action orientated mode. The latter looks a lot like an RTS, as in moving your players by clicking around the field. So if you were expecting a Madden style game then you may be disappointed. However, does it really matter when you can pound another player into a bloody mess? Depending on your lust for violence I’ll let you decide, but I’m all for digitised extreme violence!

As shown in the trailer you will also be able to customise and manage your team, leading them through both singleplayer and online seasons.

If you’re after a more vanilla American Football video game then there’s always the Madden series. I’ll pass though, as I’d rather be swinging a dwarf around a field by his beard.

Blood Bowl will be out for Nintendo DS, PC, PSP, and Xbox 360 in the second quarter of this year.

Despite not having massive sales Bloom Blox was a pretty fun game and ended up making my essential Christmas buys list.  Not put off by these low sales Steven Spielberg and crew are hard at work on its sequel; Bloom Blox Bash Party.

Hoping to increase awareness (and hopefully the fun factor) EA are vastly increasing the amount of features compared to its predecessor. Firstly there’s a whopping 400 new levels, including settings such as water and zero gravity. To go with that are new characters, new tools, blox types - such as virus and conveyor blox - and blox shapes.  Not happy with that? Well, there’s always the ‘extreme’ factor;

“In BOOM BLOX Bash Party we are taking the game elements to the extreme,” said Amir Rahimi, Senior Producer. “In the original BOOM BLOX, we really focused on perfecting the game’s physics so now we can push the boundaries of physics, offering exciting new challenges and completely new ways to play.” - Kotaku

Unfortunately there’s not a challenge of how many times you can fit ‘physics’ and ‘new’ into a sentence.

Obviously Steven himself is excited;

“Boom Blox Bash Party is a wild social gaming experience. We know families and friends really enjoyed playing the original Boom Blox together, so we designed more explosive multiplayer experiences with Boom Blox Bash Party.” - Reuters

Finally the game is jumping on the bandwagon by offering user generated DLC. This allows players to create and share their own levels over the internet, and also download and rate levels from EA and other players.

You can pick up the original Bloom Blox  for as low as £14.99. It’s one of the few decent Wii games out there anyway.

If you don’t have a Xbox 360 and have been holding out for a PC version of the RPG Fable II then you may be out of look. Community manager ‘Woody’ stated on the Lionhead forums that, “We’re not working on a PC version of Fable II“.

Don’t give up all hope yet, as ‘Woody’ added, “if this changes we’ll make sure you know about it on our website(s)”. I know it’s not much to go off, but it’s not an outright no, is it? Plus, who knows? They may be holding back something we don’t know!

The original Fable was ported to PC, along with the expansion pack Fable: The Lost Chapters, so I don’t see why it’s so hard to port Fable II over to the PC. Maybe it’s due to economy and they don’t think PC gaming is financially viable right now, but I’m just pulling at strings here.

If you are an Xbox 360 gamer, and you don’t have Fable II yet, then I highly recommend you do something to rectify this situation. In my opinion it’s the second best RPG the 360 has to offer (the first being Fallout 3) and an excellent addition to any gamers library.

The Resident Evil 5 demo hit Xbox Live yesterday, much to the delight of thousands of Resident Evil fans. However, before going in one question remained on many people’s minds; is it just Resident Evil 4 HD?Let’s take a look.

Public Assembly - one of the two levels included in the demo - was my first destination.I was immediately greeted by gorgeous visuals, although there was some noticeable screen tear. While the colours may not be the brightest ones in the rainbow the washed out appearance does transfer that grim sort of feel that Resident Evil 4 gave to an African setting. The character models also look pretty good, and Chris himself seems to have been spending a lot of time in the gym since we last saw him. The new co-op character, Sheva, stood by Chris; and for the moment I remained sceptical of her intrusion into the Resident Evil universe.After a short test of the controls I ran a short distance to a hut (with Sheva following) and was greeted by a cut scene. You may have seen part of this scene in pre-release trailers, but the short version of it is; guy with megaphone, raging crowd, massive dude with axe, someone gets their head chopped off, megaphone guy see’s you. After this has ended you are attacked by the people from the crowd. These are largely the same as the people from Resident Evil 4, and spout the same creature from the stump of their neck when their head is blown off. They immediately begin to smash through the windows and pour through the doors, prompting you to test out the ‘new’ control system.

The first thing I noticed was that you, again, can’t move while aiming and shooting. It could be argued that this adds to the tension and may help drum up some fear, but it also feels like you’re playing a game from years ago. The cramped conditions of the two levels in the demo mean that you can’t get many shots off before the horde is on you, and being able to strafe (EDIT: I’ve since noticied that you can strafe, but my complaints about limited movement while aiming still remain) while shooting would have somewhat helped matters. Instead you find yourself quickly running out of the room and into a more open area, but not – as it happens – by much.

After a short while axe guy makes his appearance, or rather slowly walks towards you while you go and make a cup of tea. Ok, so this is not as bad as it sounds as, again, the cramped conditions mean that you can’t really hope to outrun him much anyway. If you do find a place to hide he’ll just come and smash the wall of wherever you may be hiding down. This was one area that somewhat impressed me, but not by much. It’s also worth noting that Chris can now gradually destroy doors by shooting at them. In any case you have to keep running as axe guy seems impossible to kill.If you run out of ammo then you can collect those dropped by dead enemies, or find some lying around. Eventually though you’ll have your first experience with the inventory system, whether your changing weapon, healing yourself or – god forbid – giving and swapping items with Sheva (Sheva has an inventory to, meaning that she often has to pick up more ammo just like you. In reality this means that she often grabs items before you have the chance, but at least you can easily get them back off her). The inventory is in real-time, meaning that you have to quickly find what item you want when you’re facing a horde. Running out of ammo when you’re surrounded is slightly frustrating, as you have to bring up the inventory and switch to another weapon, all the while losing valuable seconds to the attacking horde. The best thing to do is to simply run off and often directly through enemies. The AI seems so slow and dumb that they often won’t even try to hit you when you run past, something I discovered more on the next level.

Shanty Town is bigger than the previous “survive constant waves of enemies” level, but it still suffers from the tight passageways with hardly anywhere to run. You’ll come across the first point of Sheva being around on this level. Chris can give her a boost up to a rooftop, where she is supposed to provide cover. In reality she barely seems to shoot, and her laser sight can often get in the way of your own. Later instances only confirmed my beliefs that Sheva is as thick as a brick. For example, sometimes she’ll walk in front of you while you’re trying to kill enemies and simply stare at you. Other times she’ll stand behind you and barely get a shot off, leaving you wondering just what the hell she is there for. Later on in the level she has to split up with you, which largely means she screams for help while you try to shoot enemies from across the street. All this can be solved by simply playing with a friend instead, but there is not always a time when you can play with others. So, what used to be single-player experience that left you feeling incredibly isolated is no longer the case. Instead you have to play with AI dimmer than a broken lightbulb.

The final part of the second level see’s you facing off against a chainsaw wielding maniac. What should have been a thrilling encounter actually bored me to tears. Again it was largely shoot-run-shoot-run, but even if stood next to him he didn’t seem to want to cut you apart. Maybe his heart wasn’t in it after discovering he was in such a poor demo. Anyway, at first I couldn’t figure out how to kill him, so spent most of the time shooting at enemies (he is joined by constant reinforcements of other enemies) and running away. Finally I discovered that you’re supposed to shoot him in the head a few times, and then give him a right hook with Chris’ fists of steel. What? A high powered rifle won’t kill him but a simple punch will? You have to repeat this a number of times, until he finally dies and you can pick up the key to end the level. This feels like something out of a Megadrive game rather than a HD 2009 video game. I’m not saying that bosses shouldn’t be hard to kill, but are really supposed to expect that a fist can beat bullets? Haven’t games like Dead Space already changed the boss formula for the better?

Resident Evil 5 doesn’t add much more to the formula than what Resident Evil 4 had already accomplished. In fact the only thing distancing it from its predecessor is the co-op mode, and this only seems like it will be fun with a friend. Is it really too much to ask to be able to move just a little when aiming a weapon? Instead I have to constantly run in circles while stopping to shoot every so often. Of course, it’s only a demo and the rest of the game may change my mind, but I can’t honestly see myself buying this (at least not straight away) unless I always have a friend to play it with. Even then it’s really nothing special, and I’d take Left 4 Dead over this any day.

The demo for one of the most anticipated titles of 2009 - Resident Evil 5 - is now finally available on Xbox Live. Japanese gamers originally had access to the demo on 5th December, but it is now available to the rest of the world.  Unfortunately Playstation 3 gamers will have to wait until 2nd February to get their hands on the demo, as Microsoft has secured one of those annoying ‘exclusive’ deals.

Capcom have included two levels from the full game - Public Assembly and Shanty Town - with the ability to play both in both single player and online or split-screen co-op. If you have the misfortune to not be near your Xbox 360 right now don’t forget that you can head over to Xbox.com and add the demo to your download queue. The 478mb demo will begin to download as soon as you get home and turn your Xbox 360 on (if you’re a silver member then, sorry, but you don’t have access to the demo as of yet).

I had a quick play through the demo myself and I have mixed impressions, but I’ll post those later when I’ve had a bit more time to spend with it. Feel free to let me know what you think of the demo in the comments below!

Ensemble Studios may be getting shut down at the end of this month, but they’re determined to go out with a bang. Their last project, the Xbox 360 RTS Halo Wars, has just gone gold (meaning it’s complete and ready for sale); leaving plenty of time for manufacturing ahead of its 27 February release.

While you’re waiting for the factories to pump out those shiny Halo Wars DVD’s Microsoft has released details of the game’s demo. The demo will arrive on 5th February, and it sounds like it’s going to be worth waiting for. Not only will the demo guide you through beginner and advance tutorials, but you’ll also be able to play the first to campaign missions from the full game. Is that enough for you? Well, there’s more.

You can also play on one of the skirmish maps, “Chasms”, which is one of 14 included in the full game. Unfortunately there’s no mention of online multiplayer in the demo, so you’ll be playing against AI; but that’s better than nothing, right?

To celebrate going gold Microsoft has released some new screenshots of the game along with the first Halo Wars video documentaries. You can see these over at Destructoid.

The downside to being a videogame blogger is that you have to play as many games as you possibly can if you want to keep on top of your niche. Now, you may be wondering why I’m complaining about being able to play so many games, but bear with me here. The problem is that you can’t really spend as long as you would want to on a single game, and sometimes this means that you can’t fully appreciate just what that game has to offer. There’s just not enough time in the day, and as much as I’d like to I can’t spend all my time playing video games. Sure, you can spread the love equally between games but every once in a while a game comes along that you just have to dedicate all your spare time too, even if it means falling behind on the stacks of other games that have recently been released. Do I care? Not a bit, as Fallout 3 is totally worth spending all my time with.

This post was partly inspired by an entry over at Girls & Gaming. Elysium wrote a love letter to Fallout 3 - which finally made me break down and go out and buy the game - but I’m going to go one step further and slip a ring on to the meaty finger of Fallout 3. Now ‘meaty’ may seem like a strange word to use when describing a loved one, but Fallout 3 has so much to offer that I can’t honestly think of another word that could apply to it. Fallout 3 has so much to give, and puts so much passion into its splendid offerings, that I’m going to be terribly upset when it all comes to an end. Right now I will not allow my mind to dwell on such a prospect as I seemed to have barely scratched the surface of what is possible in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Washington D.C. When you first escape from Vault 101 - and after your eyes have adjusted to the sudden glare on irises that have been subjected to years of artificial lighting- you may wonder how such a devastated and morbid landscape can offer much in the way of excitement. You’d be wrong; however, as such a devastated landscape has never before placed such opportunity into the player’s hands.

From the moment you step of Vault 101 you are presented with a choice. There is nothing forcing you to follow the main storyline right there and then, but the burden of sudden choice on the player made me do as I was told and head to the nearby settlement of Megaton. Don’t like the sound of that? Well, do what you want and ignore the main storyline altogether for the moment. The world of Fallout 3 is an absolute delight to explore, with every nook and cranny holding something of interest or an insight into what the world was like before the bombs dropped.  Posters are strewn across half-collapsed walls, advertising underground vaults to protect against the threat of nuclear war. Checking in the mail box of what used to be someone’s home may present you with a letter from Vault-Tec saying that the householders application to join one of the vault’s has been rejected. It is only when you look in a nearby bathtub that you discover what really happened to the occupants. Computer terminals may have a diary from someone who is desperately holding out against a mob of fire breathing ants, while another will tell of upcoming museum exhibitions that were never held, and never will be. All this paints a very vivid picture of the background to the Fallout 3 universe, and the society that the player will never see but will have nevertheless partly experienced. Of course, it may look it but this bleak landscape isn’t entirely dead and it is the Capital Wasteland’s occupants that really bring the world to life. Whether they be hopeless wastelanders, psycho raiders, gigantic super mutants or ghastly ghouls; there’s still plenty of life remaining in what was once the beating heart of US democracy, even if it isn’t all friendly.

So, what do you do? Do you go to Megaton and try to disarm the bomb sitting in the middle of the settlement? Or do you activate the bomb instead and watch the settlement wink out of existence? Do you ignore the settlement altogether and visit an old hotel where people are trying to live in luxury, their only complaint about the outside ghouls whose only threat is their unfortunate zombie-like appearance? (This quest reminds me a bit of the plot to Land of the Dead) Or do you help out a town that is being plagued by daily attacks of a gang that act like vampires? I do not wish to spoil the game for you, but this is just a slice of what you can expect from Fallout 3. What you do is entirely up to you, but make it last as long as possible. Once you finish the game you will only begin to miss what is one of the most detailed, varied - and certainly excellent value for money - video games ever created.

Oh, plus there’s always V.A.T.S; and you don’t want to miss the ability to blow every limb off an enemy with the push of a single button. Let’s not also forget that once you’re done with hours of your life being taken up by Fallout 3’s post-apocalyptic wasteland you’ll be pulled right back in with the advent of the game’s DLC.

If you call yourself a gamer then you cannot afford to miss this. While you go and put down the cash I will be continuing to carry Fallout 3 over the threshold of the new home in my heart.

The mysterious Flower is hard to describe, mainly because it’s one of those games that really has to be played to be understood. Even when you do eventually get to play it you may still not understand its purpose, but at least you’ll be able to appreciate its beauty come 12 February.

While there is still no word on how much the game will cost, Eurogamer speculates that it will be similar to the pricing of thatgamecompany’s (which, by the way, is an excellent name) previous title flOW; which cost £3.49. This seems like a reasonable enough price to me, but it really depends on how much the game has to offer.

Ok, so while we are here I may as well make an attempt to describe just what you will be doing in the game. You play as a flower who is dreaming about another life as it sits on the windowsill in a dull city apartment. Every level is a different dream (let’s not dwell on how a flower can possibly dream as it’s just a game), and as you complete each level the apartment will gradually come to life with a variety of vibrant colours. While you’re in a dream the aim is to guide a petal through lush colourful fields by tilting the PS3’s motion-sensitive controller. You must hit other flowers in the field, which causes an explosion of colour that spreads and adds to the flow of petals you are guiding.

See? It’s not that hard to understand is it? Or is it? Maybe you should just play it on 12 February and find out for yourself. While you wait you can check out Gamespot’s nice little preview of the game, which explains it much better than I can (given that they’ve, erm, played it and everything). There’s also a new video up on the official Playstation blog.

A rumour in the latest issue of Game Informer is suggesting that Rockstar North are already at work on the next installment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise. While this may not seem all that surprising it gets even more exciting when the rumour states that the game may be ready for release by the end of the year.

“We’re not talking about new DLC or a collection of previously available DLC, we’re talking about a full retail game. We expect this title to follow the suit of previous GTAs and use a subtitle such as GTA: San Andreas, etc. Tokyo might be a possible setting for the game, but details are non-existent at this time.” - Game Informer Issue 190 (Via PSU)

Rockstar North are already working on a DLC pack for GTA IV and is supposed to be releasing more this year. Let’s not forget that they are also releasing GTA: Chinatown Wars on the Nintendo DS later this year. Can they possibly complete a whole new current generation GTA whilst doing all this? Maybe, and I certainly hope we do get a new GTA this year. Take Two, of course, most likely prefer the bucket loads of profits that a new GTA would bring in compared to a few DLC packs; so maybe there is some truth in this rumour afterall.

UPDATE: Rockstar have confirmed that the rumour is just a rumour and they have no plans to release a new GTA this year.

The first downloadable content “The Lost and Damned” will be available next month. Rockstar also stated that they’re aiming for a second downloadable content pack to be released by 31st October.