Goldeneye may have a special place in the hearts of millions of gamers, and it may also consistently place high in ‘Top X Games of All Time’ lists, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely that a port to Xbox Live Arcade or Wii’s Virtual Arcade will ever happen. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard such rumours, but Rare – developer of the classic FPS – has seemingly given up on the port ever seeing the light of day.

In response to a readers question in a recent Rare Scribes update the developer all but signed the execution warrant on a port of the game;

“That was some time ago, my friend. Fate was against us that day. Destiny conspired to raise the hurdles even as we attempted to clear them, resulting in unpleasant groinal injury. I suspect we’re long past the stage where an agreement was on the cards, but you never know. Stranger things have happened… somewhere… probably.” - Source

The blame lies at the feet of Microsoft and Nintendo, who are apparently unable to reach an agreement on the financial terms of such a release. It all comes down to licensing laws, with Microsoft now owning Rare but Activision ultimately owning the rights to produce games in the James Bond franchise. However, Activision places the blame in Nintendo’s court, which published the game on its original N64 release. Whatever the case it seems that gamers won’t get a port until the money side of things is sorted out and it doesn’t look like that will be happening anytime soon.

I never actually owned an N64 myself, but a friend use to bring his round to my house and we used to have hours of fun playing four player split-screen. Most of the time we got trounced by my friend, but he pretty much always played as Odd Job so I still, to this day, say he had the advantage. The graphics may not be anywhere near today’s standards, but I’d still relish the opportunity to play the game through my Xbox 360; largely because there are so few split-screen games out there today and nothing can beat having three friends playing in the same room as you.

Fear not though, as Perfect Dark – which in some ways had a more enjoyable multiplayer than Goldeneye – will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade this winter, which is at least some consolation.

Although it’s probably not going to be much of a surprise to the majority of Starcraft fans – although it will be a big disappointment – the sequel to one of the most popular RTS games of all time has been delayed until the first half of 2010. Of course, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty was never actually given a release date in the first place but people were still hoping that we would see it sometime this year, mainly through comments made by staff working for Activision Blizzard.

Apparently the delay is due to the relaunch of Activision Blizzard’s Battle.net service, which handles all the online gaming across their range of games. It will also play a large part in the online aspects of Starcraft II, especially as LAN support has been pulled from the game. One of the development team had this to say;

“Over the past couple of weeks, it has become clear that it will take longer than expected to prepare the new Battle.net for the launch of the game. The upgraded Battle.net is an integral part of the StarCraft II experience and will be an essential part of all of our games moving forward. This extra development time will be critical to help us realize our vision for the service.” - Source

Activision Blizzard had previously stated that Starcraft II will need a four to six month beta period, which obviously made a 2009 launch seem very tight to begin with. We still have no idea when a beta will actually take place, so in the meantime you will have to be satisfied with the Battle Reports that the developers have posted on the game’s official site.

The delay will also affect Activision Blizzard’s revenue expectations for this year, lowering their estimate from $4.3 billion to $4.05 billion. It’s not all doom and gloom though, as Diablo II is also expected to be released in 2010.

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•  The Starcraft Board Game

You may have heard that those who purchase the Modern Warfare 2 Hardened or Prestige editions will get a token to download Call of Duty Classic (which, obviously, is the original Call of Duty) on Xbox Live Arcade and PSN. However, if you don’t want to pay the, quite frankly, ridiculous prices for these editions (the standard edition is bad enough, retailing at a staggering £55!) you will have to wait a little while longer to get your Call of Duty Classic fix.

The game will eventually be made available to everyone via Xbox Live and PSN, complete with working multiplayer, but Infinity Ward is not saying when. I understand that they want to offer people incentives for paying more, but why not release it at the same time anyway and just charge for it? I don’t see the point in limiting it to certain people. I suppose there’s the exclusivity aspect, but you’re also limiting the amount of people available to play against online.

“Prestige and Hardened Edition buyers will be getting access to Call of Duty: Classic first. It’ll eventually be coming out for both Xbox Live Arcade and PSN as a stand-alone arcade game.

However, price and release date are unknown at this point. It’s the true original Call of Duty including full multiplayer.” - IGN

In any case, at least we will be getting it eventually. I’ll probably be downloading it as soon as it becomes available, simply because Call of Duty remains one of the best FPS experiences I’ve ever had. I cannot begin to count the amount of hours I sunk into playing the game online on my PC, and I also made some pretty good friends through it too. It’s a shame that user created levels probably won’t be available in Call of Duty Classic, as that was one of the main draws for me in the original release, but people should be aware that Call of Duty still enjoys a somewhat active fan community on the PC and you will still be able to find an online game if you’re interested.

The major problem with this move is that, well, will people actually bother to play Call of Duty Classic when they’re busy playing Modern Warfare 2?

What do you do with a tired old franchise that had its day a long time ago, along with the man it represents? Well, if you’re Activision you introduce yet another game – Tony Hawk: Ride – into the franchise and throw in a peripheral that looks like a skateboard.

Pictured above (in case you didn’t notice) the new controller is a ‘motion sensing balance board’, which sounds eerily familiar, that Activision are touting as a “massive step forward for the franchise and the gaming industry as a whole” (Source). At first you may just think it’s a third party attempt to rip-off the Wii Balance Board, but when you take in the details you realise that it’s actually a lot more advanced than the controller that obviously inspired it.

For example, the skateboard actually acts like a real skateboard. Tilting the skateboard in either direction will make the skater on your TV screen do likewise. Infrared sensors in the board also allow the game to figure out where your hands are and carry out appropriate actions based on their positions. So if your skater was up in the air placing your hands to the front of the board would make the skater on the screen grab the front of their board. It’s easier to show you then describe how it works any further, so simply go here to see the board and game in action.

It sounds and looks like a really good idea, and may just make a tired old franchise worth playing yet again. I loved the first two Tony Hawk games, but from then on I just felt that it when downhill – especially introducing all the silly vehicles and characters in the Underground installments – and was easily surpassed by EA’s Skate franchise. However, I do have some reservations about the controller itself as it is yet another bulky peripheral that’s going to clutter up our homes. The Wii Balance Board may now look a little primitive, but at least it encompasses a wide range of games and not just a single one. Of course, the Wii Balance Board was intended as a general peripheral while the new Tony Hawk one is in a niche of its own, but it still means that people have to find somewhere to store it along with all the other contraptions on the market today. To adress this problem the developers promise that there will be other uses for the board;

“We started out with skateboarding because it’s easy to understand,” he said. “But there are a lot of games we realize could be used on the board. We were surprised at some of the ideas we listed out .”

Now the team has a “huge list” of potential future games for the board.

And that will be key to Ride’s success, said Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter.

“I think the problem with all peripherals is that you have to make them reusable,” he said. “They must be acceptable to be used with more than the original game.” – Kotaku
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see when it comes to other uses. As for the game there will be more details at this year’s E3.

Activison sure like to tease when it comes to hotly anticipated sequels. Today they released a trailer showing a whole 10 seconds of gameplay footage from the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 - the sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - that was first teased without gameplay back at GDC.

The trailer quickly moves between some shots of helicopter action, a fight on a snowy runway, divers underwater, snowmobile action and what looks like a level similar to the air assault level on Call of Duty 4. At the end of the trailer an announcer states that the full trailer to premier on May 24th during the Eastern Conference Finals; which is no good to us in the UK, but the footage will no doubt make its way onto the Internet within minutes (to see the new trailer picked apart go here)

Game Informer magazine also used today to reveal the cover of its June issue, which promises a ‘World exclusive first look at Modern Warfare 2‘. Apparently there will be 10 pages of info and screenshots that will probably be on the Internet before the magazine even hits the newsstands.

The magazine will also feature 6 pages on DJ Hero (see here) but we know you don’t particularly care about that!

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warefare is, without a doubt, the best FPS game available on current generation consoles (excluding the Wii). Its excellent multiplayer modes are still heavily frequented by gamers two years after release.

This trailer for the upcoming film tie-in X-men Origins: Wolverine shows a taster of the gamplay you can expect from the game. The result is pretty flashly, complete with Wolverine leaping at a helicopter in that badass kind of way that only Wolverine could pull off. It’s hinted in the trailer, but the game will also include a large amount of blood and gore so don’t expect your usual X-Men game.

It’s a game based off a film, so you wouldn’t be wrong to automatically be suspicious of how good the game will actually turn out. I say we give this one a chance though, as they can’t all turn out to be awful can they (the upcoming Ghostbusters game looks pretty great too).

Of course, this isn’t the first X-Men game to appear on consoles, but it may turn out to be the most decent one. Let’s hope that also extends to the film that it’s based on.

The game will be out for the PS2, PS3, PSP, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PC and Wii on 1 May.

I’ll be honest; I’d largely gone off the PSP and it’s been a while since I even turned mine on, but this weeks announcements have plucked up my interest in Sony’s handheld again. A number of announcements for new PSP games have come out of this year’s Destination Playstation meeting; including PSP versions of Assassin’s Creed, LittleBigPlanet and Rock Band. The best announcement? A Hannah Montana PSP entertainment pack including a Lilac PSP (I’m totally not kidding!).

Also announced were Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, versions of Madden and Tiger Woods and, um, new Petz games. I bet you can’t guess which one of those I’m least excited about.

Here’s a rundown of the games announced:

• The Hannah Montana PSP Entertainment Pack is “part of a new focus on expanding the PSP market to female gamers” and includes a new Disney Interactive Hannah Montana game, a UMD containing a selection of Hannah Montana episodes, a 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo, and - the icing on the cake - stickers! Hopefully this pack will not the light of day outside North America
• The Assassin’s Creed PSP Entertainment Pack will include a completely new original game set in the Assassin’s Creed universe, a black PSP and more goodies to be announced at a later date.
• Ubisoft are bringing a new line of Petz games to the PSP, and that’s about as much as I can stomach writing about it.
• A PSP version of LittleBigPlanet will be made in conjunction with the PS3’s versions developer MediaMolecule. The game offers new Sackboy adventures and environments, but with the same creating and sharing experience that made the first game so popular. As I don’t own a PS3 I’m fairly excited about this.
• Motorstorm: Arctic Edge, which is also in development for the PS2, will bring the racing action of the PS3 versions to snowy Alaska. Players will have to avoid collapsing ice bridges and avalanches in three different altitudes. You will also be able to customise your vehicles with different parts, pimping your ride out while you take it online to face others. Check out the trailer here.
• Rock Band Unplugged will use the PSP’s directional pad and buttons to play along, along with wi-fi support (but sadly no online multiplayer) and a “fully featured” online store.
• Madden NFL 10 will give allow you to build your own formations and plays, and that’s about as much as I know about American Football. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 will be pretty much the same as always, and have both on and offline play.

So there’s plenty for the PSP owner to get excited about this year, and that’s just the games that have been announced. I wouldn’t get too excited about Petz though, unless you’re about eight. If so then stick with it my friends, the good games will come when you grow older. It’s not all shovelware crap, I promise!

Destination PlayStation News: LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm, Assassin’s Creed, more coming to PSP - Playstation Blog

While some of my friends have gone back to Call of Duty 4 most of them are still playing Call of Duty: World at War, so I know that they’ll be thirsty for new content. Thankfully Treyarch are asking for more money bowing to the community’s wishes by bringing four new levels to the game in the form of a map pack (The Call of Duty 4 map pack, incidentally, is the first time I ever bought something over Xbox Live). Three of the levels will be straight out multiplayer levels, while the fourth will be an additional level for the popular “Nazi zombie” co-op mode.

“Nightfire” will take place on the streets of a burning Berlin, while “Station” takes place in an underground train station (which sounds like it’s taken from the level where the Germans flood the subways). “Knee Deep” is a new Pacific level, taking place on the island of Peleliu in a Japanese command centre. Finally, the zombie level is “Verrückt”;

“The fan favorite 4-player co-op Nazi Zombies Bonus Mode returns with “Verrückt,” a terrifying Zombie asylum featuring more weapons, perks via the addition of Perks-a-Cola machines, electroshock defenses and the endless zombie horde.” - Official COD website.

The map pack will arrive in March, coming for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. Hopefully I’ll have the monitor I use to play my 360 in HD back by then (the power button got stuck so it’s being fixed, though it seems to be taking forever), and I can join in with the new zombie fun along with everyone else.

There’s no word on pricing as of yet.

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!

Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith is claiming that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has become the highest-grossing game ever.

During an Activision CES presentation Griffith’s revealed that the game surpassed $1 billion (£675 million) in sales during the 2008 holiday season. He believes that this is the first single game to hit the massive $1 billion milestone.

This has not only put a smile on an Activision shareholders face, but it has also improved music in general.

Data from national instrument retailer Guitar Center indicated that sales of real guitars were also up. Griffith said two-thirds of non-musicians exposed to music games plan to start playing a real instrument in the next couple of years, while three-fourths of musicians said they’ve spent more time with their instruments since picking up a music game. - EDGE Online

See? Video games can lead to good things! If a game is going to get more young people into music then that’s great, and hopefully they will be the superstars of the future.

If you don’t have the game yet then what are you waiting for? Guitar Hero II is an absolute blast to play - especially at parties. However, while the Wii tends to be something I don’t play much unless I’m with other people Guitar Hero is a game that I’ll still continue to play on my own. So, while I’m left here cringing at that fact that I just wrote the word ‘blast’ why not treat yourself to some good old modernised (what? does that even make sense?) musical fun? If all else fails then you could always try Rock Band, just don’t tell Activision I said that.