A survey emailed to current and past Planetside subscribes has indicated that Sony is planning “to expand the Planetside universe with another game”. It has also been discovered that SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) registered Planetside2.com on September 21st.

“We plan to expand the PlanetSide® universe with another game and we need your help with the design. After all, who knows the game better than you, our customers, the people who actually play it! Don’t worry about the original PlanetSide, it isn’t going anywhere.

We want to hear your opinion and to do so we have put together a short survey. The information you provide will play a critical role into helping guide the development and direction of the next hit Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter.” - Source

Planetside Universe, a Planetside fan site, contacted John Smedley, the CEO of SOE, who had this to say;

“PlanetSide fans will be happy We have big things planned in the next 12 months. We’re working on something new that’s really cool.” - Source

Planetside was never the most popular MMO (at its peak it was estimated to have around 75,000 players) but it had some great ideas, which led to some truly epic moments (some of the player stories that came out of the game are amazing). Now only a few thousand hardcrore fans remain and you’d be lucky to see the massive battles that the game experienced during its prime. If a new game can successfully fix its predecessors problems then I’m all for it, just like the guys over at Rock, Paper Shotgun.

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?

Eurogamer brings word that developer Croteam have been working on a re-imagining of Serious Sam: The First Encounter using a new version of their CroTech Engine.

The original developer of the game is said to be using the power of the Xbox 360 to upgrade the first entry in the hilariously over-the-top first-person shooter series with full HD graphics, along with four-player co-operative play over Xbox Live. The price is rumoured to be 1,200 Microsoft points.

“We are really excited to update our hero and recreate Sam in stunning high definition for Xbox LIVE Arcade players,” said Roman Ribaric, CEO of Croteam. “The fans have lobbied us hard to do this, so we are stoked about bringing Sam back as big, bold and bad as he ever was.” - Kotaku

The image at the top of the page shows what the game will look like upon its release this summer, while the image below shows what the original version looked like (as always you can click on each image to see a larger version). As you can see it’s a pretty drastic change, but it’s also looking all the more better. The hilarious fun of the original combined with a graphics upgrade may just make this one hell of a decent download for Xbox Live. I have fond memories of playing this with one of my friends while growing up (especially the gigantic monster that appears near the end of the game, making my jaw literally drop open), so if one of the best co-op experiences I’ve ever had can be successfully re-created on the Xbox 360 then I’m putting down the cash for it right now.

The game is also said to be coming back to its birthplace, the PC, but what about the Playstation 3? Croteam CEO Roman Ribaric told G4 that a PS3 version was originally planned but was shelved because the developer didn’t have enough time or money to release the game on PSN at the same time as the Xbox Live version. Realistically the game could still come to PSN somewhere down the line, but Ribaric doesn’t think it’s that likely unless demand from PS3 owners becomes high.

(Images source: Eurogamer)

Earlier this week over 15,000 fans formed a Steam community group with the aim to boycott the upcoming Left 4 Dead 2 launch. Left 4 Dead 2 was a surprise announcement at E3 – especially for Valve, a company that tends to take a long time to release a sequel – annoying many fans as they felt that Valve had promised to offer continued support and new content for Left 4 Dead. By releasing a sequel only a year after the first game gamers were starting to feel a bit short changed, as Left 4 Dead doesn’t have a great deal of content and the idea was that more would be added (only the Survival Pack has been released so far). Valve has now responded to these protests.

Speaking to Kotaku Valve founder Gabe Newell defended plans for the sequel, saying that its release would not change plans for the continued support of the first game

“Doing a sequel in one year is new for Valve. But providing ongoing support for our titles after the initial launch isn’t - it has been part of our philosophy since Half-Life was released ten and half years ago,” said Newell.

“We see no reason to change that and will continue to support the over three million customers in the L4D community. Some in the community are concerned that the announcement of L4D2 implied a change in our plans for L4D1. We aren’t changing our plans for L4D1.”

“In addition to the recently released Survival Pack, we are releasing authoring tools for Mod makers, community matchmaking, 4×4 matchmaking, and more new content during the coming months for L4D1,” Newell claimed. “We also agree with our customers that there needs to be an interoperability plan for players of L4D1 and L4D2, as multiplayer games are driven by the cohesiveness of their community.”

While it’s refreshing to hear that Valve will still be supporting Left 4 Dead I still don’t understand why Valve couldn’t have just released Left 4 Dead 2 as an expansion pack instead of a fully fledged game. It’s not looking much different from the first game anyway, so it could have just been a new campaign instead. I understand that Valve need to make money but that can easily be done by charging for new content, just like the Burnout Paradise developers do.
Gabe Newell can justify it all he wants, but I’m still not sold. What’s the point in updating two products that are incredibly similar? I’m willing to bet that Valve stop creating new content for Left 4 Dead a few months after the sequel is released.

Shouldn’t every post begin with an ass shot? No? Just me then I guess.

Here are a few new screenshots (click to see them at full size) of the upcoming first-person shooter/RPG Borderlands fresh out of E3. You may remember that the art style for the game took a drastic change in direction since the initial reveal, with many saying that the game was now ‘cel-shaded’. Gearbox president Randy Pitchford was quick to deny this in saying “No, Borderlands is not cel-shaded — it’s a gritty and serious world after all,” (Source). While he may be technically correct in saying that Borderlands isn’t cel-shaded it has far more in common with Crackdown then, say, Fallout 3.

To be honest I’m loving the new art style, just as I loved the art style in Crackdown. The new screenshots look like something I would see if I opened a well-drawn comic book, until I remember that these screenshots will actually translate to motion. Hopefully we will see some gameplay video pretty soon.

Head on over to Kotaku if you want to read some hands-on impressions of the game. Apparently it’s a cross between the shooting elements of Fallout 3 and “Diablo-esque looting and weapon generation” with four player co-op thrown in.

Borderlands is coming to PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 and has planned release date of later this year.

UPDATE: Gearbox has told Shacknews that they’re planning an October release date.

Infinity Ward said a new trailer for Modern Warfare 2 was going to come out soon and they delivered on their promise. Two minutes of tasty new footage is posted above for your consumption, and you should get a pretty good meal to satisfy your hunger for now.

The long awaited sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare will be released on 10 November; and that’s a worldwide release so you can be shooting people from around the world on day one.

Although the trailer only shows the singeplayer campaign (from what I can gather anyway) it’s the multiplayer that most people will no doubt be looking forward to. Personally I thought both the single and multiplayer modes were equally entertaining, and based on their past Call of Duty games it’s hard to see how Infinity Ward can possibly go wrong in either case.

Below are three screenshots to go along with the trailer.

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.

My poor Microsoft Paint modified picture is prompted by the news that 3D Realms - developer of Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D and Duke Nukem - has shut down. While closing a studio is hard on anyone it is especially hard on 3D Realms due to only just having celebrated their 17 year anniversary yesterday.

So, what does this mean for the infamous Duke Nukem Forever; which was first announced in 1997 with few screenshots and videos since then? Take Two have confirmed that they are no longer funding the development of the game;

“We can confirm that our relationship with 3D Realms for Duke Nukem Forever was a publishing arrangement, which did not include ongoing funds for development of the title,” said Take-Two VP of communications Alan Lewis in a prepared statement.

“In addition, Take-Two continues to retain the publishing rights to Duke Nukem Forever,” he added - ShackNews

What’s surprising about this news is why it has taken so long for Take Two to make this move. When you’re taking 12 years to make one game you can’t really expect to continue being funded when you’re not making any profit from the project. Were they just sitting around for half of the time and just working on the game when they felt like it?

As for the upcoming Duke Nukem Trilogy the developers, Apogee Software, have made a statement saying that the situation at 3D Realms will not affect the development of their game.

While Take Two still retain publishing rights for Duke Nukem Forever I still have to say, for now at least, “Goodnight Sweet Prince”.

Unfortunately you won’t be getting any extra use out of your copy of Unreal Tournament 3 just yet, as the expansion pack I brought word of last month has been delayed.

The original plan was to give players extra levels, weapons, game modes and more from tomorrow on both PC and PS3. Epic has said that the pack won’t arrive until 19th March, two weeks from the original release date. Steve Polge posted an explanation on the developer’s official forums.

“Unfortunately, due to circumstances out of our control, the certification process for the PS3 patch and DLC has taken much longer than we expected. As a result, we have been forced to push back the release date for the PS3 version to 3/19.

The PC patch contains updates that will improve mods cooked for PS3, so we’ll be taking advantage of this extra time to work with mod authors to make sure the best mods for UT3 are cooked with the latest patch” - Epic

I suppose it’s not that much of a wait, but for eager UT fans looking to fresh content it’s just another two weeks of boredom. At least it’s free!

Ubisoft revealed new details today on Techland’s upcoming Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. Alongside these new details came a trailer (see below) and a bunch of new screenshots.

The game will follow the story of the McCall brothers across a variety of settings from “”a ravaged Civil War-era Georgia to the Aztec ruins of Mexico.” They will be able to take advantage of new weapons such as canons and machine guns, and try these out in shooting modes that are unlocked by gaining a high accuracy percentage during shoot-outs.

Co-op play will be a new feature in Bound in Blood, with players taking on the role of either one of the brothers. Depending on who you pick there will be specific abilities and weapons that only that character can use. For example, one character may be good in a long range fight while the other loves a good close range scrap. Or one will use a lasso while the other deploys dynamite. There will also be the ability to use horses, canoes and wagons.

Multiplayer wise there will be numerous modes and maps to play around in. Along with the obligatory deathmatch modes there will also be team-based objective modes, plus a new bounty system that increases a player’s bounty as their kill count rises.

The game is due out this summer, for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. If you fancy trying out the original it’s currently a steal at £11.91.