“This is Street Fighter IV in all its glory… uncompromised and awesome,” said General Manager of Mobile Content Development, Takeshi Tezuka. “We’re particularly proud of the multiplayer feature as it remains true to the series arcade roots by allowing players to go head-to-head over Bluetooth in spectacular fashion.”

Well, I guess it's going to have to do...

Controls for the game will use conventional virtual d-pad and will play just like the console versions and bring a new level of flexibility to the controls we’ve seen in similar game interfaces on the iPhone thus far. Players will be able to move the d-pad and buttons anywhere on the screen for comfort and precision and adjust the transparency of the controls to preference as well.

Considering how much emphasis the franchise has put on tactile physical controls and how much time and money gamers have been willing to spend on getting custom equipment to play the game we’re a little skeptical that the virtual pad is going to be exceptionally satisfying experience.  However, we’re still excited to see how the game will run on this platform regardless of the limitations.

Too early to call

Players will be able to get a good feel for the game in the single player Dojo mode but the real action will take place in the Bluetooth multiplayer championship. It’s a good start but we would have been much more excited to see online multiplayer competitions or at least the ability to play with specific friends over WI-Fi or 3G. Hopefully this is a feature they will consider adding sometime after the release if the game proves as popular as they are hoping.

Owners of Assassins Creed 2 on the PC were denied the ability to play the game Sunday when Ubisoft’s DRM (Digital Rights Management) servers went offline, making it the latest example of DRM technology screwing legitimate consumers. This issue solidified fears with Ubisoft’s new ‘always connected’ DRM approach, as it seems the the outage was caused by an attack on the servers.

Assassins Creed 2 is one of the first games released by Ubisoft to utilize their new method of DRM protection. Players must be connected to the internet at all times while playing the game, or else the DRM will prevent them from running the game. Such a method has raised many concerns from gamers, as little was known about what would happen if Ubisoft’s DRM servers went down or were compromised. Sunday afternoon, the world had its answer.

Early Sunday, the DRM servers went down, and gamers were not able to play Assassins Creed 2, regardless of their internet connectivity. The outages lasted for the remainder of the day. According to a report by Eurogamer, Ubisoft claimed that the outage was a result of an attack on the Ubisoft DRM servers. Furthermore, Ubi.Vigil, community manager on the Ubisoft forums, made this statement on the matter:

I don’t have any clear information on what the issue is since I’m not in the office, but clearly the extended downtime and lengthy login issues are unacceptable, particularly as I’ve been told these servers are constantly monitored.

Reports from Ubisoft state that the DRM servers were back online by Monday afternoon, and gamers could once more play the games that they legitimately purchased. Multiple accounts on Twitter suggested otherwise, as it appeared some gamers are still having troubles playing the game at the time of this writing.

To make matters worse, the Ubisoft community forums were experiencing intermittent down time early Monday. Though no official statement has been released, one might assume that the forum downtime could be related to the DRM server attack and downtime. It seems as if a hacker or a group is trying to make a very bold point about DRM and fairness to consumers with a DoS attack.

While legitimate consumers of Assassins Creed 2 have been denied the ability to play the game, pirates who obtained the game illegally were able to play. This is a very clear example of one of the major problems with DRM in games today: Pirates often have the superior gaming experience. Until game developers stop implementing such asinine DRM protection methods, this case will not be the end of the DRM story.

I want your rock band, to touch your guitar

Harmonix and MTV games announced today that they are releasing a four pack of Lady Gaga songs for Rock Band. The pack will contain “Poker Face,” “Just Dance,” “Bad Romance,” and “Monster.”

Also available for download will be the South Park version of “Poker Face,” and several individual tracks. The four pack will be available on the Xbox 360 and PS3, but only individual tracks will be up for purchase on the Wii.

The four pack will retail for $6.99, with individual tracks being an additional $1.99 on the Xbox 360 and $2.00 on the Wii.

MTV is helping to celebrate the release with some special on-air content, including:

• MTV: “Bad Romance” video rotation during music hours, 30-minute Lady Gaga video blocks on MTV Hits, the debut of Lady Gaga’s new video “Telephone,” a collaboration with Beyonce, and an airing of the Lady Gaga episode of America’s Best Dance Crew March 16 (also on MTV2)
• Palladia: Airings of Lady Gaga performance specials including, London Live (airing March 10, 13, 16, 21 and 24), VFest (March 20 and 26) and the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards(March 19 and 20)
• Logo: An airing of London Live and NewNowNext PopLab Lady Gaga Edition (March 16)

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said during a speech at the University of Washington that his company may release new Xbox 360s with form factors and components designed for different price points and usage models.

“In the case of the TV we’ve got both strategies. We actually have a TV implementation in some senses built into Windows. It works really well for small screen TVs that you might call a PC, but for that big screen device here’s a piece of hardware that we build, there’s no diversity,” Ballmer said, according to the Gearlog website. “You get exactly the Xboxes that we build for you. We may have more form-factors in the future that are designed for various price points and options, but we think it’s going to [be] important.”

Though the executive did not elaborate further on what those plans might entail, distinct possibilities include a slimmer/smaller Xbox 360, or an Xbox 360 armed with a Blu-ray drive.

Practically speaking, new form factors are something of an inevitability for the company. Aside from core hardware revisions to improve margins, add HDMI and resolve the famous RRoD issue, the Xbox 360 design has not changed much since inception. As the console stretches into the second half of its 10-year lifecycle, new and improved designs could ignite fresh demand as the new Slim design has done for Sony’s PlayStation 3.

New features include a level editor and an “adjective system” that increases the variety of objects available, and thus the number of possible solutions, and the complexity of those solutions. Adjectives can change the color, size, elements, behaviors and many other aspects of the object they are describing. Multiple adjectives can be combined together to produce even more complex objects.

The game, under development at 5th Cell, is slated to be available in Fall of 2010.

“The Scribblenauts sequel gives all players an enhanced game experience they will love and new challenges where they can use their imaginations even more,” said Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President, Development and Production, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “5TH Cell is a very talented and creative developer and we are excited to add to the Scribblenauts franchise with this new game.”

“The next Scribblenauts broadens the players’ experience from the first Scribblenauts through more creativity, innovation and in-depth gameplay,” said Jeremiah Slaczka, Creative Director and Co-Founder of 5TH Cell. “All of these enhancements give players even greater control over how they want to play the game.”

You’re an aspiring game developer. You think you have everything it takes to make a spectacular game. You’ve got the vision, the idea, the passion. Your game design document is nearly perfect, and has everything from a compelling storyline to addictive gameplay. The only chink in your game’s development… Is your budget.

That’s where Nexon America is offering to step up and hand out up to—say it with us everyone, in that famed Dr. Evil voice—one meeellion dollars for the most spectacular game design ideas.

Nexon has launched what they have dubbed “The Nexon iNitiative.” They are looking for original, unique and promising independent game projects to sponsor, co-develop, and publish through their online distribution network. Those who attract Nexon’s attention will earn a portion of the $1 million to drive their game design to the finish line, including the possibility of a publishing contract with Nexon.

Nexon is definitely looking for games that would mesh well with their current lineup, but will give everything serious consideration. Games that will likely get the most attention will be PC-based games with a broad appeal, encourage community and social interaction and have strong online elements. Flash, client-based games or even ports from other platforms will also be welcomed for consideration.

The Nexon iNitiative is already underway. Submissions can be entered up till the deadline of 6 PM (PST), April 30, 2010. After a session of intense judging, winners will be announced and contacted by June, 2010. The clock’s ticking, so if you’re an amateur game designer, don’t miss out on this great opportunity.

It’s official. Valve issued a press release just now stating what we already knew: Steam is coming to Mac OS X. Along with it, some select Valve-created games:

March 8, 2010 – Valve announced today it will bring Steam, Valve’s gaming service, and Source, Valve’s gaming engine, to the Mac.

Steam and Valve’s library of games including Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series will be available in April.

“As we transition from entertainment as a product to entertainment as a service, customers and developers need open, high-quality Internet clients,” said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. “The Mac is a great platform for entertainment services.”

“Our Steam partners, who are delivering over a thousand games to 25 million Steam clients, are very excited about adding support for the Mac,” said Jason Holtman, Director of Business Development at Valve. “Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks APIs, and we have added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play.”

“We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation,” said John Cook, Director of Steam Development. “The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward. We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients. The first Mac Steam client will be the new generation currently in beta testing on Windows.”

Portal 2 will be Valve’s first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows. “Checking in code produces a PC build and Mac build at the same time, automatically, so the two platforms are perfectly in lock-step,” said Josh Weier, Portal 2 Project Lead. “We’re always playing a native version on the Mac right alongside the PC. This makes it very easy for us and for anyone using Source to do game development for the Mac.”

Capcom has just released their latest installment in the Resident Evil series, a second downloadable content episode for the horror survival game Resident Evil 5, entitled Desperate Escape. The DLC is can be found on both Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

Jill and Josh survey the Tricell facility

The story picks up with our combat-savvy heroine Jill Valentine as well as Josh Stone, and continues from the previous events in the Resident Evil 5 story. Having been recently freed from a mind-enslaving machine, Jill awakens to find BSAA agent Josh Stone. Under the cover of night, they must work together in order to escape a dark fate inside the Tricell facility. Barring their path are waves of fiends hell-bent on preventing Jill and Josh from re-uniting with Chris and Sheva, with a climatic encounter against Albert Wesker to punctuate the experience.

Added features also bring a little extra sparkle to the DLC. Shiny extras include new costumes for the original Resident Evil 5 campaign—Costume Pack 2, as it’s called, includes Chris’ “Heavy Metal” costume as well as Sheva’s “Business” attire. Also included are the remaining four of eight characters available for the challenging Mercenaries Reunion minigame, each with their own unique weapon sets.

Those who don’t already own a copy of Resident Evil 5 may want to consider picking up Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition. Retailing for $49.99, it will get you the original Resident Evil 5 game as well as all available DLC, including Desperate Escape. PS3 owners will get it all on a single Blu-Ray disc, while 360 folks will get the original RE5 DVD and a token to download the additional content. Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition launches tomorrow on March 9th.

However, there is more mystery afoot. Valve has been exceptionally cryptic with their announcements, and today’s news is no exception. If you go to the news page on their website, certain letters in the announcement are underlined. Extracting the underlined letters brings us:

D R A T T M A N N H 0 N E E

Shenanigans are afoot.

Obsidian today released a developer diary video for their upcoming game Alpha Protocol, which they call an Espionage RPG. In the video, Obsidian devs talk about some of the gadgets and toys that the protagonist will have available to solve the myriad of puzzles and situations that the game presents. Additionally, they discuss the weapon system, which focuses on customization and multiple ammunition types.

Alpha Protocol is scheduled for release in North America on June 1st on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

Think you’ve got what it takes to be a member of an all-star rock band, touring the countryside and going on stage live for your millions of fans? Yeah—probably not, but there’s still a niche for rock star wannabes through the Rock Band games—and you very well may get your chance to perform on stage.

Cedar Fair Entertainment Company (of Cedar Point fame) and MTV Games have teamed up to put on a summer-long Rock Band experience, touted as “Rock Band, Live”. A tour bus will travel to nine of Cedar Fair’s parks, including Canada’s Wonderland near Toronto, as well as the world-famous Cedar Point theme park in Sandusky, Ohio. Park guests will have the opportunity to play Rock Band, including the guitar, bass, and drums gaming accessories. Those talented few who achieve the highest scores will be invited to play live on stage along with talented singers from across North America – using the Rock Band instruments, of course.

“We’re extremely excited to merge the popular Rock Band video game with a unique, interactive live show for our guests this summer,” said Jack Falfas, chief operating officer for Cedar Fair. “Rock Band is a pop culture phenomenon and we know families have enjoyed playing the game together at home. But now it’s time for them to take it to the next level – on stage at one of our parks in front of a live audience.”

Christina Glorioso, vice president of marketing partnerships for MTV Games adds, “We are very excited for Rock Band to contribute to the fun at Cedar Fair parks this summer.  Music fans of all ages will have an opportunity to either rock out themselves or sit back and enjoy watching other park-goers transform into rock stars on stage!”

The “Rock Band, Live” tour will launch Memorial Day weekend (May 31st) at Dorney Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. From there it will travel to Cedar Fair’s other various parks throughout the summer, with the shows in Canada’s Wonderland and Cedar Point kicking off in May and June, respectively.

Come for the coasters, stay for the music—for who knows? Perhaps it will be you on stage, rocking it hard for all to see.

Bass plays very similarly to Mega Man, with the exception of two key differences: His buster can fire in multiple directions (such as the coveted “up”), and his cannon cannot be charged. He can still absorb the powers from the robot masters just as his rival, the Blue Bomber, can.

Bass will be available on April 5th.

Ubisoft just announced Pure Futbol—a 5-a-side soccer game coming in May. The press release announces seventeen international squads comprised of over two hundred “current and legendary players”

The press release:

UBISOFT® KICKS OFF PURE FUTBOL™ IN MAY 2010

Experience the Raw Sensation of the Soccer Field

San Francisco – March 4, 2010 – Today, Ubisoft® announced Pure Futbol, an entirely new sports brand that is being developed by Ubisoft Vancouver. The game will be available worldwide in May 2010.

Pure Futbol is a new and unique vision of soccer video games, emphasizing the intense, physical and spectacular aspects of the sport. The over-the-shoulder camera and visceral audio dynamically react to the context of the match, placing the gamer in the heart of the five-a-side soccer action, as opposed to the feeling of watching a TV broadcast.

Pure Futbol will include 230 elite soccer players, 17 international teams, and 17 legendary players. Gamers will have the opportunity to create their own customized athlete who can progress through the campaign mode to ultimately test themselves against the world’s best players in the final tournament.  Up to four people can play multiplayer locally and 1vs1 matches are supported online, along with the inclusion of leaderboards that allow players to match up to one another and celebrate the pure competitive nature of soccer.

CoP focuses on squad combat with several missions built around gathering and escorting reliable Stalkers.

Jump the cordon, catch a helicopter ride, bribe a guard—but get to the Zone. There are bloodthirsty monstrosities, armed fanatics, deadly radiation storms, anomalies that will obliterate your body, or turn you into a moaning walking corpse—after all, why would Stalkers choose to vacation in sunny Ukraine? Well it turns out than inside of the deadly anomalies are stones that can heal wounds, protect you from damage, make you stronger or absorb radiation. They are also worth a boat load of cash if you can dare the monsters and mercs to get them back to a trader.

Welcome to the outskirts of Pripyat Ukraine, in the middle of the Chernobyl exclusion zone,where life is hard on everybody. A recent military operation sent several choppers into the area around Pripyat and, despite precautions against anomalies, they still went down. Somewhere in the harsh reality of the Zone are the survivors—fighting for their lives. You are an ex-STALKER OSS officer sent to figure out what went wrong—given nothing other than the basic kit and the locations of the crash sites, and then booted on your merry way.

STALKER: Call of Pripyat (CoP) is the third installation of the series and of the three, it is the best out-of-the-box. GSC Game World has come a long way from the original release and CoP does an amazing job of adding all of the wonderful things that were in the STALKER: Clear Sky while gracefully stepping around some of its worst problems. The game feels overall like an apology for Clear Sky—getting right the little that they have added without doing a complete content overhaul. Perhaps this is because they are priming themselves for a true sequel which the fans have been begging for. Regardless, CoP is a great love note to the fans of the series.

Radioactive hotspots contain precious artifacts and face-melting anomalies

It is the least buggy at release by far, but this also may be the case because it came out in Russia months ago and they’ve had more than enough time to patch it. The game is still dealing with the uncertainties of a world where strange things like flying balls of fire are common. There are still moments (observed far more often in the previous game) where you wonder if what just happened was a glitch or if that was how the game was supposed to preform. You’ll see a floating bucket and think—is this the game engine screwing up or am I in an anti-gravity anomaly?

STALKER proved that exploration can be entertaining—with or without reward. STALKER is many things: a great shooter, a fun universe, an okay story, and horrible voice acting—but the best thing about it is just going for a walk in the Zone. Every time you step out your door, you have no idea what you’ll find. The three maps (which are huge compared to its previous iterations) are chock-full of secret labs to uncover, caches of supplies, hidden expensive artifacts, monster lairs and mysteries. Every time I leave a mission hub on a simple quest it turns into a full-on adventure. Go collect an artifact—oh look there is an underground lab—explore a bit, fight a huge monster, run for my life…how do I get out of here? Christ, I had no idea I was so low on shotgun shells. Where did these bandits come from?

Some of the greatest narratives are created by players themselves—that has always been a part of video games. There have always been people who have tried to get Barney all the way though Half-Life or play the Sims without a house. STALKER creates a playground that allows a player to create their own story. This is not to say that the game doesn’t have great set pieces that are wonderful and thrilling to play through, but the things that I will always remember from CoP will be the experiences that were created outside of the traditional narrative.

While there are fewer dungeon exploration sequences there are still plenty of opprotunities to poke around creepy radioactive millitary labs.

I will never forget the time that I was ambushed by a Chimera in the dark. I panicked and ran, accidentally hitting the G key—which dropped my shotgun somewhere in the woods—turning a night hunt into a desperate fight for survival (or the subsequent daylight searches for that expensive gun which turned up nothing), or the time where I stealthed my way past a group of thirty zombies to loot a weapons cache only to make a desperate sprint for safety. A quick Google search will turn up more STALKER tales than you can shake a stick at. Everyone who plays STALKER will have at least one crazy story about that time where they had a sniper duel in the middle of a lightning storm or a Bloodsucker mutant saved them from death at the hands of bandits.

Call of Pripyat represents the best entry someone can have into the STALKER universe. CoP’s story is not as bombastic or impressive as its predecessor Shadow of Chernobyl, and has a bit of a lackluster ending. It also lacks the survival horror sequences that took place in underground Ukranian labs. CoP does contain the most detailed maps of any of the series, though, and it separates thing into points of interest. In a way, this is unfortunate, because it herds most of the anomalies into ‘anomaly fields’. A bit of the adventure is lost when you know that most of the deadly anomalies are constrained to marked areas of the map, and that trouble spots are known to you even before you set foot near them. Perhaps it is because this is the third generation of STALKER games and it takes more than a Bloodsucker ambush to get my goat.

Call of Pripyat is a rare gem and contains a dynamic and unique gaming experience that has yet to be replicated. While it is temperamental, aged, and poorly acted, it succeeds in allowing players to experience a world that is fun to explore for the sake of exploring. A lived-in, moving world that its fun just to travel through and marvel at all its haunting and dangerous landscapes.

CoP adds to the mutant menagerie but brings back old standbys like this Snork.