Kotaku: details

Sega Details Beijing 2008 Track And Field Events

Mike Fahey — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:20:00 MDT

Sega is getting ready to launch Beijing 2008 later this month, and they've just dropped new information and screens on the various track and field events available for play in the Olympic title. Six track events and eight field events make up the T&F portion of the game, with the races benefiting from a new analogue starting block mechanic involving the controller's trigger buttons. Players will be able to either button mash or stick-waggle to work up speed, intermittently leaping hurdles where applicable.

Meanwhile, on the field side of things, players can compete in the pole vault, high jump, triple jump, long jump, or my personal favorite events, the throws, with javelin, hammer, shot put, and discus all represented. Always been a big fan of throwing things. Just ask my borderline neurotic ~~targets~~ cats.

Beijing 2008 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic GamesTrack And Field Events, Screenshots and Details Available Now

LONDON (16 June, 2008) – SEGA Europe Ltd. proudly presents Beijing 2008™ - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games: Track and Field events.

Appearing on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and PC, Beijing 2008™ delivers a host of Track and Field events.

Of the six Track events, the 100m is the blue-riband event of the Olympic Games and is watched by millions of people worldwide. A new analogue starting block mechanic has been added to the gameplay using the trigger buttons on the controller. After launching out of the starting blocks, players will have the choice to either waggle the thumb stick from left to right, or press the A button and B button alternately to gain speed. Other track events are the 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m and the 110m Hurdles for Men and 100m Hurdles for Women.

There are eight Field events in Beijing 2008™ and new to this iteration is the Hammer Throw which is played with both analogue sticks to build up power, whilst using one of the triggers to throw the Hammer. Other Field events are the High Jump, Pole Vault, Long Jump, Shot Put, Triple Jump, Discus Throw, and the Javelin Throw. All of these events have different gameplay mechanics and are playable with both male and female athletes.

Beijing 2008™ is slated for a global release on June 27th 2008 for the Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and PC.

Some Disgaea DS Details revealed

fdemarco — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:20:00 MDT

The folks at CrispyGamer got a chance to corner NIS America's PR Manager Jack Niida to talk a bit about the much anticipated release of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness on the DS. It's a short interview, but there is some interesting information in there including some talk of the game appearing on other consoles. Since the game will probably mostly be purchased by fans of the franchise, the obvious question would be, what's new?

The main feature of Disgaea DS is the multi-player mode. Fans that are tired of the original can still get a kick out of this game by destroying their buddy's Laharl and Etna...

The intuitive stylus controls and dual screen is a huge plus, but there are newly added features and characters from our past titles, so there is still a lot of oomph left in this game.

Niida goes on to mention that this version of the game will include everything from the PSP version plus extra content. For Digaea fans this should prove to quite interesting news.

Disgaea DS Interview [CrispyGamer]

Rock Band: Only Bundles Available Until 2008

fdemarco — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 11:00:00 MDT

Our friends over at the bbps got a chance to put the thumbscrews on a Harmonix rep recently at the PlayStation Holiday Press Preview Event in Toronto, Canada about Rock Band. They managed to get a ton of great info regarding things like price and frequency of downloadable content, competing with Guitar Hero and different development issues. One of the really interesting subjects was that of the bundle vs individual peripherals. It seems that Rock Band will be available as a bundle only through 2007 meaning that you will not be able to buy the separate peripherals until 2008.

I realize the wording on this can be confusing so allow me to clarify just to be sure it's understood. Rock Band will always be available as a bundle. However until 2008 it will only be available as a bundle. Once the new year hits you'll be able to buy the separate peripherals, until then it's bundles only. Hopefully that's got it explained properly.

For all the rockin details on this and other subjects, be sure to check out bbps' great and informative interview.

Rock Band: the bundles, dlc pricing, the Guitar Hero stigma, disconnected gaming and more [the bbps]

Beautiful Katamari Details Roll Into Your Life

fdemarco — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 09:00:00 MDT

The lucky bastards over at GameSpot got a chance to do a hands on with the new Beautiful Katamari and brought back some details with them. The game will be available via Xbox Live Arcade and from the looks of it, the gameplay and art style that make Katamari great have remained untouched. There will be a ton of new content though, including eight new playable characters, new music and all new levels. It will be presented in glorious 720p HD and will also include achievements to help pump up your anemic gamerscore. As in the other games, Beautiful Katamari will have a central area where you can access all your cousins, royal presents and save/load your games called Princetown. Clever, eh?

The best news of all is that Beautiful Katamari will be rolling on to XBLA sometime in October making it a mere four months away. I just hope that it's appearance on XBLA will bring with it an appropriate price tag and some good downloadable content somewhere down the road.

No word from Gamespot on the rumored Xbox exclusivity, but if Newsweek's finger-on-the-pulse guy, N'Gai Croal, is right, we should hear all about it come E3. Flynn De Marco

Beautiful Katamari Hands-On [Gamespot]