Fans of Lara Croft won’t have to wait long before being able to go on yet another adventure with the sultry archeologist.
GDC is well under way and Joystiq met up with developer Crystal Dynamics in order to discuss the upcoming title. The game will launch this summer as a download only, being released for PC, 360 and PS3. The full price of the game will be $15.
As confirmed last week, the game will be a top-down isometric, arcade-style co-op game, vastly deviating from the Tomb Raider series regular third person action perspective. Players will take control of Lara Croft and a Mayan spearman named Totec. Together the two will solve puzzles, destroy enemies, platform and, presumably, raid tombs.
Just Cause 2 demo is now available on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.
WHAT’RE YOU WAITING FOR?
There’s 35 square miles to explore! Get crackin’!
Demo weighs in at about 1GB of download, so you might be waiting a while. Also, no sign of a PC demo on Steam yet, but likely it’ll be up pretty soon.
Full game’s out for all three platforms on March 26th!
So what’s worth picking up on the PlayStation Store this week, hmm? Well, there’s the demo for Just Cause 2, for one.
If that’s not enough to whet your appetite, there is also a plethora of DLC for numerous titles, and Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement for those looking for a bit of an strategy RPG fix.
PlayStation Store via PS3
Downloadable Games
- Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement (£9.99/€12.99) Rating: PEGI 12
Availability: All locales
Demos (free)
- Just Cause 2 Demo Rating: PEGI 18
Availability: Not available in Germany
- Moto 09/10 Demo Rating: PEGI 3
Availability: All locales
This turbulent day have finally come to an end, and we can finally rest peacefully, knowing that our PS3s are safe once more. It appears that PS3 machines the world over are auto-correcting themselves as their internal clocks spins over to the 2nd of March. Happy days!
All data appears to be fixed, but trophies earned by users before syncing them with the PlayStation Network will be lost. Lets hope you do so on a regular basis, or you may have lost some significant time investment in your games.
The full ramifications of today’s error or any potential future problem it may cause are not yet known, but we will let you know if and when more information comes to light.
For now… this journalist is off to continue his second play-through of Heavy Rain!
Sony has issued a full status update on the crippling PS3 bug issue which has been plaguing consoles throughout the world. The issue is apparently being caused by a bug in the system’s clock functionality.
SCEE has released a full statement in which the company aims to have the issue resolved within the next 24 hours.
The Gaming Vault has been receiving reports by emails since this morning from some owners of PS3 Slim consoles claiming that their machines are being affected by the issues plaguing PlayStation 3 console and PSN today.
We have also received at least one report from an owner of an older “fat” model of the PS3 claiming that his console has not been affected by this issue.
It was assumed today (and claimed by Sony) that this problem was relegated to older models of Sony’s console. This appears to not entirely be the case, and your chances are hit and miss if you choose to use the PlayStation Network this.
Sony themselves have in fact recommending on their DevNet that “all consumer units” of the PS3 should stay offline today, regardless of the model.
Clearly this problem isn’t affecting all PS3 Slims, but only a select number of units, which is likely to be a small number. We’ll keep you updated.
[UPDATE] We have received some clarification from informed hardware buffs with information regarding why some Phats units are not affected, and why some Slim units are. Hit the cut for more information.
News is currently circulating that European game retailer GAME is already refusing to trade in recently affected PS3 which were affected by the PSN / PS3 hardware failures which occurred earlier today.
Owners who have been attempting to trade in their “fat” PS3s for the currently-unaffected slim models are apparently being refused, reliable reports have indicated to us. GAME is refusing trade for those consoles at this time.
We have received word directly from consumers regarding this as well.
We’ll keep you informed on any more updates regarding the PS3’s recent problems as we get them.
[UPDATE 2] According to a new tweet by Digital Foundry going back to older firmware won’t fix your problem. Sony says they are still working on it: ” Our teams are currently working on a fix for this issue. We have no details of an ETA yet. We expect to have further news shortly.”
[UPDATE] This error affects both online and offline PS3s. This was confirmed by Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter, though PS3 Slim models seem to be getting away with it according to a tweet from SCEA.
If you have a PS3, do not turn it on today today!
Sony’s console designers are apparently so idiotic that they were unable to factor in the maths behind a leap year in the machine’s internal clock. This is causing machines’s clocks to revert to 12/31/1999, stopping some offline games from even loading, and causing potentially permanent corruption to your Trophy collection.
We promise to let everyone know when the problem has been fixed and it’s safe to turn on your PS3 again. Sony is currently “looking into it”.
Way to go, Sony! This is almost as embarassing as the Red Ring of Death.
Square-Enix confirmed that the Just Cause 2 demo will be out for Live, Steam and PSN next week, March 4th for all platforms.
This information comes via Twitter from SE UK community bod Mike Oldman.
The Just Cause 2 demo will hit Xbox Live, PSN and Steam on March 4th.
In addition, Mike Oldman told fansite Panau Island that the demo itself will include roughly 35 square miles of play area of sandy desert with towns, settlements, military bases and more.
“There’s also one whole multi-stage faction mission for you to try, a race challenge and ample opportunities to cause chaos at pretty much every turn. There’s a good mix of vehicles, everything from tuk tuks to planes, helicopters to jeeps, military and civilian,” he told Panau Island.
“We really want you to play it again and again, to try out as much as you can. If you don’t fancy tackling the mission for example, don’t. See if we care. You’ll easily find something else to keep you occupied.”
Just Cause 2 comes out for PC, 360 and the PS3 on March 26th.
SEGA announced a fourth DLC pack for Valkyria Chronicles heading your way this Thursday.
The DLC pack is titled “Challenges of the Edy Department” and includes six new maps for the strategy RPG, each one focusing on the strength of a specific class.
No price has been announced.
Visceral Games GM Nick Earl said to Gamasutra that the studio would be releasing at least one title per year.
“What I’ve learned being general manager of the studio for the past nine years is you can overload a studio, and conversely, you can do extremely well financially, and at the end of the day, we need to be able to do that to continue to attract investment and be able to do the sort of creative endeavors we want,” he said.
“I know it sounds kind of trite, but we really believe that. We’ve really taken that on board here. What we put out, we want to put out at the absolute highest quality mark. We don’t need to do three of those a year. One is plenty, if we continue to drive that kind of quality here.”
Earl also said that Xbox Live and PSN would have certain “offerings” coming out this year.
According to a post by a community manager on the SEGA company forums, Sonic 3’s level designer is back working on Sonic 4.
Earlier in the week, it was revealed to us that Dimps would be handling development for the new Sonic the Hedgehog game, but that’s no longer the case according to the forum post.
“So, is it just Dimps? Just Sonic Team? The answer is a bit of both. Yes, Dimps is working on the game. But there’s actually more to it than just that: at the same time, we also have members of Sonic Team, including the original senior level designer from Sonic 3 & Knuckles on the SEGA Genesis working alongside them.
“It is most definitely a partnership, and the result of this teamwork is something many of us are excited for.”
Well, I can definitely say I’m way more excited about Sonic 4 than I was before, but I’m still doubtful of the episodic release style.
The first episode of Sonic 4 is on its way to the PS3, 360 and Wii this summer.
According to EA’s Twitter, the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 demo has been downloaded by 3.5 million individuals on the PS3 and 360.
That is a lot of downloads.
The demo ends on February 25th, because the game is out March 2nd in the US and March 5th in the UK.
New screens of the game up at IGN, so feel free to have a look!
Update: SCEE just confirmed with VG247 that the God of War III demo will be available to the public, but no actual date has been announced.
A rep had this to say about the demo:
“The GOW3 demo being given away with Game is only active until the 24th. Pre-orders after this date will not receive it. There will be a demo on the PSN but the date is still TBC.”
Previous: Should this information be correct, the God of War III demo should be available to the public next week on February 25th via the PlayStation Network.
It appears to be the same demo that was given out with pre-orders, the one that was released to a restricted number of PSN users, and the same demo that was playable at last year’s E3, gamescom and TGS.
God of War III is available in the US on March 16th and a tentative release date in the UK of March 19th, but the latter is still unconfirmed.
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