Entertainment Electronics Blog

Way back in March, Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer revealed that they were putting “serious effort” into trying to get their sleeper hit dungeon crawler Torchlight released on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. There hadn’t been any more news on these efforts since then, but it looks like they are indeed ongoing, and may result in Torchlight release for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 this holiday season.

“We’re trying, we’re talking [to Sony and Microsoft] and we hope to get that done quickly,” Schaefer said to Joystiq at GamesCom this week. Schaefer said there’s still no release window set, but “hopefully” they’ll have a deal done to release the game “by the holidays.”

So what if you’re not so interested in the original Torchlight anymore, now that Runic announced Torchlight 2 (complete with online co-op)? Don’t fret, as Schaefer said they’ll “try” to get the sequel released on PSN and XBLA as well, some time after it’s released for the PC and Mac next spring.

EA’s John Shappert came onstage at Sony’s E3 press briefing today to show off a new trailer for Medal of Honor and to announce a PlayStation 3-exclusive version of the game.

The PS3 limited edition of Medal of Honor will include a revamped version of the PS2’s Medal of Honor: Frontline. Best of all, it comes at no extra charge over the standard release of the game.

Medal of Honor is set to hit store shelves on October 12.

Today’s E3 Sony press conference made good on yesterday’s promise of more information on Dead Space 2. After finishing yesterday’s cliffhanger ending (with another cliffhanger), Sony announced that the PlayStation 3 would be getting an exclusive Limited Edition. The package will include the game itself, plus a port of the Wii title Dead Space Extraction with Move support.

The original Dead Space sold slightly better on the Xbox 360, but this kind of exclusive limited edition gave Dante’s Inferno (also from EA) an edge on the sales charts. We might see the same thing happening with Isaac Clarke’s next horror adventure as well.

The newly announced publishing deal between Activision and Bungie has significant impact on both companies (and even Microsoft), but one company that hasn’t been mentioned much is Sony. After years of Microsoft exclusivity, this deal finally means we’ll be seeing Bungie games appear on the PlayStation 3.

The company’s press release mentioned “multiple platforms,” which led to speculation of PS3 development. It was confirmed by Sony senior director of corporate communications Patrick Seybold, via Twitter. “Congrats to Bungie,” he said. “Marrying their creative minds and incredible talent to the power of PS3 will be like giving PS3 fans Halo on steroids.” Of course, no jump to multi-platform would be complete without a little corporate cattiness.

It isn’t terribly surprising given the nature of the news — Activision is a multi-platform publisher, after all. Bungie broke away from Microsoft exclusivity in 2007, and Halo Reach will be the final piece of their deal with the console manufacturer. The press release seems to indicate that Bungie is developing one particular new franchise with Activision, but still has the freedom to make other games with other publishers as they like. If Bungie intends to launch any other new titles, Microsoft or Sony could court them for exclusivity.

Final Fantasy XIII has been a long time coming, and no doubt part of that is because it’s the first big PlayStation 3 game for Square Enix. But as it turns out, there’s another reason for the long wait: It started its development life on the PlayStation 2.

“Final Fantasy XIII was originally meant to be a PS2 title, but we had to switch systems due to the arrival of the PS3,” said producer Yoshinori Kitase to the Dutch version of Official PlayStation Magazine (as translated by FinalFantasy-XIII.net, via VG247). “That cost us about one and a half years and was constantly a case of trial and error.”

So what did this ill-fated PS2 version of Final Fantasy XIII look like? Thanks to a book covering all things FFXIII recently released in Japan called “Scenario and Battle Ultimania,” we can see for ourselves — it provided screenshots from what were apparently two different builds with wildly different graphical styles, and FinalFantasy-XIII.net again comes through with a few (very blurry) scans. Check out two shots below of the versions of FFXIII that were not to be.

Namco Bandai has announced that Dead to Rights: Retribution, the reboot of sorts for their canine-friendly action game series last seen in 2005, will release on April 13 (via Eurogamer).

Retribution was first announced back in February of 2009, and really, hasn’t been seen very much since. We know the game will once again star the unfortunately Flintstones-esque named Jack Slate, a canine officer who fights crime with his loyal dog Shadow. Retribution will also feature deeper hand-to-hand combat, and entire levels where the player controls Shadow directly.

We last got a look at Retribution way back in May of last year, so it’ll be interesting to see how this reboot shaped up. It’ll be released on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and evidently there will be pre-order bonuses including a “MadWorld-style” graphic filter called “noir mode,” and exclusive dog camouflage for Shadow.

Steam currently has a number of spiffy deals on Bioshock 2. Those who preorder the upcoming sequel from Valve’s digital distribution service will not only get 10 percent off the standard retail price (down to $44.99), they’ll also receive a copy of the original Bioshock for free.

Should you already own the first Bioshock, these digital copies can be gifted to anyone on your Steam friends list — though you may run into a little trouble finding somebody who doesn’t already have the game after all the recent holiday sales.

Also on offer is a four-pack of Bioshock 2, which, like the Borderlands and Left 4 Dead 2 bundles, can be split between four friends. These bundles include the same 10 percent price reduction for preordering ($134.97 instead of $149.97), as well as four free copies of Bioshock to divvy up.

Bioshock 2 is scheduled to release on February 9, 2010 for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Still waiting to give Uncharted 2 a try before taking the plunge and buying it? Naughty Dog will finally get around to appeasing those with a try-before-you-buy mentality next Thursday, January 28, when they release a single-player demo of Uncharted 2. No word on exactly what portion of the game you’ll be able to play in the demo, but who cares? It’s all good.
Coming along with the demo next week is the release of the first premium downloadable content for Uncharted 2. Unfortunately, it’s not new maps or game modes or any sort of content that would provide a substantial change to the game itself. What Naughty Dog has in store is the “PlayStation Heroes Skin Pack,” a collection of seven new multiplayer skins featuring — as you may have guessed from the picture above — characters from other first party Sony games. The lineup consists of Nathan Hale and a Chimera from Resistance 2, Sev and a Helghast soldier from Killzone 2, and Cole (both good and evil) and Zeke from inFamous.

The pack will be available worldwide, and in the United States it’ll carry a price tag of $4.99. As for future DLC — which Naughty Dog promises they have “long-term plans” for — don’t expect to hear any details until things are locked down and we’re closer to their respective releases on the PlayStation Store.

With Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising now on the market, Codemasters has turned their attention to the inevitable DLC. The publisher told Eurogamer that fans can expect it in “two-to-four weeks of release, tops.”
“Our intention is to align [the patch] with the first DLC pack that’s coming out as well, which is due around the end of October. Hopefully we’ll do the whole thing in one,” said executive producer Sion Lenton.

Codemasters is planning a network optimization patch that they say will help the game “flow a bit better.” Down the line, Lenton said the team would like to create new equipment while addressing the game’s balance.

“One of the things we’re hoping is we can address the balance of vehicles in the game, as there are people who expected to be able to use them more than they can in the final game.”

“We’re really ramping up the vehicle-specific missions in there. It’s all really great tech, it all works, you can get in these things, so again, we’ll be trying to exploit that as well.”

Operation Flashpoint 2 hit stores on October 6 for the PC, Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. We gave it a C+ in our review.

By now, mandatory installs are a pretty accepted part of PlayStation 3 games, but one of the highest-profile upcoming titles will be install-free: Final Fantasy XIII. IGN reports that the game won’t include a hard disk installation. Despite this, however, the game is said to be low on load times. Game director Motomu Toriyama claimed that the developer has concentrated from the start on keeping loading times low, and the only time a player will see a load is going between a town and a field. Besides that, the game is said to flow smoothly.

This is all related to the PS3 version, of course. Since the Xbox 360 allows optional installations for all games, it would stand to reason that FFXIII would allow it. But seeing as the game is likely to take up multiple discs on the system, players might have to install one disc at a time when swapping. We’ll have to wait for more details on how that will work, but for now the Japanese PS3-exclusive is probably more on the minds at Square.