NAMCO BANDAI Games today revealed information and assets for the six new plane variants for Ace Combat® 6: Fires of Liberation™ that will be available for download from the Xbox LIVE® Marketplace on Wednesday, December 19.
Several of these planes feature memorable designs from previous games in the Ace Combat franchise, letting players continue the aerial adventures of their favorite characters from the series in the game’s single player and online multiplayer modes.
Mirage 2000-5 – Scarface Emblem: Bearing the emblem of the heroes of Ace Combat 2, this aircraft’s armor has been reinforced at the expense of stability.
F-22A Raptor – Mobius: Emblazoned with the mark of the legendary Mobius Squadron from Ace Combat 4, this plane is all about offense; its unparalleled destructive abilities come at the expense of a limited damage threshold.
F-15E Strike Eagle – Cipher: Designed as memorial to the hero of Ace Combat Zero, this variation of the F-15E Strike Eagle is home at the front of any battle with its enhanced weapons systems.
F-15E Strike Eagle – Pixy: Featuring a unique design on its right wing, this plane is dedicated to Pixy, Cipher’s wingman from Ace Combat Zero, who nearly lost his wing in combat. Incredibly light, this plane has unparalleled stability.
A-10A Thunderbolt – Xmas: The most festive aircraft ever to see combat duty, this plane is seemingly unaffected by gravity as it glides through the skies, unleashing hell on enemies while delivering messages of good cheer to allies.
F-117A Night Hawk – The Idolmaster Yukiho: Combining cutting-edge flight technology with the style of the breakthrough Idolmaster series and a festive winter design, this plane boasts impressive maneuverability.
In addition to the six planes that will be available for download on Wednesday December 19, a new Team Battle map will be released for download in the coming weeks, allowing online squadrons to battle in an all-new locale.
Rock Band publisher MTV Games and developer Harmonix are accusing Guitar Hero III house Activision of blocking a patch that would make the PS3’s GHIII controller work with Rock Band.
“Two weeks ago, Harmonix created a software patch for the Sony PlayStation 3 version of Rock Band that allowed for guitar compatibility and support for third party peripherals, including enabling use of Activision's Guitar Hero III controller with Rock Band,” said an MTV rep in a statement sent to Next-Gen. “The compatibility patch was submitted, approved and had been scheduled for release by Sony on Tuesday, December 4.
Unfortunately, Activision objected to the release of the compatibility patch. The patch remains with Sony, but we have been told that it will unfortunately not be released due to Activision's continued objection.”
Activision reps had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.
Harmonix plans on releasing individual Rock Band instrument peripherals sometime next year, but for the time being, the only way to get another PS3 Rock Band guitar controller is to buy the full $169 Rock Band bundle.
Currently, Xbox 360’s Guitar Hero III controller works with Rock Band.
"As we have said in the past, Harmonix and MTV Games believe in an open standard philosophy of hardware and game compatibility,” MTV Games’ statement added. “We think that there should be interoperability between music instrument controllers across all music games. This is clearly in the best interest of consumers, game developers and console manufacturers and will only help to grow the music game genre as well as inspire innovation and creativity.”
To deal with frustration among holiday shoppers hunting for its Wii game console, Nintendo Co. and retailer GameStop Corp. are launching a rain check program.
"We expect this to be a great way for consumers who desperately want a Wii to have something to put under the tree," Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said Friday.
The rain checks will be available at the regular Wii system price, $249.99, on Dec. 20 and 21, and will entitle buyers to get the Nintendo console before Jan. 29. Fils-Aime said "many tens of thousands of rain checks" would be available.
GameStop regularly takes deposits on hot software titles before they launch, which means it has the infrastructure to deal with rain check program, Fils-Aime said. The company is working with other retailers, like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Best Buy Co., to push out inventory from the supply chain to shelves as quickly as possible before Christmas, he added.
Lock and load soldier! Its time to take the battle to your living room as the single player demo of Frontlines™: Fuel of War™ goes live on Xbox Live® Market Place.
Players will be thrust into the near future as they battle in an epic struggle over earth’s last oil reserves in this innovative new first person shooter from THQ and KAOS Studios.
Set in the near future, Frontlines™: Fuel of War™ asks the plausible question ‘what would happen if our oil reserves were about to run out?’. As man kind is starved of one of its most important resources two super powers face off over the last reserves in intense futuristic warfare. Starting on the oil fields of central Asia this game takes players across the globe and right into the heart of Moscow itself.
Created in collaboration with a team of military advisors this game features over sixty different weapons and vehicles all based on real world technology being developed by the modern military. Players will be able to take the war to their enemy using everything from guided smart bombs and remote control combat drones to the good old fashioned assault rifle. The unique Frontline mechanic employed in this game ensures that the gameplay is intense and fast-paced at all times as well as giving players the freedom to explore the maps fully.
The Xbox Live® Marketplace demo features the second mission of the single player game where players can experience the open world gameplay and hi-tech weaponry as well as the destructibility of structures throughout the maps. With complete freedom to complete objectives in any order and from any direction players will be able to replay this demo again and again as they discover completely new ways to reach their goal.
The finished game will feature a gripping and immersive single player storyline spanning eight vast missions and an exciting multiplayer mode for up to 32 players featuring a unique role and load-out system allowing players to customize their character to suit any situation.
So what are you waiting for? Download the free Frontlines™: Fuel of War™ demo now from Xbox Live® Marketplace and get right into the action! The full version of Frontlines™: Fuel of War ™ will be available for Xbox 360, Sony PS3 and PC in February 2008.
Allieu Shaw, a 19 y/o Frostburg State University student in Gaithersburg MD, Was arrested after making threats to shoot up the school and detailing how he was going to do it during a Multiplayer match of COD4.
The threats were made orally on Xbox Live while playing a multiplayer game of Call of Duty 4. A player in the same game from Oregon made a call to authorities in Maryland to report the threats.
The Police quickly tracked the account to Shaw at the college and placed him under arrest.
Shaw claims it was only a joke and he had no plans on moving forward with his threats. A search of his dorm room turned up no weapons.
The incident caused a Lock Down or (Lock In) of numerous schools in the Frostburg area till shaws location could be pinpointed.
With the latest shootings its best to take all threats seriously and if error to error on the side of safety.FSU spokeswoman Liz Medcalf said there were 40 police officers patrolling the campus at one point Tuesday.
The university has placed Shaw on interim suspension pending an administrative hearing to be conducted by FSU. In addition Shaw faces a maximum penalty of one year jail time and/or a fine of up to $5,000.
For those online players that like to joke around you better choose your jokes wisely and to those that really do plan on doing something stupid, please by all means blab about it on XBL we would love to hear about it.
Sega is test-marketing a new software tool designed to match character facial expressions with dialogue spoken by voice actors.
According to Nikkei, Magical V Engine dovetails with computer graphics programs to analyze spoken words and match the movements of a character’s mouth, eyebrows and eyes to vowel sounds. It also analyzes the emotional delivery of spoken words in order to detect happiness, anger, surprise and sadness, which can be combined to create complex expressions.
Sega says that the tool is able to complete up to 80 percent of the work involved in animating expressions to match spoken dialogue, and notes that internal testing improved efficiency in this department nearly 100-fold.
An introductory offer will see the software hit the market for 155,400 yen (approximately $1,392) until March, after which it will be priced at 207,900 yen ($1,862).
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Unfortunately, Activision objected to the release of the compatibility patch. The patch remains with Sony, but we have been told that it will unfortunately not be released due to Activision's continued objection.”
A player in the same game from Oregon made a call to authorities in Maryland to report the threats.
Sega says that the tool is able to complete up to 80 percent of the work involved in animating expressions to match spoken dialogue, and notes that internal testing improved efficiency in this department nearly 100-fold.
