The Joypads

Never one to hold back, Peter Molyneux’s move away from Microsoft seems to have allowed him a bit more freedom when commenting on the state of play in gaming.

Kotaku’s interesting email exchange with the former Lionhead boss reveals his thoughts on the next generation of games consoles and even on the state of E3 as he gears up to turn commentator as E3 hits on June 5th. Read the rest of this entry »

A new trailer for Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us, the eagerly awaited new post-apocalypse thriller, has been revealed on the Playstation Europe Blog.

“What you watched here is only a peek into how alone and forsaken the world has become,” Naughty Dog’s community strategist Eric Monacelli stated. “Our world is a brutal, lethal place in The Last of Us. Be ready for things to get much worse

While it doesn’t show off any gameplay, it gives further indication of what you’ll be up against when the game finally releases.

Sega release Sonic 4 Episode II on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Store today in Europe.

The game follows on from the first Sonic 4, but has been completely reworked from the ground up due to feedback from fans over the physics.  Sega have tried to reproduce a much closer feel to the original Megadrive games with this new episode.

“Sonic 4 Episode II is very special because we’ve integrated community feedback into the game.” said Haruki Satomi, Senior Vice President of Digital Business at SEGA of America. “We have some of the most loyal and dedicated fans and I hope they enjoy this next chapter in the Sonic 4 saga.”

Anyone who has already bought Episode I will be rewarded with the extra Episode Metal when they purchase the second episode.  Episode Metal tells the story of what happened to Metal Sonic after the events of Sonic CD.

Sonic 4 Episode II will be available for 1200 MS Points (XBLA) or £9.99 (PSN).  The game is also being made available on iOS this Thursday and Android next month.

Sega have announced that Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown will be punching its way on to PSN and XBLA on 5th June.

Priced at $15.99/ £9.99 or 1200 MS Points, the game  will be a standalone 3D fighter with 19 characters, 2 more than the arcade edition.  The 2 new fighters are Taka-Arashi from Virtua Fighter 3 and newcomer Jean Kujo.

With an 8 player lobby and the ability to save and view replay data, Virtua Fighter 5 is looking like a strong challenger for those looking for their next fighting fix.

While some gamers may have wanted Activision’s controversial subscription based service to fail, it seems to be going from strength to strength.

MCV has reported that figures for the paid Elite service are up 33% on January, now standing around 2 million paid subscribers, with that number rising every month.

If you include all the unpaid Elite members, that number jumps to a huge 10 million users, something Activision will take in to account for the forthcoming Black Ops 2, no doubt.

We could speculate from this that this will convince Activision to release a Black Ops 2 Hardened Edition with another year’s Elite subscription included, but we’ll wait to here more nearer the time.

Darrell Gallagher of Crystal Dynamics has confirmed, on the Eidos forums, that Tomb Raider will be delayed from its original Q4 2012 release to Q1 2013.

While admitting this may be disappointing for fans, he explained that this was in order to provide the highest quality product possible.

“Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game. In order to do this, we have decided to move the game’s release date by a few months, from Fall 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.

We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. The game is looking amazing and we can’t wait to show it to everyone at E3 in a few weeks.”

MCV has reported that the PEGI rating system for games will be enforcable from July, with retailers being responsible for sticking to the system or risking legal proceedings.

PEGI is a pan-European rating that is often considered preferential to the BBFC ratings currently found on 15 and 18 Rated games alongside it.  Making PEGI law will mean that games no longer have to be submitted to the BBFC for approval before hitting stores.

Many games publishers will welcome the move, which adds far more clarity to the situation and allows a more uniform approach to ratings across Europe, but there will also need to be an element of re-education to ensure parents and guardians are aware of the legality of these ratings.