We’ve known for some time that Batman: Arkham Asylum’s Game of the Year Edition was on the way, but now we know exactly what extras we can expect. The biggest feature in the GOTY edition is the inclusion of Trioviz 3D technology, and two sets of 3D glasses included in each copy of the game. Hit the jump for all the additional features in the GOTY edition.
Looking at the release list for March, it resembles something you would usually see towards the end of the year. While heavyweights like God of War III, Final Fantasy XIII, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will attract the most attention, there are a whopping 18 releases in total this month, in addition to February releases like Napoleon Total War, which got delayed. Here’s a complete list of releases this month:
Game4U, the retail arm of Milestone Interactive, opened its flagship store in suburban Mumbai on Wednesday, having already established itself in the online space last year with Game4U.com. The new store is located at Mega Mall in Oshiwara, Mumbai, and offers an expansive collection of games and hardware across console, handheld, and PC platforms.
Visitors can also try out the latest games at the store, with PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, PC, and PSPgo units set up with full games and demos. There’s even a sweet Rock Band set up. The store is extremely well organised, unlike anything we’ve seen in India before. There’s a preorder section, a Top charts section, where you can find the best selling games for each platform, and there’s even a Game4Girls section.
GameShastra, the Hyderabad-based studio behind Desi Adda, today announced that they’ve further expanded their relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, and are set to release the first Indian game for the PlayStation 3, titled Eklavya. They’ve also announced that Desi Adda will soon be available for purchase in digital form over the PlayStation Network.
The company also revealed that to meet the requirements of their ramp-up in high-end game development, they have expanded their game development facility to house a team over over 1,000 game designers, artists, animators, developers and QA specialists, making it one of the largest game studios in south Asia.
Codemasters’ Guildford facility has been hard at work on a new action first-person shooter for a while now. The studio is comprised of many former EA Criterion, Sony, and Blackrock employees, and the team behind the new shooter is being headed by Stuart Black, previously co-creator and designer of Black. The game will employ Codemasters’ proprietary EGO engine, which has powered games like Race Driver: Grid, DiRT & DiRT 2, and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising in the past.
In EA’s recent financial report, there’s mention of a shooter from Epic Games scheduled for release between January and March 2011. After a little digging around, it’s almost certain that this game is Bullet Storm, developed by People Can Fly, which is a sub division of Epic Games. The game will be a collaboration between People Can Fly and Epic, and will be published by EA Partners for consoles and PC early next year.
People Can Fly is the Poland-based studio that brought us Painkiller as well the PC port of Gears of War. Further evidence comes from the developer’s website which states, ‘A brand new IP is in development as a collaboration between People Can Fly and Epic Games. The title is being published by EA Partners’, although the title ‘Bullet Storm’ isn’t mentioned. It’s unknown whether this will be third-person or first-person shooter, but with release only a year away, we should see an announcement very soon.
Those who listened in to our latest IVG Podcast would have known about a little contest we held to celebrate the release of Mass Effect 2. We asked listeners to name all the EA games that Nash and I mentioned throughout the podcast. We’ve picked six winners, one of whom will receive a copy of Mass Effect 2 for PC and an N7 T-shirt, while the remaining five winners will receive N7 T-shirts.
Resident Evil 5 is now a PS3 Platinum and Xbox 360 Classics title, which means that the game will now be priced at Rs 1,999 on both platforms. So if the original Rs 3,499 price tag was keeping you away, now’s the time to pick it up. Also look out for Resident Evil: Gold Edition in stores this March, and expect pricing to be lower than the standard Capcom price of Rs 3,499. The Gold Edition includes Resident Evil 5 as well as two new episodes - Lost in Nightmares and Desperate Escape.
Game Shop Retail Pvt. Ltd. has opened its first specialist games retail store - Games: The Shop, in Mumbai. Although it’s a division of E-Xpress Interactive, one of India’s leading game distributors, the store carries games from all publishers across PC, console and handheld platforms. The first store is located at R-City Mall in Ghatkoper West, Mumbai.
After the success of their first store, the company now plans to expand the brand through more stores in Mumbai and the rest of India. So for anyone hoping to get into games retail, now would be a good time to approach E-Xpress with a business plan to open a Games: The Shop store in your city.
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, which includes the two expansions to GTA4, will release in India for PS3 and PC on March 30, along with the worldwide release. The two episodes - The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony – will be available on one disc and, unlike the downloadable versions, will not require you to own a copy of GTA4 to play.
Episodes from Liberty City is already available on Xbox 360 at Rs 1,999, so expect the PS3 version to be priced the same. And considering that the PC version of GTA4 is priced at Rs 499, it would be very surprising if the episodes are priced higher. The two episodes are detached from the story of GTA4 and the main characters in both episodes are also different, although Niko, as well as other characters from GTA4, do make appearances. So in essence, these are two new games altogether, and even if you haven’t played GTA4, you can play and enjoy these episodes without missing anything.
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