Blackrock Studio’s surprisingly fun ATV racer Pure is still a long way away from seeing store shelves in India. Excel Interactive, who are the distributors for Disney Interactive (the game’s publishers), have said that they are yet to receive the game from their American counterparts.
Considering the time it would take for replication, packing, and other production activities, Excel has said that the game would take at least another 30 days to release in India. Also, please note that Excel will only release the PC version of the game in India. So if it’s a console version you’re looking for, Play-Asia is your best bet.
This delay surely comes as a huge disappointment to many of us who were eagerly awaiting Pure’s Indian release. Looks like we’re going to have to get a lot more mileage out of the demo until then.
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Just got back from Games Convention Asia 2008 (September 18-20 at Suntec International Convention & Exhibition Centre) in Singapore. There’s a lot to share with you guys, including game impressions for some of the games I had the opportunity to play - Need For Speed Undercover, FIFA 09, FIFA Online 2, Saints Row 2, Mirror’s Edge, etc.
We will also have interviews with Cevat Yerli, CEO of Crytek, John Doyle, producer of Need For Speed Undercover, FIFA 09 producer Clive Gorman and Christopher Teskey from the FIFA Online 2 team.
There’s also an in-depth interview with Tom Farrer, producer of Mirror’s Edge. Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Mirror’s Edge will probably be answered in that interview. Also, Nash and I haven’t recorded a podcast in a while, so you guys can expect a GCA 2008 podcast soon; we have a lot to talk about.
So while I gather all my thoughts and transcribe all the interviews, here are a few pictures from GCA 2008:
Hit the jump for more images
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Arguably the best racing game this year so far is finally getting some DLC treatment. Codemaster’s today announced that downloadable content for Race Driver: GRID, in the form of 8 stunning new cars and 2 new online events, will be part of the “8 Ball” Pack, which will make its way on to Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network this autumn. Details for the PC version will be released later.
The eight cars included in the pack are the McLaren F1 GTR, TVR Cerbera Speed 12, Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X, Honda S2000, Nissan GT-R (S-G2008), VW Nardo, Pontiac Firebird Trans AM, and the Volvo C30; a neat list if you ask me. All cars included in the pack can be used online and in the game’s “Race Day” mode.
While we wait for a confirmed release date and pricing for the downloadable pack, Codies have already announced their future DLC plans. Coming later this year will be V8 Supercars from the likes of Ford and Holden as well as the Bathurst circuit.
To sweeten the deal further for Xbox 360 owners, the 8 Ball Pack will also come with additional 100 achievement points. Hit the jump for a list of achievements.
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Aman Kapoor from IndianVideoGamer.com attended the Human Weapon Gaming Nights event in the city of Bangalore, India, and came away with a craving for pizza.
The background:
The History Channel has been promoting certain shows on its channel by organizing gameing nights in major cities in India. It started off with the Dogfight Nights gaming events in Delhi and Mumbai earlier this year and now they are hosting Human Weapon Gaming Nights with Bangalore playing the host.
To begin with, I didnt have many hopes from the event. It was woefully under-advertised and we only came to know of it because one of our members got a press invite. The theme continued when I reached the venue because there were no cutouts or advertisements outside the location promoting the event. Things didnt get much better inside. There was a small turnout and I would estimate that hardly 30-35 participants showed up.
There was a total of eight 37″ LCD TVs and 4 kiosks with 26″ LCD TVs with 12 consoles, which is a very decent setup and kudos to the organisers for this. But the biggest disappointment was the fact that the event which was supposedly a promotion for Gears of War 2 didnt have any Gears 2 promos at all. The event began with a deathmatch with 2 people per console and 8 teams in total. Last Avenger and I were in one team. I wasn’t captivated and in middle of my game I decided to hand over the controller to Arun360 who has just arrived.
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IndianVideoGamer.com spent some quality hands-on time with a preview build of the latest iteration of the long running Need For Speed series, “Need For Speed : Undercover” at the Games Convention Asia 2008 in Singapore, and came away with some positives and some negatives.
We asked John Doyle, the producer of the latest game about the possible release of a demo of Undertcover before the game hits stores. He stated that EA would not be releasing a demo of the game since they wanted to concentrate on the game rather than spend time on the demo.
Which throws up a few questions…
1] Do developers use a separate team for churning out demoes of their games ? I assumed that you simply copied the code for the first level or two and pressed them into an installable image. Does it really take so much time to crank out a demo so as to interfere with the development of the actual game ?
2] Could the reason for not releasing a demo be the fear of negative backlash similar to what we witnessed with the last NFS offering, “NFS : Prostreet” ?
Huh ? Huh ?
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IVG’s very own Sameer Desai has been whisked away to Games Convention Asia, one of the biggest gaming expos in the continent. He writes back with daily updates on the going-ons at the event.
Today was the first day of Games Convention Asia in Singapore. We flew in at about 8 am and we had to make it to the convention centre by noon. By the way, the convention centre is right in the middle of the Marina Bay F1 circuit. The stands are already up and so are the barricades and lights; its gonna be awesome. But back to GCA.
We got to the convention centre at about 11:30 for EA’s press conference. While there many announcements made, none of them affect us in India. Rock Band was finally announced for Asia, bit no confirmation of India. Same goes for PC titles FIFA Online 2 and NBA Street Online, which have been developed in Korea and will be available in several countries in Asia, but not India, at least for now. Other than that, there were the customary presentations for FIFA 09, Need For Speed: Undercover, and Sim Animals.
Following the hour-long, uneventful EA conference, we headed to the show floor after a quick lunch. I got to play a few games, and there are still so many still to play. Here’s the games I did play and my brief impressions:
Mirror’s Edge: Awesome! Difficult, but awesome! However, only the first level was there on the floor.
FIFA 09: Not much different from the demo, but more the something good never hurts.
Need For Speed: Undercover: The feel is a lot like Most Wanted. It’s definitely an improvement over ProStreet, but too many framerate, pop-in and freezing issues. It’s still an early build though.
Saints Row 2: Only the first jailbreak mission of the game was there on demo. I loved it; hand-to-hand combat is awesome and it’s pretty crisp visually too.
That’s all I can think of for now after a tiring day. Will try and post more after day two.
Ever wanted to show off your elite gaming skills and win some cool swag in the process? Well here’s your chance. Microsoft-India and The History Channel present “The Human Weapon Gaming Nights”.
To be held on Friday, September 19, 2008 at The Living Room, Residency Cross Road, Bangalore from 4 PM onwards, the event lets you compete against others in games like dead or alive, halo 3, gears of war etc. You can also win some cool prizes including the grand prize an Xbox 360 console. So register here and Enjoy!.
press release
Bengaluru, September 15, 2008 – Here is your chance to challenge your colleagues, beat your friends or kill your enemies to become a true-blue ‘Human Weapon’. The History Channel is organizing Human Weapon Gaming Nights, for all gaming enthusiasts in the city to promote its biggest property this season, ‘Human Weapon’. The series, which takes viewers on a scintillating journey through the varied world of martial arts, airs every week on Wednesday and Thursday nights at 10 PM.
Human Weapon Gaming Night is being organized in association with Microsoft Xbox 360 on Friday, September 19, 2008 at The Living Room, Residency Cross Road from 4 PM onwards. Participants need to log onto www.historychannelindia.com/humanweapon/contest to register for the gaming night. Thrilling games such as Halo 3, Gears of war, Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden 2 promise to be the star attraction of the evening as they provide a direct connect to the series’ overriding theme. The winner of the championship will take home a dream prize – an Xbox 360 along with other goodies.
“A great blend of information and entertainment, Human Weapon is our biggest ace this season. Our partnership with like-minded partners such as Microsoft for this initiative allows us to fully and effectively engage with our target audience”, said Rajesh Sheshadri, Senior Vice President, Content & Communications, The History Channel.
“Xbox 360 is extremely happy to be partnering with The History channel for the Human weapons gamer night. As two young and dynamic brands providing unparalleled entertainment; it is but a natural coming together for us to provide the best of gaming and entertainment experiences to our audiences. This unique event is also a great platform to showcase some of the exciting new stuff Xbox 360 has planned for the upcoming festival season. The exciting Gears of War 2 arrives in November alongside other hits like Fallout 3 and Fable 2 as well as the exciting new Xbox Live experience”, said Ashim Dass Mathur, National Marketing Manager, Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division.
The next pit stop for this two-city gaming tournament is New Delhi, where the activity will take place on September 26 at Café Morrison. So here is your chance to pit yourself against other gamers and show off your gaming skills to win exciting prizes.
The PlayStation 3’s Platinum Games line-up just keeps getting better. After the likes of Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, MotorStorm and Resistance: Fall of Man, you can now race around Paradise City for less with Burnout Paradise joining the ranks.
When PS3 Platinum Games were first announced last month, Burnout Paradise strangely made it on to advertising posters, banners etc, but it never really showed up in stores. But it’s here now and should be in stores across India by the end of September at a discounted price of Rs 1,499.
Interestingly, Burnout Paradise is still not a Platinum title in the UK, which is strange because in such cases, India usually mirrors SCEE practices. Not that we’re complaining; we now have two decent racing games on the PS3’s Platinum line-up (and no, the other one is not NFS ProStreet).
Check out our Platinum Titles forum thread for a list of other PS3 Platinum titles.
It’s been way too long since our last IVG Offer. So now that the calm has passed, its time for the storm. IVG Offer season begins with FIFA 09, but unfortunately, the offer is only for the PlayStation 3 version, since EA’s Xbox 360 distributors aren’t very co-operative when it comes to discounts.
Before I proceed with the offer, a brief introduction. IVG Offers are, to put it simply, bulk orders that IVG places on behalf of its members. Since we order in bulk, the people we order from (distributors or retailers) give us discounts, which we pass on to members. Members pre-order the game on our forums and we take payment a few days before the game’s release. The games usually reach us a day before or the same day they hit retail in Mumbai, and we courier them out ourselves via DTDC. In the past, we have had successful IVG Offers on Heavenly Sword, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Burnout Paradise, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, God of War: Chains of Olympus, and Grand Theft Auto 4, and a not-so-successful offer on Metal Gear Solid 4 (but that wasn’t our fault).
IVG Offers are back! Even Francky can barely contain himself
Hit the jump dor the the FIFA 09 offer details
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By now the saga of Too Human is the stuff of legends. Ten years in the making, and originally destined for the PS One, the game finally found its home on the Xbox 360. Let’s just say that the first installment in the trilogy probably should have been released during the PS One era to have gotten our full appreciation. As it stands today, its fun but it’s a bit of a mess.
Too Human’s story is a unique take on Norse mythology. The usual staple of Norse gods are present - Odin, Thor, Loki, etc., but gods in Too Human are essentially cybernetically-enhanced humans; in other words, a geek’s wet dream. The gods in Too Human are known as the Aesir (from Wikipedia : In Old Norse, æsir, is the term denoting the principal gods of the pantheon of Norse paganism. They include many of the major figures, such as Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Tyr. They are one of the two groups of gods, the other being the Vanir. In Norse mythology, the two are described as having waged war against one another in the Æsir-Vanir War, resulting in the unification of the two into a single tribe of gods). The Aesir are all part of the Aesir Corporation that looks after MidGard (Gasp!! a well known reference here) - the capital city of the human race.
You play Baldur (not the most obvious choice of gods for an action hero since Baldur is the Norse God of light and beauty), one of the Aesir who has suffered a personal tragedy. You are tasked with tacking the increasing menace posed by a race of machines, which is attacking humans and sucking the blood and organs out of them.
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