This one kinda snuck into Sony’s information from their Destination PlayStation retail event. Konami will be offering a special pre-order bonus for Metal Gear Solid 4. Details are scarce at the moment, but suffice it to say that people who pre-order MGS4 will be able to participate in the multiplayer beta of Metal Gear Online in late April.
Metal Gear Solid 4 will include a “Starter Pack” on the disc for Metal Gear Online, so this beta will give you a feel of what to expect when the game is released. No word is Konami will be offering other ways to enter the beta. So if you want to participate, get ready to pre-order the game once more details are revealed.
New to MLB 2K8 is an online option to play with Strikes Only. For those of you who played online a lot last year, you’ll know there are people out there who liked to glitch a whole lot with pitching by throwing no strikes, lot of Eephus pitches, etc. There’s not much time to decide to swing, so many players swing at most pitches.
With the new pitching mechanics, it’s harder to paint the corners and hit your exact spots. So what happens if you miss in Strikes Only online? Ben Brinkman, the game’s producer, had this to say:
With Strikes Only if you are trying to paint the corners and you miss the ball won’t miss out of the strike zone. It will miss ‘in’ the strike zone.
Works for me. So if you miss the zone, you’re gonna get rocked. Dually noted. Can’t wait for the game’s release next week!
Nintendo is looking to cash on in online play for some upcoming games. Considering the fact that their online service is almost non-existent, this is pretty surprising.
Dubbed “Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Pay and Play”, the service will allow users to subscribe to a game to play online. No pricing was announced, but subscribe sounds like a monthly fee per game here. No games were announced for using the feature either. To avoid confusion, titles that support Pay and Play will have a red icon on the box instead of the current blue Wi-Fi Connection icon.
Seriously, this is one of the dumbest moves Nintendo could make. You take what’s essentially a non-existent online service with extreme clunky friend codes and want people to pay for it? No thanks. I’ll stick to the free online play on the PS3 and Xbox Live. At least with Live, I’m getting a decent service for what I’m paying.
The ever growing LoTR Online game has launched their 11th Book today, Shadows of Angmar. Here are the highlights from an email sent directly to Loot Ninja from the developers themselves. We saw the housing beta at DigitalLife and I have to say it looked really awesome. Hit the more button for all the goodies:
Nintendo really needs to step up it’s online gaming platform. Maybe they really just don’t want it, who knows. Anyway, Rockstar’s Table Tennis is the latest victim for the Wii to lose it’s online mode.
According to CVG, Rockstar confirmed to them that the Wii version of the ping pong hit won’t have online play.
The online multiplayer mode featured in the 360 has been dropped on Wii because, as Rockstar explains: “All the focus is going into making it the most advanced control system on the Wii.”
I think that’s a bullshit answer. The real answer is probably closer to “Nintendo isn’t providing enough support to implement an online system.”
This looks like it could surpass Warhawk as the ultimate online experience on the PS3. Too bad it doesn’t come as part of Metal Gear Solid 4. Hopefully it doesn’t cost $60 just for the online component.
This coming week is set up to be the biggest week ever for the PlayStation Store on the PS3. The previous two weeks have had some terrific updates with demos and trailers, but this week looks to leave both of them in the dust.
This week marks the release of Warhawk as the first downloadable game that will also be released on Blu-Ray. Releases have been announced for August for High Stakes on the Vegas Strip: Poker Edition and Super Puzzle Fighter Turbo HD Remix, with this week being the last chance in August. Another supposed release this week is the update for Tekken with online play, but there’s been no confirmation on that release date.
If even half of these releases come out this week, it will be a great week for PS3 owners. Save up your money because it’s going to be an expensive rest of the year.
I’ve been playing the Call of Duty 4 Beta on the Xbox 360 for a few days now. The embargo has just been lifted, so I’m now able to tell you about all it. Maybe it’s the fact that all the crazy a$$hole kids aren’t playing yet, but I’ve been having a great time.
The beta has four game modes: Team Deathmatch, Free-For-All, Team Objective and Team Tactical. The first three game types support up to 12 players, with Team Tactical supporting supporting 4 or 6 players. In all of the game modes, you’re awarded points for each kill, and matches end either after a set period of time or a set number of points is reached. I’m having the most fun in Team Deathmatch, and it seems like everyone else is as well, as the majority of players have been focused in that area. Team Objective is fun for capture the flag style games as well.
The game will feature an online leveling system, similar to what exists in Rainbow Six: Vegas. With each increase in rank comes new weapons, upgrades, or abilities you can use online. The beta is capped at a maximum level of 11 and no max has been revealed for the retail version of the game as of yet. Rumor has it that most of the coolest weapons and upgrades come after level 20.
The beta has 3 maps, each varying in their size and complexity. The smaller maps are great for fast paced deathmatch. I played a few Team Deathmatch rounds on larger maps where everyone was clumped in one area. If you spawned somewhere else, you had a lot of walking to do. I’m sure these maps will be used for bigger games when the retail version ships.
Overall, I think the multiplayer portion of the game is already very polished as I haven’t really seen many bugs. I like this much better than previous Call of Duty games because of the modern setting, since I’m very sick of World War II games. If you don’t make it into the beta, rest assured you’ll have a great time playing this game online once it ships later this year.
In case you’re still living under a rock, in a bubble, or somewhere stuck in the past, EA Games will be shutting down their servers for their 2006 titles, not just those of the sport variety. That means it’s time for you to pony up the cash for one of their yearly updates or suffer without the non-sports titles online.
The September 1st shutdown will effect the following titles:
Arena Football, FIFA Soccer 06, FIFA World Cup 2006, Fight Night Round 3, Madden NFL 06, Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, MVP 07 NCAA Baseball, NASCAR 06 Total Team Control, NBA Live 06, NCAA Football 2005, NCAA Football 2006, NCAA March Madness 2006, NFL Head Coach, NHL 06, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06
An additional shutdown on November 1st will cause the following titles to stop working online:
Burnout Revenge, Need for Speed Underground, Need for Speed Underground 2, Need for Speed Most Wanted.
The shutdown effects titles on the PC, PS2, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360. So sell those titles off now before they’re only worth a few pennies.
Finally is all I can say. Soul Caliber 2 and 3 were on the cusp of the online play generation and missed the boat. The fourth installment will be promptly on board though.
As confirmed to 1up, you’ll now be able to play Soul Caliber IV online on all consoles (Xbox 360 and PS3, currently). You’re also going to be use your created characters in online play, which is a huge move for the game.
“What’s changed this time round is that the next-gen platforms have network infrastructure already in place,” says Soulcalibur IV Director Katsutoshi Sasaki. “We’ve heard from fans that they really want the game to be online, so we figured that, with the current environment, we really couldn’t make SC4 without online play.”
Score one for gamers. But, with the introduction of create-a-character in Soul Calibur III and its assured revamping in Soulcalibur IV, will these customizations go to waste? “We definitely want to allow users to fight with their customized characters during online play. But we’re unsure whether or not you’ll be able to trade characters with friends.”
The ever growing LoTR Online game has launched their 11th Book today, Shadows of Angmar. Here are the highlights from an email sent directly to Loot Ninja from the developers themselves. We saw the housing beta at DigitalLife and I have to say it looked really awesome. Hit the more button for all the goodies:
In case you’re still living under a rock, in a bubble, or somewhere stuck in the past, EA Games will be 
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