[News – Multi] ShortNews: Halo 3: ODST, Tenchu 4 PSP and F.E.A.R. 2

• Bungie announced that Halo 3: Recon will be renamed to Halo 3: ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper). This change is based on what gamers will get with this expansion and Bungie promised more news soon.
• Famitsu confirmed that Tenchu 4 will be released on PSP. The game is already available in Japan and will be adapted to PSP and will be launched on next February, in Japan.
• F.E.A.R. 2 was banned in Australia region without any motive (violence?) advanced by Australian Classification Board and Classification Review Board. According to Gamasutra, this situation happens because Australia doesn’t have a “more than 18” classification. Bad luck kangaroos.

[News – Industry] Shenmue’s fans want Sega to finish the trilogy

Who had a Dreamcast (like me) remember this game. It was revolutionary in some aspects and was one of the most ambitious games for Dreamcast.

In that time, it was announced as a trilogy but only two chapters saw the daylight. With this in mind, some fans decided to do something against it.

Some fans organized themselves in MySpace and decided to overflow Sega with letters. They will send it between the day that Dreamcast was launched (November 27) and first Shenmue was released (December 29).

[News – Wii] Zelda producer won’t quit until he surpasses Ocarina of Time

Eiji Aonuma, Legend of Zelda boss man, is a perfectionist. After Ocarina of Time, one of the best games of ever, he’s not happy because he feels that he never surpassed Ocarina.

“I’m happy that a title I worked on some time ago remains highly praised to this day, but that also shows how none of the subsequent games in the series have surpassed it. As someone who is still working on the series, I have mixed feelings about that. Because I haven’t yet surpassed it, I can’t quit. Surprisingly, that simply motivation may be the reason I continue to work on the Zelda series.”

[News – X360] Microsoft: “We’re winning”

Microsoft is keen to shout their recent success all over the world with X360. In Europe, after reaching 7M consoles, the company issued a press release “"to highlight the momentum the Xbox 360 is experiencing", in which it repeats claims that the system's heavily outselling rival PS3.”

"As we enter our busiest selling season of the year Xbox 360 sales are not only exceeding our aggressive forecasts, but we are selling more consoles and games across the world than ever before," said Microsoft.

"We are winning in Europe, outselling PS3 in the region and currently experiencing the strongest sales we have ever seen in Europe, and since our price drop.. Xbox 360 sales have increased by five times, showing that European consumers are flocking to Xbox 360. For the first time, Xbox 360 is leading Southern Europe, outselling PS3 for three weeks in Spain and by 2:1 in Italy," the company added.

Microsoft also underlined that, in October, X360 outsold PS3 by a ratio of 2:1. Sometimes, this war seems those we had in school. “My average is better than yours.” “But my behavior is more ethical.” Boring…

[News – Multi] DLCs: Fallout 3 and The Last Remnant

Bethesda has detailed its DLC plans for Fallout 3, that will arrive to PCs and X360 next January.

“Operation: Anchorage”, as its called, will let players fight an action packed battle in a military simulations and relive “one of the greatest battles of the Fallout universe”.

Two more packs are planned just for the two Microsoft platforms. “The Pitt” and “Broken Steel” are the next ones.

"We've always seen the original world of Fallout 3 as a foundation for even more content. Some created by us, and a lot more created by users," said Fallout 3 director Todd Howard of the tools. "It's fun to create your own character, but it can be equally fun to create your own adventures. We can't wait to see what the community does with the G.E.C.K." GECK will be a mod tool that will allow PC users to create content for Fallout.

Now, The Last Remnant. Square Enix will release DLCs throughout December. In total, they will be four, offering new areas, formations and guild tasks. Three of them will be free.

Here’re all the details:

Challenge Pack 1: "Purgatory's Sins"
Price: Free
Release date: Gold Member: 1st December, 2008
Silver Member: 8th December, 2008
Level up your game with this pack of ultra-challenging guild tasks. Adequate game progression is necessary.

"The Key of Ancient Ruins"
Price: Free
Release date: Gold Member: 1st December, 2008
Silver Member: 8th December, 2008
Unlock the gates to the Ancient Ruins with this key, and discover what mysteries lie within its crumbling depths.

"March to War Set"
Price: 100 MSP
Release date: Gold Member: 15th December, 2008
Silver Member: 15th December, 2008
Three special unlockable formations (Scatterswarm, Goblet and Catapult) that will boost your tactical strength during battle.

Challenge Pack 2: "The Price of Lies"
Price: Free
Release date: Gold Member: 22nd December, 2008
Silver Member: 29th December, 2008
Add this pack of the most difficult guild tasks yet. Adequate game progression is necessary.

[News – PS3] Blu-ray: the PS3 ultimate determining X factor?

An interesting article from PSXExtreme, suggests that Blu-Ray is gaining more importance for games developers.

In the beginning, Blu-ray was truncated to a video issue. Higher definition, image quality was better and it was a video upgrade.

But, with PS3, the biggest impulsion to this format, another Blu-ray features started to matter. It’s bigger size, 50Gb, started to matter. The first signal was Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Kojima said that even a Blu-ray disk was smaller that what he wanted. To port this game to X360 would take what? 6 DVDs? Imagine: you play two hours and than “insert disk 2”. Annoying!

After that, came LittleBigPlanet, with a 43Gb size and, for example, The Last Remnant takes multiple DVDs to play it in X360. In PS3 version, maybe a Blu-ray disk.

All to say that, with time, developers like the idea to have more space to fulfill with their contents and don’t have to think if this will fit in the disk or not; they have that space.

So, will Blu-ray disc be a determining X factor for PS3? With digital distribution, time will say it.

(Read here the full article)