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E-xpress received much kudos from gamers across India when it released the PC version of Grand Theft Auto 4 for a mere Rs.499. Now they have decided to spread the goodwill and cheer among the console gamers as well. E-xpress has just announced that the price of GTA4 for both the Xbox 360 and PS3 has been slashed to Rs.1499.
Furthermore, those who did not get a chance to buy the Xbox 360 exclusive DLC, The Lost And The Damned off Xbox LIVE Marketplace can now buy the boxed version, GTA: Episodes From Liberty City which has The Lost And The Damned as well as The Ballad of Gay Tony, in one single box. You can pick it up for Rs.1999.
Surely, it wouldn’t be ostentatious for any of us in admitting to be a little curious upon hearing about a new Ghostbusters game in today’s current generation market. Fine, maybe it’s just me. But expecting a good one of out it? Surely, we (as in, I) should not be getting ahead of ourselves! Despite all the 8 and 16 bit titles released and based on the hit movie franchise from the mid-80s, Ghostbusters hasn’t been treated exceptionally well-enough to receive a second-chance for nearly 20 years. Though, frankly speaking, neither has a third full-feature film ever surfaced either. What is an untapped child-hood memory to do!
OK, so, not a lot of people made it to the Street Fighter IV launch party at The Living Room last week. Probably because they were busy spending quality time with their friends and loved ones, telling them how important they are when you’re living life at 120 mph. Or they were probably in bed, sipping on a cup of hot coffee, or pounding on a controller, or maybe both. (Ahem!) Oh, I remember now! It was because it was on a freaking Friday evening where the Satanic bosses at our workplace were going, “Just a couple of more hours before these in-bred SOBs go home for two days to nurse their bruises and their egos, so let’s push them harder. And yeah, send that database warehousing tub-o’-lard into my room. I’ve got a couple of fluggaenkdechioebolsen reports that I wanna go over with him!” (WARNING: That linky’s totally NSFW, so beware. And kids, stay away for your own good, at least until you’re older!)
But anyway, that was Street Fighter IV, so let’s talk about Killzone 2. You’ve read about it. You’ve seen all the videos. Maybe even participated in a few forum wars about how it’s the next best thing to hot garlic bread and cheese dip. Well, now is the time to check it out for yourselves. If you were one of the unlucky few who still hasn’t got the game or the fence-sitter minority, The Living Room is the place to be this weekend. Starting tomorrow, gaming folks who manage to wander over to The Living Room in Bangalore after 1 PM will get to spend three days in the company of the numero uno shooter for the PS3, Killzone 2. Like Niko Bellic hoped, maybe this time, things will be different. Or whatever, I don’t know, click on the ad for more details. Me, I have just one question – “Will there be Red Bull?”
(Click image for a high-res photo of the Killzone 2 swag)
Welly, well, well! Looks like contest season has started again here. For all those folks that had their brians (yes, that was deliberate) aching from all the disuse, here’s something that should get those little grey cells firing wildly. Say hello to our Killzone 2 contest, where five lucky blokes will be able to snatch up aKillzone 2 artbook (yes, the same ones you’d have gotten if you got your press kit or placed your Steelbook copy order at GI), a Killzone 2 cap that should serve for protection from the harsh sunlight (if this contest were held on Helghan, we could have given you gas masks, but you’re on Earth, so tough luck!) and a nifty skin to deck out your PS3 and profess your love for all things Killzone 2. Without further ado, happy hunting, and oh yeah, don’t forget to check out our ossum-possum review of Killzone 2 while you’re tearing your hair out! 
Contest Details / End-dates / Terms & Conditions / Winners List
Food, water, air, shelter, Killzone 2 – which seems to be the new updated list of what people need to stay alive and not curl up into a tight little ball and die from heartbreak and neglect. Just as news comes pouring in that the most eagerly awaited game of all time on the PS3 has officially broken street date and is ending up on game shelves everywhere in Dubai and Pakistan, we get some shocking news of what’s happening right in our backyard. With tensions running high between India and her next door neighbour, obviously, we can’t have them lording it over us about how they’re playing Killzone 2 and we aren’t. Well, fear no more, for India has followed suit and is breaking the street date as of right bloody now, with copies of the game being made available in all major cities starting from today.
And the best part is, it’s all official. With gamers in the country beating down the doors of the regional SCE distributors and threatening to cancel their pre-orders and take their business to the gray markets, Sony India and Milestone Interactive have done pretty much the only thing they could to save their business – break the street date officially and get the game out to starving fans a day or two before they’ll be available for sale in teeny tiny stores in a crowded alleyway. Talk about flipping the gray market off big time! Although we knew about it as soon as news of the Dubai leaks reached us, we were asked to keep our mouths shut until an official press release could be whipped up explaining what the heck was going on. Which, incidentally, also explains why we rushed to get our single player review of the game out the door a week before schedule.
Hit the jump for the official press release.
E3 2005 – the defining moment when Sony and Guerilla Games (GG) almost convinced me to pick up a PS3 as soon as the shiny piano-black console with the Spiderman font would become available, southbound credit lines be damned. The now-infamous trailer blew the collective gaming world away – jaws dropping and tongues doing a very wet red-carpet routine with the realisation that the sky will soon be the limit, thanks to the almost-mythical power of the Cell processor quietly purring away under the hood of the sexy black beast. Unfortunately, heartbreak soon followed with the disclosure that contrary to what Sony had claimed, the trailer was, in fact, prerendered CG, created to show off what would it should look like when it would finally launch, provided things didn’t get screwed six ways from Sunday from now till then. Most PS3 fans felt cheap and used after all the emotional trauma they suffered at the hands of the Xbox 360 and Wii fans after defending the trailer across message boards all over the internet – sort of like marrying the gorgeous girl they’d dated for ten years only to find out she was a transvestite on the wedding night. Soon after, Grand Theft Auto 4 hopped on top of the Xbox 360 bandwagon and before long, I was putting my money on the Redmond giant’s offering, signing the contract in blood without reading the fine print about how it would occasionally keep reminding me of a reddish hell, which would happen, predictably, when I found myself completely getting drawn in by some game.
Fast forward to late 2008: GG and Sony jump-start the hype train once again with preview builds of Killzone 2 starting to show up on game-show floors all over the planet. This time around, PS3 fans, confident in the knowledge that the PS3 finally had its “killer app” squarely in its sights, pulled up their pants, reset their passwords and stormed forums and message boards worldwide with a new found vigor. The following months saw me wading through N4G-melting previews and an acute overdose of animated GIFs explaining visually why Killzone 2 will be the second coming of Jesus and how GG was all set to pull off a Kratos by kicking God out of His Almighty Throne and setting up a bitchin’ LAN party right there in the middle of heaven. Whoa, did I back the wrong horse there by siding with the Xbox 360?
It has been a while since The ANGRY Pixel has compiled a Thursday Top Ten list. Well, we have a Thursday on hand here so what better way to make use of it then come up with a brand new list, which happens to be a list of the ten most stupid, weird decisions that the videogame giants have taken in the recent years. So while they plowed forward, brimming in confidence that their way is the right way, all we could do is watch them slack-jawed in disbelief as they happily shot themselves in the foot.
Hit the jump to have a look at what The ANGRY Pixel believes are the top ten worst decisions of this generation.
When everybody talks about big things coming in tiny packages, little do they realize that it has never been more fitting than in the case of Media Molecule’s magnum opus debut, LittleBigPlanet. Everybody remembers the first time they saw this game – maybe when it was being announced at the GDC, or when it replaced tedious PowerPoint presentations at the Sony keynote at E3, or when they finally got their hands on a controller at one end and the game at the other – only to feel Cupid’s arrows turn their heart into a pincushion with each moment spent looking at one of the most endearing digital personas ever created. In the blink of an eye, PS3 loyalists were vindicated, even as Xbox 360 exclusivists suddenly started eyeing Braid with a disdain that they didn’t feel until that very moment, and the PC crowd – well, they just milled around with an air of open hostility, armed with voodoo dolls and wooden stakes, so what else is new?
Overnight, what started out as an indie console platformer quickly ballooned into the flagship title for the PS3, with screaming fans proclaiming it as the first coming of the elusive “PS3 killer app” that was rumoured to be lurking in the wilderness right alongside Bigfoot, while Sony and the videogame press repeatedly thrust choice buzzwords such as Game 3.0 and Multi-plane gameplay down our willing and well-lubed throats, elevating Sackboy to the lofty position of platform mascot. But with such unprecedented hype over the game, which passed around the “Play. Create. Share” mantra to enraptured audiences worldwide (yours truly sitting third from left in the front row), there was a little voice of doubt that constantly wondered whether it would actually pass muster when push came to shove.
It’s that time of the year again when Sony Computer Entertainment India pulls out all stops in its bid to woo in as many as possible to its ever increasing tribe of PS3 owners. Last year event proved that if marketed properly, a gaming event such as this one can draw in gamers and non-gaming crowd alike. No wonder this time around, they have upped the bar again by making the Playstation Experience 2008 a multi-city affair.
Mumbai will be seeing the event held at In-Orbit mall on 8th and 9th of November. Bangalore will be there to experience it first-hand at Kormangala Indoor Stadium on the 15th and 16th of November. The city-hopping show will wrap at New Delhi where gamers and non-gamers alike can flock in to Ansal Plaza on 22nd and 23d November. In addition to this, the Mumbai event will be seeing a press-conference as well on the first day of the event. Here is hoping some good news comes our way from that.
SCE India has wisely kept it a weekend affair which would ensure families can flock in by the droves. Throw in the ad campaign and you will be looking at a record turn-out. It’s also heartening to see that the Delhi and Bangalore crowd are also finally getting some attention, especially Bangalore which has long been passed over for such events. Our kudos goes out to the SCE India team for making this possible. TAP most definitely approves!
This week saw a lot of interesting announcements, and we’re not just talking about the newly-appointed Microsoft India E&D Country Manager (but I’ll point it out anyway). Nope, Sony’s also been making the rounds this week. Aside from some game development and industry chatter, we got PS3 titles going for cheap and silly viral marketing videos to gloat about. Read on, scallywags!