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Electronic Arts Inc. announced today that FaceBreaker™ – an all-new intellectual property – is under development at EA Canada and will be released for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360™ video game system from Microsoft and the Wii™ in 2008.“We’re very excited to announce FaceBreaker, an all-new franchise from EA SPORTS that is fun, fresh and innovative,” said Peter Moore, president, EA SPORTS. “FaceBreaker reinvigorates one of the great genres in sports videogames.  Arcade boxing takes me back to my roots in this industry, and this game signals our shift to adding more approachable fun to our product lineup.  In no time at all, you’ll be picking up the controllers and knocking your opponent around the ring, smashing faces, and having a riot.”

The renaissance of the arcade boxing genre is upon us. Created by the same team that developed the award-winning Fight Night Round 3, FaceBreaker offers irreverent fun, immersive gameplay and eye-popping stylized graphics. In this in-your-face, arcade world full of ego-wielding characters, each boxer comes to life with unique attributes and distinct personal style, including Romeo, a Latin lover known for his pelvic thrusts, and Molotov, an oversized Russian demolitions expert with a penchant for fighting dirty. Add a little personal motivation to your fight by uploading a photo of your face to create a realistic likeness using Photo Game Face, and go toe-to-toe with a real-life friend or foe.

Laugh out loud as you pummel your opponent with a barrage of blows to the face and watch in satisfaction as your progress is illustrated by real-time facial deformation. With haymakers, face shots and body blows, wait for the right moment to drop a super punch to make your presence known. Taunt your adversaries and flaunt your talent, by tying one hand behind your back to add ultimate humiliation to your bout. In FaceBreaker, it just feels good to rearrange your opponent’s face.

Game on!

UPDATE: As we reported on Tuesday, there was a ‘real’ Halo 3 energy sword for sale on ebay. 

The sword has now been sold to the winning bidder for $525.59.  That’s quite a bit.  I wonder if we’ll be seeing the buyer using it in any online videos or to really dress up a Master Chief costume. 

cdv Software Entertainment USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of publicly-traded cdv Software Entertainment AG, today announced an agreement to publish ASCARON Entertainment’s highly anticipated Sacred 2: Fallen Angel in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The title is slated to launch on PC and Microsoft Xbox 360™ in the second half of 2008, timed to meet consumer demand during the 2008 holiday season.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is an Action RPG with a rich story that takes place in a giant, open-ended and seamless world. This world contains hundreds of dungeons, treacherous opponents and a variety of challenging quests. Intelligent enemies, steadily adapting in number and difficulty based on player progress, challenge in heroic single- and multiplayer battles.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel provides numerous unique items that can be gathered in this mystical world. A deep reward system further enables advancements in character, individual attributes and character-specific fighting styles, each designed to keep players returning to the world of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel to discover what is around the next bend. Drop-in styled cooperative multiplayer gameplay ensures players will enjoy the game alone or seamlessly with friends at any time. Five unique multiplayer modes round out the experience and offer a refreshing, first-class gaming experience in Sacred 2: Fallen Angel.

Key Features include:

• A huge, seamless and dynamic world that allows for free-form exploration
• Two campaigns: play as the “Light” or “Shadow” side, complete with distinct skills, rewards and story-elements tailored to the chosen path
• Six exceptional, playable characters, each with a distinct look, capabilities and in-game motivation
• Modifiable combat arts: change and upgrade your alter ego’s combat skills as you make choices throughout the game
• Fight effectively from the back of a number of mounts under your control
• Deities offer unique combat disciplines to players
• The ultimate multiplayer experience – seamless transition between single- and multiplayer gaming modes
• Captivating online modes of play challenge gamers in cooperative and PvP play
• Extraordinary, cutting-edge graphics utilize the latest technologies

Game on!

A seller on ebay going by the moniker of Lionheartsrealm has up for sale a ‘real’ Halo energy sword.  (AUCTION LINK)

Made of solid sainless steel, the sword is a full 36″ in length and 14″ wide.  Also, according to the auction listing, the winning bidder will also receive:

-An Energy Sword Collector’s Card that will feature Master Chief, Arbiter, Grunt, White Elite, Red Spartan or White Spartan. You may choose any character or I can send you one at random.

-A Solid Wood Walnut Wall Plaque to display your Energy Sword anywhere.

 -A Certificate of Originality that will certify that you are receiving a high quality original sword from Lionheartsrealm, not some cheap knockoff.

At the current auction price of $305 (US), this is obviously for serious collectors only.  It does look impressive though!

Game on!

In an aparent attempt to rescue her tarnished journalistic reputation, Cooper Lawrence has offered up a half-assed apology regarding her recent comments about the game, Mass Effect.  The quotes below show that her knowledge of the game was 3rd hand heresay (she aske someone else, who had also not played the game, what he’d ‘heard’ about it.  That was the extent of her pre-interview research). 

The quotes below are from THIS article on NewYorkTimes.com. 

“In an interview on Friday, Ms. Lawrence said that since the controversy over her remarks erupted she had watched someone play the game for about two and a half hours. “I recognize that I misspoke,” she said. “I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke.”

“Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography,” she added. “But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.”

That’s all well and good, but this should be a wake up call to all reporters that genuine research (and not second or third hand gossip) is an important and necessary part of any news story.  She has felt the wrath of gamers everywhere.  Her latest book on amazon has met with the following fate:

“By Friday afternoon 412 of the book’s 472 user reviews were the lowest possible rating, one star. Another 48 ratings were for two stars. Only 12 of the ratings were for three stars or higher. In addition, 929 Amazon users had tagged the book with the keyword “ignorant.” Tied for second place with 744 tags were “garbage” and “hypocrisy,” while “hack” and “hypocrite” tied for fourth place with 710 votes. Gamers have also attacked the book on the Barnes & Noble Web site.”

Here is the average type of user review left for her book on Amazon.com:

“As one Amazon user put it: “I know all about this book but have never fully read it. Why? Due to the overwhelming backlash, I have no choice but to agree with the 1 star ratings. The rumors are rampant that this book was poorly written and poorly researched. So without verifying the contents myself — I give it a 1 star. Good thing video games aren’t judged in this manner — whew!!!”

I consider this a victory (allbeit a small one) for gamers.  In watching this story unfold, other media outlets have discovered that they had better not slander or malign video games with inaccurate reporting.  Gamers are rabbid about knowing all the details of our sport/hobby.  This means media outlets had better do their research before making wild, inaccurate and/or unsubstantiated claims against any game or they will feel the wrath.

Sadly, there has been no hint of any apology from Fox.  Their only reply to this point has been to say that they repeatedly offered to have someone from EA on the program.  That’s no excuse for such grossly inaccurate reorting. 

Game on!

EA Sports GamerNet announced today the Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 Buick Enclave GamerNet contest, which will kick off today at 7:00PM PST. 

The winner will receive a brand new Buick Enclave, Model CXL.  Three runners up will receive an Xbox 360 VIP Accessories Kit, including: an Xbox 360 Vision Camera, an Xbox 360 wirless controller and wireless adapter, an Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel and three EA Sports video games for the Xbox 360 console.  All winners will also receive a year’s subscription to GOlf Digest.  

To enter, you must to to the ‘EA Sports GamerNet’ option within the Xbox 360 version of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 between today, January 24th and February 6, 2008. 

There, you will be able to view the day’s two GamerNet challenges under the ‘Contest Channel’ manu.  You earn points by meeting or beating the stated ‘win conditions’ for each clip. 

Double points will be awarded to the first person to meet or beat each challenge, so play early!

COntest winners will be notified via email on or around February 11th, 2008.  A list of winners will be available at www.tigerwoods08.com once all winners are determined and verified. 

For complete contest rules and restrictions, see HERE. 

In a recent report on Fox News channel, Cooper Lawrence set her sights on the wildly popular EA title, Mass Effect.

Though she has, admittedly so, never played the gme herself, Ms. Lawrence went on attack against the game, making several completely false and grossly misleading statements about the game – specifically about it’s sexual content. 

The claims made have incensed the games publisher, EA, and today they decided to fight back.  You can read their response to the so-called ‘news’ story and their demands that Fox retract/correct their false statements regarding the game. 

You can read all the details HERE on IGN. 

Game on!

As both a ‘Thank You’ and a ‘We’re Sorry’ from Microsoft, the Xbox Live Arcade title, “Undertow” is free to download as of today.  It will be free for download for five days, starting today.

The thank you is for helping Microsoft break a number of Xbox Live records over this past holiday season, including the largest new-member sign up in Live’s history and the greatest number of users online with Live in a single day.   

The we’re sorry is for the issues Xbox Live experienced during this record-breaking period.  As a result of the huge surge in Live traffic, the servers got a bit overloaded and caused quite a few headaches for users. 

Some feel that a free arcade title is insufficient compensation for approximately 2-weeks of issues with Xbox Live.  I, on the other hand, think it’s more than fair. 

Xbox Live costs $49.99 per year (renewal rate).  That works out to 13.6 cents per day.  If you round that up to .14 cents and calculate two weeks of intermittent Live issues (Live was never actually ‘down’ during this time, just very slow and ‘iffy’), that comes to a total of $1.96.  I think a $5 Live Arcade title is more than sufficient. 

Game on!

Ahh, the acronyms: E3, GCD, TGS, CES, etc.  Each one brings great joy to those of us who enjoy keeping up with the latest news about our beloved hobby, video games. 

As we all know, however, one of the largest and most well known of these gaming/electronics shows, E3, has had some pretty drastic changes recently.  Its changed so much, in fact, that the E3 acronym no longer even seems as accurate.  It used to be known as the “Electronic Entertainment Expo.”  Now, however, E3 is known as the “E3 Media & Business Summit” (The show’s full name was actually the ‘Electronics Entertainment Expo Trade Show’ and is now the ‘Electronic Entertainment Expo Media & Business Summit). 

Technically, E3 was never ‘open to the public’.  It was intended for industry professionals, journalists and guests of show exhibitors (such as celebrities to help show off software or products, for example).  Of course, it was generally pretty easy to provide the necessary credentials to show that you were a ‘gaming industry professional’, since even game store employees could qualify.  As a result, E3′s attendance continued to grow and ballooned to over 70,000 attendees in 2005. 

On July 31, 2006, however, two months after E3 2006 concluded, the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) announced a major restructuring of E3.  Further details were provided on October 13, 2006, when the ESA announced E3′s new name and the fact that it had been transformed into an invite-only event with a stronger focus on press events and smaller industry meetings. 

The most pronounced effect of these changes was the size of the show, which dropped from a high of over 70,000 attendees to only around 3,000 – 3,500 for E3 2007.  The new invite-only setup dashed the hopes of thousands of gamers who planned to someday attend the formerly massive annual event.  The massive trade floor, which was the main draw for most every day gamers, was now gone.  Even if they could get an invite to E3 now, most gamers would likely be far less interested in attending only press events and industry meetings.   

In the wake of these massive changes, a couple of other industry related trade shows announced expansions in hopes of becoming the ‘new E3′.  These included the Indiana-based event, Gen Con, and the ESA-backed E For All Expo, which takes place at E3′s old home, the Los Angeles Convention Center. 

In my opinion, however, neither of these two events truly provide the type of experience that the former E3 Trade Show floor offered to gamers looking to see what new games are coming their way, try out game demos, chat with hardware, development and publishing company reps. and pick up some free schwag to bring back home. 

With 2007 attendance figures of 26,000 and 18,000 respectively, Gen Con and E For All weren’t even the largest gaming events in North America last year (granted, it was E For All’s first year – and they have the ESA’s blessing, but I still believe PAX is a better choice for gamers). 

After starting out in 2004 with only around 3,300 attendees (amazingly, exactly 1337 attendees pre-registered for the 2004 event), PAX has grown by leaps and bounds.  With over 37,000 attendees in 2007 (over double 2006′s attendance), the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) has become the largest gaming event in North America. 

A veritable Mecca for gamers who want to flood their senses with pure gaming goodness for three full days, PAX is what gamers longing for the now defunct E3 Trade Show floor have been looking for.  Encompassing console and PC computer games as well as table-top gaming (Such as Halo ActionClix or the Magic: The Gathering card game), PAX is designed not around industry professionals but around the gamers themselves.   

PAX attendees can look forward to a keynote speech (usually featuring a gaming industry insider), several panels on gaming-related topics, a huge exhibitor floor with loads of demos of upcoming titles (Featuring Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony*, Ubioft, NCSoft, Rooster Teeth, Wizards of the Coast, Red Octane, Rockstar and countless others), multiple video game and table top game tournaments, free play areas, a bring-your-own-PC LAN game room, several after-hours parties (many hosted by game publishers and developers), and much, much more.  (* Sony foolishly waited until only a month before PAX 2006 to register as an exhibitor, by which time there was no more exhibitor floor space available.  Hopefully they won’t make that mistake again.) 

PAX even includes a series of panels to help regular Joes get a better handle on the gaming industry as a whole, with panels such as: Breaking into the Industry, Pitch Your Game Idea, Changes in the Industry, Indy Games, New Media and many more. While E3 was geared more towards the industry (and is now entirely geared that way), PAX truly is all about us, the gamers. You can check out 360 Rant Rave’s coverage of PAX ’07 HERE. 

PAX ’08 will take place August 29-31 at the Seattle Convention Center in Seattle, WA.  That might seem like a ways off but if you want to attend, I suggest you start planning now.  Here are a few groups who got together to plan their trek to PAX ’07.  You might want to check them out and see if they are planning trips for 2008:

PAX Cross Country Supertrip

PAX Canadian Supertrip

PAX West Coast Train Trip

Also, as the dates for PAX ’08 draw closer, check out 360RantRave.com for detailed information on the Seattle, WA area including hotel info, where to eat, what sites to see beyond PAX, etc.  Penny Arcade themselves will also, as always, provide travel and hotel assistance on the PAX website, once attendee registration begins (sometime in January, according to the PAX ’08 Press Release).  I hope to see you there!

Game on!

Electronic Arts Inc. unveiled today an international selection of artists and music that make up the soundtrack of FIFA Street 3, the newest installment of the EA SPORTS BIG^TM street soccer arcade series.

The music in FIFA Street 3 includes:

Artist   Song   Region

Hexstatic       Red Laser Beam  London 
Hexstatic       Tokyo Traffic   London 
Hexstatic       Bust    London 

Tim Deluxe      Let The Beats Roll      London 
Tim Deluxe      Let The Beats Roll (Rennie Pilgrim Mix) London 
 

Asian Dub Foundation    Stop Start      Bombay / London
 

Bassnectar feat. Ms. Persia     Kick It Complex San Francisco  
Bassnectar feat. Ms. Persia     Kick It Complex (Bassnectar Remix)  San Francisco  
Bassnectar feat. Ms. Persia     Bomb The Blocks San Francisco  
Bassnectar feat. Ms. Persia     Bomb The Blocks (Ghislain Poirier Mix)  Montreal / Canada      
Bassnectar feat. Kristinamaria  Yo      San Francisco  
Bassnectar feat. Kristinamaria  Yo (Speaker Junk’s Jackin’ Mix) Brazil 
Buraka Som Sistema      Yah! feat. Petty        Portugal       
 

Chromeo Fancy Footwork (Zdar Dub, Pee Thug Edit)  Montreal / Canada      
Chromeo Fancy Footwork (DIM Mix)  Montreal / Canada      
 

Coburn feat. Solidstate We Interrupt This Programme     London 
Coburn  We Interrupt This Programme (Jean Claude Ades Mix)      London 
 

Datarock        I Used To Dance With My Daddy (M.O.M. Mix)      Norway 
Datarock        I Used To Dance With My Daddy (Subsource Mix)   Norway 
 

Does It Offend You, Yeah?       We Are Rock Stars       London 
Does It Offend You, Yeah?       Battle Royale   London 
 

Forro In The Dark       Suor de Futbol Fina (Mawglee Mix)       Brazil 
 

Innerpartysystem        Don’t Stop      Philadelphia   
 

Junkie XL feat. Lauren Rocket   Booming Right At You    Netherlands    
 

M.I.A.  Bird Flu        Sri Lanka / London     
M.I.A.  Boyz    Sri Lanka / London     
 

MC Amilcka      Humildade da Favela     Brazil 
 

No Bizzi feat. J2K      Yeah Yeah       London 
 

Sasha & Paul Rogers     Black Powder    London 
 

The Go! Team    Grip Like A Vice        London 
 

The Planet People feat. Afrika Bambaataa        Make It Break (La Resistance and Deemus Mix)    London 
 

The Tigerpicks  Disco Punk Electro Funk Manchester, UK 
 

Underworld      Crocodile       London 
Underworld      Crocodile (Huntermann Mix)      London 
 

Walter Meego    Wanna Be A Star Chicago
Walter Meego    Wanna Be A Star (Walter Sees Stars Mix) Chicago
 

Wax Poetic      Bombeiro        Brazil 

To listen to streaming music clips and learn more about the bands visit www.ea.com/eatrax/.

Game on!