AusGamers :: News

Guitar Hero World Tour Australia Day Track Pack

AusGamers Pty Ltd

Activision have announced a new Aussie track pack to be made available on Australia Day (aka Hottest 100 Day):

Featured in the downloadable content is Silverchair�s 1995 hit "Tomorrow", which found early success as one of their first songs when it won a local music competition run by Australian television network SBS. Rounding out the Track Pack is the GRAMMY Award winning Wolfmother with �Dimension� and The Vines with their hit �Outtathaway!�

The Australian Track Pack and will be available on Xbox LIVE� Marketplace for Xbox 360� video game and entertainment system from Microsoft for 440 Microsoft Points (or 160 points per single) on 22nd January. Following that it will be live on 5th February for the PLAYSTATION�Store for the PLAYSTATION�3 computer entertainment system for $9.95 (or $3.45 per single) and Nintendo� Wi-Fi Connection for Wii� for 160 Wii Points per single.

Capcom Giving To Gamers For First Half of 09

AusGamers Pty Ltd

Technically I'm not back until next week, but couldn't leave this one sitting in my inbox. Capcom have reminded us they'll be serving up some seriously cool gaming options for the first half of 09, beginning in February with the release of Flock through Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network and on PC.

Street Fighter IV follows with its console releases for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on February 20th, while the Wii-ified Dead Rising update, Chop Till You Drop, is also slated for a Feb drop.

Finally, Resident Evil 5 is scheduled to arrive on Xbox 360, and PS3 this March, fittingly landing on store shelves worldwide on Friday the 13th (oh Capcom, you're oh-so clever).

Also the next-gen update to Bionic Commando will land in gamers' laps in the first half of 09 according to Capcom, though a specific date has yet to be announced.

Hit the title links for their specific AusGamers game page for more media with the exception of Flock, which we'll be updating very shortly.

2008 was Xbox 360's Biggest Year

AusGamers Pty Ltd

Many, many years that have passed since the Xbox 360 was unleashed, and Microsoft have just announced that 2008 was the "biggest year ever" for its gaming console:

Despite a tough economy, the gaming industry held strong in 2008 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system recorded the biggest year in Xbox history, with more consoles, games and online entertainment experiences sold than any previous year. It was a year in which life-to-date unit sales of Xbox 360 systems climbed to 28 million consoles worldwide -- expanding the product's lead over Sony PlayStation 3 to more than 8 million units.
...
Xbox 360 is experiencing record-setting sales around the globe, particularly in Japan and Europe, nearly doubling market share in these key territories. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) specifically, Xbox 360 has now sold more than 8 million units, extending its lead over the PS3 by more than 1 million units.

If you picked up a new console over Christmas, what was it?

Smokin' Guns, a Free Western Shooter

AusGamers Pty Ltd

On the first day of the new year, the Smokin' Guns team released version 1.0 of their total conversion based on the Quake 3 engine. This was formerly the Western Quake modification for Quake 3, but since the open sourcing of the Quake 3 engine it has been made into a standalone game:

Smokin' Guns is intended to be a semi-realistic simulation of the "Old West's" great atmosphere & was developed on Id Software's Quake III Arena Engine.

This total conversion includes completely new weapons created with historically correct information about damage, rate of fire, reload time, etc. It also includes new gametypes and maps inspired mostly by movies. And to increase the feeling of a "gunslingers atmosphere" we also created music tracks and sounds adapted to this time period.

More information and screenshots on our game page, and you can download the client for Windows and Linux locally from AusGamers.

Welcome to 2009!

AusGamers Pty Ltd

After a nice two weeks off pretending the Internet stops for the Christmas and New Year break, we're back in action! We hope everyone had a good holiday season (hopefully even those unfortunates that still had to work managed to squeeze in a bit of merry-making) and we can move into a new year of gaming for 2009.

There's a bunch of good stuff already on the horizon - next week we'll be having a look at some of the bigger games that might be gracing us with their presence this year (could 2009 be the year of Duke Nukem Forever?!?), so stay tuned.

Merry Christmas!

AusGamers Pty Ltd

On behalf of the team at AusGamers, Merry Christmas to everyone! We hope that all your gaming wishes were granted and you scored that sweet new game, console or peripheral your heart desired.

We're taking a bit of a break ourselves so it's a little quiet around here at the moment and we encourage everyone else to do the same. Have a safe and happy holiday!

Fable 2 DLC Delayed Until January 2009

AusGamers Pty Ltd

The announced Fable II: Knothole Island downloadable expansion for Xbox 360 has been delayed according to Xbox.com news update. The site claims "technical difficulties" have caused a delay from its intended Decmeber 22 release till "late January".

Fable II: Knothole Island expansion will not be available until late January 2009. As a result, the Fable II, Knothole Island Download and Win, originally scheduled to take place December 22 � 23, 2008, has been temporarily suspended. Please check back for updates. In addition, you can still register for the Download & Win by downloading the free Fable II: Knothole Island registration gamerpic, or by registering via Xbox.com

This will put the new Fable II content in the same release period as a planned DLC release for Fallout 3.

Smashball, a Half-Life 2 Mod

AusGamers Pty Ltd

A public beta of Smashball, a fast-paced sports modification for Half-Life 2, has been released - here's some info:

Smashball is a fast-paced, ultraviolent first-person sports shooter. Two teams use superhuman maneuvers, a real-physics grappling hook, and high-powered weaponry to try to get a single ball into their opponent�s goal.

* INCREDIBLE MOBILITY! Smashball players can use their Turbo Moves to amp up their speed. The Grappling Hook can be used to swing across open areas and wrap around corners. Combining the two allows for supreme feats of acrobatics.

* INTENSE ACTION! Play is focused on The Ball. Every second has to be used to score Runs or Shots on the enemy goal. Players in four different Positions run plays with trick Passing while trying to knock each other out. All weapons have infinite ammo, and players Regenerate Health. A brutal Charging is the best way to knock out or kill a player.

* CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION! Players get XP for playing, and can buy special Skills when they gain Levels. Skills are used in-game to tailor your character�s capabilities for specific roles. There is an entire dimension of strategy in picking the right combination of skills.

Can't see any screenshots on the official site, but it sounds intriguing on paper at least. You can download the mod locally from AusGamers.

The Wrestler Movie Tickets Competition

AusGamers Pty Ltd

The end of another year spells gift-giving and holidays and also the lead-up to Hollywood's awards season. One particular flick that's generating a lot of buzz around the traps is The Wrestler, directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Even Rachel Wood. Rourke in particular has already been nominated for a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards and is looking good for some Oscar recognition.

The film is due to land in Aussie cinemas on January 15 2009 and thanks to Hopscotch Films, AusGamers has 15 double passes to give away. All you have to do for a chance to win is creatively answer a simple question in 25 words or less, so head over to the competition page and enter now.

Free Radical Closing Down?

AusGamers Pty Ltd

A number of reports floating around the net were suggesting Free Radical (TimeSplitters, Haze) had closed its doors and was not allowing employees entry this week, however, an updated report from Gamasutra has outlined that while the company is definitely in some serious financial trouble, the third-party brought in to help handle the situation is claiming it's all "business as usual".

"We have asked that almost all of the employees apart from a skeleton crew remain at home," said a representative from the resolvent company. "All employees have been paid up until the end of December and we hope to make another announcement before Christmas or very soon thereafter, but we must stress at this stage that it's business as usual."

After the uber-unsuccessful release of Haze (both commercially and critically), and reports they [Free Radical] lost their Star Wars project with LucasArts, it's no wonder things are looking down. We'll keep an eye on the situation though, apart from all the bad, we can't forget these guys are the genius behind TimeSplitters.