If you were waiting for the MLB 10: The Show demo before the game’s release date, you’re out of luck. The last two year’s demos for The Show have come out two to three weeks prior to the release date but this year, the demo won’t come out till at least two days after the game hits retail shelves.

“I am not sure what purpose would be served by misleading you. We said there will be a demo….and there will be a demo. The simple fact is….The demo HAS been completed….the demo HAS been submitted for approval and posting. We, as devs of the game, have absolutely ZERO control as to when it gets approved or posted.”

Short Version: Dante’s Inferno offers up a solid, if somewhat shallow and short-lived, action experience. If you are looking for a stop gap until God of War 3 arrives, Dante’s Inferno will likely satisfy your thirst for button mashing action.

Game Rant reviews Dante’s Inferno

Dante’s Inferno isn’t necessarily the first videogame to be based on a piece of classic literature – but it is the most mainstream title to do so. Published by EA and developed by Visceral Games, the team behind 2008’s fantastically terrifying Dead Space, Dante’s Inferno takes its cues from the epic Dante Alighieri poem, The Divine Comedy, specifically the first chapter, “Inferno”.

Rather than directly re-telling the poem stanza by stanza, Visceral have instead opted for a thematic re-imaging of the source material, using the poems key ideas and imagery to create a very adult character action game.

Players assume the role of fictionalized version of Dante, re-imagined as a veteran of the Christian crusades. After literally staring Death in the face, he returns home to find that his wife, Beatrice, has been brutally murdered. To make matters worse for the chap, Lucifer soon arrives on the scene to drag her soul down to Hell. Doing as any self-respecting hero should, Dante, gives chase, beginning his oh-so bloody quest through the nine circles of Hell. As he descends deeper into the underworld, we begin to learn more about Dante and the sins he has committed in the past – as well as the Lucifer’s true motivations.

While Halo: Reach is due out in Q4 this year, with the beta kicking off in May, there is still talk of what comes next – if anything – from Bungie in relation to the Halo franchise.

Bungie has been treating Halo: Reach as the final installment of Halo from their hands – which doesn’t mean Microsoft won’t pass the torch to another developer to take a stab themselves. If you remember, Bungie separated themselves from Microsoft back in 2007 after a seven-year acquisition. Halo Wars was the first chapter of the franchise not developed by Bungie – the recently defunct Ensemble Studios was at the helm for that release.

Don’t throw away your hopes of Bungie still conjuring more installments just yet. In a recent interview with CVG, Bungie’s community manager Brian Jarrard said:

You know, it might be premature to say we’ll never ever, ever make a Halo game again. We sort of have a little special place for Halo in our hearts. But for the foreseeable future, this [Halo: Reach] is it.

While not promising, it looks like there could still be a possibility of more Halo at Bungie’s hands. It is what we are used to, but it would be nice to see what else Bungie has up their sleeve. They’ve been an extremely talented, popular, and successful studio and I’m eager to see them channel their potential into some other projects.

Would you like to see more Halo releases come from Bungie or are you bored of the franchise?

Source: CVG

Just a few short days ago, Activision announced Blur’s Twitter integration.  Now, Lead Designer Gareth Wilson and members of his team at Bizarre Creations have put together a new video detailing even more of Blur’s social gameplay. 

This new clip takes a close look at Blur’s four player split-screen mode (which, judging by the footage, is running super smoothly).  The extensive customization options available for each event are also examined.  Have a look:

Details and videos for Avalanche Studios’ upcoming title, Just Cause 2, keep pouring in.  Today we received information detailing the game’s demo, which I have included for your reading pleasure.

Available for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC from March 4th, 2010, the Just Cause 2 demo will feature a massive 35 square miles of the Lautan Lama Desert, a vast expanse of stunning, sun-scorched scenery taking up just one of the many islands in the 400 square miles of the Panau archipelago. Packed with towns, villages, military installations, mountain ranges, missions and more, the demo will feature an astonishing amount of activities for the player… and opportunities for adrenaline-fuelled chaos are limitless.

Hunt down and assassinate one of the game’s 50 military colonels; devastate military bases, bio fuel chambers, government infrastructure and more; hijack tuk tuks, military 4x4s, armored vehicles, mopeds, helicopter gunships, light aircraft, mini vans and numerous other military and civilian vehicles; freefall from desert outcrops or from burning planes at 20,000 feet; and unlock one full, multi-stage mission, traversing the mountains to a heavily fortified government radar station and ending in an unforgettable desert car chase.

The Just Cause 2 demo will be available March 4th, 2010, on PlayStation®Network, Xbox LIVE® Marketplace and Steam.

Also included in the release was their newest trailer, titled “Mid-Air Sabotage,” which features something that no human would ever attempt in real life.  But that is precisely the reason I’m excited about this game.

Just Cause 2 sabotages store shelves March 23, 2010 on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC

As we detailed just over a week ago, everyone who picks up a new copy of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will receive free day 1 DLC.  We knew that the content would feature 2 exclusive maps, but that was where the details ended.  Thankfully, EA and DICE have released a video that shows off both of these maps, and they look like they’ll be a lot of fun.

Check out the trailer below.

If you were bummed that Mass Effect 2 didn’t include vehicle missions, then I’ve got some good news.  According to Bioware’s website, members of the Cerberus Network will receive a free content pack in late March.  But what will it include?  The details are as follows:

Download the Firewalker pack and gain access to 5 new missions featuring the Hammerhead. The Hammerhead is a heavy assault vehicle that hovers over the battlefield at up to 120 kilometers per hour and features a guided missile system ensuring accuracy even during aggressive maneuvering.

EA Sports has brought back its hugely popular Ultimate Team expansion to FIFA 10. Starting today you can pick up the FIFA 10 Ultimate Team add-on from XBL (400 MS Points) and on PSN ($4.99).

There’s also a free trial available that allows you to play five complimentary games with the expansion – so you can try before you buy.

In Ultimate Team you start with a starter pack of players. From there you’ll compete against the world to build up your team. You use managerial skills to build a bigger and better team by wheeling and dealing to get the best players available. The expansion features a massive roster of over 7,500 players available to you.

The long, dark winter of the Sim-Racer is at an end.  Disney Interactive Studios have announced a May 18th US release for their hot-looking, track-destroying, arcade-racer Split/Second.  Our friends in Europe can join in the carnage May 21st.

After Forza Motorsport 3 and Need For Speed: Shift last Fall, I am so totally ready for some all out, arcade-style racing insanity.  Split/Second looks to pack more of this special kind of goodness than any racing game since Burnout: Paradise.

Sega has announced that their upcoming modern-day spy RPG Alpha Protocol will finally be hitting North American store shelves on June 1st. Gamers in Europe, like myself, will be able to get their hands on it a couple of days earlier on May 28th, and those of you down-under in Australia will get it even earlier on May 27th. The title will be available for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

Hot water, Check! Dirty plates, Check! Washing-up liquid, Check! Blood soaked katana, Check! Of course, this can only mean one thing, everybody’s favorite Dishwasher is back in town – Marigolds at the ready!

Ska Studios have revealed that last years gory slice-em-up, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai, will soon be getting a bigger, more bad-ass sequel in the form of The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile. The game was unveiled via the website for fictional washing up liquid Fervor Shine which has spent the last week counting down to today’s reveal.

Activision announced today that they’ve managed to pack Twitter functionality into Blur.  From the press release:

“Players can choose to Tweet about race victories, how many fans they’ve just earned, cars they’ve unlocked, leaderboard ranks, send challenges to friends and much more.  Basically, if you see it in game and want to tell someone about it, we’ve got a Tweet for that.”

The release emphasizes that players will be able to customize the messages they send from within the game.  Hopefully this will circumvent the kind of Twitter spam produced by the Uncharted 2 beta last year.

Free stuff is always nice. Whether it’s a ‘Buy-one-get-one-free’ deal at your local Walmart, an unexpected item that didn’t scan when you walked through security (and didn’t get caught!) or a quick kiss from that special someone, getting something for nothing is always awesome.

So, fans looking forward to picking up Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands should be delighted to see that according to the BBFC page for the upcoming release, the title will include the Xbox Live/Playstation Network title Prince of Persia: Classic.

According to the BBFC, The Forgotten Sands will include;

Even more delicious Splinter Cell: Conviction news is coming to light as the game gears for release in a little over a month now. This new trailer from IGN focuses on the co-op aspect of Conviction and touches base on a bit more of the two characters who star in it as well as some minor story details. Keep an eye out for some new footage, as well as a brief look at the weapons menu system.

Dante seems to have left his Inferno and joined World Wrestling Entertainment.

As advertising for the new game Dante’s Inferno, WWE and Visceral Games have teamed up and thrown Dante on the roster as an actual WWE SmackDown Superstar. This has been done before with the likes of Jack Black’s Nacho Libre in the past.

As you may know, the demo for 2K Sports’ MLB 2K10 came out today for XBox 360. After playing a handful of games in the demo, I’ve already drawn some opinions about it. Mainly, 2K Sports is successfully making strides to build back up its baseball series. In my opinion, MLB 2K7 was a very good baseball game, but since then, 2K8 and 2K9 have dropped the ball, no pun intended.

Let’s start with the good. The analog stick pitching mechanic that was introduced in MLB 2K8 has been highly refined. This is by far my favorite part of MLB 2K10. As a pitcher myself, if the pitching mechanic in a game is broken, the game is usually dead on arrival for me. 2K10 has built on the mechanic that was created in 2K8, what in my mind is the best pitching mechanic in a baseball game.

Here is the bad, and hopefully this was just a demo issue. The default camera for batting is pretty impossible to hit with. The camera is setup about where the catcher’s head would be. This is a problem because you get no depth perception, making it extremely hard to determine when to swing. Hopefully, and I assume this is the case, there will be other choices for batting cameras in the full release.

I’m very impressed with what 2K Sports has done with this year’s iteration in their MLB 2K series. I’m actually very excited to get my hands on the release of the game. If you’re on Xbox 360, DS, or Wii, you’ll be very happy with this game. However, if you’re on a Sony platfrom, I still think MLB 10: The Show is the way to go. This year is the first time in a long time that it looks like its a very close race on the PS3. Recently, The Show has been dominating on the system, but this year I don’t think you can really make a bad choice.

Both MLB 2K10 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2, DS and PSP) and MLB 10: The Show (PS3, PS2 and PSP) are releasing on March 2nd 2010.

According to Michael Pachter, a well-known gaming analyst, Microsoft’s Project Natal will vastly outsell the PS3’s Motion Controller.

“I think that the Sony motion controller will have some problems gaining traction, since it is not an “in the box” solution. That will probably limit adoption to one or two million at the outset. A year or so after launch, there will be 10 million [Project Natal units] out there, which will probably attract more third party support.”

Understandably so. Microsoft crushed Sony by releasing the 360 a year earlier than it’s rival and at a much cheaper price, paramount for people who want to become early adopters of Project Natal. Pachter went on to say that Natal would be possibly sold at a very affordable $50, meaning those who want to get in on Microsoft’s latest innovation can do so without selling a kidney on the black market.

In a move that should come as no surprise to anyone, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group announced today that it had purchased a majority share in developer Rocksteady Studios.  Rocksteady is, of course, the developer behind last year’s sensational Batman: Arkham Asylum.  They are currently working on Arkham’s sequel.

Warner Bros. has been pushing pretty heavily into the games market for a couple of years now.  Travelers Tales, developer of the many fine Lego games, joined the Warner’s fold in 2007.  Lego Harry Potter is due this May.

It seems like with every week comes a fun new trailer for Just Cause 2.  This one, as you may have guessed, displays yet another stunt that you can do in the game.  It features a jet airliner and a firetruck in a friendly game of chicken, on an airstrip.

I’ve personally enjoyed all the trailers so far, and liked this one as well.  The game seems like a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to messing around in the game world doing whatever I want.

Despite a lackluster response from critics, Rebellion studios wants a sequel to Aliens vs. Predator, calling their game a “critical success”.

Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley had this to say on the game’s reviews (warning kids – strong language in effect):

“The reviews have been mostly good. We’ve had three totally shit reviews by some Americans, which is a bit odd. Some of them were inexcusably bad. If you discount those poor reviews AvP is averaging high for us.”

I’m sure this brings much sorrow to the huge number of gamers who thought Final Fantasy VII was the best thing since the Earl of Sandwich invented the sandwich, but personally I didn’t really put the kind of merit as others may have. If you haven’t had the chance to play Final Fantasy VII yet, you better warm of your PSN account, because a remake is not coming any time soon. Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase had this to say in an TechDigest interview:

Details regarding Fallout: New Vegas have been rather scarce, but Bethesda’s Pete Hines was gracious enough to give some information in the form of the player character’s motivation and back-story for the post-apocalyptic game to USA Today (of all places). The game will be taking place in 2280 with the player assuming the role of a courier delivering a package.

“You were a courier, and you were obviously carrying something that somebody wanted. Part of the story is finding out what you had and what they took.”

The third downloadable add-on for Borderlands will be making it’s way to the Xbox 360 and PS3 this week.  Titled ‘The Secret Armory of General Knoxx,’ it will be the first content pack to increase the level cap.  The increase brings the level ceiling to 61, from the previous cap of 50.  The content will feature new areas, missions, vehicles, a new weapon class, as well as some crazy new enemies outfitted with some serious weaponry.

After what seems like forever after coming out, Bungie finally admits the sting of regret after excluding a matchmaking service for it’s Firefight mode in Halo 3: ODST because there wasn’t enough time to put it in (snicker, snicker). Bungie Community honcho, Brian Jarrard had this to say on the matter:

Though there never really was  any slow point this year, game release schedules just keep picking up speed.  That’s as true for download services as it is for retail games, and now Microsoft has just detailed its next big batch of XBLA games.

XBLA’s Block Party kicks off March third, and keeps going through the 24th.  Here are the details:

Here at Game Rant, we haven’t been the kindest of folks when it comes to Prison Break: The Conspiracy. From the initial screenshots we posted back in December, through to the screens we saw in February, we’ve been rather skeptical, to say the least. And who can blame us? With little to no real information to go on, we were forced to make judgements based on the screenshots provided. Suffice to say, we weren’t that impressed.

Yet, with the release of a new trailer, I have to say that my curiosity has been piqued. Sure, the visuals aren’t of the caliber of Alan Wake or Heavy Rain, but does that really matter? Perhaps it’s fair to say that as soon as the Prison Break score kicked in, my judgement was impaired somewhat as I was transported back to the show’s original release back in 2005, but that’s neither here nor there. It’s a release clearly aimed at the hardcore Prison Break fan, and as a member of that group, I have just one question; Where do I sign?

Short Version: Bayonetta may not be for everyone but it still offers exciting, fast-paced, combat in an imaginative and over the top experience.

Game Rant reviews Bayonetta

I remember the first time I played Devil May Cry. It was early 2002 and I did not know what to expect (Smackdown 2 and Tekken 3, along with other less notable titles, were the only other games I had played).

From beginning to end, my mind was blown and I would end each mission wondering how they could ever top the last boss I had just fought or scale of the level I had witnessed.

Did Bayonetta leave me with that same feeling Hideki Kamiya orchestrated 9 years ago?

Who wants more Red Faction?  Everyone, that’s who.  Now, who wants more Saints Row?  Not as many, sure, but still a lot of folks.  Finally, who wants Homefront and a Warhammer 40K MMO?  Right.

Well, whatever you desire, THQ’s got you covered at E3.

In an interview with IGN, Brian Farrell, CEO of THQ, announced a few details on the developer’s upcoming roster.  In amongst unsurprising titles, such as WWE and UFC, Farrell dropped this bomb:

Recently, an anonymous member of the Australian Classification Board gave an interview with AustralianGamer for all of the gaming world to see – Australia has been known for their game rating system, and their ability to completely deny sales of a game they deem inappropriate for the public. Recently, they forced Valve to remake Left 4 Dead 2 without all the blood and bodies, forcing the company to spend serious time reprogramming so they would be allowed to sell it in Australia.

Crikey, let’s take a gander as the Classification Employee tells us about their job:

Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves stole the show at yesterday’s Interactive Achievement Awards, bagging Game of the Year and nine other awards.  Have a look at the full list of winners: