EA has announced that it will be collaborating once again with MTV on Rock Band 2, scheduled for release on Xbox 360 in the U.S. this September with other platforms (PS3, probably) to follow.

Meanwhile little old New Zealand and big old Australia are still waiting for a release date and pricing for the original Rock Band, which released in the States last year.

Back when EA announced that it had decided to rip off U.K. gamers with Rock Band, I hinted that the game might never make it to our shores… and that is seeming even more likely now. With Rock Band about to be superseded, why bother? And why will Rock Band 2 be worthy of release if Rock Band wasn’t?

Activision might well find an exclusive market for its upcoming band game Guitar Hero: World Tour if EA continues to neglect the Australasian market.

Blizzard has announced Diablo III! There is of course no word on a release date yet, but there’s no doubt that it will be one of the biggest games of the year… whichever year that may be.

Check out the official site for trailers etc.

We’ve pencilled it in for late 2009 at this stage, and you can pre-order now.

Sad, but true (bit like that pun, actually) - this is now officially my most anticipated game of 2009. \m/

Now, talk of Guitar Hero: Metallica is no longer a case of wishful thinking or idle speculation–it’s fact. When sifting through an SEC filing of Activision’s over the weekend, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Edward Woo–associate of the highly visible Michael Pachter–uncovered a gem in the section where the Santa Monica, California-based publisher discussed its upcoming game slate.

“In fiscal 2009, we plan to publish Guitar Hero: On Tour for the NDS; Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero: Metallica, and Guitar Hero IV across multiple platforms,” the company said in its report. Activision’s fiscal year ends on March 31, 2009, which means that the game will likely follow the holiday release of Guitar Hero: World Tour (nee Guitar Hero 4).

Thanks, GameSpot.

Disclaimer: Wow. I can’t remember the last time I wrote anything this long about a game… and this isn’t even long. Or good.

I spent a good few hours (too many, perhaps) this past weekend playing the new Xbox Live Arcade* game Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, and have just wrapped up the story this evening.

The game is being released in episode form (think Sam & Max) so the first edition is short, clocking in at probably six hours or so. The environments are limited, but the game does pack a fair bit of action into its two major settings. The questing is fairly standard adventure/RPG stuff; you’ll trek around gathering clues, smashing open crates for items, fighting baddies and gaining experience and levels and such. Nothing too exciting or revolutionary here but for this type of game it gets the job done.

What does make PAA: OTRSPOD (cripes) worth playing though is the trademark Penny Arcade humour and, most impressively, the battle system.

The battles are probably best described as Final Fantasy with action timers. Essentially, once an action is performed there is a cool down period before you can use another action, and each character in your party has their own set of timers. The timer for item use fills up more quickly than the attack function, and the special attack fills up more slowly again. Additionally, you are able to block incoming attacks by timing a button when the enemy strikes; so you’re required to think about several things at once and the system really does work very, very well.

The enemies are limited but each has its own humourous charm: you’ll fight drunken hobos, fruit… err… fornicators, clowns, mimes and even barbershop quartets. Each enemy has its own strengths and weaknesses which add a bit of planning strategy.

Graphically, it’s exactly what you’d expect. Pre-rendered scenes and cartoon characters. The cut scenes are in the style of the comic strip and there’s speech bubbles all over the place. It works.

The humour translates pretty well from the strip too. Thankfully the creators didn’t try to do voiceovers for Gabe and Tycho, so everything funny is in text form and that’s exactly how it should be. It’s a little hit and miss at times but nothing is cringeworthy and there’s a lot of cleverness overall.

So then, it’s certainly worth a look if you’re a fan of the comic - and even if you’re not you’ll probably enjoy the battle system. Good stuff and an impressive first offering.

On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness can be purchased online for PC platforms from Greenhouse, whilst the Xbox version can be found in the Xbox Live Marketplace. No word on a retail version as yet.

* The game has also released for Windows, Linux and Mac; I chose Xbox over Windows for the achievement factor.

Word has come out of the Mass Effect Community Forums that the upcoming PC version of Mass Effect will be implementing SecuROM piracy prevention measures which will require gamers to authenticate their game against Electronic Arts’ servers every ten days. Here’s my understanding of how it works:

• You install the game from the DVD-ROM; (This is the last time that you will need the DVD, which is nice.)
• Each time you play Mass Effect, it will connect to EA to authenticate your CD key. If successful, this authentication will allow you ten more days of play time.
• After those ten days are up that you will be required to authenticate again - in other words, if you are not connected to the Internet for nine days after your last authentication, you’re fine, but if you’re still not connected on the tenth day, you will not be able to play the game.

The BioWare representative also mentions that Spore will be employing this method.

Now, I’ve outlined my views on piracy measures in a previous post, but this is ridiculous. Assuming the system is flawless, this would probably not affect me because I have an always-on Internet connection plugged in to my gaming PC, but why should I have to report back to headquarters every 10 days to prove that my game is legit? Why shouldn’t I be able to play the game after ten days without Internet if I took my laptop on holiday? Why the hell is my legitimate copy inferior to a pirated copy!?

This move is going to anger a lot of the “hard core” gaming market, who also happen to be Mass Effect’s target audience. I expect that our customer service department will be actioning some cancellation requests over the next couple of days.