PS3 Fanboy

We don't blame you if you forgot about the recent announcement of Batman Arkham Asylum. A lot's happened since then. Eidos is keen to keep the game fresh in your mind, however, and has released a batch of new screen shots to do just that. These shots show gameplay and art from the game, as most screenshots tend to do, including B-man himself alongside the Joker and some very moody images of the eponymous Arkham Asylum. If you're excited for this 2009 title then be sure to jump into our gallery and saturate your eyeballs in picturey goodness.

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Some have been bugging us to put the new Tomb Raider trailer on our site. The franchise has really found its groove since the successful series revamp in Tomb Raider: Legend. The upcoming Tomb Raider: Underworld looks like a very dramatic continuation, filled with tons of reasons for Lara to wear wetsuits and other inappropriate-for-an-explorer outfits. This one's coming to all the platforms out there, including PS3.

Eidos has announced a partnership with Warner Bros to bring Batman back to consoles in 2009. Batman: Arkham Asylum is being developed by RockSteady Studios and begins with the eponymous hero escorting The Joker to the also-quite-eponymous Arkham Asylum where, allegedly, "an immersive combat gaming experience unfolds."

The game will be available at some point in 2009 for the PS3, 360 and PC and, other than a load of superlative-laden PR talk, there are no real details of how the game will play. Just know that Batman, The Joker and "Gotham's worst villains" will all be present and you will have to use Batman's "intuitive detective skills and aggressive melee attacks."

Ah, deals. They're either a blessing or a curse, depending on how you want to look at them. Sometimes they're just an undeniably awesome steal; at other times, they're a cleverly disguised way to rope you in on puchasing games you were previously borderline on getting. Throw in the fact that today's deal involves two somewhat politically controversial games in the realm of game journalism -- one more so over the other -- and there's more to it than meets the eye.

But enough of this unnecessary analysis! We're all about the numbers and the savings, right? Right. If anyone's still thinking of picking up either Assassin's Creed or Kane & Lynch and hasn't done so already, then Best Buy probably has the deal for you. Both games are on sale at $39.99; that's 20 bucks worth of savings, politics not included in the box.

[Via CAG]

Eidos Chairman Tim Ryan believes the PS3 will live up to its potential. He said so in a written statement that was presented to Eidos' parent company SCi recently, but Ryan, along with many others, thinks Sony must drop the PS3's price before it can be all it can be.

"The board continues to believe in the long-term commercial success of PlayStation 3 but believes this may take more time than originally forecast by Sony," he wrote. "The board is of the opinion that the key driver to the acceleration of the installed base of PlayStation 3 will be a further hardware price cut."

We're not sure if Ryan got the memo, but Sony has plans to release a more wallet-friendly PS3 in the coming months. But could Ryan be mudslinging to redirect some of the blame he and his company is receiving after reporting a $60 million fiscal year loss? Ouch!

Perhaps some of you have played previous iterations of Eidos' Conflict franchise. If you have, then the announcement of a new title should have you giddy as a schoolgirl. If not, then you should at least show some interest -- we're going to tell you about Conflict: Denied Ops anyway. As the fifth entry into the series, developer Pivotal Games wanted to shock the series with more political and paramilitary intrigue than you can shake a stick at.

The premise to Denied Ops is this: sometimes the US Government can't afford to publicly associate themselves with an operation -- thus a special force is dispatched (you). Gameplay plans to focus on two-man tactics, so expect an extensive co-op mode to really make the game worthwhile (online co-op would be excellent, too). In addition to this, there are going to be highly destructible environments to create a new depth to undertaking any one objective -- it's being toted as "Hollywood Action". Sounds good. We'll keep you up to date, since the game isn't shipping until Spring of '08.

[via N4G]

Bill Gardner, CEO of Eidos Interactive, recently said that the PlayStation 3 is not, in fact, an overpriced piece of hardware, but could be sold to the mass market if a simple US $100 price drop came to fruition. We've already had one "price cut" but Gardner thinks that's not enough. "I don't think [the price cut] is enough to reach the mass consumer, but I think it is enough to get it moving again." He thinks another price cut will really start the Sony train rolling and we're not disagreeing. Lower prices generally help sell things. Unless it's that generic Wal*Mart brand soda ... that stuff is so disgusting, they need to pay you to drink it.

Gardner also says the PS3 is a good bargain for what you get -- an HD movie player as well as a game machine (among countless other uses). He offers us a challenge: "Go buy an HD or a Blu-ray player. Go ahead. Tell me what it costs you. Then take a look at the PS3." As long as it's a Blu-ray player, we agree completely. But those sinking HD DVD players are getting moderately cheap -- you just won't get to play as many movies on them.

[Update: fixed title ... damn type-happy fingers love that E]

The Xbox 360 is receiving their Tomb Raider: Anniversary fix in the form of episodic content over Xbox Live, however it's initially limited only to those that own the last next-gen outing, Tomb Raider: Legend. While it would seem trite of Eidos to snub Sony by not releasing any similar content for the PlayStation Network, they do have plans to release a retail version of all episodic content on one disc. PSX Extreme says there is reason to believe this retail version will hit PS3 through the magical re-engineering of porting the Xbox 360 code.

We aren't holding our breath on this one. Knowing how most devs feel about the port process leave us more than a bit skeptical, especially considering the fact that Tomb Raider: Anniversary is more or less just a new map on top of the already-built game engine of Tomb Raider: Legend. Porting it to PS3 would more than likely take a larger team of devs to complete than Eidos is willing to fund. But hey, we're wishful thinkers. We sincerely hope that if this slim rumor holds any weight, the port team will be diligent and give PS3 owners the chance to experience the new Tomb Raider: Anniversary content in all its PS3 splendor.

If anyone was fortunate enough to play the PC FPS/Action/RPG title Deus Ex, this news should be particularly exciting since the game has become somewhat of a cult hit. The director of Eidos France recently announced on a French-language TV station that a sequel to Deus Ex is indeed in the works. Eidos' new Montreal studio is making this sequel their first priority, calling it the "first mission" for their 40-person staff.

The first sequel to the game, Invisible War, didn't generate that much buzz, so hopefully the new crew leading development of this title will deliver an experience matching that of the first. Like ... using more intelligent dialogue like in the original game, as opposed to the sequel. With original devs Ion Storm out of the picture and creator Warren Spector busy with other projects, it's going to be a battle to win over longtime fans. We'll keep you posted on this one -- it may be good.
[via IGN]

Eidos is, of course, referring to itself in the subject line. See, most of their PS3 titles aren't planned for release until 2008. That sucks. Why? They blame the low install base of the new console. Eidos may have new Tomb Raider, Hitman, and a possible Just Cause sequel in the works for the mid-2008 fiscal period.

Eidos CEO Jane Cavanagh made these comments: "We believe that PlayStation 3 will be a successful platform, and are developing technology and products for this console...However, as we do not believe that the installed base will be high enough until the second half of our 2008 financial year, most of our major product releases on the PlayStation 3 platform are not scheduled before that date."

To me, this says that Eidos doesn't have much faith in its games. They don't think they'll sell well, or they don't think they'll be nearly enough to move systems. Granted, they shouldn't think too highly of themselves, but no game developer should be complacent enough to make games that are "just okay". They need to work on something that will move systems! Something every dev should strive for! Revolution! ...Or, you know, get pumped up and stuff.

It's not the freshest news in the stack, but it merits being mentioned. The Eidos title Kane & Lynch, which we admit sounds pretty cool (and those character designs sure are manly/evil), has been announced for release on a very, very wide array of systems. In Australia. See, Atari is probably publishing the game "down under", but we don't see why the game, currently only officially slated for PC and 360 release, would go multi-platform in just Australia. The game is rumored to be coming to the PS3, the PS2, and the PSP.

Hopefully, this turns out to be true. This and the BioWare title will add a game and a developer to the PS3's much-needed camp in both areas.

[via Joystiq]

Let us know if you've played any of these games: Tomb Raider, Just Cause, Hitman or Championship Manager? Do you want to play a sequel to any of these titles? Or, in the case of some, the "latest" sequel? You will. Eidos has announced it's starting up sequels to all of the above titles as well as ramping up production on two of their original IP's: Kane & Lynch and Crossfire. They haven't, however, said what systems these games will come to.

Eidos said in their press release: "In the light of the launch of the Sony PlayStation 3 in North America in November 2006 and its planned European launch in Spring 2007 we are assessing the timing of when to launch these titles on the appropriate next generation platforms." So, basically, we've no idea when these things are due. At all. Or if they've even got much tangible started for many of the titles. We'll keep looking, but hey, it's the generation of sequels after all. In that respect, it'll be good to see many of our faves on a new, probably more beautiful, adventure.

Ever since the release of Tomb Raider Legends, Lara Croft has redeemed herself and kept the franchise alive. Since her last iteration was so well-received (selling nearly 3 million copies in a year), Eidos has decided to bring the voluptuous lady to the Playstation 3. Said Chief Executive Jane Cavanagh, "Our 2008 products will include new versions of Tomb Raider (including a PS3 version) and many of our other key franchises. We also plan new franchises, including completely new products from both Crystal Dynamics (developers of Tomb Raider) and Io Interactive (developers of Hitman and Kane & Lynch)." This begs the question, should Nariko (of Heavenly Sword) and Lara get into a Super Smash Sisters: Brawl contest, who do you think would win?

To make a long story short, there are some rumors circulating about Eidos being in talks with Time-Warner in an effort to get creative license for Time-Warner movies -- to make movies into video games (as opposed to the ill-fated stigma of games into movies... except the first Mortal Kombat. That one was sweet). If the deal goes through, Time-Warner will get an approximated 10% share of Eidos. That's a sizable chunk, but not one that'll change the way they make games or do business. Eidos responded to these claims in the third-person: "Eidos does not comment on speculation or rumour."

What could this portend? More Lord of the Rings games? Austin Powers realized in next-gen? With a sigh... Snakes on a Plane (please no... it's bad enough Hollywood had to make a point with "it doesn't matter what the quality of a movie is -- look at our clever marketing and casting!")? Not that we all have a Time-Warner movie catalog in our minds... but what movie (any movie, really) would you want to see as a game? Oh, and Time-Warner, how about you pick up the Fear Effect franchise Eidos left behind? The world is ready for a movie version.