PS3 Fanboy

The Bioshock Challenge Rooms announced last month have been priced and detailed -- it will be arriving on November 20th for $9.99. The DLC pack will contain three Challenge Rooms that "... [were] designed specifically for the PlayStation 3 system release and feature new locations, objectives and artwork not seen anywhere else in the game." The Challenge Rooms are named A Shocking Turn of Events, The I in Team and Worlds of Hurt. The first two involve using limited tools and weaponry to rescue a Little Sister and fight Big Daddies. Meanwhile, the last one seems like an especially difficult level designed to frustrate you with "the worst that Rapture has to offer," hence the name. A more detailed description of each room is provided after the jump.

Lastly, for you Trophy-lovers out there, this DLC even comes with its very own set of Trophies. Check out the list here.

[Via press release]

It's a well documented fact that Electronic Arts has eagerly desired to acquire Take-Two Interactive for some time now. Our comrades over at Joystiq have been thinking deeply about the implications of such a merger -- if such a merger were to happen. Delving further into this, they examine Take-Two's development portfolio, showcasing what an extensively large acquisition Take-Two really is and laying out exactly what EA would be gaining in the deal.

Many of the games made at Take-Two's various studios could very well be games you've been impatiently anticipating. Could any of you see these future titles with EA's stamp all over them? What are these games and the studios that make them, you ask? Check out Joystiq's Take-Two family album to find out.

Take a look at Joystiq's Take Two family album

Dutch site Xboxworld.nl accidentally leaked the first images of the upcoming multiplayer portion of GTA IV. Although the site pulled the images, the internet has an incredibly good memory. The folks at GTAForums promptly grabbed, and re-uploaded these lucrative images. The rumored list of online features reads like a wishlist: 16 players, 15 modes. With its release only a few weeks away, it won't be long before the world truly understands how ambitious Rockstar's online offerings will be.

[Thanks, Enfo!]

A few years ago, Visual Concepts and Take-Two Interactive stunned the videogame community when it released NFL 2K5 for only $20, and now its newest football title All Pro Football 2K5 has hit that magic price point.

Currently, Best Buy has the non-licensed NFL title for only $20 at its online and brick and mortar stores. We still don't know if this is an official price drop, but if it is, it will be interesting to see if EA responds by slashing Madden NFL 2008's price, like it did with the 2005 iteration.

[Via CAG]

To think, we could almost see the detective clad in his tweed suit smoking a long cigarette while listening to a dame prattle on about her issues she needs a P.I. to look into. Ah, the good ol' days of Noire, we so were looking forward to you in the PS3 exclusive L.A. Noire. But Rockstar stomped all over these dreams recently, stating the title is going to miss the entire 2008 fiscal year, which effectively puts it into 2009. That's a long ways off.

It's not like we aren't used to hearing about a delay every now and then, but having a title pushed back into 2009 is fairly vicious for gamers. L.A. Noire takes a seat next to Resident Evil 5, it seems. Luckily, we're patient, as we'd like every game to take all the time it needs during development to mature and become the best it can. So, while we're upset that this game got delayed, we're not too concerned. It could've been Metal Gear Solid 4, after all. We'll manage!

[via Joystiq]

Gamers were upset (to say the least) about Grand Theft Auto IV's delay into the next year. Take-Two didn't offer any real explanation for the delay, stating the reason is "almost strictly because of technological challenges."

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter explains that the reason for GTA's untimely appearance is due to Rockstar's lack of experience with the PS3: "We think it is likely that the Rockstar team had difficulty in building an exceptionally complicated game for the PS3, and failed to recognize how far away from completion the game truly was until recently." It's true that Rockstar has more experience with the Xbox 360 hardware, thanks to their Table Tennis game. All footage of the game we've seen so far was running on Xbox tech, which hints at possible negligence when developing the PS3 version. Even if the Xbox 360 version was further along in development, it appears that Take-Two simply might not have had any choice but to delay both versions of the game: "We think it is also likely that Take-Two had a contractual commitment to Sony that it would not favor competitor Microsoft by launching the Xbox 360 version of GTA IV prior to launching the PS3 version, and believe that any delay of the PS3 version necessitated a delay of the Xbox 360 version."

This is Rockstar's first attempt at making a multi-platform "next gen" game. A game as large as GTA IV is undoubtedly a beast to program, and Rockstar may have failed to recognize the added work of developing for two platforms simultaneously. As N'Gai Croal from Newsweek points out, "It wouldn't surprise us if Rockstar and Take-Two had already all-but-delayed the PS3 version to triage the Xbox 360 version for this holiday, only to have their hands forced when, at yesterday's product review, it became clear to both sides that even the 360 version could not be completed this year to Rockstar's exacting standards."

Regardless of what the "real" reason for the delay is, we're glad to see that Rockstar has more time to work on both the 360 and PS3 versions of the game. We certainly want the game to be as polished as it can be.

Read - Michael Pachter, Wedbush Morgan Securities
Read - N'Gai Croal, Newsweek

Wow, well this was unexpected. Reuters news service is reporting that GTA IV has been delayed until the second quarter of 2008 in order to polish up the title. After this announcement, Take-Two shares dropped fairly sharply as the market reacted to the significance of the news. Because GTA IV won't be coming out this year, Take-Two had to change their financial goals from a profit to a loss for this year -- never something investors like.

The delay of one of the most significant games of the year will also have interesting repercussions across the industry as a whole. Though the fall/winter release schedule is pretty darn packed with titles already, GTA IV was easily one of the biggest and most anticipated games of the holiday season. The sudden hole it leaves in the October schedule will allow for some smaller titles to get more attention than they would have beforehand, which will make other game publishers quite happy. How about you guys? Would you prefer rough GTA IV in October, or a more polished GTA experience in 6-8 months?

[Thanks Glenn!]

Developers at Starbreeze have been hard at work on The Darkness, hoping to keep the quality of their titles up to snuff. Following the surprisingly well-received Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay for the XBox, we don't blame them for wanting to create something just as fun. The game's scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2007 for multiple consoles, boasting a step away from generic FPS action and throwing in superhero traits and elements -- it's based on a comic book, after all.

Now, you can read the interview to learn more about the game's plot and such (but we don't like ruining it even a little bit) or you can stay here and we'll tell you what makes the Blu-ray/PS3 version of the game pretty neat. Denby Grace of Take-Two says: "Blu-ray offers us around 25GB to play with, so we're looking to license old TV shows, adverts, and cartoons to build entire TV channels in the game. You can actually turn on the TVs in the game and watch a film, watch a TV series, anything you want really. It's a little bit gimmicky, but at the same time, it's a really cool feature." So, um, yeah... that's an interesting choice. Still, kind of cool.

As far as multiplayer goes, there's not much talked about in the sense of modes or weaponry specifics, but there is a distinct Aliens Vs. Predator feel to it -- one type of creature you can play as will be able to climb walls, attack with claws, see in the dark... where the humans can use a multitude of guns and scream when they get pounced by... The Darkness!

Rockstar and their parent, Take-Two Interactive, have had a ton of hot coffee poured on their laps lately (pun intended) with the FTC investigating the sexy add-on to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, grand jury supoenas, closing of two corporate buildings, plummeting stocks and overall sadness. With all this junk going on, many people from Rockstar games have apparently dashed off in the night. Oddly enough, according to GameDaily BIZ who compiled a list of the employees that left, many were involved Public Relations or Marketing. The two are fairly related, the former more consumer oriented and the latter business, so what does this portend?

Perhaps the end of Rockstar is nigh -- their "on the edge" style of gaming may finally have crossed the border and the employees know it. At least, those who have to talk to people outside of their walls. It will be harder to garner support for their games with all these issues arising, and these PR and Marketing people vacating is practically a guarantee that there is little support left for Rockstar. On a positive spin, perhaps Rockstar is cutting costs and eliminating shoddy employees. Will there be a GTA5? If the world backs off of gaming censorship, indeed.

[edit: fixed an awkward sentence or two]