Joystiq [Xbox]

If you had your heart set on downloading Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgment via XBLA or PSN this September, prepare to have it broken. Konami has confirmed to Joystiq a report by Eurogamer that the return of the company's classic strategy RPG franchise has been delayed until "winter."

No reason was provided for the postponement of the game, which we first caught a glimpse of earlier this year. Let's hope the developer's equipment wasn't ... wait for it ... vandalized. (That one was from the heart.)

There's been a pretty crazy rumor floating around. originating from the mixedmartialarts.com forums. The rumor states that UFC will blacklist any fighter that chooses to be a part of EA's upcoming game, MMA. That means should any fighter sign up to be represented in EA's game, they won't ever be endorsed by the UFC or asked to join. Crazy, right?

It makes sense, though, considering how well UFC 2009 Undisputed sold. UFC has a bona fide franchise on its hands, and will likely begin prepping for a sequel soon (if not already), and doesn't want that threatened by EA's game. But, hey, can't we all just get along? This isn't football, after all.

We've put in word to UFC corporate about the rumor and will be sure to get back to you as soon as we hear something.

[Via BloodyElbow; Thanks, Ryan!]

Let's face it, Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher has traveled a rocky road. For a while he completely disappeared from the console scene. Sure, we saw him every once in a while, lurking in magazines or in a few videos (complete with Emo makeover). Now Sam has reemerged from his beloved shadows, and the developers at Ubisoft are here to share everything about his new abilities and the new features in Splinter Cell Conviction.

Check out the video above for a look at the new "mark and execute" feature as well as the "last known position" silhouette. And, of course, you can just admire Sam being a badass. Get to the watching.

Another twofer this week, as XBLA adds a fighting game and a turn-based strategy game to its ever-growing ranks. From SNK's huge library of fighting games, we have King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match. The XBLA version includes online play and will set you back 800 ($10). Meanwhile, Team17 has dropped the sequel to the XBLA version of Worms, which is titled, appropriately enough, Worms 2: Armageddon. The game brings lots of new features to the table -- as well as some old favorites -- and also costs 800 ($10).

Watch the latest episode of XBLA in Brief and see which one is screaming for your hard-earned cash.

Download the trial version of King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match
Download the trial version of Worms 2: Armageddon

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The Brisbane-based Halfbrick Studios just sent us a press release informing us it has a new title on the way to Xbox Live's Community Games Indie Games section in Halfbrick Rocket Race. A racer with a twist, Halfbrick Rocket Race isn't all about getting from Point A to Point B ...

... okay, maybe it is, but there are subtleties here, like the boost you get from hitting your thrusters next to a wall. See what we mean in the game's first trailer, which is currently running qualifying laps past the break.

Continued →

Thanks to Silverlight, Microsoft's answer to Adobe's cross-platform Flash standard, Xbox 360 owners will soon be able to experience the thrill of high-definition interactive advertisements. Speaking to MediaPost, Microsoft's advertising business group director, Sean Alexander, touted the ability for HD ads created using the technology to run in web browsers, on mobile phones and on the fancy-schmancy, multi-touch Surface "table computer" without needing to be re-written.

The tech is to be implemented on 360 "within the year," Alexander said. Though it would likely require a minimal download, we've got the feeling MS will save its roll-out for the next major Dashboard upgrade, rumored to hit this fall. We can't wait.

[Via Edge Online]

In this week's Famitsu, three major Japanese developers discussed this year's E3 and how they feel about the various motion technology displayed. Grasshopper Manufacture's Suda 51, Q Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Level-5's Akihiro Hino all somewhat agree on what they see as the future of gaming. "Hardware-wise, it was all about Project Natal," Mr. Suda said, as translated by 1UP, noting his excitement on the possibility of creating a game specifically based around its technology.

"It's not a shift from 2D to 3D or in the number of polygons, but it's games trying to open up an entirely new door," Mizuguchi agreed, continuing, "I thought it would take longer, but it's happening faster than I expected." Ironically, when the trio chose the most exciting games at E3, the list quickly filled with Western-developed games, from Splinter Cell: Conviction and Assassin's Creed 2 to The Beatles: Rock Band. Could they resist the ubiquitous Final Fantasy name drop? No, no they could not. "The visual quality was so impressive that I doubted it was even a game," Hino said of AC2, adding, "Final Fantasy XIII is the same way." Impressed/interested by the motion technology but still loving AAA-franchise sequels? Sounds like the whole game industry right now.

Hideo Kojima has further reiterated his supporting role in Castlevania: Lord of Shadow in a new interview with Weekly Famitsu, reports 1UP. "This has become a big project, one with the idea that we needed to make a Castlevania which had that same kind of feverish Western support, and that's why Kojima Productions came in to help," Kojima told the Japanese publication.

With his Metal Gear Solid games beloved by everyone the world over (everyone with taste, anyway), Kojima's the right man for the job. But seeing as how this game is being developed by Madrid-based Mercury Steam Entertainment, Kojima obviously won't be on-site to aid in development. Instead, the team comes up with concepts to run by Kojima and he has them "fix things based on my objective viewpoint." An example given is the initial model for the hero's face, which Kojima had them redesign to be, well, more heroic looking. See, people, this is the kind of thing only Kojima can bring to the table!

While we were ready to believe that online co-op in the Xbox Live Arcade release of Trine was "speculation," we'll admit, we were pretty taken aback to hear the developer refer to the XBLA release itself as "speculation" as well. While Trine's would-be XBLA publisher at Atlus issued a terse "no comment," we got a hold of the developers at Frozenbyte, whose Lauri Hyvärinen had this to say:

An XBLA version of Trine is a possibility but nothing more at present time. We would love to have Trine on XBLA and we've partnered with Atlus to make it happen, but it needs Microsoft's approval and there are other factors as well. So it may happen or it may not, that's really the current situation. Everything else ranging from release date to features is just speculation and isn't based on any facts.

As soon as we know more we will also inform everyone else :)

So, there you have it. Microsoft needs to approve the game and Frozenbyte has to address "other factors" (we don't think online co-op is required – Bionic Commando Rearmed lacks online support for its co-op mode). But don't keep your feelings bottled up inside (you can get sick that way, y'know?). Share them with us in our handy poll, which is awaiting your input just after the break.

Continued →

It's been awhile since we've heard anything "official" regarding Quake Arena Arcade, the Xbox Live Arcade port of Quake III Arena. For example, we just found out that "Quake Arena Arcade" is the title of the game! First announced nearly two years ago at QuakeCon 2007, the Pi Studios-developed title was MIA until John Carmack told Joystiq in February that the title was "very close" to being finished.

Now, with the power of Twitter at its side, Pi Studios has ushered the very first screenshot of the game into this world. Sure, it's a pretty boring menu screen; however, the more astute amongst you will notice things like: new levels! "Cliffside"? That looks awfully bright and airy compared to the Quake III Arena we remember (see: Arena Gate). Pi Studios' site has some more details on the game: 40 Arenas in single and multiplayer; 16-player multiplayer; leaderboards, matchmaking; and oodles of game modes, including "Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Tournament, Harvester and Overload."

So, "very close" eh? We don't see it in this here Summer of Arcade post ... maybe QuakeCon will bring more news.

[Via Gamerbytes]

Source – Quake Arena Arcade page at PiStudios.com
Source – @QuakeXBLA

If your Xbox 360 fell victim to the E74 error and you paid Microsoft for the repair, you should have received a refund check back from the company by today. If you paid for a repair and have yet to receive a check, you'll need to follow up with Microsoft before the hard deadline of November 1, 2009. After that ... well, you're just going to have to eat it.

The E74 error was placed under a similar warranty to that of the Xbox 360's "Red Ring of Death," after data revealed it was another widespread defect for the console.

[Thanks, Matt L]

Just a quick reminder from your friends at Joystiq, if you wanted to try your hand at the totally cool visual game programming of Kodu Game Lab, the title is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace (though you'll have to navigate over to the Community Games section to find it).

For just 400 MS points ($5) you can build your very own game from the ground up, all the while being reminded that no matter how hard you work at it, Sparrow still owns you. If you manage to make anything cool (though admittedly never as cool as what Sparrow makes) let us know in the comments below.

Everyone's favorite plastic peripheral purveyor, Red Octane, is having a bit of a deal today. The normally $60 wireless guitar and $20 wired microphone for Guitar Hero World Tour (across all platforms) are being offered together in a $50 package -- today only!

If you're less than impressed by the GHWT deal from today, why not get into your fancy schmancy time machine and head back to yesterday when you could've gotten an even better deal? Oh, what's that -- you don't have a time machine? Guess you're stuck with the $50 dollar deal over at Red Octane's website then, fancy pants.

To celebrate Independance Day, the folks at Epic Games are going to liberate (see what we did there?) Gears of War 2 from some of its nastier afflictions, through another title update. The latest update should drop sometime before this weekend, and will bring some changes to Horde mode. We'll be sure to let you know when the update is ready.

On top of that, it's also going to be another Gears-themed weekend, as Epic has turned on the XP firehose. During ranked matches on the public playlist, everyone will receive double the XP, and the winning team will also walk away with an additional 500 XP (plus, you know, their lives). Epic has also added some of its own brand of fireworks to Horde mode as an homage to our own firework-shooting, independence-celebrating festivities planned for this holiday weekend. In every wave of the Horde, there will be added Tickers, and on every 10th wave of every Horde match, there will be only Tickers.

The festivities start on Friday morning, and will run until Monday, July 6.

[Thanks, Alan!]