The Xbox Live community has voted RedLynx and Microsoft’s physics-based stunt biking game Trials HD as Best Overall Arcade Game of 2009. The game beat out such popular titles as Battlefield 1943 and Shadow Complex. The title also won the XBLA innovation award.

Microsoft said that players cast over 1 million votes to help determine XBLA’s best games in the third annual Xbox Live Arcade Awards, which extend beyond the overall “best game,” as voted by the XBL audience, and include:

• Best Overall Arcade Game: Trials HD
• Best Original Game: Splosion Man
• Best Family Game: Hasbro Family Game Night
• Best Co-Operative Multiplayer: Battlefield 1943
• Best Competitive Multiplayer: Battlefield 1943
• Best Solo Game: Shadow Complex
• Best Innovation: Trials HD
• Best Graphics: Shadow Complex
• Best Classic/Remake: Banjo-Tooie

Ubisoft has said that DRM problems being encountered by players of Settlers 7 still haven’t been “completely resolved” despite the game having been out for nearly two weeks. Many users have reported problems with establishing and maintaining the constant internet connection required by Ubisoft’s DRM to play the game, and the game’s official forum has been flooded with complaints.

“Settlers 7 players have encountered difficulties playing the game over the [Easter] holiday weekend due to issues with servers that do matchmaking in multiplayer mode and that keep track of profiles, campaign progression and stats in both solo and multi modes,” Ubisoft told Eurogamer. “Our technical teams have made progress but we are not yet able to say that the issue is completely resolved.”

Ubisoft added that users would be updated on progress via the Settlers 7 forum. The publisher has blamed previous problems playing Assassin’s Creed II and Silent Hunter V on attacks to its servers by hackers protesting the new DRM measures.

Just over a month after announcing a high-profile publishing arrangement with EA for the XBLA and PSN release of DeathSpank, the game’s creator, Ron Gilbert, announced on his personal blog that he has “left Hothead,” the development team behind the game. Joystiq reports that Gilbert takes his leave as “the creative and production phases” on the title are ending and the “long and winding road of certification and testing” begins. He isn’t leaving the game behind, however, and declared, “I will be working closely with EA and Hothead on the PR for DeathSpank as the release date draws closer.”

Joystiq reports that playable versions of Decepticons Shockwave and Demolisher are part of Activision’s pre-order bonuses for Transformers: War for Cybertron. Squishy humans who pre-order through Amazon will receive an unlock code for Demolisher, while GameStop customers receive a code for Megatron’s cold and calculating companion, Shockwave. The bonus codes are available for the Xbox 360 and PS3 deployments of the game. Wii’s Transformers: Cybertron Adventures currently has no announced pre-order bonus.

Crystal Dynamics’ Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light contains many firsts. It will be the first outing for the adventurer without the familiar Tomb Raider moniker. It’s also the studio’s first console digital download release, and its first project since Square Enix acquired it last year.

Studio GM Darrell Gallagher explained to Gamasutra the reasoning behind the title shift, and said that Crystal Dynamics isn’t re-branding Lara with this game so much as branching out the franchise within a consistent universe for the heroine.

Microsoft is preparing a Project Natal marketing push in June, beginning with a “World Premier” event to show off the motion control system on the Sunday before E3. Held at the 10,000 capacity Galen Centre in LA, the event will showcase the wide-ranging appeal of Natal, and will be followed on Monday by an official press conference.

The system was first unveiled at E3 last year, but Microsoft has yet to show any significant software releases for Natal, or commit to a price or solid launch date. Peter Molyneux said last month that he’s found it “frustrating” that so far demos of the technology have only used early iterations of Natal, and that the software has been through “countless” revisions since it was first announced.

E3 is held June 15-17 this year, but as is traditional, the platform holders and major publishers will hold events before the official show dates in attempts to get better press coverage for their products.

Source: Games Industry Biz

Sony’s R&D manager of special projects, Richard Marks, has been visiting various media outlets to demonstrate Sony’s PS3 motion peripheral to media outlets. Kotaku’s deputy editor, Stephen Totilo, was among them, and uncovered some interesting information about the motion wand controller, which is set to launch later this year.

The controller offers a mix of camera and wand control, and according to Marks, “offers the absolute best tracking.” The PS3 tracks Z-axis movement both by the camera, via the colored LED bulb at the top of the controller, and by sensors within the Move controller itself. Players can use the Move anywhere from three to 10 feet away from the PlayStation Eye camera. “The kind of sweet spot everyone uses for the games is five to 10 feet,” said Marks. At 10 feet, the Eye can capture footage 12 feet across, and has a field of view of 75 degrees. The controller also has an analogue “T-button” trigger on the back. Lighting is also reportedly not an issue, and passing clouds will not require recalibration.

Square Enix has scored a UK number one with the release of Just Cause 2. The Xbox 360 format accounted for 53 percent of the title’s sales. The other two new releases in the top ten were Pokemon SoulSilver in at number two and Pokemon HeartGold at number four. Outside of the top ten, Deep Silver’s Prison Break: The Conspiracy managed a respectable 17, while Ubisoft’s Red Steel 2 only managed to acquire a disappointing 34th place.

Sony has said that their latest firmware upgrade will disable the Install Other OS feature of the PlayStation 3, meaning those that upgrade will be unable to run Linux on the home console. Dropping such Linux support was due to “security concerns” after a hacker revealed vulnerability for the console, allowing read/write access to the PlayStation 3 via Other OS and Linux.

The firmware (3.21) will be released this Thursday, and although users are not forced to upgrade, the console will be unable to access the PlayStation Network and play any games or movies that will take advantage of the new firmware, as well as miss out on future upgrades and features. The Other OS feature was dropped from the newer PlayStation 3 model by default when it was released last year.

Sony also warns that any users that currently run Linux on the console should back-up valuable data on the Other OS partition of the hard drive, as once upgraded to firmware 3.21 they “will not be able to access that data following the update.”

Source: Games Industry Biz

The TiltFX is a new accessory that promises to add motion controls to “all games” on the PSP. The device features a three-axis MEMS sensor and is able to replace the functions of the standard D-Pad and analog stick. Additionally, Datel is offering customized profiles for specific games, like WipEout, LocoRoco, and Super Monkey Ball. It is advertised as compatible with all PSP systems, except for the Go, and according to a Datel representative, the device won’t require custom firmware to operate. The TiltFX is available now and retails for $19.99.

Source: Joystiq

Until now, Square Enix has said that a Final Fantasy VII remake would be unrealistic, tough to do in HD and not happening. That thinking might be in the process of changing, however, because during an interview at FFXIII‘s launch party, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada finally admitted that the company is “going to explore the possibility” of revisiting the classic RPG. While he didn’t completely reverse the company’s position on the issue, he did say that Square Enix has to decide “whether or not we’re going to do it, if we’re going to do it, and the platform.” He also admitted that there have been numerous fan requests to see the game in a new form, so he’s giving it some solid thought.

Source: Joystiq

Gamers have been experiencing problems playing Command & Conquer 4, and it appears to be due to the game’s DRM requirement of a permanent internet connection. The game’s official forum has been flooded with complaints following the game’s Friday release, with people experiencing connection difficulties, firewall compatibility problems and crashes which result in lost save data.

EA’s community manager responded to the problems being reported by forum members over the weekend, and a patch to address issues with the English and Russians versions of the game has now been released.

Source: Games Industry Biz

Electronic Arts intends to release premium downloadable content for games prior to the release of their boxed titles in an effort to gauge consumer reaction and the market viability of new games.

The PDLC would be sold for $10 or $15 through Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, and would essentially be a very long game demo. A full-blown (and full-priced) packaged version of the game would then follow shortly after the release of the PDLC.

Electronic Arts hopes that its digital business will account for a third of all revenue at the publisher within two years.

Source: Games Industry Biz

The vintage Commodore 64 personal computer is getting a makeover, with a new design and some of the latest computing technologies, as the brand gets primed for a comeback. For those of you who can’t remember back that far, the Commodore 64 was a home computer running on an 8-bit processor released by Commodore International in 1982. The computer was one of the most popular models of all time, and sold close to 17 million units between 1982 and 1994.

The revamped computer will be available through the Commodore USA online store, which is set to open June 1. The computer will be an all-in-one keyboard, with Intel’s 64-bit quad-core microprocessors and 3D graphics capabilities. To conform to the times, the PC also offers up to 500GB of hard drive storage and 4GB of RAM. Also included are a DVD-RW drive, a touchpad, four USB ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port and a DVI (Digital Visual Interface) port to connect monitors. No price information is available at this time.

Commodore USA is a new company that has licensed the Commodore name from Commodore Gaming, which makes games for PCs and consoles.

Source: ARN

The Season Premiere of South Park Season 14 attracted 3.7 million viewers in the USA alone. It was known before the airing of the episode that it was to be based around the Tiger Woods sex scandal and that the episode would be called Sexual Healing, but it wasn’t officially stated that the game would also revolve around Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, the video game that will be releasing later this year.

The episode cuts to scenes of Tiger and his wife physically beating each other up, which later on is shown as a level from Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11. They also turn the car crash that first brought the scandal to the world’s attention into an action sequence, and transform the game into a Side-On-Fighter.

Hilarious, perhaps, but EA isn’t laughing. Recently, a source close to the development of Tiger Woods video game franchise contacted Daily Informer to reveal the company’s disgust, and detailed a possible lawsuit, saying “while I personally found the episode quite funny, there are definitely a few copyright infringements in there that I’m sure will be dealt with accordingly.”