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Gran Turismo 5 – Where can you get it for the cheapest price?

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Gran Turismo 5

Gran Turismo 5 is finally released tomorrow and various retailers will be selling the much anticipated –  and of course much delayed – racing sim at a knock down price.

HMV still has the most tempting offer, giving you the opportunity to buy Gran Turismo 5 for just £4.99 when you trade in F1 2010. But if you want to get Gran Turismo 5 for under a fiver you’ll have to be quick as HMV are only running the offer until Friday.

You can part with even less cash if you choose to buy Gran Turismo 5 from Blockbuster. It’s available for just 99p if you trade in two games from a list of chart titles including Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, F1 2010 and Call of Duty: Black Ops.

The best no strings attached deal comes from Best Buy who are offering Gran Turismo 5 for just £29.99. However, there are only six Best Buy stores in the UK so unless you live near one, you’ll have to order Gran Turismo 5 online then wait a few days before you can play it.

Online retailer Shop.To are offering Gran Turismo 5 for the very reasonable price of £34.85 and say that it’ll be dispatched within five minutes of being ordered.  Shop.To Marketing Manager Philip Driver recently stated that Gran Turismo 5 will be the ‘biggest selling PlayStation 3 game of the year.’

Meanwhile, back on the High Street, Tesco are offering Gran Turismo 5 for £35.90, while Sainsbury’s have it priced at £39.99. Specialist retailers GAME and GameStation both also list Gran Turismo 5 for £39.99 and some stores will be hosting midnight launches.  You can find out if a store near you will be opening tonight for the launch of Gran Turismo 5 on the GAME and GameStation websites. The doors will open at 11:45 with Gran Turismo going on sale at 00:01.

Gran Turismo 5 is the third midnight game launch of the month, with Call of Duty: Black Ops and Kinect having previously caused games retailers to open their doors in the dead of night. Blizzard has also announced that there will also be a midnight launch for World of Warcraft: Cataclysm when the MMO is released on December 7th.

So Train2Game, will you be buying Gran Turismo 5 tomorrow? Will you be queuing up tonight to get your hands on it? Can you actually believe that after all the delays, that one of the PlayStation 3’s biggest exclusives is finally being released? Do you think Gran Turismo 5 could knock Call of Duty: Black Ops from the top of the charts?

You can leave your thoughts about Gran Turismo 5 here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm gets huge launch event

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World of Warcraft Cataclysm Worgen

Blizzard has revealed details about the UK launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm when the much anticipated expansion is released next month.

GAME will host the official launch event for World of Warcraft Cataclysm which will take place at Sound, Leicester Square on the evening of December 6th.  Fans will not only be among the first to get there hands on Cataclysm when it’s made available at midnight, but they’ll also get a chance to meet Blizzard staff.

Naturally, with this being a World of Warcraft event, there’s the obligatory costume content, and Blizzard say there will be prizes for the winners. The current details about the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm launch event, including costume contest guidelines, can be found on the Blizzard website. Expect it to be updated nearer the time with more information.

In addition to the big launch event, Blizzard say that other retailers around the country will be opening their doors for midnight launches of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

“After two years of development, we’re excited to now be just two weeks away from releasing our best World of Warcraft expansion yet,” said, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment Mike Morhaime

“Cataclysm will add a huge amount of new content to the game and change the face of Azeroth forever, and we can’t wait to celebrate this launch with players around the world.”

Changes that Cataclysm will bring to the World of Warcraft include dramatically altering the make up of Azeroth, providing new quests, allowing characters to level up to level 85, and play as two new races, Worgen and Goblins.

World of Warcraft currently has over 12 million subscribers, could Cataclysm encourage even more people to sign up to the worlds most successful MMO?

The game is set to be released for the PC on December 7th

So Train2Game, are any of you World of Warcraft players? If so, will you be attending a midnight launch event? And if you want to wear one, have you got any ideas for a costume yet?

You can leave your thoughts about World of Warcraft: Cataclysm here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Fallout: New Vegas Dead Money DLC details revealed

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Fallout: New Vegas Dead Money

Bethesda has released more details about their upcoming DLC for Fallout: New Vegas, Dead Money. The new information about the Fallout: New Vegas DLC, and the screenshot above, comes from the Bethesda Softworks newsletter.

Senior Designer Chris Avellone provided the details about Dead Money in a short but revealing interview:

Can you discuss the setting for Dead Money?
Dead Money is set in the Sierra Madre, an opulent and extravagant resort that was supposed to be the greatest casino in the west – except that it never opened. Bombs fell before the gala opening, and the Sierra Madre froze in time, its state of the art security system locking the place up tight. Nothing could get in, and none of the guests could escape. Years passed. The climate control and air conditioning system within the facility began to spit toxins into the surrounding city, causing a slow cloud and haze to form over the area – which proved lethal to anyone who tried to explore the city. Only a mysterious group called the Ghost People survived to call the city home, trapped inside what appeared to be hazmat suits and never speaking to their victims… only capturing them alive and dragging them away to the depths of the city deep within the Cloud.

And so the Sierra Madre faded from the history books, only occasionally being seen in posters across the wastes, until it took on mythic ghost story status… a supposed “City of Gold” in the Mojave Wasteland where all the treasures of the Old World were rumoured to be held. It was kept alive as a late-night saloon story by prospectors who’d claimed to have found maps leading there… and were willing to part with the “map” for a few caps. Or a drink. Or a warm place to sleep.

How will the player reach this area?
The Sierra Madre is a mythical place in the wastes, with travellers all risking their lives to find it. Only one man truly “found” it – and lived. After the fall of HELIOS One, Father Elijah of the Brotherhood of Steel set out to find new weapons to eradicate NCR. And in the process he found the Sierra Madre. The Courier is lured to the Sierra Madre by a faint radio broadcast advertising the gala grand opening.

From a gameplay standpoint, Dead Money is accessed by loading a save file from any point in Fallout: New Vegas prior to the endgame sequence, in the same way as Operation Anchorage, Point Lookout, The Pitt or Mothership Zeta were triggered in Fallout 3.

Can you share details on some of the new creatures/enemies players will encounter?
This being an extension of Fallout: New Vegas, players will encounter several unique characters, each with their own motivations, all of whom will have to work together if any of them are going to survive. Aside from just struggling with their would-be companions, the courier will also have to deal with the mysterious Ghost People as well as the casino’s substantial defence systems.

Sounds interesting, right?

Chris Avellone has previously given advice about breaking into the games industry in an interview with Planet Fallout. You can check out his tips here.

Dead Money is going to be the first in a number of DLC packs for Fallout New Vegas. Bethesda have previously announced that all DLC will be Xbox 360 exclusive, but then the DLC for Fallout 3 was originally exclusive to Microsoft so it could eventually come to the PlayStation 3 and PC.

Fallout: New Vegas has sold rather successfully, and topped the UK Charts when it was released at the end of October. It only dropped out of the top ten today following the entry of other big hitters including Call of Duty: Black Ops and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

Bethesda hopes that the DLC will increase the shelf life of Fallout: New Vegas.

The Dead Money DLC will be available on Xbox Live from December 21st for 800 Microsoft points

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the new details about the Dead Money DLC for Fallout: New Vegas? Do you think you’ll part with your cash for extra content? Or are you happy to finish Fallout: New Vegas without paying for DLC?

And does anyone else think that Ghost Person looks like one of the Combine Overwatch from Half Life 2?

You can leave your thoughts on the Dead Money DLC for Fallout: New Vegas here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

UK Charts – Call of Duty: Black Ops stays top

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Call of Duty Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops has held off Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit to hold onto Number 1 in the UKIE GfK Chart Track All Formats Top 40. It means that Call of Duty: Black Ops spends a second week at the top, following its record breaking debut.

The continued success of Activision’s shooter means that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has to settle for second place, despite some extremely impressive review scores, and many retailers putting on special deals for the latest in the Ubisoft series. Sainsbury’s is currently selling Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood for just £29.99 with no strings attached, but the deal won’t last forever! Meanwhile, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit also makes a strong debut, entering the charts in third place.

The new entries of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit has pushed other titles down the rankings. FIFA 11 drops from second to fouth, while Just Dance two also moves down two places from third to fifth.

Two Nintendo Wii titles have re-entered the top ten with Wii Party climbing from twelfth to sixth while Wii Sports Resort jumps a massive 12 places from nineteenth to seventh. A Nintendo title also features in eighth spot with Professor Layton and the Lost Future for the Nintendo DS having dropped two positions from sixth.

Kinect Sports drops from fourth to ninth in its second week on sale while New Super Mario Brothers Wii rounds out the top ten having dropped two places from eighth spot.

Previous chart toppers Fallout: New Vegas and Football Manager 2011 have both dropped out of the top ten, falling to thirteenth and nineteenth respectively. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II also leaves the top ten, having dropped five places to fifteenth.

However, the three top ten leavers are still above EA’s licensed Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Part 1, which could only manage 20th in its first week.

The full Gfk-ChartTrack top ten for the week ending November 20th is as follows:

1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision)
2. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
3. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (EA)
4. FIFA 11 (EA)
5. Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft)
6. Wii Party (Nintendo)
7. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo)
8. Professor Layton and the Lost Future (Nintendo)
9. Kinect Sports (Microsoft)
10. New Super Mario Bros Wii (Nintendo)

So Train2Game, did you think that Call of Duty: Black Ops was always going to hold off Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit? Or are you surprised to see it still selling so well after its massive first week? And with Gran Turismo 5 being released on Wednesday, do you think we could be seeing a new number one next week?

You can leave your thoughts about Call of Duty: Black Ops, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Gran Turismo 5 or any other game in the UKIE GfK Chart Track All Formats chart here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood review round up

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Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has been released today, and the review scores suggest that the latest in Ubisoft’s franchise is going to be a big hit.

Metacritic currently gives Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood on the PlayStation 3 a very impressive score of 91, while the Xbox 360 counterpart is one point behind on 90. That means Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has a higher average review score than Call of Duty: Black Ops, which Metacritic rates at 88.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is therefore one of the highest rated games of the year, with Eurogamer even giving the title a perfect 10/10 and call it “one of the best games of 2010.”

CVG are also highly praising of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. They say “Overall, Brotherhood is an awesome package with enough new content to kill the competition this Christmas. There’s enough quality and scope here to put Brotherhood in the running not just as a top Christmas purchase, but one of the best action games of the year.” CVG give Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood 9.2/10.

Meanwhile, Kotaku claim that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is the best game in the series to date. They lavish praise on the game in their review summary:

“The game that comes to mind while playing Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, is Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Not since Rockstar’s potent crime drama has a game so massive, so polished, so impressively improved from its predecessor been released just a year after the prior installment. But people won’t remember how long Brotherhood took to make. They are likely to remember its quality. Ezio’s new adventure may be less personal than his previous one, but it is as interesting and as mischievously manipulative of real history as the series has ever been. Nearly bloated with fun things to do Brotherhood is Assassin’s Creed in peak form.”

GameSpot UK are slightly less praising of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, giving it 8.5/10.  They say “Almost every aspect of the series has seen enhancements in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. There is joy in leaping across the Roman rooftops, taking in the grand sights in front of you and realizing that it is all your own playground. This may not be Assassin’s Creed III, but like Ezio’s smirk, Brotherhood is too irresistible to ignore.”

If you’re still wondering why Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is receiving so much hype, you may want to check out both the Single Player Launch Trailer, and the Multiplayer Launch Trailer.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is available now for both the PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360.

So Train2Game, have you got your hands on Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood yet? If so what do you think about it? Is it deserving of the very high praise it has received? Do you think that the excellent review scores could help it do the seemingly impossible and knock Call of Duty: Black Ops from the top of the UK Chart?

You can leave your thoughts about Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Get Gran Turismo 5 for £4.99 (And see the Kevin Butler commercial!)

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Gran Turismo 5

With the release of the much anticipated Gran Turismo 5 fast approaching, it looks like that we’ll have another retailer price war on our hands.

HMV have once again played their cards first and will be selling Gran Turismo 5 for just £4.99, thought with conditions of course. This offer will be available to anyone who buys Gran Turismo 5 from HMV and is happy to trade in a copy of F1 2010 for the PlayStation 3.  The deal runs from when Gran Turismo 5 is released on Wednesday November 24th through to Friday November 26th.

The HMV F1 2010 for Gran Turismo 5 trade in deal is very similar to one the retailer ran earlier this month for Call of Duty: Black Ops. It was possible to pick up Call of Duty: Black Ops for only £7.99 if you traded in a copy of Medal of Honor. The different retailers were keen to encourage consumers to buy Call of Duty: Black Ops from them with various different deals.

With Gran Turismo 5 being so highly anticipated – it has been tipped to be the highest selling PlayStation 3 game of the year – it’s entirely possible that retailers will once again provide special offers to encourage sales.

In other Gran Turismo 5 news, Sony have released a brand new advert for Gran Turismo 5 starring the one and only Kevin Butler. It’ll only feature on televisions in America, but thanks to the wonders of the internet you can watch it online right here, courtesy of the Official PlayStation Youtube channel.

Remember, Mr Butler is a professional driver on a closed circuit. Don’t attempt to imitate what he does!

Gran Turismo 5 is released exclusively for the PlayStation 3 less than one week on November 24th.

So Train2Game, how excited are you about the imminent release of Gran Turismo 5. Do you think you’ll take advantage of the HMV F1 2010 trade in deal? And of course, what are your thoughts about Kevin Butler’s Gran Turismo 5 commercial?

You can tell us what you think about Gran Turismo 5, the F1 2010 trade in deal or the Kevin Butler commercial here on the Train2Game blog, or over on the Train2Game forum.

Cut the Rope sales reach 3 million

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Cut the Rope

Indie iPhone game ‘Cut the Rope’ has sold more than three million units through the Apple App Store since being released at the beginning of October.

The relatively simple game costs just 59p and blends physics orientated gameplay as players’ feed dangling candy to a little green creature called Om Nom. The cute graphics, the simple but addictive gameplay and its low price have all helped Cut the Rope achieve the very impressive three million sales world wide in a short space of time.

Developers Zeptolab have used the landmark sales number to announce that Cut the Rope will soon be getting a free update:

“We thank all of the amazing fans who have shared the joyful fun Cut the Rope offers with friends and family to make it a phenomenal success,” said Efim Voinov, CTO of ZeptoLab.

“The 1.1 update is just the beginning; we hope to release an additional update just in time for the holidays and bring even more action-packed, Om Nom excitement to your fingertips!”

You can check out the Cut the Rope 1.1 update teaser trailer below.

Cut the Rope is a brilliant example of how a simple game developed for a smart phone, can go a long way and bring success to a small indie developer. iPhone games like Cut the Rope and Angry Birds are getting more and more popular, and have even recently been recognised as part of BAFTA.

The low price of games such as Cut the Rope also plays a part in the success, but you don’t need to be a mathematician to realise that 59p multiplied by three million means a lot of money!

Developing a game for an iPhone – or indeed any other smartphone – could provide a group of Train2Game students with a great start in the games industry. Indeed, during last months Train2Game webinar, veteran video games developer Jon Hare pointed out that a small team could build a simple game from scratch in as little as four months, and that simple games like Angry Birds sell very well. Dave Sharp added that successful iPhone games – such as Cut the Rope – can be quite basic, are very well produced, which adds to appeal.

If you’ve yet to try out Cut the Rope, you can buy it for just 59p at the iPhone App Store.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the success of Cut the Rope? Have you played it? If so why do you think it has been so successful? And do you think that developing a simple iPhone game could provide you with your first big break in the video games development industry?

You can leave your thoughts about Cut the Rope, iPhone games and breaking into the games industry here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Call of Duty: Black Ops – The biggest entertainment launch ever

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Its official, Call of Duty: Black Ops holds the title of the biggest entertainment launch ever.  As MCV notes, Call of Duty: Black Ops was launched in the same week as popular beat combo Take That reformed and launched a new album. Even a new Harry Potter film was premiered, but it was the video game that came out on top.

Here in the UK, Call of Duty: Black Ops broke all previous day one records for a video game, shifting 1.4 million copies and making £58 million in revenue. Call of Duty: Black Ops went on to sell over two million copies in its first week on the shelves, generating over £80 million in revenue.

These figures easily beat every other entertainment product around at the moment, and MCV point out “Even the ‘fastest selling album of the decade’, Take That’s Progress, only managed 235,000 units in its first day on Monday this week, around 2m in revenue.”

The success of Call of Duty: Black Ops, combined with the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect motion controller, means that the UK has had its biggest week ever when it comes to game sales. An estimated £114 million was made last week, beating the previous record of £107.6 million set in the final week of 2008.

Sales were possibly also improved by the various deals retailers provided in attempts to encourage consumers to buy Call of Duty: Black Ops from them.

Naturally, the massive sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops mean that it easily took the top spot in the UK video game charts. All of the games success has come on good, if not outstanding reviews, but its unlikely Activision and Treyarch will be too bothered with review scores given the massive success of the game across the globe.

If you somehow managed to miss all of the Call of Duty: Black Ops pre-launch hype, you can check out the launch trailer, and details of the new zombie mode featuring some famous faces here.

So Train2Game, do you believe the massive success of Call of Duty: Black Ops is good for the games industry? Or do you believe that it’ll just encourage developers to churn out the same old games?

And given that video games cost a lot more than going to the cinema, or buying a CD, do you think that the industry is getting too excited about the amount of money made by Call of Duty: Black Ops?

You can leave your thoughts about the success of Call of Duty: Black Ops here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

First Fallout: New Vegas DLC revealed

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Bethesda has announced the first DLC pack for Fallout: New Vegas, and bad news PlayStation 3 and PC gamers, its Xbox 360 exclusive as the company announced previously.

The new content, titled Dead Money, has the following back-story:

“As the victim of a raw deal you must work alongside three other captured wastelanders to recover the legendary treasure of the Sierra Madre Casino. In Dead Money, your life hangs in the balance as you face new terrain, foes, and choices. It is up to you how you play your cards in the quest to survive.”

Given the open nature of Fallout: New Vegas ‘how you play your cards right’ could even mean ‘shoot those other wastelanders in the face.’

Of course, VP of PR and Marketing for Bethesda Softworks Peter Hines has spoken positively of the upcoming DLC for Fallout: New Vegas.

“We’re pleased to give fans a chance to expand their experience in Fallout: New Vegas this December with Dead Money.”

“The release of Dead Money illustrates our commitment to creating entertaining add-on content for players to enjoy in already massive games like Fallout: New Vegas.”

The Dead Money DLC will be available on Xbox Live from December 21st for 800 Microsoft points. It’s not yet know whether this Fallout: New Vegas DLC is purely exclusive to the Xbox 360, or will become available to other systems at a later date.

Fallout: New Vegas was released in October, received generally positive reviews and topped the UK games chart.  It’s still selling strongly, and remains inside the top ten this week. Fallout: New Vegas has also seen a large number of bugs and has been patched since release.

So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the Dead Money DLC? If you played Fallout: New Vegas on an Xbox 360, will you buy it? Or are you content to explore the Mojave wastes without paying extra money? Maybe you’re already done with New Vegas? And  PlayStation 3 and PC owners, how do you feel about Bethesda’s decision to make Fallout: New Vegas DLC Xbox 360 exclusive?

You can leave your thoughts about the Dead Money DLC for Fallout: New Vegas here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Bioware tease next game

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Bioware Teaser

Bioware has released a teaser about a previously announced game, set to be revealed at next months Spike TV Video Games Awards.

The game doesn’t look like it’ll be the much anticipated Mass Effect 3, because as you can see in the video, the new project looks to have a more modern setting than the sci-fi RPG. Could Bioware be bring an RPG twist to the stream of contemporary first person shooters we’re seeing at the moment? Will this game be a shooter?

What’s certain is that whatever Bioware are working on, it’s going to be quite different to Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

You can draw your own conclusions, that is until Bioware reveal more, by watching the teaser trailer below.

So yes, that definitely looks a lot different to Bioware’s previous games, especially Dragon Age: Origins. However, Dragon Age: Origins is one of the best RPG’s out there, and Dragon Age 2 is shaping up nicely, so it’s likely that Bioware know what they’re doing. (I haven’t got round to the Mass Effect series yet, but I hear it’s just as good, if not better than Dragon Age)

As Bioware’s teaser trailer says, we’ll find out more at Spike TV’s Video Games Awards on December 11th

So Train2Game, what do you make of the Bioware teaser trailer? What do you think the game could be? Are you disappointed that it doesn’t look like it’ll be Mass Effect 3?

You can leave your thoughts about the Bioware teaser trailer here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.