Stranglehold video game has gone Gold for the PlayStation 3

Midway Games Ltd today announced that Stranglehold has shipped to retail for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system in Europe. Developed by the team behind the critically acclaimed Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, Stranglehold is now available for a suggested retail price of €69.95. PlayStation 3 owners can get a taste of the cinematic action shooter by downloading the Stranglehold demo via the PlayStation Store. Stranglehold is available now for the Xbox 360 video game system and PC.

A collaboration with world renowned action film director John Woo's Tiger Hill Entertainment, Stranglehold allows players to experience the excitement of true next-gen action as you take on the role of Inspector Tequila created by John Woo for his influential action film, "Hard Boiled" starring Chow Yun-Fat. Ensnared by a crime boss with a gripping secret, Inspector Tequila is forced to cross the line from sworn duty to renegade cop. Engage your enemies with intense cinematic gun battles and cause massive environmental damage in real-time or revolutionary slow-motion Tequila Time.

More information about Stranglehold can be found online at www.strangleholdgame.com Visit the Official Stranglehold forums at forums.midway.com

A peek at So Blonde video game

Sunny, the anti-heroine of the forthcoming comic adventure treat So Blonde, is a quite unique game character. The 17 year-old blonde meets some very quirky and bizarre islanders on her temporary new island home:

Like Max. Max is a small, greedy little animal. Sunny meets him right at the start of the adventure and the pair hit it off immediately, even though she can’t quite work out what species Max belongs to! Max accompanies Sunny all over the island and stays with her throughout the adventure: he is always ready to help our blonde to carry out some tricky tasks. He is also available to the player as a playable character from time to time.

Captain Morgane is female emancipation personified: She is the lady captain of a rowdy and coarse pirate crew and knows how to keep them in line. She not only earns respect through her stunning looks; she is also aware of her skills and knows she may be able to help this lost island, the setting for So Blonde. She does not fear her arch enemy, One-Eye, but cares deeply for her crew’s welfare. Perhaps she can help Sunny call a halt to One-Eye’s activities; whether he likes it or not…

One-Eye is a real villain who embodies the classic stereotype of a pirate, down to the eye-patch (could this be where he gets his name from); only his size is at odds with the typical image of the pirate. However, this doesn't stop him from having the inhabitants of the island under his thumb: he is responsible for a curse on the island, which eventually turns out to be the cause of all the bad things going on there...

Diablo is One-Eye’s henchman, who is indeed a man who inspires fear owing to his formidable stature and brutality. These characteristics are surpassed only by his naivety and lack of self-confidence... can Sunny really show him the respect he is due?

Sunny’s island is inhabited by many more wacky characters, who we will introduce to you very soon.

Sunny Blonde didn’t exactly want to land in the Bermudas; in fact the gorgeous 17 year-old was on a luxury cruise with her parents to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary. But a raging storm plunged the ship into distress at sea, Sunny went overboard and she regained consciousness washed up on the beach like driftwood!

Much more problematic than her unintended stay on a totally unknown island, which she has no idea how she can ever leave, the horrible realisation dawns on Sunny that she will suddenly have to do without out all the luxuries of life: her mobile has no signal, her make-up is a mess and it looks like the nearest shopping mall is miles away… on foot! And if that wasn’t enough, unfortunate circumstances have thrown Sunny back some one hundred years in time and she has ended up in a golden era of pirates and buccaneers!

Sunny Blonde is also in a really tricky situation and we are calling upon the PC gaming community to solve it in So Blonde! The person responsible for the novel plot is none other than the famous adventure author, Steve Ince (“Baphomets Curse”).

So Blonde, developed by the French developers Wizarbox, promises a wacky story line, a stunning (anti-)heroine, deeply black humour, which far outstrips all the blonde joke clichés, fabulous comic-strip graphics and a quite few gameplay surprises!

dtp will publish the So Blonde game worldwide under the ANACONDA label, and the release date has been set for February 2008 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Blockdot Releases Tech Toyland Game for CompUSA

Dallas-based Blockdot has released “Tech Toyland,” an awesomely addictive holiday-themed game for CompUSA, one of the nation's leading retailers and resellers of technology products and services.

In “Tech Toyland,” your goal is to create a line of three or more gift packs of the same color.

To do this, swap the positions of any two gifts by clicking on them with your mouse. When you successfully create a line, the gift packs will disappear off the game board — earning you points! New gifts will then cascade into the empty spots. But watch out: your shopping season (and the game) ends when you can no longer create gift packs for those Movers and Shakers, Movie Buffs, Wannabe Photographers, Rebel Rockers, and Techno Geeks on your holiday list.

After playing “Tech Toyland,” users can spread some holiday cheer by sending a “challenge-a-friend” e-mail straight from the game, and they can post their scores for all to see on the “Tech Toyland Scoreboard.”

Ready for a Merry Gaming experience? In addition to be featured on http://www.compusa.com/specials/techtoyland/default.asp, “Tech Toyland” can be played on Blockdot’s gaming portal, www.kewlbox.com.

New video footage shows off the power of the elementals in NCsoft's stunning new MMORPG, Aion: The Tower of Eternity

Take control of the forces of nature and unleash the power of the elements on your enemies in NCsoft's forthcoming online epic, Aion

Of all the character classes available to play as in Aion: The Tower of Eternity, NCsoft’s amazing new online RPG, the mysterious Spiritmaster is one of the most intriguing. Using powerful magics derived from the forces of nature, Spiritmasters will find themselves an integral part of any adventuring party due to their ability to summon and control fierce creatures based on the four cardinal elements of Earth, Fire, Wind and Water.

The Spiritmaster’s chief responsibility is to summon and control elemental spirits, powerful forms of nature incarnate. This is done through a series of specific commands, such as attack and defend, that can be given via a simple onscreen control system. Other, more specialised and yet to be revealed commands exist beyond these basic controls, with each form of elemental spirit having its own unique skills and abilities.

The challenge for the Spiritmaster comes from recognising which element to call on at any given time. Earth spirits are strong in defence abilities, Fire spirits specialise in ranged attacks, Water spirits concentrate on healing powers while Wind spirits are best utilised in melee attacks. While it’s not possible to control different types of elemental spirits at the same time – Spiritmaster’s cannot control both an Earth and Water spirit simultaneously, for instance – by summoning the correct spirit for the situation in hand, Spiritmasters have the power to turn even the most desperate battles into a complete rout of the enemy. A situation that could prove immensely useful when adventurers come up against some of the more powerful rogue elemental spirits that wander Aion’s immense and incredibly detailed game world.

Aion: The Tower of Eternity is set to begin closed Beta-testing early 2008 and will release later in the year.

US PlayStation 3 sales climb 300 per cent

Following the introduction of 40GB and 80GB SKUs

Sony Computer Entertainment America has revealed that sales of PlayStation 3 hardware have leapt by 298 per cent since November 2.

The climb is attributed to the availability of both 40GB and 80GB units at US retail.

Figures for the Thanksgiving period – dubbed Black Friday – were up 245 per cent when compared to the previous year.

According to SCEA figures, for the week ended November 24, sales of the PSP handheld in the region jumped 136 per cent compared to the previous week, and PS2 sales were also up 287 per cent.

Ahead of the busy Christmas season, Sony is also enjoying positive sales in other key regions.

Last week, the PlayStation 3 outsold the Nintendo Wii in Japan, and yesterday it was announced that the recently released PSP Slim & Lite has sold over one million units in the region.

EA regrets Need for Speed porn promotion

Images "slipped through proper approval process"

Electronic Arts has said that it regrets a promotion for its latest Need for Speed game which used Page 3 porn models for a topless photo shoot.

The images appeared on Page 3.com, the official softcore porn site of UK tabloid The Sun, and featured topless models posing with a Ferrari. The Need for Speed branding and EA logo featured prominently.

"We regret that these images slipped through the proper EA approval process," said a spokesperson for the publisher, speaking to GamesIndustry.biz.

"They were not appropriate for our brand. The original site has been taken down this morning."

While the images have been deleted, an accompanying video of the photo shoot still remains online, although any association with the game has been removed.

Need for Speed: Pro Street was released last Friday in Europe and today entered the all formats charts at number two.

New ad agency for $150 million PlayStation account

Original agency dropped after 13 years

Sony has hired Deutsch as the new agency in charge of its USD 150 million PlayStation ad account.

Although no official announcement has yet been made, Agency Spy is reporting that Deutsch, based in Los Angeles, has won the coveted account.

Deutsch was one of five finalists vying for the account, including Publicis, Venebles, RPA, and TBWA.

TBWA, formerly known as Chiat/Day, had handled Sony's advertising since 1994 with the launch of the original PlayStation. It also helped Sony launch the PS2, PSP, and PS3, but was recently involved in controversy over some of its advertisements.

According to TNS Media Intelligence, Sony spent USD 94 million on measured media in 2006 and USD 2.9 million for the first eight months of 2007.

DS sales rocket in Japan following software frenzy

Dragon Quest IV prompts a hardware spike; all platforms show increased sales

Sales of the Nintendo DS handheld in Japan rose over 50 per cent in the week ending November 25, with all other platforms also experiencing increases.

The DS shifted over 116,000 units, most likely off the back of the release of Dragon Quest IV, and has now soared past 6 million sold in Japan this year and 20 million sold in Japan to date, according to Media Create.

With the software top ten titles selling nearly 1.5 million units in the same week, a hardware surge was to be expected, although the other platforms didn't benefit quite so much as the DS.

The PlayStation Portable was up from 65,000 to 75,000, the Wii up from 36,000 to 54,000 while the PlayStation 3 jumped from 39,000 to 50,000.

The full sales numbers for hardware are as follows:

1. Nintendo DS: 116,694
2. PlayStation Portable: 75,027
3. Nintendo Wii: 54,362
4. PlayStation 3: 50,564
5. PlayStation 2: 14,875
6. Xbox 360: 7117

GameSpot editor leaves amid review rumours

Jeff Gerstmann departs after Kane & Lynch review is apparently edited

GamesIndustry.biz has learned that GameSpot's US reviews editor has left CNET Networks following an incident involving the site's recent Kane & Lynch review.

A source close to the editorial team has revealed that the row focused on the tone of the content of the original review, which was apparently subsequently altered.

The game scored 6 out of 10, and although it's unclear how the text of the review may have changed from its original format, it's not thought that the score was altered.

GameSpot reviews are regularly submitted to the wider editorial team for quality and accuracy reasons, and small changes can be made at this point before the article is published.

Rumours elsewhere cited possible reasons for the editorial changes as being the result of pressure from the Kane & Lynch publisher Eidos, which had marketed the game on the site.

The source revealed that members of the editorial team were extremely disappointed by the incident.

Gerstmann had been with GameSpot for 11 years, and was part of the team - which included Greg Kasavin, now at EA - who drove the site's core values of editorial excellence and independence over that time.

As well as heading up the reviews team, he also hosted weekly video show On The Spot, and wrote the music to several of the site's audio or video publications, including the GameSpot UK podcast.

CNET representatives have so far declined to comment on Gerstmann's departure, and the precise circumstances - whether or not he left of his own accord - have not been disclosed.

Tim Tracy, former head of video at the company, has also departed, although it's not clear at this time whether or not the two are linked.

Microsoft sells 310,000 XBoxs in Thanksgiving week

360 software on track to outsell PS3, Wii titles combined

During the week after the Thanksgiving holiday, Microsoft sold 310,000 Xbox 360 consoles in the US.

That's nearly the same number of units it sold during the entire month of October, when 366,000 Xbox 360 consoles were purchased.

According to a CNBC article, Microsoft's system outsold the PlayStation 3 during the week after "Black Friday" by a margin of 2 to 1.

Nintendo still came out on top, however, with 350,000 Wii consoles sold.

Even so, Microsoft reports that its software is on track to outsell the PS3 and Wii software combined. According to NPD data, Xbox 360 software represented 54 per cent of total software sales for October, with 30 per cent for the Wii and 16 per cent for the PS3.

UPDATE: An SCEA spokesperson disputed Microsoft's assertion that the Xbox 360 had outsold the PS3 2 to 1, but stated that it was company policy not to disclose specific sales until NPD data is officially released.