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Seven fighters added to the EA Sports MMA roster

by David Hinkle { Dec 16th 2009 at 2:15PM }

EA has just announced that a new round of pummelers and pummelees have signed on for EA Sports MMA. The game's site lists seven new fighters in total: Cung Le, Gilbert Melendez, Robbie Lawler, Ronaldo Souza, Matt Lindland, Scott Smith, and Josh Thomson -- a few of whom have participated in UFC fights in the past. Considering the UFC president's stance toward EA's game, we have to wonder if their participation jeopardizes their chances with the UFC in the future.

We've also got a few in-game screenshots for you to train with. Practice your virtual arm bars by checking 'em out in the gallery below.

[Via @EASPORTSMMA]

Gallery: EA Sports MMA

UFC Undisputed 2010 trailer reminds us of MJ, makes us sad

by Griffin McElroy { Dec 13th 2009 at 2:00PM }

Aww, we were having such a good time watching last night's Spike Video Game Awards show -- then the trailer for the recently dated UFC Undisputed 2010 aired, and really soured our enjoyment of the event. See, the first minute of the video utilizes the transformative special effects featured in Michael Jackson's "Black or White" music video, so immediately we started thinking about how this would be our first Christmas without MJ in our lives. Nothing could revive our good spirits after that. Not even Kimbo Slice's beard, which may be filled with hidden candies.

Check out the trailer ~~after the jump~~ above, but feel free to skip to the 0:52 mark if you want to avoid the melancholy described above. Alternatively, skip to the 1:01 mark if you want to witness Kimbo's glorious, confection-rich facial hair.

Hands-free: Camera-controlled Racquet Sports

by James Ransom-Wiley { Dec 10th 2009 at 6:50PM }

Call to mind Wii Sports' tennis, and you don't have to stretch your imagination too much further to arrive at Ubisoft's Racquet Sports. If you own a Wii, you already own this experience, to which Ubisoft has added some variety, including ping-pong, badminton, squash, and beach tennis, and a more fleshed-out art direction than Nintendo's pack-in or even its sequel, Wii Sports Resort. There's no Mii support, but Racquet Sports offers its own dollish avatars, customized with unlockable trinkets. There's a derivative multicultural vibe, too, as the characters and playing courts span the globe in classic and fantastic scenarios. Grandma vs. dashiki-clad boy in an aquarium squash court? Yes.

Of course, the experience you don't own is "tennis" played with a motion-tracking camera. No, not Natal -- not at all. Ubisoft's USB camera, first bundled with scarcely-reviewed Your Shape (featuring Jenny McCarthy), might be on the cutting edge of a revived and revamped gaming tech trend, but its implementation in Racquet Sports is painfully dull.

Gallery: Racquet Sports (Wii)

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Ubisoft gets into the Wii sports racket with Racquet Sports

by JC Fletcher { Dec 9th 2009 at 11:30AM }

Ubisoft's new Wii sports collection, Racquet Sports, is on the way to help you use some of the Wii peripherals you bought! Ubisoft is cleverly aiming not just at the Wii Sports Resort audience, thanks to MotionPlus compatibility, but also the people who bought Your Shape and would feel weird about having a camera that works with just one game.

Racquet Sports includes tennis, ping-pong, badminton, squash, and beach tennis (which totally counts as a separate sport). It features various single-player and multiplayer modes, including a Party Mode with randomized, "wacky rules." There's no word on how the camera peripheral will interact with the game, though our money's on "your face as an avatar" more than camera-based controls. Racquet Sports will be in stores by March 2010, though you may not see it behind the ten thousand other games also being released that month.

Gallery: Racquet Sports (Wii)

Fight Night: Round 4 gets new fighters, modes, major update Dec. 3

by David Hinkle { Nov 24th 2009 at 10:00PM }

Punch your way through to our gallery

Pugilists looking to beef up their stable of brawlers in Fight Night Round 4 will be able to do just that when EA offers up three new fighters in a DLC pack for 360 and PS3 on December 3. For the price of 160

($2) and $1.99, respectively, you'll be able to add boxing greats Evander Holyfield, Sonny Liston and Bernard Hopkins to your virtual lineup of potential pulverizers. In addition to the new DLC, EA will also bring in the cut man to fix a few issues fighters are having with the game -- you can find the full list of fixes after the break -- and will add Old School Rules and Ring Rivalry mode. Here's the fight card:

Full bundle (Xbox 360/PS3) - 800

($10) / $9.99

Evander Holyfield, Sonny Liston and Bernard Hopkins
Ring Rivalry game mode (allows players to choose from over 20 different match options recreating boxing's most famous matchups)
Old School Rules game mode (simulates the common rules of boxing prior to the establishment of the Marquis of Queensbury Rules)

Three new boxers (Holyfield, Liston and Hopkins) -- 160

($2) / $1.99 each

Old School Rules mode -- 320

($4) / $3.99

Ring Rivalry mode -- 160

($2) / $1.99

Gallery: Fight Night Round 4 (DLC)

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Shaun White Snowboarding World Stage trailer is all big air, winding grinds

by David Hinkle { Nov 10th 2009 at 2:45PM }

Almost every post on Joystiq about Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage has been met with cries for a new SSX game, but this launch trailer for Ubisoft's upcoming game actually does a good job of mimicking the EA series' over-the-top X-TREME thrills. Sure, there's manufactured virtual pals to laugh at and stereotypical caricatures of foreigners from countries you never bothered to learn about in there, but the warm, nougety center of snowboarding goodness seems warm and inviting enough.

Also, what's with that logo? Why is Shaun White's hair the dot on the "i?" If we were him, we'd try to steer as far away from being associated with that other red-headed dude as possible. We'd also be too rich to blog for you people.

EA Sports MMA gameplay footage revealed during Strikeforce match

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 8th 2009 at 5:30PM }

Man, we have got to get into watching Mixed Martial Arts. Not only do the sport's leagues have like, the coolest names ever, but the televised bouts also occasionally contain sneak peeks into upcoming video games. For instance, on last night's Strikeforce (so, so cool) match, the first-ever gameplay footage from EA Sports MMA was revealed. You can find it posted just after the jump.

How does it look? We have no idea. There's plenty of punching and kicking, sure, and one might say these two techniques are used intermittently -- or rather, that they are mixed. Therefore, our initial, amateur analysis of the video concludes that it reeks of authenticity.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

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Konami extremely confident in PES 2010, ships 3 million to Europe

by David Hinkle { Oct 24th 2009 at 12:00AM }

Look, we know you Europeans love your ~~soccer~~ football, but GI.biz is reporting that Konami has shipped three million copies of PES 2010 to the region today. Three million -- that's like Halo 3 numbers, people!

While we're willing to bet you Euros are chomping at the bit for more pitch play, we're curious if PES 2010 needs such a hefty initial shipment -- especially since FIFA 10 has been out and selling really well. Have footy fans had their needs fulfilled? Apparently not, since Konami expects the game to "become a million-selling title at launch."

"Global sales for the PES series to date are over 55.5 million, and we expect a very strong performance from what is easily the best PES in a long, long time," says Martin Schneider, Konami's European marketing director. He credits the rise in quality and buzz to the latest iteration to the fans, whom he expects to stick around as Konami starts charging toward DLC for the game.

Technical foul: 2K looking into framerate issues in NBA 2K10

by David Hinkle { Oct 8th 2009 at 7:00PM }

Posting on the official 2K forums, an admin has stated that the developer is aware of reported framerate issues encountered by several players in NBA 2K10. He's also put out a call to readers to describe any encounters with the slowdown, with the hopes that problems can be identified and resolved. The thread has grown to 25 pages at the time of writing this post.

If you've run into the problem yourself, get over to the relevant thread and recount that traumatic experience with as much detail as you can. Heck of a way to celebrate a franchise's 10th anniversary, eh?

[Thanks, Mark!]

Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage trailer travels the globe

by David Hinkle { Aug 27th 2009 at 4:15PM }

Ubisoft just sent us a new trailer for Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage and, as those powder-carving kids would say, it's totally tubular. It reminds us of a time when snowboarding games were, uh, fun (oh, how we miss you, SSX). If this wasn't on your radar before this post, we're sure that's going to change for a few of you after checking out the action above. Enjoy.

Gallery: Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage

Here's a beautiful FIFA 10 trailer from GamesCom

by Ben Gilbert { Aug 19th 2009 at 1:15PM }

We may not know much about the athletes on the various covers of FIFA 10, but we do know that this trailer looks damn impressive. In fairness, the game often looks rather stunning, but the sizzle reel that EA has whipped up for GamesCom (found after the break) is specifically meant to show off the game to its most active market -- which certainly comes through in production quality. Though we don't watch a ton of sports (and we play even less) we're legitimately looking forward to EA's next entry in the FIFA series, set to release this October.

Gallery: FIFA 10 (360/PS3)

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Hudson finally announces Deca Sports on DS

by JC Fletcher { Aug 10th 2009 at 1:45PM }

We first heard rumblings from Hudson about a DS version of the surprisingly popular Deca Sports back in May of last year. Those ... offhand remarks have finally come to fruition, as Hudson has officially announced Deca Sports DS, for release in North America at the same time as every other game ever (Spring 2010). Scans of the Japanese version have also appeared, providing a first look at the handheld sports game.

The DS game includes customizable team designs, multiplayer modes and, most importantly, new sports. The events on this cartridge include golf, ping pong, wall climbing, bobsled, rugby, arm wrestling, clay shooting, cheerleading, and sepak takraw, only one of which we had to look up. (Wall climbing? What is that?)

Will Deca Sports be a hit on DS? Will the kind of inexplicable success of Deca Sports counteract the super-crowded release schedule? It should be interesting to find out.

[Scan via GoNintendo]

Wii Sports Resort puts MotionPlus in over 600,000 European homes

by JC Fletcher { Aug 7th 2009 at 9:40AM }

We knew that Wii Sports Resort was selling well in Europe. Today, Nintendo told GamesIndustry.biz just how well: over 600,000 copies in its two weeks of release, even more than have sold in North America. That's not only good news for the game, but also for the prospects for future MotionPlus use -- the more the game sells, the more of the Wii audience has the device, and the more likely developers are to support it.

Who knew that a sequel to a ridiculously popular game could also be popular? Somebody should tell all the struggling publishers like EA and Activision about this.

Gallery: Wii Sports Resort in Times Square

EA reveals UK lovefest with FIFA 10 cover athletes

by Ben Gilbert { Aug 6th 2009 at 2:00AM }

We've been known to dabble in a FIFA game from time to time, though cover athletes aren't really our forte, if you will. Rather than address our ignorance dead-on, we'll simply tell you that Frank Lampard of Chelsea, Theo Walcott of Arsenal and Wayne Rooney of Manchester United are donning the cover of this year's footballer.

Believe it or not, the game will feature more than just players from English teams. (Yes, we're just as shocked as you by that possibility.) The game is set to land in the UK on October 2, and Amazon and GameStop are putting the game's US release on October 20th.

Gallery: FIFA 10 (360/PS3)

EA creating bite-sized Madden arcade title (think '3-on-3 NHL Arcade')

by David Hinkle { Aug 4th 2009 at 5:45PM }

EA's 3-on-3 NHL Arcade, a smaller and more focused downloadable hockey title, seems to have been a successful experiment for the publisher. In a recent investor call, EA's Peter Moore confirmed that a similar title, this time with the Madden franchise as basis, is currently in development. Though little other information was divulged, we're told to expect title sometime "this holiday."