PlayStation 2 Video Games News

Konami has officially announced this year's instalment of PES, which will come to the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, PS2, and PSP this autumn amongst a raft of optimistic promises and new ideas for the series.

Top of the bunch is the series' online Master League debut, although Konami hasn't detailed precisely how many players the online mode will support at this stage. The publisher did reveal, however, that gamers will be able to bid against each other for star players in the online Master League.

As far as gameplay enhancements are concerned, the tweak that caught our eye is defensive AI. Shingo 'Seabass' Takatsuka and his Konami team are apparently working to stop defensive players from immediately flocking to the ball. Instead, redesigned AI routines encourage the defensive unit to hold position and maintain formation. With any luck, this should put an end to the bunching tendency of PES players inside the box.

Other promises come in the form of an enhanced 360 degree passing ratio. Essentially, this means gamers will be able to pass the ball around more deftly and accurately (or that's the plan at least). Additionally, a new Shot and Stamina gauge, to accompany the game's generic power gauge, will reputedly allow gamers to see the degrading performance of their players according to their fitness level.

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Activision has made its fair share of poor moves in recent months and seemingly pissed off the gaming community with everything it does. However, in bringing honest and pretty frank answers to a Facebook group set up to raise awareness of gamers' frustrations, Daniel Amrich Activision's Social Media Manager has made an attempt to patch over the differences and bring some transparency over the issues.

Amrich describes the $15 pricing of the Modern Warfare DLC package as a "mistake", but admitted its success made it difficult to criticise: "when they're looking at a bottom line and going 'Hey, turns out people felt this content was worth it'".

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Activision enraged musical artists, both living and dead, with the decision to portray them singing other bands' songs.  Courtney Love and the remaining Nirvana members weren't too happy about Kurt Cobain singing away to Bon Jovi, and neither were No Doubt, who issued a lawsuit againt the publisher for playing the same trick in Band Hero shortly after the game's release last year.

No Doubt maintained that the feature breached their contract, which required written approval for any further use of the band's music or likenesses.

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At a time when even the likes of EA are struggling to post a profit, there's no denying Bobby Kotick knows how to run a tight ship at Activision-Blizzard.  Obviously having blockbuster, annualised, franchises to count on is one thing, but despite intending to stick with Tony Hawk: Ride, Activision doesn't typically flog dead horses.

And so news that the US publisher has signalled the end of PS2 development, is an obviously big statement that the last-gen is effectively over.

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Despite an unprecedented rate of decline in the music game market last year, Activision has stated that it believes the market for these types of games will decline still further in 2010.

"In 2010 we are anticipating further declines in the music genre overall as the casual consumer proves less robust and the business naturally continues to migrate from hardware bundles to software only sales," said Activision's CEO and President, Michael Griffith in a post-financial report conference call.

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Toby Gard, the creator of gaming's most famous heroine, Lara Croft, has revealed a batch of concept art that he drew at Crystal Dynamics. Most notably, one particular piece shows how far Gard went when he was asked to draw Lara naked during the development of Tomb Raider: Legend/Anniversary.

"I was asked to do Lara nude. This was as close as I would allow myself to go," Gard commented on his site, referring to the image opposite. The picture was posted late last year after Gard had decided to leave Eidos' Tomb Raider studio, Crystal Dynamics, having recently been promoted to the position of Lead Designer.

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