Welcome to another week of JOE’s videogame round-up. As always, we’re looking to provide you with up-to-the-minute news, download reviews, weekly charts and forthcoming release dates on a weekly basis. So if there’s anything you think we’re leaving out, or would like us to shine a spotlight on, feel free to leave a comment below.
News
Uncharted 3 to be unveiled in December?
Hopefully Naughty Dog go easy on the blue people in the next game
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was the inarguable game of the year for 2009 and may possibly be the best PS3 exclusive the console has to offer, so any whisperings on the future of the franchise will be rigorously vetted by ourselves. According to plenty of online rumours, Uncharted 3 is to be Sony’s big exclusive trailer for the December 12 Spike Videogame Awards, with Sony scheduling a press event for the day afterwards. It all points towards more Nolan North-voiced adventures, yet don’t want to jump the gun and risk becoming bitterly disappointed just in case.
EA explain NBA Elite 11 cancellation
Wow, look how tall the guy on the right must be
B-Ball fans (are we right, is it still called that?) would’ve been understandably miffed if they did a quick search on the Apple App Store recently – just what is NBA Elite 11 and why isn’t it on any consoles? A much more tactics and player-centred title, EA recently pulled the plug on the title because “ultimately it was just going to be a bad game”, EA Sports Alan Wilson told IGN.
“The goal of reinventing how people play basketball games and giving the gamer infinitely more control over the outcomes that appear on the screen in front of them was something that just needed to take longer than we had,” he explained , leaving 2K Sport’s NBA 2K11 with a competition-free year.
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Purchase/Download of the Week
Crazy Taxi  (PSN – €9.99, Xbox 360 – 800 MS Points)
It’s Party Time – let’s have some fun! Hopefully that ‘crazy’ narrator has returned too
2000 was a great year for SEGA. The Dreamcast was living up to all SEGA fanboy’s highest hopes and delivering near-perfect arcade ports, while ambitious titles such as Shenmue and Jet Grind Radio represented the Japanese giants at their most prolific. For us though, nothing compared to the high-speed, time-attack thrills of Crazy Taxi, which is the first of a flurry of Dreamcast titles hitting Xbox Live and PSN over the next few weeks.
To newcomers, Crazy Taxi involves operating a cabbie and driving through two cities, your score and time limit increasing the more insane the journey to your destination becomes. We wouldn’t normally criticise a lack of licensing, but many early reviews for the latest Crazy Taxi port have been understandably miffed at the exclusion of the original’s infectious Bad Religion and The Offspring soundtrack, coupled with the omission of real-world outlets such as Pizza Hut, KFC or Tower Records. We’ll admit it, we certainly will miss that original soundtrack but the chance to relive possibly our favourite game of the Dreamcast era is not to be passed up.
Friday Releases 26/11/10
Yes, these are in-game graphics for Gran Turismo 5
It’s really happening – the Dre Dre – Detox/ Guns N’ Roses – Chinese Democracy of the videogames world, Gran Turismo 5, is released after five years and endless delays this week. Blame the perfectionists at Polyphony Digital who ended up adding everywhere from WRC to NASCAR to even go-karting for this weeks release, not to mention over 1,000 cars. Five years is a long time though and can Sony’s flagship exclusive still compete in a world dominated by Forza Motorsport and Need for Speed: Shift? Aside from the long-awaited GT5, Warren Spector’s Epic Mickey (stop sniggering at the back!) arrives on Wii, while NBA Jam makes an unexpected return after far too many years of seclusion.
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Xbox 360
Crazy Taxi (XBLA)
Def Jam Rapstar
Kinect: Game Party in Motion
Kinect: Sports Island Freedom
Kinect: Zumba Fitness
Mafia II: Joe’s Adventures
NBA Jam
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (Boxed)
TRON: Evolution
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Playstation 3
Crazy Taxi (PSN)
Def Jam Rapstar
Gran Turismo 5
NBA Jam
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX (PSN)
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (Boxed)
TRON: Evolution
Venetica
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Wii
Def Jam Rapstar
Disney Epic Mickey
Michael Jackson The Experience
Rabbids: Travel in Time
TRON: Evolution
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Nintendo DS
Michael Jackson The Experience
TRON: Evolution
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PSP
Football Manager Handheld 2011
Michael Jackson The Experience
TRON: Evolution
PC
Blue Toad Murder Files: The Mysteries of Little Riddle
Mafia II: Joe’s Adventures
TRON: Evolution
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