JOE’s Gaming Round-up 27/07

JOE's Round-up continues with The Daily Star's ignorant GTA article, the surprise Street Fighter X Tekken announcement, and the release of Starcraft II.

JOE

By Emmet Purcell

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 thereâ€™s anything you think weâ€™re leaving out, or would like us to shine a spotlight on, feel free to leave a comment below.

News

Daily Star apologise for false story revealing Grand Theft Auto: Rothbury

The Daily Star actually thought this was real

UK tabloid The Daily Star has been left red-faced after publishing an ‘exclusive’ last Wednesday, centred around the supposed latest in the Grand Theft Auto franchise – Grand Theft Auto: Rothbury, focused on the exploits of killer Raoul Moat. It’s unclear on what basis the Star validated the existence of such a title, aside from possibly finding the above, poorly-mocked-up ‘official box-art’ and running with the article straight away.

It’s tough to know which is more insulting – that the Star thought the games industry would exploit such an incident, or could even create an entire videogames in such a short time to coincide with a topical news event, or that no-one even had the foresight or knowledge to stop the article going to press. Perhaps the most damning element of this ‘story’ is that the newspaper even had the gall to interview the grandmother of Moat’s girlfriend for her views on the title, which she described as ‘beyond belief’. Beyond reality too.

Capcom officially announce Street Fighter X Tekken crossover fighting game

Even Ryu looks surprised

Japanese developers and all-round fighting gods Capcom are no stranger to cross-over fighting titles, having rooted through their own back catalogue to produce the Capcom Vs Marvel series, Capcom Vs SNK and Capcom Vs Tatsunoko titles, all centred on exploiting the top characters of each brand. This week however, Capcom decided to instead announce a fighting game few thought possible, drawing on two of the most popular fighting series of the last 20 years – Capcom’s Street Fighter and Namco’s Tekken.

Street Fighter X Tekken’s announcement came at the Comic-Con Convention in San Diego over the weekend, and had fanboys in an instant tizzy. Combining the greatest 2D fighter series of all time (Street Fighter) with arguably the greatest 3D fighter series (Tekken) sounds like a sure-fire hit to us, with early gameplay footage suggesting the title will adopt the 2D side-view and nostalgic art style of Street Fighter IV. Expect further detail and official footage to emerge on this forthcoming Xbox 360/PS3 brawler soon.

Purchase/Download of the Week

Alan Wake: The Signal (Xbox 360 Live Arcade, 560 Microsoft Points – out July 27)

A free DLC code for The Signal was packed-in with early Wake copies

Anyone that sampled Remedy Entertainment’s atmospheric Alan Wake in May should mostly be in full agreement having conquered the title’s six chapters about one aspect in particular -Â the near-incomprehensible plot twists. A couple of months later, and after undeserved disappointing sales, it appears that Remedy’s commitment to a full sequel is dependent on the success of it’s two promised DLC packages, with this week’s Alan Wake: The Signal the first release. Encompassing the equivalent of a chapter in the main game, The Signal takes places inside writer Wake’s subconcious, and introduces new gameplay mechanics with great success. Just don’t expect to get a handle on that storyline just yet.

Friday Releases 30/07/2010

The Koreans are set to absolutely mental for the nation’s biggest release

Without doubt, this week’s biggest release is that of Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, the sequel to the worldwide phenomenom, Starcraft, which was originally released as far back as 1998. Now a bona-fide smash hit, the real-time-strategy (RTS) title’s biggest is expected to be biggest in South Korea, which accounted for nearly half of the original’s worldwide sales. As impossible as it may sound, professional Starcraft players in Korea are well-paid, acquire boy-band levels of female attention, and have their bouts televised to huge domestic audiences – the country even had it’s first Starcraft betting scandal a few months back. With the arrival of Wings of Liberty, the worldwide Starcraft players will have to start from scratch on a level playing field, so be sure join pick the game up early before you get mopped up by professional Koreans online in a few weeks time.