Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest has been delayed once more. Publisher Warner Bros has revealed the release date is now projected to be fall 2010. Its not all bad news though. The PlayStation 3 version of the title will now support the recently announced PlayStation Move giving the Wii a little competition in the motion-control department. Both the Wiimote and Move will allow players to accurately control weapon strikes in the game as well as in co-op gameplay exclusive to the PS3 and Wii.

Source

After Viacom President and CEO Philippe Dauman let the cat out of the bag, Rock Band developer Harmonix updated its Facebook page to reveal that the third, “revolutionary” installment in the mega-popular franchise will be heading our way this holiday season.

From the post:

Harmonix is developing Rock Band 3 for worldwide release this holiday season! The game, which will be published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts, will innovate and revolutionize the music genre once again, just as Harmonix did with the original Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and The Beatles: Rock Band. Stay tuned for more details!

Also, as IndustryGamers points out, Dhani Harrison, son of the late Beatles great George Harrison who also helped sell the idea of The Beatles: Rock Band to rights holders Apple Corps, said that he was working to make the instruments for Rock Band 3 “more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game.”

Hmmm…Interesting.

Of course, we’ll keep you posted on any new Rock Band 3 details as they emerge.

Snagging the ever popular Sunday morning time frame, Square Enix has used VanaFest 2010 as the platform to announce the development of three new add-on scenarios for Final Fantasy XI, slated to launch throughout 2010. The content will introduce “new stages for epic combat, providing high-level players with new equipment to collect and challenging monsters to battle.”
 
The first of these three battle area add-on content packages, titled “Vision of Abyssea”, is scheduled to launch early in the summer of 2010, and will be followed by two additional releases, “Scars of Abyssea” and “Heroes of Abyssea”. These content packages will be available via the PlayOnline Viewer, at the price of $9.99 each, with content available immediately upon purchase.
 
The previously released expansion packs Rise of the Zilart and Wings of the Goddess will be required to experience this new content. These add-on scenarios will release simultaneously online within all supported regions (North America, Japan and Europe) across all supported platforms (PlayStation2, Xbox 360, and Windows PC).

More details pertaining to the release dates and specifics of these add-on scenarios are expected soon. For additional info, head here.

In conjunction with the release of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing on all major consoles this week, Sega recently released a trailer for the game that we thought we’d share with all of the OTHER nostalgic Sonic fans besides us out there (we know there are at least 10 of you…). As showcased in the trailer, the mascot kart racing game pits your favorite Sega characters against each other in the vein of Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing. The Sega mascots will also cruise onto a Steam and a PC near you this Thursday, February 26. You can check out the trailer right here.

So, we bring this up to pose the following question….Is anyone interested in this or has Mario Kart Wii thoroughly quenched your mascot racing thirst? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Fans of music in gaming and game audio in general will appreciate the fact that The Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.), the non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and recognition of game audio, recently announced the finalists for the 8th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards that are designed to honor outstanding creative, technical and artistic audio achievement in the world of interactive entertainment.
 
Voted and judged upon by the game audio industry and members of G.A.N.G., the finalists represent an array of the best audio in games from 2009.  The standouts for nominations this year include Assassin’s Creed II and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves which received 9 nominations each.  Final voting has begun and the final winners are chosen by the entire membership of the G.A.N.G. organization.  Over 2,000 people representing over 30 countries have signed up as members of G.A.N.G. since its inception in 2002.  The winners will be announced at the 8th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards ceremony being held on Friday, March 12th, 2010 in San Francisco, CA during the Game Developers Conference.
 
“The level of quality for game audio continues to get higher and higher each year,” said Tommy Tallarico, G.A.N.G. Founder, CEO and Chairman. “It’s so important to make sure that the talented game audio individuals from around the world get the recognition they deserve.”  G.A.N.G. President Paul Lipson added, “This was one of our biggest submission years yet and over 70 game audio professionals on our global advisory boards helped in deciding the final nominees.  With the level of talent these days, being voted as a final nominee is a remarkable accomplishment.”

Finalists for the 8th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards are listed below by category in alphabetical order after the jump.
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Yeah, so, as we all know Facebook is kind of a big deal these days and since we here at the ‘Axe are all about empowering the gaming masses to speak their mind, we thought we’d roll out our official Facebook fan page in an effort to showcase the Epicness of the ‘Axe throughout the net. Basically, we’re gonna tap into some FB action in order to spread the word about YOUR Member BattleCries, YOUR interaction in the forums, YOUR voting in the EBA Polls, and otherwise create this huge gathering of geeked out goodness within the Facebook community. We’ll be hosting FB-specific discussions, dropping props to users, and of course participating in all of the jack-assery that Facebook can handle (which is A LOT…trust me…)

Obviously, to do that, we’re gonna need you boys and girls to become fans of the ole’ EpicBattleAxe.com…Which is rather painless and one click away right here (assuming you have a FB account).

Also, we’re open to hear your suggestions about using Facebook. Have a great idea or wanna see EBA utilize a feature you’ve come to love? Let us know and we’ll be sure to give it a look!

Alright gang, tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell the world! EpicBattleAxe.com is getting ready to write a new chapter…and Facebook is only the beginning.

A new year brings a new sense of hope, unless you’re an out-of-date sports title from EA that is. Today the gaming industry giant revealed that it will soon be shutting down the servers for twenty of its titles from a variety of popular franchises ranging from Madden and FIFA to NASCAR and Tiger Woods.

The effective date of the server shutdowns is listed as February 2, 2010, but an exact time was not specified. If you play any EA Sports games outside of this year’s versions, you should probably check this full list after the jump to see how the move will affect you.
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Over the past few years THQ and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) have been battling in the not-so-squared circle of the legal system, with the WWE asking for its game deal to be annulled due to alleged unauthorized sub licensing and racketeering.

Now it seems as if the two companies have buried the proverbial steal-folding chair, as THQ recently announced an exclusive new eight-year deal to make and sell games based on the WWE license effective January 1, 2010.

Furthermore, THQ has settled its legal disagreements with both the WWE and Jakks Pacific. The three companies came to a mutual agreement that will see no party admitting any blame or wrongdoing. With that being said, THQ will be paying the WWE $13.2 million under the settlement, while Jakks Pacific will receive $20 million to be dispersed over the next four years. The current contract, which sees THQ co-producing WWE-related games with Jakks Pacific, will be terminated at years end.

This agreement should put THQ investors and gamers at ease, as it seems the same company responsible for WWE-branded games since 1999 will continue to cobble together their favorite testosterone-soaked slam fests.

With 2009 coming to a close and 10 years of awesome gaming behind us, we thought it was an excellent time to look back on what made the past decade a special one in gaming. Of course, new hardware, industry growth, and and overall shift to acceptance of gaming as a viable platform have helped define the decade that was, but for us gamers, it’s THE GAMES that we’ll look back on and remember the most. On the next episode of EpicBattleCry, we’ll be discussing a rather interesting topic…What was the most influential game/franchise of the past decade?

We wanna hear from you boys and girls to round up some input. I started a thread inside the EBA forums to discuss the matter and will soon give you some of my personal thoughts on which title might be good for the discussion. Now remember…we’re not asking for “Best” game of the decade…We wanna know which title/franchise INFLUENCED gaming the most. This could mean that the game/franchise helped redefine a genre, move gaming towards the mainstream, or otherwise had the most impact on the industry. In other words, gaming might be TOTALLY DIFFERENT if this title/franchise didn’t exist.

Also, feel free to cast your vote in the poll on the EpicBattleAxe.com home page. We’ll keep it live for a few days to gather some good input and let you all see what other people think as well.

Of course, you’ll hear what we conclude on the next episode of EpicBattleCry, which is scheduled to go live this coming Monday, January 4, 2010.

Alright gang, thanks in advance for you input…Now let us know what you think…ttys!

So, the 2009 Spike VGAs are in the books and after some big announcements, world premiere trailers, and a crap ton of lasers, we’ve decided to bullet point the biggest headlines from the event to keep you “in the know”.

Here’s what’s what and the MUST KNOW headlines from the event in no particular order:

- Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 was teased, you can see the trailer here
- Zachary Quinto (Heroes/Star Trek) will be providing voice talent to the upcoming Star Trek Online.
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 was announced. Trailer viewable here.
- Tron Evolution was announced, shown for the first time. Trailer here.
- A downloadable game based on Deadliest Warrior was announced. First footage revealed.
- Activision and United Front will be delivering a new True Crime game in 2010.
- Green Day Rock Band was announced.
- A cinematic trailer for Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands was revealed.
- UFC Undisputed 2010 was announced and the first trailer was shown
- Spec Ops: The Line was announced/shown.
- EA’s revamped Medal of Honor was shown for the first time and it looks pretty much exactly like Modern Warfare 2…which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
- Halo: Reach was revealed via an “in-engine” trailer.
- Crackdown 2 was shown for the first time.

Oh yeah! There were awards handed out too and Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves took home top honors as Game of the Year as well as earning hardware for Best PlayStation 3 Game and Best Graphics. There were a lot of winners in a wide range of categories so hit the jump for the full listing.
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