Halo 3 didn’t ever get a demo, though it did have a beta. Metal Gear Solid isn’t getting a demo. Actually, there’s a lot of games that never get demos. Mostly the games publishers know you’ll buy no questions asked.

If you think about it, a demo could potentially hurt sales, if only temporarily. Say you download a demo before a new game comes out. You play it, you like it, but it’s enough to satisfy for another couple weeks or so, at least until you can pick up the game for a little cheaper used. Right?

Similarly, they could even give you a great demo, but for some reason there’s a problem or a glitch in it. Even if the problem’s not in the full retail game, that demo could definitely effect sales.

Anyway, Grand Theft Auto 4 is not getting a demo. Sorry. It’s a game people will buy, even pre-order, sight unseen. It has a proven track record. If you want it, you’re gonna get it. Period.

Boom!

Sequels to popular games? What’s next, movies based on video games? Crazy. Well, here it is in all it’s official gory, I mean glory. Gears of War 2. It’s to be released in November 2008. Here’s the link to the HD teaser trailer over at GameTrailers.

Oh yeah, and Gears of War 2 has a release date of this November. Finally, a new game in the franchise was announced, Gear Wars, an action real-time strategy. Nah, just kidding about that last one. The rest was true though.

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The ESRB has tipped Capcom’s hat with a sighting of Lost Planet: Colonies. The ESRB, or Entertainment Software Ratings Board, has revealed the upcoming Xbox 360, PS3, and PC game from Capcom via a rating posted on their site. There are no details on the game right now, other than an ESRB rating of T for Teen. No big surprise, considering the first Lost Planet: Extreme Condition had the same T rating. Thanks to Kotaku for the story tip.

Boom!

The boys at Naughty Dog, the team behind Uncharted : Drake’s Fortune are gonna make another Drake game. WOW WHAT A SHOCK!! According to Gaming Today the game is already in production.

This is in no way something we surprised about. The PS3 had nothing but Drake’s this year. They claim it will be better then the first so we’ll see.

It’s confirmed, as if anyone didn’t think it would happen, we’re getting a sequel to one of the most successful launch titles on Nintendo’s Wii. The announcement was spotted, scanned, and posted by Nintencast.com. The original article was in the Official Nintendo Magazine. No screenshots yet, however, the basics are all confirmed, ie. Red Steel 2 will include better controls, better AI, better graphics and the feature everyone wanted in the first game; Online! Sweet

Now all they have to do is look at what some great FPS games on the Wii have done since launch and copy/improve upon them. Let’s see, Metroid Prime: Corruption did a pretty great job. Then their’s also Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. Just add in some 1-to-1 ratio swordplay and boom, the game is ten times better.

Once they’ve improved the controls, all they need to work on are the graphics. Ah, graphics. As you may recall, the original Red Steel was done using a hybridized Wii version of the Unreal Engine 2.5. If you also remember, a story back a little while back about a developer purchasing the right to develop a Wii version of the newest Unreal Engine 3. Now we get the official announcement from Ubisoft about Red Steel 2. Coincidence? I’m not sure. How about you?

Boom!

“All they have to do is call, I would love to see that happen. That would be fun.” That’s what Nicolas Cage had to say when asked about a Ghost Rider sequel. As a person who actually set through that dreadful movie I implore you Nic “DON’T MAKE ANOTHER!!!”. Of course Nicolas hasn’t made the best choices for movies in the recent years so this is not really a surprise.

After the success of National Treasure 2 it looks like Mr. Cage wants to make more sequels. I guess it wouldn’t be to hard to make a better movie, the bar is set pretty low. Cage said “If I think there’s room to grow with the character and if you can make it better than the original, absolutely.”

The good news for this story? There are no actual plans for a second GR movie, so we don’t have to be to frightened yet.

That’s right it says “weak”, as in not strong. Below are some news stories from the past week or so that just didn’t seem super enough for their own headline post. However, they still hold a special place in my heart. So, without further ado, here it is. Weak sauce.

New Flash Player gets HD Video Playback

The future is HD and everyone on YouTube can look forward to a high-definition experience sooner now. The scientists over at the Adobe labs have brought the newest version of the Flash Player into HD. The latest version includes HD video support using the highly popular H.264 codec (Apple’s baby). As well as that is improves overall load on your CPU by using hardware acceleration instead of relying on software decoding and rendering. H.264 isn’t the only Apple friendly addition. The update also includes AAC (default encoding in iTunes) sound support. Oh, and Linux is also finally getting the update it’s been desperately needing.

EA’s Convinced C&C Renegade Wasn’t Enough

Enter Tiberium. The newest entry to the C&C universe. Wait, didn’t they already do this back when it was called Renegade? Or, the way they describe it, it sounds more like one of the updated Battlezone games.

EA describes Tiberium’s gameplay as a “blend of first-person shooting and tactical squad combat,” allowing players to control multiple ground and air units in addition to the game’s central character, Forward Battle Commander Ricardo Vega.

Source [Joystiq]

Amazon Takes Preorders for Gears of War 2, Then Stops

Guess they realized no one knows when the game will come out or anything else about the game for that matter. So, we all pretty much know they’ll be making a sequel, you don’t stop when there’s so much money on the table. But, I guess the good folks over at Amazon wanted to get in on some of that money first. The pre-orders where up and down within two days. I wonder if people that preordered will get a refund?

Sorry, No Dreamcast 2. Just Business Stuff

Recently Sega fanboys were peeing their collective pants as Sega updated it’s Dreamcast trademark. Sorry everybody, according to GameDaily, Sega of America PR Director Charlie Scibetta said, “SEGA has no plans to get back into the hardware business, but we also want to protect our past and current brands. The trademark application was filed to protect our current and potential future use of the word DREAMCAST and to prevent other parties from using it in a way that could be confused or linked with SEGA.”

I still have my Dreamcast, and was always a Sega gamer, so I was actually excited about the potential for Sega to get back into the hardware business. Sigh.

Boom!

Ubisoft has released some new info on the new Rainbow Six Vegas game. We here at Counter Agent can’t wait for this game, we loved the first one. Heres the release.

More…

It seems neither one wants to face the camera. Maybe they just don’t want to show too much of Heath Ledger as the Joker before the movie’s release. Here’s Batman.

Check the site ‘A Taste For The Theatrical‘ tomorrow, Sunday Dec. 16th for a special treat. It says stuff like “watch this space”, and “this Sunday, it’s what you’ve been waiting for”. Probably a real trailer or something.

Sequel!

Thanks to G4TV’s Feed and GameDaily.com. After a reportedly slow first week, it seems Mass Effect has hit a high point with 1 million sales in 3 weeks.

This is good news for fans of the game, meaning with this kind of success, they’ll most likely be able to make all those sequels they’re planning on. GameDaily also had a quote from Xbox VP for Marketing Jeff Bell saying, “We’ve… seen a strong response to both Halo 3 sales with more than 5 million, and Mass Effect which has sold more than a million copies in less than three weeks”.

Wow, that was a poorly written story by me. Oh well, what’re you gonna do?

Boom!