GOONL!NE: The Game of the Year Awards 2009

By Jonathan Cullen.

It’s that time of year, folks.

The time where we sort the men from the boys, the wheat from the chaff and find out which is better: Coke or Pepsi? Daddy or Chips? But in our case, Uncharted 2 or Modern Warfare 2.

These are just two of the game that are in the running for Game of the Year 2009, alongside Batman: Arkham Asylum and Street Fighter IV.

We do have other awards too though, you know. So, let’s not waste any other time, and let’s get cracking. All of the awards are below.

Just one thing though: all of the staff involved in the process, both full-time and freelance, had a clean slate. They were free to pick any game that was on the consoles as their nomination. Basically, you picked Left 4 Dead 2 as a nomination in GOTY, it would also go down as your vote for GOTY. Same for all the other categories.

This could mean you may only see one game completely run away with it in one category, while it becoming very close in others.

Cologne 2009: Sony Unveil New Heavy Rain Trailer and Characters

David Cage was on stage for Quantic Dream demoing more of Sony’s upcoming thriller, Heavy Rain.

Cage announced the two brand new characters for the game, one a private detective called Scott Shelby and the second called Ethan.

Ethan lost his eldest son in a crowd, and he was hit by a car and died.  Another son is apparently kidnapped by The Origami Killer, Ethan it seems is not the luckiest fellow around. The video ends with  a car chase, gunplay, some police kicking down a door and ending with someone saying, “Everything I did, I did for love,” presumably Ethan.

The new trailer follows the jump.

Cologne 2009: EU Video Store Launching November

The Video Download Service will be available later this year. It’ll be for both PS3 and PSP and will begin with just films, but will expand out to include local content.

You’ll be able to rent and buy films in either SD or HD, and it will be coming to the UK, France, Germany and Spain in November, expanding to further territories throughout 2010.

Cologne 2009: SingStar: Beatles coming

MCV are reporting that Sony have tied a deal with EA to release a SingStar game based on the songs of 60′s band The Beatles.

The game is set to launch in September this year along side the The Beatles: Rock Band game from EA, and it will be an instrument-free port of the game to a degree.

The Beatles will be the fourth band to have their own dedicated SingStar game following in the steps of ABBA, Queen and Take That.

Kmart Confirm PS3 Slim “Rumours Are Reality” and Price Cut

US Retail giant Kmart have began taking pre-orders for the much-rumoured PS3 Slim model, and on the banner on their homepage have confirmed it too.

The price has been cut and is listed at $299, whilst a release date has been given of August 24th.

Asda in the UK have slashed the price of the PS3 nationwide to £250, bundling the console with the Terminator Salvation game, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines on Blu-ray and a choice of either Ghostbusters: The Game or inFamous too.

Stay tuned for information from Sony’s GamesCom press conference at 17.30 BST to see if the Slim is finally unveiled.

Cologne 2009: 1UP Hint at Possible Gran Turismo 5 Date Announcement Next Week

There has been much speculation over recent weeks of a possible Gran Turismo 5 release date, and 1Up’s ListenUP podcast have been dropping more hints of a possible 2009 release date.

This excerpt from the podcast from the final minutes strongly hints at a big game announcement this week at GamesCom.

John Davidson: “Big Sony game coming up this year you might not have expected”

Garnett Lee then asks if John can give any more hints without blowing cover. John’s response it to wait ’til next week. Sam Kennedy then clears his throat by making engine noises and asking “What are you driving at?”

With GT5 being listed for this year by major retailers like GAME and Play.com, it is quite likely that we could now hear something from Sony on Tuesday about their flagship race title during their GamesCom conference in Cologne

Lempel: We’re No Longer Doing “catch up” on XBL

Director of the PlayStation Network in the US, Eric Lempel, has said that the PSN is no longer playing “catch up” with Xbox Live.

It comes in an interview with IndustryGamers.

I don’t think there’s a lot of ‘catch up’ [with XBL] any more. In some cases, I think we’ve got more, and we’ve got some other things they don’t have. In terms of strengths, of course we’re still free, and we’re giving you a lot for free. It’s not just free online gaming, but we’ve got PlayStation Home, which is a massive community and application that’s totally free to use. I think there’s a lot we’re doing that in some cases they’re not doing, and I don’t see a lot of things they’re doing that we’re not.

More through the link.

Tretton: We’re Going “to take different things to get different consumers”

Jack Tretton’s come out to Fast Company, stating that Sony will try “to take different things to get different consumers” as far as getting consumers involved with the PS3.

It comes in an interview the SCEA president gives to the site on price-cut’s, the 10 year cycle and the PSP Go.

If you were one of the first consumers to get a PS3, I hope that you would say, “I might have paid $499 or $599 for it, but it does so much more today.” There are a lot of technologies where people say, “I don’t even bother pulling it out anymore. I was excited when I first got it, but I have kind of moved on.” And that’s sad. It costs a lot to invest in rolling out new technology, and if the consumer walks away before the lifecycle’s over–you can talk about the install base of hardware, but how many of those machines are still active, how many people are still playing them?

And on the 10 year cycle…

I said that in the context of, “We want a price drop; when’s a new system coming out?” I am saying to enjoy the technology that you have, explore the technology that you have, maximize the technology that you have, instead of trying to hasten the demise. People are just coming up to speed with the technology. Today’s platform and tomorrow’s platform is the PlayStation 3. But there’s somebody that wants to talk about when PlayStation 4 is coming out and what kind of technology is it going to have.

More through the link. Via GAF.

Stringer: Activision Threat is “noise”

It’s fucking on like fucking Donkey fucking Kong! Sony president Howard Stringer has been talking at the Allen & co conference in California this week according to Reuters, via VG247. And Stringer had harsh words to his counterpart at Activision, Bobby Kotick.

He likes to make a lot of noise. He’s putting pressure on me and I’m putting pressure on him. That’s the nature of business.

If you dont know whats going on, lets catch you up. Last month, Activision, to be specfic Kotick, threatened to pull support for the PS3 and PSP unless Sony did a price cut for the PS3.

They have to cut the price, because if they don’t, the attach rates are likely to slow. If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation.

And on that front, Stringer was asked about a possible price-cut.

I (would) lose money on every PlayStation I make – how’s that for logic

Ladies, ladies, just get in a mudbath and slig in it out in bikinis.

RUMOR: PS3 Slim Manufacturing Contracts Awarded

Oh Sony, uncle Jack isn’t gonna be happy about this one.

Joystiq has recieved word that two Taiwonese manufacturing companies have been given contracts to create the PS3 slim for a upcoming August/Fall release (according to Ars). The manufacturing orders for the console have split in half to two companies in Taiwan, Foxconn and Pegatron.

All we’re saying as far as we’re concerned on the subject is Cologne at GamesCOM in a month and a half from now. Keep an eye out.