Stranglehold

Kotaku writes: Why do some games have multiplayer? Because the executives demand it, even if the developers don't want it. As explained in a recent account of goings on at Midway.

A new Stranglehold patch, version 1.1, has been released and is ready for download. It fixes a lot of resolution bugs and improves the movement keys.

If you're looking for deals on games, you might want to try your local Goodwill. Besides the stuff people scoop out of their attics and basements, many retail stores including Target, Sears and JC Penny often send overstock items to Goodwill as donations. You can get some serious discounts on new games and game gear. A Gamertell writer found a $10 copy of Stranglehold, as well as a $20 2GB memory card among several deals at her local Goodwill. The article also offers several hints for picking up bargains.

Kotaku's Brian Crecente has a leaked copy of the National Institute on Media and the Family's annual Media Wise Video Game Report Card, set to be officially released tomorrow. This year's report card is broken into five parts: ¿ The MediaWise Video Game Report Card ¿ The Buying Guide ¿ The ESRB Rating System and Ratings Education Efforts ¿ The Retailer Ratings Education and Enforcement Surveys ¿ Annual MediaWise-Harris Interactive Poll of Kids and Parents Kotaku gives a quick summary for each part.

Major publisher Midway Games has announced that, for the three-month period ending September 30, 2007, its sales totaled $36.7 million, up from $27.4 million last year. At the same time, however, the company reported losses of $33.5 million, increased from $22.5 million in 2006. As for highlights, the company said that Xbox 360 and PC title Stranglehold has exceeded 1 million units shipped worldwide across all platforms, and the company anticipates shipping Stranglehold for the PS3 in Europe in the latter part of November. Midway also highlighted its recent demo of Unreal Tournament 3 in conjunction with developer Epic Games, since a demo of Unreal Tournament 3 for the PC was recently released, and has remained one of the top 2 most downloaded games on FilePlanet.com since it was released on October 12th. However, the PS3 version of the title is still due in 2008, as confirmed earlier last month.

Sept 6, 2007 PS3 owners will be able to blast their way through one level of Stranglehold in a demo hitting the PSN later today. Just like the Xbox 360 demo which went live a month ago, you'll take control of Inspector Tequila (Chow Yun Fat) and his duel-wield guns and go on a killing spree in the massively destructible Hong Kong marketplace

Midway just sent out a press release in which the publisher states that the Xbox 360 version of John Woo Presents: Stranglehold is now officially gold. This means development on the game is completely finished, and the only thing left now is printing the game. Midway also revealed the final release dates for all platforms for both the US and Europe. The Xbox 360 version of Stanglehold is released first, on September 5 in America, followed by Europe on September 14. Next is the PC versions which will hit retail on September 18 in the US followed by Europe on September 21. Last, but certainly not least, is the Playstation 3 version, which will be released on September 25 in the US and 'sometime' in October in Europe. Midway has high hopes for John Woo's Stranglehold, which is also considered as the sequel to John Woo's Hard Boiled movie. Stranglehold will be available in both a normal and a Special Edition version for both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions. The Xbox 360's Special Edition features a second DVD with lots of extras such as 'Behind the Scenes' material. The Playstation 3's Special Edition will come with the Blu-Ray version of John Woo's Hard Boiled movie.

While its August 28 release date may see it somewhat eclipsed amid BioShock fallout fever and the fact that Metroid Prime 3 is set to arrive that week too, Midway's Max Payne/Dead to Rights action hybrid looks to bring one singular facet of worth to the gaming table: destructive fun. Many of us complain that first and third-person shooters simply don't provide enough full-on physical destruction ¿ especially when subjecting the in-game environments to high explosives and massively powerful weaponry. EA's woefully underrated Black went some way to delivering a game world open to destruction and player influence, but Stranglehold takes the idea to a whole new level. Click the source for more...

Aug 15, 2007 Uhh, let's see what we can remember. GamesRadar showed up at the Mezzanine on Thursday night doe-eyed and eager to partake in the world premiere of Stranglehold's multiplayer mode. Can diving gunmen butt heads? Could we make bullets collide in mid-air? If four players activate the slow-mo, Tequila Time mode, simultaneously, would it spawn an alternate reality where the game never existed? The answer is... we don't know. For whatever reason, multiplayer was a depressing no show.

From GAF This is for the Euro version BTW. I received that press release also. As of last night, Midway North America informed us that: Quote: The full version of Stranglehold is currently expected to ship on August 27th for the Xbox 360 and PC, and September 17th for the PlayStation 3. PC and PlayStation 3 demos coming soon. To be thorough, I just contacted Midway U.S. and got the following response: Quote: I can confirm that Stranglehold is shipping on 8/27 for X360 and PC and 9/17 for PS3 here in the U.S. If you have any questions, please let me know.