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."
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Let the bone crunching begin!

PAIN has finally arrived as expected on the European PS Store. We're really pleased to see it has made it's way over here and can't wait to start tossing mimes (no, that's not a euphemism for anything else, before you ask).

So what else came our way today in what Sony are saying will be "the end of poor EU updates"?
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In its call with investors following Q4 results, Midway CEO David Zucker said getting the PS3 version of its standardized internal engine up to par adversely impacted its financial results, and revealed that it was preparing an online casual game portal for the near future.

Zucker said the publisher had a "challenging year" as it underwent its transition to next-gen consoles. While he said the million-selling action title Stranglehold was "affirmation" that Midway's "standardized tech tool set is on the right track," it hasn't come without a price.
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New PSN Content. From the same source that brought you the predictions last week (the N4G story reached 1050°), here are the constantly updated list of rumors - several confirmed - for the new PSN content delivered weekly. All rumors have cited sources and media related to the game.

This week:
- The Club [demo]
- Guitar Hero III DLC
- PixelJunk Monsters [game & demo]
- PSone Classics
- Rock Band DLC
- Strangehold DLC

Note: Again, I know this is a forum post, but it's a collection from many different sources. The information is timely and updated immediately.
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A constantly updated list of rumors (some confirmed) for the new PSN content delivered weekly. Thread cites sources and media related to the game.

Note: I know this is a forum post, but it's a collection from many different sources. The information is timely and updated immediately. Poster's threads linked to before from N4G - when it broke news that All PS1 Games are playable via Remote Play (in that case, thread was linked to).
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Kotaku reports:Well the Stranglehold map pack announced last month is out on Xbox Live, with the PlayStation 3 version sure to follow shortly thereafter. As promised, it contains 10 new multiplayer maps, 21 new characters, and 10 new achievements for an additional 250 points to your gamerscore. All this for 1200 Microsoft points - $15 in real money - and I am currently trying to figure out if it's worth it. It pretty much works out to $1.50 a map, which doesn't sound like too much, but in one big chunk that costs a quarter of the game's retail price? I'm going to be struggling with this for days before I finally cave and put the money down. If I know I am going to buy it anyway, why wait you ask? It's all about the journey my friend. Thanks to Billkwando for the heads up!
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Amazon will be offering a video game deal of some kind for the next 10 days starting today. The offer is a Playstation 3, Blu-Ray remote, and the collectors edition of Stranglehold, for $399. Noteworthy is Lair only being $34.99 today as well.
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Dec 7, 2007 A Stranglehold multiplayer content update is set to release for PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the John Woo shoot-everything-up soon. Included in the update will be 10 brand new multiplayer maps and 21 new multiplayer skins, in addition to 10 new Achievements for Xbox 360 ... » Read More

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.
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Stranglehold was released on Xbox 360 back in September to mostly positive reviews. Now PlayStation 3 owners can finally see whether the John Woo-Chow Yun Fat game was worth the wait. Midway confirmed on Friday that Stranglehold for the PS3 is now available throughout Europe. There's also a demo up on the PlayStation Store for those who aren't quite sold on it yet.

The game hosts a reunion for John Woo and Chow Yun Fat, who reprise their roles from hot-blooded action flick Hard Boiled. In Stranglehold, Inspector Tequila is back on the case, bringing justice to underground groups in Hong Kong.
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A top ten selling game in the UK for five weeks following launch.
Midway has today announced that its John Woo action title Stranglehold has shipped over a million units worldwide, with the European launch of the PlayStation 3 version to follow later this month.

The game remained in the UK Video Game Top Ten for a five-week period following its launch and was a Top Ten title in North America for the month of September according to data from the NPD Group.
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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.
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Not long after Midway announced Unreal Tournament 3 would be moving out of the 2007 release timeframe on the PlayStation 3, Midway CEO David Zucker held a conference call to address how this would affect their financial situation through the rest of the year.

Zucker was very specific about the company's roadblocks on the PS3 platform, citing "technical issues with the Unreal Engine 3.0" with finishing work on the PS3 versions of Stranglehold and Area 51: Blacksite. Consequently, Area 51: Blacksite will be arriving three weeks after the Xbox 360 and PC versions drop at the end of October, while Stranglehold remains an unspecified fourth quarter release.

Midway says the technical issues on the PS3 have been ironed out, however, and following the release of Unreal Tournament 3 in early 2008, they expect the PS3 versions to arrive date and date with Xbox 360 and PC SKUs going forward.
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The newest edition of the British games magazine EDGE has just hit stores and first readers already posted all the review scores on the internet. This months edition contains reviews of some big titles like Halo 3, PGR4, Metroid Prime 3, Lair, SKATE, Stranglehold, SEGA Rally and Eternal Sonata.

Like many other reviews, Lair did not score so well with a 3/10. Two Worlds didn't do much better either with just a 4/10. Phoenix Wright and Jam Sessions on the Nintendo DS did not impress either with both just a 6/10. Metroid Prime 3 also quite disappointed according to EDGE with just a 7/10. Stranglehold, SKATE, Sega Rally, and Eternal Sonata all were rewarded with 7/10 scores.

Halo 3 and Project Gotham Racing 4 were this months' best titles with Halo 3 getting the top score of 10/10. PGR4 did very well to with 9/10. Check out all this months' scores below.

Halo 3 (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 10
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Wii, Nintendo): 7
Project Gotham Racing 4 (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 9
Sega Rally (PS3/Xbox 360, Sega): 7
Lair (PS3, Sony): 3
Stranglehold (Xbox 360, Midway): 7
Skate (Xbox 360, EA): 8
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 (PS2, Atlus): 7
Singstar (PS3, Sony): 8
Two Worlds (Xbox 360, SouthPeak Interactive): 4
Grimgrimoire (PS2, Koei): 7
Jam Sessions (NDS, Ubisoft): 6
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP, Square Enix): 9
Eternal Sonata (Xbox 360, Bandai Namco): 7
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations (NDS, Capcom): 6
Sonic Rush Adventure (NDS, Sega): 5
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According to EBGames (and other retailers), Midway has once again delayed the PS3 edition of their third-person action game Stranglehold, which is already out on both PC and X360 platforms.

So, once again, PS3 users have to wait a little while longer.

The PS3 port of Stranglehold was previously planned to come out this week, but is now hitting stores on Oct. 29.
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Latest issue of P3Zine has a 6 page preview/interview with emphasis on how the user-built maps work on the PS3. Also has Stranglehold, Warhawk, Fracture and Fallout 3.
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Sept 11, 2007 All things being well in the world of the PlayStation Store, you should now be able to download a demo of the PS3 version of Midway's Woo-'em-up Stranglehold. In Stranglehold, in case you didn't know, you step into the shoes of Chow Yun-Fat as Inspector Tequila and shoot shit up while doing lots of slow-mo diving. And shooting. And diving. And shooting. Midway says the demo "will allow players to get a taste of the intense, non-stop action, cinematic gunplay and massively ... » Read More

European PS3 owners will have to settle for the new MotorStorm downloadable content on PSN this week as Midway still hasn't confirmed when the Stranglehold demo will be released here.

The Coyote Revent VIP Pass pack will cost GBP 3.99 / EUR 5.80. It includes the new reversed and revamped version of the Coyote track plus two new vehicles and the Eliminator online mode.

There's also a spattering of new trailers you might want to look at, like GT5 Prologue, Lair, and Heavenly Sword - but you can find most of those over on Eurogamer TV already.
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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 ... » Read More

A Midway Games Community Moderator has just confirmed a Stranglehold demo which is set to hit PlayStation Network this week among the regularly scheduled PSN updates Thursday.
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