As each week passes, the MTV Rhythm Game Track Finder becomes a more complete database for searching rhythm game music.

In fact, we are almost at a point where there are no additional older games to add, aside from a few miscellaneous “DDR” titles. We’ve searched GameSpot, IGN, AllGameGuide, and even Wikipedia, but out list gets shorter and shorter each week. If there are any glaring omissions, please let us know so we can get those games added right away.

This week’s updates includes one of our last archival additions, Tecmo’s “UNiSON: Rebels of Rhythm & Dance,” our weekly “Rock Band” update, as well as the remainder of the “Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore” downloadable content for both the Xbox 360 and PS3.

“UNiSON” was a bit of a surprise; we didn’t even know it existed until we stumbled upon it in Wikipedia last week. Once we saw it, we made sure to add the full U.S. release song list to our database. It appears to be one of the most story-based rhythm games on this list, but it also has one of the smallest track listings as well. It tops out at only 12 songs. but one of them is the classic “O.P.P.” by Naughty By Nature, so it’s okay.

The full update is below:
Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore (Xbox 360, PS3) 40 Songs Added
Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3) 3 Songs Added (Blondie’s “Hanging On The Telephone,” Sonic Youth’s “Kool Thing,” and The Clash’s “Train In Vain”)
UNiSON: Rebels of Rhythm & Dance (PS2) 12 Songs Added

As always, go to trackfinder.mtv.com, for all this and more — it’s the definitive search engine for all your music gaming needs.

Grand Theft Auto IV” may have gotten some things wrong about New York City (we were only kidding, angry Rockstar fans!).But one of the things the developers got right was the home of MTV.

Our MTV building, where this very post was written, resides at 1515 Broadway at the heart of Times Square. Our office tower was faithfully recreated in the game as MeTV at 1717 Burlesque, in the heart of Star Junction.

We went outside, and then into the game to prove just how good a job Rockstar did representing us. It’s almost like our own virtual Cribs.

Check out some comparison photos after the jump:

(Video not viewable by anyone logging in to this site from Canada or the U.K. Sorry)

Read more…

On Friday I explained why Terminal Reality decided to focus on PlayStation 3 from the get go, but that’s not the approach for most studios. For many, Xbox 360 remains the lead platform.

Last week, I sat down to see a short demo of Disney’s upcoming off-road “SSX”-meets-ATV racing title “Pure.” Between loading screens, I probed “Pure” game director Jason Avent, part of Disney’s Blackrock Studio in the UK, about his team’s development approach.

Blackrock has always started development on Xbox 360. That approach wasn’t altered for “Pure,” and Avent’s team haven’t had any regrets.

Read more…

We’ve seen many developers struggle with multi-platform development this generation. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are different technical beasts. Complications with the wildly popular Unreal Engine 3 middleware have made things even more difficult.

Terminal Reality, the studio behind the upcoming “Ghostbusters,” spent a lot of time evaluating each console before moving forward with their first next-generation game, Terminal Reality president Mark Randell told MTV Multiplayer at a Sierra media event last month.

In the end, contrary to most teams this generation, they decided to make PlayStation 3 their lead development platform for “Ghostbusters.” Here’s why.

Read more…

Unless you’ve downloaded the expansion pack to the downloadable PS3 twin-stick shooter “Super Stardust HD,” you will have a hard time convincing me that it’s not the most graphically-impressive game on Sony’s machine.

And, yes, I’ve played “GTA IV.” I’ve seen “Killzone 2.” But nothing quite blows me away like a level of Endless on the $5 “SSHD” expansion called “Solo Pack.”

What exactly have the game’s Finnish developers at Housemarque accomplished?

• They’ve doubled the base game’s output of 10,000 objects on the screen.
• They believe they’ve almost maxed the PS3 graphics chip.
• And now they’re thinking about making music-based levels and revealing to Multiplayer other expansions they have in the works.

Read on for more on all of that, from a developer that is pushing the PS3 to impressive lengths …

[Images Courtesy of IGN]

Read more…

“Fatal Inertia,” the futuristic racer once meant to be a PlayStation 3 launch title, will finally arrive at its original destination next month when Koei delivers “Fatal Inertia EX” exclusively via PlayStation Network, MTV Multiplayer can report.

“Fatal Inertia EX” will arrive on PSN in late May for $29.99. Koei does not intend to release the product at retail. By comparison, Sony launched “Warhawk” on PSN, which did have a retail component, at $39.99.

“After the launch of the Xbox 360 version, we had a unique situation that allowed us to reflect on what could be done with the PlayStation 3 version,” said lead producer Mike Bond in an e-mail interview with Multiplayer. “But having watched the growth of the PlayStation Network’s user base and the game’s multiplayer component, we felt the strength of this game would be in its online community.”

“Fatal Inertia EX” comes with a number of new features and gameplay tweaks, lessons learned from the Xbox 360 version’s launch last September.

But given that “Fatal Inertia” was initially a PS3 launch title, we had to get the back story. Bond was ready to talk.

Read more…

Late last week Patrick and I sent an essay question to a couple of gaming’s most knowledgeable and quotable financial analysts.

We wanted to know when they thought the PS2 would drop in price to $99 in the U.S.

This was our full question:

Sony dropped the price of the first PlayStation to $99 in 1999, four years after the system’s release. The PS2 has been out since 2000, and in almost double the time, still has not dropped to $99. There are many reasons for this: lack of competition for the PS2 in the back half of the last hardware generation; Sony’s struggles getting the expensive PS3 off the ground; etc. The question is: Do you think the PS2 will go down to $99? When and why?

In short order, we heard back from Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities and Evan Wilson of Pacific Crest Securities.

Neither gave us reason to expect a price drop any time soon. And one of them gave us two games to blame: “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band.”

On Thursday evening, Pachter left us a voicemail, in which he said:

Read more…

Since we launched the Rhythm Game Track Finder back in January, there haven’t been too many rhythm games actually released. Our updates have mainly been focused on downloadable content, or adding classic rhythm games from years past. However, this past week “Battle of the Bands” was released, and it was the ideal candidate for inclusion in the database.

THQ released this Wii-exclusive title with 30 songs from artists from drastically different genres. Whether you like Korn or The Commodores there’ll be something for you to play in “Battle of the Bands.” All the tracks are covers, but that actually plays into the game itself, since the challenge is to complete the songs as they are “remixed” into different styles by the “bands” in the game. Multiplayer’s own Patrick Klepek describes it as a “refreshingly different” rhythm game.

The Track Finder was also updated this past week with “Karaoke Revolution American Idol Encore” PS3 downloadable content, as well as “SingStar”’s official release date and track list for here in the States. Last, but not least, we added three more song’s to “Rock Band” (one of them being The Smashing Pumpkin’s greatest song of all time, “Zero”).

The full list is below:

Battle of the Bands (Wii) 30 Songs Added
Karaoke Revolution American Idol Encore (PS3) 43 Songs Added
Rock Band (PS3, Xbox 360) 3 Songs Added (The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Zero,” and The Mother Hips’ “Red Tandy” and “Time Sick Son of a Grizzly”)

As always, go to trackfinder.mtv.com, for all this and more — it’s the definitive search engine for all your music gaming needs.

Seven hours into “Grand Theft Auto IV,” I can confirm that the game is an evolution of the world’s most notorious video game franchise.

It bears none of the design flaws of its predecessors and smartly enhances many of their core qualities. And it’s full of interesting things to do (as I’ve just begun to note in this list).

What I haven’t found yet, for better or worse, is a reason to call the game revolutionary.

I haven’t found a reason for it to merit the numerical title that the creators at Rockstar Games say is a signal that a “GTA” game will leads in directions that others will follow. Such progress is, of course, what “GTA III” wrought and what, as well-made as they were, “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,” “San Andreas,” and the “Stories” spin-offs did not.

From what I’ve played so far, I don’t expect “IV” to trigger an industry transformation. Still, I can’t wait to finish writing this piece so I can go play more, to find out what this game about America has to say and show me next. It’s a compelling piece of work, so much more interesting and well-acted than other games, as is always the case with a “GTA.”

Here are my main impressions virtually spoiler-free (unless you mind knowing where the first seven hours of the game mostly takes place and how the basic mechanics work.)

“GTA” In My Neighborhood

I’ve spent as much of this weekend as possible playing “GTA: IV,” in what I imagine are stranger circumstances than anyone else who has obtained an early copy of the game.

Read more…

Last week I re-reported my findings that “Grand Theft Auto IV” does not have split-screen multiplayer. While the game has more than a dozen multiplayer modes, those modes are made to be played over Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.

Readers of my post asked if the game supported multi-system LAN play, or if it had any single-screen multiplayer gameplay that two friends could play with one system and one TV. The answer to each of those questions is “No.” I’ve checked and double-checked this with Rockstar Games.

“GTA IV” multiplayer is all online or bust.