From GRIN to grim. Talk about wiping that grin off your face. The development team just bid goodbye through their site now that they've officially shut down as a result of "an unbearable cashflow situation." It ain't over yet though, ex-GRIN members got together and formed a new team, under which they'll be waving a new banner, Outbreak Studios.

There are some indications that the sequel to Red Steel may very well have an online functionality because the Red Steel site has an ad posted that's calling for applicants for an online programmer position. The responsibility is listed as "to develop the online part of a game engine for a Wii project ... "

The development of this project will take place in Paris, France, where other Ubisoft titles such as GRAW and the original Red Steel were made.

The chances are pretty fat that the hypothesis of online functionality is spot on. If we go back to November of last year, it was also an ad for a vacant position that blew the cover off a Red Steel sequel.

Better get ready to optimize that internet connection for your Wii, kids. You don't want the lag to spoil your katana-swingin' and machine gun-firin' moves when you use them on live targets.

 

What do 3volution Productions, Tom Clancy, and Jeremy Blair have in common? 3volution Productions is a company that produces songs, remixes, ambient sounds and voice-overs for video games, films, and the net. It is further noted for having done the soundwork for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the Xbox 360, and PC. Jeremy Blair, on the other hand, is the latest addition to 3volution's crew, as the company announces that he (Jeremy) is their new chief engineer and producer.

"Based on our previous experiences with Jeremy, and the extensive list of hit records he has been involved with, we are confident he will help 3voultion realize its goal of being the premium music production company for Videogame, TV and Film music," said 3volution Productions co-producer Raymond Herrera. Stationed at the 3volution Production’s Temple Studios in Los Angeles, Blair is expected to be in charge of all music engineering for the company.

Blair himself is noted to be a trained guitarist, bass player, and keyboard player, and has been credited with engineering for albums like Guns N Roses’ "Live Era" (1999), Coal Chamber’s "Dark Days" (2002), Fear Factory's "Archetype" (2004) and Mnemic’s "Passenger" (2007). On the gaming side, Blair is accredited with helping produce Frank Black & 3volution’s "Gimme Danger" track, which is part of the GRAW 2 soundtrack.

 

Ben Kuchera of Opposable Thumbs alerts that Circuit City guarantees that they should have Nintendo's 2D to 3D platforming love-fest, Super Paper Mario available by Tuesday 2 p.m. or they give you a US$ 20 gift card. This means that not only do you not have to pre-order the game, but if they don't have it available by the aforementioned time, you get what is in essence, free money.

The offer is reportedly set to last until store closing time on Tuesday.

Others have noted that Circuit City has done this type of promotion before. Specifically, for GRAW 2. They note that the Circuit City they went to didn't have any in stock and they add that love promos of this nature. The reason is of course, pretty obvious.

Some of us here at QJ now wish that a similar promotion is made for the Wii console itself. Alas, it seems unlikely.

We know that everyone may be familiar with the online video game news site called Eurogamer. Now, this site recently put up a new community portal for -who else?- video game fans and players.

Basically, the portal is somewhat like MySpace, or Friendster for that matter, and Eurogamer itself is not ashamed to admit this. Community members will be able to set up their own page, update their profile, join and create user groups, and ultimately communicate with other members.

Eurogamer Managing Director Rupert Loman is quite happy with this development and mentioned that they are actually planning to launch the site in five different European languages later this year. He added that there is more to come but for now, they are quite contented with what they have,

The Eurogamers launch is the first step in our plan to offer new ways of interacting with gamers. The reaction to the site from our group of beta testers has been overwhelmingly positive, and we're looking forward to developing the site to its full potential.

Lastly, Ubisoft pledged its full support to Eurogamers by promoting its latest Xbox 360 title Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (GRAW 2), which will also become available in Europe on PlayStation 3 (PS3) a little later.

We've got the rankings on the top ten best selling games in Australia in the period ending March 18. Final Fantasy XII still sits atop while the Sims 2: Seasons and Sonic and the Secret Rings are second and third respectively. It may surprise some of you but Bratz Forever Diamonds is still riveted at sixth place while Happy Feet and Nintendogs: Dalmatians round up the top ten.

Here are the complete results:

 1. Final Fantasy XII
2. Sims 2: Seasons
3. Sonic & the Secret Rings
4. GRAW 2
5. WoW: Burning Crusade
6. Bratz Forever Diamonds
7. The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
8. Cricket 2007
9. Happy Feet
10. Nintendogs Dalmations

It's pretty interesting to compare the Aussie charts to its UK counterpart. We ran an article on that yesterday and you can check it out by following the link.

Microtransactions are here to stay. By providing after-retail options to customers, game companies could add additional features and content to games. This has not come without issues, however. It appears some folk, like Adam, have a few bones to pick with console microtransactions.

First off, he says they will retract from the fun of the gameplay. To illustrate, he puts his girlfriend in the limelight. She was playing Need for Speed Carbon on the 360 and was barely winning races. In touch with that, she couldn't earn enough bucks to keep her car upgraded.

So how was she able to get all of her trophy cars upgraded? She bought one super-duper model at Xbox Live Marketplace. It allowed her to breeze through any race she had to participate in. Now where's the fun in that? That's like opting for a cheat mode, except you had to charge it to Visa.

Next up: GRAW. Yep, while GRAW 2 may never make it to the PS3 Europe launch, much hope spurs from the fact that it won't be hounded by a microtransaction issue like with GRAW. Most of you covert tactical FPS fans might know this already. After you purchase the expansion pack to GRAW and try to invite your "unexpanded" friends for a little fraggin' action, you find that you can't.

It's like all those who have installed the expansion just gets a whole new exclusive room to themselves, leaving their retail buddies in the dust. As Adam said, "This is outrageous! The publisher and developer are basically forcing gamers to purchase the add-on if they ever plan on playing with friends who have already upgraded."

Ubisoft claims that the incompatibility stems from the new features and content available in the expansion. But Adam thinks otherwise. Still some companies have been successful in their microtransaction schemes, provided they gave away the original game for free.

It's hilarious to note that it seems like their turning the game console into an arcade machine - with credit. Sad to think that there are gamers out there who bought consoles so that they wouldn't have to lose all their quarters at the local arcades. Got some gripes or praise for the growing microtransaction trend? Discuss here.

It seems like Ubisoft is aiming to start the year with a bang as they release an updated list of their Q1 games. Blazing Angels: Secret Missions (still stamped with the tentative release in Spring) and Driver: Parallel Lines are just two of the highly anticipated games to be released.

Here's the list:

• Asphalt 2 (PSP)
• Blazing Angels (Wii)
• Blazing Angels: Secret Missions (PC, Xbox 360)
• Dogz 2 (GBA)
• Driver: Parallel Lines (PC, Wii)
• Driver 76 (PSP)
• Enchanted Arms (PS3)
• Final Fantasy XII (PS2, Europe)
• IL-2 1946 (PC)
• Mind Quiz (DS)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 (PC, Xbox 360, PSP)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (PC, PS2, Xbox 360, Wii, PSP, DS, GC, GBA)
• Prince of Persia: Rival Swords (Wii, PSP)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (PS3, PSP)
• Resident Evil 4 (PC)
• Rocky Balboa (PSP)
• Silent Hunter 4 (PC)
• The Settlers 2: 10th Anniversary (DS)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (PS3)

Well, there you have it folks. It looks like we all have reasons to celebrate as Ubisoft spreads the love. PS3 gets GRAW 2, Double Agent, and Enchanted Arms while Wii gets a Driver. We'll just have to sit back and wait for these titles to grace the shelves.