Update: The PS3 MGS4/Killzone 2 bundle is now available online at Best Buy for $399.99.
You could call it a sign of things to come--or just one good PS3 bundle.
According to Kotaku, next Sunday (July 12) Best Buy will begin offering an 80GB PS3 with two of the best exclusives for the system--Metal Gear Solid 4 and Killzone 2--for the price of the PS3 ($400).
Alleged spy photo of the upcoming PS3 bundle.
(Credit: Kotaku)How does Kotaku know this? Well, a Best Buy employee apparently sent the gaming site a photo of the bundle and other Best Buy employees have confirmed that the photo is real and the bundle is coming. (Chalk this up as a rumor, but it seems pretty legit as far as rumors go).
Recently, Best Buy had the PS3 paired with Wall-E and Little Big Planet for $400. But the MGS 4 and Killzone 2 bundle is definitely designed to tempt more hardcore gamers who, say, might just own an XBox 360 already and are looking for a Blu-ray player.
Clearly, such bundles are designed to move systems--and they probably will move. The big question is whether this is part of a concerted effort by Sony to clear the channel of "old" consoles to make room for the potential release of the rumored PS3 Slim, which many hope will cost $300. A recent report suggests that a new PS3 may arrive as soon as this summer.
If indeed it is clearing the channel--and if indeed this latest bundle is for real-- hand it to Sony for creating an enticing package that will lure in fence-sitters, even when faced with the possibility of a new system on the horizon. If you do the math using Best Buy's prices, you're looking at a savings of $90 on the games (Best Buy is selling MGS 4 for $30 and Killzone 2 for $60).
So, is an MGS/Killzone 2 bundle at $400 a better deal than a hypothetical PS3 Slim at $300 with no games included? That's a hard call until we know what specs we're looking at for the Slim.
But let us know what you think.
Additional reading: PS3 Slim coming in July?
(Credit:
Guerilla Games)
Sony has been continually criticized for not having enough exclusive titles--and exclusive hits--for the PS3 to help drives sales of the console. That's not entirely true; the company has had some attractive exclusives, such as LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and MotorStorm, but it's still paying the price for not hanging onto the Grand Theft Auto franchise--and failing to match Xbox 360's mega hits, Halo 3 and Gears of War 2 with anything as enticing (Resistance 2 was good, but it probably didn't move boxes).
Well, with Killzone 2, it now has a terrific first-person shooter that's getting rave reviews across the board--and you can't get it on the Xbox 360. Several gaming pubs have given it a perfect score (see Metacritic's roundup here) and our own review (via GameSpot) came in at 9.0. Just as importantly, mainstream newspapers like The New York Times have also given it the thumbs-up.
In Tuesday's Times, Seth Schiesel delivers a virtual love letter. "Perhaps the highest praise I can offer is that Killzone 2 is the first console shooter to make an old-school PC gamer like me wish it was available for 'my' system."
He also calls it the finest-looking shooter he's seen on a console. And more controversially, he adds, "Gears of War 2, the top shooter for Microsoft's competing Xbox 360, still looks good, but with Killzone 2, Sony is demonstrating that the superior silicon horsepower in the PlayStation 3 is opening a widening gap over the 360 when it comes to pure eye candy."
... Read more
(Credit:
GameSpot)
Remember back in 2005 when Sony first showed "Killzone 2?" I do. I remember being blown completely away by the footage. That is, of course, until then SCE Europe's Vice President of Development, Phil Harrison, revealed that it was "running off video" which was "done to PS3 spec."
Ugh. Yeah, most people thought that the demo was real-time though, and that it was representative of what to expect from the final game. Well nearly four years later, we're about to find out for sure just how close it comes to that glorious, probably prerendered footage.
"Killzone 2" launches tonight at midnight, if you're lucky that is. According to one of the guys at PlayStation Lifestyle, he got an automated call from his local GameStop stating that his preordered copy would be ready to pick up tonight at midnight.
There is no national "Killzone 2" launch event, but if you're interested in getting the game ASAP, you might want to call your local GameStop and see if you can pick up your copy at midnight. Better hurry!
Now that the beginning-of-the-year game drought has passed, it's time to start getting excited for releases coming in the near future. This month we got a taste of what the next "Dead Rising" game will look like, along with a closer peek at the graphic novel-inspired "Madworld" for the Nintendo Wii.
Make sure you catch a last glance of "Killzone 2" before its release this Friday. The PlayStation 3 exclusive looks to live up to the hype of the original trailer, which blew audiences away back at E3 2005.
Also check out how "Ghostbusters: The Video Game" is shaping up, with actual in-game footage featuring the voices of the original four cast members. Finally, we invite you to see the first game in the Tom Clancy franchise to tackle combat flight simulation in "Tom Clancy's HAWX."
The original trailer for Killzone 2 at E3 2005 featured notoriously prerendered cinematics that raised expectations for the game beyond any reasonable level--or so we thought. Last night--more than two years later--developer Guerrilla showed off a playable demo that may have detractors eating their words. If the trailer is any indication of the final game--due out in 2008--it looks as if Sony's finally got a PS3 exclusive that will have Xbox 360 owners green with envy.
For more detail, check out Ricardo Torres' and Jeff Gerstmann's report on GameSpot.
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