Midnight Club: Los Angeles and Bully for the PC are out now in the US and the UK! Be sure to pick up your copy!

We have scored two goodies today. First up is the full drivable car list. This list is totally official and includes the prices in the game and it's top speed. Think of it as your budget guide.

The next thing is the official TV Ad for Midnight Club LA which is airing on US TV.

We are only hours away from the release of Midnight Club: Los Angeles and Bully for PC. For the people in the UK, keep checking back as we will be posting what will be your first glimpses at the games since they don't come out until the 24th over there.

Just moments ago, Sony announced the exclusive PlayStation 3 IP they mentioned was coming from Rockstar back in 2007. Developed by Rockstar North, Agent will be set in the 1970's and will take the player across the globe in the shadowy world of espionage. Nothing else was shown or said.

Some of you have been experiencing various problems with Bully on PC. Fear not. It seems Bully is is being bullied by large amounts of memory. There is a temporary work around for this problem while waiting for Rockstar New England to exterminate the bug with a patch.

1. Launch the MSCONFIG utility. To do this, press and hold the Windows Button and the R button. Then type "msconfig" with out the quotes. (Vista users will have to run it as admin)
2. Click on the Boot tab at the top and click the "Advanced Options" button. (On XP the "Boot" tab is called "Boot.ini")
3. Check the "Maximum Memory" box and change the setting to exactly or less than 2000. (On XP the "Maximum Memory" option is called "MAXMEM".)
4. Restart your computer.

Once Rockstar New England releases the patch, just simply un-check the "Maximum Memory" setting. Also, if you are experiencing audio crackling, you are most likely using surround sound when Bully is set to stereo. To fix this, just simply change your "Audio Output" to "Surround" in the options menu.

Rockstar in their continued support for Grand Theft Auto IV on the PC, have released update 1.0.4.0. However, this isn't a full fleged update but rather a maintenance update. This update is only really for bringing the game in-line with the new retail disc pressing (that means that new retail copies are now going to include all the patches so far), however, Rockstar Toronto did mention that this update does have updates to the resource management numbers which should improve performace for some.

Download: Update 1.0.4.0

Take-Two today announced their second quarter 2009 results. Here are some insteresting details from the results.

Red Dead Redemption:
Among the results is the announcement of a delay for Red Dead Redemption into 2010.

Mafia II and Red Dead Redemption are now scheduled for release in the first half of fiscal 2010 to allow additional development time for the titles and to maximize their full potential in terms of the quality of the player experience and market performance. 

L.A. Noire:

Take-Two kept reporting in their quarter results that L.A. Norie would be coming in 2009, however, L.A. Noire doesn't make an appearance in the list of games for this year. Could this mean that L.A. Noire has been pushed back again?

Beaterator:

Back in March when Take-Two reported their first quarter results, Beaterator had "to be announced" as it's platforms instead of just PSP. This quarter, Take-Two did the same so it's looking likely that Beaterator will make a jump to an additional platform.

Source: Take-Two

It seems the British are tired of their games being censored and banned...or so it would seem. Today, Britain announced that from now on the British Board of Film Classification will be doing just that, only classifying movies. Odd isn't it? I mean, don't you expect video game classifications to come from an agency that's only supposed to be for classifying movies? So how are football moms (by football, we mean British football) now going to make sure that games with titles such as "Grand Theft Auto" with guns on the cover are safe for little Jimmy? The British are going to start using the PEGI ratings system. However, it's not that simple. See the British have created an organization called the Video Standards Council. The VSC effectively has power to ban any game they feel is inappropriate, regardless of the PEGI rating. So much power that according to GI, they have the power to ban games from being sold online. Whether this power will be abused or not remains to be seen.

Source: Joystiq
Source: GamesIndustry

This month's Game Informer has yet to hit news stands, however, some subscribers have received the issue early. According to Kotaku, Max Payne will be set loose a decade after the events of Max Payne 2 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Max is said to be balder, paunchier and more heavily bearded. For all you bullet time lovers, bullet time will remain in tact. The issue is also said to talk about a multiplayer component. We'll keep looking for more info.

Source: Kotaku

Looking around the web for some more information about the PC port of Bully: Scholarship Edition, I came across the minimum system requirements on Best Buy's website. Keep in mind that these requirements are not officially announced by Rockstar so they might possibly be inaccurate, however, they do seem legit.

PC Processor Type:  Intel® Pentium® 4 processor, AMD Athlon™ processor
PC Processor Speed:  3GHz
PC Operating System:  Windows XP, Windows Vista
PC System Memory:  1GB RAM
PC Hard Drive Space:  4.7GB
PC Video Card:  DirectX 9.0c-compatible NVIDIA 6800 or 7300 or ATI RADEON X1 300 or better video card with Shader 3.0 support
PC Sound Card:  DirectX 9-compatible sound card

Stay tuned as Bully: Scholarship Edition for the PC and Midnight Club: Los Angeles for the PS3, 360, and PSP all launch next week on the 21st!

Source: Best Buy

Rockstar has updated the official Max Payne 3 website today with the first ever digial high-quality screenshots of the game. We have posted them below.

This morning Take-Two announced that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be making it's way to the PSP this fall. The game has been retooled for the PSP featuring upscaled widescreen graphics, enhanced lighting, enhanced animation, and all-new story missions. It's going to be interesting to see how Rockstar Leeds translates the DS version's touchscreen mechanics to the PSP. The PSP version releases this fall on in both UMD and download from PSN formats.

For more information please visit: www.rockstargames.com/chinatownwars

Source: Take-Two

Rockstar has just announced the second pack of content for Grand Theft Auto IV, titled "The Ballad of Gay Tony". This episode will focus on not Gay Tony, but rather Luis Lopez who was heavily speculated to be the protagonist due to the "Impossible Trinity" achievement. Here is an excerpt from the announcement.

The Ballad of Gay Tony injects Liberty City with an overdose of guns, glitz, and grime. As Luis Lopez, part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Tony Prince (aka "Gay Tony"), players will struggle with the competing loyalties of family and friends, and with the uncertainty about who is real and who is fake in a world in which everyone has a price.

GTAIV: The Ballad of Gay Tony will set you back a mere $20 or 1600 MS Points. Don't have Xbox Live? No worries! Rockstar has also announced a retail version of both episode packs called Grand Theft Auto: The Episodes from Liberty City which will include GTAIV, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony all in one package for $39.99 and does not require GTAIV to play.

The Ballad of Gay Tony and The Episodes from Liberty City are on track for a release sometime this fall.

Source: Take-Two

It has just come to our attention that Max Payne 2 for the Personal Computer has been pulled from the Rockstar Warehouse. The page has been replaced with a message stating that "This game is no longer available". The reasoning behind this? We're not sure. It could be something as simple as Rockstar ran out of copies and are producing more or it could be as bad as someone pulling the plug on distribution due to low sales. What ever the case may be, people that want the game can still buy the Xbox and PS2 versions off of the Rockstar Warehouse or if they really need the PC version it is available online for download via Steam and Direct 2 Drive.

GamesRadar have written an article about why they love GTAIV so much, so if you fancy a little read or you have finshed GTAIV to 100% go check it out at gamesradar.com.

Even though GTA the quatro has only been out a few weeks, you’d think we would’ve seen it all by now. But that kind of thinking is foolish! Like you, we’re discovering astounding new details every day, and we’re not talking major features like the new aiming system or the wacky shit the colorful locals have to say. We’re focusing on all the small touches that go into making Niko and Liberty City feel well-rounded and three dimensional. And while some of these things aren’t “new” per se to gaming, here are a bunch of things you may or may not have noticed during your jaunt through LC. Enjoy.

Source: GamesRadar

A while back, we reported that Bully had a few problems to do with lots of memory on 64-bit versions of Windows and suggested a temporary fix for it. Well today Rockstar has released patch 1.200 for Bully. The patch address this issue, improves the streaming for objects, and fixes random crashes and lock ups. If you have the game from Steam, it should update automatically. However, retail owners will have to download an updater file. Download the patch from the links below for your region.

Download: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish
Download: Japanese
Download: Russian

The official website for Rockstar's upcoming PlayStation 3 exclusive game, Agent, was quietly launched earlier today. Although nothing new is shown, no screenshots or details on the game, the websites presences means information is surely on the way. Agent was announced at the start of the month by Sony, it will be set in the 1970's and will take the player across the globe in the shadowy world of espionage.

We'll be keeping watch over the games website for any screenshots and details in the months to come.

Check it out: www.rockstargames.com/agent/

IGN recently got a chance to sit down and watch Red Dead Redemption being played. We've extracted the most important points below.

• Open World
• Along with San Digeo, Rockstar North and Rockstar Leeds are also working on the game
• Uses Euphoria
• At the beginning of the game, things from John's past come back and force him away from home and in to the wild
• Players will be able to accept missions, engage in mini-games, ride horses, trains and stagecoaches, hunt and go on killing sprees as they wish.
• The world is divided up into three large sections: Frontier, Mexico and Northern territories
• Progressing though the story opens up the other sections. Once unlocked, you can travel between them all via horse, walking, stagecoach, or train.
• You can use lassos and kerosene lamps
• Marston is the only person you play as
• Deadeye is still in and includes two skill levels
• Duels are still in
• You can carry up to 4 items
• You can't own property
• All items will be shown on his model
• Regenerative Health
• You can do deadeye and fighting while on a horse
• Full day and night cycles, ped system similar to GTAIV and dynamic weather system
• Dynamic roaming wildlife such as wolves hunting for rabbits or mountain lions looking for someone to feast on
• No load times transitioning from world to interior
• The game will include multiplayer
• Mid-mission checkpoints

Personally, the more I hear about the game, the more I cannot wait to get my hands on it!

Source: IGN

Rockstar has just released 4 new screenshots from the recently delayed Midnight Club: Los Angeles. We've managed to get un-watermarked 1280x720 versions of the screenshots. Enjoy.

Sad news today coming out of Rockstar New England. Kotaku is reporting that the QA team at NE, around 10% of the studio, were laid off on Monday. The QA team was singled out due to the fact that Rockstar already has a dedicated QA studio, Rockstar Lincoln. Rockstar has offered the affected employees a "fairly generous" severance package and are helping them find other jobs. Our hearts go out to the laid off employees of New England and wish them the best of luck at finding a new job.

Source: Kotaku

The official website for Red Dead Redemption has just went live. It features the trailer, the new screens we posted today and a couple of really cool backgrounds in different sizes for your PC, iPhone, Backberry, and PSP.

Official Site: Red Dead Redemption

When the first previews and reviews hit the web and magazines covering Grand Theft Auto IV one feature listed by a few of these was the ability to listen to the games soundtrack/radio stations using a portable music player or mobile phone. You may not have even noticed that said feature is not in the final game at all. Rockstar this week came out to say why that is:

"Some people on the team didn’t like the music/mobile phone idea for various reasons, but they went back and forth on the idea until the very end. This is VERY common. We do it in every game we make. We still prefer the balance of music in car and the ambient world’s noise on foot, but we are constantly reviewing this stuff."

If you have been following Rockstar Games or the Grand Theft Auto series previously, you may note that this has happened many times in the past. It is not uncommon for a GTA game to be released without a feature or features mentioned in previews. In the case of this 'portable music player', it was in the game until late in the development. Did they make the right choice? We think so, the vehicles like everything else in the GTA world have some unique features, and the radio is one of them. Without that feature it removes the uniqueness of vehicles and may have meant people wouldn't use vehicles as much, which defys the purpose of "Grand Theft Auto" entirely. We do wonder though, what other features didn't make the cut?

Thanks QJ.net

This one almost slipped our radar. Rockstar Games is partnering with Bethesda Softworks to publish Bully in Japan. (Ironically, Bethesda Softworks worked with the now Rockstar New England to produce a Star Trek game) Despite Bully being also on the Wii system, the game will only be published for the Playstation 2 and the Xbox 360 consoles. Also, instead of the 360 version being called Bully: Scholarship Edition, it will simply be named Bully. It is unknown at the time if the Playstation 2 version in Japan will have the extra features from the "Scholarship Edition" because of them being called the same name. The game will be released on July 24, 2008. The Xbox 360 version will cost you somewhere around ¥ 7,140 and the Playstation 2 version will cost you around ¥ 5,040.

Official Site: Bully

Rockstar has released the full listing of the 97 total songs featured in Midnight Club: Los Angeles.

• 33 HZ - I Feel Alive! (Ming Mix)
• Agent Elf - Lost in Control
• As I Lay Dying - Nothing Left
• Darker My Love - Waves
• Disturbed - Indestructible
• Evil Nine Feat. Emily Breeze - Twist the Knife
• Feeder - Miss You
• Nine Inch Nails - 1,000,000
• Nine Inch Nails - Discipline
• Shinedown - Cry For Help
• The Fever - Eyes on the Road
• The Subways - Kalifornia
• The Vines - Get Out
• We Are Wolves - Psychic Kids Beck - Timebomb
• Black Kids - Partie Traumatic
• Bloc Party - Mercury
• CSS - Rat Is Dead (Rage)
• Dukes Of Windsor - In The Wild
• Eagles of Death Metal - Wannabe in L.A.
• Foals - Mathletics
• Gliss - Blue Sky
• MGM - Electric Feel (Justice Remix)
• No Age - Sleeper Hold
• Primal Scream - Suicide Bomb
• Social Distortion - Reach for the Sky
• Tilly and the Wall - Pot Kettle Black
• The Whip - Trash
• Young & Restless - Police Police The Chemical Brothers - Midnight Madness
• Digitalism - Idealistic
• Diplo Feat. Rye Rye - Wassup (Crookers Remix)
• Evil Nine Feat. Beans - Set it Off
• Holy F### - Royal Gregory
• Kid Cudi - Day ‘N’ Nite (Crookers Remix)
• K.I.M. - Wet & Wild
• Kudu - Let’s Finish (Sinden Remix)
• Matt Herdman - Wasted Intellect
• Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes (Switch Remix)
• SebastiAn - Momy
• South Rakkas Crew - Mad Again (Boy 8 Bit Remix)
• The Presets - Kicking and Screaming
• Wolf & Cub - Targets (Minotaur Shock Remix)
• Wolfgang Gartner - Montezuma
• Wolfgang Gartner - Squares Antiform - Boombox (Screwface Remix)
• Written by Danny Byrd - Red Mist
• Written by Joel Zimmerman - The Oshawa Connection
• Hyper - Replica
• Markus Kienzl Feat. Paul St Hilaire - Dundy Lion
• Plump DJs - Snake Eyes
• Sensi Allstars v Ctrl-Z - Big Riddim
• Shodan & Offkey - Boogie Down
• Slim Blue Feat. Ken Mac vs Polkadot - Flick It
• The Equalizers - Wide Awake
• The Qemists - Stompbox
• Tricky - Baligaga Evil Nine Feat. Aesop Roc - Crooked
• Doap Nixon - The Wait Is Over Feat. Reef the Lost Cauze & Vinnie Paz
• Get Cool - Go
• G-Unit - Straight Outta Southside
• J Mill - Like Dat
• Kidz In The Hall Feat. Masta Ace - Drivin Down The Block (Low End Theory)
• Tech N9ne - Everybody Move
• The Cool Kids - What It Is
• Nas - Sly Fox
• Nas Feat. Keri Hilson - Hero
• Maino - Hi Hater
• Reks - All In One
• Young Jeezy Feat. Kanye West - Put On st Akwid - No Hay Manera (Jason Roberts Remix)
• Bishop Lamont Feat. The New Royales - City Lights
• Busy P Feat. Murs - To Protect And Entertain
• DJ Felli Fel Feat. Akon, Lil’ Jon, Ludacris & Diddy - Get Buck In Here
• Evidence - Let Yourself Go
• Ice Cube - Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It
• Murs Feat. Will.i.am - Lookin’ Fly
• Ozomatli - City of Angels
• Randam Luck - 1, 2 Hit ‘Em
• Snoop Dogg Feat. Kurupt - Press Play
• The Game - Big Dreams
• Too $hort Feat. Snoop Dogg & Will.I.Am - Keep Bouncin
• WC - West Coast Voodoo Feat The Game
• Young Maylay - You Ain’t Uh

Take-Two has just announced that Midnight Club: Los Angeles will be pushed back again. On April 21st, Take-Two had announced that Midnight Club LA would be pushed back from it's early 2008 release date to September 9th.  However, it seems Rockstar has changed it's mind again by pushing the date back even further to a October 9th release date for the US and October 10th for Europe. The reasoning behind this? Take-Two won't say. Hopefully, Rockstar won't decide to push back the release date for a third time.

Press Release: Rockstar Games announces new release date for Midnight Club: Los Angeles

Last year, Take-Two mentioned when they renewed the Houser brother's contract along with other key members of Rockstar that the Housers and other key members of Rockstar were founding a separate video game company and that Take-Two would not own the company but would have an publishing agreement with the company. Today, Variety posted an article about an announcement for the company but before I could read it the article was pulled from the site. However, an RSS syndicate blog posted a brief preview of the article that mentions that the company will be named 4mm Games. The summary also mentions "...[4mm] hopes to reinvent the roll out of new titles using the Web".  By that it would imply that they are creating a Steam rival. On the other hand, I looked at the official website for the company and it says their focus is "developing online worlds that will define social gaming", which to me implies that they are working on a MMO of some sort. So at the moment, it's not totally clear yet of the focus of the company.The company has a mailing list sign up in the about section. Perhaps we'll hear something soon.

Official Website: 4mm Games
Source: Variety via Movienet

EDIT: It seems I was right about them doing a MMO. After doing more research, I found a video by Jamie King that explains the aim of the company a lot better.

EDIT 2: For anyone worried about Rockstar, don't be. No one is leaving Rockstar, not even the Houser brothers. This is more of a side project for the Housers. The day to day operations of 4mm are under the control of Jamie King who left Rockstar back in 2006 to be at 4mm full time. The title won't be Take-Two funded or even a Take-Two owned IP as Take-Two is merely just a publishing partner. It remains to be seen if Take-Two decides to publish the title under the Rockstar brand. Kinda like Prey which was owned and developed by seperate companies, but with Take-Two as the publisher which decided to publish Prey under it's 2K label. We're betting it will be.

Edit 3: When I read the contract renewal announcement from Take-Two, I assumed the Housers were involved with 4mm Games. The Variety article has since came back online and explains that Jamie King and Gary Foreman are the only two from Rockstar at the company. I apologize for making that mistake. However, just like I stated in edit 2, Rockstar is still not affected in anyway.