The NBA has extended its contract with Take-Two Interactive and the 2K Sports label in a multi-year licensing agreement.

2K’s NBA 2K11 sold 5 million units last year while the former’s basketball game was scrapped. 2K informed Gameplanet yesterday that New Zealand and Australia was the most successful market for the game outside of the US.

The deal was formalised in finest press-release tradition with the exchange of mutually gushing compliments from the respective parties:

 

Ridge Racer for the 3DS is a game that doesn't beat around the bush. From the outset, this dumb (yet pretty) racer does little more than provide a tightly wound arcade racing in your hands.

The problem with the majority of racing games on a portable platform is that they miss the intoxicating immersion found on higher resolution systems. The screen is too small to really trap the player in the world and give the impression that bends and opponents are being thrown around at breakneck speed. The audio capabilities of the DS and it's compatriots lack the booming, screaming power needed to sell the sensation of being behind the wheel.

The 3DS' newfangled depth of vision, much superior sound system and wider screen make a worthy attempt at resolving these issues. Ridge Racer feels genuinely fast and exciting to play.

 

Dead or Alive: Dimensions for the Nintendo 3DS has been pulled in Sweden amid accusations that it violates that country’s child pornography laws.

The game’s Swedish distributor, Bergsala, cancelled the game's local release without fighting the charges.

In a joint statement, Nintendo Europe and Bergsala told Eurogamer Sweden, “Nintendo of Europe have decided not to release the game in Sweden, for various reasons. However, they do not want to list any details regarding their decision.

 

Following a leak of information over the weekend, Infinity Ward has announced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and released four teaser trailers.

Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling tweeted, "Wasn't planned, but you're clearly hyped, so here is the first of many Modern Warfare 3 videos coming in hot today!"

The four teaser trailers each feature a different country: Germany, England, France and America. The geographic scope suggests recent rumours that the game follows a "World War III" premise may be true.

 

Pilotwings Resort is one of the sure-to-be many remakes and rehashes of existing titles made for the Nintendo 3DS.

The launch of any new hardware brings with it a raft of your old favourites, tarted up and brought into new light with an equal measure of retro-respect and commercial cynicism. For those of us who lurk the fringes of console gaming in the handheld realm, we're getting pretty used to it. So, without getting too worried about buying essentially the same game for the third or fourth time, we launch into Pilotwings Resort.

 

To say that the LEGO series is rather generic, a repeated grab at wallets whenever a new licence is acquired, is a very bah-humbug-esque way to look at the series.

The utterings of your everyday Ebenezer, while ruining the Christmas spirit for the working class, does find a mark with the LEGO series of games. Squirreled away in you lonely mansion unsure of which day it is, this assumption could seem correct but what is missed is that this repetition is the heart of the series, the gooey familiar centre that kids will respond to when they get their sticky hands on the latest iteration

The newest from the LEGO workshop, Star Wars III, remains faithful to this explore and destroy model while at the same time moving ever so slightly into RTS.

 

Ubisoft has announced that Driver: San Francisco will be released this September.

The game was delayed late last year in order to ensure it was ready for release.

Gameplanet went hands on with Driver San Francisco at E3 last year and came away with cautious optimisim. “We’ve been waiting some time for a positive step forward in the Driver franchise, and in spite of the thin premise, the essential elements of San Francisco have us anticipating this future instalment.”

 

Nintendo has today announced that Dead or Alive: Dimensions will launch for the Nintendo 3DS on the 26th of May.

This will be the first time the Dead or Alive series has appeared on a Nintendo console.

The game is touted to feature “fast-paced combat, devastating counter attack combinations and interactive environments which can be used to inflict heavy damage on opponents.”