Archive for October 12th, 2007
October 12, 2007
The British gaming magazine Edge, which has teamed up with the website Next Generation, offers up a piece looking back at the creation of System Shock 2 . The cult classic storytelling horror-themed FPS has survived as a popular and often-referenced game despite the eight years between now and its release. The piece covers the reasons behind that popularity, as well as the ‘horror’ of an inexperienced team taking on a dauntingly high-profile task: “The original System Shock was one of the games that made Levine want to move into the videogame industry in the first place. What made it so special? ‘The feeling of being in a real place,’ he raves. ‘The feeling of a mystery, of unraveling it - not in an adventure game way, but in the context of an action game. You arrive and… what happened? That’s a really good storytelling mechanism.’ Austin Grossman and Doug Church’s original idea from Shock was something Irrational expanded in its sequel. ‘In Shock 1 you were a specific guy, you had a backstory,’ Levine notes. ‘With Shock 2, I started you out with the classic ‘wake up with amnesia’.'”.
October 12, 2007
Back in August, Norwegian gaming site gamer.no reported on the next game from Double Fine Productions, the Tim Schafer-helmed studio responsible for the critically acclaimed and commercially ignored Psychonauts. That report was hastily taken down, but not before some key details could be gleaned and translated.
The wild-eyed psycho is probably Black.
According to the site, the game was going to be called Brutal Legend, and would star Tenacious D frontman and actor Jack Black as a rock band roadie who dies and must escape hell to reach rock heaven. At the time, Schafer said some of the rumors about the game were true, but a lot were false. The name was all-but-confirmed last month, when If Its Games discovered a trademark application for Br
October 12, 2007
Back in August, Norwegian gaming site gamer.no reported on the next game from Double Fine Productions, the Tim Schafer-helmed studio responsible for the critically acclaimed and commercially ignored Psychonauts. That report was hastily taken down, but not before some key details could be gleaned and translated.
The wild-eyed psycho is probably Black.
According to the site, the game was going to be called Brutal Legend, and would star Tenacious D frontman and actor Jack Black as a rock band roadie who dies and must escape hell to reach rock heaven. At the time, Schafer said some of the rumors about the game were true, but a lot were false. The name was all-but-confirmed last month, when If Its Games discovered a trademark application for Br
October 12, 2007
While Blizzard has been making a killing for Vivendi Games in the massively multiplayer online market, the publisher has been looking to corner the small- to medium-sized downloadable game space with its Sierra Online brand. In addition to the turn-based strategy game Carcassonne and 3D Ultra Minigolf, the online-focused publisher will be peppering Xbox Live and the PC with a number of other releases before the year’s end, including Battlestar Galactica and Commanders: Attack!.
So…many…bunnies…
Now, Sierra Online has added two more downloadable offerings for Xbox Live and PCs, Aces of the Galaxy and Boogie Bunnies. As detailed in If Its Games’s piping-fresh preview, Aces of the Galaxy is a space shooter on rails that lets players blast through more than 20 levels. The game includes both single-player and multiplayer co-op modes.
A color-matching puzzle game, Boogie Bunnies floods players’ screens with the notoriously replicating lagomorphs. To keep the bunnies at bay, players match up bunnies three of a kind as they march onto the screen.
Sierra Online has slated both games for “this winter.” Neither game has been priced nor rated.
October 12, 2007
Jade Raymond producer of Ubisoft\’s, Assassin\’s Creed is rumoured to be appearing as a cover girl on December\’s Maxim issue which will feature girls of gaming. This has caused one blogger to speak out that it bugs them that most of the coverage of Assassin\’s Creed features an equal amount of photos of her as it does in-game screenshots. Is there really anything wrong with Ubisoft showing off her charms?
October 12, 2007
The Virtua Fighter 5 demo (674MB) is now available on Xbox Live. It is due for full release on the 360 on 26th October. The 360 version will feature the latest arcade changes, optional analogue control, rumble support and improved AI.
October 12, 2007
A combination of industry and developer observations has prompted Tech.co.uk to wonder if the Wii’s overwhelming popularity is due to end sometime soon. This is based on a report from Japanese business newspaper The Nikkei, which published an article recently entitled ‘Software Houses Miscalculate Audience, Demand For Wii’. “The report goes on to discuss the likelihood that many Wiis are gathering dust in owners’ cupboards, citing one software house president as saying, ‘People bought it out of curiosity, and it’s likely a lot of them haven’t used it.’ Given that September saw Wii sales fall sharply in Japan for the second consecutive month, it seems reasonable to speculate that the bubble inflated by the novelty factor is starting to deflate, but writing Nintendo off at any stage is a perilous course to steer.” Is this just worrying, or is there validity to this?.
October 12, 2007
MS and others are looking to grow in markets such as India, however piracy is still as rampant as ever in the region. According to one site the dealer of a shop in India has already sold 5,000 copies of the pirated version of Halo 3.
October 12, 2007
MTV’s Multiplayer Blog wonders aloud what would make Manhunt 2 acceptable to the BBFC. The BBFC rejected the game for a second time a few days ago, and now MCV is reporting that the version they rejected was identical to the US version approved for an ‘M’ rating by the ESRB. From the BBFC’s response: “Unfortunately I cannot list the changes we suggested as this is a matter between us and the distributor and if they are not happy to give you chapter and verse I’m afraid I can’t either. I can say, however, that the changes were to the level of visual detail in the kills and to some of the dialogue. As our news release said, ‘The impact of the revisions on the bleakness and callousness of tone, or the essential nature of the gameplay, is clearly insufficient. There has been a reduction in the visual detail in some of the ‘execution kills’, but in others they retain their original visceral and casually sadistic nature.’”.
October 12, 2007
Vigile writes “The Unreal Tournament 3 demo will be dropping sometime in the next two weeks. With a launch on the PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and even an in-box Linux client it will definitely be one of the most widely-played titles this holiday. With an early take on the UT3 demo’s performance, PC Perspective has put up an article that compares cards from NVIDIA and AMD in both single and dual-GPU configurations to see which are the best performers. It turns out that even mid-range cards are going to be more than capable of playing UT3 at impressive image quality levels.”.
October 12, 2007
Pot Noodle have been running a funny competition in the UK where users upload their home made movies for the chance to win a PS3. This month, the Pot Noodle Network are on a mission to make movie magic and want you to make a tribute to your favourite film featuring a Pot Noodle.
October 12, 2007
Ars Technica notes, from Nintendo’s Fall conference earlier this week, the news that Mario Kart for the Wii is slated for Spring of next year. The game is said to involve bikes for the first time: “It is unclear whether the bikes will be mostly an aesthetic effect or if the control mechanics will differ between karts and bikes. Mario Kart: Double Dash featured a collection of different carts with different statistics, but control was more or less the same across the board … Despite accusations that Nintendo had nothing to offer the hardcore gamer in terms of announcements at the show, the latest incarnation of the classic kart-racing series was looking sharp in its debut.”.
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