ECA Plans Games-Related DMCA Showdown

Gamespot is reporting that the Electronic Consumers Association (ECA) has picked its first legal fight since vowwing to step up lobbying efforts. The organization is going head-to-head with the Electronic Software Association (ESA), a long-time backer of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), by coming out in favour of H.R. 1201 (also known as the Fair Use Act of 2007). “If it became law, the Fair Use Act would create a variety of exemptions to the DMCA’s prohibitions on circumventing anti-piracy measures. The Fair Use Act would make it legal to bypass anti-piracy measures in a handful of situations, for personal archiving; for researching, critiquing, or reporting on works of substantial public interest (if that is the sole reason for the circumvention); or to skip commercial or personally objectionable content. It would also create an exemption in copyright law for people who make and distribute equipment used to bypass copyright protection (like modchips), provided the device ‘is capable of substantial, commercially significant noninfringing use.’”.

Medal of Honor Heroes 2 Multiplayer Hands-On

The online-shooter category may be dominated these days by the Xbox 360 and, to a lesser extent, the PlayStation 3. But that hasn’t stopped Electronic Arts’ studio in Vancouver from bringing frantic, large-scale action to the Wii and PSP with the forthcoming Medal of Honor Heroes 2, which is due to hit both platforms in the second week of November. The game supports 32 players in-game across six maps, which are set across a number of World War II-esque strongholds and crater-pocked battlefields. We went a few rounds online with both versions to see how things are shaping up.

Heroes 2 supports a whopping 32 players in online multiplayer matches.

On the Wii, the game has a pretty robust control model that seems as if it will afford you precise shooting when you get past its learning curve. You move with the analog stick and aim with the remote, as per most Wii shooters. You can also go to a view that zooms in through your weapon’s sights, and when you’re in this view you can twist the Nunchuk left and right to subtly lean in those directions, which will naturally come in handy for firing around corners. In the single-player campaign, you’ll have a powerful melee attack that requires you to thrust both controllers forward simultaneously. That attack is still available in the online mode, but as you’d imagine, it can be hard to pull off while you’re engaged in a firefight. So the designers have also added a weaker one-button melee attack that won’t kill in one hit but is much easier to execute.

You’ll get an exceptionally large crosshair in the multiplayer game, which sometimes makes it tough to gauge where exactly you’re shooting at when facing an opponent. At first, it felt as if we were emptying entire clips at our opponents and hitting only air, but after a few minutes we were able to figure out where we ought to be aiming to score effective hits. However, even a headshot won’t necessarily guarantee you a kill. Often when you get a headshot, you’ll see your enemy’s helmet go flying, accompanied by a satisfying metal clang sound. Once your opponent is bare-headed, your shots will certainly kill, but that helmet can sometimes make the difference between life and death when the action is moving quickly.

New to the Wii game’s single-player campaign is a number of gesture-based control mechanics intended to enhance the realism of the combat experience. For instance, when you want to use the bazooka, you’ll have to actually hoist the Wii Remote over your shoulder before you fire, as you would the real weapon. (The Wii will look for the remote to be upside down to verify you’re doing it right.) There’s also a pump-action shotgun that you actually need to pump to reload after each shot–by making a pumping motion with the remote, naturally.

These gestures have made their way into the multiplayer, but in a modified form. In a multiplayer match, you’re permitted to fire the bazooka from the hip for a quick response time, but you’ll lose some accuracy. On the other hand, you’ll have full aiming precision if you hold it up over your shoulder. You can similarly disable the shotgun-pump requirement via a menu option if that seems too laborious for you during a fast-paced multiplayer match (as it did to us). There’s also a motion-based grenade-toss mechanic that has you arm the grenade, then hit the fire button to designate a rough target, and finally make a throwing motion with the remote itself. The strength of your motion here will ultimately determine the grenade’s trajectory.

The EA Nation login should help simplify getting up and running online.

There will be three modes–deathmatch, team deathmatch, and capture the flag–that will occur on the game’s maps, and all of them play out exactly as you’d expect. Luckily, getting into a match will be much easier than with most online Nintendo-based games. No friend codes to be seen here–instead, you’ll use EA’s “EA Nation” Web portal to set up an account and then log in through the game’s front end itself. The EA Nation login will let you browse for running games online, and you’ll be able to jump into or out of games that are running at any time, rather than being required to join a game’s lobby before it starts. The PSP version’s matchmaking works the same way, though it’s inherently less noteworthy there because Sony’s online multiplayer strictures are less severe than Nintendo’s.

It looks as if EA Canada has made a real effort to get solid multiplayer into Heroes 2, especially given that the game is on two platforms that don’t typically excel at online multiplayer. We’ll bring you the final verdict for both the multiplayer and the game’s story-driven single-player campaign when it ships in mid-November.

-If Its Games

Memor 32 - Advanced 32MB PS2 USB Memory Card priced at under

Divineo.fr has put up in its catalogue the Memor 32 - an advanced 32MB PS2 memory card which is designed to be used for game saves and complete with an integrated USB port. It\’s currently on sale for

GameCity ‘07: Rare talks Viva Pi

NOTTINGHAM–Viva Pi

Manhunt 2 Producer Q&A

The road to retail has been anything but smooth for Rockstar Games’ Manhunt 2, but next week fans of the first game and attention-seeking suits alike will be able to get their hands on the game. Fascinated by both Manhunt 2 and by all of the work that has gone into earning it an M as opposed to its original AO rating, we caught up with producer Jeronimo Barrera and made with the questions.

If Its Games: So before we get started, can you fill us in on who you are and how long you’ve been with the company?

Jeronimo Barrera: Since the beginning. I help oversee game production.

GS: Take us back to when the game was being discussed? Why another Manhunt?

JB: Obviously we’re very proud of the original Manhunt and we didn’t hesitate to start working on another Manhunt when the opportunity presented itself. A big motivation was the fans. We’ve had games that have sold more copies, but Manhunt did well and gained a very loyal following. That, coupled with the fact we love the horror genre, made it a no-brainer for us.

The long wait is almost over for Manhunt’s loyal followers.

GS: Why did you guys take the all-new character approach? Where did you look to for inspiration?

JB: Manhunt 2 is not a true sequel to the original story. It expands on the theme of the original. The approach was to put the player in a similar situation of having to make very hard choices about survival, but where in the original the overall goal was very clear, in Manhunt 2 we introduce a heavy psychology that makes the choices to the player much more difficult. I don’t want to give out any spoilers, but let’s say that Manhunt 2 offers many twists and turns to keep the player on the edge of their seat.

We didn’t really draw from any one source for inspiration. We’re all very proud of the original game and we were in a unique situation to draw inspiration from our own work. With making sequels to games, sometimes we continue the stories of previous games, but often we feel the story itself is more or less complete and instead we want to expand on the narrative themes and gameplay mechanics and style, which leads to sequels that are related, but not necessarily narrative sequels. We’ve done this with GTA–where the games are related but not but not sequels–and we will continue to use this approach.

GS: Can you give us an idea of how the game came together? Was there a set plan, or was it more organic and collaborative? How long was development?

JB: There’s always a plan and it always ends up getting changed massively as the game takes shape and it’s always a collaborative effort. We had the story in place early, and then it was a matter of fleshing out the game using the story as the core and building upon it. From the start we knew we had to really surpass the first game’s narrative, so there was an emphasis on having the story in place before we started building the game. One thing that isn’t mentioned often is that Manhunt 2 is a very story-driven game. The writers needed to work very closely with the designers to ensure that the game mechanics fit within the world we were creating and that the actions onscreen were being complemented with strong dialogue and audio. Things tend to get more organic once you have all the pieces in place, and then you have to really start critiquing your work, and sometimes that means going back to the drawing board.

GS: There have been a number of survival horror games and quite a few successful stealth action games in the last couple of years. But the original Manhunt really presented something unique in terms of combining the best of both stealth and horror gameplay. What was the motivation to continue in this vein, and what were you looking to improve on with this second installment of Manhunt?

JB: First, the original Manhunt has a very loyal fan base, and when we decided to start working on Manhunt 2 it was immediately decided that we had to stick to certain themes and mechanics to keep the original fans happy–but we also wanted to expand and surpass what the original accomplished so well. That was very difficult, but in the end we created a piece of horror fiction that is not only terrifying at times but incredibly thought-provoking in the themes that we explore.

GS: The first Manhunt went to extraordinary lengths to craft unforgettably creepy–and sometimes very funny–dialogue. The audio experience of Manhunt was quiet memorable. Care to discuss what you have going on this time regarding the audio in Manhunt 2? What have you done to surpass expectations?

This guy isn’t really the star of the game, the audio is.

JB: The real star of the game is the audio. Not only does it play an important part of the gameplay, it sets the tone and mood for every single experience we throw at the player. We learned so much from the original Manhunt and knew going into writing the dialogue what works well in the game. The emphasis [is] on making the interactions (especially of the Hunters) seem real but so twisted that we blur the lines and it truly comes off sounding psychotic and at times very funny. We hope we have surpassed expectations by maintaining the production quality all Rockstar games have and at the same time increasing the variety of situations people speak in, which aligned to improvements in th