Archive for November 27th, 2007
November 27, 2007
Puzzle de Harvest Moon tries to make a competitive puzzle game out of the sorts of farm-related activities that normally occur in the Harvest Moon role-playing games. Up to four players compete to see who can plant, nurture, and harvest crops on a small plot of land. The game is very simple in that each step takes just a second or two and requires only a couple taps of the stylus. Unfortunately, the designers took the simplicity too far. There’s hardly any depth or strategy involved, so the whole thing is really just an exercise to see which player can scribble the fastest.
The puzzle board on the touch screen contains a plot of land measuring seven squares wide and five squares high. To the right of the puzzle board is an action menu that contains five randomly generated items, such as seeds, watering cans, fertilizer bags, buckets, and farm animals. When you tap one of these items and then tap a space on the game board, you perform that action on that space.
Players plant and harvest crops in real time just by tapping and scribbling on the touch screen.
To represent the four seasons, matches last four rounds, and players score points by harvesting crops during each of those rounds. To create crops, you first have to plant seeds on one of the board squares then water and fertilize them. When you want to harvest a square, you can use a bucket item to grab the veggies automatically or rapidly scribble the stylus back and forth on the touch screen to haul in your crop. If you drop an animal on the game board, it will harass other players by eating their seeds or slowing their harvesting efforts. Players have to share the same game board and everything happens at breakneck speed in real time.
The developers made an effort to inject some strategy into the design by allowing you to claim ownership of other players’ squares just by planting seeds in adjacent squares. Ownership comes into play when you’re harvesting crops. When you scribble and yank up your own crops, you get full points. However, if you yank up crops belonging to someone else, you only get half the points. The problem with this setup is that the owner doesn’t get points when you steal his or her crops. So, it really doesn’t matter who owns the crop if you can scribble quickly. Furthermore, you needn’t bother planting or watering at all because you can just sit back and scribble like mad to get points from the other players’ hard work.
Even if you strive to play fair, it doesn’t change the fact that there isn’t much to the design apart from tapping to plant crops and scribbling to get points for them. Once you get tired of constantly moving the stylus back and forth on the touch screen, you’ll lose interest. The two-on-two, quota, and survival modes shake things up a little–especially because you get more points for harvesting specific crops in the quota mode–but not to the extent that you’ll feel compelled to play them any longer than you will the normal every-man-for-himself mode.
The cheap production values don’t help. Visually, the game looks like it could have been made for the Game Boy Advance. There’s not much detail or color evident in the dirt patch or vegetables, and the only life you’ll see onscreen are the simple animations that show water droplets falling, the plants jostling, or the animals walking around. As for the audio, it consists of some cheery, nicely composed music, but the sound effects are just a repetitive collection of ticks, chimes, and animal noises.
About the only thing Natsume and Platinum Egg got right with Puzzle de Harvest moon is that you only need one cartridge to play wirelessly against one, two, or three other people. That’s nice, though you probably won’t feel compelled to play the game yourself, let alone subject your friends to it.
November 27, 2007
Tecmo released the original Super Swing Golf hot on the heels of the Wii launch in December, offering an alternative golf game that fell somewhere between the traditional experience of Tiger Woods and the simple golf found in Wii Sports. The game featured a colorful cast of characters, fantasy-themed courses, and a unique control scheme that relied on the Wii Remote. Not much was changed for Super Swing Golf Season 2, Tecmo’s follow-up to last year’s game. The game offers a refinement of the gameplay and content of the original game. It also adds some new bells and whistles in the single and multiplayer games. We recently had the chance to try out a near-final version of the game to see how the title is shaping up.
Fantasy courses and fancy golfers combine in Super Swing Golf Season 2.
You’ll find the same basic breakdown of modes in SSGS2, single and multiplayer, although some tweaks have been to the experience. The single-player game puts a new wrinkle on the solo game from the original Super Swing. The golf game is pretty much the same in terms of how it plays out; you’ll still need to use your golf skills, special clubs, and super moves to get your ball into the hole. The framework for the golf game has changed up quite a bit though. You’ll now be making your way through a board-game-style map with each point having its own unique golf challenges. Along the way, you’ll find special points just off the main path that offer unlockable content, such as outfits, clubs, caddies, and characters if you can defeat their respective bosses. The items you open up do more than just make your character look swank because they’ll offer unique stat upgrades. The club selection is pretty solid and faithful to the last game, whereas a new beginner’s club is ideal for newcomers still getting the hang of the control scheme.
The multiplayer game skews toward a party-game feel with support for up to four players. We checked out three of the four minigames in the party mode: darts, driving contest, and balloon pop. Darts challenges you to land your ball in a dart board laid out on the ground to match a target score. The driving contest gives you three shots to get your ball out to the farthest distance. Balloon pop is arguably the coolest of the games we played, thanks to the novelty of letting your fellow players mess with you while you take your shot. Your goal is to basically pop as many balloons as you can. The catch is that there are various items you can get, which let you distract whoever’s playing by drawing graffiti, altering the wind on the course, or making noise to name just a few. As always, there’s nothing like a little psychological torture to make multiplayer fun. Unfortunately the game doesn’t include Wi-Fi support for online competitions or leaderboards, which is a bummer.
It takes a bit of practice to get a handle on the controls, but you’ll be able to get plenty of it in SSGS2’s practice mode. Not only does the mode let you brush up on the basics of the game, it also lets you set up your own custom course on which to hone your skills. Beyond that, you’ll be able to take practice shots during the game before you actually hit the ball, which helps you prep for tricky shots. While the game maintains the same basic control mechanic as its predecessor, the refinement to the system gives this installment in the series a better feel.
This would make the Golf Channel so much better.
Super Swing Golf Season 2’s presentation doesn’t stray too far away from the sights and sounds of the original. The game still sports the cutesy, anime-inspired look of its predecessor. The characters look like the eccentric cousins to the Hot Shots Golf cast, thanks to their varied personal styles, which you can take a step further by customizing with a host of clothing and accessories. The courses, especially the returning ones from last year, are in the same vein, although the new courses sport a more fanciful design that allows for over-the-top touches, such as lava pits. The audio is still a modest array of sound bytes and effects set to lounge-y tunes that set a mellow vibe.
Based on what we played, Super Swing Golf Season 2 is shaping up to be a smoothed-out update of the Wii launch game. While the game is thin on new content and has an expansion-pack feel, the control tweaks help tighten up the experience. If you were a fan of the original Super Swing Golf or if you’re looking for a nontraditional golf game, you’ll want to check out Super Swing Golf Season 2 to see if it’s for you. Super Swing Golf Season 2 is slated to ship this December.
-If Its Games
November 27, 2007
Last week, the gaming industry served up a heavily laden platter of blockbuster games in an effort to wrest gamers away from their Thanksgiving-day feasts. This week, though, the flow of games slowed to a mere trickle.
While Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners are largely free to idly pick at last week’s remnants, Wii owners have a small variety of new temptations this week. Midway will take aim at hardcore gamers on December 10 with the PS3 Unreal Tournament III, but this week the publisher is releasing the family-friendly parlor-game compilation Game Party, as well as the latest iteration in the classic arcade driving series Cruis’n. The Wii’s casual library continues its rapid growth as D3 conquers yet another platform with its acclaimed Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords and Ubisoft releases Cranium Kabookii, a digital translation of the popular board game.
Games for the Nintendo DS account for the vast remainder of this week’s offerings. EA will undoubtedly be hoping to improve upon the less-than-groovy Wii version of Boogie with a 3D glasses-enabled DS version this week. Sierra Entertainment will also continue its manhunt on intergalactic polyhedrons in Geometry Wars: Galaxies, a Wii version of which was released last week. Nintendo also pulls Master of Illusion out of its hat for its popular portable.
Three new downloadable offerings have landed on the Wii’s Virtual Console, with the NES classic Double Dribble bouncing for 500 Wii points ($5), whereas Vegas Stakes and Ecco Jr. go fish for 800 Wii points ($8) each. Atari’s classic arcade shooter Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe are bundled into one 400 Microsoft-point package ($5) as Xbox Live Arcade’s weekly Wednesday update.
This week’s new releases are listed below (list taken from retailer information–actual dates may vary).
NOVEMBER 26, 2007
Double Dribble (Wii VC)
Ecco Jr. (Wii VC)
Master of Illusion (DS)
The Tuttles Madcap Misadventures: Starlight Starbright Charity Challenge (PC)
Vegas Stakes (Wii VC)
NOVEMBER 27, 2007
Boogie (DS)
Cranium Kabookii (Wii)
Cruis’n (Wii)
Disney Princess: Enchanted Journey (PC)
Game Party (Wii)
Geometry Wars: Galaxies (DS)
History Channel: Battle for the Pacific (X360, Wii)
Speedball 2 - Tournament (PC)
NOVEMBER 28, 2007
Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe (X360)
NOVEMBER 29, 2007
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (Wii)
NOVEMBER 30, 2007
Chicken Hunter (DS)
DECEMBER 1, 2007
Shadowgrounds Survivor (PC)
November 27, 2007
Ninja Interview
Tomonobu Itagaki talks to us about his plans for what he hopes will be the best game in the world.
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Now that the dust is settling from the fall releases and the masses are working their way through the plethora of stellar content for the Xbox 360, thoughts are already turning to the next big thing on Microsoft’s console. While we’re sure there are a few heavy-hitters not yet announced for the platform, we expect Ninja Gaiden II to be high on any list of big 360 titles in 2008. The game is the proper sequel to Tecmo’s superb revival of its classic franchise from the Xbox and caused quiet a stir when it debuted a few months ago in Japan. The game’s visuals are complemented by blistering gameplay speed and a generous helping of blood–because no ninja game is complete without blood, and lots of it. We had the chance to check in with Team Ninja leader Tomonobu Itagaki about the upcoming game, which looks set to rock the 360 next year.
The game once again focuses on ninja Ryu Hayabusa, but a younger version of him. Apparently, Ninja Gaiden II will focus on the butt-kicking hero’s formative years in adventure, set before the action in the original NES and arcade Ninja Gaiden adventures. The specifics of the story aren’t available yet, but longtime fans can look forward to some interesting twists and new faces, along with all kinds of stabbing.
Evidently there was no shortage of blood during Ryu Hayabusa’s formative years.
So how does one go about topping one of the best action games out there? For starters, it helps to have a borderline-masochistic team of perfectionists with a notoriously ambitious leader. While the basic framework of the action remains the same–you’ll work your way through levels, basically mowing down anything in your way with your hands, weapons, and magic–the action is just nuts now. Ryu moves like greased lightning, and his array of moves, while still elegant, are just brutal. The speed turns out to be quite a necessary thing, due to the aggressive mobs of enemies that seem fixated on murdering you. Ryu’s fleet feet help him hack up foes good, with a creative array of weapons that draws on familiar historical arms, plus stylized weapons such as the wicked pair of claws he uses. Finally, when Ryu’s ninja skills and weapons won’t do, he’s got his trusty, deadly ninja magic to tap into to take out his foes.
From the look of things, Ninja Gaiden II is a fast, chaotic experience that is a good deal more intense than its predecessor. The mobs of foes hit fast and furious and seem to come out of the woodwork. We’re curious to see how this will all work out in terms of pacing. The frenetic pace we saw in our demo looks to offer a meaty challenge and positions the game as one of the front-runners for “Game Most Likely to Take Your Lunch Money and Make You Cry in 2008.” Masochists that we are, we’re eager to see just how challenging the game is going to be.
Ninja Gaiden II already looks like a game that means business.
As seen in the trailer and live demo, Ninja Gaiden II looks pretty slick, even in its work-in-progress state. The character models look very sharp and move with a fluid grace that almost makes it a shame when they’re cut down (but you get over it). Ryu looks incredibly sharp and every bit the badass you’d hope he’d be in a 360 appearance. The environments look lush and break apart quite nicely. The game’s look also has a decided differently flavor thanks to a varied array of locales that span the globe and include some well-known places such as New York and Venice.
While what we saw was still far from done, Ninja Gaiden II is looking like an impressive sequel to the Xbox game that should stand tall amid the Xbox 360’s 2008 lineup. The game is fast, looks very sharp, and seems to be maintaining, even topping, the cool factor of its predecessor. The big question is how the gameplay and camera system will shape up. High-speed combat and in-game cameras tend to not get along well, but Team Ninja has a pretty good track record when it comes to making Ryu Hayabusa look his stabby best, so we’re excited to see how the whole adventure comes together. Look for more on Ninja Gaiden II in the months to come. The game is slated to ship next year exclusively for the Xbox 360.
-If Its Games
November 27, 2007
Earlier this month, we took an in-depth look at indie developer CrunchTime Games, founded by longtime industry veteran James Goddard and staffed by a handful of fresh-faced college grads out of a garage located on Goddard’s ranch in Chandler, Arizona. Now we’ve also gotten an initial look at CrunchTime’s first independently produced game, the forthcoming Xbox Live Arcade shooter Shred Nebula. Before you groan about yet another Geometry Wars clone on Microsoft’s download service, take heart that there’s no twin-stick control or omnidirectional shooting to be found here.
The toxic sludge attack will mire pursuing ships, slowing their movement.
On the contrary, Shred Nebula hearkens to more classic overhead spaceship games such as the seminal arcade blast-a-thon Asteroids and, more recently, the 1997 competitive multiplayer shooter SubSpace. As in Asteroids, your aim in Shred Nebula will be constrained by the direction your ship is pointing in, so your flying skills will be as important in a dogfight as your shooting ability. And Goddard cites SubSpace’s diverse range of spaceships as a major influence on Shred Nebula, which will itself offer an array of playable craft, each with a unique set of attributes governing speed, durability, and special attacks.
Each ship will also have countermeasures you can deploy at the right moment to deflect or dampen the attacks used by your enemies. Goddard spent part of his early career working on the Street Fighter series at Capcom, and likens Shred Nebula’s asymmetrical rock-paper-scissors design to that of a fighting game, in that each ship will be stronger or weaker against another given ship due to the characteristics of their respective abilities. The game will feature 20 ships in total–including the artificial intelligence-controlled enemies–and the playable ships will obviously be a subset of that total, though CrunchTime isn’t talking specifics on the number or particular traits of the playable ships. We do know there will be more than 40 stages in total, each of which will feature unique obstacles or traps, such as a nebula that might burn the hull of your ship when you fly too close.
The company also isn’t divulging all the details on Shred Nebula’s various single- and multiplayer modes, though we do know there will be two separate single-player game types–one of which sounds like a straightforward score run, and the other of which presumably will focus on a linear level progression driven by story. Multiplayer is also a bit of a wild card; it will support at least four players (though we’re hoping for more) and will offer leaderboards to track your performance, though again, CrunchTime isn’t talking specifics on the rules of the multiplayer modes just yet.
This enemy’s tractor beam will wreak havoc on your ability to fight back.
One thing Goddard did confirm was Shred Nebula’s price: 800 Microsoft points (or about $10). The game will be available on Xbox Live Arcade in “early 2008,” and CrunchTime will make more information available in the coming weeks on the game’s official site. We’ll endeavor to bring you hands-on impressions during that time, too.
-If Its Games
November 27, 2007
Today, Take-Two subsidiary Rockstar Games officially asked the Video Appeals Committee of the British Board of Film Classification to lift the ban of its controversial title Manhunt 2. The original version of the game was denied a rating by the board when it was submitted in June. A modified version which was later resubmitted was also refused a classification, despite going on sale in the US, Canada, and other parts of Europe.
Only one other game has ever been banned in Britain–Carmageddon in 1997, although this decision was later overturned on appeal. For the appeals process, an independent panel is gathered by the BBFC to hear the case from both sides and determine whether or not to uphold the ban or overturn it. Today in a daylong event, the seven jurors heard evidence from three witnesses and two lawyers–one for Rockstar Games, and one for the BBFC itself.
Representing Rockstar was Queen’s Counsel Geoffrey Robertson of Doughty Street Chambers, who kicked off the appeal by stating, “We wonder why Manhunt 2 has been singled out for special treatment.” He listed other violent games which have made it on to store shelves with little fuss, including Condemned: Criminal Origins, The Suffering: The Ties That Bind, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
He then took the gloves off and laid into the BBFC, questioning the board’s ability to rate games, saying that it “doesn’t understand them at all… This completely ignorant letter [that says]… ‘unremitting bleakness, casual sadism, callousness of tone,’ these are mere words culled from a thesaurus and have nothing to do with the gaming experience.”
Rockstar put forward that in the game, the characters who are killed are all part of the evil agency, The Project. The people killed have no emotional depth, and will immediately attack the player on sight. Robertson explained, “These are not ‘innocent victims,’” and underlined that no women or children die in the game.
Next up, three witnesses were called. Fred Hasson, CEO of European game developer trade body Tiga, was first up on the witness stand. There, he told the panel that after playing the game, he had been a bit disappointed, jokingly saying, “I’d expected it to be a lot worse.” Hasson was then asked if he felt that the game had been singled out because of media pressure, and after a pause, he admitted, “I can’t see any other reason why you would have done that [banned it] given the content of the game. You seem to be wanting to single out a particular game rather than trying to work out if the violence is worse in any way that violence in other readily available media.”
Also providing expert testimony was Dr. Guy Cumberbatch, a psychologist who has been studying media violence and its effects since the 1970s. He stated that he undertook a research project in which 86 people who experienced other 18-rated games and movies to play Manhunt 2. He then asked them if they rated the game equally, more, or less violent than other titles already on the market. He said that the study found that 68 percent said it was as violent as other games, and 80 percent said it was as violent as current movies.
Robertson then took back the floor and addressed the individual points from the statement which the BBFC made when it first banned the game. He said, “Unremitting bleakness? What’s wrong with unremitting bleakness? Should we ban Bleak House as well?” Discussing whether the game has moral dilemmas, he asked, “Does tennis? Does football? Does tiddlywinks have a moral dilemma?”
QC Andrew Caldecott, representing the BBFC, argued that one of the major considerations must be that underage audiences are always going to get hold of the game, and the need to protect them was one of the reasons it was not allowed a certificate. He said, “In Utopia, over-18s could play what was suitable for them without regard to others. But you can’t make classification decisions without regard to others, and it’s as simple as that… It would be morally bankrupt.”
Caldecott also said that a number of other factors had influenced the decision, including the fact that there were no “diluting agents” in the gameplay to offset the killing elements. “It’s about stalking, and it’s about killing,” he said. “That’s what the game is about.” He concluded by addressing the panel, “Is there never a point where you can say ‘this is unacceptable?’ And if there is, where do you draw the line? Is this where a line should have been drawn or shouldn’t it?”
Robertson responded by stating that had the game never been banned in the first place, it would not have achieved the kind of notoriety that makes it “forbidden fruit” to youngsters. “By banning this game, the board itself has made it notorious,” He said. “Who would have read Peter Wright’s recollections in Spycatcher were it not for Mrs. Thatcher’s attempts to ban it? Stop the fascination. End the allure. Unban the game.”
The independent panel has each played the game at least to the end of the first level, and seen videos of the most violent scenes. They retired to decide their verdict, which will reportedly be announced shortly.
November 27, 2007
The basic premise of King of Clubs is simple enough: An enterprising down-and-out gambler has set up a crazy golf (or minigolf, if you prefer) course just outside of Las Vegas, trying to bring some Vegas style to that humblest of sports. He’s created five different zones with themes typical of some of Las Vegas’ over-the-top establishments: prehistory, ancient Egypt, medieval, tropical, and sci-fi. They all have an intentionally run-down feel to them, but that doesn’t add to their charm. Just because the course you’re playing on is meant to have been put together on the cheap doesn’t excuse the fact that the game itself seems to have been as well.
Yes, it’s snowy. Yes, you’re near Vegas. Don’t ask.
The gameplay is simple enough: You choose your club and ball then point your character in whichever direction you please. Next, you press X twice to take your shot–once to start your swing and a second time to set the power level. You only start with one club and a standard ball, but as you progress through the single-player mode, you gradually unlock more of both in the game’s shop. Using this simple mechanic, you traverse the game’s 90 holes to slowly unlock all the balls, clubs, and extras. The extras include new character models (one per zone), as well as new colours and styles for your ball, such as an eyeball or an eight ball. You can also unlock the ability to change the sound effects used in the game. While these seem like nice additions, none of them add anything significant to the game.
In between you and the hole on all the courses are a series of obstacles. These are either ramps, blocks or boards in a shape to reflect the zone–lava spouts in prehistory, robots in sci-fi, knights in medieval, and suchlike. These often move, and are there either to get in the way of, or in some cases, help you on your way to the hole, by providing you with a target off which to bounce your ball to get it to the hole faster than simply shooting through gaps. While graphically the obstacles vary from zone to zone, functionally they’re all the same and there’s no real difference in the way they play. While the zones look different, they all play in the same way and have no real difficultly scale. The holes are either very easy or fiendishly difficult, with no coherent scaling up as you play through the courses.
The look of the courses present another missed opportunity. The decorations around the course’s edge would capture the on-the-cheap Vegas aesthetic quite well if most were not rendered so poorly. The courses themselves are a letdown, with only a couple of the 90 courses standing out in any way. Some of the level design is also suspect: With a clever club choice, it’s possible to complete par sevens in one or two strokes. Some of the courses also manage to be a little too ambitious for the game’s rather limited engine, with collision-detection problems and plunging frame rates destroying what little fun there is to be had on a number of holes.
The graphics are universally poor, falling far short of the PlayStation 2’s capabilities, despite the fact that the game’s art direction does manage to maintain the on-the-cheap Vegas aesthetic throughout. For example, the more detailed balls are a nice enough idea in the shop, but once you’re on the course, the differences become very hard to spot. The new character models are also good in theory but fail to deliver in practice because of technical issues, as well as the apparent lack of effort put into them. For example, you need to manually swing the camera around to one side to see the ball’s path when playing larger characters. Each character has a few postshot animations, but these are very basic.
In addition to a different aesthetic for each zone, there is different music. This is perhaps the game’s weakest feature, but luckily it is relatively easy to turn off. Each zone has a single loop that repeats every 15 seconds or so, ad infinitum. The loops themselves are not offensive, but repeated over and over for 18 holes, they are enough to drive the most reasonable golfer crazy, especially when combined with the game’s very limited sound-effects library.
It’s not just the obstacles that stand between you and a good time, alas.
Once you have played through the courses in single-player, it is possible to go head-to-head with a friend on the same console (though not online) over any number of holes. This is a mode with some appeal because the simple gameplay lends itself to quick matches with almost anyone, but it is beset with a number of problems. The most significant is the loading times. Considering how simple the courses are, the wait for each one to load is simply unacceptable, even for a PS2 game, and is enough to drain most of the little fun there is out of the experience. One missed opportunity here is the option for a match-play multiplayer mode: The only options presented are time- and shot-based multihole tournaments, with the aim of trying to finish with the lowest total. While the time-based mode is an interesting idea, it manages to be even less fun than the standard shot-based format because unless you know the course very well, you’re likely to end up taking far more shots than you will in the standard mode. This means you’ll spend lots more time watching the same postshot animations, over and over again.
Ultimately, King of Clubs takes an interesting premise but undermines it with poor graphics, dire sound, and limited gameplay. Even if you like crazy golf, this game is one to leave in the clubhouse.
November 27, 2007
When Activision and RedOctane released Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360 in April, the copublishers let virtual rockers pick up the newly released Gibson X-Plorer controller as a standalone purchase day and date to accommodate for the new multiplayer duets. However, the publishers did not extend that same courtesy with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, as the plastic counterparts of Gibson’s Les Paul and Kramer guitars were available in bundle form only when they arrived for their respective versions on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and Wii in October. (PC and Mac versions featuring the X-Plorer controller were released in November.)
Today, Activision announced that the toy guitars previously only available packed-in with a copy of the game will be offered standalone in early 2008. The standalone guitars will be no different than the currently available Gibson Les Paul for the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii, and the Gibson Kramer for the PS2.
The Guitar Hero franchise has proven to be a boon for Activision. While not as well reviewed as archrival Rock Band, audiences have been lined up in droves to experience the rock-focused rhythm game. Guitar Hero III took four of the top 10 best-seller slots for the month of October, moving an estimated 1.4 million units in its first six days on the market and tallying more than $115 million in first-week sales.
November 27, 2007
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In May, Canada’s answer to MTV broke a major piece of gaming news. Speaking to cable network MuchMusic, Eidos France director general Patrick Melichor let slip that the British publisher was opening a new studio in game-industry hub Montreal. More tantalizingly, the revealed new shop would exclusively be focused on a third entry in the acclaimed Deus Ex series. The franchise was presumed dead following the shuttering of Ion Storm in 2005 and renaming of Deus Ex: Clan Wars.
Initially, Eidos reps would not comment on Melichor’s faux pas, giving press inquiries the silent treatment. Today, though, the company proudly announced the official opening of Eidos Montreal in the heart of the titular Quebecois metropolis. The shop is slated to employ 100 staffers by the end of the year and expand to 350 by 2009.
For the moment Eidos Montreal sole project is–surprise!–Deus Ex 3. “Deus Ex is one of our finest franchises, often cited as one of the best PC games of all time,” said Rob Murphy, Eidos’ managing director of studios. “By developing this game at our new cutting-edge Montreal studio we have the opportunity to really push the boundaries of expectation for Deus Ex 3.”
Unfortunately, expectation is about all gamers have for Deus Ex 3. Eidos has not yet revealed a release date or platforms for the game, though a rep for the publisher said both will be revealed at a later date. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Eidos’ first game designed from the ground up for next-generation consoles, was released on the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 earlier this month.
That said, a brief flash teaser for Deus Ex–accompanied by a cryptic voice-over monologue on humanity realizing its future potential–can be seen on the official Eidos Montreal Web site. The site also has a bit of shadowy concept art for the game, which is equally mysterious when artificially lightened (pictured).
November 27, 2007
The month of November started with THQ reporting that it had met its financial estimates for the quarter ending September 30, 2007. Problem was, those estimates had been lowered just the month before, following lackluster sales of Stuntman: Ignition and Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights, as well as the delays of Destroy All Humans!: Path of the Furon and Frontlines: Fuel of War. For the quarter, THQ reported a net loss of $7 million on revenues of $229.3 million, down from the $11.6 million net profit and $240.2 million in revenue it took in during the same period in 2006.
Nearly one month later, THQ chief financial officer Edward Zinser has announced his resignation. In a brief announcement, the company stressed that the executive’s departure “is in no way related to the financial condition, results of operations, or future prospects of THQ.” Instead, Zinser’s exit, which is effective immediately, came following a “mutual agreement between Mr. Zinser and the company.” THQ vice president and controller Rasmus van der Colff has stepped in as interim chief financial officer until the publisher can find a permanent replacement for Mr. Zinser.
THQ declined to elaborate further on the resignation, which was revealed after trading had closed on the East Coast markets. The company’s stock ended the day down $1.30 (5.17 percent) at $23.86, but was up slightly in after-hours trading.
November 27, 2007
If only all adventure games began life as projects “to leverage core technologies in 3-D face animation.” According to freshman Turkish developer Momentum’s Web site, the company originally set out to create a prop to sell facial modeling to TV animation, but it wound up with a really solid point-and-click adventure in Culpa Innata. Open-ended dialogue, an ambitious storyline, lots of intelligent puzzles, and characters boasting lifelike personality and motivation make this an adventure to remember. Only some fit and finish issues and some odd design decisions prevent you from getting totally wrapped up in this unusual tale.
Honestly, does anyone really think that offices are going to look like this in 2047?
It all begins with a story inspired by Turkish sci-fi author Alev Alati’s Schrodinger’s Cat novels. Much of the plot centers on the World Union, a federation that has absorbed much of the West by the time that the game opens in 2047. This is the sort of government that keeps members of militia groups in the Midwest up all night stockpiling ammunition, a United Nations on steroids that protects society by turning people into automatons. Drone life isn’t all bad, though. Instead of a typical dystopian video game clich
November 27, 2007
While you can compile a laundry list of features that make Flight Simulator X a jaw-dropping piece of software, it’s the wide variety of aircraft and goal-oriented missions that create such a compelling experience for even the casual flight-sim fan. Microsoft’s new add-on, Flight Simulator X: Acceleration, adds more of what makes the sim great, offering three new aircraft, more than 30 new single-player missions, and 19 multiplayer missions/races. If you’re a Flight Simulator X aficionado, this expansion pack is a must-have.
This is not going to be a good landing.
The three new aircraft are very different from one another and provide fascinating new capabilities, introduced via the new missions. The Boeing F/A-18A Hornet is a fighter/attack jet with a breathtaking amount of power. While there are, alas, no useable weapons on this simulated jet, it is fully capable of carrier operations, and most of the included missions involving the Hornet require both a takeoff and landing on a carrier. Taking off is a blast, literally: Gently taxi up to the catapult, lower and attach the launch bar, throttle up, and then fire the catapult and hang on as you’re launched off the edge of the carrier. Easy enough, but as any naval flight sim fan can tell you, landing on the deck of a moving carrier is a nerve-racking experience in the best of conditions; throw in bad weather and/or darkness and you’ll be wiping the sweat off the keyboard. Acceleration provides a superb re-creation of carrier landings, complete with “calling the ball” and an on-deck flight officer talking you in. For a palpable thrill, set the weather to dark and stormy and clench your teeth as you come in out of the dark clouds in a storm, trying to find your carrier, find the twinkle of the lights emerging as you close in, line up with the carrier, bang your plane onto the moving deck, and then start breathing again as the wires catch and stop your plane.
In most sims, the focus of missions involving an F/A-18 would involve finding bad guys and shooting them down. Since Flight Simulator X doesn’t support combat operations, the missions here are more varied and, in some cases, unusual. A couple of the missions are well-done tutorials on carrier takeoffs and landings. The others include everything from flying cover to protect a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral to investigating and tracking an unusual flying vehicle over Area 51. Be sure to experiment with the knobs in your cockpit; we were surprised to find the radar and other electronics (other than weapon systems) were fully functional. Once you’ve played through the missions, you are, of course, able to set up your own free flights with the Hornet, and if you explore the oceans you’ll find other operational carriers. All in all, the power and capabilities of the F/A-18 make it a joy to fly and a superb addition to the simulation.
The next aircraft introduced in Acceleration is as different from the F/A-18 as a Ford pickup truck is from a Ferrari: the AugustaWestland EH101 medium-lift helicopter. This is a tough workhorse of a chopper with sling-load and hoist systems, specializing in picking up people and “things.” After the sleek, sexy Hornet, the EH101 may come across as pretty mundane and boring, but it is the focus of some of the most interesting new missions in Acceleration. Missions such as tracking down smugglers in the Florida Keys, trying to rescue geologists stranded at Mt. St. Helens before it erupts, and transporting avalanche-prevention crews provide a very different type of tension and drama than those provided in a supersonic jet. Of course, in the tradition of Flight Simulator X missions, what can start out as a fairly routine assignment may suddenly take a dramatic turn due to unexpected events or as a result of your decisions (for example, do you follow the smugglers in the transport that may contain a large contraband shipment, or the small plane that may be carrying someone important in the criminal world?)
There’s a reason they call this zero-gravity test flight the Vomit Comet.
The chopper itself, like most sim helicopters, can be a bear to control if you’re a novice to virtual rotary aircraft, but it will also provide a challenge to sim-chopper veterans. Lining up the helicopter so that you are directly above the cargo or personnel that needs to be retrieved or lowered, ensuring that you’re not too high or too low, and maintaining a stable hover during the operation requires a light and steady touch. Even when you have retrieved an item to be transported, the swinging motion of that cargo beneath the chopper can overwhelm your control of the aircraft (especially in bad weather). While helicopters have been present in the Flight Simulator series for some time, this hoisting/retrieval capability adds a new, challenging dimension to missions.
The P-51D Mustang offered here is a race-customized version, with double the horsepower of the original and other modifications focused on tailoring the aircraft for the Reno-style air races. The result is an aircraft that flies like a bat out of hell. Take this Mustang out on the Reno racecourses, crank the boost up, and judiciously apply doses of the ADI system to prevent engine lockups, and you can demonstrate why the comparisons of Reno air racing to NASCAR are about 300mph too slow and one directional dimension too low. When you fly the tutorial missions or simply fly in freestyle around the race courses in order to familiarize yourself with the track, it may seem a bit boring–after all, you fly fast and turn left, fly fast and turn left, and so on. But when you try doing that at 500mph with a cloud of competitive aircraft above, below, and beside you, wingtip to wingtip, “boring” is not the adjective that comes to mind. The P-51D here is quick and agile, and it’s a lot of fun just to buzz through the buildings and bridges of your favorite city. However, the Mustang is limited when it comes to missions in Acceleration, with only racing missions available.
Not all of the new missions involve the new aircraft. For example, one fairly simple mission (with a twist) involves flying the Secretary of Defense on a tour of Edwards AFB in a Beechcraft King Air 350. Unfortunately, he is a demanding and vocal SOB, and he can either make or break your career depending upon how the tour goes. Another mission places you in the pilot’s seat of the “Vomit Comet,” a Boeing 737-800 in which you will be taking a crew through a series of zero-gravity parabolas in order to provide them with weightlessness for about 20 seconds per maneuver. There’s a variety of such interesting missions, some dramatic, some just fun. But the wildest new mission type is the Red Bull Racing series.
Red Bull racing is, in a word, insane. In Acceleration you’re provided with three Red Bull racing venues: Istanbul, Longleat in the UK, and Tempelhof AFB in Berlin. Flying an extremely nimble Extra 300S, you are required to fly through a series of very closely spaced pylons, extremely low to the ground, with some requiring a wings-level pass, some requiring a knife-edge pass, and some allowing either. At certain points during the race you’ll also be required to perform specific aerobatic maneuvers. Fly too high through a gate: penalty. Go through the gate in the wrong position: penalty. Touch a pylon: big penalty. Flying at more than 200mph, a few measly feet above the ground while making tight turns and aerobatic moves in a competitive atmosphere, makes you admire the courage and skill of the pilots who compete in this real-world air-racing series and question their sanity and will to live.
The single-player racing missions in Acceleration (both Reno and Red Bull) are intended as practice for the multiplayer mode. Multiplayer offers 19 racing “missions,” including the aforementioned Reno and Red Bull formats, cross-country races in both small prop planes and gliders, and an exhilarating race through a deep canyon in F/A-18s.
The EH101 can do everything from hauling cargo to chasing dope smugglers in the Keys.
In addition to the added missions and aircraft, Acceleration applies the latest SP2 upgrade to Flight Simulator X. Our tests showed a relatively small frame rate increase on a midrange system, and reports in the forums seem to indicate that SP2 isn’t magic; it won’t allow you to significantly raise the graphics level at which you can effectively run the sim, but you may gain a few frame rates here and there. One caveat: If you have a lot of third-party add-ons for Flight Simulator X, SP2 and some SDK changes may result in a few odd quirks, with some reporting the need to do a fresh install of Flight Simulator X, followed by an install of Acceleration, to smooth out the issues. As always in today’s world of infinite configurations, your mileage may vary. In our case, the install over a current Flight Simulation X installation, with a few third-party add-ons, was trouble-free.
There are a lot of third-party add-ons for Flight Sim X, and you can make an argument that, for example, the detailing is higher in one of these add-on F/A-18s. But the added capabilities that Acceleration brings to the sim, such as the hoist and retrieval capability with the new helicopter, the carrier operations, and the new multiplayer racing missions, make this a very attractive and recommended expansion for any Flight Simulator X fan.
November 27, 2007
NewsFactor - The U.S. game rating board’s granting of a rating to Rockstar’s Manhunt 2 video game is so troubling, Hillary Clinton and three other U.S. senators said, that it calls into question the reliability of the game rating system.
November 27, 2007
Reuters - Dubai International Capital, a private equity company owned by the ruler of Dubai, said it has made a “substantial investment” in Sony Corp, boosting the shares of the Japanese electronics and entertainment firm.
November 27, 2007
PC World - Video games, consoles, and music players led the lists of many online buyers who clogged sites.