Archive for March 6th, 2008
March 6, 2008
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With the massive Activision Blizzard merger looming, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick held court today at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in Dana Point, California. Whereas many presentations by executives to analysts prove snooze-inducing, Kotick brought up several subjects that perked up the ears of the game industry.
First was the prospect of one of Activision’s biggest franchises going the massively multiplayer route. After repeating his claim that it would take at least a half-billion dollars to take on Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, Kotick outlined how Activision will use soon-to-be corporate sibling Blizzard’s “institutional expertise” to bring PC editions of Guitar Hero to the “roughly 300,000 game rooms between China and Korea.”
Then, Kotick raised the possibility that, one day, there could be an MMOG game based on the award-winning Call of Duty series. Referencing the Blizzard-backed Guitar Hero expansion plans, he said: “When you think about other properties that we own and control like Call of Duty, and what would be the natural evolution of a property like Call of Duty into a massively multiplayer environment… How do you monetize that?”
Kotick went on to praise the Guitar Hero franchise as “the best-selling game that we have ever had”–and to raise some speculation about the franchise’s future. Kotick repeatedly used the word “instruments” to refer to Guitar Hero controllers, restoking speculation about a DJ Hero spin-off or Rock Band-like expansion.
“The enthusiasm for the [Guitar Hero] product is there,” declared Kotick, before raising the explicit possibility of “product categories that are line extensions.” Could said “extensions” include the Guitar Villain and Drum Villain licenses Activision has already trademarked?
March 6, 2008
Activision’s rhythym rocker Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has had a cracker week in Australia, with every console version of the game making it into the overall top 10 of the Aussie charts, according to data trackers GfK Australia. The PlayStation 2 bundle took out the first position, with the 360 bundle in fourth, Wii bundle in eighth, and the PlayStation 3 bundle in the ninth spot.
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games for the Wii has taken out the second place, with the DS version following closely behind in third for the week of February 25-March 2. The only PC game to make it into the charts last week–The Sims 2: Freetime–is sitting just below the middle, in sixth spot. Activision’s other lead title–Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare–closes off the week at number 10 on the PlayStation 3, while its 360 version fares better at number five.
In other charts news, Patapon for the PSP has leapt straight to number one in the platform specific chart. Sony
March 6, 2008
The publisher of Jackass has just taken a Taser to the gooch. Sausalito, California-based Red Mile Entertainment today announced a restructuring plan that–much like the stunts portrayed in the MTV series on which its last game was based–will hurt in the short term but could pay off down the line.
Red Mile CEO Chester Aldridge said in a statement the company will “substantially reduce operating costs and optimize our distribution model.” The restructuring has already seen the resignations of Red Mile president Glenn Wong and chief financial officer Ben Zadik. One of the company’s external consultants, Simon Price, has been tapped as Wong’s replacement.
A representative today confirmed for If Its Games that several non-developmental employees had been laid off as part of the restructuring. However, he stressed that the moves are being made for the benefit of Red Mile’s two current projects, Sin City and Heroes Over Europe, both of which are continuing development as planned.
Today also marks a rare update to the development of the Sin City game, courtesy of an article on The Hollywood Reporter Web site. The movie industry trade publication pegged a Christmas 2009 release window for Sin City, and cites designer/writer Flint Dille as saying the Unreal Engine 3-powered game would be arriving on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii. A Red Mile representative declined to confirm the Hollywood Reporter details.
Dille also said the team hopes to produce sequels for the game every other year after the initial release. The article says the first game is six months into production with a team of 35 to 50 developers at the Australian studio Transmission Games, which is also creating Heroes Over Europe. That game has been set for a fall 2008 release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with a PC edition following in 2009.
March 6, 2008
TechWeb - University of Buffalo researchers said that children whose video habits were monitored but not restricted ended up reducing their viewing time by five hours each week.
March 6, 2008
AP - “Lost” has intrigued audiences with mysterious numbers, polar bears, hatches and Others. Ubisoft’s first video game based on the popular castaway drama hopes to do the same thing
March 6, 2008
NewsFactor - The motion-sensing and “bump” feedback of Nintendo’s Wii video game is only a baby step compared to a magnetic-levitation device developed at Carnegie Mellon University. Most haptic, or touch, feedback interfaces use motors and mechanical linkages to provide a sense of touching or pushback. But Ralph Hollis, a research professor at the university’s Robotics Institute, uses a single moving element that offers rapid responses to movements.
March 6, 2008
AP - Ziff Davis Media Inc., publisher of technology and video game magazines, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday and cited a decrease in revenue from print advertising and subscriptions as contributing to its decline.
March 6, 2008
In November 2006, Electronic Arts chief financial officer Warren Jenson revealed that The Sims 3 was in the works. Though he was reticent on details about the next iteration of the series–which is so popular one of EA’s four divisions is devoted to it–he did say the franchise would eventually arrive on the Wii and PlayStation 3 consoles. The Sims’ Wii debut, MySims, went on sale last September to mixed critical and commercial success. However, to date, no Sims games have appeared on either the PS3 or its archrival Xbox 360 console.
That, however, may soon change. After over a year under the radar, the Sims 3 has resurfaced courtesy of a teaser page on the EA-owned URL thesims3.ea.com. The site went live this week with an enigmatic splash page showing an emerald-green crystal with the numeral “3″ next to it. Below it are the words “More information coming soon!*” and below that the date “*March 19.”
What exactly is EA teasing? An ESRB “Rating Pending” logo is discreetly tucked at the bottom of the page seems to indicate it is indeed a single Sims 3 game. However, the company has not elaborated on whether said game will be a proper successor to the Sims 2, which was released on the PC in 2004 and adapted for the DS, Mac, GameCube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, original Xbox, and Game Boy Advance the following year.
Sales-wise, the NPD Group reports the original Sims 2 has sold nearly 4.9 million copies on all platforms in the US, with the PC edition spawning 15 expansion and add-on packs. Other non-PC Sims 2 games included, The Sims 2: Pets and The Sims 2: Castaway. According to EA, nearly 100 million Sims games have been sold worldwide since the Will Wright-created series launched in 1999.
March 6, 2008
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Codemasters is most famous in the US for publishing the DiRT series of rally racers which featured the name and likeness of the late Colin McRae. However, the Britain-based publisher has a presence in other genres as well, such as the first-person shooter Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, which imagines an alternate history where the Nazis conquer Europe–and invade the US.
Now, it appears Codemasters is returning to the alternate history well for a much more radical title. Today, the publisher announced Damnation, a “shooter gone vertical” that will feature acrobatic-oriented gameplay focused on vehicular combat in “huge open environments.” Said vehicles will include agile motorcycles and slower, armored means of conveyance.
Officially, Codemasters is being cagey about the story of Damnation, saying only its “epic” plotline will feature a hero named Rourke leading an “ensemble” of characters. It will concern a “post-industrial conflict between humanity and an unstoppable arms dealer” and be set against “iconic elements of American history,” according to the publisher.
Unofficially, several online outlets have published details about Damnation not contained in the official announcement. According to WorthPlaying, the game has a hybrid viewpoint, shifting from a Halo-like first-person view during gun battles to a third-person view during puzzle-oriented platforming levels which the site compared to those in God of War.
Story-wise, the game subscribes to the steampunk pantheon of science fiction, which envisions rapid industrialization bringing 20th Century innovations into the 19th Century. In Damnation, this technological acceleration is precipitated by an alternate US Civil War, which rages for decades into the early 1900s. As a result, the natural and industrial resources of the East Coast are exhausted, forcing the Union and Confederacy to go west in search of new war supplies. There, they encounter said arms dealer, whose arsenal includes a steam-powered giant robot.
Damnation is being developed by Annapolis, Maryland-based studio Blue Omega, which won Epic Games’ Make Something Unreal competition with the prototype of the game. It is currently set for release on the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in late 2008.
March 6, 2008
Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars marked the return of the long-running strategy series, and the fast-paced real-time strategy game will expand with Kane’s Wrath, a new add-on that will add subfactions to the GDI, Brotherhood of Nod, and Scrin alien forces from the original game. This time around, we have details on some of the new units that will join the dastardly Brotherhood of Nod.
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The Awakened
The Awakened are an army of synthetic soldiers fashioned from corpses and devoid of emotion or free will to ensure full obedience to Kane. These fearsome soldiers were developed in a hidden laboratory in Central Asia. On the battlefield, they each wield an arm-mounted direct-fire weapon, as well as a powerful EMP emitter, which makes them well-suited to ground skirmishes against both enemy foot soldiers and enemy vehicles. These unfeeling warriors possess the toughest armor of any first-tier infantry unit.
The Enlightened
The Enlightened are even more twisted than the Awakened. The last vestiges of humanity have been stripped away from these cybernetic creatures to make them even more powerful in battle. The Enlightened carry upgradeable particle-beam weapons that can melt vehicle armor, as well as EMP blasters that can stop enemy vehicles cold. These fearsome antivehicle troopers can also be upgraded to march even more quickly so that they can better catch up with nimbler scout vehicles.
The versatile Nod Specter tank serves double duty as a stealth unit and as long-range artillery.
Specter
The Specter is an artillery tank that was developed in the second Tiberium War as both a stealth vehicle and a long-range firing unit. The Specter is extremely useful for hit-and-run tactics, given that it possesses the longest firing range of any unit in the game when combined with the targeting-beacon ability of the Shadow Team unit. The Specter’s ordnance has a somewhat lengthy flight time, but they can be used to lay down predictive fire on key areas to close in on enemy units you’ve herded into position.
Confessor Cabal
The Nod Confessor Cabal are the armored priests of the Black Hand subfaction. These powerful foot soldiers replace the Militant Rifleman unit as the backbone of the Black Hand’s infantry. Their very presence on the battlefield radiates a morale bonus that causes nearby friendly infantry to fire faster and take less damage from enemy attacks. These soldiers also carry heavy-duty machine guns, which can be upgraded to charged particle beams, as well as psychotropic grenades whose mind-altering effects can cause enemy troops to turn on each other.
The Nod Reckoner is a personnel carrier that acts as a forward bunker.
Reckoner
The Reckoner acts as an armored personnel carrier to bring the fanatical foot soldiers of Nod from point A to point B. However, this vehicle can, at any time, be deployed as a stationary bunker to provide extra protection, and will do so automatically if it sustains too much damage. In the meantime, loading up the vehicle with varying types of Nod infantry can make the Reckoner a very versatile attack unit, and lining up Reckoners back at your headquarters will net you a set of readily deployable defensive bunkers.
Tiberium Trooper
The Tiberium trooper is the result of research from Dr. Giraud, the GDI scientist who had “defected” to Nod. This unit belongs to the Marked of Kane subfaction and provides powerful ground support by spraying toxic liquid Tiberium, which can not only be used to spray ran
ks of enemy infantry like a flamethrower, but can also flush enemy foot soldiers out of garrisoned structures or slow down enemy vehicles. The Tiberium troopers can also be enhanced with a speed upgrade that lets them close distance with their enemies more quickly.
Things are going to get hot when Kane’s Wrath is released later this month.
Purifier
The Purifier is basically the Black Hand subfaction’s primitive predecessor of the Nod Avatar warmech. As such, it can’t equip itself with additional weapons or technology from friendly vehicles, though it does have a shoulder-mounted flamethrower along with its Obelisk laser. When upgraded, the flamethrower can actually melt enemy armor. This powerful, top-level vehicle also grants a morale bonus to any friendly units in the area.
Mantis
The Mantis is essentially the Black Hand subfaction’s answer to air attacks–to which it became increasingly vulnerable after abandoning the use of the Nod stealth tank for being against the subfaction’s religious beliefs. (Though to be safe, this unit is also equipped with stealth-detection abilities.) The Mantis bears a silo of surface-to-air (SAM) missiles that will prove very effective against low-level flying units, and these can be upgraded to more-powerful Tiberium Core Missiles.
-If Its Games
March 6, 2008
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March 6, 2008
SPC Jeffrey Harley who is an active duty solider on his second demployment to Iraq has written in requesting a Nintendo Wii. He\’s asking for someone to donate to his fellow soldiers a Nintendo Wii so that they can enjoy the joys of Super Smash Bros Brawl. If Nintendo is reading, perhaps it would be a nice thing to do! Anyone who wishes to donate, feel free to shoot us an e-mail after reading the letter contained within.
March 6, 2008
Nintendo UK has updated its website with a walkthrough of Mario Kart Wii\’s online multiiplayer features. One or two players can connect to the WiFi service through a single console and from there on in select from worldwide, continental or friend pools. Online racing modes mentioned include Battle, Grand Prix and Templay with the players voting for the track and the host setting the race options. Full details are available to view at Nintendo.co.uk.
March 6, 2008
Bill Board of the BBC recently published an article that followed the developments of the Wii homebrew scene in which he believes is opening up. His article briefly provides an overview of the available software, the hacking methods and the \’cat and mouse\’ game which is expected to result between Nintendo and hackers. His article concludes by wondering what might have been if Nintendo opened up the console from the start.
March 6, 2008
SEGA Corporation today announced that its history-making video game title, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, has sold five million copies worldwide in just over three months. Developed by SEGA for the Wii video game system and the Nintendo DS system, with creative input and executive milestone approvals by Nintendo’s developers, the title brought together for the first time the two most beloved icons in the entertainment industry.