 |
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory Gone Gold 09:06 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action / Strategy
(0 comments)
I suppose a "gone gold" announcement is a moot point as Ubisoft has already announced it would be in stores on March 31st, but just for the record they sent word that Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory has officially gone gold today.
Worthplaying Goodies 05:58 pm
- Andrew Burnes
- Games: General News
(0 comments)
Donations to Billy's Family 04:44 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- In-House: In Other News...
(14 comments)
Billy's Mom Peggy aka Mommaspice sends word that you can now donate to Billy's son Dax's college fund and what not by clicking on the Paypal button at the Family website. Billy didn't have any life insurance (who does at age 33) so any donations would be greatly appreciated to help give Dax a good start as he grows up. If you missed it and are freaking out wondering what happened, Billy passed away on the 14th from liver failure. :(
Pariah Interview 03:58 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action
(4 comments)
French gaming site NoFrag interviewed Digital Extremes' James Schmalz about Pariah:
The FPS scene is quite overcrowded now. What makes Pariah different from the average shooters that are released every week? What innovations does Pariah bring to the genre?
It's simply a different type of FPS game. We had similar questions when we were finishing Unreal when Quake was coming out. Same with UT and Quake3. Each of these games will be very cool and if you love FPS games you will probably like them all. We are focusing on a great story and the whole package.
The biggest challenges for any game developer are always making it fun and making it on time. It's easy enough to make content and nice visuals. It's hard to predict what you are trying is going to be fun unless you are completely just redoing an old idea. So it's a challenge to bite the bullet and throw things out if they are just not working and redo it AND stick to a schedule. It's very very hard.
Middle Earth Online Delayed a Year 12:49 pm
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: MMOG
(13 comments)
Online reports state that Turbine's massively multiplayer role playing game, Middle Earth Online has been delayed a year until sometime 2006 after the company announced it has severed ties with VU Games to both publish and develop the title on its own. Here's more: In a statement today, the self-described "once-small contractor" says it is now the largest privately held online game studio in North America. "Turbine now directly owns or holds significant interest in each of the games and services that it produces."
Additionally, the statement said the dev team was "considering changes" to the game--a likely reason behind Middle-Earth Online slipping to 2006. A spokesperson for the developer called the delay an "unfortunate, but necessary" measure.
Earth 2160 Q&A; 11:52 am
- Jeff Tom
- Games: Real-Time Strategy
(0 comments)
C&VG; have slapped up an interview with Zuxxex's Tim Wilson on their RTS, Earth 2160: In terms of the RTS genre as a whole, what new features are you adding and do you think Earth 2160 is an especially innovative title?
Tim Wilson: The first thing that comes to mind is, as Zuxxez have already claimed, a milestone in the quality of graphics used in the genre. They approach or equal those of the best first person shooters. Innovative? Yes! There is also trend in RTS titles to cut back on aspects like research, or fighting for and yielding resources. Earth 2160 has gone the other way in the complexity of these points and promises to give the player "the full program".
EA Stock Continues to Sink 11:46 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: General News
(25 comments)
EA stock continues to sink today, as of this writing it's down another 14% after losing over $9 dollars a share with another hour and a half til market close. Yesterday, the stock fell 12%. More from Marketwatch who think that it's a broader problem than just hardware shortages: Some of that weakness was due to shortages of Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PlayStation 2, the most popular consoles used to play video games. But Electronic Arts, which has long benefited from strong sales of popular sports games like "FIFA Soccer" and "NBA Live" and its "Sims" series, is feeling the heat from titles made by upstart rivals like Take-Two Interactive Software.
"Certain EA franchises have performed poorly and are showing signs of fatigue," wrote Bear Stearns analyst R. Glen Reid in a note to clients.
Update: EA closed down almost 17% at the end of the day.
Laser Squad Nemesis Goes Gold 11:38 am
- Andrew Burnes
- Games: Turned-Based Strategy
(0 comments)
Got Game Entertainment announces that the very enjoyable Laser Squad Nemesis has gone gold and shall be available for all North Americans to buy come April 14th:
Developed by Nick and Julian Gollop, the team behind the "X-Com" games, "Laser Squad Nemesis" brings a new addiction to tactical warfare gamers. With its unique and innovative turn-based combat system, combined with the action of real-time strategy games, players plot battle orders, test them, and watch the results unfold as the forces of the Laser Marines, Greys, Machina, and Spawn fight for supremacy. Retailing for $19.99 (USD) and rated "T" for Teen by the ESRB for Blood and Violence, "Laser Squad Nemesis" is scheduled to arrive on store shelves April 14, 2005.
In "Laser Squad Nemesis", players establish their respective forces and strategies and then battle, against either a devious computer opponent or, via email, against other players from around the world, until one army is defeated or surrenders. Players can utilize the "test orders" function to fine-tune strategies, as well as rewind, pause or review games using the "Laser Squad Nemesis" video-style controls. With destructible terrain, players can change the landscape with grenades, rockets, and other weapons and the map creator allows players to create their own battlefields.
The North American release of "Laser Squad Nemesis" from Got Game Entertainment and Merscom includes 20+ missions in 4 single campaigns, a free 3 months subscription to additional online campaigns and updates, plus an extended and detailed manual.
Well worth picking up.
Doom 3 Mac Ships 11:33 am
- Andrew Burnes
- Games: Action
(4 comments)
The latest Aspyr newsletter reveals that Doom 3 for the Mac should be hitting shop shelves now:
The development of DOOM 3 was an interesting and challenging process, bringing a game to the Mac that pushes the boundaries of technology wasn't easy. Aspyr Studios worked very closely with id Software on the DOOM 3 Mac project, and enlisted considerable help from Apple, ATI and nVidia as well. While the game was up and running on the Mac by the time Aspyr Studios became involved, there was a lot of work to do to polish up the Mac version and optimize it for OS X. This included writing Altivec code specific to the PowerPC, working with Apple's OpenGL engineers to maximize performance under OS X, and working to take full advantage of Xcode, Apple's development tool. DOOM 3 is one of Aspyr's first games to be developed from start to finish under Xcode.
Their newsletter also reveals that The Sims 2 is now in full beta testing and should be available soon for all Mac fans to get addicted to.
World of WarCraft Update Released 11:31 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: MMOG
(12 comments)
Chances are you really don't need a reminder as when you login the download begins, but Blizzard released a new patch for World of Warcraft which includes the cool high level dungeon Dire Maul, plus offers UI improvements, chat bubbles, class tweaks, new outdoor raid encounters and more. Update - It seems this update is giving a lot of people problems, so expect a patch for the patch soon. :)
SpellForce II - Blend of Perfection Announced 11:25 am
- Andrew Burnes
- Games: Role-Playing
(0 comments)
I guess if you enjoyed the first SpellForce, you'll dig the newly announced sequel, Blend of Perfection:
In SpellForce II the player takes over both roles - he is Commander of his troops and also a front fighting hero, solving quests and overcoming obstacles as in classical RPGs, but also leads armies as in an RTS.
The Players character is supported by up to 5 heroes who can be summoned at special monuments - these will become available in stronger versions as play progresses and the player reveals more of the epic storyline.
In most scenarios, which are placed in huge and detailed environments, the player leads one of three factions (Alliance of Light, Hordes of Chaos, Brotherhood of Darkness) and builds bases to gather resources and summon troops at monuments.
That could be a costly subtitle if it turns out to be a big bag o' shite.
Ubisoft Does Digital Distribution Exclusively With IGN 11:08 am
- Andrew Burnes
- Games: General News
(12 comments)
Ubisoft and IGN Entertainment have signed an agreement which will see their new and future titles digitally distributed exclusively by IGN's Direct2Drive:
Under the terms of the agreement, Direct2Drive will offer a range of highly anticipated new games from Ubisoft, including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, Cold Fear, Heritage of Kings: The Settlers and Silent Hunter III in North America.
"Partnering with Direct2Drive will provide Ubisoft with the ability to expand the distribution of its new games to tens of millions of gamers, helping Ubisoft to drive incremental sales," said Jay Cohen, vice president of publishing at Ubisoft. "For passionate gamers who are interested in downloading AAA games like Brothers in Arms and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Direct2Drive offers an outstanding service."
"Our mission at Direct2Drive is to offer the world's best PC games for digital sale and download," said Jamie Berger, vice president and general manager of consumer products at IGN Entertainment. "Ubisoft is publishing some of the most anticipated titles of 2005 and we're excited to join Ubisoft in offering these games for secure digital download to our customers in North America."
While this is cool, a boxed copy still appeals more to me, especially when the digital download is no cheaper.
Jaws Screenwriter Adds Talent To Medal of Honor European Assault 10:39 am
- Andrew Burnes
- Consoles: General News
(2 comments)
The screenwriter behind many memorable moments in films such as Jaws, Dirty Harry, Apocolypse Now, Conan The Barbarian and Red Dawn has signed up with EALA to help with the console-only Medal of Honor European Assault:
Electronic Arts today revealed that acclaimed Hollywood writer/director John Milius to be the screenwriting talent behind the WWII storyline of Medal of Honor European Assault, the latest from the widely successful Medal of Honor franchise.
Executive Producer Dan Winters believes John Milius—a military history buff—was the obvious choice, "The Medal of Honor franchise stakes its reputation on epic, cinematic action, and so does John Milius. It's a natural fit!"
Milius jumped on the opportunity. "Video games provide a great medium for storytellers like me, and the authentic WWII subject matter of the Medal of Honor franchise is a great premise for a storyteller," explained Milius. "As someone who has long been considered a creative cowboy, I really enjoyed collaborating with the dynamic creative talent of EALA's development team on the intense action-filled story of Medal of Honor European Assault. It took me back to when I had first started in the entertainment industry, back to my days as a USC film student, and sharing ideas with visionary thinkers like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas."
Check out John's IMDB bio here.
The Matrix Online Launches 10:32 am
- Andrew Burnes
- MMOG: Role-Playing
(8 comments)
The latest contender in the MMOG arena has today launched:
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and SEGA are pleased to announce that today, hundreds of thousands of players can now jack into The Matrix Online, a massively multi-player online game (MMOG), to participate in the continuing saga of The Matrix franchise. Developed by Monolith Productions, directed by the Wachowski Brothers and co-published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and SEGA, The Matrix Online is launching for the PC today in North America and April 8, 2005 in Europe.
The Matrix Online's story continues after the third film, The Matrix Revolutions, ended with Zion and the Machines in an uneasy truce. Capturing the authenticity of the films, Laurence Fishburne (Morpheus), Monica Bellucci (Persephone), Mary Alice (The Oracle), Lambert Wilson (The Merovingian), Harold Perrineau, Jr. (Link), Harry Lennix (Lock), Nona Gaye (Zee), Collin Chou (Seraph) and Tanveer Atwal (Sati) have provided voice-over and character likenesses to the game. Don Davis, the film composer for The Matrix trilogy, is also providing the score for The Matrix Online.
If you're a lucky fellow you'll get to role-play with the above:
In an unprecedented move, a specialized role-playing live events team at Monolith will assume the roles of the actual Matrix characters and support the continuation of the game's storyline through choreographed interaction. Players will meet, battle and eventually team up with the familiar characters on high-profile missions or at player-organized events.
So, how will this fare against the likes of Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft?
The Bard's Tale Demo 09:25 am
- Andrew Burnes
- Games: Role-Playing
(6 comments)
Fancy checking out the Mountain Tomb level from inXile's comedic role-playing game? If so, download the newly released 290MB demo from one of the following links:
SCi Trumps Bono's Bid For Eidos 08:05 am
- Andrew Burnes
- Games: General News
(5 comments)
Elevation Partners, the group on which Bono is a board member, appeared to have purchased the fledgling Eidos yesterday with a �71 million ($135.1m) offer, but now fellow Brit publisher SCi has issued a counter-offer of �76.1 million ($144m), effectively beginning a bidding war.
International investment banking and asset management group Schroders, the biggest single shareholder in Eidos, has backed SCi's bid, although word from Eidos itself is not yet forthcoming. Here's some quotage from SCi via MCV:
"Whilst Eidos' brands, studios and staff have significant potential, its continued financial problems appear to have resulted in rushed development cycles, missed deadlines and products that have not done justice to their brands.
"We are completely confident that the application of our successful business model across the Enlarged Group will significantly enhance shareholder value for both SCi and Eidos shareholders."
Update: Eidos has issued a brief statement regarding the new situation:
The Board of Eidos has noted today's announcement by SCi Entertainment Group Plc in relation to its proposed all share offer for the Company ("the Share Offer"). The Board will consider the Share Offer in the light of its other alternatives, including the recommended cash offer of 50 pence per share by EM Holding Corp., a company backed by Elevation Partners. A further announcement will be made in due course.
QuakeCon 2005 Announced 08:03 am
- Andrew Burnes
- Games: General News
(0 comments)
The 10th QuakeCon has today been announced, and it's going to be one big long 4-day party to remember according to the id's Todd Hollenshead:
"QuakeCon's 10th anniversary is a historic milestone and a time to celebrate the volunteers, fans, sponsors and games that have driven QuakeCon to become the largest event of its kind," said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. "We're going to have the party of a decade, and we want everyone to be there."
QuakeCon 2005 will be a four-day, 96-hour bash with non-stop gaming, around-the-clock contests, exhibits, entertainment, giveaways, parties and white-knuckle tournament action. With a dedicated area for more than 3,200 BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) LAN gamers, and over 150,000 square feet of total convention space for tournaments, exhibits, conferences and entertainment, QuakeCon 2005 attendance is expected to top last year's record of nearly 6,000 attendees.
First-come, first-served online registration for QuakeCon 2005 will begin at 9 p.m. EST on Friday, April 15, 2005.
Xbox In Short Supply, Or Is It? 08:02 am
- Andrew Burnes
- Consoles: Xbox
(14 comments)
The word coming out of Microsoft at the moment is that consumer demand for the Xbox is so darn high that they just can't fabricate the big black doorstops fast enough:
Consumer demand is exceeding supply right now... we are working with partners to rectify the situation - we're working really hard to satiate consumers' needs.
However, conspiracy theorists and certain UK retailers recently speculated that Microsoft is deliberately limiting their production runs in the hope of clearing out all warehoused stock before E3, where the Xbox Next will be so whizz bang fabbo that no-one will want last year's tat, leaving Microsoft in a far stronger position for the next-gen launch. Truth or paranoia? You decide.
F.E.A.R. Quickie 01:20 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action
(0 comments)
The chaps at Gamesdomain shot up a quickie preview of Monolith's F.E.A.R.:
Visually, it's a gorgeous game, with a hard-core military ops feel that would do Half-Life 2 proud. The locales we've seen so far -- mostly a military base, with lots of functional corridors, equipment warehouses, offices spaces, and so forth -- are very straightfaced and feel like real places, without a lot of silly rooms full of improbable tech. The gunfire and ambient solider-chatter sound dead on, and the enemy AI looks nothing short of brutal. These guys will flank you, draw you into ambushes, flush you out with grenades, and coordinate assault teams against you. Apparently, the only thing they can't handle is... a little girl with her hair hanging in her eyes.
RoboHordes Interview 01:15 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Action
(1 comment)
Also up at CGM this morning is an interview with Naked Sky Entertainment's Tian Mu who chats about their Unreal Engined 3 powered tech demo, RoboHordes which was shown off at Intel's GDC booth as part of its upcoming multi-core technology demo:
Computer Games - How did RoboHordes use Intel's multi-core technology?
Tian Mu - Lots and lots of threading. We use two threads for physics and a few more for other proprietary under-the-hood stuff. We're always actively researching ways to add even more threading into the game. Considering the new hardware coming out (both for PCs and consoles), we feel an important part of being a successful next-gen game company is having the knowledge to leverage parallel processing, and we're working hard to make sure we can stay ahead of the curve.
Star Wars: Empire at War Q&A; 01:11 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Real-Time Strategy
(0 comments)
CGM interviewed Joe Bostic of Petroglyph about the upcoming real-time-strategy game they're developing for LucasArts, Star Wars: Empire at War:
Computer Games - What can you tell us about the graphics features for Empire at War?
Joe Bostic - The graphic engine used in Star Wars: Empire at War was written from scratch and fully utilizes DX-9 and pixel-shaders, but is based off of lessons learned from experience writing previous graphic engines. As part of due diligence, we examined existing graphic engines, but our requirements exceeded what could be delivered by anything else on the market and thus we chose to write our own.
NBA Signs Deal with Five Publishers 12:31 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: Sports
(1 comment)
Thanks to Andy who was surfing the net on his mobile and sent over this bit of news that the NBA has signed deals with five publishers to develop pro basketball titles including Electronic Arts, Take-Two, Midway, Sony and Atari. The six-year deal is said to be worth around $400,000,000.00.
"We had discussions about exclusivity with some of our current partners and with a company that is not a partner of the NBA," said Adam Silver, president and chief operating officer of NBA Entertainment.
More details here.
Hardware & Tech Nuggets 12:25 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- hardware: General News
(0 comments)
Game Reviews 12:20 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- Games: General News
(0 comments)
In Other News... 12:15 am
- Robert 'Apache' Howarth
- In-House: In Other News...
(27 comments)
I finished up Act of War and really dug it. It might not be an innovative game (really what is in today's market), but the graphics are nice, the gameplay is fun and the story is good. The US generals with Canadian accents didn't really immerse me in a world of Dale Brown inspired espionage and intrigue, but overall the movies were fun to watch in a campy C&C; way. If you have a decent video card and a love for classic RTS games, I give it my hearty seal of approval. Next up on the list is Gearbox's Brothers in Arms... Today's question is: In light of EA's stock getting gutted, do you think they are on the decline or just suffering from a year of crappy releases? For that matter, what were the worst games EA released this past year that they were actually expecting to turn a buck on?
|
|
