An epic show where GTA 4 is discussed. Ok, that's not shocking. How about: Age Of Conan, Guitar Hero 4,rhythm games, hard drive installs, and this generation of gaming. Yeah, this one is meaty.
1 week and 12 staff members later - we have our mega review up for Grand Theft Auto 4. It's the biggest game of the year, and we have the biggest review ever.
I cannot even imagine what this entails, but Crystal Sky Pictures intend to make a movie out of the rights to Pac-Man they secured over 5 years ago.
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Originally Posted by Ellie Gibson at Eurogamer
There's no word on who's directing the Pac-Man film, or who will star in it, or when it's coming out, or how on earth anyone could think making a Pac-Man film is a good idea in any way at all.
This is silly. Is anyone really interested in seeing a Pac-Man movie? The only way I can see this working is if it is about a competition or something, and even then I am not interested.
Time to gear up folks! Looks like the game is not very CPU intensive at all, listing a Pentium 4 as a minimum... from CVG come the official requirements :
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Minimum Requirements:
GFX: GeForce 7/8 Series or Radeon 1000/2000 with 256Mb RAM
CPU: Pentium 4
RAM: 1Gb
Internet: ADSL 1 MBit
Recommend Requirements:
GFX: GeForce 8000 or Radeon 2000 series with 512Mb RAM
CPU: Core 2 Duo or Athlon X2
RAM: 2Gb
Internet: ADSL 3 Mbit
Optimal Requirements:
GFX: Geforce 9000er or Radeon 3000er Series
CPU: Core 2 Duo 3 Ghz or Athlon X2
RAM: 2Gb with DualChannel mode.
Bethesda Softworks and Splash Damage have signed a deal to work together on future efforts. Bethesda is, of course, the company working on Fallout 3, and Splash Damage is the UK based company behind Enemy Territory: Quake Wars.
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“Bethesda Softworks has repeatedly been responsible for outstanding games as both publisher and developer.” said Paul Wedgwood, Owner and Creative Director of Splash Damage. “Both of our studios share a passion for creating great games, and we’re confident that this partnership will result in even greater experiences for gamers. We’re really looking forward to working with Bethesda.”
“This could not be a more perfect fit,” said Vlatko Andonov, President of Bethesda Softworks. “We are extremely impressed with Splash Damage and the quality titles they produce. They are highly creative and innovative, and have demonstrated a high level of dedication to their projects. We are confident that gamers everywhere will be thrilled with the offerings from this collaboration.”
It's been rumored for a while, but according to CVG, it's now official: Bioshock will be hitting the PS3 sometime soon.
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The rumours are true: critically acclaimed Take-Two shooter BioShock is finally, definitely coming to PlayStation 3.
Details are thin on the ground at the moment (i.e. there are none), but the next issue of UK PlayStation mag PSM3 - which is on UK newsstands June 5 - promises a lengthy preview of the PS3 version along with a depth charge of screenshots.
It's a great game, though I couldn't see buying it again. Unless they add co-op, that is. One can dream.....
I've read some pretty cold interviews in the past, but I think this one takes the cake. The interview of Ninja Gaiden creator Tomonobu Itagaki at CVG has some harsh mud slinging.
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What did you think of the PS3 game Ninja Gaiden: Sigma?
Itagaki: It was no good. All you need to do is play Ninja Gaiden II and then try and play Sigma afterwards and you'll see why.
Despite the fact that it's on a 'next-generation' console there's no evolution whatsoever. That was made not by me, but one of my sub-ordinates who basically tried to copy the success of Ninja Gaiden.
You think that's bad?
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Does that mean we'll never see NGII on PS3?
Itagaki: No because it's a 360 exclusive.
But Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden: Black were Xbox exclusives at the time...
Itagaki: We've announced it as an Xbox 360 exclusive, but I don't own Tecmo the company. But if that were to ever happen it would be a loss of face for everyone involved.
Big news from Square Enix today; Dragon Quests IV through VI are being remade for the DS. As if that wasn't enough Dragon Quest IV has been given an official release date of September 16, 2008.
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Collectively known as the "Zenithia Trilogy," the remakes are entitled (in order): Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, and Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie. Only one of these games -- Dragon Quest IV -- has actually ever been released in North America before... The first game in the trilogy is set to hit stores on September 16, 2008.
Square Enix promises Dragon Quest IV will have "a tale of epic proportions told through a unique chapter sequence that enables players to experience multiple character perspectives." Much like Dragon Quest VIII, the remakes all contain character and monster art by popular Dragon Ball Z artist Akira Toriyama.
CNET blogger (and tech reporter) Daniel Terdiman has some interesting thoughts about The State of The Next-gen Video Game Console. He predicts an eventual sales victory by 2012 for the PS3.
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Being big business--video game sales in the U.S. alone in 2007 were $9.5 billion--everyone has been wanting to declare the generation's winners and losers since pretty much the first day all three consoles were on the market.
Doing so, of course, is a tricky proposition because console generations last for years, and sales ebb and flow according to a number of factors. But one thing that seems clear is that past success or failure is not a guarantee of future performance. And so while plenty of armchair quarterbacks have already written the results of the next-gen console wars, industry experts say the final results could turn current assumptions on their heads.
Eurogamer got some face time with Neversoft about this fall's Guitar Hero World Tour (f.k.a. Guitar Hero 4). Some of the stuff we already knew, but there are some tantalizing nuggets here to ponder.
First up are the new instruments - a microphone with which to wail away, a drum kit with three drum pads, two cymbal pads and a bass pedal (Neversoft claims the drums will be quieter and "velocity sensitive"). The guitars will be getting a redesign, but we don't have any details on that other than a promise it will be "more responsive."
Gameplay will include create a band functions allowing you to design band logos and album art, and full 4 on 4 battle of the bands contests.
Most intriguing is the previously announced Music Studio, which will give you all the tools to create your own songs (sans vocals), perform it in the game, and share it online with friends.
Yeah, they're taking a lot of pages from Rock Band's book, but is that really a bad thing? And no, they haven't said anything about pricing yet.
UPDATE - Joystiq has a screenshot of a guitar from the Guitar Hero World Tour teaser trailer, and it looks like Activision is forgoing licensing a real life axe this time around.
For those aficionados of all things good in music, next week the self titled 1978 album The Cars will be made available for Rock Band.
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Rock Band's second complete album will be priced the same as the first -- $1.99 (160 Microsoft points) per track, or $14.99 (1200 Microsoft points) for the whole set -- and will be available on Tuesday, May 27 on the Xbox Live Marketplace and Thursday, May 29 via the PlayStation Store.
This is almost enough to get me to finally buy Rock Band, except that I opted for the Wii just last night. If only I would have known, damn my lack of time traveling capabilities!
Next Generation is reporting that Sony will release a Metallic Blue PSP bundle including the next Madden title.
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Included in the bundle along with the blue PSP will be a copy of Madden NFL 09, the UMD Video NFL: In Just One Play, a PlayStation Network voucher for the downloadable rhythm game Beats, and a 1GB Memory Stick PRO Duo.
I'm still tempted to trade in my White PSP for the Red God of War bundle.
Uh-oh! Looks like a lot of our local experts were wrong :
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More games were purchased in the first 18 months of the Wii's life than any other console's first year and a half, Nintendo said today. About 50 million games were sold for the Wii in its first 18 months, compared to about 42 million games in the first 18 months of the Playstation 2's life. The Xbox 360 came in at 30 million or so, the Xbox at roughly 28 million and finally the Playstation 3 at about 20 million.
Read about it here. (Thanks to DaXIthR for this.)
Can anyone subtract the 10-20 million Nintendo published games? I'm too lazy.
The New York Times spoke to Michael Hollick, better known now as the voice of one Niko Bellic, about his disappointment with how he was paid:
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Michael Hollick never thought his big break would come in a video game.
All those years when he was struggling to get by as an aspiring actor — tending bar, working in a bagel shop in Morningside Heights, spraying perfume at Bloomingdale’s — he was aiming for Broadway and prime time. As he moved from regional theater to soap operas, middling musicals and “Law & Order,” he remained just another good-looking guy hoping for an audition.
His face still isn’t famous, but Mr. Hollick’s voice and gait have moved into the pop culture firmament recently as those of Niko Bellic, the sardonic, textured Balkan criminal at the heart of Grand Theft Auto IV, the acclaimed gangster fantasy that has become the fastest-selling game to date. Produced by Rockstar Games and its corporate parent, Take-Two Interactive Software, the game has generated at least $600 million in sales over the last three weeks.
--
That’s because Mr. Hollick was paid only about $100,000 over roughly 15 months between late 2006 and early this year for all of his voice acting and motion-capture work on the game, with zero royalties or residuals in sight, he said.
The Screen Actors Guild presently requires residual payments for actors in most other fields: television, commercials, animation and movies, but they're not required for things like video game voice work.
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“What drives video games is not Tracy and Hepburn; what drives it is the conception of the creative director,” said Ezra J. Doner, a former Hollywood executive who represents entertainment companies as a lawyer at Herrick, Feinstein in Manhattan, N.Y. “The actor whose appearance or voice is used is more analogous to a session music for a band. The session musicians don’t get residuals on the sales of the CD. They get paid a session fee. It’s not like the star quality of Tom Cruise that’s getting people to buy that video game.”
Residuals from video game work is just one of the issues swirling around a possible SAG strike set for later this summer.
EEDAR Director of Analytical Services Jesse Divnich serves up the novel idea that a 360 price cut is a bad idea:
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Those critics against a price cut are actually right, the PS3 and the 360 are both on track to sell more units than last year, and I agree that both systems could achieve positive year-over-year sales without a price cut in 2008.
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode One (say that 5 times fast!) is now available in demo and full game versions on various gaming platforms.
The new digital download site for this game, PlayGreenhouse, has the word:
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On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is an episodic RPG-adventure game series set in a deranged comic-book meets-pulp-horror 1920s universe. Armed with unconventional weaponry and witty repartee, you join forces with the Gabe and Tycho, the crime-solving team of the Startling Developments Detective Agency to make war on bizarre enemies and solve the mysteries hidden deep in the sinister heart of New Arcadia.
From the hilarious and twisted minds of Penny Arcade creators Mike "Gabe" Krahulik and Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, legendary game designer Ron Gilbert and veteran producers at Hothead Games comes a 100% authentic and hilarious Penny Arcade experience.
Demo and game are available on Xbox Live Arcade, PC, MAC, and LINUX. Will major corporate gaming review sites take revenge?
Full game is available for $20 (PC, Mac and Linux version you just need to buy one copy to play on all 3 versions).
See, this is the kind of stuff that really gets me excited. Cross platform data and application sharing. According to Joystiq, Sony has been throwing the term Web 3.0 around. Web 3.0 is basically taking your game experience and extending it online.
Think Halo 3 and Bungie.net. Think Forza 2 and the online auction houses. Hell...think Xbox.com. So while Microsoft has this stuff nailed down, Sony is just breaking into the market. The good news is just about every single one of their titles this fall will support web features; LittleBigPlanet, Killzone 2, SOCOM: Confrontation, Motorstorm: Pacific Rim, Resistance 2.
Details are still sparse, but I know I'll be keeping an eye out for this stuff.
I really enjoy this kind of stuff - and with the integration features mostly in their infancy, I can't wait to see where we go in 3-5 years.
The judge who presided over Jack Thompson's Florida Bar trial late last year has recommended that the controversial attorney be found guilty on 27 of 31 professional misconduct charges. The Florida Supreme Court must now rule on those recommendations.
Comic Day! Because sometimes you just need to take a break from reality. To join the discussion, click here, and for a peek at what you'll be seeing in stores this week, check out Diamond's new release list.
And this week, on the prodigious Johnny Gigawatt & the Tiger Men From Mars - we ponder the unponderable, analyze the impenetrable, and discuss the horrible secret of Hugh Jackman.
Picks of the Week
Countdown To Mystery #8 - Industry legend Steve Gerber passed away before he could finish his final work, so four other writers - Gail Simone, Adam Beechen, Mark Evanier & Mark Waid - will each pen an ending to his Dr. Fate story the way they think Gerber would have ended it.
Avengers The Initiative #13 - The start of the second season brings a new class of recruits to the forefront. Slott, Gage, Caselli and Uy have done a hell of a job carving out a unique niche in the Marvel U. They manage to bring both new characters, forgotten favorites and D-list wonders to the forefront in new and interesting ways.
Question of the week - It's the third week of the month and that means it's solicitations time. Check out what we'll be seeing this coming August from Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, IDW and Image. So, what looks good, what looks awful, and which covers really jump out at you?
According to the Gamerscore Blog the Community Games beta has gone Live and is available on Xbox Live to Creators Club Members.
What is the Community Games Beta? Basically members of the creators club, on top of the rights to create games that they can upload on both PC and Xbox 360, can also rate and approve titles to go up for the rest of the world to download.
How does it work? Basically members rate games for accuracy of content, bugs, and other areas. After a certain threshold is reached for a title that game will then be published in the Community Games section on Xbox Live.
More information can be found here in the Quick Start Guide.
Could the Community Games section go live with the upcoming spring update?
Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton will star in "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time," Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films' adaptation of Ubisoft's popular video game. Mike Newell is directing.
In the fantasy adventure, Gyllenhaal will play Dastan, a young prince in sixth century Persia who must join forces with Tamina (Arterton), a feisty and exotic princess, to prevent a villainous nobleman from possessing the Sands of Time, a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world.
Doug Miro & Carlo Bernard, Jordan Mechner and Boaz Yakin wrote the script, which is based on the many games created by Jordan Mechner.
Bruckheimer is producing, while Mike Stenson, Chad Oman and Patrick McCormick are exec producing.
For quite a while now we've been seeing the mega publishers, Electronic Arts, Activision-Blizzard and Ubisoft, snap up smaller developers in something resembling a titanic game of Hungry Hungry Hippo. Well another company is making public their intention to start feeding at the trough - Square Enix.
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President Yoichi Wada reiterates long-running expansion plans and bid to grow international empire
Talking to Reuters, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has once again pledged to grow his company globally, but this time added that he expects to buy stakes in game developers - and confirmed he is already in talks with a number of parties.
"Economies of scale and breadth of scope is getting important. It may be a business alliance or it may be us taking a stake in others, but we need to go beyond traditional Square Enix,
While the Western developers seem to be all gung ho for consolidation, the Asian houses seemed a little more reluctant to snap up really healthy companies, instead taking chances on developers going through tough times to find the diamond in the rough. Squenix' announcement that they're going fishing for companies may signal a change in philosophy.
It was either that title or Splendid Jetpack Dreams Of The Apatosaurus Named Brontosaurus and you can find out why in this episode of Evil Avatar Radio. We again talk about GTA4 and where we sit in the progress of the game. Some of us having finished it and some of us having seemingly only begun. But the GTA talk only last for a bit during the beginning of the show before we’ve moved on to talk about Age Of Conan, Guitar Hero 4 and rhythm games in general, hard drive installs, and this generation of gaming. During all of that we wax nostalgic for a bit on City Of Heroes and our first times playing it so many years ago.
And that nostalgia quickly bleeds over into the after show for a bit, where we carry on the conversation of CoH, but also talk about the upcoming release of both Haze and Penny Arcade Adventures. Plus, we talk about our pending guests and contests for next week’s episode and fishbang & Zillah/Dana (Soulless Toast) look for friends in Portland.
UK magazine Xbox World 360 is reporting (via CVG) that Ubisoft Montreal is unhappy enough with the upcoming Splinter Cell: Conviction that they're taking it "back to the drawing board."
The magazine reports that the decision to put the game back in the can for further development will delay it until 2009, or possibly all the way back to 2010. Ubisoft themselves have declined to comment on the story, although they will be holding their Gamer's Day in Paris next week, so answers may be forthcoming then.
Conviction was supposed to incorporate things like crowd stealth and environmental combat, similar to another Ubisoft Montreal creation: Assassin's Creed, into the traditional Splinter Cell stealth-action gameplay.
Here you have one of the tough questions that developers and publishers have to ask themselves. Do we keep running with the same gameplay and risk letting the property get stale, or do we change things up and risk alienating our core audience? I wasn't enamored with the changes they made to the last Splinter Cell, Double Agent, and I wasn't really looking forward to Conviction. However I applaud Ubi for taking a stand and trying to re work the game this late in the game rather than just shove it out the door. A number of games have taken similar breathers lately, and in most cases it seemed to improve the final product.
In a wide ranging interview on Gameindustry.biz, worldwide games portfolio planner for Xbox Live Arcade David Edery spoke about what's coming up for XBLA. Firstly the oft requested raising of the cap on game size:
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Q: And you're upping the size of Xbox Live Arcade games as well to 350 megabytes?
David Edery: Yeah, it's a steady progress. We've been listening to our partners, listening to our customers to try and get a feel for what's right. We don't want the size limit to hit the roof because we think there's some value in promoting small pick and play experiences that don't cost USD 20 million, it's good for the ecosystem.
He also expresses some skepticism about the value of truly episodic gaming.
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Q: Developers are exploring the ideas of episodic gaming and coming to you with more ideas about practicalities and business models?
David Edery: I'll be honest with you, I still think a lot of them are going to flame out, a lot of people are going to learn the hard way that it's not as easy as it looks. There's still a lot of uncertainty too. You and I think it would be cool if there was one hour of gameplay that came out once a week but we don't actually know if that would work. But someone's got to do it. And maybe XNA will lead the way.
Once again it's time to dissect the week that was in gaming news and turn our eyes to the week ahead as well. Plus we'll find out just how far behind I actually am in GTA4, speak with those who have finished the game (No spoilers. We promise. But then again, we also lie...so good luck), go through the releases of the week, and hopefully hear from you by way of a phone call, email, or in the chat room. Honestly, it's anyone's guess as to what will happen or even what we'll say on tonight's show, but it would really suck if you missed something mind blowing, wouldn't it?
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) today announced the keynote speaker for this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles - Texas governor Rick Perry.
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"The Governor's keynote address is especially timely given the high concentration of entertainment software developers and publishers in Texas as well as the state's long-standing support of our industry.
"The Governor's forward-thinking leadership in encouraging the growth and development of our USD 18 billion industry is a road map for other state executives who want to transform their state economies for the 21st century."
While an unconventional choice to deliver the keynote at an event like E3, it does make a lot of sense. Texas has become one of the hotbeds of game development in the 21st century, with major studios setting up shop across the state.
This bit of news comes on the heels of a string of bad news for the ESA. Several major game companies, including Activision, Vivendi and Lucasarts, canceled their memberships in the ESA, and it was also revealed today that the move from the Los Angeles Convention Center to Santa Monica last year cost the organization more than $5 million in cancellation fees.
Evil Avatar.com reader LiquidRain has posted a fantastic article with some recommended PC parts for people looking to upgrade prior to the drop of upcoming titles like Spore and Red Alert 3.
Check it out here and give him a pat on the back for all his hard work!
Since I played console fanboy in a thread a few days ago, I do have to point out that following his recommendations and scavaging a buttload of parts from my old PC it would still cost me $960.00 + shipping to upgrade. Certainly a very good value for the amount of gaming you could do on his recommended system. Less than the cost of my new Laptop.
Funcom has revealed that it has not been able to fulfill all orders for the upcoming Age of Conan in all markets despite shipping 700,000 copies on day one, and that the Collector’s Edition (111K copies) has already sold out.
The total print run for the Collector’s Edition will stand at 110,000, with no additional reprints. The Collector’s Edition may however be available at retail.
While Funcom did not release exact numbers relating to customer pre-orders, it did say in a statement that those numbers were “impressive”. Morten Larssen, VP of sales and marketing for Funcom, said of this number, “Everyone in Funcom is delighted and humbled with the historical pre-order numbers for Age of Conan. If the information we have is correct, they represent the highest pre-order number for any global launch of an original PC game, ever, including the original World of Warcraft launch.”
Someone tell all those people that PC gaming is dead, please.
Critter Round-Up (Konami, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone – Comic Mischief, 1,000 Wii Points): The critters have escaped, and the barnyard is in chaos! It’s up to you to quickly corral the animals in this puzzle-action challenge. You’ll have to mend fences in a hurry to keep all the critters safe and satisfied. But the fun doesn’t stop with the farmland; more than 50 challenging levels take you to several exotic locations, including the outback, the icy Arctic and more. There’s even a series of minigames for when the critters get you down: Snowball Soccer, Predator Rampage, Chicken Catch and Fence Trap. Up to four players can compete or cooperate as the critters run wild. So roll up those sleeves and grab a friend—those critters won’t catch themselves.
Star Soldier R (Hudson Entertainment, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone – Fantasy Violence, 800 Wii Points): Star Soldier R is a new kind of shooter where players aim for the best scores within a two- or five-minute time limit. Develop various scoring strategies, and pump out those points within the breakneck time frame. Assembled in record time to counter the advance of a powerful enemy, the mysterious Brain Forces, the “Caesar” starfighter takes off to fight for the very future of mankind. Shoot down countless enemies, upgrade your ship to the max with power-ups hidden throughout the levels and wage an all-out assault against the core of the enemy fortress. Combining the excitement of shoot-’em-ups with in-depth scoring strategies, this state-of-the-art competitive shooter will keep you coming back for more. Upload your best scores with Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection, and pit your skills against the world’s best fighter pilots from the comfort of your living room. Hone your skills and show the world who’s boss.
Yes (or no, whatever your mood). It's Monday again. Time for some Monday Blues. What did you guys really play the last couple of days? Still vibing in Liberty City? Finally blasted your way through hard-mode Ikaruga (yeah right)? Got cake in Portal?
Tell us all about your digital adventures right here.
I played GTA4 (that game is still as annoyingly hard as last GTA's imo, freaking savepoints) and got back into Lost Odyssey and Persona 3.
