While we’re on the topic of leaks, it seems that a couple of days ago some unscrupulous visitor to GameCom 2010 decided to grab a cell phone video of Rock Band 3’s set list and share it with the world. Well, Harmonix has decided to strike back with a rebuttal video, and…wait, in the background, is that what I think it is?
Some people are persistent, there’s no doubt about that. Even when games are hidden inside Microsoft’s own fortress of code and priced at over $1250 on Xbox LIVE, pirates still find a way to get what they want. Halo: Reach, which is slated to come out in less than a month, has been grabbed from Microsoft via some skullduggery on their very own servers. The prohibitively expensive version of Reach (statue not included) was intended to be available to reviewers so Microsoft does not have to ship out box copies. Furthermore, even if you manage to scrounge up that many Microsoft Points, you still need a special download code to get it (Microsoft had done something similar with Crackdown 2, which is still not available publicly via LIVE).
While there’s been plenty of debate on this site about piracy and whether it’s good or bad, this is a pretty ballsy move even by Internet standards. Most games are pirated after their release or shortly before, but never from Microsoft’s own website. Spoiler-related threads are springing up all over the Web, so if you’d like to stay pure for September 14, batten down the hatches. Until the Cyber Police get this leak under control, there will be much chaos in the house of Xbox.
What do you guys think about this development? Are you going spoiler hunting or avoiding forums at all costs?
I don’t know how many of you played Empire at War, the most recent of the Star Wars brands’ long line of mediocre Real Time Strategy titles, but I sank a fair few hours into that game. It wasn’t bad by any stretch, but it was nothing worth writing home about, either. While the ground combat was severely lacking (you couldn’t build base structures where you wanted them), the space battles were great fun. Taking control of either the Rebellion, the Empire or Tyber Zann’s Consortium, you could duke it out with anything from X-Wings to Super Star Destroyers. As fun as it was, it was fairly limited in scope, and the Galactic Conquest mode made the space battles more of a stepping stone than a main attraction. I’ve longed for the day that I can control the Empire on a mission to take over the galaxy, and it may have finally arrived with this fan made mod for Sins of a Solar Empire.
Sins is a game that focuses on managing a huge empire, so the large scale of its maps (which can range from one solar system to several) is a perfect fit for the Star Wars aesthetics. The mod is fairly easy to install, too, since all of Gas Powered Games’ titles are DRM free and open to modding. As soon as you boot the program up, you’re instantly treated to Duel of the Fates, the song that plays when Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon Gin are dueling Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace. The whole mod is fantastic, and all of the Star Wars ships look exactly like you would imagine them to. Even ships that are only present in the expanded universe, such as Lancer assault frigates, are represented in game. The models for the ships are really well detailed, and the sound effects are very true to the movies; they even replaced the phase jump sound effect with the noise of a ship jumping to hyperspace. The mod does rip quite a few sound files from Empire at War, so they loose a few points for that. Over all, this is a really high quality mod, and it got me excited enough to install Sins on my machine again. If you’ve got the game and are inclined towards Star Wars, pick up this mod. Heck, even if you’re just interested in high quality homebrew expansions, grab it as well. Hit the jump for a video of a space battle in progress: Continue reading Mitch’s Mods: Star Wars Requiem For Sins of a Solar Empire
Motion control. I know, we’re all tired of debating the subject to death, but it’s here to stay and we’ll just have to live with the bonuses and negatives it brings. This will be especially true when both Move and Kinect launch this Fall, bringing a whole slew of new talking points to the conversation.
And while I hate to sound like a broken record here: the motion control trend concerns me, but most notably with Kinect. I think the technology that they’ve put together is fantastic and innovative, but the software we’ve seen so far, not so much. Take for example the new Kinect Harry Potter demo shown off this week at Gamescom. What might seem like a perfect fit for motion controls (who wouldn’t want to blast Death Eaters with wands), looks to be a downright mess. I’ll let you check it out.
I think the easiest thing to take note of is something I’ve wondered about Kinect for awhile now. With no buttons or controller at all (like Move or the Wii), how does one, you know… move through a game environment? The Forza demo shown at E3 had no way of accelerating or braking. Likewise, the Harry Potter demo displays no discernible way of moving the wizards through the, erm, wizarding world. Watch as the Weasley twins stop moving—that’s when the characters on screen run.
Basically, when you want to progress—stop moving. The gameplay then stops, Death Eaters appear, and then you engage in completely imprecise looking attacks. The Move equivalent of this game is Sorcery, and it seems to be light years ahead in comparison.
Honestly, I’m shocked at the way all of this is unfolding. Every new demonstration I’ve seen of Kinect leaves me more and more underwhelmed. What do you guys think? Too soon to judge, even though this thing debuts in just a few short months?
As we get ready for the fall gaming season, we’ve had a few discussions lately about clearing out gaming backlogs. For some, this means renting or borrowing from friends to get through as much as possible. For others like me, it means playing through purchased games and trading them back in to get ready for what’s coming next (Halo: Reach and Civilization V, anyone).
The comment thread from our recent podcast delves into the idea of trading in old games a bit, and it got me thinking about all the games I’ve purchased this generation. Some of the ones off the top of my head include: Gears of War 1 and 2, Halo 3 and ODST, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2, Valkyria Chronicles, Uncharted 2, Forza 2, Mass Effect 1 and 2, Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3, Little Big Planet, Viva Pinata, FFXIII, Red Dead Redemption and then some.
Really, there aren’t a heaping ton of them or anything, but it still got me wondering: what games has the rest of GS purchased over the last few years? Leave your lists here, people. Go!
Mafia II, Take-Two’s newest entry in the open-world crime series comes out later this month, but it has already ruffled some feathers, according to 1UP. In what is literally straight out of a Sopranos episode, UNICO National, an Italian-American advocacy group sent the publisher a letter, stating the game is an:
“inappropriate and insulting perpetuation of the pervasive and denigrating stereotype of organized crime being the exclusive domain of Italians and Italian Americans.
“Why would [Take-Two] foist a game on their target audience of young people wherein they will indoctrinate a new generation into directly associating Italians and Italian Americans with violent, murderous, organized crime, to the exclusion of all the other ‘mafias’ run by other ethnic and racial groups,”
The spokesman for UNICO, Andre DeMint, then called for the game’s release to be delayed until all references to Italians and Italian-Americans can be purged from the game.
Take-Two’s response was matter-of-fact, pointing out that no one at UNICO has to play the game and since the it is rated M for Mature, it is specifically NOT targeted at young people. And of course there was the obligatory reference to all the great crime movies, books and TV shows over the years and games have just as much right to express themselves as any other medium.
So where do you come down on this? Personally, I can’t stand when a group gets offended by this. Just having a game about the Mafia doesn’t imply that every single Italian acts this way in real life. Just like not every Italian acts like Snooki or The Situation from Jersey Shore. What say you?
Tim Schafer is one of those certified “video game celebrities” in my mind, so much so that if I walked past him on the street, I’d ask for a picture (I may do this at PAX, should he be there.) Unfortunately, his studio’s last big title, Brutal Legend, didn’t do that well commercially, so Double Fine is having to switch plans somewhat. The first step of their new business model is to release several small downloadable games, the first of which is Costume Quest, a Halloween themed RPG due out on October 31 (clever, huh?). Take a look at the trailer:
Just the sort of thing we wished our costumes could do when we were kids, no? Admittedly, I didn’t play Brutal Legend mostly due to the less-than-overwhelming reception, but Costume Quest looks like it is due to be a hit. What do you guys think? Pumped for the next Tim Schafer game?
For some reason, GamesCom this week seems to be coming out with all kinds of information that E3 2010 didn’t have, like the fact that Portal 2 releases as soon as February 2011 to much joyous applause and excitement. It’s nice that it’ll be arriving early in the year, and I honestly can’t wait to get my hands on it, especially if some of the new stuff I’m seeing is any indication to the game’s quality.
We’ve seen a few pieces of Portal 2 so far through a variety of videos, but a new Portal 2 GamesCom video shows alot of the new elements working together, with a few new bits as well. If I’m being honest, I felt like the addition of things like a propulsion and repulsion gel, along with tractor beams, could potentially over-complicate what I feel to be a near perfect experience. However, seeing them all work in tandem shows off a crazy amount of possibilities for gameplay.
So, give it a watch. Like I said, some old stuff is in this video, but it does showcase a few new things as well. Who else can’t wait for February 2011?
As a medium, video games have been on the rise for a couple of decades now. We all know the tired comparison of video games outpacing big box office blockbusters, and the like. However, there are some that believe that gaming is perched on the precipice of slipping into obscurity if it does not undergo a shift. Warren Spector, creator of video games such as Deus Ex, Thief, System Shock and the currently-in-development Epic Mickey, recently spoke at Gamescom and had some warnings to current game developers.
Basically, Spector wants games to push forward into the mainstream, such as film, rather than falling to the wayside and classified as the niche, like comic books. While comic books have gained a sort of new life as of late, a lot of that was due to the film industry, as people over the years wrote off comic books as only being for a certain lower audience. Could the same happen to games? Spector thinks so.
“If we don’t break out of the big buff guys with swords, and guys in tights, and space marines in armor, we’re going to get marginalized the way that comic books have been in the United States… I hope we can break free of the content of comic books.”
It seems fairly obvious who Spector is pointing to, but I can’t help but wonder if he’s got a point. Eventually, it makes sense that people would get tired of the same old same old, but video game sales each year favor sequels and the big space shooters, contradicting that idea.
So what do you guys think? Is Warren Spector correct?
When I first played Grand Theft Auto 4 many moons ago, the city seemed so vivid and real (like a double rainbow) that I was almost afraid to be bad in it. I wanted to obey traffic laws such as stopping at stop signs or maintaining a proper and safe speed limit. Eventually, the guise wears away and you’re off on your mayhem.
However, the release of the Mafia 2 demo (the full game is coming on August 24 to PC, PS3 and 360) brings with it a new question to the method of driving in a sandbox world: if a cop sees you speeding, they give chase. Now, in many other open world GTA clones, cops will pursue you if you are breaking other laws, but speeding always seems to be OK.
My first reaction to hearing about this was that it was cool to have that level of realism in the open world. But the more I thought about it, it would be like asking someone playing Crackdown not to leap across buildings, or someone playing Prototype not to fly. The thought of 20 hours in, obeying the speed limit really doesn’t seem like something I’d like to do. But I could be alone. What do you guys think? Vote!
GamesCom is the new E3 as Insomniac announced a brand new entry in the acclaimed and popular Ratchet & Clank series, subtitled “All 4 One”. The game will have 4 player co-op and have drop in/drop out enabled, which I really like. Players can play as Ratchet, Clank, Captain Qwark (YESSS) or Dr. Nefarious. See the trailer below:
Also, no details as of yet, but Insomniac did reveal that they are currently working on Resistance 3, which is happy news for fans of the series. As of now there is only a live-action trailer, which isn’t really worth watching. Hopefully we can get something more concrete for you soon.
In the meantime, would you be interested in a co-op Ratchet game? Does this excite you at all? What about Resistance 3? Anything you would like to see in the next installment?
Crysis had a pretty decent multplayer offering in its original inception, the gameplay laying somewhere between the open battlegrounds of the Battlefield series and the weapon purchasing mechanic of Counter-Strike. Add in the game-altering use of the nanosuits and you had an interesting versus mode that was open only to those with a hefty PC gaming rig. Now that Crysis 2 is hitting the X-Box 360 and the PS3 in addition to the PC, the game’s unique style of combat is going to be availible to a lot more people. Take a look at Crysis 2 in action:
The on-stage demo is featuring the 360 version, but I’ll admit that I thought the feed was running on the PC for a few moments. The game looks really good, and I’m excited to check it out when it drops in March 2011. What about you guys? Are you ready for Maximum Gameplay?
File this one under “better late than never”, for sure. There has been speculation for some time that EA and Bioware would eventually bring their critically acclaimed Mass Effect series over to the PS3, and it seems that the time has finally come. At Gamescom today, Bioware announced that Mass Effect 2 will hit for Sony’s machine in January 2011.
While there doesn’t seem to be any word about the first Mass Effect and whether or not it will come included as part of an anthology or if it simply won’t be showing up at all, this is still exciting news. Even though the experience will be slightly diminished without your choices carrying over between two games in such an unprecedented way, Mass Effect 2 will still have a lot for newcomers to enjoy. In terms of storytelling, it’s one of the better games of this generation, and it has to be one of the best and most developed original universes we’ve seen in gaming to date.
I know a bunch of you have already played this game, but surely, there are some happy PS3 users among us who will jump on this on release day. My next question is: what about Mass Effect 3?
Bungie has a new ViDoc out that highlights the various Spartans of Nobel Team, giving you an insight into the minds of your squad members in Halo: Reach. Although the video isn’t especially long, I have to say that the character animations for Halo: Reach are much improved over the previous titles, and every Spartan in the trailer seems to have a great deal of personality. As a little treat to Halo fans, the trailer is narrated by a character we’ve read a lot about in the books, but have never seen in a game. Watch the following video to get the run down on your teammates:
We’re almost at September, so the Halo: Reach news will be coming fast and furious. We’ll definitely try to sort out the chaff so we’re not flooding the website with Halo posts, but this trailer was too good to pass up as a fan of Halo lore. I know this sort of video won’t turn anyone around who has decided not to get Reach, but what about those who are? Even more excited now?
One thing you hear over and over again is that the Wii is a waggle-laden fad, and real gamers prefer the precise input of a analog controller to wild arm flailing. Nobody ever considered that we might be at fault instead of the controller, though. At least, this is what Ubisoft Creative Director Jason VandenBerghe claims, saying that the testing phase of Red Steel 2 resulted in “absolute random chaos.” Testers couldn’t figure out how to use the Wii Motion Plus properly, and often resorted to uncoordinated thrashing in order to get the job done. One thing the Ubisoft team behind Red Steel 2 realized is that motion controls were boundless in their potential, limited only by the player utilizing the controllers.
Another factor that contributed to Red Steel 2’s lackluster performance is something VandenBerghe dubbed “audience willingness”, or the motivation to actually get up and move around when playing video games. VandenBerghe claims that no more than “20 percent” of people are going to get up off the couch and move, something that he thinks hindered Red Steel 2’s marketing appeal. Once motion control supplants analog as the main source of input for video games, “audience willingness” will go up, and games like Red Steel 2 will be better received.
Right now I’m wondering what you guys think about Mr. VandenBerghe’s statements. A lot of it seems to place the impetus on gamers to pick up the subtle nuances of game mechanics, something the developers should be attempting to do through in-game tutorials. While VandenBerghe did mention that the design team solved this problem during testing, it seemed to be too little too late. Though Red Steel 2 had decent reviews, it just hasn’t sold that well, barely passing 270,000 copies worldwide. Are we as gamers at fault for the game’s poor performance, or does it lie with the developers and the publishers to ensure that a fun experience is had by all regardless of whether or not they “understand” the controls? Tell us what you think!
Personally, I really enjoy the current trend of developers taking time out from building their games to film little documentaries that highlight certain aspects of their current projects. The Force Unleashed 2 appears to be no exception, and a video diary recently hit the internet that highlights the story of the Force-powered sequel, and expands a bit on the roles that Yoda and Boba Fett will play. The two producers interviewed in this video constantly mention a “darker tone” for the sequel, which, coupled with the appearance of Fett and Yoda, definitely serves as a less than subtle allusion to the Empire Strikes Back. Since this is the second chapter of the Force Unleashed, this comparison is most fitting. Much as Luke discovered more about being a Jedi in the second movie, I think we can expect to see Starkiller make the same sort of journey.
I’ve got a lot of hope for the Force Unleashed 2, and I think it can capitalize on the potential of its successor, just as long as the developers can even out the difficulty. What do you guys think? Eager for the second game? Anyone become a little bit more interested after watching this video?
As more and more colleges offer courses in designing video games, it occurs to me that I likely don’t have the proper skill set for such an endeavor. I’m not great with math, not artistic and my skills with computers is somewhere between George Jetson and Jar Jar Binks. Plus, from the horror stories I hear about the long hours and stressful deadlines, it just doesn’t sound like my cup of tea.
But still, the idea of making games and having a say in what makes a game great is somewhat appealing, so I wanted to ask you guys what position would you like in a video game company? Myself, obviously, writing the script or scenario for a game would be ideal. I know others would like to create the graphics or gameplay or perhaps even something as specific as enemy design.
Square Enix has announced a new X-Box 360 exclusive today called Gun Loco, and the trailer is perhaps one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. The gameplay looks normal enough, all run and gun action with sliding, weaving and plenty of chest-high objects, but the art style is very, very odd. If you’re old enough to remember Virtua Fighter, you may find the characters in the video to have a similar look with their angular features and blocky body shapes. No word on whether this is a retail title or a LIVE Arcade release, but based on the rough look of the game, I’d guess the latter. Give the trailer a watch:
This is all the info I’ve seen about Gun Loco so far, other than the little tidbit that the character designs were done by respected toy maker Kenny Wong. The game will have both single and multiplayer components when it is released. What do you guys think of the trailer. Did you find it as weird as I did?
Update: It looks like this game is going to a be a full disc-based product after all. Hopefully the art gets a few more passes for polish before the release date.
GamesCom is happening this week in Germany, which is yet another awesome convention that we didn’t get to go to. I hear that flights to Europe are pretty expensive, however, so maybe that’s for the best. At any rate, we can expect to see a lot more delicious info about up coming games in addition to all the usual interesting interviews and quotes that come out of these big events.
Take this talk given by Quantic Dream’s David Cage for example. If you’re unfamiliar with the studio, they recently put out Heavy Rain, a different sort of animal by video game standards. Sony put a lot of money behind the game, but even the studio was expecting a flop. Heavy Rain was received rather well, and had pretty good sales number to boot, so David Cage has decreed that gamers are ready for “new paradigms”.
What he means by that is for the last 25-odd years, all we’ve been doing is killing, racing, and hopping on platforms. He feels that violent games are very narrow in their emotional scope, and games like Heavy Rain have a broader impact. He goes on to add this little snippet:
“Games should be art and not toys, if you are uncomfortable with the word ‘art’, then ‘entertainment’ is fine. Toys are disposable, art is poignant,”
Very interesting perspective from David Cage, to say the least. While I think games can function as both a toy and as an art form, I know this is also one of these divisive things that people love to talk about. What do you think or Cage’s statement? Was Heavy Rain a one-off, or will we see similar games in the future?
Since I’ve been knocking out some of gaming backlog, I’m currently tussling with a few titles that I wouldn’t ordinarily play in the midst of some heavy hitting releases. At the moment, I’m trying to knock out Alpha Protocol, which is a meager portion of gaming goodness at best. While the game isn’t bad per se, to me it just highlights everything that Mass Effect 2 did right with that style of play. Even Mass Effect 1, which wasn’t nearly as good as the sequel, does many things better than AP.
But as good as Mass Effect 2 is in my mind, I know that it was a game that was far from perfect. And as I thought more about this, I realized many of my favorite games have some huge glaring flaws. Anthony, a newcomer to the 360, just finished Halo 3 over the weekend, and had some legitimate complaints about the last third of the game, really (though I’ll let him speak more to that himself). The game is one of my favorites of this gen, but I won’t argue about all the things that are wrong with it.
Interestingly enough, one of my other friends calls Halo 3 multiplayer “the perfect game”. While I disagree from just a game play perspective, I think I must disagree from a philosophical perspective as well. Is there such a thing as the perfect game? I’m not talking about just a game without any technical glitches or whatever, but a game that is the perfect blend of all the things that make gaming good? Some of my favorite titles are far from perfect. And really, the closest thing I can think of off the top of my head is Portal.
So what do you guys think? Can there ever be a perfect game? And what games to you hit the closest?
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