Kids Games

Alpha Protocol has been dated once more. Sega and Obsidian have told IGN that their oft-delayed spy RPG will be seeing release on May 27 Australia, May 28 in Europe and June 1 in North America.

The game’s been delayed several times in the past year. First from early 2009 to October 2009, then to spring 2010, and most recently — in favor of shipping “a very polished game” — to summer 2010.

Let’s hope this one sticks.

A western demo for PlatinumGames’ high-octane shooter Vanquish has been confirmed.

Both Sega of America and Europe announced today that the Shinji Mikami-led TPS can be sampled by both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners in a week’s time (see here for a quick run-through of what to expect); it’ll arrive on North American systems on August 31st, and European ones the following day, on September 1st.

A Japanese demo has been previously confirmed for September 2nd, the same day Australia gets it.

The retail releases will follow in October; North America on the 19th, Europe on the 22nd, and Australia on the 21st.

EA has announced they will be partnering with Stars Media (Simpson’s, King of the Hill) to create an animated feature film based on their new survival horror IP, Dead Space. The film will in fact be the second way EA is planning on expanding the universe of its new game. The first, a 6 part comic book series that acts as a prequel to the game and “tells the tale of a deep space mining colony that unexpectedly pulls an ancient and vicious alien life force from the dark rock.” The first issue hit store shelves March 3rd and is priced at 2.99USD.

The film then will take place between the end of the comic book series and the beginning of the game. It will follow a plot, disturbingly close to that of Alien, where an alien beacon is found by an exploratory mining space ship in an uncharted area of space, leading to the awakening of a long asleep species. This awakening will elicit the predictable, running, screaming, and most likely dying, that you have come to expect from any movie that rips off is in the spirit of the Alien films. When asked what the motivation is for expanding Dead Space into these different forms of media Glen Schofield, Executive Producer of Dead Space, had this to say:

“The world of Dead Space has such a deep storyline that it’s easily adaptable to other mediums. We love the fact our story is being told across multiple forms of media, providing different experiences to different audiences, which all lead to the same dark place.”

The film will air day and date with the release of Dead Space the game, with a DVD release to follow sometime thereafter. You can find the Dead Space comic books on store shelves now, and expect the game, and feature film, to scare the bejesus out of us, on October 31.

[See also: Dead Space gallery]

Havok has announced two new products at GDC – Havok Cloth and Havok Destruction. The two new additions to the company’s offerings will work with the already available Havok Physics and Havok Animation out-of-the-box, and do exactly what you’d think – give developers more control when it comes to interactive cloth and and blowing stuff up.

Havok’s Managing Director David O’Meara said the new products will add both “depth and breadth” to their software line-up while David Coghlan, Vice President of Development, added that Havok Cloth will “significantly enhance the visual impact of on-screen characters” and that Havok Destruction will deliver “unprecedented levels of physics mayhem.”

Hit the break for more information on both and there’s another little video in need of your attention as well.

Havok Cloth is a new performance-optimized development tool designed to minimize the time that game artists spend on animating the behavior of character garments and environmental cloth. It enables increased realism for cutting-edge games, is easily customizable and fits into today’s workflow without burdening artists, animators or programmers.

Highly realistic physically-based simulation of cloth and character clothing with low CPU and memory overhead
Multithreaded and platform-optimized (including PLAYSTATION 3)
Artist-driven control of the full range of cloth behavioral properties such as stretching, damping and bending
Artist-friendly, modeller-based, cloth setup tools

Havok Destruction is the cross-platform tool for simulation of rigid body destruction. Destruction gives the game artist total control over the simulation, drastically reducing the production time and cost of creating large numbers of realistic destructible game objects. Havok Destruction can create a completely new game play experience by giving additional realism to structural mechanics, graphical effects and game level design.

Dynamic fracture of game objects including: shattering, fracture and deformation.
Software Development Kit that is fully multithreaded, optimized for the PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360 and makes optimal use of Havok Physics
Art Tool Support

Ubisoft laid out their downloadable content strategy for Splinter Cell: Conviction today; to be made available every Thursday, for free, will be content ranging from the aesthetic to practical. Players can expect additional weapons, skins, as well as a new Deniable Ops maps to freshen up how things look and play, the company says.

Hopefully there’ll be something else down the line as well.

First up will be a new weapon, the MP7A1 machine pistol pictured above, which can be found through the game’s ‘Extras’ menu tomorrow.

EA has sent word that Mass Effect 2 won’t be left behind in the Collector’s Edition mania and will get one that comes with unique in-game weapons and armor that can’t be obtained any other way, a 48-page hardcover “Art of Mass Effect 2” book, the first issue of Mass Effect Redemption comic book, a bonus DVD with behind-the-scenes and making-of videos, and the game itself of course, all packaged in the mandatory-for-a-CE tin case sporting cover art of a bloody, battle scarred armor, deepening our fears that something horrible is probably going to happen to Commander Shepard.

Beyond the fairly standard CE stuff, it looks as if some surprise content may be sneaking in there as well. The CE will feature “so many unique items, including special Collectors’ Edition armor and weapons and content that will surprise Mass Effect fans,” says Dr. Ray Muzyka, BioWare co-founder and Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group of EA.

The CE’s out alongside the regular edition in limited quantities on January 26 in North America and the 29th in Europe. Check the pics below for the full CE box art and an exclusive armor/weapon.

It’s been a long time coming, but two cease and desist notices and ten years later, the first episode of The Silver Lining — the fan-developed sequel to the King’s Quest series — is now available for download. For free.

What Is Decreed Must Be is the first in a series of five episodes scheduled to appear this year and puts players back in the shoes of King Graham, the protagonist for the majority of the original series. The development team at Phoenix Online Studios has created a wholly original story with an aim to provide closure to the King’s Quest story arc.

The Silver Lining is considered to be one of the most professionally-made fan games to date and features its own original musical scores, sound, and voice acting throughout. The game returns to its original adventure-style gameplay and setting of the Land of The Green Isles, pitting King Graham against a mysterious stranger in a bid to save his kingdom and family.

No official word on whether we’re likely to see The Silver Lining on any other platform than PC in the near future, but considering how long it has taken to develop already, it would be surprising to find this on a console any time soon.