Kids Games

Alpha Protocol dated for May, June

2010-12-18T06:59:00.000-08:00

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 taste of Vanquish in a week

2010-12-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

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.

Dead Space, now in two new flavors

2010-11-12T05:32:00.000-08:00

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 Cloth, Havok Destruction announced

2010-09-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

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

Splinter Cell: Conviction to get weekly DLC

2010-09-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

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.

Mass Effect 2 gets a bloody Collector’s Edition

2010-08-28T13:53:00.000-07:00

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.

King’s Quest fan game The Silver Lining gets its first episode

2010-08-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

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.

The guts behind the groove: An inside look at BIT.TRIP’s Commander Video

2010-07-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

“Yeah, I omitted a muscular system, but [Commander Video] doesn’t need muscles to move,” explains Ty Dunitz of his latest, and most revealing study of Bit.Trip’s mascot (after the break). “He needs only a fat beat to get his Core pumping the groove juice.”

“You may also notice I gave him an intestinal tract,” he continues. “No, a man with no mouth doesn’t eat, but as [artist Neil Anderson] put it best, ‘the rainbow has to come from somewhere.’” Same goes for marshmallows.

Polytron giving away Fez soundtrack EP

2010-06-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

If last week’s free Machinarium EP wasn’t enough to sate your craving for awesome game music, you’ll be pleased to know that indie developer Polytron is embracing the spirit of the season and giving us 3 free songs from their upcoming 2.5-D pixel platformer, Fez.

The songs, composed by Polytron’s resident chiptune musician, 6955, combine ambient guitars and singing synths with NES-style chip beats. In addition to downloading the album via Torrent or Polytron’s website, you can also order a physical copy of the EP in limited edition micro-CD from the PolyShop for $10. Thanks, Polytron! You’re definitely on our Christmas list this year.

Leaked details on Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2

2010-05-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

Weekend news in the videogame industry is usually pretty bland. The big guns tend to take off for the weekend while we’re left with entertaining, but not groundbreaking news. Last weekend was a huge exception to say the least. Tons of leaks spewed from Intellisponse about future projects of both Activision and Microsoft. Intellisponse is a marketing firm that basically helps companies gain feedback from consumers about certain products to make them more efficient if and when they’re released.

One of the unconfirmed leaks is the sequel to the successful 2006 title Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. This game is reported to have over 20 playable characters from the Marvel universe. A few of those characters include Spider-Man, Hulk, Wolverine, the Human Torch, and Venom. Not much is known about changes in gameplay other than the ability to combine two powers from different characters and unleash a powerful hybrid attack.

The story this time around is far more interesting than trying to stop Dr. Doom from taking over the world. They’ve decided to build this game around Marvel’s Civil War storyline which pitted superheroes against each other regardless of whether they were allies in the past. The Superhuman Registration Act required every superhero to register with the government. In doing that, they have to give up their secret identities and basically become employees. Civil War is divided between the heroes that are for the registration lead by Iron Man, and those who are against it led by Captain America.

The leaked information also reveals that this title will be made available for the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP and DS. Keep in mind these details are unconfirmed at the moment, though they’re probably true.

Far Cry 3 confirmed (again), looking “pretty exciting”

2010-05-17T14:01:00.000-07:00

Far Cry 3 is currently in development and it looks “pretty exciting,” according to Ubisoft scriptwriter Kevin Shortt.

At a recent Avatar (it’s not a game, it’s an experience) press event, Official PlayStation Magazine asked Shortt if he was working on the sequel to 2008′s open-world safari-’em-up Far Cry 2. They expected the usual “no comment” response, apparently, but that’s not quite what they got. “No I’m not,” said the writer, “But I know the team are and what I’ve seen looks pretty exciting.”

So there you go. We knew last year that Ubisoft were at work on Far Cry 3. Narrative designer Patrick Reading even revealed that it might take place in Antartica, which was interesting. But now we also know that it looks “pretty exciting” too. That’s journalism, kids.

Grand Turismo 5 release dates are “rumour and speculation”

2010-05-12T04:29:00.000-07:00

Following an Amazon.com December 29th release date posting and GTPlanet’s claim that Grand Turismo 5 will release in 2009, Sony has said that these estimates are just “rumor and speculation”. When contacted by CVG, Sony commented on the rumor, saying, “We haven’t announced a release date for GT5 yet.”

As of now the only clues we can rely on is Amazon.com’s, and the late Novemberish date we’ve dug up, which if Sony were to comment on would in all likelyhood get the same response. However, there is a high likelihood that Sony’s August 18th press conference at GamesCom in Germany will clear things up.

Dante’s Inferno cartoon will do anal, and you don’t even have to get it drunk!

2010-05-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

During the San Diego Comic-Con’s panel on Dante’s Inferno, director Vic Cook shared more than I really cared to know about the depths the upcoming animated feature will plumb. “You’re gonna love it,” he said. “We’ve got Dante literally being shoved up a monster’s butt.”

The hero of EA’s newest action-adventure title turned into a hell hound’s butt plug – who wouldn’t love that? The straight-to-DVD depiction of hell’s nine delightful circles, being overseen by Dead Space: Downfall‘s Film Roman, will be worked on by a number of different anime studios and shipped alongside the game. It will also explore more sinister, and dare I say sphinctery territory than it’s videogame counterpart.

“In the original game script we wrote that Cerberus was going to shove Dante up his ass…it was a crazy, crazy scene. We just couldn’t do it in the game for a lot of reasons,” added Executive Producer Jonathan Knight. “To have that moment that was in the game script that was cut from the game to show up in the animated feature is just really cool.”

I doubt Dante feels the same.

Far Cry 2 PC patch arriving next week

2010-05-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

Ubisoft representative Ubi-Marc has given word that a patch for the PC version of Far Cry 2 will be available someday between Dec. 8 and 11. No official word about what’s going to be fixed has been released, but Ubisoft has previously said they’re going to fix the too narrow field-of-view that’s causing distress for widescreen owners. My advice to Ubisoft is simple: Get rid of that hyperbolically short respawn time for road blocks, which seems to be the biggest issue for everyone that has played the game.

Tracklist for Guitar Hero: Metallica

2010-04-17T20:36:00.000-07:00

To go along with yesterday’s fact sheet, we present you with an updated tracklist for Guitar Hero: Metallica. The songs from Metallica will come from every one of their studio albums and include many hits we can all recognize. The list of other bands that will appear is pretty varied too. Furthermore, gamers that downloaded Death Magnetic for Guitar Hero III on Xbox 360 or PS3 will have full access to the album in Guitar Hero: Metallica. Wii and PS2 owners will still get “Broken, Beat & Scarred,” “Cyanide,” and “My Apocalypse” included with this new game. Full list follows.

• “All Nightmare Long”
• “Battery”
• “Creeping Death”
• “Disposable Heroes”
• “Dyers Eve”
• “Enter Sandman”
• “Fade To Black”
• “Fight Fire With Fire”
• “For Whom The Bell Tolls”
• “Frantic”
• “Fuel”
• “Hit The Lights”
• “King Nothing”
• “Master of Puppets”
• “Mercyful Fate”
• “No Leaf Clover”
• “Nothing Else Matters”
• “One”
• “Orion”
• “Sad But True”
• “Seek And Destroy”
• “The Memory Remains”
• “The Shortest Straw”
• “The Thing That Should Not Be”
• “The Unforgiven”
• “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”
• “Wherever I May Roam”
• “Whiplash”

The other bands and songs Metallica chose to include are:

• Alice In Chains – “No Excuses”
• Bob Seger – “Turn The Page (Live)”
• Corrosion of Conformity – “Albatross”
• Diamond Head – “Am I Evil?”
• Foo Fighters – “Stacked Actors”
• Judas Priest – “Hell Bent For Leather”
• Kyuss – “Demon Cleaner”
• Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Tuesdays Gone”
• Machine Head – “Beautiful Mourning”
• Mastodon – “Blood And Thunder”
• Mercyful Fate – “Evil”
• Michael Schenker Group – “Armed and Ready”
• Motörhead – “Ace of Spades”
• Queen – “Stone Cold Crazy”
• Samhain – “Mother of Mercy”
• Slayer – “War Ensemble”
• Social Distortion – “Mommy’s Little Monster (Live)”
• Suicidal Tendencies – “War Inside My Head”
• System of a Down – “Toxicity”
• The Sword – “Black River”
• Thin Lizzy – “The Boys Are Back in Town”

Rockstar dishing next GTA DLC info soon

2010-04-13T23:57:00.000-07:00

Straight from the internet’s crystal ball into people’s skulls known as Twitter, Rockstar Games has promised to release the first official information on the next downloadable episode for GTA IV. Just so there’s no confusion on the details, the tweet said,”Details on 2nd episode of GTAIV downloadable content coming soon.” At the time of this writing this tweet is about 17 hours old. We can expect expect “soon” to mean anywhere from within the next five seconds, to the end of time.

The Lost and the Damned was immensly successful and has made more money in one day than any other DLC on Xbox Live. Part of its success is attributed to the ability to buy the content either through Xbox Live or by purchasing vouchers at retail. This will be the second GTA IV episode for Xbox 360.

Naughty Dog and Valve share a wealth of information

2010-04-06T23:13:00.000-07:00

For those of you aspiring game developers out there, or just plain folk interested in knowing a thing or two about the inner workings of how a game is developed, both Naughty Dog and Valve have links on their respective websites to some of their presentation materials for lectures they recently presented at GDC this past February.

These various downloadable presentation materials describe different methods and technologies used to develop their respective games, along with insights into some of the design choices they made and what references they drew inspiration from.

Naughty Dog’s page contains links to numerous documents discussing the production pipeline for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, ranging from character animation and the technology used, to stuff that I completely don’t understand (but some of you more programming oriented gamers might). I would highly recommend the Post-Mortem for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, as it provides an interesting behind the scenes summary of the entire development process for the game.

On Valve’s page you can find links to development documents for some of the games that were released in the very popular Orange Box. Among the presentation materials are a thorough post-mortem on Portal, discussing how the team integrated narrative with design, and a presentation on The Illustrative World of Team Fortress 2, which provides a very visual and technical overview for the development of the overall design style of the characters and the environments. For example, did you know that a large part of the unique rendering style for the characters in Team Fortress 2 was inspired from the great American illustrator J.C. Leyendecker? Their page also contains links to development documents from presentations they gave for their games in previous years at various conferences.

So if you’re interested in game design and development, these presentation materials provide a nice little peephole into the world of video game production. Head on over and check them out.

Normal subscriptions might not be how APB rolls

2010-03-20T21:31:00.000-07:00

No matter what, there are some people out there who just won’t pay additional or reoccurring payment for videogames. Loosely translated, they hate MMOs and the monthly fees that are associated with them. All Points Bulletin, the MMO currently being developed by Realtime Worlds is looking very impressive despite some limitations and if you despise the financial concepts behind massively-multiplayer online games but find yourself interested by APB, then Realtime Worlds head Dave Jones may be able to change your mind because they don’t want to go the traditional route of monthly subscriptions.

“Basically, you have to buy the client. It’s a traditional game that you buy,” he said to VG247, “We’re not going the normal ‘you have to subscribe to play the game every month’ route. What we haven’t said is which route we are going, and in some respects we’re still looking.” If that still hasn’t convinced you, then hey, someone has to pay for the $30 million investment placed on APB.

EA has its Halo, even without Bungie

2010-03-03T01:20:00.000-08:00

Crysis 2 is seen as EA’s “Halo killer”; that’s according to EA Games label president Frank Gibeau who says the publishing giant and Crytek were looking to craft a game “that would squarely go after what Bungie built”. And Crysis 2, said to be “a resetting of the franchise,” is it.

Crysis 2 “is spectacular, very high-end, and is going to be a multi-year franchise,” Gibeau says.

The words come from a recent chat where Gibeau explained how Bungie’s recent signing with Activision still leaves EA with a most impressive shooter line-up to go after the rival publisher with. Crytek (Crysis 2), DICE (the Battlefield series), Epic Games (Bulletstorm), EALA (Medal of Honor) and all the Modern Warfare developers who are joining the EA-backed Respawn Entertainment make “a pretty damn killer team,” he says.

“…we’re very pleased and confident with what we got and the franchises in our portfolio.”

EA CEO John Riccitiello has previously made it clear that he wants the first-person shooter leadership back from Activision.

Australia bans Dark Sector

2010-01-26T20:14:00.000-08:00

Australia’s rather strict game ratings system got another victim earlier this week – Digital Extremes’ Dark Sector. The game was refused classification by Australia’s Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC). High-impact violence and brutal finishing moves the main character can perform on unsuspecting foes are among reasons given for the banning.

“The finishing moves and most violent game play includes decapitation, dismemberment of limbs accompanied by large blood spurts, neck breaking spurts, neck breaking twists and exploded bodies with post-action twitching body parts. These moves are relatively easy to accomplish and once the player has mastered the moves and is able to get close to his foes, these violent moves can be executed,” an official report issued by OFLC reads.

The OFLC ruling also says that Dark Sector “contains violence that is high in impact and is therefore unsuitable for persons aged under 18 years to play.” And since Australia has a twisted games rating system where MA15+ is the highest rating, selling the game in Australia is effectively illegal.

Delayed from an initial January release, Dark Sector is now set for April, if a recent press release announcing Smallville’s Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor) as the voice talent is to be believed. The game will be available on both PS3 and Xbox 360.

[See also: Dark Sector gallery]

Tony Hawk: Shred, is it?

2010-01-20T17:58:00.000-08:00

Tony Hawk and developer Robomodo’s next may be subtitled Shred. That’s according to a now-MIA tweet from the skater’s own Twitter account.

“Tony Hawk: Shred. There, I said it. Actually, I named it,” Hawk wrote. “Somewhere a PR team is reeling.”

The yet-to-be-officially-named follow-up to Tony Hawk Ride, which was deemed a “retail success” a month ago, has been confirmed by both Hawk and publisher Activision. It’s expected later in the year.

Final Fantasy XIII to receive release date soon

2010-01-17T18:43:00.000-08:00

Things are in motion at Square Enix. With Q4 2009 fast-approaching, CEO Yoichi Wada is poking his head out from behind the curtain to let us know that Square “will be making an announcement in a few weeks” regarding Final Fantasy XIII‘s release date.

The title is set to launch this Winter exclusively for PlayStation 3 in Japan and sometime in the first quarter of 2010 in North America and Europe for PS3 and Xbox 360. There’s still no word on whether or not the forthcoming announcement will reveal the North American or European release dates as well, but chances are this will be regarding the Japanese release only. Wada also commented that the game’s development “has been going favorably”.

It’s good to know that the highly-anticipated title is on schedule, at least for Japan. In the meantime, how about a playable demo for us gaijin, eh? C’mon, Squeenix. Show some love.

New Mortal Kombat announced for 2011

2010-01-12T18:20:00.000-08:00

That 7-minute live-action video may not have been for a new Mortal Kombat game, but that doesn’t mean there’s not one coming. In fact, there very much is. And it’s got a trailer of its own, as seen above, which doesn’t pull any first date tricks and shows the “all new graphics engine” in action right away.

Said to be the most brutal game in the series yet, this one’s simply called Mortal Kombat, and is headed to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sometime next year.

Promised are the deepest story mode and the ‘most extensive’ online experience seen in any fighting game, along with new gameplay features and modes.

Perhaps most delightfully though, Fatalities are back and “presented in more gory detail than ever before”.

According to original creator Ed Boon, the new game “really is a response to what players have been demanding: mature presentation, reinvented 2D fighting mechanic and the best, most gruesome fatalities ever!”

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 details emerge

2010-01-04T21:31:00.000-08:00

While Ubisoft officially announced Rainbow Six Vegas 2 a few weeks ago, they released absolutely no details about what new features the game would offer, if any. Fortunately that’s changed now as The Official Xbox Magazine has revealed some nice pieces of information.

For one, Vegas2 will have eleven new weapons for you to play around and shoot the heavily modified enemy A.I. with. The story is partly sequel and partly prequel and you can play as either a male or a female character, plus you’ll be able to customize your character in a number of different ways.

As for the multiplayer, 11 new maps (some are Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield remakes by the way) and 2 new game modes will be available. There won’t be any annoying waiting in the lobby anymore as you’ll be able to join a game that has already started. And finding matches should be quicker too, as there’s a new Search function.

Ubisoft also promises that the framerate will be much higher, which of course is always welcome. And finally, like we already knew, Vegas 2 is planned for release in March 2008 for Xbox360, PS3 and PC.

GI gives Jumper for Wii a ridiculously low score of 1.75

2009-11-13T00:59:00.000-08:00

You rarely see review scores below 5/10 anymore these days. When a game is really, really bad, publications still tend to give it an average score, which is why the rating system on many sites needs a do-over. But when a game gets a score of 1.75/10, then it’s safe to say the game must be a hilariously bad one. As is the case with the Wii version of Brash Entertainment’s Jumper: Griffin’s Story (based on the recently released Jumper movie), according to GameInformer’s view of the game at least.

GI’s reviewer Andrew Reiner writes in the review (which, in its entirety, is shorter than this post by the way): “To all the truck drivers out there who are transporting copies of Jumper: Griffin’s Story to retail, please redirect your shipments to Alamogordo, New Mexico. You’ll know you are in the right location when you see thousands of E.T. cartridges moving out of the way to make room for your shipment. Jumper fails on all fronts; animation, sound, level design, control, combat, storytelling, balancing, item management…all of it.”

Reviews like these don’t leave a very good mark on Brash, considering their focus is on “developing compelling, high-quality games based on favorite films, television and music properties,” as they put it themselves. Time will tell if they’ll do better with the Saw game they announced in late January.