Category: Industry News

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood Dev Diary is Heavy on Melodrama

Coming out just one short year after my official Game of Forever, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (or Assassin’s Creed: ODST as it is nicknamed around these parts) tells the story of Ezio’s formation of the Assassin Order after his victory in the second game. According to the video, this game is all about Ezio’s evolution as an assassin and his journey into the next part of his life. The game is focused entirely around the city of Rome, which players visited for a short time in Assassin’s Creed 2. Give the diary a watch, why don’t you:

While I’m a bit worried about the short turn around between two and this one, the developers speaking in the video clearly recognize how well received their previous game was, and are striving to keep that level of quality. On another note, those are some really awesome hoodies the dev team are wearing. What do you guys think? Is Brotherhood on your radar?

EVE Online Pirates Destroy In-Game Time Cards

EVE ONLINEEvery time I read about a bad-ass heist job in EVE Online, a space-bound MMO focused on corporate back-stabbing, I find myself gripped with the insatiable urge to try the game. I’ve heard that for the most part it’s pretty dull and is kind of like having a second job, but these stories just scratch some odd gaming itch I never knew that I had.

Take this most recent tale, for example. To combat the online sale of ISK (EVE’s currency) by gold farmers, publisher CCP decided to create in-game time cards which can be sold for ISK, thus cutting gold farmers out of the loop by allowing players to trade time extension cards for cash. These cards, called PLEX, or Pilot License Extensions, recently became actual items inside of EVE’s servers so they could be carried around by cargo ships. While this sounds like a recipe for disaster, I don’t think anyone was prepared for what happened next.

A cargo ship owned by Method of Destruction, a player run guild, was carrying 74 PLEX cards while making its way through a sector of space that’s apparently rife with pirate activity when it was beset upon by a couple of enterprising raiders. Unfortunately for the pair, they were a little over-zealous and destroyed the cargo ship along with all 74 cards. You may be asking yourself what this amount of cards is worth, and the answer is a staggering $1,295.00 in actual US funds. In game, that would be 22 billion ISK, or six years and two months of play time. Since the licenses were blown up they can never be claimed, so CCP just made themselves a cool profit thanks to two trigger-happy bandits.

What do you guys think of this news? Pretty awesome that there’s a game out there that allows, nay encourages, this type of tomfoolery. What do you think CCP should do with the $1,295.00? People are calling for them to donate it to charity, so do you agree? Tell us in the comments. To read about the previous EVE Online raid, click here.

Source: Kotaku via Massively

Space Combat for The Old Republic Explained

TORStar Wars: The Old Republic is number one on my list for upcoming PC releases, doubly so because it has the delicious flavor of a BioWare Star Wars game and an MMO rolled in to one. I know that there was a Star Wars MMO previously, but that was Galaxies by Sony Online Entertainment, and my therapist has advised me not to speak of that relationship. Regardless of how Galaxies was handled, one of the few things SOE did well was the space combat, taking away the turn-based dance endemic to MMORPG ground combat and making a more twitch-based system that resembled the X-Wing games of yore. Before the special ships were introduced and ruined the space combat with their ability to stock the highest grade equipment, blasting around between the planets was great fun. Star Wars just isn’t Star Wars without extra-planetary combat, and it seems that BioWare feels the same way.

MMO mega-site Massively (via the upcoming October issue of PC Gamer) reports that the space segments of The Old Republic will be “tunnel-based” as opposed to the free-form combat of its predecessors. If you’re having trouble picturing this sort of gameplay, think StarFox 64 or the old Rebel Assault titles. BioWare is apparently doing this to create a “cinematic” feel for players. I’ll reserve my judgment until I play the game itself, but I’d rather see a X-Wing vs TIE Fighter scenario. Massively does mention achievements, though, so I’ll be easier to mollify if that’s the case.

What do you guys think about this? Down for some rail-shooting, or do you hope BioWare will break out the combat for the inevitable PVP arenas?

Source: Massivley

Current Top 10 Selling Games of 2010

PokemonMaybe you haven’t noticed yet, but 2010 is almost over. Yes, for serious. While in most gaming years this might not be anything to take special note of, Modern Warfare 2’s release in 2009 ensured that we’ve had the kind of gaming we’ve always dreamed of, spread out over this current trip around the sun. I honestly can’t remember the last time we’ve had this many great titles to play before September, and maybe there’s never been another year like it.

Because there’s lots to play, there’s clearly a lot of people purchasing games. Yahoo has just released a list of the top 10 selling games of 2010 so far, and you might actually be surprised by a few of the results. Or maybe you are awesome, and you totally will predict everything on the list.

Anyway, feel free to hit the jump to see the full list of best sellers. Because I’m nice like that.

Continue reading Current Top 10 Selling Games of 2010

Black Ops Multiplayer Trailer Teases Replays

Another year means another Call of Duty and this time Treyarch is back in the driver’s seat. Following up on Modern Warfare 2’s massive success, it doesn’t look like the franchises’ B-studio is taking any chances with the formula. Judging by the gameplay it looks to be largely the same, but with a few graphical tweaks and a remote control car bomb. The big news this time, though, is the inclusion of replays to the game, allowing you to go back and watch old matches. If the few moments it appears in the trailer are any indication, it looks to be similar to Halo 3’s Theater mode where you can break the camera out and rotate it around. No word on whether or not you can share the films, but I don’t think that’s out of the question. Take a look at the video:

Ever since Treyarch announced that Black Ops would have dedicated servers on the PC, I’ve been slightly hopeful for this new Call of Duty. If Treyarch brings us more cool stuff, I may consider sinking money into this iteration. What about you guys? What’s your opinion on this video reveal?

New Vanquish Trailer is a Blur of Gunfights and Mech Punching

Platinum Games, the same people behind the sleeper-hit Bayonetta, are coming at us again with a new game to be released later this year called Vanquish. I’m not sure if we’ve ever mentioned this game before, but the basic premise is you’re a man in a super suit sent to fight Russians in space. I’m pretty sure the McGuffin of the game will be an EMP device because that’s how things seem to be going these days. A new trailer came online recently, and it does a great job of showcasing the game’s frenetic cover-to-close-quarters combat. The game seems to play like a cross between Gears of War and Devil May Cry, so if that piques your interest, give the trailer a watch.

One thing’s for sure, Steve Blum must be very tired after recording every single male voice in the game. What do you guys think? Does this look like your kind of game? Let us know in the comments.

Team Fortress 2 Players Destroy Rare Item for Charity

goldencharity

Child’s Play, started by the Penny-Arcade guys way back in 2003 to not only give toys to sick kids in the hospital but to also dispel the negative image of gamers created by mainstream media, has been a runaway success since its inception, raising over six and a half million dollars in seven years. While every year more and more great fundraisers step up to plate to donate to the foundation, I’ve never seen one that actively encourages item destruction.

For those who are unaware, the last Team Fortress 2 class update came out a short while back with the Engineer as its focus. To celebrate the new content, Valve release 100 golden-colored wrenches to the community to use in game. Now, given the large player base and the rarity of the item, almost all of the lucky 100 have been faced with in-game harassment for simply having good fortune. Well, one user named “WiNG” decided to do something unusual with his wrench. Instead of simply destroying it to be rid of it, he started a fundraiser for Child’s Play, pledging to delete his golden wrench on August 23 and donate all of the proceeds. So far, ten more wrench owners have joined him, and the donations have crested over twenty thousand dollars.

I think this is a really inspiring bit of gaming news, showing that we gamers do have a heart, albeit deep, deep down for some of us. Although the wrenches are worth nothing, and were simply made by Valve to reward a few of their players, WiNG and his ten followers have turned a bit of code into a hefty amount of cash, all with the aim of better the lives of children in the hospital. If you want to check out more on this charity, visit Top Tier Tactics.

Halo Reach Multiplayer: Remakes, Outer Space and Aerial Assaults

Even though the Reach Beta is far behind us, my mind is still consumed with thoughts of running around Boneyard and Powerhouse, throwing mini-nuke grenades and Lock Blocking some fools. Needless to say, I’m greatly looking forward to the game’s release on September 14, and I’ve even taken a couple days off of work to fully absorb it (that and go to a wedding, but we know which is more important). Bungie recently played host to a variety of media outlets – while snubbing my tear-filled pleas to be invited – and the fruits of those visits are finally hitting the internet. IGN got to take a look at three of the maps being shipped with Reach, and two of them should be familiar to Halo 2 veterans.

It all looks pretty good to me, especially the prospect of flying Falcons in multiplayer. How is it looking to you guys?

Batman: Arkham City Swooping From the Shadows in 2011

BATMANBatman: Arkham Asylum was probably the biggest surprise of 2009 next to Wolverine. A big-budget super-hero game that actually captured the feeling of being Batman and was a blast to play? Almost unheard of in the video game industry, but developers Rocksteady pulled it off. Of course, a big success means sequels, and Arkham Asylum is no exception. Originally teased last year at Spike’s Video Game Awards show, the follow-up to AA will take place in Arkham City, a “heavily fortified” district in the heart of Gotham. Presumably this means more gargoyles to hang on.

Besides being in a different locale, Arkham City will feature a new cast of villains like Mr. Freeze, Two-Face, and Catwoman. Nothing much has been announced for the upcoming title, but Rocksteady promises this game will “deliver the ultimate experience as the Dark Knight.”

I think we can all agree that Arkham Asylum was fun, but there were things that needed to be improved about it, most notably the poorly designed boss fights. Almost every single boss encounter in that game was gimmicky or totally out of context (Scarecrow being the notable exception). What do you guys want to see from this bat-sequel? The game is dropping on PC, PS3 and the 360 in Autumn of 2011.

Source: CVG

GamerSushi Asks: Photorealistic Graphics?

LimboOver the weekend, I’ve been dabbling a bit in a couple of newly release titles. One is, obviously, StarCraft 2, but the other is Limbo, newly up for purchase as part of X-Box LIVE’s Summer of Arcade. I didn’t really follow the story of Limbo that closely, but I knew it was a side-scrolling platformer with a unique look. I tried the demo and immediately bought the full game, mostly because of how much the art style appeal to me. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Limbo, check out the trailer. Among other cliched terms, I’d call it hauntingly beautiful and very atmospheric. In addition to looking as gorgeous as a game that dark can it also features some slick puzzles and grotesque punishments for failure (seriously, you get messed up).

The game’s visual presentation got me thinking, though. The farther into the future we get with game consoles, the closer to life everyone seems to want their graphics. While some big-budget titles stretch the limit of what is acceptable by our real-life standards (Gears of War’s improbably bulky protagonists come to mind), video games are getting closer and closer to emulating what we perceive through our own two eyes. Games like Limbo, Braid and many similar titles show us that we don’t have to constrain everything to an Earth-bound package. Perhaps one of the barriers to the “games as art” argument is that this visual medium doesn’t add anything that movies have already done in this respect. That’s probably why Braid got tossed around a lot when this issue got brought up the first time; it looks like a painting come to life, much like Limbo. So I ask you guys this: do you want more games to stretch the graphical barrier and start using different ways to interpret what we see? Or do you think that sort of experimentation is confined to downloadable titles? Fire away!

Poll: Impatience and Upgrading

Starcraft II. It’s out. It’s been clamored for since last decade. And now everybody and their mom seems to be playing it. Well, everybody that is, except me. You see, I’ve found myself in a bit of a pickle over Starcraft II’s epic release.

Here’s the rundown: it’s been almost 5 years since I upgraded my PC. I think I did it the year I got married, which was all the way back in 2005, before the days of Leet World. In fact, TLW was part of the reason that I upgraded in the first place, in order to get ready for that kind of work. As such, my PC can just barely play SCII, much to my sadness.

So, I’m left with a bit of a choice. I was hoping to upgrade sometime in the next 5-6 months, which will make my PC able to easily tackle this grand RTS. However, I still want to play it, and play it now, because I feel like I’m missing out on all the fun. The problem is, on my crappy system, I’m not sure how much fun it will actually be.

What would you guys do if you were in my shoes? I thought I’d put it to a vote. Go!

What would you do?

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GamerSushi Asks: The Quitting Game

VegetaOne thing that can put a damper on a good night of fun in the online world of gaming would have to be the advent of rage quitting, something that plagues even the most congenial of multiplayer matches. It’s hard to escape, really. As long as there are people playing games, there will be people that grief and people that quit.

And this is something that Bungie hopes to put a stop to. In a recent chat with Xbox360 Achievements, Bungie community director Brian Jarrard had a few things to say about a new system they’re implementing into Halo: Reach to help weed out the rage quitters from the rest of the population. The idea is that these people will be penalized in order to keep the overall experience more enjoyable.

We’ve talked about the idea of when to quit online matches, but I still thought I’d bring this up. What do you guys think of punishing people that habitually quit games? Personally, I’m of two minds about it. On the one hand, I think it does indeed ruin the experience for other people in some ways. But on the other, if I pay 60 bucks for a game, I feel like it’s almost my right to enjoy it how I please, and that doesn’t include letting someone grief me for an entire match or playing a really hated gametype. Obviously, it’s a tricky ground to navigate, but my advice would be to find better ways to penalize griefers before penalizing quitters, but that’s just me.

So what do you guys think about quitting online games? Do you agree with Bungie’s new proposed tactic? Go!

Source- X360A

Metroid: Other M Goes to the Movies

Other MNintendo and Team Ninja’s collaborative efforts on Metroid: Other M are coming to fruition at the end of August, and the game is going to be a bit different than what fans of the series are used to. Typically, Metroid games play up the feeling of loneliness and desolation on hostile alien worlds, but this time around Samus is going to be a lot more vocal and she’ll have a few characters backing her up. Because the game is focusing more on character interactions, Other M will feature almost two hours of cut scenes. Since you’ll probably spend most of your time looking for hidden items and blasting creepy bad guys, Team Ninja is doing you a service by giving you the option to watch Other M’s video segments strung together in a sort of “theater mode” once you’ve finished your playthrough.

A very nice gesture on the developer’s part, but I can’t help but feel that they’ve missed what makes Metroid the unique series that it is, outside of the whole being-hit-so-hard-your-items-fall-off gameplay mechanic. Metroid isn’t about long winded cut-scenes or being told hold Samus feels. Part of her mystery is that you don’t know anything about her, her motivations or what goes on inside her head. She’s a bounty hunter and a warrior. Do people want to know more about Samus? I might be alone in this, but I like Metroid when it’s dark and enigmatic, not when it’s beating you over the head with narrative. What about you guys? Are you down for some cinematic action, or are you a bit wary?

Source: Kotaku

Halo: Reach Campaign Trailer Debuts

Your resident Halo fanboy is back, this time with the campaign trailer for Bungie Studio’s upcoming Halo swan song, Halo: Reach. You can debate whether this game is actually the most anticipated title of 2010 (please don’t), but there’s no denying that the excitement for Reach is building to a fevered pitch. With Firefight 2.0, Forge World and a swath of player customization options, it looks like Bungie’s last Halo game will be very fine indeed. Check out the trailer below:

Very nice in my opinion, if a little reminiscent of Modern Warfare 2 in some parts. Like all of Bungie’s trailers, this stuff is all in engine, and damn if it doesn’t look sublime. What do you guys think? Any more excited, or are you like me, veritably bursting at the seams with apprehension?

Machinima: Gears of War 3: What Have I Become

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: TheDuoGroup makes some of my favorite machinima out there. Their new piece, a trailer created for Gears of War 3 titled What Have I Become, might be some of their best work. It was created in collaboration with Dave Tyner of Treadster Media.

Anyway, I don’t watch too much machinima these days, but I’m sure to catch everything these guys put out. Honestly, this got me more pumped for Gears of War 3 than anything else has to date. Give it a watch!

StarCraft 2 Finally Launches Today

Today is the day we’ve been waiting for since what feels like forever; the day that Blizzard deigns to grace us with the most hotly anticipated Real-Time-Strategy game in recent memory, StarCraft 2. Well, to be accurate, the first part of the StarCraft 2 trilogy, the Terran-centric Wings of Liberty campaign. I won’t split hairs though, because this is a monumental occasion for gamers of all types. More than any other game I know, StarCraft has a fervent legion of followers; even self-professed “non-gamer” friends of mine have been looking forward to this. Now that the game is finally out, how many of you are playing, and how many of you are waiting patiently for your copy to download? In celebration, check out the beautiful Ghosts of the Past trailer:

So, what’s your first stop: campaign or multiplayer?

Bungie Introduces Forge World for Halo: Reach

If you listened to the totally sweet new podcast, then you’ll know that we geeked out for awhile about mods and how awesome the gaming community is at creating cool new content for our most beloved games. While this mostly happens on PC, one of the primary examples of this done well on a console is the variety of custom content produced by Halo 3’s avid Forge community. Even years later, they are still pumping out cool new game types that are totally worth playing.

Which is why Bungie has kicked it up a notch for Halo: Reach with the introduction of Forge World. There’s not really a whole lot I can say about this other than implore you to watch. Because seriously, wow… I am so excited about the possibilities that the team at Bungie is creating for this. The fact that they are even shipping some maps built in Forge World to show what all it can do is sure to inspire.

Who else just got even more excited for Halo: Reach because of this video?

The GamerSushi Show, Ep 6: Fresh Coat of Free

Alien SwarmIt’s really hard to believe that we’re now on podcast number 6, but we’re back this week with a brand new edition The GamerSushi Show, ready for your ears and scrutiny. You’ll notice a couple of things that are different in this episode, namely the awesome new theme song that Jace Ford wrote for us, which to me is absolutely perfect. Anyone that speaks against it will face the back of my hand. Also, Anthony was sick so he couldn’t make this week, and his absence was definitely felt, but he’ll be back for the next one.

In this episode, we cover a variety of topics as always, which may or may not include the death of 1 vs 100, remakes of old games and Alien Swarm. Apparently when we recorded this, the phrases “fresh coat of paint” and “free” became our favorite words ever, because we say them no less than a million times each during the course of it. Seriously, if you are of drinking age, you should play a drinking game that revolves around each time we say either of those things. You will get plastered.

Anyway, as we requested last time, you should definitely go rate the podcast on iTunes if you haven’t done so already. Enjoy!
Continue reading The GamerSushi Show, Ep 6: Fresh Coat of Free

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Valve Dishing Out Alien Swarm Free Today on Steam

Today, Valve is releasing something special that many PC gamers are sure to freak out over. I have to admit, I am not one of the rabid denizens of the Unreal 2004 community that played the junk out of the now famous mod known as Alien Swarm, but I’ve heard all about it from friends of mine who swear that it is one of the most fun multiplayer co-op games that they have ever experienced.

If you don’t know of the history behind it, Alien Swarm was a top-down mod for UT 2004 that allowed 4 players to battle it out, Diablo style, against legions of aliens with totally awesome weapons. Valve then hired the team behind its inception to help them build Left 4 Dead. Apparently the team has had some free time on its hands these days, and have produced a good and proper Source engine version of their beloved classic, which releases today on Steam.

The best part? It’s absolutely free. I’m going to be playing this tonight for sure. Who’s with me?

Did any of you guys play the original? Go!

Rumor: Mysterious Video Points to Modern Warfare 2 Subscription Plan?

On the internet, everything must be taken with a grain of salt, which is why Wikipedia is no longer a valid source for information when writing a paper for school. Simply put, there are too many untrustworthy people who are much, much smarter than the vast majority of us, and they use their talents to disguise erroneous facts as the truth. This video, though, seems to be pretty legitimate to me. Apparently an X-Box LIVE user attempted to connect to a friend’s game, only to be bounced to a Marketplace page that announced that a Membership plan was necessary, but not available yet. Take a look at the video and decide for yourself.

The top of the screen clearly has the beginning of “membership” before it is cut off by the size limitation. What do you guys think? Will Modern Warfare 2 follow a WoW-based route, or is this for something different? Treat this as a rumor for now until we have official word from Activision. It wouldn’t surprise me, though.