So now that the merger of Vivendi, Activision and Blizzard is now complete they're cleaning house and getting things organized, and that means dropping some franchises and titles in development. Two of the titles on the chopping block are Ghostbusters and Tim Schafer's (Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle) Brutal Legend. This doesn't mean that they're halting production, but that they will no longer be publishing them, so I'm sure they'll easily find homes elsewhere. I can understand dropping Tim's title, it's a bit of a gamble, because even though he makes fantastic games they don't really put up huge numbers, but motherfucking Ghostbusters? Are you kidding me?
Sony Pictures, who owns the license, issued a statement saying the game will be released "one way or another," though this would probably push the release back into next year. I fear that they may decide to shuffle it off to Sony Computer Entertainment, a move I'm surprised they didn't make in the first place. If this takes place, the game, especially when Sony's hurting for good exclusives in light of the Final Fantasy XIII fiasco, would almost definitely make it a PS3 exclusive.
-K.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
That's Vivactard-ed
Monday, July 28, 2008
They Are Making a Sequel to Tron
They are making a sequel to Tron.
-K.
P.S. Holy shit, they are making a sequel to Tron.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Would You Kindly Buy This Game?
The Weekend Deal on Steam is currently the PC version of BioShock for half price, at a very, very reasonable $14.99. Even if you've played it before, the PC version is perfectly fine, and I can't think of a reason not to throw a little more cash their way.
-K.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Thursday Morning Video Thing: Mr. Show - Change for a Dollar
Hey, look, it's actually a sketch this time.
-K.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
An Explosion of Useless Information
Even though I've got a link to it off to the side, I thought I'd throw it up here that Giant Bomb has officially launched. They're going to be another news and reviews site, but the bigger portion of it is an interesting sort of video game wiki or IMDb equivalent, with pages dedicated to games and then breaking off into locations, concepts, character, developer and individual pages. It's run by a quartet of ex-Gamespot editors, notably Jeff Gerstmann, who you may recall, if you're a nerd, was the longtime editor who got fired for giving Eidos' Kane & Lynch a bad review. They've got an entertaining podcast as well, so if you like video games it wouldn't be a bad site to check out from time to time.
Also, Chris bought Call of Duty 4, and we played it online before (and after) attending the midnight showing of Alien at the Tivoli (Which was awesome, but hot). That reignited the spark and I went out and bought it yesterday, and spent about two hours shooting guys in the face with an M60 and also screaming in frustration at the TV. Thanks a lot, Chris.
I'll just edit this in here, the complete series of Spaced finally came out on DVD here in the States today, I saw it advertised on Best Buy's site for $40 and I highly recommend picking it up.
-K.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
The Evolution Will Not Be Televised
I'm sure many of you have heard about it by now, but in case you haven't, you have until midnight this Sunday to check out Joss Whedon's latest offering Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog starring Doogie Howser and Mal Reynolds. It's slow to really get going and not the greatest thing he's ever made, but Whedon's goals are admirable enough, I just don't know if this is the kind of franchise to try to jump start these heady ideas of what the medium should become into motion. Things pick up when Fillion finally appears, but it really just made me want to go back and watch through Firefly again, which is not the kind of sentiment that urges me to rush out and buy Dr. Horrible merchandise.
At any rate, I'd still recommend checking it out, while you still can (For free, at least).
Friday, July 18, 2008
Late Thursday Morning Video Game Trailer: Max Payne E3 2001 Trailer
With all the hubub surrounding E3 I chose to overlook regular content updates, though I often choose to overlook them with startling regularity. There wasn't much juicy information to glean from the news sites last night, not to me, anyway. Perhaps the journalists in question are just spending time convalescing from the near round-the-clock festivities, making the long treks back to their dark headquarters, and I imagine we'll see quite a lot of E3-related content and hands-on footage in the coming days. I'll probably sift through the rubble over the weekend and come up with another collection of the small nuggets I deem awesome to post next week. There was one big announcement in BioWare finally coming out and saying, after months and months of rumor and speculation, that they are working on a new Star Wars MMO. Specifically, a Knights of the Old Republic MMO. I'm not hot on MMOs so it'll probably get a pass from me, unless they come up with something extremely compelling. Overall, though, the event did give us some exciting and entertaining insight into games I was already looking forward to and put a few on the map that I hadn't really given much attention, and I'm sad to see it's already over. I am a nerd, by choice and hopefully someday by trade, so there is a palpable excitement and feeling of suspense with this convention, not knowing what preview or screenshot or video may soon drop into laps, and rejoicing at things that we hope will not suck. I hope it's still around next year.
At any rate, to close out E3 week, I thought I'd put up one of my favorite game trailers ever. Though it's starting to look pretty dated, here's the Max Payne trailer that debuted at E3 in 2001. This is how you sell a game, not with an entirely gameplay-less CG trailer. Make it cinematic, make it in-game, and then show some awesome action from the game itself.
Also this bit of a blunder on Ubisoft's part is both sad and entertaining.
-K.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Highlights of E3: Day Two
Apparently last night's EA-sponsored, Rock Band-themed after-party featured an unannounced live performance by The Who, I guess as sort of a tie-in since the The Who's "Best Of" song pack for Rock Band went online last night, which seems like it was pretty rad. They were originally supposed to be bringing to full album of Who's Next to the game, but I guess after a few months of waiting Pete Townsend and Roger Daltrey came out and said "Yeah, we sort of lost the master tracks for a few of those songs." They've still got "Baba O'Riley" in there, so it's all good. Not much to talk about announcement or press conference wise, other than Shigeru Miyamoto saying that they are making another Pikmin game, which is something I've been waiting to here for a long time. Now with the show:
- Destructoid offers more hands-on impressions of Fallout 3, reinforcing my feeling that the presentation just sucked and the game itself, in a much richer context than simply showing combat alone allows, will still be awesome.
- Shacknews goes hands-on with Resident Evil 5, coming away with some fully expected palpable enthusiasm.
- It's annoyingly shaky-cam, but Evil Avatar sister site Co-Optimus offers up some footage of them playing Left 4 Dead, and I really want to play it.
- Post-apocalypse seems to be the order of the day, with id's Rage, Bethesda's Fallout 3 and Gearbox's Borderlands, and I'm very fine with that. The Brothers in Arms-developer trotted out the game, its first public appearance, by putting on a lengthy presentation of the FPS/RPG hybrid, and it looks really good. You can read some of the major features they're promising here, and the presentation itself is split into three parts, here's Part #1, Part #2, and Part #3. The most important thing to bring up, I think, is that it looks like you can wander around the world and play through the entire game in co-op.
- Capcom presented some gameplay footage of Airtight Studios' third-person shooter Dark Void, and I'm looking forward to it. Running around shooting guys on the ground looks very much like Gears of War except while wearing a jetpack, and I'm okay with that. Though you can jack UFOs and go dogfighting with them, which should be great considering these are the guys behind Crimson Skies. I'm digging the sort of darker version of a 40's serial aesthetic that they're going for, and the "vertical combat" also looks pretty sweet.
- I played a little bit of Baldur's Gate II a while ago and it was not as completely horrible as I remember it, so maybe BioWare's so-called "spiritual successor" to that celebrated franchise Dragon Age: Origins will be better received by me, but based on this gameplay footage I'm still on the fence.
- Lastly, here's a poser: It's E3, you've recently announced your new game, but you don't really have anything to show off yet and you don't have the resources to hire a team to make a CG trailer, what do you do? My answer is don't go ahead make a trailer anyway. But those small inconveniences did not stop a reformed Apogee Software from releasing a trailer for their upcoming handheld-only Duke Nukem Trilogy. Seriously? Why did you even take the time to make this? I've seen fake YouTube fan trailers a million times better than what I just saw.
-K.
Sham Bam Bamana
So they're finally making another Sockbaby movie, which if you haven't already you should check out the previous installments. I am hoping Doug TenNapel is on board for this again, and I have to admit that I enjoyed the trailer but they lost me at one point. If you'd like to guess where, I'll give you a hint: It rhymes with Jon Heder. Also, isn't that some kind of remix of the Johnny Quest theme they're using?
Thanks to Theron for the heads-up.
-K.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Highlights of E3: Day One (For Reals)
I guess, even though it was listed as a date on the official schedule, Monday was a "pre-E3" day and not considered to be the actual first day of the event. Even though Microsoft held their big press event and lots of publishers showed off their games on Monday. Anyway, here's the poop from yesterday:
I'd talk about the highlights of the Sony and Nintendo press conferences, except the problem is that there really weren't any. Sony's video download service launched late last night and they showed off Killzone 2 and Resistance 2. Sony's Jack Tretton also brought out a new game that they described as an MMO MAG (Massive Action Game, or something to that effect) and I guess they're calling it "MAG." He's saying it will support up to 256 players in one match, which sounds like a clusterfuck, and went on to say this kind of game hasn't been done before and wouldn't be possible on any platform except for the PS3. He didn't really give any reasons why you couldn't do it on the 360, because I'm pretty sure you could, and I should mention it has been done before, by the same company he works for, no less.
The reps from Nintendo spent a lot of time talking about the casual market, the importance of trying to cater to the female market, backing that up with some enthralling charts and graphs showing that Nintendo DS ownership is nearly split right down the middle between men and women. They talked about Wii Sports 2 being included with the new "MotionPlus" peripheral which is a new controller attachment that is supposed to create more realistic and accurate 1:1 motion with the controller, which is kind of something it should've had to begin with. Also they announced a new DS-exclusive Grand Theft Auto game called Chinatown Wars, set in Liberty City, but did not show off anything from the game itself. Capcom also stated that Dead Rising will be coming to the Wii, but still no PC version or mention of a sequel.
And now, flashing lights and pretty pictures:
- More media and an official trailer for the new Ghostbusters game can be found here. The game itself does not look particularly great, but it's very hard not to be excited knowing that the original cast is involved and that Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd are writing the script and are being very hands-on with the development.
- Shacknews has a new preview of Valve's Left 4 Dead, which has gone through a big facelift apparently, and Rock Paper Shotgun has some hands-on impressions. Also here's some raw footage of the game. Since last we saw it they've redesigned the characters, changed some weapons and commented about two-player split-screen for the 360. For a while now the game has supposedly been content complete and is going through the rigorous Valve playtesting wringer, and as much as I'd like to play it now the quality of The Orange Box speaks volumes about how valuable that process is.
- Shacknews also has some hands-on impressions of Bethesda's Fallout 3, which leaves me a little more hopeful about it than their demonstration video left me feeling. Like what many have been saying is that what made the Fallout games great was not the combat but the dialogue and atmosphere, but that's not really something you can show off effectively in a five minute presentation.
- Ubisoft's Far Cry 2, which is not being developed by Crytek, is something that I've been looking forward to for quite some time, and even though it bears the title it has little resemblance to any of the previous titles (Which apart from the PC original were kind of crap). Set in Africa, they're promising a non-linear adventure in which you explore a 50km open world space, trying to seek out and eliminate an arms dealer known as The Jackal, and along the way you'll take on side missions so you can buy bigger and better guns. They put out an official trailer and some new media, and just for kicks, here's an interview with Ubi's Clint Hocking from a couple days ago.
- EA also showed off a trailer and some walkthrough footage of their upcoming third-person horror-themed shooter Dead Space, which to me sort of looks like they're trying to combine Doom 3 and Resident Evil 4, with a splash of System Shock 2. I'm really hoping they can pull it off, but while what they're showing off here is interesting, it's not terribly impressive.
- Raven has finally come out of whatever dark basement they've been laboring in and showed off a teaser trailer for the new Wolfenstein game. I know everybody and their mom loves to bitch about how played out and stale World War II games are getting, but I've always maintained that as long as it's a good game I'll play it. I played through Return to Castle Wolfenstein again recently, and barring the forced stealth sections, it still holds up relatively well. I'm completely down for another game where I get to kill Nazis and zombies.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Highlights of E3: Day One
Even though publishers and developers were breaking off ties with the ESA in droves, this year's slimmed-down E3 has so far still provided plenty of exciting and interesting demonstrations and revelations. I think it's funny that John Carmack, head of id Software, one of the first to split from the ESA (The group that puts E3 together) he still showed up, under the wing of new publisher Electronic Arts, to show off their upcoming FPS Rage. Which to me seems like telling someone their birthday is a waste of time and money but still showing up to the party. But I digress, here's what I dug:
It was a big day for Microsoft, or M$ to the disgruntled Square fanboys, as they announced that previously PS3-exclusive heavy-hitter Final Fantasy XIII will be heading for the XBox 360 as well. I'm not going to buy it and I don't know if I'll even try it, but it's both funny and frustrating to watch the hardcore PS3/Square zealots bang their cups and shake their cages, as if Square announced it wasn't coming to the PS3 at all. Any forum will no doubt provide hilarious commentary about Microsoft being the big bully trying to monopolize the industry and painting Sony as the "little guy" being kicked around. Sony is not the little guy; There are no little guys in this fight. It would be more accurate to describe Sony as arrogant and lazy, resting on their laurels, you could see it in the earliest press releases and even those following, where they were expecting you to buy the PlayStation based on the name and promise of Blu-ray alone, even if the games weren't there, and to some degree, still aren't. It's hubris, and will probably end up being a good thing for this never-ending console war, it will actually make Sony start to act like a competitor.
Microsoft also showed off all the features of revamped Dashboard, to be included in the next major update. The major upgrades I'm looking forward to are optional game installs, which we're being promised works with all previous titles and future ones, though to make that a viable proposition to the current install base they really need to bring down their ridiculous hard drive prices (Currently the 120GB XBox 360 hard drive is $179.99), because the 20GB hard drive that I, and many others, have really wouldn't be able to fit more than two or three games, and that's if we completely get rid of demos, videos and Live Arcade titles. Microsoft also made an exclusive deal with Netflix to bring streaming movies to XBox Live, which already being a Netflix customer is something I should have read about more, but I can only hope and assume this means I'll be able to take advantage of this at no extra charge. Also they're saying the Dashboard will be tied-in with the Guide, meaning that you'll be able to switch to a different game or a video or whatever from whatever you're playing/watching without having to quit and go back to the menu, which is kind of hot. Lastly they're set to replace the regular Gamertag pictures with "Avatars," 3D representations of yourself that you create, which screams as a "me too" move to copy the Wii (Or would that be "Mii too?").
And now, the games:
- Bethesda has finally released some gameplay footage of Fallout 3, in the form of a new official trailer and a slightly lackluster demonstration video, which I'm hoping I can put down to it just being a hastily thrown together presentation.
- EA showed off the extremely impressive DICE-developed, Parkour-influenced FPS Mirror's Edge, which also comes in the form of an official trailer and demonstration video. I'm really hoping they can pull this off because it's looking like it could be something very special. They're promising that you can play through the game without firing a shot, and as someone that goes out of his way to get a melee kill, that sounds pretty awesome to me. Though I also thought you could probably play through F.E.A.R. without firing a shot, it would just be really difficult.
- Capcom took some time to show off some of the online co-op in Resident Evil 5, which is pretty much all you need to know about the game in order to secure a purchase.
- Epic was also around, showing off some of the gameplay in Gears of War 2, but that footage is secondary to the much more important announcement that the game will feature 5-player co-op. They're promising to have it out by early November, and more of you guys need to buy 360's.
-K.
Play This Now: 8-Bit Killer
If it were even remotely possible for an FPS to appear on the NES, it would probably look like this game. A throwback homage to the olden days of 8-bit gaming and Wolfenstein 3-D, this is a ridiculously colorful and ridiculously plotted shooter, complete with WASD and mouse controls. It's an amusing time waster you should check out, and it don't cost nothin'.
Download, 8bit_killer.zip (15.5MB)
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Max Payne Movie Might Be Okay
Three posts in one day, uncanny.
So the first trailer for the Max Payne movie starring Marky Mark hit the web today, and so far it looks okay. Not great, but okay, and nowhere near as bad as the Hitman trailer.
The Most Important Event(s) This Summer
They finally posted the Tivoli midnight show schedule on the Landmark Theaters site (scroll to the bottom). Must-see highlights include Alien, Jurassic Park, Rear Window and Blade Runner. Also if anyone else is interested I wouldn't mind seeing American Psycho, The Breakfast Club, The Dark Crystal, Grindhouse (The full, original theatrical release, it says), The Crow or 2001. Also I didn't know this because I keep forgetting to keep up with The Moolah, but I'm told they have a year-round midnight show, and this weekend it's Robocop.
Thursday Morning Thing: Spaced 1x01 - Beginnings
Hey, look, it's an episode of another British TV show.
-K.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Of Mouths and Gift Horses
So after talking about it a couple months ago, Square let the word out that they're finally updating their SNES classic Chrono Trigger for the DS, which is awesome, don't get me wrong, but I can't help but be disappointed, especially when compared to their other handheld remake offerings. Couldn't you have at least put some of that work those talented folks (Though not terribly bright for trying to re-create someone else's existing property) working on the fan remake to use? You know the guys I'm talking about, you shut them down after they already put a considerable amount of effort into the project. It really does look lazy, Square, when you roll out the red carpet for your tired long-running series, but one of your most original and beloved games is merely picked up and dumped on to a different system.
On a side note, I sure did put a silly amount of links into one paragraph.
-K.
Murder -- It's Awesome, Bro!
I have a lot to say about video games, this is obvious, especially about how I do believe it is a still burgeoning art form, to be taken as seriously as films, books and music. Great strides have been made in a relatively short amount of time, with advances in emergent gameplay mechanics, immersive storytelling and emotional resonance. Grand Theft Auto IV, Portal and BioShock are very recent and clear examples of this, of how the medium is advancing.
Army of Two, however, is not one of these games, and makes it very clear that if this is a still-growing art form, it is clearly in the adolescent phase.
Mechanically (There's that word again) it is a sound third-person shooter, quite a bit like Gears of War, with an emphasis on two-player co-op play. There are some neat moves you can do with your partner, and an "aggro meter" which draws enemy attention to one player whilst the other can move about quietly, but none of these would be very effective or entertaining had I not been playing with another live human being.
Where the game really falters, though, is in the presentation. The two central characters which you control are basically two overgrown manchildren, wrapped up in a juvenile adoration of violence that should not be applied to real-world conflicts. What I'm saying, Electronic Arts, is that when your game features a button with the exclusive purpose to engage in a jubilant expression of enthusiasm (The button is actually labeled "Show enthusiasm," and when pressed the characters high-five each other or mimic guitars with their guns) in regard to the amount of wholesale slaughter the players have served up, perhaps it is best to leave out footage of the smoking World Trade Center from your cut-scenes.
It really makes me wonder what kind of audience this game was made for, because the level of violence and vulgarity meant they were going for a hard M-rating, but by the same token the only audience I can see truly getting maximum enjoyment out of this would be adolescent boys, or idiots that watch Spike TV, though the only thing separating those two groups is age. With a game like this it's not hard to see why ancient relics like Roger Ebert look upon the format with derision. I'm not saying every game has to swing for the fences and try to push the envelope, but you are not helping, EA.
-K.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Escape From the Buckle of the Bible Belt
Things will be on a short hiatus since tomorrow I depart to celebrate our nation's birthday by watching things explode at the lake house in Alabama. The family is already down there and I hope that my vehicle will make the six to seven hour journey in one piece. I will be back Sunday at the latest, depending on whether or not I choose to leave on Saturday. There's not much to do down there besides go out on the lake or up the river, which is nice, but that's basically it. The closest thing resembling a large civilized area is the town of Florence and that's at least a half hour away from the house and even then it's one of those places where everything tends to close after six. While I was watching the ball game tonight there was an ad featuring a family hiklng through the woods and canoing down a river and sitting around a campfire with a voice-over saying "No internet... No DVDs... No video games... Plan your Missouri getaway today" and all I could think of is that, to me, that sounded more like an advertisement for Hell itself.
-K.