The somewhat vague and foreboding “grim darkness of the future” got a bit more specific today, as THQ nailed down an August release window for its upcoming third-person action game Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. Previously, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC game had been set for a general summer launch.
The game casts players as Captain Titus of the Ultramarine chapter of the Space Marines, one of humanity’s last hopes in an intergalactic war against the sinister Orks. Players are charged with defending an Imperial Forge World from the Orkish invasion, a task made more complicated when the forces of Chaos make their presence known.
While the Warhammer 40,000 universe has featured in multiple PC titles, Space Marine marks the franchise’s first outing on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. THQ has a crew of developers well acquainted with the universe handling the game, as Space Marine is being created by the publisher’s in-house studio Relic Entertainment, whose previous works include Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II and Company of Heroes.
Inception, The Dark Knight, and Modern Warfare 2 composer lending hand to soundtrack for Crytek shooter due out next week.
Next week, Crytek and Electronic Arts will launch the much hyped Crysis 2. The sequel will land on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as well as the PC, but going multiplatform won’t be the game’s only distinguishing characteristic.
EA has announced that noted Hollywood and video game composer Hans Zimmer collaborated with Borislav Slavov and Tilman Sillescu in creating the soundtrack for Crysis 2, which is due out next week.
Zimmer’s previous composing credits include Hollywood hits Inception and The Dark Knight, as well as Activision’s blockbuster first-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Zimmer’s game work will continue, as the composer has been attached to Activision’s upcoming Skylanders Spyro Adventures.
Crysis 2 sees players fend off an alien threat once again, aided by a nanosuit that grants the user superhuman abilities ranging from speed boosts to active camouflage.
While the original Crysis featured lush tropical environments, Crysis 2 takes place in the urban jungle of New York City.
THQ responds to investor concern by announcing “robust” North American sales tally; online multiplayer server capacity increased.
Yesterday, the reviews came in for THQ’s newest first-person shooter Homefront, and while the game’s Metacritic average was technically positive, it wasn’t positive enough to appease investors. Fearing the lukewarm critical response presaged a commercial failure, investors were bearish on THQ, resulting in a 21 percent crash in the publisher’s stock price yesterday, slipping an additional 1.28 percent today to $4.63 a share.
After market close today, THQ moved to assuage investors’ panic, making a rare announcement of first-day sales for Homefront. According to the publisher, Homefront sold approximately 375,000 units in North America within 24 hours of release. European and Asia Pacific sales figures were not included in the tally, as the game has not yet seen full release worldwide.
Calling this sales figure “robust,” THQ also said that it would be increasing server capacity to accommodate demand for Homefront’s multiplayer. As with a handful of other THQ titles, those who purchase new copies of Homefront gain full access to the game’s online multiplayer component.
Secondhand users have access to every map and can spend as much time as they wish in Homefront’s multiplayer modes. However, they won’t be able to advance their characters any further than level five–out of a possible 75–unless they purchase an online pass for $10.
What happens when you mix mech combat, strategy defense, and an off-kilter sense of humor? Double Fine’s latest game, that’s what.
If there’s been one immediate benefit to Double Fine’s recent shift toward downloadable games, it’s been the developer’s newfound freedom to toy around with lots of different genres. Costume Quest showed what the studio could do with a turn-based role-playing game, while Stacking followed that up with something that offered more traditional adventure-game leanings. And now we have Double Fine’s latest downloadable offering: Trenched. Revealed last week, Trenched is a hybrid between tower-defense strategy and third-person mech warfare. Having had the chance to check out Trenched last night, we came away impressed with just how well this game hit the sweet spot between blowing stuff up and cerebral tactics.
It’s apparent from the outset that Trenched revels in the same offbeat humor for which Double Fine is now known. The game is set in a fever dream vision of the years following World War I, a time when dough boy-piloted mech suits do battle with robotic alien beasts powered by the brainwashing powers of television…if television were invented by an evil villain years before it’s time.
The game’s presentation is thoroughly inspired by the tough-guy men’s magazines of the early 20th century, giving everything an over-the-top look and feel awash in machismo. It’s there in the way you see your commanding officer defiantly waving an American flag as his legs are crushed by a tank in the opening cutscene; it’s also there in the way you see yourself light a cigar using a handgun when celebrating a victory.
But in true Double Fine style, it’s all done with a wink and a nod, never taking itself too seriously.
Mix one part third-person shooter with one part chess, and you’ve got something pretty close to 5th Cell’s latest game.
Picking up a controller to play a third-person shooter for the first time, you tend to know what you’re getting into more often than not.
There’s probably going to be a cover system, and there’s probably going to be a sprint button that lowers the camera view awkwardly close to your character’s butt.
We live in the post-Gears of War era, after all, and most third-person shooters these days reside somewhere in that mold.
At first glance, Hybrid looks like that type of game. You play in a postapocalyptic sci-fi wasteland and spend most of your time hunkering down behind waist-high slabs of concrete and steel waiting for the right time to fire off a few rounds at your enemies. But when you decide to leave cover and start moving around the map, that’s when all the third-person shooter muscle memory you’ve developed over the past half-decade suddenly becomes a whole lot less useful.
Hybrid employs a control scheme that makes the game feel like a third-person shooter crossed with a chess board. The left stick lets you highlight potential cover objects in the distance, while the A button sends you automatically running to that point. That’s the core of movement: highlight cover, run to it, and repeat.
Within that basic control setup, though, are a number of variations that let you wiggle around more freely and strategically. For example, double-tapping A lets you quickly fly over to an object with a jetpack–a tool that can also be used to take vertical cover behind objects jutting out from the walls in a fairly mind-bending display of sci-fi acrobatics.
GDC 2011: Tim Schafer’s studio bringing third-person shooter, tower-defense hybrid featuring mechs to Microsoft’s downloadable platform.
Handing out accolades to last year’s top titles was the name of the game at last night’s Game Developers Choice Awards, and Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption rode off with another saddlebag of statues.
However, the night also had a future-looking element, as host Tim Schafer capitalized on the opportunity to announce Double Fine’s latest downloadable title, Trenched.
As seen in the game’s first trailer (below), Trenched presents the plight of the Mobile Trench Brigade, which has been charged with protecting earth from an evil invading alien force known as Monovision.
A hybridization of the third-person shooter and tower-defense genres, Trenched sees players erecting both stationary defensive constructions and lurching about in a highly customizable mech warfare suit. According to Double Fine, players will be afforded thousands of differnt options to customize their mechs.
Trenched will also feature an online co-op mode, where players can join up with other players throughout the world to battle the invading force. Double Fine has yet to offer word on whether the game will have a competitive component.
As with the Double Fine’s recently announced Sesame Street:Cookie’s Counting Carnival, Trenched has thus far only been announced for the Xbox 360. Double Fine’s other recent downloadable efforts, Costume Quest and Stacking, both enjoyed multiplatform releases through Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network.
