Console version of arcade fighting game to also bring in Billy Kane and three new stages.
The arcade version of The King of Fighters XIII came out last year with some degree of acclaim, going so far as to be featured in last September’s Super Battle Opera tournament in Japan. Console gamers in Japan can now look forward to checking out the game when it hits October 27 this year, according to the recent announcement on SNK Playmore’s website.
Billy Kane taking the term “flame wars” literally.
There’s been a lot of hype surrounding the upcoming Saints Row sequel but up until now there have been no actual gameplay videos.
Well, that’s all changed now as this developer commentary blows the lid on all the ridiculous stuff you can get upto in this over-the-top sandbox shooter.
Ubisoft’s Chicago-based survival game given classification by Down Under ratings group; publisher mum on title.
Despite Ubisoft only sharing a few details on the project since it was first announced at the 2008 Electronic Entertainment Expo, survival game I Am Alive appears to be just that…alive.
The Australian Government’s Office of Film and Literature Classification board has added a listing in its classification database for Ubisoft’s I Am Alive. The game was rated yesterday, June 28, and received an MA 15+ classification for strong violence.
As of press time, I Am Alive has not yet been rated by the United States’ Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), and Ubisoft has not responded to GameSpot’s request for comment or clarification on the matter.
The last official word concerning I Am Alive came in 2009, when Ubisoft announced that development duties on the game had shifted from Paris-based Darkworks to Ubisoft Shanghai, in China.
I Am Alive is expected to arrive sometime in the future for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Little is known about the title, though it will apparently be a survival horror game set in an earthquake-ravaged Chicago. For more on the title, check out its debut trailer, embedded below.
New release slate championed by premiere of Gearbox’s long-in-development action game; Wii Play: Motion, Child of Eden, Alice: Madness Returns, Transformers: Dark of the Moon also out.
Duke Nukem can be called a lot of things, but vaporware is no longer one of them. Gearbox Software’s much anticipated first-person action game Duke Nukem Forever finally arrives tomorrow for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, following an international market release last week.
Initially announced in 1997, Duke Nukem Forever was synonymous with vaporware for over a decade. While at original studio 3D Realms, it went through at least two engine changes, with its protracted development reportedly costing $20 million to $30 million.
Duke Nukem Forever will be available in both a standard edition, as well as a Balls of Steel Collector’s Edition for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. This top-tier bundle includes a bust of the titular hero, a set of playing cards, dice, and two casino chips. A comic and hardcover art book are also included in the collection, along with a numbered certificate of authenticity.
E3 2011: Activision gives us an exclusive look at its Silicon Knights developed action-RPG starring the X-Men.
X-Men Destiny is the upcoming Silicon Knights developed game from Activision featuring Marvel’s famous mutants. Whereas the previous X-Men games let you play as some of the notable members of the iconic team, X-Men Destiny casts you as a freshly minted mutant whose future is shaped by some quality time spent with the gang. We had the chance to get a hands-off look at the upcoming game, guided by Activision reps who demoed a few sections of the unique title.
X-Men Destiny’s story is being penned by Mike Carey, writer of the X-Men Legacy book, and revolves around three new mutants–Aimi Yoshida, Grant Alexander, and a third as yet unrevealed character. The tale begins at a San Francisco peace rally in memory of Professor X who, in the game’s timeline, is dead. The rally goes poorly, which is pretty much the norm for any mutant related gathering, and the character you’ve chosen to play as becomes involved in a conflict between the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The events at the rally cause a chain of events that send your character on a journey of self-discovery and evolution that will tip the balance in the conflict between the two factions. How that all plays out is entirely up to you and the choices that you make over the course of the game.
We got a taste of how this is going to work in our demo which showcased combat, exploration, power customization, choice, and a boss fight. The demo featured Aimi–the pig tail sporting fifteen-year-old wielding energy attacks which are one of the three core powers you’ll choose when starting the game–fighting her way through Chinatown in search of Gambit. This portion of the demo focused on showcasing the power mechanics as Aimi dealt with waves of thugs on her trip through Chinatown. Each character will have several options in battle. The combat fundamentals are light and heavy attacks that can be chained together into different combos to dole out damage that the game tracks.
On Codemasters’ colourful shooter, Bodycount, and its shreddable cover, arcade sensibilities, and novel cover-lean mechanic.
It takes a brave developer (or a foolhardy one) to mess with the formula for a console FPS control scheme. So familiar and ingrained is that formula, a developer better have a good reason to arrange its controls otherwise. Codemasters’ Guildford Studio is one such brave or foolhardy outfit. Its good reason is the cover-lean mechanic in lively, arcadey shooter Bodycount.
With this mechanic, the left-trigger plants you where you stand, rather than giving you the traditional view down the sights. Then, once you are locked in place, the right analog stick controls how you duck and weave on the spot. Instead of crouching or standing up with a button press, you twitch the stick up or down. Instead of full-on strafing left or right around the edge of cover, you move the stick left or right to lean either way.
The idea is that you plant yourself behind cover–say, a low wall–and use the cover-lean system to open up new lines of sight on the bad guys, letting you peek out from behind the wall rather than pop out from behind it. Though it takes time to get to grips with (and to shake the Call of Duty muscle memory), it feels like a neat idea successfully executed. It won’t be to all tastes but, to the studio’s credit, it doesn’t feel like novelty for novelty’s sake.
Andrew Wilson, who took up Stuart Black’s mantle when he left Bodycount and Codemasters, is aware the unconventional mechanic is a gamble. But as the game’s summer release date draws near, it’s time for the studio to have the ’courage of [its] convictions’, as he puts it. And with ’the best gun experience’, says the game director, also up Bodycount’s sleeve, he is quietly confident. Enough of quirky cover schemes, then. What makes a ’best gun experience’?
“It’s all about the effect the bullets have on the world around you,” says Wilson, describing the shreddable cover that keeps you on your toes in the game’s diverse environments. It’s this exaggerated destructibility that smashes the chest-high wall you were hiding behind at an alarming rate, and that means many walls don’t take a heavy weapon to demolish; a standard-issue assault rifle will do the trick. That’s not to say explosives won’t be readily available. Mines and grenades were plentiful in our hands-on. In a fun touch, grenades can be primed to explode on impact with a double tap of the right bumper–like having a grenade launcher permanently at your fingertips.
CD Projekt Red promises live gameplay demo for original game at this year’s E3.
CD Projekt Red has been on quite the run with its dark fantasy role-playing franchise, The Witcher. Following on from the series’ well-regarded debut in 2007, the Polish development house just this month secured much critical acclaim for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, which was released for the PC in the US on May 17. (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions are also planned.)
Now, CD Projekt Red plans to branch out from its current bread-and-butter. As part of its Electronic Entertainment Expo presence this year, the studio expects to unveil a “brand new project.” Details on the reveal are slim, but the game is apparently already playable, as CD Projekt Red promised a live gameplay demo for gathered industry persons.
CD Projekt Red is the development studio owned by CD Projekt, which runs the Good Old Games digital distribution portal. GOG.com is best known for offering a variety of classic games unfettered by digital rights management software.
The latest adventure from Irrational Games is surprising us in entirely new ways.
BioShock Infinite is shaping up to be one disturbing game. Anyone who has played the original BioShock knows this is territory that Boston-based Irrational Games knows very well. And, after getting a tease of what the developer will be showing off at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, we can say that BioShock Infinite is unsettling in a whole new way. The brief demo of a work-in-progress version of the game we saw showcased the game’s setting, the floating city of Columbia, the cast of troubled characters you’ll encounter, your relationship with the mysterious Elizabeth, and offered a deeper look at some key gameplay mechanics. Although the meaty demo did a fine job of answering many of the questions we’ve had about the game, it wound up raising even more as we got a sense of the intriguing adventure’s scale.
Our last look at BioShock Infinite offered an introduction to the airborne city of Columbia; Booker Dewitt, the game’s main character; Elizabeth, the mysterious and powerful woman Booker is sent to retrieve; and a taste of how the game would play. The short but captivating demo did an excellent job of painting a vivid picture of what to expect from the upcoming game. For this update, creative director Ken Levine served up another 20-minute chunk of the adventure from roughly one-third of the way into the game that focused on Booker and Elizabeth’s journey to the home of Z.H. Comstock, the locale at which he’s supposed to drop her off.
The demo kicked off with the pair entering a sundries shop filled with candy and assorted knickknacks. The scene offered a snapshot of Booker’s evolving relationship with Elizabeth as they explored the store. Elizabeth, given her years of “Rapunzel”-like confinement in her prison, was literally acting like a kid in a candy shop and darting from one item to another. The pair’s conversation veered from silly to serious with Booker coming across like an older brother at times. During the exchange, Booker collected items hidden throughout the shop, ranging from money to the Bucking Bronco “vigor” which is the game’s version of plasmids. Shortly after Booker collected a gun, a wind kicked up around the shop and Elizabeth had a bit of a freak-out.
A quick glance around the room revealed a figure moving outside, visible through the shop window drapes that were mostly closed. Booker moved next to Elizabeth, who was hiding behind a stack of crates, as the room became flooded with a green glow from one of the windows. A massive eye of some kind was shown peering in, obviously looking for something. When the creature stopped its search and moved on, Elizabeth ran to the shop’s side door. When Booker caught up, the pair had an awkward conversation in which Elizabeth made it clear she’d rather die than go back to her prison.
Scribblenauts studio 5th Cell delays release of Xbox Live Arcade third-person shooter into next year following GDC reception.
5th Cell first announced its Xbox Live Arcade effort Hybrid in October, but it wasn’t until this year’s Game Developers Conference in March that the game got its first real exposure. From that debut, 5th Cell learned at least one thing: Hybrid isn’t going to be ready for its previously announced 2011 launch window.
Today, the studio said that it has bumped Hybrid into 2012. The game has thus far only been announced for Xbox Live, but studio head Jeremiah Slaczka indicated to GameSpot that it may also see release on additional platforms.
“Hybrid was very well received this past GDC; people really seemed to enjoy it,” Slaczka said of the delay. “But with an additional year, we can take what we’ve learned and really drill down on our ideas to hopefully transform this game into something great.”
A marked departure from 5th Cell’s previous work on franchises such as Scribblenauts and Drawn to Life, Hybrid is a third-person shooter in which two rival factions wage war in a postapocalyptic world. In addition to its single-player campaign, gamers will also be able to battle it out in persistent-world online modes.
Square Enix launches teaser trailer for next installment in stealth action series; Io Interactive developing.
Shortly after launching the trailer, developer Io Interactive and Square Enix Europe officially announced that Hitman Absolution is indeed in development for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The announcement did not offer a release window for the title but did say it had been built from the ground up using Io’s proprietary Glacier 2 engine. The game will be shown off behind closed doors at next month’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.
The trailer, which also surfaced on the official Hitman.com website, shows series protagonist Agent 47 screwing a silencer onto the end of a pistol. The scene then fades into a shot of one of his trademark Silverballer .45 pistols with a rattlesnake curled around it. The shot then fades to a UPC barcode with the numbers “110706″ and “47″ highlighted in red.
Both the YouTube page and the official announcement offered a brief synopsis of Hitman Absolution’s plot: “Hitman Absolution follows Agent 47, a cold blooded assassin, who takes on his most dangerous contract to date. Betrayed by those he trusted and hunted by the police, he finds himself at the centre of a dark conspiracy and must embark on a personal journey through a corrupt and twisted world, in his search for the truth.”
Hitman Absolution will be the first entry in the series since 2006′s Hitman: Blood Money, which saw 47 bring silent death to locales ranging from mid-Mardi Gras New Orleans to the White House. The series follows the murderous exploits of Agent 47, a bald killer genetically engineered to be the perfect assassin. Hitman: Codename 47 (2000) told the tale of how the protagonist found work with the International Contract Agency (ICA) whacking high-profile criminals. In Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002), 47 is pulled out of retirement after his priest friend is kidnapped by the Sicilian Mafia. In Hitman: Contracts (2004), he revisits many missions from the original game, albeit in reverse.