Who the Heck is Writing Gaming News? February 18, 2011
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This is just a sidebar here, but I really wanted to voice this. Seriously, this week, I’ve had to retract two whole stories I’ve posted up in here, both made by otherwise reputable gaming news organizations.
So far I’ve made two news postings and two retractions I’ve had to make within days of each other. Who the heck is running the news in these sites, and for that manner who the heck is running their mouths off so poorly in the developer side that they’re being misunderstood on this level?
And that’s the thing, normally I would blame the news reporters for this, but in the articles in question, their citations seemed quite clear indeed and in both cases it seems like a misunderstanding or a mistranslation. That’s not the fault of the news people (not entirely) it’s just as much the fault of the PR people on the developer’s side who are being vague or ambiguous (or speaking in another language)!
Mirror’s Edge 2 Not So Stalled (Maybe) February 18, 2011
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Okay, I’m stumped right now. A few days ago I posted up information from an article posted that a Mirror’s Edge 2’s demo was rejected by EA and the people who worked on it are working on other projects. I also noticed quotes from the executives working on the project saying at this point that making a sequel to Mirror’s Edge would equal “charity”. That to me (and a lot of other press members it seemed) means that your project is dead.
Now people from EA are saying that Mirror’s Edge is an “important” EA franchise and the media so far has been commenting on rumors and speculation about the game’s cancellation. All I’ve seen up to this point is the media quoting on what the DICE and EA executives had to say about the franchise and EA will not comment further on what they mean by this new statement.
I guess this is what happens when all of the major sources for this event quote a news story that was originally written in a different language, but still when you’re saying things like “Our EA demo was rejected and the people who worked on it are now working on other projects” it doesn’t sound to me like Mirror’s Edge is an “important” franchise to EA.
So right now the project status has shifted back from stalled to unknown. I’ll try to keep you guys updated on this if any more news takes off.
Back to the Future Episode 2 Released February 18, 2011
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This has been a big week for Telltale Games. On Tuesday, the first episode of Back to the Future The Game was released to the Playstation 3, as well as the iPad.
Today was also the day that anyone who had previously contributed themselves for a free copy of the first episode were given access to it via e-mails. If you did sign up for a free episode and haven’t recieved your email, just log into your Telltale games account and you should be able to download it there no problem.
But the major reason free users didn’t get access to the first episode until today is that Telltale wanted to make everyone buy the second episode of the game, or at least the rest of the series. The second episode is out today, and you can see the trailer for it here.
Back to the Future The Game promises to have five episodes and while it is currently only out for PC and Mac, you can expect a full release for PS3 and iPad as well.
For those of you interested more in other game series that Telltale is releasing, worry not. The first trailer for Jurassic Park The Game has also been released, but it just hasn’t been posted up on their YouTube Channel yet. I’ll be sure to post it up when it finally does get uploaded, but until then you can check it out on their official site. It’s expect to launch in April 2011.
Rage – Untethered Trailer February 17, 2011
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The boys at id Software are cooking up something rather special. Rage will be the first major release for them since 2004’s Doom 3, and their first new Intellectual Property (IP) since Quake in 1996.
Take a gander at the latest trailer, you get to see the enviroments and some of the new gameplay.
Rage will release September 13th, 2011 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
Playstation Move Support Announced for Portal 2 February 17, 2011
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Some news has been announced today for the PS3 version of Portal 2. Now, it has been confirmed that Portal 2 on the Playstation 3 will fully support the Playstation Move controller system. This is on top of the Steam Cloud support the Playstation 3 version will have, which includes cloud saving, and a download code for a free copy of Portal 2 for the PC. PS3 users will be able to play with PC users in multiplayer.
The Playstation Move controller to me seems tailor made for a first person game, and I can’t wait to see how the control scheme works.
Portal 2 will release April 21st, 2011 for PC, Xbox 360, Mac and PS3.
UPDATE: Valve has retracted the previous claim. Now they’re saying Portal 2 will NOT support Playstation Move.
Legend of Zelda 80s-Movie Trailer February 16, 2011
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I’m a film buff. When I’m not playing games, you’ll usually find me watching movies. I’m usually watching these movies on my extensive DVD and Blu-Ray collections, or watching them on the Premium Channel section of my cable provider’s On Demand offering. Now, I’ve talked previously about specific movies I’ve liked, but that was just the tip of the iceburg.
If there was one guilty pleasure I have, it’s the culture of the 80s. I love 80s music, movies, clothing, and technology. One of my favorite movies of all time was Cameron Crowe’s “Say Anything” starring John Cusack, Ione Skye and John Mahoney, which I saw completely without any prior revelations and enjoyed tremendously. Other fantastic movies of the 80s include “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and of course “The Breakfast Club”.
Well something else came out in the 80s in the US, and that was the Nintendo Entertainment System. In 1987, The Legend of Zelda was released and to this point never has gotten a proper film adaptation.
The same team that made the very popular Inglourious Plummers trailer decided to ask themselves, if The Legend of Zelda was to get a movie release in 1987, what would it look like? Well, it turns out, it would look something like this.
Duke Nukem Forever Pre-Order Incentives Announced February 15, 2011
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Gearbox Software has announced today that two retails will be offering incentives to anyone who chooses to preorder the highly anticipated Duke Nukem Forever regardless of platform or edition of the game.
If you choose to preorder the game at Walmart, you will get a physical trucker’s cap with the Duke Nukem Forever Logo on it. If you choose to preorder the game at Gamestop, you will get the downloadable “Duke’s Big Package” which includes an EGO Boost pack for your game, Big Head Mode, and alternate T-Shirts to wear.
So physical incentive or digital, it’s your choice.
Duke Nukem Forever will release May 3rd, 2011 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
UPDATE: Gearbox has announced it will use Steamworks for the PC version of Duke Nukem Forever. Steam users will be able to register the game’s CD key to their current accounts. There will be NO limited activations of the game.
UPDATE 2: Some Gamestop advertisements are saying they are also offering First Access Club Membership to Duke Nukem Forever Preorders, which is exactly the same thing as was offered to people who bought the Borderlands Game of the Year Edition or purchased Borderlands through Steam before a certain date. The First Access Club membership gurantees you early access to the Duke Nukem Forever demo (whenever that comes out, there is no date for it), special Gearbox forum status, as well as special access on the Gearbox website to DNF wallpapers and concept art.
Award Shows, Do We Need Them? February 14, 2011
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If you’ve known me on a personal level long enough, you’d know that I think of most Awards Shows as farces. That gladly includes organizations such as the Academy or Golden Globes. Over the entire span of my life, I’ve not only disagreed with their decisions on what makes a good movie, actor, song, or director but the very people and movies I believe should win an award for Best (Insert Award Here) of the Year not only don’t win, but don’t even receive a nomination. See it happen enough times and you start to look down upon the Awards Organizations in general and start to think, “What’s the point of having a Best Award for anything when the actual best of the year aren’t even up for nomination?” I know a lot of people were thinking along those lines when the Academy spat in the face of Christopher Nolan in 2008 by not nominating The Dark Knight, the actual best picture of that year, for Best Picture.
You could say, “Oh you’re just being egotistical again by thinking your opinions of what makes a good film is better than anyone else’s.” Now, normally you’d be right. But seriously, if the movies that I believe deserve the awards aren’t even nominated, and a lot of my peers are listing off names of their own favorites of the year which aren’t getting nominations either, you slowly come to the conclusion there’s a fix in place somewhere, and if you’ve continued to see a downward trend where lousy movies you’ve never heard of not only get nominated but win awards they have no business winning, you lose faith in a system which claims to declare a true BEST.
Then there’s the Grammys, which are awards for music, not movies. I’ve seen parts of a few of them. I have always wondered why most of the awards don’t actually get presented to the winners on stage, and instead just have their names called out, and why the majority of the awards aren’t mentioned or given out on the actual awards show. Steven Colbert learned that one a few years ago when his self narrated book didn’t win a Grammy a few years ago. They never even broadcasted the section of the show for category he was up for. He had to find out he lost online.
But, something surprising happened at the Grammys this year. A song which was made specifically for a video game won an award last night. “Baba Yetu” by Christopher Tin won “Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)”. This is a fantastic song I first heard accompanied by a full orchestra on the Video Games Live Level 2 Blu-Ray. I am ashamed to admit I was never a Civ player despite the heavy classic gaming pedigree that goes with that franchise (and it’s Game God creator) but I was just blown away by this song.
It is my guess that the Grammys had absolutely no idea that this game was originally designed for a video game theme, as it was introduced in this year’s Grammys for Christopher Tin’s Album Calling all Dawns, which released on CD in 2009. Although games have had fully composed scores on the level of movies for the past ten years, Best Video Game Score is NOT a category the Grammys recognises, and because of that a lot of fantastic scores over the last ten years have gone ignored by the Grammys, which is seen by a lot of musicians as the award only the greatest of them can aspire to.
If you’re a fan of the song as I am, here’s the official music video for it made for Civilization IV. The game has been out for five years now, so you might be able to find yourself a copy if you wish. If you don’t want to play, you can buy his CD Calling all Dawns, which is what got him the nomination in the first place. The game is also featured on the Video Games Live tour, and it is one of the songs on the Video Games Live Level 2 DVD and Blu-Ray concert.
Congrats to Christopher Tin and the makers of Civilization. Your win has broken down a barrier of hypocrisy that deserved to be trampled.
UPDATE: The Video Games Live Official Site states that Calling all Dawns won the award for Best Classical Crossover album. So that’s two for Christopher Tin.
Mirror’s Edge 2 Stalled February 14, 2011
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I’ve got some pretty upsetting news to post up right now. I have to admit, while I wasn’t an initial buyer of the 2008 EA game Mirror’s Edge, it was only because it launched at a time that was swamped by far too many major releases to keep track of.
A few months after release an a minor price drop later, I did pick up the game after a good friend demoed it for me, and enjoyed it tremendously. While the game did suffer from the occasional unfair geometry clip, the music, story and art style drew me in immediatly, and the solid gameplay, once you got used to it, was really seamless. They had developed an interactive platformer from a first person perspective.
I waited in angush for months for the iPhone version of Mirror’s Edge to be posted, while iPad users had it since launch. But when it did finally see release, it easily became my most played iPhone game, which has since only been eclipsed by Dead Space (iPhone).
Work on Mirror’s Edge 2 was teased a few months ago, when an executive told the press that a small team was working on it. Unfortunatly today, it was announced that while that initial groundwork was finished and was seen behind closed doors, the team members working on it have been shifted to other projects, and the game’s development has stalled.
Now I know that Mirror’s Edge was a quirky new IP that was released at a time when major IPs like Gears of War and Resistance were seeing new releases, but months after that time had passed and the initial price drop, people like me and my friends started to discover the game and found they enjoyed it tremendously.
UPDATE: Okay, it’s been posted that the project is in worse shape than stalled, it’s been stopped. EA apparently declined the previously mentioned tech demo and work has ceased on it, not likely they will resume.
UPDATE 2: Okay, I’m stumped right now. Now people from EA are saying that Mirror’s Edge is an “important” EA franchise and the media so far has been commenting on rumors and speculation about the game’s cancellation. All I’ve seen up to this point is the media quoting on what the DICE and EA executives had to say about the franchise.
I guess this is what happens when all of the major sources for this event quote a news story that was originally written in a different language, but still when you’re saying things like “Our EA demo was rejected and the people who worked on it are now working on other projects” it doesn’t sound to me like Mirror’s Edge is an “important” franchise to EA.
So right now the project status has shifted back from stalled to unknown. I’ll try to keep you guys updated on this if any more news takes off.
Second Halo Reach Map Pack Announced February 14, 2011
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Bungie has announced today that a new three-map map pack, dubbed the Defiant Map Pack will be released for Halo Reach made by 343 Industries. You can take a good look at them right here in this premiere trailer, which will also be posted on Xbox Live through Halo Waypoint.
The new map pack will consist of one firefight map and two multiplayer maps. New achievements, worth 150 more achievement points will be offered.
The Defiant Map Pack will launch in March 2011 for 800 MS Points or $10 US.
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