Playstation Move Support Announced for Portal 2 February 17, 2011

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.

Duke Nukem Forever Pre-Order Incentives Announced February 15, 2011

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.

Mirror’s Edge 2 Stalled February 14, 2011

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

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.

Portal 2 System Specifications February 14, 2011

Valve has announced on their preorders page that the system specs for the PC and Mac Version of the highly anticipated game Portal 2 have been posted, and here’s what they are.

You can preorder the game through the usual channels such as Amazon to get $5 off,  Gamestop where you can get exclusive skins, or if you prefer to not deal with a physical copy of the game at all, you can preorder the game through Steam and have it immediately accessible upon release and 10% off.

 WINDOWS SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• OS: Windows 7 / Vista / XP / 2000
• Processor: 3.0 GHz P4, Dual Core 2.0 (or higher) or AMD64X2 (or higher)
• Memory: 1GB XP / 2GB Vista
• Hard Disk Space: At least 7.6 GB of Space
• Video: Video card must be 128 MB or more and should be a DirectX 9-compatible with support for Pixel Shader 2.0b (ATI Radeon X800 or higher / NVIDIA GeForce 7600 or higher / Intel HD Graphics 2000 or higher).
• Audio: DirectX 9.0c compatible

MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• OS: MAC OS X 10.6.6 or higher
• Processor: Intel Core Duo Processor (2GHz or better)
• Memory: 2GB
• Hard Disk Space: At least 7.6 GB of Space
• Video: ATI Radeon 2400 or higher / NVIDIA 8600M or higher

Portal 2 is coming April 21st, 2011 for the PC, Mac, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Part 2 of Duke4.net’s Duke Nukem Preview (With Video) February 13, 2011

Yatta of duke4.net has posted up the second part of his preview of Duke Nukem Forever, brought from his experiences at the previously mentioned “Duke Nukem’s Titty City” event in Las Vegas, NV.  You can check it out here.

Here’s his video from the event.

Yatta promises a third part of the preview is coming, which will feature a community Q&A.

Duke Nukem Forever Balls of Steel Edition Announced February 11, 2011

The Duke Nukem Forever: Balls of Steel Edition has been announced today.  This Collector’s Edition of the highly anticipated Duke Nukem Forever game will include:

The Balls of Steel Edition has been promised for all versions of the game.

Duke Nukem Forever will release May 3rd, 2011 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.  According to the actual developers in a recent interview, this is the same day Hell is expected to freeze over and pigs will fly.

Duke Nukem Forever Preview From Vegas Event February 9, 2011

The press embargo on the Duke Nukem Forever Vegas Event (dubbed “Titty City”) has just lifted and previews can finally be posted up of the game.

Yatta of Duke4.net was one of the first people to be invited to the Duke Nukem Forever preview.  I can think of no better preview to link you guys than his entire writeup of the event, as well as his preview of Duke Nukem Forever’s first six levels.

Be warned. There will be game spoilers. The preview was for the first six levels of the game. However, only the second half of the preview contains spoilers and it is properly spoiler tagged. If you are just interested in what the event was like, it’s still a great read.

There were a few great tidbits he had mentioned however.  The game was running at 720p on the Xbox 360 demo units they provided.  According to the developers, the final version of the game is looking to be fifteen hours long.  It took 90 minutes for him to complete the demo.  The game is mostly done, as it’s just in bug fixing mode right now, as Gearbox tries to fix the current 4000 bugs left in the game.

Video of the event can’t be posted until Friday, the first video will likely be televised on Spike TV’s GTTV.com show which is listed to air at 1:10am Friday and will focus on Duke Nukem Forever, and promises new, never before seen footage.  Here’s a teaser of the episode.

Duke Nukem Forever will release on May 3rd, 2011 for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3.

The Darkness II Announced February 8, 2011

If there was one game that defined my Summer 2007 it was The Darkness.  Here was a highly polished game which came out of nowhere released during a time which usually was devoid of major game releases (games usually either came out in March or November, and they only come out in March because they miss November) and just blew myself and everyone else away.  Here was a little known comic franchise brought to life in a realistic setting.  The game was highly polished and had a great script I enjoyed tremendously.  It was developed by Starbreeze, who made the famous Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay game.  In the same summer I first bought a PS3, I must’ve played this game as late as I possibly could every weekend to try to get as far as I could in it before I’d have to go back to work.

2K Games has officially announced today that The Darkness II is coming out this Fall.  It’s being developed by Digital Extremes and promises to pick up exactly where the first game left off.  The main character of the first game and the comic, Jackie, is now the boss of his mafia family, and he has to deal with running his mob, as well as the curse it is to wield The Darkness, a supernatural force he recieved on his 21st birthday which gives him incredible power.

The Darkness II will come out for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 Fall 2011.

UPDATE:  There was an announcement today that The Darkness II will use cel-shaded graphics in order to mirror the look of the original graphic novels.  I don’t know how I feel about this.  The first game was able to have an emotional impact on me due to its realism.  The fact that they were keeping this supernatural force grounded in a realistic setting with a recognisable look made it all the more interesting for me.  However, I really did like the graphics shown in the initial screenshot, and couldn’t actually tell at the time it was in fact cel-shaded.

Reflections on Hellgate London February 8, 2011

Gamasutra has a facinating inteview up with former Flagship and Blizzard developer Bill Roper on Flagship Studio’s only release, Hellgate: London.

Hellgate: London had a ton of promise.  The company was formed of former Blizzard developers who worked on Diablo, a staple of PC gaming.  It was one of the first PC-Exclusive titles to embrace the early Games for Windows Inititive and offer DirectX 10.0 support in an industry where consumers were just refusing to upgrade from Windows XP.  It had a full Single Player campaign, and a full MMORPG component that would have support for both paid and free subscribers.  Within months of release, the single game release had spawned at least three books and a manga, and a main character was given a nude spread in magazines.  The game’s collectors edition DVD had one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen detailing the start of a Triple-A company working together in a guy’s house!

But the game was simply not sustainable.  By many accounts the game was rushed to release and came out at a timeframe that was flooded by a lot of ambitious new projects and major sequel releases.  The game could not bring in the players it needed to be sustainable and it shut down.

Bill Roper talks about all this in the first part of an interview with Gamasutra.  It’s a facinating read, espessially for those interested in the financing and investments that make games possible, and what it takes to make a big game a success.