Bungie Day News, The Return of Blood Gulch July 8, 2010

7/7 is Bungie Day, and this was a major one.  Bungie has announced some major updates for their next game, Halo Reach, the big one being the return of Blood Gulch as a multiplayer map.

The return of Blood Gulch has made the team at Red vs Blue very happy, as this official video demonstrates.  Blood Gulch has been a staple of their series since the very first episodes, but the map was not included in Halo 3, and was replaced with Valhalla.  It’s nice to see the map is back, and that the Reach version will be expanded.  The original Blood Gulch is considered one of the best multiplayer maps ever made, perfectly balanced for free for all, capture the flag, and team deathmatch.

Gamestop has announced it will offer exclusive downloadable armor permutations to preorders of Halo Reach, including an exclusive grenade belt and chest armor.  Looks like I’m switching my preorder to them.  There’s already the offer of Recon Armor to all day one purchases of the game.

More will be shown at Comic-Con this year.

Halo Reach will release September 14th, 2010 exclusive to Xbox 360.

Dead Space Ignition Announced for XBLA and PSN July 8, 2010

EA has announced that its first downloadable game in the Dead Space franchise will be Dead Space Ignition, a downloadable game in the same vein as a choose your own adventure graphic novel.  With a story from Anthony Jenson, the writer from  fantastic Dead Space Graphic Novel (free download on Xbox Live and Playstation Network, and included with Dead Space Extraction) this downloadable game will be a must own for people unable to wait for Dead Space 2.

I’m pretty excited about this one.  Ignition will tell the story leading up to Dead Space 2, hopefully it will tell some information about what happened to Issac between the first and second games, and perhaps if we’re really lucky, McNeil and the rest of the characters from Dead Space Extraction.  There will be three hacking minigames included with the game and will unlock an exclusive suit in Dead Space 2.

Dead Space Ignition will release for download on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network Fall 2010.

I was Partially Right, In Halo Reach you Play as a Girl…OR a Guy June 30, 2010

I was watching a Halo Reach gameplay demo and caught an interesting tidbit I theorized but simply left in the editorial comments.  I was pretty certain that the protagonist of Halo Reach, known as Noble 6 or the “Lone Wolf” would be a female character based on something I read in the Halo Encyclopedia.

Well I was partially right, in Halo Reach you play as a girl…or as a guy.  The game allows you to choose the gender of your playable character in the single player campaign and that carries over to the multiplayer game.  Previously, you were forced to play as a male character in the Single Player of Halo, known as The Master Chief, but in multiplayer since Halo 3, you could choose to play as a female Spartan.

Since Halo 3 ODST, I’ve noticed Bungie has become less and less inclined to put a strong personality upon their protagonists.  Granted, the Master Chief was not the pillar of communication in the Halo trilogy (most of the chatter and personality came from Cortana) but he spoke when needed, and when he did speak, it was strong.  That was just a testament to the good writing.  In Halo 3 ODST you played as “The Rookie”, another faceless character who this time didn’t speak at all, and who’s backstory was never gone into, not even in the Halo Encyclopedia.  In fact, because “The Rookie” never spoke, I was surprised they didn’t give the option in that game to make gender selectable in that game.

If Bungie is choosing again for a mute player, gender selection is a good decision.  However, Bungie has excelled at creating strong protagonists in the Halo universe, it’s sad to see that personality go away.

Firmware Updates for Playstation 3 and Playstation Portable Live June 30, 2010

The recently announced firmware update for the Playstation 3 (version 3.40) has gone live on the Playstation Network.  It is a required update in order to continue to use the network for multiplayer games and Playstation Store access.  The update adds the previously mentioned video editor, picture viewer, and support for Playstation Plus.

However, it’s gone under the radar that the Playstation Portable (PSP) has been updated as well, also bringing in Playstation Plus support.  It requires 30MB of storage capacity, originally I said “memory stick” but then I realized people with PSP GOs do not require memory sticks.

Playstation Plus and Firmware Update Tomorrow June 28, 2010

Sony has announced that their premium subscription service, Playstation Plus, will launch tomorrow with a new firmware update (version 3.40) for the Playstation 3.

I’ve already talked about the Playstation Plus system before in a previous post that you’re more than welcome to read.  It is nothing like Xbox Live Gold, it will allow subscribers unlimited access to Playstation 1 downloadable games (as they’re made avalible) and Qore issues for as long as they have the subscription for fifty dollars a year.  Honestly, I’d rather buy the games individually and own them forever than pay five times more and lose access after a year.

Firmware 3.40 will also add a 2-hour power saver option for the Playstation 3, and a program to edit and upload your videos to YouTube.

Looking Glass, The Series Finale June 28, 2010

Something interesting has found its way onto YouTube this week.  A former Looking Glass employee has uploaded the original video he took from the final day of work for the famous Looking Glass Studios.  Looking Glass Studios was considered a major company responsible for the groundbreaking Thief series.  Many alumni of the company would go on to become Game Gods, including Warren Spector and Ken Levine.

It always hurts me when a company with so much succesful talent and such good games has to be shut down.  Ritual and Ion Storm Dallas probably hit me the most.  You watch their progress from birth, following their news on what they are working on for years, play the fruits of their labor, and then the company shuts down, and it’s almost like a part of you goes with it.

Without further ado, I present you with Looking Glass, The Series Finale.  I wonder how that star-studded movie is coming along.  Please, if anyone else has videos they shot of the closings of their companies, put them online!

Heavy Rain Playstation Move Edition June 28, 2010

As I mentioned in a previous story, Quantic Dream has been working to port their recently released PS3 exclusive game, Heavy Rain, to the Playstation Move.  I’ve been pretty curious how the game’s control scheme is handled by the Playstation Move, and this trailer taken from E3 2010 shows just how it’s going to work.

As someone already familiar with playing these scenes, I think the gestures required look very natural to the action on the screen.

All owners of Heavy Rain will find their games compatible with Playstation Move after a free patch is released.

Playstation Move will be released September 19th, 2010 in North America.

Rage E3 2010 Information June 27, 2010

They were the founders of modern gaming on the PC, and every new release they did defined a graphics generation and pushed technology beyond what was possible.  Well, id Software is close to releasing its next game, and it’s a whole new IP called Rage.

It seems like they’ve really been refining a lot of the major gaming innovations of the past few years.  Health will regenerate, and death will give you the option to come back, without having to load a savegame.

Rage has been locked at 60 frames per second on the Xbox 360, and you can expect the same performance on PS3 and PC.  An Editor will ship with the PC version.  This editor is identical to the development tools used by id to make the game.

There will be multiplayer.

Rage will release for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2011

Epic Mickey E3 Preview June 27, 2010

Disney’s Epic Mickey is shaping up to be the major release this holiday for the Nintendo Wii.  The art style looks beautiful and stylish, the gameplay looks unique and yet recognizable, and a Game God (Warren Spector) is directing  it.

Director Warren “God” Spector narrates this little preview of Epic Mickey, and you get to see some gameplay in action.

Epic Mickey will be released Holiday 2010 only for Nintendo Wii.

Dead Space 2 E3 Preview June 27, 2010

EA has done a pretty good job about taking down all the videos of anyone who was hosting Dead Space 2’s E3 trailer, but failed miserably at putting the Dead Space 2 press conference demonstrations up on their own YouTube channel.

They have however posted up this preview of the game which includes some gameplay from the E3 demo, and describe the story of the new game, and what kind of gameplay you can expect.

Dead Space 2 will be released multiplatform January 2011.