Three Words I Said To The Man I Defeated In Gears Of War That I'll Never Say Again 
New Doom 3 For Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Supports Head-Mounted Displays 
Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land 
Why Robin Makes Batman Better 
Resistance: Burning Skies: The Kotaku Review 
Harley Quinn's Revenge Is Batman: Arkham City's Bad New Ending Ah, Wardevil. As mythical a beast as Ol’ Nessie herself. You know, I swear I saw a trailer for this game in, like, 2005, back when it looked a lot like what Gears of War ended up looking like. We’ve seen very little since. So you’d think that the game’s first showing since E3 2006 would pull out all the stops, right? Yeah, no. Some guy stabs some silent, zombie robot in the guts, picks up a bigger spear then stabs another zombie robot in the guts. That’s it? Come on, Digi-Guys, try harder.
Frustrated with the current gaming climate? Alex Kierkegaard at website Insomnia sure as shit is. He’s got a biting (and often nasty) take on the sales situation in Japan. I quite like Kierkegaard and appreciate what he does with Insomnia, which has a very strong focus on Japanese games and developers I love like Cave. Here’s a snippet from his rant:
So, why was it PC owners aren’t getting a version of Madden this year again? Oh, yes, of course. Piracy. EA Sports boss Peter Moore explains: Piracy’s a big issue on the PC. I can’t turn a blind eye to the fact that it’s very difficult for us…and we lose money making a game. At some point, I have an obligation not to bring out products that lose money.
OK, developers, we get the idea. Piracy is an issue with the PC games market. It’s also obviously a new trend, and has in no way been affecting the market for, oh, the last 20 years, so we believe your excuse wholeheartedly. Interview: A Sporting Man: EA’s Peter Moore [GameDaily]
Today’s special update isn’t just a special update, it’s a Matt Damon special update. Yesterday, we brought word that according to MTV Matt Damon had walked out of negotiations to appear in the Bourne game, believing it was too violent. Or something! MTV now brings word that Matt Damon never explicitly stated he was against the violence, but just seemed disinterested in the project. According to Damon: I lobbied hard [with the video producers]to not make a first-person shooter game but to make it more like Myst, which was a great interesting puzzle you tried to solve — you know, to play with his amnesia or his memory… They weren’t interested.
Apparently while filming the Bourne movies, nobody told Damon he wasn’t starring in Memento. That’s too bad. Update: Matt Damon Didn’t Speak [Multiplayer via Game|Life]
Of course, Jon Stewart wasn’t going to let the launch of GTA IV go by without his $0.02 worth. Here’s a couple of clips from this week’s show, one showing the chaos and violence that mired the game’s launch, the second (after the jump) trying (note: trying) to put the game’s violence into perspective.
This is either a tip of the hat to some friends or some of the most targeted marketing we’ve yet seen in a game, I’m not sure, but it turns out not every company/piece of branding in GTA IV is fake. Label RockersNYC were given the chance to “dress” two of the game’s characters, Jamaican gangsters Little Jacob and Real Badman, who appear in the game wearing the company’s hoodies and shirts. Not that any of you would ever notice had you not known this, but it does go to show the level of detail that went into not just Liberty City, but the game’s marketing and PR as well. Rockers NYC x Grand Theft Auto IV [Hypebeast]
Atari founder and old dude Nolan Bushnell doesn’t like in-game advertising. He doesn’t believe those kinds of ads are very effective. Says Bushnell: I don’t believe those kinds of ads are very effective.
SEE? Bushnell’s rationalisation is that while playing have to focus on the in-game objectives and can’t be bombarded with ads. We disagree! Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford has done a pretty damn good job of convincing us otherwise. Thanks for that, Randy! In-Game Ads Don’t Work [MTV]
Unreal’s an engine that’s making Epic some serious money. Pity, then, that Unreal as a franchise is a shadow of its former self. UTIII’s done OK, don’t get me wrong, but few at Epic or Midway would say it’s performed as expected. So what does that mean for the proper Unreal games? You remember, those singleplayer ones with a story and stuff. What about them? Take it away, Mark Rein:
I’m sure that at some point in our future we will make another Unreal, single-player, story-driven game. I’m sure at some point there will be one…[however]there are no plans to do one today.
What about tomorrow? Oh yeah. Gears 2. OK, we’ll get back to you in 2011, thanks. Unreal Tournament 3 [Eurogamer]
To recap the pissing match: Director Uwe Boll called director Michael Bay a “fucking retard.” Bay responded by saying Boll was a “sad being.” Boll then stated Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg were signing the anti-Uwe internet petition on various assumed names. Your move, Bay: Can we stop talking about this guy! I never even heard his name till last week when he made threats and rants. The guy is a fucking idiot, making threats to me, Clooney, Eli Roth, says he has a doctorate – but uses the word “retard” in his vocabulary, come on. When you look at his videos, what is interesting are the backgrounds. I guess his low rent offices, with 15 year old 3/4 machines, archaic computers, this is just some dumb chump trying to get some fame when he has none, so he has to make Youtube lame quality anger rants. Guy just want attention because he can’t get any for the so called movies he makes. Nothing sadder when he had his screening in LA to an over half empty movie house.
He is a troubled soul — let’s not waste time on talking about him please.Dumb chump? Troubled soul? Let’s not talk about him? Michael Bay’s certainly not as much fun as Uwe. Hit the jump for the inevitable clip of Boll talking about pudding.
Background: My favourite versions of GTAIII, Vice City and San Andreas were, believe it or not, the PC ones. Higher resolution, longer draw distance, better controls, custom soundtracks…they were tops. So where’s the PC version of GTA IV at? No comment from Rockstar. While blind optimists will say “they were quiet on the last three, too”, and hope it’ll be with us by Christmas, you should try and remember Rockstar have backed slowly away from PC ports over the past 2-3 years. Where once most Rockstar games would make it to the PC (Manhunt, again, was the superior version), Red Dead Revolver, Bully and Manhunt 2 have all come and gone with no home computer conversion in sight. Rockstar: “No comment” on GTA IV PC reports [CVG]
