New Doom 3 For Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Supports Head-Mounted Displays 
Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land 
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Resistance: Burning Skies: The Kotaku Review 
Harley Quinn's Revenge Is Batman: Arkham City's Bad New Ending 
High Scores And Egos: There's Always A Bigger Doodle Job pages. They can be gold mines of information, if you’re willing to look for it. No need for picks and drills, just a web browser and a mouse cursor.
Local dev portal Sumea recently noticed that Pandemic has placed new positions up on its website. A few of the role descriptions include this tidbit: “That’s right, new IP. Freshly baked creative freedom and the chance to make your mark on a new, huge success.” If that wasn’t enough, the job requirements for the “Designer – Team A” position give us an idea of what the studio might be working on:
Open world / sandbox experience a plus. As is experience with LUA. We are a SCRUM based team, but even if you have never done the agile development thing before, we are sure you will fit right in.
Open world eh? I can’t wait to see what it is!
Update: It’s been suggested the IP is the new Batman game, long-rumoured to be in development at Pandemic. If that’s that case, I’d hardly call it “new”.
Pandemic Studios – Careers in Brisbane [Official site, via Sumea]
It’s happened to us all at one time or another. You’re playing a game and BAM – something happens, be it totally unexpected, shocking or confusing. And it leaves you with your jaw on the floor (or in your lap, for those who sit and game). Gametrailers has put together a short video compiling what it believes are the top ten of these moments, from Final Fantasy characters dying through to bumping uglies in Grand Theft Auto.
Whether you laugh, cry, or scream in anger, this video is sure to prompt a reaction. As you may have guessed, spoilers await!
TOP 10 OMGWTF moments [Gametrailers, via Blue's News]
The coming week will be completely dominated by E3 coverage. Come to think of it, the previous week was completely dominated by pre-E3 coverage. After the jump we’ve compiled a scene-setter of sorts, aggregating together all the lineups announced, so you know some of what to look for in the coming onslaught of copy.
Kotaku’s crack staff on the scene will be Brian Crecente, Michael McWhertor, Brian Ashcraft, Mike Fahey, Leigh Alexander, and Adam Barenblat. They’re going to be very busy.
The lights were dimmed when I walked into what Tuesday will be transformed into the main gaming hall for E3. I almost expected to hear the gentle sounds of of life support equipment, the woosh of oxygen, the beep of an EKG monitor.
Instead there was the clank of the very tiny booths being assembled, the murmur of conversation and, perhaps only in my imagination, a gentle weeping.
Hey at least there will be the games right? The games are what matter, not the booths… right? Right?
New Trailer for FEAR Sequel, Project Origin Because a dose of scary is exactly what you need in the morning.
Some Guy Went and Built a Sentry Gun It turns, it shoots, it cleans the house! Well, not that last thing.
Super Mario Mural: And … Mario’s Already Missed a Coin Awesome art on what probably was a less-than-awesome wall.
Rock Band 2 Gameplay Trailer Here’s a clip for a game we’ll never play, if the first Rock Band is anything to go by.
MK vs DCU E3 Trailer: Cool Gameplay, No New Characters Who wants to see Batman kick the crap out of Scorpion? I sure do.
Flagship Sunk, Who’s In Charge of Hellgate? Just goes to show that it takes more than Bill Roper to make a successful game developer.
Kotaku Originals: Make It a Blockbuster Week You missed news last week, trust me. It’s okay though, because everything you didn’t see is right here!
Reddit turned up an absolutely depressing thread in a forum the other day. Wasn’t really worth a post unto itself, but I thought it’d be a good conversation starter because man, I don’t think I have encountered anything like this:
My saddest gaming experience was while playing Creatures, that experimental game where you had to take care of creatures equipped with a neural network which made them able to learn things.
One of my creatures got pregnant but was also very sick. Her health stats were dropping and I was hoping she would be able to lay her egg in time. She only had 3% life over when she finally did. Afterwards, she laid down next to the egg, closed her eyes, and died. Minutes later, the egg hatched, and a cute little creature came out. His mother’s body still laid there. He crawled around it, uttering the same sounds the whole time. He then crept up against her and went to sleep.
I stopped playing the game then.
So, short of game adaptations for Bambi, Brian’s Song, Field of Dreams or Terms of Endearment, can a game be a tearjerker? I know colleagues (*cough cough Leigh Alexander) who were extremely emotional after finishing Metal Gear Solid 4. Is such emotion a worthy goal of a product engineered to be fun? What games have made you cry? Any? Tell us, dammit, while I … sniff … wipe the dust out of my eyes here.
Gamasutra has an interesting look at the issue of casual portal exclusives and how such exclusives may be hurting the casual games industry — and pulling developers into a no-win fray. Russell Carroll compares the digital milieu to regular retail establishments: “I can’t imagine having to go to Target to get EA games and to Wal-Mart to get Activision games”, and notes that this could be a good thing if it winds up being a Pepsi/Coke type thing (which, frankly, I can’t quite imagine, since beverages and games are just slightly different animals). And what of the poor developers?:
A new report has been released on the utility of ‘serious games’ and in-game marketing in virtual spaces like Second Life; OTOinsights, the research arm of One to One Interactive, takes a look at the success (or lack thereof) of marketing attempts by major firms. They describe the results as ‘uneven’ and make some suggestions on how companies can better utilise virtual spaces to pitch their product(s):
More creepy little kids, more long hallways with flicker lights, more stuff to shoot, Developer Monolith Productions just dropped their new E3 trailer for Project Origin on us. Project Origin is the sequel to creepy shooter F.E.A.R. This new trailer shows off some new weapons, enemies and locations. Stay tuned next week for our hands-on impressions of the game when we play through a chunk at E308.
Over at Gamers With Jobs, Julian Murdoch looks at the craft of writing about games — and how being a gaming journalist has improved his relationship with games. While I’ve found writing about games has significantly cut into my time I can spend playing games — and there’s a difference between playing for pleasure and playing for pay — I’ll agree with many of Murdoch’s thoughts in regards to going into situations with a new perspective, one that is frequently quite positive:
