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 In a press release issued today, Namco Bandai Games announced a strategic joint venture with Infogrames/Atari. Namco Bandai will invest 34 percent (an estimated €30 million) into Infogrames/Atari’s European and Asian sales network. This will strengthen a distribution relation between the two companies: Atari/Infogrames has distributed Namco Bandai titles in the past — such as the Dragonball games. Between June 31, 2012 to June 20, 2013, Namco Bandai will also have the option to buy Infogrames remaining 66 percent. In the letter of intent, Namco Bandai stated it hoped this venture would improve its overseas distribution.
We know. It’s a “top XX” list. And on controversy to boot. Before you yawn, the reason we’re posting this is that it’s from a sensible news outlet, which not only makes a pleasant change from the usual culprits, but is also a good read. Mainly because it’s able to both look past Hot Coffee into some genuine sex scandals (the Guy Game’s underage T&A scandal) and look past 2004 (they remember Carmageddon!).
Nintendo – under the impression they created the very idea of representing an online persona with a cartoon avatar – are flattered that Microsoft chose to use the things for their upcoming Xbox Live revamp. How flattered? They even throw in the dreaded “c” word, with Reggie telling the Spanish-language Club Nintendo that “copying is a way flattering, so we’re very flattered”. You know what else is flattering? Reggie’s new do. Seems…thicker than it used to, no?
Reggie says no hard drive…but a better solution, while Miyamoto says enough with the peripherals [Go Nintendo]
A recent issue of Japanese PC tech otaku mag Weekly ASCII has a piece on Western games that have yet to get a Japan release. To get readers in the spirit, three Japanese dudes have dressed up like foreigners, visited an import game shop and exclaimed English words in ALL CAPS. So Manhunt 2 for the PSP gets an “EXCELLENT”, Trophy Bucks for the Xbox 360 gets “WONDERFUL” and My Weight Loss Coach for the DS gets “UNBELIEVABLE”. Certainly there are more colourful English adjectives for these games than this…
Invader Game [An Eternal Thought In The Mind of Godzilla]
As far as platformers go, Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts is certainly…different. Remains to be seen how effective the vehicle elements are, but hey, it’s different. If it doesn’t work, it can go on the pile of stuff Rare’s done that hasn’t worked, and they’ll move on. And if it does work? Rare’s Ellissa Miller: [Nuts & Bolts]is like an introduction to what we could do. If we went on and did some more then we could push it. If it was accepted and people enjoyed it then we could definitely push it in a much bigger direction. This is like an opening to a new type of gaming I guess.
Sounds good to me. Hell, even if Nuts & Bolt doesn’t work, no harm in pushing the originality envelope a little further.
Just like the movie, the latest Harry Potter game has been pushed back. How many tears that’ll cost the youth of the world, sadly, we’ll never know. What we do know is how much the delay cost EA in missed revenue for the year. While it’s ultimately pointless trivia – they’ll just make the money next year instead – it’s still interesting to see the kinds of bets the company put on their games prior to release. Seems EA were counting on the Half-Blood Prince to do around $US 120 million worth of business across the 117 platforms it’ll be shipping on, a figure so great it represents around 2.5% of the entire company’s revenue for the year. Those wizards. They big business.
Form 8-K for ELECTRONIC ARTS INC. [Yahoo, via Variety]
It’s on Craigslist, so who knows how legitimate this is, but we definitely like the feel of it. Seems Mark Burnett (pictured), the man behind everything from Survivor to The Apprentice to The Contender, might be working with MTV on a reality TV program based around Rock Band 2. Centred around competition between bands of four, it’ll give you the chance to not only get on TV and win the “Ultimate Rock Band Experience”, but subsequently slide into a creative and moral abyss, as the cocaine, cheap women and long tours drive a wedge between you and your bandmates, and you grow to loathe everyone and everything in your life you once held dear. So, yeah, awesome! Only catch is you’ve got to be over 18, and be based in the LA/SoCal area.
Ultimate Rock Band Experience [Craigslist, thanks brilliant sir!]
Back before Square Enix rescinded its friendly Tecmo takeover bid, we first broke the news that RPG maker was baffled. Tecmo rejected its offer in favour of merging with Dynasty Warriors company Koei. Most curious. Square Enix had three questions for Tecmo:
1. Please confirm that the decision on the start of discussions with KOEI toward integration of management is the reason for rejection of the Proposal.
2. If that is the case, please clarify concretely that major terms of integration of management with KOEI (form of the integration, stock prices assumption, integration ratio and so forth) are favourable for TECMO’s shareholders than the Proposal.
3. If not, please clarify that TECMO has an alternative plan, which is favourable for TECMO’s shareholders than the Proposal.
Tecmo didn’t answer these questions until today. We’ve translated that, after the jump.
For those unfamiliar with James Cameron’s upcoming Avatar, the very gamey flick follows an ex-Marine’s struggle for survival on an alien planet. The title refers to the main character’s status as an avatar — a human mind in an alien body. Besides creating oodles (yes, oodles) of CG alien characters to inhabit the flick, Cameron is also planning to show the movie (and the movie based games!) in stereoscopic 3D. The avatar game is apparently already running in stereoscopic 3D! Cameron has been shooting the film in New Zealand, and it’s about 60 percent done. Cameron’s gunning to have it finished it time for its December 2009 release. Above is a picture of the set, which looks more like they’re making a game and less like a movie in the traditional sense.
Avatar Set Picture And James Cameron Interview [Latino Review]
Adobe InDesign* is damn hard to use, especially if you have no idea what you’re doing. Though I expect the art guys and gals at Ubisoft have a fairly decent grasp of the software.
Or maybe not, judging by this rating sticker whoopsie on the Collector’s Edition box art for Australia. I imagine the mistake is only on this promo image, and not the actual retail package. Well, for Ubi’s sake I hope it isn’t!
*I’m assuming it’s InDesign. It could be plain old Photoshop, or even QuarkXPress (*shudder*).
Far Cry 2 Collectors Edition Image Blooper [The Computer Game]
