Thursday, September 11, 2008
News
Noooooo! George Lucas Involved With Force Unleashed Plot
11:20PM Brian Ashcraft | Well, of course he is. He’s George Lucas! And as The Force Unleashed executive producer Haden Blackman pointed out that all during the 4-year development cycle: George gave us a history lesson about what the major characters in the Saga were doing in that time frame, and offered feedback and suggestions about the plot and characters. Is it wise to actually go around and tell people that? Pssst, we consulted with George Lucas for this game. That’s right, the George Lucas that turned the Force from a mystic energy into some cell-based midichlorian-communicating mumbo jumbo. And the same George Lucas who let stormtroopers kill Jedi\. Certainly there are oodles of smart, talented people at LucasArts. Let’s play up those folks, ‘mkay? Star Wars lives on through games [Reuters] More »
Diablo III Will Have Its Own ‘Unique’ Battle.net Needs
11:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Blizzard’s busy working on a major upgrade for its online gaming service Battle.net. And that upgrade is definitely taking Blizzard’s eagerly awaited Diablo III into consideration. Here’s what Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce has to say: Diablo III will have its own unique needs in terms of what Battle.Net provides. To the point. The engineers working on the upgrade will also be working integrally with the StarCraft II team and the Diablo III team. As they should be! Diablo III will have “its own unique needs” for the new Battle.Net [VG247] More »
Konami Smacktalks EA Soccer
10:40PM Brian Ashcraft | Claws out! Time to get catty. Konami makes Pro Evolution Soccer. EA makes the FIFA franchise. And with Pro Evo 2009 coming out this October, it’s time for Konami to remind folks that it makes the better soccer game. Oh yes. Here’s Konami Pro Evo leader Jon Murphy: It is all very well for EA to say that FIFA is making great strides, but general opinion suggests that they still have a long way to go before they can match the intuitive and absorbing gameplay of Pro Evolution Soccer… That is not to say that we are resting on our laurels, though. PES 2009 has a vast number of new additions that elevate it far beyond anything anyone else is doing. Yep, Konami just told EA “nice try, keep going, kid”. For the upcoming Pro Evolution Soccer title, Konami secured the Champions League licence for four years, plus signed deals with Premier League clubs Liverpool and Manchester United. It’s also the official video game of the England national team. Full PES 2009 details revealed [MCVUK] More »Dear Namco Bandai (Re: Macross Ace Frontier)
10:20PM Luke Plunkett | Dear Namco Bandai, Please publish Macross: Ace Frontier for the PSP in the West. Please. Kind Regards, Everybody. More »
Why Tales of Vesperia Is On Xbox 360 Explained (Well, Sorta)
10:00PM Brian Ashcraft | Xbox 360 exclusive Tales of Vesperia has done solid business in Japan. That’s not a surprise, as the Tales team says the franchise’s “anime RPG” style is appealing to players. The surprise part is the Xbox 360. But, the Xbox 360 traditionally hasn’t been a big hit in Japan. So Namco Bandai’s decision to bring the last in the Tales franchise to Microsoft’s game machine seems, well, a peculiar choice. Former Team Ninja head Tomonobu Itagaki put it best: “Nobody in Japan buys an Xbox on accident”. So, why was the impetus for Namco Bandai? The game’s chief director Yoshihito Higuchi explains: More »
More Creepy Game Characters
9:45PM Luke Plunkett | You can keep you “Real” Mario, “Real” Bowser and “Real” Sonic. Real Kirby is where it’s at. With “it” being creeping the hell out of us. More »
News
Loads Of People Downloaded The Force Unleashed Demo
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | And here we were thinking people had lost interest in Star Wars games. And here you are, proving that even the most mistreated fans will flock back to George Lucas’ wrinkled, cash-soaked bosom (or at least have a quick test suckle). Lucasarts announced yesterday that over a million people have downloaded the Force Unleashed demo for the 360, a figure that apparently set a new speed record for the console (fastest to 1 million downloads, which it hit in eight days). Over 1.3 million people downloaded the demo on the PS3. That gives us a grand total of 2.3 million downloads. For a week and a half, that’s a lot. Course, it’ll all be for naught if you all thought the game was a bit shit and don’t buy it, but hey, we’re talking the past here, not the future. More »
Uwe Boll Bitches About Movie Industry, Has Action Plan
9:00PM Brian Ashcraft | We often think: Either director Uwe Boll doesn’t get it, or he really, really gets it. Bad flick after bad flick, yet Uwe Boll keeps getting his game-to-film adaptations made. And the man’s got loads of opinions about the movie industry, what’s wrong with it, and how he can make it better. From Boll’s self-penned written rant titled “The Film market — or THERE IS NO MONEY IN MOVIES”: I will stop here before I start writing about totally overpaid agents, managers, agents, and studio executives in L.A. living in airballoons as long they can rip money out of the world outside of L.A. or the major companies. If I would run a studio I would do the same movies for half of the production costs in throwing the cokeheads out and cutting the bullshit of breakfast, lunch, and dinner meetings with idiots who never made a movie in their life. I can shoot a movie like Fantastic Four 2 in half of the time for half of the money shot by shot. Boll breaks down the problems with the film industry and what he can do to help. (And no, it’s not stop making movies. DAMMIT.) More »
Heavy Rain Keeps Going, Whether You Die Or Not
8:30PM Luke Plunkett | Seeing as it’s the spiritual successor to Fahrenheit, we can expect Heavy Rain to try a few novel things in the story-telling department. Here’s one of them: the main character can die, and the game will continue. Uh, wait, huh? I can’t really tell you too much about what the story’s about or how it’s going to work with the characters, all I can tell you that your character – the main character – can die, and the story will continue. That’s creator David Cage, who goes on to say that, yes, this means you can go on playing, just not with the main character. So long as this means we don’t have to endure a torturous QTE sequence to bring her back to life, OK, Cage, we’re interested. Heavy Rain: If the main girl dies, you can keep playing the “big story” [VG247] More »
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