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Potato & Leak Soup
Posted by Luke Plunkett at 11:40 PM on June 16, 2008
To: Crecente
From: Luke
So! Lots of stuff happening on a Sunday night. Which is very unusual. Friday nights, you sometimes get news, as companies try and sneak bad press out after everyone's gone home, but Sunday nights? That's new. What's surprised me most about the whole thing however wasn't the timing, but the sheer volume of stuff that came out of it. Can't remember anything off the top of my head that compares. Sure, some of it sounds a bit patchy, and some of it sounds like complete baloney, but on the whole, a lot of the stuff checks out. I really feel for the guys at market research company Intellisponse - ie the source of the leaks - about now. I've a feeling this will be a Monday morning they will not enjoy.
For all the Microsoft/Activision news that leaked overight:
Please, consult this handy round-up.
Here's everything else you missed:
Valkyria Chronicles Statue: Alicia
This Might Just Be The PlayStation Phone
Afrika: Sixaxis Camera Controls, You Can't Drive
Resistance 2 Gameplay Vids
Just wake up? Boy, did you miss a ton of stuff! Marketing research firm Intellisponse forgot all about standard internet security protocols and left a whole bunch of secret, yet-to-be-announced game information accessible to the public (first spotted by 
Sorry. The "PlayStation Phone". Because it's a lot more phone than it is "PlayStation". Letdown. Pictured above is the Sony Ericsson F305 phone, first in their new "F" series of devices, due for release later this year. The Unofficial Sony Ericsson Blog - source for this info and the pics - believe the "F" stands for "fun", because the phone not only features motion-controlled gaming, but also boasts the familiar "O" and "X" buttons, as well as a PlayStation control pad icon, suggesting that gaming is going to be made a primary feature of the line. If this is as PlayStation phone as Sony are willing to go (and it probably is), it's a smart move - actually branding the thing a PlayStation Phone, and going all-out on the gaming side of things, may not have been the smartest thing to do to the brand.
Afrika details? Real ones, that actually tell you something about how the game's going to play? Wonderful. Taiwanese site GNN had a chance to play the game at a recent Sony press event, and are able to tell us all about it. Seems Afrika's driven by missions, sent to your camp via email, which require you to snap certain shots of scenes/animals (though it seems, thankfully, with no time limit). To get out into the wilderness for said shots, you have to use a jeep, though sadly you won't be driving it, as that's taken care of by your "AI/tour guide".
And now, the last of the leaked MS/Acti news items for the day. Included in Intellisponse's marketing/survey data was some information on Microsoft's User Generated Games program, which is what they were calling the service we know better as "
Looks like Yug from Australian Gamer is holding a gathering of sorts for the folks heading to 
Yes, more Intellisponse leakage! Another game mentioned that we (or at least I) hadn't yet heard of was a new version of You Don't Know Jack. For the Wii. Not much more to add than that, other than this is a very good idea, and it's baffling why it's taken this long in the console's lifespan for someone to come up with it. No word on a release date or developer/publisher (going off the other leaks, though, we'll presume it's Activision), but they do mention a $AU 42.58 price-point.
I say "probably" because, yes, this is from the same marketing leak we've been having so much fun with today. One of the games mentioned in the leak (which, FYI, was courtesy of 
Before you get excited, no, it doesn't contain some magical pre-release copy of Fallout 3. The "triple" of the pack is Fallout: Tactics, and while not as tasty as the other games included - Fallout and Fallout 2 if you had yet to guess - it's not a bad deal for $14.90.
More from the "marketing leaks". And more Activision stuff. There are several listings on the site for what is probably the next "current-gen" Tony Hawk title, which has three working titles: Amplitude, Adrenaline and, awesomely, Tony Hawk's Huck Jam. The game is slated to appear on 360, PS3 and PC, and will make use of motion controls via a custom board controller/peripheral (
Here's the second title I'm working on for Game A Week. It's called Zafehouse, and demands the player keep a bunch of survivors alive for 120 hours (five days) from zombie attacks, while hunting for weapons, ammo, food and other people. It will be primarily event driven, requiring the player to deal with infections, supply shortages and freak accidents. Securing buildings will be an important part of play, as not everyone can fit in the starting house!
Courtesy of the same leak that's spilled everything else today, there's a little more information to be had on the 
We already knew it was coming, but amongst yesterday's MS/Acti marketing leaks were some further details on the upcoming Marvel: Ultimate Alliance II. The game will be set during Marvel's recent "Civil War" story arc, with players forced to choose sides in the conflict. There'll supposedly be "over 20" playable Marvel characters, including the Hulk, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Venom and the Human Torch, and players will be able to "fuse" two character's powers together to give one character hybrid abilities. The release mentions the game will be appearing on 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP & DS.
I say "probably" because, yes, this is from the same marketing leak we've been having so much fun with today. A new title listed on the site is called Powers & Titans, and is apparently for the PS3, 360 and PC. Described only as an "action game", you're a super hero able to choose your own powers (no mention of licenced characters), and have to employ the right powers for the right fight/situation. While a singleplayer element is described, it sounds like the focus is on multiplayer, with players able to form "super teams" online and then perform missions, like "invading a city" or "protecting a convoy". A little like City of Heroes for the trigger-happy, then.
Caution: this comes from the same place as all the other leaks we've posted on tonight, so now's a good time to remind you they come from a marketing company. Performing surveys for not only Microsoft, but other companies (ie Activision) as well. Which means that while some of this news seems genuine - and imminent - other stuff may just be pie-in-the-sky (like this). Got it? Great, let's continue. Something popping up on the site is called "Trioxide", and claims it will introduce "the ability to play the latest console games (ie Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, etc) on your PC". How? Don't know. Why? Don't know. Is this even legal/doable? Probably not! We don't have much more than the name and the mission statement. But there's two prices listed: $AU 52.11 and $AU 317.96, with the more expensive price and boasted controller use seeming to imply that - if this is real, and not, as seems more probable, a figment of some marketers imagination - it'd be a kind of actual device, and not just standalone software.
The same source that leaked details on unannounced 
Included in the flood of leaks that sprung earlier today was a flash video showing gameplay in Ultimate Band, a no-peripheral music game due out from Disney for the Wii by the end of the year. (The video did not address proposed versions for the PS2 or DS.)
Also in the batch of leaks going up on NeoGAF and elsewhere: Guitar Hero World Tour (aka GH IV) will feature new controls on the guitar neck, plus a raft of A-list artists including, curiously, the Doors.
The fact developer High Voltage Software has yet to find a publisher for The Conduit, which is the FPS Wii-exclusive title, hasn't stopped it from announcing a first-quarter 2009 release. The Conduit Information Centre site also has a nice little cache of screenshots, one is above, some are after the jump. IGN put up four new ones on Friday.
A new social gaming channel is coming to Xbox LIVE, one that looks to be another attempt from Microsoft to target the casual gaming crowd with "programmatic, highly concurrent social interactive games". That's the long way of saying "game shows" as Xbox LIVE versions of Jeopardy! and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? appear to be coming to the "SBG Channel".
The Itagaki-Tecmo pissing match may have hit a new level of animosity. 1Up, attributing only "word on the street," reports that as many as 36 key members of Team Ninja are walking, and preparing a class-action lawsuit against Tecmo regarding unpaid bonuses they were due for completed games.
Other nuggets gleaned from the ongoing mining of the Xbox marketing leak by Xbox 360 Fanboy:
Microsoft's uncanny inability to keep a secret has resulted in a 
When 
After a rather gruelling year, I am taking a self-enforced vacation from academia for a few days to recharge. But if you're not, there's a pretty interesting PDF of an MA thesis floating around — the subject is fan-producer interaction in relation to games, specifically Fallout. I've browsed through a bit of it, and I've liked what I've seen so far: 
First Balance Board Blog got hold of a rather bizarre YouTube clip that features -- women in jogging leotards? dudes with horrid combovers in corsets and black socks? -- running to a 60-Minutes style stopwatch. Nothing in the vid suggests it's a promo for a game, much less one using the Wii Balance Board, so methinks viral marketing straight away.
Laurent Fisher got a big ole filet of sole (as in, shoe) in the mouth this week when he dismissed Wii memory storage as an issue "only geeks and otaku care about". Grr. Boo. Hiss. He got raked bigtime, notably by 