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Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land In a somewhat off-putting press release in-game advertising company Massive and Electronic Arts bragged today about their ability to shove more advertisements down gamers’ throats with the extension and expansion of the collaboration of the two companies.
The deal will extend the contract between the two for two years, but more importantly expand the number of games that Electronic Arts will allow Massive to place ads in.
With the latest agreement, EA will further expand the opportunities available to advertisers by extending the participation of current titles in the Massive network as well as incorporating additional, highly anticipated games over the course of the deal. The wide range of EA content that will be available in the Massive network includes the next two iterations of popular EA SPORTS(TM) franchises including Madden NFL* football, NBA LIVE basketball, NASCAR* (R) racing and NHL(R) hockey.
While the press release spends lots of time explaining how wonderful this is for advertisers and how profitable it will be for Electronic Arts, it fails to mention the impact it has on gamers. I don’t mind some in-game advertising, but reading a release like this makes me feel like these games are little more than glorified vehicles for advertising… and we’re still paying top dollar to get them. How crazy is that?
Good news, console RTSers! Sierra/Massive Entertainment’s acclaimed post-Cold War real-time strategy title World in Conflict is spreading from the PC to the Xbox 360 and PS3. Expected to launch fall 2008, these console versions won’t just be a port of the original World in Conflict, instead including extra “new content” planned for both the singleplayer campaign and online multiplayer.
For existing PC players, this new content will come in the form of an add-on. Potential pricing has not been discussed. As for me, I just feel lucky that I’m no longer forced to own a PC to play a lot of games formerly reserved for the platform, even if the authenticity of experience isn’t always duplicated.
newVideoPlayer("Wic_Xmas_Gawker.flv", 475, 376);
Wow, those folks over at Massive Entertainment have issues, Christmas issues! But who doesn’t. I mean who hasn’t wanted to take out the neighbourhood with a flood or tanks and barrage of mortar fire?
Massive today continues to support the World in Conflict community, making the software development kit (SDK) to its popular action RTS available for download.
The SDK will allow users to modify most aspects of the game to create everything from tiny tweaks to weapons and units, to full-blown conversions that change the very foundations of the game.
The release of the SDK brings the free program count for World in Conflict up to four, when you include the map maker, movie maker and the broadcast tool. Can anyone think of anything else they’d like to see? Because I’m clean out of ideas.
The SDK even comes with its own wiki, to aid budding mod makers with the basics.
If you’re interested in downloading the SDK, you can grab it via Internode (and plenty of other mirrors, I’d imagine). Also, take note of the requirements:
The installation requires: - World in Conflict version 1.0.0.3 - WicEd version 1.0.0.1 (WicEd + Hot fix) - 5-6 GB of additional disk space per installation of the Mod Kit. - Admin rights on the computer
Sounds reasonably manageable to me.
The Mod Kit is unleashed! [Massgate.net]
First rule of extending the life of a game is multiplayer. The second is providing tools so players can create their own content.
If you’d like to head over to the Internode Games Network, you can download WicEd, a map editor for Massive’s RTS World in Conflict. Seeing as WiC had multiplayer from the get go, this utility is for those who wish to follow up on that second rule.
Be warned, it’s a chunky 350MB, so start your horses now and unclog those poker chips from your Internet tubes. There’s also a 7MB hotfix for the editor, which was just released today.
The editor fits nicely with WiC’s Movie Maker and Broadcast Tool. Makes you wonder what Massive will pump out next.
World in Conflict Patched to 0003 – With New Map, and map making tool [Internode Games Network]
Should World in Conflict be the Battlefield 2 of the RTS scene? I guess that’s up to you to decide. If you just want to show your mates how cool your nuke launches are – from ten different angles – then Massive’s just-released broadcast tool sounds like it’ll be right up your ICBM tube.
The tool allows you to play the role of virtual MC, manipulating cameras to grab the best shots of the action. It’ll be a boon for the competitive scene, no doubt, but now you can try it at home – free.
It’s designed for Direct3D 10, but if you’re still running D3D 9, there’s a command switch you can run to get it working fine in Windows XP. More info and the download at Internode Games Network.
World In Conflict Broadcast Tool Has Arrived, Comrade [Internode Games Network]
newVideoPlayer("WiC_BTS1_T_1200k_gawker.flv", 475, 376);World In Conflict developers Massive Entertainment is creating a series of behind the scenes vignettes about the upcoming PC RTS game that Crecente and I recently got a chance to suck at. This first one details the setting, which is of course an alternate timeline where instead of the cold war ending, it got hot. Really hot. We’re talking Red Dawn hot. The video is worth it for the closing scene alone, which features Seattle being enveloped in a mushroom cloud while Tears for Fears’ Everybody Wants To Rule The World plays in the background. Classy!
In World In Conflict’s latest Q&A, the developers hint at things to come. Q: Will there be an ‘Army Creator’ feature where you can create your own faction with your own units in-game, define bonuses etc?
So will there? Short answer, no. Long answer…no. Seriously, that may be the most deflating question ever to ask an RTS developer: “So, does your game do all this awesome stuff that you’ve never, ever hinted at or alluded to?” But there’s some good stuff here if you are interested in Word in Conflict.
Q&A with David Polfeldt [massgate]
The Massive folks have challenged Team Kotaku to a little game-off in World in Conflict this week. They will be pitting two of the guys who helped create the game against myself and Fahey, in other words we are going to have not just our arses, but just about all of our body parts handed to us.
In exchange for this online pummeling we’ve agreed to undertake, Massive is going to send us videos of our digital disgrace for posting on the site and whether we win or not we take home some prizes. Not prizes for us, no, all we get is the public humiliation, the prizes will be for you.
The Massive folks are going to hand over several copies of World in Conflict, some sort of autographed World in Conflict swag and some uber prize, perhaps a World in Conflict Skateboard or track jacket. I’m hoping to get you guys the board, because I’ve seen it and it kicks ass. No promises yet on what exactly we’ll be getting for you, but it’s going to be super cool.
Check back Friday evening to see just how horribly Fahey and I were whooped.
