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Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land Well the Stranglehold map pack announced last month is out on Xbox Live, with the PlayStation 3 version sure to follow shortly thereafter. As promised, it contains 10 new multiplayer maps, 21 new characters, and 10 new achievements for an additional 250 points to your gamerscore. All this for 1200 Microsoft points – $US 15 in real money – and I am currently trying to figure out if it’s worth it. It pretty much works out to $US 1.50 a map, which doesn’t sound like too much, but in one big chunk that costs a quarter of the game’s retail price? I’m going to be struggling with this for days before I finally cave and put the money down. If I know I am going to buy it anyway, why wait you ask? It’s all about the journey my friend. Thanks to Billkwando for the heads up!
Chicago-based Midway Games hasn’t posted a profit since 1999. This year wasn’t so hot either. That may have something to do with publishing broken, puerile crap like Hour of Victory, Game Party, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am and Cruis’n. Delays for Stranglehold, Blacksite: Area 51 and Unreal Tournament III aren’t helping matters either, but it may have more to do with Midway’s close association with software diarrhea that could prevent it from returning to glory. Maybe that’s why Midway CEO David Zucker is promising that the company will produce “fewer, bigger, better” titles next year. Fewer Cruis’ns? Yes, please and thank you!
Amazon has a nice deal going on Strangehold Collector’s Edition for PS3. It’s just $US 40 if you order today (which is $US 30 off retail). Some of you may remember this as the version with a Blu-ray movie of John Woo’s “Hard Boiled.” And some of you may also remember that the movie was original region protected, but Midway gave and made the movie region free after fans complained.
So in other words, this deal may be decent for our UK friends as well (and even you Ash, to pick up while you’re in the States). It’s odd not to hear from Ash in his night notes, isn’t it? Not that Luke “kangaroo boxer” Plunkett isn’t great, but I for one am eagerly awaiting the tales of Mini-Bash experiencing Tex Mex cuisine, American Santa and buxom Texas ladies.
Amazon [via cheapassgamer]
Midway has plans to woo players back into Stranglehold’s strangle hold with the announcement of a downloadable map pack for the game, coming soon to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. Ten new multiplayer maps are featured in the pack, allowing you to splatter your opponents vital fluids across the Kowloon Market, the Rooftops of Chicago, and Wong’s Estate Grounds. Also included in the pack are 21 new character skins, because killing the same guys over and over again tends to get a little boring. The Xbox 360 version come with 10 new achievements as well, allowing you to tack another 250 points onto your gamerscore, while the PlayStation 3 version has that wonderful new PS3 DLC smell to it. The date is listed only as “Coming Soon”, and while there is no mention of the price in the quick press release, the word free doesn’t appear once, and PR people wouldn’t miss a chance to riddle the missive with that particular buzzword. It’s definitely vague day.
Midway has been having some problems developing games for the PS3 alongside their Xbox 360 and PC versions. First we had Stranglehold PS3 get delayed, and now we’re hearing that Blacksite: Area 51 may be late, too. Midway Chicago’s studio head Mike Bilder worked on Stranglehold, and given the frequency of PS3 development issues, he thinks that workflows are going to change: I think a lot of people and a lot of focus as far as games that we have internally that are going to be multi-SKU are trying to put the PS3 out in front now, make that your lead SKU. And in the same way I think a lot of people put the PS2 as their lead SKU in the last hardware generation, and then Xbox came after.
So will this just create a whole new set of issues?
Remember Midway’s Stranglehold? The PC and Xbox 360 versions of the shooter shipped over a month ago, but the PlayStation 3 edition—some might say the ultimate edition—has finally gone gold, due to ship out next week on October 29. PS3-only gamers can take comfort in the late arrival of the John Woo authorised Stranglehold with its included, full-length version of the Hong Kong cinema prequel, Hard Boiled, stuffed on the Collector’s Edition Blu-ray disc. A regular version, sans Chow Yun Fat movie and 10 dollar collector’s tax is also available. More proof that above average things come to those who wait.
The Chicago publisher responsible for Mortal Kombat, The Suffering and Stranglehold has issued a 160-page tome of production artwork from its stable of current franchises known as The Art of Midway: Before Pixels and Polygons. Featuring artwork from the above titles, as well as Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, Gauntlet, and Stranglehold, the unusual collection features some 200 pieces of artwork from Midway artists.
Maybe not exactly the collection you were hoping for—as an old, old man, I’d have preferred a more historical look at the company’s arcade games, titles like Spy Hunter, the original Mortal Kombat, and of course, the classic War Gods—but it’s still an interesting venture. I’d certainly like to see more publishers and developers publishing volumes of their artwork for fans, so kudos to Midway for giving their artists a chance to shine.
The Art of Midway [Design Studio Press]
The prez and CEO of Chicago-based publisher Midway explained in a conference call today exactly what was behind the delay behind two of its marquee holiday titles bound for the PlayStation 3. Both Stranglehold and BlackSite: Area 51 will ship later than their Xbox 360 counterparts in North America and Europe respectively, largely due to “bumps” the development teams have experienced along the way. Both are cross-platform games built on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3.
Citing technical issues that have “taken more time to finalise than expected”, David Zucker says that the delays for each will materially affect Midway’s 2007 revenue. On the plus side, Zucker says those technical issues are now “complete at a core level in our engine” and that “now that we have the systems working, looking ahead to 2008 we expect the PS3 versions of our titles to ship day and date with other versions”.
There’s a little something for everyone this week from the gorgeous Eternal Sonata and the uber cute MySims to the gritty World In Conflict and action-packed Stranglehold. As I will be spending the next two weeks abroad I won’t be playing much of anything until I return but Eternal Sonata is definitely my pick for this week. Anything you’ll be picking up?
Kotaku reader Iwo saw our previous post on the alleged system requirements for the PC version of Midway’s Stranglehold, one that demanded hardware specs that one might expect to see in a $7000 computer. To his surprise (and mine) he found a very different set of minimum requirements on the back of the game’s display case, despite the final retail version still being a few weeks off. We’re waiting to hear back from Midway on the matter, but it looks like the near final hardware needs don’t approach the sometimes ludicrous levels we posted earlier.
They’re rumoured to be:
