General Game Development – Page 22

Fatal Inertia team facing troubles with Unreal Engine 3 for PS3 too!

Fatal Inertia Screenshot

We brought you news of Silicon Knights throwing a lawsuit at Epic Games not long ago. To summarize, they claim that Epic gave them faulty versions of the Unreal Engine 3, that it does not do what it is said to do, that it has problems working on the PS3, that Epic did not help them figure out how to use the Unreal Engine 3 and that Epic stole their lunch money.

Using Silicon Knights’ lawsuit as cover, Fatal Inertia developers Koei have gone public with the statement that they are having problems with the Unreal Engine 3 as well. Koei announced that the Unreal Engine 3 is not functioning well under the PS3’s highly-acclaimed hardware. The game is “not running well enough” to be released for the PS3 yet.

This means that Fatal Inertia for the PS3 has officially been delayed. Since they find it silly to hold up the Xbox 360 version because of troubles with the PS3, Koei has decided to release the Xbox 360 version without a delay.

[Via Games Radar]

To End All Wars, World War I shooter coming for Xbox 360 and PS3

I have a feeling the headline has left you befuddled. Allow me to be clearer: UK Video game publisher Ghostlight will be publishing a game developed by Chemistry, based on the First World War titled To End All Wars. As you can see, journalists, bloggers and general pun-makers are going to have a field day everytime this game makes headlines.

This is one of those few games (if not the first) to be based on World War One, which is often described as a more tragic war than World War 2 (that’s where all the Nazis and Call of Duties came up). Chemistry is committed to replicate the horror and pain of World War One, rather than dumb it down to something fun you play on a console one rainy afternoon. Aiding Chemistry in its quest will be the Unreal Engine 3 (my personal favourite) which was previously used in Gears of War and will be used in Unreal Tournament 3.

To End All Wars will be releasing in Summer 2008 for the XBOX 360 and the PS3. No rifle-shooting and trench crawling for your Wiimote, sorry. The game will reportedly feature weapons, equipment and other material as authentic as possible, which could be a tough job considering the number of WWI games out there. Right now, we know that you’ll find yourself on night patrols, trenches and running out in the open like the helpless dog you really are.

Ghostlight is not a very famous publisher, yet, since they’ve only made their start with a PS2 game, a DS game and a PSP game. But Ghostlight’s director Khaled Lababedi says:

“Alongside other products to be announced in the coming months, To End All Wars will propel Ghostlight towards its stated objective of becoming a major global publisher.”

Chemistry is owned by Kuju Entertainment and are known for their titles Buzz! (PS2) and Sensible Soccer (PS2). On a side note, I’ve never heard of either title. Let’s hope End Of All Wars turns out to be good game and show us what the horrors of the First World War were. In a very fun game that you play on a console in a rainy afternoon.

[Via Shacknews]

CryENGINE 2 Licenced by Indie Developer

Mobster

The guys from Paleo Entertainment, based in San Diego have announced that their new, shiny FPS, Merchants of Brooklyn will be using the CryENGINE 2. Never heard of it? Remember the upcoming game with awesome tropical graphics that made you cream your pants, called Crysis? Yep, it uses CryENGINE 2.

The game in question, Merchants of Brooklyn, is set in 3100 A.D. where you see the main character, Matteo Savio make his way from a young boy to “Dr. Savio, PHD – Director of Genetics on Planet Paleo”, through an adventure featuring “MOB life, Scientific Education and Galactic adventures.” Definitely original stuff there. Especially considering that most of the characters are going to be Neanderthals. In a mob. How cool is that?

To quote Troy Latimer, president of Paleo (heh, alliteration):

Before licensing the CryENGINE 2 for our new project we looked carefully at all our options, and concluded no other engine could produce the kind of AAA quality game we were aiming to develop, nor were any other toolsets as advanced or user friendly as the ones delivered with the CryENGINE 2.

Sounds as good a reason as any. A second worthy reason being that this makes the upstart developer very famous indeed.

Paleo Entertainment was born out of a modding group that created Paleolithic Revolution, a Half-Life 2 mod based on Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon domination of caves and stacked rocks. Personally, I like the originality of these buggers.

Right now, we know nothing more than what I have presented already, though there is a bunch of concept art (more like doodles) out there.

[Via Gamasutra, Kotaku]

New ‘groundbreaking’ PS3 Exclusive to be made by Indigo Prophecy devs

Indigo Prophecy

You might have heard of a game developer called Quantic Dream, if you’ve ever heard of a highly-acclaimed game known as Indigo Prophecy (or Fahrenheit). If you haven’t, Indigo Prophecy is a fairly recent adventure game that won accolades for its breathtaking storyline, freshness and the semi-cinematic experience it delivered. You can tell just by looking at those adjectives that this was one hell of a game.

Quantic Dream has signed a deal with Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios to make a PS3 exclusive title, which will “set a new benchmark in delivering emotionally compelling experiences to gamers.” Considering Quantic Dream’s record, they may not be bluffing. The game will reportedly be using the Cell Broadband Engine™, but no other important details have been announced.

You can find the whole press release at the source, but the interesting parts of the same are as follows:

Michael Denny, Vice President, SCE Worldwide Studios, said: “We’re really excited to be working with Quantic Dream for the first time and to have this opportunity to once again push the gaming experience to realise a new level of interactivity and, in particular, to engage players at an emotional level never experienced before. We’re looking forward to revealing more news on this special title later this year.”

I’d be really glad if I get to play a game that actually touches me. No game has come close to doing that since LucasArts’ masterpiece Grim Fandango.

David Cage, Founder, President and CEO of Quantic Dream, said, “We always believed that “next generation” meant more meaningful content based on players’ emotional involvement. To us, PS3 is the only platform that can truly deliver on this promise, and SCE WWS is a group that is both inspiring and pleasant to work with.”

Finally, somebody realizes that next-gen doesn’t necessarily mean bigger and better graphics and sound.

This is one project I am really looking forward to. More details are expected to be released “soon”. Hit the source for the full press release.

[Via Kotaku]

More info on Fallout 3!

Ever since Bethesda acquired Fallout 3, it has remained more or less in mystery. Cut to last month – a new trailer and some magazine scans reveal the successor to the famous Fallout line of video games.

For the uninitiated, Fallout is a post-apocalyptic RPG that achieved immense fame because of its innovations and its excellent and open-ended gameplay. Fallout 2 was even more popular and spin-offs followed it but Black Isle didn’t look at Fallout 3. The rights were sold to Bethesda, makers of the massively famous Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

To summarize a few facts, Fallout 3 will be set in post-apocalyptic United States and as the teaser proved, the atmosphere is in tune with previous Fallout games. You once again don the uniform of a vault-dweller, who has lived all his (or her) life in an underground ‘vault’ and then undertakes a major quest. The game will use a unique combat system, which can be described as a cross between first-person shooting and turn-based action (like in previous Fallout games).

Continue reading below for plenty of details.

Continue reading “More info on Fallout 3!”

StuffWeLike.com Version 7.0 – Now Online

After an entire weekend of labor, version 7 of StuffWeLike.com is now officially online! What’s different about this version from ones in the past is that we now have a multimedia player! I’m looking into creating a video game music channel with this player. As such if you’re an indie developer and would like to have your music on this channel please contact me!