Category: Other

Unreal Tournament 3 PS3 Exclusive

Unreal 3

Midway Games, Epic Games, and Sony Computer Entertainment America today announced that the highly anticipated and award-winning Unreal Tournament 3 will be exclusive to the Playstation 3 computer entertainment system and PC in 2007. Thanks to the open network of the Playstation 3 system, Unreal Tournament 3 will also be the first game to feature robust user generated content including multiplayer maps, custom game modes and much more. Developed by North Carolina-based, Epic Games, Unreal Tournament 3 is scheduled to be available in November.

The technology behind Unreal Tournament 3, Epic’s world class Unreal Engine 3 will be fully optimized for the Playstation 3 system allowing game developers to take full advantage of the power and creativity that the engine offers.

“Midway is extremely excited to release Unreal Tournament 3 on the Playstation 3 system and PC,” said Steve Allison, chief marketing officer, Midway. “We expect Unreal Tournament 3 to set the bar for what a first-person shooter and next generation game can truly be.”

“We feel very confident that Unreal Tournament 3 will continue to deliver on Epic’s promise to gamers to develop only the highest quality titles using our cutting-edge Unreal Engine 3 technology,” said Mark Rein, vice president and co-founder, Epic Games. “The game takes full advantage of the power of the Playstation 3 system, and Unreal Tournament 3 will for the first time allow users to create robust user created content, known as “mods”, on the PC version and play them on the Playstation 3 system. We’re extremely excited about this and we feel this will bring a level of creativity, innovation and replayability not previously seen on home consoles.”

“We expect Unreal Tournament 3 to be one of the most innovative and defining titles of this next generation,” said Jack Tretton, president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America. “We are extremely pleased that gamers will only be able to experience Unreal Tournament 3 on the Playstation 3 system later this year.”

E3 2007: Nintendo’s New Wii Fit to reduce your weight

Nintendo just announced at the Nintendo Press Conference at E3 2007 the new Wii Fit. It was their last and biggest game to be shown in the conference, which mostly described Nintendo’s upcoming games and their impact on public life with the innovative and fun gaming consoles, the DS and the Wii.

Wii Fit takes a hint from Wii Sports and is a full-fledged fitness instructor. Including a variety of different mini-games, Wii Fit aims at turning your Wii into a gym. The various exercises featured include push-ups, aerobics, yoga, dance and several fun games like headbutting Materazzi footballs that come shooting at you – the goalkeeper.

All this is achieved with the help of a new pressure platform, which can judge your BMI, the shift between your center of gravity as well as several other things. This will also judge whether you should improve your posture and so on.

The game will keep track of you and your family’s progress, which means that you can compete with other members of your family to see who loses weight faster (which is very good for you, yes you, fatty). Also, since the platform in question is completely wireless, you can put it anywhere in the room you like.

And who better to demonstrate it other than every geek’s hero, Shigeru Miyamoto! The big daddy himself competed (and lost) in his game, which was fun to watch. Still, I would find it ridiculous to move my body around and headbutt the air on a pressure platform.

Currently, no release date has been supplied. It may come anywhere from the end of 2007, to the middle of 2008. Of course, Nintendo will not hesitate to tell us – once all the fanboys have stopped squabbling.

First glimpses of wireless guitars for Guitar Hero 3 (all platforms!)

Guitar Hero Wii

Today, Activision announced their new partnership with Gibson Guitar Corp., the worlds leading musical instrument manufacturer and leader in musical technology. With this new agreement in hand, Activision will be featuring some of Gibson’s best guitars in the upcoming Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Fans can expect more than 20 classic and modern Gibson Guitars as well 80 finishes to use! And hell yeah – fans will be doing it all with their new wireless Gibson Guitar controllers.

The game will allow you unlock the following “battle axes” in-game:

Gibson:

  • ES-335
  • Explorer
  • Firebird
  • SG
  • Les Paul
  • V-Factor
  • Super CES400
  • Marauder
  • Corvus

Epiphone:

  • Casino
  • Coronet
  • Sheraton

Kramer:

  • 650
  • Vanguard

Bass Guitars:>

  • Marauder
  • Corvus
  • Les Paul
  • LP Double Cutaway
  • EDS 1275
  • ES335
  • Firebird
  • Flying V
  • Moderne
  • SG
  • X-Plorer

These wireless controllers will be available for all consoles. The Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii versions of the controllers will be using Gibson’s Les Paul model, while the PS2 version will see the classic Kramer.

The exclusive Gibson guitars will include innovative features such as removable faceplates that will allow fans to personalize their guitars, and a new button color design will be integrated for an even greater authentic feel and rock experience.

As you can see, Guitar Hero fans are going to have a field day.

Read on to find out what the guys Gibson Guitar and RedOctane said, as well as to find plenty of photos of the new wireless controllers (the one above is for the Wii, if you didn’t guess).

Continue reading “First glimpses of wireless guitars for Guitar Hero 3 (all platforms!)”

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]