News – Page 47 – StuffWeLike

Say Goodbye to Bizarre Creations

To me Bizarre Creations is one of the best arcade racing game developers in the world. They’ve made everything from Metropolis Street Racer, on the Dreamcast, to the more recent Project Gotham Racing series. Each of their games has always been about improving over the previous title. However all of that could be about to change with the announcement today that Activision has now bought Bizarre Studios. Activision is known for milking franchises (a la Tony Hawk) and potentially now with PGR as well as Geometry Wars!

This is not a good thing folks. Anyone looking forward to the Geometry Wars for the DS and Wii, be forwornd that these two titles aren’t being developed by Bizarre Creations. Both games are being made by the terrible development studio called Kuju Entertainment.

If this is going to be the future of Bizarre, one where games are milked to the extreme, then I for one will not buy them. It’s very well possible that Bizarre could take Activision racing series and improve upon them, or continue to make their own original titles. Either way I hope that this previously independent studio can stay on top of its game and give fans what they deserve.

PGR4

The Great Day Dawns – Halo 3 has come.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Or perhaps good evening? Maybe afternoon, or night? Regardless of where you are and what time it is right now, there is truth in the fact that Halo 3 is right around the corner. September 25th is now officially “tomorrow” for most of the world, and it is no doubt a date that has been permanently etched into your brain if you are a gamer.

There is no doubt that Halo 3 is the most anticipated video game for the Xbox 360 console and will be for the rest of eternity. If you had thought that the conclusion of the Halo trilogy would be quiet and in a way, melancholic, you were wrong. Microsoft can’t let that happen. You see, a lot of games are “highly-anticipated”, but Microsoft pushed Halo 3 to the point of no return. Anticipation is just no longer the right word for it.
Continue reading “The Great Day Dawns – Halo 3 has come.”

Finally, Halo 3 leaked to the Internets

Now, normally the guys who play games before their release dates are labelled “weirdos” and most people respectfully wait for the full version of the game to come out. It appears that with Halo 3, the situation is quite the opposite – play Halo 3 after September 25th and be ready to be labelled “weirdo”!

As would be expected of any big-budget production, Halo 3 has been leaked to the massive world of BitTorrent in a 6.14 GB torrent. You may now stop writing death threats against those who got Halo 3 before the release date and go do something equally illegal now.

Oh, and don’t forget to seed, you greedy bastard.

[Via gamesindustry.biz]

Microsoft’s not banning anyone for playing Halo 3 early after all

With a video game launch as large as Halo 3, you have to have scandal, controversy and broken street dates. We’ve seen Halo 3’s release date broken across the world, and rumour goes that aliens stole a copy as well. Another rumour said that Microsoft will ban people’s accounts if they play before the release date.

Pro-G said earlier that a Microsoft rep told them that Microsoft will ban accounts if they find such a thing happening. Pro-G said later that another Microsoft rep (who probably lost a deathmatch some time ago) told them that Microsoft will only ban Microsoft employees’ accounts. Whew.

And now Pro-G tells us that Microsoft has made an official statement on the matter, after considerable deliberation and beer-drinking.

We can confirm that Microsoft is not taking any action (such as banning Xbox Live accounts) against gamers who are playing Halo 3 before the official street date. Any rumours or speculation to the contrary are false.

So what is the lesson to be learnt here? Do not trust rumours, Microsoft representatives and release dates.

Force Unleashed for Wii in 2008!

We brought you news last week that the famed lightsaber-swinging Star Wars Wii game will not be the next installation of Lego Star Wars. This left us wondering as to what LucasArts has up its sleeves. Well, it turns out that one of my predictions went right – LucasArts is porting Force Unleashed to the Wii, and the package will be released in Spring 2008!

I can immediately see the game get massive sales for the Wii, because you WILL get to control the lightsaber with your Wiimote and use force powers with the nunchuck. How friggin’ cool is that? Plus, the game will include a Wii-exclusive duel mode, which allows you and your equally geeky buddy to fight with lightsabers ‘fer rel’! This is certainly something Star Wars fans have anticipated for a long, long time.

“Wii is a great platform for The Force Unleashed, because the console’s motion-oriented controllers really bring the game to life,” said Jim Ward, the president of LucasArts. “We’ve worked hard to make the Wii version of the game unique in order to truly let you unleash the Force.”

Holy hell yeah!

Intel buys Havok – randomest acquisition of the week

Gamers will know Havok, the Irish company for their stellar physics engine, while movie buffs might know it for providing special effects from movies like The Matrix, Poseidon and so on. Well, word is that Intel has bought Havok. Why, you ask? I have no idea. Maybe they just thought it’s a nice company to buy.

But Havok’s CEO says “The acquisition will help Havok grow into new market segments,” which sounds good! Havok will continue to keep business on as usual, though. In layman’s terms, Havok’s the same – except that it might just get a little, and then a little bigger.

Havok was founded in 1998 and has created the famous Havok Physics Engine, which has been seen in dozens of games since, examples including BioShock, Half-Life 2, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Age of Empires III and many, many more.

[Via PC World]