Video Games – Page 281

Epic Making New IP with EA

Epic, impressed by their work on the Gears of War PC port, bought People Can Fly not very long ago. Now’s the time for action. Epic has announced that their Poland-based PCF studio will be working on a whole new IP to be released for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, all by EA. About time.

And we just got you excited on that, then sorry, we don’t have much else to report. That’s pretty much all that has been released upto now. No title, no hint of story, nothing. Still, being the keen industry analysts that we are, we’re guessing it will be a sci-fi first person shooter, involving either a dystopia or an alien invasion.

Epic seems to have been on a roll recently. While they have always prospered by selling their uber Unreal Engine to other devs, they took a walk out of the tent with Gears of War and are working on its sequel as we speak. They’re also doing great licensing Unreal Engine 3 and have a 4th version in the works.

Their flagship product, Unreal Tournament 3 didn’t do so well, however. This has left the franchise abandoned for the while, as no more news has been announced regarding it yet. Still, in an informal chat conducted by BeyondUnreal, an Epic employee (hehe) had said that Unreal Tournament will last as long as Epic does.

Should Rockstar Be Prosecuted For Thai Murder?

The murder of a Thai cab driver at the hands of an idiot teenager in Thailand has stirred up a controversy that is to GTA4 what Hot Coffee was to San Andreas. With global response to the incident, Rockstar seems to have riled up a bunch of video game violence critics.

In the latest chapter of this story, we have Somchai Jaroen-amnuaysuk, deputy director of Thailand’s Welfare Promotion, Protection and Empowerment of Vulnerable Groups Office going against poor old Rockstar, developers of GTA4.

He says that when a player “copycats a crime he or she sees in the game”, the makers of the game should be prosecuted. Prosecutions will force the game makers to act more responsibly, the director says. This is a pretty much WTF kind of idea, because till now, I’ve only heard these critics go against publishers, distributors and the like.

The fact that Rockstar is in good ol’ America is consoling, seeing as if it were a Thai company, it would probably have been “prosecuted” already. And speaking of Thailand’s legal system, let me remind you that the 19-year-old kid who killed the cab driver may be sentenced to execution by lethal injection. Not good news for the game makers.

Siggraph 2008: The Year of Softimage?

It may be difficult to comprehend now, but it was only two years ago that many in the video game world had given Nintendo up for dead. Despite the early success of the DS handheld, the company’s Gamecube had finished in distant third vs. its same generation competitors. And with the next generation of consoles dawning, the XBox 360 was lighting up the charts and the Playstation 3 was about to become reality. Then at E3 2006, Nintendo unveiled the Wii and the rest is history.

While nothing unveiled at this week’s Siggraph conference in Los Angeles will have that level of mainstream consumer impact, the event may feature a similar underdog story that will have far-reaching consequences for the business of video game development.

Continue reading “Siggraph 2008: The Year of Softimage?”

Crysis Music plays at Video Games Live

Video Games Live and German based developer Crytek are pleased to announce the music from the multiple award winning PC blockbuster CRYSIS will make its world premiere on Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at the 7,000 seat Leipzig Arena in Leipzig, Germany during the world renowned Games Convention. Recently the “Video Games Live – Volume One” album debuted on the Billboard charts at #10 and in week 2 of the release has climbed to #8 (SOURCE: Billboard Top 10)

Continue reading “Crysis Music plays at Video Games Live”

Star Trek Online Coverage

The game that was flip flopping all over the place, apparently is actually being made. Yeah and it doesn’t look that bad either!

I honestly can’t wait. The game takes place 30 years after Nemesis. You get to work your way up to Captain. You get to control your character across planets, go aboard your ship, and then fly it around space.

Create your own race or go with a race we’ve already seen (Humans, Vulcans, and everyone else). Customize your ships and characters. At launch you can be part of Star Fleet or the Klingon Empire. Combat, exploration, tactical actions are all here.

The graphics look solid for an MMO.

Still no news on when it will be released. Below is the video conference held by the developer Cryptic Studios at the Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas.

Star Trek Online Las Vegas Webcast from Cryptic Studios on Vimeo.