Category: PC

From the horrors of Dungeon Siege… Space Siege!

To be completely frank, Dungeon Siege wasn’t the best RPG I’ve ever played. And its story wasn’t the richest I’ve seen. But Gas Powered Games aren’t quitting and last month, they announced Space Siege – a sci-fi version of Dungeon Siege. A brand new trailer has also come up which you’ll find at the bottom.

The game boasts a “deep and compelling storyline”, which I’m highly skeptical about and “intense” action. The trailer definitely looks like it is in with the times and even bears a slight resemblance to Mass Effect, which is good. Maybe GPG can save itself after all. The only premise we know of right now is that a colonization ship is under siege by aliens who have annihilated Earth. At least the title “Space Siege” makes more sense than “Dungeon Siege”.

You will play as Seth, a robotics specialist who becomes hero of the day. The story will be fraught with moral dilemmas as you will have to decide whether you want Seth to pick up robotic upgrades and other such useful prosthetics at the sake of your ‘humanity’. The irony the writers wish to express here, is that you are trying to save the human race, but giving up your humanity. I like that.

These cybernetic modifications will actually play a large role in the story, as it may alienate (pun intended) Seth from the people he’s trying to save. NPCs will react differently and quests will differ as you get new modifications for every part of your body (if only Seth were female…).

This interesting new game will make its way to your PC next year, with no other details announced as of yet. Check out the official press release here, and the official site here. The official trailer can be found in The Pipeline (above).

Sierra and Radical working on PROTOTYPE

Prototype Preview

Sierra Entertainment will be releasing a new open-ended, do-anything sort of game next year, under development by the almighty Radical Entertainment, known for games like Scarface: The World is Yours and The Simpsons Hit & Run. The game is titled ‘PROTOTYPE’ (the caps are entirely intentional) and will be set in New York City.

The game will revolve around a man named Alex Mercer, who has had a disturbing past and is currently raging a war. Things go downhill and you find yourself wrapped up in a story full of deception, double-crossing, conspiracy and perhaps more video game clichés.

Mercer will have unique powers that allow him to change shape and morph into anyone who crosses his path, complete with skills and powers. While I wouldn’t the call the ability particularly innovative, I’d like to see it in a video game! This ability will be no doubt connected to Mercer’s shady past which he must uncover while saving the world. C’mon, when are there going to be more original plots?

But good plot or not, Kelly Zmak, president of Radical Entertainment made me happy with the following lines:

Radical Entertainment set out to create the most dynamic video game character ever imagined. From free-form movement to over-the-top combat action; PROTOTYPE can climb or wall-run across any surface, jump 30 stories high, and destroy anything that crosses his path. Our team at Radical has built upon the technology that drove our previous best-selling games and now has the freedom to dream big and imagine a powerful character in a sprawling city like New York, cloaked in a conspiracy and ripped from today’s headlines.

Sounds real sexy, doesn’t it? I just hope these uber abilities aren’t some lame stuff added near the end of the game for an hour. I hate it when they do that.

PROTOTYPE will be coming out for the Xbox 360, the PS3 and your good ol’ PC in the Summer of 2008. Watch for it, but first check out these screenies:

Prototype Image 1 Prototype Image 2 Prototype Image 3 Prototype Image 4

Free game, free prizes – what’s not to like?

Battle Ball

Battle Ball is Mindwave Games’ first fully online multiplayer game that is reminiscent of Pong yet now in 3D. As far as gameplay goes the big twist is how easy it is to play the game. Control the paddle with your mouse and to hit the ball on a curve simply move the mouse quickly in some direction as you hit the ball.

Mindwave is giving gamers the ability to compete in this free game for tournament prizes. The first couple of prizes are Game Maker 7 software license plus “Game Maker’s Apprentice”, and Civilization IV. I’ve tried Battle Ball out and don’t worry because it doesn’t give you spyware or other crap. There really was no lag in matches either.

Kirby Zhang, the President of Mindwave Games says, “We hope to get sponsors at some point, but right now we’re buying the prize for our players. It’s really not that expensive compared to actually making this game.”

Free game, free prizes = no brainer. Download it now!

World of Warcraft movie to be “better than Doom”.

WoW movie preview

BlizzCon is on and Blizzard is throwing at us what they’ve got about the upcoming World of Warcraft movie. While WarCraft III became one of the most popular RTS games ever, WoW was the game that brought MMORPG to the mainstream audience and Blizzard doesn’t want to stop milking it. The movie is being handled by Legendary Pictures, truly legendary for movies like Batman Begins and 300.

No director has been attached to the project yet, but it will certainly be someone of ‘caliber’. Man, I can’t wait for Uwe Boll to hear this. Blizzard and Legendary are intent on “not creating another video game movie”, but an actual “epic movie”. They further commented that they aren’t making this movie for the 9 million WoW fans alone, but for the general audience. When describing the $100 million movie, Legendary Pictures’ Thomas Tull said, “We’re not gonna make some cheesy little.. I don’t even know what a good example is,” when the crowd began crying “Doom!” Tull answered that he’s not giving any examples.

The storyline will not be buried in thousands of years of continuity, but will be more “recent”. The main character is touted to be “bad ass”, and the setting will be some time before World of Warcraft, so that fans can see the races, the places and cleavage spaces from the game. The movie is described as a series of plot points rolled up together in a 2.5 hour long movie, like X-Men. While Legendary saying it sounds good, I’m not entirely so sure myself.

The movie will not be a “quest movie” like Lord of the Rings, but a full-fledged war movie. Well, with War in its title already, I didn’t know what else to expect. It will be set from the perspective of the Alliance, which set all the Horde-fans into “hate mode”. Chris Metzen from Blizzard confirmed that he loves the Horde and that Thrall is an “interesting character”. After saying that a green-skinned guy doesn’t make for a Hollywood protagonist, a fan yelled “Shrek!” The fan, who went missing is rumoured to have been a Pixar employee wanting to create a G-rated film and rake in the moolah.

Metzen says that they want to include the intensity and not compromise on the action in the movie. It will definitely not be a G or a PG-rated movie, thank God. R is extremely unlikely, hinting that the movie will most likely fall in the PG-13 group. According to an answer to a question posed by a fan, Chuck Norris has not been contacted for a cameo (as of now). We can only keep hoping, though.

The movie is slated for a 2009 release and is too early in production to talk more about. No big stars have been confirmed yet, but not denied either. As a parting gift, Blizzard gave us some concept art for the game, which you’ll see at the top (yeah, it’s just that). Click on it to see a super-sized version.

This is shaping up to be more of a kick-ass movie than it was originally thought of. We’ll see how it shapes up in the end in 2009, though.

[Via Kotaku and Shacknews]

Shenmue Online Canceled

Don’t get me wrong, Shenmue is one of my favorite games of all-time, but Shenmue Online – no thanks. I’m glad that this game is dieing or is finally dead. Shenmue Dojo reports overall the game is too much of a liability for Sega to pursue further development. When you think that the original two Shenmue games cost $70 million and the first Shenmue game barely sold over 1 million copies, creating a MMO is even more of a financial burden.

Overall the whole purpose of Shenmue is to tell an amazing story about revenge for the death of ones father, which leads onto some mystical journey with magical mirrors and karate ass-kicking. The MMO on the other hand would take place during the events of Shenmue 2 and would basically be about secondary characters rather than truly pushing the story forward.

So I thank Sega for not wasting their time on this pointless attempt at appealing to a gameplay genre that’s sizzling right now with games like World of Warcraft. Seriously did anyone think Shenmue Online could gain 9 million subscribers? I highly doubt it.

But what does this mean for Shenmue 3? Last I heard from an insider, was that Shenmue 3 was being developed for the Xbox 360 along with Shenmue 1 and 2 being remade for the system as well. Did Sega shut down Shenmue Online to focus in on developing this trilogy or has Shenmue truly been laid to rest? I hope I’ll be able to play Shenmue 3 one day…

If you don’t know what the hell Shenmue is, you’re probably not alone. You most likely didn’t own a Dreamcast. So I’ve mixed together a bunch of videos to show you why you need to buy Shenmue 1 and 2, as well as a Dreamcast or Shenmue 2 for the Xbox and play it on your Xbox 360. The Xbox version contains an extra DVD with a recap movie of Shenmue 1. So pick your poison.

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The Pipeline Videos of the Week

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Don’t think we don’t upload videos everyday onto The Pipeline cause we do… Huh? Striking a long list in everyone who likes video, this week we’ve added the following stuff to our media player The Pipeline.

PC Game Videos:
World of Warcraft: Wrath Of The Lich King
Rage
Project Offset
Penny Arcade Adventure
Fury

Music – Lyrical:
Jailhouse Rock
White & Nerdy
Circle of Life
Potential Breakup Song
Amish Paradise
Underdog Raps
One Crowded Hour
Rock Your Body
Sexy Back

Cell Phone Game Videos:
Gravity Blast

Xbox 360:
Castle Crashers
Lego Indiana Jones: The Video Game
Guitar Hero III
Enemy Territories: Quake Wars
Spider-Man: Friend or Foe
Splinter Cell: Conviction
Resident Evil 5

Developer Interviews:
Inside Lionhead (2)

Retro Game Classics:
Zork Nemesis

Movie Clips:
Superbad (2)

Movie Trailers:
Superbad

TV Shows:
The Muppet Show Season 2 (3)

Of course this list doesn’t even contain all the podcasts that were uploaded this week. Don’t even get me started…