Category: PS3

New PS3-exclusive Rockstar game announced

Rockstar

Michael Shorrock, the Director of 3rd Party Relations at SCEA has announced not long ago that Rockstar Games, the controversial developer behind games like the GTA series and Bully has signed up with Sony to make a new PS3-exclusive franchise. As you may know, Rockstar and Sony have had a sweet relationship, so this is definitely something worth checking out.

Shorrock conforms that he’s not talking about LA Noire and that he’s not drunk. Note that he keeps saying ‘franchise’ and not ‘game’, which means that he could be hinting at a multi-game series. Allow your mind to go wild now and come up with all sorts of speculations. What could the infamous Rockstar Games be devising now?

Here’s an interesting chunk of what Shorrock said:

We have had incredible success with the GTA franchise and are happy to continue to offer those titles on our platforms, and even more excited about what’s to come from the current and future relationship between our companies. Rockstar really wanted to make a game that you can truly only do on PS3, harnessing the power of CELL and Blu-ray disc and this deal lets them do just that.. This is really a win-win situation for both companies.

I don’t like the way he said win-win. It doesn’t suit Sony. But otherwise that sounds rather good, because a lot of fans have been waiting for something that only the PS3 can do. We wonder what Rockstar has up its sleeve!

No more information has been disclosed, because of a pesky deal. But just you watch out, because leaks and rumours are rather common when game property is as hot as this.

[Via Playstation.blog]

“The Scourge Project” is the latest game to use Unreal Engine 3

The Scourge Project

You’d think developers would be disheartened after all the Silicon Knights/Epic Games hullabaloo, but you’d think wrong. Instead, Epic has been swimming in publicity since. Also, they have caught the eye of the Spanish Tragnarion Studios. Tragnarion will be utilizing the might of Unreal Engine 3 for their newest title, which was also announced today, named The Scourge Project. As you can probably guess, it’s going to be an FPS with co-op elements embedded.

Carl Jones, the head of Tragnarion said:

We’ve been amazed at the speed and quality of results on Unreal. We’ve only had the engine for a couple of months, yet we’ve already been able to build a great-looking, fully playable prototype, which we’ll soon show to publishers, featuring our innovative narrative system for multiple players and our unique co-op focused game play mechanics. Every single feature we want is easily implemented in Unreal – for all the major high-end platforms.

This is looking to be a splendid game, complete with emphasis on team play, slick graphics and well, the Unreal Engine. And for people like me, who are supporting Epic, here’s what Mark Rein had to say:

When we saw the demo that Tragnarion produced, we were really impressed with the progress they had made in such a short time. The high quality visuals, innovative game features and co-operative story have come together in only a few months. It made us very proud to see how quickly they were able to learn Unreal Engine 3 and we can’t wait to get a look at this title again in a few more months.

And he’s damn right. Tragnarion has done a fine, quick job there. This is one of those games that would be worth tracking. The game will be released some time in 2008, for the PC, Xbox 360 and the PS3. Hopefully, the Unreal Engine won’t cause any problem-induced delays.
Check out the game’s trailer below:

[Via Gamershell and GameDaily]

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]

Twisted Metal PS3? If so, why?

twistedmetalteaser.jpg

Above, we have an image of a mushroom cloud produced by what appears to be a powerful explosion. On closer inspection, however, you’ll find that plume of smoke resembles a clown’s face, and there is a Playstation 3 logo tucked neatly in the bottom right corner. Coincidence?

The image was created by Fredrick Sameul, an advertiser and graphic designer. Although no official information exists at this time, many believe the visage above represents none other than the most ridiculous boss character of all time, a hell-bent clown in a rocket-fitted ice cream truck named Sweet Tooth.

Sweet Tooth proved to be the most enduring character in the Twisted Metal series, beginning as a lowly combatant and later being promoted to final boss while the roster around him shifted wildly. The image above looks absolutely nothing like Sweet Tooth, but his appearance changes so much from game to game it wouldn’t be hard for me to believe that’s supposed to be him.

Anyone who ever played the PSX should be familiar with Twisted Metal. The pinnacle of vehicular combat games in it’s heyday, Twisted Metal was Mario Kart‘s battle mode having a meth-induced, heavy metal nightmare. Most fans, including myself, agree that the series peaked during the sequel, Twisted Metal 2, but at least four other Twisted Metal games followed, each more disappointing than the last, until the series was all but forgotten with the early PS2 release Twisted Metal: Black Online.

If the above image is indeed a teaser for a PS3 Twisted Metal then why, oh why, Sony, can’t you just let Sweet Tooth end his blood-drenched reign with dignity? So many other series have had every last bit of life rung from them. I’m still living on the memory of countless hours of Twisted Metal 2! Don’t make it obsolete. Don’t do that to me.