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April 26 Too Human If you've followed Silicon Knights' games for even a short while, you're well aware of President Denis Dyack's fondness for creating videogames based on myth, philosophy, and the heady stuff of scholars. Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain dealt with a vengeful vampire who chose to damn the world; Eternal Darkness was an ode to H.P. Lovecraft-style supernatural horror, and Too Human is Silicon's Knights' love affair with Norse mythology, Nietzsche-relativism, and this eternal question: What is it to be human?
Last time I truly felt that question resonate through my bones was when I watched Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Specifically, I'm referring to the mid-movie chase in which Harrison Ford's Blade Runner chases, catches, and kills one of a handful of replicants headed for a crash course with termination. The scene was gorgeously captured in slow motion as Ford shoots the female stripper replicant as she smashes through multiple glass windows, and "dies." That movie asks you: If you have emotion, aren't you alive? Aren't you human?
Prey!! At a pre-E3 event yesterday in San Francisco, Ca., 2K Games officially clarified that Prey, the Xbox 360 and PC first-person shooter in development by Humanhead, has moved to a July release date.
The electrifying first-person shooter that enables wild biomechanical weapons, wall and ceiling walking, and dynamic porting transporting, looks like one of the best first-person shooters of the year in both graphics and gameplay, and should ignite some serious multiplayer action during the normally slow summer months. We'll have more at E3.
April 19 GRAW PC Goes Gold!!!As some of you know i am............................................ well i was a hardcore PC gamer before the "Evil" (as my PC friends call it) 360 came out. But fear not PC buddys, there's one game that might quench my thirst for PC gaming, and that is GRAW PC. Read On!!!!!!!
Ubisoft announced today that acclaimed FPS Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter has gone gold for the PC. This means, of course, that the game is complete and will now enter manufacturing.
As on the Xbox 360, PS2, and Xbox, the new Ghost Recon puts you in the role as a soldier of the future with crazy technology and weaponry to help you get your war fighter on. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the PC will be available in-stores on May 3, 2006. April 18 Kingdom Under FirePlayStation 3 may be getting Devil May Cry 4 all to itself, but it looks like Xbox 360 owners have something to look forward to as well. Sangyoun Lee, president of Korean developer Phantagram and director of Ninety-Nine Nights, speaking with Famitsu.com, likened his company's next project to the stylish Capcom action series.
Lee was referring to Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom, which is now in development for both Xbox 360 and the PC. The game's genre is action RPG, with Lee noting, "The simulation aspects aren't as strong as they are in Kingdom Under Fire Crusaders. The action elements are strong. If you have to ask, it's close to Capcom's Devil May Cry. We're aiming for a new style of action RPG."
Circle of Doom will feature randomly generated dungeons both for the overworld and underworld, Lee revealed to Famitsu. Gameplay will be in full 3D, he noted, compared to the 2D play of previous entries in the series, with enemies attacking from walls, from above, and from all sides. Lee hopes to give players the ability to damage the game world. While Online play didn't make it into Ninety-Nine Nights, Circle of Doom will be different. "The border between single play and Online play will be gone," commented Lee to the site. "For instance, as you advance through the game in single player, other players will enter Online, and all of a sudden you will be in multiplayer." Kingdom Under Fire purists may be disappointed with the change to action-oriented gameplay. Don't worry -- Phantagram hasn't abandoned you. As announced at the Circle of Doom unveiling a few weeks back, a true sequel in the Kingdom Under Fire series is also in development. "It's still a secret," Lee stated to Famitsu regarding details on the sequel. Circle of Doom is being developed by Blueside for Japanese release in Spring of 2007. While Phantagram has licensed the series name to Blueside, Henry Lee, director of Crusaders and creative director of Ninety-Nine Nights, is supervising the project, so Lee expects a quality title. More details will be revealed at E3 in a few weeks. April 15 Hitman: Blood MoneyThere's a time for walking and there's a time for running. A time for casual sneakiness and a time for a gunshot in your enemy's face and throwing their limp, warm body in a trash can and casually walking away with their suit on. Soon, there will be a time when you'll sit down and play the newest IO Interactive game, Hitman Blood Money, and you can do it all. We recently spoke over the phone with IO Interactive's Game Director, Rasmus Højengaard, about the nearly finished title.
IGN: What were your major goals when you approached Hitman: Blood Money and what did you want to achieve? When you sat down and reflected on the last game, what did you think you could do better or different, and how could did you feel you could improve the series? Rasmus Højengaard: Actually, it's a two-stage rocket for us. The game design for Blood Money was created before Contracts. We made Contracts on a modified engine that we already had, and then when that happened, when we had finished it, we realized we had to be even more ambitious with the design because time had passed, so expectations were even higher. That meant that, apart all the things we wanted to add before Contracts, we wanted to add more features and we decided to reinvent everything. That meant from a tech standpoint, meaning the script engine, AI, and all that. So, the whole thing, all of Blood Money, was created from scratch. We felt that we wanted Blood Money to have the same impact as Hitman 2. We wanted it to feel just as new as when that game hit. So, to publish that on the same platforms we had to change more than just features and graphics, we had to change the way the game feels and plays. That was the initial plan. April 07 Rainbow Six VegasLike the series' overlying theme, Ubisoft has been rather covert with regards to its latest Tom Clancy title, Rainbow Six Vegas. This morning, however, the company let out a few more details on the upcoming tactical shooter, which is once again headed up by Ubisoft's Montreal Studio, the creators of the award-winning Rainbow Six 3.
Team Rainbow features a new group of soldiers this time around, including a new team lead. Recon expert Logan Keller now heads up the squad, and backing him is Michael Walter, heavy weapons and demolition expert, and Jung Park, long range and electronics expert. Tactics are said to play a major role this time around, even more so than previous incarnations of the series, so gamers will need to use each team member's strengths with utmost care. You'll have help in the decision making process however as your squad mates will now offer advice in certain situations, like suggesting that they could break through a wall or hack a nearby computer.
You're given more advanced planning options this time around as well. After using snake cams or other tactical equipment to get a heads-up on the situation, you're able to tag specific enemies for each of your team members. The result is that you're now able to define exactly who each member is to take out once you enter a room, helping to cut down on the chaos.
Various other elements of the game were reiterated that we've touched on before, like the game's advanced AI system, motion-captured animation set, and the ability to pull off advanced moves and tactics like blind covering fire and repelling down buildings. In other words, Ubisoft Montreal is promising the biggest and best Rainbow Six yet. April 05 Battlefield 2: Modern Combat Dev VideoFollowing last week's Xbox Live downloadable demo, Electronic Arts today has prepped another big package to whet your appetite: A five-minute video developer commentary on the game's single-player campaign. Not like you care. The single-player campaign is indeed a well-balanced affair with slightly improved HotSwaps, better graphics, smooth controls, and some impressive special effects. I mean, it is worth your while to watch the real-time footage in this video. But aren't you just begging to jump online and capture that flag just one more time for the next five hours? If you played the sweet, honed, and lovely demo last week, then the answer is yes, yes, yes.
But honestly, let's say that your online connection busted for a day or two. Or your cable was chewed by your dog. It happens! Or... the Internet crumbles to dust and Al Gore pretends he didn't notice or admit to inventing the Internet. Or you're thrown into an alternate universe (which just so happens to have an Xbox 360 and no Internet connection). Or John Lennon comes back to life and challenges you to a game of CTF. Or a swarm of naked hot vestal virgins flock to your house to see your mad single-player skills. Well, hey hey! There is a healthy, robust single-player campaign waiting for you to uncover and love. We thought that, in your moment of blind love for multiplayer insanity and crack-like addiction for sniping enemy skulls, you'd want to know something nice, reasonable, and real. So here, watch this video and go in peace. |
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