May 8th, 2008 by Tom

Hardly shocking - but I’m for once going to remain non-cynical on this one. I may even be slightly positive about it.
Yes, plainly EA has identified Nintendo’s inventive and astounding success with Wii Fit and the Balance Board, and has a case of the Me-Toos. It wouldn’t be EA if it hadn’t. However, as well received as Wii Fit has been, there have been complaints and weaknesses, especially in the Western market, and it seems to me EA may well be the company to put that right.
“We also need to make sure we’re delivering something that’s truly exercise. I’ll call [Wii Fit] more eastern fitness, where it senses weight and balance, like Tai-Chi. It’s more about holistic fitness.” The wise words of Peter Moore, ex Xbox boss, current EA Sports President.
It seems to me that if there’s something EA’s good at, it’s producing mass marketable games that get ever so slightly better with each iteration - and that’s not something that seems to conflict with the concept of a fitness game, nor is it something Nintendo is likely to manage itself.
The game will release on the as yet unused EA Freestyle label, and it’ll be a great test of EA’s true development metal, and new innovation-friendly stance.
Posted in Casual, Electronic Arts, Game Comment, Nintendo, Wii | 1 Comment »
May 7th, 2008 by Tom

The fourth in the new series of PoP games has been officially announced, and the first details revealed in a recent issue of Edge. That’s the full article link there, so get cracking.
What do you mean ‘you can’t be arsed’?
OK, OK, here come the bullets.
- It uses an advanced Assassin’s Creed engine
- It’s going open-world
- It’s going heavier on the fantasy, less on the Arabian theme
- The Sands of Time and related abilities are all gone (no rewinding)
- Combat is massively altered, with a one-on-one style being adopted
- An Okami-like manipulation of the world is promised, in realtime
To be perfectly honest, as a staunch Sand of Time fan, all of that sounds absolutely dreadful. There’s genuinely not one thing there that makes me happy. I can see the appeal of an open world and all that, don’t get me wrong, but it seems like everything that made SoT fantastic has been gradually dropped over the space of the next three games.
Still, as is always the way in games, someone else will come along and do everything Ubisoft were doing, only better and more imaginatively. We saw Lara utterly dethroned by the original PoP, and now my sights are firmly set on Mirror’s Edge to claim the next-gen platforming throne.
Posted in Announcement, Game Comment, Games, Ubisoft | 3 Comments »
May 7th, 2008 by Tom

Sega has revealed some details regarding Gearbox’ new Aliens game, Colonial Marines, due later this year on the three key platforms.
The press release, to be honest, makes a lot out of nothing, dishing devilishly generic details like the game featuring ‘an alien assault more intense and horrific than ever before’. Thanks guys. Seems there’s a couple of proper writers on the project, and it’s going to do its best to recapture everything that made Aliens a success in the first place.
The interesting stuff concerns the multiplayer, and rather than rewrite it, I shall simply perform the magic of cut and paste because it’s 5:55pm.
Aliens: Colonial Marines will feature a story driven single-player mode and an all-new four player co-op mode allowing players to share the chilling experience with three friends. In co-op mode, each player will assume the persona of a United States Colonial Marine and have a distinct role to play in the completion of every mission. Additionally, more multiplayer modes will be revealed later in the year that will complete the Aliens video game experience.
Posted in Games, Gearbox | 1 Comment »
May 7th, 2008 by Paul
Posted in Rockstar, Take 2 | 1 Comment »
April 30th, 2008 by Tom
Posted in Release, Valve | No Comments »
April 30th, 2008 by Tom

In an interview with PC Play, Crytek President Cevat Yerli has said his company will no longer develop PC exclusives.
“PC gamers that pirate games inherently destroy the platform. Similar games on consoles sell factors of 4-5 more. It was a big lesson for us and I believe we won’t have PC exclusives as we did with Crysis in future. We are going to support PC, but not exclusive any more.”
Crytek will be the latest in a long string of traditionally PC oriented developers to either expand into the console arena, or move away entirely. Maxis, Epic, Irrational… PC exclusives are dwindling (in volume, not necessarily quality), while the consoles are muscling in on traditional Windows territory in a big way. Games that previously would have seen the PC as the lead, or only platform, are now arriving 6 - 12 months late, or not at all.
It seems that piracy really is beginning to take its toll on the platform, which is a shame given that consoles are only just beginning to catch up with features the PC took as standard ten years ago.
Still, I can’t help but feel the PC will always have something going for it.
Posted in Controversy, Crytek, Windows | 23 Comments »
April 29th, 2008 by Tom

Doug Lobardi has told Eurogamer that there’s to be no more Portal until 2009, in Valve’s usual quest for brilliance.
“In typical Valve tradition, it won’t be Portal with different colours,” he said. “I think that when you hit something like that, you have two choices: you can quickly replicate it and stick it out there - do the opportunistic thing and cash in on it; or you can do the crazy thing like we did after Half-Life was so successful and go off and try and say, ‘Okay, that was revolutionary, so its successor has to be equally as revolutionary.’
“That’s the spirit I think we’re approaching it in,” he added. “You won’t see a new Portal at retail this Christmas because of that. That’s the trade off. People want more, but we don’t want to give them more of the same right away because that would just be boring.”
Personally, I figured the original Portal was short enough and sweet enough to justify a few more chunks of the same thing, but I guess Valve’s standards are higher than mine. What’s more, since character was so central to the game, I suppose there’s more work to be done on that front than meets the eye. Simply chucking in more GlaDOS wouldn’t really be enough.
Here’s hoping there’s a full length commercial release on the cards. I can wait til 2009 for that.
Posted in Electronic Arts, Portal, Valve | 4 Comments »