Game Factory Interactive today announced "Modern Warrior: Special Tactics", an upcoming first-person shooter where players take on the role of a Russian Specnaz special forces soldier.
"The Motherland somehow lost another nuclear warhead to the terrorists and it’s up to the player to recover the bomb and punish some heavy armed dusky beardies.
Dynamically evolving missions take place in a full 3D environment which is mostly interactive and destructible. The world reacts according to the player’s in-game behavior. To reach the goal the player is required to approach situations by using some or all available in-game features such as detailed movement planning, appropriate weapon selections, priority targeting etc.
Apart from that it is possible to wreak havoc and kill everything that moves, but it would be most difficult to get the mission accomplished in a serious fashion after that. Players will appreciate the possibility of learning more about the equipment and ways of Modern Warrior: Special Tactics."
Key Features:
Authentic world in the setting of Iraq and the entire of Siberia
Realistic control behavior and big choice of weapons, ranging from short range sidearms to RPG and heavy machine-gun
Strong associations with the main character through entire story
Destructible environment, inflammable materials
Interesting plot featuring unforeseen treacheries, general conspiracy and averting civil war in Russia
Superb collective AI
Many special in-game effects, dynamic and adrenaline-pumping style of combat
Based on the engine of the highly acclaimed game Ubersoldier
Electronic Arts issued its third quarter financial results this morning, which revealed that the company is delaying "The Sims 3", "The Godfather II", and "Dragon Age". The new date for "The Sims 3" is June 2nd, a date wasn’t revealed for "The Godfather II", and "Dragon Age" will be released during the second half of 2009.
Frogster Interactive announced that after a three month beta, in which over 450,000 players participated in, the MMORPG "Runes of Magic" is set to launch on March 19th.
"Runes of Magic started the open beta with an English and a German version in the middle of December 2008. All interested players can now download the online-role playing game and enter into the fantasy world after creating an account for free on www.runesofmagic.com.
"Since the open beta test launch is December, the population of Taborea has soared and we have been working closely with our community to fine tune the Runes of Magic experience", said Daniel Ullrich, Director of Product Management at Frogster, "We look forward to welcoming thousands of new players to Taborea during the next few weeks, as we get ready to fully launch Runes of Magic".
With an extensive range of features Runes of Magic prepares to redefine the standard of free2play MMO games. Runes of Magic conveys an absorbing story through more than 1.000 quests embedded in an atmospheric fantasy setting. Players can choose between six main classes and combined with a secondary class they present 30 individual combinations of character classes over all. All characters possess unique skills with impressive combo attacks and can use mounts like war horses and more. A particularly attractive feature for guilds and players is the possibility to arrange their own virtual homes with individual furnishing. Thanks to an extensive crafting and reputation system, thrilling PVP, as well as demanding dungeons and boss-monsters, no wishes remain unsatisfied. The Taiwanese developer Runewaker has developed Runes of Magic according to western MMO standards within a time frame of three years. The studio will provide new challenges for players every three to four months with free add-ons and updates. MMO fans can find more information, pictures and videos on the official website www.runesofmagic.com."
The Hellgate London website has gone offline and from my understanding, the American and European servers are also now offline. In the final stretch of its existence there were articles stating that the game would remain free-to-play in some countries and it appears as if the Asian countries might still have access.
Hellgate London was an MMORPG that had a bad launch and received farily mixed reviews. Hanbitsoft acquired the rights to both Hellgate and Mythos in November from Flagship Studios.
THQ has released a new trailer for "Red Faction: Guerrilla", giving viewers a glimpse of the storyline featured in the upcoming third-person shooter by Volition.
"Red Faction: Guerrilla is a 3rd person, open-world action shooter set on Mars, 50 years after the events of the original Red Faction. Players will take the role of an insurgent fighter with the newly re-established Red Faction movement as they battle for liberation from the oppressive Earth Defense Force. Throughout their fight for freedom, players will carve their own path, wreaking havoc across the vast, open-world environment of Mars, from the desolate mining outpost of Parker to the gleaming EDF capital city of Eos. Utilizing improvised weapons, explosives and re-purposed mining equipment and vehicles, Red Faction: Guerrilla allows players to tear through fully destructible environments in an unforgiving Martian landscape swarming with EDF forces, Red Faction resistance fighters, and the downtrodden settlers caught in the cross-fire. Red Faction: Guerrilla will also feature a robust multiplayer component, including several modes focused on destruction-based gameplay."
Electronic Arts has announced a licensing agreement with Ludlum Enterntainment to create games based on the works of Robert Ludlum. The first game in the series is based on Jason Bourne and is currently in development at Starbreeze Studios.
"Ludlum Entertainment recently entered into a production deal with Universal Studios to produce films based on the dozens of books in the Robert Ludlum library, as well as films outside the library. The company currently has films in development at Universal, MGM, Paramount and with Summit Entertainment.
“Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne is the most exciting action hero to emerge in decades, thrilling audiences around the world,” said Mike Quigley, group vice president of marketing, EA Games Label. “EA is excited to enter into a long-term relationship with Ludlum Entertainment, bringing the action, intrigue and intensity of Robert Ludlum’s fiction to life for casual and core gamers around the globe.”
“The continued global popularity of Robert Ludlum’s works is a testament to the care he lavished on his characters and storylines,” said Jeffrey Weiner, chairman and CEO of Ludlum Entertainment and executor of the Ludlum estate. “Robert Ludlum made thrilling stories accessible and real. EA has brought that same level of realism to the gaming world. We are confident EA‘s unparalleled production ability and marketing reach will establish the Jason Bourne Series in games as powerfully and successfully as it exists in books and film.”
Video game veteran Matt Wolf will work with EA to oversee the creative development, production and positioning of the Ludlum Entertainment games portfolio. Ludlum entertainment was represented in the transaction by Keith Boesky of Boesky & Company."
I watched someone play Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. He went from floor to floor, hall to hall and room to room. The static camera would constantly put him in a bind. He took many blind shots. He would sometimes wait until a zombie got close enough, so that he could blow its head off with one clean, definitive pump. Sometimes, Nemesis would appear and start chasing his character. He would run away until Nemesis called it quits and eased off the intense cardio. Nemesis would appear periodically, without warning. It was always surprising, always sudden and always unpredictable. I didn’t even know what to call him other than, well, Nemesis. I could not label it as a human being, I could not label it as an outright monster. It was somewhere in the gray. I could not explain what it was.
I watched him play and I was scared out of his mind.
I was also ten.
Third one-sentence paragraph for dramatic effect.
Fast forward a couple years and I’m in middle school. I play a Resident Evil game for the first time. It’s the remake for the GC, which was at the time, the scariest game I ever played. I could not stand looking at the flesh-mongering cannibals, because they looked so horrific. Their primal soughs disturbed me to no end and when the game surprised with a scripted sequence, I could not take the cacophonus, industrial music, and the horrifying zombies.
I played Resident Evil on the GC and I was scared out of my mind.
Fast forward to last year’s Summer break. I played Resident Evil again. It was still fun and the graphics can still compete with the best, but I was never scared. The answer is really simple: I’ve grown up, at least mentally. I mean, at least I’m not scared of zombies anymore. They’re just lumbering automatons. I can comprehend that. I can grasp that, but I feared them when I was a wee lad. Dude, they eat people.
It’s a great feeling being scared when playing a game. Sure, I feel extremely vulnerable, but it’s always exciting and, at its base, entertaining. On some subconcious level, I know none of this will physically harm me and I’m pretty sure none of it will mentally scar either. And as I got older and older, the reality of things became more and more clear. Necromorphs from Dead Space are monsters that need to completely eviscerated. Doom 3’s scares are nothing more than cheap, nauseatingly boring attempts at trying to make you succumb to id’s idea of horror. Tim Willits receding hairline makes me sad.
But those facts aren’t as obvious to a lot of people. I looked through forums to get a general consensus on Dead Space and they’re all drowning in their own excrement. I don’t get it. Don’t any of you see how artificially constructed it all is? How any of it lacks subtely? I guess not. My mood is currently "pretentious and condenscending dirtbag".
So, it gets frustrating. I get frustrated by the fact that I’m not scared and I get double-frustrated by people who get scared by games that aren’t that frightening. Look, I know, it’s all subjective, but shut up for a second and let me talk. It’s just not fair… so I end up blaming something.
What recent "horror" games tend to forget is that the full-proof method of scaring the poo out of anyone is to affect them on a psychological level. A closet scare can only do so much; an emotional rush, a sudden jolt and then you’re on your way. When something happens that can’t be explained, that can’t be fully comprehended, only then does the game creep on me, only then does the game begin scare me in a meaningful way.
Look at this photograph video:
Yeah, the sound effects are muffled and the scream is weak, but I’m sitting in a room with the lights out with headphones on, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. What could’ve caused this? Why is that mannequin without a head? More importantly, why is there blood? What the hell is going on? This was so effective at setting up the mood for the rest of this level. Is there something here that caused this? Will I run into it? God, I hope not.
Notice how random that scare was. It didn’t feel directed and I sure as hell didn’t expect it. It just happened and I was scared out of my mind. I did not enter that room again for any reason whatsoever.
If you plan on finishing Penumbra: Overture some day, then don’t look.
Skip to 1:15. It’s still pretty damn hard to see even on high quality. All you need to know is that there is something at the end of the hallway before all the lights go off. Highlight for spoilers
He is the only human being you see in the entire game. A sigh of relief is immediately overridden by pure fear. To physically plunge myself into the unknown like that completely broke me. I became irrational and desperate for light; the flashlight was out and I wasted 10 flares. I have never been so scared in a game in my life. True story.
The reason I use these clips is to show a common theme: The fear of the unknown. Unless you are like smart people, like scientists (I am a comedian.), you fear what you don’t understand. I don’t want to sound factual, even though I am completely right and all, but it feels too true. It’s a very psychological thing. It makes the imagination run wild, it creates things that are probably far more worse and traumatic than the catalyst behind everything. It’s hard for a horror game to achieve this, but the complete opposite of this ("IN YOUR FACE BOO HAHAHAHA!", said John Carmack to his bald love child, Willits) results in a horror game that feels rote and too predictable. Boring, in other words.
So, two things to make future horror games better:
1. YOU LACK SUBTLETY – Dead Space could’ve been so much more if it wasn’t so encouraging about shooting the living shit out of necromorphs with the most awesome set of guns and tools ever made. This is a general complaint to most horror games in general, though. That’s great, you have a big budget. That DOESN’T MEAN YOU NEED TO SPEND IT ON AN ELABORATE ANIMATION THAT HAS MUNZTERS AND CREETURZ MOVING ALL COOL-LIKE. AND SINCE YOU WANT TO SHOW OFF THE ACTUAL ANIMATION, YOU PLACE SAID MUNZTER UNDER A FLOURESCENT LIGHT. GENIUS, DOG, GENIUS. Look at Penumbra. They show restraint. They have a budget to consider. They worked around it and got creative. They made me shit out through my goddamn teeth.
2. "BOO!" GODDAMMIT – This works only if the Earth’s dominant species is goldfish. We are not goldfish.
The last in this series of trailers, Focus Home and Cyanide have released the Big Game trailer featuring their upcoming sports simulation action game "Blood Bowl".
"Today is the big day for fans of ‘Blood Bowl’ — the sometimes humorous, and often brutal, fantasy sport game based on American Football and the Warhammer world! Today, Focus Home Interactive and Cyanide Studio have released an explosive extended-length trailer, which wraps up our four-part series and gives you a look at the in-game elements of the title!
Watch the video and experience the game’s real-time and turn-based modes, and see how you can customize your teams – from choosing specific characters, to designing individual players before sending them out to do battle on the pitch. Along with actual in-game video, we’ve included some cinematics that showcase some of the famous gameplay concepts of “Blood Bowl” – including dirty plays, underhand tactics and all-out cheating.
An ultra-violent mix of Warhammer Fantasy and American football, Blood Bowl allows players to create the ultimate “fantasy” sports teams. Coaches can build bone-crushing teams of Orcs, Elves, Humans, Dwarfs and many more fantastic creatures – then throw them into the stadium for the ultimate blood sport! Blood Bowl is strategic, action-packed and violent, requiring coaches to use their best tactics, team design – and a dose of pure ruthless bloodlust always helps too!
Published by Focus Home Interactive and developed by Cyanide Studio, Blood Bowl is being developed for the PC and the Xbox 360™ as well as for the handheld systems Nintendo DS™ and Sony PSP™ and is set for release on Q2 2009. "
For years one of the most whimsical dreams of Mount & Blade fans the world over has been multiplayer. If only, we’d say, if only we could take all of this cool stuff and do it with other people. It seemed to be one of those things that was too perfect to ever come to fruition, but according to this post by Armagan, the lead developer, a multplayer expansion is now in the works. It’s in the very early formative stages, they don’t even know yet how they’re going to translate the highly nuanced, fluid, close-in combat into something that can work for everyone regardless of the latency. It’ll be interesting to watch at least.
Frogwares and Focus Home Interactive have released a new trailer for "Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper", giving viewers a look at the upcoming adventure sequel that’s scheduled to be released in May.
"This 1min50 long video takes us to London, back in 1888 to the faithfully recreated Whitechapel district, for what will be the most terrifying adventure of Sherlock Holmes.
Dark streets, oppressive atmosphere, constant poverty, alcoholics, beggars and prostitutes, it’s a frightening immersion that we offer you on video in this district sadly known for having been the hunting ground for one of the most atrocious serial killers in History: Jack the Ripper."
Please don’t suck. This has way too much going for it. A story penned by Paul Dini, Batman and Joker voiced by Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamil, respectively and the setting is too good for it all to go to waste. Please, Rocksteady, please. I’m currently at cautiously optimistic.
Valve has announced that players who own the retail copy of "Unreal Tournament 3" can now register with with Steam in preparation of the large upcoming update.
"The latest installment in the legendary online action series from Epic will be updated automatically via Steam and introduce support for Steamworks Achievements (with over 50 Achievements), plus a host of new features and enhancements in AI, Server Browsing, Demo Recording, Mod Support, and more.
For more information or to register your copy of UT3 with Steam, please visit www.steamgames.com"
Focus Home Interactive has released another new trailer in a series over the next few days in preparation for the game’s launch in Q2 of 2009.
"Focus Home Interactive and Cyanide Studio are pleased to release the 3rd of four trailers for "Blood Bowl" — this one featuring the vicious half-man half-rat race known as the Skaven, born of the foul magics of Chaos. As we can see in today’s video, Skaven might not be the strongest of the "Blood Bowl" players, but boy are they fast! Skaven do what they do best – run around the field at blistering speed, the Gutter Runners moving the ball quickly with their inhuman agility, and avoiding the desperate attempts of the Lizardmen to stop them. As shown in the video, a running Skaven player is nearly impossible to capture, as he can dodge in and out of the defensive lines with ease, and if that fails, they can always call in a Rat Ogre for heavy support if needed!"
Mythic and EA have announced a new expansion to "Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning" titled "Call to Arms", which will be released in early March.
"Call to Arms will introduce an array of new content for WAR players, including two highly anticipated new careers – the Orc Choppa and the Dwarf Slayer – and a new dungeon zone called “Land of the Dead,” set in the desert realm of the Tomb Kings.
The Call to Arms live expansion, set to roll out for free in early March and running through the beginning of June, will also include three in-game live events, a new Realm vs. Realm™ (RvR) Scenario, added functionality to the Realm Wars section of the WAR website, the opening of the official WAR Forums, and a new free trial version of the game.
“The launch of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning was only the first step in our ongoing quest to make a great MMORPG that players will enjoy for years to come. Over the next few months, we are going to be treating our players to the first of our ‘live expansions’ planned for the game,” said Mark Jacobs, VP and general manager of Mythic Entertainment. “With the addition of new careers and a huge Tomb Kings dungeon that is the spiritual successor to the Dark Age of Camelot™ dungeon, Darkness Falls, Call to Arms is an outstanding example of the massive amount of free content we are committed to delivering to WAR players now and in the future.”
Call to Arms Live Expansion Schedule
‘Call to Arms: Bitter Rivals’ Live Event (March): Successful completion allows head start access to the new Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer careers. The event will also include the new Chaos-themed RvR Scenario, Twisting Tower.
Two New Careers Join WAR (March): The Orc Choppa and Dwarf Slayer answer the Call to Arms.
‘Call to Arms: Beyond the Sands’ Live Event (April): Details to be revealed soon!
‘Call to Arms: Rise of the Tomb Kings’ Live Event (May): The race between Order and Destruction players begins to unlock the Land of the Dead for their Realm.
‘Land of the Dead’ Opens (June): The deserts of Nehekharaopen open to players with the addition of a new RvR-gated dungeon zone. To gain access to the Land of the Dead, opposing Realms must battle for control of the zone to access dozens of new Public Quests, instanced lairs, and a massive new Tomb Kings dungeon to plunder in search of the Casket of Souls.
More details on these and other new features soon to invade the Age of Reckoning will be revealed as the launch of Call to Arms grows near."
