Gamefront: Weekly Network Update 67 (week 24, 2012) - News - FileFront News Posted by: Danny on 06-17-2012 @ 11:31
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Here it is the 67th version of the Weekly Gamefront Network News Update, the news part of the update covers the news side of the Network and the Gamefront Main site over the past week. There has been a fair bit of news from the Main site including a lot of trailers, reviews, previews and a lot more, although this weeks version is not as long as last weeks it covers a little bit more of E3 and some random videos! - Here. There is also a lot more news from E3 here
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Gamefront News: Aliens: Colonial Marines Hands-On: A Pants-Crapping Experience
Aliens: Colonial Marines needs to be great.
After the flop that was 2010's Aliens vs. Predator, this may just be the last big play the franchise will get to make before it’s flushed down the toilet, a Hail Mary pass to save our beloved Xenomorphs from video game permadeath.
We haven’t had a great AvP game since 2001's Alien vs. Predator 2, and we haven’t had a great Aliens game since 1995's Alien Trilogy. Can Colonial Marines resuscitate the franchise from over a decade of stagnation? My hands-on play experience at E3 2012 showed some promising signs.
The Colonial Marines station offered a six-on-six multiplayer team deathmatch, pitting media and attendees — as the marines — against the Gearbox developers themselves, who took on the role of the Xenomorphs. [Insert jealous muttering.]
Full discretion: I’m a PC gamer and staunch defender of the mouse and keyboard. My experience with a gamepad consists of a dozen hours spread over the past decade, and — the icing on the cake — I’m left-handed, so my manual dexterity on the right thumbstick is cringe-worthy. In short, my performance on a gamepad is only slightly better than what you’d expect from a monkey. And not one of those smart monkeys; the kind that flings feces.
I loaded into the match, gripping the gamepad anxiously as I found myself within a dimly-lit complex. Vent in the corner. Pipes on the ceiling. Darkened passage to my left. I spun around frantically, counting the places a Xenomorph could ambush me from, knowing an attack might come from any direction.
With the ability to choose an elite military unit from one of twelve different nations, Medal of Honor Warfighter is all about options. Our intrepid reporters caught up with Warfighter’s creative director Kristoffer Bergqvist at E3. Mr. Bergqvist was has assured us that there will be plenty of class options and a fast, frantic story. We also learned that the game‘s story was written by actual military operatives. If you’re looking forward to Warfighter, you should definitely check out the full review below. And don’t forget to check out the rest of Game Front’s E3 interviews.
E3 2012 might be known by some as the “Super Bowl of Gaming,” but it’s not just about the best-known and winningest teams on the field. E3 is actually brimming with games that you’ve probably never even heard of — and many that don’t get the kind of coverage the big boys bring in, and certainly not the coverage they deserve.
Luckily, as PC players, we get exposed to lots of games that aren’t bound to the traditional developer/publisher paradigm, and we spent a big part of our E3 checking out games off the beaten path. We’ve compiled a list from each of our E3 2012 ground team members of titles that should definitely be on your radar this year and into 2013.
Ben Richardson’s Pick
The Testament of Sherlock Holmes
I’m a big Sherlock Holmes fan and a big adventure game fan, so I was already expecting to like The Testament of Sherlock Holmes. To my surprise, these expectations were exceed. Developed by European studio Frogwares, the game is a worthy addition to the Conan Doyle canon, combining excellent writing and voice acting with beautiful environments that capture Victorian living space in splendid Edwardian detail. Though the game depends on a variety of complicated investigation mechanics, solving crimes feels intellectual without being obtuse, and the demo gameplay included a number of clever puzzles.
Frogwares’ version of the World’s Greatest Detective is modeled on actor Jeremy Brett, who starred in a series of adaptations for British television in the 80's and 90's. Brett is by far my favorite onscreen Holmes (Robert Downey Jr. should stick to Iron Man), so I was thrilled to see his avatar in action. I look forward September, when the game will most definitely be afoot.
Ross Lincoln’s Pick
A Mother’s Inferno
My trip to Indiecade the second day of E3 led me to several hidden gems, but the best of the best was A Mother’s Inferno, an absolutely creepy first person game created in just under 2 months by students at the Danish Academy of Digital Interactive Entertainment. Creepy, weird, trippy and made on a shoestring budget, it still managed to overcome its severe limitations and hint at a concept that could, if properly supported, turn into a truly original AAA game. It’s available for free download on Mac and PC, and you should rush to do so immediately. (You acan do so right here)
James and Mitch got to check out Sony’s booth at E3 and they brought along a video camera to give you a sneak peek too! See Counter-Strike GO, God of War Ascension and other games still in development. Mitch and James narrate their adventure and share their intel on various games they’ve seen at the booth. They’ve also got the scoop on an interesting game about a monster who is addicted to eating frogs. This is without a doubt the best way to check out all Sony’s E3 action (well I suppose actually going to E3 would be better, but who can afford tickets?) And if you haven’t seen Zac and Mitch throw down in some Playstation All-Stars, be sure and catch that too.
Who will be victorious? Will James commit vehicular manslaughter with Sweet Tooth? Will Mitch chow down as Fat Princess? Could the computer AI embarrass them both? You’ve got to watch the video to find out. In case you haven’t heard, All-Stars is Playstation’s response to Super Smash Brothers. Instead of Mario and Luigi the game features characters like Kratos and Nathan Drake. The game’s still in development so it will be awhile before Playstation fans can get there hands on this one but hopefully this E3 sneak peak will be enough to get everyone hyped for the game.
The Game Front team had many adventures at E3 2012. Perhaps the strangest of all was this weird, insular interview between our guys James and Mitch. No, we don’t know why this happened, only that it did. Enjoy.
I spent a lot of my childhood wishing I could go to E3. It seemed like a sort of Never Never Land, where a lucky few sat around all day and played video games months before anyone else got to. Needless to say, I was jealous of those people.
Eventually, as an adult, I did get to go to E3, and my childish fantasies were replaced with a more mundane reality. Don’t get me wrong: E3 can be great fun, and I don’t want to sound like one of those journalists who carp about covering things that other people would do anything to attend. But despite the many pleasures of the yearly event, it is a bizarre place, full of unique, uncanny sights, sounds, and experiences. Below, my fellow Game Front writers and I attempt to convey some sense of the madness.
E3 Is…
Strange and Magical
Lots of developers and publishers set up bunkers all for themselves in the massive convention center. You step through an archway or a door and suddenly — you’re in a carpeted lounge, they’re offering you coffee, you can actually hear people talking, and they’re handing you crap you don’t want or need. Like temporary tattoos. Also there are huge statues of things that don’t actually exist towering over you. It’s like ducking through a portal into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory for about 20 minutes.
Smelly and Loud
Much of E3 is a sensory assault filled with sneak-attacks of wince-inducing awfulness. You’ll stumble through pockets of some incredibly intense B.O. without warning, and sometimes, you can’t escape it, especially when waiting in line. Almost as bad are the pockets of dub-step that will momentarily deafen you while also annoying you, before fading away in the distance.
Thirsty Work
It’s hard not to be shocked and unsure how to proceed when you notice that the Medal of Honor hands-on booth has a bar inside of it, with a bartender offering drinks and beer. One guy actually got a beer. Everyone else eyed it skeptically. We can’t speak for other gaming journalists, but when you’re at E3 and your energy level is priority #1, beer is poison.
Gamefront News: Alienware: “PC Gaming Is The Future”
Alienware has long stood as the leading name in third party gaming PCs, and we had the opportunity to catch up with the company at E3 2012 and discuss the state of PC gaming. Contrary to what so many would have us believe, Alienware’s Joe Olmsted thinks that not only is PC gaming not dying, but that it’s healthier than ever — and that consoles are the dying breed.
Speaking with the Product Marketing Manager, Game Front asked Olmsted how he would reply to the long-standing claims that PC gaming is dying. “PC gaming is the future,” he said simply.
Olmsted went on to explain that not only will PC gaming weather the storm of the next generation of consoles, but that console gaming is the endangered species:
“PC gaming took a hit when the last generation of consoles came out because of platform-exclusive titles like Halo, but it won’t take a significant hit when the next-gen consoles are released. Consoles are fading. Their distribution model is dying — more and more gamers are buying digitally. Even now, we’re debating whether or not to include an optical drive in our next units.”
Showcased at E3 was Alienware’s X51, a compact rig that combines the aesthetic and portability of a console with the power of a PC: a 3rd generation Intel i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a GTX 555, packed in a case that carries the company’s signature look.
What did you think of Mass Effect 3's ending? It certainly didn’t sit well with us here at GameFront. But the Better Business Bureau took it a step further by bringing EA’s advertising promise that “decisions you make completely shape your experience and outcome” to the attention of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). After an official investigation into the matter, however, EA has been deemed free and clear of any wrongdoing.
Said the ASA: “We considered that the three choices at the end of the game were thematically quite different, and that the availability and effectiveness of those choices would be directly determined by a player’s score, which was calculated with reference to previous performance in the game(s). We also acknowledged that there appeared to be a large number of minor variations in the end stages of Mass Effect 3, and that those were directly impacted by choices made by players earlier in the game(s).”
Ok, so EA avoids any legal wrist slap after all the non-legal swirlies it’s been receiving lately from a large contingent of angry Bioware fans. But evidently EA and Bioware either feel guilty or just want to shut players up, because the “Extended Cut” DLC, which will address the highly controversial endings, is due out this summer and will be free.
Alex Hutchinson, creative director for the Assassin’s Creed series, sat down with Eurogamer last week at E3 to explain how yearly title releases following Assassin’s Creed 2 are what allowed his team to be so ambitious with 3.
Hutchinson offered a reminder that AC3 has been in the works since early 2010, and was in development by a separate group at Ubisoft even as Brotherhood and Revelations were being released.
“The core team on this one has been working at it for almost three years, which is something you can almost never get in the industry these days,” said Hutchinson. “It’s too expensive, too risky. So we need the other projects to support that kind of development – these big jumps.”
Despite my personal opinions on how stale and formulaic Assassin’s Creed was becoming due to it’s yearly release schedule, the man has a point. Both of Assassin’s Creed 2's sequels scored well with critics and were among the best-selling video games of their respective years, bringing in tons of green for Ubisoft. But if Assassin’s Creed 3 blows everyone’s mind, could we get another spin-off trilogy? That would certainly test the mettle of even the most die-hard AC fans.
Do you really like Skyrim? Xbox? How about free stuff? Because Bethesda is giving away one of the cooler-looking customized Xbox bundle’s we’ve ever seen on this Facebook page.
Perhaps the best part of the contest is that the prize goes to whoever can create the best original Dragon Shout YouTube video. You may also get a kick out of reading the official rules, which would probably be the first time you’ll ever enjoy reading a page of official rules. Here’s an excerpt:
“On or around the close of the Contest, representatives from Bethesda Softworks will review all eligible entries and select one Grand Prize winner and four First Prize winners based on the following judging criteria:
Apparently the ARV of the bundle sits at a lofty $1,750. And this is for a 4GB model, meaning you’ll likely have to buy your own hard drive. But hey, if you win, at least you don’t have to feel bad about not using your Kinect.
It’s no secret that Diablo 3 has been something of a night club for people who like to compromise member accounts and steal their gold. You hate it, I hate it, and so does Blizzard (even if they don’t hate it enough to get rid of perpetual internet requirements). And today, blizzard announced that they’ve taken decisive action against some classes of jerkwad players. Here’s that official announcement:
We recently issued a round of account suspensions and bans to several thousand Diablo® III players who were in violation of the Battle.net® Terms of Use for cheating and/or using botting or hacking programs while playing. In addition to undermining the spirit of fair play that’s essential to everyone’s enjoyment of the game, botting, hacking, and other such exploitive behavior can contribute to stability and performance issues with the Battle.net service. As always, maintaining a stable, safe, and fun online-gaming experience for legitimate players is a top priority for us, and we’ll be continuing to keep watch on Battle.net and take action as needed.
Even amid the sensory overload of E3, Borderlands 2 was a shock to the system — a three-finger slug at the end of a long night of heavy drinking. With apologies to Gearbox for the boozy metaphor, I can corroborate the verdict of Game Front editor Ron Whitaker, who declared the game a worthy sequel after playing it at PAX East.
Thrust abruptly into the technicolor carnage of Borderlands 2, I took a second to process the incoming stimuli before settling into a familiar pattern: shoot things until they fall over, raining acid, sprouting explosions, and sloughing off a neon confetti of damage numbers all the while. Having sampled the Gunzerker’s hyperbolic brawn at PAX, I opted for the Assassin, Zer0, this time around.
The E3 demo mission took place in a decidedly urban setting — a contrast to the first game, maybe, but one that seemed consistent with Borderlands’ space western bona fides. Like a company town near a brand-new gold mine, everything seemed very slick, very surface — built seemingly overnight by a smarmy, smooth-talking executive named “Handsome Jack,” head of the Hyperion Corporation. Recently arrived on Pandora in the hopes of accessing the contents of “The Vault” (opened by players at the end of the first game), Jack plops down his pre-fab metropolis and starts putting up statues of himself.
It’s your job to destroy these statues, which are impervious to small-arms fire. Instead, you enlist the help of a lumbering, hovering robot to do your dirty work, escorting it around town as it uses a high-powered laser to melt Jack’s various effigies into slag. The outraged capitalist spends most of the mission talking your ear, mixing drawled threats, well-written wisecracks, canny cajoling, and eventually more threats. He also deploys a small army of industrial robots to stop your high-tech vandalism.
I’m not one to say ‘it’s different so it sucks now’ reflexively. My concerns weren’t a result of being confronted by change. But when I saw the Dead Space 3 demo at E3 2012, one thought kept popping up in my head:
The Dead Space series is survival horror… in SPAAACE. Right?
This is probably going to be on your mind too, if only so that later, when you’re wondering why you didn’t quite like Dead Space 3, you’ll know why. No, the 15 minutes or so of the Dead Space 3 E3 demo didn’t suck, exactly. At every turn, Dead Space 3 seems like a pretty grade b-grade game. It looked good, but not great; it had some sharp dialogue, but the lines felt stolen from a buddy comedy; it even had some rather neat gameplay mechanics, but they kind of nerf the single player experience.
The problem, naturally, is that Dead Space is not a b-grade series. Or at least, it didn’t used to be.
At some point, we need to just assume Electronic Arts is trolling us. Because when their spokespeople say something like “we listen to the fans and we hear them,” but the company does stuff like release Mass Effect 3 with an ending that ruins the series (and, frankly, is clearly the result of meddling in order to meet an arbitrary release date), or making it impossible to play a single player version of SimCity, the obvious conclusion is that they’re daring us to call them liars.
The latest example of EA’s commitment to listening and hearing the fans is the awesome changes in store for the Dead Space series with Dead Space 3. They’ve created a very different game from previous entries, so much that it feels like Dead Space is a brand name rather than a continuing story. Survival horror is out, action run-and-gun is in. Creeping terror is out, action movie banter is in. And EA even remembered to force people to play yet another stupid multiplayer by making critical story details available only in two player co-op. And if that wasn’t bad enough, co-op players are forced to play some rando new character instead of one that has already been introduced and bonded to the players (Ellie Langford).
But whatevs, because EA swears they’re still doing right by the fans. “What we’ve tried to do with each instalment is tell a different story about Isaac but at the same time bring in new features and ways to turn the game into a more connected experience,” said EA Labels president Frank Gibeau, speaking to CVG. “… so we embraced [the co-op] idea and we tried to open up the accessibility of the IP a little bit by adding a little bit more action, but not undermining the horror. We can’t not be a horror game because that’s what Dead Space is.”
Those PC gamers waiting for the brass to hurry up and issue deployment orders can sit in your barracks a bit longer. Ubisoft confirmed to Joystiq today that the PC version of their upcoming Ghost Recon: Future Soldier has been delayed. For North America, it’s June 26. For Europe, it’s June 29. Either way, you have to wait for a while more to enjoy the Tom Clancy-branded cash cow. Sorry!
If you enjoyed Limbo, then you’ll be pleased to hear the development studio behind the 2010's indie sensation is hard at work on a spiritual successor. A few details have emerged from a Danish government grant website (which you should check out, because the Danish language is awesome) including the above concept art and a brief description of the new project, named Project 2 (working title).
According to a rough translation courtesy of my Google Chrome browser, the description is as follows: “Through unique puzzles and changing scenarios narrated the story of one boy’s struggle against evil forces through questionable experiments on human bodies, trying to take over the world. The game is in color and set in a 3D environment, while the gameplay takes place as a 2D platformer.”
So while we may get an injection of color and slightly more complex mechanics, a similar dark theme seems to be in order. Only this time, the game will probably more explicit in it’s disturbing content. Sounds awesome.
The game will be available on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC, and Mac, though unfortunately there are no concrete details on a release window.
James and Mitch got their hands on the upcoming Rock Band Blitz at E3. Predictably, James tries to cheat by getting instructions while Mitch has his head phones on. The game will be available late this summer and will be a downloadable title. Blitz will feature 25 new songs and will be available on X-box arcade and Playstation Network. It will also allow players to jump to different tracks. Check out the video to see how it works!
With the ability to choose an elite military unit from one of twelve different nations, Medal of Honor Warfighter is all about options. Our intrepid reporters caught up with Warfighter’s creative director Kristoffer Bergqvist at E3. Mr. Bergqvist was has assured us that there will be plenty of class options and a fast, frantic story. We also learned that the game‘s story was written by actual military operatives. If you’re looking forward to Warfighter, you should definitely check out the full review below. And don’t forget to check out the rest of Game Front’s E3 interviews.
League of Legends has observed unprecedented success in the eSports scene, rising to become the most watched eSport in the world. Last year, the NBA playoffs’ viewership rose to 4.2 million viewers; League of Legends has observed 3.9 million concurrent viewers, putting it right up there among real sports.
To what does it owe this success?
Speaking with the Riot Games team at E3 2012 offered me some insight into the secret recipe: one gallon of low barrier to entry, two cups of ongoing development, a dash of unique flavoring, and one heaping tablespoon of balance testing.
Riot’s Sebastian LeCause explained the various factors that contribute to LoL’s low barrier to entry. “Champions do exactly what you think they’ll do,” he said. The game‘s unique setting blends character archetypes from all genres of fantasy, from gun-totting pirates to necromantic mages. Every champion has a distinct visual flavor that translates into its mechanical abilities — the vampire siphons life force; the dual-pistolero sprays bullets everywhere; the martial artist strikes with a flurry of blows. It’s all very intuitive.
The game released in 2009 with 40 champions and currently has 99 to choose from. New champions take four to six months to develop, and the team sees no end in sight for its growing stable.
In a recent interview with Games Industry, Peter Molyneux expressed his dismay at a lack of PC focus during the Microsoft presentation at E3. Instead of embracing the ever-growing legion of PC gamers, Microsoft decided to trot out “SmartGlass” and (for reasons I still can’t fathom) they had Usher give a live performance. After viewing this spectacle, Mr Molyneux stated: “It’s always shocked me about how little Microsoft cared about the Windows platform,”
The funny thing is, Microsoft did show off PC games at the conference, they just chose to conceal the platform on which the games were running. The X-box 360 controllers in the hands of the presenters are little more than props. The actual games are all run on PC to ensure the graphics look as sleek as possible. So I guess the obvious question here is: “why hide it?” Microsoft could easily just fess up and say: “Hey, we’re going to show you this next game on PC because it will look better that way.”
The most obvious answer to this question is that it’s just not profitable. People need computers. They need them to check e-mail, go on facebook, and pay bills. They serve a great number of functions and have become indispensable to the modern household. And the majority of these computers already come loaded with the latest iteration of Windows.
If you weren’t able to attend, just know that last year’s Minecon event, held at Mandalay Bay in Vegas, was a blast. So much so that I was kind of hoping they’d do it again. And they are, but I won’t be able to go because this year, they’re blessing Europe instead. But for now, the location is secret! Lydia Winters spilled the news on Mojang’s official site:
- MineCon will most definitely be THIS year and it will be in Europe.
- I’m headed to a secret location next week to check it out and hopefully sign papers for the location and date. WOOHOO!
- After everything is confirmed we will be giving you ALL the details.
So my guess is that they’re having it at Blofeld’s secret palace.
Robert Bowling has been in the news a lot recently, both for founding a new company and for leaving Activision, where he was the face of the biggest game franchise in the world, Call of Duty. While he was chatting with our correspondent Wil Wheaton at E3 last week, he had some interesting things to say about just what he learned during hie tenure at Activision.
Wil Wheaton: Your mission statement from Robotoki is what I wish everyone’s mission statement was. About creating an environment that nurtures and fosters creativity. It’s really difficult to read that, and not think, “Well you just left a huge mega-publisher.” It’s hard not to read that and think, “This seems a little reactive.” So, what about that?
Robert Bowling: I worked on Call of Duty for seven years, one of the biggest publishers in the industry. With some of that experience behind me, you learn a lot about what you don’t want. You learn a lot about what works well, like what makes a successful franchise, you learn a lot of great lessons. And part of that is learning “ok, this doesn’t work. This is not how you do it.” I think as an industry as a whole, we have a lot to learn about how we treat creative talent.
At the end of the day, what you learn is we’re in a creative field, just like film and television. Anything that you create, it’s not black and white. It requires emotion, it requires passion, and it requires people to be happy–because if you’re not happy with what you’re doing, it’s going to show in the quality of your work. That’s why with Robotoki, our entire design philosophy is focusing on [the creative team] first, and everything else second. We’re not focused on the project, we’re focused on the team creating the project. If we nail the happy team, you’re going to get a good project.
WW: That almost sounds like the philosophy that drove the original Activision guys to leave Atari in like ’79, or whenever they did that. They were very successful. They were making awesome games that everyone loved, but the corporate culture overwhelmed the creative culture.
In our newest Wil Wheaton interview from E3, Robotoki founder Robert Bowling was explaining just how his new game works. While it’s still a first person adventure when you’re on your PC, it’s doing some really cool stuff when you walk away from the PC that caught our attention. If you’re a fan of immersive experiences, this is one you can take along while you’re out.
This part of the interview starts at 1:45
Robert Bowling: The core console / PC experience is a first-person survival game. It’s a very cinematic, immersive experience. Now, what we’re doing on tablet is very different. This is what I’m most excited about. What we’re doing with Robotoki is we’re looking to desing very platform agnostic experiences.
When I’m at home, sitting down with a controller in my hands, I want to be engaged. I want to be immersed in this universe. But now, say I leave my house in real life. I’m out and about/ I’m in a train, a plane, I’m in a waiting room. I open up my iPad, and I open up Human Element on that. Now we’re pulling in Google Maps API, we’re pulling in FourSquare business API. We’re overlaying the world of Human Element on top of that.
Yesterday, Rockstar posted on it’s main website that it won’t stand for cheating in its latest game. Players caught breaking the rules in Max Payne 3's multiplayer mode will be yanked from public matchmaking, have their leaderboard records stripped, and thrown into a dirty prison to fight each other for their very survival. Or something along those lines…
In the post, Rockstar states: “Anyone found to have used hacked saves, modded games, or other exploits to gain an unfair advantage in Max Payne 3 Multiplayer, or to circumvent the leaderboards will be quarantined from all other players into a “Cheaters Pool”, where they’ll only be able to compete in multiplayer matches with other confirmed miscreants.”
Rockstar also mentioned that should you be cleared of past transgressions and released back into the public, a second violation will be met with permanent banishment. Now how does one escape this pool? Rockstar hasn’t said, but we like to imagine a Death Race type of scenario.
Sledgehammer Games, co-developer of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, is working on a new – you guessed it – Call of Duty game. This was confirmed by a job listing found (which is no longer available) on the studio’s website, explicitly looking for a Senior FX Artist to work on the next Call of Duty game. The ad, according to VideoGamer.com, asked for “solid professional experience and knowledge of the limitations and performance of current generation hardware.” Given we probably won’t see new consoles in 2013, and Black Ops 2 is to be unleashed this fall, it only makes sense that we’ll have one more CoD on current consoles next year.
No big surprises here. Call of Duty is an annualized franchise, and Activision wouldn’t stray far from it’s pool of subsidiary developers, which include Sledgehammer, Infinity Ward, Raven Software, and Treyarch. In their eyes, there’s little reason to, given that each new Call of Duty game has smashed all known video game-related sales records. The only thing we don’t know is the title. Modern Warfare 4? Black Ops 3? Is Activision bold enough to take the series in a different direction? Or even risk tacking on a new title to the sacred “Call of Duty” name as opposed to a sequel? I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.
NOTE: This is Part 1 of a five part interview series with Wil Wheaton. Check out Game Front’s E3 Channel for more news, previews and Wil Wheaton videos!
Game Front was fortunate enough to recruit the patron saint of the nerdosphere himself, Wil Wheaton, as the in-front-of-the-camera face of our E3 coverage. Among his many antics, he nabbed this interview with Skyrim director Todd Howard, and among the topics discussed was Howard’s thoughts about the future of RPG video games.
This part of the interview starts at 6:35
Wil Wheaton:
You are clearly pushing the limits for what is possible for a role-playing game on a console or on a PC. Where do you see RPGs going next?
Todd Howard:
Two things. I still think you see role-playing creeping into everything. I see it in all games, with like–how do you reward the player, with whatever he’s doing? Exploring, building up his character, you see it with everything.
I think the thing in general in gaming, and you see it with RPGs more, is having characters react to you in a way that you believe, or is really meaningful, with the choices you made. I think we can build pretty good environments. A lot of people can, not just us. In gaming, doing realistic and nice-looking environments, I think people are pretty good at that.
I think the next wave is really characters. How they respond where it feels as real as the environments do. We’re not there yet.
In July South Korea will announce a new law that bans the sale of virtual items for real money. The head of the South Korean The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Kim Kap-soo issued a statement saying: “The main purpose of the games is for entertainment and should be used for academic and other good purposes.” The Korean government also stated that 60% of virtual items sold were obtained by bots. Government officials believes these bots were giving games a bad reputation. The new law will punish offenders with a hefty 50 million won fine. That translates to over $27,000.
Everyone hates gold farmers, but that’s a pretty hefty penalty to impose on someone for committing a virtual crime. The South Korean Government could just report these players to Blizzard and hit them with a smaller fine. But perhaps the law is aimed at breaking up larger gold farming operations. Either way, this will be the end of Diablo 3's auction house in South Korea. It will be interesting to see if any other countries decide to follow South Korea’s example. China has always had a problem with gold farmers and very recently a Chinese gold farmer named Markee Dragon admitted that hacking Diablo 3 accounts to farm items is a huge problem. For now, it will be interesting to see how successful South Korea is at enforcing the law.
The XCOM demo Game Front editor Ron Whitaker and I saw at PAX East focused on the basics. The Firaxis team were keen to establish the game’s old-school, turn-based-tactical bona fides, which they did in some style, showing off an early-game mission that introduced the basic mechanics.
At E3 2012, Associate Producer Peter Murray had a new demo on hand, which dispensed with the fundamentals in favor of XCOM’s sexy end-game elements. He introduced his rapt audience to a “Terror Mission,” in which XCOM forces are asked to protect a civilian population from alien attack. A short cutscene showed chaos in the streets of an unnamed city; an alien mothership vaporized screaming citizens and flung cars like an angry toddler tiring of his toys.
An initial response team of XCOM soldiers deployed in the center of a destroyed street. They were quickly overwhelmed by a collection of familiar aliens: a Berserker, a Heavy Floater, and a Sectoid Commander, which took psychic control of one of the soldiers. Gory death animations ensued — taking full advantage of the game’s stylized but still realistic look — and the outmatched squad began to panic, screaming futilely and ratcheting up the tension.
Thankfully, Murray had a plan: “Commander — permission to send in the Reaper squad.” As its name implies, this was the XCOM equivalent of special forces, and they were about to put on a show for the E3 crowd. Normally the result of hours upon hours of careful character customization, the Reapers are the nuclear option in an XCOM player’s arsenal, and to say they are extremely powerful is putting it mildly. “By the end of the game,” Murray explained, “your soldiers are more than human.”
Call of Duty: CoD Black Ops to Possibly Have Mod Tools!!
Call of Duty Black Ops 2 may have mod tools but it depends if the team have the resources to do it. It's not only money but time too, Dan Suarez Activision Vice President states that mod tools is a difficult thing to do, and was on Black Ops 1 but after the release of the game.
The Call of Duty Black Ops team have also released footage of their motivations to build the game as it currently will be, you can find the video and the full story about the mod tools for Black Ops 2 here.
Read: CoD Black Ops to Possibly Have Mod Tools!!
More Call of Duty News: FileFront's Call of Duty Files Grand Theft Auto San Andreas: GTA Fansite Shut Down After Leaking GTA 5 October Release Date
Gamefront News: GTA Fansite Shut Down After Leaking GTA 5 October Release Date
We’re all keeping an ear to the ground for more GTA 5 info, and today we picked up a few rumbles. It seems that GTA fan site GTANetwork was shut down after they supposedly leaked a release date for the next GTA V trailer, as well as the game‘s release date, which they claimed was October 20, 2012.
That date seems to be reinforced by the CV of one Jolyon Orme, lead vehicle artist on Grand Theft Auto 5. In it, he lists the release date of the game as 10/12.
Obviously, we’ll have to wait and see, but I would not be surprised to see a GTA 5 release date announced at today’s press conferences. After all, Take Two has created a hole in their release schedule the size of Jupiter, and they really only have one game in the works that can fill it.
According to analyst Michael Patcher from Wedbush, there are five separate Rockstar studios each working on their own unique project. Patcher met with publishing executives at E3 earlier this week, where he gathered his information (most likely to the disdain of everyone around him).
One of those games is Grand Theft Auto V, and according to Patcher, the likelihood of it getting a 2012 release date as opposed to the also-speculated March 2013 date is far more likely. “…a GTA release date announcement is virtually certain to occur by November,” said Patcher.
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06-23-2012 @ 03:33 - Weekly Poll Results - Did E3 live upto your expectations ?
06-15-2012 @ 06:33 - Weekly Poll Results - Have you been watching Wil Wheatons E3 videos for GameFron
