Taking a cue from the hollywoodian habit of milking games from movies before they even premiere, the Japanese anime and gaming industries are coming together in the production of a Wii game based on the upcoming The Sky Crawlers animation film. The project was revealed in the pages of Famitsu (via Gamersyde), who say that the Wii game is being developed by the Namco Bandai team responsible for the Ace Combat series.

The only reason I give a damn is that the Sky Crawlers anime is directed by Mamoru Oshii, who made a name for himself by directing the Ghost in the Sell animation film and its sequel Innocence (among other anime and live-action stuff). It's based on a novel series which follows a group of young fighter pilots involved in dogfight warfare, during an alternate historical period, and it's animated by Production I.G. The film premieres on August 2 and, by the way, I lied: I don't really give a damn about the game.

Take-Two are continuing to keep themselves busy these days... and so are Electronic Arts' bidding artificers. Clearly incapable of waiting until the agonizing (for them) release of GTA IV at the end of April, EA is making another move in the hopes of taking over Take-Two. Only, this time, they are trying to bypass the company's board and head straight for the shareholders, luring them with an offer of $26 per share in cash. Not that tempting, but who knows... Just to be on the safe side, Take-Two's board urged its shareholders to hold their horses, promising to properly advise them within 10 business days.

So while we wait for the next chapter of this bidding saga, let's get back to Take-Two's games for a bit. My personal most-wanted, Mafia 2 is now planned for release (...)

 Continue reading 'Take-Two About Dates, Max Payne 3, New EA Bid'...

A rather pretentious title, for what really looks more like a Half-Life 2 MOD. Nevertheless, the recently announced third-person shooter Salvation (anti-rhymes with Damnation, but not to be confused with Dark Salvation) is being developed as a full-fledged PC and Xbox 360 game powered by Valve's Source engine, by some novice Ukranian studio Black Wing Foundation, "in cooperation with N-Game Studios" - cause it's so damn hard to make a generic shooter all by yourself these days.

The world of Salvation is described as a near-future cybernetic dystopia, inspired by the likes of "1984", "Brand New World" and "Us", with a dramatic story spanning seven episodes (17 missions), from Tokyo to London, which goes something like this. (...)

 Continue reading 'Salvation, Cybernetic Dystopian Shooter'...

Old news are best served with a bit of catch-up, and so we return to some of the stories we missed a few days ago due to excessive WoW'ing *cough* various reasons. Having successfully tackled the sci-fi and fantasy RPG sub-genres (and post-apocalyptic, if we think about their good ol' days at Black Isle), the dudes from Obsidian Entertainment (KotOR 2, NWN 2) are finally trying their hand at their first original IP. They call it Alpha Protocol, "a thrilling new espionage role-playing game set in the modern world", which CEO Feargus Urquhart also says will blend "Obsidian's knack for intricate stories, engrossing characters, and significant character advancement with fast-paced modern combat". (...)

 Continue reading 'Alpha Protocol Is Obsidian's New Spy RPG'...

That Zerg trailer was all fine and well, but a bit more detail never hurts. So here is the latest double-pack of StarCraft II screenshots issued by Blizzard this month, showing more diverse gameplay environments.



 (...)

 Continue reading 'StarCraft II Screenshots'...

I can almost hear Stephane Grappelli's jazzy violin already...

We all know RPGs are almost on the brink of extinction – and I mean true RPGs, deep story, memorable characters, rapeable Ladies Aribeth, and stuff like that, not some junk food hack and slash that mindlessly (though sometimes, pretty addictive) set you up in a dungeon crawling with sponge blobs, pink rabid bunnies or giant weeds that seem to have an issue with your well being.

The last really good one to hit the market was Bioware’s Mass Effect (and we are still waiting for that PC “port” to make us drool even more), amongst others. As much as we have enjoyed it, we just couldn’t stop that saliva coming out when we heard Greg Zeschuk, BioWare’s general manager, bragging on the MTV channel about how great Mass Effect 2 will be.

First of all, we’ll have more side quests. More and better, he says. Quests that are actually worth doing, not just skip them for that main plot that needs solving RIGHT NOW.

"Side quests can sometimes be left on the side, so to speak. Pardon the pun. But a lot of times it's even just getting that whole game done, that whole first shot [that is important]. We look at Mass Effect 2 as incredibly exciting. Just the amount of effort and knowledge and know-how that went into building the technology for the first one is huge, and [we now have] the chance to actually make things a little bit richer."

Secondly, we’ll get the same treatment here as we’ve got in most BioWare/Black Isle sequels, more exactly an enhanced world, the solving of various technical issues that may (or may not) appear at some point or the other, basically, a truly revamped content that will make the player have an instant erection. What can I say, words are good, they have always been. Hopefully, this is not some media bullshit.

Gamespot scoop.

It all started as a (well founded) rumor. It ended with an official announcement. So, yeah, basically we’ll get more Bioshockin’ services in the fall of 2009, according to the girls at Take Two. Just as promised, actually, because they stated before their hungry desire to release one Bioshock title once every two years…

What we know so far is that the game will, indeed, be manufactured with great care and no trembling hands by the newly formed 2K Marin Studio, where a bunch of Bioshock developers gathered not to be pissed off by the lesser beings inside Take Two that like to share useless opinions with the rest of the world. Even though it was first rumored that brainmaster Ken Levine will not work on this project, Take Two confirmed that, well, he will, either it is his choice or not.

While Bioshock was a great game, maybe more popular than great, it still reeked of casual putrefaction. Hopefully, more little sisters, Japanese ones, this time, will fix the obvious flaw of respawning like a retard, that made the game look much too easy. And silly.

Scoopz0r.

Just how do you call an official shit-mouth with the likes of Jack Thompson, that seems to constantly shoot idiocy from between his teeth, poking the gaming industry for “inciting to violence and weird sexual behavior”? I, for one, call them clowns or attention whores. Or trolls.

But when the said individual is also involved in a massive prostitution ring, is also a New York Gov., and is also licking Monica Lewinski’s ex-boyfriend’s wife, Hillary Clinton, under the tail for some good earned attention? I’d just say… a hypocrit.

Mr. Eliot Spitzer is mainly (not manly) known for his 2006 campaign, when he went on a rampage about video games, violent content, rating systems, and so on, and so forth. His video game bill was supposedly approved by the New York Assembly, and should have been re-discussed in 2008, but it seems now it is not the case…

…since this here dude was caught by federal assassins prosecutors on tape while he was fixing up for a hooker to travel from New York to Washington where he was, not surprisingly, paying a “business” visit at the same time. In short, he needed to get a piece of pussy before getting back to work. One little statement regarding the “issues” of gaming sounds like this:

Like all parents, I know it is increasingly difficult to protect our children from negative influences… we have learned that when self-regulation fails, government must step in… we must do more to protect our children from excessive sex and violence in the media…

How extremely satisfying. A Game Politics awesome scoop.

- The 360+ MB Crysis patch 1.2 is finally up for download. But it has issues. And also some dedicated (albeit beta) nVidia drivers.

- "We have no plans to have in-game advertising in StarCraft II", says Blizzard via Blizzplanet. Well, they have no plans for announcing the next Diablo game today, either. But that doesn't mean it's not there...

- Dark Sector has just gone Gold, and is now ready for releasing in North America this March 25 on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

- Capcom dismisses Resi 5 date rumours, the ones placing the release of Resident Evil 5 in October 2008 (just before Gears of War 2). So it might only come out in early 2009.

- Huxley, that MMOFPS nearly gone vaporware, was featured this week in an IGN preview saying that Webzen plans to release the PC version by the end of 2008, followed about six months later by the Xbox 360 version (which will take place 50 years later, but will still have "cross-platform interaction" with the PC version, oddly enough).

- Each game from the Orange Box package - Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Half-Life 2: Episode One + Two - will be available as separate PC titles at retail on April 9, as confirmed by Valve on Joystick. Too little too late.

- Europa Universalis III: In Nomine announced for this summer (or some time before it). It's like an expansion for another expansion, since it will require the Napoleon's Ambition add-on, and the idea for it was born on Paradox' forums. Sounds... promising...

- Various WiiWare games were announced lately, but the vast majority of them look like pure, double-distilled shit. One exception is LostWinds (which we covered last month), and another one will hopefully be Lit - a 3D horror action-puzzler coming from WayForward (Contra 4, Shantae), which I found out about on Gamasutra.

- The U.S. Air Force wants 300... Spartans? Moonkins? Nope, PlayStation 3 consoles. Awoo! Awoo! Awoo! They're supposedly "conducting a technology assessment of certain cell processors", and the PS3 is perfect for playing while on-duty their top-secret research.