A noteworthy announcement just came in from Codemasters. Together with developer Blue Omega Entertainment, they offer the first details and screenshots for a third-person action-shooter called Damnation (apparently based on a former UT 2004 total convertion mod of the same name). It will be the first in a planned franchise that will make its debut on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in late 2008.

They are billing it as a "shooter gone vertical", seemingly due to its huge, open environments, each covering miles of distance and thousands of vertical feet. "These massive streaming landscapes will form the battlegrounds for a post-industrial conflict between humanity and an unstoppable arms dealer hell-bent on total world domination", the story goes. Visually inspired by iconic elements of American history (not America again!), Damnation also promises to feature frenetic combat, daredevil acrobatics and high-octane vehicle-based stunts ("from motorbikes capable of launching across seemingly infinite chasms, to huge, armour-piercing marvels that will induce mayhem with every huge shell"), with up to 3 hours of actual gameplay... per level! But no, I have no idea how many levels there will be.

More details after the screenshots.

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 Continue reading 'Damnation 'Shooter Gone Vertical' Announced'...

And here we are, standing like donuts and waiting to be swallowed by angry policemen, wondering all day long why the fuck more and more publishers and developers are running away from hardcore gaming. And when I say running, I have in mind a level 10 Loladin being chased by a bunch of bloodthirsty level 70 Tauren Warriors.

Technically speaking, why the hell would YOU, as a developer, produce a super-duper Panzer General for the brutal wargaming communities, when you know your income will be close to zero? Sure, that game will be purchased by a couple of thousands old dudes who still haven’t forgotten what a real game looks and feel like, but today, when gaming means business, that is not enough.

So why wouldn’t you just make a Panzer General Solitaire, replacing the long hours of tactical thinking with some good ol’ card game with tanks and guns (all of them American, of course), that must win against another bunch of tanks and guns (all of them Arabian, Russian, Vietnamese, or any other nation that the US would like to… disappear)? A card game that even my all-knowledgeable grandma could play, while taking a break from her usual moaning that her leg hurts? There sure are more grannies out there than casual gamers, that’s for sure.

A recent report from the research firm Interpret has revealed that, in the US, two out of three people aged between 12 and 65 have played casual games in 2007, with an average of 5.1 hours per week played. According to the study, that’s like… 740 million hours spent on gaming, which surpasses other almost-as-cultural activities, like, let’s say, reading. Revenue-wise, Interpret estimates that games like EA’s Pogo, and other accessible stuff like that, will add an income of about 700 million dollars till 2010. Not as much as 40 billion dollars, like the whole gaming industry, but still, it’s about casual, low budget games, not some big-ass title which sucked an investment of 10 million dollars faster than any Taiwanese prostitute would suck you dry.

The Stick of Joy scoop.

And yet again, Mr. Kotick blows me up. Almost literally. Not only does Blizzard already have an extremely successful milking cow (actually, they have more of those, but one in particular here has 10 million subscribers), but the company will try, with the soon to be released Starcraft 2, to increase their earnings even further. Much further.

You’ve probably heard about in-game advertising, and if you didn’t you should be shot in a leg. Well, Kotick (which, for those of you who didn’t read the last Activision/Blizzard related news regarding a future CoD MMO, is Activision’s CEO), stated loud and clear that, although advertising in games hasn’t been a successful business yet (but sure as hell will be), his company is eyeing, while also salivating like a true Pavlovian dog, the big bucks that could come out if they implement it in Starcraft 2.

So prepare yourself for some nice Coca-Cola banners, while you try to take over Aiur, or whatever other planet hasn’t been yet obliterated by the Zerg. I’m feeling a bit sad right now.

"[Blizzard] has been thinking about how StarCraft, because it is a short-session experience, can actually be the model for in-game advertising and sponsorship and tournament play and ladder play for the future,"

IGN scoop.

- The Sims 3 website is now up, hinting at - you guessed - The Sims 3. More information is coming on March 19. I just love how everyone is making a full-blown "news" out of this.

- The Chronicles of Spellborn is being delayed again, according to a project update on the MMO's website. This time they expect to release it in Q2 2008. I beg to differ.

- Audiosurf was the top selling game on Steam in February, pwning the likes of Orange Box and Peggle Deluxe. I only found out about this cool little indie game last month, but too bad I was busy with a WoW raid at the time, to give it a try.

- Ziff Davis Media announced tonight it has filed a dreaded Chapter 11 (a.k.a. bankrupcy protection) petition, hoping to somehow pull out of the financial asshole they're stuck in, with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt... that's some heavy shit! If the name doesn't ring a bell, they publish the EGM and Games For Windows magazines, and the 1UP network of websites which also includes FileFront, GameVideos and GameTap. Mwhaha... here's our chance to take over the gaming world!

- Dragonball movie delayed... Wait, what the fuck is this doing on a gaming website!? Time to switch to Animekon for the full story.

Price cut rumors are always welcome, particularly when they come true. And for this one, we'll only have to wait a few more days to find out if it's bogus or not. According to this fresh TechRadar story which already spread all over the webs, the price of the Xbox 360 will be cut by €50 on 14 March in Europe. They say the reduction will apply to all Xbox 360 SKUs, and that they confirmed the story with "numerous UK retailers" - none of which agreed to go on record, though.

"This effectively means that the cost of the Xbox 360 Elite system on Amazon will be in the region of £240 (ed. - €313) and the basic Arcade system (without a hard drive) will cost in the region of £150 (ed. - €195)", TechRadar predicts.

Indeed, that would put the price of the lower-spec Xbox 360 Arcade bundle below that of a Wii console. But the numbers are still wildly fluctuating - from £150 on TechRadar, to £170 on MCV, and down to £140 for the Arcade bundle (from what MCV seems to have seen back on TechRadar... weird). Only time - and Microsoft - will tell what's the right price.

You have to just love the guys and gals at Gamasutra. All the info they provide comes in such huge detail, that I seldomly forget to read some piece of news from top to bottom, either because I am in a middle of a wanking session, either because I get bored reading quotes from the developers.

Anyway, here is some interesting stuff. Dudes behind titles such as Fallout or Medal of Honor have teamed up in an attempt to show recent crappy developers ze finger, forming WhiteMoon Dreams, a new and, hopefully, stupendous studio, which focuses its interest on Wii, PS3, and X360. For starters, they work on a title for a certain Japanese publisher.

Great news, indeed! The guy pulling all the strings will be Jay Kootarappallil (pronounced “koeiwruweoiudiojfsod”), which, at some point, used to be a technical art director for EA. Now why does it seem familiar to me that EA dudes have all the money?

While Loli WhiteMoon Dreams wants to mainly focus on original, in-house, series, they do not bash the possibility of working alongside major publishers, in an attempt to boost some of their francizes. What can I say, good luck to them, and may your titles live long and prosper.

Gamasutra scoop.

When it comes to Fallout 3, there are certain things of notice: first, Bethesda got its hands on a license that virtually kicks ass: second, Bethesda has absolutely no idea how to create a RPG – and don’t make me prove to you that every fucking Elder Scrolls title was actually a FPS; third, there is a BIG Fallout community out there, demanding a game that will be at least as good as the Fallout 3 Beta (ed. - Van Buren), released by the former Black Isle guys so long ago.

Things are really sad when even the lead game designer for the current Bethesda FPS, casually named, I have no idea why, Fallout 3, says that the company itself doesn’t give a shit about the community’s suggestions. Sure, we will get 50% of Morrowind’s big sized world (unlike some other things that the developers have to offer), sure, we will have “open endings”, and other stuff that may actually attract casual players, but, Sir, we will certainly have no Fallout. Here’s what Emil Pagliarulo had to say:

That’s always the toughest question. You listen to the fans and respect their ideas, but once you start designing a game that they want to make specifically, then you can get yourself into trouble.

In other words, “we may get into trouble if we listen to you guys, create a hardcore game for the Fallout community to enjoy, and not listen to what our publishers tell us to do. And what cocks to suck”.

And certainly, the fact that Fallout 3 comes on various platforms, (probably) with optimizations as good as, let’s say, Resident Evil 4, also means that they don’t care at all. Go go, Bethesda, one more reason to hate you. And by that, I mean really hate you, I have a fellow priest that knows some incantations that will make your dicks smaller.

Read the rest of his bullshit here.

And here are the new Assassin's Creed PC screenshots we mentioned in last night's checkpoint, without any distracting logo. Below them you'll also find a new Q&A about the game's PC version, this time issued directly by Ubisoft.


The game is being released four months after the console versions. How did you use this extra development time?

Based on the feedback we got after the release of the console versions, we decided to add even more variety by developing a total of 4 new investigation types (Archer assassination, rooftop race challenge, merchant stand destruction challenge and escort challenge). The archer assassination requires the player to assassinate the archers in a dedicated zone without being seen. In the rooftop race challenge, the player will meet an informer and will have a set amount of time to reach a second informer. In the merchant stand destruction, some merchants have ties to the assassination target and their activities must be stopped by Altaïr. Finally, in the escort challenge, the player needs to securely escort a fellow Assassin from point A to point B.

Will the game exploit DX9 and DX10? (...)

 Continue reading 'Assassin's Creed PC Screenshots, Details'...

This right here is what's wrong with today's "gamers". How can a casual title like Mario & Sonic at the Olympics sell 5 (five!) million copies in just over three months, while games like [insert personal hardcore favorite] are barely struggling to make up for the tens of million bucks invested in their years-long development? And yet, it's happening right under our noses, as proudly announced by SEGA today.

"With adored icons and fun game play, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games has shot to the top of the sales charts and is clearly resonating with the growing audience of casual gamers that want an engaging and accessible gaming experience," said Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America.

Grats to SEGA and everything, but this is just way too fucked up (... says a guy who's nuts about Wii Sports and can barely wait for Super Smash Bros. Brawl).

From the funny, yet unstable land of rumors, come this little piece on Primotech – the guys there ranting something about Crysis being showed working on X360, behind closed doors, at this year’s GDC. Who would be interested in such a release? Well, prospective publishers, of course.

If this is true (which I really doubt so far, not until we get some real clarifications), then it seems that EA was not really interested in such a project, since I guess they would have got first bids on it. Considering the low revenues that Crysis brought back for the PC, it’s no wonder.

It was known for sometime that Crytek was planning on showing the graphic engine CryEngine 2 working on Microsoft's console, but probably just for certain developers that be interested in using it for future titles. So Crysis on X360 is still a rumor, but rumors usually have a seed of truth somewhere in their stomach.