When Mafia 2’s production was announced, there was a lot of skepticism as to whether or not it would actually be released. Due to its close symmetry to the EA’s Godfather series, Mafia 2 had a good chance of being put on halt. 2K Games did in fact announce that Mafia 2 will continue as planned, being released for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS 3. As of now no release date has been set.
I haven’t been able to get much information on the game itself yet, but I did come across the official trailer for the game, and a few screenshots from Gamespot.com, so y’all can see what’s been released thus far.
Trailer (click to activate…)
Here’s hoping Mafia 2 doesn’t turn into a GTA rip-off…
After much anticipation, frustration, and mixed-messages, EA games has finally announced a worldwide release date of Sept. 7 for the long-awaited Spore. If any of you aren’t familiar with Spore, it is similar to the Sims or Black and White. You create a civilization of creatures from nothing. Unlike the Sims or Black and White though, it is a progression through evolution. Starting with single-celled organisms, you help your creatures evolve and progress into advanced civilizations, eventually mastering space travel.
Scary single-celled organisms grow up to be…
Scary world-dominators…
After its release date, spore will be available for the PC, Mac, Wii, and DS.
Just a short while ago, Midway announced that there will be a new addition to the Mortal Kombat series. What makes this one different…? It will pit the Mortal Kombat crew against the DC Comics world. There have not been a whole lot of details released yet, and a date isn’t set as to when the game will go on sale. But, this newest installment will be available for both the PS3 and Xbox 360. As of now, this is all the info I can bring you, but to cap off this post, I have included an interview from Gamespot.com with Ed Boon, Project Leader for Mortal Kombat.
Interview with Ed Boon: Click to activate video…
Check back as I will keep you posted with more info as I get it.
Nokia had announced earlier this year that their newest internet device will be getting WiMax support sometime during 2008.
For anyone who doesn’t know, WiMax is a widespread internet service that will bring REAL internet to the mobile community. Unlike cellphone companies’ versions mobile web, WiMax is a fully functional service that is as close to a high-speed internet provider as possible. As of right now, WiMax will be available through Sprint’s Xohm service…
ALSO, for any of you who aren’t familiar with the Nokia N810, it is a mobile web device that is almost like having a laptop the size of a cellphone. It packs all the features that you want out of the internet into a very small gadget.
The N810 has the capability to browse web pages, stream videos, access RSS feeds, listen to music through Rhapsody, video chat with a built in webcam, use Skype, and more.
The only thing that it isn’t is a cellphone.
Check out Nokia’s promotion they put on YouTube…
To my knowledge, no date has been released as to when WiMax will be available nation-wide, but metropolitan coverage will start soon this year.
FaceBreaker, what a name befitting of a boxing game, no? EA has not given us a whole lot of info to chew on in regards to their newest boxing title… But one thing we do know is that FaceBreaker will feature real-time facial deformation. Not only will you have fun beating up your opponent, but you will also be able to see the fruits of your labor “all up in his face”. I haven’t been able to round up much information for you, loyal viewers, but I did happen to come across a trailer for the game… enjoy!
Namco is in the process of completing their newest in the Soulcalibur series, Soulcalibur IV. From the information that has been released thus far, it seems to be shaping up nicely. The basic format of the game will stay true to the Soulcalibur series, and most of the veteran characters will make an appearance this time around as well. In addition to the characters Soulcalibur fans are acquainted with, Yoda and Darth Vader will be making special appearances with Yoda being featured on the Xbox 360, and Vader hittin’ up the Playstation 3. The game is still midway in development at this point, but as of now, Namco has set a release date of June 24, 2008. Be sure to check back as I will keep you posted with any updates as time goes on.
Grid takes you to tracks all around the world to race in many types of events. Unlike many of the racing games of today, GRID focuses more on the racing aspect than on customization and upgrading of the vehicles.
Gamespot.com got a hands-on preview of the game and had this to say:
Producers were quick to tell us that Grid won’t be about collecting cars or insane customization options. Instead, it seems, the developers have focused their efforts on creating a racing game that’s about…well, racing. Long-time TOCA players might remember the story-driven Pro Race Driver games on the Xbox; though you won’t be watching cutscenes starring grumpy Scottish pit chiefs, you will have a progression of sorts in Grid’s career mode. As expected, you’ll start off as a rookie driver looking to make a name for yourself. You won’t have much to start, aside from a meager garage and a handful of cars available to you. As you win races, you’ll build up cash you can use to purchase new cars for the next event.
Grid career events will be organized into three different regions–Europe, Asia, and North America–and each region will feature different tracks and different cars available to you. The European events will be the most straightforward, including traditional circuits such as Spa-Francorchamps and Le Mans Sarthe (in fact, at the end of each racing season, you’ll finish with a 24-minute long version of the annual Le Mans 24 Hour race). Asian events, inspired by the legal (and not-so-legal) street-racing scene, will feature Japanese domestics and activities such as downhill mountain racing and drift events. Finally, in North America, you can expect to take on some of the most powerful American-made muscle on courses modeled in real cities such as Washington D.C., San Francisco, Long Beach, and Detroit.
The career mode in Grid is nonlinear, so you’ll have some choices in deciding which events you want to enter. However, as you win races, your stock will rise as a driver (by earning both money and reputation, the latter of which will open up new licenses and new cars available for purchase). You’ll also be invited to more significant races, and will eventually move up to a role as a team owner, where you’ll have the ability to hire and fire drivers you’ve met along the way. Codemasters is also promising individual driver personalities that will combine things like ability, aggression, and driving style to create characters that will have their own approach to races. If you find a driver you like, you can hire him to your team and the two of you can work to win races together; but not all racers will be appropriate for the different types of race events in Grid, so you shouldn’t feel too sentimental when it’s time to give him the boot.
Dirt had damage modeling that could result in your car going belly-up if you drove it too roughly, and Grid looks to replicate that with extensive damage modeling that is more than cosmetic. Sure, your cars can dent and crunch during hard shunts, but if you incur too much damage, then you run the risk of damaging your car’s engine, tires, or other internal essentials. Yes, it’s possible to kill your car in the game; unfortunately, you won’t be able to head into the pits to repair an ailing car.
Then again, you might not need to, thanks to a new feature in the game known as flashback. At any point in a race, you’ll be able to rewind time back 10 seconds to attempt a section of track over again, simply by pausing the game and accessing the flashback feature in the menu. When watching the replay of the previous 10 seconds, you can then choose to jump back into the “live” race at any point with the press of a button. This is a pretty powerful feature, and as such Codemasters are currently looking at ways of balancing it with gameplay to prevent players from constantly using the feature to get perfect laps. Current ideas being tossed around include letting you use the feature only a certain number of times per race, or having the flashback feature negatively affect the amount of reputation points you can earn from a race.
From the looks of things, Grid is going to tread the line between simulation and arcade racing. For one thing, the powerful cars that make up the Grid vehicle roster (such as the Dodge Viper or the Ferrari F430, as well as prototype, GT1, and GT2 Le Mans-style sports cars, among many others) will be a handful for experienced and amateur drivers alike. That said, the game won’t feature any weather effects and, in a questionable decision, you won’t have any control over the setup of your cars. On the plus side, dealing with gear ratios and brake bias probably interests only the hardcore Grid contingent, and producers told us the cars will be properly set up for the event you’re running; on the other hand, that very same hardcore crowd (us included) is going to miss being able to have the flexibility that you’re afforded by car setups, especially when racing online.
Speaking of online racing, a maximum of 12 drivers will be able to battle it out online in any of the tracks found in the game. The region-tied events found in the career mode won’t be as restricted online, and you’ll be able to race nearly any car found in the game on any of the available tracks.
If Grid isn’t as visually striking as its off-road predecessor, it’s only because Dirt looked so darn good. That said, there appear to be some striking moments in Grid. The massive crowds in the game–up to 45,000 spectators on some tracks–help bring a sense of life to the races, and the game is still using the excellent lighting effects that gave Dirt such a unique look. The Milan circuit is especially notable, given that you’ll be zipping by an impressively rendered version of the Milan cathedral, and racing through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a shopping center of sorts, with a massive, arched ceiling lined with panes of glass. And, like Dirt, Grid will run at a respectable 30 frames per second.
Despite some questions about the direction (no setups? Come on…), we’re still anticipating the release of Grid later this year because, these days, serious racing games are the kind of thing to be savored when they do arrive. The game is due for release later this year, and we’ll be bringing you more information all the way up to launch.
Dirt is set to be released June 3rd for the Xbox 360, PS3, DS, and PC.
Digital Extremes’ long-awaited first person action game provides more combat, than a gripping storyline. For over three years we have been hearing about the production of Dark Sector for the next-gen consoles, and now that everything is all said-and-done, it doesn’t deliver in all areas.
In the game, you play as Hayden Tenno, a black-ops agent with a heavy arsenal. Dark Sector has been described as being great at what it is great at, and that is being an action game. The story is loose, and doesn’t seem to mesh well with the actual gameplay.
That being said, Dark Sector does offer great action throughout. Armed with your glaive, (akin to a metal boomerang), and whatever weapons you can afford to purchase, you get to enjoy miles of smiles hacking down your enemies. Though the game doesn’t require much thinking, there are a few small puzzles to deal with along the way. Most of those puzzles require the use of your glaive, which can be infused with different energies, e.g. fire, electricity, ice, and can be used to open electrically-controlled doors, or burn oil slicks.
The end-level bosses also come across as a little too weak for Hayden to handle. Not to say they are easy to defeat, but none of the have the strength to kill you with one hit, and on top of that, your health recovers very quickly.
All is not lost in Dark Sector. What it lacks in a plot, it makes up for in action that most players will appreciate. It may not be a perfect “10″, but like I said, Dark Sector is great at what it is great at… being an action game.
The third installment of the Fallout series will be released this year. Unlike the previous two games, numero 3 is being worked on by an entirely new studio, Bethesda Softworks.
Earlier today, Gamespot.com got a sneak peak at the game in production:
“Our updated tour of the game started with the very beginning–how you create your character by being born to your mother, Katherine, and your scientist father, James (voiced by actor Liam Neeson). Through a hazy first-person cinematic sequence from the perspective of the operating table, you can choose your character’s gender and name, as well as preview your character’s adult appearance by way of the vault’s computer system…then become dimly aware that something has gone terribly wrong with your mother during the childbirth.
You then jump forward a year later to the age of a toddler, where you use a basic movement tutorial to crawl out of your playpen and access the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. book–a book that lets you choose your character’s abilities by way of the classic attribute system from the Fallout games (strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck). You then jump ahead nine years to your 10th birthday, at which point you gain the ability to speak with other characters (such as the other children at your birthday party) and use the PipBoy 3000 portable wrist computer, which is given to you by the vault’s “overseer,” or head administrator. The PipBoy acts as a journal, status indicator, and quest log that will help you keep track of any tasks you need to perform. You’ll even get to take on a few rudimentary quests at your party or just watch the many-armed robot of the future, Mr. Handy, mangle your birthday cake with one of its buzz saw-arm extensions. Later, you’ll be whisked away to additional tutorial areas, such as a target range, where you can practice the game’s real-time first-person shooter combat.
We then skipped ahead to a few different areas in the main game, including a random encounter that all players will face. In a sprawling junkyard scene, two desert raiders have assaulted and killed a nameless man, leaving his feisty canine companion to fend for himself. The dog is none other than Fallout’s Dogmeat, the swift-moving, loyal, pugnacious pooch from the original 1997 game. After disposing of the raiders yourself, you can invite Dogmeat to join you, and from then on, although you can’t have any meaningful conversations with him or have him carry a ton of inventory, you can give him plenty of orders, such as having him go out to search for food, medicine, or even fallen weapons (if there are none nearby, Dogmeat will disappear for an hour or so of in-game time before returning). You can also praise or scold him–this won’t affect his morale or loyalty, though it will reflect whether your character is naughty or nice–but more on that later.
We then jumped ahead to a different sequence where we were explored a ruined tenement infested by feral ghouls. Those familiar with Fallout lore will remember that “ghoul” is just a term used to describe any human that has been exposed to such severe amounts of radiation as to become severely deformed physically, but feral ghouls have actually lost their minds and have become aggressive animals. Their deadlier brethren, “glowing feral ghouls,” have an unhealthy fluorescent green glow that sets off your PipBoy’s Geiger counter and eventually make your character extremely ill if you let them zap you with their radiation-based attacks. Feral ghouls are extremely swift and vicious, leaping at you with tremendous speed. We dealt with them primarily using real-time combat, using the old Fallout favorite 9mm submachine gun, which did a good job of inflicting lots of damage when fired in bursts. A few times, we watched as combat switched to the turn-based VATS mode, which lets you target various body parts on your enemies (as in the original Fallout games). In these cases, the final shots to our enemies were delivered in dramatic slow motion, sometimes even turning the ghouls’ limbs and skulls into bloody pulp (though we’re told that the infamous Bloody Mess perk, which causes everyone around you to die spectacularly, looks even more insane in practice).”
That’s just an excerpt of the entire article from Gamespot.com. Even though Fallout 3isn’t being created by the same studio as the original two, Bethesda is trying to keep true to the vision of the first in the series.
Fallout 3 will be released later on this year on all platforms excluding the Wii.
For anyone who doesn’t know what Playstation Home is all about, it is Sony’s new undertaking to create a virtual online communtiy through the Playstation 3 system. (Similar to Second Life, or the Sims).
The basic model of Playstation Home consists of the virtual world/ environment, along with “Homes” that represent an actual Playstation 3 owner. Each home is a visual representation of what the owner’s hard drive contains on their PS3. For example, if a person playing Home decides to invite someone into their virtual house, they can stream movies, music, photos, and video from the hard drive of the person’s PS3.
Also, you have the ability to chat with other players in real-time either through text, or the optional bluetooth headset.
Like many similar applications, you can completely customize your avatar from its physical features, to the clothes he/she will wear. The service itself is free, but through the PlayStation Store, you will be able to purchase additional content like new clothes and furniture, as well as being able to unlock extra content by playing PS3 games.
A virtual cinema similar to the Xbox Video Marketplace will also be available, where the user can stream Blu-Ray movies directly to their PS3. A fee will most likely be charged to download movies, but a pricing system has not yet been announced.
PS Home has been in development since 2005, and has been delayed and rescheduled many times. But, during the Tokyo Game Show in 2007, Sony announced its release Spring of ‘08. Sony has tried its hardest to use the PS3’s capabilities to create the most all-inclusive networking/social environment ever seen on a video game console.
What do you think? Is this a good idea from Sony? Will it take off and become as popular as some of the similar applications like Second Life and the Sims?
When Mafia 2’s production was announced, there was a lot of skepticism as to whether or not it would actually be released. Due to its close symmetry to the EA’s Godfather series, Mafia 2 had a good chance of being put on halt. 2K Games did in fact announce that Mafia 2 will continue as planned, being released for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS 3. As of now no release date has been set.
