Archive for December, 2005
Written by admin on 23 December 2005
It appears that Halo 3 may be closer to fruition than many have feared: despite Bungie’s refusal even to confirm that it is working on the next instalment of the blockbusting first-person shoot-em-up, stores in the US have begun displaying banners and furniture bearing the Halo 3 logo and the legends: "Coming 2006" and "Reserve yours today".
The news that US stores are taking pre-orders for Halo 3 will delight Xbox 360 owners hungry for blockbusting triple-A titles, and the game’s release will undoubtedly drive sales of Microsoft’s next-gen console, just as its predecessors shifted Xboxes. So it’s tactically important for MS to get Halo 3 out as early as possible.
However pre-order campaigns often begin very early to lure you into parting with your lucre and they’re no guarantee of a final release date at all. June the 1st has been bandied about as a launch date recently but US e-tailer GameStop, for example, have a provisional date of 03/10/06 (if we read those US date formats right) for Halo 3, but whether this is a true indication only time will tell.
Microsoft-owned developer Bungie has been uncharacteristically coy about Halo 3, but Bill Gates remarks suggesting that Halo 3 would launch concurrently against Sony’s PlayStation 3 is about as close as anyone’s got to naming an actual date.
For now, Xbox 360 owners will have to be content with playing Halo and Halo 2 for the original Xbox on their machines – the Xbox 360 can display both games in wide-screen at 720p resolution, with full-screen anti-aliasing. But with games like Gears of War also scheduled to arrive in 2006, things are looking rosy for Xbox 360-owning fps fans.
Source: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/front_index.php?
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Written by admin on 23 December 2005
Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence is now out in Japan, allowing gamers to, for the first time ever, go Online in the world of Metal Gear. But as producer Hideo Kojima suggests in an interview featured in the latest Famitsu, the Subsistence Online mode could be just the start of the true Metal Gear Online experience.
In the interview, Kojima reveals that the best developers over at Kojima Productions have been working on an Online Metal Gear Solid for some time, but could never find the opportunity to release their work. With the announcement of Subsistence, team members decided to put together all their work together and allow people to play it. They did this while believing that what they had achieved at that point wasn’t "ideal" as far as Online play is concerned.
The real fun apparently comes after people have played Subsistence. "We would like to make a more meaningful Metal Gear Online after hearing the opinions of people who’ve played the Online battles in Subsistence." Kojima comments. "Years from now, we’d like to realize this on the PlayStation 3, on the Xbox 360, or maybe on the PC."
Note that Kojima does not commit to a platform for this potential Online venture, nor is he necessarily referring to a specific game at the moment. However, his comments should at the very least suggest that the Online gameplay present in Subsistence — and based on what we’ve played, there’s quite a bit of it — is just a hint at what’s to come in the future.
Source: http://pc.ign.com/articles/678/678005p1.html
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Written by admin on 22 December 2005
Everyone knows the story of King Kong. The poor ape gets himself captured and brought to New York, only to fall from the top of the Empire State Building and get himself killed. Director Peter Jackson and game designer Michael Ancel had a little something different in mind for the game, though – what if Kong could live?
The film was a remake, so Jackson didn’t have much creative license, not an issue with the videogame. "I wanted the game to be able to take the audience a bit further than what the film could," he said. "And the final climax of the game gave us an opportunity to do something that the film could not do, which was to have an alternate ending – obviously everybody pretty much knows how King Kong ends."
Ancel and Jackson worked together on developing the alternate ending where Kong apppears again on Skull Island, which players an unlock for themselves by beating the game and then diving through old levels in order to rack up a total of 250,000 points, something publisher Ubisoft claims is "within reason" for most players, and certainly worth it for Kong fans.
All this Kong’s still alive business has kept many wondering if we’ll be seeing a sequel out of Ancel sometime down the line, but that’s probably dependent on how well the first one performs as we push through the holidays. We’ll know soon enough.
Source: http://www.gametab.com/news/448350/
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Written by admin on 22 December 2005
EA apparently came close to sealing another deal.
Back in June, 1UP reported on a change to Electronic Arts’ website proclaiming the publisher had acquired exclusive licensing rights to the NHL. EA told us "it was a mistake," but an extensive, well-researched report appearing on fansite EA Hockey tells a story different from the public relations line.
When 1UP talked to EA, they looked the report over, noted the website actually contacted them earlier in the week, but there was "nothing new from EA" in terms of the NHL license; they currently do not have exclusive domain, and wouldn’t confirm the information. "People can write about a lot of things," said EA senior manager of corporate communications Trudy Milly. "We have a good, long standing relationship [with the NHL and NHLPA]."
2K Sports (owned by Take-Two) representatives weren’t available for comment.
The report doesn’t paint EA in a poor light, and the writers appear to have done their homework. EA doesn’t have the exclusive rights to the NHL, but it’s no surprise they would be interested following the NFL situation. EA Hockey says the NHL Players’ Association had organized exclusive rights over videogames and trading cards with EA and Upper Deck respectively, and while the NHL approved the Upper Deck decision and cut their own deal, they took issue with the EA contract.
Leagues and players associations typically split the royalties on videogame contracts, but since EA and the NHLPA had already started separate negotiations, the league was being left out, which conflicted from their financial interests and reported upper brass interest in maintaining a license with Take-Two Interactive, who produced the NHL2K games.
The current dilemma reportedly left EA with a game of NHL players but no teams, and Take-Two the rights to every NHL team but no players. That wouldn’t have been beneficial to anyone involved, so a new contract was drawn up ensuring EA and Take-Two both have licenses, but the league and players’ association are apparently still butting heads.
The league believes competition is the right route. "I think choice is important," said Brian Jennings, group VP of consumer products marketing at NHL Enterprises. "We were not comfortable going with an exclusive model. We think having two highly motivated partners in this space, three with Sony, means more compelling games for our fans."
The players’ association, however, seems happy with their EA-only dealings. "To the extent you wanted to bring in third-party licensees like Take-Two, there would have to be adjustments made," said NHLPA executive director Ted Saskin. "It would only be in situations that made sense for EA and the players’ association and the category."
It does appear that the license will remain in the hands of both Take-Two and EA, but it’s interesting to see the reasoning behind exclusivity vs. free reign; the players’ association’s reasoning doesn’t appear to move past dollar signs.
Source: http://www.gametab.com/news/448517/
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