Monday, December 28, 2009
Magic World Online Celebrates Christmas
Magic World Online Celebrates Christmas
Christmas is drawing near. It is the holiday for people to receive
gifts and embrace the future. How would MWO miss the opportunity to
send out the surprise for the players? So MWO is goanna share the
happiness of the holiday with all the MWO players in the game!
MWO will open two new awesome maps named Execrative Sanctuary and Wailing Stronghold around Christmas. Players can get valuable and groovy Deva items and lvl 80 Skill Books from killing the bosses there.
MWO will open two new awesome maps named Execrative Sanctuary and Wailing Stronghold around Christmas. Players can get valuable and groovy Deva items and lvl 80 Skill Books from killing the bosses there.
Besides, another event called Naughty Christmas Pig sending you the Christmas Present will be hold from 2009-12-17 to 2010-1-7. Those little pigs possess Santa Claus Blessing and his stockings which contain many shiny and tempting materials that players can get by killing the Naughty Christmas Pigs.
What’s more, MWO will open Double EXP from 2009-12-24 to 2009-12-27 and from 2010-1-1 to 2010-1-3. It will be a great thruster for junior players to level up and senior players to go for the top level in game!
DiRT 2 Review
On the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, Dirt 2 is an off-road racing
game that's difficult to fault, but sadly, that's not the case on the
Wii. There are some great course designs, and there's definitely fun to
be had racing on them. That fun is short-lived, though, and the lack of
longevity combined with subpar visuals, choppy frame rates, and
inconsistent opponent AI make the Wii version of Dirt 2 difficult to
recommend.
In addition to split-screen support for up to four players, Dirt 2
offers three different modes for solo play. World Tour is a career mode
in which you start out as a clubman driver and progress up through the
amateur, pro-am, and professional racing ranks. Arcade mode lets you
race individual events and championships without the constraints of the
World Tour structure. Challenges are where Dirt 2 gets some much-needed
variety in the form of Last Man Standing, Powerslide, Airtime, and
Gatecrasher events. The problem is that none of these event types,
including the regular races, are very good.
Races in Dirt 2 involve only four drivers, and on the default difficulty setting, you can generally expect to be leading the field by the time you exit the second or third corner and then not give your opposition a second thought until the next race. That's because AI drivers, while occasionally very quick and aggressive, have a habit of slowing down for corners far more than necessary. They also seem oblivious to your existence at times, so if you make a mistake that affords them an opportunity to catch up, there's a good chance they'll crash straight into the back of you rather than make an intelligent attempt to overtake. Raising the difficulty level makes things a little more challenging, but switching up to the pro setting doesn't make your opposition significantly more formidable. Rather, the clubman, amateur, and pro settings merely determine how many driving aids are behind the scenes making your car easier to handle.
The best thing that can be said about the racing is that the course
designs offer some interesting and varied challenges. The UK track is
recognizable as a caricature of the twisting rallycross that graced
other versions of Dirt 2, but other locales, such as Japan and China,
feature very different layouts. There's also a hilly Iceland circuit
where you spend some time racing on snow and ice, which isn't radically
different from racing on sand but at least provides a change of
scenery. Unfortunately, no matter where you're racing, Dirt 2 is never
easy on the eyes. Cars and trucks all look good, and it's neat that
they get dirty as races progress. The same can't be said for the
environments that you're racing through, though, which can all be
described as either "ugly" or "uglier."
Getting through the World Tour mode should only take you three or four hours, and it's made easier by the fact that once you unlock the somewhat overpowered Mk II Ford Escort, you have the option to use it in every subsequent race--even those between buggies and trophy trucks. None of the World Tour races are so good that you're likely to revisit them in Arcade mode, so that just leaves Challenge mode. There are five different types of challenges, but only four of each in which to earn bronze, silver, or gold trophies. The weakest of these challenges are Trailblazer events, which are just time trials with target times to beat; and Last Man Standing races, which eliminate the last-place driver at the end of each lap until only one remains. Better than those are the Gatecrasher races, which force you to drive well so that you can pass through gates at required speeds; and Powerslide events, in which your score is based solely on how long you spend drifting. Airtime challenges that score you according to how much time you spend in the air after hitting ramps that are scattered all over the courses sound like fun on paper, but it's far too easy to attain gold scores for them in solo play.
Split-screen multiplayer support doesn't add much to Dirt 2. Your
opposition is more believable and some of the challenges are more fun,
but the visuals get even worse. And the sound effects--which are at
least inoffensive during solo play--crescendo into a confusing mess
when they're playing for three or four drivers simultaneously. The
dozen or so licensed songs on the soundtrack are a good fit at least.
When you add an infrequent but irritating bug that causes your car to
stop and respawn when you clearly haven't strayed out of bounds to this
already undesirable mix, you're left with a racing game that's
definitely best avoided.
Read More
Close, competitive racing like this doesn't last for long against the AI.
Races in Dirt 2 involve only four drivers, and on the default difficulty setting, you can generally expect to be leading the field by the time you exit the second or third corner and then not give your opposition a second thought until the next race. That's because AI drivers, while occasionally very quick and aggressive, have a habit of slowing down for corners far more than necessary. They also seem oblivious to your existence at times, so if you make a mistake that affords them an opportunity to catch up, there's a good chance they'll crash straight into the back of you rather than make an intelligent attempt to overtake. Raising the difficulty level makes things a little more challenging, but switching up to the pro setting doesn't make your opposition significantly more formidable. Rather, the clubman, amateur, and pro settings merely determine how many driving aids are behind the scenes making your car easier to handle.
London has rarely looked more depressing than it does during this race festival.
Getting through the World Tour mode should only take you three or four hours, and it's made easier by the fact that once you unlock the somewhat overpowered Mk II Ford Escort, you have the option to use it in every subsequent race--even those between buggies and trophy trucks. None of the World Tour races are so good that you're likely to revisit them in Arcade mode, so that just leaves Challenge mode. There are five different types of challenges, but only four of each in which to earn bronze, silver, or gold trophies. The weakest of these challenges are Trailblazer events, which are just time trials with target times to beat; and Last Man Standing races, which eliminate the last-place driver at the end of each lap until only one remains. Better than those are the Gatecrasher races, which force you to drive well so that you can pass through gates at required speeds; and Powerslide events, in which your score is based solely on how long you spend drifting. Airtime challenges that score you according to how much time you spend in the air after hitting ramps that are scattered all over the courses sound like fun on paper, but it's far too easy to attain gold scores for them in solo play.
It only takes a few hours to reach the pro stages of the World Tour mode.
Shippin' Out December 20-26: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Square Enix's Crystal Bearers for the Wii leads a light release slate including the retail launch of Guitar Hero: Van Halen.
'Twas the week before (and including) Christmas, and all through the
lands, not a game was releasing, except for a pair of big brands.
Tortured poetry aside, this week sees just two big retail releases:
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers for the Wii and
Guitar Hero: Van Halen on a handful of platforms.
Square Enix is intentionally releasing a game in the last week of the year. Is the publisher crazy or brilliant?
The release plans of this week's other title are almost as unconventional. Months ago, Square Enix chose the day after Christmas to launch its latest Wii installment in the Final Fantasy franchise. While other major games have launched in the last week of the year before (Dead or Alive 4 for the Xbox 360 released December 29, 2005), it's more common for that to happen by delay rather than by design.
Release dates are based on retailer listings and are subject to change.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 21
No new releases announced.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22
Guitar Hero: Van Halen--PS3, X360, Wii, PS2--Activision
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23
No new releases announced.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24
No new releases announced.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25
No new releases announced.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 26
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers--WII--Square Enix
Revenge of the Wounded Dragons Review
Revenge of the Wounded Dragons? More like Revenge of Double Dragon. Artificial Mind & Movement's new side-scrolling beat-'em-up is a love letter to the original kung-fu fighter from 1987, right down to the Karate Kid-style brother protagonists in cheesy red and blue fighting togs. And like all good mash notes, this one includes a little bit of creativity: the developers have added some platform jumping, minigames, and basic puzzles to all of the punching-people-out stuff. So even though this downloadable game may be aimed straight at your nostalgia gene, it mixes in enough innovation to hold your interest through the moments that your brain tells you that you've done all this before. And for just $10, that's a good deal.
Pipes, baseball bats, sacks of rice, fish--just about anything can be used as a weapon in Revenge of the Wounded Dragons.
The action is fast and furious, although brawling is on the simple side. You can kill most enemy goons with basic button-mashing punches, messing around only occasionally with kicking or ducking to wallop the heck out of the groins of guys who know how to protect their faces but not the more tender portions of their anatomy. While you can pull off combos, most are simple punch and kick variations that come up routinely in the course of button mashing. Scraps are just long enough to get your blood pumping without stretching into boring, please-die-soon territory. Controls are good and fluid for the most part, only feeling a touch stiff in spots when climbing ladders or leaping to grab ledges. The only minor irritation when punching it out is the lengthy pause when you get knocked down. This delay is long enough to allow baddies to get in close and then hammer you again as soon as you stagger to your feet, unless you immediately leap out of harm's way.
A few frills spice up the fisticuffs. Levels are littered with all sorts of cool ways to create mayhem, from the genre-standard baseball bats, knives, and shotguns, to more esoteric options like kendo sticks and sacks of rice. Basic attacks and power-ups also charge your chi bar, which can be used to activate a Dragon Rage freak-out that ups your speed and damage for a limited time. Stunned enemies can be finished off with special attacks, like the Iron Fist head-butt you can deliver to foes on the ground. Enemies don't vary much, aside from cosmetic changes to outfits, so you don't have to alter your tactics. Bad guys include fat slobs with cleavers and leaping karate masters in satin jumpsuits, but you can cut them down to size with some fast punching and kicking. Even the level bosses don't mix things up. Most are just bigger and tougher variations on the standard thugs, equipped with a goofy name and some sort of special weapon, like a chain or throwing knives. If you ever do get into a tough spot against a gang of thugs or a boss, you can usually grab a nearby weapon to help even the odds.
Gorgeous scenery can be found in every level.
Even better, the backdrop does more than just sit there like a painting. Much of it is interactive. Instead of just walking straight left to right across levels, you go up and down via ladders and various jumping challenges and puzzles, explore hidden areas, collect special items like golden statues, and even occasionally deal with 3D threats like a spiked log that swings out of the background at you. Minigames are also unlocked as you proceed through the story, allowing you to take on various challenges, like avoiding fire traps while jumping around to grab hanging green lanterns. With that said, there isn't anything revolutionary here. It's tough to finish some of the minigames once, even when going up against a friend, let alone contemplate going back for seconds. But the little platform concepts add up and do a great job of livening up the standard side-scrolling action.
If you are at a "been there, done that" stage with side-scrolling fighters, you don't want to bother with Revenge of the Wounded Dragons. But if you have even the tiniest bit of room in your life for a new game that seems a lot like an old friend all snazzied up for a night on the town, this is a good way to get reacquainted with the many fine points of the old-fashioned button-mash beatdown.
PSN gets MAG beta, Savage Moon PSP
PlayStation Store Update: Client arrives for online
shooter and portable tower defense title debuts as Sony slashes prices
on an array of downloadable titles.
This week's retail release list for Sony systems is embarrassingly
light, consisting entirely of Guitar Hero: Van Halen for the
PlayStation 3. However, the PlayStation maker is compensating with an
assortment of new releases and seasonal deals on its downloadable
storefront.
MAG is almost here.
PS3 owners looking for more immediate gratification have a number of new options at their disposal, starting with the fighting game Battle Fantasia from Arc System Works ($19.99). Although this marks the game's domestic debut for the PS3, Battle Fantasia was originally released on the Xbox 360 last year and on both platforms internationally.
The PlayStation Store is also adding the new PS3 block-based puzzler Polar Panic ($9.99) to its catalog, as well as a $19.99 PixelJunk bundle that includes the developer's first three games: PixelJunk Racers, PixelJunk Monsters, and PixelJunk Eden.
Sony is also padding out its selection of original PlayStation games with the 1997 port of the space combat game Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom. It turns out The Price of Freedom is $5.99, which buys a version of the game playable on the PS3, as well as the PSP, and features a cutscene-intensive storyline with live-action footage featuring the likes of Mark Hamill and Malcolm McDowell. The game's emphasis on video can be seen in its 2.25GB file size (nearly twice the size of Battle Fantasia).
Gamers on the go for the holidays can also check the PlayStation Store for new PSP releases, led by a portable edition of the tower defense game Savage Moon. The $9.99 download lets players protect a mining colony from vicious buglike creatures with the strategic placement of defenses. The PSP catalog is also bolstered by the arrival of Me & My Katamari ($19.99), Football Manager Handheld 2010 ($23.99), and Aedis Eclipse ($9.99).
Sony is also getting into the holiday spirit with price breaks throughout the PlayStation Store until January 7. Sega and Electronic Arts in particular have cut prices on many of their offerings, from add-on packs to full game downloads for both PS3 and PSP. A full list of the week's deals, new PlayStation Store content, including themes, wallpapers, demos, and add-on content is available on the official PlayStation Blog.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Green Day: Rock Band coming next year
For decades, music fans have asked who the next Beatles would be. When
it comes to the Rock Band franchise, the answer is Green Day. In a taped appearance on tonight's VGAs ceremony,
the members of Green Day announced that there will be an entire Rock
Band game dedicated to their music a la The Beatles: Rock Band.
Ironically, tonight's announcement was the second time the San
Francisco Bay Area band had revealed Green Day: Rock Band. Although
Harmonix and MTV Games wouldn't confirm the news at the time, Green Day
lead singer Billy Joe Armstrong told a radio station in June that a Rock Band dedicated to the group's music was due later in 2009. Armstrong was mistaken, but only about one thing; it is actually set for 2010.
When it arrives, Green Day: Rock Band will feature the band's music, "favorite venues," and on-stage imagery. A handful of gameplay clips accompanied the address, featuring virtual representations of the band performing "American Idiot" amid the familiar trapping of Rock Band's four-player interface.
Unlike The Beatles, Green Day's dedicated game won't mark its debut in rhythm games. Three of the band's songs from 21st Century Breakdown have already been added to the Rock Band downloadable catalog, and another three from the album are set to debut December 15.
[UPDATE] In a subsequent press release, MTV Games said Green Day: Rock Band was in development for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. The game's song list will be fully exportable, allowing its songs to be played in Rock Band and Rock Band 2.
Want to be an American Idiot?
When it arrives, Green Day: Rock Band will feature the band's music, "favorite venues," and on-stage imagery. A handful of gameplay clips accompanied the address, featuring virtual representations of the band performing "American Idiot" amid the familiar trapping of Rock Band's four-player interface.
Unlike The Beatles, Green Day's dedicated game won't mark its debut in rhythm games. Three of the band's songs from 21st Century Breakdown have already been added to the Rock Band downloadable catalog, and another three from the album are set to debut December 15.
[UPDATE] In a subsequent press release, MTV Games said Green Day: Rock Band was in development for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. The game's song list will be fully exportable, allowing its songs to be played in Rock Band and Rock Band 2.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker due May 25
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker due May 25
PSP installment in Konami and Hideo Kojima's stealth action series gets a North American release date, UK launch set for May 28.
Another piece of the puzzling Metal Gear Solid series plotline is about
to fall into place. Konami today announced that Metal Gear Solid: Peace
Walker is set to launch in North America on May 25, 2010. It will ship
three days later in the UK.
No matter where you go, there you are. And there, and there, and there.
One of the big new additions to Peace Walker is cooperative multiplayer action for up to four players. Gamers can pick from one of four Snakes, each with its own equipment and focus on stealth, combat, or a mix of the two.
Peace Walker also plays with the standard structure of past Metal Gear games. Players will be able to revisit previously completed missions, and Konami is borrowing a page from its recent Metroid-inspired Castlevania games to give them a reason to. Snake will earn new abilities as he progresses through the game, enabling him to reach secret areas from earlier levels on a repeat visit.
Take-Two shares lose 30%, analysts react
After the close of trading Thursday, Take-Two Interactive delayed Max Payne 3 by a few months and gave investors a grim outlook
on its current fiscal year. The effect in after-hours trading was
immediate, as shares in the publisher lost 21 percent of their value in
a matter of minutes. That was just the beginning, as shares of Take-Two
have continued sliding, down $3.34 (31 percent) at press time from
yesterday's closing price of $10.92.
One
difference between last night's trading and this morning's is that a
handful of industry analysts have now weighed in with their reactions
to Take-Two's negative announcements. While the response was mixed,
some industry watchers didn't bother mincing words.
Saying his confidence in Take-Two management "can not get any lower," Pacific Crest Securities Evan Wilson blasted the publisher's leadership for the 14th and 15th game delays since it took over in mid-2007 and for failing to make the company profitable without relying on Grand Theft Auto.
"We believe there are better ways to invest in video games via names that are not inextricably tied to a single franchise with a management team that has not established an investable track record," Wilson wrote.
Wilson acknowledged that delaying a game to make it better can be a preferable alternative to releasing an unfinished game on time but said if delays happen "to nearly every game released, structural problems likely exist at the company. Take-Two seems to remind investors every quarter that it falls into this category."
Janco Partners' Mike Hickey was similarly disappointed in Take-Two's announcement, retracting his previous "Buy" rating on the stock and placing it under review. He also expressed frustration at the publisher's reluctance to detail development expenses or reveal how many copies games would need to sell to achieve profitability.
"We are astonished at the level of disconnect between street expectations and management's guidance," Hickey said, "suggesting a profound misunderstanding of the company's profitability potential. Management credibility has been meaningfully compromised, in our view; although ultimate performance is product-centric, we remain alarmed provided the lack of clarity."
Not all analysts were so down on the company. Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter maintained his "Neutral" rating on the stock but saw a variety of factors the publisher could have working in its favor.
"With no profitability in sight, investors may again conclude that Take-Two is a 'one-hit wonder' with GTA and little else," Pachter said. "We disagree and think that the company has at least eight bona fide franchises, with the potential for 10 or 12. We perceive the problem to be an overly ambitious development schedule, with high expectations and high quality standards leading to inevitable delays."
He also expressed frustration with Take-Two's reluctance to detail its future plans for Grand Theft Auto but said the company could still succeed even with one new installment every three years. If Take-Two generated $3 earnings per share in years when proper Grand Theft Auto installments came out, Pachter said the publisher could easily weather off-years with $0.50 losses per share and still grow the business. (Take-Two's expectations for fiscal 2010 are between $0.40 and $0.60 losses per share.)
"Perhaps next year, things will be different."
Saying his confidence in Take-Two management "can not get any lower," Pacific Crest Securities Evan Wilson blasted the publisher's leadership for the 14th and 15th game delays since it took over in mid-2007 and for failing to make the company profitable without relying on Grand Theft Auto.
"We believe there are better ways to invest in video games via names that are not inextricably tied to a single franchise with a management team that has not established an investable track record," Wilson wrote.
Wilson acknowledged that delaying a game to make it better can be a preferable alternative to releasing an unfinished game on time but said if delays happen "to nearly every game released, structural problems likely exist at the company. Take-Two seems to remind investors every quarter that it falls into this category."
Janco Partners' Mike Hickey was similarly disappointed in Take-Two's announcement, retracting his previous "Buy" rating on the stock and placing it under review. He also expressed frustration at the publisher's reluctance to detail development expenses or reveal how many copies games would need to sell to achieve profitability.
"We are astonished at the level of disconnect between street expectations and management's guidance," Hickey said, "suggesting a profound misunderstanding of the company's profitability potential. Management credibility has been meaningfully compromised, in our view; although ultimate performance is product-centric, we remain alarmed provided the lack of clarity."
Not all analysts were so down on the company. Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter maintained his "Neutral" rating on the stock but saw a variety of factors the publisher could have working in its favor.
"With no profitability in sight, investors may again conclude that Take-Two is a 'one-hit wonder' with GTA and little else," Pachter said. "We disagree and think that the company has at least eight bona fide franchises, with the potential for 10 or 12. We perceive the problem to be an overly ambitious development schedule, with high expectations and high quality standards leading to inevitable delays."
He also expressed frustration with Take-Two's reluctance to detail its future plans for Grand Theft Auto but said the company could still succeed even with one new installment every three years. If Take-Two generated $3 earnings per share in years when proper Grand Theft Auto installments came out, Pachter said the publisher could easily weather off-years with $0.50 losses per share and still grow the business. (Take-Two's expectations for fiscal 2010 are between $0.40 and $0.60 losses per share.)
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Aion bans 16.000 accounts
Andrew Beegle, Community Manager for Aion has posted the following announcement:
Read More
As you probably noticed, we've completed a server wide reboot
without much notice on a day that we typically don't perform
maintenance. It's only fair that we keep you in the loop and make sure
you know what's going on. Over the last week we've been working on a
list, we've been checking it twice, and today we found out who was
naughty or nice. Ban Hammer Claus just came to town. When the servers
come back online, nearly 16,000 accounts will have been removed from
the game. If your account was banned, please read the following FAQ.
1. Why was I banned?
There could be many reasons your account was closed. If you
did not receive notification of your violation via e-mail please create
a support ticket and the violation will be explained to you. Please
note that if your account was closed for the use of 3rd party software
(botting) or participating in RMT (gold buying/selling) the evidence
for the account closure was gathered over several weeks. It may be
completely unrelated to what your character was doing right when your
account was closed.
2. … but I wasn’t botting, buying Kinah or spamming advertisements! I’m innocent!
Any action that modifies the client or automates the same way
a bot does could potentially flag an account as a violator. We do not
use one specific instance to “flag” an account for botting or RMT. We
use many instances to strengthen our conclusions. Please understand
that it is not what “you” have done on your account, but what the
account has done. If your account is shared, purchased, borrowed, or
power leveled, it could be the actions of anyone who’s ever used the
account.
3. I’m aware of all of the above, but I have never done any of it. Who do I contact?
To request a review, please create a support ticket.
We are taking a very hard stance on this issue and do have
sophisticated processes and procedures in place that help us keep
unwarranted banning to a minimum. If you believe you’ve been wrongfully
banned, you can email us at support@ncsoft.com,
and we will review your account. Our goal is to ensure our legitimate
players are having the best game experience possible. Please note that
you don’t need to submit multiple tickets, as we will review a specific
case only once. We obviously take these violations seriously, but also
want to make sure that legitimate players aren’t banned unnecessarily.
We'd like to reiterate that we've been listening to your
concerns. We've been constantly adding to our Customer Service and Game
Surveillance Unit. As we continue to move forward, you'll see more and
more of these efforts. Thanks for your patience everyone, and have fun
playing Aion!
It's always good to see companies taking cheating very serious!
It's always good to see companies taking cheating very serious!
4Story Runs Christmas Giveaway Event
Zemi Interactive Inc., a developer and
service provider of famous free to play MMO “4Story” has announced that
they will run a special Christmas iPod giveaway event from 1st Dec to
10th Jan 2010 from 41 days with an affiliated Webzine.
This special event welcomes all MMO lovers and iPods are rewarded
for 5 winners. Individuals that wish to participate must post an
article about 4Story fits at least one of the following categories
given, 4Story game review, game guide, media promotion and personal
stories. And this could be a fabulous opportunity to show off your
special strategies or knowledge about 4Story to MMO players in the
world. All the articles will be examined after the event and winners
will be announced on 20th of Jan 2010.
For more information, please visit the 4Story Official Website
Spot On: 15 years of Warcraft
The franchise reached global-phenomenon status on the back of World of Warcraft. The fantasy-themed game has defined--not to mention dominated--the MMORPG landscape since its launch five years ago this week. Now on its second expansion, WOW's global subscriber base stands at 11.5 million users as of Blizzard's last accounting, although it's run into trouble in one of its largest markets, being at the center of a cross-agency dispute inside the Chinese government.
The industry-tracking NPD Group pegs the MMORPG series' lifetime US retail sales at 8.59 million through July 2009. Indeed, all three games consistently rank in the top 10 of the NPD Group's monthly PC charts, with the tracking firm putting Wrath of the Lich King as the second best-selling desktop game for the first half of 2009. (Blizzard declined to offer total combined unit sales for WOW, Burning Crusade, and Wrath of the Lich King.)
Further, Wrath of the Lich King currently holds the record for fastest-selling PC game in history. Following its November 2008 launch, the game sold 2.8 million units worldwide within its first 24 hours on the market. Of course, Blizzard bested its own record with Lich King's opening performance, as the prior title holder was The Burning Crusade, which sold 2.4 million units on day-one in January 2007.
Beyond initial sales, WOW requires a membership fee of at most $15 a month. Blizzard also pulls in supplemental income from a host of game-related services, ranging from character name changes to the recently introduced in-game pets. All said, WOW drives the Irvine studio's contribution to parent company Activision Blizzard's top line beyond $100 million a month, according to the publisher's recent financial reports.
Rob Pardo
Rob Pardo, Blizzard's vice president of game design, didn't necessarily see the franchise blowing up the way it has upon the release of that first installment.
"I was working at Interplay Productions when it came out," Pardo told GameSpot. "Interplay was publishing the first Warcraft: Orcs and Humans for international back then. So I had the opportunity to play it, and it was pretty exciting, because I had already played Dune II so I think it was really cool to see a fantasy version of that…I definitely didn't imagine back then that Warcraft as a franchise would get as big as it would get."
Released in November 1994, the original Warcraft: Orcs and Humans was criticized for being uneven, with the end game dominated by the Orc Warlock unit and its ability to summon the disproportionately powerful Daemon. And while obliterating pathetic little human towns always has its advantages, the franchise didn't hit its stride until the following year, with the release of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.
"It was really Warcraft II that I thought really blew things open, because of [online multiplayer networking service Kali]," Pardo continued. "Ironically enough, too, it came out within the same month as Command & Conquer, so we had this huge new genre explode at the same time between C&C and Warcraft II…I definitely saw a lot of potential in the future of the RTS genre, and certainly Warcraft was a part of that."
Named one of GameSpot's Greatest Games of All Time, Warcraft II brought with it a finely tuned single-player campaign, replete with memorable cinematics and a host of quotable characters ("Zug zug," "Ready to serve," "I can see my house from here!" and so on). Defined primarily by the third-party application Kali, Warcraft II also featured a strong multiplayer component, where gamers could compete on their own maps as well as refine their strategies in myriad ways.
World of Warcraft's merry band of adventures numbers in excess of 11.5 million.
Warcraft II spawned an expansion, Beyond the Dark Portal, in 1996, but it wasn't until 2002 that Blizzard issued its much-anticipated follow-up, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Named GameSpot's PC Game of the Year in 2002, Warcraft III was the first installment in the franchise helmed by Pardo, having cut his teeth at Blizzard on the developer's acclaimed sci-fi RTS franchise Starcraft. Pardo noted that the franchise's pivotal step into the MMORPG realm came during Warcraft III development.
"After we finished Starcraft, we split into two development teams. One of the teams went off to make what would became Warcraft III, and the other team went to go make a game that survived a year, a year and a half before we decided it just wasn't going to turn into something that we thought would be Blizzard quality. And it was then that we started about what we wanted to do instead, and that's when the idea of World of Warcraft emerged."
"During Starcraft development, there was a whole host of us playing that were playing Ultima Online. There was a bunch of us that saw that being a fun genre…It was definitely during Warcraft III development that a lot of us started playing EverQuest…It was during that EverQuest era that we realized Ultima Online wasn't a fluke, and it was going to turn into a full-fledged genre. And we really saw what was amazing about that genre, and felt like we had an opportunity to do our own spin on it."
Pardo said that one moment that stood out to him was realizing each of the 30-odd avatars standing around at a crafting forge in Ultima Online were controlled by an actual person. These sentiments were affirmed when EverQuest came along and added a deeper connection between players, Pardo said. The game designer should know, considering he led one of the preeminent guilds in EverQuest--Legacy of Steel--during the early 2000s.
"The unfortunate thing about some of the games of that era is that you had to be a pretty hardcore player to get to that level of fun," Pardo continued. "But that fun was so deep and so satisfying that we really felt like, hey, if we can just broaden this out to a wider group of players, there really might be something magic here."
Jeff Kaplan
"It required a huge shift," Kaplan said. "You do a lot of things in an RTS for very different reasons than you would do things in an MMO. As it relates to story, if you look at the ending of the original Warcraft III, you've got the Humans, Orcs, and Night Elves all united to overcome Archimonde at the World Tree. That didn't work for the structure of the MMO at all, we knew that we wanted to have Horde and Alliance pitted against each other. We had to re-create the rift that went all the way to the original Orcs and Humans."
"It's also hard to deal with the psychology of the dev team," he continued. "We would often feel obliged to do things exactly how they were done in the RTS, which isn't always right for the gameplay of an MMO. An example is, we wanted to give an ability called Death Coil to warlocks, because we thought it was really fitting. In Warcraft III, Death Coil was a Death Knight-only ability, and not only did it do damage, but it healed. People had a rough time coming to terms with the fact that it was OK to make changes and do what was right for the gameplay of WOW, even if that somehow contradicted what people saw in Warcraft III."
However, having the RTS as a backdrop did more than create challenges, as explained by Pardo. "We were really aided by the fact that we had so much history in the Warcraft franchise," he said. "So we had all these storylines and worlds, and in a lot of ways, at least early on when we started developing the maps and the zones, there was so much to already start from."
"[Vice president of creative development] Chris Metzen had already done a lot of the lore for Warcraft III and before, so we had this big head start on talking about all the different areas, Stormwind or Lordaeron," Pardo continued. "And you can see it some extent in the game. If you look at the Eastern Kingdoms, in a lot of ways it is much more developed from just a lore and backstory standpoint than Kalimdor, and that's because Eastern Kingdoms really had three games plus expansion sets to really build it out, and Kalimdor was something new and fresh."
Cataclysm wasn't initially part of Blizzard's expansion slate.
"We planned it out extremely far in advance," he said. "To put it into perspective, Outland and Northrend and a lot of the ideas in Cataclysm were all part of the original shipping plan of the game…Every so often we'll have those moments from a project management and planning standpoint where we'll really go, well, what are we actually get in and where should we actually be at. But part of what gets us there is scoping the project out for years and years to come and always having an idea of where we want to go, and that's what lets us steer the ship and eventually get there."
Outland and Northrend eventually arrived as part of The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm is expected to arrive sometime next year. Oddly enough, Cataclysm itself wasn't on Blizzard's list when it first began thinking about expansions.
"When we finished the original game, we began work on expansions," Kaplan said. "We didn't just think of one expansion that we were going to work on. We said, 'What are a lot of expansions we want to make for this game,' because we want to have this big list that we can then narrow down and prioritize. Outland and Northrend were givens on that list…Cataclysm was an interesting departure from that, because it wasn't part of the original expansion plan that we had. It was something that evolved out of a lot of cool ideas forging together at once."
According to Pardo, Blizzard's initial expansion list also reflected a different release order than what gamers actually got. "As a matter of fact, when we launched WOW, we initially thought we were going to Lich King first," he said, noting that Outland and Northrend were givens on the expansion list.
This unpredictability, coupled with Blizzard's ability to be flexible with its direction, is also what led to the development of Cataclysm as a full expansion, he said. "When we shipped WOW, the whole idea of Cataclysm wasn't there at all. We certainly had the idea to do Deathwing, but the whole idea of Cataclysm came out of trying to determine what we thought was the right thing for the game next. We didn't foresee five years ago breaking the world up was it."
WOW will continue "for as long as the Internet is up."
Of course, keeping WOW around forever means that Blizzard will soon have two separate MMORPGs in its portfolio. In May, Blizzard confirmed that the new MMORPG would be part of a "brand-new franchise," one different enough from WOW that the two wouldn't compete. Both Pardo and Kaplan believe that the company has learned plenty of lessons from WOW, ones that bode well for the new MMORPG.
"Probably the biggest [lesson] I'd say is all the different systems in WOW that do not very easily let you play with the people you want to play with," said Pardo. "They are all things that have very good gameplay reasons why they exist, but they really prevent people from playing with who they want, when they want. And that's something we're thinking very deeply about all the time with new MMO. And not to say we're going to solve them all across the board, but we're definitely thinking about them a lot."
"There's a lot of people working on the new game who have also worked on World of Warcraft," Kaplan added. "So there's a lot of talented individuals from a technology standpoint, from a process standpoint, how to build a game like this, how to position ourselves for a stable launch after going through the experience of the original WOW launch. And then there's also a lot of thing that are hard to narrow in on, more in this cloud of general design philosophy, of understanding what players want and the different player types."
Warcraft for the next 10 millennia
With the Warcraft franchise now firmly grounded in the MMORPG scene, some longtime fans of the series are wondering whether it will ever return to its RTS roots. According to Pardo, Blizzard does not consider itself locked into the MMORPG genre with Warcraft.
"We have a very different view with our franchises," Pardo said. "With Warcraft, we started trying to deviate out of that, back in the Warcraft Adventures days. I think it was around that time period that we started seeing these as intellectual properties. They are worlds, they are franchises, they are not specific to a game or even a game genre for that matter. If we had unlimited Blizzard teams to draw upon, I think [Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo] could support all kinds of different game genres within them."
Pardo also believes that, just as the company will soon have multiple MMORPGs, it wouldn't present a problem to have real-time strategy efforts like Starcraft II and Warcraft IV--were it to be made--in the company's portfolio. The secret lies in differentiating the games enough from one another to create different play experiences.
"When we started developing Warcraft III, we were very strategically deviating from what we had done before," he said. "We wanted to try to come up with an RTS game that had a little bit more of an RPG feel to it, a game that relied more on micromanagement than macromanagement, really had more of a focus on smaller numbers of units. These were all very specific decisions that we made, and even when we were making them, we knew that when we came back to the Starcraft franchise, we were going to go back more to the old style of faster paced games."
"And that's not because we thought Warcraft III was wrong," he continued. "It was because we were deviating the RTS genre into almost subgenres, at least within Blizzard. If we ever did go back and decide to do, let's say, a Warcraft IV, I would guess we'd probably go back toward the Warcraft III model, or more toward the hero model, rather than continue to follow down the Starcraft II way."
Pardo also noted that the things preventing Warcraft IV to be made is the time, resources, and passion to execute. "Let's say when the Starcraft II team finishes up, they decide that they wanted to make [canceled action spin-off] Starcraft: Ghost. We'd probably be supportive of that," he said. "If they decide they want to make Warcraft IV, we'd be supportive of that. Something new? That'd be fine, too."
The Lich King has been named as one possible star of the forthcoming Warcraft film.
"If we ever made a World of Warcraft II, Warcraft IV, or, I don't know, Warcraft Legends, I can see us doing all kinds of interesting things," he said. "Again, if the right idea was out there, I could totally see us jumping around the timeline if we thought that was right. Let's just say we decided to make an, I don't know, Dragon Age/Mass Effect-style RPG, but we wanted to tell the story back around the time of Medivh. We certainly could do that if there was passion around that and was exciting. Whether or not I foresee that, it kind of falls back in that bucket of "really cool idea." We'd need a team that was really passionate about doing it."
For Pardo personally, the events surrounding the opening of the Dark Portal are a particularly compelling event in the Warcraft continuum. "If you think of that seminal moment around the Warcraft franchise, it's really that opening of the Dark Portal, right?" he said. "That's the event that probably defines our universe more than other fantasy universe, that moment where the two worlds collided, because that's really what started making Warcraft, Warcraft. So I think that's a really interesting time period. A lot of the exploration of the prehistory of the Night Elves and the time period of Illidan and Tyrande and Malfurion, I think that's a really interesting time period, but there are a lot of interesting ones."
Regardless of where the Warcraft franchise goes, the future remains promising. In July, Blizzard announced that it would be extending the Warcraft franchise to the silver screen, signing on Spider-Man helmer Sam Raimi to direct and Saving Private Ryan scribe Robert Rodat to write the screenplay. While details on the film have yet to emerge, rumors indicate that the plot may adhere closely to WOW's Wrath of the Lich King expansion, chronicling the life and times of Arthas Menethil, better known as one half of the demonic Lich King.
And, of course, the lights will remain on for some time to come in World of Warcraft.
"It would be kind of the worst thing ever if we weren't working on it five years from now, because it would mean that we had done something horribly wrong or we didn't achieve our goals," Kaplan said. "I'm hopeful that we'll be having this conversation another five years or 10 years from now."
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Red Dead Redemption mounts up in April
When Rockstar San Diego's Red Dead Redemption rides out next year, it will do so with a posse. Though it was initially scheduled for release this fall, Take-Two said in May that the game would join 2K Czech's Mafia II in 2010. In September, Take-Two added BioShock 2 and Max Payne 3 to that list, saying all four games would arrive during the first half of the calendar year.
Explosions were how the West was won.
Billed as a follow-up to Revolver, Redemption takes place several years after the events in the original, closer to the turn of the century. Central to the events is John Marston, a former outlaw caught up in the uncertain times created by the industrial age encroaching on the American frontier.
Red Dead Redemption will be powered by Rockstar's proprietary RAGE engine, better known as the game tool behind Grand Theft Auto IV. Like its top-rated sibling, Redemption offers an open-world environment in which players can explore the vast regions of the West, from rolling grasslands to frontier towns. The game will also feature its fair share of action, including both mano-a-mano gunfights and larger battles.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Final Fantasy XIII due March 9
Square Enix's latest J-RPG headed to North America and Europe in early
2010, Leona Lewis' "My Hands" named as theme song; new trailer inside.
apanese gamers have known since early September that they'd be able to wade into Square Enix's highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII on December 17. However, Square Enix has continued to string along North American and European gamers, saying only that the game would debut on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the West, hopefully, within three months of the game's Japanese debut, sometime in spring 2010.
Today, Square Enix ended the mystery, announcing that Final Fantasy
XIII will be available in North America and Europe on March 9. The
publisher also said today that "My Hands" from Leona Lewis' upcoming album Echo has been chosen as the game's theme song.
Final Fantasy XIII was announced for the PlayStation 3 alone alongside Final Fantasy Versus XIII as part of the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo. However, Square Enix caused a stir at E3 2008 when it announced during Microsoft's press conference that the Japanese role-playing game would arrive in tandem on the Xbox 360. All said, Square Enix expects Final Fantasy XIII to shift some 6 million units worldwide across the two platforms.
Set in the futuristic city of Cocoon, Final Fantasy XIII follows the plight of female protagonist Lightning, as well as myriad supporting characters. Though Square Enix has released limited information about the game's plot, it will apparently see Lightning and her cohorts fighting against their "destiny" to destroy a separate locale known as "Pulse," and the denizens of that place.
Read More
apanese gamers have known since early September that they'd be able to wade into Square Enix's highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII on December 17. However, Square Enix has continued to string along North American and European gamers, saying only that the game would debut on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in the West, hopefully, within three months of the game's Japanese debut, sometime in spring 2010.
Lightning is about ready to strike.
Final Fantasy XIII was announced for the PlayStation 3 alone alongside Final Fantasy Versus XIII as part of the 2006 Electronic Entertainment Expo. However, Square Enix caused a stir at E3 2008 when it announced during Microsoft's press conference that the Japanese role-playing game would arrive in tandem on the Xbox 360. All said, Square Enix expects Final Fantasy XIII to shift some 6 million units worldwide across the two platforms.
Set in the futuristic city of Cocoon, Final Fantasy XIII follows the plight of female protagonist Lightning, as well as myriad supporting characters. Though Square Enix has released limited information about the game's plot, it will apparently see Lightning and her cohorts fighting against their "destiny" to destroy a separate locale known as "Pulse," and the denizens of that place.
Final Fantasy XIII Announcement Trailer
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Star Trek D-A-C Review
Just when it seemed the Star Trek franchise was dead, J.J. Abrams
came along and revived it with a movie that could almost be described
as anti-Star Trek. Great, yes, but certainly far removed from the
thinking man's Trek of the past few decades. So maybe it makes sense
that the videogame based off the film would also be very different from
past Trek offerings. Star Trek D-A-C
(that's Deathmatch, Assault, and Conquest) is a fast-paced top-down
shooter. Top-down space combat games aren't new for Star Trek, but in
the past they focused heavily on strategy. This latest is more popcorn
fare -- fun, but lacking depth.
Star Trek D-A-C was released on Xbox Live Arcade way back in May around the same time the new movie was released. That version received a 6.1 from IGN: there was some light multiplayer fun to be had but the lack of any single-player experience really hurt it. Publisher Paramount and developer Naked Sky listened to feedback from critics and players and, thankfully, made some nice additions for the PlayStation Network and PC release. The biggest bonus is definitely the new Survival mode, which is an arcade challenge for one player with similarities to Geometry Wars. This, in addition to a few other tweaks, makes Star Trek D-A-C much easier to recommend, although it's still not a great game.
Survival
sends wave after wave of enemy ships at you and your sole goal is to
last as long as you can with three lives. Like many arcade games, you
can earn extra lives by reaching score milestones. Unlike other modes
in Star Trek D-A-C, here you don't get an escape pod and you don't get
to switch ships when you die. Since ships have different controls and
weapons the Survival leaderboards will be divided by vessels. Like
Geometry Wars there are score multipliers floating around in space
you'll want to pick up. A couple new Romulan ships are seen exclusively
in this mode: ramming drones and pirates.
There are three multiplayer skirmish modes offered (those in the title) and a choice of five ship classes. Originally players could pilot a fighter, bomber, or flagship, but here two new vessels have been added: the missile cruiser and the support frigate. The missile cruiser is a slow, medium-sized ship with a long range. It is the only vessel that can fire off screen. The support frigate is more of a defensive ship that can heal friendlies. These new crafts are available for both the Federation and the Romulans.
Each ship has its own stats for speed, durability and firepower, and each has its own main weapon. Don't stress about which to choose, because once you die (and you will die) you can select a different class of ship. Littered across the universe are weapon upgrades which increase the power of your ship's guns. Grabbing these is a major key to taking out your enemies. Also cluttering space is a variety of power-ups including a cloaking device, a short-range smart bomb and the homing torpedoes.
You play either as the Federation or the Romulans but aside from the look of their ships each plays nearly identically. In the first release both sides had the same power-ups, but now three new ones have been added -- two for the Romulans and one for the Federation. This helps, but it would still be nice to see more differences between the two sides, even if it were just in the statistics of the ships. The side you choose should have more meaning.
Read More
Star Trek D-A-C was released on Xbox Live Arcade way back in May around the same time the new movie was released. That version received a 6.1 from IGN: there was some light multiplayer fun to be had but the lack of any single-player experience really hurt it. Publisher Paramount and developer Naked Sky listened to feedback from critics and players and, thankfully, made some nice additions for the PlayStation Network and PC release. The biggest bonus is definitely the new Survival mode, which is an arcade challenge for one player with similarities to Geometry Wars. This, in addition to a few other tweaks, makes Star Trek D-A-C much easier to recommend, although it's still not a great game.
There are three multiplayer skirmish modes offered (those in the title) and a choice of five ship classes. Originally players could pilot a fighter, bomber, or flagship, but here two new vessels have been added: the missile cruiser and the support frigate. The missile cruiser is a slow, medium-sized ship with a long range. It is the only vessel that can fire off screen. The support frigate is more of a defensive ship that can heal friendlies. These new crafts are available for both the Federation and the Romulans.
Each ship has its own stats for speed, durability and firepower, and each has its own main weapon. Don't stress about which to choose, because once you die (and you will die) you can select a different class of ship. Littered across the universe are weapon upgrades which increase the power of your ship's guns. Grabbing these is a major key to taking out your enemies. Also cluttering space is a variety of power-ups including a cloaking device, a short-range smart bomb and the homing torpedoes.
You play either as the Federation or the Romulans but aside from the look of their ships each plays nearly identically. In the first release both sides had the same power-ups, but now three new ones have been added -- two for the Romulans and one for the Federation. This helps, but it would still be nice to see more differences between the two sides, even if it were just in the statistics of the ships. The side you choose should have more meaning.
Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 Review
Clash of Ninja Revolution 3, developed by the same studio working on the anticipated Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, is an easy-to-learn, traditional fighter that takes place during the Naruto Shippuden timeline. Although the game has a fairly straight-forward interface and doesn't require a lot of advanced directional inputs, there's still plenty of depth to be found and competitive players will really enjoy what Revolution 3 has to offer.
Players can select from a huge roster of recognizable characters, both heroes and villains alike, though the majority of them are locked from the start and must be purchased at the in-game shop with Revolution 3's currency. This cash can be earned just by participating in battles, so players should have no problem pulling the curtain back on extra fighters, modes, stages and more.
When players jump into a match, they'll discover that each fighter has a weak attack, strong attack, generic flip throw (and occasionally a character-specific throw) and a powerful jutsu attack -- also known as a "Secret Technique." Characters can also perform evasive rolls into the foreground and background of the arena. When it comes to executing special attacks, players need only pair an attack button with a single direction in order to throw kunai, teleport around the stage and much, much more. Some of these techniques require Chakra from a character's Chakra gauge, which is positioned directly underneath the health gauge.
If you couldn't already tell, Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 is best played with a Classic Controller or a GameCube controller. Although using a Wii remote and nunchuk does technically work, it's so awkward and uncomfortable I couldn't imagine any serious fighting game fan using it. The same holds true for the motion controls, which can be used to perform weak attacks with a vigorous waggle of the Wii remote.
When equipped with the right kind of controller and after a bit of practice, players will soon see why Revolution 3 is such a deep game. Although special moves are easy to pull off, similar to fighting franchises like Tekken and Smash Bros., Revolution 3 is all about excellent timing and anticipating your opponent's next move. Attempting to balance blocking with substitution jutsus, proper wake-ups and more make Revolution 3 much more than a button-masher. Players that rely too heavily on repetitive combos will soon find themselves fighting empty space while their opponent appears behind them for a devastating counter.
With every fighter behaving very differently in the ring (including some truly bizarre characters -- like Granny Chiyo -- who must be controlled along with her two independent puppets), Revolution 3 is a blast to learn. There's even more layers to the fighting mechanics when you introduce tag team combat, which pits a squad of two ninja against an opposing squad. In this battle type, players can not only call in their partner temporarily for a quick support attack (Marvel vs. Capcom 2 style), but they can also swap out fighters mid-combo to create some truly devastating strings. I already thought Revolution 3 was deep enough to be a legitimate fighter when dealing with one-on-one matches, but the possibilities for tag team battles are mind-boggling. Some characters even have special team Secret Techniques that can only be activated when both fighters' Chakra gauges are filled up.
The developers worked hard at making Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 as balanced as possible, even by inviting tournament-level players to play test it and examine the battle system for possible issues. I say that the hard work has paid off, as this appears to be a very balanced game, especially in comparison to the previous Clash of Ninja games.
It's tradition for me to include a picture of Sakura in Naruto game reviews. So there.
Players will thoroughly enjoy the local multiplayer offered in Revolution 3, but I have my concerns with the online functionality. As welcome as online battles are in a Wii game, Revolution 3 is not without its fair share of lag. Although Revolution 3 was certainly playable, there were enough hiccups to deter me from playing further. I couldn't see hardcore players taking this mode seriously, because it just isn't conducive to highly competitive matches.
The only other notable blemish on Revolution 3's otherwise pristine surface is the Story mode. Screw Story mode. Never in my life have I seen a fighting game throw such unbalanced matches at the player. It's as if the entire mode was designed to frustrate you, and I just can't tolerate that. Pitting you (by yourself) against two more powerful characters that work in a tag team -- where they can recover their health when they're tagged out -- is just one of the many instances where I questioned the design of these challenges. These absurd battles culminate in a virtually impossible boss fight where your opponent is an abnormally powerful version of one of the characters, and doesn't follow the fundamental rules that the game is built on. It's maddening.
Fortunately, players are under no obligation to play through the Store mode, because you can unlock most everything else just by buying it in the shop.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Prince of Persia film could generate $2.7 billion-plus - Ubisoft
Earlier this month, Disney spooled out the first trailer for Jerry Bruckheimer's latest big-budget blockbuster, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
The film has an estimated $150 million budget and features visual
effects to rival Bruckheimer's previous highly lucrative collaboration
with Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot believes Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time's visual impression won't be the only thing to rival Pirates of the Caribbean. Speaking at the BMO Capital Markets
17th Annual Digital Entertainment Conference today, Guillemot said that
the Jake Gyllenhaal-led action film franchise could be more lucrative
than Disney's Pirates trilogy.
"What we hear is that it could be maybe stronger than Pirates, which did $2.7 billion dollars," Guillemot said as part of his presentation to analysts and investors. "I think this will really help our brand to become a major brand in this industry." Directed by Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Donnie Brasco), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is due out on May 28 in the US and May 27 in the UK.
The statement appears to indicate that the Prince of Persia film franchise will continue after The Sands of Time. The first film, which is cowritten by series creator Jordan Mechner, appears as if it will follow the events of Ubisoft's game of the same name fairly closely. As indicated in the trailer (below), it centers on the Prince's acquisition of a magical dagger, which can be used to alter time. Before Ubisoft rebooted the franchise with 2008's Prince of Persia, the Sands of Time game trilogy continued with 2004's Warrior Within and 2005's The Two Thrones.
With Assassin's Creed II due out next week, Guillemot also addressed Ubisoft's new approach to developing its numerous created franchises. According to the French executive, Ubisoft intends to channel the same amount of resources into its other franchises as it has into Assassin's Creed II and the oft-delayed Splinter Cell: Conviction, which is due for the Xbox 360 and PC on February 23.
"We've decided to invest more on each of our franchises," he said. "It started with Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell. We did put more energy, more people to create master products. We think that will help those games become big events when they come. All the 10 brands that we have will have more emphasis. We will release less new brands, but more emphasis on the brands that we've already created."
Notably, Assassin's Creed II producer Sebastien Puel said in May that more than 450 people are at work on Assassin's Creed II, with 75 percent of the original team having returned to work on the sequel. Putting that figure into context, Puel went on to note that the Assassin's Creed II team "is about three times the size of the team of the first game."
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That Jake Gyllenhaal is going places.
"What we hear is that it could be maybe stronger than Pirates, which did $2.7 billion dollars," Guillemot said as part of his presentation to analysts and investors. "I think this will really help our brand to become a major brand in this industry." Directed by Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Donnie Brasco), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is due out on May 28 in the US and May 27 in the UK.
The statement appears to indicate that the Prince of Persia film franchise will continue after The Sands of Time. The first film, which is cowritten by series creator Jordan Mechner, appears as if it will follow the events of Ubisoft's game of the same name fairly closely. As indicated in the trailer (below), it centers on the Prince's acquisition of a magical dagger, which can be used to alter time. Before Ubisoft rebooted the franchise with 2008's Prince of Persia, the Sands of Time game trilogy continued with 2004's Warrior Within and 2005's The Two Thrones.
With Assassin's Creed II due out next week, Guillemot also addressed Ubisoft's new approach to developing its numerous created franchises. According to the French executive, Ubisoft intends to channel the same amount of resources into its other franchises as it has into Assassin's Creed II and the oft-delayed Splinter Cell: Conviction, which is due for the Xbox 360 and PC on February 23.
"We've decided to invest more on each of our franchises," he said. "It started with Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell. We did put more energy, more people to create master products. We think that will help those games become big events when they come. All the 10 brands that we have will have more emphasis. We will release less new brands, but more emphasis on the brands that we've already created."
Notably, Assassin's Creed II producer Sebastien Puel said in May that more than 450 people are at work on Assassin's Creed II, with 75 percent of the original team having returned to work on the sequel. Putting that figure into context, Puel went on to note that the Assassin's Creed II team "is about three times the size of the team of the first game."
Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight
Welcome back, Commander!
Command & Conquer 4 allows C&C fans to finally experience the epic conclusion to one of gaming's most beloved and longest-running series, the 15-year Tiberium saga. Kane. GDI. Nod. Tiberium. How will it end? Find out in Command & Conquer 4, told through persistent player progression, trademark live-action cinematics, and a multitude of innovations to the classic fast and fluid Command & Conquer gameplay.
Now is your opportunity to be a part to the development of Command & Conquer 4 by participating in this exclusive Beta program! Choose your class and command more units than EVER in a C&C game, as you team up and take on your opponents in 5-on-5 online battles! Strategize with your teammates or talk smack to your opponents over VOIP in fast, fun, and furious C&C action. We want to hear your feedback to help us deliver the C&C experience that you want when the game ships in 2010!
Features of Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight
The Epic Conclusion to the Tiberium Saga - Kane returns in the thrilling conclusion to one of gaming's longest running storylines, told through gritty live-action cinematics. Choose to take on the campaign solo or team up with a friend and play cooperatively!
Persistent Player Progression - The more enemy units you destroy, the more experience points you earn to level up your player profile! Play to unlock new units, powers, and upgrades to make your army unstoppable!
Always on the Move - For the first time ever in the C&C series: a massive, mobile, all-in-one base, The Crawler, lets you pack up and move your base with your army for a new layer of strategic depth. Build units as you move across the field, and deploy whenever and wherever you choose!
Choose Your Class - Choose from three unique classes from both GDI and Nod, each with its own specialized units and powers, for more strategic and combative options that match your play style of choice! Offense, Defense, or Support classes-which will you pick?
Team Up and Take the Battle Online - Join your fellow commanders online and tackle your opponents in the biggest C&C multiplayer to date, featuring 5 vs 5 battles! Choose your favorite class and take online strategy action to the next level as you conquer objectives while pummeling your enemies. The all-new party system lets you move with your party of friends from one online battle to the next.
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Command & Conquer 4 allows C&C fans to finally experience the epic conclusion to one of gaming's most beloved and longest-running series, the 15-year Tiberium saga. Kane. GDI. Nod. Tiberium. How will it end? Find out in Command & Conquer 4, told through persistent player progression, trademark live-action cinematics, and a multitude of innovations to the classic fast and fluid Command & Conquer gameplay.
Now is your opportunity to be a part to the development of Command & Conquer 4 by participating in this exclusive Beta program! Choose your class and command more units than EVER in a C&C game, as you team up and take on your opponents in 5-on-5 online battles! Strategize with your teammates or talk smack to your opponents over VOIP in fast, fun, and furious C&C action. We want to hear your feedback to help us deliver the C&C experience that you want when the game ships in 2010!
Features of Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight
The Epic Conclusion to the Tiberium Saga - Kane returns in the thrilling conclusion to one of gaming's longest running storylines, told through gritty live-action cinematics. Choose to take on the campaign solo or team up with a friend and play cooperatively!
Persistent Player Progression - The more enemy units you destroy, the more experience points you earn to level up your player profile! Play to unlock new units, powers, and upgrades to make your army unstoppable!
Always on the Move - For the first time ever in the C&C series: a massive, mobile, all-in-one base, The Crawler, lets you pack up and move your base with your army for a new layer of strategic depth. Build units as you move across the field, and deploy whenever and wherever you choose!
Choose Your Class - Choose from three unique classes from both GDI and Nod, each with its own specialized units and powers, for more strategic and combative options that match your play style of choice! Offense, Defense, or Support classes-which will you pick?
Team Up and Take the Battle Online - Join your fellow commanders online and tackle your opponents in the biggest C&C multiplayer to date, featuring 5 vs 5 battles! Choose your favorite class and take online strategy action to the next level as you conquer objectives while pummeling your enemies. The all-new party system lets you move with your party of friends from one online battle to the next.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Modern Warfare 2 street date in 'select markets,' Activision disapproves
Retailer says competition forced it to begin selling
new Call of Duty; top third-party publisher retorts that it has "not
given any retailer permission" to sell game early.
As is often the case, the street date of a major game was broken a few
days before its official release. Over the weekend, game blog Kotaku
received word that several retailers in the Northeast and Midwest
United States had begun selling Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. However, unlike most preemptive sales, which typically happen at non-specialty stores, apparently the game was being sold under a corporate directive by the country's top game-only retailer--GameStop.GameStop's vice president of corporate communications Chris Olviera offered the following statement:
"This past weekend, GameStop made the decision to sell reserved copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in select markets where other retailers had broken street date. Our decision followed many conversations with Activision and was an effort to protect our customer base. Today we are focusing on the launch of the title in 4,200 of our US locations and the New York City launch celebration that we are cohosting with Activision [and] Microsoft."
There may be some behind-the-scenes awkwardness at Modern Warfare 2's New York City launch, since Activision apparently ended those conversations by voicing its disapproval. "Activision has not given any retailer permission to sell Modern Warfare 2 prior to the Nov. 10 street date," a spokesperson told "The company fully supports the November 10 street date."
Check back later in the week for Esports full review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The M-for-Mature-rated game is being released for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, with the latter version also coming bundled with a 250GB limited-edition console from Microsoft. Modern Warfare 2 launch center has more information on the military shooter.
Want to download game click here its free demo
Monday, November 9, 2009
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