According to an article on Swedish game site Press2Play, we should “forget dreams of Mirror’s Edge 2.” The report, which was originally published in December, claims that a prototype for Mirror’s Edge 2 was declined by EA, and that the project has been “stopped.”
According to the report, Patrick Soderlund, EA’s man in charge of driving and shooting games, “seems to have Mirror’s Edge near his heart” but also admits that “Mirror’s Edge didn’t match up to their expectations regarding sales.”
Given this Press2Play story, Gibeau’s comments, and that we haven’t heard much in support of Mirror’s Edge 2 except from Soderlund, we’ve just about completely lost faith in the possibility of a sequel (Ha!). DICE is surely focusing the bulk of its resources on Battlefield 3, anyway.
Wolverine. Ryu. Scorpion. Terry Bogard. Never before have these giants of the fighting game genre met in the one title before, but in Pixel Force: Head 2 Head, come together they shall. To kick ass.
Head 2 Head is the latest project from Eric Ruth, the guy behind the 8-bit renditions of Halo and Left 4 Dead. Billed at his first attempt at something other than a “demake”, the idea is to throw 30 characters from 10 classic fighting game series together in a single game, featuring the tag team mechanics made famous by games like Marvel vs Capcom.
As with his other works, it’ll be a free download for the PC when completed!
In first-person shooter Killzone 3, the Helghast are the gas-mask wearing baddies. Cloaked in black and with glowing eyes, you wouldn’t want to meet one on the street. And in Munich, Germany, you won’t.
To help promote Killzone 3 in the German city, a Helghast cosplayer roamed the streets, complete with mask, helmet and phony gun. Cops tend to notice crap like a guy draped in black, carrying what looks like a firearm.
So the Munich police approach the Helghast cosplayer, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Ultimately, the officers asked the cosplayer to remove his mask and lay down his plastic weapon — which he obliged.
Normally, carrying around phony guns outside is in violation of Germany’s Weapons Act and carries the equivalent of a US$13,500 fine. But this time, the Helghast were asked a few questions, and nothing came of it. Shame the in-game Helghast can’t be defeated with a good talking to.
How are videos like this not just their own TV station yet? I’m not joking. My mates and i enjoy a good splash on Starcraft every now and again as much as the next casual gamer, we’re somewhere around 20th in Bronze 3Vs3 league. But we’d never go as far as to record ourselve, let alone let it get on the Interwebs if i did.
But I would DEFINITELY watch a TV station that was just this all the time. It’s hilarious! Always! “And now, back to Leroy Jenkins.” Ugh, the worst part is that someone probably will eventually make this into a TV network and it will be hugely successful and I won’t see A DIME. That’s the way of the world. The same thing happened when I invented Lunchables. “Why don’t we invent Lunchables and call them Lunchables.” How I rue ever saying that in that room full of lunch executives that definitely existed. Anyway: make it happen, Ari Gold, and send me a check for one million dollars.
Civilization 4 has become the fist game ever to receive a Grammy. The prestigious prize was awarded to one track from the game’s soundtrack called Baba Yetu. You’ll find the music video for the piece above.
Baba Yetu was composed by Christopher Tin for his album Calling All Dawns, but was originally used in Firaxis’ brilliant 2005 strategy game Civilization IV. The song scooped the prize for the Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists category at yesterday’s Grammy awards.
Imagine, if you will, the Legend of Zelda as an 80s high school movie replete with big hair, fingerless gloves, angstyteens, first wave music and a special kind of melodrama usually reserved for greeting cards or grade five love letters. Now imagine your imaginations being imagined by someone with an old fashioned camcorder and a solid understanding of 80s cinema, and (we imagine) it’d look something like this Classic 80s Legend of Zelda Film Trailer.
Forget 16 Candles and The Breakfast Club, Zelda was the first proper teen movie, Estivez looks like an elf anyway.
The video was created by the team at Gamervision, and is a shot for shot tribute to some of the more iconic 80s movie trailers. You can see more of their work at their YouTube channel or you can waste more of your Friday afternoon by watching their previous short, The God of War Indie Movie Trailer, here
The long-running attempts by former college football players to earn a share of EA’s revenues from the NCAA series won’t just affect video games and “amateur” athletics. It could supposedly hit music, TV, movies and comic books too.
The legal battle, which was originally between former NCAA players (College level basketball players basically) and the games publisher, has grown over the years to now include everyone from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund to Bob Marley’s estate to major Hollywood motion picture studios, all concerned with the case’s potential to limit the creative use of a celebrity in a work of art. EA’s lawyers state that, were courts to find that the publisher owed the players money for simply insinuating that they were present in the game (players are not named, though all stats and characteristics are based on those of the player in question), it would “severely stifle artistic expression”.
They specifically give the example of the movie Forrest Gump, saying that the film’s use of actual persons and celebrities wouldn’t have been possible if “artists” were not allowed to use real people in their work. The athlete’s lawyers, meanwhile, say that NCAA Football is not “art” at all, and is a simulation that is entirely based in — and profiting off unlicensed players existing in — reality.
Activision last night confirmed that it had shut its Guitar Hero business unit and cancelled its upcoming GH game. It signals the end of the road for a franchise which came to define ‘party’ gaming for the best part of a decade.
In addition, and in another shock decision, the firm has terminated production of its promising open world action game True Crime: Hong Kong.
Yesterday, Activision Publishing’s CEO Eric Hirshberg explained the cull in the firm’s Q4 2010 earnings call.
Apologies for shamelessly copying of their site. I thought it necessary as a game fan to post the nice explanation they gave - a business-like farewell to what was, at one time, one of the video games industry’s brightest stars…
“Although we did well with the core gamer in 2010, we felt the effects of changing consumer demand for peripheral-based and mid-tier titles, which performed well below our expectations.
After two years of steeply declining sales, we’ve made the decision to close our Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on our previously playing Guitar Hero title for 2011.
Despite a remarkable 92 rating on DJ Hero 2, a widely well-regarded Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, as well as the 90-plus rated release from our most direct competitor, demand for peripheral-based music games declined at a dramatic pace.
Given the considerable licensing and manufacturing costs associated with this genre, we simply cannot make these games profitably based on current economics and demand. Instead, what we’ll do is focus our time and energies on marketing and supporting our strong catalogue of titles and downloadable content, especially to new consumers, as the install base for hardware continues to grow.
In addition to changes in music, we announced our decision to discontinue development on True Crime: Hong Kong. Even our most optimistic internal projections show that continued investment is not going to lead to a title at or near the top of the competitive open-world genre. In an industry where only the best games in each category are flourishing, to be blunt, it just wasn’t going to be good enough.
Since the day I arrived at the company, I’ve said that I believe the best way to achieve commercial success is to provide gamers with the highest possible creative quality. The decision to stop production on True Crime is based solely on that belief.
These are tough decisions, but we believe they’re the right decisions being made for the right reasons. And they reflect our ongoing commitment to delivering the games that gamers want to play. As a result of these decisions, we enter 2011 a leaner, more focused organization.
We intend to devote our time and resource to the areas, where we have true competitive advantages and the potential to make gaming experiences that are best-in-class. Our product line-up will be more focused, should be more profitable and will provide deeper online experiences than ever before”.
Dedicated servers for Battlefield 3 have been confirmed by the game’s executive producer Patrick Bach.
If you had a look over the avalanche of Battlefield 3 details that crashed in on Tuesday, you’ll know that the PC is the lead platform for Battlefield 3.
The PC version will also out do the console version in terms of the number of online players allowed.
Along with the dedicated servers confirmation, Bach continued to emphasise the PC priority, although mod tools will not be given as much focus as they have in the past.
“We will not deliver mod tools in the way that we delivered them for Battlefield 2,” Bach said in a Game Informer spread.
“Creating mod tools today – dumbing them down – takes a lot of energy and what we are discussing more every day is, ‘Where do we put our focus?’
“Right now our focus is to create the best possible multiplayer, single-player, and co-op game – the core game of Battlefield 3. We’re still discussing how we handle modifications of any kind,”
“We won’t make it for console and port it to PC – that’s not how we do things,” Bach added.
“We’re focusing on PC first, and then we fiddle with it to fit it onto consoles.”
This has to be the funnies thing i’ve ever seen. The lame-est piece of fan-boy art work/concept art call it what you will. In a stunning contrast to the quality looking lego models we spoke about earlier this week, some noob has gone ahead and clearly not thought about what he was about to do. I’m not outrageously disgusted by tattoo’s of game or bands you like, they can look good. Some of my friends have them and I have three tattoo’s myself, but the implants are one step too far.
This Chap has gone and mutilated himself with subdermal implants and tattoo-ed himself Poké Balls arms
