Monthly Archives: March 2009

Crytek just put out the first demo movie of CryEngine 3, showing destructible environments, bullets causing water splashes, waving foliage and more.

It’s pretty. After the break. Looks like GDC’s kicking off to an early start.

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2DBoy’s Ron Carmel has just given a GDC talk on how to succeed as an independent game creator. It can be summed up as follows, according to Destructoid:

1. Make a good game.

2. Get press by emailing indie-friendly outlets like Destructoid, Penny Arcade, RockPaperShotgun, or Destructoid to get exposure for your game.

3. Establish a web presence in some way. Carmel cited his adoration for Wolfire Games’ blog, where David Rosen occasionally does video game design tours of popular indie games. The design tours are great and though they don’t have anything explicitly to do with Wolfire Games’ upcoming game Overgrowth, they keep people coming back to the site with regularity.

4. Take pre-orders and release early. Don’t worry about blowing your wad by releasing an early demo or showing too much — just get people thinking about it in the way that Petri Purho did with Crayon Physics Deluxe.

The first one sounds like the easy bit. Read thousands more words through the link.

Speaking in his GDC Mobile keynote, ngmoco co-founder Neil Young has said that iPhone is the “most important device” he’s owned.

Young called the phone “better than the DS, better than the PSP,” because it’s “always on, always with you,” and, “most importantly from a business standpoint, there were no first-party games.”

He added: “”Don’t let the haters tell you it sucks compared to the DS or the PSP. It doesn’t. It’s good. It’s clear that the quality of iPhone games is eclipsing its [portable] console counterparts, and that’s even more acute when you compare it against the prior generation.”

Three million more words about mobile games on Gama.

Ngmoco founder Neil Young has confirmed that two sequels are on the way for iPhone game Rolando, speaking in his GDC Mobile keynote today.

The first one, Rolando 2: The Quest for the Golden Orchid, will be released in June.

Young said it will be “a whole new game” complete with four worlds, 36 levels and “a bunch of new mechanics and features”.

Sounds awesome. We’ve quite literally never heard of Rolando. Still. GDC Mobile, eh?

More on Eurogamer.

Nintendo’s put out a new Punchout!! movie showing a string off fights and our hero winning his belt.

To be fair, it looks completely awesome, in a 4,000 percent Nintendo way. Not sure how far it’s going to go in terms of “longevity,” but what the hey? It’s only money.

After the break. The game’s out in May.

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Blue managed to remember to fire off an email to Activison about the fact that PC wasn’t listed a s format at the end of last week’s inaugural Wolfenstein trailer, and guess what? Mouse and keyboard fans have no need to worry.

“Wolfenstein is being simultaneously developed for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC and will be released on all three platforms,” said a rep.

So there we are. It was fun while it lasted. Sort of.

Wired’s published the top 20 best-selling US games by platform, based on last week’s NPD figures.

Basically: Wii Fit, Street Fighter IV, Mario Kart DS, Libery City Stories.

Full thing through there. Thanks, Blerk.

Volition’s told Eurogamer that upcoming action sequel Red Faction: Guerrilla’s destructible environments are almost a decade of similar competitive games.

“We’re ahead of everybody by five to ten years in terms of destruction,” said lead designer James Hague.

Not only that, but the developer is “ruining other games for people with this game,” according to Hague.

He added: “There’s a lot of games out now that are very, very pretty, they’re next-gen, they’re beautiful games, but they’re set-pieces. Everything was custom-built just to look nice. While other games companies were going toward pretty-but-static, we wanted to go toward fully-dynamic for everything. It’s a very different technical direction from where other people are going.”

You tell ‘em, James. Guerrilla’s out in June for HD consoles and PC.

Microsoft’s put an April 21 date on the 360 version on Left 4 Dead’s Survival Pack DLC, CVG reports.

The pack includes the new Survival mode, which challenges players to hold out against a never ending wave of infected for as long as possible, as well as the Dead Air and Death Toll campaigns in Versus mode.

You will kill more zombies. It is your destiny.

Steam’s got a different Ubi title up for sale every day this week, kicking off with Assassin’s Creed today.

You can get the game for a ridiculous $10 up to midnight PST tonight.

Hit this for more.

Remember the story knocking about over the weekend about Blizzard sending out StarCraft II invites?

It’s not true.

“This is FAKE, and is Photoshopped,” said a Blizzard rep on the official forums.

“We will let you know when beta starts and when invites go out- still some waiting to do unfortunately.”

So there you are. Just goes to show.

Thanks, StarCraftWire.

Dylan Jobe has left Incognito to form Lightbox Interactive, according to this Kotaku report.

Incognito was founded in 1999 by Scott Campbell and David Jaffe: both left in 2007 to form Eat Sleep Play.

Lightbox’s first project is being rumoured as a Warhawk-in-space thing for Sony.

Sony’s announced something called Xi, a project it’s terming “the world’s first console-based Alternate Reality Game”.

“The adventure takes place in a series of secret areas in Home – and beyond – changing day by day, week by week, in real time,” the company said in a post on the PS Blog.

“Anyone with a PlayStation 3 can join in the fun for free – in English, French, Italian, German or Spanish.

“To discover the mystery of Xi, simply log on to PlayStation Home and look for the graffiti on the wall in the main square. Find that, and all will be revealed…”

Holy go into Home for the first time since the day it launched, Batman! Get to it!

IGN’s put up the first look at the inFamous karma system. Apparently you can be a bad guy.

From the piece:

The interesting thing about all of this is the fact that Cole doesn’t have to use his powers for the good of all mankind — he can be as selfish as you want him to be. See, Infamous employs a seven-level Karma System that monitors your actions and lets you know how good or bad Cole is being. See, this will all be broken down in a little crescent-shaped meter next to your power level. If you’re reviving pedestrians who have been hurt by your enemies (a quick deliberator-like shock from your palms can fix just about everyone in this game), your meter fills in with a little blue. If you’re just wailing on every person you see in the street before pinning them to the ground and sucking their life forces out of their faces, your meter is going to fill in red. From the middle/neutral spot, you can do good deeds and climb to Guardian, Champion, and Hero ranks, or you can fry passerbys and sink to Thug, Outlaw, and Infamous Ranks. Awesomely, this position on the good/bad scale is visually represented by Cole as well. When he’s being a good boy, Cole’s electricity attacks will be blue and his clothes will be pristine. When he takes a turn towards evil, Cole will crackle with red energy, lose the pigment in his skin, and get mud on his face and clothes. These visual cues get more and more severe as you move up the ladder of your chosen Karma path.

This is being unveiled because of GDC this week, so watch for more impressions over the next few days. The game’s out in June.

Capcom’s delayed Resident Evil 5′s Versus DLC in Japan, pushing the multiplayer add-on back from March 26 to April 9.

“We deeply apologize to those customers who have been waiting for this downloadable content,” said the firm.

There’s still no date on the western release.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Activision’s put up the official DJ Hero site, which gives away virtually nothing, unfortunately.

There’s confirmation of formats there. The game will launch on 360, “PlayStation” and Wii.

Freestyle’s confirmed as the developer on the site, but we already knew that.

It’s out later this year.

Alyssa Milano appears in the movie after the break talking about her role in the Ghostbusters game. She’s reasonably hot.

Milano was cast as the title’s leading lady after Sigourney Weaver decided she didn’t want to be in it, then changed her mind a little too later: her character had already been written out.

Milano doesn’t mention this in the footage, although you know she’s openly mocking Weaver behind those hi-gloss lips.

It’s out for all platforms on June 19.

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Resident Evil 5 is the UK’s number one for a second week in a row, Chart-Track said today.

Looks as though World at War’s had its chips. GTA: Chinatown Wars debuted at number six.

Data for the week ending March 21. Last week’s chart here.

Microsoft just confirmed that the Gears of War 2 Snowblind Map Pack will release on March 31.

The add-on will be priced 800 MS Points.

In addition, the Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack will release on April 9, as expected, for 800 MS Points.

The Gears pack contains four new maps in Grindyard, Under Hill, Courtyard, and a frozen version of Fuel depot.

Thanks, Roybott.

Rockstar just confirmed Max Payne 3 for a winter release.

The game’s down for PS3, 360 and PC. Here’s the official site.

Rockstar Vancouver’s putting it together.

“We’re starting a new chapter of Max’s life with this game,” said Rockstar boss Sam Houser.

“This is Max as we’ve never seen him before, a few years older, more world-weary and cynical than ever. We experience the downward spiral of his life after the events of Max Payne 2 and witness his last chance for salvation.”

Press release after the break.

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