Archive for February, 2008

GDC 08: Bionic Commando Rearmed Videos

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

A classic 2-D game which I never had the pleasure of playing was Bionic Commando. So what better way to play than through a modern remake dubbed Bionic Commando Rearmed. Co-op play?! I’m there. Day one. Companies need to put more classics out like this.

Check out the gameplay videos over at IGN.

As for the 3-D sequel? Not sure yet. It looks iffy.

GDC 08: Insomniac Is Hiring

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

Insomniac is an amazing development studio. They don’t just create great games, but they also create excellent working environments. Check out their office and all the perks it has. Weekly masseuse visits? Ridiculous.


 

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GDC 08: Fable 2 Info and Media

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

Peter Molyneux talks a lot. He says lots of nice things and promises many features for his games, but more often than not: he fails to deliver. Or so they say. I personally tuned him out and conciously not get swept away by the hype of any of games. I am trying to create the same kind of scenario I came into Fable with. I knew very little about the game or its promises and I enjoyed it a lot more.

Fable 2 is his latest project and it looks to be very impressive. GameTrailers has some of his demonstrations below which showcase some of the game’s family features and co-op function. An RPG with co-op? Neat. By the looks of it, it appears to be offline co-op. Why else do they need both players to be on the same screen? Anyways, check out the demonstrations below and be sure to wear sunglasses because there’s some ridiculous amount bloom in that game.

There’s also some kind of XBLA game which can earn you Fable 2 money.

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GDC 08: Wipeout HD Trailer

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

Oh snap! Wipeout HD. As you may or may not be aware, I fell in love with the Wipeout series after my tenure with Wipeout Pulse. To have a similar game in delicious 1080p at 60 frames per second is so very tantalizing!

Check out the trailer over at 1UP.

(I would embed it, but it breaks our site and our system administrator throws fits.)

GDC 08: Ninja Gaiden 2 Media

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

Action adventure fans are blessed this year. First with Devil May Cry 4 (which I’ve received from FutureShop finally). God of War: Chains of Olympus for the PlayStation Portable next month and then Ninja Gaiden 2 for the XBOX 360 in June.

Too awesome. Just like the gameplay trailer below:


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GDC 08: PCGA To Save PC Gaming?

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

PC gaming isn’t dead, but it is in disarray as some people put it. Initiatives like Steam and SteamWorks are solid attempts in making things easier for developers, but one company can only do so much. Have no fear. The PC Gaming Alliance is here to save PC gaming.

The alliance consists of Nvidia, AMD, Acer, Alienware, Intel, Dell, Gateway, Activision, Microsoft, Epic and hopefully more by the end of the year. With both major hardware and software manufacturers on board, the PCGA is hoping to raise awareness concerning PC gaming’s health, standardize minimum system requirements for games, address piracy issues and even improved distribution models.

Things look promising, but until I start seeing results: I’ll be cautiously optimistic.

GDC 08: Microsoft Unveils YouTube of Game Development

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

Microsoft announced what could be described as the “Youtube of Game Development”. Amateur/independent developers will be able to submit their own small games to XNA Games Studio and have it distributed through XBOX Live! Arcade for others to try, play and critique. For more details on how it all works, check out the Kombo article.

A handful of demos including the blood soaked hack n’ slasher, The DishWasher, is available on Xbox Live! Arcade right now.

Definitely going to check out some of this stuff.

Sony Pours Money Into OLED, Sells Cell Chip Factories

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

LCDs and Plasmas are nice today, but something better could be just around the corner: OLED. Sony is hoping to bring OLED displays into the mainstream market sooner rather than later and by investing $204 million into larger panels; these are great first steps. Hopefully we’ll be seeing screens larger than 11 inches in production.

I’m personally excited for this technology and to see any company invest money into its development is always a plus.

In other news, Sony is selling off their Cell chip production facilities to Toshiba. Toshiba will be taking over the Cell processor and RSX chip manufacturing for both the PlayStation 3 and other products which include Toshiba’s.

GDC 08: Gears of War 2 Announced

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

Gears of War 2 Unofficial LogoWhat a surprise! Epic Games and Microsoft Game Studios announced that Gears of War 2 is coming out November 2008. Looking for details? There’s very little right now. There is a teaser trailer though! There’s also a demonstration of the new features found in Unreal Engine 3 which could appear in Gears of War 2.

I’m excited to see what changes CliffyB is going to work in.

Honestly, Gears of War 2 was not a surprise. We knew it was coming. However, even without rumors there was nothing else big enough to fill the holiday lineup shoes Halo 3 filled last year and the original Gears of War filled in 2006.

For the lazy, there’s a GameTrailers version of the teaser trailer below.

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Quake Live Announced. Beta Sign Ups Open!

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

The web based incarnation of Quake III: Arena is still alive and well. Yesterday, id Software announced their advertising partner, IGA, along with beta signup opportunities. They also released a few screenshots:

Quake Live Screenshot 1  Quake Live Screenshot 2

What can I say? It looks like Quake 3 and it’s going to be very interesting to see how this game works out.