Written by admin, on Feb 26, 2008 - 05:00
July 25, 2008. Mark it on your calendar, because that’s the release date for the new X-Files movie. Apparently, at the recent WonderCon, people who sat in on a Q&A session with X-Files stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny were treated to a short teaser trailer for the movie, which ended with a release date. So of course, that trailer has now made its way onto the internet in shaky, handicam form. I have no idea what the film is about, but I already know I’ll be there on opening day. Really, I’ll take any new X-Files I can get my grubby paws on.
Written by admin, on Feb 16, 2008 - 01:43
Remember last week when we mentioned that Activision would be releasing two new Guitar Hero titles as well as their plans for Guitar Hero IV? Today we got word that one of the titles will be hitting stores sooner than we thought, and it is not something you would expect. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will be the new title, and lead guitarist Joe Perry kind of let the cat out of the bag last Summer when he mentioned a GH tribute during an interview. Of course, we were unsure if this was confirmed or just Joe talking nonsense about Activision dedicating a game solely to his band, but the proof of this rumor came today via a press release from Activision.
In celebration of this monumental occasion, Activision will be offering free DLC February 16-18 on XBL and PSN. What is this free DLC? Why Aerosmith’s huge hit “Dream On” for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. I suppose after the 18th it will cost you, so you better log on today and get it free while you can, because to be honest with you, I could think of other Aerosmith songs I would rather spend my Microsoft Points on than this one.
This latest installment from the franchise puts players in the shoes of Perry (lead-guitar), Brad Whitford (rhythm-guitar) and Tom Hamilton (bass), as they rock out alongside frontman Steven Tyler and drummer Joey Kramer. Gamers will get to experience Aerosmith’s Grammy winning career, from their first gig to becoming rock royalty. I take it then that you will start out in a garage in Boston and eventually move into football stadium sized venues – at least that is the impression I got from the press release, so don’t take my word on that one. You will however be able to see all members of the band do their signature moves on the screen.
This is what Steven and Joe had to say about being immortalized once more in a video game, although this time around, in Guitar Hero fashion:
“Having a game built around Aerosmith has been a huge honor and really a great experience for us,” says Joe Perry. “We’ve put a lot of ideas into the game so that fans can have fun interacting with our music, getting inside our body of work and learning about the band’s history.”
Steven Tyler says, “Any band that can go from ‘Don’t Want to Miss A Thing’ to the ass-kicking ‘Sweet Emotion’ to the cheekiness of ‘Love in an Elevator,’ to the classic ballad ‘Dream On’ shows why Activision chose us to headline this game based on the diversity of the Aerosmith catalog. Not only is songwriting a bitch, but then it goes and has puppies.”
Perry adds, “On a larger scale, it’s cool for us to be pioneers helping to rebuild the music industry through a format like video games. It’s great for rock since the record companies are struggling to make sense of how things are changing. Fans want to get and experience music in new formats–and there are going to be some of them who will play the game, then pick up the guitar for real and start bands. It’s what’s happening now, and it’s only going to build more momentum in the future. It’s a massive change for the music business.”
While for Aerosmith fans this is great news, and for the bands sake, I hope it sells well for them. It makes you wonder – if this does indeed sell well, will other band exclusive GH titles be released in the future? My “dream” band exclusive GH title would be Led Zeppelin – and with Jimmy Page being the money grubbing pagan that he is, one would think he would sell his soul to become immortalized once more for fans. Wait, I forgot, Satan already has dibs on his soul. Regardless, if he would sell out “Kashmir” to P. Diddy and “Rock n Roll” to Cadillac then why not Activision and Red Octane?
The actual release date for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will be June 30th and pre-orders are being taken now. The set list has not been released yet, so check back often for updates. You can read the full press release after the break.
Epic Collaboration Creates First Music-Based Game to Feature One Band
Free Download of “Dream On” Offered to Commemorate Alliance
Santa Monica, CA – February 15, 2008 – Fire up the fret board, crank the amp to 11 and get ready to rock this way with Activision, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero®: Aerosmith®, the first game built around the legendary music of America’s Greatest Rock ‘N Roll Band: Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer. Slated for release this June, this latest installment from the franchise with the #1 best-selling video game in 2007, puts players in the shoes of Perry (guitar), Whitford (guitar) and Hamilton (bass), as they rock out alongside frontman Tyler and drummer Kramer. Gamers will experience Aerosmith’s GRAMMY® winning career, from their first gig to becoming rock royalty, in a way that no other entertainment vehicle offers.
To celebrate this historic, ground-breaking collaboration, Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock fans will have the opportunity to download and jam to Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” The song will be available for free from February 16-18 on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®Store for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. For more information, please visit www.guitarhero.com.
“Having a game built around Aerosmith has been a huge honor and really a great experience for us,” says Joe Perry. “We’ve put a lot of ideas into the game so that fans can have fun interacting with our music, getting inside our body of work and learning about the band’s history.”
Steven Tyler says, “Any band that can go from ‘Don’t Want to Miss A Thing’ (Aerosmith’s #1 smash hit) to the ass-kicking ‘Sweet Emotion’ to the cheekiness of ‘Love in an Elevator,’ to the classic ballad ‘Dream On’ shows why Activision chose us to headline this game based on the diversity of the Aerosmith catalog. Not only is songwriting a bitch, but then it goes and has puppies.”
Perry adds, “On a larger scale, it’s cool for us to be pioneers helping to rebuild the music industry through a format like video games. It’s great for rock since the record companies are struggling to make sense of how things are changing. Fans want to get and experience music in new formats–and there are going to be some of them who will play the game, then pick up the guitar for real and start bands. It’s what’s happening now, and it’s only going to build more momentum in the future. It’s a massive change for the music business.”
“We are extremely excited that Aerosmith chose to team up with Guitar Hero, bringing one of the world’s all-time best-selling artists together with one of the biggest video game brands, to deliver a new and unique interactive way for our customers to connect with artists and their music,” said Dusty Welch, head of publishing for Activision/RedOctane. “This partnership will give Aerosmith, a band that has sold more than 150 million albums worldwide, a powerful and innovative platform to reach their fans and new audiences.”
Written by admin, on Feb 15, 2008 - 09:01
STALKER was remarkable in many ways, but it was far from the revolutionary freeform vision originally conjured for us. Now developer GSC is making a game a little closer to that original dream. Our second journey into the Chernobyl exclusion zone promises great things.
As a prequel, Clear Sky will include a storyline which explains a little more about Strelok’s past, and how he ended up in the back of that truck with a gaping hole in his memory. This time, however, you are in a somewhat different world. Blowouts from the reactor keep the Zone in flux, as project lead Anton Bolshakov explains: “The blowout in the story changed certain areas of the Zone, so the anomalous activity in certain areas faded, and increased in other areas. Paths to the known locations have disappeared, while others have opened up. Part of the old areas will be preserved, while there will also be new ones too. Right now Pripyat will not be part of Clear Sky, but we’ll see how things go.” While the exclusion of the abandoned city might be a disappointment for the STALKER hardcore who wanted to see it made explorable, the allure of new tracts of Zone and new weird dereliction to explore are powerful. The open-ended possibilities for poking about in old ruins was one of the most appealing aspects of STALKER, and Clear Sky will provide plenty more of that.
Indeed, as those who followed the STALKER story will recall, the game was always touted as being a little more freeform than the final release proved to be. Clear Sky, it seems, will be returning to the more open-ended inspirations. “Most of the features in Clear Sky were from the original concept that we were working on but were not included in STALKER,” says Bolshakov. “We picked some and we’re now integrating them into this new game. What we’re making is more complete and polished.”
Central to that is what GSC are doing with the various factions that inhabit the zone. While there were a large number of factions in the original game (Freedom, Duty, the military, the mercenaries, the scientists, the neutral STALKERs and the servants of the monolith) you were only really able to follow three paths: Neutrality, Freedom, or Duty. In Clear Sky you’ll be able to join up with seven different factions, work with them, fight them, and ultimately lead your chosen side to victory.
“It’s a global war of factions within the zone,” says Bolshakov. “Now each faction has a fully fledged main camp with a number of key characters in there, like a trader, a mechanic, a leader, a barman, and all of those perform specific roles.” Where the original game only had a couple of traders and mission-hub characters, you’ll now be able to pick up tasks all over the map, and work far more closely with the other STALKERs in the zone to perform them. “You’ll see STALKERs from a faction going on specific tasks, so you have an understanding of what is going on with a faction. Each faction has a specific rival and they fight for artifacts, territory, resources and so on. You can see the conflict develop in front of you. A faction in need of certain resources will go on missions for them. Factions go to grab artifacts if there is a rare one somewhere around. You can join a faction and lead them and they can benefit for your help. As opposed to the original, where NPCs were just moving around, the factions now have specific goals to accomplish. STALKERs within a faction go on smaller missions and you can join up and help them accomplish them.”
All this expands on one of the most significant elements of STALKER: A-Life, the system that enables dynamic events to take place within the Zone. Artificial intelligence routines govern the appearance and movement of groups of STALKERs, packs of dogs, mutants, and the various faction gangs. In A-Life governed areas, you’ll be seeing battles between the various factions, as well as random events taking place. A fight you have in one run through of the game might be completely different a second time because of the appearance of bandits, or because friendly STALKERs are passing through the area and were able to help out. Anyone who has played STALKER has saved, or been saved by, an AI character in the game world. This dynamic complexity will only become more varied and accomplished in Clear Sky.
“There’s more diverse behaviour with STALKERs in the game,” explained Bolshakov. “We’re expanding the concept of searching for artifacts and anomalies, just to name a few things.” Whereas in the original game the artifacts were little more than a saleable power-up system, they’re going to be providing motivation for your actions in Clear Sky. The concept of the Zone as an alien, anomalous place is coming to the forefront. As a result your interest in the artifacts, and the areas of weirdness that generate them, will be hugely increased.
The interest of other Zone parties in the artifacts will be increased too: they will be after the artifacts and will fight to keep them. In Clear Sky you’ll be facing a world with far more going on than ever before. With each of the seven factions vying for power you’ll find yourself caught up in the opposing missions of faction STALKERs, and helping to manipulate a game world which will never be the same from one moment to the next, from one gamer’s session to another. This could be a major step on the road towards an ideal of open-ended game world.
Of all the reasons to be excited about Clear Sky, one of the most significant is that, to a great extent, GSC are going it alone. While they have signed up Koch to publish the game upon its planned release this spring, and it’ll be sold via Steam online, it’s a far cry from THQ’s integral involvement in the original game’s completion. With this bold move, GSC could rapidly become one of the most important PC-focused studios in the world.
Whether these shiny, new gameplay elements make it into a STALKER sequel or not is hardly relevant. What matters is that an independent developer based in the former Soviet Union, with an office in a converted munitions factory and with a team whose childhoods were overshadowed by nuclear disaster, is one of the most imaginative and creatively ambitious video game developers in the world today. If GSC accomplish half of what they have dreamed, then their work will become legendary.
Written by admin, on Feb 13, 2008 - 02:08
We’ve known that Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements was coming to the Xbox 360 since Ubisoft announced it in July last year, but when the announced September release date came and went, we all just kind of forgot about it. Today, we got the new launch trailer in and if you have not played the PC version because you are a console owner, this game comes highly recommended – well at least from me. Hopefully, it will port well and live up to the fun the PC version was and still is even though any RPG coming to the Xbox 360 has some big Oblivion shoes to fill. That being said, if any game can even try to fill them, DMMME can and Arkane Studios is more than able to accomplish such a feat.
Just in case you are unfamiliar with the game, in Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements players will be introduced to the dark and unforgiving world of Ashan, scarred by a bloody history and threatened by the apocalyptic prophecy of the Dark Messiah. Players will embody the young hero Sareth and choose his evolution path to acquire spells, skills and abilities that will set his destiny. The game will sports some gameplay refinements just for the console version, and a few new designs and other technical aspects.
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements is currently sitting on retail shelves as we speak and our friends in the UK can expect it to hit their shores on Valentine’s Day – awww what a sweet present that would make for someone!
Written by admin, on Feb 09, 2008 - 05:21
The following video is a simple user-created demo of Samus in all forms from Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Samus is perhaps one of the most loved Nintendo characters of all-time. I haven’t had the chance to play SSBB yet, but I hope to get in on the action soon. Right now, my time is being devoured by Devil May Cry 4.
Written by admin, on Feb 09, 2008 - 05:20
Yesterday we gave you the news that the new LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures would be devoid of Nazis, much to some people’s chagrin. However, if this news disappointed you the new screens that have surfaced will surely lift your spirits once more.
As you can see, the pictures depict the first few scenes from “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, where Indy was in South America. The screens are pretty funny, and they did a great job on Indy’s facial stubble and facial expressions. I am curious as to whether he will appear clean-shaven at any point in the game, because when he and his lady love Marion were on the pirate boat he actually cleaned up for the occasion.
Check back often for more on LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures which is slated for a June release, and you can expect the latest Indiana Jone flick “The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” to hit theaters in May around Memorial Day.
Written by admin, on Feb 09, 2008 - 05:18
In this newest developers diary for Rainbow Six Vegas 2, the team behind the game talks about the most important thing to me with this game: the multiplayer and co-op modes. New changes to the gameplay include the ability to create a custom character and gain experience in the single-player campaign, friends can now jump into a game already in progress, and the host of the co-op game can control two AI partners. There are also a couple new multiplayer modes and a few changes to existing modes, along with the expected new maps and such. Sure, the gameplay looks almost exactly like the last game, but that’s definitely a good thing in my book.
Written by admin, on Feb 09, 2008 - 05:17
Rockstar Games has announced the launch of the official website for their highly anticipated title, Grand Theft Auto IV. Right now, you can head over to the site and get a flash tour of Liberty City. At least, that’s what is supposed to happen in the coming months. Right now though, there’s really not much to see in Liberty City except a few screenshots and videos that we’ve already seen before. Rockstar says you’ll be able to visit specific game locations once the site is fully up and running, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
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