When id Software first revealed their next project Rage, it was originally announced as a Electronic Arts’ published videogame. That has now officially changed thanks to a Zenimax press release. According to Zenimax, their subsidiary Bethesda Softworks, who has released famous titles like Fallout 3, is now going to publish the anticipated first-person shooter/racing title.
“Electronic Arts will not be involved in the sales and marketing of RAGE,” read a statement from Zenimax. “The ongoing development of RAGE is unaffected by this development.”
I’m sure some might be quick to point out that not having EA control the marketing behind Rage, could potentially hurt the sales of the game. Obviously, this stems from the perception that the company has an unlimited pocket for promoting a title; however, I would disagree with this simple theory. Lately, EA has had some issues with their marketing department and have been dead wrong on their anticipation of sales numbers — especially when it comes to a new IP. If you need some examples, look no further than Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space. While they were good games, the sales were considered a disappointment.
EA is known for developing and promoting sequels — that’s where a large chunk of the cash comes from. Now of course, any company would find it easier to promote a next installment of an already known game, but EA’s having trouble advertising and selling something new to the gaming world, and Rage would be the same type of challenge.
Bethesda picking the rights to publish Rage is a good thing for id. They have proven time and time again, that they know how to advertise an open world videogame. I know you could easily point out that Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls, which are published by Bethesda, are sequels. But, both of those franchises were considered by many, niche titles, before they have seen the recent success. Somehow, Bethesda was able to bring these titles into the mainstream — which is something I couldn’t see EA being nearly as successful at.
While growing up, Excitebike was one of those games I played hours and hours for the NES. Sure, it was rather simple but it was one of those titles that captured motocross perfectly, while leaving a lot up to the imagination to the player. Not only that, it was one of the first games I remember that included a level editor; even though it was basic — the thought of creating a full level was kinda innovative for the time.
Today, Nintendo has revealed that a new Excitebike is coming to the Wii and it’ll be available exclusively on WiiWare. Not only that, they released a trailer and even announced it’ll be available online on November 9.
I’m actually happy that Nintendo is only allowing this game to be a download. First the game is cheap, and honesty what made Excitebike fun was the simplicity of the game mechanics. Nintendo easily could used the name and made a crappy 3D full game (see: vs. Excitebike), which would have not felt anything like what the classic title was known for. Thankfully, Nintendo decided to go the cheap way and keep the exact original gameplay, while updating the graphics. Not only that, it’ll feature online multiplayer — joy!
Blur is promised to revolutionized racing games, exactly how Modern Warfare did with first-person shooters. Well, this was according to Activision right before they revealed it to the world at E3, so I’m assuming they’re trying to hype it a little too. Bizarre Creations, the team behind the game, who also developed the Project Gothem series, seems like they need a little more time then they originally expected to create the title.
Both the studio and the publisher has just confirmed that Blur won’t be making its November release date, and has been pushed back into 2010. They’re also promising that it’ll be in stores in the early part of the year as well, so don’t expect a major delay.
“We are committed to making Blur a great new racing franchise, and we are very encouraged by the game’s design,” said Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith. “The additional time will allow the studio to fully optimize the vision they set out to create for Blur including a distinctive and groundbreaking multiplayer mode that will appeal to a broad audience.”
I don’t think I have ever seen so many videogame titles get delayed in one year, especially just months before they were scheduled to be in stores. While I liked Blur when I went to E3, I had a hard time believing the title was going to change the racing genre forever. Sure it was fun, but it felt more like Twisted Metal meets the Burnout franchise. Entertaining? Yes. But hardly this revolutionary title. In fact I’m not even sure if Blur was the best racing title at the show. To be honest, I think I enjoyed Disney’s Split Second more.
Rockstar games has just released the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV’s next downloadable content, The Ballad of Gay Tony. When the first DLC, The Lost and Damned, was released back in October of last year, it was overall met with good review. Although some people were disappointed with the content because it didn’t make the city ‘more interactive’ besides some new weapons and vehicles.
This time around, it looks as though Rockstar wants to make this next DLC a tad more fun to explore the city, which should help tell the next story of the GTA IV’s universe. During the trailer, you’ll notice a new helicopter; which seems like it’s easier to use its weapons and from the looks of it, the main character can use a parachute to glide around Liberty City.
The main reason why people love the GTA series isn’t because of the violence, it’s mostly because the city feels like a real breathing world. It’s looking like Rockstar is focusing more on the city this time around and what the player can do inside the landscape.
We already know that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS was met with fantastic reviews, but the majority of DS owners didn’t purchase the game. Later, the publisher, Rockstar Games, announced it was headed to the PSP. Although I don’t think the dismal sales initially forced Rockstar to port the title over to Sony’s handheld, but it certainly didn’t discourage them either.
If you thought the decision to port the game over to the PSP was big, then you’re gonna surprised by the company’s new revelation. Rockstar Games has announced that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is going to be ported over to
Apple’s iPhone/iPod Touch. The game is expected to be available in the App Store starting this fall which is around the same time the PSP version ships, but an exact date has yet to be revealed.
This is huge for Apple because they have been trying to convince gamers that their platform can be a real gaming system. We already know how big of a franchise GTA is and having it available for a device that so far, isn’t perceived as a serious gaming machine — is a win situation for Apple. Not only that, considering Rockstar doesn’t have to box and ship actual software for the iPhone; they just have to throw up a digital copy in the App Store, which means its not very costly to port and definitely worth the risk.
According to legendary game designer John Carmack, his latest technical achievement Rage, is running considerably better on the Xbox 360 and PC than the PS3. The news comes from a ten-page blowout of the game in the latest issue of Edge magazine. In this reveal, Carmack talks about the framerate of each console, and the PS3 seems to be having some issues in the developmental process of Rage.
“The PS3 lags a little bit behind in terms of getting the performance out of it,” said Carmack. “The rasterizer is just a little bit slower – no two ways about that.”
Carmack went into a little more detail about some of the problems he’s facing with the PS3, when compared to the Xbox 360 version. “The RSX is slower than what we have in the 360. The CPU is about the same, but the 360 makes it easier to split things off, and that’s what a lot of the work has been, splitting it all into jobs on the PS3,” he told the publication.
During the same report by Edge, as of now the PS3 runs anywhere between “20-30fps,” while the Xbox 360 and PC versions run at 60.
I know a war of words has once again started between Xbox 360 and PS3 fanboys. They need to come down, things like this just happens and considering the architecture inside the Xbox 360 is similar to a PC and the game’s oringnal focus is for the PC — it’s just easier to port. It does not mean the PS3 is severely underpowered, just some games will run better on the 360 than the PS3 and sometimes vise versa.
Pandemic’s Brisbane studio closed last January and the company was revealed to be working on The Dark Knight videogame adaption. Apparently, they were also working on a title called “The Next Big Thing” (in the video its named No Limits Racing) for the Wii. But because the studio closed its doors for good, the title was canceled and never picked up by any other publisher.
Thanks to the Internet, the trailer has been released for the defunct once exclusive Wii game and honestly, it looked almost completed. I’m surprise no other publisher decided to pick up the rights, but so far they haven’t.
Watch the trailer above and see what you’ll probably never play.
Rockstar Games has just announced that Grand Theft Auto’s next downloadable content, Ballad of Gay Tony, will be available on Xbox Live starting October 29th. This will mark the second time Rockstar is releasing DLC for the sandbox game. Once again it’ll be exclusive to the Xbox 360, thanks to a contract between Microsoft and Rockstar.
The newest episode is going to follow a sketchy assistant named Luis Lopez, who works for Tony Prince, aka Gay Tony. Prince is a big time night club owner, who has been in trouble for allowing illegal actively, especially drug use, inside his own clubs. Towards the end of the story of Grand Theft Auto IV, it was revealed that some of his clubs were shutting down because of their low standards of complying with city ordinance.
The content will be sold for 1600 Microsoft Points, and will be sold as a retail bundle which will include GTA IV and the first DLC; The Lost and Damned.
Videogame analyst Michael Patcher has spoke with sources inside Take-Two and they have revealed that the publisher plans on releasing a new Grand Theft Auto sometime in 2010. The alleged game is once again being headed by Rockstar North and it’s believed the studio is working with the same engine used in ‘Grand Theft Auto IV.’
The sources from inside Take-Two have confirmed that if Rockstar North does release the game by the end of next year, the New York based studio would be entitled to a large sum of money. “When we do the simple math, we conclude that the next installment is likely to be completed by some time in 2010, although given the frequency of game delays, it is not clear that it will necessarily come before October 31, 2010,” said Patcher.
If this is indeed the case, it would be about two full years between GTA IV and this new one, which seems reasonable. When Grand Theft Auto first took the step into the 3D world with Grand Theft Auto III, it was about one year later we had Vice City and about two years after that for San Andreas. So it’s definitely feasible that we could see a brand new installment of Grand Theft Auto in 2010.
The bigger question however is, where will this next one take place? I’m hoping for a Washington DC type city, where the main character works with politicians ‘closely.’
Rockstar Games has just announced that the Sony PSP will be receiving the highly-praised Nintendo DS game ‘Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.’ The publisher confirmed the once exclusive DS title will be a port of the original game, when it heads to Sony’s portable system.
Chinatown Wars will be available to PSP owners starting this fall. When it is released, not only will there be a UMD version shipped into stores, but it is going to be available as a digital download for PSP Go customers the same day.
The reason for Rockstar to port the sandbox game is probably attributed to the less-than-expected sales of the DS version. When Chinatown Wars was released on the DS, many people, including Rockstar, were thinking the title was going to make huge numbers because of the brand name and the lack of ‘mature’ games on the system. Although, when it was finally released in March for the portable system, which sold roughly 30 million units, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars only moved 89,000.
Rockstar is hoping they can bank on Chinatown Wars on the PSP because of the systems history of mature content being successful.
Rumors have been floating around the Internet that the studio behind the Burnout series, Criterion which is headed by Alex Ware, would be developing a new ‘Need for Speed‘ title. EA boss John Riccitiello, has confirmed with Kotaku that the gossip is indeed true. Not only that, he is promising the driving game will be “revolutionary”.
“Alex is one of the people in the industry I would analogize to the great filmmakers etc.,” Riccitiello told the website. “He is a true creative visionary. “We had a great fight about what the next Need For Speed would be like. Of course, he gets to win because it’s his call. It’s not that I’m without an opinion on it,” he added.
The site asked Riccitiello if one day we would see a game which combined both Burnout and Need for Speed. Riccitiello said it was unlikely, and even compared it to the likelihood of Star Trek merging with Star Wars. Although, those two films are from two separate studios, so that would be an unfair analogy to use.
“I don’t think you can fold Burnout into Need for Speed, because a lot of people like Burnout,” Riccitiello said. “We don’t have a plan right now for a separate major launch on Burnout, because the team doing it is working on a revolutionary take on Need for Speed.”
I’m not sure how I feel about this, I’m really torn. On one hand I want to see Criterion expanded their minds because I do believe they’re one of the best talents in the gaming industry. Although, I do want them to create another Burnout game because that is easily one of my favorite racing series out there. In the end, I think I would rather see them take on a whole new fresh genre, and not some other racer. If they were just going to stay with driving, I would rather a brand new Burnout game.
The latest trailer for the latest game in theNeed for Speed franchise, Need for Speed SHIFT, was released this week at E3. The game being developed by Slightly Mad Studios, is a ’shift’ from the Need for Speed games that you know and love. EA marketing boss Keith Munro told Eurogamer,
The urban underground was a manifestation of style in some past Need for Speed games for sure, but Shift focuses less on these style cues and more on mirroring the driver experience, that athleticism of being in a wickedly-intense race, and what it really feels like to be behind the wheel
The goal of Need for Speed: SHIFT was to be much more like Gran Turismo, to move away from the exagerated driving and try to become as real as possible. One of the major features of the game according to the official description and a representative at E3 is the first-person cockpit view,
Players are thrust into the heart of the action with immersive and exciting features including a stunningly realistic first-person cockpit view camera and an all-new crash mechanic, providing an unrivaled sensation of the speed and feeling of racing a car on the extreme edge of control.
Slightly Mad Studios did not do a bad job with this game, it works well, but it just isn’t Need for Speed. And for my money I would rather buy a game like Project Gotham Racing, Forza, or Gran Turismo. There is a point where a game can become too real. In Need for Speed: SHIFT, when you crash, depending on the severity of the crash a few things will happen. If you are in a light crash your view will turn black and white, and if it is a larger crash your vision will become blurry. This is just annoying and makes it difficult to recover from a crash. Now this wont be a problem for players that are good, but for those casual gamers that just like to go as fast as they can and bump into other cars and walls this game will not be fun.
Again this is not a bad game, it just is not the game that is going to revamp the Need for Speed franchise.
What many call the best racing simulation of all time, is about to get better. Sony has unveiled the fifth installment of their highly-acclaimed driving game, Gran Turismo.
If you are a fan of the series, the biggest thing that should be glaring to you in the trailer is the car damage. While the franchise has always been known to be incredibly realistic, seeing the car become beat-up was never include with the installments. Though, it was because the developers, Polyphony Digital, didn’t have the talent to visually display damage, it was actually the fault of the car manufactures.
Car companies like Ferrari, refused their automobiles to show what an expansive car would look like if it hit a wall going 100 MPH. They thought it would have been a bad PR move. While we clearly see damage in the trailer, I’m not entirely convinced we’ll see some of the more high-end cars take it.
Another thing that was shown off in the trailer were NASCAR and WRC, further suggesting that Sony has even gained more licenses for their beloved racing franchise.
Today Gran Turismo for the PSP was announced at Sony’s pre-E3 conference. Gran TurismoPSP contains 800 cars and 35 tracks. Since there are so many cars, if you work with a friend (Ad-hoc is supported but there was no mention of online play) you can share the cars that you have collected.
Gran Turismo is set to launch on October 1st this year.
Today the trailer for Codemasters‘ DiRT 2, the followup to DiRT(Colin McRae: DiRT) which was actually the sixth racing game in the series. DiRT 2 will feature 9 countries, 100 events, and 50 drivers featuring Ken Block, Tanner Foust, Dave Mirra, and Travis Pastrana.
The first half of the trailer hardly shows any driving, and most of the second half appears to be pre-rendered. However this game is expected to have stunning graphics since it will be using an enhanced version of the EGO engine, the same engine that was used in GRID.
The game is set to release this September and you can expect our impressions of it in our ongoing coverage of E3 09 all this week.
