When EA became the parent company for BioWare, gamers across the universe were relentlessly nervous over the fear their beloved studio would take a hit in quality. Then just a few short days ago, Mass Effect 2 was released and was met with unbelievable reviews from critics and currently holds a 96/100 score on Metacritic. So the brief protest was quickly proven wrong; however the next question was, would EA’s wallet help the developer sell more titles? The answer is yes.
EA just sent out a press release announcing the sequel to the space RPG is “hailed as the 1st blockbuster of 2010,” and they just might be right. According to their numbers, Mass Effect 2 has already sold over 2 million units worldwide. A mighty feat indeed — considering the game came out last Tuesday in the States and today in Europe.
“Mass Effect 2 is poised to be one of the biggest games of 2010,” said Ray Muzyka BioWare’s co-founder. “We could not be more proud of the game’s universal acclaim and early commercial success.”
As a whole, this is great news for the videogame industry. It’s proving even in the economic recovery, games that aren’t already considered established franchises can still sell.
Microsoft held their own press conference during Gamescom to counter Sony’s big announcements. Peter Molyneux, boss over at Lionhead Studios, took the stage and revealed something great. According to him, the UK based company is already underway developing Fable IIIfor the Xbox 360. Molyneux promises the third installment will be about choice, and the consequences that surround each one made
He went on to tease the audience that there is something wrong with RPGs today and its been an issue ever since the very first title was released in the popular genre. From the sounds of it, he wants to forever change that problem, however, he did not specify exactly what he meant.
After the jump, check out more details about Fable III. (more…)
A French fan site for BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, has given a a broad release date for the much anticipated massively-multiplayer online game. According to what they call ‘a reliable source,’ the website is dating BioWare’s next epic adventure for sometime in September of 2010. Basically if this ends up being correct, we’ll be playing The Old Republic in about a years time.
Obviously both LucasArts and BioWare have yet to confirm anything and they haven’t commented on the rumor. September of 2010 does seem like a legitimate number, but that’s kind of the problem. Could this source pick a believable date or is the company really planning to release that month?
Hopefully more concrete evidence will be revealed as GamesCon gets closer.
Rumors had been running around the internet that game designer Warren Spector (Deus Ex) was working on a super secret project with Disney. The rumors started to emerge because Spector’s studio was acquired by Disney in 2007. Then last December, gamasutra suggested that Spector’s studio was indeed developing a “epic Mickey title.”
According to the website, they had received concept art to confirm their reporting, which showed “mockups of the potential game’s environment, including pencil sketches of cities assembled from junk,” as well as other images. In 2008, EGM ran a rumor which speculated the same idea. “Spector’s new Disney project will be a platformer looking to compete with a certain pesky plumber,” wrote Quartermann from the defunct magazine. “And who’s big enough to take on Nintendo’s star? Only the mouse himself,” he added. Meaning whatever game this is going to be, it’ll probably be on the Wii.
Today, internet guru ‘Supererogatory,’ has apparently found these same images that gamasutra saw last year. He also decided to release them, and it looks like the “cat is out of the bag,” to say the least. Up top is a picture of the world famous Epcot, which looks like it’s attached to something (dead whale from Pinocchio?), while being surround by rough seas.
More sketches are available after the jump, and are drawn by Fred Gambino and Gary Glover, and boy do they look incredible. These pictures are posted on their own personal website and they are titled “Epic Mickey.” Coincidence? I think not. After the jump, you’ll see disturbing images of things like a robot Goofy, who has been torn apart. As well as other famous Disney landmarks in places you would have never expected them to be.
Yeah — this is definitely going to be epic. (more…)
So Pokémon used to annoyed the sh*t out of me. When I was younger and working at Gamestop, anything Pokémon was an instant seller. Boy & girls loved the cartoons, games, cards and everything else that had to do with the franchise. If you didn’t love them, you hated them with a passion.
As much as I was irritated by the very presence of Pokémon, I can now appreciate what Nintendo was trying to do. I don’t believe for a moment it was for money, either.
The franchise started in the mid 90s and some of the girls who enjoyed Pokémon were mostly underage, but now they have grownup. Some of these girls are officially over the age of 18 and a select few are even good looking. And some… even like to cosplay — just like the girl up top.
Itching to play Mass Effect 2 when it’s released next year? Yeah, I am too but Bioware might have something cool to fill the void. It looks like we will be seeing some new downloadable content for the first Mass Effect and it will be confirmed this week. The news comes straight from the company’s Twitter account.
“Getting the feeling some news about the next ME1 DLC may be coming this week. Keep your eyes peeled. – Evil Chris”
So unless their Twitter page was hacked somehow, this sounds like a nice tease from the talented developers. For a brief moment, a posting of some content was available at the Xbox Live Games on Demand page, which might have indicated what we will see when DLC hits. According to the site, we will be able to, “download new systems and worlds to visit” as well as “meet new characters and encounter never before seen alien species,” and on top of that have “new weapons, armour and items as you experience a whole new adventure“.
Check back because we should have some sort of official announcement soon.
Blizzard and Pepsi have teamed up to promote Mountain Dew, by using the World of Warcraft game. Up top is the first commercial to air on television and it is highly unrealistic. Seriously, how many girls who look like that, drink Mtn. Dew and/or play World of Warcraft? I’ll give you the answer; zero. Both products are known to make people fat.
And oh, I guess humans don’t really turn into a WoW avatar, so that might not be practical too. Although, I think the chances of turning into a Orc at your local grocery store is higher than seeing to hot women buying Mtn. Dew and play WoW.
If you want to see a real gamer who plays WoW and drinks the soda, check out a video we embedded after the jump. (more…)
Anyone could argue that BioShock and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion could be two of the best games to come out for the Xbox 360. So what better way to celebrate their greatness than to combine both games to a bundle, and that is exactly what 2K Games and Bethesda are doing.
Both publishers have agreed to package both games and sell it for $39.99 and release the bundle on July 7. There will also be a PC version and it will be ten dollars less at $29.99.
Separately, BioShock retails for $19.99, while Oblivion is currently is $29.99. If you haven’t checked out either game, you should highly consider buying this combination. As of now, BioShock is receiving 96/100 on metacritic and the Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is sitting at a 94/100.
One of the highlights of the Nintendo E3 Press Conference was Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for the Nintendo DS. “The game centers on the daily life of the main character Roxas, exploring the time from his creation during the first game, Kingdom Hearts, and leading directly into Kingdom Hearts II. It features 3D graphics, and single and multiplayer modes of play.” The visuals looked to be catching up to PS2 and the whole storyline and action kept our attentions hardcore.
Hey lookie here, it’s a trailer for Mass Effect 2. Is Shepherd dead? I have no clue, but he looks like he could be alive. Oh god, I don’t know, stop asking questions and just watch the first full length trailer to BioWare’s sequel for the critically acclaimed sci-fi role-playing game.
When we get to E3, maybe we’ll actually find out more about the game.
Proof:World of Warcraft would be 100 percent more adorable if it included Sackboy. Or would this be called a level 80 Blood SACKelf Warlock? You know what? I honestly don’t care…
Anyway, it’s damn cute, right?
The credit goes to maggiewang and her co-worker. Now, if only I could make something as cool as this, then my life would be complete.
Japanese research site Macquarie, is making some strong statements about what they believe Nintendo is about to unveil at E3. According to what the website “understands,” Nintendo is set to showoff the sequel to Wii Fit called, Wii Fit Plus. They expect the title to be sold separately to financially benefit from the already 17 million boards in households. Macquarie also believes that a bundle will be available at the same time.
Additionally to Wii Fit Plus, Macquarie thinks Nintendo has learned their lesson from horrible E3 showing last year. They are reporting that Nintendo plans on focusing more on the hardcore gamer, as opposed to the causal. If everything goes according to their plan, the makers of the Wii are expected to reveal a brand new Legend of Zelda for the Wii, along with a new Mario game.
I do agree that Nintendo will show of either Mario or Zelda at E3. However, I have a hard time being convinced that they will showboat both titles at one show, never mind release them in the same year. The reason why I say this, is because Nintendo traditionally ships only one of those two titles in a span of a year. Hands down, Mario & Zelda are the company’s biggest franchises, and it is a smarter business decision to releases those games between years, rather in the same one.
Of course we’ll officially know who is right next week.
Like him or dislike him, you can’t argue that Bill Clinton has done quite a bit of things with his life. Not only is he a former United States President, but he also was a governor, musician, Rode Scholar, best-selling author, actor among many other things.
According to Lev Chapelsky, who is the general manager of Hollywood-based Blindlight, Bill Clinton could have also been a video game star.
While having an interview with Edge Magazine, Chapelsky said the California firm asked the former US President to do some voice work for Fallout 3.
“Celebrity acquisition applies not just to celebrity actors but to sports figures, politicians – we’ve made offers to Bill Clinton for videogames and gotten great responses with attorneys who have said, ‘The former president will not participate in one of your videogame products, thank you very much’.”
Chapelsky was then asked by Edge if he could specifically mention which games the firm asked Clinton to do.
“I think that might have been to play the president in Fallout 3. Wouldn’t that have been brilliant? You get to that point in game and you hear that voice in the ether coming from off-camera and you’re like, ‘I know that guy!’”
As cool as it would have been to hear the great southern accent by Clinton coming from my speakers while I played Fallout, there wasn’t even a chance in hell to hear it.
First, Bethesda couldn’t have afford him. According to reports, President Bill Clinton makes upwards of $100,000 for each speech he’s invited to. Imagine how much money he would ask for just to speak written dialogue and on top of that, spend hours to record it?
Also remember that his wife is Hillary Clinton, and she is currently the Secretary of State. Last time I check, she wasn’t too cool with violent video games.
The first time I saw BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins, I simply thought it reminded me to much like the Lord of the Rings films. I mean, it had medieval soldiers fight things that looked oddly similar to the enemies of Middle-earth. Oh, how one trailer can change some one’s perception.
In the latest trailer, BioWare has decided to go full balls out, because well it might look somewhat similar to the famous trilogy, it’s certainly not going to be aimed to the children demographic.
When I first booted up the trailer and waited for it to load, I wasn’t expecting much. Sure, I think the title was going to be good, It is again made by BioWare. But I just was not impressed thus far. That changed in a hurry when the song “This is the New Shit” by Marilyn Manson blasted through my headset. Then what followed was something totally unexpected. Dragon Age could quite possibly be the most violent game I’ve ever laid eyes upon. At the very least, it could be the bloodiest trailer in the history of gaming.
The Japanese version of Yahoo confirmed that Nintendo is remaking Pokémon Silver & Gold for the DS. Last Sunday, a Pokémon variety show in Japan hinted that they would be announcing the titles on their next show, which happened on Sunday. Even though Yahoo beat them to the punch, the TV show was the first to premiere actual gameplay footage, which we embedded up top.
If you’re a fan of the series, then you should recognize that the remakes look almost identical (graphically) to the last Pokémon games released on the same handheld system. Although, it does have one minor difference, the Pokémon following the main character is different. Yay?
From the sounds of it, Nintendo is renaming the games Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver. Is it me, or do the new names sound like a bunch of hippies retitled them?
I’m not going to lie, I’m just not the biggest fan of the classic RPG but I understand many of you are so, enjoy.
I also embedded the whole segment after the jump, so if you want to watch seven minutes of people yelling Japanese, be my guest. (more…)
