Archive for the ‘PC’ Category
By: Jon Christensen on March 10th, 2010 pm31 12:19 pm
It’s official, the videogame streaming service OnLive will debut on June 17 in the US, which is also the last day of E3. Their will be a monthly subscription of $14.95 and other fees like renting or owning a game will be extra.
According to COO Mike McGarvey, who talked to MCV, the membership price “provides access to an ever-increasing library of high-end, new release game content and a host of exclusive community feature such as Brag Clips and massive spectating.” He also noted that “individual titles will be available for purchase or rental on an a la carte basis. Specific game pricing, including rentals,purchases and loyalty programs, will be announced prior to the consumer launch event at E3. We’ll also be announcing additional loyalty and discount programs for consumers in the coming months.”
When the service launches, it will only be available for both the PC and Mac; however, the home Micro Console — which allows games to played on any TV — is scheduled before years end. “For the initial rollout of the consumer service, we are focusing on delivering high-performance games to PCs and Macs and we will be making an announcement regarding our plans for the MicroConsole rollout later on in the year,” said McGarvey.
Three titles have been confirmed when OnLive launches on the internet, which are Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed II and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, along with THQ’s Metro 2033. Although, expect more to be announced soon — maybe even tonight when OnLive has a keynote during GDC.
It’s been known for awhile that Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive, Warner Bros and THQ have all jumped on the OnLive bandwagon. However, up until this point the biggest publisher in the world — Activision — has yet to be sold on the streaming service concept.
After the jump, read about what I think is the biggest hurdle for OnLive. (more…)
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By: Jon Christensen on February 9th, 2010 pm28 2:15 pm
Summer is universally known as a slow time for gamers. Most of the anticipated titles skip the warm season and generally come out when the weather gets colder, just in time for the holidays. However this year, Electronic Arts has decided to change up the theory “when games should be released.”
Barring no major setbacks or delays, EA is set to release both the reboot of the Medal of Honor game, which is set in modern times and Realtime World’s ambitious title APB (All Points Bulletin) will be released this summer. The publisher expects to release both games between July through September; however no exact date was announced.
The company also announced vague dates for a couple other important games as well. From October to December, Crysis 2, Criterion’s (Burnout) first take on Need for Speed and EA’s MMA game will all be launched. Following December and ending in March, Dead Space 2, a sequel to Dragon Age, an unnamed Epic Games shooter, along with a unannounced action title, are all scheduled to ship.
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By: Jon Christensen on February 9th, 2010 am28 11:39 am
It has been three years since we last saw a Ghost Recon title. However, that’s about to change thanks to a Ubisoft announcement. The publisher has confirmed that their studio Ubisoft Paris, the same team who developed the Advanced Warfare series, is underway working on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
The company is promising the title will include “cutting-edge technology, prototype high-tech weaponry, and state-of-the-art single-player and multiplayer modes,” which isn’t hard to believe since pretty much every Ghost Recon has been considered a “Grade A” series.” And honestly, it was the Modern Warfare before Modern Warfare and not only that, the older Recon’s are STILL some of the most realistic shooters of-all-time.
The game sounds like it will launch sometime this holiday season; however, if you own an Xbox 360 you’ll get a chance to experience a tease beforehand. Included with Splinter Cell: Conviction will be a Ghost Recon: Future Soldier beta key. Exactly what that will entail is unknown, but we’re pretty sure multiplayer will be the focus.
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By: Jon Christensen on January 29th, 2010 pm31 2:09 pm
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.
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By: Jon Christensen on January 29th, 2010 am31 1:50 am
When Grand Theft Auto IV was announced a couple years ago, it was proceeded by the shocking news how the Xbox 360 version would get dibs on the downloadable content, which saw two different episodes in a span of a year. Today, Rockstar Games has just revealed that the same content, both called The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, will be available for the PlayStation 3 starting March 30th. Each game will be sold separately for $19.99 on the PlayStation Network or gamers can buy a Blu-ray disc which includes both titles and can be purchased for $39.99.
PC owners can also get on the action and buy the two expansions for the same price, but also get some extra goodies. According to the company, not only can players use the exclusive “advanced video editor,” but also have multiplayer matches with 32-online players.
While it sounds cool, I’m not sure how great this is. Grand Theft Auto is a two-year old game, and if you head to your local GamStop and check out the used section, you find stacks of Grand Theft Auto IV games, meaning gamers didn’t keep the title. At the same time, you have to wonder if Microsoft paying $50 million to make sure Rockstar would make the content exclusive, was worth it. Apparently, it was just a time-exclusive deal, and as of now, I have a hard time believing enough Xbox 360s were moved to warrant the price paid.
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By: Jon Christensen on January 28th, 2010 pm31 3:07 pm
BioWare has created some of the most sought-after games of this generation. From Mass Effect to Dragon Age, the studio has redefined RPGs for the home console. The company has been so successful that they announced last year that they are opening up a whole new studio in Montreal, Quebec, which means more original games will come out from the studio.
While having a live chat with Eurogamer earlier today, the CEO of BioWare Ray Muzyka confirmed with viewers that BioWare is developing titles for the PlayStation 3. When asked if some games, not necessarily for the PS3, will be unveiled at this year’s E3, he responded with the simple answer of “yes!”
Sadly, he didn’t reveal if we should expect completely new titles or sequels to already successful franchises. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see something about Mass Effect 3, even if it’s a tease. Muzyka has confirmed the third installment of the space RPG is already in the early development stages.
via: vg247
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By: Jon Christensen on January 5th, 2010 pm31 5:21 pm
We already know Treyarch is working on the seventh installment of the Call of Duty Series. For the last couple of years or so, Infinity Ward, who originally started working on the famous first-person shooter games, would one year release a Call of Duty, but the following year Treyarch would launch the next in the serious. It’s a way for Activision to keep milking the franchise fresh. It has been the pattern for awhile now — and for the time being, it’s gonna stay that way.
The last time Treyarch released a Call of Duty game was back in 2008, when World at War was launched. If you didn’t play it, you should be able to guess the story was told in the World War II era; however, rumors have suggested the studio plans on having the player fight a different war this time around.
A few months ago, we heard Treyarch is going to try and have the narrative be told during the Vietnam Conflict; however, nothing has been confirmed. Today, planetxbox360 is reporting that it is indeed going to be set in Vietnam, according to whom they call “reliable sources.” They also have written about some details about what we should expect when the game hits store shelves.
The spy told the website that Treyarch plans on focusing “heavily” on the story, and will try to capture the struggles of each soldier starring in the videogame. Of course, as the player fights though the game, the same engine which was developed by Infinity Ward will be included in the first-person shooter — obviously. Treyarch, apparently also wants to have the pacing of the Steven Spielberg’s World War II classic, Saving Private Ryan, but also “borrow” some of the action scenes from Platoon, Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket.
So when should we see the title? Well according to the site, winter of 2010. While all the information above sounds legit, I’m pretty sure I could have guessed it all. To me, that only means one of two things. One, the site is making this stuff up, which I don’t think they are. Or two, Treyarch isn’t being as original as they should be. Hmmm…
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By: Jon Christensen on January 5th, 2010 pm31 4:39 pm
German film composer Hans Zimmer has written some of the best movie scores in recent history. His work includes The Last Samurai, the last two Pirates of the Caribbeans and more recently The Dark Knight. In 2009, he started to dip his hands into the videogame industry and worked with Infinity Ward to write some of the main themes to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Lately, some of the more terrific scores like Halo’s composer Marty O’Donnell, have had the privilege to see their work released in CD form as a soundtrack. If you played the action game, which according to the sales you probably have, you would have noticed the music was on par with most blockbuster films released today. Naturally, a soundtrack release has been set in motion by Activision, which was first tweeted by Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling.
Now Hans Zimmer has confirmed that the Modern Warfare 2 score will be released in stores and hopefully iTunes. Unfortunately, no Specific date has been set, but I’m sure it will be soon rather then later.
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By: Jon Christensen on January 5th, 2010 am31 11:17 am
I love videogames, I love them to death. But honestly, I could never spend what I considered an insane amount of money on a object that is not real. But apparently there are people out there, that are willing to shell out huge sums of money to pixelated objects. Don’t believe me? Well, just take “Buzz Eric Lightyear” for example. The guy plays a free MMORPG game called Entropia Universe, where players are supposed to colonize a untamed planet named Calypso. While the game is free to download, the title uses its own currency called Project Entropia Dollars, or PED for short.
One way people get PEDs is by actually using their own money, and one $1 USD equals to $10 PED. While you might think the title sounds like a snore, and you believe there is no way the developer, MindArk, makes any kind of cash off the title — you would be wrong. So far, according to them, the turnover has been $3.6 Billion PEDs, or $360 Million USD — aka real money.
Because there is a lot of cash being made off the MMO, some players have to be spending a crap-load, which brings me back to this “Buzz Eric Lightyear” guy. According to reports, he recently just dropped $330,000 of real money to purchase his own virtual space station, that orbits Planet Calypso.
Now before you make fun of him, which I already have and I’m sure you will too, make sure you understand that his newly acquired space station will actually be a virtual business, and he’ll even make real money in the end. Apparently, anyone can hang out in this station and while they are there, they can hunt and shop. Since”Lightyear” owns the business, he has the ability to set the tax rates of everything, which in the end turns into REAL cash in his REAL pocket.
Everyone says you should make money off of something you enjoy, so I guess you could say he just took the phrase to the extreme.
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By: Jon Christensen on January 4th, 2010 pm31 1:46 pm
The UK version of the Official Xbox Magazine, released the first details of the upcoming reboot of Medal of Honor. While the post on the mag’s official website is more of a tease of the actual article inside the next issue, which hits newsstands on January 7th, it’s the first real information since the trailer debuted at last month’s Video Game Awards show.
According to the publication, the game will be told in the unstable country of Afghanistan. Just from that piece of information, it sounds like the first-person will focus more on today’s Middle Eastern conflict, rather than take the Modern Warfare 2 approach and write a completely different story, that really has nothing to do with today’s politics. One of the reasons for Infinity Ward to take that route was because they didn’t want to make the videogame to ‘preachy.’
When EA sent out the first press release back in December, it read that the title will follow a “badass” main character. We weren’t sure if that meant players would only play as one guy, or if EA planned on having multiple playable characters. Today, OXM confirmed players will play as several Tier 1 Ops soldiers, who were “brought in to help with authenticity.”
A feature that sounds like it could work great in a multiplayer game is the ability to shootout lights and put on night-vision goggles. While they have yet to confirm if it is only in the single player campaign or they plan on using it in an online match, I hope its for both. Imagine playing a team-deathmatch, and a light is shining right on you with swarms of enemies surrounding your area and with the flick of the trigger button, you take out the lights — throw on the night-vision goggles and take out each and everyone of them — and before they know what happened, they’re dead. It’s a simple concept, but it certainly sounds like a fun one.
This next installment of Medal of Honor is naturally going to be compared to the Modern Warfare series, so why not steal a few things from the popular FPS. According to the magazine, there will be sprinting and a knife melee attack, which apparently reminded them a lot like Call of Duty. I just hope the team behind MoH, are also going to try and innovate more, and make it feel like they’re own videogame, instead of making it Modern Warfare 2.5.
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By: Jon Christensen on December 28th, 2009 pm31 6:09 pm
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 isn’t just the biggest game of the year in terms of sales, it was the most pirated games too. Although that isn’t necessarily a shocker, popular titles mean people want them, it’s just a matter if they are willing to pay for them or not. TorrentFreak is the website that did the research and according to them, Modern Warfare 2 was downloaded illegally about 5 million times, which means Activision lost about 300,000,000 bucks because of those pesky pirates.
The site figured about 970,000 of those downloads were for Microsoft’s console the Xbox 360, while about 4.1 million were downloaded for the PC. Even though the sales were much higher for the consoles, people who download games are doing it on a computer, which makes it much easier to run the game on the same machine — hence the numbers of downloads were much higher on the PC.
Some other notable games which were download for “free” were: The Sims 3, Street Fighter IV and Prototype. Although Activision could spin this negative into a positive by handing out a statement that reads that gamers were more willing to play Modern Warfare 2 than EA’s Spore because when that came out in 2008, it was only downloaded 1.7 million times.
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By: Jon Christensen on December 15th, 2009 pm31 4:26 pm
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.
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By: Jon Christensen on December 12th, 2009 pm31 5:50 pm
Tonight is one of the biggest nights in the videogame industry because Spike TV is broadcasting the seventh annual Video Game Awards. While it pales in comparison to such conventions as the Electronic Entertainment Expo; it does give us a glimpse into what games we should expect in 2010 — thanks to the world premier trailers, announcements and surprises during the show. Not only that, it will honor the very best of what 2009 had to offer, by handing out select VMA awards to the outstanding titles of this past year.
After the jump, we will live blog the award ceremony. If all you want to see is the latest trailer, just refresh our homepage, and it will be below this live blog — as we are making this a sticky post until the show ends. (more…)
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By: Jon Christensen on December 11th, 2009 pm31 1:51 pm
Let’s face it, if you are gonna watch the Video Game Awards tomorrow, chances are you’re not viewing it for the awards. Sure, when it started back in 2003, Spike TV was hoping that they could do what MTV did with the Video Music Awards, where the channel recognized the best music videos of the year — but instead of doing the professional award ceremony like the Oscars, they produced it as an edgy accolade show.
I haven’t met a gamer that stays home on a Saturday night, anticipating which game will win ‘Game of the Year.’ Instead, they are watching it for the world premieres of exciting upcoming games. Videogame journalist, Geoff Keighley, who has been promoting the heck out of the VGAs, told Destructoid that “more than 12″ games will debut during the show.
So far, Crackdown 2, the Medal of Honor reboot, UFC 2010, Halo: Reach, TRON and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, have all been confirmed to be revealed during the ceremony. Now, if you count all the games mentioned above, that would mark only six titles — meaning we will see at the very least, six more. However, we do know that Activision plans to show off a cop game that takes place in Hong Kong, LucasArts is announcing something at the show and an unannounced shooter by 2K will be unveiled. That brings the total number to nine. So, we are left with three more world premieres, possibly more.
“We definitely have some pretty major surprises still to come,” Keighley told the website. “Essentially, the biggest thing in the show hasn’t even been announced yet.” That sounds rather exciting, doesn’t it? What could it be? Well…I have no clue. Although, if you are thinking it could be Dead Space 2 or Sony’s motion controller, it isn’t — Keighley confirmed that won’t be shown in any capacity.
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By: Jon Christensen on December 2nd, 2009 pm31 9:32 pm
Uwe Boll’s next masterpiece, Far Cry, went straight-to-DVD. Chances are you wouldn’t buy nor rent the film and seriously, can anyone blame you? However, I bet you are a tad curious, I mean Uwe’s films are for the most part, atrocious — so it’s kinda like looking at automobile accident pictures on the internet. No matter how horrifying the images are — you somehow convince yourself to quickly look at one. Before you know it, you checked out the whole gallery.
Anyway, if you want to briefly see how bad the Far Cry film ended up being and are a Netflix subscriber, you can now stream the movie online. Obviously if you have an Xbox Live account or a PS3 Netflix disc, you can also stream the movie straight to your console.
As I write this, I’m streaming it on my computer and I’m about 3 minutes into the film, and already want to shut it off — so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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