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.
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.
I can’t stand when I hear some analyst and journalists talk about how the economic crisis happening right now, will not affect the video game industry. Apparently, those people haven’t been watching the meltdown of studios getting the axe worldwide.
One of the biggest publishers have already made set backs and it looks like they’re continuing the unnerving trend. According to IGN, EA is about to cut 400 jobs in the next few weeks and the team Black Box seem to be the first to go. The folks over at Black Box have created the Need for Speed series and the recently famed extreme sports game SKATE. Right now, they’re currently developing the sequel to SKATE for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Although IGN has stated the project will be finished than the studio will be closed.
The industry is being affected and quite hard by the global recession. When studios close and jobs are lost, that means less games are created. When that happens; companies loose more revenue and ultimately — our industry shrinks.
