Archive for April, 2007
Grand Theft Auto 4 Questions and Answers fly around
Last week Game Informer magazine invited Grand Theft Auto fans to ask questions about Rockstar’s GTA 4. Apparently GI is the only magazine so far to have seen Grand Theft Auto IV in action, and promised to answer as many of your questions as possible. GTA4.net transcribed the interview now that the answers are in.
Interesting points: There are no airplanes in GTA 4, but flying remains a big part of the game. This means you will be able to fly helicopters. Niko can also climb telephone poles, it seems. On with the Q&A:
Question: I heard that you can’t fly in Liberty City anymore. What is up with that?! Flying is one of my favorite parts of this series!
Answer: This is incorrect. There are no airplanes in the game, but flying is still there. One means of this is the helicopter. As Dan pointed out, this is just one city and a plane really doesn’t fit into that very well for gameplay. Flying is still very much a large part of the game.
Question: Did you see some indication of seasons (winter, summer, spring…)?
Answer: Sadly, the demo that Rockstar presented was only about 15 minutes in length. Time of day definitely progresses, but whether it progresses throughout an entire calendar year remains to be seen.
Question: How is the AI? Are the enemies smarter? Can they find cover?
Answer: This is another area that Rockstar is keeping under wraps at the moment. I can, however, tell you that I saw a truck driver swerve onto the sidewalk right in front of where we were walking. This strange little incident also took the Rockstar representatives by surprise. It almost looked like the driver was drunk, but then again, he could have just been in a hurry too.
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71 comments »Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings intro video and Epic Battle gameplay
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings from Square Enix for Nintendo DS tells the story of Vaan and Panelo, two of the main characters from FFXII. Vaan is 18 years old in the game, and has just fulfilled his dream of getting his own airship. He keeps himself free of politics and family life and travels around as a sky pirate. The 17-year-old Panelo serves as his navigator. Together they fly across the land, seeking adventure.
Take the first few steps with this intro in a beautiful handheld RPG adventure you won’t soon forget. It’s released in Japan, where it sold 180,000 on its first day, so now you get to see some in-game videos before it’s released in 2007 in English.
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Mega Man Star Force Pegasus, Leo and Dragon videos shown by Capcom. The action-RPG release date is in August 2007
Capcom recently showed off a new game in the Megaman series, Mega Man Star Force for the Nintendo DS. It’s the first game in a new Mega Man series that debuts in three versions: Pegasus, Leo and Dragon. The action-RPG has a planned release date in North America of August 2007.
These first videos show the Mega Man Battle Network spin-off series Mega Man Star Force. Starting with the “Pegasus” version, you can freeze enemies cold with its ice attack:
In the “Leo” version you unlock star power. Article continues »
Too Human cutscene shows the value of severed heads
Too Human developer Silicon Knights has released a new video of the Xbox 360-exclusive adventure/action/rpg/etc. What I thought was awesome was to hear the developer talk in a recent IGN interview that cutscenes in Too Human are fully interactive, meaning you’ll be able to look around and zoom in/out and who knows what else they’ll come up with inter-activity-wise.
This cutscene is “The Value of Severed Heads Revealed”
After the recent Too Human trailer unveiling, Denis Dyack continues blogging about the game’s progress, most recently with a blog titled The Path Ahead. He gives a nice list of items the team is working on right now: Article continues »
Silent Hill Origins preview: the first 9 minutes intro and hospital gameplay video
The all-new horror game Silent Hill Origins, a prequel to Silent Hill, is a singleplayer adventure that will be released by Konami in winter 2007. New gameplay elements, such as a barricade system that lets players block off rooms from enemies, and an enhanced camera system deliver an added sense of isolation and anxiety in this frightening adventure. For example, keep an eye on the flashlight lighting as well as the grainy indoors look.
Silent Hill Origins tells the tale of a solitary truck driver stuck in the terrifying town while making a routine delivery. Take a look at the game’s opening 9 minutes.
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Ubisofts million-sellers: Petz, Rainbow Six Vegas, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, Red Steel, Rayman Raving Rabbids
Ze French games developer Ubisoft said that during the most recent quarter it was the third-largest independent publisher in the USA with a market share of 6.7% versus 6.1% the year before, and that their European market share also grew to 8.6% from 7.6% a year prior.
This, of course, translates into a big sales list:
* The Petz series of games sold 3.5 million during the fiscal year 2006 (that’s the calendar year from April 2006 until March 2007).
* Rainbow Six Vegas sold 1.7 million copies to date.
* Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was based on the movie TMNT, sold 1.1 million copies across eight platforms during Ubisoft’s last quarter.
* Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 sold 1 million copies on Xbox 360.
* Red Steel sold 950,000 copies on Wii.
* Rayman Raving Rabbids sold 830,000 copies on Wii.
All in all the annual sales rose 24% to €680 million ($926 million) with a forecasted yearly sales of €800 million ($1.1 billion). Titles set for release this fiscal year include the newly-announced Tom Clancy’s EndWar strategy game, games within the Brothers in Arms and Splinter Cell series, Assassin’s Creed, Haze, Surf’s Up, Lost, and Naruto.
Via Nextgen
Gears of War movie 22 page script including spoilers leaked for your reading pleasure
The “work in progress” Gears of War movie script including spoilers was just leaked. You knew the Xbox 360 game rocked, but what about the summer 2009 Gears movie? From reading it it sounds like it’ll be one kick ass film thanks to Marcus Phoenix and Dom Santiago. Take a look at Stu Beattie’s 22 page treatment of his upcoming script for “Gears of War”…
Planet Sera. The Battle of Aspho Fields. The last battle of the Pendulum Wars.
We meet Sergeant MARCUS FENIX and Corporal DOM SANTIAGO riding pensively in the back of a Raven, one of hundreds ferrying in gears to assault the enemy headquarters. The Coalition of Ordered Governments could have simply burned the fortress to the ground with their orbital satellites, but a body count is needed for the big final COG victory and satburns have a way of disintegrating human flesh…
…this weighs on Dom’s mind as enemy missiles start pounding the Ravens.
Several choppers go down in flames. Marcus keeps his eyes and his squad on the target. The Ravens touch down and the gears pile out into an insane hail of rocket and gunfire. Most Ravens never even back it back up. This is madness. Bodies are ripped apart. Wounded soldiers scream for their mothers. A grenade annihilates an embedded media crew. Nobody knows where he or she’s supposed to be.
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First Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare video
Activision recently confirmed CoD4. the First-Person Shooter game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare breaks away from the WWII scenario, the Call of Duty franchise has a new modern warfare theme and a new battlefield story for next-gen systems PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. Here’s the first trailer, the video seems to shows early in-game footage, take a look:
Developer Infinity Ward didn’t announce a release date yet, all they had to say was “… Charlie Oscar Delta …”
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time feature movie to be filmed by Transformers director Michael Bay for a summer 2010 release
Jerry Bruckheimer has been busy with his CSI TV show and Pirates of the Caribbean movie trilogy, but still has been working hard to get other film franchises off the ground. IESB reports that his upcoming film, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, will be directed by Michael Bay right after he’s done with this Summer’s blockbuster, Transformers. Bruckheimer & Bay previously teamed up on Bad Boys I and II, The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor.
This feature film adaptation is “based on the video game, which follows an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world.†The original creator of the game, Jordan Mechner, has said that “Rather than do a straight beat-for-beat adaptation of the new videogame, we’re taking some cool elements from the game and using them to craft a new story - much as ‘Pirates’ [of the Caribbean] did with the theme park ride.”
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Nintendo working on 45 games for Wii, 79 for DS
Today in Tokyo, Japan, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata met with the press to talk about having doubled the company’s video games profits in 2006 and the Nintendo’s future plans that include the development of 45 Wii games and 79 DS games. “The next batch of games will be introduced to the market at the end of summer,” he said.
He continued by saying that many of these games are “real gamer games” such as Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, rather than the casual stuff that we’re seeing a lot of on the DS. He also mentioned Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in the context of the using the Wii remote and nunchuk as a controller for first person shooters: “Metroid Prime is not out yet, so this is just the opinion of testers, but it’s being rated close to the keyboard and mouse control that’s the standard for PC games.” It was even suggested EA will be able to use it in the new ways for its sports games (like they did with Madden NFL 07).
Mr. Iwata at last revealed how well the Wii’s Virtual Console is performing with 3.3 million games sold worldwide through the download service. No details per game or platform were given.
IGN also translated a slight reference Mr. Iwata made to future Nintendo hardware: “It’s possible that the market will suddenly change. This is why our hardware development team is considering a variety of things.” Perhaps this is the mystical GameBoyCube or a Wii 2 AKA Wiiii! 
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