The upcoming issue of Game Informer has an exclusive on the upcoming BioShock 2, the the cover of the magazine speaks for itself: the revelation of “Big Sister”.
This finally confirms the existence of “Big Sister” enemies in BioShock 2 (for those who haven’t played BioShock, “Big Daddy” was one of the main enemies in the game). The upcoming issue of Game Informer will undoubtedly reveal more information about the game, as it has an in-depth 10 page article on the game, and further details are also expected at the upcoming Game Developers Conference.
It has been revealed that Terminator Salvation is coming to the iPhone (and thereby the iPod touch as well). Gameloft, developers of the iPhone version of Brothers in Arms, are working on the game and it should be ready for release on May 22 — the release date of the movie.
The game will also be out on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, these versions however, are developed by GRIN, who previously worked on Bionic Commando.
There have been rumors lately suggesting that Nintendo is having problems with the new Wii MotionPlus attachment, and that it might even be delayed past June.
Nintendo has now officially responded to the rumor, saying that “No date was ever announced for MotionPlus — so technically it can’t be delayed”. But as 1UP points out, Nintendo did say that MotionPlus would ship with Wii Sports Resort, which is planned for release this Spring.
Earlier this week, it was reported that The Conduit would not support MotionPlus as originally planned, simply because it didn’t improve gameplay.
Publisher Jolt sent out word clarifying that the forthcoming web-based resurrection of Legends of Zork is not an MMO.
"LoZ is a casual adventure game," Jolt CEO Dylan Collins wrote in a recent newsletter. "We’ve designed it to be the kind of game that sneaks into your soul and steals about 20mins of your time each day. It’s not an MMO (collective sigh of relief, I’d imagine)."
The original announcement carried the following statement: "designed to provide gamers with a casual MMO game they can play on their laptop, desktop or Apple iPhone."
Collins promised that actual details will be revealed soon.
It has been two years since the fateful day Funcom teased The Secret World, their uber secret MMORPG. The time has finally come when the studio will reveal the game: they will begin to “lift the veil” by showing the MMO behind closed doors at this year’s Game Developers Conference, which runs from March 23-27. Director Ragnar Tornquist, creator of The Longest Journey series, will be on hand to discuss the title.
As far as we know, the MMO will be set in the present day and will strive to “create a detailed world where players feel empowered and part of something big, something mystical and epic.”
The Secret World is in development for PC and Xbox 360.
Surprising no one, marketing research group NPD revealed that, according to a study, the Xbox 360 is “the console online gaming leader” in the United States. This study was conducted between January 6 and 26, 2009. Despite this, the PC remains “the most widely used platform for online gaming activities.”
This survey was carried out on “just over 20,000″ US residents. They found that the Xbox 360 accounted for 50% of consoles played online. Nintendo’s Wii made an improvement, coming in at 29%, a jump from last year’s 18%. PC users are a big bunch, as 87% of those surveyed used the platform to play games online. Surprisingly, that’s down from 90% in 2008. As for the PS3, it moved up from fifth place to third place.
The study also noted that microtransactions have slowed since last year, noting that PS3 and Xbox 360 users purchase more downloadable content than others.
Long-running video game magazine GamePro is getting into the game publishing biz, as the company launched GamePro Labs, a publishing label for independent developers.
They will initially focus on iPhone games, along with downloadable PC and Xbox 360 games developed using Microsoft’s XNA platform. The label plans on expanding to Zune games in the future.
GamePro plans to handle all sales and marketing for developers, while managing all distribution with Microsoft and Apple. As a bonus, the games will be regularly promoted in the magazine, and developers will be offered a GamePro developer blog.
Announcements regarding signed developers will be made at this month’s Game Developer Conference.
Massive Entertainment has released the tenth patch for World in Conflict, offering several bug fixes and tweaks, including rebalancing of some units.
However, the patch offers far more than a couple of fixes – it removes the DRM that required the DVD disc to be in the drive during single-player missions. It also enables multiplayer compatibility with the Complete Edition re-release and the stand-alone Soviet Assault expansion pack.
Both the aforementioned releases hit this week. The Complete Edition features both the original and the expansion pack.
Hit the jump for full list of changes.
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If you’ve watched American television for more than five minutes in the last few years you’ve probably seen one of the ‘Above the Influence’ advertisements. The Office of National Drug Control Policy finally learned that cartoon mascots aren’t generally good at turning kids off drugs and started a new campaign. A large portion of their efforts seem directed at stamping out marijuana use. They’ve tried many approaches to convince kids of the evils of this popular drug, but it seems they’re running out of ideas.
Their newest advertisement doesn’t warn about alienating friends, failing out of school or even going to jail. Instead it warns kids that the deleterious effects of marijuana on your perception, hand-to-eye coordination, reflex time and memory will negatively affect your gaming skills. The website even has ‘interviews’ with two computer generated characters (one a generic female ninja and the other a pointy-eared Link look-alike) discussing how a gamer getting high affected them.
While some companies are looking into restructuring and creating new innovative products as means of beating the recessions, others are going for a slightly different means of getting more money: lawsuits. Activision was recently sued by Gibson, the guitar manufacturer that they’d partnered with in making the Guitar Hero games over patent infringement. Joining the ranks of the legally besieged is Microsoft.
They’ve been sued by online chat company Paltalk who are claiming that certain functions of the Xbox Live chat violate patents that they hold including technologies for “gaming communications through a group message server to maintain a consistent environment for all players, as well as establishing groups for online game play.” Microsoft says that they had meetings with the company when they were creating Xbox Live, but after examining their technology went another way. The company is seeking $90 million in compensation, with the trial set to begin in Texas this month.
