Archive for May, 2010

Clover Studio Okami Ex Devs Form Seeds Studio

   No time to mourn the loss of Clover Studio, one of Japans most creative studios that is just a few weeks away from being completely shut down by Capcom, because some of the developers that last worked on God Hand and Okami have already started anew. Their new studio is called Seeds, and if Japanese is your thing, youre more than welcome to visit their companys website at Seeds-Inc.jp to read their start-up message and what Seeds spirit is all about. Otherwise, Kotakus translation, interpretation and speculation will have to suffice:

The company seems to still be in the recruiting phase and sets forth this company philosophy of creating new entertainment for people living in a new world and looking towards the future of gaming (hence, the company name SEEDS). States its always considering worldwide, because it wants more more to play its games. In the companys site there does seem to be a largely international focus and concentration on the play aspect of gaming. If past Clover and Capcom titles are anything to go by, whatever SEEDS does output should be anything but run-of-the-mill.

   Curiously enough, it seems that Seeds was formed back in August 2006, two months ahead of Capcoms tragic announcement. It then comes as little surprise that over 50 people are already working at Seeds – including a number of prominent ex-Clover and Capcom staff (Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami) – and theyre

Jack Thompson vs Manhunt 2 From UK With Love

   If Rockstar Games are back in the news, it means that so is Jack Thompson, attorney extraordinaire. Earlier this month we had a couple of stories about both of them – namely Rockstars Manhunt 2 announcement, and Thompsons latest legal battle (as defendant, for a change) – and it was just a matter of time before a new connection was made between them. Well, we got that connection straight from the man himself this week, in the form of a Valentines love letter open letter in which Thompson announces his intention to stop the distribution of Manhunt 2 in the United Kingdom:

Miami attorney and anti-violent video game activist Jack Thompson has been asked by individuals in the United Kingdom to help stop the distribution of Take-Two / Rockstars hyperviolent video game Manhunt 2 in that country due out this summer. The game will feature stealth murder and torture. The last version allowed suffocation of victims with plastic bags. (ed. – how jolly rude!)

   Oh, so its not actually his intention, but some individuals who know a guy whos friend was murdered in 2004, by this other guy who Thompson & co. claims was obsessed with the original Manhunt game (which was not even found in the murderers possession, but in the victims… aint that something). Oblivious to this fact, Jacks letter continues:

The original Manhunt was responsible for the bludgeoning death of a British youth by his friend who obsessively played the game.

Empire Earth III Sequel Revealed

   When you see a primitive cart with oxes side by side with some futuristic aircraft and naval vessels in one single screenshot, theres clearly something rotten. The explanation for such a contradictory scene will be given to us by Empire Earth III – the sequel to the sequel to the strategy game initially created by Stainless Steel and, after its closure, inherited by Mad Doc Software. Despite the latters recently completed Star Trek: Legacy, a mediocre game at best, Mad Doc still has enough self-esteem to proudly reveal its new project, through a PC Gamer preview also published on CVG – along with the first images from the game (including the contradictory screenshot mentioned above).

   If I were allowed a purely subjective opinion, Id say that the scenes from the other images looks absolutely horrible, and with all of Mad Docs attempts to change things in this third Empire Earth, I fear for the worst. But lets see what this change – or rather changes are all about.

   First of all, the devs peeked around and decided to add a strategic component at the global level, similar to what we see in the Total War series (or the Dune series, just so you see how original of a concept this is). The main difference is that, instead of being confined to a single period of time, you will once again go through the entire history, from primitive tribes all the way to the future.

   Another novelty is that, once you discover a

X COM To Be Revived By Irrational Games

   I dont think I have enough fingers on one hand to count all the times I wasted my enthusiasm on the idea of a UFO / X-COM sequel. And not just any kind of sequel, because there were plenty of mediocre ones, but one that would do justice to the classic UFO: Enemy Unknown (X-COM: UFO Defense), X-COM: Terror from the Deep and, lets say, X-COM: Apocalypse (although I didnt enjoy this as much). I remember getting my first false hope from Project Dreamland: Freedom Ridge, which was being developed by Mythos Games, creators of the first two games in the series. However this was cancelled not long after it was announced and, even though the project was continued by another studio (Altar Interactive), they mutilated it to such a degree, that in the end all we got was… UFO: Aftermath. And later Aftershock and Afterlight, hardly the most faithful games to the UFO spirit. And as for the others – X-COM: Interceptor, X-COM: Enforcer – I dont even want to think about it! There were also a couple of indie attempts at making UFO games, but lets just skip to the point.

   So, after running out of hope and fingers I could count on, here we are with a rumour seemingly dropped out of nowhere, according to which Irrational Games are working on a new X-COM title. Irrational Games?… X-COM?… Since when?, you might ask. Well, there are more connections between these two names than you might think, and Shacknews has done a great job at piecing them

Epic Demos Unreal Engine 3 At GDC 2007

   With all the ramblings about a new N-Gage and Killzone 2 (not) being shown at this years GDC, we nearly lost sight of the thing that truly matters in todays gaming industry: innovation graphics! Smooth, shiny, sparkly graphics! But since we havent heard anything about the Offset Engine in a while, well just have to suffice with todays announcement about Epics plans for the 2007 Game Developers Conference. And we obviously cant talk about Epic in this context, without referring to their Unreal Engine 3 technology, whose latest features will be demoed at GDC 2007 – taking place between March 5-9, in San Francisco.

   In their latest press release, Epic Games announce that they will host an Exposuite for meetings and technology demonstrations, a Career Pavilion booth for prospective employees, a pre-GDC Unreal Engine 3 seminar for licensees, two media events and multiple GDC speaker sessions. Not too shabby! And here are some details about their schedule:

Epic will once again demonstrate the latest Unreal Engine 3 features in a private theater within their ExpoSuite, ES 5718, located in the North Hall. Hours for Epics Exposuite are Wednesday March 7th 9AM – 6:30PM, Thursday March 8th 9AM-6:30PM and Friday March 9th 9AM-3:00PM.

Epic Speaker Sessions at GDC
Key Epic personnel will be leading several GDC speaker sessions:

- Wednesday (March 7, 2007) 2:30pm – 3:30pm (Visual Arts) – Adapting Digital

CryEngine 2 Hands On Demo At GDC 2007

Right after posting the previous story about Epics plans to show (off) their Unreal Engine 3 technology at GDC 2007, I noticed that Gamasutra also has a report about another major graphics engine that will be demonstrated at next months Games Developer Conference. And if its not one of id Softwares doings, it must be Cryteks. The German developers that brought us the exotic shooter Far Cry, and are currently working on Crysis for the PC, announced that their latest engine iteration – CryEngine 2 – will be presented to the public for the first time ever at GDC.

Gamasutra writes that the presentation will actually be a hands-on demonstration of the features and capabilities of CryEngine 2, which means that not only interested developers, but also the general public will be able to toy around with some of Cryteks tools and editors, as detailed below:

Crytek has announced that the features shown for the first time will include an interactive what you see is what you play Sandbox2 Terrain and Visual Mission editor, including adjustable time of day settings, an integrated character animation editor, and a new motion captured / phoneme driven facial animation editor.

Other features, such as the middlewares new asset creation pipeline (used for creating realistic, interactive and breakable objects and vegetation) will only be demoed to developers interested in licensing the technology and tools for their own use. So if you happen to be