The first footage of Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 was shown on US TV today during an NBA playoffs game. The brief ad features a montage of shots showing scenes with snowmobiles colliding and scuba divers escorting and underwater vessel. There’s really not a lot to see but the ad ends with a date of May 24th promising more during the Eastern Conference Finals.
Month: May 2009
Batman: Arkham Asylum PC Requirements, Delays, Alternative Solutions
We thought we’d mention that the PC requirements for Batman: Arkham Asylum were underhandedly revealed unto the Eidos Games forums by an “International Man of Mystery”. If you do find yourself struggling to meet the requirements – or simply cannot bear the fact that the game has been officially postponed – then we have an alternative to offer you in the form of Batman Doom!
The Doom II -based total conversion can be downloaded here and was intriguingly developed by the core members of ACE Team, now better known as the developers of Zeno Clash. If you do decide to take us up on this tip, there are several revised Doom engines you can use to play; Richard recommended to us either Edge or ZDoom. The original Doom II wad files are not required. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the two engines:
If you’re as big a Batman fan as we are, then you probably won’t mind if we sum up this post with the latest Baz Luhrmann –inspired Arkham Asylum fight trailer after the jump.
Thief 4 All But Announced
The latest issue of Edge magazine features ad with the another teaser of Eidos’ unannounced title as seen on their website. What’s different though is that the image is obscuring something that looks pretty much like the Thief logo, sufficient confirmation that the title to be announced on May 11th is indeed a new title in the series.
GOG.com Fallout Editorials
GOG.com have recently published two interesting Fallout editorials, full with commentary from original Black Isle Studios game designers: Tim Cain, Chris Taylor and Chris Avellone.
The first editorial discusses Fallout 1, and touches – among other diverse topics – on how the team ultimately settled on devising SPECIAL instead of utilizing GURPS or D&D, and how the team came to settle on the more transparent register:
“We picked up on the ‘less is more’ storytelling style, and didn’t fully explain everything,” confirms Taylor. “I was a little shocked to read some of the message boards when the game came out and players were filling in the bits that we purposely–or accidentally–left vague.”
Against this backdrop I find it very intriguing that Chris Avellone should have put out the incredibly interesting Fallout Bible series that detailed the game intricately and specifically. Elsewhere, Cain hits the nail on the head in describing the game, ultimately, as a binary construct: “…funny but dark, nostalgic but futuristic, optimistic but depressing”.
The second article, then, deals with the sequel.
Unsurprisingly, none of the interviewees find the second game better than the first – Taylor cites a lack of consistency, Cain believes both its humour and pacing were ‘off’. Lead designer Avellone nonchalantly states the obvious, that Interplay was already hurting badly for funding and that the staff at hand was simply too limited to produce a bug-free game of such immense scope in a ridiculously modest timeframe of 10 months, and endearingly reminisces how the team worked on
“…the boxing ring rules in New Reno literally in the last hour before the game was scheduled for its final submission.”
In an interesting turn of events, the latter piece also notes that Chris Taylor is still working on Interplay’s “V13” Fallout MMO – despite co-creator Jason Anderson recently leaving the project for inXile – and Bethesda delivering a claim to Interplay over an assumed breach of contract. Taylor has commented on the topic as late as April 15th, in a thread on the Interplay forums, stating, “We are still developing Project V13.”
For those interested, there are other editorials available on the site.
Puffs of Steam
Stuff’s up in the Steam-hood:
Killing Floor, the newest zombie game on the block, is now priced at 17,99€, and is currently selling at a pre-purchase discount of 25%. The UT2k4 version of the ex-modification is still available.
Valve’s Robin Walker admits to Shacknews that the company is “exploring … RPG-style mechanics” with Team Fortress 2.
Left 4 Dead statistics are now available on your Steam community page.
…Valve sues Sierra On-Line in 2002 for unauthorized distribution, goes to US District court with Sierra/Vivendi, and finally battling the merged Activision Blizzard/Vivendi in 2009. Sins of the Fathers, huh?
These bullet-point lists probably won’t become a habit of ours (à la GamesRadar), but it’s worth a shot, eh!