Activision

Don’t Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Martyn Zachary 1 Comment

United Front Games, best known for their atmospheric Hong Kong city brawler Sleeping Dogs (2012), is rumoured to be closing down.

The weight of this rumour is not slight, and deserves all the extra attention we can bring to it – true or not, at this point in time we don’t yet know for sure – because, once again, the string of events that led us here reads like yet another example of Konami-like profound executive failure.

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But, to start from a beginning. According to United Front producer Dan Sochan, Sleeping Dogs – which never quite lived down its reputation as a True Crime game – actually started out as the original game Black Lotus, which was then subsequently bought and slated by Activision to be the next part of their True Crime game series as True Crime: Hong Kong. After the publisher lost faith in the game’s market prospects, with Activision’s Eric Hirshberg noting in 2011 that “The finished product was not going to be at the top of that genre,” 1)https://www.engadget.com/2011/08/01/square-enix-snags-rights-to-true-crime-hong-kong-from-activisio/ it was ultimately poached (sans the True Crime moniker) from Activision by Square Enix, who would then release the game as Sleeping Dogs in 2012. 2)https://www.engadget.com/2012/06/06/the-true-story-of-sleeping-dogs-non-true-crime-origins/ (more…)

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Transformers: War for Cybertron Rolls Out June

Nabeel Burney Leave a comment

It’s been a while since we last had a look at Transformers: War for Cybertron, and since then there has been some good media released that gives us a good look at the gameplay. G4TV has a developer walkthrough narrated by Matt Tieger from High Moon Studios, demonstrating the game with Optimus not-yet-Prime.

As the earlier previews suggested, the game really does take a lot from the Gears of War series, and plays like a tight third person shooter. There is more to the basic formula with the addition of abilities unique to each Transformer as well as, of course, the option to transform into a vehicle at any time. Tieger explains that the vehicle form has two modes, a hover mode in which the vehicle controls exactly like the Transformer on foot, with strafing and jumping, and a regular mode in which you can travel forward much faster to “roll out” in style.

Some more details about the multiplayer are known now too. Players will have the choice of playing as the existing Autobots and Decepticons in the myriad multiplayer modes, as well as the ability to create whole new Transformers with a character editor, based on pre-built classes each with their unique capabilities 1)http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/transformerswarforcybertron/news.html?sid=6261295&mode=previews.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I don’t have extremely high expectations of the game, but I’m still looking forward to it. It seems to hit the right notes in terms of fan service and the hands-on impressions out there indicate that it will probably provide some decent value through sheer content 2)http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/video-games-17/war-for-cybertron—tfw2005-visits-high-moon-studios–gameplay-impressions-169615/. The multitude of Transformers to choose from and the drop-in co-op will no doubt ensure a decent amount of replayability.

After the jump, the videos. War for Cybertron is hitting stores on June 22, 2010 for every platform imaginable 3)http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=430620.
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The Not-So Silver Lining

Martyn Zachary 1 Comment
Lost at the Sea

Fan games based on more or less commercially viable licenses have always faced the unenviable task of navigating the stormy, abbreviated seas of C&D and DMCA all the while keeping a low enough profile to avoid the aforementioned corporate shallows, at the same time maintaining a public enough face to attract necessary fan interest.

Some projects, like Indiana Jones & The Fountain of Youth and AGDInteractive’s remakes have surprisingly managed to stay afloat; others, like the very latest target of this type of license injustice, The Silver Lining, a King’s Quest fan game, are fish food:

In 2005, Phoenix Online Studios received a Cease & Desist letter from Vivendi Universal, the owners of the King’s Quest IP, in regards to our work on The Silver Lining. We complied with the request, and over the months that followed, we were able to work out a non-commercial fan license with Vivendi that allowed us to continue our work on the game.…

Recently, however, ownership of the Sierra IP changed hands and became the property of Activision. After talks and negotiations in the last few months between ourselves and Activision, they have reached the decision that they are not interested in granting a non-commercial license to The Silver Lining, and have asked that we cease production and take down all related materials on our website. 1)http://www.tsl-game.com/

Closed Due to Tragedy

The Silver Lining was eight years in the making, and while this final blow in a long uphill battle must be a massive, massive disappointment to the members of the development team, it is also exactly that to the most dedicated fans of Roberta Williams’ classic adventure series; is it not the most interested of fans, after all, that come to develop, find out about and care for these underground fan games?

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Robots In This, Guys

Nabeel Burney 2 Comments

Like a certain caped crusader up until very recently, the Transformers IP hasn’t had much luck in the gaming space, with generally mediocre attempts over the years despite the no-brainer concept. That could change, though, if the new game from High Moon Studios delivers on its potential.

Transformers: War For Cybertron was announced at the end of last year with a teaser trailer, showing pre-rendered carnage taking place on Cybertron. Details were scant at the time; Game Informer had the exclusive preview in a recent issue which revealed some interesting information. The game uses the Unreal 3 engine, and has a gritty, war-torn look a la Gears of War. The design of the characters lies somewhere in between Generation One and the Michael Bay films aesthetics, with changes not only to the characters’ looks but some of the transformations as well – Megatron’s alternate form is a hovertank, Optimus’ is a hovertruck without a trailer. In fact, all the ground vehicles have been changed to hover-something or other, to allow for a shared control scheme between the two forms 1)http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/26/impressions-transformers-war-for-cybertron/.

Today a new trailer went up, with realtime footage using the game engine as opposed to pre-rendered CGI. While we still have no gameplay to make first impressions, one thing’s for sure: High Noon makes some epic trailers. I’m not exactly a diehard fan of the series, but I did grow up with the original animated show and toys, so I am excited by the promise of this title. A few gameplay impressions have gone up, Stephen Totilo’s at Kotaku gives a cautiously optimistic recap of the demo he witnessed. I only hope the game turns out better than the last game people were cautiously optimistic about.

As Totilo explains, there are two campaigns, the Autobots and the Decepticons, with up to three-player online co-op. Players choose from a selection of Transformers each with its unique weapons, vehicle and abilities. In the demo shown to the press, Optimus (not yet a Prime) had an area-of-effect stat boost called War Cry. Transformation between forms is done with the touch of a button and is smooth, keeping the momentum going. Joystiq remarks how the game plays a lot like linear third-person action games such as Ratchet and Clank.

High Noon may not have the best credentials with their previous less-than-stellar efforts in Daywatch and The Bourne Conspiracy, but they recognise the task at hand and assure that are trying to “make a great game” that is “true to the spirit” of people’s expectations. Transformers: War For Cybertron is due this May 2)http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/10/activision-singularity-transformers-war-for-cybertron-due-in/. After the jump, said epic trailers.

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