OK OK, last post today, I promise…sorta.
Check out this Gamespy preview of Pirates!. Yup, after all these years, Sid Meier is remaking his classic game for modern systems.
Will it be as good as the original? Probably not. But if its HALF as good as the original, it’ll still be twice as good as most of the stuff coming out these days.
Rejoice, ye gamers of olde! We’ll be courtin’ the g’vners daughter agin soon enough!
(Yes in fact, I am going through my in-box from the past few days!)
Midway courts controversy with upcoming video game.
Worth a read.
Founder of ‘Grand Theft auto’ firm resigns – Mar. 16, 2004
I remember when Take-Two was a struggling new publisher doing games like…ok, now my mind is going blank. It was a strategy game (for PC) that involved time travel. You could move back and time and change the ‘timeline’ of the universe and in so doing sort of undo what you’d already accomplished.
Well, no matter. It was a neat idea, though. It really exposed the paradox and complexities of time travel in a neat way.
But anyway, they sure have changed from earnest startup to ‘bad boy publisher’ haven’t they? Do they still publish Talonsoft titles, for instance? Or is it all Rockstar-esque ‘rated M’ titles these days?
So Sigil Games has fired up a website and announced their game, V a n g u a r d – Saga Of Heroes.
Lots of bold claims, but how many times have we seen bold claims scaled back as the release date grows near.
So we’ll wait and we’ll watch, eh?
Tonight was the first episode of the new animated series, Game Over. Its supposed to tell the story of a family of video game characters when they’re not working. I was surprised to find myself more or less enjoying it. I loved the inside gamer jokes that kept popping up (no spoilers) and I’m also a fan of Patrick Warburton (who you’ll remember played The Tick in the live-action series of that cartoon, as well as the henchmen of the villain in The Emperor’s New Groove) who plays the father.
I have to say I never would’ve placed Lucy Liu (who plays the mom) if I hadn’t looked up the voice credits, but she did a nice job.
For me, enjoyment of the show will depend a lot on how much airtime “Turbo” (the vile family pet) gets, as I didn’t like that character much at all.
I’ll definitely watch it again, though. I went into it expecting a train wreck and found instead an OK show.
Well, I’m done with Max Payne 2. Which is not to say I finished it, because I did not. I got a little over a third of the way through it, as best I can figure (to where you control Mona Sax for the first time, if you’ve played the game).
I really enjoyed the gunplay, but something about the graphics engine just triggered massive motion sickness in me. Playing on a 50″ screen probably just made it worse. Motion sickness is a bit of a mystery to me…I’m not sure why one game will trigger it and another will not. For instance, I can play 007: Everything or Nothing with no trouble at all. Both 3rd person shooters, but one sends me to bed with a cool damp rag on my forehead until the sweats pass, and the other I can play with no discomfort at all.
Anyway, back to Payne…
I was also disappointed in the level design, which I found monotonous overall. There were some high points, to be sure, like getting to Mona’s hideout, but otherwise it was just one dirty dingy building after another. The stairwells really made my stomach lurch and there were a TON of them. And so many narrow ledges and jumping puzzles, which the controls on the XBox were just not up to. They just weren’t precise enough.
I think a lot of my issues can be put down to ‘bad port from the PC’ though the game (in 480p widescreen) was absolutely gorgeous to look at and the Dolby 5.1 sound was incredible. But the controls — as is so often the case in this kind of a game — they just weren’t good.
Which was a shame since the cheesy noir story had me hooked and blasting bad guys was a total hoot. I’m thinking this would be a great game on the PC…maybe I’ll pick it up when it hits the bargain bin (its way too short to spend full price on. I borrowed the XBox copy I was playing from a friend).
I just got a press release announcing that Mike Hutchins has joined Sigil Games as a Senior Designer. Hutchins was a level/zone builder on the original version of Everquest.
Sigil Games, you’ll recall, is Brad “The Vision” McQuaid’s start-up and is getting packed full of ex-Verant people.
Press release ends with this snippet:
About Sigil Games Online, Inc.
Sigil Games Online, Inc. is a game studio dedicated to the development of massively multiplayer games. … Sigil Games plans to play a key role in taking MMOGs into their third generation and beyond.
Color me skeptical. EverQuest was the first 3D MMRPG and so it was mighty popular, but the game demands you devote your life to it. After McQuaid left, things lightened up a bit but still EQ is an incredible time sink. I just think if he builds a new game that puts such intense time demands on potential customers in today’s MMRPG climate, he’s going to be very surprised indeed.
This weeks Pulse reported that the first XBox 2 (XBox Next?) dev kits have gone out. They sport dual G5 processors and ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video cards. Pulse was quick to add that these are prelimnary kits and don’t reflect the exact end hardware, but I thought it was pretty nice that the closest thing they could get to the graphic capacity of XBox 2 is a Radeon 9800 Pro. Not too shabby.
The only confirmation I’ve found so far seems to come from The Inquirer which I’m not familiar with, so I don’t know how much credit to attribute to them. But read it for yourself and decide:
Xbox 2 SDK released on cool Apple Power Mac G5s and a bit more at Microsoft ships first Xbox 2 development kits using Apple G5 hardware
According to various sites, Jerry Bruckheimer’s (Pirates of the Carribean, King Arthur) production company is in negotiations to buy the film rights to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The creator of the original Prince of Persia game, Jordan Mechner, is already working on a screenplay. This isn’t as alarming as it sounds, as in the years between the original game and the recent Sands of Time Mechner has been making his living as a screenwriter and filmmaker.
Here’re a couple of links, but if you Google “Bruckheimer Prince of Persia” you’ll find plenty more:
Bruckheimer eyes Prince of Persia
Bruckheimer Films buys Prince of Persia film rights.
CNNMoney today published an article on the upcoming Nintendo DS handheld system (Nintendo DS details begin to emerge – Mar. 3, 2004). You’ll recall this is the handheld with two 3 inch LCD screens.
According to an analyst’s report, they’ve managed to cram a 2 hour movie onto a 128 meg flash cartridge and played it back on the DS. The speculation is that Nintendo is going to broaden the range of applications for the gizmo beyond gaming and into multimedia entertainment and…well why am I yammering? It’s all in the article.
This is a neat battle shaping up though, with the recently delayed Sony PSP in one corner, and the Nintendo DS in the other. Wouldn’t it be great if MS surprised us with a handheld at E3? It could be a modified PDA in the same way the XBox is basically a modified PC.