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While Kane & Lynch's bank heist multiplayer had us intrigued, we were quite disappointed to learn that the eponymous duo's criminal cooperation wouldn't extend beyond an offline split-screen mode. Eurogamer politely asked game director Jens Peter Kurup to explain the omission, to which he responded, "It's a matter of focus, choosing what you want to deliver at what time. We looked at it and decided it was too much of a risk to change our code to be very very good at that, and we're not going to be very very good at other elements." He noted that he'd miss the feature, "but not terribly."
As that's not a sentiment likely to be shared by those enjoying the online co-op of a little game called Halo 3, Kurup places a divide between the two titles. "They are not only selling Halo," he said, "they are selling technology, they are selling consoles, they are selling Microsoft, the whole online package. That's not what we're doing." He's right on two counts! They are selling (by the boatloads) and IO Interactive isn't selling the whole online package. Instead of applause, let's offer some commentary.
Regardless of Microsoft's intentions for its platform, Halo 3 is still a video game competing for the time and attention of gamers, as is EA's cooperatively themed Army of Two. With Gears of War well behind us and Perfect Dark Zero (thankfully) even further back, we're of the belief that online co-op is (or should be), where appropriate, a standard "next-gen" offering by now. Kurup made a valid point about increased development time when he said gamers "also want the game at some point," but when some point happens to be November, you'd best give your game a full pair of water wings before tossing it into that shark-infested maelstrom.
Unreal Tournament 3! Unreal Tournament 3! The sequel to Unreal Tournament 2004, which was preceded by Unreal Tournament2003. Three cheers for Unreal Tournament 3! Epic's grand poobah Mark Rein recently posted on the game's official forums, dropping some details regarding the upcoming "beta demo" scheduled to come out within "the next two weeks." Rein revealed that the teaser will contain online multiplayer and instant action bot play; a perfect aperitif for the diehard UT fans. Non-alcoholic for the under 21 set.
It's certainly good to hear things are still on track for the PC version of the game, especially when the PS3 version is expected to slip into next year.
Because your trusty 486, TURBOMODE and all, simply isn't good enough to cope with the lush forests and cybernetic shenanigans of Crysis. Publisher EA has today chosen to end the tech spec-ulation in order to paint a clear, anti-aliased picture of the system you'll need for optimal first-person shooting. Still, if you think your filthy hobo of a mobo deserves to dine in Crytek's five star restaurant, you'd best try out the demo on October 26th.
Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP or Windows Vista
Processor: 2.8 GHz or faster (XP) or 3.2 GHz or faster (Vista)
Memory: 1.0 GB RAM (XP) or 1.5 GB RAM (Vista)
Video Card: 256 MB
Hard Drive: 12GB
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
Real Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows XP / Vista
Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Memory: 2.0 GB RAM
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS/640 or similar
Supported Processors: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista) or faster, Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista) or faster, AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or faster.
Supported chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT or greater; ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or greater. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported. Integrated chipsets are not supported. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.
Deathmatch? Deathly boring. Capture the flag? Go capture it yourself. Assault? More like ass-ault. We admit that even we can get a little bored with traditional multiplayer game types. So you can imagine our excitement when the developers of Kane and Lynch said that their brand of online action was so fresh, so radical that they can't believe that no one's thought of it yet.
When playing K&L online (known as Fragile Alliance), you'll be part of a bank heist. Basically, your squad will try to grab as much loot as possible, taking out cops and other security measures all the while. If you notice that a teammate has a sack a bit fuller than yours (or you just want to pad your sack a bit more) you can, as they say on the streets, kill him. But once you do so, the whole team knows, and they likely won't take kindly to it. Even if you do get popped, you're still in the game, reincarnated as a police officer, allowing you to take delicious vengeance on your killer.
We don't know all the ins-and-outs of Fragile Alliance yet, but, suffice it to say that we can't wait to get our hands on it.
Sure these little character profiles of the Team Fortress 2 cast are almost all style and no gameplay, but frankly this is one of the few times we're OK with that. Why? Well, because Valve doesn't really need to do too much convincing when it comes to purchasing The Orange Box.
It's not hard to come to the conclusion that The Orange Box is probably the best value in gaming this holiday, especially if you never played Half-Life 2 or are a pure console player. So keep goofing around Valve, give us more character profiles even after The Orange Box comes out stuffed with Half-Life 2, Episodes 1 and 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. The citrusy goodness starts tomorrow for PC and Xbox 360 -- PS3 needs a little longer to ripen.
We know that a lot of you who pre-ordered the game through Steam have already been playing around with the beta version of Team Fortress 2. We just wanted to put this message out to those of you who may still be on the fence. We've been enjoying the beta version of the game for a while now and, to put it mildly, we're extremely impressed.
Let us give you the quick version, if you're a complete TFC noob. Two teams, each competing for one objective. Each team is populated by very different classes of characters, each with their own special abilities. Team Fortress Classic is one of the all-time favorite multiplayer shooters, and as 1/3 (or 1/5, depending on your view) of the Orange Box, TF2 is looking to reinvent the game.
Ragdolls, that is. Brought to you by the creepy kids who tore the arms off their action figures, Soldier of Fortune: Payback declares war on subtlety, good taste and the important bits that keep your limbs connected to the rest of your body. The brief video above is demonstration enough of the game's absurd level of violence, don't you think? Its composition of gory decomposition should give the ESRB a grand old time and players a hearty chuckle -- proof that over-the-top, Verhoeven-esque violence is still funny... or that years of desensitization have turned us into heartless murder machines. We just don't know, Jack.
What we do know is that if Soldier of Fortune:Payback is anything like its predecessors, utterly generic gameplay won't stop it from surfing a bloody torso all the way into the spotlight. (Like it just did when we posted this video!)
Since the Gears of War movie wants to be like 300, it should be no surprise that the EverQuest movie wants to be like 300 as well. In fact, they've hired300 screenwriter Michael Gordon to try and bring some of his magic to the script. Hopefully that doesn't mean someone will be shouting "THIS! IS! EVERQUEST!" throughout the film.
Unlike Stuart Beattie, who is writing Gears, Gordon doesn't have an impressive set of credits to his name, other than 300. Couple that with the waning popularity of EverQuest every year, and the World of Warcraft film that is being readied, and it smells like a recipe for video store shelves and Netflix accounts.
However, we could be wrong and this could smash box office records, sweep the awards, and bring tears to millions of eyes around the world. We're just sayin' ...
The good looks of Crytek's long-awaited PC shooter have undoubtedly razzle dazzled the gaming community, spurring hardcore PC fanatics to upgrade their rigs to the edge -- y'know, the bleeding kind. But does it play well?
Yes. Even if the game didn't look as good as it does, gamers would be talking about it simply for the incredible gameplay it has to offer. The main character of Crysis dons a suit that endows him with a variety of abilities, such as shielding, super speed, super strength and invisibility. These powers give the player a distinct advantage over enemies, and open up a number of tactical options. Interestingly, although the main character has superpowers, he's not invulnerable like a comic book superhero. Blindly running into a battle will typically end in death. Smart, calculated battle plans utilizing all of your abilities are key to surviving Crysis.
For example, we traversed a steep cliff, hiding behind rocks, crawling through the tall grass. There was a small encampment ahead, and we wanted to go by unnoticed. The plan worked, as we were able to get right by the entrance gate. We hid behind a barrel, turned on our invisibility and crawled behind an enemy. The suit doesn't hold much energy, meaning we'd have to be quick. We quickly modified our weapon, added a silencer, and performed a quick head shot on our unsuspecting foe. Our cloak gone, we quickly took cover, hoping not to be spotted. Had we, a ship in the far horizon would've been called for help, and we'd have to engage numerous more enemies. One other enemy remained, and we turned on super-speed, switched immediately to super-strength, grabbed the villain, punched him in the face, and threw him into the ocean. Satisfying? Yes.
From from the beginning, we haven't quite understoodSpider-Man: Friend or Foe. Is it a movie game? Is it standalone? Is it for kids, or can adults play too? We got in contact with producer Jamie Bafus to help us understand the rationale behind the new series.
A lot of people were confused when they saw Spider-Man: Friend or Foe announced so soon after Spider-Man 3. Can you tell us a little bit about the inception of the game, the vision for setting it apart from the movie games?
The previous movie-based Spider-Man games were rated "T" which left out the huge base of younger Spider-Man fans. With Spider-Man: Friend or Foe we set out to make a Spider-Man game that was not only suitable for kids but also fun for gamers of all ages.
When we were thinking of how to best create a family-friendly Spider-Man game, we liked the idea of combining all three movies together in one game, but we also had a concept for a team-up game which would have made it really difficult to follow the Spider-Man movie plots. So, we decided to pay homage to the movies in, what we think, are really fun ways and create something unique with the team-up aspect that we feel fans of all ages will want to play.
Sure, Valve's Orange Box releases this week, and many gamers might be heading down to the local big box, sitting in traffic, listening to some sports radio (nerd option: Zelda tunes, Halo soundtrack), dreading the march though the incandescently lit store to the game section only to find ... an empty slot where the object of your desire should be, but isn't! Fortunately, if you pre-loaded or purchased Orange Box on Steam, you won't have to worry about that scenario, get the game just after midnight on Wednesday, and save some gas to boot.
Valve has announced they'll be unlocking Orange Box "just after midnight Pacific time ... on October 10th," giving Steam purchasers the chance enjoy some release (late) night gaming. That means you might be stumbling into work as a raccoon-eyed, sleep deprived zombie, but hey, you were the MVP in TFC2! Totally worth it.
Rockstar Games, whose Manhunt 2 has effectively been bannedtwice in Britain (though finally OK'd in the United States), have announced that they are appealing the most recent rejection.
The British Board of Film Classification has made further suggestions to the game's content that the developer has deemed "unacceptable." In a statement released this morning (via Gamespot), Rockstar said, "The BBFC allows adults the freedom to decide for themselves when it comes to horror in movies and we think adults should be similarly allowed to decide for themselves when it comes to horror in video games, such as Manhunt 2."
Is there a double standard when it comes to video games and movie censorship? Is it warranted? The purported psychological effects on interactive entertainment have been the subject of debate for much time now. Unfortunately, the BBFC's suggestions are not public record so we cannot debate the merits of their revisions. Will British gamers ever get to play this game?
See, these are the weeks that picking the top release is easy. The Orange Box looks to be one of the best games of the year, but, more importantly, it looks to be one of the best gaming values. And we're all about the value here on Joystiq. We'd clip coupons, if our hands weren't already horribly misshapen and arthritis-ridden from decades of clipping coupons. Yeah ... we're pretty hardcore. PS3 is getting an interesting release too, with Folklore. Check out all the releases after the break.
Clearly an homage to Leeroy Jenkins, this Toyota commercial shows that World of Warcraft players can charge into battle as long as they have the right mount. The ad is apparently legitimate, although the only version we could find clips the tagline.
Toyota may be a follower to showing how it can save the World ... of Warcraft, but this spot hits several in-jokes in a short amount of time. See the ad after the break.
Turbine Studios, developer of Lord of the Rings Online and D&D Online, announced a new CEO yesterday to replace long-time CEO Jeff Anderson (pictured). New CEO Jeff Crowley, who came from outside the industry, was brought on board a couple months ago as "one of many [hires] that Turbine has recently made to invest in new talent that will drive the next wave of the company's growth." Translation: The Turbine board wasn't happy with the management or money the company was making and decided to make changes.
There's no mention of Anderson's fate in the press release, but word is that he's been pushed out of the company. It'll be interesting to see how Crowley handles the company, Anderson was always the public face of Turbine and its games. It'll also be interesting to see if Crowley survives the behind-the-scenes issues which caused the shakeup in the first place.
