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Taken at the Leipzig Games Convention, this 13-minute video gives a good taste of what FarCry 2 will have to offer. If you don't know yet, FarCry 2 takes place on the African savannah in a giant sandbox environment. Obviously, Ubisoft's Montreal Studio (Crytek is off doing Crysis) don't consider the now-classic Survivor: Africa issue a problem. When the television show Survivor went to Africa something got lost (like beautiful blue water and lush green vegetation) and they never went back to anything similar. FarCry 2 continues the gaming trend of a more brown environmental color palette. It'll be interesting to see how fans react to the new environment.
And before the calls of racism start over a white man going on a shooting rampage in Africa, the people you are shooting appear to be white. At least we think they are, way too much movement in the video to be sure, but a lot of the still images in the gallery below show white people. Although that opens up a whole other set of issues.
The game does look beautiful and is still in a pre-Alpha build. The title is expected next spring on PC. With any luck we'll get some console release projections in the near future. There is also a special introduction announcement for the FarCry 2 footage after the break.
A little more information is coming out about the rumor from early July that the Leipzig Games Convention may be moving in 2008. According to GI.biz, it couldn't even leave until 2009 anyway and would require the permission of the event's organizers -- the Leipziger Messe. The brand is owned by Leipziger Messe, so a change in location or design would require the permission of the organization.
According to a representative from Leipziger Messe, the rumor actually got started because their contract for the convention center expires in '08. They say that contracts are negotiated in terms of years, so they just have to renegotiate their contract for the grounds past '08. Unless there's something that the Leipziger Messe is hiding, it looks like they plan to stay in Leipzig with the Games Convention for years to come -- not like it hasn't been successful.
The picture above is about to get NSFW in one frame ... in just one frame it goes from normal marketing cosplay to borderline furry pron. GameTrailers put together a Girls Gone Wild-esque segment of all the Leipzig booth babe fit for video (which we have placed after the break). We joke, the video is very tastefully done, as tasteful as one can get editing together flesh shots meant to titillate. On some level it's great culture context, for our puritan American eyes, public displays of boobies burns us they do.
Leipzig obviously takes a different approach to displays of the female form than E3. Although it was a moot point this year, the last "real" E3 had a ban on booth babes. We re-emphasize that the video after the break is not safe for work, don't come crying to us if your boss catches you -- although, for all we know, he might be into furries.
While Microsoft and Sony both held press conferences during the Leipzig Games Convention, Nintendo decided to take a more personal approach and conducted three booth tours during the official 'Business Day'. After all, telling an entire audience that they've been dumped should be done face to face, right? The booth tour served as a way to let us know that, no, we're no longer needed and, yes, we've been traded in for a different audience. An older, more mainstream demographic.
A gathering of German journalists, publishers and "experts" met at this year's Leipzig Games Convention to pick what they felt were the most influential games of all time (via GameSetWatch). Of the reported 150 nominations, 16 titles were ultimately chosen and, of those, four were noted for being most frequently noted.
The four top-honored games are Tetris, Pong, Doom and Pac-Man. Though we agree with much of the list, we're still left feeling some titles were unfortunately overlooked (e.g. E.T., Custer's Revenge). What do you think of the list?
Ah, Leipzig Games Conference Business Day: a full nine hours of exploring the massive halls of the Leipziger-Messe convention center without a member of the 'Dreaded Public' in sight. We managed to get our hands on a number of games during this time and, after hearing mixed reviews and impressions of Lair, we made that our first priority.
Because we can probably hook that up for you. Ah, speak of the devil and up he jumps, here's nearly a half-hour of Killzone 2footage straight from Leipzig. It's a hot clip, too. Thrill as the action occasionally starts after long periods of stopping! You won't believe how far the camera can zoom in and out!
...OK, so this is admittedly more of a making-of segment, with a developer explaining some of the tools that Guerrila Games has at its disposal to create the game. But if you're starved for Killzone 2 content, we imagine that you're not going to be too picky.
During a Leipzig GC closed-door demo of Spore, Maxis reaffirmed plans to develop console versions of the ever-evolving sim game, but stressed that current resources were limited to the PC and DS builds. "Not right now, but we see this as a franchise," Maxis exec Patrick Buechener told Eurogamer when asked about console releases, adding, "It just won't be at launch." So when is launch?
During their jampacked (andsomemore) Press Conference at Leipzig today, Sony revealed that it will be partnering with EA to produce the first "FIFA Interactive World Cup." This online FIFA 2008 tournament will feature thousands of players globally facing off over the PlayStation Network. The 32 best players will the be invited to Berlin to play out the final match.
Up for grabs are $20,000 and a trip to the FIFA World Player Gala. Prizes like that are nothing to be sniffed at, so we hope you have a hanky handy. In order to be in with a chance (more than a chance, an opportunity) of winning, simply register for the contest on the official website. The tournament will run between October and May, so you have a month and a half to get your registrations in. No dilly dallying, now.
The Kojima Productions Press conference at Leipzig today ended with a Q&A session between the press and Kojima-san and his cohorts. The following is a summary of the questions and responses and covers Metal Gear Online, Metal Gear Solid 4 plans for the 360 and more. Will Metal Gear Online be separate from MGS4 or will it be included?
Hard to explain. When you play story mode you will be able to go online and it will have extra stuff at the end. Haven't decided whether it will be separate or not, but if you buy MGS4 you can play a portion of online at least. The worlds of MGS4 and MGO are very similar and they want consistencies between them. Final discussions haven't been made yet.
Hideo Kojima whipped out his Genius-to-English dictionary again today in order to address the press at the Leipzig Games Conference personally, rather than through a translator. Showing off a new video, he introduced us to Metal Gear Solid 4's boss characters. After a short video showing all the bosses from past Metal Gear Solidgames, Kojima asked us "but how can you improve on these? Let me show you."
What followed was a spine-tingling in-game video showcasing each of the new bosses for the upcoming title. They come in the form of beautiful women transformed by a brutal war into sick, metallic beasts. A tentacle-wielding creature with a cruel laugh. A giant silver wolf with an echoing howl. A creature with wings and a jetpack, constantly screaming "rage!" and a floating puppeteer, complete with attached marionettes. All of them twisted, mechanical beasts.
Keeping with the "Beauty and the Beast" theme, Kojima modeled these boss characters and their movements off of "real world beauties", one of whom, Yumi Kikuchi, stepped up on stage to declare how happy she is to be in the game -- and how much she loves Leipzig, naturally.
Our anticipation for this game is at its highest yet. Q1 2008 can't come quick enough.
If you read about some of the technical issues this trailer was having yesterday at Leipzig, you might be a little confused when you first start watching this new Metal Gear Solid 4 video from the show. Be patient! Though you've seen the first half of this video before, we think the second half will be pretty eye-opening.
We think you'd probably remember it if you'd seen scary metal dog in previous trailers, ditto for Lady Doctor Octopus, Flying Doctor Octopus and the guy who loves rage. Maybe it's just how they murder a bunch of people, but we're getting a rogue's gallery vibe here. What do you think?
The Rabbid site brings us another gem of quick humor as the Rabbids attempt to get into the Leipzig Games Convention. Ubisoft already has the Rayman: Raving Rabbidssequel all locked and loaded for later this year. If the Rabbids continue to bring Ubisoft even more financial success, we hope that they spin-off into their own demonic-bunny platformer game and ditch Rayman -- or, at least, get top billing in the next title.
If you missed the Rabbids attempt to break into the conference last year, you can find that after the break. Be sure to check out the Rabbid website for more clips and pics of the crazy Rabbids as they fumble their way to world domination and attempt to assimilate into our planet.
The nominees for the Leipzig Game Convention's Best of GC awards have been announced. Of the ten categories, eight are platform-specific, one is for online and one is for hardware.
Leading the nominations by merit of being multiplatform is Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 with four nods (PS2, PS3, PSP and Xbox 360) followed by Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Hellgate: London with two apiece (PC and Online). Ladies and gentlemen, please make your predictions before the winners are announced Friday, August 24. Full list after the break.
Interested in seeing a new trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4? So were many in attendance at Konami's press conference during the Leipzig Games Convention. Unfortunately, as 1UP reports, technical glitches concerning the audio led to the publisher shutting down the trailer. "We apparently missed the important half -- everything we saw so far was just repeated from prior trailers," said 1UP.
As previously noted, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima is holding a separate press conference tomorrow. With any luck, Solid Snake will be in better shape tomorrow. We hear at his age, he has good days and bad days.
