In this week’s roundup we talk about the Activision Vs. Infinity Ward legal battle, a past rival who has signed up with Nintendo, Ubisoft’s apologies for knocking Assassin’s Creed fan ideas, PAYDAY: The Heist’s free update, Resident Evil: ORC’s free update, Warhammer’s free game, Pac-Man Smash speculation, David Jaffe’s personal walkthrough of Twisted Metal, and the unveiling of Capcom, Namco Bandai and Sega’s collaboration: Project X Zone.
Video Game News
1. Court Date Set For Activision Vs. Infinity Ward Trial
After some time, the case between Infinity Ward and Activation is finally set to begin on May 29, 2012, having been moved from the original May 7 date. The link will provide more in-depth details on the case, but the gist is that Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella sued Activision for unpaid bonuses, then Activision launched a countersuit claiming they were cavorting with rival companies to conspire against them, namely EA. Whatever the case (literally in the sense of the word) those interested can stay tuned next month for the results – it could be interesting. More so if, in the spirit of things, they hired Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth. Now that would be a trial.
Source: GameInformer
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2. Dev: ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ Is The ‘Best Spidey Game Yet’
Activision has admitted that the quality of Spider-Man games, outside of those based on films, have been splotchy at best – but promises that the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man will be one of its best. This might prove true, considering developer Beenox has spent two years on the title, which will act as a sequel to the 2012 summer blockbuster. Guess that means Spider-Man survives in the end. Helloooo. Spoilers. Doug Heder, the game’s producer, had this to say:
Don’t forget the fact that the game will have Move support, suggesting gamers could pull off some realistic Spidey-esque moves.The Amazing Spider-Man will hit shelves on June 26th, a full week before the film is released on July 3rd.
Source: MCV
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3. LucasArts Showing Off Wii U MMO at E3?
On a tentative floor plan for this year’s E3 posted at Map Your Show, a curious booth was spotted that raised some questions. It appears that LucasArts has a booth for a Wii U MMO – a game that could be in competition with World of Warcraft, if the leaked list of Wii U titles is to be believed. Since the official E3 floor plan hasn’t been released yet, put this one in the rumor pile.
Source: My Nintendo News
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4. First Concept Art For ‘Wasteland 2’ Released
The first concept art was recently released for the self-proclaimed “godfather of post-apocalyptic RPGs.” The sequel to the 1988 PC game is being brought back by one of the original designers, Brian Fargo, and like many indie games these days, is currently being funded through Kickstarter. The concept art won’t tell you much about what to expect from the game, but shows off the look and feel of some of its characters. Check it out!
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5. Sonic Co-Creator Now Working At Nintendo
If someone traveled back to the early 90s and told gamers this bit of news, no one would have believed it. Hirokazu Yasuhara, a game director for the early Sonic The Hedgehog titles, is now cavorting with the enemy – he’s working with Nintendo! Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic considering the console war between Nintendo and Sega is long over and Sega has been making games for Nintendo consoles for a while now, but still.
Yasuhara had been working with Sega since 1988, directing, game planning and designing Sonic The Hedgehog titles starting from the first game in 1991 to Sonic R in 1997, which makes him the authority on old-school Sonic. Since then, Yasuhara has bounced around to several other companies, finding himself as senior game designer at Naughty Dog for a time, working on the Jak & Daxter and Uncharted franchises. After a stint at Namco Bandai working on Pac-Man Party, he moved on to become a full-on employee at Nintendo in their Nintendo Software Technology division. There’s no word on what he’s cooking up now, but given his rich history of designing classic and beloved titles, Nintendo just snagged a heavy hitter.
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- ‘PAYDAY: The Heist’ Update
Payday: The Heist is receiving a long-awaited update that will add some new stuff to the crime-centric game, such as presidential masks (for added creep factor), an OVERKILL 145+ difficulty and a few other tweaks and enhancements. Lucky fans get it all for free. Those who want to read up on the bank robbing simulator should check out our review and see if it merely robs players instead. Check out the source to see the full press release.
Source: Joystiq
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- ‘Assassin’s Creed 3’ Producer Apologizes For Saying Internet Ideas Are ‘Boring’
Ubisoft is backpedaling after a statement last week claiming that ideas from people on the internet are “boring.” Specifically, creative director Alex Hutchinson offered the following opinion:
Ouch to fans who were looking forward to those popular settings. In a followup at PAX East, Hutchinson elaborated on what he said earlier.
He went on to say that people had thrown ideas out on about every setting imaginable, but when it came down to it the Assassin’s Creed 3 team wanted “to find places that will surprise people.” On the subject of calling out the internet for being boring, Hutchinson reassured gamers.
Pretty much the same statement, but slightly dolled up – as if the boring people on the internet will know the difference.
Source: Joystiq
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- ‘Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City’ 7 New Missions, 4 New Maps
Capcom is promising some new content for the team-based Resident Evil offshoot Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City: 7 brand-new missions for the US Spec Ops squad as well as 4 new versus mode maps. The first DLC will be available on April 10th on PSN and Xbox Live and, bonus, is completely free! Players can take on the role of one of the US Spec Ops squad members (who fill the same roles as the original Umbrella Security Service, essentially) whose mission is to expose Umbrella. Six new missions and 4 versus maps will be available for purchase soon after. Gobs of content may hardly make up for the many flaws the game suffers from, which can be read about in our Resident Evil: ORC review.
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9. Free-to-play ‘Warhammer Online: Wrath Of Heroes’ From BioWare
BioWare announced that Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes, a PvP focused free-to-play game based on the MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has entered open beta and is welcoming in players to jump in and play for free. BioWare co-founder and General Manager Dr. Ray Muzyka wanted fans to know that he’s, “really proud of the team for creating a fiercely competitive, fast-paced online PvP arena experience; Wrath of Heroes has compelling progression and awesome depth in strategy and tactics –all in a highly accessible free to play game.”
Warhammer hopes to advance online PvP by making fast-paced, highly competitive and extensive PvP challenges available to gamers for free, such as a three-sided 6v6v6 arena. Plus, it’s a freebie, so it doesn’t hurt to give the title a shot.
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10. Jaffe Shows Off Cut ‘Twisted Metal’ Content
David Jaffe walks players through a number of changes Twisted Metal went through before the final product was ready to be delivered. Those interested in the process of development will find David Jaffe’s comments make for a fun video, others might just find the almost 8 minutes of gameplay to be a tad long. Jaffe highlights some of the new characters and areas in Twisted Metal as well as a number of mission objectives. Check out the video below and be sure to read our review to see what we think of the newly revitalized series.
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11. What is ‘Pac-Man Smash’?
A new game has been trademarked in Europe by Namco Bandai under the title Pac-Man Smash, which immediately conjures images of a whimsical fighting game with a similar title. While nothing has been announced by the publisher as of yet, some speculate that after his appearance in Street Fighter X Tekken, the gears started turning over at Namco Bandai to keep the hungry little fella as a mech piloting badass. We’ll keep you updated as things develop.
Source: Siliconera
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12. Namco Sega Capcom Team-Up = ‘Project X Zone’
The Capcom, Namco Bandai and Sega joint project has finally been revealed after some not so obvious teases, and it’s pretty much what fans expected… sort of. Most people’s first instincts were to peg it as a fighter, since the franchise meshing trend is pretty popular with that genre, but most will be surprised that the upcoming 3DS title will be a strategy RPG featuring iconic characters from the three verteren companies. The gist of the gameplay involves players creating dream team pairings to fight for them.
Here is a full list of confirmed characters:
Capcom
Ryu & Ken (Street Fighter) X and Zero (Mega Man) Demitri and Dante (Darkstalkers and Devil May Cry) Chris and Jill (Resident Evil)
Sega
Shinguji Sakura and Ogami Ichiro (Sakura Wars) Pai and Akira (Virtua Fighter) Kurt and Riela (Valkyria Chronicles) Ulala (Space Channel 5) Touma (Shining Force EXA)
Namco Bandai
Sanger Somvold (Super Robot Wars) Jin and Ling Xiaoyu (Tekken) Kos-Mos and T-elos (Xenosaga) Yurie and Estel (Tales of Vesperia) Kaito and Black Rose (. hack)
The first trailer for the game should drop sometime this month. For more screenshots, check out Andriasang’s screen gallery.
Source: CVG, Andriasang
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