Author - Jerry Paxton

Activision Announces Soldier of Fortune: Payback

GameDaily is reporting that Activision has announced a new Solider of Fortune game. If you don’t remember, the Soldier of Fortune FPS games were lambasted for their violent depiction of wounds and cheered by gamers for the same. Their hit location detection was excellently done and shooting a guy in the legs to see him crawl away for cover was never as satisfying again. The new game will be called Soldier of Fortune: Payback. According to the article, Soldier of Fortune Payback will release on PS3, PC and Xbox 360 in November 2007. However, something about that release date sounds fishy given how close it is to this announcement.

UPDATE:

This video from YouTube is a leaked trailer (watch it before it is pulled). If this is any indication the game has totally lost it’s gore and looks VERY generic. The poster also claims it is being made my Activision Value…which is NOT A GOOD THING.

Wired Interviews Bungie’s Frank O’Connor

Wired News has posted an interview with Bungie’s content manager and spokesperson Frank O’Connor. Here are some of the highlights from the article:

‘WN: What’s Bungie’s relationship with Halo going forward? Are you guys committed to making the next major first-person shooter entry in this series, or is that still up in the air?

FO: We are definitely working on two Halo projects right now: the downloadable content and the Peter Jackson project. I’ve seen rumors that were literally just speculation that we were sick of working on Halo. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We always had and continue to have very tight almost control-freakish relationship with that IP, which of course belongs to Microsoft, but we’re still creatively associated with it and Microsoft trusts us to make cool Halo stuff in the short term. In the long term, who knows, if we have a cool story to tell in the Halo universe it’s certainly something we’d consider.’

‘WN: What’s Bungie’s relationship with Halo Wars?

FO: We consulted with them in the initial setup — Ensemble knows how to make RTS games, we just helped them with canon, and vehicles, and fiction, and that sort of stuff. And we continue to keep a close eye on it. But at this point we’re an interested observer. They’re making a fantastic product. And obviously we’re looking forward to playing it.’

Star Trek Online Images

Gamespot has posted the latest images from Star Trek Online, the trek-based MMO tentatively scheduled for sometime in 2008 (personally I think Dec ’08 or Mid ’09). Not bad looking images at all!

Everquest Movie in the Works

Variety is reporting that Sony is proceeding with plans to turn the ancient old MMO Everquest into a movie. They have tasked ‘300’ writer Michael Gordon to write it. As a friend so observantly put it, ‘Shouldn’t they have made this like 10 years ago?’

Orange Box Release this Week

Joystiq is reporting that Valve’s Orange Box will be released this week for the Xbox 360 and PC platforms. The Orange Box is an anthology of five games: Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2, Episode One, Episode Two, and Portal.

Microsoft Announces Holiday Xbox 360 Bundle

Engadget is reporting that Microsoft has announced a holiday Xbox 360 bundle. Both the Premium and Elite consoles can expect to find both Forza 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance  in their boxes at no added cost. This bundle should be available near the end of October but the date is not set in stone yet.