2K Games has released a new gameplay trailer for Spec Ops: The Line – enjoy!
Author - Jerry Paxton
ZeniMax® Media Inc. today announced that a settlement has been reached in the lawsuit it filed over Mojang’s applications for ownership of the ‘Scrolls’ trademark. The lawsuit was filed by ZeniMax when Mojang submitted applications covering a range of ‘Scrolls’ trademarks for use in video games and other media. In its complaint, ZeniMax cited a conflict with its longstanding trademark for ‘The Elder Scrolls’, the name of its highly-successful video game franchise published by ZeniMax Media’s publishing arm, Bethesda® Softworks.
Under the terms of the settlement, all ownership rights to the ‘Scrolls’ trademark will transfer to ZeniMax, and Mojang will assign to ZeniMax ownership of any pending “Scrolls’ trademark applications. ZeniMax has licensed the ‘Scrolls’ mark to Mojang to be used solely in conjunction with its existing Scrolls digital card game and any add-on material it makes to that game. The terms of the settlement bar Mojang from using the Scrolls mark for any sequel to the current card game, or any other video game.
“We are pleased to have settled this matter with Mojang amicably,” said Robert Altman, Chairman and CEO of ZeniMax. “The Elder Scrolls is an important brand to us, and with this settlement we were able to protect our valuable property rights while allowing Mojang to release their digital card game under the name they preferred.”
SAN JOSE, Calif., (March 12, 2012) NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc. today announced ARMORED CORE® V has been approved for manufacturing to arrive heavily armed and armored in stores on March 20, 2012 in North America and on March 23, 2012 in Europe for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system.
ARMORED CORE V® revolutionizes the series with massive online multiplayer battles designed around huge team-based skirmishes on a grand scale, a robust offline mode, and a completely new atmosphere. Featuring ACs or “Armored Cores” that are customized for more strategic gameplay, ARMORED CORE V focuses on tactics and effectively utilizing the geography of a level to maximize the devastating effects of attacks. Players will be able to customize their Armored Core with countless unlockable parts creating their own personal weapons of mass destruction.
“We all know FromSoftware has a great track record of developing quality, highly immersive and addictive games, and ARMORED CORE V® will continue that tradition with new layers of strategy,” said Carlson Choi, Vice President of Marketing, NAMCO BANDAI Games America Inc..
Developed by the acclaimed FromSoftware, Inc., the ARMORED CORE® franchise is renowned for its intense AC battles and customization, with ARMORED CORE V® offering 10-player multiplayer battles and over 500 parts to customize ACs into personalized war machines.
ARMORED CORE V® will be available throughout North America on March 20, 2012. Fans pre-ordering the title from GameStop® stores across North America, as well as GameStop.com, will gain exclusive access to the ‘HEAVY ASSAULT PACK’ while supplies last, while fans who pre-order through Amazon.com will get access to the ‘RECON PACK’. The packs will include additional weapons and parts that will help give players a competitive advantage on day one in the innovative and sophisticated online multiplayer battles of ARMORED CORE V.
For more information on the game, as well as information on additional pre-order promotions, please visit: http://www.namco.com/console/
So I just finished playing through Mass Effect 3 and thought I would write up my thoughts on this last in the first Mass Effect trilogy (not counting the mobile games). I am still decompressing a bit from a very intense gameplay experience, so there will be a lot of stream-of-consciousness typing here. Pardon me in advance. I will start this review by summing up Mass Effect 3 like so:
Mass Effect 3 is 40 hours of incredible story, ending with 10 minutes that invalidates the entire experience and will anger you. A lot.
I will save the seriously-spoiling details for after a warning below, so sit-tight. After firing up the game on my three-monitor PC gaming rig, I discovered that Mass Effect 3 does not support my widescreen resolution of 5760×1080. The menu and UI elements were all stretched in a strange way and it was not playable because of this. I turned my resolution back to 1920×1080 and finally got to begin my gaming experience. I don’t recall having this problem in Mass Effect 2, but I digress.
Mass Effect 3’s gameplay has been infused with a cover system which, on the consoles, works very well. Using keyboard and mouse on the PC, however, it seems that the developers believed that computer gamers like to use their spacebars for doing everything. Spacebar controls using things, engaging cover, jumping over objects, and sprinting. Hit spacebar too close to an object and you will duck behind it. Double click the spacebar while holding a direction key and you will Kirk-roll in that direction – unless, you are standing too close to cover and you have a good chance of utilizing it. Problem is, that you don’t always want to move to cover. Sometimes you want to run to a position or dodge. Using the spacebar for so many controls makes accurately-predicting what your character is about to do problematic when the heat of battle and fog of war take hold.
Graphically, Mass Effect 3 is just as nice to look at as Mass Effect 2. Not much has changed in this area. Sound design is also more of the same. Additionally, all the voice actors do a nice job of reprising their characters.
What positive things can be said about the game? Well, you will have a great time playing through Mass Effect 3 – awesome story arcs, character interactions, dialog choices. Just phenomenal. Seriously, a great gaming experience. Until the end.
The disappointing part of Mass Effect 3 is that you spend so much time planning out your dialog options, squad choices, etc that all of it ends up being practically meaningless. After about 40 hours of intense and exciting gameplay, no matter what you do, you end up with 3 possible endings. Endings which re-use the same cut-scenes (minus a few details in each iteration) and leave you feeling used and abused in a not-so-nice way. BioWare and Electronic Arts touted this game series as being all about player choice and character interaction. The last ten minutes of Mass Effect 3 completely ruins not only all of your choices in this game, but also your choices in the previous two games. This is a huge bait-and-switch on the part of BioWare and left me wondering what happened in the dev cycle to cause this.
*********SERIOUSLY-ANGERING SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!*********
In Mass Effect 2, you had a really well-crafted, choose-your-own-adventure end campaign of selecting crew members to do specific tasks and getting a great resolution showing the outcomes for each of them (despite the melodramatic “human reaper” thingy). So, gearing up for the final assault on the Reaper transport beam I found my first squad selection. I thought for several minutes – who shall I choose? What are the possible outcomes of doing so – fully-expecting another riveting end campaign sequence where these characters that I had grown to care about could survive or not. I selected two squad-mates and began the assault towards the beam. I kept waiting for more decisions – tasking crew members with certain things, action involving them were, depending on who I had brought along, they would live or die or affect the mission on a serious level. It never happened. Instead, I just kept fighting. Fighting and defending areas in some very intense combat. Enjoyable, but straight-forward. I reached my final run towards the beam in the face of a huge Reaper firing its beam cannons and, surprise, everyone is dead – including my two squadmates. You live, barely, and in a Modern Warfare 3 style moment, hobble towards the beam and get sucked up into the Citadel. There you meet Andersen, who also got into the beam, and the Illusive Man. No matter what you choose to do in the next five or so minutes, you finally get to the end…
You finally get to meet the entity controlling the Citadel. This entity takes the form of a child who is killed in the first portion of the game and haunts Shepard’s dreams. The entity claims it is the Citadel and created the “cycle” system where young races get to flourish and older races are killed off and turned into Reapers who then go lie in wait for another 50,000 years to go by – only to start the process over again. The reason this entity crafted the cycle system is because, given enough time, synthetic life will wipe out all organic life in the galaxy… So it created synthetic Reapers to kill organic life every 50,000 years… Hmmm…
So in order to stop synthetics from killing organics, you create synthetics to kill organics?!?
This is the part where your head should explode like it just got read “the Chewbacca defense”.
Then, you are given three choices: Kill all synthetic life, merge with the synthetic life so that organics and synthetics become as one, or try to control the Reapers and lead them away. All of these lead to the same basic cut-scenes, and there is no happy ending for Shepard (even in one where he seems to have possibly survived in a Crank-style moment). Worse yet, you get no real update on the outcomes of your squad-mates and NPC associations. Additionally, the Mass Relays are blown up in ALL of these choices. This means that, while FTL travel exists, there is no feasible way to jump across the galaxy and visit other planets. Additionally, there is this strange cut-scene of the Normandy getting chased by an energy field and breaking up, only to crash land on a jungle world. Why is this happening to the Normandy? Why are they not fighting Reapers in orbit like the rest of EVERY fleet in the galaxy (I rallied all of them). It just doesn’t make sense. I am so damned confused as to why I invested 40 hours into this experience – not to mention countless hours in the first two games.
Now, before you get all “the GEEK is taking this way to serious” on me, hear me out (and I appreciate your reading this): If Mass Effect 3 were billed as a shooter game or developed by the makers of “Extreme Rodeo”, I could overlook the whole mess of an ending. No problem. But, BioWare has gone to great lengths in touting that Mass Effect is all about player choice and character interaction. And, in large part, the game is! I was very happy with the game until the last twenty minutes or so. It actually feels like it becomes another game. I don’t know if this was an issue with development time or what. It just feels tacked-on and poorly thought out – worse yet, it invalidates all my choices I made over the 40 hours of playtime. I am very disappointed with this.
Here is the next rub…
After doing one of these three endings. Shepard is most-likely dead, Mass Relays destroyed, Normandy crashed and no word on the fate of your friends. You then find yourself back on the ship as if nothing happened. You get some cheesy “don’t forget to drink your Ovaltine” style message about continuing the adventure in multiplayer and DLC. But… Why would I want to do that?!? I know what happens. The character is dead, species cut-off from themselves, and no fricken updated on how my squad-mates turned out after taking so much time to help them through the adventure?!? There is absolutely no reason to spend money on a DLC knowing that there is no hope for the endgame.
Anyhow, thanks for reading my review/rant on this game which, if you shut the computer off right when Shepard makes it to the Beam, is pretty damned good. Just don’t play past that point and pretend that what you are doing matters in the game’s storyline. Make up your own ending – it will be light-years better than what BioWare cooked up for the last ten minutes of the game.
Paradox Interactive has released a new gameplay trailer for their upcoming Naval War: Arctic Circle. Enjoy!
Trailer
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – March 7, 2012 – The Battlefield™ army is over 12 Million strong and growing every day as Battlefield 3™ and its first expansion, Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand continues to recruit gamers around the world with its dynamic sandbox gameplay and state-of-the-art technology. Today, DICE, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) studio, demonstrates its ongoing commitment to fans by unveiling three new themed digital expansion packs* that will enhance the superior Battlefield experience with fresh and innovative gameplay, new modes, unique environments and more ways to wage all-out-war on the battlefield. Powered by the Frostbite™ 2 engine, the next expansion packs are: Battlefield 3: Close Quarters in June, Battlefield 3: Armored Kill in the fall, and Battlefield 3: End Game in the winter.
- Battlefield 3: Close Quarters – In Battlefield 3: Close Quarters, players are dropped into a frantic, infantry-only theatre of war. Frostbite 2 high definition destruction makes the environment come alive as everything from furniture to plaster gets shot to pieces. Players will feel the intensity of the world exploding around them as rubble and broken pieces pile up on the floor, while tight level design and vertical gameplay create a highly competitive environment. Battlefield 3: Close Quarters also introduces new weapons, assignments and unique dog tags to bring back to the base game.
- Battlefield 3: Armored Kill – Following the tight infantry gameplay of Battlefield 3: Close Quarters, DICE will release Battlefield 3: Armored Kill that ups the ante for vehicular mayhem as only Battlefield can do. Featuring new driveable tanks, ATVs, mobile artillery and more, Battlefield 3: Armored Kill also delivers huge battlefields for an all-out vehicle assault, including the biggest map in Battlefield history.
- Battlefield 3: End Game – The fourth expansion pack will ship in the winter but details remain tightly guarded.
- Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand – Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand is available now for download for $14.99 or 1200 Microsoft points and features four of the most beloved Battlefield 2™ maps (Strike at Karkand, Gulf of Oman, Wake Island and Sharqi Peninsula), all fully re-imagined utilizing the power of the Frostbite 2 engine.
Patrick Bach, Executive Producer, Battlefield 3 said, “Instead of delivering piecemeal map packs, we’re giving players a completely new experience with every themed expansion pack to keep the action fresh. Our expansions are designed to excite our large and active fan base while attracting new recruits with gameplay that is dynamic and unpredictable every time.”
Battlefield 3 is supported by a robust, and completely free social platform called Battlelog that invites players to compete, communicate and play with friends. Gamers track personal stats, compare against other players and join a platoon in an effort to dominate the battlefield. To add to the competitive fervor, a fully integrated rent-a-server program for console players will be available for gamers to play online with friends the way they want to play in either private, public, ranked or unranked matches. For more information about these enhancements and future plans for Battlelog, please visit www.battlefield.com.
Rockstar Games has releases their official cover art for upcoming action-shooter, Max Payne 3.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Mar. 6, 2012 – Danger Close™ Games, a studio of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA) today announced that Medal of Honor™ Warfighter will launch on October 23, 2012. The game follows the 2010 Medal of Honor reboot that moved the series out of World War II into war-torn Afghanistan and introduced the U.S. Tier 1 Operator. Medal of Honor Warfighter goes beyond Afghanistan and takes the fight to the enemy in missions that have a dotted line to real world events. From rescuing hostages in the Philippines to eliminating the pirate threat on the Somali Coast, the game is an up close and personal look into the fight against today’s global terror threat. Written by U.S. Tier 1 Operators while deployed overseas, Medal of Honor Warfighter delivers an aggressive, gritty and authentic experience that puts gamers in the boots of the world’s most precise and disciplined warriors.
Medal of Honor Warfighter tells the personal story of U.S. Tier 1 Operator “Preacher,” as he returns home only to find his family torn apart from years of combat deployment. Trying to pick up the pieces and salvage what remains of his marriage, Preacher is reminded of what he’s fighting for – family. But when a deadly explosive known as PETN penetrates civilian borders and his two worlds collide, Preacher and his fellow teammates are sent in to do what they do best – solve the problem.
Players that pre-order the Medal of Honor Warfighter Limited Edition* will unlock the U.S. Navy SEAL Tier 1 Sniper on day one of launch. This multiplayer unlock saves an estimated 40-hours of time that would normally be required to unlock the unit. Medal of Honor Warfighter Limited Edition is available on Origin.com and other participating retailers. Visit www.medalofhonor.com for more details.
“From recent news headlines to movies to best-selling books, everyone is talking about the Special Operations Community and the warriors who defend our freedom. Medal of Honor Warfighter gives these Operators a chance to tell their personal story of brotherhood, family and the current fight,” said Greg Goodrich, Executive Producer, Medal of Honor. “But Tier 1 Operators are not uniquely American. This year we’re going global and introducing international Tier 1 units in our multiplayer game and taking players to hotspots around the world. We continue to honor these warriors with reverence and respect with an authentic look into their lives at home and abroad.”
In multiplayer, gamers around the world can represent their nation’s Tier 1 Operators on the global battlefield. The game features 12 different Tier 1 Operators from a variety of nations including the Australian SASR, British SAS, German KSK and Polish GROM among others. For the first time in the series, Medal of Honor Warfighter introduces multi-national Tier 1 “blue-vs-blue” team play where the world’s best-of-the-best warriors go head-to-head in online competition.
Utilizing the advanced power of the Frostbite™ 2 game engine, Medal of Honor Warfighter is being developed by Danger Close Games in Los Angeles, California. Medal of Honor Warfighter sees the return of key development leads that helped reboot the multi-platinum hit in 2010. The core team is bolstered by industry veterans who hail from DICE, Treyarch and other award-winning game studios. Together, this team is united behind a single engine platform, and a single vision for the game – authenticity, respect and honor for today’s Warfighters, with real emotion, real threats and a game designed to highlight the extraordinary nature of the material.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 6, 2012 – The franchise that laid the foundations of the city building simulation genre is back, empowering players to create the world of their imagination! Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) today announced that SimCity™ is breaking new ground in 2013. SimCity for PC, a brand new entry in the franchise is currently in development at Maxis Emeryville, and was revealed today during Game Changers @ GDC, a symposium that featured inspirational speeches from Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, and charity: water CEO and founder Scott Harrison.
“We’d like to thank the millions of fans who have helped make SimCity synonymous with the city-building genre. This is a franchise that means the world to us at Maxis and we’re happy to be bringing it back home where we are reimagining it for an entirely new generation of players,” said Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President of EA’s Maxis Label. “Using our proprietary GlassBox Engine, SimCity for PC will equip players with the tools to play the most sophisticated simulation of its kind. We are dedicated to making sure the experience – no matter the platform – has the fun, flavour and playability that has been intrinsic to the franchise since its birth.”
SimCity, slated for release in calendar year 2013 for PC, is a true rebirth of the franchise that brings the depth of simulation that has been the series hallmark for more than two decades and marries it with next generation accessibility and a robust multiplayer mode, giving players the power to change a world together. Fans can catch their first glimpse of the rebirth of SimCity by viewing the extended trailer at www.SimCity.com and can pre-order SimCity today on Origin™ to receive SimCity Heroes &Villains content* featuring a battle between Maxis Man and his longtime nemesis Evil Dr. Vu.
For more than two decades, the king of city-building simulators has sworn in millions of virtual mayors from around the world. With its return in 2013, SimCity will engage an entirely new generation of PC gamers as they take charge of their own customised cities and build a world that co-exists alongside friends. For the first time in SimCity franchise history, players’ decisions will have long-lasting repercussions that will extend beyond their city limits. Together, players will address real global challenges such as climate change, the search for renewable resources and natural disasters. It’s up to the players to decide whether to compete or collaborate to shape the world of tomorrow – for better or for worse.
Powered by the GlassBox Engine, Maxis’ proprietary engine, the simulation comes to life in a way never before possible. Everything you see in the world we sim – Sims in each city will have jobs or can lose them, buy homes, be prosperous or be an economic drain on the city. SimCity is the city builder in which every choice powers real change that affects the character of your city, the state of your region and fellow players within the entire SimCity world. Original fans and newcomers alike will relish the opportunity to build visually and functionally unique cities that take on the character of their choices. Combining fun, addictive gameplay elements with an interface that encourages anyone to jump in and begin playing, SimCity will usher forth a new era of city-building simulation as players work to change a world together.
With its first release in 1989, SimCity is the premier city-building franchise that has captivated more than 30 million players worldwide. Since then, several award-winning entries such as SimCity 2000™, SimCity 3000™ and SimCity 4 have been produced by the critically acclaimed Maxis studio. Players step into the role of a mayor as they break ground on the foundations of the next big city. The franchise gives players the means to create highly detailed recreations that are populated with real-world issues and real-world problems. With a powerful toolset at their fingertips, players have the ability to create uniquely specialized cities, everything from a bustling financial haven to an oil-guzzling industrial complex; SimCity compels players to create the world of their imagination.
SimCity for PC is in development at the world-renowned Maxis studio in Emeryville, California and has not yet been rated by the ESRB. To stay up-to-date on the latest regarding SimCity please visit www.SimCity.com. To pre-order and secure the SimCity Heroes & Villains Pack please visit http://store.origin.com/SimCity.Press assets for SimCity are available at www.info.ea.com.
6th March, 2012 — Wargaming.net, the award-winning online game developer and publisher, is giving players a glimpse today of the first gameplay footage from its highly-anticipated flight combat action MMO World of Warplanes. The gameplay trailer was captured during the game’s current Global Alpha test phase, and features high-flying PvP action in a variety of different warplanes.
“We’re excited to introduce the debut gameplay trailer just in time for the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco,” said Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi. “The graphics are sleek and impressive and getting better every day — it’s going to be brilliant.”