The explorers from Ubisoft sent out an expansive press release today stating that their exploitation and extermination series The Settlers will continue to increase its horizon come spring 2010 with The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom.
Developed by Blue Byte, the game will contain the usual fine-tuning of settlements to optimize transport and production as well as three paths to victory – military, science and trade – and a new victory points system.
Also, it will have a new graphics engine for you graphics whores and improved AI that will offer “unique behaviors”. Multiplayer is not ignored either, with new modes being added along with leaderboard and DLC support.
Codemasters today announced that Ken Block, the multi-medal-winning Subaru Rally Team USA driver and co-founder of DC Shoes, has been signed on as one of the key motorsport athletes who will be featured in Colin McRae: DIRT 2.
X Games team-mate of the late Colin McRae, Block is at the forefront of a new breed of pro drivers, competing as Subaru Rally Team USA Driver #43 in the Rally America National Championship and the world-famous X Games. He has also gained notoriety for his mind-blowing stunts in his Subaru WRX STI. For Colin McRae: DiRT 2, Block is working with the development team at Codemasters Studios as technical consultant, lending his wealth of knowledge to the game and advising on car handling.
“Colin McRae is one of the main reasons that I am a rally driver. He is a big inspiration to me and the way I drive my rally car,” said Ken Block. “It’s really an honour to be a contributor to the creation of Colin McRae: DiRT 2 and to be able to continue the passion that Colin had for rally and for these videogames.”
They have released a video where Block discusses his relationship with the legendary driver and how he was inspired by McRae to pursue his own career.
Not just any force of guinea pigs is headed our way, as Disney Interactive Studios today announced that they have enlisted an elite force of guinea pigs to star in the upcoming G-Force video game, inspired by the forthcoming Walt Disney film.
Scheduled for release this July on PC, PS2, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360, DS and Wii, the action-platform game has guinea pigs use high-tech gadgets and specialized talents to complete dangerous missions. Here’s the scoop:
Players control Darwin, the G-Force team leader, and housefly surveillance commando Mooch. Darwin and Mooch team up with the rest of G-Force to use their unique high-tech gadgets, stealth mastery, and pint-sized teamwork to save the world from a robot army of evil household appliances. G-Force features innovative gameplay with a unique sense of scale and puzzle solving that requires players to manipulate environments or enemies, including evil household appliances like waffle irons, water coolers and vacuum cleaners to complete their mission.
It is being developed by Eurocom, while the DS and PSP versions are being handled by Keen Games.
Writing on the official Sims 3 website, The Sims label head Rod Humble announced that The Sims 3 will feature greatly simplified copy protection with no online activation.
The game will have disc-based copy protection – there is a Serial Code just like The Sims 2. To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed.
We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future.
EA was recently criticized for its use of DRM in Spore where users had to call the company to activate their game if it was installed more than three times.
The Game Developer Choice Awards ceremony was conducted last night where they announced the winners. The game of the year award went to Bethesda’s open-world action-RPG Fallout 3. Check out the list of winners.
Game of the Year
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)Best Game Design:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)Best Writing:
Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks)Best Technology:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)Best Visual Arts:
Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)Best Debut Game:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)Best Handheld Game:
God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready at Dawn)Innovation Award:
LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)Best Audio:
Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores)Best Downloadable Game:
World Of Goo (2D Boy)Recipients for the evening’s special awards were:
Lifetime Achievement Award
Hideo KojimaPioneer Award
Alex Rigopulos and Eran EgozyAmbassador Award
Tommy Tallarico
Question: what do showering women and ladies in underwear have to do with off-road racing action? I, for one, do not know, and will most probably never figure it out. But if you want to try, check out this video for DIRT 2, Codemasters’ upcoming driving game.
Valve’s work on Left 4 Dead has paid off, as the studio announced that the cooperative shooter has now sold over 2.5 million copies since its debut in November 2008.
This news came as part of project lead Michael Booth’s GDC presentation on the game. The figure includes both PC and Xbox 360 releases, but does not include sales from the company’s digital distribution platform Steam. The numbers would be higher of course, and it should be pointed out that a recent discount saw sales jump 3000%.
As part of their ongoing national tour, developers of the self-titled apocalyptic MMO Fallen Earth announced a contest where their fans will have the opportunity to choose the final tour stop. The final stop is slated for May 2 at an undetermined location and will let fans the chance to meet the dev team, demo the game and collect a surprise in-game item.
The tour consisted of previous stops in Raleigh, N.C., Baltimore, M.D. and more, including the GDC in San Francisco.
“GDC provides us with an excellent opportunity to showcase the in-game elements we have been working on since we went into closed beta,” said Lee Hammock, lead game designer for Fallen Earth. “Our testing community has been instrumental in helping us develop a more compelling game environment and we are excited to give them the opportunity to choose the last destination on our national tour.”
Fallen Earth is currently in closed beta testing and is set to launch later this year.
Finally a solid release date for the highly anticipated Call of Duty sequel Modern Warfare 2: the game will be released on November 10, as announced by Infinity Ward at the GDC Choice Awards.
A very cryptic teaser trailer was released. Check it out below.
Essentially throwing poo at digital rights management, Stardock today unveiled Goo, a new technology that the company claims will solve publisher and consumer complaints with digitally distributed games and DRM.
An acronym for Game Object Obfuscation, Goo will let developers “encapsulate their game executable into a container that includes the original executable plus Impulse Reactor, Stardock’s [suite of developer tools], into a single encrypted file.”
When players run the game, they will need to enter their email address and serial number for online activation. It is then tied to the user’s account, with Stardock adding that the game will never need to connect to the Internet again. Stardock also added a list of “unique advantages” of the technology:
1. There is no third-party client required. This means a developer can use this as a universal solution since it is not tied to any particular digital distributor.
2. It paves the way to letting users validate their game on any digital distribution service that supports that game. One common concern of gamers is if the company they purchased a game from exits the market, their game library may disappear too. Games that use Goo would be able to be validated anywhere.
3. It opens the door to gamers being able to resell their games because users can voluntarily disable their game access and transfer their license ownership to another user.
It will debut on April 7 in an update to Stardock’s digital distribution platform Impulse.
Following Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero Aerosmith, Neversoft’s multi-instrument music game Guitar Hero World Tour will be released on PC and Mac this summer, courtesy of Aspyr.
The computer editions will feature the same content found in the console versions, including all the on-disc songs, music studio mode and support for full band gameplay. However, the studio made no mention of downloadable content.
More details are expected soon.
Some gameplay footage from Postal 3 has been released, showing off the sure-to-be controversial open-world shooter. In development at Running With Scissors and Akella, the game is due out on PC and Xbox 360 by the end of the year, with an eventual PS3 release as well.
Confirming endless rumors and speculation, Rockstar Games today officially announced Max Payne 3.
Being developed by Rockstar Vancouver, the game will feature a now-retired Payne who still cannot escape the world of violence we saw in the first two games.
"We’re starting a new chapter of Max’s life with this game," said Sam Houser, founder of Rockstar Games. "This is Max as we’ve never seen him before, a few years older, more world-weary and cynical than ever. We experience the downward spiral of his life after the events of Max Payne 2 and witness his last chance for salvation."
The game will include a new city, seeing as how he left New York behind after the events of Max Payne 2. It is due out on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this winter.
Seeing as how the Need for Speed franchise has become an annual one, what would 2009 be without a NFS game? EA sent out word that Need for Speed SHIFT, the latest entry in the series, will hit stores on September 18.
Deviating from the arcade gameplay of the series, the game will offer simulation gameplay, featuring some of the world’s most iconic racing tracks, including the storied Brand’s Hatch in the UK. It will also include high-performance cars such as the Pagani Zonda, Porsche 911 GT2 and Lotus Elise.
The game is being developed by Slightly Mad Studios in collaboration with Black Box and Patrick Soderlund. Slightly Mad consists of people who worked on the critically acclaimed games GT Legends and GTR 2.
NFS Shift is due out on PC, PSP, PS3 and Xbox 360.
Known for its amazing work on Metalocalypse and The Amazing Screw-on Head, Titmouse today announced the birth of Titmouse Games, marking its foray into gaming goodness.
Their first project is dubbed Seven Haunted Seas, an action-RPG for unspecified platforms. It follows an undead pirate who returns from hell to find a dark, post-apocalyptic future where he must right all his wrongs to restore the world.
Industry veteran Aaron Habibipour is serving as the studio’s creative director. He has previously worked as senior producer for Guitar Hero III and art producer for Darkwatch.
No release date was given for the title, but an interesting trailer was released.
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