General gaming

---

• Zone of the Enders 3DS Teased by Kojima
• Neverwinter Delayed as Hasbro Regains D&D Digital Rights
• Spoil Gears of War 3, Risk Getting Banned at Launch
• Rock Band Maker's VidRhythm is Coming to iOS [Update]
• How Deus Ex Started a Revolution
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Secret Plan to Give You Free Will
• 1UP Cover Story: Reinventing Deus Ex
• Del Toro Talks About Building a Sandbox for Insane
• Vita Expected to be a "Car Wreck" by UFC Personal Trainer Devs
• Bethesda Forums Possibly Hit by Hackers

Zone of the Enders 3DS Teased by Kojima Posted: 15 Aug 2011 07:50 PM PDT Hideo Kojima loves to tease his fans. Zone of the Enders is one of those franchises that fans have been forced to wait ages for a sequel to -- the second (and last) one came out in 2003, more than eight years ago. While the announcement of an HD collection of the first two games was good news, it wasn't a new game. Judging by a picture sent out a short time ago, it's possible that such a sequel is in the works. On his English Twitter account, Kojima tweeted out several pictures, including the one above, which he says he saw on "Omori-kun's desk." In the background, you can see what looks to be "Z.O.E. 3DS." As noted by IGN, it looks as if the 3DS text is "ZOE" flipped. However, the fact that there are no periods in between the letters for 3DS (as there are in ZOE) would seem to indicate that this is a tease of Zone of the Enders for 3DS. Whether that's Zone of the Enders 3 or something else, it's impossible to say. Such an announcement would come as a surprise given the timing and the platform. Kojima promised a ZOE sequel would be made eventually -- it was a high priority at one point -- but the project was "pushed to the back" according to a statement he made last summer.

Neverwinter Delayed as Hasbro Regains D&D Digital Rights Posted: 15 Aug 2011 06:18 PM PDT The upcoming Dungeons & Dragons co-op RPG Neverwinter has been pushed back until next year in order to give it time to become a deeper game. Rather than be released on PC later this year as planned, the Cryptic Studios-developed Neverwinter will instead be coming out in "late 2012." This is due to Perfect World's desire to invest in "a more immersive experience." Cryptic was acquired by Perfect World earlier this year and is best known as an MMO developer, having worked on City of Heroes/Villains, Star Trek Online, and Champions Online. The developer had been owned by Atari up until this year.

Spoil Gears of War 3, Risk Getting Banned at Launch Posted: 15 Aug 2011 04:42 PM PDT An early, unfinished copy of Gears of War 3 was leaked onto the Internet more than a month ago. This led to countless, spoiler-filled videos ending up on YouTube. Besides trying to get these videos pulled as they go up and investigating the leak, Epic has also plans to punish those who are going around, spoiling the game for series fans. Gears executive producer Rod Fergusson reiterated in an interview with Edge earlier this month that what was leaked is an early, pre-beta version of Gears 3. He noted that it's fortunate Gears is a 360 game because, unlike leaked PC games, where there is no real restriction to playing a pre-release game, the number of people with a capable 360 is much smaller. In addition to calling it "frustrating," he said, "So we're extremely diligent about getting that stuff taken down and issued a call to the fans to not perpetuate it because it's not helping anybody to perpetuate that. And just keeping track of those who do. I don't think everybody's always aware of the potential repercussions of those types of actions so it's just a matter of being diligent."

Rock Band Maker's VidRhythm is Coming to iOS [Update] Posted: 15 Aug 2011 03:32 PM PDT Update: Harmonix's director of communications and brand management, John Drake, points out on Twitter that VidRhythm "isn't a game per se." That opens up the possibilities for something much different than your typical touch-based rhythm game. It also makes it much more difficult to give an educated guess as to what it could be. With the game coming soon, we should hopefully learn more before long. Original Story: A trademark for VidRhythm popped up last month, inadvertently revealing the name of a new Harmonix game. Besides confirming that it was a game it's working on, the Rock Band and Dance Central maker didn't share any details about it. While we still don't know its exact nature, we do now have word that it's coming to iOS platforms. VidRhythm is just one of several games in development at Harmonix, where Dance Central 2 and a music game for 3DS are known to be coming. Speaking with Gamasutra, CEO Alex Rigopulos looks at this as "our first iOS release as a studio."

How Deus Ex Started a Revolution Posted: 15 Aug 2011 02:50 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet How Deus Ex Started a Revolution More than a decade on, the original Deus Ex still offers an unparalleled experience. By: Scott Sharkey August 15, 2011 Deus Ex is one of those genre-defying games that defies classification, unless you feel like employing awkward hyphenated combinations of three-letter acronyms. "FPS-RPG" will do in a pinch, but it sells the game's complexity short. Warren Spector, the game's producer, was fond of calling it an "immersive simulation game" -- a label he also applied to Ultima Underworld and System Shock, two of his previous projects whose influence on Deus Ex is undeniable. Ultimately, it comes down to a game where both skill and stats count in equal measure; almost every challenge has multiple solutions; the narrative branches based both on dialogue and actions; and the player is seldom removed from absolute immersion except by the necessary evil of the inventory screen or the occasional menu. Deus Ex is a game you can live in, one that can be played through three or four times with each trip offering an almost completely different experience.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Secret Plan to Give You Free Will Posted: 15 Aug 2011 02:50 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet Deus Ex: Human Revolution's Secret Plan to Give You Free Will Human Revolution's designers on creating a world you can think (or fight) your way through, seamlessly. By: Jeremy Parish August 15, 2011 When Deus Ex arrived in June 2000, it was unlike any game that had come before it. While ostensibly a first-person shooter, Deus Ex offered a sense of freedom and variety one would normally associate with an RPG, not a run-and-gun action game. Its intricate and generally well-written story provided context for the action, but it was the player who guided both the direction the story took and the means by which they arrived at one of the tale's many possible conclusions -- means that need not involve firing a single bullet, despite the game wearing the trappings of a shooter. In many ways, Deus Ex remains unique to this day. The notion of a shooter/RPG hybrid no longer seems quite as unusual as it did a decade ago, but the specific form in which the two genres mingled in Ion Storm's classic has never been duplicated precisely. Even as the legacy of the original PC classic has largely been overshadowed by the success of modern blockbusters Mass Effect and Fallout 3, it still stands out amidst these recent giants. Despite all their accomplishments, they nevertheless don't offer the same exquisite balance of action and role-playing seen in the original Deus Ex.

1UP Cover Story: Reinventing Deus Ex Posted: 15 Aug 2011 02:49 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet Reinventing Deus Ex: A Visit with Eidos Montreal By: Jeremy Parish August 15, 2011 "How did the need to maintain narrative continuity with the original Deus Ex affect the play mechanics of Human Revolution at all? I mean, how have you dealt with the fact that Adam Jensen technically shouldn't be a more impressive hero than J.C. Denton, given that he's a more primitive kind of cyborg?" I recently put this question to Deus Ex: Human Revolution director Jean-Francois Dugas. Now that Eidos Montreal has put the wraps on the game -- a project years in the making -- I was curious to learn how Dugas and his team worked in the shadow of someone else's masterpiece. The philosophy with which Eidos Montreal has tackled the Deus Ex universe could ultimately make or break the game, or at least shape the public's reaction to it. The weight of a legacy is a tricky matter for any sequel (or prequel, in this case), but it's especially touchy when following up a game as revered as Ion Storm's Deus Ex.

Del Toro Talks About Building a Sandbox for Insane Posted: 15 Aug 2011 02:29 PM PDT With the Red Faction franchise being relegated to the back burner for at least the immediate future, Volition is free to focus on Saints Row: The Third and Insane, the game being collaborated on by Hollywood director, writer, and producer Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro spoke about the game's status with MTV, pointing out that it's still two to three years away and, from the sound of it, might be an open-world sandbox game. "We had to build a sandbox, so we designed all the architecture already," he said. "We're developing in Champaign, Illinois, so it's a very short trip from Toronto, so I don't have much weekends. My life is pretty much 24/7 work, but we're giving it the proper attention. We've spent an inordinate amount of time into that project. It's because it's worth it, I think. You learn more, as a narrator, for this medium, than I ever expected."

Vita Expected to be a "Car Wreck" by UFC Personal Trainer Devs Posted: 15 Aug 2011 01:32 PM PDT At least two people at Heavy Iron Studios don't think too highly of the dedicated handheld game system market. Lyle Hall and Matthew Seymour shared their outlook for the Vita in a new interview, with Seymour going so far as to call it a "car wreck." The lack of success experienced by Nintendo with the 3DS, which led to a very early price cut, is evidence that a similar device like Vita can't do well, extra horsepower or not. That's according to Hall, who is Heavy Iron's president and CEO. "If people aren't willing to pay $249 for a Nintendo 3DS why would they pay $299 for Vita? People don't want to carry more than one thing in their pocket, that's why Android and iPhone have done so well, they are the devices of choice, they offers multiple functions outside of gaming," he told GamesIndustry.biz. "People don't want it. That's Nintendo huge challenge -- how do they add value to that?"

Bethesda Forums Possibly Hit by Hackers Posted: 15 Aug 2011 12:41 PM PDT It has, thankfully, been some time since the long string of attacks by hackers on games and game companies earlier this year. Unfortunately, Bethesda, one of the targets during that period, may have been hit again this past week. A post on the official forums reveals that there was a "potential breach of our forum user database" on Friday, August 12. In response, all forum passwords have been reset, so existing members will need to create a new password before being able to log in again. There are also instructions for who to contact if you no longer have access to your old email address. Bethesda was among those attacked in June by hackers seeking to steal user data, but the public was reassured that billing information was not at risk. Hacker group LulzSec, which was reportedly responsible for many of the attacks that took place after the PlayStation Network breach, claimed to have in its possession Brink players' personal information, although nothing ever became of it.

You are subscribed to email updates from 1UP RSS feed To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610