General gaming

General gaming

EA Responds to Activision's Condemnation of Trash Talk

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 04:48 PM PDT

Battlefield 3

Electronic Arts has heard what Activision has to say about mudslinging and, judging by its official response, it doesn't feel the same way.

Responding to the war of words that's taken place between Battlefield and Call of Duty, Activision Publishing boss Eric Hirshberg gave a speech at Gamescom this week in which he called for an end to the trash talking. In his mind, competition is good, but "this type of rhetoric" -- referring to EA's John Riccitiello talking about his wish to see Call of Duty "rot from the core" -- "is bad for our industry." He stated, "...it's one thing to want your game to be successful. It's another to actively want the games of others to fail."

While things are fine on some fronts -- Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling checked out DICE's Battlefield 3 today -- EA's VP of communications, Jeff Brown, wasn't especially kind in a statement given to Kotaku, starting out by saying, "Welcome to the big leagues, Eric."

GameStop to Begin Streaming Console and PC Games Next Year

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 03:21 PM PDT

Spawn Labs

Spawn Labs, the streaming game company acquired by GameStop earlier this year, is currently in the process of beta testing a service that will stream both PC and console games to a variety of devices. The beta is ongoing and will begin to expand later this year, as revealed during a conference call with GameStop investors.

"Spawn recently began its first beta and is currently live, testing the streaming of Xbox 360, PS3, and PC games from a data center in Austin, Texas," said GameStop president Tony Bartel yesterday during the call. "We continue to get positive feedback from our publishing partners about the pro-console, low-investment model that we have chosen."

GameStop associates are participating in the closed beta, the purpose of which is to "fine-tune our data center environment." Early results were said to be "positive."

From Blades to NXE, 360's New Dashboard is Called Twist Control

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 01:54 PM PDT


Following up on the original Blades dashboard and the New Xbox Experience, Microsoft is calling the latest iteration of the Xbox 360 dashboard "Twist Control."

Expected to be out before the end of the year, it features heavier Kinect integration and many of the features announced at E3. Those include voice search (along with Bing), live TV, and YouTube, as well as cloud storage of game saves and profiles, Beacons, and additional Facebook connectivity (so you can 'Like' games and make note of your Achievements).

Beacons sound particularly cool, as they allow you to broadcast what you'd like to play while doing something else. It other words, it lets you tell friends you're interested in playing a certain game while keeping yourself occupied by playing something else or watching a movie on Netflix.

Battlefield 3 Erupts at Gamescom 2011

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 12:06 PM PDT

At this year's Gamescom, we get our first look at what Battlefield 3's co-op has to offer. Developer DICE showcases co-op on the PlayStation 3, and I mention this because I know there's some sensitivity regarding which platform the game is on. So yes, it looks good (but not as good as on PC). Now that that is out of the way, the co-op mode proves to be quite challenging. Co-op is completely separate from the campaign, and has no checkpoints; so don't die.

The mission begins with two of us going into a building to extract a hostage. I'm told that this can be accomplished without setting off the building's alarm, but I couldn't do it -- I blame my co-op partner. Producer Patrick Liu mentions that he has only seen this particular feat done twice on the show floor. Working together to kill each enemy is crucial if you want to get through undetected.

Team Fortress 2's Deus Ex Pre-Order Items Might be the Best Yet

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 12:02 PM PDT

Team Fortress 2 Manno-Technology

With Deus Ex: Human Revolution set to come out in a matter of days, Eidos Montreal has teamed up with Valve to bring us a number of Deus Ex-inspired items for Team Fortress 2.

These TF2 promotions go on from time to time to encourage people to pick up a game on Steam. It's happened with Mount & Blade With Fire & Sword (two hats), Rift (two weapons), Left 4 Dead 2 (a frying pan and hats), Monday Night Combat (a hat and outfit), Poker Night at the Inventory (some weapons and attire), Quake 4 (the original rocket launcher), Fallout: New Vegas (a Pip-Boy replica), and Brink (a mask). But this Deus Ex Manno-Technology bundle is probably the best yet; it includes eight items, half of which are brand new weapons.

The Sniper gets the Machina sniper rifle, which does additional damage and penetrates players when fully charged, but can't be fired when not zoomed-in and gives away your position with tracer rounds. The Spy gets the Diamondback handgun, which gets one critical shot whenever a building is destroyed with your sapper attached, but it does 15% less damage and never gets random critical hits. And the Engineer gets two items: one is the Widowmaker, a shotgun that uses 60 metal as ammo for each shot but returns the amount of damage done to you as metal. The other is the Short Circuit, a pistol replacement that doesn't need to be reloaded and can destroy incoming enemy projectiles while also damaging enemies and using metal as ammo. It doesn't work underwater or have random criticals.

PS3 Cross-Game Voice Chat Not Happening, But Vita's Got it

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 11:04 AM PDT

PS3 Bluetooth headset

While the PlayStation 3's online service has made great leaps since launch, one key feature it's still missing is cross-game voice chat. In order to voice chat with other players, you have to be playing the same game; one person can't be playing Uncharted while another is playing Flower. We now know the reason for why that is and that it's unlikely to ever happen. Meanwhile, thanks to the abundance of RAM included with Vita, Sony's new handheld does support this very feature.

Its absence on PS3 is due to the way RAM is handled. All of the system's memory is handed over to a game once it's started up and it's not possible to take it back to handle cross-game voice chat.

"Once a game gets RAM we never give it back," SCE Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida told Eurogamer. "It's not possible to retrofit something like that after the fact."

Dark Souls: So Difficult That Its Producer Dies Over 200 Times In One Day

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 10:55 AM PDT

Dark Souls producers Daisuke Uchiyama and Kei Hirono cross the ocean for Gamescom 2011, bringing with them a brand new demo build of their incoming gritty fantasy action RPG. I get a chance to talk with both of them about their intentions with the spiritual sequel to one of the best games of 2009, while they show me a new area called the Archive Tower -- a spiraling mixture of books, monsters, jails, and traps.

Dark Souls, it's well known by now, works almost exactly like its predecessor. Uchiyama plays as an overpowered character -- equipped with full-health restoring potions and swords capable of taking down most enemies with just one hit. Nevertheless, he still has a hard time.

Borderlands 2 Makes Too Many Improvements to Count

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 10:30 AM PDT

After watching the very short Borderlands 2 teaser trailer with much fervor, I couldn't wait to see it in action. A behind-closed-doors demonstration thoroughly amazes me at how much this game has improved. Right from the start, I notice things such as how the user interface has undergone a cosmetic overhaul -- quests are now displayed on the top right corner of the screen along with a minimap. I could point out numerous little touches all day, but I'll focus on the bigger details for now.

The Story

Borderlands 2 takes place five years later, with a man named Handsome Jack as your adversary (who has taken credit for opening the Vault at the end of the previous game). The demo features Salvador, who serves as Gearbox's new take on the traditional Berzerker class. His special ability is duel-wielding two weapons for a period of time. The quest I see has Salvador trying to help Roland (the Soldier-class character from Borderlands) escape from a prison vehicle. Along the way, I notice some former favorite enemies, like Skags and Psychos, make a comeback in addition to new enemy types. I also get a glimpse at the new Siren-class character, Maya -- unfortunately, her special ability is still unknown. This comes up when, during the presentation, Gearbox VP of marketing Steve Gibson mentions that each Siren is unique, and so we shouldn't expect Maya to share the same phase-walking talent as Lilith (the Siren from the original Borderlands). I hope to see more about Maya soon, because she's definitely the character I'm going to use.

Ninja Gaiden 3 Ditches Beheadings Because You Don't Want to See Them

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 10:21 AM PDT

Ninja Gaiden 3

The first all-new Ninja Gaiden game in Team Ninja's post-Tomonobu Itagaki days, Ninja Gaiden 3, won't feature decapitations or dismemberments, and there's a bit of a strange reason for why that is.

It's not because the game is trying to ease up on the violence -- as we've seen, it's still plenty bloody. You just won't be able to take off an enemy's head, arms, or legs.

A Team Ninja staffer explained the rationale for this at Gamescom. "We don't think people want to see that anymore," IGN was told. "They've already seen it."

Street Fighter X Tekken Targeting Spring Release

Posted: 19 Aug 2011 09:32 AM PDT


Of the two crossovers between the Street Fighter and Tekken franchises, Street Fighter X Tekken is to be the first out of the gate. A new release window given to the game falls in line with what we've heard before, which is that we'll be playing it in less than a year's time.

Capcom has sent out a new fact sheet listing the game for a spring 2012 release. The company's most recent sales forecast showed the game having a presence in the current fiscal year, which runs through March 31, 2012. With spring beginning on March 21, that gives a fairly small window for it to be released. There's only a single Tuesday -- March 27 -- that falls within that period, so unless there's been some change and it's actually coming later in spring (which runs through June 20), that seems like a fair estimate at this point.

This applies for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game. The Vita version, announced at E3 in June and featuring Cole MacGrath from Infamous, isn't mentioned.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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