In an interview with OXM, Rocksteady’s Sefton Hill said that he doesn’t consider Batman: Arkham City to be a sandbox title, but did say that you will start the game with all the abilities and gadgets unlocked in Arkham Asylum.
“This is a balancing act which is very important to us. We want Batman: Arkham Asylum players to enjoy many of the gadgets they used in the first game right from the off, without disadvantaging players who are new to the series.”
“To accommodate both groups, the game will include full tutorials for all the existing gadgets for new players, but if you’ve played the first game then you are free to start using more advanced moves right from the start.”
“Rocksteady as a studio is driven very much by the desire to make great games and tell incredible stories and that is still very much the focus for Batman: Arkham City. Therefore, I do not believe the genre of the game has changed, but the expanded location definitely allows us to develop the experience in new directions.”
Sounds all absolutely perfect to me. Arkham Asylum was so sublime, that I’ll keep taking minor tweaks over a complete overhaul anyday.
It comes as a bit of a surprise that one of the groups with some of the most popular titles – Take-Two - only managed a dismal 1% of their revenue from Wii titles, especially when you look at how many Wii console units get sold. Take Two released their third financial results which show that the quarter’s sales were dominated by the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 which combined for 93% of the publisher’s revenues.
Take-Two’s significantly more positive results for the fiscal 2010 third quarter are better than they expected and was lead from the front with the strong performance of Red Dead Redemption, which reportedly sold 6.9 million units worldwide since its launch. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, Grand Theft Auto IV and Borderlands also did well as did the 2K sport games.
The publishers did not release any titles for the Wii in the third quarter, but with titles on the shelves from the previous quarters like NBA2k11, Sid Meiers Pirates, Nickleodean Fit and New Carnival Games one would have thought the Wii would manage a bit more than 1%. Apparently not.
Here are the full list of releases from Take Two this year to date, which does show a majority of titles for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360:
Capcom has given us a peek at a brand new Dead Rising 2 screenshot (see below) at the Tokyo Game Show.
The screenshot titled – “zombie slaughter” includes a lot of blood and gore.
Unfortunately it is not known whether that is Chuck under those heavy metal antlers, but whoever it is, they are in a motor cross jump suit that we have seen before. However, this time around, notice the letters “TIR” on his jump suit.
Capcom is also having a Dead Rising 2 event tomorrow called “Terror is Reality,” where attendees are asked to “Grab the moose by the horns and become Terror is Reality’s new star”.
SEGA have confirmed that Yakuza 4 will be released in the US and Europe in Spring 2011 (second quarter) so I am sure we can expect the local release around that time too.
In a press release SEGA describe the upcoming title’s setting as a “fully realised, authentic recreation of Tokyo’s ‘Sin-City district” the deep and interweaving crime drama of Yakuza 4 unfolds through the eyes of four unique and dangerous characters.”
Playing as Kazuma Kiryu, the loan shark, Akiyama who is an escaped convict Saejima or detective Tanimura, you will “need to survive the dangers and temptations of the Japanese underworld.”
Love it or hate, the social game giant that is FarmVille has been a runaway success for PopCap. The PopCap Games Chief Creative Officer, Jason Kapalka believes that big publishers have yet to understand how to cash in on the social gaming market.
Kapalka revealed to GI.biz that games like FarmVille are more of a threat to World of Warcraft than any other upcoming MMO’s. Kapalka believes that, “Whether it’s a game like FarmVille or Bejewelled Blitz, or a lot of mobile games that have the same idea of ‘I have it wherever I go, I can play short games on it.’ The game adapting to your schedule, rather than you trying to conform to the game’s demands,” and that those are the kinds of games that are, “probably going to be the big scary ones as far as the current guys like Blizzard, Activision, and EA are concerned. They’re going to be fighting them on unequal terms, like asymmetric warfare. ”
Kapalka is also confident that subscription-based MMO’s are on the decline whereas social games are the future with FarmVille leading the way.
FarmVille on Facebook is reported to have 62 million monthly active users, so these theories are not unjust by Kapalka, however could it ever really take on World of Warcraft? This is bold statement indeed.
It started yesterday with Ubisoft sending us a pretty strange mail with cool horror movie posters and the phrase “You may not know it but everyone can make it big in Hollywood….with a glimpse of cruelty!”. It turns out that they were leading up to a new game announcement – A Bloody Good Time and the posters that have made the rounds on the web were all related, they depict the Hollywood maps used in the title including a beach, a casino and a horror house.
A Bloody Good Time is a new multiplayer shooter being developed by Outerlight for Xbox LIVE Arcade and Steam. Valve’s Source Engine was used for the game which puts players on a Hollywood set, and like struggling actors, your aim will be to breakthrough into the industry. The lead characters were also feature in the posters – The Surfer, The Beach babe, The Goth, The Bunny girl, The Showgirl, The Clown, The Gambler and The Stoner.
A Bloody Good Time features four game modes playable online for up to eight players:
Hunt: hunt down and kill your quarry, but look out for the unknown hunter that is stalking you.
Elimination: murder your way through the cast one quarry at a time to be crowned the last man standing.
Revenge: Each murder earns you a new quarry, but adds to the list of players out for violent revenge. Watch your back.
Death Match: Everyone is a target, no rule here.
Look out for Bloody Good Time which is scheduled for release on October 27, 2010.
Resident Evil has for many years been Capcom’s most important IP. The publishers have had monumental success with the franchise, but possibly lost ground in the last few titles in the series, so it would be a great time to bring a new IP into the stable, especially when you look at how the Western publishers seem to be raking in the market share and the Japanese developers have arguably seen better times.
Interestingly Capcom producer, Keiji Inafune revealed in an interview with Eurogamer, that his goal is to make of Dead Rising a top IP, and furthermore that, “the goal for Dead Rising 2 is to replace the Resident Evil franchise and become number one IP within Capcom.”
Inafune further elaborated when talking about spin offs or sequels, “If it’s received pretty well [Dead Rising 2], yes we would consider a sequel. But at the moment we just don’t know.”
Well judging for the popularity of their PSN and XBLA prequel – Case Zero – we can only imagine that Dead Rising 2 should be a solid performer.
Gamersmint have published some interesting pics of a white Xbox 360 slim which was sent to them by a reader. They look authentic to me, and damn pretty!
The box shows the normal black Xbox 360 slim model, which creates a little suspicion, and a few users over at N4G have said that this is just a black console painted white, so?
You be the judge, while I try get confimation.
[UPDATE]
It is not an official console, the folks over at Engadget had somebody paint a normal black one. Great job!
Zombie talk