|
|
 |
Archived News:
Black Bean sign Alfa Romeo Rights to develop multiplatform videogame is the
press release announcing plans for S.C.A.R. (Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo), a
multiplatorm driving game based on the famed Italian sportscar brand:
VARESE, ITALY – 24th January, 2005 – Black Bean announced today that it
has signed an exclusive deal with Alfa Romeo to develop a racing videogame based
on the prestigious Italian car brand.
Black Bean's acquisition of the worldwide Alfa Romeo rights underlines its
determination to make an impact in the world of multiplatform videogame
development and publishing. The Alfa Romeo brand is well-known and synonymous of
stylish sport cars.
The game is being developed by award winning developer Milestone, critically
acclaimed for its Screamer franchise, the Superbike series published by
Electronic Arts under the EA Sports brand and the recently released Racing
Evoluzione, an Xbox exclusive game published by Atari.
S.C.A.R. – Squadra Corse Alfa Romeo (this is the title of the game) is in
development for the PS2, Xbox, PC platforms and Mobile and will be released in
the second quarter of 2005.
A new SeaWorld
Adventure Parks Tycoon 2 Product Page reveals an upcoming management sequel
from Activision Value that says "available now" as the release date, which is
listed as 1/25/05 on
EBgames. Also, a new
Commandos:
Strike Force Product Page is online, complementing all the other various
official websites for Pyro Studios' upcoming World War II first-person shooter.
Thanks Frans.
- WoW
There's a
Blizzard Q&A on the main page at Penny Arcade (thanks Grasman)
discussing World of Warcraft's woes: "The short answer is 'The game is
capable of supporting this many players,' but it would probably be helpful
to provide some background information. Based on our market analysis, we
made some initial calculations about the size of the massively multiplayer
online games market in the United States. We then accounted for new
customers to the genre based on our previous games. Looking over this data,
we did believe that there was the potential for an extremely sizable
interest in a Blizzard MMOG. According to our research, other successful
MMOGs in the U.S. had achieved roughly 300,000 subscribers after 12 months
of operation. What ended up happening with World of Warcraft is that we
achieved double these numbers in approximately the first six weeks of
launch. We absolutely can support the number of copies we put on shelves,
but we believed it would take us longer to get to this number in terms of
players purchasing the game and logging on."
- KOTOR II
The
Star
Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords Q&A on GameSpot
talks with producer Mike Gallo about the upcoming Force-powered RPG sequel:
"Following up a game like KOTOR is tough, especially when the awards for
that game came pouring in. We actually started in the same place on KOTOR
II--with a list of "Star Wars" things that needed to be in the game to make
it feel like it was part of the universe. We also wanted a darker storyline,
and the team at Obsidian Entertainment was able to craft a great story with
some memorable characters. Those two things were our top goals from the day
we started."
- Lineage II
RPG
Vault's Lineage II The Chaotic Chronicle Team Q&A #2 quizzes the team
behind NCsoft's upcoming MMORPG sequel about their favorite bosses and
"regular creatures" in the game.
The SpellForce Website
now offers a new edition of the map editor, update to the same version 1.52 as
the most recent patch for Phenomic's role-playing strategy game. The 7 MB patch
is available on 3D
Gamers and
Worthplaying. Also, the Make
Something Unreal Contest Website now offers a list of the
grand final winners
of the big money mod competition. The winner of the best mod is
Red Orchestra; and the second- through seventh-place winners are: Damnation,
Air Buccaneers,
Alien Swarm,
Metaball,
Strike Force, and
Frag Ops. The best movie winner is
Journey; and second- through fifth-place are
bot,
Sparked Memory,
Scrap, and
Damnation.
This Battlecruiser Online
Downloads Page is now serving up a new patch for Battlecruiser Millennium
Gold Edition, updating gilded package of 3000AD's space game to version 1.01.07.
The version control
file outlines the sole change included in this patch.
A new Alpha 0.25 of
Classic Doom for DOOM 3, addressing all the known bugs in this preliminary
version of the original DOOM mod for DOOM 3. Thanks Ant.
Major League Baseball
Players Association Makes Bold Move to Grow Video Game Business (thanks
Frans) is the press release announcing that Take-Two Interactive has succeeded
in its pitch for an exclusive license with the Major League Baseball Players
Association ( story). Here's a bit: NEW YORK, Jan. 24
/PRNewswire/ -- The Major League Baseball Players Association ("MLBPA") today
announced that it has reached an agreement in principle to grant sweeping rights
to Take2 Interactive, Inc., to develop and publish a broad portfolio of products
that are expected to drive the baseball video game business to unprecedented
heights.
The innovative seven-year arrangement will dramatically limit the number of
baseball video game manufacturers and ensure aggressive marketing and promotion
of baseball video games, while promoting competition in the marketplace to drive
innovation in baseball product development. Beginning in 2006, Take2 will have
exclusive rights among third-party publishers to develop and market simulation,
arcade and manager-style baseball video games on the current and next-generation
PlayStation, X-BOX, Nintendo, personal computer and hand-held video game
systems. At the same time, manufacturers of video game systems will have the
opportunity to develop and publish baseball simulation games for their own
platforms.
BiA
Developer's Diary Answers From The Colonel - Issue #2 (part 3 of 3)
concludes this three-part series in which the military adviser on Gearbox
Software's upcoming World War II shooter answers fan-submitted questions. Also,
there's
a brief MotoGP development update on Computer and Video Games with the first
details on the upcoming bike racing simulator since the game was announced. Thanks
Frans.
- F.E.A.R.
Setting
the scene for F.E.A.R. on Eurogamer.net (thanks Frans) transcribes a
group discussion of Monolith's upcoming horror game with Kevin Stephens
conducted at a recent press event: "The core concept for F.E.A.R came right
after Shogo, and the core concept was really simple: to make an action movie
in a first-person shooter, where you really feel like an action star - and
I'm sure a lot of first-person shooters start with that same core concept.
The team that made No One Lives Forever was the same that made Shogo, so
they took that core concept and turned it into NOLF. So you can see where
you can end up just by starting with that same core concept and making a few
little tweaks, because we started with the same core concept and ended up
with F.E.A.R. The supernatural aspect was the twist to the core concept,
just as the 60s spy was the twist on NOLF. It was a different team that did
AVP2. Now we can look back at it and identify similarities, but it wasn't
really a motivator for F.E.A.R."
- The Matrix Online
HomeLAN
Fed's The Matrix Online Scriptwriter Q&A talks with Paul Chadwick,
creator of the Concrete comic book series, about his contribution to
Monolith's upcoming spoon-free MMORPG: "The story will trickle out to
everybody through the four modes described above. But fanatic mission-takers
will get the goods first. A lot of missions are investigations, but even
when they aren't, they'll present clues to the mysteries posed by the
cinematics. The missions often grow out of how the various organizations
(Zion, the Machines, the Merovingian, and others) react to events in the
cinematics. For example, two organizations might want to punish the culprit
of a misdeed, a third protect him. I urge players to chat and share
information. These MMORPGs are social constructs, and rumors and
favor-trading are a big part of their charm."
- Dragonshard
The
Dragonshard Q&A on FileFront talks with producer Frank Gilson about
Liquid Entertainment's upcoming D&D RTS game: "Atari
holds the interactive license to publish properties based on Dungeons and
Dragons. John Hight, our Executive Producer, has had a long and successful
history of RTS development. Liquid Entertainment is a successful developer
of RTS titles. It seemed like a good fit to get together and develop an RTS
based on Dungeons and Dragons."
- Dark Age of Camelot: Catacombs
The
Dark Age of Camelot: Catacombs Q&A on FileFront talks with producer
Lance Robertson about Mythic Entertainment's newest DAoC expansion: "We
wanted to provide another exciting, story-based expansion to the world of
Camelot. It was important to us to tie the new story very closely with the
existing world. We succeeded in this by elaborating on the histories of the
Kobolds, Inconnu and Shar and incorporating past enemies of the realms and
others based on their mythologies. Other goals of the expansion were to
update the player models, introduce our private adventuring instanced
technology and add new classes."
- Chronic Logic
Bona
Fide Reviews' Chronic Logic Q&A talks with Josiah and Edmund of Chronic
Logic about Gish, their tar ball game, and what the future hold for them:
"The physics engine is something I've been working on for about six years,
the main addition for Gish was the object to object collisions, making them
more stable. The most difficult part was getting the gameplay right, which
is something that just takes time and playtesting."
- Pro Rugby Manager 2
Experience
Gaming's Pro Rugby Manager 2 Q&A features Patrick Pligersdorffer
tackling some questions about their rugby management sequel: "User feedback
has had a major impact. With the first game, we tried and guess what gamers
who would be interested in a rugby management would expect from such a game.
With PRM2, we had a much clearer idea thanks to all the comments that were
posted on the forums. We used this feedback to focus on what we needed to
improve and what features should be added."
- Adventure Games
Ask
the Developers on Adventure Gamers kicks off a new series discussing
adventure games with some prominent developers in the field, discussing
topics like the lackluster response to the genre in the U.S., when to point
and when to click, and other stuff like that.
The Settlers: Heritage of Kings
Website now offers details on a Settlers trivia contest that will earn the
chance for a winner to spend the day with the development team on BlueByte's
upcoming management sequel.
There's a Last Man Standing video on
LinuxGames (thanks Ant) showing off cooperative multiplayer play from an
upcoming version of this DOOM 3 modification. Thanks Ant.
Well, my neighbors son did indeed take care of our sidewalk with a snow blower
yesterday, right before the kid showed up for his appointment to shovel us out.
He still was able to clear the walk up to the stairs and dig out the BlueTruck,
so he got paid off anyway... better to have too much help in clearing a massive
snowfall than too little, and I want to ensure this kid will return next
time... completing jobs like this with OPL (other people's labor) is definitely
the way to go.
R.I.P.:
Late-night TV king Johnny Carson dies. Thanks ASLayerAODsk.
As promised, the full Galactic Civilizations
II: Dreadlords Website is online, offering a home base on the web for
Stardock's upcoming space simulator sequel. Included are some new development
journals about preparations to show off the game to the press and new some
screenshots. Also, a new
Cold Fear Product Page offers publisher Ubisoft's home to Darkwind's
upcoming action/horror game. The site includes
four new
screenshots. Thanks Frans.
BiA
Developer's Diary Answers From The Colonel - Issue #2 (part 2 of 3) offers
more answers of fan-submitted questions from Col. John Antal (U.S. Army, Ret.).,
the military advisor on Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30, Gearbox Software's
upcoming World war II shooter. Thanks Frans.
The Urban Terror Website offers
reassurances for fans of this Quake III Arena modification that development
continues on their next release, even if "it
looks like development might be slow to (nonexistent)." Thanks
ASLayerAODsk. Also, there are some new renders and some help wanted news on the
Infiltration Website.
Well, we got belted with the promised blizzard, once again lending eerie
credibility to the occult art that is meteorology. In a delightful turn of
events, a knock came on the door last night from an ambitious young man eager to
come by today after the snow ends to shovel our walk. Happy with the
opportunity to avoid this horrible manual labor, we agreed to a $20 fee, which
will be a terrible rip-off to him, so if he comes through, he can expect
something like a 100% tip. Meanwhile, however, my neighbor's son is out there
right now trying to get a snow-blower running, and I suspect if he does he may
just blow my walk as well. MrsBlue suggested asking him not to since we promised
the kid the job, but I don't think I want to risk the kid blowing us off (or not, depending on how you read that) and leaving
me the job, so I think I'll sit tight, and if my neighbor comes through, just
give the kid the twenty anyway.
Gosh being lazy is a lot of work!
Anyway, I sure am looking forward to some January football today. And of course,
I hope you're safe and sound where you are.
|
Twitter 
