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Archived News:
This press release on
GameSpy announces the commencement of North American shipments of The Club,
Bizarre Creations' PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 third-person shooter. A
playable demo is available ( story), and here's a bit from the
announcement: Sega of America, Inc. today announced that The Club has
shipped to retailers across North America for the Xbox 360 video game and
entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment
system, and Games for Windows. Creating a radically new kind of action
experience, The Club combines the shooting genre with the break-neck speed of
high-octane race titles.
This press
release officially announces Blue Mars, a CryENGINE2 massively multiplayer
virtual world in the works at Avatar Reality. The virtual world was first
revealed by way of some concept art several months ago ( story),
but here's the full announcement, which promises a beta test later this year:
SAN FRANCISCO (from GDC 2008) – Feb. 19, 2008 – Avatar Reality Inc., a
new development entity dedicated to the advancement of online community
building, today announced it will provide a sneak preview of its upcoming
massively multiplayer virtual world (MMVW), Blue Mars, at the 2008 Game
Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, Booth 418 in the West Hall Career
Pavilion.
Set in Terraformed Mars in the year 2177 AD, Blue Mars will feature stunning
graphics, realistic characters and endless gaming attractions that will allow
players to build and simulate real-life scenarios by creating personalized
characters, or avatars. The MMVW will launch in a public beta version at the end
of 2008.
At GDC, Avatar Reality will conduct an interactive tour of Blue Mars attractions
which highlight breathtaking graphics through the utilization of CryTek’s game
middleware CryENGINE™2. Additionally, they will preview their scripting game
development environment which enables third party developers to easily build
rich 3D casual games, and their proprietary Avatar Technology, which enables
realistic character appearance and animation.
Avatar Reality’s vice president Li-Han Chen will host a sponsored session on
Wed., Feb. 20 at 4 p.m. announcing the Blue Mars Third Party Development Program
which gives game developers, CG artists and interested business partners an
opportunity to create a variety of in-world attractions, 3D art assets and
promotions for Blue Mars users. The session will take place in the West Hall,
Room 2000.
For more information on Blue Mars and the Third Party Development Program at
GDC, please visit Avatar Reality at Booth 418 in the West Hall Career
Pavilion.
Aspyr announces the Mac edition of Neverwinter Nights 2 is gold, and the D&D RPG
sequel will hit North American stores next week: AUSTIN, TX February
19, 2008 Aspyr Media, Inc. announced today that Neverwinter Nights 2 has been
declared Gold and will begin shipping to retail stores in North America next
week. The computer role-playing game set in the fantasy world of the Forgotten
Realms, one of the popular campaign settings of Dungeons and Dragons, was
licensed from Atari and developed for Mac by Aspyr Studios.
Rise from a peasant to a full-fledged hero as you defend the Realms against one
of the greatest threats of the age!
Build a character that suits your style of play - good or evil, chaotic or
lawful, with any number of skills, feats and professions available at the click
of a button. Whether lobbing fireballs and researching forgotten spells as a
powerful Wizard, hacking a trail through legions of orcs as a Fighter armed only
with a battle axe and your courage, or taking on the role of a Rogue that can
slip into the shadows at a moment's notice, the choice is yours. Choose your
alignment, your allies, your companions, and how you want your character to
develop... design the character you want, role-play the way you want, and carry
the battle to the enemy.
Features: - Choose your Alignment, Allies, and Enemies Design the character
you want, role-play the way you want, and carry the battle to the enemy.
- Build Personalized Modules and Campaigns Move buildings, terrain, script
encounters, write dialogues, and create quests!
Neverwinter Nights 2 is now available for preorder through Aspyr's website,
http://www.aspyr.com/product/info/84, for only $49.99. For more information,
fans can also visit the official Website,
http://www.atari.com/nwn2/US/index.php.
- American McGee's Grimm
A new trailer from American McGee's
Grimm is now available, showing off the grim world of the upcoming fairy
tale-inspired game. The clip can be found on
AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell.
- WorldShift
The
Worldshift Website now offers a new trailer from Black Sea Studios'
upcoming dystopian RTS game. The clip is mirrored on
AtomicGamer and
Gamer's Hell.
- Pure
A second trailer from Pure shows off more of Black
Rock Studio's upcoming ATV stunt racing game. Pure trailer #2 is available
on AtomicGamer,
FileFront, and
Gamer's Hell.
- Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures on
1Up,
GameSpy, and IGN.
- Cabal Online on
1Up and
IGN.
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian on
IGN.
- Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Battle March on
IGN.UK.
Develop Mag has a response from Epic's Mark Rein to rumors being spread in
GamePro magazine that Microsoft will be purchasing the Unreal developer this
summer for approximately $1 billion. The Epic veep doesn't actually dismiss the
speculation, as much as the price tag, saying one billion is about half of what
he thinks such a deal should be worth.
id
chooses IGA for in-game ads reports on the business model for Quake Live,
the browser-based shooter announced under the title Quake Zero
( story). They quote id CEO Todd Hollenshead as saying: "IGA
understands game developers and game players which makes them the perfect
partner for Quake. Whether it’s been the ease of implementing their SDK or just
their excitement about Quake Live, they have been fantastic to work with."
Next Generation reports that Darin Scott and Edward Polgardy of
Cinemagraphix Entertainment are suing Apogee (3D Realms) for copyright
infringement, saying they came up with the idea and the title for the upcoming
Earth No More. According to the report, 3D Realms previously filed a legal
action of their own to forestall this: The plaintiffs claim to have
shopped around the idea for a game called Earth No More back in early 2005 to
several game companies, including 3D Realms. In June 2007, 3D Realms announced
plans to release a game dubbed Earth No More sometime in 2009.
The suit lists defendants as Apogee Software (3D Realms’ other moniker), Earth
No More development partner Recoil Games of Helsinki, Finland and Action
Entertainment.
Scott and Polgardy’s complaint accuses the defendants of copyright infringement,
unlawful competition, misappropriation, unfair business practices, unjust
enrichment, conspiracy and other claims.
The plaintiffs are seeking damages under the US Copyright Act, which can include
actual damages such as a disgorgement of profits from the game, statutory
damages of up to $150,000 plus attorneys’ fees and an injunction against the 3D
Realms’ distribution of the property.
The complaint calls 3D Realms’ Earth No More “virtually identical in substance”
to the plaintiffs’ property.
Separate court documents filed in October 2007 reveal that 3D Realms, under the
name Apogee Software, filed a preemptive request for declaratory judgment
against Scott and Polgardy, which asked a judge to rule that 3D Realms’ Earth No
More did not infringe on any property.
In that earlier suit, 3D Realms claimed that Earth No More, which is slated for
PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, developed the game “without access to or use of any
material created by” Scott and Polgardy.
Daedalic Entertainment announces
The Whispered World,
a point-and-click adventure game that will be released later this
year: Hamburg/Germany: February 19, 2008. The first screenshots from
Daedalic Entertainment’s upcoming adventure game The Whispered World reveal the
game’s amazing world. The pictures grant a first glimpse of locations and
characters from the fantasy point & click game, set for release in the 4th
quarter of 2008.
Protagonist Sadwick is a young clown, travelling a fairy tale world with his
family’s circus. But he is in no laughing mood and on a disappointing search for
meaning in his life. One night, a mysterious form speaks to him in a dream and
sends him on perilous journey. Many challenges await Sadwick, for the world he
knows so well is doomed...
In the vein of classic adventure games, gamers direct Sadwick and his constant
companion, a little worm named Spot, through the gorgeous backdrops of the game
world. Hand-painted backgrounds filled with animated details and lovingly
crafted characters in the style of classic animated films bring the story to
life. The Whispered World meshes fairy-tale elements with melancholic undertones
to create an epic fantasy story.
The adventure game from Daedalic Entertainment will be released in the 4th
quarter of 2008 for Windows-PC.
NCsoft Criticizes “Inflammatory” TR Report on Next Generation has reactions
from NCsoft to an article in the Korea Times suggesting the launch of Tabula
Rasa has been a financial disaster for NCsoft, and that layoffs at their US
studio in Austin, TX will follow. NCsoft disputes a number of the points in the
article, which they refer to as "inflammatory," saying the game is not a
financial disaster, it's development cost nowhere near $100 million, or that
there has been fallout with Robert Garriott following the game's launch. NCsoft
does admit that the TR team may be downsized, but say that this part of the
normal cycle of a game's development.
We still don't know who watches the watchmen, but we've learned who analyzes the
analysts, as
Kotaku
takes a look at the accuracy of various predictions by the pundits who advise
investors on the gaming market (thanks Ant). We'd like to claim credit for the
idea after pointing out some analytical inaccuracies in reporting a recent
analyst-inspired rumor ( story) (which actually turned out to be
accurate ( story)), but these prognostications just scream out for
a little correlation with reality. That turns out to be exactly how much
correlation with reality they have, a little, as the best of these analysts are
right about 60% of the time, with that number inflated by the occasional
no-brainer gem like "price cuts will help PS3 sales." They give highest marks to
Michael Pachter for his 60% success rate and the near-accuracy of some of his
misses (as he says, his business is like horseshoes, where almost counts). In
the end, however, over half subjects of their study are wrong more than half the
time, so if you think your guess is as good as theirs, you may just be right.
Softkinetic announces GDC demonstrations of iisu, their gesture recognition
system. Unlike JVC's similar system recently mentioned here
( story), this one is focused primarily on changing the way games
are played: SAN FRANCISCO - February 19, 2008 - Softkinetic today
announced the first public viewing of iisu(TM), a 3D gesture recognition
solution poised to change user interfaces, at the Game Developers Conference
(GDC). The result of four years of research and development, iisu is a gesture
recognition system that has the ability to capture full body movements as well
as isolate the intricate movements of a consumer's body, such as arms or hands,
to provide an unlimited number of interface options for developers to use in
creating new gameplay applications. The iisu technology is compatible with most
major 3D depth sensing cameras allowing users to become the actual interface,
removing the need for a controller. The technologically advanced, patent-pending
middleware filters out furniture, walls and other players in the room for an
in-depth level of gameplay currently missing in the market.
"Prime Sense brings the world's first consumer priced 3D depth and color
camera," said Adi Berenson, Vice President Business Development and Marketing,
Prime Sense Ltd. "Working closely with Softkinetic, we dramatically reduce the
efforts and complexity associated with development of applications that use our
3D depth and color camera and help customers bring their applications to market
faster."
"Mesa is a leading provider of 3D depth sensing technology to customers in the
machine vision, robotics, medical, and security industries," said Jim Lewis,
CEO, Mesa Imaging AG. "Working closely with Softkinetic allows us to offer
customers in the interactive digital entertainment, consumer electronics and
serious games industries the combined solution to create their next generation
products."
Created with developers' needs in mind, iisu is built with C and C++ for high
performance and low memory usage. Developers can use C, C++ or C# APIs in
synchronous or asynchronous modes for easy adaptation to any 3D physical engine.
This high level API coding allows the ability to control the navigation, view
orientation, object manipulation, action triggers and screen pointing.
"Softkinetic's iisu ushers in a new wave of gameplay possibilities" said Michel
Tombroff, CEO Softkinetic. "With iisu's technology and high quality, low cost 3D
depth sensing cameras, developers will be able to create innovative experiences
that open up the world of gaming to new audiences of players."
Softkinetic's iisu supports most major 3D depth sensing cameras currently in the
market. The middleware platform gives developers a rich set of interfaces that
allows them to focus on gameplay design and development. Delivered as a Software
Development Kit (SDK), Softkinetic's iisu includes technical consulting, 3D
graphics and an application development service.
The SunAge Website has news of the
release of a new patch for SunAge, updating the real-time strategy game to
version 1.08. The new version incorporates a number of multiplayer improvements,
balance tweaks, and bug fixes.
This press release has the full announcement and release notes, while the
full change log
has all the details. The 4.85 MB download is mirrored on
FileFront, Gamer's Hell,
Strategy
Informer, and The Patches
Scrolls.
A revamped Splash Damage Website is
online as a web home to the UK-based developer. The site's
Employment Opportunities Page
has details on their recently announced job openings.
- Sabotage
The
Sabotage Q&A on gry.o2.pl is a bilingual English and Polish Q&A with
Claus Wohlgemuth about Sabotage, the stealthy World War II action game
occasionally referred to by the title Sabotage 1943. Claus is the game's
writer, and the discussion covers the storyline and plot points as well as
gameplay mechanics like weaponry, enemies, interactivity, and more.
- Aquaria
GDC08
Interview with Bit Blot's Derek Yu and Alec Holowka on Gamehelper
discusses Aquaria, Bit Blot's
IGF Grand Prize winner, as well as the world of independent game
development.
Here's one for graduates of the old school. Today is Zoid's birthday. Now go
play some Capture the Flag to celebrate.
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