The hints and clues about
Star Trek Online are getting thick enough to
cut with a knife. The
schedule
for Las Vegas Star Trek Convention lists the following event for August 10:
"1:30 PM 'Star Trek Online Revealed" indicates the game will be revealed,
presuming you don't count when it was first revealed going on four years ago
(
story). Meanwhile with the countdown timer on the
Cryptic Studios Website
(
story) is down to a little under 13 hours, so the announcement
that Cryptic is the studio that picked up development of the game from Perpetual
Entertainment is likely to come in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. Even that
poorly kept secret is now moot, as
WarCry Network (thanks
Ant and
Joystiq) has dug up a job listing for Cryptic Studios that lets
Schrödinger's cat out of the box by saying "Cryptic Studios, a leading
independent developer and publisher of massively multiplayer online games,
including the upcoming Champions Online and Star Trek Online, is expanding
…"
Update: The countdown ended as predicted, with the
announcement of Star Trek Online and the launch of the
Star Trek Online Official Site.
Word is:
Powered by the Cryptic Engine, Star Trek® Online will be
developed for both console and PC formats. With customizable ships and
characters from the Klingon Empire and United Federation of Planets, ground,
space and shipboard gameplay and unique options for player-generated content set
in the Star Trek universe, Star Trek Online is the MMOG that allows you to
boldly go where no one has gone before!
Electronic Arts' Singapore Website has been updated to list a September 23,
2008 release date for
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the upcoming
Warhammer-inspired MMORPG (thanks Mike Martinez/
Joystiq/
Massively).
This date is also reflected by
GameStop, while the
listing for the game on Amazon lists the release date as a week later. Barring an official announcement, this all should probably still be viewed with
some skepticism.
Prince of
Persia Creator Jordan Mechner To Helm New Karateka Game on Gamasutra
quotes Jordan Mechner saying a plan is on the board to create a remake of
Karateka, the martial arts game he designed for the Apple II prior to
Prince of Persia. Mechner was a bit coy discussing the project, which will
presumably take shape after
his work on a
Prince of Persia graphic novel:
"There actually is a plan to bring
back Karateka," the designer said. "It's a project I'm going to be involved in.
I can safely say it's not going to be in the way you expect."
Asked by Gamasutra whether the project is indeed a video game, Mechner confirmed
that it is.
The
Electronic Arts Q&A on Mercury News talks with John Riccitiello at E3, where
the CEO of Electronic Arts talks about addressing some of the historical
problems at the game giant: "Everything that I've been doing has been designed
with (this) in mind: I want EA to be the best place for creative guys in our
industry to work, and I want us to have the highest quality, most innovative
games. A lot of people in our industry get stuck thinking that their job is to
manage a lot of business process, and somehow the games happen down in the
trenches. I'm trying to actually get it shifted, so people understand that the
most important thing in our company is where the programming, the art direction,
the game design and production takes place. Ultimately, if we do that, we'll
make the best games. If we make the best games, they'll sell really well, and
we'll be really profitable."
Well, the weather cooled off shortly after my complaints yesterday, though I'm
not taking that as cause-and-effect. The cooling did not prevent a calamitous
thunderstorm in the wee hours, though, which nearly cost me an eye, as in her
panicked attempts to climb up on our bed for comfort Hudson the wonder dog
caught me a good one on the eye. Luckily it was closed as her claws scraped
across it, a blow severe enough that it still hurts today, though luckily I
didn't suffer a shiner.
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