White Gold Preview

CVG has a nice preview of Deep Shadows’s upcoming title; White Gold. Here’s a snippet:

With White Gold’s play area consisting of six large islands and 50 smaller ones dotted about them, you might think that you’ve seen similar free-roaming fare with games like Just Cause.

What sets White Gold apart though, is its grounding in roleplay. You may well be able to drive tanks and nip around on quad bikes, but this Caribbean jet setting will be complemented by an inventory system straight out of Deus Ex and a full set of roleplay perks and experience. 

Full preview here.

Left 4 Dead Hands-on Preview

The crazy brits at bit-tech.net got to play around with VALVe’s upcoming Zombie co-op title; Left 4 Dead. Here’s a snippet:

There’s a whole lot more depth to Left4Dead than we’ve let on yet though, like the fact that characters will automatically shout things at each other if the AI director deems that players need to communicate but can’t – it’s very handy to have the guy covering you automatically yell that he’s out of ammo when the two of you are trying your best to hold a front line.

Check out the full preview here.

TrackMania Nations Sequel to be Available For Free Download

The sequel to the successful arcade racer, TrackMania: Nations will be available as a free download. The sequel entitled TrackMania Nations Forever will be released on April 16th. Snippet from the Press release:

TrackMania Nations Forever will offer a new “Forever” version of the Stadium environment, a solid solo mode and 65 brand new, progressively difficult tracks. TrackMania Nations Forever will unite an even larger number of players thanks to its engaging multiplayer modes, innovative online functions and revolutionary interactivity between players.

Jordan Thomas Interview - What’s In Store for BioShock 2

Jordan Thomas of 2K Marin was interviewed by NextGEN. 2K Marin is developing BioShock 2 (the original was developed by 2K Boston/AUS) Here’s a snippet:
“Being bright-eyed and naïve,” says Thomas, “it’s sort of a critical phase of energy that everyone needs to maintain momentum as they move into the private sector. When you have someone expecting a commercial product out of you, some of your momentum will be ploughed off. You still need your Peter Pan attitude.”

Full interview here.

The Agency Preview

CVG got to chat with Sony Entertainment Online’s Kevin O’Hara about their upcoming MMO The Agency. Here’s a snippet:

“We’ll also have PvP maps where you can choose either side of the battle regardless of your agency,” continues O’Hara. “But if you don’t like PvP, don’t worry, you won’t ever have to do it, but hopefully it should be easy enough that everybody tries it out to see it isn’t as punishing as many MMOs.”

Check out the full preview here. The Agency will be landing on PC and PlayStation3, the release date is classified for the moment.

FTC May Save Take-Two From Getting Acquired by EA

According to Justin Blankenship, An ex-FTC Lawyer, EA and Take-Two merger could be stopped by FTC due to anti-trust laws. Blankenship sent a formal post to Newsweek, here’s a snippet:

Until 2004, I worked in a division of the FTC that spent a lot of time looking at technology-related mergers, and had at least taken a good look at mergers like this one. I also have every reason to suspect that my former colleagues would give this deal a hard look, especially in light of Mr. Pachter’s comments, of which I’m sure they’re aware.

If a government agency has problems with a merger, it’s likely because it believes the economic data supports a narrowly defined market (e.g., licensed professional hockey videogames or hockey videogames). The parties to the merger will argue to define the market more broadly (e.g., videogames as a whole, or sports videogames as a whole). Under a broad market definition of all videogames, the merger poses no problems, because the loss of one product in a market of thousands of competitors is a ripple in the sea. However, under a narrow market definition, no other third party can make a licensed professional hockey game (with real player names, team names, stats, etc.) other than EA/Take-Two, granting it an effective monopoly.

Read-up the full post here.

Alone in the Dark - Developer Diary 1

First developer diary of upcoming survival horror title Alone in the Dark, featuring the game’s producer Hervé Sliwa. Snippet from the diary:

As lead game designer on Alone in the Dark my job is to design all the content of the game, the story, and the game’s rules of interaction. I’ve worked at Eden for 6 or 7 years and my last project here was Kya: Dark Lineage. Before that I worked for Infogrames for 6 years, including working as the lead game designer on Sheep Dog and Wolf.

Full Dev Diary and 33 images after the break. Read more

Tiberium Interview with Chris Plummer

play.tm scored an interview with Chris Plummer, the producer for upcoming Command & Conquer based FPS: Tiberium. Tiberium is EA’s second take on making an FPS in C&C world (first being Command & Conquer: Renegade, 2002) Snippet from the interview:

The FPS genre is notoriously crowded. How will Tiberium stand out from some tough competition, and what games have proved influential?

We think we’ve created a deep, engaging world that’s really going to draw people in. We’ve spent a lot of time developing this universe and we can’t wait to share more with you. We also think we’ve got a solid science-fiction hero in Ricardo Vega. His story, the toys we’re giving him to play with and his role in leading the action is something that I think gamers are going to gravitate to.

Read more

Sims 3 Details

As we reported earlier, Sims 3 is official. Upcoming April/May issue of Games for Windows magazine has a cover story on Sims 3 (spanning 12 pages!), 1UP.com has published some details in advance about what to expect from Maxis’s latest creation. Here’s a snippet:

The biggest change to The Sims 3 is that it takes place in a wide-open, constantly changing neighborhood — a much bigger sandbox, if you will, and a much more complex simulation. The town and park you see on the cover image to the right (click to enlarge) exist in the same seamless space as your Sims’ household, and what you do outside your home now matters as much as what you do within. (Yes, previous expansion packs added out-and-about activities, but they were always separate sub-games. Here, everything’s completely integrated.) The game also sees a major shift in how Sims’ motives are handled: Individual meters indicating bladder and sleep-deprivation levels are replaced by a new system of discrete moods, the aim being to get players off the treadmill of fulfilling primal eat-sleep-pee-repeat requirements so they can focus more on, well, going out on the brand new town.

Read more

Starcraft II: “The model for in-game advertising”

According to Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision, Starcraft II may finally be the game that propells in-game advertising to next level. Kotick had a handful things to say at Morgan Stanley Technology Conference. Here’s a snippet:

“What we’ve realized is that [there is] the opportunity [in] just taking the institutional knowledge that exists at Blizzard,” Kotick stated. “For example, how do we take Guitar Hero, which is the best-selling game that we’ve ever had, and take that to Korea, or take that to China, and be thoughtful about it. These guys have so much institutional expertise about how you’ve got to market in these territories.”

Read more after the jump. Read more

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