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Ubisoft Leaks New Game Information Via FTP

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, First Person Shooters, Nintendo, PlayStation 3, PSP, Screenshots, Wii, Xbox 360,

Assassin's Creed Pose Information on a bunch of Ubisoft’s future game releases was leaked through a public file on Ubisoft’s FTP server. The 2 GB RAR-compressed file included information on games like Far Cry 2, Far Cry PSP, a Star Wars PSP title, new TMNT games, a new entry in the Splinter Cell series called Conviction and much more. The file was pulled, but not before members of the NeoGAF forums could pull down a copy. Images and other assets have are being slowly posted into the forum thread by people with a copy of the archive file.

Red Steel To Have Motion-Matching Controls, Zero Load Time

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, First Person Shooters, Rumors, Ubisoft, Wii,

Good news for all those worried about the fate of the Wii’s premiere first-person shooter. Reports are coming in that Red Steel by Ubisoft will feature motion-matching controls using the Wiimote (i.e., the sword-play on-screen will match your Wiimote movements) which is exactly what most gamers were hoping. The main question remaining, of course, is how Ubisoft translates sword collisions from the screen to the gamer.

The reports come from a roundabout source… the user Mordrag on an IGN message board submitted some questions for German gaming site Nintendo LAN to ask. Nintendo LAN then supposedly asked the questions to Ubisoft, and their responses were translated back into English by Mordrag for readers of the IGN boards. Phew.

In his translation, Mordrag notes that Ubisoft also stated that there would be NO load times in Red Steel thanks to “smart streaming technology”. See after the jump for the full conversation!

Click to continue reading Red Steel To Have Motion-Matching Controls, Zero Load Time

Insomniac: Resistance “Could Only Be Done On PS3”

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: First Person Shooters, PlayStation 3,

Resistance: Fall of Man should be one of the more anticipated launch titles for the Playstation 3. The game garnered a lot of positive attention at E3 for its next generation graphics, gameplay, and back story. Ryan Schneider of Insomniac Games recently demonstrated a current build of the game for MTV. According to Schneider, what MTV saw “could only be done on the PS3.” Insomniac dropped some details from the backstory for the game, but more interesting were the technical details. The company is still working on implementing tilt functionality in the game, but indicated that the controls would be used for close quarters combat. Also interesting was the size of the game; the current version takes up 22 gigabytes on the Blu-Ray format. Schneider declared that 1 gigabyte is used for music and vocals; the rest of the space is used by “graphics, level data and programming code.” Finally, Insomniac discussed some of the unique weaponry in the game.

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Halo 2 Vista To Be Shown At Leipzig

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Bungie, First Person Shooters, Hardware, PC,

Microsoft Windows Vista When Halo 2 was released in 2004, PC gaming fans hoped for a fairly quick release on Windows. However, it was ultimately announced that Halo 2 would be available exclusively on Windows Vista. This was somewhat puzzling, given that the Xbox version of the game was running on hardware that could easily be matched by PCs at the time. This week, however, Matt Priestley gives an update on the Halo 2 port that may give some insight into what gamers can expect. While more information will likely be featured when Halo 2 is shown at the Leipzig Games Convention, there are some interesting tidbits in the update. First, Halo 2 seems to be running decently under Vista, and was shown in 1920x1200 with 5.1 sound.

The audio and video portions of the game are also seeing an update, including new bump mapping effects, updated weapon models, and improved texture detail. Sound gets updated; Priestly indicates that sound effects are now better spatially located, and some tweaks have been made to vehicle sound effects. The other tweaks that were present in the latest build include support for the “mouse and keyboard” controls most PC gamers are used to and gamepad support. The article also hints at a new PC controller that may be available by the time Vista ships, possibly a gamer specific revision of the Intellimouse.

F.E.A.R. Combat Free Download

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, First Person Shooters, Internet, PC,

F.E.A.R. Combat Game publisher Sierra has made their multiplayer component of the Monolith’s game F.E.A.R. available for free download. Gamers will just need to register on the official website to get a CD key, and then download the 1.8 GB distribution from one of the download sites. Downloads are available via Bittorrent, Sierra’s official site, FilePlanet, Gamespot, and Xfire. The system requirements for the game are:

Operating System: Windows 2000/XP with latest service pack installed
Processor: Pentium 4 1.7 GHz or equivalent
RAM: 1GB RAM
Video Card: 128MB DirectX(R) 9.0 video card with Pixel Shader 2.0 support
Sound: 16-bit DirectX 9.0 compliant sound card with support for EAX 2.0

Halo Director Talks Movie Adaptation

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Bungie, Culture, First Person Shooters, Xbox, Xbox 360,

Movies based on video games have typically not fared well. Even before Uwe Boll started his video game franchise serial killings, games like Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, and Wing Commander have been particularly painful releases. Halo fans, though, have some reason to hope. First, the aforementioned Boll is not going to be allowed anywhere near the Halo production, as a director has been chosen. Second, the movie is not being produced as a tax write-off involving complex German tax laws. Third, Peter Jackson has generally been very respectful of the source material of the movies created under his watch. Finally, at least according to an interview conducted by Ain’t It Cool News, director Neill Blomkamp is a fan of the game and is very committed to bringing the Halo universe to life.

There is certainly room in the Halo universe to both be faithful to and expand the backstory, but it is a bit too early to guess at what approach the movie is going to take. Blomkamp does drop some hints as to what he is thinking in the interview, and certainly there is room for hope that the upcoming movie can break the chain of bad video game releases.

Call Of Duty Maps Sell $1 Million

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Activision, Corporate News, First Person Shooters, Internet, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace,

Gamespot today is reporting that Activision has sold nearly $1 million in Call Of Duty map content on Xbox Live. CEO Bobby Kotick announced the numbers during a post earnings release conference call. According to Gamespot:

The free bonus pack, which included two maps, tallied 334,000 downloads. The $5 Skirmish Map Pack was downloaded 105,000 times and generated $368,000, and the $10 Invasion Map Pack invaded 66,000 360s and raked in almost half a million dollars.

Obviously, gamers are far more willing to download free content rather than pay. The price point that makes gamers balk doesn’t seem to have been reached. Though the Invasion Map Pack has sold fewer copies to date, the Skirmish Map Pack has been on the market for three more months.

More interesting are the actual dollar amounts. 105,000 copies multiplied by $5 is $525,000. If Activision’s $368,000 reported is their take from these sales, then Microsoft has made around $157,000. From the Invasion Map Pack, Microsoft took in about $160,000. If all of the downloadable content has similar fee structures, the Xbox Live Marketplace has the potential to become a huge cash generation machine for Microsoft. Activision isn’t likely to bemoan Microsoft’s cut, though. Clearly, downloadable content is a great moneymaker for them as well.

The danger of the success of downloadable content means that it makes more sense financially for game companies to have less content in the main game and provide add-ons through paid downloads. Hopefully, this doesn’t become an actual trend and downloadable content remains restricted to nice to have add-ons that don’t impact the fun factor of the original game.

Ubisoft’s Megaton Announcement: Seven Games at Launch for Wii

Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Action, Corporate News, Driving, First Person Shooters, Nintendo, Simulation, Ubisoft, Wii,

Description Let’s just get straight to the point: Ubisoft today announced that they have been developing seven Wii games which will be available at launch for the console. The titles are:

Red Steel (previously announced)
Rayman: Raving Rabbids (previously announced)
Far Cry
Blazing Angels
Open Season
Monster 4x4: World Circuit
GT Pro Series

A huge surprise (outside of the fact that Ubisoft somehow found a way to keep 5 launch titles for the Wii secret until now) is the addition of Far Cry, a FPS which garnered a lot of praise for its stunning graphics and would seem to run counter to Nintendo’s philosophy of de-emphasising graphical power. It should be a real test of what exactly the Wii can do, given that Far Cry is fairly taxing for even high-end PCs and the Xbox.

In one last piece of news, Ubisoft also announced that they will be releasing “an accessory in GT Pro Series that will make this game a must have”. Hmmm…. Wii steering wheel anyone?

Gears Of War Arrives November 12

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: First Person Shooters, Xbox 360,

Microsoft today revealed the anticipated ship date for the latest title from Epic Games, Gears of War. The game is set to his stores on November 12, 2006. Gears of War will come in two editions; this seems to be a requirement for high profile game titles. The standard version will retail for the next-generation price of $59.99. The limited edition will retail for $69.99, and includes an art book and DVD with bonus materials, plus an exclusive metal box. Gears of War should be one of Microsoft’s biggest sellers this holiday season. Surely it is just coincidence that the game ships only the week before the Playstation 3 goes on sale in the US.

Keeping Secrets at Bungie: An Interview with Frank O’Conner

Posted by Matt Haselton Categories: First Person Shooters, Rumors, Xbox 360,

Bungie MTV.com recently conducted an interview with Bungie Content Manager Frank O’Conner, who offered a glimpse behind Halo 3’s veil of secrecy. While no new information about the game was revealed (save for a hint about “an aspect of the Arbiter’s character that is still secret to this day”), the article does offer some insight into what it’s like to be privy to every aspect of the upcoming release, and not able to tell anyone about it. Not his friends. Not his wife. Not the Starbucks guy who sells O’Conner his coffee every morning. To say nothing of the hordes of fans, game journalists, and journalist importers who contact the company in hopes of breaching Bungie’s tight-lipped wall. A former games reporter himself, O’Conner has settled into life on the other side of the privacy fence, saying “I know literally everything about all the things that people want to know about, so I tell them almost literally nothing.”

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