In a dark and dusty meeting room here at UFO Towers, Saber suggested that a Mac gamer covered a story, pointing vaguely in Hooty's direction. Can you imagine! A 'Mac gamer'. Oh, I laughed. Remus laughed. Even SHaDOS gave an electronic titter. Hooty just pretended he hadn't heard and Xander carried on playing Pokémon HeartGold, but deary me, what a lark eh! 'Mac gamer'. I said, "is there really such a thing as a Mac gamer" and Remus and I had a little salutory high-five moment. 'Mac gamer' indeed. How could such a thing be? They don't even have a half-decent content delivery service such as Steam!
...oh they do? Just now? With cross-platform multiplayer matches on Left 4 Deadtitles? Really? I guess that means that the Mac gamer might not be such a mythical beast, then and with a far more easy way to access games, perhaps there will be more Mac gamer rights activists coming out, organising Mac gamer marches and making their mark on the world of 'normal' gamers. We shall see.
Codemasters today gave confirmation that their secret new IP is indeed Bodycount, a FPS by creative director Stuart Black. If his name sounds familiar then that could be due to his co-creation (and possible name lending) of the 2006 bullet fest that was Black. Scheduled for a Q1 2011 release, Bodycount features destructible cover, co-op options and the obligatory multiplayer mode as you follow a task force of the 'Network' taking out their targets or just anyone that stands in their way.
"[We] believe that there’s room for a refresh of the shooter experience," Said Stuart "If Race Driver: GRID was all about the purity of racing, then everything in Bodycount is absolutely centred on the bullet and its impact on the world. Our shredding tech enables us to create a different kind of gameplay, where players and AI can’t hide behind indestructible cover and rely on whack-a-mole mechanics. Here the environment is constantly changing as the game world is shot to hell; it’s going to be a huge amount of fun.”
Exciting stuff eh? It's clear that Stuart wants to further the cinematic explosions found in Black, but will it be a all too familiar considering the Battlefield Bad Company series has already made commendable strides in this area? I'm quite happy to see another FPS since I'm a big fan of the genre and if it shares a couple of ideas with an existing brand then there's few better than EA's group destruct-em-up.
Bodycount has only been announced for PS3 and Xbox 360 so far but a PC port isn't out of the question.
Transformers: G1 Awakening has been around for a while on mobile formats but only recently ported over to the iPhone. For £2.99 you can rewind your inner clocks to a time when life was simpler and morphing trucks into robots didn't involve Michael Bay. Instead of an all out action game, developers Glu have opted for something more methodical with the mechanics of a turn-based strategy, a genre I tend to shy away from but my love of Transformers compelled me to play and I'm very pleased that I did.
This demonstration of Mass Effect 2's Hammerhead "heavy assault vehicle" debuted recently on GameTrailers TV. The Hammerhead seems to be more arcade-y than the Mako, which was essential a moon buggy simulator of sorts. Either way, I'm glad I don't have to climb up mountains any more.
The Hammerhead will release as part of the Firewalker downloadable content pack later this month. Tagging along for the ride are five new missions that will let you test drive the Hammerhead's guided missile system on some space terrorists/sentient robots. As promised, the DLC will be free for all Cerberus Network members.
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is looking surprisingly good for a movie tie-in game. Usually titles with a fixed deadline get the short end of the stick, but it seems like Ubisoft has everything under control and on track for a May 2010 release.
The above video is the 'first look' developer diary for Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Aside from being here to please our watching apparatus (eyes), it's here to teach us that Ubisoft has gone back to the roots. The gameplay looks remarkably similar to The Sands of Time, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. As long as there's a good balance between phyiscs law-bending acrobatics and swordfighting, I'm in.
The Forgotten Sands bridges the gap between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within. Not too long after the events covered in the first game the prince returns to his kingdom and finds it under attack. His brother, bless his heart, tries to save it by summoning something pretty bad which the prince now has to get rid of. *sigh* Okay, I admit it. It's a bit too similar to The Sands of Time.
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will be available on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms as early as May 2010. Until then, play The Sands of Time. It's, like, the same thing, man. (Says Saber in his best lounge lizard voice.)
Welcome UFOians to the official games chart for the week ending 06.03.2010. We have an unusual chart this week as we see the return of some familiar titles as well as the debut of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 which claims the top spot this week, replacing Quantic Dream's amazing Heavy Rain, which itself falls to number four.Modern Warfare 2 and Bioshock 2 also slip this week as we see the return of Assassin's Creed II, which enters the chart at number fourteen. Grand Theft Auto IV also moves up the chart to number sixteen whilst Uncharted 2: Among Thieves also re-enters at number nineteen. Claiming the big two-zero this week is Napoleon: Total War.
01. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 02. Just Dance 03. Aliens vs. Predator 04. Heavy Rain 05. Sonic & Sega all-stars Racing 06. Wii Fit Plus 07. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 08. Wii Sports Resort 09. Fifa 10 10. New Super Mario Bros. Wii 11. Bioshock 2 12. Mario & Sonic at Olympic Winter Games 13. Forza Moorsport 3 14. Assassin's Creed II 15. Zoe Wanamaker's Avatar: The Game 16. Grand Theft Auto IV 17. Mario Kart Wii 18. Lego Batman: The Videogame 19. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves 20. Napoleon: Total War
Welcome UFOians to Xander's LBP level of the week, where both Sackboy and I travel the wondrous and imaginative world of LittleBigPlanet searching for creative and well deserved user-made levels to dedicate a whole week to.
So without further ado, may I present my third LBP level of the week.
Name: Pyramids of over-enthusiastic level design Creator: SilverSpiritUK and Xander_123 Plays: 19 Overall user rating: 4/5
No it's not a slow news day, it's actually a brilliant level... and no, I'm not biased... Created by LorD and me a week ago, our level features fire, gas, water, spikes, boulders, tombs and a lot of swinging, hence its title 'over-enthusiastic level design'. We re-created the level from its original 'the pyramids of mild peril'. There are two pyramids and the aim is to stop the waterfall blocking the entrance to an old tomb in which there are some pretty mega goodies! We used camera angles and lighting to complement the environment of being in a dark, lonely Egyptian tomb. Making use of the history kit in particular, the hieroglyphics provide a subtle and continuous humour to the level (eventually).
The internet is a fascinating place, isn't it? It was only yesterday that we wished we knew more about Portal 2 and look at us now, eyeing our way through these Game Informer scans. Now that's what I call a wish come true! Father Christmas may well be running the world wide web, huh?
PAL Gaming Network member 'cosmoh' was kind enough to scan these pages from the April issue of Game Informer. I don't know whether subscribers get their issues a month earlier or 'cosmoh' stole this one off the printing press, but the Earth would be a better place if there were more people like him (or her) either way.
If you don't want your game spoiled, LOOK AWAY NOW.
Doug Lombardi, vice president of marketing over at Valve, made a very interesting comment about the development of Portal. "Portal was a test bed. Portal 2 is a game," were his exact words. Yup, you guessed it: Portal 2 will be huge.
What we know so far is that GLaDOS and Chell are reprising their roles in the sequel, which seems to take place 'hundreds of years' after the first game. This explains the overgrown Aperture complex. GLaDOS's personality orbs that players were tasked with destroying at the end of the first game are making a comeback and have apparently cornered off parts of the Aperture Laboratories for themselves. It is unknown whether they play a bigger role, but it's safe to assume that they do. The co-op campaign introduces two new characters to the game, bipedal robots (5th picture) that like to hold hands. This dynamic duo will be overcoming obstacles much different to the ones Chell will face.
Physics are an important part of puzzle solving in Portal 2. Placing a portal over a, let's say, ventilation shaft that sucks in air will allow the shaft to draw air in from another place. Also in the mix are various 'paints' that, for example, propel chell upwards if she steps on them.
While this is juicy stuff, I'd like to find out more. Unfortunately, the scans are of a low resolution. But if you can read muddled pixels, feel free to check the scans for more information.
UPDATE: All scans apart from the second one are now in a higher resolution.
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