David Perry keynote speaker op het Festival of Games 2010

Industrie-icoon David Perry geeft een keynote speech tijdens het Festival of Games 2010. Perry is de grote man achter GAIKAI, het bedrijf dat dit jaar een nieuwe manier van games distribueren lanceert. Perry is tevens de oprichter van Shiny Entertainment en ontwierp enkele grote titels als Earthworm Jim, MDK en de Matrix-games.

Streamline details: failliet door GRIN, conflict met investeerders

De ondergang van het Nederlandse Streamline Studios is een direct gevolg van het omvallen van het Zweedse GRIN en de game Terminator Salvation. Verder blijkt Streamline een procedure tegen 10 investeerders te zijn gestart.

Bijzonder muziekspel wint jury- én publieksprijs Global Game Jam

Het muziekspel 'Resonance' is de winnaar van Nederlandse editie van de wereldwijde gamesontwerp-wedstrijd Global Game Jam. Dit maakte de jury zondagavond bekend, nadat zo'n 175 gamedevelopers en -studenten 48 uur non-stop aan verschillende games hadden gewerkt.

Global Game Jam 2010 is onderweg

De Global Game Jam is begonnen. 48 uur lang sluiten tweehonderd man (waaronder een enkele vrouw) zich op in de Hilversumse dependance van de HKU. Een heel weekend lang maken ruim dertig teams games rond het thema 'misleiding'.

Playlogic wellicht alleen nog digitaal

De Nederlandse uitgever Playlogic geeft haar games wellicht alleen nog maar digitaal uit via kanalen als PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade en Steam. Dat zegt Executive VP Rogier Smit.

Festival of Games-congres introduceert nieuw en innovatief format

De vijfde editie van het Festival of Games-congres gooit de formule om. De klassieke vorm van speeches en panels van een uur, krijgt gezelschap van zogenoemde 15-minute sessions. Maar liefst 24 "speed-sessions" per dag zorgen er voor dat bezoekers altijd dé sessie kunnen volgen, die hen het meest interesseert.

Control nummer 16

De nieuwe Control verschijnt deze week! Weten wat er in staat? Lees verder... (PLUS: wat korte nieuwtjes)

Use the shoe, Luke!

Natal? Wii? De toekomst zit volgens Adidas in de schoen als controler... En nee, het is geen concurrent van Wii Fit...

DSi op tilt: bewegingsbesturing voor de handheld

Engine Software vond een manier om bewegingsbesturing te implementeren op de DSi. Het knappe is dat dit geheel in software gebeurt. Wij spraken met Ivo Wubbels, mede oprichter van dit bedrijf.

Second Life opent kantoor in Amsterdam

Linden Lab, het bedrijf achter Second Life, opent een kantoor in Amsterdam. Wij spraken met Marketing Director Catherine Smith.

Mijn Global Game Jam-postmortem: The Making of What the FAQL?

Wat vindt de Nederlandse gamepers van Mass Effect 2?

Boryokudan Rue, Nick Waanders en meer indiegames

Bashers Podcast seizoen 2, aflevering 17: Xbox Live, verslaving, Aliens vs. Predator

GfK-cijfers 6 februari

News: Ubisoft reports €495m Q3 sales

Ubisoft has reported third quarter sales of €495 million (£435m / $683m), down 2.7 per cent compared to the €508 million (£446m / $701m) for the same period last year.

For the nine months to December 31, sales totalled €661 million (£581m / $912m) versus €852 million (£749m / $1.1bn). The numbers are in line with the revised estimates from January 13, with the French publisher pointing to poor DS sales as a major factor in the decline.

The company reiterated plans to release more titles based on existing franchises and focus on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 formats, and shy away from releasing new intellectual projects until the 2011/2012 financial years.

Read more...

News: 80 jobs under threat at GAME Group

The GAME Group has said that it is further consolidating its Gamestation business, with the possible loss of over 80 jobs.

Since acquiring Gamestation in 2007, GAME has gradually moved the team from York to Basingstoke in a bid to cut costs and unify the two teams – last year senior Gamestation staff made the 240 mile trip, leaving just the warehouse and call centre operations in the North.

"While our business has continued to outperform the videogames market, we are facing tougher market conditions entering 2010, and must make sure we operate as efficiently as possible while delivering the high standards of service our customers demand."

Read more...

News: Record 1.5 million sales for RedLynx

Developer RedLynx finished 2009 with 1.5 million games sold, making it a record year for the company.

The sales were across its Trials HD, Monster Trucks Nitro and DrawRace games for three formats, and were up from the 150,000 copies of Trials 2 SE it sold on PC in 2008.

"After that release, we started to focus more heavily on developing and publishing our multiplatform games on digital channels, significantly increasing sales. Obviously, that strategy has worked well," offered Tero Virtala, CEO of RedLynx.

Read more...

News: March to be recovery month for games business

This March looks set to be the month that the games business finally shows signs of solid recovery, after a poor 2009 for software and hardware sales.

Analyst firms Wedbush Morgan and Cowan and Company have both pointed to March for the turning point for growth in stocks, as investors become encouraged by early 2010 hits such as Mass Effect 2 and Darksiders, and easier sales comparisons to last year.

"We expect industry software sales to return to year-on-year growth during Q1, most likely in March, due to a strong release slate of core gamer titles and vastly easier comparisons," wrote Cowan's Doug Creutz.

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News: Dragon Age: Origins ships over 3 million units

BioWare's Dragon Age: Origin has now shipped over 3 million units, according to EA data.

The game has also won over 30 industry awards, and holds an average review score of 91 on aggregate review site Metacritic. An expansion pack for the game, named Origins - Awakening, is due to launch on March 16.

"This is a tremendous start for the Dragon Age franchise and we are extremely pleased with the great reception the game has already received from critics and fans worldwide," said Dr Ray Muzyka, co-founder of BioWare and group general manager of the RPG/MMO Group of EA. "Our team is dedicated to crafting high quality, engaging new adventures and stories in the world of Ferelden for our fans!"

Read more...

LEGO Universe beta constructed, signups begin

LEGO Universe beta constructed, signups begin originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Netflix promotes Wii streaming with 'underwhelming' HD argument

Netflix promotes Wii streaming with 'underwhelming' HD argument originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Riccitiello reckons console price cuts came too late

Riccitiello reckons console price cuts came too late originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Holy trademark, NIS! 'Badman' games to be renamed [update]

Holy trademark, NIS! 'Badman' games to be renamed [update] originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Xbox Live Marketplace Feb. schedule includes $10 Battlefield 1943

Continue reading Xbox Live Marketplace Feb. schedule includes $10 Battlefield 1943

Xbox Live Marketplace Feb. schedule includes $10 Battlefield 1943 originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dragon Age Ships Over 3 Million

BioWare has announced that Dragon Age: Origins has sold-in over 3.2 million units worldwide, according to internal EA data.

Since its launch the studio has released downloadable content packs in the form of Warden’s Keep and Return to Ostagar.

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2009 Mod Of The Year Awards

After 133,000 community votes, the 2009 Mod Of The Year has been announced by ModDB.com.

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Ubisoft’s Q3 Sales In Line With Expectations

French publisher Ubisoft has reported third quarter sales of €495 million (£434.3m / $678.9m), in line with its recently revised expectations.

The figure, for the three months ended December 31, was down 2.7 per cent from €508 million (£434.3m / $678.9m) during the same period a year earlier.

read more

Regulator To Review Chinese World Of Warcraft Licence

Chinese regulator the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has agreed to review NetEase’s application to operate World Of Warcraft after initially rejecting the proposal.

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Community Spotlight

Highlights from our community blogs, featuring a naval sailor’s love affair with Battlefield, an interview with Q-Games’ Dylan Cuthbert and more from the decade in review.

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What Our Review Scores Mean

A brief explanation of The Escapist's five-star review scale.

Why We're Using Review Scores

The Escapist's Editor-in-Chief explains why we decided to institute review scores.

Editor's Note: Good Eats

This week's issue of The Escapist, about videogames and food, pairs well with a glass of dry Riesling or a bottle of American pale ale.

Letters to the Editor: Good Eats

Each week we publish letters sent to us regarding previous issues and highlight particularly interesting forum posts. If you'd like to comment on an article directly, send your letter to editor@escapistmag.com.

Review: BioShock 2

BioShock 2 is a hearty second helping that fans of the original game will absolutely love.

Analyst: 15-20 Console Games In 2010 To Be In 3D [Innovation]

Is Avatar-style Sterescoppic 3D going to be big in video games? A report in Consumer Electronics Daily finds few video game publishers ready to sound excited about 3D gaming, except Disney, but that doesn't mean there aren't 3D games coming.

From the report:

Insight Media predicted 15-25 console games will be released in 2010 supporting stereoscopic 3D, growing to 35-50 in 2011. [Insight analyst Dale] Maunu also predicted that console gamers will enjoy a fairly consistent 3D experience no matter what 3D compatible TV they use, unlike what computer gamers have found with their monitors. That's one benefit of a closed system like what the console makers use, he said, saying nothing can be published for a console unless it's approved by the console makers. "That's how they maintain a consistent user experience," he said.

Those calculations are tempered in the same report by Joseph Olin, head of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, the industry group that hosts next week's DICE conference of top gaming executives near Las Vegas, as saying: "no one [in the game community] is talking about [stereoscopic 3D now] in the same way that they're talking about game concept and what consumers are looking at within the wide scope of interactive entertainment options today."

Spokespeople from EA and Take Two did not offer specifics about any plans their companies have for 3D games. A representative for Disney told the publication that the company "see videogames as a natural fit with 3D," with the standard caveats of gameplay coming first.

Challenges Abound for Stereoscopic 3D Games, Including Cost Extras [Consumer Electronics Daily]

A Heads Up On Gran Turismo 5's Online Race Interface [Playstation 3]

While Gran Turismo 5's release date seems to be a little slippery, it's online race management interface appears to be headed in the right direction, with a snazzy, simple but deep HUD for all your multiplayer race needs.

The Gran Turismo obsessed folks of GT Planet snagged some screens of the PlayStation 3's real driving simulator in online race management action last week. That's what Sony and Polyphony appear to be using at the GT Academy 2010 finals, a good indicator of what we'll get when GT5 releases... sometime.

Head over to GT Planet for more shots of what looks a lot like video editing software but should provide Gran Turismo 5 racers with everything they need to know about their upcoming multiplayer races.

Gran Turismo 5 Online Racing Menu Screens [GT Planet - thanks, Jose!]

Naughty Bear Doesn't Appreciate Peanut Butter Jelly Time [Clips]

My opinion of Naughty Bear just went up several notches.

On one hand, 505 Games just made me, even for just a moment, listen to Peanut Butter Jelly Time again. On the other hand, baseball bat.

Baseball bat wins.

Dante's Inferno Review: Big Ideas, Small Problems [Review]

Dante Alighieri, real world 14th-century poet and cavalryman, is re-imagined as a love-struck crusader in this retelling of the poet's greatest work.

Dante's Inferno, one third of Alighieri's Divine Comedy, serves as the backdrop for this video game's story of the poet's search for real-world love Beatrice in hell. Players arm themselves with Death's scythe and Beatrice's cross as they hack and slash their way through the underworld, battling sins, demons and souls of the damned.

But can an epic poem that solidified humanity's image of hell and gave birth to the modern Italian language also make for a good, and more importantly, a meaningful video game?

Loved
Epic Poem: Dante Alighieri's 14th-century poem, Inferno, is mostly a field guide to hell with is plenty of allegory packed into Dante's figurative tour through the underworld at the side of Virgil. Cautionary tales and fables abound as he works his way down the circles of hell, constantly reminded how one can end up there. What makes Inferno such a powerful work is in how it so chillingly describes the repercussions of earthly sin.

It is here that developers Visceral Games stick closest to the source material and the results are spectacular. Walls seethe with souls clutching for solace. Hands reach from pools of boiling blood to drag you to your death. Each circle is minutely detailed with touches seemingly pulled from the poem, like carvings of Sisyphean torment tucked away in one area and the howling, gold-encrusted souls decapitated as you make your way through another.

Often, the scenery of a video game gets lost among the pomp of gameplay and story. In Dante's Inferno, the abhorrent landscape is as important as the characters and the story, perhaps more so.

Poetic License: Initially, I was put off by the idea of overlaying a traditional story onto such an important literary work. But Visceral's tale adds a much needed story arc, protagonists and antagonists to the game. And it's fairly well executed. In this new work, Dante examines his life on earth, his relationships and his sins as he works through what increasingly becomes a personal hell. That's fitting with the notion of Alighieri's Divine Comedy and its telling, perhaps leaning a bit on Milton's work, is a meaningful addition to the game.

Holy Unholy: There was a lot borrowed in the creation of this game. But there's also quite a bit that feels fresh. The most striking is the game's forking upgrade paths. As you make your way through hell there are damned souls that you can choose to punish or absolve. You can also snap up the lower minions of hell in battle and quickly pass judgment. Your decision grants you holy or unholy experience. This experience opens up the path to new unique abilities. While you can work on both the holy and unholy path, concentrating on one or the other means more powers.

Facing Your Sins: The landscape of hell is a powerful character in its own right, but that doesn't mean there aren't other manifestations of sin and evil. Each of the circles has their own take on the denizens of hell. These sinful souls have been warped by their misdeeds. Visceral's creations sometimes lean on the work of Alighieri's poem (such as Cerberus), but more often take a notion and turn it into something horrific and memorable.

An Infinite Tumult: Anyone who has played Visceral Games' Dead Space shouldn't be surprised at what an important role sound plays in the developer's version of hell. While sound is key to Alighieri's descriptions, the developers managed to dig much deeper than I expected into the source material and come away with something equal parts unnatural and unnerving.

Blessed Are the Gamers: Likely the most significant thing about this adaptation of a medieval cautionary tale about hell is how it manages to, on purpose or not, essentially evangelize. I'm not saying that I want my video games to tell me that sodomy, failing to be baptized or gluttony are all paths to eternal damnation. But the fact that a mainstream game does that, and does it so blatantly leaves me conflicted.

For many, gaming is a lighthearted, thought-free diversion and there are plenty of titles designed to tap into that market. But there are so few that deal with important issues in a consequential way. So the overt inclusion of a Christian Hell guided by Christan morality in a video game meant for a wide audience is a big deal. Not because of what it is saying about the afterlife, but because of what it says about the willingness of a publicly held, widely known game publisher to create something so steeped in controversy and not—beyond horrid marketing—allow that controversy to become the game. It manages to entertain and preach equally.

Hated
Hell Is Other Developers' Gameplay: There is a fine line between derivation and iteration, and Dante's Inferno spends the first half of the game dancing back and forth across it. It is impossible for those familiar with God of War to not see it peeking out from Dante's Inferno. Glimpses of the PlayStation series can be found in the button-tapping mechanic for healing and gaining mana, cinematic quick time events and the mix of puzzles and action. It's unfortunate, because Dante's Inferno is a deep and entertaining game. One that could have and should have found new, more fitting ways to deal with age-old issue of in-game replenishment, boss battles and movement.

The Rhythm Is Gonna Save Ya: One of the most unappealing aspects of this game for me is found in how you absolve the big-named damned of Dante's hell. It's a rhythm game. No, there's no music, but you may find yourself humming as you tap the face buttons of the controller to match timing of "sins" floating across a D-pad shaped cross. You could (and EA did) argue that this is meant to make the path of the holy more challenging. But challenging doesn't need to mean derivative and poorly designed.

Before The Shadowed Forest: Dante's Inferno starts out weak, very weak. You play through a fragment of what is sure to be future downloadable content, tearing through waves of generic enemies in a generic earth-side setting with a generic weapon. Fortunately, this odd prequel to the plot is very short lived.

A Swing and a Miss: If you absolutely must force people to jump and double jump and swing and climb, please make the mechanic work. Make sure the camera angle allows you to see where you are coming from or going to. Better still, just don't include it, it detracts from the experience.

I've come to understand that creating a game based on something revered doesn't mean it has to be a copy or endlessly quoted. To work, the byproduct has to just stay true to the intentions of that work. That's what Dante's Inferno does. You could fill a book about how hell doesn't have switches or big flashing symbols or life and mana, but those are just the trappings of gameplay and mechanic. Certainly, the developers could have done a better job of weaving those basics of play into the tapestry of their take on hell. But that shouldn't lessen the impact of all of the things they did right.

Dante's Inferno the video game is a metaphysical journey though and an animated illumination of medieval hell. It deals with morality and existentialism as aptly as it delivers an engrossing experience.

It is not without its issues, it most certainly won't be for everyone, but it does something that very few video games do: It opens the door for moral introspection.

Dante's Inferno was developed by Visceral Games and published by Electronic Arts for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on Feb. 9. Retails for $59.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through the entire game on the default setting on the Playstation 3. Played through nearly the entire game on the easy and hard settings on the Xbox 360.

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Holy Invasion Of Privacy, Badman! Forced To Change Its Name, Sequel Delayed [PSP]

The PSP strategy game series that kicked off with the brilliantly titled Holy Invasion Of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do To Deserve This? will get a new, less legally conflicting name, according to its publisher.

NIS America said in a statement today that the Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman series "had a conflict of interest with an existing IP" and will henceforth be known as What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord!? The unnamed intellectual property is presumably, you know, the Warner Bros. owned Batman franchise.

How does this impact you? For starters, the original version of the game, released through the PlayStation Network last year, has been yanked. It will be temporarily unavailable until NIS America can do a decent scrubbing of any infringing implications toward Batman.

NIS America has also delayed the sequel to May 4, changing the game's name from Holy Invasion Of Privacy, Badman! 2: Time to Tighten Up Security! to What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord!? 2. Hmph.

Sounds like those of you who may have downloaded the original Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! have yourself a digital collector's item.