Anyway, we don't have to worry about Syndicate following this trend. Electronic Arts has stated publicly that Syndicate will have no $10 Online Pass, because the game encourages a lot of cooperative play, and the online mechanism supports that to the fullest.
The game is being built by an "EA Partners" studio -- Starbreeze -- meaning EA is just publishing the title. Producing, marketing, hyping, shipping, collecting a cut. Not actually developing the game itself. And like Crysis 2 and Portal 2 (also games not made by an EA-owned studio), Syndicate will be free to play online; even if someone buys it in 30 years.
Check out that trailer for the game, and also download the co-op demo online now!
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Well, folks, it looks like we won't have to wait until November to give that Resident Evil 6 game a spin. As a matter of fact, we won't even have to wait half that long.
According to Capcom, the upcoming fantasy-RPG, Dragon's Dogma, will give gamers access to a code that unlocks the Resident Evil 6 demo. If gamers buy it on the Xbox 360, they will receive the demo access on July 3, 2012. If they purchase Dragon's Dogma on the PlayStation 3, they will be able to download the demo September 4. Either way, Dragons's Dogma = early Resident Evil 6.
But, wait... there's more! The trailer above is for Dragon's Dogma. Take a peek at it. Because while playing a demo is great and all, it's way better to buy a game because you actually want to play that game. You know, instead of just peripheral content.
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I am pretty pleased with my Alan Wake experience. Sure, Remedy Entertainment has a lot they could improve on when looking to a sequel, but overall the story of Wake and his wife was plenty suitable enough for a half-dozen hours of thrills and some unique story arcs. Which makes Alan Wake's American Nightmare a relatively pleasant and intriguing upcoming game.
From the looks of the trailer, Remedy set the original Alan Wake's octane to "high" and loosened up a bit from the slow-build plot unraveling that held tempo for the original narrative. From the soundbites in interviews, it sounds like American Nightmare will be more of a "fun" game to play, with more diverse enemies and modes to delight gamers who thought the original was a little lacking in the "options" department. For instance, an Arcade Mode is being introduced that promises to add a whole new dimension to the survival-ness of the horror.
I'm particularly excited to see how they spin urban legends into the build of the enemies. Mr. Scratch might be a little gimmicky, but from what I can tell, Remedy knows pretty well what they're doing and how to deliver. Look for the game February 22, 2012. It'll cost you $15 on Xbox Live Arcade.
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Not gonna lie -- I've never actually watched a single episode of any Doctor Who series. I think there's more than one, right? Like, an old one and a new one? Maybe a British one and an English American one (don't drink and write, kids), or something? Yeah... I haven't seen either or any. However, I have seen a trailer for the upcoming PlayStation 3/PSVita game called Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock, which drops March 2012.
And if you click up there, you too can watch it. It showcases what are certain to be a few of the game's enemies; a series of creepy, crawly monsters that sport giant hands and wonky heads.
Now, as I am obviously a Doctor Who noob, I can't tell you how good this game looks from a fan's perspective. I do think it looks like a promising downloadable title, but I'd love to hear what die-hard fans of the franchise think. Any good?
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| xbox.com |
From the looks of it, according to Xbox.com, Resident Evil 6 will feature six-player cooperative online play. Great, right? Possibly. Co-op was awesome in Resident Evil 5. But before you get all excited, you need to consider this: what does a snippet of information like that mean, exactly?
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| Merios |
For the last few days, we've seen a No Hope Left marketing campaign go viral. The campaign, which is described in the post just below this one, has everyone thinking Resident Evil 6. The vibe, the timing, the cryptic nomenclature -- all of it pointed to a huge new Resident Evil release. And now we know: Resident Evil 6 is confirmed.
On the other end of this link, I've embedded the official trailer. You'll recognize some faces, especially Leon Kennedy and Chris Redfield, and see a drastic change in scenery from the previous two iterations.
It looks like Metropolis, China is the next victim of the zombie outbreak. Click the link for the details.
Tags: announcements, Resident Evil 6
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A reporter for The Sixth Axis pieced together that the "primesight" stamp on the graffiti is in fact the name of an advertising agency, and following some crazy creepy-ass viral marketing, did some calling around to find out what this could all mean. Capcom gave the typical response -- "We don't comment on rumors." But Primesight did. They flat out said that the project was for Capcom.
Which brings us to where we are now.
Anyone who is a fan of Capcom knows that the "O" looks a hell of a lot like the "O" in Biohazard, or what the Resident Evil franchise is called outside the US. Anyone who knows me knows that I am an unabashed fanboy for the RE franchise. So when I read about all this, I have to believe that Resident Evil 6 is just on the horizon. We'll find out today -- a little later this afternoon -- and I'll have a full write up and report on the findings. You'll find some speculation on the other end of this link.
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A NOTE FROM JOYSTICK DIVISION
Generally the internet as a whole is a wildly diverse, anarchic place. It is a huge, spellbinding field of opinions and facts, truths and falsehoods, pornography and LOLcats. So when something cuts through all the different voices of the web and provokes a clear response from a large section of cyberspace, it is worthy of attention.
This is exactly what has happened as the specifics of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) bills under consideration in Congress have found their way onto the internet. In stark contrast to the usual mixture of "for" and "against" reactions that you'll find on almost any issue debated online, there has been a widespread backlash against these bills. And with good reason.
With the disclaimer that this is not an expert opinion and they are complex bills, here's a brief list of the issues that the community as a whole has raised about the proposed legislation of SOPA and PIPA:
- Provisions that would criminalize linking to sites accused of infringement, burdening websites based on user content with the task of policing their many posters on an impossibly micro level
- Endangering investment in the tech sector as a whole, as investors will be wary of putting money into websites that are known to have the legal obligation to constantly scrub offending links
- Wording that would hold websites blameless for "over-blocking" innocent websites in attempt to comply with new, strict guidelines, essentially encouraging the practice of mass online self-censorship
- The bills frequently refer not only to infringing foreign sites, but also to sites found facilitating infringement, which means that a broad array of things could be potentially criminalized, from open-source software to aggregation websites
- The bills use vague wording that could easily be exploited to twist the intended meaning of the law, and they include references to internet mechanics that are often far too simplistic (especially with regards to classifying "foreign" vs. "domestic" sites)
In summary, it's a mess; what's at stake is nothing less than freedom of speech, the destruction of online innovation, the victimization of innocent service providers and one big step down a very slippery slope toward the systematic repression of ideas.
There's more to these arguments than we've stated here. We suggest one of these great articles if you want to hear a more in-depth case against the legislation:
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation's close look at the possible effects of passing these bills into law
This isn't about ignoring piracy; it's about making sure we address the real problem of copyright infringement in a manner that does not compromise our ideals. Jon Stewart, in a time of national darkness, once said that the difference between America at her best and the enemies of democracy was, in a nutshell, the difference between "open and closed." We at Joystick Division appreciate that we have something very special in our ability to access an uncensored, "open" internet, a thing that perhaps is more fragile than we usually think. And we are willing to stand up and fight for that.
We hope you'll join us: please contact your congressperson if you feel as strongly about this as we do.
Thanks for listening.
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| Overdrive someone's face in Phantom Breaker. |
Released in Japan in June, developer 5pb's neo-2D fighting game Phantom Breaker will be released stateside by 7sixty. The latter company expects an early 2012 release, developing it exclusively for Xbox 360.
Phantom Breaker, a throwback to the likes of King of Fighters and Darkstalkers, will feature a variety of characters with "spectacular special moves, high-impact combos and a counter system that's easy to pick up but takes a lifetime to master ...," according to a 7sixty press release.
After the jump, let's see how much punch this revivalist might pack.
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Phantom Breaker, a throwback to the likes of King of Fighters and Darkstalkers, will feature a variety of characters with "spectacular special moves, high-impact combos and a counter system that's easy to pick up but takes a lifetime to master ...," according to a 7sixty press release.
After the jump, let's see how much punch this revivalist might pack.
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| XCOM: Enemy Unknown -- will this game capture the spirit of the alien-obsessed early 90's? |
I had no idea that that original X-COM was such a big deal until I began to see it near or at the top of PC gaming Best of All Time lists. After doing some research, its MicroProse pedigree and near-universal acclaim seconded what I'd been hearing -- that this game was one of the absolute classics of the strategy genre, combining action, diplomacy, economics and, of course, those god-damned aliens.
I'd be interested to hear what fans of the original think of this.
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