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Fallout 3 Confirmed For Australian Release

August 1st 2008 04:28

Fallout is an apt name for upcoming game. The Australian media has been whipped into the closest thing to a frenzy we have here for the gaming industry over the ban on the upcoming Bethesda title Fallout 3. But according to EB Games and GAME representatives, Australia will be receiving the game, albeit in a modified format. The new, friendlier version, will have the drug use removed that saw the game banned in the first place. Both EB Games and GAME are currently taking pre-orders for the title. One representative from GAME, contacted this Thursday night, (after hammering home the "do you want to pre-order?" spiel) said that he had read on their internal communications only an hour before that Fallout 3 would be released this year.

It looks as though both stores are holding fast. Let's hope that this is a reality rather than their misplaced optimism.

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Posted By: Colin Stevens - Category: Other, PC, Xbox 360

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Star Wars Battlefront III Appears On Amazon

July 8th 2008 23:54

Not too long from now, at a Media and Business Summit not all that far away, LucasArts may be announcing a new game in the Star Wars Battlefront series. Online shopping megalith Amazon.com has added listings for Star Wars Battlefront III ... for no less than six platforms. The game is available for pre-order and has what we can only imagine is a tentative March 15, 2009 release date.

A new game in the series is hardly surprising; after all, Battlefront is the best selling Star Wars video game franchise of all time. Reports of it being in development also popped up following LucasArts' recent layoffs, though the company would not comment on it or any other unannounced titles at the time.

Amazon has Battlefront III slated for availability on PS3, 360, Wii, PS2, PSP, and DS. If this holds true, it would certainly debunk an old rumor that the game might only hit Xbox 360. Now there's the matter of a developer. With Pandemic – the studio responsible for the first two games – now owned by EA, and internal development slowing down at LucasArts, a new hope must arise. Our best guess at the moment is the rebel forces at Rebellion, the UK-based studio responsible for the generally well received Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron on PSP.

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Posted By: Colin Stevens - Category: Handheld, Other, PC, Wii, Xbox 360

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EndWar And The Future Of RTS

July 2nd 2008 02:23

The future of the RTS will be redifined by the PC and console wars. It has been the electronic evolution of tabletop gaming up to this point, where it is taking a life of its own. Many aspects remain the same, such as the top down view and dice rolling in the background, while now the lines are blurring between RPG and FPS. With the acceleration of technology and broader gaming audience, RTS is set to change in the future.

Microsoft Game Studios' Peter Zetterberg has recently spoken with Gamesindustry.biz about the future of the RTS game on the PC and console. From his experience developers have not been able to come up with a suitable control scheme for the Xbox360 to deal with RTS. Zetterberg says " I've had an RTS game pitched to me on the 360. Every time this happens developers say, “right, this time we've solved the RTS problem on console.” It was an ambitious game from new developers with a smaller team. And we were one of the first that they had pitched to so they hadn't turned cynical yet. And as they pitch, clearly this is not a good idea to do it on the Xbox 360." On the matter of the gaming experience, he feels that perhaps the right enviornment for different platforms is about the way multiplayer is conducted, "When you're working on a game you can imagine people playing solo or co-op in their living rooms, but it's a different picture when you imagine them playing on a PC. When I'm working on a game that's what I'm thinking about – the end result. How is a gamer going to be feeling playing through this experience?"
This points towards Microsoft keeping RTS on the PC, perhaps assuring that they are still focused on the platform. Perhaps this might be behing the rumoured canning of the Halo RTS game?
Electronic Arts' Chris Corry has a similar feeling, that the controllers of the consoles are not responsive enough to match that of the keyboard and mouse, "Console RTS design has come a long way, but I don't know if you will be able to lead design of a true RTS, which is so inherently reliant on the mouse and keyboard combination, on the console. "It's one of the reasons we don't do cross platform play - the way RTS' are meant to be played, the PC guys would be so much faster."

It seems that perception is more the issue for the consoles rather than fact. There have been attempts to cross the platform floor with RTS, such as The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II and Command & Conquer: Kane’s Wrath. LOTR:BFME received high praise and ratings, C&C:KW doing almost as well. This would suggest it's possible to do RTS on the console, gamers at least seem to think the version plays just as well as on the PC.

To combat this perception, games studioes have gone about reinventing RTS.
EndWar creative director Michael de Plater who was behind the amazing Total War franchise is looking to bring the genre into a realm that console gamers are familiar with. "We haven't looked at the conventions of PC RTS games at all. The game's we've looked at have been tactical shooters where you give squad mates pretty simple commands like Brothers in Arms. Use the d-pad to select and press A to send them there. It's got to be that easy to issue the orders.

Additionally it's very easy to group guys. You select multiple units by pushing up on the d-pad. There are no modifiers and no tricky combos to learn. If you can give a squad an order in Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon then you'll be able to play EndWar."
Endwar, and other games currently in production, are also looking to enable voice commands to control on screen action, "Plus on top of that you've got the voice command that lets you shortcut or give high level orders to your whole army. You could literally start a game, give the command "All units attack" and let the AI push forward an assault the enemy. You could then drop in and manage squads or micromanage right down to the level of each unit."

Looking at the opinions of the leading games developers it seems that the future of RTS may be quite different for the PC and consoles. The PC may stick to the tried and true isometric formula, where the social and community aspect of console gaming may see it become more accessible through simplified controls and voice commands.

The future of RTS looks strong on both platforms. It's just unlikely that we will be playing together or on games that look and feel the same.

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Posted By: Colin Stevens - Category: Other, PC, Xbox 360

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176 Games By Christmas - Are There too Many

June 30th 2008 02:02

From the list of upcoming titles I was able to obtain we will see another 176 titles hitting the shelves between now and christmas. I was able to narrow it down to 19 titles that I would like to own, which suggested to me that there are too many games being released.

Game developers have never had the level of support of funding then they do now. Hollywood is having to think about the entire medium of visual entertainment as profits soar. In the wake of this we are seeing a deluge of titles. I don't want to sound like i'm whining, the amount of choice is amazing and the quality at a jaw dropping excellence, but the fact is that not only can I not sustain this many titles but surely gamers will eventually have to decide which great titles to support and which will go by the wayside.

A lot of this decision is made through the community. Previews and reviews tend to let us know what the hits will be before they are released. So far we have been able to support the best titles. My games collection though is starting to rival the DVD's, who are nervously looking on as their real estate is eaten up by the latest collectors edition package.
In all of this we are still levelling critisism on games that are "too short". A 9 hour single player game will receive condemnation, regardless of the entertainment it provides. This critisism usually comes from the gaming sites. Now I can understand that reviewers jobs are to play games beginning to end, but for the regular gamer a 40 hour epic is something that will probably end up unfinished in todays rapid release enviornment. The majority of these games tend to pad out the story anyway. As much as I love Half Life 2, if the game were half the length and lost the boat and corridor crawling sections, I would have let it move in, choose its own linen and had it's chilldren. Online play has almost taken over as the preferred mode of play, and for the most people it's due to the ability to pick up and play when you can for as long as you can, be it a short of long time. Episodic content has attempted to address this, and even games such as Mass Effect have bite sized missions, perfect if you have 20 minutes to knock off another chunk of the storyline.

We must be cautious, the last thing we want is for the publishers to get nervous about bringout out big budget blockbusters becuase they think they might not cut through the sea of competitors vying for our dollars. My hope, and what I believe to be likely, is that as games get bigger we will see a proper release schedule emerge, a balanced story whose length is decided by the content rather than numerous filler levels, and a price drop to allow us to own a few extra.

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Posted By: Colin Stevens - Category: Handheld, Other, PC, Wii, Xbox 360

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Diablo 3 Fails To Save Action vs Role Playing

June 29th 2008 07:08

Blizzard have put us out of our collective miseries by finally revealing Diablo 3 will be hitting shelves in the foreseeable future (although being Blizzard that time will be when they decide it's the right time). And in a questionable departure from the tried and true formula that has rarely been successfully repeated since, Blizzard says RPG elements will be heavily featured

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Posted By: Colin Stevens - Category: Other, PC, Xbox 360

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Ubisoft Fix Vegas 2 By Cloning COD 4

June 29th 2008 01:54

One of the most disappointing releases of the year has to have been Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Fans has rightfully blasted Ubisoft for releasing a game that was nothing more than an expansion of the original title. It it were half the price the fans may have accepted it, but with very few new gameplay innovations and ported maps from the original Rainbow Six, most gamers just felt ripped off. Sales have reflected this, turning the much loved franchise into a turkey

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Posted By: Colin Stevens - Category: Other, PC, Xbox 360

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Battle.net Open Diablo 3 Forum Page

June 27th 2008 06:27

Is this the official confirmation we have been waiting for? Battle.net now have an official General Discussion Forum page ready for your rabid cries of lust over the possible third coming of Diablo

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Posted By: Colin Stevens - Category: Other, PC, Xbox 360

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Star Wars The Unleashed Faces Development Trouble

June 27th 2008 01:00

LucasArts have taken the extrordinary step of risking one of its most highly anticipated titles yet by laying off staff from the development team of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

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Posted By: Colin Stevens - Category: Other, PC, Xbox 360

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EA Sports Games To Bundle Peripherals

June 25th 2008 01:59

Just when you thought you had fit as many drum kits, steering wheels and tennis racquets into the lounge room, EA plans to include peripherals with its sports titles

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Posted By: Colin Stevens - Category: Other, PC, Wii, Xbox 360

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Assassin's Creed 2 Faces Uncertain Future

June 25th 2008 01:09

Fans of the Assassin's Creed franchise need to start flooding the forums and emailing their votes through to get a sequal according to Ubisoft

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Posted By: Colin Stevens - Category: Other, PC, Xbox 360

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Call Of Duty 5 and 6 news

June 11th 2008 04:12

Activision's chest gets even bigger

With a nod to the extended development time of today’s games, Activision have already indicated that the venerable Call of Duty series will continue with a fifth, and rumoured a possible sixth instalment. Stepping back to the games original WWII era, number five plans to take what many feel to be a tired setting into the next generation. Destructible terrain is set to reshape the battleground, with players able to take down buildings and burn through fields with new weapons such as the incredibly fun sounding flamethrower. To avoid too many cliché’s from the back catalogue of WWII games COD 5 will see us fighting against a new enemy - Japan. For added variety we will also be transported to the Russian front to fend off the invading Germans. To cater for the strategically minded a command function will allow you to order your forces to best take care your foes

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Posted By: Colin Stevens - Category: Other, PC, Xbox 360

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Update - Fallout 3 Not Available in Australia

June 10th 2008 01:32

Before you sell an infrequently used organ to finance the purchase, the exciting announcement made by Amazon.com that they would be supplying "Fallout 3: Exclusive Survival Edition" turns out to be only for the American market. Due to shipping policies set in place by the online retail giant, no versions of the limited number release will be available to the enthusiastic Fallout fanbase in Australia

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Posted By: Colin Stevens - Category: Other, PC, Xbox 360

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