Apocalypso's Atomic Arcade

2010/04/13

Apocalypse Now Video Game Could be in the Works

Apocalypse Now is considered one of the best Vietnam War films ever made, along with others like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. I find it quite odd that here in SA, Apocalypse Now isn’t shown on TV as often as the other two.

Now the movie might be getting some renewed interest, as Killspace Entertainment has registered two domains called “apocalypsenowgame.com”, and “warisnotagame.net.” This suggests obviously that a game based on the movie is in the works.

Killspace Entertainment's LinkedIn profile suggests that its working on two titles, one of which is a “licensed IP to be announced.” Wonder what the other one is then?

There are some concerns that a game based on this particular movie might not be such a good idea, as it isn’t as action-packed as some of the afore-mentioned titles. We all know a game based on a movie isn’t exactly a recipe for success. They should rather have taken inspiration from the movies as well as done research on the real war, and made their own.

But then again, it’s better than getting another World War II FPS in an over-saturated market, or another Modern Warfare…

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Source: Superannuation

Commandos 4 Possibly Under Development [Rumblings]

Last year there were rumours started about another Commandos game possibly being in development, but these rumours were later denied by Pyro Studios, the developers of the series, which saw three great RTS type games enter the market, along with one FPS spin-off which didn’t turn out so well.

But even though Pyro said the company wasn’t currently working on a game at the time, didn’t mean that there weren’t plans for the future.

Now it seems that is the case, as these rumours have resurfaced, as a LinkedIn profile of a former Pyro Studios lead designer, Marcos Domenech, was discovered, and lists Commandos 4 as a game he has worked on. He is currently working on Brink with Splash Damage.

There’s also another LinkedIn profile belonging to José Ramón Díaz Martín, which also states he worked on the game, and still is.

Obviously there’s no official confirmation, and the profile will either be edited or taken down soon, which usually says a lot on its own. On a side note, I’d be totally stoked to play another Commandos game. It’s been too long. Maybe I’ll get one of the other three out and play.

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Source: Superannuation

2010/04/12

NAG Magazine AKA New Age Gaming Turns 12 This Month

NAG magazine is one of South Africa’s best gaming magazines. Those of you who bought the last issue, the April 2010 issue released last month, would have realised that NAG is now twelve years old. The magazine was started in April 1998.

And hey, it’s the 12th of April too. April 12th, twelve years… just fits, doesn’t it?

My first issue of NAG I bought, with the Cover CD.

To celebrate this, I guess I could write about my experiences with NAG magazine and when I first bought a copy. It was the January& February issue of 1999 [contained content for both months for a few years, nowadays they’re separate issues], Volume 1, issue 8, and it had my first NAG Cover CD, which I still have to this day, over eleven years later.

Unfortunately I did throw the magazine away. But there are archived editions of volume 1 and 2 in PDF format which I have. You can find these PDFs on the April 2008 issue Cover DVD, by looking under “10 Anniversary Bonus” Yes, that was to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the magazine, two years ago. So I can say that I’ve read every single issue of the magazine, ever.

On it was the demo of Thief: The Dark Project, a game which ranks as one of my favourites of all time nowadays, succeeded only by its sequel, Thief II: The Metal Age.

The magazine also had a review of Thief: The Dark Project to go along with the demo. There was also a review of the now legendary Half-Life, and Tomb Raider III – probably the last great TR title by Core Design, which went on to become Rebellion Derby, but is now closed as of this year. A street in Derby was named Lara Croft Way in the games’ [and possibly the studio’s] honour.

Since I’ve bought magazine every month without fail for a dozen years. I’ve watched it grow from a sixty-odd page magazine to over a hundred pages, only to drop back down again due to the recession, slowly climbing its way back up. I’ve seen the format change constantly too. The price has gone from R11.95 to R18.95 [first issue I bought], to R24.95, and so on until today; the price currently sits at R42,00.

I’ve seen the Cover DVD change as well, the format of it, the contents, the size. It was once a Cover CD, then it went on to two Cover CDs, then a 4.7 GB DVD, now a 9 GB DVD. NAG is now possibly planning to go up in price again this year with the addition of another Cover DVD. That’s 18 GBs worth of stuff. Eventually it’ll be Blu-Ray or something.

And I’ve also seen the magazine go from print only, to having a website called NAG Online, which recently moved to its very own domain, with forums and the whole lot, with online exclusive reviews and news.

Ah, memories. Here’s to another twelve years.

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Happy Birthday! :D

Maximum Hype: Crysis 2 Information Overload –Trailer, Plot Details

Over the past few days, there’s been an overload of information on Crysis 2, so much that I couldn’t handle posting separate posts about everything. I’m just one man here you know.

I much prefer little leaks of info every now an again, but Crysis 2 has blown up.

I decided to do a mash up of all the best information that’s been online so far. I’ve noticed that other blogs with little manpower have done the same, or else they just provide a list of links to blogs which have covered all the stories.

Last week, a trailer was shown in Times Square for Crysis 2, and now there’s an extended trailer on the net too. It’s called "The Wall", and was rendered real time in CryEngine 3. You can watch it below. The song is by Polly Scattergood, called “New York New York”.

Author Richard Morgan will be handling the story of Crysis 2, even commenting on Modern Warfare 2 being a “big disappointment”. Some more information has been unveiled to add more to what we all ready know about the game: that it takes place in New York City in 2023, 3 years after the events of the first game, and you have to fight off an alien invasion.

“In Crysis 2, the aliens have returned with a full invasion force bent on nothing less than the total annihilation of mankind. In New York, terrifying alien invaders stalk the streets and a nightmare plague strikes down the city’s myriad inhabitants with brutal epidemic speed. The city’s systems are in chaos, its streets and skyline are smashed and in flaming ruin. Neither paramilitary law enforcement nor the might of the US military machine can stand against the invaders, and all who choose not to flee are dead men walking. Just to survive in this maelstrom of death will require technology beyond anything any modern soldier has ever seen. One man will inherit that means to survive. You alone must wield the combat technology of Nanosuit 2, and make the last stand to save humanity from destruction in the urban jungle that is New York City.”

It’s also been said that Nomad, the player character from Crysis, as well as Prophet, the squad leader, will reappear in this title. And there’s word that Nomad will keep being mistaken for Prophet throughout the game. Prophet all but disappeared in the first game when he set off on a one man suicide mission to fight the aliens.

Crysis 2 is scheduled for a “holiday 2010” release which likely means Q4 2010 or September to December, but probably more towards the latter. The development is being handled by Crytek Frankfurt, with Crytek UK doing the multiplayer, and the game will be available on PC, Xbox 360, and PS3. Consoles are something new for the Crysis series, seeing as the original game, Crysis, as well as Crysis Warhead, were PC exclusives.

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Source: Cinemablend

StarCraft II: Pricing Details, Collector’s Edition Goodies, Box Arts

There is now confirmation that a Collector’s Edition for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty exists.

Items that it contains include StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, a 176-page art book, a 'Thor' unit pet for World of WarCraft, the original StarCraft plus the Brood War expansion on a USB thumb drive shaped like Jim Raynor's dog tag, behind-the-scenes DVD, the official StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty soundtrack CD, StarCraft comic book issue #0, and exclusive Battle.net downloadable content.

This is said to be one of the best collectors editions ever, and for good reason. There’s a lot of good stuff there. The Collectors Edition goes for $99.99 and is no doubt a retail product only. The standard edition is $59.99. [1]

Wings of Liberty is the first in a trilogy in StarCraft II, with Zerg and Protoss campaigns to come later, after the game is released this year. So far StarCraft II is in closed beta, which just received a patch the other day, resulting in some game balancing.

It’s also been confirmed that unlike Command& Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, StarCraft II will be playable offline, and doesn’t require any of this always online, new DRM malarkey. You only need to activate it once with a Battle.net account. There won’t be any LAN play though [3].

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Source: [1] Shacknews - [2] Examiner [Box Arts] - [3] Fudzilla

2010/04/11

Video Games Coming out This Week [April 11-17, 2010] -Splinter Cell: Conviction

AAA’s Targets of the Week - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, Dark Void Zero

After a bit of a bland week last week, this week explodes with games in comparison. We have the actual release of Splinter Cell: Conviction. After all these years, and delays, and after scrapping some of the original game and rebuilding it, it’s here. And from what I’ve seen it’s set to be pretty damn good, with IGN giving it a 9.3 in their exclusive review.

I’ve got to tell you though that only the Xbox 360 version comes out this week, as the PC version has been pushed back to April 27. Ha! So much for no more delays, and “set in stone”, blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, the game also has a collector’s edition, and a Xbox 360 bundle that you might want to have a look at, if you want more than just the game. There’s no PS3 version of the game by the way, but there were rumours going around about one. Not sure if they’re true; could have been an April Fool’s Joke.

Another big release this week is Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, which is the retail pack containing the two DLCs for Grand Theft Auto IV, namely The Lost and Damned, and The Ballad of Gay Tony. Previously you could only get these via digital distribution, online. Once again, it’s only for PC and PS3. This time 360 owners lose out. Then again they all ready received the pack in October last year, alongside The Ballad of Gay Tony.

Another game that was said to be coming to the PC this week is Dark Void Zero, a 8-bit spin-off of Dark Void, released earlier in the year. It also arrives on iPhone.

As for the rest, there’s Blood Bowl for the PSP, which looks like fun from what I’ve seen. And there’s a lot of digital distribution titles this week, either from Steam, XBLA, or PSN, including another Sam & Max.

Available links go to game detail pages at Amazon, Steam, and other stores where you can pick up the game of your choice.

Check my Amazon aStore to see the latest and greatest releases of 2010 as well.

[PC]

Booster Trooper [Digital]
Dark Void Zero [Steam - Digital]
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
Rig'n'Roll [Digital]
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episode 1 - The Penal Zone [Steam - Digital]
Sleep Is Death [Digital]

[Mac]

Brothers in Arms: Double Time

[Xbox 360]

Final Fight: Double Impact [XBLA]
Final Saga
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction Collector's Edition
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction Xbox 360 Hardware Bundle

[PlayStation 3]

Final Fight: Double Impact [PSN]
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episode 1 - The Penal Zone [PSN]

[PSP]

Blood Bowl

[Wii]

Arcade Shooter: Ilvelo
Military Madness: Nectaris

[DS]

AlphaBounce
Easy Piano

[iPhone]

Dark Void Zero [App Store]

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Sources: Shacknews - Gamespot

Tom Clancy’s First Book in Seven Years, Dead or Alive, Coming This Christmas

If you’re a gamer, and you likely are if you’re on this site, then you’ve heard of Tom Clancy. Even the spell checker on most word editors knows of Tom Clancy. His name has appeared on so many games, right from Rainbow Six, to Ghost Recon, to Splinter Cell, to EndWar, to H.A.W.X., and others. And there were the movies as well, like The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger and The Sum of All Fears.

But did you know that long before those video games, Tom was all ready an established writer?

I read the other day that Tom is going to have another book out sometime this year called Dead or Alive – his first book in seven years. He has had others in this time period, but they were actually written by other people, if that makes sense; a ghost writer, if you will. They just had his name on it, like a brand.

The book will put all of Clancy's heroes together, including Jack Ryan, John Clark, and Ding Chavez [characters that Rainbow Six players should know very well – I’ve played the original and read the book] among others, in an attempt to join forces and combat terrorism.

Ivan Held, President of G.P. Putnam’s Sons:

“This is Tom Clancy for the first time bringing all his all-stars together, including Jack Ryan. They will be going after modern terrorism.”

The book will be written by Tom, along with Grant Blackwood, a former US Navy veteran, whose also worked on other Clancy novels. Penguin Group, the publisher, says the 848 page book should be out on December 7, 2010 - a few weeks before Christmas.

Amazon blurb:

“For years, Jack Ryan, Jr. and his colleagues at the Campus have waged an unofficial and highly effective campaign against the terrorists who threaten western civilization. The most dangerous of these is the Emir. This sadistic killer has masterminded the most vicious attacks on the west and has eluded capture by the world’s law enforcement agencies. Now the Campus is on his trail. Joined by their latest recruits, John Clark and Ding Chavez, Jack Ryan, Jr. and his cousins, Dominick and Brian Caruso, are determined to catch the Emir and they will bring him in . . . dead or alive.”

By the way, I thought I would add that Tom Clancy will turn 63 tomorrow, as it’s apparently his birthday on the 12th of April.

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Sources: Reuters - Weekend Argus