Gearbox acquires Duke Nukem IP

PAX 2010: CEO Randy Pitchford announces purchase of all future rights to 3D Realms' storied action hero; Borderlands free update with raised level cap coming soon.

 

Who was there: Gearbox Software claimed the 2010 Penny Arcade Expo as its own on Friday with the shock announcement that it would see Duke Nukem Forever to the finish line in 2011. On hand to discuss the move, as well as the rest of Gearbox's announced development slate, was CEO Randy Pitchford, chief creative officer Brian Martel, creative director Mikey Neumann, licensing head David Eddings, and cinematics director Brian Thomas.

What they talked about: Though Friday's revelation that Gearbox would be finishing up 3D Realms' Duke Nukem Forever was perhaps the biggest news out of the Penny Arcade Expo, the studio followed it up with another headline-worthy announcement. Namely, Pitchford revealed in front of the PAX 2010 collective that Gearbox has acquired the Duke Nukem intellectual property, including Duke Nukem Forever and all future developments in the franchise, from 3D Realms. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Explaining how the deal went down, Pitchford noted that he and Martel had actually met while working at 3D Realms, way back in 1997, and Gearbox still had a strong relationship with George Broussard and others at that studio. "I feel like I owe Duke Nukem my career," he said, before bringing up last year's turmoil of 3D Realms' closure and the lawsuits that resulted. "That day sucked, but you can't kill Duke."

He said that even with the game's future grim, about eight or nine former 3D Realms developers continued to work on Duke Nukem Forever, including Allen Blum, who has been working on the franchise since its inception in 1991. The game they were making is the same that is being made at Gearbox, he said, noting that Blum and the others--but not Broussard--are still on the team. He also said that the game is currently in the polish phase, and that "arrangements need to be made with first-parties and retailers." Apparently, 2K Games hadn't even informed retailers of the game's existence until it was announced on Friday.

"The game that is happening is 3D Realms' game," he said. In an emotional moment, Pitchford went on to say that, "I didn't buy [Duke Nukem] from them, they sold it to me," emphasizing how protective 3D Realms has been of its quintessential action hero.

"Gearbox was the only home appropriate for the Duke Nukem brand," Broussard said as part of a statement. "They are very talented and possess the perfect perspective and understanding of the brand. Their vision for its future direction is exciting and unbelievable. I personally cannot wait for fans to see their unique take on the franchise."

"The Gearbox Software team and I are ecstatic that we have grown to a position to be able to pick up and carry the torch and help Duke rise back to glory in his time of need," Pitchford added. "Fans of the legendary hero and all the incredible talent that have ever helped him all deserve the very best support that we can bring."

For more information on Duke Nukem Forever, check out GameSpot's hands-on with the game from PAX 2010.

As for the rest of what Gearbox has been working on, the team first discussed what was going on with the Borderlands franchise. Namely, Pitchford noted that Borderlands' fourth, and ostensibly final, downloadable content add-on--Claptrap's New Robot Revolution--will arrive on September 28. He also noted that all Borderlands owners will receive a free patch for the game that rebalances it and increases the level cap to 69.

Of that innuendoed number, Pitchford said that they did not want to alienate Borderlands fans who purchased General Knox for the sake of gaining that DLC's 11-level cap increase. "We realized that if we added eight levels, with the cap at level 61, it wouldn't piss off people who paid for the General Knox DLC." A release date for the free patch has yet to be determined, but Pitchford noted that it should arrive some time around the launch of Claptrap's New Robot Revolution.

Martel then briefly discussed Gearbox's Brothers in Arms franchise, saying that they had nothing to announce today. However, he did emphasize Gearbox's commitment to the franchise, hinting that the series may branch out from the characters established in recent installments. "We'll have some things to talk about soon. We're not ready quite yet to bring it out," Pitchford added.

Martel also didn't have any news about Aliens Colonial Marines, noting that it has been difficult to talk about the game due to involvement from rights owner 20th Century Fox and publisher Sega. However, Pitchford seemed to bend the rules a bit, calling for a rapid-fire succession of screenshots of the game to be shown on the conference hall's big screen.

Though brief, the shots showed a group of marines engaging richly detailed alien drones in what appeared to be a space station's corridors. The shots were highly reminiscent of the tone established by Ridley Scott's 1979 original Alien.

Quote: "Always bet on Duke."--Randy Pitchford.

Takeaway: The next game Gearbox will deliver is the Duke Nukem Forever that has been more than a decade in the making, with many of the original developers still working on the project. Of course, fans of the series probably won't believe it until they see it, a fact Gearbox recognized and promised to do something about as soon as possible.

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Bungie sends off Halo: Reach

PAX 2010: Creators of Microsoft's highly acclaimed sci-fi FPS series delve into what it took to create its final effort in the franchise.

 

Who was there: Bungie brought out some of its biggest guns for its 2010 Penny Arcade Expo panel devoted to Halo: Reach, including executive producer Joe Tung, creative lead Marcus Lehto, composer Marty O'Donnell, story and cinematics lead Lee Wilson, campaign lead designer Niles Sankey, sandbox lead designer Sage Merrill, cooperative multiplayer lead Lars Bakken, and community manager Brian Jarrard.

What they talked about: September 14 signifies the end of an era, as it will mark the conclusion of Bungie's involvement in creating new games in the franchise that defined the Xbox as a gaming platform. With that as a backdrop, the collected Bungie contingent held forth on the series for quite possibly the last time to discuss its latest creation, Halo: Reach.

Bungie began the panel by discussing how a four-man team began planning out the initial concept for the game in October 2007--six years after the novel the game was partially based on, author Eric Nylund's Halo: The Fall of Reach, was published. The process largely began with a storyboard-style trailer, where a sun crests on a verdant, Earth-like planet, with picturesque snow-covered mountains towering over lush, green fields. The trailer then fades to white, as the word Reach emerges in black print.

Next, a pencil sketch of a Spartan soldier is shown donning his iconic helmet, before speeding off along a dirt road in a Warthog. An ATV with a second Spartan soldier then appears, and text at the bottom of the scene reads, "Planet Reach, in the year 2552." The panel noted that the trailer was a very early previsualization of where it wanted to go with the project, and the sequence ultimately became the opening of the game.

The team then delved into the process of creating the world of Reach, which it described as a major character in the game and the site of one of the largest conflicts in the Human-Covenant war. Though many of the details don't appear in the game, the team mapped out such features as colonization history, geography, and economic and military centers. Other features, such as the planet's 27-hour day/night cycle and 390-day year were also built into the game.

The team also selected certain features of the planet itself that it wanted to focus on, including environments such as badlands or temperate zones, as well as architecture that ranges from rustic to hyper-urban. The goal was to give the planet a lived-in feel with a backstory all its own.

At the same time, the team was also building out levels. This process began, quite literally, with the team making a zero-detail sketch composed of circles and lines that offered a rough overview of a player's progression through the level. From there, the design advanced to a Post-it note phase, where pink notes represented gameplay moments; yellow was for sandbox, free-roaming areas; and blue signified story sequences. This phase was highly fluid, as the team hammered out the game's overall progression.

Then, the team used Studio Max to quickly build out the game before placing it in the actual engine. This phase was also highly dynamic, as the rough pencil outlines became visualized. The team also used this time to define such components of the game as base run speed and how players would actually navigate through environments. The broadstroke approach was designed to be in its roughest form possible, so the team could quickly and easily see how a level would look and work, and make necessary changes as early as possible.

The panel then shifted to the characters within the game, specifically Noble Team, the six-Spartan squad at the center of Halo: Reach. (See first trailer below for an introduction.) A lot of work was put into fleshing out the group of Spartans that players will take up with, as the team wants each of the five Spartans (the player being the sixth) to come across as fully realized characters. They then showed early concept art, which emphasized unique colors as well as defining weapon loadouts. Apparently, more concept art was used in Halo: Reach than all of the other franchise installments combined.

The team emphasized that all of the characters in Noble Team should feel believable and instantly recognizable, without resorting to stereotypes. They also initially planned for Noble Team to comprise seven Spartan soldiers, having drawn much of their inspiration from Akira Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai and its Western remake, The Magnificent Seven.

Next, Bungie discussed how it went about conveying the story to players. The team wanted the story told as if players are truly embedded in Noble Team. To do this, they forwent "meanwhile moments" in favor of having players experience the story as if they were on a need-to-know basis like their Spartan companions. As such, the way Noble Team reacts to events became a central way in which the story is conveyed.

Bungie also said that for the first time, they utilized motion-capture technology, which helped make player animation and subtle body language more believable. Mo-cap also helped in cinematic design, as they began to see the camera as another player that would move in a believable fashion. It also gave the game a captured feel, as opposed to a staged shot. Even facial animation benefited from technology, they said, as the team used a special capturing mechanism to better highlight characters' expressions in-game.

Gameplay prototypes were also briefly discussed during the panel. The speakers ran an early-in-production reel in which gameplay was prototyped. This trailer showed the initial work put into space combat, as well as players' ability to mount and thrash large enemies and cruise around massive, open environments in a Warthog. The team also showed gameplay mechanics that were cut from the final game, including a boat-combat sequence on the high seas.

Quote: "It occurred to us while you all were walking in that this might be the last time we talk about Halo in front of an audience like this."--Marcus Lehto, on Bungie's exit from the Halo franchise.

Takeaway: Halo: Reach looks to be the culmination of everything that Bungie has learned about what makes the franchise the phenomenon that it is. From tried-and-true concepting to new technology, the team has gone out of its way to see that Reach lives up to the reputation of quality that its predecessors have set.

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The many iterations of Infamous

PAX 2010: Sucker Punch Productions talks about the changes made to its super hero action game over a tumultuous three-and-a-half-year development cycle.

 

Who was there: A trio of Sucker Punch staffers were on stage: game designer Darren Bridges, development director Chris Zimmerman, and artist Edward Pun. The panel was moderated by GameSpot's own editor-in-chief Ricardo Torres.

What they talked about: The theme of this panel was just how much one game can change over the course of its development, with the original Infamous being the case study. As the single most jarring piece of evidence, Sucker Punch showed the game's original pitch reel. This was the video that the Bellevue-based developer used to convince Sony to fund a new super hero game after previously spending years working on the Sly Cooper series. Compared to the version of Infamous that shipped in May of last year, the pitch video was unrecognizable: a city populated by cartoon characters, a superhero in tights and a cape, and the work-in-progress title "True Hero."

The game played remarkably different in those early days, as well. "It was like Animal Crossing meets Spider-Man," joked Zimmerman. Far from the gritty anti-hero he would later become, the game’s original protagonist--still not yet named--was something of a ladies' man. There was a romance system being toyed with early on that allowed the player to win over pedestrians with acts of heroism and, if all went well, reap the benefits with a giant kiss from random passers by. A clip of this wooing mechanic revealed that the player could simply run up to a couple, do a few back flips, and instantly break them up by making the girl fall in love with the player.

Another clip from early in development showed that the hero of the game wasn't always going to use the powers of electricity as his preferred method of moving about down and dispensing with criminals. One clip showed the player zipping through the city on a dirt bike, riding on the ledges of a pedestrian bridge like an extreme sports game. In terms of weapons, early versions of the hero were shown using grenade launchers, handguns, and even sharpened bike gear projectiles. With every clip they showed--about a dozen in total--the hero would use more and more electrical powers until they did away with the traditional weaponry altogether.

Though the early combat videos seemed to show a steadily increasing amount of electrical powers as a sign that Sucker Punch at least knew in the back of their minds where they wanted to take the game, the look of the hero didn't follow any sort of recognizable progression. Early versions of the hero ran around in shorts and sunglasses, while later versions were shown wearing a bandanna mask, one with dreadlocks, and a few with glow in the dark shoes and gloves. The chronology of the videos revealed that Sucker Punch wasn't shy about abandoning a new design in order to go back to an old one, as well. The team ultimately settled on the bike messenger version of Cole fans know today, but not without a few iterations showing him with varying lengths of hair before going with the buzz cut seen in the final game.

However, if you believed the Sucker Punch crew's self-deprecating laughs, none of those design growing pains caused as much of a headache as actually naming the character. Joked Zimmerman once more, "I have two children, and naming a video game character was like eight million times harder." Early versions of the hero were code-named everything from "Gear Wolf" to "Chance." Eventually they arrived at the name Cole MacGrath. They happened upon this surname after browsing entire books' worth of Scottish clan names, studying the names for meanings to see which had the best fit for the image of the lightning-powered hero. In the end, the MacGrath clan's association with the word "persistence" won over Zimmerman and his team.

Even with a clearly defined hero, there was still plenty of work left to be done. Once the team decided that Cole would eschew traditional weapons in favor of electrical powers, they spent a good deal of time coming up with ways for Cole to exert those powers. A few of the abilities that were shown but never made it into the game were a stasis field that caught bullets and sent them flying back at enemies; the ability to turn pedestrians into electrically controlled zombies doing your bidding; and the ability to take a cowering citizen and turn them into a giant that would then go off crushing enemies under its feet. A lot of ideas were thrown against the wall, and subsequently a lot of ideas were cut from the final game.

This led into a brief demo of Infamous 2. Even though the team now has a better defined vision for the series after the rough start they experienced with the first game, this sequel has still had its fair share of cut features. A clip was shown displaying some of the ideas that were toyed with for Cole's new powers in Infamous 2, including giant spiky balls of electricity, and the ability to shrink enemies into tiny little miniature street thugs.

Quote: On the subject of making necessary changes, Bridges said, "We try not to be precious with any of our work. We try to be divorced from it. If it's good, it stays, and if it's not we throw it away and try it again."

The Takeaway: Even though it went on to receive critical praise, Infamous endured a long development cycle filled with change and uncertainty. Sucker Punch overcame this and ultimately shipped a successful title, but it was a game that bore few resemblances to the original goal.

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Indie devs share insight on going solo

PAX 2010: A panel of independent developers discuss the pros and cons of starting out on their own and the obstacles they face without a publisher.

 

Who was there: James Silva from Ska Studios, Ron Alpert from Headcase Games, John Krajewski from Strange Loop Games, and Brian Mitsoda from DoubleBear Production.

What they talked about: Before jumping into the meat of the PAX 2010 discussion, the panelists were asked to define what makes an indie game. While they all had their own take on the answer, it seemed that the majority agreed that a game is "indie" when the creators have full control during the entire development cycle.

Krajewski said, "Well technically it's a game that's independent but what does that mean? I think it has to do with the creativity and personality that's put into it that a big studio and a much bigger team and budget can't experiment with and that kind of shows itself in a lot of indie games."

For others, like Alpert, it means that "someone doesn't own you" and you're free to take a lot of risks.

While these risks come with total creative freedom, the downside is that in reality, people need to get paid. They could also use some health insurance, which Silva said he didn't have.

Mitsoda mentioned that senior developers in the mainstream industry do have high-paying jobs, as well as health insurance, so it's a big risk to leave that behind, especially when they have families to support. However, he said there seems to be a much larger fan base for indie games now and that there is more awareness.

But games can't sell themselves. Alpert pointed out that developers may know how to make games, but they can't sell them. The ability to pitch a product is "as important, if not more important," he said. He added that a lot of people who come from development do not know how to sell their product. It's something developers need to learn, he said, but there is no roadmap for that.

The measurement of success is also dependent on the individual. Some believe that success means that a game sells enough to make another. In Krajewski's case, he said that "the experience of making the game is rewarding in itself."

Everyone agreed that the game needs to be good enough to stand out on its own, and that going to conferences and participating in contests is a way to get the word out.

"Embrace the community as much as you possibly can’do things that you aren't comfortable doing," suggested Alpert, who advised that developers need marketing. If they can't afford to get it, he said, then they need to get out of their comfort zone and figure out how to do it.

Krajewski mentioned that he was an AI programmer initially who never saw the business side of things, but suggested that all a person can do is jump in and figure it out along the way.

It helps that the indie community is also incredibly supportive. The panelists suggested to reach out to one another for help. There's no reason to be shy, as they noted everyone is coming from similar backgrounds.

The subject of going with a publisher came up, and Alpert said that they can be useful if they're working with you.

Krajewski recently signed on with a publisher and said that every studio does it differently and it's important to find one that is "willing to work with you and build around what you want to do. It doesn't mean they'll exploit you or change your game."

However, shopping for a publisher can be as hard as getting gamers to notice your project. Silva pointed out that the scene is, "flooded with garbage" and that standing out is difficult as long as people continue to pour money into games that aren't very good.

In order to create a good indie game, a solid team needs to be working on it as well. Krajewski said to go after those who "make games in their spare time for fun. Those are the kinds of people you want on your team."

Much of the recent surge in indie games has to do with the technology that is available. It is much easier for developers now to create a game using today's tools instead of having to code everything from scratch. This also accounts for the increase in clones that are floating around on the market. Mitsoda felt there should be more variety, but Alpert stated that it is a lot easier to sell something that is already familiar to players, and it makes good business sense sometimes when there are mouths to feed.

If given the chance to go back and do things differently, Krajewski stated that it is important to revisit the idea and do a lot of play-testing. One thing he learned is to let the game grow and to find itself in the process.

Quote: "Avatar bejeweled zombie massage game."--James Silva, who combined everything that seems to be popular into one game idea. Mitsoda responded by saying that the idea will likely happen in about a week.

Takeaway: Life as an indie developer is not glamorous and comes with difficult obstacles to overcome. It is possible to be successful with a motivated and hard-working team, as well as a good business sense to get the word out there. If no one knows about the game, it won't sell regardless of how good it may be.

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Kasavin parses press, publisher, developer relations

PAX 2010: Former GameSpot editor-in-chief, Red Alert 3 producer, and 2K Games publishing producer talks about the interaction between the three game-industry factions.

Who was there: Former GameSpot editor-in-chief, EALA line producer, 2K Games publishing producer, and current Super Giant Games creative director Greg Kasavin.

What he talked about: Greg Kasavin gets around. GameSpot's one-time editorial leader, Kasavin left the games journalism beat after 10 years in 2007 to join Electronic Arts' LA studio, first ushering Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars to the finish line and then contributing to C&C: Red Alert 3's development. With EALA's operations in flux following Red Alert 3's lukewarm reviews, Kasavin left the publisher in 2009 to join 2K Games' publishing arm, overseeing teams that included Yager's Spec Ops: The Line.

Just this week, Kasavin moved on to his new role at startup Super Giant Games, which is developing the action role-playing game Bastion. Nonetheless, he took the time to take the 2010 Penny Arcade Expo stage and recount his experiences in a session titled "Memoirs of a Triple Agent." After a brief rundown of his various roles in the game industry up to this point, Kasavin kicked off his talk by noting that there exists a substantial amount of misconception and animosity between the fields of games journalism, development, and publishing that he'd like to shed light on and hopefully dispel.

Kasavin noted that the game journalism field is often chaotic and intense, and throughout the course of his career at GameSpot, he never quite felt like he had things under control. Offering a quick tutorial on how to break into the games press, he said that working for free by playing games, writing up or filming impressions, and building an audience is the best way to gain the attention of the various outlets.

He also hit upon a theme that stretched throughout his presentation,the idea that the best way to achieve success is cultivating a reputation of transparency and accountability while exhibiting an intense work ethic. He also noted that it isn't a particularly good idea to simply drop whatever else is going on in life to launch a gaming journalism career, saying, "if you can't juggle the work, then you're probably not a good fit."

As for industry relations, Kasavin said that the press and developers are often on the best of terms between the three factions. This is on account of the admiration that the press often feels for the people who make their favorite games, and the appreciation developers have for the attention they get from people who write about their games.

However, this bond can be a cause for concern, he said, due to the possibility for a conflict of interest that exists. Kasavin said that he intentionally segmented himself off from the development community while at GameSpot, because it is much more difficult to give an honest assessment of a game when the writer is friends with the developer. He noted that the press' first responsibility is to their audience, not the development community. Ultimately, this is the best tack to pursue, he said, because the audience will appreciate the press' coverage more, while the development community will respect the principles behind it.

Of course, making friends isn't exactly an easy task for the press, because publishers work diligently to restrict writers' access to those who actually make the games. The motivation behind this mentality, Kasavin said, is that publishers often fear what a developer may say that could reflect poorly or be twisted in such a way to reflect poorly on the game in question.

Publishers, he noted, have a love-hate relationship with the press. "They will love you when you give their games 9s and 10s, but in general, the interaction is very tense," he said, emphasizing that publishers often only see this as a business. And because the press' critical opinion can lead to diminished sales, publishers are under a good deal of pressure to manipulate critics into giving the best scores to games.

For the press, the way to approach publisher relations is through a "gentle but firm" attitude, while also standing in a defensible position. It also helps to understand that a publisher's PR department is often under a good deal of stress, as they are often seen as the reason why a game is given high or low marks, regardless of the actual quality of the game.

Kasavin's talk then shifted to his experience working on the development side of things for EALA. He noted that the development scene has long since left its humble beginnings of small teams and small budgets, but the industry as it operates now lacks balance. "People are crunching themselves to death," he said, referencing long work hours without reprieve. He also bemoaned the fact that development teams are getting quite large, and it is very difficult to control the interaction of people on that scale.

But for those who want to break in to game development, he again returned to the concept of initially doing the work for free, taking a game engine such as Unreal or Starcraft II's level editor and simply making levels. He said that building mods and the like is the best way to circumvent the catch-22 scenario of needing experience to land a job in the industry, but needing a job in the industry to get that experience.

"Start doing the work on your own time, and it might work out in the future," he said.

He also noted that the development community often has an antagonistic relationship with the publishing side of the business, a situation that was brought into sharp focus withActivision's Infinity Ward fiasco earlier this year. One reason for this is publishers' decision to enact sweeping layoffs following the completion of a game, a situation that has been all too familiar this summer.

Another reason is the meddlesome nature that many publishers exhibit toward their creative talent. Because development is done on the publisher's dime, they are risk-averse. Also, the importance of every game being a hit means that publishers must spend substantial amounts on marketing. So if a developer asks for more time to up the quality of a game, a publisher must balance the money it's already spent on hyping the game's release versus the additional time it will remain in development.

As he only spent about a year on the publishing side, Kasavin offered only a superficial account of his experience at 2K Games. The difference between being a producer on a development level and a producer on a publishing level, he said, is that the publishing side is often overseeing multiple projects at once. He offered a military analogy to illustrate the ideal publishing producer, saying that they best operate as chopper hovering over a battalion of troops, offering support when needed but largely staying out of the way.

Kasavin closed his presentation by listing the five rules that he has followed and that have helped define his career. First, it is important to empathize with people, and understand why they do what they do. Second, "give a damn" about the results, a point he called the most important. Third, be like Charlie Brown, which is to say, don't act like a hotshot. No one knows everything, and it's important to keep learning.

His fourth and fifth rule he conceded are somewhat paradoxical. "Go work, then go home, and then work," he said, saying that becoming a workaholic is an excellent route to accomplishing goals. On the flip side, he said that it is important to make time to not work, whether that be through exploring another medium such as books or movies, or simply taking a walk.

Quote: "Bastion isn't the first game I've poured my heart into, but it's the first game that you'll be able to tell."

Takeaway: Kasavin's extreme work ethic notwithstanding, the secret to his success within the three factions of the games industry has been fueled by a focus on integrity and a devotion to the medium.

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Shippin' Out Sept. 5-11: Batman, Spider-Man, HAWX 2, R.U.S.E., NHL 11

Labor Day week sees massive wave of releases, including Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Otomedius Excellent, and the latest Dragon Age: Origins expansion.

 

Next Monday is Labor Day, a national holiday in the US and the traditional end of summer. And once the barbecues have cooled and the last cold beverage has been plucked from the cooler, the week will see the start of the end-of-the-year game flood.

Superhero fans will get a double-dose of games on Tuesday, when Warner Bros. releases Batman: The Brave and the Bold (DS, Wii) and Activision ships Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (Xbox 360, DS, PlayStation 3, Wii). Unlike the dark and violent Arkham Asylum, the former title is geared to a younger audience, with a cel-shaded look and co-starring the caped crusader's longtime companion Robin. Meanwhile, the T for Teen-rated Shattered Dimensions will see four different versions of the famous webslinger trade blows and quip webslinger trade blows and quips with villains as he tries to reassemble a broken artifact.

Ubisoft is releasing two titles this week in two different genres. After a slight delay, the feint-focused World War II strategy title R.U.S.E. will arrive on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. Those same platforms and the Wii will also receive HAWX 2, the sequel to the decently reviewed, Tom Clancy-branded air combat simulator.

Hockey fans will fans will also have a pair of games to choose from this week, both from Electronic Arts. NHL 11, the latest annual iteration of EA Sports' rink-and-puck franchise, will ship for the PS3 and X360 on Tuesday. The company is also releasing NHL Slapshot, a more arcade-style hockey game for the Wii.

The PSP will see a major release in the form of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, the newest installmentin the Square Enix'-Disney crossover franchise. The role-playing game lit up Japan's game software sales charts upon its debut in January, selling some 445,000 units within its first week on the market.

Fans of more bizarre Japanese games can sample the Xbox 360-exclusive Otomedius Excellent. Konami's hybrid game combines Gradius-style side-scrolling space warfare and combines it with visuals of exaggeratedly proportioned, attractive anime girls.

For further details on the week's games, visit GameSpot's New Releases page. The full list of downloadable games on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Wii Shop Channel will be revealed later this week. Release dates are based on retailer listings and are subject to change.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 (LABOR DAY)
Photo World DSi--DS--Puzzle--Interworks Unlimited, Inc.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
101-in-1 Sports Megamix--DS--Puzzle--Atlus
Aion: Assault on Balaurea--PC--Role-Playing--NCsoft
Batman: The Brave and the Bold--DS, WII--Action--Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Brunswick Cosmic Bowling--WII--Sports--CokeM Interactive
Dawn of Heroes--DS--Role-Playing--Majesco Games
Dragon Age: Origins - Witch Hunt--PC, PS3, X360--Role-Playing--Electronic Arts
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep--PSP--Role-Playing--Square Enix
Kung Fu Rider--PS3--Action--SCEA
Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy--DS--Adventure--MumboJumbo
NHL 11--PS3, X360--Sports--Electronic Arts
NHL Slapshot--WII--Sports--EA Sports
Otomedius Excellent--X360--Action--Konami
R.U.S.E.--PC, PS3, X360--Strategy--Ubisoft
Saints Row Diamond 2-Pack--X360--Puzzle--THQ
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions--X360, DS, PS3, WII--Action--Activision
The Sims 3: Fast Lane Stuff--MAC, PC--Puzzle--Electronic Arts
Tom Clancy's HAWX 2--PS3, X360--Action--Ubisoft
UFC 2010 Undisputed--PSP--Fighting--THQ

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8
Amnesia: The Dark Descent--PC--Adventure--Frictional Games
Plants vs. Zombies--X360--Strategy--PopCap

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9
No releases scheduled

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
Recettear--PC--Puzzle--Carpe Fulgur
Operation Barbarossa - The Struggle for Russia--PC--Strategy--Matrix Games

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Big in Japan: Monster Hunter spin-off MonHun Nikki

Capcom game dedicated to feline helpers sells a quarter million in chart-topping debut, doubles PSP sales week-over-week.

 

The Monster Hunter franchise is practically the embodiment of "Big in Japan," a fact bolstered by Media Create's Japanese sales figures for the week of August 23-29. The latest entry in the series, a PSP spin-off centered around the off-duty exploits of Monster Hunter's cat-like helpers, topped the charts with more than four times the sales of the second-place title.

MonHun Nikki: Poka Poka Ailu Mura sold 256,076 copies for the week, and helped move plenty of new PSP systems in the process. Sony's handheld sold almost exactly doubled its week-over-week sales total, topping the hardware charts with 55,112 units sold. The PS3 came in second despite selling less than half as many systems as its handheld counterpart, with Nintendo's trifecta of the DSi LL (DSi XL in the West), DSi, and Wii once again coming in third through fifth, respectively.

The PSP's hardware performance was no doubt also bolstered by the other two new release games to hit the top 10. Namco Bandai's Ace Combat: Joint Assault flew as high as second place on the charts, finishing the week with sales of 57,785, while Idea Factory's romantic adventure Hakuouki: Zuisouroku Portable landed in fifth with 24,469 sold. The PSP game arrived almost a year to the day after the original PlayStation 2 Hakuoki: Zuisouroku.

As for enduring sellers, Nintendo's Wii Party again showed its legs, coming in third with 54,673 copies sold, easily outpacing the previous week's best-seller, Another Century's Episode R. The Namco Bandai PS3 game was forced to settle for fourth place with 28,354 games sold. The bottom half of the top 10 also featured a number of familiar faces, from Level Five's Inazuma Eleven 3 DS games to Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Capcom's Sengoku Basara 3.

JAPAN GAME SALES WEEK OF AUGUST 23-29, 2010
Software:
Rank / Title / Publisher / Platform / Unit sales
1. MonHun Nikki: Poka Poka Ailu Mura / Capcom / PSP / 256,076
2. Ace Combat: Joint Assault / Namco Bandai / PSP / 57,785
3. Wii Party / Nintendo / Wii / 54,673
4. Another Century's Episode R / Namco Bandai / PS3 / 28,354
5. Hakuouki: Zuisouroku Portable / Idea Factory / PSP / 24,469
6. Inazuma Eleven 3: Sekai e no Chousen!! Spark and Bomber/ Level Five / DS / 15,889
7. Super Mario Galaxy 2 / Nintendo / Wii / 11,977
8. Art Academy / Nintendo / DS / 10,301
9. Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X / Namco Bandai / PSP / 9,371
10. Sengoku Basara 3 / Capcom / PS3 / 8,834

Hardware:
PSP - 55,112
PS3 - 25,053
DSi LL - 19,010
DSi - 17,057
Wii - 15,989
DS Lite - 3,925
Xbox 360 - 2,665
PS2 - 1,358
PSP Go - 836

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Namco Museum getting Megamix for Wii

Latest edition in retro compilation series includes 18 arcade ports, half-dozen updated versions of Gator Panic, Rally-X, Grobda, and more.

The Namco Museum line of games hasn't added a new virtual wing in over a year, but a new installment in the long-running retro compilation series is on the horizon. Namco Bandai Games America today announced Namco Museum Megamix for the Wii, a collection of 18 straight ports of the company's arcade efforts, with an extra six updated "Remix" versions pulled from its extensive catalog.

The Namco Museum series has been compiling and rereleasing the publisher's arcade classics and obscure older games onto new systems since the days of the original PlayStation. Namco Museum Megamix will be the series' second go-around on Nintendo's console. In 2007, the publisher launched Namco Museum Remix on the system, a collection of nine arcade ports and five remixed games, all of which will also be included in Namco Museum Megamix.

Namco Museum Megamix games
(Asterisk indicates a title that was included on Namco Museum Remix)

Bosconian
*Cutie Q
*Dig Dug
Dig Dug II
Galaga
*Galaga Remix
*Galaxian
*Gaplus
*Gator Panic Remix
Grobda
Grobda Remix
King & Balloon
*Mappy
Motos
New Rally-X
*Pac & Pal
*Pac 'N Roll Remix
Pac-Man
*Pac-Mania
*Pac-Motos
Rally-X
*Rally-X Remix
*Super Pac-Man
*Xevious

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The Conduit 2 insulated until 2011

High Voltage Software's Wii-exclusive first-person shooter sequel delayed, Classic Controller support to be included.

 

Between Call of Duty: Black Ops, GoldenEye 007, and The Conduit 2, this coming holiday season was shaping up to be a busy one for Wii-owning first-person shooter fans. However, Sega is leaving it to one of Activision's titles to claim the system's FPS sales crown this holiday season, as High Voltage Software's The Conduit 2 has been pushed to next year. Sega confirmed for GameSpot today that it "is looking into" a first-quarter 2011 release for the title.

The delay was originally reported by console-specific site Nintendojo, which also reported new control options for the sequel. Gamers who don't enjoy motion controls in their first-person shooters will be able to use both the Classic Controller and Classic Controller Pro with The Conduit 2. High Voltage had previously confirmed support for the Wii MotionPlus peripheral as well.

The single-player mode of The Conduit 2 will pick up the original game's alien invasion storyline, with Sega promising dynamic environments, player customization options, and giant boss enemies. As for multiplayer, Sega will introduce new co-op modes for online play, or offline with up to four players sharing a split-screen. The publisher is also promising "increased multiplayer security" for the game, in light of the cheating that undermined the online play of the original game.

For more on The Conduit 2, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

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Killzone 3 deploys February 22

Sony nails down release date for Guerrilla Games' Move-compatible 3D shooter.

 

At this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, Sony revealed that Killzone 3 would arrive sometime next February. Eager fans of the series won't need to worry about the first-person shooter interfering with Valentine's Day plans, as Sony today announced that Killzone 3 will launch on February 22.

As the name suggests, Killzone 3 will serve as a direct sequel to 2009's critically lauded Killzone 2. In last year's title, the Interplanetary Strategic Alliance took the fight to the Helghan homeworld, where they achieved a measure of success against the Nazi-esque civilization of invaders in the 2004 original.

For the third entry in the series, Amsterdam-based Guerrilla Games will be fleshing out the Helghan homeworld with more enemy types, larger and more diverse environments, and jetpacks. With the futuristic personal conveyance, gamers gain the ability to thrust skyward for a limited period of time, affording them access to heretofore unreachable locations and opening up the possibility of aerial gunfights.

Killzone 3 will also support Sony's PlayStation Move peripheral, as well as stereoscopic 3D displays. For more on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

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Ubisoft annexes Outland for XBLA, PSN

Super Stardust HD developer Housemarque working on downloadable platformer with light-and-dark gameplay inspired by Ikaruga.

Finnish developer Housemarque established itself in the downloadable game market with 2007's PlayStation twin-stick arcade shooter Super Stardust HD. The studio will return to that genre with the forthcoming PlayStation 3-exclusive Dead Nation, but it is also branching out into new territory, as evidenced by today's announcement of Outland.

Set for release on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, Outland is being shown off for the first time at this weekend's Penny Arcade Expo. Published by Ubisoft, the platformer will see players attempt to tilt the balance of light and dark in a world facing its own demise.

Ubisoft said the game is inspired by "epic adventures such as the Prince of Persia series," but the publisher also name-checked Treasure's vertically scrolling arcade shooter Ikaruga as a source of Outland's core gameplay. In Ikaruga, players could swap the color of their ship between black and white at will; each color could absorb bullets of the same shade, allowing skilled players to weave their way through otherwise impenetrable barrages of enemy fire.

The game's soundtrack will be composed by Ari Pulkkinen. While Pulkkinen has previously teamed with Housemarque on Super Stardust HD, he is perhaps better known for his work on last year's cooperative action adventure Trine and the breakout iPhone hit Angry Birds.

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Duke Nukem Forever shipping in 2011 on 360, PS3, PC

PAX 2010: Gearbox president Randy Pitchford confirms that his studio has taken over the long, long, long-awaited shooter, which will be playable on the PAX Prime floor.

 

Yesterday as part of his prolific Twitter stream, 3D Realms president George Broussard posted a cryptic picture of pigs flying. Today, the reason became clear. At PAX Prime in Seattle, Gearbox president Randy Pitchford took the stage to announce that his studio has taken over Duke Nukem Forever, which had been in development at the now-all-but-defunct 3D Realms since 1997.

Speaking to a shocked and enthusiastic crowd, Pitchford said, "We can't let the Duke die, right? The guys at 3D Realms who put their hearts and souls into this, so we wanted to make sure it hits all the platforms. It's coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC in 2011."

Pitchford also told the Wall Street Journal that Gearbox took over the game in late 2009, following the quasi-closure of 3D Realms and tit-for-tat lawsuits between 3D Realms and Duken Nukem Forever publisher Take-Two Interactive. (He also told the paper the game was coming out in 2010, but he said 2011 at PAX today.)

"Clearly the game hadn't been finished at 3D Realms but a lot of content had been created," Pitchford told the Journal. "The approach and investment and process at 3D Realms didn’t quite make it and it cracked at the end. With Gearbox Software we brought all those pieces together. It's the game it was meant to be."

Scott Miller, owner and CEO of 3D Realms, also reflected to the Journal why his studio failed to complete the game. "We were probably too much of a perfectionist about the game. When some other game had some great feature come out, we wanted to match it’We'd been distracted on other games like Prey. It was a combination of those things. We were trying to build a game that was too great."

Duke Nukem Forever isn't the first Duke Nukem game that Gearbox has worked on. In June, court filings in the Take-Two Interactive lawsuit against Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms (incorporated as Apogee Software) revealed that another game featuring the first-person shooter icon was in the works at a "well-known game developer" as early as 2007. That mystery developer was, in fact, Gearbox.

The Duke Nukem-Gearbox connections don't stop there. Before forming Gearbox, Pitchford worked at 3D Realms on an expansion for Duke Nukem 3D for the PC. (The game was rereleased in 2008 as an Xbox Live Arcade title.) "People like George Broussard and the 3D Realms team are the reason I got into gaming," said Pitchford during today's speech.

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Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath targeted at PS3

Just Add Water remake of original studio's 2005 Xbox-exclusive swan song to feature Move support, high-definition graphics.

 

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath launched on the original Xbox in January of 2005, and while the game received plenty of critical praise, it garnered little attention from consumers. A planned PlayStation 2 port of the game never materialized, but Sony loyalists will finally get a chance to check out the last original Oddworld Inhabitants title. Just Add Water today announced it will launch a downloadable remake of the game for the PlayStation 3 next Easter.

The biggest change for the remake will be the addition of 720p high-definition graphics. The PS3 edition of Stranger's Wrath will also incorporate PlayStation Move support, visual bells and whistles like normal mapping and self-shadowing, and "re-mastered dialogue." The technical quality of the voice samples in the original game was a point of criticism in GameSpot's original review for the title.

Strangers Wrath is the first Oddworld project from the UK-based developer, but it won't be the last. In July, the studio announced that it would be working on multiple Oddworld projects for multiple platforms.

The Oddworld series was first launched in 1997 and is best known for its juvenile sense of humor, socially conscious themes, and platforming gameplay. Two games were released on the PlayStation, and in 2000, the studio signed a deal with Microsoft to publish titles exclusively for the Xbox. Oddworld produced the 3D platformer Munch's Oddysee as a launch title, but the partnership with the console maker dissolved before Stranger's Wrath was finished. Electronic Arts picked the game up in 2004 as part of its EA Partners program and launched it the next year, but Oddworld Inhabitants confirmed its withdrawal from game development soon thereafter.

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Telltale dealing Poker Night at The Inventory

Iconic characters from Team Fortress 2, Sam and Max, Strong Bad, Penny Arcade go all-in for publisher's latest PC card game.

In a recent interview, Valve Software's Gabe Newell promised three big surprises for gamers in the next 12 months. One such surprise could have been revealed today, as Telltale Games announced a company crossover poker game costarring the Heavy character from Valve's Team Fortress 2.

Set for release on the PC and Mac this fall, Poker Night at The Inventory brings The Heavy along with Max (Sam and Max), Tycho (Penny Arcade), and Strong Bad (Homestar Runner), for a card game that examines iconic gaming characters in a different context.

"We've had the idea for some time of exploring the idea of what video characters do when they're not 'on the clock' in the games we play," Telltale CEO Dan Connors said in announcing the game. "We pitched the idea to friends in the industry and it really resonated. We all had a great time imagining what these guys would banter about while slinging cards--from there, Poker Night at The Inventory was born."

Touting the project as "The Citizen Kane of poker games," Telltale said Poker Night at The Inventory will do more than just deal cards and take bets. The game will also include a dynamic dialogue system and fully voiced characters that taunt each other, have their own "tells," and adapt to each game situation as it plays out.

Although Telltale is best known for its episodic adventure games, Poker Night at The Inventory is not the first hand of cards it has dealt. The first title developed by the company was 2005's Telltale Texas Hold 'Em, a card game that sought to combine poker acumen with Telltale's distinctive sense of humor.

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Goldeneye 007 gets retailer-exclusive game modes, T-shirt

GameStop and Best Buy customers will be the only players to get invisibility and tag modes this year; Wal-Mart preorders receive Oddjob-themed "Cheater" apparel.

 

Last month, Activision announced a Goldeneye 007 bundle with a gilded Classic Controller to promote its upcoming remake of the seminal Nintendo 64 first-person shooter. The publisher has picked up its promotional activities today, revealing a trio of retailer-exclusive enticements for players to pick the game up when it arrives November 16.

Gamers who pick up the title at GameStop or Best Buy can receive exclusive codes to unlock the game's invisibility and tag split-screen multiplayer modes, respectively. The invisibility mode (available with preorder) gives players the ability to become invisible for a limited amount of time to sneak up on opponents, while the tag mode makes whoever is "it" unable to score any kills until he or she touches another player.

The modes are said to be exclusive until December 31, 2010, suggesting they will become available to other players after that date. Both the GameStop and Best Buy codes will need to be authenticated online through the Wii before the modes are unlocked, an Activision representative told GameSpot.

The third retailer-specific incentive is a T-shirt offer available to those who reserve the game from Wal-Mart's Web site or purchase it from one of the chain's brick-and-mortar locations at launch. The shirt features the distinctive silhouette of strongman Oddjob's lethal bowler hat, along with the caption "Cheater." Playing as Oddjob in the N64 GoldenEye was frequently frowned upon by players, as his shorter stature made for a harder target and gave him a distinct advantage in matches.

For more on Goldeneye, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

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Red Dead redeems Take-Two earnings, ships 6.9M

Publisher more than triples quarterly sales to $354.1 million; L.A. Noire officially delayed to first half of next year.

 

Take-Two is riding a little higher in the saddle thanks to the success of Red Dead Redemption. Today the publisher released "significantly better than expected" financial results for the quarter ended July 31, saying the critically acclaimed open-world Western had sold-in 6.9 million copies to retailers worldwide.

Company-wide, revenues for the quarter totaled $354.1 million, more than triple the $94.9 million in sales Take-Two posted for the same quarter the previous year. It also posted a net profit for the quarter of $5.9 million, a dramatic improvement from the $56.5 million loss it chalked up for the same period of 2009.

The numbers were so positive that Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick believes the current fiscal year will mark the first in almost a decade that Take-Two has posted a full fiscal year profit without the benefit of a major Grand Theft Auto release. To accomplish that goal, the company still has a ways to go before the October 31 end of its fiscal year. Through the first nine months of the fiscal year, Take-Two is still running a net loss of $11.2 million. Despite that, the company is at least heading in the right direction; at the same point of its last fiscal year, Take-Two was running a net loss of $116.9 million.

Beyond Red Dead Redemption, Take-Two said sales were led by Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, Grand Theft Auto IV, NBA 2K10, and Borderlands. Digital distribution is also a focal point for the company, as Feder said that the publisher has multiple new Borderlands and BioShock 2 add-ons in development, in addition to the already announced slate of Red Dead Redemption content.

The news of Red Dead Redemption's sales success wasn't surprising, but neither was the news of a delay for Rockstar's L.A. Noire. Originally announced in 2005, L.A. Noire is now expected to see release sometime in the first half of calendar 2011.

While the silence surrounding the Team Bondi-developed project caused some to assume it wouldn't be making its original October deadline, word of L.A. Noire's delay first emerged from analysts and retailers last week. Take-Two CEO Ben Feder said in a postearnings conference call with analysts that the company showed the game off to a great reception at a recent GameStop manager's convention and expressed confidence that the extra time will result in another critical and commercial hit for the company.

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Gran Turismo 5, Killzone 3 on Sony's TGS slate

3D-enabled hyperrealistic racer, sci-fi shooter join God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Little Big Planet 2, and a PlayStation Move smorgasbord at Japan's biggest gaming expo.

 

With the 2010 Tokyo Game Show just two weeks away, the major game publishers are starting to tout which titles they will be showing off at the massive expo. More than 180,000 people are expected to turn up at the Makahuri Messe just outside Japan's largest city, and one company--Sony--is intent on displaying its latest and (it hopes) greatest game releases to the throngs of attendees.

Front and center will be the PlayStation Move, Sony's camera and LED-controller-based motion control system. There will be nearly 20 playable Move-compatible games on the show floor, including Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, Resident Evil 5: Alternative Edition, and Little Big Planet 2.

Two Move titles, Killzone 3 and Power Smash 4, will also be playable with 3D graphics. As shown at Sony's press briefing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Sony is aggressively pushing its 3D titles, including the Sly Cooper Collection, MotorStorm 3, and the long, long, long-awaited Gran Turismo 5--due out worldwide November 2.

Last but not least, Sony will be displaying its latest wares for the PSP, which has seen its sales fall to quintuple digits in the US. Leading the charge will be Sony's God of War: Ghost of Sparta, along with Konami's Winning Eleven Soccer 2011 and Sega's PSP Yakuza game, tentatively titled Yakuza Panther Shin Akira.

A full list of games appearing on Sony's platforms at the Tokyo Game Show is below, and GameSpot will be on hand at the event, which runs from September 16 to 19.

PLAYSTATION MOVE TITLES

Capcom
Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition

Electronic Arts
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11

Namco Bandai Games
Big 3 Gun Shooting

Sega
Power Smash 4

Sony Computer Entertainment
Little Big Planet 2
Killzone 3
Heavy Rain
Hasurakingu
Beat Sketch!
City rupture
EyePets
Champion Sports
Flee! Flee! Bowling
Echochrome 2
Move in Party
I'll Work! Ape Escape
Superstar TV
Studio Shooting
BLOQ Tsumiki
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs 4
Heroes on the Move (tentative)

3D TITLES
Sony Computer Entertainment
Gran Turismo 5
MotorStorm 3 (tentative)
Killzone 3
Sly Cooper Collection
Hasurakingu

PS MOVE TITLES IN 3D

Sega
Power Smash 4

Sony Computer Entertainment
Killzone 3
EyePets
BLOQ Tsumiki
Hasurakingu

PSP TITLES
Capcom
3rd Monster

Konami Digital Entertainment
Winning Eleven 2011

Level 5
Cardboard Troopers

Namco Bandai
God Eater Burst
Three Tales of The World: Radiant Mythology

Square Enix
Lord of Arkana
The 3rd Birthday
Wheel of Fortune Tactics
Yakuza Panther Shin Akira
Phantasy Star 2 Infinity
God of War: Ghost of Sparta
Patapon 3 (tentative)

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Xbox 360, PC in for Bloody Good Time

Ubisoft readying downloadable multiplayer shooter from developer of The Ship; game built on Valve's Source engine set for release this fall.

Upon its maiden voyage, Outerlight's 2007 debut The Ship received critical praise for its unique take on multiplayer shooters, where each person on a cruise ship has to hunt a specific passenger while avoiding his or her own stalker. The developer's long-awaited follow-up will soon see the light of day, as Ubisoft today announced that it will release Outerlight's Bloody Good Time for Xbox Live Arcade and Steam this fall.

Billed as a new intellectual property, Bloody Good Time takes place on a variety of movie sets, with environments like a beach house or a Las Vegas hotel. The game will see up to eight players slaughtering each other in those locales with traditional weapons (guns) and more unique fare (an exploding remote-controlled rodent). The players themselves will also stand out, with Ubisoft describing them as B-movie archetypes like "the bikini beach babe, the creepy clown, and the super jock."

Like The Ship, Bloody Good Time will run on Valve's Source engine. Source has powered a number of successful interpretations of the first-person shooter genre, including Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Counter-Strike: Source.

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GTA: Chinatown Wars raging on iPad Sept. 9

Rockstar bringing portable overhead actioner to Apple's tablet with HD makeover next week for $10.

 

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars certainly achieved substantial critical success upon its initial release for the DS in March 2009. However, Rockstar Games' overhead action adventure proved not to be a commercial juggernaut like its console cousins, with Nintendo calling sales of the game "frustrating." Since then, Rockstar has extended the game's reach to the PSP and iPhone, and now the publisher is adding one more platform to the mix, Apple's iPad.

In a post to its blog this week, Rockstar confirmed that an iPad-specific version of GTA: Chinatown Wars will arrive on Apple's App Store September 9. Like the iPhone version, Chinatown Wars for the iPad will carry a $9.99 price tag.

However, just because it's the same price doesn't mean Rockstar hasn't made some improvements to the iPad game. In addition to the tweaks made to the iPhone version, such as a multi-touch user interface and adjusted difficulty levels, the iPad version has been given an HD makeover, bringing with it crisper, high-definition graphics.

Chinatown Wars for Apple's platforms follows the pursuits of Huang Lee, an up-and-coming ruffian in Liberty City's Triad crime syndicate who seeks to uncover the truth behind the suspicious death of his father. As is suitable to the game's M-for-Mature rating, gamers can expect to engage in a variety of illicit activities, ranging from drug peddling to carjacking to armed mayhem.

For an idea of what to expect from Chinatown Wars on the iPad, check out GameSpot's review of the iPhone version.

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Capcom wants Resident Evil 6 ASAP

Managing director Keiji Inafune tells Spanish gaming site the publisher is working to get survival horror sequel to market "lo antes possible," will tailor next Devil May Cry for Western audiences.

 

For Resident Evil 5, Capcom upped the speed of the series' zombie-like hordes. For Resident Evil 6, the publisher might be upping its own pace to match that of the series' maddened adversaries.

Speaking with Spanish gaming site 3D Juegos, Capcom managing director Keiji Inafune addressed current plans for a number of its familiar franchises. According to a GameSpot translation, when asked about Resident Evil 6, Inafune said Capcom wants to release the game as soon as possible in light of Resident Evil 5's great success. Though the developer quickly moved on to other subjects, he did tease that news about the next installment in the survival horror series could arrive soon.

Inafune also talked about the possibility for a Devil May Cry 5. He said that when development on the game starts, it will probably be designed to appeal more to Western audiences. While the series has done well in Japan, Inafune said that Devil May Cry franchise sales in North America and Europe haven't been especially high.

As for a new Onimusha game, Inafune's response no doubt included more laughter than fans of the series would have liked. The developer said that nobody ever asks him about the series except the Spanish gaming press. He then jokingly suggested that if there is a next episode in the series, it would surely be set in Spain.

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