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  • Kojima: Snake’s grey hair “due to lighting effect”

    September 5, 2012 3:57AM PDT

    Following fan reaction to Snake’s grey hair in the Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes PAX demo, director Hideo Kojima clarifies it is due to a lighting effect.

    Konami’s Metal Gear franchise is firing on all cylinders at the moment. Developer Platinum Games’ Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance isn’t due out until February 2013, but that didn’t stop publisher Konami announcing another game in the series, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes, at PAX last week.

    As part of the announcement, it was confirmed that Naked Snake would be returning as the game’s protagonist. The fan reaction, at least on Twitter, was that Snake’s grey hair made him look rather old. On his English Twitter feed, director Hideo Kojima responded: “Saw many tweet about Snake in grey hair after taking off the goggle. This is due to the rim-lighting.” He also posted an image of Snake with a darker-looking beard than the one featured in the video.

    Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is a more open-world take on the series’ trademark stealth-action. The game is set for release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, though no release date has been confirmed at this stage.

  • Ubisoft drops old DRM system

    September 5, 2012 4:06AM PDT

    Ubisoft’s worldwide director for online games formally announces the company has dropped old digital rights management system; new policy has been in effect since June 2011.

    Ubisoft’s digital rights management policy has been a source of many headlines over the last few years. Most of them have been negative; from PC gamers affected by crippling demand upon the launch of Assassin’s Creed II, to a server transition resulting in legitimate buyers of Splinter Cell Conviction and Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 being unable to play their games.

    Gamers are now hopefully going to have a smoother ride of things, as Ubisoft has announced that it is ditching its old DRM system. Ubisoft’s worldwide director for online games, Stephanie Perlotti, explained to website Rock Paper Shotgun that the old system has been ditched.

    “We have listened to feedback, and since June last year our policy for all of PC games is that we only require a one-time online activation when you first install the game, and from then you are free to play the game offline,” she explained. “And you will be able to activate the game on as many machines as you want.”

    Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot recently stated that the company was seeing between a 93 and 95 per cent piracy rate on its PC games.

  • Xbox Singapore announces Halo 4 preorder plans and XFRIENDS contest

    Microsoft Singapore has announced that it will start taking preorders for Halo 4 in Singapore starting September 26. However, StarHub subscribers will be able to preorder the limited editions of the game from September 18 to September 25.

    The versions up for order are the Halo 4 Limited Edition console which costs S$599 ($480), the Halo 4 limited edition version of the game which costs S$99 ($79), and the standard version of the title which costs S$69 ($55). Customers who preorder the game will get a discount for buying the Halo 4 soundtrack from October 22 until November 6.

    Microsoft Xbox Singapore will be hosting a Halo 4 Ultimate Deathmatch contest during the launch of the game at Funan Digitalife mall on November 6. Here, contestants will fight each other in Halo 4 in a specially-created booth arena and get the longest amount of winning streaks to determine the champion.

    The company also announced the XFRIENDS regional tournament. The contest allows players to compete with each other online in a series of games ranging from Tekken Tag Tournament 2 to Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The winner will get $10,000 in cash and a 24-karat gold-plated Xbox 360. More information will be revealed on September 10 on the official website.

  • Capcom investigating stolen copies of Resident Evil 6

    Capcom has confirmed that copies of Resident Evil 6, sold in Poland nearly a month ahead of the game’s launch, were stolen. Speaking to Eurogamer, a company representative explained that it is presently looking into the matter, which involved only small number of units.

    “Capcom is currently undertaking a thorough investigation into reports that Resident Evil 6 is being sold ahead of its official October 2 release date,” Capcom told the site. “At this time, all we can add is that it would appear this unfortunate incident is limited to a small quantity of stolen copies of the German USK PlayStation 3 version of the game.”

    Reports of Resident Evil 6 being sold in Polish shops surfaced late last week. It is not clear how many units of the game are in the wild. One user took to eBay to unload the game, with a reported starting bid of about $600. That listing is no longer available.

    Resident Evil 6 will deploy on October 2, more than a month ahead of its original November 20 release date. It is currently planned for release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

    For more on Resident Evil 6, check out GameSpot’s latest preview.

  • EA expecting ‘golden age’ of gaming soon

    The gaming industry today is flooded with newness. New platforms, new business models, and new distribution channels are emerging left and right. Speaking to GamesIndustry International, EA Labels boss Frank Gibeau described these advancements as “chaos,” but that has not kept him from envisioning a bright future for the industry.

    “I’ve been in the industry for a fair bit of time, and looking at the chaos that people perceive is happening out there right now, frankly, from my perspective, the underlying opportunities are so huge that we’re about to embark on a whole new golden age of gaming,” Gibeau said.

    The EA executive pointed to the rapidly growing size of the industry as a positive point. He said ten years ago, the size of the industry was measured at 200 million gamers. Now, he claims, the industry’s size totals one billion gamers, and is heading towards doubling that figure.

    “From this chaos, you’re going to get a new order, a new approach, that’s going to be a very vibrant time for games,” he said. “Yes, there’s chaos right now, but a golden age is coming.”

  • Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 to be reimagined into new IP

    Gearbox Software president Randy Pitchford has announced the upcoming Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 will shed its Brothers in Arms legacy to be reimagined into an all-new IP.

    Speaking at a PAX Prime panel in Seattle this week, (and as originally reported by Polygon), Pitchford says the original idea for the upcoming game evolved away from the core of the Brothers in Arms franchise and needed to be “unshackled” from the brand.

    Pitchford confirmed the upcoming title will be an all-new IP, revealing more details about the new game will be made public at Gearbox’s upcoming community day in Dallas, Texas on September 15.

    Earlier this year, Gearbox announced the release of Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 would be delayed to 2013. At the time, Pitchford said development on the game had evolved and that gamers would be “surprised by what they see.”

    Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 was to be the first new instalment in the Brothers in Arms franchise since 2008’s well-received Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. The game was set to take place during World War II following a band of four soldiers chasing Hitler.

  • Black Mesa Half-Life mod launching September 14

    The community behind the development of Half-Life mod Black Mesa (formerly Black Mesa: Source) has announced the first part of the game will finally be released on September 14 this year.

    The mod’s official website has been updated with a countdown timer, and Black Mesa project leader Carlos Montero posted on the site’s forums confirming the game’s official release.

    “On September 14th you will see the first release of Black Mesa,” Montero said in his post. “This will include our re-envisioning of Half-Life all the way up to Lambda Core. We believe this is a great way to provide a complete-feeling 8-10 hour experience with a solid ending, make our fans happy and help us make the best overall game possible.”

    A remake of Valve’s original 1998 title Half-Life using the Source Engine, Black Mesa promises a fully reconstructed Half-Life universe built from the ground up with new models, maps, soundtrack, voice acting, and textures. The remake will include the original game’s protagonists, Gordon Freeman, as well as the original cast of characters and environments.

    The mod project was launched in 2004 following fan disappointment over Valve’s official Half-Life remake, Half-Life: Source. According to the project’s site, Black Mesa will not require Half-Life: Source to play–just a copy of any Source engine game installed on Steam.

    The Black Mesa soundtrack is now available to download via the project’s site.

  • Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII announced

    Square Enix announced a new entry in the Final Fantasy XIII series during today’s Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary presentation in the Shibuya Hikarie building in Tokyo, Japan.

    The role-playing game is called Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and will be the final entry in the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy. The game takes place within the world of Novus Partus, which contains four large islands and the game will chronicle the last thirteen days of the game’s universe.

    Players control Lightning as she finds a way to save the worlds from extinction. Players can customize Lightning’s attire, including her armor and weapons, but there is no information on whether she can equip weapons other than shields and swords of various sizes. The game will still retain the Paradigm Shift combat system, except that players can move Lightning around the battlefield and swap weapons instantaneously.

    Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Motomu Toriyama also announced a Twitter and Facebook account for the game. Players can give their feedback and thoughts on past titles so that the design team may implement them during the game’s development.

    Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will be out in 2013 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The first batch of art from the game can be seen below.

  • Battlefield producer joins Angry Birds dev

    August 31, 2012 7:37AM PDT

    DICE senior producer Patrick Liu exits company to join Rovio’s Stockholm office as creative director.

    Another high-level developer has left DICE. General manager at Rovio Stockholm Oskar Burman announced through Twitter that Patrick Liu has come aboard the Angry Birds studio, where he will serve as creative director.

    According to his LinkedIn profile, Liu served as a producer at DICE for more than five years. During his tenure at the Electronic Arts-owned company, he worked on Battlefield: Bad Company, Battlefield 1943, Medal of Honor’s multiplayer component, and Battlefield 3.

    Liu’s departure from DICE marks the second such high-profile exit in as many months. Former lead designer David Goldfarb jumped ship in July. He has since joined Starbreeze Studios.

    It is not clear what Liu will be working on at Rovio. The company recently launched its Angry Birds follow-up, Amazing Alex, and is currently teasing a game involving “Bad Piggies.”

  • NBA Live 13 hitting XBLA, PSN for $20?

    If a new report proves accurate, EA Sports’ NBA Live 13 will arrive this October through Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network as a $20 download. The report comes from an interview IRBGamer held with an EA Sports representative this week at the GameStop managers’ conference in San Antonio, Texas.

    The EA Sports employee reportedly acknowledged that it is “a bit risky” to not run the game as a boxed product, but that hasn’t kept the publisher from pursuing a digital release.

    An EA Sports representative told GameSpot, “We don’t have a comment on the rumor or speculation. However, the NBA LIVE development team continues to work hard on the game and we will be sharing more details soon.”

    A digital-only release of NBA Live 13 does not come as a total surprise. EA posted biggest-ever digital revenue of $1.2 billion during its latest financial period, with CEO John Riccitiello saying it will “break away from the pack” in the year ahead with new digital capabilities that he claims competitors cannot match.

    EA Sports’ NBA Live franchise has been dormant since NBA Live 10. A 2011 version was planned as the first to release under the NBA Elite brand, but that game, and the Elite name, were scuttled.