The Secret World Early Access Begins

If you’ve been looking forward to playing Funcom’s latest MMO, The Secret World, you don’t have to wait for the official July 3 launch. Pre-ordering the game, even now, gets you into the Early Access period, which just started up today and runs until launch.

Funcom operates two other MMOs, Anarchy Online and Age of Conan. It also just announced a new MMO project in conjunction with LEGO Group.

Instead of an orc and elf-filled fantasy setting, The Secret World bases its action in numerous real world locations. There’ll still be magic, ghosts, demons and monsters, but there’ll also be assault rifles, pistols and shotguns, which seems promising. You can check out our impressions of a recent beta test, and look for review coverage in the near future.

Source : ign[dot]com

E3 2012: Chasing Aurora Coming to Wii U

Indie developer Broken Rules announced today that the official launch platform for its game, Chasing Aurora, will be the Wii U eShop. The game is set to be released in late 2012.

Chasing Aurora is a 2D aerial action game set in the alps. This open world experience will feature physics-based flight and air combat. It will also come with four different multiplayer modes.

Audrey Drake is an Associate Editor of IGN and a proud member of the IGN Nintendo team. She is also a lifelong gamer, a frequent banisher of evil and a wielder of various legendary blades. You can follow her zany exploits on her IGN blog and Twitter. Game on!

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/04/e3-2012-chasing-aurora-coming-to-wii-u

How Steven Spielberg Inspired Today's Top Shooters

Last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the single biggest entertainment launch of all time, pulling in more than $400 million on its first day.

The Call of Duty Elite service has over 10 million registered users and two million annual premium members. This year’s iteration, Call of Duty: Black Ops II has already notched up day one pre-orders 30 percent higher than last year, and ten times higher than 2010’s Black Ops game.

It’s amazing to think that all of this came about due to an idea by Steven Spielberg, back in 1997. It was Spielberg who insisted that his newly hatched development company, Dreamworks Interactive, work on a realistic military game set in World War II, even though many of the game developers working for him felt it was a bad idea. They wanted to go in a more fantasy direction, viewing WWII as old-fashioned and a poor setting for a game

Spielberg had his way and the game that emerged, in 1999, was Medal of Honor, published by Electronic Arts. It was a smash hit and a major critical success (IGN gave it a 9.3). It led directly to the formation of Infinity Ward in 2002. That company’s first game was Call of Duty, an attempt by Activision to get into the military shooter market being dominated by its bitter rival EA. Many of the developers who worked on Call of Duty had previously worked on Medal of Honor, and had honed their skills working according to Spielberg’s inspiration.

A new book, Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood, details how Spielberg took a very hands-on approach to game development, most especially in Medal of Honor, which became a pet project.

Author Jamie Russell writes, “Spielberg, who was then in post-production on Saving Private Ryan came into the Dreamworks Interactive offices and outlined his idea. He saw Saving Private Ryan as an educational experience as much as an entertainment property...He’d watched his teenage son and his friends play Goldeneye on Nintendo 64. Could Dreamworks build a World War II shooter, he wondered, that would let them learn about the conflict through playing?”

But the game developers weren’t convinced. Producer Peter Hirschmann recalls, “People were really dubious. They said, ‘World War II is old, it’s got cobwebs on it. People want ray-guns, hell-spawn and laser rifles’. The idea of doing something with historical relevance set in a low-tech game environment was a challenging sell."

Spielberg insisted on historical accuracy and brought in military advisers and history buffs, now common practice among game developers. Medal of Honor’s one major discrepancy was its lack of blood and gore, pulled from the game prior to release due to controversy over game violence in the wake of the Columbine shootings.

The game was a major hit, but Spielberg’s connection to gaming would fade. Dreamworks Interactive was sold to EA along with the Medal of Honor brand. Throughout the next ten years, multiple Medal of Honor games would be released, but eventually the public tired of WWII shooters. The series would be eclipsed by its rival Call of Duty, itself created from the Medal of Honor team, which began in WWII but has since addressed multiple combat zones including, with the next game, the near future.

Russell writes, “The continuing problem for the games industry is that while every filmmaker thinks they can build a game, very few understand the unique challenges of game design. To date, the Medal of Honor series remains Spielberg’s greatest contribution to interactive entertainment.”

But the story isn’t over yet. Medal of Honor is back, with this year’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter.  These shooters, rooted in real-life conflicts, were inspired by Spielberg’s vision and his insistence that shooting games could address real life combat on an epic scale.

Generation Xbox: How Video Games Invaded Hollywood by Jamie Russell is on sale now.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/30/how-steven-spielberg-inspired-todays-top-shooters

Best Games Quotes of the Week - May 19

This week, Diablo III's launch happened, and so we've cordoned off a special area to hold the howls of outrage and the humble apologies for that particular moment of historic unfortunateness.

Meanwhile, it's been a good week for games news with our old friend the Infinity Ward-Activision row exploding onto the scene, always a busy corner for those who enjoy vehemence and back-biting among industry types.

And then there's just a bunch of cool and crazy, including Tera's sexual censorship, first looks at Unreal Engine 4, The Last of Us just being great, how Batman breaks legs, the greatest living-room console-set-up ever and, of course Peter Molyneux.

You can look back at recent Quotes features by Googling 'Best Quotes IGN' but a good place to start is last week's column. I am, as always, at your service. Join me on Twitter to discuss the games business, or just weigh in on Comments. Best one gets posted in next week's column.

I’m Pedobear

Credit: Eurogamer

“If you look at the forums and how users usually react to this race [the Elin], it's either people offended by the way they look, or it's people trolling, saying, hey, I'm "pedobear". This is the kind of behaviour we want to avoid at all costs.”

Frogster's Lucile Le Merle on how the Elin were censored for the West, in Tera.

Eurogamer

Sculpt the Lighting

“[Previously] you would have to manually sculpt the lighting in every section of every level. The number of man-years that required was astounding.”

Cliff Bleszinski talks about Unreal Engine 4

Wired

Show me the Cables

“If you're going to impress me show me the cables and switch box!”

Top Reddit comment on a photo of an awesome historic console set-up, doing the rounds this week.

The Smiling Catfish

Game Physically

“It’s a very demanding game physically. Some of the top players are playing at 300, 400 actions per minute.”

Kevin Knocke, e-sports broadcaster on IPL on StarCraft 2’s superstars.

IGN START

The Last of Us

"It’s a game about the human condition. 20 years after a plague has decimated our society, how does man survive? When all moral and ethical codes have been stripped, who do you trust? After watching your friends and loved ones pass, do you think you could still love? What is life without hope? We’re trying to make you feel these dilemmas while you’re playing The Last of Us."

The Last of Us game director Bruce Straley.

IGN

Fake Fumigation

“[Thomas] Fenady testified that he expressed concern about the project but was told, "Don't worry about the repercussions." Fenady found an outside company, InGuardians, who also balked at the task because of "legal hurdles." Stymied, Fenady approached the company's Facilities Department and talked about staging a "fake fumigation" and a "mock fire drill" in order to get West and Zampella away from their computers long enough to copy files on their computers.”

Inside scoop on Activision’s clandestine attempts to fire Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vincent Zampella.

LA Times

A Small Portion

"Although it is a meaningful payment, it is only a small portion of what we are seeking in litigation. It is outrageous that they made us wait, they obviously knew they owed the money and this just shows that they breached the contract."

Bruce Isaacs, attorney for the Infinity Ward Employee Group on Activision’s decision to stump up some back-payments on royalties.

The Verge

Rivals Resident Evil

"We got to that million-dollar figure by cutting as much as we could, because we're small. We would love to be able to make this game for $250,000, but that's not a reality. If you're making a puzzle platformer with two or three guys in a room, that's a different story. We're trying to make a game that rivals Resident Evil or the original Metal Gear Solid. We're trying to do that in half the time, with a small team, and a fraction of those budgets."

Former Halo producer Ryan Payton on iOS stealth game Republique's Kickstarter success.

Edge

Opposed to Blocked Used Games

“For the record, I'm totally opposed to blocking used games. I think it's great for the consumer that they can buy those. We have a customer that buys our console late in the cycle, pays less, is looking for value priced games, and I think it would be anti-consumer for us to do that.”

Sony’s Jack Tretton, quoted by analyst Michael Pachter.

GameTrailers

Here and Elsewhere

“We've been getting several questions, here and elsewhere about the future of on-disc DLC. We would like to assure you that we have been listening to your comments and as such have begun the process of re-evaluating how such additional game content is delivered in the future.”

Capcom’s Christian Svensson is looking at new places to stick his DLC.

Capcom Unity

New Consoles

“The new consoles from Microsoft and Sony will allow more integration of item-based transactions within games, including a free-to-play option similar to the model used in social and mobile games. We believe the F2P model on consoles...could drive a higher level of profitability per franchise.”

Analyst Colin Sebastian is ready for console free-to-play.

VG247

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/19/best-games-quotes-of-the-week-may-19

Kapow! DC: All Access Before Watchmen Panel

A panel of DC executives admitted they are suffering from anxiety in the run up to the launch of Before Watchmen at a DC All Access panel at Kapow! Comic Con in London today.

“To say we’re excited would be an understatement,” admitted Senior VP of Sales at DC Entertainment Bob Wayne, “But, to say we’re nervous would also be an understatement! I think we can let the product speak for itself, and hopefully everybody will enjoy what we’ve got.”

“We went to a lot of trouble to assemble the talent, to make sure we had the right people working on it,” explained Dan DiDidio co-publisher of DC, “Honestly, I can say this for every one of the creatives involved, that they’re doing some of the best work of their careers. They know how important this project is, and they know how much scrutiny it’s going to come under.”

They revealed several variant covers at the panel at the London Business Design Centre including an awesome S&M inspired Ozymandias cover, and a psychedelic Josh Middleton variant for Silk Spectre, the Before Watchmen arc that both DiDio and Wayne were very enthusiastic about.  “Silk Spectre is my personal favourite,” said Dan, “Darwyn Cooke is working with Amanda Conner on this one, and he really wanted to capture the spirit of Silk Spectre in a specific period of time. Darwyn wrote the basic plot and Amanda ran with it from there.”

“This is one of the quietest of the stories, but also one of the most heartfelt. It’s a coming of age story, with Silk Spectre discovering herself, and separating herself from her mother.”

The Rorschach series is fittingly being described as “the most violent series” of Before Watchmen with Brian Azzarello and artist Lee Bermejo recreating Time Square of the 1970s for the very first issue of the arc. “It’s pretty intense,” stressed DiDio, “as someone who lived in New York in that era, it’s as gritty as I remember.”

The panel went on to discuss the Curse of the Corsair, the pirate-themed companion piece that will preface each issue of the book run, promising 34 different cliff-hangers for each issue. “It captures the style and tone and the shifts in nature of the stories that are taking part in the main features. We hope it recreates that same feel that Tales of the Black Freighter did in conjuction with the original Watchmen.” said Wayne. “It’s a swashbuckling adventure that just gets darker and darker as the series goes on,” added DiDio.

The panel were keen to deflect questions about Alan Moore's much-publicised negativity towards the project at the start of the Q&A session, but were candid when it came to discussing how much freedom they had given all the creatives when it came to crafting a new backstory for the series.

“When we sat down with all the writers, everyone was very beholding to the source material. They all had a copy of Watchmen in front of them that was operating as their ‘bible’ for the creative process,” DiDio said, “But, the first thing we said everybody should be able to be their own story-teller. Everybody has a lot of freedom in how they approach the material, how the writing is, how the drawing will look, and they all approached it very differently.”

Editor Will Dennis reiterated, “We always said from very early on, we want to let these guys do what they do best. You don’t hire these guys to do what they do so well and make them do something else.”

You’ll be able to find out how successful they’ve been in bringing the classic Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons series back to life when the first issue drops in June. Be sure to check out our first impressions of Before Watchmen here.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/19/kapow-dc-all-access-before-watchmen-panel

Diablo 3 Error Message Blocks Out Game Access Ads By Google » Blog Tags Today's Most Popular Videos »

Diablo 3 is here at last, but the release hasn't gone as smoothly as Blizzard would like thanks to some launch day hiccups in the form of an "Error 37" message. Some players are reporting (via Shacknews) that they're greeted with a message upon launching the game that reads: "The servers are busy at this time. Please try again later. (Error 37)"

An update from the developer on Battle.net confirms that the issue is related to the servers being slammed hard with the influx of new users. "Due to high concurrency the login servers are currently at full capacity. This may cause delays in the login process, account pages and web services. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience while this is being resolved." There are also apparently issues affecting character creation that Blizzard is looking into.

This is a huge launch and issues were to be expected. Kudos to Blizzard for getting out in front of it and commenting quickly. How has your first-time Diablo 3 experience been so far? Is the game working fine? Running into these issues or any others? Let us know!

Source : http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/723780/diablo-3-error-message-blocks-out-game-access/

How to Prepare for Diablo 3

A new guide explaining how to prepare for Diablo 3's launch next Tuesday has gone live on the Blizzard Blog.

In it, Blizzard explains what players should expect, how they can prepare, and when they can install and play the long-awaited title. Those who have already bought the game will be able to access the installer from Monday in order to patch the game and troubleshoot any issues they may encounter before launch.

The game will launch at midnight on May 15th, though Blizzard is warning that there may be delays of up to 40 seconds when logging in due to the volume of players. As an added precaution, it advises creating a BattleTag now to avoid queues.

The Global Play service, allowing you to play with friends from other regions, won't launch until the game goes live in North America at around 8am BST. Blizzard is promising to work round the clock throughout the launch period to help players overcome any technical difficulties they may encounter.



Source : http://pc.ign.com/articles/122/1224506p1.html

Mortal Kombat Vita Review

As Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 proved at the system's launch, the Vita can be a very capable home for fighting games. The system's gorgeous screen and impressive hardware make for a handheld that can stand up next to what the consoles have to offer. NetherRealm's Mortal Kombat reboot is the latest fighting game to get the Vita treatment, and luckily stands as a great port of last year's viciously violent fighter.




 

Mortal Kombat Vita Gameplay Trailer

In terms of sheer content, Mortal Kombat on Vita offers a ton of features both new and old. The entire original game that released on consoles last year is here, complete with the full challenge tower and story mode. Additionally, all four DLC characters are now available from the get-go, along with God of War's Kratos, who was a special character in the PlayStation 3 version of the game. If that wasn't enough, the Vita version also adds in another bonus challenge tower accessible from the menu, with challenges that capitalize both on the DLC characters as well as the Vita's touchscreen and motion controls.

Mortal Kombat on Vita brings all of the brutal combat, huge character roster, and bloody fatalities from last year's game to the system. The fast and frantic pace and combo-based mechanics are a blast to play, and the brutal X-ray moves return from the console version. While the AI can be exceptionally cheap at times leading to some real moments of frustration, the game still plays very well. Last year's story mode also returns with no changes made, following Raiden and his band of Earthrealm warriors as they attempt to change the past by fighting through the events of the first three Mortal Kombat games. The story is pretty cheesy and is filled with some over the top voice work and writing, but is a pretty fun take that MK fans will dig.

Mortal Kombat's vicious X-Ray moves return in fine form.

Control is an area where previous fighters have faltered on handhelds, and where Mortal Kombat on Vita shines. The game controls extremely well, and once unwieldy fatalities have been given the touchscreen treatment and are much easier to pull off. Simple directional swipes replace d-pad presses and face buttons aren't required when using the touchscreen. If you'd like to still use the more traditional button-based control scheme for fatalities, you absolutely can.

Another great element added to the mix is a brand new challenge tower. The new tower is a completely separate group of original challenges, quite a few of which take advantage of what the Vita has to offer from a hardware perspective. Using the accelerometer and touchscreen, you'll be doing everything from juggling fighters in the air with missile fire and wiping away view obstructing blood from the screen to shaking the Vita to defuse bombs and stagger enemies.

The bonus challenge tower includes two new modes, as well – Test Your Slice and Test Your Balance. Test Your Slice is a Fruit Ninja-style mini-game that has you slashing across the touchscreen, dismembering body parts to rack up high scores, while the more difficult Test Your Balance mode requires you to tilt your Vita to balance your character and keep them from falling in a deadly pit, all while severed body parts are being thrown at you. Of the two, Test Your Slice was a lot more fun, but neither of them really seemed to add much outside of self-contained, gimmicky experiences.

 

The bonus challenge tower offers a ton of great new missions.

However, there are still plenty of challenges that play out more traditionally, featuring the game's four previously DLC-only characters for the first time in the challenge tower. The new tower will require you to use Skarlet, Kenshi, Rain, and Freddy Krueger quite often, on top of the aforementioned Vita hardware abilities.

Playing through the challenge tower is definitely addictive and extremely tough, but feels rewarding as you burn your way through it. As you complete the tower and you're your way through the game's other modes, you'll earn Koins that can be spent in the Krypt on new costumes, art, and other unlockables. You'll even get some new art and costumes from the DLC characters, which were previously unavailable in the original release. Overall, the new challenge tower is a blast, offering varied gameplay and some really fun, albeit very difficult moments littered throughout.

Some of the challenge tower missions can get pretty weird.

Graphically, Mortal Kombat on Vita runs at an impressively smooth 60 frames per second with very few bouts of slowdown. The original console experience ran at a similar clip, so being able to bring that and the smooth animations to a handheld format is a notable feat by the developers. However, there were a few consolations that happened in order to ensure the fast framerate, namely in the image quality of the character models. While the game looks great in motion, a closer look reveals that the characters look jagged, blocky, and not as detailed as their console counterparts. However, the grievance is a small one, and watching the game in motion is fantastic, as it successfully captures the fast pace and action of the original game.

The game supports both Wi-Fi and Ad-Hoc play. While there were a couple of performance hiccups in play sessions over Wi-Fi, Ad-Hoc worked swimmingly and both managed to maintain fluid framerates throughout.



Source : http://vita.ign.com