Nearly three years after being announced and nearly a full calendar year of radio silence, Sony action MMO The Agency has re-emerged! There are maybe a few slight cosmetic differences - like: now it's free, on Facebook and has no actual action - but otherwise, it's exactly the game we expected lo these many years.
Alright, alright, so The Agency: Covert Ops isn't the same game, though it is related to that long-in-development property. This new iteration is definitely better looking and sounding than most games on Facebook, though the grindy, challenge-free game designs seems -- from our limited experience -- pretty darn similar to a lot of social web games.
However, unlike its big brother, it managed to actually be released, so that's something, right?
#cosplay
If hoodies and t-shirts aren't going to cut the mustard for your next big Tron cosplay, you have better options: either make your own or have the woman who made Daft Punk's light-up costumes design it for you. More »
#sonyonlineentertainment
Halas, the wintry home of the Barbarians in the original EverQuest and one of the most confusing starting zones in any MMO ever, makes its triumphant return this month in EverQuest II's Halas Reborn game update. More »
Imagine going to work on "Van Buren," the original Fallout 3, as a designer for Black Isle Studios, only to see the title canceled due to parent company Interplay's financial problems. Then, imagine Bethesda buying the Fallout 3 license and developing an entirely different game, which goes on to win multiple awards and accolades. Now, imagine you're brought back into the franchise, as a designer for Obsidian Entertainment, to create a sequel to Bethesda's popular title. Preposterous, you say?
Josh Sawyer is the lead designer on Fallout: New Vegas and, after having the rug yanked from under him on the original Fallout 3, he's happy to be working on the latest new Fallout project -- one that will be released later this year. Read on for our conversation with Sawyer.
Joystiq: What's your history with the Fallout franchise?
Josh Sawyer: I worked on what's called "Van Buren," which was the codename when Black Isle started to work on what would have been Fallout 3, and we had worked on it for maybe half a year, and then it was canceled because Interplay had a lot of financial problems.
THQ has never been shy about reflecting on the job it did marketing Red Faction: Guerrilla's launch. "I'd give us a 'B' on the launch of Red Faction: Guerrilla," CEO Brian Farrell admitted to investors last July. Today, on a generally upbeat earnings call -- sales are up and quality is definitely up! -- Farrell again questioned the launch of the title, but this time with a new focus, saying, "I think we did a great job on the game, I think we did an average job on demand creation."
Demand creation is the new game in town at THQ's Core Games unit, and Farrell thinks the company has got this nut cracked for the next Red Faction title. "I think you'll see that in spades," Farrell said about creating that all-important demand creation for the future Red Faction. "You'll see it in the way we unveil it later this month." But it's not all about building hyp-err, demand creation -- THQ has got the SyFy movie and all those free copies of Guerrilla to help with that -- it's also about improving the quality of the game itself.
Danny Bilson already told Joystiq that the next game would be more "narrative" and Farrell reaffirms that goal. "It's got a new storyline; we think that was one of the weaker points [in Guerrilla]," Farrell said. "Red Faction's always been a technological showpiece, and we wanted to add production values in terms of story and environment this year. And when you see the new Red Faction, it's just a much more appealing game universe."
When can you smash this more appealing game universe, you ask? Farrell mentioned a fiscal 2011 release window, which is open now and ends in March 2011, for the as-yet-unnamed sequel ... right when Bilson told us to expect it. But first things first, we'll learn more about this new, more narrative Red Faction "later this month." And then we'll tell you. (See, that's how this relationship works.)
#hotflashes
Mavis Beacon may be the world's most famous typing teacher, but her indie cred pales in comparison to Adam Atomic and the nameless jumpman of Canabalt, which now features a white-knuckle edutainment mode. More »
During an earnings conference call today, THQ CEO Brian Farrell told investors and press not to expect the publisher to release ports of its existing games for Project Natal or PlayStation Move. "What you will not see is porting of games to Natal, or I don't think you should see that," he said. "I think they should be specific, standalone game experiences that exploit that very new and significant technology. And the Move is the same way: You've got to do something unique and not just an add-on with respect to that platform."
Later in the call, however, Farrell did not entirely rule out ports of Wii games for PlayStation Move. When asked about the possibility of "Moving" games like De Blob (future iterations of which have been confirmed as multiplatform), Farrell said that THQ would "take advantage where we can in terms of development environments [and] take advantage of technology we already have," though he noted that because of the HD capabilities of the Xbox 360 and PS3, "just porting over those assets doesn't work." We'll see what THQ is developing with the new technologies next month, as Farrell said, "you'll like what we show at E3."
Even without porting, Farrell said that development costs for Natal and Move games were lower than on traditional games, "because, again, it's not about the technology, but it's about the gameplay." The big draw for Natal titles, he said, is the "interaction with digital objects." He's even considering passing the savings on to the consumer, rather than defaulting to $60 for everything. He said that the company is "still deliberating internally on that" and "may not even announce those launch prices until much closer to the launch."THQ CEO: Move & Natal games shouldn't be ports
Speaking during a financial earnings call, THQ CEO Brian Farrell said that the publisher is making a big investment with the upcoming Warhammer 40k MMO, but that if the game nets "anywhere near" a million subscribers, it will pay off. Farrell suggested that the company must spend "at the high-end of what it costs to build a core game" just to get the online title launched. But the return could be high, too: "Presuming that the MMO is successful," he said, "we could have a three-, five-, seven-year-long term revenue and profit driver with that very, very exciting brand."
Even if development costs continue to climb as expansion packs and additional post-release content is created, Farrell believes that spending more money on the project is a good sign. Farrell said that "if we're investing a lot over the next five to seven years of the MMO" by adding content, "that means it's doing very, very well."
Success doesn't mean you need to reach World of Warcraft numbers, either, according to Farrell. "We don't need the kind of subscriber levels that people throw around, like a million subscribers, to make a lot of money on this title. If we get anywhere near this level, we'll be making a lot of money."
The EA and Mythic-developed Warhammer Online peaked out at around 300,000 subscribers by last count, so THQ has a steep hill to climb. But Farrell is convinced the company can do it. "I love the game," he told listeners on the call. "Please come by the booth at E3. I think you'll like what you see."
That is an unofficial title made up by me. An alternate title could be “Into the Mouth of Madness” because I love my man Sam Neil! The art itself was done on an iPad by reader, John Hassl and it is glorious! Thanks John!
Are you an Xbox Live Silver member? Have you been staring with green-eyed envy at all your Gold-subscribing friends currently enjoying the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta? If so, we've got some good news, because Shacknews reports that the Reach beta will be opening up to Xbox Live Silver members next week. Starting May 14 at 9:00am PT, Silver members with a copy of Halo 3: ODST will be able to access the beta. You'd better get as much as you can though, because the party ends on May 17 at 9:00am PT, two days before the beta closes for everyone else. But hey, some Reach is better than no Reach, right?
#namco
Something big, potentially, is brewing for Pac-Man who celebrates his 30th birthday this year. Namco Bandai is holding an event next month, timed with the E3 video game expo, with a surprising guest in attendance. More »
Nintendo continues to support Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver with new downloadable paths, through which you can pick up new Pokemon and items.
From tomorrow, May 6, through June 25, Pokemon players in North America will be able to access the "Winner's Path Route" DLC. Pokemon available in the route, to those who pick up enough Watts with the Pokewalker accessory, include a Munchlax that knows "Selfdestruct," a Magikarp that can learn "Bounce" upon evolution into Gyarados and others, along with items like the Focus Sash, the Choice Scarf and the Choice Band. You can see the full details of the offerings here.
Can you resist the allure of a special Magikarp? Of course not!
#ds
Many video games have had a "big head mode." But who calls it "big head mode"? Not Harry Potter. In his next game, he inflates craniums with a spell called "Engorgio Skullus!" More »
THQ lost $9.6 million in its 2010 fiscal year (ending March 31), but that's nothing compared to the $431.1 million it lost the previous fiscal year. Yeah, we'd say this qualifies as a decent start in the company's proposed turnaround. THQ's software sales rose 8 percent this past fiscal year, which begin in April 2009, to $899.1 million, having established, as CEO Brian Farrell puts it, "three major core game franchises" in UFC, Darksiders and Red Faction.
In a conference call this afternoon, Farrell described fiscal 2010 as the company's turnaround year. Fiscal 2011 will be its "rebuilding" year, according to the CEO, and then 2012 should see the establishment of the fully operational and financially profitable "New THQ."
BioWare is in the process of developing a patch to fix Dragon Age: Origins' game crashing bug caused by the PS3 firmware 3.3 update. If the thread on the BioWare forums is any indication, the developer was just as flummoxed and frustrated by the situation as the players. It appears that BioWare, after much collaboration with the community, has a patch in the works that should fix the problem.
The bad part is there is currently no timetable for the patch to make its way to the masses. If the code changes work internally, then it's off to EA for "publisher side certification testing." After that, it goes to Sony for testing. We sure hope Sony takes the BioWare team who ended up having to work extra on this out for a nice steak dinner.
#clips
Modern warfare first-person shooters have a new contender in Medal of Honor, EA's current day reboot of the former World War II shooter series. The game's second trailer puts less emphasis on explosive action than it does tugging at heartstrings. More »
#speakup
It's Wednesday, and that means it's time for Speak-Up on Kotaku! This week Deanb, Goldy, Lmaonade, and Nintendo451 discuss potentially prize-winning dogs, giving up piracy, fake E3 documents, and genre failure. More »
EA's upcoming reboot to the Medal of Honor franchise has a few major contenders, one of which EA itself created, to compete with when it arrives at retail this October. But EA Games prez Frank Gibeau remains confident in MoH, telling Gamasutra in a recent interview that, "With Medal of Honor, we're rebooting the series to get into the top 10." Gibeau lays out plans for an extensive marketing campaign first aimed at "core shooter fans," then branching out to a "true mass-market campaign." Speaking frankly, he claims "It'll be a big launch with a lot of dollars behind it. We're going to go in and we're going to compete." He believes that, between the IP's pedigree and the quality of this reboot, EA's " going to be in the Medal of Honor business for a long time."
Meanwhile, executive producer Greg Goodrich and senior creative director Rich Farrelly do their best to assuage worries of internal competition between themselves at EA LA and DICE, the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 developer now working on MoH's multiplayer mode, or the ex-Infinity Ward founders' new studio that EA recently inked a deal with. Goodrich says, "Battlefield and Medal of Honor are two very different franchises. They have a certain tone, and we have a certain tone for our game. We think there's room for both, not only in the genre, but within EA."
Also of note, apparently DICE has been working on MoH's multiplayer since "right after Battlefield 1943 came out" (last July), which might help to explain why we've seen such little post-launch support for the downloadable title. That said, with Medal of Honor's development assuredly nearing completion, we're holding out hope that those folks will have some time to invest in the other downloadable title we heard about recently.
I can’t tell you why I own the Konami LaserScope. I really don’t remember having any particular game that pushed me to ask for this device. I think I just saw a magazine advertisement, and thought it was awesome. Then, after yelling fire at ducks in Duck Hunt for 10 minutes, I [...]
“To some extent, our episodic development prevents feature creep, because the schedules are fairly compact and the monthly release dates provide clearly defined endpoints. But if a scene isn’t reading right, this often isn’t apparent until late in the process. The game doesn’t come together in its fully playable format until a week or two [...]
#ubisoft
The latest Ubisoft game to bear the Tom Clancy name is H.A.W.X. 2, the sequel to the original, million-selling arcade-style flight sim. Billions of dollars in virtual aircraft will once again be blowing up this fall. More »
