All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

The new series gets a new game.

Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer respectfully believes that a third Torchlight game could be out before Blizzard's Diablo 3 -- a joke we'd made when the second Torchlight was recently announced. The executive tells us that the efficient size of the Runic team, which has a corporate goal to never grow above 40, would have the ability to get out another significantly upgraded sequel before Blizzard's behemoth arrived. Torchlight and its sequel have both had brisk development cycles lasting less than a year.

Schaefer told us, "[Blizzard has] an impossible task. Blizzard can not get away with doing a Torchlight 1. If they put out a single player game, an RPG that's kinda stripped down for $20, people would say, 'What the hell happened to Blizzard?' They don't have that luxury. Everything has to be super epic. More epic than anything that's come before, more epic than World of Warcraft. They have to do that. It puts them in a really tough spot, I don't envy them. It has to be perfect."

Given his deadpan delivery on the subject, we wanted to make sure he was serious about Torchlight's third installment beating the Blizzard behemoth to market, "I really think we will, I'm not joking about it. I'll be the first to buy Diablo 3, I'm a huge fan. I just know what it's like over there."

Walking around shows like gamescom, talking to journalists and developers, you pick up on certain ‘buzz phrases’ each time, and this year, one of those was “MotorStorm Apocalypse in 3D”.

Those that had played it were encouraging others to do so with anecdotes of physically ducking out of the way as a racing truck tumbles towards them. The other big news for the boys from Evolution Studios last week was that they were showing the first new track since the game’s announcement.

I managed to prise Game Director Matt Southern from his dark room for some well earned Vitamin D; check out the interview below.

#ruhroh The UK's Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox called for the ban of Medal of Honor for being "tasteless". He later defended his remarks. EA, the game's publisher, has now retorted. More »

Microsoft nixes rumours of no voice support for Kinect launch.

#pc Perhaps seeking to undo some of the damage done to the Call of Duty franchise on the PC wrought by Modern Warfare 2, Treyarch has revealed that Black Ops will feature mod tools. More »

#clips You get The Jacknife Chronicles, a piece of machinima that uses Source Engine editor Garry's Mod and makes a gripping little short film out of it. More »

#arcade Mysterious. Enigmatic. Mona Lisa might called a lot of things, but cute isn't one of them. Until now. More »

Start looking for a really nice cardboard box! And then ship yourself to Japan in it. Konami is holding a Metal Gear Solid cosplay contest next month, with the winner to be determined at the Tokyo Game Show.

Interested Johnny Sasaki lookalikes (and other Metal Gear cosplayers) can submit pictures here (warning: Japanese-language application!) Konami will select a few of the entries to appear at the publisher's TGS booth on September 18. There, they will be evaluated by a panel of guest judges to be announced later -- as well as the TGS attendees in general, who know a thing or two about dressing up.

The most difficult thing about Metal Gear cosplay is that if you're too accurate, you'll be too stealthy for the judges to notice.

#clips The Wizard was pretty awful. Too much Nintendo advertising, not enough Sega CD and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. More »

Superstars V8 Racing joins a slowly growing line-up of full games that are skipping retail releases in favor of PlayStation Network. Although released as a retail game in Europe, Superstars V8 Racing will be available exclusively through the PlayStation Store when it's brought to America this October, carrying a download-friendly price of $19.99

Greg Lanz, general manager of O-Games, Inc. admitted that the game was supposed to be a packaged product, but the PSN option should provide a better value. "Our original plan was to release this game at retail ... since we do not have to pay the costs to manufacture, package, and ship the product to retail. The bottom line? Gamers can now own a $40 game for half the price they would pay in-store." But considering the middling reviews the game has received in Europe, it may be best that it makes its debut in budget form.

Pay-for-play service an option for PSN.

#gameface Spotted at JFK by reader Marco. More »

We're sympathetic to the scores of diligent scholars among you whose learnings recommenced this week -- however, here's a story that's going to make you very, very jealous. Wabash College theater professor Michael Abbott recently revealed on The Brainy Gamer that the institution's booklist has a surprisingly non-bookish addition for this academic year: Portal. The game, that is -- not the novelization, if such a thing isn't too terrible to exist.

Abbott explained the course -- a required freshman seminar, mind you -- is titled "Enduring Questions," and sees students studying "classic and contemporary works from multiple disciplines" while discussing "fundamental questions of humanity." Abbott himself pitched the puzzle-platformer to his non-gaming colleagues after reading games writer Daniel Johnson's essay comparing Portal to sociologist Erving Goffman's Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. As both works focus on the conflict between "backstage machination and onstage performance," the college's board approved Portal for the course.

Of course, Abbott also decided on pitching Portal due to its accessibility, brevity and ... well, its general excellence. "In the end, I chose Portal because I thought it would make a good start," Abbott explained. "A good first impression. A lead-off hitter, if you will." We're inclined to agree.

[Thanks, Matt!]

#wow The obstacles standing in the way of a Chinese release of World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King have been overcome, with the title due for release at the end of the month. More »

Bizarre's Bond impresses on its latest outing.

Dog Days unseats Toy Story 3 as Modern Warfare 2 sets a record.

#starwars The creator of the Star Wars franchise, George Lucas, is suing the creators of the Jedi Mind thought technology tech. More »

Some wily vandal in Portland, Oregon has painted Mario Kart symbols into the pavement there on one of the city's bike lanes. You can see them in action in this video (also embedded after the break). Unfortunately, the bananas, star and speed arrows don't actually confer the same powers they do in the game, but we did smirk to see that all of the bikers do faithfully avoid the banana peel, and hit the rest of the symbols head on.

You can even wring some unintentional hilarity from the dry-as-a-Dry Bones explanation of what each powerup does by the KATU anchor. That's right, Carl Click! You might have read that script just fine, but admit it: You don't know a Red Shell from a Blooper.

#retail THQ's Cory Ledesma has delivered a blunt message to consumers buying used copies of his company's games: they're cheating the publisher out of money. More »

#sega PlayStation 3 game Valkyria Chronicles, Sega's fictional version of World War II, got a sequel on the PSP. It might be getting another sequel. More »

While most booths at Gamescom relied on the games themselves to attract visitor attention, there were plenty of booths that went to some ridiculous lengths to stand out from the crowd. Take the above picture, which was set up to promote some sort of tractor simulation that's apparently popular in Germany. And that was actually one of the more game-related booths we captured for the odd gallery below. And you thought Gamescom was all about the games. You're so silly.