Delay Update: SOCOM 4 put off until 2011

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

socom41It appears the new is official: SOCOM 4 for the PS3 and other platforms will be delayed until 2011, according to people in the know in the company and blog pennings on the web. We assumed and surmised this might happen, but still can’t believe it, really.

Here’s Jeremy Dunham, Senior Community Manager at Zipper Interactive with the official scoop:

“While we’re certainly aware that you’ve been looking forward to playing SOCOM 4 this year, we don’t want to take any shortcuts. Instead, we want to deliver the best and most immersive SOCOM game we possibly can and we’re going to use our extra time to do just that.”

We like the idea, even if we’re bummed about the delay. Hopefully, they can do some awesome things with the time and not just delay it for no reason. We’ll see.

Seasons (and Features) Change: inFamous 2 once again changing

Monday, July 26th, 2010

infamous2According to IGN, our beloved protagonist Cole McGrath will be under-going another character transformation, and game feature/art will be changing and being added to (once again), and quite late in the production process. The tale of this game being made has already been a roller-coaster ride in the best and worst sense of the word, as the direction seems sorta wandering as it is now. But hey, some of the best games get made on the seat of the producers pants, we figure.

The PS3 version (according to Gaming Everything blog) will have the following game changes:

  • Comic cut-scenes from the first game are returning
  • New cut-scene was shown at Comic-Con
  • inFamous 2 being made faster because a number of tools from the first game have already been developed
  • inFamous 3 not ruled out, but the team says they are still working on the second game
  • Not set in stone whether or not saves will carry over
  • City in inFamous 2 chosen because they wanted players to recognize the setting easily, and Empire City was mostly destroyed
  • Ideas for powers in the first game that weren’t used haven’t really come into play for the sequel
  • Fan feedback have influenced inFamous 2, including people’s opinions of Cole and his voice
  • Should be able to move about the city more quickly with new abilities
  • On multiplayer: No announcement today, but fans were told to “stay tuned”

Interesting decisions all the way around, we think. We’ll see how it turns out.

Progress Report: Need For Speed – Hot Pursuit

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

img_230402_nfshp_3Criterion Games’ Twitter page has definitely been buzzing since Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit was officially unveiled at this year’s E3 Expo, and reports indicate the game is worth waiting for, to be sure.

The British company, who created the highly-successful Burnout series, is on track to restore the Need for Speed franchise to its former glory, and many fans are wanting to find out all they can before the game’s early November PS3 release. Over the last few days, the company’s Tweets have let eager gamers know what could be coming in the near future regarding the game, which is quite awesome.

Here’s a rundown of the some of quick details to be considered noteworthy:

  • Like Burnout Paradise, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit will be an open-world game, just bigger and better! Chases will take place all over the game’s map, not on predetermined routes
  • There will be no options to tune or upgrade the game’s cars. Similarly, visual customisation will be very limited
  • Most if not all cars will be exotic by classification, though unfortunately Ferrari will not be appearing in the manufacturer line-up
  • Hot Pursuit will feature two individual campaigns of almost equal length, one for the police and one for the criminal
  • The custom soundtrack feature will be supported
  • Multiplayer modes will be online-only. There will be no split-screen mode
  • A cockpit viewpoint will not be available
We like many of the features so far (lack of a cockpit viewpoint and lack of upgrades kinda makes us sad a bit), but overall we can’t wait. Bring it on!

Uncharted 2 Online Multiplayer Website Update

Monday, January 11th, 2010

I played through Uncharted 2 and beat it recently (after playing the first iteration of the game, I could barely put either of them down until I beat them), and after I completed it I decided to check out the online component of the game.

uncharted2multi

I was very surprised. In a very good way. Most games that have a super single player campaign really dwell on it and skip out on the multiplayer game all together or leave out so much detail that it isn’t worth your time to even attempt to play it. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is the exception. The online multiplayer is phenomenal.
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