Over at The Guardian's Gamesblog, Keith Stuart describes as The Professional meet The Da Vinci Code in downtown Damascus. I quite like that description. The game is set during the Third Crusade and asks players to assassinate nine men.
Will the historical setting be off putting for gamers? According to Assassin's Creed Creative Director Patrice Desilets:
I don't think so, well, maybe in North America because they're not really used to historical settings, but in it'll be easier to understand mdash; although actually we're still modern people mdash; even for , it's difficult to put ourselves into that medieval world..
. also because it's a game, it's pretty difficult to make a real city just like it was..
. Before a nerd riot ensues, I'd like to add that Patrice probably means it's easier for Europeans to understand this historical setting because, well, Europeans fought in The Crusades. Don't think he actually means North Americans are not used to historical settings per se.
At least, let's hope not.
was good. Not great, just.
..good.
One thing it NAILED, though, was its setting: golden beaches, leafy palm trees, clear, blue waters, it just oozed lazy sunsets and .
Anyways, is making a Far Cry movie. And, as you can no doubt guess from my buildup there, he's taken the one decent thing Far Cry had going for it and has crushed it.
Instead of setting his "film" on a beach somewhere in Hawaii or the South Pacific, it's going to be set in a rainforest near Vancouver. Vancouver, .
Not that any of us were going to see it anyways, just.
..keeping you all up to speed on these things.
I know some of you like to keep a record of Boll's crimes.
[GamerFlicks, via ]
took the gathered press on a tour of its Vancouver area offices, just outside of the city in Burnaby. To say that the EA Vancouver campus is posh would not do it justice. While EA may have been on the receiving end of some flack in the past for its overtime practices and seven day work weeks, no one can say that the amenities at EA aren't comfortable.
In addition to housing the world's largest motion capture studio, EA Mocap, the campus is also home to two basketball courts, one indoors, one outdoors, a 3/4 pitch soccer field, a massive full service gym and loads of other diversions.
The studio has its own arcade, loaded with certified classics Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Outrun 2, Street Fighter III, NFL Blitz, an Ultracade cabinet, a Neo Geo arcade unit and two pinball tables.
Don't like those games, EA employee? There's a corporate arcade request line so you can make your case for something new.
Despite these enviable, potentially distracting benefits, EA wants you to focus on work.
And to stay at work. That's why you can have your dry cleaning, alterations, haircuts, personal training, and (subsidized) meals taken care of here. No beds, however, from what I saw.
Dogs, though. Lots of dogs.
Sure, you may have to work on the DS port of : Slightly Different Cars, but this place is pretty swank.
Photos of the whole shebang in our gallery.
Gamerscore sends word that, starting with the Spring Update, will be beefing up the territorial restrictions on the 360's marketplaces. Seems some of you cheeky monkeys are still trying to get around the regional restrictions on certain content, and Microsoft aren't too pleased.
While they've tried squeezing this practice out previously, this is the first time I've seen them actually put it in black white. Your XBL accounts are going to be locked to the region your console is: any accounts created that try and say otherwise will only be allowed to download content from your console's region.
They explain it away with the usual chatter about licencing and rights, etc, but, yeah, sick of that.
The fact that the TMNT arcade game is available in (where I had to download my demo) and not is farcical, as is the lack of any HD movie downloads outside of the US since, last time I checked, we could buy those movies off the shelf here. , too. And .
Microsoft, instead of cracking down on "international accounts", you might want to work on fixing the reason people were doing it in the first place. And if you are, you might want to work a little harder.
On Thursday, the Mayor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua, Jose Reyes Baeza Terrazas, ordered his government to seize and confiscate every copy of the game Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, stating that the game was 'unnecessarily rude' against the city and the people of Cd.
Juárez, Chihuahua. The Mexican Government has yet to make an official statement. Explains reader Jose:
Now, when the sequel came out last month, the government of Chihuahua and the mayor of Cd.
Juárez, where the game takes place, were deeply offended after finding out that the game placed American soldiers shooting Mexican rebels in their territory, making an incredible media show that was showed on TV and some local newspapers. Although the main attention of this movement was to force the Mexican government to issue a diplomatic query with the American government about it..
. The local gamer community was actually excited to have their city featured on a video game..
. Voice of reason: is published by , a Canadian company. So Mexican politician man, don't blame America, blame !
Somebody please tell them, because there's still time!!
Eds Note: Apologies.
Ubisoft is a French company, and GRAW2 was made in Montpellier in . So please Mexican politician dude, please, blame the French and leave North America the frick alone.
No, they weren't "Buy New MGS" or "Castlevania 4 Evar.
" Canadian authorities have pulled 87 slot machines due to a subliminal message that appears. The Toronto Star writes:
As the screen spins 30 to 40 times a second, it flashes a jackpot-winning combination. The jackpot symbols are invisible to the naked eye during normal play, but can be seen when the animation is slowed down.
That raises concerns that gamblers might continue playing because they subconsciously believe they are about to win the jackpot.
Subliminal messages? ( ) Nobody does that anymore.
(READ KOTAKU) Affected machines include Most Wanted (READ KOTAKU), Sgt. Fritter (READ KOTAKU) and The Billionaries (READ KOTAKU). Good to know.
[The Star, Thanks Burton!]
Sometime in the last few weeks, Gamestop has snuck in put up an EBGames.com website for our brothers and sisters in the fair land .
Formerly, Canadians wishing to order from the retailer had to do their purchasing form the U.S. website and unfortunately, they still have to.
The site currently provides no way to actually order games online, although they say it's coming. Clicking on the title of a game you would like to purchase brings up a description and then directs you to purchase the game at one of their brick and mortar stores. There isn't even a search function so that you can check out their inventory.
Each console has a list of about five games and then some lists of top sellers.
I'm a little baffled that they would bother put up a site that is not yet completed, but I suppose it's better than the page they had up before that directed people to the US website. Still, if I'm going to purchase something online, I want to purchase it online, not be told that I need to go to the store to buy it.
Otherwise, how am I supposed to maintain my stereotypical gamer persona of not leaving the house except for booze, food and occasional sex?
[ - Thanks, Addurobi]
The company that brought you Tomb Raider, Hitman, and Deus Ex, has set their sights on North-est America, announcing a plan to create a brand new development studio in Montreal, Québec. The new studio's focus will be working on 'undisclosed next-generation projects.
' Definitely good news for Canadians with game development aspirations, as the company plans to create 350 job positions over the course of three years. Stéphane D'Astous has been recruited to head up Eidos Montréal.
""I'm really delighted to be joining Eidos who deserve their worldwide recognition for some fantastic games.I look forward to establishing a brand new studio that will continue this legacy and develop AAA, next-generation titles that will demonstrate once again the expertise and knowledge we have in Montreal."
I'm the first one to agree that the world needs more AAA titles, if anything to foster respect for roadside service and towing in America's youth.
, huh?
Who would have guessed. There they were, parading around with their funny policeman's hats and their mountains and their "eh" at the end of every sentence - little did we know they're actually all wicked, evil, cold-blooded criminals. , even.
And not the jolly kind, like Crecente. The bad kind.
At least, according to a coalition of American media industry trade groups they are:
Canada remains far behind virtually all of its peers in the industrialized world with respect to its efforts to bring its copyright laws up to date with the realities of the global digital networked environment.
Indeed, even the major developing countries have progressed further and faster than Canada in meeting the challenge.
If they persist with their wrong-doings, they'll end up on a list of similarly corrupt and worthless countries like Russia, China, Turkey and (oh nos!) Venezuela.
Why all the accusations? Seems "Canada is a leading exporter of bootlegged films and mod chips for game systems". Grievous.
Best close the border, then.
I find it funny that Canada is being painted as the bad guy here. When I think of groups of people with truly wicked intentions, I don't think of Canadians.
In fact, I'm a lot more likely to think of a coalition of American media industry trade groups.
Reader Partick sends along this, writing:
As you can see the storefront is covered in graffiti and there's no clue as to what exactly it once was. If you look closely at , you'll see he's wearing a silver cross.
.. Not only that, but there's also "Sold Out" written on it, and oddly, no graffiti whatsoever.
Most likely, perplexing the crap outta any future vandals.
Bashcraft's note: The hamster in our machine had gobbled up the image. Sorry about that Patrick!
Making video games isn't just , but . Just ask Alain Tascan, Montreal's General Manager. Electronic Arts is well known for its big budget game titles, so Tascan should know what he's talking about:
I'm not sure that the model we have here will be the model in 15 years, and that the EA you know today will be the EA you know then.
.. I'm sure we'll do things differently, just because of the cost.
The cost of games now is crazy. So what, EA will release a every other year?
Note: This one's only filed under " " because of the awful punctuation throughout (on the part of the interviewee).
It's obviously a literal transcription of what he was told, but when I see that many words go by without a full-stop (Americans, that's a period), I get nervous.
Tim Ashdown, a Game Design student, sat down for what should have been an innocuous chat with Marketing Manager Farjad Iravani at a recent Canuck press event.
It was all going swimmingly, until Iravani's PR-mouth stopped working, and his real, emergency one kicked in.
Nintendo of 's Pierre-Paul Trépanier spoke with GamesIndustry.biz today about the profitability of the , which unlike its competitors actually makes money off of console sales.
"We make a profit on the system itself," Trépanier said."Unlike our competitors, we don't have ulterior motives; we're not in it to sell HD TVs, or to become the operating system in the living room or anything like that."
Ooo, burn. He has a point, of course.
A company that only sells video games has to profit off of them. Even if Nintendo only makes $1 for every Wii sold they are still ahead of Sony, who lose $200-300 on every system. Trépanier went on to discuss supply issues, the Canadian market, and possibly the most suprising bit of Wii information yet.
"And the great news is the feedback we're getting from media and consumers and all of our research is that the Nintendo Wii really is the pretty girl at the party this year."
Wait, it's a girl? But I thought, with the.
..you know.
I guess that would explain why it's not physically attached.
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