It is rare that a game’s box art is actually something that is commissioned from an artist. But in the case of Insomniac Games’ upcoming Resistance 3 they have partnered up with artist Olly Moss to provide a very unique looking route with the games box art. That being of a minimalist attitude that looks like something you would want to hang on your wall as a promotional piece of artwork.
As you can see to the right the box art shows a Chimera skull in white on a reddish orange backdrop. The skulls teeth are actually the New York skyline as you can see the Statue of Liberty there on the right. This box art will certainly help the game stand out on shelves across the country with its unique artwork.
Now The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has teased us with the fact that there will be dragons in the game. We’ve seen games in the past that are billed with Dragon even in the name, I’m looking at you Dragon Age, and then only have one or two dragons actually in them. That won’t be the case however in Skyrim according to Bethesda’s director Todd Howard.
Todd Howard said in a statement that “there is an unlimited number of dragons.One of our designers actually put in a random event I encountered, where I ended up being chased by three dragons and I thought, ‘who the hell did this?’ I felt like Frodo in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and was really frightened. So I asked him to remove it. But no, dragons are generated automatically (in addition to that there are a number of specific encounters, of course).”
This is great news as it will truly provide the feeling that players will be able to experience a full on dragon assault without the need for it being forced in. From his statement we can assume that there are a number of times you will find Dragons without it being plot oriented. Better hope that you and your horse armor are ready for death from above.
If there is one thing you can count on for a game by a Japanese developer, there will always be information leaked ahead of time from one source or another. This leak comes from Famitsu as Andriasang has reported on what the magazine will contain in its upcoming issue. Soul Calibur V will take place 17 years after the events of Soul Calibur IV, this was known already, also known was that the main character will be Patroklos who is the son of Sophitia.
What isn’t known however is that the game’s producer Hisaharu Tago stated he wishes to have at least as many characters that were in in SCIV, special weaponry that we haven’t seen before, a few new characters that have yet to be announced will be included, older characters with new weapons and that Siegfried will be using his Requiem weapon from Soul Calibur I and III. Also revealed was that the game is only 10% complete at the moment so much of the information now is subject to change by the time the game is released next year.
In the recent batch of information given to Game Informer from Ubisoft, some more details about Assassin’s Creed: Revelations have been revealed. Ubisoft Montreal’s creation of a unique and enjoyable competitive multiplayer mode in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is going to continue into Revelations but with even more of a tie-in to the actual storyline this time around. Four multiplayer characters were revealed today and each of them will have certain connections to the single player storyline this time around.
The vanguard, the guardian, the bombardier and the sentinel were all introduced today, with the guardian being a member of the Templars, someone known as the “Guardian of Truth.” The sentinel is a former Assassins Guild member who left the order after the Ottoman Empire and Assassin group reached a truce. Both the bombardier and the vanguard also have Templar ties. There was unfortunately not much information given about how exactly these characters will show up in the actual single player campaign but it is interesting to note the extensive connection Ubisoft is trying to weave.
Never let it be said that a beta for your upcoming game is a bad thing. Microsoft released a handful of statistics regarding their Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta and they have also said that Gears of War 3 is their fastest title to reach one million pre-orders since the creation of the Xbox 360.
There was no information given about those who got into the beta through Bulletstorm’s early access code but with four months between us and the game’s release on September 20th there is a lot of time for Gears of War 3 to get even more pre-orders. Either way you can check out all of the various statistics below that accumulated over the whole four week beta process that ended three days ago on May 15th.
Gears of War 3 beta stats:
1.29 million people participated in the beta
145 different countries participated in the beta
249 years worth of matches played
More than 11 million matches completed
More than 927 million kills recorded
More than 131 million executions performed
More than 23 million deaths by chainsaw
Nearly 23 BILLION bullets fired
4.9 billion ribbons and 291 million medals earned
435,000 people earned the beta-exclusive Thrashball Cole skin to use in the retail game when it launches in September
234,000 people earned the beta-exclusive Gold Retro Lancer to use in the retail game when it launches in September
Microsoft has issued a statement today concerning their recent firmware update. It appears that with a recent update some Xbox 360 consoles will cease to function properly and will instead suffer a complete, unplayable break down. Microsoft has stepped up quickly to address this issue however and has said that they will replace anyone with the issue’s old Xbox 360 with a brand new Xbox 360 Slim with a 250 GB hard drive says GameIndustry.
The unplayable error will show itself as a permanent disc unreadable error or disc unsupported error and will not allow players to play any of their games. This firmware update was supposed to place new anti-piracy measures into the Xbox 360 but some older models are having issues with the update and are requiring an entirely new console.
You can read Microsoft’s full statement below on the issue:
“Following a recent update to our system software, we have become aware of an issue that is preventing a very small number of Xbox 360 owners from playing retail game discs. This issue manifests itself as a unique ‘disc unreadable’ or ‘disc unsupported’ error on the screen and is unrelated to our recent public beta. We are also able to detect this issue over Xbox LIVE and are proactively reaching out to customers that may be impacted to replace their console. Any Xbox 360 owners receiving this error are encouraged to contact us at www.xbox.com/support/contact so we can verify if the console has been impacted.”
When you wake up in the morning and take a look at your inbox the last thing you expect to see is something Smurf related. But that is what happened today because Ubisoft has announced that they are currently developing a game called The Smurfs Dance Party. Yes, a game for the Wii and DS that will allow you to dance along with a number of Smurfs from the show.
This includes Papa Smurf, Clumsy, Brainy, Gutsy, Smurfette and even Gargamel but then again he is the bad guy in the shows… who knows. The game is currently set for a release in July with twenty fun dances set to classic songs as well as current chart topping hits. The title on the DS will be a mini-game collection unfortunately so if you really want to dance with blue men, you have to own a Wii.
In interesting move by 505 Games and developer Behaviour Interactive, the 2010 game ‘Naughty Bear’ is getting a re-release. This new, Naughty Bear Gold Edition combines the original Naughty Bear game with its downloadable contents packs into one retail disk. This new edition features three downloadable packs with a host of new content including episodes 8-10 featuring new foes such as pirates, comic book superheroes, vampire bears and zombears. Naughty Bear is very unique game in which players control Naughty Bear as he brutally murders the fellow inhabitancies of Perfection Island.
Naughty Bear Gold Edition is available now for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3
The latest Facebook machination comes as a tree-building game from renown developer KOEI. The objective of this game is to decorate a tree for your local critter population to live in and it features many different types of objects and rooms to accomplish this.
The visual style of the game is quite cartoonish, but, considering it’s a Japanese developer, you’d expect it to look anime-ish, which it does not. The visual style looks as though it will blend with the style of gameplay quite well. Of course, you have to keep in mind that this is a facebook game and that micro-transactions will play a vital role in the management of your newly created treeciety; and these transactions are likely to include things that you will not directly have a need for, but will be severely gimped if you do not have them. This in-game currency is known as leaves, and you can use them to purchase more good for your tree. Should you ever run out of leaves you can use facebook points to buy more goods.
For anyone that’s played any of the previous installments of the Dynasty Warriors Gundam series, you would know that the provision of downloadable content has been sub-par. The previous DWG only provided a few select items with 10 additional missions, most of which followed a repetitive or unoriginal pattern of combat scenarios. (Of course, that is one of the major criticisms of the Dynasty Warriors Franchise as a whole.) Upon first learning of the DLC capabilities for Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2 upon the release of its Japanese counterpart, I was personally excited at the prospect of the release of additional characters, mobile suits and maps. What we got however… was highly disappointing.
However, during December of last year, Gundam Musou 3 was released to much positive acclaim in Japan. Along with the release came the promise of more extensive and worthwile DLC avavilable for players. Significant promises were made in the way of particularly extra characters. Upon the release, fans of the series were VERY pleasantly surprised to see the DLC packs included a number of new suits, missions, characters and even storylines. The most significant bonuses are probably to the fans of the Gundam 00 series, having included 4 new characters and mobile suits to compliment the already in-built 2. Specifically, the additional content included:
The Susanowo, piloted by Mr Bushido (AKA Graham Aker), Setsunna F Seiei’s main rival from the 00 series.
Cherudim Gundam, piloted by Lockon Stratos II (AKA Lyle Delandy), the newest Gundam pilot of 00’s Celestial Being organization, taking over the mantle from his deceased brother. Also a Katheron agent.
Arios Gundam, piloted by Allelujah Haptism, a veteran Celestial Being pilot from the 00 series with a violent split personality disorder.
Seravee/Seripham Gundam, piloted by Tieria Erde, the mysterious syntheic lifeform Innovade pilot of Celestial being.
Additionally, fans of the newer Gundam Unicorn series were also pleasently surprised to see the Quad-Wing Kshatriya piloted by Unicorn’s Marida Cruz
As an avid fan of the 00 series myself, I’m very much hoping that the western release will also localize these characters as DLC content (Especially since Lockon and Graham are among my favourite pilots of the series). Koei has already confirmed that DLC will be made available for the western installment of the DWG3, so hopefully they intend to pull across these little goodies from the Musou series.
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 is currently set for release on the 24th of June in Europe and Australia, and the 28th of June of the US.
Now if only EB Games/ GAMESTOP will start letting me pre-order… >_<
It is rare that a game’s box art is actually something that is commissioned from an artist. But in the case of Insomniac Games’ upcoming Resistance 3 they have partnered up with artist Olly Moss to provide a very unique looking route with the games box art. That being of a minimalist attitude that looks like something you would want to hang on your wall as a promotional piece of artwork.
