I’ll admit to being a little excited about the upcoming Transformers movie. Not because I have any illusions about it not rapin gmy childhood, but rather concerning the innate cool factor that comes along with giant robots blowing each other up. Let’s just say it appeals to my inner Godzilla fanboy and leave it at that.
However, video game adaptations of movies being what they are, my hope for the upcoming game based on the summer blockbuster is decidedly less enthusiastic. The fact that it is being helmed by Traveller’s Tales does not exactly inspire more confidence either, though they did strike gold with LEGO Star Wars so who knows.
Anyway, Activision, the game’s publisher, sent over the first image of what we can expect from the Xbox 360 version, and here we see our old friend Bumblebee in all hi unrecognizable glory. The game ships for nearly all platforms under the sun this summer.
Announced last year at PAX 06, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is an upcoming PC game in development by indie developer Hothead Games starring [url=http://www.penny-arcade.com]everyone’s favorite webcomic duo[/url]. While details are still sketchy regarding the game, today Hothead Games and GarageGames announced a partnership that will make the middleware tech company the preferred provider of game engine technology for Hothead’s games, including Penny Arcade Adventures.
Under the agreement, Hothead will use Torque for both PC and game console titles. In addition, any improvements Hothead makes to the Torque engine or tools will be shared back into the main code base for the benefit of all Torque users.
“GarageGames’ Torque Game Engine has streamlined our development processes and enabled our teams in the pursuit of our core goal: creating the innovative gameplay that gamers want,” said Joel DeYoung, Chief Operating Officer of Hothead Games. “Torque gives our programmers a +6 dagger of coding,” he said before adding, “They tell me its pretty sweet.”
Here’s one out from left field. British developer System 3, also known as Studio 3, is hard at work bringing Epyx’s classic Commodore 64 platfromer Impossible Mission to the Wii, as well as the Nintendo DS and PSP. The news follows a report from Nintendo Power last September that noted this and other C64 classics were heading to the Wii’s Virtual Console. Now it seems, as least with regards to this particular game, it is getting a full retail boxed release.
In the game, the player takes the role of a secret agent attempting to stop evil genius Professor Elvin Atombender who has been tampering with National Security Computers. Players must penetrate Atombender’s base, attempting to recover parts of the system password whilst avoiding robots in a race against time.
Whilst the game has been re-written from the ground up with new presentation, the developers note that the core gameplay remains “impressively loyal” to the original, with level layout changing for every new game. There are now three main characters to choose from plus a new tutorial mode. The player can now chose from three game modes, new, original and for the purist; a hybrid mode with the original gameplay using the updated graphics.
The PSP versions offer the additional ability to send a full copy of their game to a friend over the air so they can try it for themselves.
“We’ve worked hard to bring Impossible Mission up-to-date whilst keeping the original gameplay that made the game such a hit in the eighties”, commented CEO, Mark Cale, “We’re particularly pleased with the handheld versions which will ensure this historic game can be enjoyed by a completely new generation of gamers”.
For the first time that I can remember, a researcher has come out and openly predicted a return to market dominance for Nintendo. Despite the Xbox 360’s year-long lead and Sony’s considerable edge in brand recognition, US market researcher IDC has forecasted a slight edge for Nintendo’s Wii, speculating that they’ll capture slightly more than a third of the worldwide marketshare.
“Nintendo is the only one of the three manufacturers working to grow its accessible market for its hardware and software by broadening its audience beyond the traditional market,” observed the company. “We believe concerted efforts to broaden the appeal of videogames beyond the traditional enthusiast base will deepen the industry’s penetration.”
While interesting, I wonder whether anybody has done any analysis on what the effects of an installed base full of casual gamers would entail. How would it affect the attach rate? It’s one thing for Nintendo, whose titles fly off shelves without so much as an afterthought. But will third party publishers fare as well?
Officials of Vivendi Games’ Sierra Entertainment division announced plans to bring a version of Scarface: The World Is Yours to the Wii this summer. As with the other versions of the game, Scarface for the Wii will present a sequel storyline to the feature film that asks “What if Tony Montana survived the mansion shootout?”
Scarface: The World Is Yours for Wii will include graphics and gameplay changes by way of what Sierra calls “optimizations,” as well as a new control scheme that takes advantage of the Wii remote and nunchuck, as well as other unspecified “alterations for the Wii audience.”
“Bringing Scarface: The World Is Yours to Wii is an exciting opportunity to take an already amazing game and add an incredible twist, thanks to the Wii console’s unique Remote controller abilities,” said Cindy Cook, chief strategy and marketing officer for Vivendi Games. “Adding motion-sensitive elements to a game that already includes an incredible celebrity cast, Hollywood production values and non-stop action, delivers a gaming experience unlike any other, truly bringing the world of Tony Montana to vivid life.”
