Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming

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Adam Creighton, Computer and Video Gaming (Subscribe)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Download Fable, Fable II music

I meant to post this a week ago, but you can download some free music from Fable and Fable II.

Sounded like a better deal at first, what with " wonderful selection of Fable 1 music and 3 brand new tracks from the upcoming Fable II soundtrack".

But since the zip file contains 6 tracks total, you get 3 Fable I, and 3 Fable II tracks. But that sounds less markety.

You do get the Fable I Danny Elfman theme, so that by itself is worth the price of admission.

Anyway, link below (the Sumthing Digital promo code on the site is borked).

Download from Sumthingelse.com.

Labels: audio, DLC

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Holiday game tidbits

Looks like my annual shopping recommendations and awesome deals post isn't going to happen this year, so check your local papers for whatever happens this Sunday before Christmas.

There some 50%-off deals at Amazon.com ($20 Crackdown isn't bad).

What else?

PopCap games are 50% off.

Other than that, all I've got is if you buy Viva Piñata Party Animals online at Toys R Us, you get the original Viva Piñata free, and free shipping:

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2850707

(So I made maybe two of you out there happy.)

Aside from that, enjoy this Call of Duty 4 holiday map video, from the find folks at Infinity Ward:

Labels: DLC, ramblings, shopping deals

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

BioShock demo out for 360!

BioShock, if for no other reason than because of its potentially challenging in-game moral dilemmas, is on of my most-anticipated games for the Xbox 360. And I think Ken Levine is pretty amazing.

And the demo just got kicked onto Xbox Live, so I'm downloading it now, and hope to rock my ethical grounds in an hour or so; or whenever the heck it finishes downloading.

Labels: announcements, DLC, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Friday, August 03, 2007

QuakeCon happenings ...

Wow, things are flying fast and exciting at QuakeCon, id Software's love-fest for all things id.

First, they've finally announced their new game, Rage, which will be a first-person shooter adventure thing. id's CEO Todd Hollenshead summed up the game:

"It's more than just a first-person shooter, we will show vehicles and racetracks, driving and racing elements," he said. "It is an action-oriented game but with a lot of adventure elements. It will be story driven, but you can also choose your own route to go through things."
Perhaps even more exciting, the game will built on the new id Tech 5 engine, which makes the promise to "allow a developer to create games for the Mac, the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 simultaneously by using identical media for all four platforms". If the promise holds out, this is huge.

Why? Because you don't need separate development teams for each port, and you effectively quadruple your target platforms and quarter your resources (that is, mathematically; after living through a lifetime of "write once, debug everywhere" Java realities, I'll wait until the end of the year when they start licensing to other folks).

Also announced was a free web-based version of Quake 3 multiplayer, dubbed Quake Zero. Free, and supported via in-game ads.

And the fragfest classic Quake Arena will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade.

On the partnership front, id and Valve Software have signed an agreement to make most of the id library distributable on the Steam distribution service. The full list is available on Kotaku.com.

As far as the Hollywood connection, Hollenshead said id Software did license film rights for Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and Roger Avary (Silent Hill, Beowulf) will be writing and directing the movie. Not badmouthing the Doom movie, Hollenshead did say they wanted to "learn to do things better". (Good thing they didn't ask John Carmack his thoughts.)

Allegedly, "B.J. Blazkowicz" will remain the name of the lead character in the film. Hope they call him whatever "B" is short for, or "Beej", or something.

Check out Kotaku.com's posts tagged "QUAKECON07" to see more QuakeCon news.

Labels: announcements, companies, DLC, media intersection, PlayStation3, shooters, XBLA, Xbox 360

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Comic-Con summary (UPDATED)

I've got an initial summary of Comic-Con over on my Acting / Ramblings blog, with more daily summaries to follow.

Those will be soup-to-nuts kind of things, covering acting, comic books, film, cartoons, toys, and video games.

A lot of stuff happened on that last front, and I had some great conversations with everyone from NCsoft to SEGA, and played stuff from the Cartoon Network MMO to TimeShift, and saw hands-off demos for things like Iron Man.

I'll post summaries as it makes sense, but you can also get a ton of Comic-Con content downloaded from Xbox Live (for a limited time), and hit up the following sites / posts for more Comic-Con video game goodness:

UPDATED: Added links for MajorNelson.com (Final Comic-Con content), IGN, and Newsarama.

Labels: announcements, comic books, DLC, Halo, licensing, media intersection, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Transformers G1 themes ...

Oh, the world is set to remind me that I still don't have my Xbox 360.

It's not enough that I can't play any of my games, or the new ones like Overlord or The Darkness (which just released a demo today).

No, they have to go and release Transformers Generation 1 Xbox themes.

Hey, I like the new movie. But Old School -- that's where my heart is (I've got the original series on DVD, and the original toys).

And there are two themes available -- one each for the Autobots and Decepticons.

The latter is actually the better theme, with Shockwave, Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream, and a usable guide mini-blade. The Autobot theme has Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Jazz, and Ironhide, but with no Jetfire / Skyfire and an unusable guide blade, it falls short of the Decepticon pack.

I typically don't buy themes for my 360, but if my truant box ever gets back, I'm picking up the Decepticon theme.

Labels: DLC, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

No Halo 3 Live co-op ...

So, I'm pretty miffed. Commence pissy post.

In an interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM), Bungie's Frank O'Conner said online co-op (via Xbox Live) isn't likely to make it into the shipped Halo 3 in September:

"We know that people want it and we're trying to make it happen. I think the biggest problem for us for online co-op is that we have a situation where you can be in a Warthog with five troops, almost a mile away from the other player. That's a significant challenge. And there's lots of design things you could do to prevent that from happening, but they would make it not feel like Halo anymore. If we can make it happen in a way that works well, we will - and if it works badly, we won't."

So, I'm not working on the game, but brass tacks is it sounds like they didn't design this from the get-go, and they're making the decision now to short the feature.

Think of the original Halo, where you can co-op, and if you get behind, the lagging player is teleported to the same location as the lead player. Not ideal, but it is pretty smooth.

Now think of games like Doom 3 (also on the old Xbox) and Gears of War (on the Xbox 360) that do support online co-op. So, Halo 3, coming out a year (or years) after these other titles, not supporting the feature, is a bit of a setback, and arguably provides a stumbling block for the "king of the now-gen shooters" for which I'm sure Bungie is angling.

O'Conner does say the feature could show up later as a downloadable update, and that they know people want it ("We're not dumb").

I'm a manager and lead for development, projects, teams, and services, so I understand the prioritization of features, and some things need to get dropped to make dates.

Halo 3 has a high bar, though. Three years in development, and the stigma of a roughly ended Halo 2 and the missing (and badly stubbed out ) online co-op that seriously irked fans in that title. And they have new high bars to reach in the form of Epic's Gears of War, and their upcoming Unreal Tournament 3. Not to mention Ubisoft's upcoming Haze, which (according to their Website) will feature 4-player online co-op.

So, for a lot of gamers, September and Halo 3 isn't just about "finishing the fight"; as a trilogy ender, it's the expectation that Bungie "finishes the game."

Labels: announcements, DLC, Halo, shooters, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Back in the saddle ... (Updated)

I haven't written in a week. Fine. I've been on vacation.

Apologies to those of you who hang on my constant industry updates and insights, and ...

Y'know what, screw it. People who need daily updates probably stopped reading this thing a week ago.

For those sentimentalists among you, I'm going getting into the WayBack Machine and doing a post similar to the original "Xbox Buddies Newsflash" of years ago -- lotta brief summaries.

In brief:

Video game comics
Tenchu Z
Castlevania film update
Gamecock's EIEIO
Halo 3 "goodies"
Soul Calibur IV (video)
(Updated)
Xbox 360 changes
(Updated)
David Jaffe
Gears of War DLC
3D Realms announces announcements
BioWare's 2009 MMO
Carmack's game engine (video)
Junction Point updates
Steamed Capcom?
Sony launches blog
Dark Sector due 2008
Episodic content expands
Usability and Human Factors
Peter Cullen (video)

Here we go ...

Video game comics:

It's not just Halo and Marvel -- now Gearbox Software and Dynamite Entertainment are going make a comic book series based off upcoming Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. Relative newcomer Dynamite is pretty amazing to me (check out their titles), and I'm looking forward to more comic book goodness from them.

Tenchu Z:

Tenchu Z finally hits the Xbox 360 stateside. The Japanese demo I played way back when left me underwhelmed, but I'm sure this thing has gotten at least two coats of polish since then. And there's the overwhelmingly redeeming facet of getting to fight pirates -- as a ninja. Seriously.

Castlevania film update:

Paul W.S. Anderson (Mortal Kombat, AVP: Alien vs. Predator) is out. Sylvain White (Stomp the Yard, Ronin) is the new Castlevania hotness. To quote Kotaku's Michael Fahey, "So we have a relatively untested director with one major sleeper hit under his belt, but White is also slated to direct Frank Miller's Ronin, and Miller's properties aren't exactly fluff that studios hand out to just anyone."

Gamecock's EIEIO:

This is mainly for its local Austin connection (and my respect for these particular industry folks). but indie-publisher-looking-to-break-the-deep-pockets-mold Gamecock Media is throwing a party at the same time as this year's greatly reduced Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Gamecock's shindig is called the "Expo for Interactive Entertainment: Independent and Original" ("EIEIO"; those guys are nothing, if not punsters).

The gig looks to be shaping up to be less inclusive and more Gamecock-y, but they've got 6 titles for which I'm already stoked, and promise two "major unannounced next-gen titles" (does anyone ever promise two minor titles?). I'm guessing at least one of those two will be from Big Rooster.

Gamecock has not knocked down my door and invited me to their party. I'll let you know if that changes.

Halo 3 "goodies":

Can't get enough Halo 3, now that the beta is over?

Get ready for two, limited-edition wireless controllers (one Spartan, one Covenant), and a limited-edition wireless headset. The controllers will set you back an extra $10 (at $59.99 MSP) over the non-LE wireless controllers, but you get a free Halo 3 figurine. Given the art and figurine are designed by Todd McFarlane (an amazing business and licensing creative), I'm looking for pretty-to-look-at, non-functioning tchotkies. One would hope this applies just to the figurine (Toddy, I like your stuff, but if they aren't fully articulated, it's just your take on the Precious Moments concept).

Better picts of the accessories are available at spawn.com.

(I wonder if JoyRide Studios lost the Halo franchise to McFarlane Toys? That would be sad.)

Soul Calibur IV:

I'm sorry, but weapons-gimmicky button-mashing franchise Soul Calibur is my favorite fighting game. I'm so happy Soul Calibur II now plays on the Xbox 360. And I don't feel like I missed out on the PS2-only Soul Calibur III, given critical and popular reception. But Soul Calibur IV looks to add beautiful interlocking fiber armor and more ... Ivy (fans of the franchise know what I mean). And, so far they're guaranteeing 60fps and 1080p when the game hits sometime in 2008. Buttery ...

UPDATED: I like this open letter to Namco posted on Kotaku.com.

Xbox 360 changes:

Picts of cracked open repaired Xbox 360s reveal something interesting. A new (additional) heat sink / pipe combo.

So, if we tally up the following:

Heat sink / pipe combo (now)
Quieter DVD drives (now; in new units and some repaired units)
Smaller, cooler, cheaper CPUs (July-ish)
Smaller, Cooler GPU (Fall 2007)

By this Christmas, we should see a quieter, more robust 360 -- a scant three years after the console's release.

UPDATED: From Microsoft (a la Kotaku.com):

"Regularly updating console components is commonplace within the industry
and is a standard aspect of the business for a variety of reasons including cost
reduction, improved manufacturability and improved performance."

David Jaffe:

The dude behind God of War and Calling All Cars might be making good on his "going independent" mutterings. Cell phone picts have surfaced on Jaffe's site, indicating an in-process build out, possibly of a development studio. Will he become a Sony "Second-party" Dev (playing it safe), or will he branch out and show some Wii, 360, PC, and other love? We'll see ...

Gears of War DLC:

A Gears of War free title update (with new achievements) hits late tonight (June 14th) / tomorrow. It'll add eight new achievements for the "Annex" game-play type and Hidden Front Maps. It also includes an improved version of the "Roadie Run" controls.

Also, according to Major Nelson:

'The "Annex" gametype is now available for free and the "Hidden Fronts" Multiplayer Map Pack is available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for 800 Microsoft Points. All four multiplayer maps will be available for free after Sept. 3, 2007.'

3D Realms announces announcements:

3D Realms, the developers of the forever-in-development Duke Nukem Forever, have two upcoming non-DNF announcements. Says creative director Raphael Van Lierop:

"I can say that we have a big announcement coming in the next four weeks, and I'm not sure, but I believe we have another major announcement coming in the next four to six months... while I can't say exactly what these are, are they about Duke Nukem Forever? No."

BioWare's 2009 MMO:

BioWare Austin's (Star Wars-themed?) MMO opus won't be hitting until 2009. Yes, "9". Last I heard, they were using a middleware solution so they wouldn't have to build their own engine, so maybe all the extra time is for incredible MMO add-ons and deepenings. PvP newness. Branching paths to the nth power. Cross-platform play. Voice acting for every NPC organism (call me). Important stuff like that.

Carmack's game engine:

Demoing during a Steve Job's keynote address, id Software's John Carmack showed off the new "id Tech 5" game engine -- designed for Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and ... Macintosh. Looks slick, promises to make amazing development easy, blah blah blah.

It is cool that it seems to decouple the game play from the asset reworking, so, after finalizing game play, you can still "put artists on it to go ahead and make it look as good as we have time and resources to do."

Junction Point updates:

Another on the Austin gaming connection, over at the recently reworked junctionpoint.com, new concept art for unnamed game(s) is showing up throughout the pages. And there's a new, bare-bones WordPress blog for Warren Spector and other Junction Point devs to use as a pipe through which to share their brilliance with the rest of us.

Steamed Capcom?:

Capcom's jumping on Valve's Steam distribution / download service, which is huge. Microsoft, Sony, GameTap, RealNetworks, Valve -- there are a ton big (and a plethora of small) players in this space. As broadband speeds increase, ultra-wideband wireless becomes a reality, and fiber becomes the norm, the winners are going to win big.

Sony launches blog:

Joining the now-gen, Sony has launched an official Playstation blog, with the inaugural post by none other than President & CEO Jack Tretton. Some good, reasonably transparent stuff here.

Dark Sector due 2008:

For gamers, this holiday is going to rock. For those (like me) waiting for Digital Extremes' Dark Sector, you're going to need to wait until after the holiday. According to D3Publishing:

"We've decided to pull Dark Sector out of a very crowded holiday season and it is now slated for release in Q1 2008."

Episodic content expands:

Telltale Games got a $6 million influx. What they're using it for is more of their successful multi-platform episodic content.

Honestly, "Episodic Content" and "Digital Distribution" are two of the two New Hotnesses of gaming, so Telltale is on the forefront, and playing this wicked smart.

Usability and Human Factors:

Usability is not a choice. Good usability is. So I like this apropos Penny Arcade strip. Devs, take note.

Peter Cullen:

Peter Cullen, the voice of Optimus Prime in the 80s cartoon, upcoming Michael Bay Movie, and video game tie-in, gives a brief video explanation of his role and the voice of Optimus. As a voice actor, I'm inspired. As a fanboy, I have goosebumps.

Labels: announcements, companies, console updates, DLC, Epic Games, events, Gears of War, Halo, media intersection, shooters, Unreal Engine 3, XBLA, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Halo 3 "Crackdown beta " available now!

The fine folks at Bungie / Microsoft Xbox Live have fixed the problem keeping early-copy Crackdown owners from downloading and playing the Halo 3 beta.

You can now launch Crackdown, where you'll get a DLC title update that'll then let you download the Halo 3 beta.

And, "for lost time and inconvenience, we are extending the Halo 3 Beta end date to Sunday, 6/10, at 11:59 PM PDT."

That's decent of them (seriously).

Labels: DLC, Halo

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Forza 2 demo, new Crackdown DLC ...

Forza 2, probably Microsoft's premiere title for the Xbox 360 (maybe until PGR4), saw its free demo released last night on Xbox Live MarketPlace. (As an aside, I was entertained watching forum posters percolate the "it'll be available at 2 a.m. EDT" rumor all last night, and saying they were going to wait up for it. Since Microsoft only releases content on a PDT schedule, those East Coasters waiting for the content at 2 a.m. EDT (rather than 5 EDT) are probably sucking it up in home room this morning.)

More exciting to me (I'm stoked about Forza, but that's in the context of my sucking at racing games) is the massive amount of downloadable content coming in the next week for one of my favorite 360 games -- Crackdown (at which my suckage is less obvious).

Check out the MajorNelson.com post for all of the details (and videos), but there's a ton of free and premium content coming for Realtime Worlds's seminal sandbox title. The free stuff''ll get you new and improved attacks and effects, new game types, and achievements. The premium content (800 MS Points) will get you new vehicles, races, weapons, achievements, and gametypes -- including formally supported rocket tag. Sadly, it looks like it's all still limited to 2 player, so I'll feel a bit mislead by the released screenshot with 4 of the new Agency Buggy vehicles (turns out the new race type actually supports 12-way racing, but 10 of those racers are NPCs).

And really cool? If your friend buys the premium content and you join his / her co-op game, you get that premium content for that co-op session. That's a really intelligent product choice, in my mind.

Check out the post for the pages and pages of text and video goodness.

Labels: DLC, driving, sandbox

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SOURCES: Gamespot.com, joystiq.com, kotaku.com, Xbox.com, IGN, GameInformer, Official XBox Magazine, CNN, gamesindustry.biz, and others.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

New "Gears of War" maps ...

Epic Games has just released the "Hidden Fronts" Multiplayer Map Pack 2, which includes four new Gears of War maps and will set you back 800 Points ($10 USD, per the Microsoft Points Converter). The maps will be free after September 3, 2007.

Here are the maps:

Bullet Marsh -- "Kryll-infested swamp"
Garden -- "overgrown and crumbling conservatory"
Process -- "subterranean Imulsion processing plant"
Subway -- "Timgad’s Central Subway Station"

Full details here.

Labels: DLC, Epic Games, Gears of War, shooters, Unreal Engine 3

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