GDC
Civilization 5 will turn the tide of war and win back your time this spring with the release of the Gods and Kings expansion. Focusing on adding a few major game aspects, this expansion promises the return of fan favorite features religion and espionage, missing from the basic version of the world domination simulator, as well as tweaks to combat and diplomacy.
Religions allow players to found and grow the faith of their people from the very beginning, offering a much richer experience than religion in Civ 4. Now, religions can be customized to fit particular playstyles, such as aiding culture or war development, pulling different beliefs from a common pool shared among all players. Once an empire's faith adopts a practice, it disappears from the available options for other players, creating a new avenue for resource competition.
Religions grow in a variety of ways depending on your civilization and belief choices, such as the Celts gaining extra faith for living near wooded areas. Eventually, your faith can blossom into pantheon of gods or even see a prophet arrive to bring the true word and upgrade to major religion status, allowing further customization and development to suit your playstyle.
To hear about the more secular additions Gods and Kings brings to Civilization 5, as well as a few more nifty images, make the jump.
I knew I had notes for one more GDC article in here. Silly notes got lost in my hard drive. This last, and belated article covers two offerings from Deep Silver: Dead Island and Risen 2: Dark Waters. One has you on a tropical island battling the undead, the other has you sailing from island to island fighting world-shattering evil. Clearly the company's message is, "Wear sunscreen."
I've been waiting to post this story for a week and a half now. Bloody embargoes. The first studio I had an appointment with at GDC was FunCom about their upcoming MMO The Secret World. Once I figured out that it was being held at the Zeum Museum and not the Zune Museum (enunciate, Drand, enunciate!), I facepalmed and then met up with Henshin A Go Joe to see this game that I had previously heard nothing about. Gaymers, you need to hear about this game.
GDC is a week gone, but the fires are still stoked. I'd love to share with you all some juicy deets from the NCsoft presser, so I will! Drand and I sat down with NCsoft and ArenaNet to get the skinny on their next big thing: Guild Wars 2, an MMO sequel unlike any other.
Full details and gallery after the jump.
With the 3DS right around the corner lots of studios are working to develop new software titles that harness the awesome visual power of Nintendo's shiny new baby. And some folks are just releasing stuff they've put together for consoles in order to have something ship in the launch window. With what I saw at my appointment Capcom is the latter, but the results of the two titles they're releasing,
Super Street Fighter IV and
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, were impressive enough to overcome jaded skepticism. Also,
Okamiden for the DS.
I should probably preface my impressions of Telltale's take on Jurassic Park by saying that the original film is my favorite movie of all time. So, when starting up the demo at Telltale's booth at GDC, I was filled with both excitement and fear at what the company best known for comical adventure games would do to my favorite franchise. And I'm happy to say that, based on what I've seen, it is a far more worthy addition to the original than either of its film sequels.
The story of the Jurassic Park game takes place parallel to the events of the film. Moviegoers likely remember the shaving cream can of stolen dinosaur embryos, which was buried in the mud as Dennis Nedry made friends with a dilophosaurus. It turns out that Nedry had a partner waiting at the docks, and she becomes a focal character in Telltale's game as she attempts to retrieve the embryos and escape the island.
Read on for impressions from the game's playable GDC demo.
One week later and GDC is over. Hallelujah! I had a blast with Drand, NaviFairy, Nugget and Henshin A Go Joe, but after a few days one does reach a video game saturation point. Crazy talk, I know, but it does happen. There was too much going on during GDC for me to sit down and write much of anything proper, but now that I've had a weekend of relaxation and Jägermeister I'm ready to share with y'all the wonderful and not-so-wonderful things that were on display in San Francisco this past week, starting with some titles that will be coming from Korea.
One of the great things about GDC is that it's not just the big boys who get to hog the spotlight. A lot of the smaller studios, indie or otherwise, hold summits, appointments, and interviews with the press to get the word out about the titles they're working on, and they get to do it in an environment that's not dependent on a massive ad budget with booth babes and overly-loud demos to attract attention. I attended an appointment with one of these small studios, the South Korea-based JoyMax. Though they and their partner company Dragonfly are well-established in South Korea, they merged with WeMade to try and establish a foothold in North America, so they took the time to show off a few of the titles that they're working on.
I had the great opportunity to attend a Sony event that showcased the latest title in the Resistance fps series. Resistance 3 is looking very nice and getting a chance to play with the updated multiplayer mode was a fun experience at the event.
Resistance 3 has some great features that have been added as well as bringing back some that were missing in 2. What stuck out to me was the return of the weapon wheel from the original game, that went missing in the second title as well as co-op multiplayer.
The event highlighted what the developer was dubbing, "choice based" shooting, and this is a very evident theme, especially in the multiplayer component. Probably my favorite aspect of the multiplayer, which will be 8 versus 8 max, is the abilities you are able to use in the game. These abilities are passive or active, active abilities are iniated with the D-Pad and the passive abilities are various stat buffs. The multiplayer also contains berserks for those who obtain killing streaks rewarding players for moments of great skill. The emphasis on in depth customization will allow players to tailor the game to their play style and allow them to also explore and master new play styles, after this event, I for one am very excited to see the final build of this title!
There is a great event coming up in the Castro District here in San Francisco. This Friday in honor of a week of GDC, the Lookout will be hosting it's "8-Bit Dope" event featuring CrashFasterand, DJ Medic, VJ DuplesX. Show your GDC badge and get hooked up for this event that features great music inspired by chiptune style influences. The location is on 16th & Market from 9pm-2am all just for "three dollars and a smile." A few of us writers should be at the event too, so stop in and say hello!
For more information check out their website!
[The Lookout SF: DOPE]
As Vorpalbunny pointed out in his review earlier today, Magicka is getting a DLC expansion soon with the bizarrely themed Magicka Vietnam. Today at GDC I had the chance to sit down with Arrowhead CEO and Game Director Johan Pilestedt to find out how this expansion came to be, and what it will entail.
Magicka Vietnam began as a bit of a joke for the developers. Battlefield Vietnam had just been announced, and an M16 had been implemented into Magicka, and thus the odd combination of magical parody and gruesome war were born. Just as Magicka isn't a serious take on fantasy worlds, the Vietnam expansion parodies popular media portrayal of Vietnam as "all rock and roll and napalm."
Magicka Vietnam will consist of a single mission, tasking players with guiding mages through jungles to rescue POWs and bring them to an extraction point. 10 new weapons will be introduced, including machine guns and RPGs. In addition to the new weapons, the new Patriot Staff will be added, with the special ability to throw liberty grenades at your foes. Those liberty grenades will come in very handy too, as enemies will hide behind destructible cover as an homage to the classic game Cannon Fodder. And of course, it wouldn't be Vietnam without the aforementioned napalm, which will be a new magic you can cast to spread fire like never before.
There is no price set for the Magicka Vietnam DLC, but Pilestadt said he hopes it will be on the lower end of the spectrum, likely in the $2-3 range if I had to take a guess. Also according to Pilestedt, gamers can expect more expansions of this nature in the future, though he refused to give any details as to what new settings and scenarios we can expect to see. Who knows, Magicka: In Space might not be far off.
At GDC today during a postmortem for their game Super Meat Boy, Team Meat snuck an announcement or two into their recap of the arduous development process. For Nintendo fans, there's good news and there's bad news. First, the bad news: it looks like the long-awaited release of Super Meat Boy on the Wii is not to be. This was actually announced back in December, but many fans were still holding out hope. What began as a simple platformer ballooned into the 300+ level game we now know as Super Meat Boy, and is just too large for the WIiWare size limit. A retail release was rumored, but as Team Meat reiterated today, publishers are none too eager to take on a third-party retail Wii game, even one as popular as Super Meat Boy.
As for the good news, Nintendo fans may still get their Super Meat Boy fix somewhere down the road. Team Meat's Edmund McMillan mentioned right before the end of the postmortem that they do have a 3DS dev kit. He was quick to clarify that this is not an announcement of a 3DS version of Super Meat Boy, but the possibility is under consideration.
With Cave Story 3D already coming to Nintendo's new handheld this summer, and now the possibility of Super Meat Boy, the 3DS could become a home to indie developers. Would you jump for a portable Super Meat Boy or would you rather Team Meat develop something new for the 3DS?
Thinking of going to this year's Game Developers Convention? GayGamer is going, and you should too! Be advised that today is the last day for attendees to get 35% off their passes to the conference. Early registration ends tonight at 11:59pm PST so if you're still undecided, I hope you'll decide by tonight! Three days of video game bliss. What could be better?
GDC is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers where many new products are featured and presented. This year's keynote speaker is none other than Nintendo President and CEO Satoru Iwata whose keynote speech will focus on the past 25 years of gaming history and advances. GDC 2011 takes place February 28 - March 4, 2011 in San Francisco, CA.
And girls who like girls who like rumble packs!
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