Former Getaway Developer Creates DJ App for iPhone
Written by from on March 11th, 2010 | 0 CommentsIf you’re a DJ looking for something a little more portable (and far cheaper) than your standard issue mixing equipment, then you may want to turn your attention to CUE.PLAY.DJ. . It’s essentially an application for the iPhone or iPod Touch that includes all the basic features you’d need to move some butts onto the dance floor — and it’ll only set you back $9.99. Developer Capsulated Software created the app with assistance from DJ and radio host Ferry Corsten. It supports simultaneous playback of two tracks, automatic track syncing and BPM detection, pitch modification capabilities, looping options, and, of course, a built-in crossfader for switching between tracks. CUE.PLAY.DJ. also includes CUE.PLAY.SETLIST. , a nifty piece of software for the PC or Mac that enables on-the-fly streaming of tracks to and from the mobile app, as well as allowing you to record any particularly tasty grooves on your computer. CUE.PLAY.DJ. is planned for release sometime in April. Following that, creator Max Harvey (formerly of Sony’s Getaway team) and his partners at Capsulated Software will be working on Sequence*R , a “music based action game” for the iPhone and iPod Touch. We’ll keep you posted as more details become available.
Epic Integrates Steamworks into Unreal Engine 3
Written by from on March 11th, 2010 | 0 CommentsEpic Games and Valve Software have announced a mutually beneficial partnership to bring Steamworks to Unreal Engine 3. Valve’s full suite of tools will now be offered to Unreal Engine licensees completely free of charge. Steamworks allows developers to utilize any of the features of Valve’s digital distribution platform in their own products, including Steam Cloud save importing, Achievements, user stat tracking, and DRM authentication. It’s normally available for free, but its integration into the latest version of the Unreal Engine should encourage even more developers to utilize Steamworks. “Valve has created a world-wide phenomenon with Steam and we’re excited to be able to have the Steamworks suite of services available to Unreal Engine 3 licensees so they can take full advantage of all that Steam has to offer,” explained Epic’s Mark Rein, adding, “With Valve offering these services free of charge, the idea of providing the Steamworks SDK to all Unreal Engine licensees was a no-brainer.”
Nexon America Shows Off Latest Round of Free MMORPGs
Written by from on March 11th, 2010 | 0 CommentsNexon America is preparing to launch their next batch of free MMORPGs in North America, and they showed off two of them during a recent GDC event. Already available in Korea, Dragon Nest and the recently-renamed Vindictus aim to kick subgenre’s visual quality up a notch while offering different gameplay styles. Nexon America vice president Min Kim presented Vindictus — known as Mabinogi Heroes in Korea — first, offering a quick tour of features such as the Source engine and the more action-oriented combat. Nexon is currently distributing Counter-Strike in Asia, and Kim said that relationship helped get them access to Source, which they’ve used it to create an action MMORPG featuring an easily-manipulated environment. “The development team really wanted an engine where you can break everything,” he explained, then demonstrated a sequence in which a foe was smashed into a wall, which took noticeable damage from the impact. Armor and clothing also deteriorate from the wear and tear of battle, eventually falling apart completely.
Sony Considering God of War 3 DLC
Written by from on March 11th, 2010 | 0 CommentsGod of War 3 is due out next week, and Sony is mulling over the idea of adding downloadable content. VG247 reports that design director Todd Papy hinted at DLC at this year’s Game Developers Conference. “We’re talking about DLC, and the possibilities of it, to see if it’s worth for us to do it,” he said. “From a fan standpoint, I think it’s very worth it, but at the same time we don’t want to compromise our next projects.” If DLC does come, it may not be for a while. “We’re going to take a break, come back, look into new IPs, and at the same time we’re going to look and see if there is anything left in the God of War series that we feel is very compelling that we can sink our teeth into,” Papy said. If the team is planning to give the series a short rest before even starting development on DLC, it may actually be quite a while before any of it comes out. Papy refers to a few ideas the team is looking into, but says “we’ll see if it ever comes to market.”
EA Shows How Medal Of Honor Is Not Just Another WWII FPS
Written by from on March 11th, 2010 | 0 CommentsMy memories of Medal of Honor traditionally involve the Saving Private Ryan -esque level depicting D-Day, or highly scripted (and action-filled) gunfights-as-rollercoaster moments. So it’s pretty darn weird to see the new Medal of Honor take place in a period other than World War II, and on top of that, to see a pretty low-key (and downright stealthy) mission as opposed to a blazing shootout. Executive producer Greg Goodrich recently stopped by to show off a mission, and briefly talk about the new direction for Medal of Honor. Sure, this install maintains MOH’s core ethos of being a serious and realistic depiction of military combat — it just happens to also be the MOH that takes place in the modern day, carries an M-rating, and has two development teams working on different aspects, to boot.
SOCOM 4 Hands-On Preview
Written by from on March 11th, 2010 | 0 CommentsMany of us here in the office got our first hands-on with the new PlayStation Move today and its (somewhat necessary) add-on, the Sub Controller. There were a number of tech demos on display at the event (look for our video recap for more impressions), whereas the only “real” game on display working with the new Move was the recently announced SOCOM 4 . And while I personally won’t be hanging up my DualShock3 and trading it in for a Move after my first impressions with the product, it’s still an impressive display on what can be done with this new device: decent motion control for a hardcore game. The PlayStation Move controllers themselves are very similar to the current set-up of the Wii Remote and its Nunchuk: The right-hand controller controls your head/gun/firing while the left-hand controller handles your movement with an analog stick. Each controller has a trigger as well; the left-hand’s trigger operates as a “go-into-cover” function, while the right-hand’s trigger fires your selected weapon (for the sake of the demo we were only able to use a machine gun). There is even an “action” button in the middle of the Move that, when pressed, would have you look down the sight line of the rifle — making the motion sensitivity increase.
Sony Unveils Sports Champions for PlayStation Move
Written by from on March 11th, 2010 | 0 CommentsAmong the many gameplay demos Sony just showed off for their newly christened PlayStation Move motion controller was Sports Champions , a compilation of athletic events very much along the lines of Wii Sports. The first event from the game that Sony demonstrated today was Gladiator Duel, which used two Move controllers as a sword and shield in an arena-style, one-on-one fighting game. Vertical and horizontal swings of the right-hand remote appeared to trigger the same sword movements onscreen, while moving the left remote would adjust the position of the player’s shield. A quick uppercut allowed the user to pull a Devil May Cry and juggle his opponent in the air. There were also maneuvers that would prompt canned animations, such as hiding the remotes behind the back to perform a taunt. A version of table tennis was also on display during Sony’s Sports Champions demo. It looked pretty much how you’d expect a modern, motion-controlled table tennis game to look, but the precision of the Move controller allowed for some impressive trick shots. The person demoing the game seemed to be able to pull off shots with all sorts of spin, and with varying degrees of power behind them.
Scrap Metal Review
Written by from on March 10th, 2010 | 0 CommentsBanging things into other things has been a major form of entertainment since the pilot episode of “Caveman Jackass” back in 20,000 B.C. There’s just something endlessly appealing about controlled destruction. So, if you’re stupefied by slaughter, dumbfounded by demolition, and enthralled by evisceration, you’re sure to be tickled by Slick Entertainment’s new XBLA title, Scrap Metal . Sitting somewhere between a straight-up arcade action title and a lightweight racing sim, Scrap Metal has drawn comparisons to Rare’s R.C. Pro-Am — but the similarity to that old classic is mostly skin deep. Really, Scrap Metal’s casual-game veneer hides a robust (if somewhat overly sensitive) physics engine, more levels than a Byzantine ziggurat, and a grip of imaginative set pieces. Both multiplayer (Scrap Metal offers local and online) and single-player are challenging without being too intense, offer plenty of tweaking without being overly detailed, and feature charmingly over-the-top graphics.
GDC 2010: Social Games Getting More Social
Written by from on March 10th, 2010 | 0 CommentsSocial games just aren’t social enough, according to experts in the field. A meeting of the minds took place Wednesday at the GamesBeat conference at GDC to discuss the future of social games — that is, internet-based games that interact with your social network. The consensus among the panel was that these games need to better integrate their social aspects into gameplay, rather than as a separate feature.
OnLive Launching June 17, $14.95 Per Month
Written by from on March 10th, 2010 | 0 CommentsAt the GamesBeat portion of the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this morning, Steve Perlman, CEO of OnLive, finally announced details for the launch of the cloud computing gaming service. A year after the service was first unveiled at GDC in 2009, Perlman was able to point to E3 2010 as the official launch of OnLive. June 17th is the date, and according to Perlman the service will be up and running in all 48 contiguous United States at that time.