Happy Valentine’s Day! Well, if you’re a lady. If you’re a guy, happy day like any other day that requires you to spend excess money on a female! I’m really hoping that you saved $10 on those flowers you bought her by pre-ordering Twisted Metal at GameStop.
But, with love in the air, it’s very appropriate to report the upcoming Syndicate remake will be giving me a digital boner. EA and Starbreeze studios have announced some of the voicecast. It will be featuring Brian Cox (John Landon in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and William Stryker in X-Men 2) and my celebrity crush Rosario Dawson (Death Proof, Clerks II, Sin City) as high powered executives at Eurocorp. Michael Wincott (Alien: Resurrection, The Crow) will also be joining the cast as a senior agent for Eurocorp, but I could care less about him. For me, it’s all about the lovely Rosario.
Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing 2 was accidentally revealed at the Toy Fair in New York over the weekend. While the game itself has not had an official announcement from SEGA, a new line of toys from the franchise was on display. Attendants at the booth confirmed the game is in development, new characters and vehicles will be announced soon, and it should be launching Holiday 2012. Good news for those who like mascot racers.
How is it Rockstar can talk so much but say so little? They’ve recently answered a few questions on their News Wire, ostensibly about Max Payne 3 but it tended to drift off topic. Regarding the future of the L.A. Noire franchise: “While there won’t be any more DLC or additional content for the current release of L.A. Noire (we’re all too busy working on Max Payne 3, GTAV and other games to come), don’t count out the possibility of a new game in the L.A. Noire franchise in the future. We simply have not decided anything.” Wait a minute, did they mention Grand Theft Auto V? Yes they did. It will be the “largest and most ambitious open world game we’ve ever created…” That’s a bold statement.
Does anyone actually play all those crappy Wii motion games and think to themselves, “I wish they’d release this for Move on PS3?” Yeah, I didn’t think so. So why is Order Up!! doing it? And since when is “cooking” a game genre? Seriously grandma, the little ones don’t want this, please get them something fun like ModNation Racers instead. For those that still find themselves interested and refuse to go play with their shoe laces instead, this is basically a Wii port. It’ll be HD but it’s the same concept of using motion controls (Move or sixaxis) to cook in your own fake restaurant to satisfy fake whiny customers. It’s coming February 28th.
I realize fighting games never really left, but it certainly feels like they’ve been making a comeback in the last few years with Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter IV, and Marvel vs. Capcom. It seems the newest trend is a line of all-girl fighters. Skullgirls will be coming to PSN and XBLA next month. Vanguard Princess is being rumored as a downloadable title later this year. And recently announced is Girl Fight from Microprose and Kung Fu Factory. While the other games are expected to portray overly sexy and unrealistic women as a matter of course, this one seems to be banking on it. At least as far as I can see in the promotional image (side boob!). But that doesn’t mean it’s going to skip out on the story. Apparently an “array of sexy fighters” will be trying to escape “The Foundation,” a shady corporation that captures women and exploits their psionic powers, turning them into weapons. Hmm. Actually, it looks like they are skipping the story. This just seems like a pseudo-sci-fi excuse to put hot women together and watch them beat the hell out of one another. Which is fine, as long as you know the score. Despite my better judgment, I might give this a try just to see if sexy fights can make a reasonable game. It’s planned for sometime in 2012 but nothing more specific as yet.
Spin up your rumor mill, as this is totally unfounded at the moment, but it looks like Ubisoft’s full 2012 lineup has been leaked/announced. I would expect an official announcement to make a bigger splash however, as the list includes two projects that have yet to be officially listed at all, Assassin’s Creed 3 and Splinter Cell: Retribution. Both games are entirely plausible though, as Ubisoft has been on record that they’d like to make the Assassin’s Creed franchise a yearly release. As for Tom Clancy, how can you not release a game from his universe at least once a year, in this case twice? So, please consider this rumor for now, but it’s probably reliable enough to feel some excitement, here’s their list:
- Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows)
- Far Cry 3 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows)
- I Am Alive (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
- Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows)
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Retribution (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows)
- Assassin’s Creed 3 (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, Microsoft Windows)
- Just Dance Final Party (Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation Move)
You may remember some time ago I reported here in VGQH that a PC gamer in Europe had managed to escape the Skyrim area in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. What he found was a rudimentary map of the entire continent of Tamriel, including the Morrowind and Cyrodiil areas. Speculation at the time was that DLC would eventually be released to take you beyond the borders of Skyrim and into the wider continent. Then again, it was also possible that Bethesda was simply building the entire continent as they went along and planned to expand further for the next release. We may finally have some answers. According to director Todd Howard at DICE, it’s a little of both, it’s placeholder but it may get used:
“The reason they are there – and I will not say if we are or are not using them in the future – is when we first built the landmass for Skyrim we knew we were going to have these tall mountains.
“And what can you see see? We have views early in the project where you can see into the province from the other game. We needed to have something.
“It’s not high detail. If you walk there, from a distance it’s…yeah, the stuff is there. And the thinking is, maybe we’ll use it one day, but our larger worry was, I’m going to climb up on top of a mountain and look that way. What will I be able to see there? We try to cover all those angles as much as we can.”
If you’re getting yourself a PS Vita on early release tomorrow, or even picking one up next week, I’m thinking you want to know more about post-launch games. Sure, Escape Plan, Gravity Rush, and Uncharted: Golden Abyss look great. But what happens in two months? Just as much as initial sales, continued content is going to be important to this handheld. Sony’s got you covered for at least one more game. Being touted as the first dual analog portable FPS, Resistance: Burning Skies has finally been issued the release date of May 29th. Looks like this is the game they want you playing on those long road trips or flights when you go on vacation this summer. In addition to the dual analogs, expect to use both the front and rear touch controls. I’m guessing at least one touch screen function will deal with reloading.
And that’s it for the early edition. Enjoy your pseudo-holiday. Don’t eat too many illegible hearts. And remember, chocolate covered cinnamon bears are a disgrace to candy everywhere.