I’m a little sleepy after staying up last night to watch Thor so I’ll skip the lofty introduction. I won’t be doing a full review of the movie so suffice to say that I enjoyed my time, but I’ve seen better. Unfortunately, it felt like a two hour origin story more than its own movie. Regardless, the news:
It’s not unusual to see multimedia crossovers for video games. Sometimes it’s a prequel comic book, maybe news about a movie-based game, but Rockstar’s recent announcement of L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories is one of the best concepts I’ve seen. Noir, as a genre, is most at home in books and movies. Other attempts to breach the genre in games have had varied success, but this one looks poised to change all that. That’s why I find it so interesting that they are cross-promoting it with a step back and a step forward at once. The anthology, featuring classic noir writers (Megan Abbott, Lawrence Block, Joe Lansdale, Joyce Carol Oates, Francine Prose, Jonathan Santlofer, Duane Swierczynski and Andrew Vachss), will tell further tales of characters from the game. According to Sam Houser, Rockstar’s Founder, “L.A. Noire draws on a rich history of not just film, but also great crime literature for inspiration. Using the game’s world as a springboard, we worked with the genre’s best writers to create stories that lived up to the finest traditions of crime fiction.” Another thing about this concept that I love is that the book won’t be seeing print publishing. Instead, it will be available through all of your major eBook sellers on June 6th for $0.99. Publication duties are being done through Mulholland Books (Little, Brown, and Company). The game is scheduled for May 17th.
Yoostar 2: In the Movies may have passed you by if you’re not on Kinect or Move. But, to many gamers, this is the new Rock Band. The game is basically movie karaoke, with you doing the physical acting and reciting the lines from the some of the most memorable senes in film history. Another comparison to Rock Band is the continually updating downloadable content. The month of May will be very exciting in that arena as they have planned 45 new scenes! Typical pricing is $2 per scene with discounts for multi-packs. While The Wizard of Oz (getting three new scenes) is one of my all-time favorites, BSR! readers likely have other interests. Here’s the list:
- 300
- American Graffiti
- Apollo 13
- Beverly Hills Cop
- The Big Lebowski (2)
- The Blair Witch Project
- Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie
- Clash of the Titans
- Crank
- Fast and the Furious
- Fletch
- Forrest Gump
- GI Joe
- The Godfather
- The Hangover (4)
- Kick Ass (2)
- Marathon Man
- Matrix Revolutions
- Men in Black 2
- On the Waterfront
- Platoon
- The Princess Bride (2)
- Rio Grande
- Rocky 2
- Sands of Iwo Jima
- Saw II & V
- Scarface
- Star Trek: Generations
- The Terminator (2)
- Three Amigos
- Tropic Thunder (2)
- Weeds
Saints’ Row: Drive-By has been cancelled. The 3DS and downloadable game was to lead into the upcoming Saints’ Row: The Third in much the same way Red Faction: Battlegrounds leads into RF: Armageddon. Poor sales reception for Battlegrounds (mostly unrelated to the PSN fiasco) has apparently led THQ to change the plans. Obviously other factors could also be involved.
But just because they’ve cancelled that piece doesn’t mean they’re not still adding new stuff. The Initiation Station is a new feature for Saints’ Row: The Third, allowing you to share your created protagonist with other users (a la ModNation Racers). You can get access to the free service a week early by preordering Red Faction: Armageddon.
I really have to wonder about THQ. While it appears they are cancelling a downloadable tie-in to a premier franchise, they also are going forward with 360 and PS3 versions of their uDraw tablets. The peripheral released for Wii in November, making it possible to play things like Pictionary on your TV. Why? Better things already exist for PC/Mac for any serious artistic use. Do consoles really need another expensive hunk of plastic to play three more crappy games?
If that’s not enough to make you wonder about THQ’s business strategy, let me throw one more at you. The demo for Red Faction: Armageddon is out now and they’re aiming for one million downloads. If that goal is met, there wil be an additional weapon for the full game: Mr. Toots, the rainbow farting unicorn. Some days games are an art form. Other days they feature mythical animals shitting rainbows all over martians. The continued existence of the human race needs to be questioned.
SEGA is another company that’s been hit or miss in the last few years. Here’s to hoping their latest endeavor will be a hit. They’ve recently filed a US trademark for Samurai Bloodshow: Les Vagues Blanches, Les Nuages Rouges for use in video games. The title translates roughly to “The White Waves, the Red Clouds” but that doesn’t tell us any more about it. Stuff like this typically happens just before E3 when developers actually start showing things off. If it helps, here’s the logo SEGA released along with the news:
Not much to say about The Darkness II except that it has a confirmed release date. You can get your evil, little hands on this one October 4th.
Meanwhile, a game I actually want to play is getting pushed back into 2012. This one really hurts, but Mass Effect 3 is being delayed to first quarter next year. This is probably a good thing because that time frame is usually lacking in quality games and it’s also got time to get the high level of polish that a title this huge needs. But I want to be playing RIGHT NOW.
I’m not actually on Facebook myself, but if you’re desperate for news about Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, you probably should be. The game’s Facebook page is continually updating with more little secrets and clues about the upcoming game. If you can wait a little while though, Game Informer has a 12 page cover story coming. The highlights are the three playable characters, Ezio, Desmond, and Altair. While Ezio heads to Constantinople and Desmond picks up right where Brotherhood left off, Altair will apparently be continuing his part of the story in 1165 in the Middle East. I’m just not sure how that will work considering Bloodlines took place immediately after the first game and Desmond should have none of Ezio’s memories past that time. Could this be before his weapons were stripped from him by Al Mualim?
Yet another studio has fallen victim to cuts and cancellations. Disney Interactive Studios has confirmed that about 40 people have been laid off at Black Rock Studio. The company was possibly making a sequel to Pure, which is no longer happening, and their Split/Second 2 has been cancelled. Instead, their recently limited resources are now devoted to a “new and risky” title.
“Today our global network and security teams at Sony Network Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment began the final stages of internal testing of the new system, an important step towards restoring PlayStation Network and Qriocity services.” That’s according to a post on the PlayStation blog yesterday (boldface added by me for ease of scanning by readers). Sony also recently announced is a new feature for PSN once it’s restored, free ID Theft protection. As of the time I hit publish, the network is still down.
And that’s it for today. Some good, some bad, some just the announcement of a title that’s way too long. Check back Tuesday to catch up on anything I hear over the weekend. Poor me, I won’t be gaming much this weekend. My lovely wife will be getting her bachelor’s degree this afternoon (congratulations Sara) and I’ll be spending most of my time with the family that’s come to celebrate.