The above images were taken from Obsidian‘s home page on two consecutive days this week. The “countdown” began with a four on Tuesday and has changed daily since. This is leading up to the announcement of their next RPG project, one “So secret not even its project codename is yet being revealed.” The countdown will presumably end sometime today with the title and other details. Speculation is rampant. Considering the countdown started with a four, I’m betting that the initial speculation of Dungeon Siege IV is correct. But that’s probably flawed logic.
Details on the Prometheans (and some weapons) of Halo 4 have been revealed. It’s a lot of pictures, so just check out the story from yesterday. The game is scheduled for November 6, 2012.
I don’t know how useful any of this will be in a typical gamer’s console room but Microsoft has filed a patent for what is basically the Star Trek holodeck in your own home. Actually, it’s nowhere near that sophisticated as I’m sure Trekkies will love to explain. Instead, their patent calls for a device that would holographically project a game world onto the walls of your living room and track your head movements to know exactly where you’re looking. The walls and ceiling of your home would become an extension of your television. Presumably, assuming this will ever happen, this won’t happen until at least next-gen, and probably somewhere beyond. Excerpted from the patent text:
“Interactive media experiences, such as video games, are commonly delivered by a high quality, high resolution display. Such displays are typically the only source of visual content, so that the media experience is bounded by the bezel of the display.”
“Even when focused on the display, the user may perceive architectural and decorative features of the room the display is in via the user’s peripheral vision. Such features are typically out of context with respect to the displayed image, muting the entertainment potential of the media experience.”
“Further, because some entertainment experiences engage the user’s situational awareness (e.g., in experiences like the video game scenario described above), the ability to perceive motion and identify objects in the peripheral environment (i.e., in a region outside of the high resolution display) may intensify the entertainment experience.”
I barely have the space to use my PlayStation Move in my basement. And with a large window situated to the right of my gamespace, how will this work for me? Microsoft, send me a test unit for review, please.
Insomniac’s first foray into multi-platform gaming has received an official announcement. Being published by EA, Fuse (nee Overstrike) is a four-player action co-op focusing on what Insomniac does best, crazy weaponry. The game will feature four covert agents (Dalton Brooks, Izzy Sinclair, Jacob Kimble and Naya Deveraux) as they team up to use the eponymous Fuse for crafting new weapons in their mission to prevent an arms race. The in-game LEAP feature allows you to jump between characters during the game. Co-op is available on and offline, with your experience and character leveling moving between both modes. Release has been slated for March 2013, probably the perfect time to release a new IP as everyone will be finishing their holiday games and looking for something fresh to fill the void.
In the growing market of throwback-inspired games, 2011’s Terraria has proven to be a hit for PC gamers. Naturally, the next step is to take the title to consoles. 505 Games recently announced the action-adventure platformer that focuses on exploration and collecting will be coming to XBLA and PSN early next year. The game’s creator, Andrew Spinks, says “To see it come so far is a complete shock, especially after such humble beginnings. It’s always been my dream to have as many people as possible know and enjoy Terraria as much as I have, and this is another big step in that direction! It’s been awesome working with 505 Games, and I can’t wait for everyone to see the additional features that they’ve been able to bring to this new edition of the game.” Those “additional features” are still under wraps, but there could be enough to sell a fresh copy to some of the game’s 1.6 million customers to date.
You may have noticed earlier this week that system software version 4.25 was released on PlayStation 3. I don’t have a full breakdown of the changes, but I do know one of the highlighted features. For PlayStation Plus subscribers, you’ve probably noticed that the 150MB of online storage just hasn’t been enough for all of your games, especially the larger files. This update seems like it’s just for you. Your storage cap has now been raised to 1GB. You may still fill it up, but that’s a pretty significant amount of backup for your game saves.
Like Obsidian above, SEGA has also opened a teaser site for Project Omega. It’s counting down to September 20th. On the site, you’ll find some racy photos of an attractive female torso that has been tattooed with something the Germans call “ass-horns” when it’s on a woman’s lower back. I think it’s supposed to look demonic, but it actually just looks a tribal biker tattoo everyone got in the ’90s to be different. You know, different, like everyone else. Despite the deliberate sexiness and “hip” design, this teaser already has me uninterested in whatever SEGA might be doing.
For the record, those tits are likely not Bayonetta’s, despite the early speculation. It’s still possible. But why wait until September 20th to talk about Bayonetta 2 when Nintendo announced it yesterday as a WiiU-exclusive. No details, such as a release date, were included in the announcement. We’re just left with knowing that Platinum Games has it under development and you’ll have to buy Nintendo’s “next-gen” console to play it.
That announcement, by the way, was made yesterday at Nintendo’s big WiiU reveal. CitizenBot has pretty extensive coverage of everything announced, including the price points for both bundles. The console looks like it could have some success, especially with gamers in the “family” or “casual / slightly core” categories. Unfortunately, this reveal only serves to confirm for me that the WiiU is not next gen. I’ve created some controversy with this statement before, but I stand by it. The only true innovation is the tablet gamepad. But, Sony is incorporating similar usage for the PS Vita in conjunction with the PS3. Also, Microsoft’s upcoming SmartGlass seems to already be one-upping the function. From what I’ve seen of it, any smartphone or tablet running Android, Windows Mobile, or iOS will have an app available to incorporate into your XBox 360 experience. I’m still willing to be wrong. Maybe PS4 and neXtBox won’t push the innovation any further either. Maybe the next generation is simply boosted processing power.