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The last week, particularly the last few days, has been full of new PC game release dates and announcements. What will next week, which also happens to be Gamescom week, bring us? We’ll just have to wait and see — in the meantime, check out what the last seven days brought us.

Exclusive features

• StarCraft II: We conclude our strategy guide to Blizzard’s game with entries on the Protoss and Zerg factions along with some of the game’s achievements.
• Blood Bowl Legendary Edition Interview: We chat with members of Cyanide Studio about their upcoming update to 2009’s fantasy-themed sports game.

Downloads

• Global Agenda Free Trial Client: Try out this recent first person shooter MMO for free.
• Mafia 2 demo: It’s a playable slice of the upcoming open world crime action game from 2K Games.
• Victoria 2 demo: Check out this portion of the recent historical strategy game from Paradox Interactive.
• The Scourge Project Demo: This is a free look at the recent third person shooter that uses Unreal Engine 3.
• BioShock Infinite trailer: This is the first CGI trailer for Irrational Games’ upcoming shooter title.
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution gameplay trailer: Check out this first look at actual game play from Eidos Montreal’s action-RPG.

Continue reading The Best of Big Download: August 9 – 15

The Best of Big Download: August 9 – 15 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 15 Aug 2010 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Studio behind Conduit 2, Tournament of Legends trims payroll, projects in development continue as scheduled.

Conduit developer High Voltage Software is streamlining its operations, laying off dozens of employees a little less than a month after shipping its latest games, the Wii-exclusive fighter Tournament of Legends.

Tournament of Legends offered a fantasy focused take on fighting games.

The layoffs were first reported by Joystiq, and confirmed for GameSpot by the studio’s vice president, Eric Nofsinger. Nofsinger put the number at 25 product development positions, and specified that “no other reductions are expected.”

While the Chicago-area developer has spent much of the last 17 years working on licensed projects, it might be best known among gamers for its recent Sega-published original intellectual properties on the Wii. In addition to Tournament of Legends, High Voltage developed the first-person shooter The Conduit, and is currently at work on the sequel. It is also working on The Grinder, a violent shooter originally intended to be a Wii exclusive, but later switched to a multiplatform game. Asked how the layoffs would impact those titles, Nofsinger said they “will not affect our projects.”

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Publisher reports 7% decline in April-June revenues as digital sales surpass retail; Hong Kong-set sequel bumped to 2011.

Activision Blizzard preempted its second-quarter earnings report with two notable achievements this week. First, the publisher said that Call of Duty franchise multiplayer map packs had now shifted more than 20 million units, and a day later announced that Blizzard Entertainment’s Starcraft II had sold 1.5 million units within 48 hours. However, the game company’s actual earnings report wasn’t uniformly positive, as the April-June period saw sinking revenues but growing profits.

Blur had a slow jump off the line.

For the three-month period, Activision Blizzard said total revenues came in at $967 million, down 7 percent from the $1.04 billion brought in a year before. Net income saw a significant bump during the period, however, rising to $219 million from $195 million during the year prior.

Activision Blizzard chief operating officer Thomas Tippl attributed the revenue shortfall to foreign exchange rates. He also said that Bizarre Creation’s Blur and Raven Software’s Singularity underperformed during the quarter. Of note, neither title cracked the NPD Group’s top 10 retail sales chart during their debut months of May and June, respectively.

Activision Blizzard said that earnings during the period were driven by the continued success of its stalwart Call of Duty and World of Warcraft franchises. Of the former, Activision Blizzard said Modern Warfare 2 was the No. 3 overall franchise in the US during the quarter, a ranking that rose to No. 1 in the first-person shooter space.

The publisher also used its second-quarter earnings report to reveal one change to its 2010 release schedule. Once slated for a fall 2010 release, United Front Games’ True Crime: Hong Kong is now expected to arrive in 2011. According to Activision Blizzard, the delay was necessary “in order to give the development team more time to deliver the high-quality entertainment experience they envision for the game.”

Despite the delay, Activision Blizzard maintained its outlook for its 2010 calendar year, thanks to an increase in expectations from the Call of Duty franchise during the fourth quarter. As such, the publisher still plans to pull in $4.2 billion during the year, with earnings per share expected to hit $0.49.

As part of a post-earnings conference call, Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick also offered some deeper insight into the publisher’s earnings. “This is the first quarter that our sales from online channels outweighed our retail results,” Kotick said. The publisher also noted that digital online sales grew more than 20 percent year-over-year during the quarter.

During his portion of the conference call, Tippl confirmed that the Guitar Hero franchise has sold nearly 40 million units through the quarter. He also briefly touched upon the Infinity Ward situation, which saw a number of defections after studio heads Vince Zampella and Jason West were fired in March. According to Tippl, Activision has this year hired some 60 employees to work at Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, which is at work on an action adventure set in the Call of Duty franchise.

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We are just one more day away from StarCraft II’s launch. That means you can expect to see a ton of StarCraft related features and contests planned for Big Download starting tomorrow. In the meantime, check out what we have been writing about for the past seven days.

Exclusive features

• Team Fortress 2 Engineer Achievements: Check out part five, part six and part seven of our series looking at the new achievements for the Engineer class in TF2.
• Freeware Friday: Our look at free PC games checks out the new Valve top down shooter Alien Swarm.

Downloads

• ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead demo: Try out a portion of the recent shooter expansion pack.
• Making History 2 demo: Download this playable slice of the recent strategy game.
• Razor2: Hidden Skies demo: It’s a small part of the recent arcade shooter title.
• Dragon Age Origins 1.04 patch: Update your copy of BioWare’s RPG to the latest version
• Singularity 1.01 patch: This patch for the recent first person shooter solves a texture streaming issue.
• Darkspore teaser trailer: It’s the first glimpse of the new Maxis action-RPG based on Spore.
• StarCraft 2 Ghosts of the Past trailer: Check out some cool cut scenes from Blizzard’s upcoming RTS game.
• Kingdoms of Amular: Reckoning teaser trailer: It’s the first glimpse of Big Huge Games’ fantasy RPG.

Continue reading The Best of Big Download: July 19 – 25

The Best of Big Download: July 19 – 25 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Busy week at retail includes blocky sorcery, sci-fi FPS, City Interactive’s Sniper: Ghost Warrior, not-quite-MMOG APB, bloodthirsty Naughty Bear, Sin and Punishment sequel, and more.

Independence Day is just around the corner, meaning barbecues and lawn parties are in the offing on grand scale shortly. However, publishers are giving gamers plenty of reasons to stay indoors and chained to their consoles and handhelds this week.

One of the more prominent releases this week is Traveller’s Tales’ block-happy magical spin on the first four years of the Harry Potter saga. Lego: Harry Potter Years 1-4 comes to PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, DS, PSP, and PC Tuesday, and guides players through Harry’s first years at Hogwart’s.

Also arriving this week is Singularity, a sci-fi first-person-shooter from Madison, Wisconsin-based Raven Software. The shooter combines gun-toting action with time-bending supernatural powers, and will hit the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC Tuesday.

Harry Potter goes Lego this week.

Those with a thirst for headshots can get their fix with City Interactive’s Sniper: Ghost Warrior for Xbox 360 and PC. Taking place in Isla Truena, a fictional South American city, players will have 16 missions to complete, and can enlist in multiplayer matches for a change of pace.

Also releasing this week is 505 Games’ Naughty Bear. As its names implies, the title puts players in the body of a teddy bear bent on exacting revenge upon those who’ve wronged him. Players are tasked with racking up “naughty points,” and can use a variety of weapons–including a pistol and a frozen leg of lamb–to aid in the quest. The game comes to PS3 and 360, with both single player, and multiplayer components.

Shifting to the PC market, Electronic Arts releases the repeatedly delayed All Points Bulletin, aka APB, on Tuesday. The large-scale online game revolves around an ongoing turf war between street gangs and law enforcement officials. Players can take to the streets with up to 99 others in individualized instanced virtual cities. It was developed by Grand Theft Auto creator Dave Jones at his Scottish studio Realtime Worlds, which also developed the first Crackdown.

On the Wii front, Sin & Punishment: Star Successor hits Nintendo’s console this week. A sequel to the Japan-exclusive original, Star Successor is an on-rails shooter with plenty of boss fights.

Sony is putting its sights on the virtual Tennis court with the latest Hot Shots title. Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip comes to PSP Tuesday, and will be available both at retail and in the PlayStation Store.

Also debuting this week is Konami’s N3II: Ninety-Nine Nights II. The Xbox 360-exclusive, a sequel to 2006’s fantastic stabfest, hits Tuesday.

For further details on the week’s games, visit GameSpot’s New Releases page. The full list of downloadable games on the PlayStation Store, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Wii Shop Channel will be revealed later in the week. Release dates are based on retailer listings and are subject to change.

SUNDAY, JUNE 27
Alcatraz (2010)–PC–City Interactive
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor–Wii–Nintendo

MONDAY, JUNE 28
Animal Color Cross–DS–Little Worlds Studio
Brain Drain–DS–Enjoy Gaming
Combat of Giants: Mutant Effects Revenge–DS–Ubisoft
Harley Davidson–Wii–Destineer
Jet Rocket–Wii–Shin’en

TUESDAY, JUNE 29
10 Minute Solution–Wii–Activision
Arma II: Combined Operations–PC–Meridian 4
Ben 10: Ultimate Alien–PSP–D3
DeathSmiles–X360–Aksys Games
Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip–PSP–SCEA
Junior Class Books and Fairy Tales–DS–Navarre Corp.
Lego: Harry Potter Years 1-4–DS, PSP, Wii, X360, PS3, PC–Warner Bros. Interactive
Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister–DS–Her Interactive
Rise of Flight: Iron Cross Edition–PC–777 Studios
Runaway: A Twist of Fate–DS–Focus Home Interactive
Singularity–PS3, X360, PC–Activision
The Last Airbender–Wii,DS–THQ
Thomas and Friends: Heroes of the Rail–Wii, DS–Majesco Entertainment
TNA Impact: Cross the Line–PSP, DS–SouthPeak Games
Trinity Universe–PS3–NIS America
Vampire Legends: Power of Three–DS–THQ

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30
Ancients of Ooga–X360–J. Kentwood Entertainment
Puzzle Quest 2–X360–D3Publisher

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Metroid: Other M isn’t just a side-scroller. It’s a first-person shooter. And a third-person exploration game. And seemingly everything in-between. This trailer features a hodgepodge of perspectives, but how does it play? Stay tuned for our hands-on preview this weekend.

Continue reading Metroid: Other M trailer keeps things in perspective

Metroid: Other M trailer keeps things in perspective originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 18 Jun 2010 23:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ubisoft’s brand manager for games inspired by the techno-thriller author says a pair of unnamed projects are in the works.

Since the turn of the century, Ubisoft has enjoyed great success with Tom Clancy games. So much success, in fact, that in March 2008, the French publisher bought the rights to use the American techno-thriller author’s name in future books, films, and games.

Ubisoft is working on two unnamed Tom Clancy titles.

The move came days after the release of the critically acclaimed first-person shooter Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Since then, Ubisoft has released three Tom Clancy-branded games: the real-time strategy game EndWar, the air combat sim HAWX, and the just-released–and decently reviewed–Splinter Cell: Conviction. A fourth, the third-person shooter Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, is due out this holiday season.

Now, it appears two more Tom Clancy-branded titles are in the works. Speaking to Dutch gaming site Control-Online.nl, Tom Clancy brand manager Michael Verheijdt revealed that he is working on a pair of untitled games that bear the author’s name. “At the moment I’m working on two Tom Clancy games that are in development,” he said. “[But] if I say anything about that, I’ll have to send Sam Fisher after you.”

Verheijdt’s duties include writing a style guide for all Tom Clancy games for developers to use as a reference. He is also in charge of keeping the canon’s timeline straight, and making sure that events in one game don’t contradict those in another.

The next publicly announced Tom Clancy game is this fall’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

“I have a notion to update Wikipedia to index everything,” he told the site. “It is crucial that we have everything clear and orderly, because in the future, we want the various game series to overlap each other. ‘Convergence’ is the magic word here.”

That convergence may include a Tom Clancy massively multiplayer online game of some sort. When the name buyout was announced, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said that no longer having to pay royalties for the license would allow his company to expand the Tom Clancy brand in many new genres.

“We will be able to adapt the brand to new formats, in particular the MMO format, where the royalties were a big thing holding us back,” he explained.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Filed under: Mac, PC, Meta BD

Once again we’re getting loads of new game announcements — not to mention the rebirth of the X-Com franchise — though the new game’s first-person shooter design is already getting mixed responses from fans of the original. As we do each week, let’s look back at the past seven days with remembrance and a hint of frivolity … or something like that.

Exclusive features

• Throwing down at the WCG Ultimate Gamer Season 2 Casting Auditions: We report on the people who decided to audition for the second season of this game-related reality show competition series.
• Plain Sight review: We give our final verdict for this multiplayer-oriented action game from Beatnik Games.
• Boot Disk: Our retro games feature checks out the classic turn-based strategy game M.A.X.
• All You Need To Know: We give you the 411 on the just launched episodic game series Sam and Max: The Devil’s Playhouse.
• Freeware Friday: Our look at free PC games checks out the retro-like side scroller Action Fist.
• Contest: You still have one more day to enter our giveaway to win a Razer DeathAdder Left Hand Edition gaming PC mouse. Get on it!

Continue reading The Best of Big Download: April 12-18

The Best of Big Download: April 12-18 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 18 Apr 2010 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick says BioShock creator was removed from sequel to craft all-new game with franchise potential.

Online speculation has been rife as to the nature of the in-development project at Ken Levine’s Irrational Games. On Tuesday, that guess work went 0-2, when Take-Two officially announced XCOM would be reimagined as a first-person shooter on the Xbox 360 and PC, courtesy of BioShock 2 developer 2K Marin. Levine had also been erroneously attached to the reboot of Take-Two’s Spec Ops franchise, which turned up at German developer Yager in December.

Irrational revealed its new logo earlier this year, but not its new game.

So what is Levine working on? Job listings indicate that the project will be a shooter. And according to recent statements made by Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick, it will also be an all-new property. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Zelnick said that Levine’s Irrational Games was taken off of last year’s well-received sequel to BioShock “in order to produce an original title that could become another franchise.”

Zelnick offered no other details on the project. However, speaking to GameSpot in January, Levine himself said that the game’s full reveal would occur this year. “This is the year we’ll start talking about stuff, and we stop hiding behind the iron curtain of secrecy,” he said. He also said that while the game is the only one Irrational is working on at the moment, “it’s a big project.”

He went on to note that the announcement would come sometime after last month’s Game Developers Conference. However, he would not confirm whether it was scheduled for an Electronic Entertainment Expo announcement in June.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

First-person shooter “re-imagining” of classic sci-fi series confirmed; BioShock 2 dev house 2K Marin at the helm.

Rumors that 2K was working on a fresh take on the classic X-Com games have been bubbling since the publisher acquired the license from Atari in 2005. That speculation came back with a vengeance last year after a resume was unearthed from a 3D artist who formerly was with 2K Australia, with the document listing X-Com as one of the titles he had worked on.

An alien attacks in XCOM.

All the gossip has now proved to be true, with 2K today confirming that it is indeed working on a new game in the alien-focused franchise, simply titled “XCOM.” The publisher is billing the new Xbox 360 and PC game as a “re-imagining” of the franchise. Unlike the turn-based strategy and resource management core of the original X-Com: UFO Defense, the new title will be a first-person shooter. Players will take the role of an FBI agent whose job is to identify and eliminate an unknown extraterrestrial threat.

While Irrational Games’ head Ken Levine last year professed his admiration for the franchise, it seems his studio will not be in charge of the reboot. 2K Marin–made up of studios in Novato, California and Canberra, Australia–will be developing the game, with the Australian offices taking the lead on the project. 2K Marin’s last project was the critically well-received BioShock 2, which has now shipped over 3 million units worldwide.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot