Warp Zoned Presents
All Articles: GDC 2012
Quantic Dream reveals “Kara” tech demo, but it’s NOT their next game
Quantic Dream (and it’s founder, David Cage) is known for thinking outside the box. With the development of their most recent game, Heavy Rain, they created a title that was unlike almost anything else on the market at the time. It won a ton of awards and is the driving force between the fundamental different between the PS3 and the Xbox 360 as platforms.
Since then, we haven’t heard much from the company. But now they’re back and they’ve created a brand new engine and performance-capture procedure to power their next title. The video above, Kara, is the result of a test of their new engine. But it is NOT Quantic Dream’s next title. Which is too bad, because Kara’s world sounds extremely interesting.
Kara may not be a game, but it is a fine piece of short filmmaking. Just be sure and have a box of tissues ready.
[Source: PlayStation Blog]
Posted in News, PS3
Tagged Beyond: Two Souls, Detroit: Become Human, GDC 2012
Splinter Cell 6 announcement coming “soon”
Ubisoft began building their Toronto studio over two years ago. In that time, the team, which is under the command of Jade Raymond (Assassin’s Creed), has been hard at work on a new entry in the Splinter Cell series.
Now, in a new interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Raymond revealed that an official announcement for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 6 will be happening in the very near future:
GI.biz: So what’s your next big milestone for Toronto?
Jade Raymond: Well we’re basically going to announce our first big project, Splinter Cell, soon, so that’s going to be a big push for us.
According to Raymond, the game has been in development for 18 months and she is “impressed by what the team has been able to create.” She goes on to say “I’d say it’s better than what we could have done in most established studios.”
Of course, she probably has to say nice things about the game as you never know when Sam Fisher will leap out of the shadows and take you down.
Skyrim takes home Game of the Year honors at 2012 GDC Awards
Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim took home the coveted Game of the Year award at this year’s Game Developers Choice Awards, but Valve’s Portal 2 was the big winner of the night. The story of Chell, GLaDOS, and Wheatley won Best Audio, Best Game Design, and, of course, Best Narrative.
The other big winner of the night was Supergiant Games and Bastion. The title from the small seven-man team was awarded Best Downloadable Game as well as Best Debut.
A trio of special awards were also handhed out last night:
- Epic Mickey and Deus Ex developer Warren Spector received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
- Atari’s Dave Theurer received the Pioneer Award for his work on Tempest and Missile Command.
- Lawyers Ken Doroshow and Paul M. Smith were presented with the Ambassador Award for their defense of the game industry in the Supreme Court case (Brown v. EMA/ESA) that established First Amendment protection for video games.
Hit the jump for a complete list of award winners including Best Technology, Best Visual Arts, Best Handheld/Mobile Game, and more. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Bastion, Battlefield 3, GDC 2012, Portal 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Independent Games Festival announces fourteenth annual awards winners
The Independent Games Festival, hosted by the Game Developers Conference, today announced it’s award recipients for 2012.
Fez, the unique “perspective-shifting” platformer, was the big winner, taking home the Seumas McNally Award for Best Independent Game and the $30,000 grand prize. Phil Fish, the lead developer on the game, was the central focus of the documentary Indie Game: The Movie, which was shown at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and screened earlier in the week at GDC.
Daniel Benmergui, developer of the game Storyteller, earned the Nuovo award and a $5,000 prize. The Nuovo Award honors abstract, short form, and unconventional game development, and Storyteller’s unique comic strip narrative format fit the bill.
Other award recipients include Dear Ester, by thechineseroom, which won for Excellence in Visual Art, and rightfully so- the idyllic landscapes remind me of Myst when it first came out and blew everyone away. Technical Excellence went to Demruth’s Antichamber, a psychological Escher-esque puzzle game, Excellence in Design to Mossmouth’s Spelunky, which creates levels as you play, and Excellence in Audio to Amanita Design’s Botanicula, which features a soundtrack created by Czech alternative band DVA.
Best Mobile Game was snatched up by Simogo for Beat Sneak Bandit, a rhythmic stealth/puzzle game, Best Student Game went to CMU Entertainment Technology Center/Coco & Co for Way, an online cooperative game focused on cross-cultural communication, and finally, the Audience Award went to Mode 7’s Frozen Synapse, a simultaneous-turn-based tactical game.
Finally, Capy Games took home the first XBLA Prize, a contract with Microsoft to publish a game on the Xbox Live Arcade. The Sword & Sworcery developers subsequently announced Super T.I.M.E Force for Microsoft’s download service.
EA announces rebirth of the SimCity franchise
Long before CityVille sucked up your free time on Facebook, there was SimCity. Last night, as expected, EA announced that their Maxis studio is hard at work on a new entry in the city-building series. And like all good reboots, it’ll simply be titled SimCity when it’s released exclusively for the PC in 2013.
“We’d like to thank the millions of fans who have helped make SimCity synonymous with the city-building genre. This is a franchise that means the world to us at Maxis and we’re happy to be bringing it back home where we are reimagining it for an entirely new generation of players,” said Lucy Bradshaw, Senior Vice President of EA’s Maxis Label. “Using our proprietary GlassBox Engine, SimCity for PC will equip players with the tools to play the most sophisticated simulation of its kind. We are dedicated to making sure the experience – no matter the platform – has the fun, flavor and playability that has been intrinsic to the franchise since its birth.”
According to EA, everything in SimCity will be simulated: “Sims in each city will have jobs or can lose them, buy homes, be prosperous or be an economic drain on the city.” Besides this new level of complexity, the publisher also touted the game’s ease-of-use and accessibility, so SimCity fans of old should feel right at home.
But Maxis and EA are also working to add some fun stuff to the SimCity formula including a “robust” multiplayer mode and expansion content (SimCity Heroes & Villains) ripped from the pages of a comic book.
Finally, you can check out the game’s first trailer after the break. (more…)
First Medal of Honor: Warfighter trailer reveals October 23 release date
Behold! We have a release date for Medal of Honor: Warfighter. Get ready to go back to Tier 1 on October 23 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.
I don’t know about you, but I got goosebumps watching that trailer. I can’t wait to see more gameplay. Danger Close plus Frostbite 2 engine equals [expletive deleted] yes.
Lollipop Chainsaw reaches the center of store shelves on June 12
Just how many licks would it take to get to the center of a zombie? The world may never know. (And… eww… gross).
But what we do know is that WB Games has set a June 12 release for the Grasshopper Manufacture-developed Lollipop Chainsaw. The sunny and sparkly action game will be coming to the PS3 and Xbox 360 and it’s sure to make this one of the hottest Summers on record.
[Source: Joystiq]
Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged GDC 2012, Lollipop Chainsaw
Assassin’s Creed III tomahawks 2012 with first trailer, new details
As promised, Ubisoft has revealed the first details of this October’s Assassin’s Creed III. And that’s not all, the publisher also unveiled the game’s debut trailer, which you can find after the break.
Assassin’s Creed III will star Ratohnhaké’ton, an Assassin with Native American and British blood. Ratohnhaké’ton adopts the name Connor and takes the fight to the Templars from “the vibrant, untamed frontier to bustling colonial towns [to] the intense, chaotic battlefields” of the Revolutionary War.
Gamers expecting another yearly addition to the Assassin’s Creed canon will be in for a surprise as ubisoft confirmed that Assassin’s Creed III will be powered by a brand new engine. Dubbed Ubisoft AnvilNext, the engine is said to include “breakthroughs in visual quality, character models and artificial intelligence.” That’ll surely come in handy when Assassin’s Creed III launches for the Wii U as well, which Ubisoft also confirmed today.
Now then, on to that trailer. (more…)