I have a real Love/Hate relationship with the Ghost Recon franchise. Being an OG Rainbow Six fan, I loved the original idea behind the Ghost Recon IP – it was meant to be the larger squad & platoon-focused traditional military counterpart to Rainbow’s team-based, close-quarters battle and hostage rescue tactics. Well it wasn’t long before Ubisoft decided to monkey with that in order to adapt Ghost Recon to consoles. A decision I seriously hated. What was almost just as frustrating though was that most of the Ghost Recon games since the transition have been pretty damn good. I hope that still holds true for the latest game in the franchise – Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. It is impossible to tell from the teaser trailer which has just snuck onto YouTube from Xbox Live. In the video there doesn’t seem to be any actual gameplay footage, but there’s still enough there to get this old fan interested. I just hope they can begin making some strides back toward larger unit tactics so the games start to feel less like Rainbow Six clones again.
(Video after the break.)
Also, am I the only one, or do the guys that materialize at the end look suspiciously like the army of cursed spirits Aragorn recruited to sweep over the army of orcs in one of the Lord of the Rings films?
Frank Miller revitalized Batman in graphic novel form when he unleashed The Dark Knight, which told the tale of an aging Batman reluctantly coming out of retirement. According to an interview with the Hughes Brothers, who are set to open their latest movie The Book of Eli, Warner Bros studio approached the team about possibly making Miller’s version of Batman starring none other than Clint Eastwood.
“I remember how dark the comic book was. Batman was old. He had to rely more on his tools and other sh*t, and he was a decrepit, 60- or 70-year-old man in this comic book,” said Albert Hughes. “I remember saying to them back then, ‘We want to do this, and you should get somebody like Clint Eastwood to do it’.”
Even though the studio offered the project to the brothers several times, the feeling was that “The Dark Knight Returns” would be the end of Batman movies. “We were never going to do that. We were telling them it was the death of their franchise,” Albert laughed. “Looking back now, we definitely would’ve killed that franchise.“
Final Fantasy XIII may be getting glowing reviews in Japan where it is selling millions of copies in record time, but a gaming magazine based in Hong Kong has unleashed a brutal review of the Square-Enix game that is irritating fans of the franchise.
Translated:
Scenario:2.0 — “An epic tear jerker”
System:1.0 — “Such a crude system barely warrants being called an RPG at all.”
Graphics: 9.0 — “Full marks here.”
Sound:7.0 — “Mostly quality.”
Enthusiasm:1.0 “As if you could play this for 100 hours! I could put up with 8.”
Total:4.0 — “To think it got this bad…”
“The game is complete linearity until the open areas near the end. You can’t even backtrack.”
“Of all the RPGs I’ve played in recent years, this is the first which has been so linear that it’s little more than riding an amusement park ride.”
“I had heard the opinion that “It’s amazing once you get to Chapter 11,” but why should you spend 20 or 30 hours on a game to get to the only enjoyable part? Just how do they intend to make me play this? Do they think I’m some kind of masochist?”
“A button mashing puzzle game with no real strategy or RPG elements and a plethora of annoying features, game as a whole is little more than a digital novel of sorts.”
“For such a game to approach 2 million copies sold must be due solely to the strength of the Final Fantasy brand”
With the release and success of the last Metal Gear game on the PlayStation 3, clamor rose to new levels for a big-budget movie about Solid Snake. How could it go wrong? Built-in fan base, world-wide recognition; just keep the budget acceptable and the movie makes money. Unfortunately for Metal Gear fans, a movie now appears all but dead, according to a recent interview with Hollywood producer Mike De Luca.
I don’t think it’s going to move forward because I got the sense that there may not be enough of a coordinated will at this point on the side of certain parties to see a movie get made. And I get it because the problem with a lot of these adaptations is it’s such a huge franchise for the video game company. A movie can only hurt. If the movie’s great, you’re probably not going to sell more games. It’s such a separate thing. The franchise being as big as it kind of helps the movie…I’m not sure the movie does the same thing for the game.
I think there’s some things…the video game companies are very protective of their property and there are certain things a studio requires freedom-wise to market and distribute a movie effectively in a global marketplace and sometimes getting those two things to match up is really hard. And in the case of Metal Gear Solid, the agendas just….not because the parties weren’t amicable, it was just kind of impossible to get the agendas to match up.
Now that Tiger has apologized for cheating on his wife with skanky nightclub trolls, leaving pathetic voice mails and even worse sexting messages in his wake, the question remains as to whether or not Tiger’s sponsors will stick around and continue to make easy money. Of course they won’t bolt. In fact, Electronic Arts, who makes millions creating the same golf game every year, though they do upgrade the “08″ and “09″ part of the title, has made it known they will stick by Tiger’s side.
“Our strong relationship with Tiger for more than a decade remains unchanged,” a spokesperson told IGN. “We respect Tiger’s privacy, we wish him a fast recovery and we look forward to seeing him back on the golf course.”
Any speculation about a forthcoming Domestic Abuse DLC pack is unfounded, though we all know how fun it would to chase Tiger around with a Sand Wedge, wailing away at his hastily departing Cadillac.
Dead Space was a fine single-player action game that at least tried to do a few things different. It proved itself successful at retail and a sequel is in the works. However, according to a job posting, it appears Dead Space 2 will be branching out into multiplayer. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen. Hopefully, the designers won’t shoe-horn multiplayer just so they can say they have the feature.
Job Description
Seeking a highly motivated Senior Online Level Designer for the Dead Space franchise on Xbox360 and PS3. This is a major opportunity to contribute creatively to an exciting new franchise.
Responsibilities:
• Conceptualize, script, direct, and build online levels for the game.
• Own the level design for the online game, be able to work collaboratively with Creative Director and Online Producer to create extremely fun, satisfying and polished multiplayer levels.
• Drive online design by taking the initiative to bring all parties together to execute on the overall vision for the levels.
• Be a collaborative member of the design team, and contribute to reviews, feedback, and playtest sessions.
• Hands on contributor
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(Ratings Average: 4.00 out of 5)
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