The Gaming News Thread

[FactionHeir]

Yeah, it did quite well, and the EE too, considering it is coming from a previously unknown dev team from Poland. It did suffer somewhat from being less well known abroad from what I know. CDPR wanted to expand into the console market for this one particular game at least to share the experience with non PC users and to further improve on the PC version I imagine. Considering the amount of work put into it and the regular news updates on the console port, I am rather surprised to even read such rumors and certainly hope for the best.

[FactionHeir]

Gamebanshee has more to say and announces cancellation of Rise of the White Wolf but all production now being focussed on a multi-platform The Witcher 2.

[TinCow]

Ah, then I don't particularly care. Rise of the White Wolf was just the console port of the first game, right?

[frogbeastegg]

Console port with revamped combat to take advantage of the controller, plus small extras and tweaks here and there. Enough changes that I would have brought it even though I own both the original release and the boxed EE release. Sad news.

Sadder still is the loss of the 3rd project and the large staff cutbacks at CD Projekt. The Witcher was a damn fine PC RPG; any new RPG put out by this team gets my immediate interest, regardless of platform or theme. I don't want to watch them go under, as so many RPG studios have in the past.

[TinCow]

Sadder still is the loss of the 3rd project and the large staff cutbacks at CD Projekt. The Witcher was a damn fine PC RPG; any new RPG put out by this team gets my immediate interest, regardless of platform or theme. I don't want to watch them go under, as so many RPG studios have in the past.

I agree with you heavily on this. I'm actually seeing Eastern Europe as the savior of PC gaming. I predict that in about 5 years there will be massive PC gaming profits in that region, and all of the US companies that have abandoned the market will suddenly be asking themselves why they did it.

[frogbeastegg]

I agree with you heavily on this. I'm actually seeing Eastern Europe as the savior of PC gaming. I predict that in about 5 years there will be massive PC gaming profits in that region, and all of the US companies that have abandoned the market will suddenly be asking themselves why they did it.

A lot of the PC game types I like are now predominantly made in eastern Europe. Coupled with the famous eastern Europe difficulty level (Here in the east, the game beats YOU!), the whole experience is subtly - vitally - different to that you get with western European and American PC games. It's something I've come to look forward to; PC gaming was becoming a bit too homogenous in feel to me.

[Husar]

I agree, and actually thought White Wolf would be a good addition to my PS3 library, especially since i never bought the PC version.
Though I must say not all western RPGs are bad if you consider Germany western european and not eastern european.

Concerning CD Projekt, they still have GOG.com so maybe we should hurry and buy a few more games from there to support them.

[FactionHeir]

Depends on if the cutbacks were generally ordered by RED staff or the main CD Projekt, as GOG is not directly tied to RED.
Makes you feel great to be an unpaid appointment - there's no reason to fire you

Btw, official CD Projekt statement:
http://www.vg247.com/2009/04/29/conf...#comment-67964

Has not even been posted on the forum yet.

[frogbeastegg]

Another, slightly different version of The Witcher story has cropped up.

The console versions of highly-anticipated RPG The Witcher have been put on hold by developer Widescreen Games after over a year of work, GamesIndustry.biz reports.

French studio Widescreen had been developing Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the PC game, complete with new exclusive material, for Polish developer CD Projekt since March 2008, but a lack of payment has left Widescreen with no other option but to suspend development, claims CEO Olivier Masclef.

"Basically, after a few months of not being paid, we stopped," said Masclef speaking to GamesIndustry.biz. "We've not been paid for a few months and we had a very nasty broken payment. We had no choice but to put the product on hold. We've not been able to find a solution."

Masclef claims Widescreen was also kept in the dark and not informed of new milestone dates for the project, along with added features, which publisher Atari was expecting following discussions with CD Projekt.

"We were not involved in discussions with Atari and CD Projekt. The financial situation seems to have grown more and more difficult," he said.

The game, The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf, was due to go alpha in June, but work stopped three weeks ago. A frustrated Mesclef told GamesIndustry.biz that the troubles have also harmed Widescreen's relationship with distributor Namco Bandai, after early indication that the title would sell well at retail.

"It's unfortunate because we have very nice technology, we've replicated all the features of The Witcher," he detailed. "Atari has validated the product and seen that our tech is working. And we've heard that the distributors have been committing a very high volume for the title, and it was extremely promising. It's a very silly situation. I can't disclose the budget, but it would be a profitable title if it hit the shelves. But at this stage it will not."

He added: "I really don't like the situation because we've also had a good relationship with Namco Bandai, and it's a huge chunk of their portfolio. Historically we've always had extremely good relationship, we really respect them and we've worked with them in the past, they have a lot of time for developers. I feel sorry for them because they're not going to have this title."

CD Projekt told GamesIndustry.biz that it would not comment on the situation.

In the comments thread on that article there's a copy of a quote from vg247:

It is sad that we cannot talk with WSG in normal business way, but communicate through media. It is absolutely not our style of making business, and we answer here as we feel forced to do this to clarify the unclear information:
1. All payments were done on time according to milestone plan.
2. Truth is that payments were later than originally planned but this was solely due to delays in production. The delays were growing in the project due to WSG continued to miss the deadlines.
3. Delays and risks of further development by WSG were unacceptable by CD Projekt (this happened even though CDProjekt RED was constantly increasing main team involvement to help in the production). The most important fact is that development process didn’t make planned release date possible and moreover propositions of the new release date were changing few times. Besides the schedule, technical incapability created a risk of missing planned quality which is absolutely unacceptable. And this brought an end in our cooperation with WSG.
4. Currently the works are on hold. We are evaluating all possible options to continue the production.
Making this decision was extremely difficult and sad as we know that many people are waiting for this project. We do our best to find a way out of this situation. But final decision must guarantee high quality of the product, otherwise we won’t continue the production no matter what consequences it will bring. We are committed to the highest quality of all our games, and this is unnegotiable for us.
So no matter what the final decision or solution we will find, please be sure that it will be the best for the game quality, and satisfaction of gamers, which is the most important for us!
Michal Kicinski
Joint CEO
CD Projekt Group

This is beginning to look messy.

[FactionHeir]

See my edit above yours

[frogbeastegg]

The first of my quotes is different to the one in your link, and I thought since I was posting that I might as well post CD Projekt's side of the story too. Fairness, and all that.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Alternately I delete both your posts and no one will ever know :evil laugh:

[TinCow]

Two interesting stories today.

1 - Next STALKER game announced. STALKER: Call of Pripyat will be released this autumn and takes place immediately after the first game. The player works for the military this time.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat announced
30 April 2009

GSC Game World is glad to announce a new project in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series – S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (working title) for PC.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat will become a third stand-alone game in the highly-acclaimed Survival FPS S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. The project is slanted for release in autumn 2009.

The events of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat unfold shortly after the end of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. Having discovered about the open path to the Zone center, the government decides to hold a large-scale military “Fairway” operation aimed to take the CNPP under control.

According to the operation’s plan, the first military group is to conduct an air scouting of the territory to map out the detailed layouts of anomalous fields location. Thereafter, making use of the maps, the main military forces are to be dispatched.

Despite thorough preparations, the operation fails. Most of the avant-garde helicopters crash. In order to collect information on reasons behind the operation failure, Ukraine’s Security Service send their agent into the Zone center. From now on everything depends on the player.

Key game features:

* Photorealistic exclusion Zone – Pripyat town, Yanov railway station, Jupiter factory, Kopachi village and more, recreated by their true-to-life prototypes.
* New story, a number of unique characters.
* Extended system of side quests.
* New monsters: Chimera and Burer. New behaviour and abilities for all monsters.
* New A-Life system, created using the players’ best-liked elements of the first two games in series.
* Emissions considerably influence the world of the Zone.
* Sleep function added into the game.
* New player’s interface.
* Possibility to continue the game after completion in a freeplay mode.
* The game is developed on X-Ray engine v.1.6

2 - EA Sports is abandoning "physical media" for PC games. All of their future releases will be download-only, and will likely have funky payment systems.

[Fragony]

First footage from feel for the Wii, looks scary!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBo9...layer_embedded

[Xiahou]

Apparently, there's a leaked trailer on YouTube for RedSteel2. The graphics look amazing- so good, in fact, that it actually makes me suspicious as to whether or not it's actual in-game footage.

Well, here's hoping....

[TinCow]

Wow, EA seems to have reformed itself somewhat. First The Sims 2 was announced to be DRM free, now they're doing the same thing for Bioware's Dragon Age:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009...-age-drm-free/

"We’re happy to announce that the boxed/retail PC version of Dragon Age: Origins will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. In other words, the retail PC version of the game won’t require you to go online to authenticate the game for offline play. We have chosen not to use SecuROM in any version of Dragon Age that is distributed by EA or BioWare.”

[Xiahou]

Wow, EA seems to have reformed itself somewhat. First The Sims 2 was announced to be DRM free, now they're doing the same thing for Bioware's Dragon Age:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009...-age-drm-free/

That's awesome. I'll definitely be buying it then.

I doubt it's due to any altruism on EA's part- they probably concluded that draconian DRM doesn't help sales and generates a pile of bad publicity. A simple disc check will keep "casual" pirates honest, and no DRM scheme will stop the hardcore ones anyway....

[TinCow]

More news from EA, and this is... startling...
http://www.vg247.com/2009/05/06/ea-t...-in-the-world/

The CFO of EA believes that PCs will become the dominant gaming platform in the near future due to digital distribution. Apparently profits from that area have been growing exponentially for a long time.

I guess PC gaming isn't as dead as we were lead to believe.

[Ramses II CP]

"...while CEO John Riccitiello said digital revenue in total had risen to $400 in the last fiscal year."

I have a feeling there is a word missing from there, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

I'm not going to say I predicted this, but I've been saying that the PC would not fade away as a gaming platform. There's just too much flexibility in it, too much broad based utility beyond games, to kill it's appeal to developers. Maybe fewer people buy a PC for gaming, but more people own one they're willing to use for gaming, which is exactly why easier distribution methods and less consumer hassle will result in more profitable PC games.

[TinCow]

3D Realms itself becomes vaporware:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009...ed/#more-11254

The dev has closed and all staff have been laid off. I'm guessing this means another delay for DNF?

[Jolt]

DNF is becoming the modern legend of our King Sebastian I.

[Vladimir]

Wow, EA seems to have reformed itself somewhat. First The Sims 2 was announced to be DRM free, now they're doing the same thing for Bioware's Dragon Age:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009...-age-drm-free/

Excellent! I'm even more excited about this game.

[Warluster]

Call of Duty 6 (Sigh) Modern Warfare 2 is now officially announced, not that it needs a announcement since its obvious a new one would come, with the release of a short trailer and even (By the looks of it) a release date?

Call of Duty 6: Modern Warfare 2

It does make me wonder when they'll stop? While they'll obviosuly won't as its such a big series, I think it would be nice if Infinity Ward at least veered off CoD and tried something diffrent, even another war game, just to get out of the CoD name.
Edit: Also, the official site: Official Site

[Husar]

Uhm, that's the teaser trailer which is like two weeks old.

Also afaik it won't be Call of Duty, instead I read they want to make Modern Warfare it's own series, so it would just be Modern Warfare 2.
So they did exactly what you want because they are not working on yet another Call of Duty, they are working on Modern Warfare 2.

[Warluster]

Uhm, that's the teaser trailer which is like two weeks old.

Also afaik it won't be Call of Duty, instead I read they want to make Modern Warfare it's own series, so it would just be Modern Warfare 2.
So they did exactly what you want because they are not working on yet another Call of Duty, they are working on Modern Warfare 2.

Oh I saw it in my gaming mag and assumed it was new.

As for the name change: . Though the name doesn't mean that much its still a minor relief.

Did anyone see the news on Duke Nukem Forever? 3D Realms has offically closed down due to lack of funding (And I am sure no one will want to buy the Duke Nukem name... unless they're sure they can turn it from a joke into something real.) This is a shame as the trailer released in 2001 () didn't look bad.

[Warluster]

Sorry to spam this thread with Call of Duty news but someone over at the TWC found this new video IW has released actually showing MW2 gameplay!
http://planetcallofduty.gamespy.com/....php?id=158161
If that isn't all bad movie stuff (Forgot the name) its looking pretty good so far, even from that minute of gameplay. Apparently a full on un-cover gameplay movie will be released on the 24th.

[frogbeastegg]

Thief 4 is real.

[frogbeastegg]

On the day I finish the Fallout DLC, yet more is announced.

[Warluster]

The complete MW2 trailer is now released. Rather then snatches of gameplay it completely shows off the game; it feels more like a movie trailer then one for a game!
Modern Warfare 2

Looking really good so far. From a quick look at this trailer they might've put some more effort into the story and characters!

[TinCow]

!!!!!

Lucasarts is re-releasing the original Secrets of Monkey Island with improved graphics, interface, and voice acting. As if that weren't awesome enough, they are also making 5 new mini-Monkey Island games called Tales of Monkey Island.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009...sland-returns/

That's the second best Monkey Island news I've ever heard!

[frogbeastegg]

!!!!!

Lucasarts is re-releasing the original Secrets of Monkey Island with improved graphics, interface, and voice acting. As if that weren't awesome enough, they are also making 5 new mini-Monkey Island games called Tales of Monkey Island.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009...sland-returns/

That's the second best Monkey Island news I've ever heard!

Monkey 1-3 are some of my favourite games ever Monkey 4 shall not be mentioned lest it destroy my fragile mental illusion that the game didn't exist and was really nothing more than a bad dream.

Remake! Looks great - Guybrush's voice actor is back, the graphics are exactly how I'd imagine a higer res version of the original graphics. I am so buying this on day 1.

New ones ... er, um. Yeah. That's some downright ugly character design in that trailer; the existing designs had so much more charm. I hate that new Guybrush; he looks like Rincewind from the Discworld point and clicks. It wasn't funny either.

Look behind you! A three-headed monkey!


The final bit of the announcement needs to be here:

These efforts are just the start of LucasArts’ new mission to revitalize its deep portfolio of beloved gaming franchises. In addition to these new Monkey Island projects, LucasArts recently revealed that the classic adventure game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (originally released in 1992) is included as an unlockable bonus in the Wii™ version of Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, set to be released on June 9. Additional announcements are forthcoming.

More! I want Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, The Dig, Monkey Island 2, Indy, and Full Throttle to get the same treatment as Monkey 1, now, in fact yesterday if not sooner.