Jul 042012
Jul 042012
“We wanted to do an Alice in Wonderland part of Wasteland and, as the story developed and as I looked around at my team and saw what they were excited about, I didn’t have anybody who was gonna champion that land, who had great ideas for adventures in that land… Someday maybe we’ll come back to it; maybe someone will come along and say, ‘I’ve got an idea for the story in Wonderland’ and we’ll talk about that and maybe it shows up in a game someday.” – Warren Spector
Spector also discussed the musical elements of Epic Mickey 2. He says that if things go well this time, he’s going all-out with the mechanic in a future title.
“I always knew that the second game was gonna be two-player co-op and that Oswald was gonna be a playable character. I knew that in 2005. That was a done deal. I had some really crazy ideas about ways to use music in games, that seemed very Disney-like to me, and you asked about how do you cut things? Well, you can’t do everything so that didn’t make it into the first game, which was fine. And I know where I’m going with it, someday, I hope, maybe, but this time around, in the second game, I just wanted to take a baby-step to making the full-blown interactive musical game. This is not it. Gamers, you tell ’em there are songs in the game and they start getting panicked, but I just want to see if people will accept songs in games and, if they do, next time I’m going crazy. People don’t even know what’s gonna hit ’em.”
Jul 042012
Jul 042012
Jul 042012
Coming from a LinkedIn profile…
There’s no specific information pointing to what this project is, but it certainly looks like something is up. Most interesting, information points to this project being kicked off just last month. Thanks to Emily Rogers for the heads up!
Jul 042012
As Bill Pullman said in the movie Independence Day, "Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!" and then Randy Quaid flew his plane into the alien ship and the humans celebrated.
Technically, the above reference has nothing to do with video games, but it is on television currently, and it made me think of the most patriotic video games. For my money, it has to be either Fugitive Hunter, the game that culminates in a martial arts fight against Osama Bin Laden, or Metal Wolf Chaos, where you play as president Michael Wilson in the Metal Wolf mech suit as he fights to take back the United Stated from his arch-nemesis, vice-president Richard Hawk.
Surely there are others that I am neglecting, though. Let us know in the comments below.
Jul 042012
If you’re one of the many players that was disappointed in EA / Playfish‘s decision to close Restaurant City on Facebook, there may still be hope for dish-creation gameplay outside of Zynga’s upcoming ChefVille, as a group of ex-Restaurant City players has taken it upon themselves to create a “tribute” game to the former Facebook hit: Restaurant World.
While Restaurant World has yet to be released, the game is being built by a group of at least 11 Restaurant City players, all under the age of 25. These gamers call themselves Starfish Studios, and they’re taking the job of picking up where Restaurant City left off very seriously. Artwork for Restaurant World is available to view on the Restaurant World fan page on Facebook, and you can even contact the developers if you’re interested in helping the game become a reality.
According to the Restaurant World bio page, the game will be fairly loosely based on Restaurant City, and will focus on community interaction to develop new features. “This is a game loosely based off the popular RC game but with a twist… YOU are the creator! We are ready to hear your ideas and let you be our guide to creating this game!“
As of right now, the team at Starfish Studios is aiming for a July release for a closed beta of the game, and hopes to have the game running for everyone in August. Even if it takes longer than that for these gamers to work out the kinks, you can at least rest easy knowing that you’re not alone in your desire to dive back into the world of Restaurant City. While Restaurant World may be a different game, it may be as close as we’ll ever get to the real thing.
Will you try Restaurant World when it launches on Facebook later this year, or are you convinced Zynga’s ChefVille will be enough of a replacement to suit your needs? Sound off in the comments!
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Jul 042012
If there was one thing wrong with the Equality Business Tower in CityVille, it’s that the storage building can only hold “normal” businesses, and not premium ones. But, what if you’re a player that collects premium businesses? Will you simply be forced to waste all of that land to hold them forever? The answer to that is now “no,” as a new Premium Mall has launched in the game with the specific purpose of storing premium businesses.
This Premium Mall is basically identical in setup to the many malls that have been released previously, in that it can store 15 premium businesses after it’s been completely upgraded, and in that you’ll need to collect building ingredients along the way to unlock storage space. The first floor of the Premium Business Mall requires the following parts to build:
- 5 Shoes
- 5 Bow Ties
- 5 Luggage
- 5 Perfumes
- 5 Bow Ties (this looks like a completely different item that is improperly named)
You can earn these items via a combination of general news posts on your wall and individual requests sent to friends. From there, you’ll have two spaces to store premium businesses within this mall, and must ask three friends to staff the floor’s remaining three storage slots.
From there, it’s all about repeating the above by collecting more building materials (in larger quantities) to unlock the next two floors and then asking additional friends to “work as staff” within the mall to actually unlock the building’s full potential of storing 15 items. There’s no time limit for how long you have to build a premium mall once you begin, so feel free to take your time with bugging your friends for help.
[Via and image credit: Zynga]
What do you think of the Premium Mall in CityVille? Do you have enough premium businesses to warrant building one of these, or is this one mall you can comfortably skip out on? Sound off in the comments!
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Jul 042012
The soundtrack to Rockstar’s Max Payne 3 is one of my favorite albums of the year. Composed and performed by the New York art rock band Health, it’s eerie synthesizers and highly processed drums stand in contrast to the clichéd music we hear in most big-budget action games.
I’ve been listening to it regularly since the game released, and it’s a continually rewarding listen. It was certainly a risk for Rockstar to hand the reins to a large portion of the audio of a triple-A game to some guys that look like this. Frankly, Health is a band that’s sold albums in the hundreds and thousands, not the millions. It’s not the type of partnership that’s a selling point for most of the gamers that will buy Max Payne 3. However, both listening to the soundtrack alone and while playing the game, it’s clear that the score is crucial to the game's artistic vision.
Max Payne 3 doesn’t reinvent the series so much as bring a new level of polish and cinematic vibe to the proceedings. I instantly fell in love with the colorful, lurid Brazilian setting. However, it’s the music that really makes it feel special – adding a dreamlike, unsettling atmosphere to both the cutscenes and action sequences.
Jul 042012
To go along with the new Quinn’s Curse quests in CastleVille, players will also be given the opportunity to clear out a number of hexes within their kingdom: eight of them, to be exact. This works in a similar fashion to previously released features, such as the Valentine’s Day event, in that you’ll need to craft duplicates of specific items in order to fill a meter at the bottom of the screen, earning exclusive rewards along the way.
Luckily, we know exactly how many items you’ll need to craft for each stage, and what you’ll receive at the end, letting you know what to expect, and to decide whether or not the items are worth the work.
Stage 1: Craft 4 Bottles of Curse Begon
Stage 2: Craft 5 Fonts of Sweet Air
Stage 3: Craft 6 Charm Candles
Stage 4: Craft 5 Mojo Bags
Stage 5: Craft 6 Good Luck Totems
Stage 6: Craft 5 Bottles of Magical Mouthwash
Stage 7: Craft 4 Shining Orbs
Stage 8: Craft 3 Voo-Don’t Dolls
You’ll have a month, or four weeks, to complete these eight stages, and will receive a few animals and plenty of decorations along the way, as seen below. Good luck finishing them all in time!
[Via and image credit: Zynga]
What do you think of these magical Hexes in CastleVille? Will you work on clearing all eight out in your Kingdom, or do you think the prizes aren’t worth it? Sound off in the comments!
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