An invitation hints at a reveal at GDC.
2010's Medal of Honor reboot may be getting a sequel soon. A "save the date" invitation has been sent to GameSpot that hints that Electronic Arts will unveil a Medal of Honor sequel on March 6, 2012 in San Fransisco. The date puts the announcement to be during the 2012 Game Developers Conference, which takes place between March 5-9.
Notch to Schafer: Let's make Psychonauts 2 happen.
Tim Schafer, founder of Double Fine studios, wants to make Psychonauts 2. “I would love to do Psychonauts 2, I’ve actually pitched that to publishers several times and no-one has taken the bait so far,” said Schafer in an interview with Digital Spy.
Despite the change in account branding, the PlayStation Network brand will remain intact.
Yesterday, Sony began distributing emails to PSN users to alert them of a slight scheduled change to their accounts. In an effort to unify their various digital brands, Sony is establishing the Sony Entertainment Network and subsequently converting all PSN accounts to be more universal SEN accounts. While the overall digital service Sony is providing will carry the SEN branding, the PlayStation Network brand will remain to accommodate all of Sony's gaming consoles.
The studio that birthed Spyro and Ratchet & Clank is done with Resistance.
Resistance 3 was a great game and a fitting end to a trilogy that Insomniac started with the launch of the PlayStation 3. While it was a critical darling, the shooter wasn’t as successful at the register, selling roughly half the copies of its predecessor. Low sales aren’t keeping Sony from having developer Nihilistic Software bring the series to the PlayStation Vita in the form of Resistance: Burning Skies, but as far as Insomniac is concerned they’re done with the franchise.
Does this mean that the next Nintendo console will see more support?
What Nintendo showed at the 2011 E3 Wii U reveal was only a taste of what their new console would be capable of. The sizzle reel displayed footage of games running on competing platforms and the conceptual demos were not running on final hardware. Truth be told, the Wii U’s coming out party may have resulted in more questions than answers. Nintendo promised strong third party support, but it’s largely been unknown when developers would get a chance to really work with the hardware.
Remedy's game will be released on Steam.
PC gamers will be able to get their hands on what was previously an Xbox 360 exclusive sometime this February. In a forum post, Remedy's community manager revealed that Alan Wake is coming to PC via Steam. The PC version will not use Games for Windows Live and will come with the previously released DLC content, The Signal and The Writer.
And I thought the other games in the series were short!
After the abduction of the Statue of Liberty and Big Ben, as well as the subsequent arrests of two V.I.L.E. criminals, you'd think the V.I.L.E. crew would lay low for a while. Instead, they've gotten more ambitious than ever, stealing the St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow as well as the pyramids straight out of Egypt. With the most linear quest yet, The Case of the Crumbling Cathedral is the shortest of the three episodes currently available on the Wii Shop Channel. While it's home to the best puzzles yet, it's over so quickly that it's hard to pay it any respect at all.
This time Big Ben is missing.
The Big Ben Burglary is the second case in the ongoing episodic production of Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math. As such, it features the same Professor Layton inspired gameplay from the The Lady Liberty Larceny, with the exception that the puzzles are more rooted in mathematics than general puzzle solving. This makes for a quest that's a bit duller than the first, in addition to being even briefer.
Do it Rockapella!
Funny enough, I never realized that Carmen Sandiego began as a computer game series, only later hitting TV screens with Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?. As such, Carmen Sandiego Adventures in Math: The Lady Liberty Larceny is more a return to form than a modern adaptation of a childhood classic. Thankfully, the developers have applied some modern game design to the over 20 year old franchise, taking cues from the Professor Layton series. While on the short side, this adventure in math will provide some reasonably challenging math-based puzzles for the proper age group as well as a cursory glance at some world geography.
Just when you thought awards season was over...
Last month we announced our Game of the Year award winners by genre, platform and overall game of the year, but we weren’t through showcasing the best that 2011 had to offer. With so many games deserving of the moniker Game of the Year we have decided to expand our awards ceremony into 2012 with the 2011 Supplemental Awards. These awards seek to recognize games that excelled in a specific area whether it be through technical achievement, sheer enjoyability or utter disappointment.
