More bad news about the economy was revealed today in an SEC report that stated game developer THQ would be laying off 240 employees and reducing CEO Brian J. Farrell's salary by 50 percent.
As stated in the report, the layoffs are part of a new "restructuring plan" within the company, a plan that will result "in reductions of up to 240 selling, general and administrative personnel worldwide." Meanwhile, Farrell's sizeable salary cut ($718,500 to $359,250 for one year beginning on February 13) is the result of an amendment in a contract that was drafted in 2008.
Although my heart goes out to the 240 soon-to-be-former THQ employees, I am reserving my pity for Mr. Farrell. Although 50 percent is a drastic amount for a salary reduction, I can't help but wonder if his contract includes one of those golden parachutes that the Occupy movement is protesting against.
A post on Bungie.net yesterday announced that the company is preparing to relinquish control of its final vestige of updated Halo-related content. On March 31, all live Halo data will be fully transitioned to 343 Industries. The only remnants of Halo to remain on Bungie.net will be "historical Halo data," which the company intends to retain "for as long as the Internet and Bungie's data storage systems remain functional."
The transition will mark, once and for all, the end of Bungie's association with the iconic game franchise that it created and made it famous. In the future, the names "Bungie" and "Halo" will no longer coincide with one another; each name will be a part of the other's past. Halo will become a part of 343 Industries and Microsoft Studios, while Bungie's future is currently attached to a top secret, in-development project with the working title "Tiger."
Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City is set to drop players into a three-sided battle between the US Spec Ops team, the Umbrella Security Service and the vicious zombies plaguing the city. Apart from being just able to choose which (human) side to play as, one of the more interest aspects is that each side has its own interesting character with various abilities.
This new video gives a better look at each class in the game, six total for each side. Even though both sides share the same six classes: Assault, Recon, Medic, Surveillance, Field Scientist and Demolition, it does appear that each side will still retain different abilities within each class. Just one more reason why this genre-switch of the Resident Evil franchise is looking like something cool.
Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City is set to release on March 20 in North America and March 23 in Europe for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. A PC version is also slated to launch at a later date.
One of the benefits to getting a massive game like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on PC is the incredibly robust modding community. In the months since Skyrim's release modders have already done impressive things like improving textures, adding more content and changing dragons into flying versions of Macho Man Randy Savage. All of this has been done without any modding tools.
One of the things Bethesda is known for is releasing impressive modding tools and their upcoming Creation Kit is no doubt going to invigorate Skyrim with even better mods. While there still isn't a firm release for the Creation Kit, we have just received a video going through some of the things we can expect from it. The coolest part is by far the integration with Steam Workshop, a way to esily upload and download mods right from within Steam. Check out the new video below.
The Darkness II is right around the corner and 2K Games has released another video to whet the appetite of hungry quad-wielders. This short snippet shows off even more brutal executions that protagonist Jackie Estacado can pull off with his giant demon arms. Needless to say the different executions you can pull off are equal parts awesome and gory.
The Darkness II releases next week on February 7 in North America and February 10 in Europe for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.
It's less than two months until Mass Effect 3 is released and if you're anything like me, you're in full "don't let anything get spoiled about Mass Effect 3" mode. Usually I avoid any teasers or trailers this close to release but the trailer sent out today by Bioware focuses on the voice cast for Mass Effect 3 and stays away from any potential major spoilers. We get a little behind-the-scenes action with some returning favorites like Seth Green and Martin Sheen as well as newcomers Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jessica Chobot.
Interestingly enough, Freddie Prinze Jr.'s character looks nothing like him while Jessica Chobot's is a mirror image. Good job Bioware. Now I have to choose between Ashley, Miranda or Chobot in the love department. Thanks for the extra headache.
Mass Effect 3 is set to release March 6 on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC in North America and on March 9 in Europe.
Check out the video below and let us know if you're as excited as us here at TAG to get your hands on it.
Law & Order: Legacies is one of the latest episodic series to be produced by Telltale Games. The game centers around several cases investigated by characters easily recognizable by fans of the show, despite the lack of contribution by the original actors’ voices. In their efforts to catch the bad guys, players are given the opportunity to question suspects, search crime scenes and even participate in classic courtroom drama.
The game relies heavily on evidence, testimony, observations and logical conclusions. Perhaps on paper those seem to be the sorts of things that Telltale has excelled at in previous titles, but in playing Legacies at no point do you ever get the sense that you are playing a traditional Telltale game. It is more than a bit disappointing then, to see that Telltale’s expertise in humorous puzzle adventures is never fully brought to bear. If you are a fan of Wallace and Gromit, Sam and Max, or Monkey Island – great original titles that really put Telltale on the map – you’ll be disappointed to know that Legacies is ultimately not worthy to bear the Telltale name.
Please wait for closing arguments: I promise to persuade you not to shout, “Objection!” after the jump.
Thanks to the success of games like Pixeljunk Monsters, Fieldrunners and Trenched, tower defense games have become somewhat of a staple in the gaming landscape. However, with so many tower defense games out at any given time, this genre seems to be heading toward stagnation. We saw a similar movement happen with World War 2 shooters and now we are seeing the same thing happen here.
So, when you hear that Unstoppable Gorg is a tower defense game, it’s easy to write it off. However, this game may help to bring back a little bit of life to this slowly dying genre.
Head to Venus and destroy the evil Brain Raiders, after the jump.
In a week filled with little actual news and even less new games, it seems people have resorted to spreading rumors. On this episode of Talking About Gamers join Robbiejo, Forgetfool, Golf Rat and guest Patriot as we discuss the latest rumors circling around Microsoft this past week. The giant rumor is the supposed launch of the next-gen Xbox in 2013. We talk about the feasability of this happening, discuss the alleged power of the system and decide whether Microsoft would really put in a measure to disable used games. We also talk about the recent rumors of Microsoft Points going away.
In other topics Forgetfool has more games to report on including Need for Speed The Run and Dustforce. We also discuss the XBLA House Party prices, Insomniac leavine the Resistance franchise and Kingdoms of Amalur's online pass.
Thanks for listening and please enjoy Episode 123 of Talking About Gamers!
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We have a special show for you this week with guest and friend of the show TeeTocks (Scott from Gamer Husbands Radio) joining the party – butt chugging and vodka tampons were optional. Episode 82 is full of good stuff. We cover all the typical topics like gaming, movies, television and beer, but add a little baseball talk, discuss hangover remedies, DeviousMrMatt unleashes a load of XBOX720 rumors and VicJoh wants to know how to get good at video games. We add a mild sex topic this week, asking what our women think when they see us naked. And we even provide a few outtakes. We are sure you will be entertained, so grab that beer and get ready for a fun ride!!
The hardcore platformer is going through a bit of a revival of late thanks to titles like N+ and Super Meat Boy. In fact these two games seem to have a heavy influence on Dustforce, although developer Hitbox Team has infused plenty of their own great ideas throughout as well. The premise of Dustforce is simple: you play as a janitor who must go through various areas cleaning up leaves, garbage, ooze or dust. Did I also mention that you're basically a kind of ninja janitor? Yeah that's pretty important.
Using some awesome abilities you will fly through levels trying to sweep up the area. Your goal is to both go as fast as possible and be as efficient as possible. In fact the entire game is based around perfecting levels in order to move onto harder levels. It can be brutally difficult but when you're cruising through a level and getting everything perfect it's a fantastic feeling.
Clean your room, rake the lawn and then hit the jump.
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Insomniac Games, the creator of the Resistance series and developer of all three of the Resistance games on the PlayStation 3, has announced that last year's Resistance 3 will be the studio's last in the franchise.
"We won't be making any more Resistances," said Insomniac CEO Ted Price to VG247 today. The news comes following last year's release of Resistance 3 to good reviews but weak sales. Founded in 1994, the studio's current project is OverStrike, a four-player co-op action game slated for release on both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, making it the first multi-platform game in studio history.
Although Insomniac is moving on, Resistance remains the property of Sony, making further games in the franchise from other developers a strong likelihood. Indeed, there has already been one non-Insomniac installment in the franchise: SCE Bend's Resistance: Retribution for the PSP. Nihilistic is also working on the upcoming Resistance: Burning Skies for the PS Vita.
Deep Silver has released a trailer for the upcoming Ryder White DLC for Dead Island.
Players will be able to play as Ryder White, the antagonist of the main game, and learn the reasons why he did what he did. He will be shown as both a military man and a loving husband. The DLC will offer "a single player campaign with several hours of story content with twists and turns that will shed new light on the game's happenings" as well as two new blueprints for additional weapons.
The DLC will be available on January 31 in North America for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC for 800 Microsoft points ($10) and February 1 in Europe for £7.99.
Along with the unsurprising announcement that Microsoft's next-generation Xbox console will support Blu-ray DVD technology, Kotaku has reported a rumor that the unannounced-but-inevitable future console will somehow eliminate gamers' ability to play used or previously-purchased games.
Exactly how this alleged anti-used technology would work is unknown, but such a feature would effectively take away the service that used-game companies like GameStop rely on, condemning them to an almost-certain doom.
If true, this measure is guaranteed to cause controversy, but it nevertheless represents the next logical step for video game publishers' ongoing feud with the used-game market. Publishers have already begun dissuading gamers from buying used titles with things like online passes and similar content that is only available to customers for free if they buy their games new. However, that content typically costs only a fraction of the game itself when purchased separately, while a full-blown anti-used feature would require every gamer to pay the full market price for every video game they own. That's a drastic escalation on the publishers' part.
We have a special show for you this week with guest and friend of the show TeeTocks (Scott from Gamer Husbands Radio) joining the party – butt chugging and vodka tampons were optional. Episode 82 is full of good stuff. We cover all the typical topics like gaming, movies, television and beer, but add a little baseball talk, discuss hangover remedies, DeviousMrMatt unleashes a load of XBOX720 rumors and VicJoh wants to know how to get good at video games. We add a mild sex topic this week, asking what our women think when they see us naked. And we even provide a few outtakes. We are sure you will be entertained, so grab that beer and get ready for a fun ride!!
