Elizabeth is a vital component to the experience of BioShock Infinite, and Irrational Games wanted to use her to bring the player closer to the story. Four women were important in making Elizabeth as much like a real person as possible, bringing her to life in such a way that her creators now consider her a real person.
If you’re been hoping a trailer will shed more light onto what Star Trek Into Darkness is about . . . you’ll have to keep on waiting. However, it does point to how action packed the movie will be – the real Die Hard sequel this year will be Star Trek Into Darkness!
Antoine Fuqua’s Olympus Has Fallen is a political thriller that dives into the world of the secret service, espionage, attacks on the White House and presidential kidnappings.
On the official website, you can generate your own nickname with the Code Name Generator. Users can enter in info manually or use Facebook for an enhanced experience.
A few well-designed infographics, created by the website Visual.ly are also throughout the site. The first focuses on the White House by the numbers, laying out a simple schematic of the building and describing the security measures used to keep the building and its occupants safe, as well as a history of attacks on or around it. Another covers the Secret Service Codenames that D.C. affiliates have used over the years. The last one covers secret service agents, also using numbers as its theme of doling out the facts, and also lists actors who portrayed Secret Service agents in films.
The “Crisis Training Simulator” is really just a no-frills shooting gallery, where you have two minutes to shoot all the bad guys while avoiding your fellow agents. Emphasis on gaming skill level is negligible here.
Hideo Kojima tweeted out an image seeming confirming his role with the upcoming game The Phantom Pain. The image focuses on a video edit suite featuring a file named “TPP_GDC 2013_720p_esrb”.
The image labels Kojima as producer, designer and director, and the image appears to be taken from the end of a trailer likely to be shown during Kojima’s GDC presentation, which was recently extended from 60 to 90 minutes. The GDC session, which features Kojima and members of his development team, is entitled ‘Photorealism through the eyes of a ‘Fox’ – The core of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes‘.
Source: Twitter.com
Quantic Dream co-CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere confirmed that his studio is working on a brand new PS4 game. He also had glowing things to say about the development experience of the PS4 compared to the PS3.
“Incomparable. Very easy,” he said of the two machines. “We’ll be able to express ourselves in a more straightforward way. So it’s perfect, it’s excellent.”
“Innovation is part of our DNA. We’ve never duplicated ourselves. We never clone ourselves or other people’s projects; we always try to create unique experiences,” he continued. “For us, a new console is another reason to try and innovate. What is certain is that whatever we’re working on on PS4 is not going to resemble what we’re doing on PS3 . . . We’re going to try and reinvent ourselves.”
Source: Eurogamer
Lima Sky COO Matt Turetzky doesn’t think Apple and Google should do more to patrol their digital storefronts to root out clones. In fact, he isn’t that distressed about Doodle Jump clones at all.
“We’ve seen some great games come out that seem to be inspired by Doodle Jump,” Turetzky said. “I don’t think games like that are to be worried about. They are a net positive as they challenge us to think differently and work harder. The lesser clones are generally not worth thinking about unless they are intentionally trying to confuse gamers.”
“There are so many opportunities for us to grow the brand that we haven’t pursued previously,” he added. “This year will see our most aggressive release schedule ever with several new Doodle Jump launches across multiple platforms, including some beyond mobile. We have a very large Chinese iOS user base but have yet to launch there on Android. We are also launching a merchandising program now that some of the other less successful app-related product has cleared out.”
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
Blizzard Entertainment has announced that StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm has reached a trio of milestones. Not only did 1.1 million viewers tune into the company’s 21-hour global broadcast of launch events and community celebrations around the world (peak concurrent viewership reaching over 125,000), the expansion sold through approximately 1.1 million copies worldwide.
“We want to thank the global StarCraft community for the incredible passion and support they’ve shown for Heart of the Swarm,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “In addition to a brand-new single-player campaign, we added a ton of enhancements with this expansion to make StarCraft II even more fun to play, and more exciting to watch. We’re pleased to see gamers and eSports fans around the world enjoying Heart of the Swarm.”
Last weekend, over 1.1 million viewers tuned in to see the StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm tournament at the Major League Gaming (MLG) Winter Championship in Dallas, Texas. Heart of the Swarm reached a peak concurrent viewership of more than 157,000 viewers, as reported by Twitch.
“StarCraft II has been a premier game at Major League Gaming events since Wings of Liberty was released,” said Sundance DiGiovanni, CEO of Major League Gaming. “Heart of the Swarm has generated even more excitement, and we’re all looking forward to what the future brings for StarCraft II eSports.”
“StarCraft II has always been one of the most popular games on Twitch, and we’ve noticed a wave of new viewership since Heart of the Swarm launched last week,” said Kevin Lin, COO of Twitch. “Viewer numbers are up just about across the board for the most popular StarCraft II pro-gamers and personalities who stream on Twitch.”
While Apple is heavily rumored to be making an “iWatch” product and Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile business, says his company is readying something similar. “We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long,” said Lee to Bloomberg. “We are working very hard to get ready for it. We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.”
According a survey of users by mobile deals site BuyVia, 26 percent of respondents said they were interested in buying a rumored iWatch, 38 percent said they were not interested while 36 percent said they weren’t sure. The top five features respondents said they’d like to see in a watch were e-mail and texting, phone calls, GPS, Wi-Fi and weather updates.
“While consumers are seemingly divided about their desire to own the rumored Apple iWatch, it’s fascinating that the most desired features for the watch mirror popular iPhone capabilities,” said BuyVia CEO Norman Fong. “It’s as though consumers are only interested in a watch that offers everything the smartphone does, only in a more convenient ‘package.’ What they seem to crave is a way to more easily access iPhone features everywhere they go.”
Source: CNN.com
Deep Silver wants to do right by fans with a collector’s edition for Saints Row IV. As such, they’re asking fans what they want to see in an online survey.
Sadly, shoes aren’t an option.
Possible items include a Saints Row T-shirt – “Department of Homeland Saintcurity”, Saints2013 Presidential campaign gear (Pins, hats, Saint Car Flags), Voice augmentation device / auto-tune device, Pierce, Shaundi, or other Saint Figurine, Presidential Briefcase with kinky handcuff and key, Dubstep Doomsday Button, Functional (not deadly!) in-game weapon replica, Johnny Gat Memorial Statue, Saint’s Bazooka themed Poster Tube, “Eagle Jet” RC Helicopter, Tie and Tie Bar Money Clip, Sealed Classified Book with Artwork (Concept Artbook), Steelbook, Whitehouse “Security” download card, President Seal and/or Coin, Cloth World Map, Saint Belt Buckle, Wood Cigar box and a “Ridiculously amazing glass display case with lights.”
Check it out or yourself at Kwiksurveys.com.
Research from Frank N. Magid Associates sponsored by PlaySpan says that more game consumers view the smartphone as their platform of choice. The survey says that 80 percent of all consumers in the U.S. are now playing games, something attributed in part to the increase in smartphone ownership.
While the survey found that 35 percent of respondents pointed to consoles as their top gaming platform, smartphones were very close, as 34 percent said that mobile was their preferred gaming platform. This was followed by tablets at 11 percent and computers at 6 percent, while dedicated handhelds like the 3DS or PS Vita were at only 3 percent.
There is a huge gender discrepancy in preference for smartphones vs. consoles. While 49 percent of men said they prefer consoles compared to 18 percent of women, 45 percent of women contrastingly prefer smartphones compared to 25 percent of men.
Free-to-play is hugely beneficial for mobile, and the study found that 110 million Americans prefer free-to-play than pay-to-play and 77 percent of gamers are spending more time with free-to-play than the alternative. Men are three times more likely than women to make in-game purchases in free-to-play games, spending $13.38 per month compared to $4.84 for women.
Given typical pay habits, men were unsurprisingly almost three times more likely than women to say pay-to-play or subscription based games are their favorite. The most lucrative demographic was the 18-24 age group where men were paying an average of $30.59 a month on in-game purchases.
“The shift in free-to-play games is becoming the norm in the gaming industry and this survey reinforces that trend,” said Robert Crawford, vice president of Frank N. Magid Associates. “We’re seeing free-to-play game revenue outpacing pay-to-play games when looking at the long-term average spend per year. It’s important that game developers recognize this change and be able to monetize it through new free-to-play gaming platforms.”
