Sony is preparing a full trailer for The Last of Us that’s bound to leave us wanting the game badly. As it is, this teaser trailer manages to be potent with emotions for being so short.
The VFX Bro worked hard to make this single take animation work on multiple screens. Watch as Link battles Ganon, Armos and even Gangnam Style!
This latest Splinter Cell Blacklist ComDev video has Animation Director, Kristjan Zadziuk showing some of the non-lethal take downs. It’s really impressive the variety of animations they have for this game!
At the official site for Zero Dark Thirty, a brief mini-game experience puts you in the role as a member of the CIA being tested to see if you have what it takes. Play Covert Ops {link no longer active} to find out if you have the level of courage, mental strength, and grace under pressure reserved for only a select few. Test your skills in this series of challenges; each exercise will be scored based on time and accuracy. Retry the experience again and again to try and get a better score. Connect via Facebook to share progress and invite friends.
KEEP THE FOCUS
Sort through vital information instantly and accurately to determine how you would succeed in the field. For this challenge, you will be briefly shown nine people. Are they friends or foes You decide.
THREAT IDENTIFICATION
When you’re an agent in the field, accuracy and confidence in your decisions are everything. Watch a brief surveillance video and click to decide who you believe is the person of interest.
TRACE THE ORIGIN
As an elite agent, courage will only get you so far. Engage your powers of reason and deduction to positively identify the members of an enemy organization and their individual roles.
It’s that time of year when everyone is into lists – shopping, resolutions, top this and that. Huffington Post has collected 100 statistics on social media sites from 2012, all properly sourced.
Amidst head scratchers (37 percent of Instagram users have never uploaded a photo) and some clutter (85 percent of women find their Facebook friends annoying), there are useful marketing stats. 80 percent of social media users prefer Facebook to connect with brands. 77 percent of consumer products companies have managed to acquire customers from Facebook. 26 percent of re-tweets are prompted by re-tweet requests. In August, Instagram beat Twitter in traffic to the tune of 432,000 daily users. People prefer Pinterest (43 percent) over Facebook (24 percent) to connect with retailers. Plus a whole bunch of stuff about Google+.
Check it out at Huffington Post
Sometimes it can be hard to breakthrough with an original ad concept. It’s not just that most of the good ideas are taken; presenting a game or a concept originally can be hard while also staying true to the spirit of the original product. Still, Ayzenberg and Electronic Arts were able to come up with a unique angle for their Prop 130 infographic, considering the U.S. election was very much in everyone’s mind when Need for Speed: Most Wanted launched. We talked with Daniel Lingen, community manager at Electronic Arts, about the Prop 130 infographic.
[a]list: Where did you come up with the idea for the Prop 130 infographic?
Daniel Lingen: We really wanted to showcase the idea that Most Wanted was all about “Making Trouble,” and we gathered in a room to brainstorm ways we could do that. Everything was brought up, but one idea in particular stood out: start some trouble in the upcoming U.S. election. With Proposition commercials and ads everywhere we really wanted to poke fun at them, and there’s nothing we’re more passionate than speed. So why not raise the speed limit to 130?
[a]list: When did it come up as a possibility that Prop 130 might go into the New York Times?
Daniel Lingen: We created the campaign around the concept of scalability — we wanted to make sure that the project would get better as more resources piled on. With that in mind, we spared no expense brainstorming the best place to put it. Billboards seemed great, but at the end of the day wouldn’t get us the distribution we’re looking for. TV placement was far too much, and it would most likely get lost in the shuffle. This is why we decided to go for a newspaper. Great distribution, and easily picked up and passed around.
[a]list: What sort of response have you gotten to the Prop 130 ad so far? Do some people think it’s real?
Daniel Lingen: During the first 3-4 hours of the day we saw a few comments here and there that thought the proposition was real. It wasn’t enough to actually catch momentum, but it did get a few chuckles here and there. Rest of the sentiment has been fantastic. Some of our favorite quotes include:
“This is some of the best advertising I’ve seen for a game this year. Easily.” — Polygon Commentor
“This is just the right amount of ridiculous that you know it is a joke, but presented in a serious stereotypical info graphic. Good on them.” — Kotaku Commentor
[a]list: Was there any serious attempt to draw out something resembling real statistics for Prop 130? How were the “stats” constructed?
Daniel Lingen: No serious attempt. We kicked off our agency Ayzenberg with a few of our own ideas, but wanted to make sure all of the statistics were clearly made up. All in all we had a few back and forth where we eliminated / added the stats, but each time we made it clear we were aiming for just the right amount of humor so we didn’t seem too serious.
[a]list: Were you pleased by the press coverage that Prop 130 got? Were there any examples that stood out?
Daniel Lingen: Press coverage was fantastic, we couldn’t have asked for better reception. Outlets like Kotaku, Polygon, GameTrailers, and even MotoAuthro were all getting in on the action. Even the comments were pleased!
[a]list: Turning to TV, were there any particular inspirations for the TV Spot that was done with the show down with the cop cars?
Daniel Lingen: I can’t speak for the TV spot as I wasn’t on the initial team for that spot, but I can say it served as a huge inspiration internally. This game is all about making trouble. For the cops, for your friends, for fun, and the TV spot conveys that perfectly.
Peter Molyneux recently said that he was “going to make one more game” which would seem to indicate a retirement of some sort. He is now backing off of that claim now, and doesn’t sound like a man approaching retirement at all.
“I wasn’t in any way announcing my retirement or saying I’m going to throw myself off the nearest bridge after my next game,” said Molyneux. “I’m either going to stop making games when everyone in the world just hates the games I make or the day when I die. I feel more passionate, more engaged, more energetic about making games now than I ever have. The thought of retirement is abhorrent to me. I would have to be in some vegetative state to consider retirement.”
He added about Project Godus, his Kickstarter which is halfway funded with more than two weeks to go, that there are alternatives in case crowdfunding doesn’t work. “We’d have to look at some of the more traditional routes,” Molyneux explained. “I think it would be a tough world to be in if we weren’t funded, that’s for sure. Everyone kind of thinks I’m loaded with money and live in Versailles or something, and drive around in a gold Rolls Royce. None of that is true. I’m not starving by any means, but I haven’t got unlimited wealth. I used a lot of money to found 22 Cans, to release Curiosity, and to build a team of 20 people.”
Source: GamesIndustry International
It’s been confirmed that the Ouya development consoles will ship out on December 28. The dev Ouya consoles will go to those that invested $700 in the console’s Kickstarter.
“The dev consoles are an early version of the Ouya console and controller designed for developers to test their games on Ouya. Our Kickstarter developers are the first to get a crack at ’em! We’re psyched to have you on board, and we can’t wait to see what pours from your brain!” wrote Jules Kane of Ouya. “Of course, when the final consoles ship, EVERY Ouya will be a dev console. We told you that already. What we didn’t tell you was that the advance dev consoles you ordered are pretty special — you’ll know what I mean when you open yours. They’re rare drops.”
It was also announced that emails will be sent out on December 25 to confirm users preference for Ouya usernames.
Source: Ouya.tv
Valve has announced that Big Picture has seen a full and official release. This new mode is designed to allow users to play Steam games in a living room environment using a gamepad.
“To celebrate the public launch of Big Picture, over thirty controller-friendly games will be on sale from now until December 10, with savings up to 75 percent off,” announced Valve. “Access to the complete Steam store is included, as is the Steam Community. Big Picture is available worldwide in over twenty languages, including German, French, Russian, Korean, and Portuguese.”
“Gamers’ existing games are all available in Big Picture. In addition to having the complete library of Steam games, each user’s cloud files, Steam Workshop content, account information and preferences will be accessible automatically in the new mode,” Valve added. “Steam gamers may easily experience Big Picture on their televisions by connecting their PC or Mac, typically with a single HDMI cable. Big Picture also includes a new web browser designed for televisions and game controllers. It is accessible from anywhere within the Big Picture UI, and even while playing Steam games on a TV. It supports Big Picture’s new method of typing with a gamepad, which is useful for entering URLs, filling out forms, chatting, and other functions.”
Source: SteamPowered.com
While Wooga is the number three publisher on Facebook, it’s nonetheless looking to refocus on mobile. Wooga CEO Jens Begemann sees people shifting away from desktops in favor of smartphones and tablets.
“We have roughly 60 percent of our employees working on mobile, 40 percent on Canvas,” said Begemann. “We made this decision a year ago. A year ago we only had 10 people working on mobile. Now it’s over half of the 250-people company. We still see growth on Canvas and obviously it’s still bigger, but the growth on mobile is extremely fast. The PC will become less important, and with that the browser, and with that Canvas. But that’s really mid-term.”
“I think that people who are buying a tablet now, as a private person, won’t replace their laptop,” he added. “They will phase out their existing laptop and they will maybe upgrade in two years to the next generations of tablets. I think that’s what’s happening.”
Source: Gamasutra
