Gaming News Archives

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) has decided to enter into the world of video games. How best to make a video game for the PLA? By ripping off Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and changing it so Chinese soldiers kill Americans, of course. Best yet, the title is the predictably anvilicious, Glorious Revolution.

Naturally some people are up in arms about this, although this isn't exactly new. Battlefield: Modern Combat had maps where Americans and Chinese killed each other over and over again. Since America and China are easily the world's two military superpowers, it makes sense that people would want to see them fight, and making a game where Chinese soldiers murder peaceful Tibetan protestors would be poor propaganda. Of course, those who aren't keen on World War 3 probably would like to avoid this sort of thinking in the first place.

The game looks alright, if not kind of generic. I'm not really shocked since there are games where the player can gleefully kill innocent people, so a game where a bunch of soldiers shoot at each other doesn't bother me that much. Seems kind of natural really.

Read more.

This comedy of errors has been going on for over a month now, and it just keeps getting better. Sony has released a revised financial outlook for the coming year, and reports a 171.4 million dollar loss. They're dealing in yen, of course, and that's just a conversion, but this does not include any of the lawsuits that have been filed as a result or the like. It's kind of amazing that a handful of people with some computers and some computer knowledge could cause so much damage, almost inspiring even.

This report does include information related to that horrible earthquake, and that's an even darker picture than the hacking, but at least Sony has some form of insurance to deal with the earthquake. That's like a two billion dollar loss from the start, without including other expenses.

Terrible news, in a long month of terrible news. This will be an item on a lot of top ten lists about giant fuck ups in the history of video games, right up there with E.T. for the Atari and MGM v. Nintendo.

Read more.

Activision releases a first round of screenshots from the new X-Men game, entitled X-Men: Destiny. Check 'em out:

click to view full gallery

click to view full gallery

X-Men: Destiny "casts players as new mutant recruits in a rich, branching storyline that features a deep element of choice and gives players ultimate control of their destiny."

The game hits multiple platforms next Fall.

Don't forget to give the X-Men: Destiny trailer a look.

Rockstar has a reputation for stirring up things in the games industry and this title may prove to be no exception. You want a good video game? This one could prove to be slightly more than that:

Check out this snip:

What has probably been the most talked about feature of this game, and likely what cost the most to develop and implement, is the facial animation system. The way this changes the player's interaction with the game is astonishing. At a certain point it does feel like you are looking at a human face, just an animated one. Strangely, this seems to avoid the uncanny valley.

From a technical perspective, everything else lives in the shadow of this facial animation system. While the game looks fantastic, especially the old cars and the authenticity of 1947 Downtown Los Angeles, and the game sounds fantastic, from the voice acting, to the sound effects, to the music, all of this pales in comparison to the fantastic facial animation system. It has allowed actors to bring the characters to life, allowing the characters in L.A. Noire to feel much closer to actual people.

Read our review L.A. Noire.

Brink conquered sales in the UK last week, but now, Rockstar's crime themed action adventure L.A. Noire emerges as the best seller in the region, followed closely by... Ummm, LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean. Here's the chart for the week ending May 21:

1. LA Noire - Take Two
2. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean - Disney
3. Brink - Bethesda
4. Zumba Fitness - 505 Games
5. The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings - Namco
6. Crysis 2 - EA
7. Portal 2 - EA 08. FIFA 11 - EA
9. Mortal Kombat - Warner
10. Call of Duty: Black Ops - Activision

Read our review of LA Noire here.

Funny things can be found on the crime scene these days...

AT COMIC: Noire - Crucial Evidence

Hey, folks. It's Monday again and you all know what that means. It means that it's Monday again.

Our L.A. Noire review and I must say we enjoyed the hell out of that game. I've also just completed The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and started the review, so you'll have that one by tomorrow morning.

Man, I'm hungry as a bear. I'd better go and find something to eat...