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'Hitman Sniper Challenge' trademarked in Europe
Square Enix Europe continues its Hitman trademark spree with Hitman Sniper Challenge. Siliconera dug up the latest trademark, which comes a month after the site found a Hitman: Profession trademark lurking in the European database.What is Hitman Sniper Challenge? Much like Hitman: Profession, any guess is purely speculative. What we do know is that a new Hitman game is under production (with IO supervision) at the Square Enix studio in Montreal. IO is currently finishing up Hitman: Absolution for its 2012 launch.Square certainly has plenty of transmedia opportunities for Agent 47 that could cover angles beyond games.
Square Enix may not let Kane and Lynch's 'Sleeping Dogs' lie
Square Enix has trademarked the name "Sleeping Dogs," which could be a canine-based Final Fantasy title, Hitman with a Scooby-Doo-inspired sidekick, or, most likely, another Kane and Lynch game. Yes, most likely -- we never said most desirably.The previous Kane and Lynch title was Dog Days, and while it struggled to receive critical and commercial praise, Square Enix has hinted that the series may not be dead after all. Eidos "life president" Ian Livingstone said as much at the end of 2010 in an interview with Eurogamer: "We haven't made any announcements about Kane & Lynch going forward, but we all know that Kane and Lynch are two amazing characters who have a lot of brand equity," Livingstone hinted. "People like those guys, so they're not going to disappear."Also, developer IO Interactive put out a suspicious job listing for people to work on an unannounced, third-person, AAA action title in September 2011. Again, "Sleeping Dogs" could be Square's answer to Nintendogs, but for now the evidence is piling up like a stack of old laundry against Kane and Lynch.
Report: Ubisoft, Atari, many other publishers requesting payment from German pirates
Someone in Germany -- perhaps even some people -- illegally pirated a copy of Prison Break: The Conspiracy. Hard to believe as it may be, it appears to be the case according to TorrentFreak, who delved into German public records looking for game publishers who have employed German law to track down (and demand money from) people who allegedly pirated various games. In Germany, Koch Media publishes the Prison Break game, and has been demanding settlements of "several hundred Euros" from offending IP addresses. The records indicate that several major publishers, either directly or through subsidiaries/secondary parties, have been sending out letters to German citizens requesting varying levels of payment in return for not being sued. Where things get murky, however, is how the publishers are seeking out the accused pirates, using not always reliable "IP address-only evidence" -- easily circumvented with proxy domains and such. You know, hacker stuff. TorrentFreak's report indicates that a variety of publishers and distributors are involved, including (but not limited to): Atari, Koch Media (representing Techland's Dead Island and Prison Break, and Eidos/Square Enix's Deus Ex: Human Revolution as well as Dungeon Siege 3 and various Final Fantasy titles), Daedalic Entertainment (representing LucasArts), Codemasters, BitComposer, Ubisoft, Kalypso Media, dtp entertainment, and Aerosoft. It is currently unclear how many settlement notices have been sent out by each company, or if any will continue doing so after these actions have been brought to light. Witcher 2 developer CD Projekt Red was recently pursuing similar cases in Germany until it announced the end of the practice last week.
ESA members asked individually about SOPA, some respond
Rock, Paper, Shotgun collaborated in obtaining responses. The Entertainment Software Association's support of the "Stop Online Piracy Act" has led us to ask every member of the video game industry's lobbying and political group to publicly declare its stance on the bill. The ESA's continued support means every member, by proxy, is a supporter of the bill. Some companies have pulled their logos from supporting SOPA documentation to dodge ire, while others are hiding behind rhetoric, as you'll see below. Joystiq contacted every member of the ESA and requested a declarative statement on SOPA. After the break we've listed the responses we've received, along with others we found. We continue to seek clarity on this issue from every member of the ESA. This will become the page we update as we receive responses and clear declarative statements, so feel free to bookmark. (Joystiq does not support SOPA, nor does our parent company.)
UK gov't recognizes computer science education is important
Eidos "life president" Ian Livingstone's Livingstone-Hope Skills Review has been positively received by the UK government. The paper recommends that the UK's Information and Communications Technology national curriculum be replaced by computer science. "The Government looks forward to working with [the games industry], educators and others to develop an attractive computer science offering for schools, so that students are able to develop the rigorous skills needed -- not only to support these industries but also to ensure a digitally literate citizenry," read the government's lengthy response. "I hope common sense and the national interest will prevail," Livingstone told GI.biz, recognizing that it would "take a number of years" before any actual reforms occurred. And once the UK education system teaches students helpful game industry skills, they'll be off to sunny Canada for jobs, where the games industry isn't slowly crumbling around them. On the bright side, things could be worse ... like in Australia.
Hitman: Absolution, now with 17 minutes of commentary
For those of you out there who appreciate the special, unique combination of baldness, stealth and fine mensware, take note: Square Enix and Eidos have released a seventeen minute long Hitman: Absolution walkthrough, narrated by Game Director Tore Blystad and Gameplay Director Christian Elverdam.
Eidos Montreal fesses up to poor boss fights in Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Even though the recent release of "The Missing Link" DLC featured a more appropriate boss encounter, the majority of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's boss fights force players to forgo whichever strategy they employed throughout the game and, you know, just shoot 'em in the face. Unless that is your strategy, in which case all we have to say is: you monster. Eidos Montréal producer David Anfossi told Edge that farming out the boss fights to Grip Entertainment was a mistake -- not because Grip failed, but because the implementation and design of boss encounters was poor. "We knew that it would be a weakness for the game, that we had to make a compromise to deliver it [on] two levels. First, the boss fights were forced, which is not the Deus Ex experience. Second, there is no mix [of] solutions to tackle the boss fights, which is not Deus Ex either. We knew that before the release of the game, but there had to be some compromise. It [was] our decision." That's not to say Anfossi isn't proud of Deus Ex -- he's quite content with the hacking, stealth, social and combat aspects of the game -- but if he had a chance to do it all again, he'd handle the boss fights differently rather than taking them out entirely. "There are two options: no boss fights, or do boss fights correctly. I'm pretty sure that now we have the knowledge to do it correctly."
Hitman: Absolution has hardcore mode for masochists
Well, okay, you don't technically need to be a masochist, but a hardcore mode in Hitman Absolution, included specifically for veterans of the series, just may be a real blood-boiler. Producer Hakan Abrak told Eurogamer that the difficulty setting rewards methodical stealth play with Achievements and/or Trophies. "We will get into more details at a later point, but obviously it's linked to the playing style," he said. "It's more pacify your enemies, be undetected, maybe solve the challenges in a smarter way. That will probably give you a stealth assassin achievement." It might also give you an ulcer, depending on how many times you're forced to restart each mission. Abrak also hopes to silence critics who say Absolution ditches its stealth roots for the more action-packed gameplay we saw in the gameplay demo -- don't expect that, Abrak says. "Rest assured, the hardcore fans that like to have replayablity value in the game or want to have this stealth assassin -- you know, I'm the ultimate stealth assassin -- that playing style, those achievements, are very much in the game." For more info on Hitman Absolution, be sure to check out our preview from back in June.
Tomb Raider Xbox 360 could use a hug
We've seen a lot of custom Xbox 360s before, but never one that looked like it was in so much pain. The Official Tomb Raider Blog is currently running a contest to give the Xbox, featuring a bruised and battered Lara Croft, away -- and it's clear that it could use a good home. And just look at that Xbox controller! Poor little guy must have fractured a handle. Winning isn't quite as easy as filling out a form, as the blog is asking folks to answer trivia questions, which can only be found via Twitter, Facebook and during the last five minutes of Crystal Habit, the Crystal Dynamics podcast. Once you have the answers, you can enter the contest here. Do it quickly, because someone needs to get that mistreated console away from those monsters.
Catwoman's Sins in Batman: Arkham City
So, why Catwoman? I know it's something nice and extra for the fans, and in the context of Batman: Arkham City's story, I'm all for Catwoman, but why? Why include just about every Batman character ever this time around? Dax Ginn, marketing game manager for Rocksteady, told me that players nowadays don't always want to be the good guy. "It's not always fun being the righteous arm of justice, so we wanted to explore what it was like to be a criminal within Arkham City, as well. Catwoman became a great option to explore that." But maybe it's simpler than that. "We kind of look around at other games," Ginn said, "and it's obvious that some players like breaking the rules."%Gallery-135245%
Deus Ex DLC fixes boss fights (well, at least this one)
As much as we loved Deus Ex: Human Revolution, we weren't crazy about being wedged into an irritating shootout whenever a boss reared its cyber-head. While we tried to roleplay as The Rock in The Rundown (you know, vow against guns, relying on our brains and fists), Human Revolution seemed intent on turning us into The Rock in -- well, pretty much every other movie he's in ... and the end of The Rundown, come to think of it. Eurogamer reports that all changes in DLC "The Missing Link," which Eidos Montreal developed totally in-house, rather than (as in the case of Human Revolution) farming boss battles out to another studio. Missing Link producer Marc-Andre Dufort said, "You can actually not kill the boss. You can do a non-lethal takedown on him. And you can kill him from afar. You can even kill him without him seeing you. It's more of a bigger challenge than a standard boss fight like we have in many games." Fine, Mr. Dufort. But will we be able to steal their teeth while they are asleep?
Deus Ex website RSS reveals 'Missing Link' DLC details
While Square Enix left clues hinting at DLC for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, we doubt the publishers expected its plans to be revealed quite this easily. After following a convoluted breadcrumb trail of images and websites hinting at the truth, eager fans have uncovered the official details ... right in the Deus Ex website's RSS. Opening up the DeusEx.com RSS XML reveals that the DLC will indeed be titled "Missing Link" and will take place during a three day-period in which protagonist Adam Jensen "vanishes," after which he must escape from a freighter. The clincher: His augmentations have been disabled. "Hey," you're undoubtedly thinking, "wouldn't that mean his cybernetic arms would just stop working?" You're right, of course, but we're talking about the same game that allows players to knock a guard unconscious without being noticed by the other guard standing two feet away. Some suspension of disbelief is probably in order. Assuming the RSS is correct, the DLC will be officially revealed on September 8. We've included the RSS description after the break. Be warned that it contains some minor spoilers.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution PC update cuts down loading times
Fact: nobody wants to sit through long loading times. Today's PC patch for Deus Ex: Human Revolution should cut down the time. According to the patch notes on Steam, some machines have seen load times decreased by over 50%. On top of the load times, a start-up crash affecting certain AMD/ATI hardware configurations has been addressed. Mouse sensitivity has also been tweaked, which should hopefully alleviate that problem you had where you would keep running up to dudes and punching them in the face, over and over again. Oh, wait, that's how you're playing the game? Well, carry on then.
Buy Deus Ex: Human Revolution on PC, get OnLive version free
So maybe a free OnLive MicroConsole wasn't incentive enough to pre-order Deus Ex: Human Revolution via the cloud gaming service. You, sentimentalist that you are, ordered the retail PC version. "I like having a box thank you very much," you said, to no one in particular. Well, guess what? OnLive foiled your little plan because, according to OnLiveFans.com, the PC version comes with a free pass for the OnLive version anyway. That'll show you.
This Deus Ex: Human Revolution launch trailer shows a changed man
We're not looking forward to the future, mainly because we'll never be able to afford sweet bionic arms. Lucky for us, we can play video games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, allowing us to experience the future revolution at a fraction of the price.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution TV spot is fully augmented
Who wouldn't want badass robot arms? We're pretty sure that's the gist of this TV spot for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Let us answer that question for you: boring people who don't want to bench-press cement trucks, that's who. Does that even sound like an option to you?
Deus Ex: Human Revolution trailer plays catch-up
Have you been busy for the last few months? Is there just no time to peruse Joystiq's veritable mountain of Deus Ex: Human Revolution coverage? Good news, then, because the latest trailer will catch you up on just about everything.
Mega64 thinks Deus Ex: Human Revolution doesn't have enough trench coats
Presented to the developers of Deus Ex: Human Revolution at Comic-Con, this trailer features all of the hopes, dreams and trench coats of the iconic comedy troupe, Mega64. It's also a great video if you're wondering what the quickest way to get kicked out of a Best Buy is.
Visual Works explains how Tomb Raider's big E3 trailer came to be
If you were capable of watching the E3 2011 Tomb Raider trailer without fully freaking out, well, frankly, we're worried about your health. For the rest of us, Square Enix and Eidos have released a near 15-minute-long "making of" to walk us through all the gory details of its creation.
Square Enix going after 15 John Does accused of leaking Deus Ex preview code
A recent court document depicts the beginning of a legal battle between Square Enix and 15 unknown "John Does" over the publisher's upcoming action-RPG, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which leaked through an early preview code in late May. The Steam-based early preview code can allegedly be traced back to one specific Italian outlet -- "Giochi per il Mio Computer," owned by Sprea Editori -- though it apparently isn't to blame. "On information and belief, one or more Defendants logged into the restricted Steam account hosting the Game Preview code by entering the username and password associated with the authorized GMC reviewer on or about May 29, 2011," the document reads. It then clarifies the breach as "from an IP address that was not associated with Sprea Editori or GMC." Then who's the culprit? It seems that even Square doesn't know just yet. Rather than aim its suit at the Italian gaming outlet, the Japanese publisher is instead directing its legal team at 15 unnamed John Does, seeking "monetary damage in excess of $5,000" for the preview's distribution, as well as investigating its breach, any "gains, profits, advantages, and unjust enrichment obtained as a result" of the breach, and any "punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial." The document will set the stage for potential legal recourse in the future if and when any of the accused Does are identified. We've reached out to Square for clarification, since it's unclear from the court document whether or not an investigation is ongoing with Italian officials over the alleged breach. The suit was filed in the US District Court, Seattle specifically, as a result of the leak's origins via Steam (Steam's servers are hosted in Bellevue, Washington). Deus Ex: Human Revolution is intended to officially launch on August 23.%Gallery-127824%
