gamescom-2012
Latest
Seen@Gamescom: Times are tough for assassins
With Agent 47 back in action, the murder-for-hire industry seems to be hurting. This member in the brotherhood of assassins is taking requests.His sign says: "Hitman is back! Lost my job. Will take any job."Think he knows how to use a mower? Could use some gutter cleaning as well.
Gamescom 2012: New LotRO dev diary about warsteeds
Last week we brought you news about Lord of the Rings Online's warsteed mechanic, accompanied by a video with people talking about that mechanic. The time for talk has gone; now is the time for deep chanting, epic music, and glorious in-game footage of warsteeds in action. Straight from the show floor of Gamescom comes a new video featuring LotRO's mounts for the Riders of Rohan expansion. These mounts come in three armor tiers, have slots for individual armor pieces, and have customizable skills. They also look pretty snazzy as they carry you into battle. Check out last week's video to learn more about mounts, or skip below the cut to check out this week's video if all you need is the pounding of drums and the thrill of battle.
Gamescom 2012: FFXIV servers shutting down ahead of relaunch, A Realm Reborn beta planned for this fall
Final Fantasy XIV players, take note: Your days are numbered. Er, at least your days spent in the original FFXIV world. When the game's rebirth, called A Realm Reborn, occurs later this year, the game's servers will be taken offline. Rather than overlap the two versions of the game, Square-Enix director/producer Naoki Yoshida says the original servers will be taken offline "some day in the near future," precipitating an alpha and then a beta for the game's relaunch later this year. "Basically what's going to happen is that the current story is still continuing now, but some day in the near future -- and we'll make sure we tell the players what day that is -- something is going to happen in the story, and at that time, the servers are going to shut down," Yoshida told us in a group interview this morning at Gamescom. The reason for the shutdown is less thrilling than you might think. "Basically the player data will be taken over into the new game. So, to convert all this new data for the new systems, we need a certain amount of time to do this. There's so much data, so many thousands of characters that we must do this for. And so we have to shut down the servers," he said. Yoshida was quick to point out that players will have plenty of warning ahead of the shut-down (consider this your first heads-up). He also notes that the original game's userbase will be prioritized in A Realm Reborn's beta queue and that players will "be able to use their current characters in the beta test as well." Though that may not be at the kickoff of the beta, he says, "We're working in a way to try to get it as close to the beginning of the beta test as possible." A Realm Reborn is headed to both PlayStation 3 and PC later this year. Every summer, the gaming industry descends on Cologne, Germany, for Gamescom, the world's largest trade fair for interactive games and entertainment. Massively's on the scene in 2012, bringing you all the best scoops, impressions, and interviews from the MMOs at the show!
Dead Island: Riptide producer hopes game releases in Germany, but isn't betting on it
Dead Island: Riptide, like its predecessor, is unlikely to be released in Germany. The situation is awkwardly laughable, since the game is being shown at behind-closed-door sessions at Gamescom in Germany, but the audience in attendance won't likely get to legally play the game. Pouring lemon juice on the paper cut, publisher Deep Silver is a German company."Maybe they change the laws? It's about time," said Sebastian Reichert, creative producer of Riptide, expressing it's a little awkward being German and most people don't know his game. "I wouldn't bet on it [coming out here]."The Unterhaltungssoftware Selbskontrolle (USK) must follow government-enforced rules determined by the BPjM (German Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons). Games can't have extreme violence against human-like enemies, along with many other criteria. Dead Island: Riptide has not yet been submitted to the USK.
Gamescom 2012: FFXIV's A Realm Reborn will be 'scalable' for next-gen consoles
When Final Fantasy XIV's A Realm Reborn launches later this year on PC and PlayStation 3, each version will represent a scaled version of the game's highest settings. But with talk of next-gen consoles getting louder and louder, does it make sense to stick with the PlayStation 3? Square-Enix producer/director Naoki Yoshida thinks so, but that doesn't mean he isn't prepared for the looming next generation of game consoles. "The biggest thing is because we promised we'd release on PlayStation 3, and there are still a lot of players out there waiting for us to release a PS3 version. Before we talked about losing the trust of the playerbase with the original release of XIV and getting that trust back. One of the things to get that trust back is to fulfill our promises. That promise being that we'd release on the PlayStation 3," Naoki said in a group interview today at Gamescom. "That doesn't mean we're not looking to the future. We realize that things will be coming, and then making the game compatible for these systems is something we're currently thinking about," he added. Of course, "Until Sony and Microsoft actually make an announcement," he said, "we can't make an announcement." Yoshida said that his team's flexibility with FFXIV is due to the game's new engine. "With this new engine, it's very scalable. It runs on low-end PCs and high-end PCs. So when new technology comes out, we can easily scale it to that high end." Yoshida went on to show the game running on a colleague's Sony Vaio laptop sporting a Core i5 processor. While the graphics were scaled down for the lower-end specs, the game still ran smoothly and looked quite impressive. "This is at about 70 percent optimization," he added. FFXIV's A Realm Reborn will launch on both PC and PlayStation 3 "this year." Every summer, the gaming industry descends on Cologne, Germany, for Gamescom, the world's largest trade fair for interactive games and entertainment. Massively's on the scene in 2012, bringing you all the best scoops, impressions, and interviews from the MMOs at the show!
Ubisoft Gamescom media megapost: Rayman Legends, ZombiU, and more
Just in case you didn't get to see the Ubisoft press conference while it was streaming, don't worry. We saved all of the pictures and videos from the games they had on display, and have combined them all into this one easy-to-carry blog post for your viewing pleasure. It took a while to figure out a way to pack all of these games into the same place, but below, you'll find new screenshots from the gorgeous Rayman Legends, videos from Ghost Recon Online and the two upcoming Might and Magic titles, and more media from upcoming titles like Avengers: Battle For Earth and the upcoming ZombiU. How convenient!
Konami is No. 2 social games publisher behind Zynga
Konami has recently received a massive bump to its financial report from its social gaming division: In the first nine months of fiscal 2012, Konami reported its year-on-year gain was driven by social gaming, which generated $348 million in revenue, up $127 million from 2011. Without context, these numbers can seem impressive, but meaningless.Fortunately, Careen Yapp provided a background for Konami's finances during an "ask these publishers anything" panel at Gamescom: Last year estimates put Konami as the second-most-prolific social games publisher behind Zynga.Zynga, the market giant, posted $1.14 billion in revenue for 2011 from social gaming, with $1.07 billion of that in microtransactions alone. This actually translated to a net loss of $404.3 million for Zynga, and its stock continues to remain far below original estimates, along with public perception of the company.Being No. 2 to Zynga and being in a position to create products other than social games isn't such a bad spot for Konami to be in.
The Last of Us and the process of creating a cutscene
It's quite the process to create a cutscene in The Last of Us – from the animators to the actors doing the motion-capture to the end result in-game, it takes a lot of effort. Developer Naughty Dog has given us a behind-the-scenes look at how one scene in particular was made, which is, to be quite frank, equal parts fascinating and daunting. But, hey, if all this insight isn't your thing, then at least you get to watch people run around in funny suits. There's got to be some value in that, right?
Super Joystiq Podcast Gamescom 2012 special: Day 3
Gamescom 2012 is officially under way and we're back again with a guest-packed show.Alexander, Ben, Richard, and Jess are back and joined by Rami Ismail from Vlambeer to discuss the indie game scene and how the developer handles copying of game concepts.In the second segment, Garth DeAngelis and Jacob Solomon from Firaxis join the show to talk about their job titles, how creative decisions get made, and eventually get around to XCOM: Enemy Unknown.Hello Games rounds out the show with Sean Murray, Grant Duncan and David Ream discussing the evolution of the studio, from a four-person team packed in a tiny office to a massive 10-person team working bohemian-style out of a warehouse. The guys also provide tips on how to travel internationally throughout Europe without a passport, and even talk about the forthcoming Joe Danger 2 The Movie.Stay tuned throughout the week for more daily specials out of GDC Europe and Gamescom 2012 in Germany.Listen to the Super Joystiq Podcast: Subscribe to the Super Joystiq Podcast in iTunes Super Joystiq Podcast is also available in the Zune Marketplace Add the Super Joystiq Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator Download the MP3 directlyA stream of the show and details about each segment is available after the break.
Dead or Alive 5 adds Brad Wong and Eliot to the roster
Despite being featured in Team Ninja's relationship graph, Brad Wong and Eliot were never officially confirmed for Dead or Alive 5 – that is, until now. Tecmo announced the pair as the latest additions to Dead or Alive 5's roster today at Gamescom.In addition to giving us a glimpse at Eliot and Brad Wong, Team Ninja has also sent out some images of a new stage, a small house in China. While the fight starts in this house, the gallery below shows its wooden walls are hardly enough to keep the greatest combatants confined.%Gallery-162516%
The Last Guardian is still coming, still on PlayStation 3
"The team is still working on it very hard," Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida said in response to questions regarding the status of the long-in-development PS3 exclusive, The Last Guardian.Speaking with Eurogamer, Yoshida explained that there are certain "technical issues" that developer Team Ico has been pushing through since last we've heard of it. "That's the period of time when the game, looking from the outside, doesn't seem to be making much progress." In February, Yoshida made similar promises about The Last Guardian but admitted progress on the title was "slow."The Last Guardian has failed to appear at any major industry trade show in years, including last year's Tokyo Game Show, E3 in June, and this week's Gamescom.Trouble started to boil over in December 2011, when Team Ico mastermind Fumito Ueda announced he was leaving his position and would complete work on The Last Guardian with Sony on a contractual basis. Recently, Sony abandoned the trademark for The Last Guardian, but can still recover it by filing a petition by January 2013.Yoshida says that Sony Japan Studio – one of the teams helping with the project's completion – had to completely re-do work to bring the game to a playable state. "...it turned out the technical issues are much harder to solve. So the engineering team had to go back and re-do some of the work they had done," he said.Despite its numerous delays, The Last Guardian has not shifted into a new console generation. "The game is developed on PS3," Yoshida confirmed. Let's hope it doesn't launch as late as some of the PlayStation 2's latest software, which continues to arrive six years after the PlayStation 3's release.%Gallery-102416%
Gamescom 2012: Neverwinter shows off lore trailer and prepares for 2013 launch
Neverwinter, the upcoming action-based free-to-play title from Cryptic Studios, will be making an appearance at Gamescom 2012 as well as GenCon Indy 2012 and PAX Prime 2012. It will not be making an appearance as a launched game, however, as the official launch date has been pushed back from late 2012 to early 2013. Attendees to these conventions will be able to play an early build of the game, and press members will also be given a tour of the game's player-generated content tool, the Foundry. For those not able to attend the conventions, the team behind the game has put together a new lore trailer for Ebon Downs, one of the game's many dungeon areas. The short story is that a necromancer is using an artifact to raise an army of undead, but there are more details to be unearthed about the artifact in question and the perils within the barrows. Check out the trailer past the break and new screenshots in our gallery below. [Source: Perfect World Entertainment press release] %Gallery-152607%
Razer Ouroboros gaming mouse hands-on
You recall the Ouroboros, right? Nope, not the mythical snake yarn, the latest gaming mouse from Razer that inadvertently broke cover over at the FCC. While it's been official for around a month, Germany's annual gaming convention has offered us our first chance to get to grips with it. Razer has tied itself in a ergonomic knot over the Ouroboros, with most of the mouse's dimensions happily adjustable to suit practically any gamer hand. We get customizing right after the break. %Gallery-162518%
Seen@Gamescom: The smallest, most adorable game of golf
What happens when you get lost in a giant convention center in Germany? You find people playing the smallest game of golf ever, obviously. Er ... at least that's what happened to this dutiful reporter today between Gamescom 2012 appointments. And no, it wasn't a case of comparative size confusion – the people above are not actually giants around an enormous pool table controlling little actual people. Don't be silly.Instead, the pool table-sized Pit Green Micro Golf table seen above was billed as the home of the 2012 PGL World Cup, which is apparently taking place this Saturday. The only issue we see with the miniature competition is the looming possibility of children jumping up on the felt and playing with what appear to be adorable little plastic golfer men.But seriously, we're not trying to reduce the game to something silly. There's nothing nice about making light of ... okay, we'll stop. Head past the break for a closer look.
Early builds of Divinity games stolen from Gamescom
Two PCs holding early builds of Divinity: Dragon Commander and Divinity: Original Sin have been stolen from Larian Studios' booth at Gamescom, possibly by jerks. Larian sent a press release out, seeking information on the whereabouts of the PCs and the alleged jerks who did it. To that end, the developer is offering a $5000 reward."The team is using backup PCs, so no issues there," Larian reports. This is all reminiscent of PAX 2010, when a thief attempted to copy early code for the game Breach from one of Atomic Studios' computers. That attempt ended in an arrest and, eventually, probation.
The wonderful mistakes of Far Cry 3
As our own Ludwig Kietzmann once wrote, Ubisoft's Far Cry 2 is at its best when your best laid plans go catastrophically wrong – when craftily assassinating a single target goes haywire and becomes a blood-soaked, bullet-ridden assault on an entire army. While I was only able to experience a tiny slice of the Far Cry 3 single-player campaign, I can happily report, at the very least, that things can definitely still go wrong.%Gallery-162448%
ROCCAT's new Kone Pure mouse streamlines things, while ISKU FX keyboard adds some color (hands-on)
ROCCAT's latest addition to its family of mice is the Kone Pure, toned down to 91 percent the size of the original Kone. Now both smaller and flatter, it's dropped the menu button above the four-direction scroll wheel, and that scroll wheel now goes only up and down. It's a trade-off, but ROCCAT has added a new 'easy shift' side trigger which it hopes will ameliorate that fall in the button-count. This acts as a mouse-based shift function and you can customize how all of the device's other buttons behave when the side-trigger is depressed. ROCCAT also threw in a new FX version of its ISKU keyboard here at Gamescom, adding some customizable color skills and upgraded keys that are far more legible when not backlit -- a common complaint with the original ISKU keyboard. Switching from black to white fittings under the keys has also improved the keys' visibility. Take a tour of both devices in the galleries, then jump after the break for a little more detail -- including a new prototype. %Gallery-162489% %Gallery-162507%
Remember Me's unforgotten past with Sony is just water under the bridge
Dontnod and Capcom's collaboration on Remember Me is a relatively recent occurrence. The two came together in the last year, following a falling out between Dontnod and Sony in February 2011. Remember Me (formerly Adrift) was originally headed exclusively to Sony's consoles, it seems, given a publishing arrangement that the two companies worked out in February 2010."The Sony deal was signed February 2010 and ended a year later. We were totally independent, and had no publisher, but we were looking for one," Dontnod creative lead Jean-Maxime Moris told Joystiq in an interview this morning. So, what went wrong?"I won't go into too many details, but basically they cancelled a bunch of projects, and we were just one of them," Moris said. "It felt bad at the time. And now, in retrospect, it's just one step toward where we are now."Moris added that he's "very happy" to be working with Capcom today, and that Remember Me is a good fit for "the Capcom DNA." And as for what went down with Sony? "It's just the way things went."%Gallery-162365%
Gamescom 2012: SOE reveals new PlanetSide 2 trailer
The last PlanetSide 2 trailer was a bit... eh, well, let's not beat around the bush. It was kinda cheesy. Thankfully Sony Online Entertainment has gotten back to what it does best with a rip-roaring romp through the battlefields of Auraxis courtesy of a new clip released at Gamescom. Galaxies? Check. Ground armor? Check. Infantry, jetpack, and air-to-air combat? Check, check, and check. The new video hits all the sweet spots, so have a look-see after the break!
Seen@Gamescom: Indies are pregnant with creative solutions
"That's not what I thought you meant when you said this project was your 'baby.'" This and dozens of other "pregnant game developer" jokes crossed our mind as we stopped to watch someone play a video game strapped to some guy's chest on the Gamescom business floor today. The man with the laptop-controller-drink-holder attached to his torso is Freek Timmers, game designer at Gray Lake Studios. The game he's lugging around the convention center is Omicron, a puzzle game built in a microbial world, in development for Windows, Mac and tablets. And stomachs, apparently.
