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Sony acquires inFamous dev Sucker Punch Productions
Having spent over ten years working on PlayStation-exclusive franchises like Sly Cooper and inFamous, Sucker Punch Productions is now becoming a Sony-owned developer. Sony announced the acquisition of the Bellevue, Washington-based studio this morning, formally adding it to the ranks of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios. According to Sucker Punch Managing Partner Brian Fleming, "the relationship with SCE has provided us the flexibility and trust to take creative risks and invent new properties." Among the studio's known properties, inFamous 2 is notable for having been one of the top selling games in June. The next Sucker Punch project has not been announced, but we do know of another "acquisition" that may play a role in it: the studio was recently joined by former Halo designer Jaime Griesemer.
Half-Minute Halo: An Interview with Jaime Griesemer
"In Halo 1, there was maybe 30 seconds of fun that happened over and over and over and over again. And so, if you can get 30 seconds of fun, you can pretty much stretch that out to be an entire game." Or maybe even five games. The succinct secret to Halo's success, that half minute of fun, has long been a mantra repeated by developer Bungie, repurposed by game critics, and presumably whispered by Master Chief himself before he tosses a plasma grenade into a gathering of grunts. It's inoffensive, catchy and it sounds about right. Doesn't it? "Yeah, it's probably the most famous thing I ever said," says game designer Jaime Griesemer. "For some reason it really resonated with the community and got quoted and repeated to the point where I would hear it from people that didn't realize where it had come from in the first place! Especially with journalists." Like many of you, Griesemer has heard the phrase on podcasts (yes, including The Joystiq Podcast) and read it in several articles, such as Clive Thompson's examination of Halo 3 playtesting in Wired. "Some of the guys at Bungie were calling me 'Mr. Thirty Seconds' for a while ... heh." If only we had paid attention to Mr. Thirty Seconds for about, oh, 30 seconds longer.
Infamous 2 review: A study in power
Video games with super-powered protagonists must be a pretty sticky wicket for developers. Make your hero -- or totally rotten villain -- too weak, and they won't tear through crowds of the un-powered with satisfying gusto. Make them too strong, however, and they'll tear through them with unsatisfying ease. If the many, many superhero titles that accidentally tumble into these two unfortunate paradigms are any indication, the sweet spot between these two boundaries is extraordinarily thin. Infamous 2 integrates a number of minor improvements to its already polished predecessor, but it's biggest change might also be its most imperceptible. Moreso than in Infamous the First, Cole MacGrath has found the happy medium between strength and vulnerability. He finds his electrical equilibrium from his very first step into the lively playground of New Marais -- and, perhaps more impressively -- maintains that balance for the millions of steps that follow. %Gallery-118056%
inFamous 2 Hero Edition unboxed, new trailer unleashed
If you have a penchant for messenger bags, world-ending beasts and "it's totally not a toy" figurines, today's inFamous 2 news is just right for you. Beyond a thoroughly detailed photo tour of the game's "Hero Edition" (an "unboxing," if you will), Sony today released a brand new trailer for this June's third-person superhero-er. Rather than show off the game's New Orleans-inspired location as so many inFamous 2 trailers have before it, this one's all about the destruction of Cole's hometown: Empire City. Turns out that the enormous beast he was worried about in the last game is kind of a dominant force in his second adventure. Head past the break for some minor story spoilers from inFamous 1 and a whole mess of destruction in inFamous 2.
Infamous 2 hits Europe June 8, coming in so, so many bundles
Infamous 2 is coming out in the UK, Germany and Ireland on June 10, and the rest of Europe on June 8. Yes, we usually make a bigger deal out of release dates than just dropping them all plain-like in the first sentence like that, but we need as much space as we can get to explain the different bundles available to European shoppers. No joke, you guys: There are five different versions of Sucker Punch's dichotomous action title available in Europe's shops. So, there's the basic, vanilla flavored standard edition, the Special Edition (which includes extra powers and an "Original Cole" character skin) and the Hero Edition (which includes a lot of things, including a replica messenger bag). However, Europe also gets a bundle that includes the game and a "good" blue or "evil" red DualShock 3 controller, as well as a 320GB PS3 bundle. No prices have been announced for the bundles, but really, what price is too high for premium crimefighting? Or ... um, crimemaking?
Best Buy selling Infamous for the shockingly low price of $10
Though Infamous followed a fairly commonplace "Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gains superpowers in catastrophic electro-explosion" plot, it's required reading if you plan to play its sequel next month. You can do that super cheaply through Best Buy, which has Infamous on sale for $9.99!
Infamous 2 pre-order bonus powers demonstrated on video
We were pretty sore about the splitting-up of Infamous 2's pre-order bonus abilities across different retailers -- now that we've seen them in action, we're double-sore. Check out a few video demos of the Electrocution Grenade, 24K Gold Amp and Lightning Hook after the jump.
inFamous 2 preview: A tale of two side characters
Sucker Punch isn't interested in subtlety when it comes to inFamous 2, and you needn't look further than the game's two companion conduits, Kuo and Nix, for that to be apparent. In a preview session earlier today, reps from SP walked me through a mission midway through the game wherein Cole fought alongside both characters during separate points -- and like in the first inFamous, he was eventually faced with choosing one side or the other. Only rather than choosing "good" or "bad," Cole had to choose his favorite lady of the two. When the rep picked Kuo (the "good" side), Nix's reaction was ... less than savory. She seemingly channeled Mass Effect 2's Jack, going from Cole's partner in crime, to a sniveling, vengeance-filled brat in under 30 seconds. After her tantrum subsided, Cole was blessed with the power of ice, borrowed from Kuo. And that's where the demo ended, unfortunately.%Gallery-119960%
inFamous 2 'Hero Edition' appears briefly on Amazon, includes Cole's bag
If a recently uploaded (then swiftly removed) Amazon listing for an inFamous 2 "Hero Edition" was legitimate, then the gaming community might just solve one of life's great mysteries when the Sucker Punch sequel comes out later this year: What the heck is in Cole McGrath's little backpack? The answer: A thermos, a Nintendo DS, some comic books, a half-empty bottle of flat soda, an ancient Crunchy Peanut Butter Clif Bar, and a tube of assorted Pogs and Slammers. In other words, the essential objects we carry with us when forced to leave the safe confines of our domestic abodes. Yes, one of the bonuses listed with the Hero Edition -- alongside an 8.5" Cole MacGrath statue, a voucher that gives access to new powers, weapons and character skins, an inFamous comic from DC Comics, and the game's soundtrack -- is a "Replica Cole MacGrath sling pack." We must have one, if only so that we can be halfway to becoming a city-climbing crimebuster. (All we'd need is, you know, powers. And courage. Like, any courage at all would help.) The special edition also includes a $99.99 price tag, and a super unofficial May 24 release date. We've contacted Sony for more details about ... well, everything.
The Sly Collection drops into retail November 9
The Sly Collection will be available for five-finger discount beginning November 9. If you're in the mood to actually pay for the thievius raccoonus bundle, which includes Sly Cooper, Sly 2: Band of Thieves and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, that'll cost you $40. The bundle will also include four new minigames for use with the PlayStation Move controller (or DualShock controller), each focusing on Sly, Bentley, Murray or Carmelita. According to Glen Egan of Sanzaru Games, which handled the port of the PS2 classics, each minigame captures "an aspect of the character and presents it in a way that's great fun to play." Beyond all that, the games are presented in widescreen with stereoscopic threeeeeeeee-deeeeeeee. We would have typed "3D" there, but then it just looks like our keyboard broke. See: 3333333333333-DDDDDDDDDDDD.
Video: InFamous 2 'Ravager' gameplay
Gameplay footage of inFamous 2's new "Ravager" enemy has burrowed itself into the bottom this post. If you're keen to see Cole's new melee attacks in this souped-up sequel -- or just the return of his original design -- just click the play icon and you'll zap right to it.
Why inFamous got a new Cole (and why he was changed back)
You know, we never thought that our joke about New Orleans' heat (well, fake New Orleans) would hold much water in the reasoning behind Cole's new, jacket-less look in inFamous 2, but it turns out that's a big part of the logic. "New Marais is a city in the south: it's hot, it's humid, there's no way he can keep his leather jacket on, not for 10 minutes. So one of the decisions was to remove the jacket and put him in a T-shirt," Sucker Punch art director Mathias Lorenz said in a recent interview. Another factor, Lorenz says, was the addition of more complex parkour to inFamous 2. "I wanted to show off his body more rather than have his jacket hide his muscles," Lorenz explained. Alongside the fresh moves, Sucker Punch enlisted the help of a new voice actor who could also do motion capture work for the sequel's 3D cutscenes. Thusly, to make the voiceover work appear more natural, the new look also reflected that voice actor's real-life looks. As we already heard, however, the decision after E3 was to revert Cole almost entirely back to his original, messenger bag-toting form. But why? "When we revealed Cole at E3 2010, we were taken aback by the uproar of fan support for the original Cole," Lorenz says. Though the folks at Sucker Punch weren't expecting such a backlash, "we listened to our fans and went back and took the best of everything to end up with the design we have settled on now." And there you have it -- don't go asking for the jacket to come back, though. It's simply too hot.
InFamous 2 Gamescom trailer takes us to the house of the rising cyclone
Set to the tune of "House of the Rising Sun," the InFamous 2 Gamescom trailer (embedded past the break) gives us the lowdown on the current state of turmoil that has befallen the town of New Marais. Fret not: though the majority of the trailer shows "slice of life" panoramic stills of the city, we do get a sampling of MacGrath's power at the conclusion. It would seem the dude's battery hasn't lost its charge since 2009.
inFamous 2 Comic-Con panel acknowledges Cole's fear of fences
Sucker Punch Productions' Comic-Con 2010 panel offered a fairly comprehensive look at the past, present and future of the inFamous franchise, discussing a variety of topics ranging from protagonist Cole McGrath's creative origins to the inspirations behind his new crimefighting venue, New Marais. Of course, the biggest revelation came at the end of the panel, when the development team was forced to address Cole's biggest oft-criticized weakness: his selective inability to climb chain link fences. Will our hero be able to conquer these sinister, interwoven palisades in the upcoming sequel? Answers await in PlayStation.Blog's video wrapup of the panel, posted just after the jump.
inFamous 2 animated cutscene has attitude to spare
Though inFamous 2 protagonist Cole McGrath may have lost a bit of gruffness-of-voice since the series' first iteration, it seems he's gained a bit of .... well, gruffness-of-attitude. Check out the trailer below to see the negatively-charged man give the low-down on his new stomping grounds.
inFamous 2's Cole getting a retro makeover
Though our brief time with inFamous 2 at E3 last month was both savory and delicious, we were perplexed by protagonist Cole McGrath's apparent new super power: The ability to, well, shift his shape. The raven-haired, tattooed punk who we zapped around the city with didn't resemble the balding bike messenger we came to know and love from the original inFamous. Now IGN reports that Cole's style is changing yet again -- this time, though, he'll closer resemble his old, less hirsute self. Developer Sucker Punch reportedly informed IGN of the changes with a pair of concept renders which the site wasn't at liberty to describe. We've contacted the developer as well, and hope they'll be able to confirm our suspicion that Cole has doffed his jacket because it's so super hot in Fake New Orleans.
inFamous 2 video goes behind the scenes at Comic-Con
Remember those excellent mini-docs on the original inFamous from 2 Player Productions? The team recently produced a behind-the-scenes video on inFamous 2, focusing on the game's comic book influences -- just in time for Sucker Punch's panel at this year's Comic-Con.
Preview: inFamous 2
It's amazing what a giant, electrified tuning fork and a little Cajun flair can add to a franchise. Sucker Punch Productions recently invited us to check out a private demo of inFamous 2 -- and no, it hasn't changed the bizarre intercapping since the series' last installment. I think I can overlook that small grammatical anomaly, though, as the other, more tangible changes that are being incorporated into the sequel look pretty amazing. %Gallery-95689%
10 games added to PS3 Greatest Hits lineup, Sony confirms
Looks like the Walmart ad we posted yesterday actually undersold the number of PS3 games that Sony will soon add to the $30 Greatest Hits collection. The following 10 titles will be decked in red and reduced in price in the U.S. and Canada within the next few weeks: inFAMOUS (Sony Computer Entertainment) God of War Collection (Sony Computer Entertainment) Killzone 2 (Sony Computer Entertainment) LittleBigPlanet Game of the Year (Sony Computer Entertainment) Resistance 2 (Sony Computer Entertainment) Dead Space (Electronic Arts) Fight Night Round 4 (EA Sports) Resident Evil 5 (Capcom) Soulcalibur IV (Namco Bandai Games) UFC 2009 Undisputed (THQ) That's a pretty good assortment of quality titles -- assuming, of course, that this isn't some kind of horribly distasteful April Fools' Day joke.
Rumor: inFAMOUS, LBP GOTY and others joining Greatest Hits
According to a recent Walmart ad dug up by NeoGAF user ghostmind, a whole slew of new PS3 titles will soon be added to the $29.99 Greatest Hits collection. Featured on the ad are five games which will apparently get the red box treatment: LittleBigPlanet: Game of the Year Edition, Killzone 2, inFAMOUS, Resistance 2 and UFC 2009 Undisputed. Actually, according to the flyer, the games are being offered for $29.83. That, dear readers, is the Walmart difference. We've contacted Sony America to find out if the Walmart ad is authentic, but we have no reason to believe it's a mock-up. We mean, all those games are "hits," and they're all pretty "great," right? [Via 1UP]
