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'Modern Warfare Remastered' adds female soldiers, microtransactions
If you thought that Modern Warfare Remastered would've been forgotten immediately after it was released, think again. The game's latest free update brings seven classic maps into the fold (Bloc, Countdown, Pipeline, Showdown, Strike, Wet Work) and the winter-themed, previously PC-only Winter Crash, according to the Activision blog. More than that, the "Operation Arctic Wolf" loot drop adds female soldiers to the mix -- a first for the Modern Warfare franchise. Why those aren't available as default options now is anyone's guess, though.
New Soldier of Fortune, with new dev, coming via Activision Value
Rumors of a new Soldier of Fortune game have been confirmed by Activision. Speaking to GameSpot, the publisher said that the shooter is "being developed in Minnesota" and would be released on their Activision Value label. You know who's not in Minnesota? Madison, Wisconsin-based Raven Software, who developed the previous two Soldier of Fortune titles. Former Raven employee Kenn Hoekstra posted on Blue's News forums that that there was a new developer. The only clue we have comes from an anonymous source via Firing Squad, who states that it will be developed by Cauldron, who previously created History Channel: Civil War FPS for Activision Value in 2006.No other details are available, though all signs (especially that glowing, neon sign that says Activision Value) point to a disappointing, budget-priced revisit to a quality franchise.
Wolfenstein set for 2008 release
Wolfenstein fans can again rejoice, because the franchise hasn't died just yet. Actually, you'll be happy to know that the next game in the series will be hitting the 360 later next year. In an interview with a Wisconsin new station, who were doing a story on video game development, Raven Software talked about what new tools they use for next gen development and hinted that Wolfenstein will be releasing sometime in 2008. Huge news? Not really, but the Wolfenstein dev team has kept quite mum about their little baby, so any news is rather exciting. Full article and Raven Software interview after the jump.[Via Joystiq]
New Marvel: UA content still MIA
After waiting around all day staring at the Xbox Live Marketplace (what a living), the new content for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance still hasn't arrived. Naturally, we're a little confused, as a trailer was released on Marketplace just to let us know that the content would arrive April 10th (i.e. yesterday). The trailer has now been pulled, and the official Marvel: Ultimate Alliance website says nothing of the content beyond the original announcement that was made last month. Of course, it's possible the content failed the certification process, in which case fans could be waiting a while to get their hands on the new heroes and villains. Was anyone out there looking forward to this new DLC? Update: The sheer magnitude of all the super villainy contained in this post created a time vacuum, thus shoving the post backwards in time an entire day. The evil has since been rectified and the post returned to its proper time.
Interview indulges Marvel: Ultimate Hype
We're regular readers of Superhero Hype!, a fact rendered unsurprising given our unhealthy obsession with gravity-defying men and women in brightly colored garb. The site recently posted a drab interview with Matthew Paul, producer of the upcoming altruistic all-stars adventure, Marvel: Ulltimate Alliance. Little did we know that the article would contain such a high volume of fluff, reading it would be akin to getting smothered by a pillow in your sleep. Locking an Activision PR person in a room and having them read a press release aloud would likely have resulted in a more intriguing investigation into the game's features. Features like unbelievable, hyper-real graphics!When queried about the game's graphics on next-generation systems, Mr. Paul points out the "life-like" textures on Captain America and The Thing, commenting that there are times when "you feel more like you're watching a blockbuster Super Hero movie as opposed to a video game because it looks so real." Right. Ignoring the fact that the official PS3 screenshot above flamboyantly contradicts such a claim (and such acclaim), it's unbelievable that the interview doesn't change course when it suddenly finds itself covering the "real" nature of comic book characters and movies. It looks so real it's like watching a movie? That must be the one directed by Hyper Boll -- we've seen it far too many times already.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance to feature unexciting controls
Though the many Marvel characters duking it out in Ultimate Alliance frequently find themselves doing somersaults, hurling punches and generally super-spazzing out, it's not an accurate expectation for the players of the game to perform similar feats. Speaking at the recently concluded Comic-Con, Activision's Chris Palmisano commented that the Wii version of the game would not have major changes implemented to its control system."The basic game controls like the camera and the movement and stuff like that -- you can do that on the Wii with left side in most cases. Then there are standard combo moves, which you can also do with the Wii controller." After this rather vague statement (do combo moves with the controller, you say?!), Palmisano goes on to curtail the level of input you might have expected from a Wii game. "I don't know how many games you're going to see where people are jumping around -- our game is an RPG so it's really hard to require that much physical energy to play a game for 30 hours." Though we have yet to think of any Wii game that actively requires you to jump around, we suspect the lack of physical energy required to play Marvel: Ultimate Alliance is tied into a lack of mental energy when attempting to explain why your game will have a bog-standard control scheme. This is an issue that will come up again and again: a multi-platform game that fails to take advantage of the Wii's controller risks not only being surpassed by graphically superior versions (why buy the Wii version?), but the rest of the games in the Wii lineup (why buy this game that doesn't use my system fully?). Of course, shoehorning a game into an inappropriate controller scheme is just as undesirable, as is certainly the case with an action RPG largely built upon repetition. We'd rather just press the A-button, thanks.
Ultimate Alliance, not so ultimate screens
It's nice that Activision is even bothering with Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, but come on. Look at it. Sure, if it's anything like X-Men Legends it will be a blast, but these screens are far from impressive. It wouldn't matter if the 360 version had the same price as the Xbox version, but do you really want to pay sixty bucks for this?[Via OpenXBOX360]
X-Men Legends II PC demo
Oh my stars and garters! Activision's X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse has been out for over a month, but PC gamers unsure about unleashing their latent mutant powers can give it a test drive with Raven's new downloadable demo. The 336 MB freebie includes the introduction movie, a tutorial, and two maps from the beginning levels. Download the demo now, bub!
X-Men Legends II review round-up
The second entry in Activision's mutant-themed RPG series, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, has been out for a few weeks now and here's a look at what the industry pundits are saying. So who do you prefer to play as: X-Men or Brotherhood? Gamespy (90) TeamXbox (89) Next Level Gaming (88) ConsoleGold (87) Game Chronicles (85) IGN (85) Gamespot (81) [via Metacritic]
New X-Men Legends 2 screenies
The first X-Men Legends game can, for the most part, be summed up like this. Run around punching things. Find other X-Men. Run around punching more things. Find more X-Men. It wasn't an unpleasant experience. In fact, horrible camera view aside, it was quite fun. if you're a fan of the latex clad mutants. Well, here comes more of the same. Can't remember for the life of me if the first one had a skirmish mode, but then I never tried the multiplayer component at all. Regardless, the sequel has 2-4 player co-op, and 2-6 player skirmish. Sweet! It's due in the fall. If only they could get the X3 movie out that quick...
X-Men Legends continues...
Just a month after the release of X-Men Legends, Activision has confirmed a sequel is underway. There aren't many details yet, including a title or release date, but we do know that Raven Software will be in charge of development again. We'll keep you posted with future updates.
