pipeworks-software
Latest
RollerCoaster Tycoon World screaming onto PC in 2015
When Rollercoaster Tycoon 4 was announced as a mobile game, people were ... a bit unhappy that the previously PC-centric series had shifted platforms. However, Atari promised a Rollercoaster Tycoon experience for PC was coming, and now that experience has been revealed as Rollercoaster Tycoon World. According to a press release, Rollercoaster Tycoon World will allow players to visit other user-created parks, share ride blueprints and change the landscape upon which your death-defying loop-de-loops will be placed. The game will feature both a single-player mode as well as a connected mode where up to four players can collaborate to create one massive amusement park. Unlike its mobile counterpart, the game will be released with no microtransactions. You can look forward to sending amusement park patrons to their death via unsafe rollercoaster designs (it's okay, we do it too) sometime in 2015. [Image: Atari]
Head of Pipeworks steps down after allegations prove true
In light of last week's report that Deadliest Warrior studio head Robert Daly had misrepresented his military experience, Daly has resigned as head of Pipeworks Software. In a statement issued this afternoon, Daly expressed regret at having "misrepresented my role by creating the impression that I was a 'Green Beret.'" He further added that he has "nothing but the utmost respect for the Green Berets and my fellow servicemen." Daly also won't be appearing on future episodes of Deadliest Warrior, the Spike television show. "At this point in time for the best interests of Pipeworks Software and F9E [Foundation 9 Entertainment] I am voluntarily resigning my position of Studio Head of Pipeworks effective immediately," he said. "Furthermore, I have no plans on appearing in any more episodes of Deadliest Warrior."
Report: Deadliest Warrior studio head misrepresented military experience
IndustryGamers reports on a new allegation that Robert Daly, head of Deadliest Warrior developer Pipeworks Studios, may have misrepresented his military history. A little background: Daly has claimed in interviews to be part of the Special Forces, which is of course an important qualification for making games about Vikings whaling on ninjas. Jeff Hinton, owner of Special Forces community site ProfessionalSoldiers, read Daly's claim and then looked him up. "Robert Daly's [National Personnel Records Center] military records state he was some sort of imagery analyst," Hinton told. [United States Army Special Operations Command] has absolutely no record of him in their system." So, according to Hinton's research, Daly was in the army, but not in Special Forces. We're contacting Pipeworks for a response to this allegation, as well as the related claim that Deadliest Warrior's pirate was actually a privateer.
Deadliest Warrior Legends review: A stab, crush and cut above
Pipeworks Software's Deadliest Warrior was a game characterized by happy surprises. Most were intrinsic to the over-in-a-second combat the title presented -- nothing's more surprising than having your delicate, evasive foxtrot interrupted by a spear through the face. All, however, served to enforce the biggest surprise of all: Someone made a licensed game that allowed ninjas to engage in one-on-one bouts with vikings, and then they made it good. Much like its predecessor, Deadliest Warrior: Legends is peppered with fleeting, unexpected delights. It also contains a shocker of its own; that the original title wasn't just a qualitative anomaly. The series' second coming is full of so many inspired, innovative improvements over the surprisingly solid original, you'll temporarily forget that it's based around an anachronistic bloodsport that's far too ridiculous to exist, even virtually. Until, of course, Shaka Zulu stabs Atilla the Hun so hard that his torso falls off. %Gallery-127597%
Say hello to nine surly fighters in Deadliest Warrior: Legends
Gone are the ambiguous archetypes of Pirates, Vikings and Centurions -- Deadliest Warrior: Legends will feature nine real-ass soldiers pulled from history, Bill and Ted-style. Check out the list of fighters, as well as some concept art for their inevitably brutalized character models, after the break.
Deadliest Warrior: Legends preview: Risk-y business
Deadiest Warrior has a long history of surprising me at trade shows by being much, much better than any licensed downloadable game has a right to be. That trend wasn't bucked at this year's Electronics Entertainment Expo, where the newly rebranded publisher 345 Games -- not to be confused with 343 Industries or 505 Games, mind you -- showed off Pipeworks' second stab at the combatative franchise, Deadliest Warrior: Legends. The title appears to bring a number of intriguing, necessary additions to the core one-on-one combat system, possibly bringing it into parity with deeper entries in the genre. However, the aspect which provided me with my annual jolt of surprise didn't involve dismembered, anachronistic soldiers: It involved the game's new strategic game mode, "Generals."
New Deadliest Warrior and Ugly Americans titles coming to XBLA and PSN under 345 Games
Emboldened by the success of last year's anachronistic fighter Deadliest Warrior: The Game (which has sold over 400,000 downloads to date across XBLA and PSN), MTV Networks Entertainment has announced the opening of a new development studio called 345 Games. We spoke with Dan Yang and Prithvi Virasinghe from the newly incorporated studio about its plans to create game adaptations of Spike TV and Comedy Central programming. They revealed that they're starting with one distinct project from each network: Deadliest Warrior: Legends and Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon. The first, a follow-up to last year's Deadliest title, will feature all new fighters pulled from across the fullness of time, and more than twice as many arenas as the series' first installment. Each warrior type will be represented by titular legends such as William Wallace or Shaka Zulu, who can lead their armies in the new "Generals" campaign mode. Skirmishes between factions in this mode are carried out using the same battle simulator used in the show, and players can affect their troops with certain "X-Factors," such as training exercises, or unique General strategies.
Deadliest Warrior DLC available now, adds three characters and new mode
Have you mastered the art of dismemberment on all of Deadliest Warrior's anachronistic fighters? A DLC pack for the game released today has added a handful of new combatants for you to master, including the Rajput, Zande and Shaolin Monk -- three archetypes from the television series that were chosen for the game in an online fan poll. The pack also includes a medium-range taunt for each of the game's original eight fighters, and a new mode, Skirmish, which lets two players choose four of their favorite combatants and fight the opponent's picks sequentially. The first person to clear out the other player's roster wins, which sounds like a pretty clever way to lengthen the game's typically seconds-long encounters. The pack is available now for 400 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Marketplace, and $4.99 on the PlayStation Store.
Deadliest Warrior devs reveal 225K-plus sales in postmortem
In a recent postmortem on Gamasutra, the team behind Deadliest Warrior discussed the game's successes and failures. Slotted firmly in the success column are the sales numbers, with Gamasutra noting that Deadliest Warrior has racked up over 225,000 units in sales since its XBLA launch in July (it later arrived on PSN in October). Spike Games' Prithvi Virasinghe and Pipeworks Software's Jeremy Mahler agree that one key to the game's success was its realistic approach to combat. Strangely enough, Spike and Pipeworks independently reached the same conclusion: An approach similar to Square's classic Bushido Blade would help Deadliest Warrior stand out in a genre dominated by combo-heavy fighters like Street Fighter, Tekken and Soul Calibur. The two also discuss the challenges of overcoming the stigma associated with licensed games. The team opted to preview the game to as many outlets as possible to dispel any reviewer's desire to undeservedly write the game off. "We wanted the game to speak for itself on its own merits," recalls Virasinghe. In Joystiq's case at least, the strategy certainly worked.
Deadliest Warrior impales the PlayStation Store today
Spike Games' surprisingly fun and unsurprisingly gory downloadable fighter, Deadliest Warrior: The Game, will make its way to the PlayStation Store later today in the next PSN update. The fighter, which arrived on Xbox Live in July, will cost PSN shoppers $9.99. It may also cost them an arm and a leg. And a head. Or any combination of those appendages. According to an announcement on PlayStation.Blog, developer Pipeworks Software is making plans for a three-character DLC expansion to the game. The only fighter announced so far is the "Rajput," which, according to Wikipedia, is "a member of one of the major Hindu Kshatriya (warrior) groups of India and are a ruling class of the Indian subcontinent." Hey, we learned something today! Thanks, video games.
Review: Deadliest Warrior
There are few things I love more in video games than the juxtaposition of two elements that clearly should not be juxtaposed. It's the peculiar desire which first attracted me to Deadliest Warrior, though, the sincerity of that attraction was questionable. Was I psyched to play a game that finally gave me the chance to see who would emerge victorious in a melee between a Pirate and a Viking? Yes, of course, because that's silly. Was I legitimately excited to play the game itself? Not so much. Fortunately, behind all the comedically anachronistic battle pairings is a brilliantly simplistic and entirely entertaining fighting game engine -- one which rewards second-to-second survival instincts rather than a comprehensive knowledge of esoteric, nigh-impossible-to-execute techniques. If you're a fighting game purist, the absence of dash-canceling or air-to-ground linking might put you off. If you've never, ever understood, nor do you possess any desire to ever understand what those things are, then Deadliest Warrior will land right in your wheelhouse. %Gallery-88124%
XBLA in Brief: Deadliest Warrior, DeathSpank
XBLA is all about death this week. First up we have gruesome, deadly martial arts with Deadliest Warrior: The Game and then we have just, heroic, loot-driven murder with DeathSpank. Honestly, both causes of death have their appeal. Watch the latest XBLA in Brief and see just how fun death can be. [iTunes] Subscribe to XBLA in Brief directly in iTunes. [Zune] Subscribe to the XBLA in Brief directly. [RSS] Add the XBLA in Brief feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [M4V] Download the M4V directly. There are new Xbox Live Arcade games released every week. We realize that our readers are busy, attractive people, and may not have time to download and examine each and every new XBLA game. You've got busy, attractive person stuff to do, after all. Not to worry though, because we've done the work for you, downloading every single trial game and giving you a taste of what to expect. Watch XBLA in Brief every week to see which games deserve a closer look. When you have the time, of course.
Deadliest Warrior coming July 14 to XBLA
An Apache, Spartan, Pirate, Ninja, Samurai, Viking, Knight and Roman Centurion walk into a bar -- and then murder each other. That's not a joke. It's Deadliest Warrior: The Game on XBLA next Wednesday, July 14 for $10. (Head past the break for a complete XBLA release schedule.)
Godzilla: Unleashed turns people into jerks
Or at least, that's what this commercial would have you believe. Notice how, after playing Godzilla: Unleashed for the Wii, these folks just can't help but release their rage.You know what else causes intense rage? Blogging. In fact, this blogger is going to go break a bunch of stuff right now. YEAH.Or, if you want to get really angry, you should just watch some gameplay from the DS version of the game.[Via GoNintendo]
Look out! It's Godzilla!
Daddy Joystiq is reporting that Atari is reviving Godzilla for the PSP (among other systems). Godzilla Unleashed is being created by Pipeworks Software who also worked on the previous Godzilla games, so they know a thing or two about the giant lizard. If you haven't played a Godzilla game before, they're basically what you think they'd be, an all out monster fighting game. Pipeworks is saying that Godzilla Unleashed's single-player will group the monsters from the history of the film series into four factions that will each have their own narrative path. The cities will feature destructable buildings, so that even when you aren't hitting a monster, you're still destroying something. I think it's great to have a new Godzilla game on PSP, but am I the only one that would love to see a War of the Monsters sequel on PSP?
Godzilla 'Unleashed' on Wii, DS, PSP
Atari is preparing to wake its sleeping giant. Following a pair of mediocre appearances that culminated in 2004's Save the Earth, the Godzilla franchise will return to terrorize Wii later this year. Godzilla Unleashed, being developed by Pipeworks Software, will be the third installment in Atari's monster brawl series, which began on GameCube with Destroy All Monsters Melee (2002).According to Pipeworks, the single-player mode will group the game's monsters into four factions, each following a distinct narrative path. Meh, who cares? The real draw is destruction, and Pipeworks is promising plenty of that, boosted by years of progress and the chaotic tantrums afforded by the Wiimote and its Nunchuk sidekick. "Godzilla can be walking in one direction, attacking with his claws in another, firing his weapon in a third direction, and swinging his tail at a rear target all at the same time," boasted the developers. Whoa.Pipeworks also confirmed plans to utilize WiiConnect24 and support 480p resolution and 16:9 displays. Versions of Godzilla Unleashed are also being developed for DS and PSP.
New Prince of Persia announced
The angsty Prince is back in a new game entitled Prince of Persia: Rival Swords. Like Revelations before it, Rival Swords is essentially an enhanced port of a PoP console game. Rival Swords takes the gameplay from last year's critically acclaimed The Two Thrones and adds new levels and multiplayer modes. For example, you will be able to race through levels against a friend, or play through new chariot levels and re-enact your favorite scene from Ben-Hur. The game will hit Holiday 2006 in Europe, and then hit American shores in 2007.Should we get excited? I'm a bit doubtful on this one. Revelations met critical disapproval due to its high number of glitches and ridiculous loading times, and the same developer (Pipeworks Software) is working on this port. They might be able to work out the bugs this time around, but with so many original games heading to the system soon, a port can't really grab my attention.[Via IGN]
