Syndicate
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Syndicates get by with a little help from their friends
When a solo trip over to the neighboring corporation's top secret vault is too big a job for one person, Syndicate offers four-player co-op to help. Securing that Big Mac secret sauce recipe should be a cinch. %Gallery-142811%
EA not releasing Syndicate in Australia, notes 'arcane censorship'
Syndicate will not launch in Australia next year and EA will not alter the original game or seek an appeal. The publisher informed Joystiq this afternoon that it finds the Australian government's policy to deny adults the right to play Syndicate "regrettable." "The game will not be available in Australia despite its enthusiastic response from fans. We were encouraged by the government's recent agreement to adopt an 18+ age rating for games. However, delays continue to force an arcane censorship on games – cuts that would never be imposed on books or movies," EA Corporate Communications' Tiffany Steckler wrote Joystiq in a statement. "We urge policy makers to take swift action to implement an updated policy that reflects today's market and gives its millions of adult consumers the right to make their own content choices." Syndicate was recently refused classification in Australia, due to it being "unsuitable for a minor to see or play." Australian classification standards reject classification for video games only deemed suitable for citizens over the age of 15.
Syndicate refused classification in Australia, called 'unsuitable for a minor' [update]
Syndicate has been refused classification in Australia, due to being "unsuitable for a minor to see or play." The current Australian classification standards still reject classification (i.e. ban) for any game that is only suitable for citizens over the age of 15. "Combatants take locational damage and can be explicitly dismembered, decapitated or bisected by the force of the gunfire. The depictions are accompanied by copious bloodspray and injuries are shown realistically and with detail," reads the Classification report obtained by VG24/7. "Flesh and bone are often exposed while arterial sprays of blood continue to spurt from wounds at regular intervals," the report states, discussing an example mission." The most high-profile Aussie rejection in 2011 was Mortal Kombat, which tried to appeal the decision and lost. The Witcher 2 avoided the issue with a small edit to pass the board. We've contacted EA to find out if the publisher will appeal or resubmit the title with alterations. Update: EA not releasing Syndicate in Australia, notes "arcane censorship."
Syndicate displays agent tech, extracts more through stabbed eye socket
The future of business in Syndicate is violent. Everyone comes to work dressed up in armor, keeping arsenals under their desk like ladies in cubicles keep sneakers under theirs. A workman's comp case must be resolved in the classic and genteel style of dueling pistols.
Syndicate trailer goes to the gun show, plays with ballistic toys
Good day, agent. The latest trailer for corporate infiltration simulator Syndicate gives a taste of the available arsenal. It's the best that money can buy to obtain the recipe for Coke Classic.
Starbreeze has a PSN title in the works as well
If you thought Starbreeze was running out of fingers or pies in which to stick them, think again; in a recent CVG interview, studio head Mikael Nermark revealed that the company was also working on a smaller-scale PSN title. Nermark said the "self-financed" project is currently running with a much smaller dev team than that of its Syndicate crew, but didn't expound on what the game would actually, you know, be. We've contacted Starbreeze to try and find some elucidation on the subject, though we wager it has something to do with the new IP it's developing with film director Josef Fares. Still, we've petitioned any and all powers that be that the response to our email will be "Oh, we're making a new Chronicles of Riddick, and it's going to be super good this time, and hey, you know what, here it is. You go ahead and just have it right now."
The art of the breach in Syndicate's four-player co-op mode
In the future, machines will be the least of our worries -- it's the humans with advanced machines in their bodies we'll have to watch out for. Advanced chips, to be exact, will unlock seemingly limitless potential in human beings. This is the world of Syndicate. Governments of tomorrow will play second fiddle to massive corporations, and the game's four-player co-op mode focuses on exactly that. It's sort of a quasi-espionage affair: your team is sent in to various locales in order to steal advanced technology. It's just, uh, not very sneaky. %Gallery-138068%
Syndicate's protagonist isn't a good guy
Syndicate's protagonist won't be helping Granny cross the street or rescuing any kittens stuck in trees -- well, okay, maybe there's some kind of holo-tree mission, we don't know. The point is that you won't be playing the classic hero in EA's reboot. He's a bad dude there to do bad things. "You're certainly not playing a good guy," producer Ben O'Donnell told Videogamer. "You follow him in the narrative, and that narrative will obviously unfold in different ways. When you first start you're playing as this agent working for EuroCorp, and you do their wet work for them. You have this really high-end chip in your head, and you can do things to people that they really wouldn't want to do -- like commit suicide or change allegiance. You're by no means a good guy, you're there to do the dirty work." However, if you're expecting the main character to have some great moral epiphany or change of heart, don't. This isn't a game about "good and evil," O'Donnell promises. Sounds fine to us, especially since we just got one of those.
Syndicate assembles four-player co-op trailer
The latest Syndicate trailer suggests your team will sport enough extraneous buckles on their clothes for a fluid Final Fantasy crossover. %Gallery-138068%
Syndicate broadcasts 10 minutes of gameplay
Syndicate is looking pretty hot so far, but you don't need to take our word for it. Here's 10 minutes of gameplay featuring corporate espionage. Actually, is it still "espionage" when one kills everyone in sight?
Syndicate trailer recalls the past
Syndicate's latest trailer does a little peep show of the past, which may be painful for some with fond memories of the original. But, with how the new game is shaping up, we look toward the future.
The bloody corporate future of Syndicate
Starbreeze's Syndicate is everything a particular group of PC gamers fears it is. It's not isometric. It's not particularly focused on slow, methodical strategy. And you have direct control over your character, a departure from the CEO-using-mindless-drones-as-chess-pieces schtick of the original game. So for some of you, the fight's already lost. You can stop reading now. For everyone else, you'll definitely want to keep reading. Because the new Syndicate is pretty cool.%Gallery-135195%
Syndicate trailer shows off Starbreeze's vision
Starbreeze's slick, deadly and dour vision of the future is compiled with panache in this first trailer for Syndicate, the FPS reboot of Bullfrog's classic tactical game of the same name. Backed by a Syndicate remix from electro house producer Skrillex (download it here), the visuals cut between flashy combat, aerial takedowns and remote brain-hacking. The trailer concludes with a tease for "The Executive Package" pre-order bonus, likely another one of EA's "limited edition" bundles tied to first-run copies of the game. It's out on February 21, 2012 (or: 0221 2012). %Gallery-135195%
EA indicates Syndicate's release date: Feb. 21, 2012
EA has announced an early 2012 release date for Syndicate, an action-oriented reboot of Bullfrog's sci-fi classic. It's set to arrive on February 21 in North America, and February 24 in Europe. Barring any delays, that makes for two Q1 shooters that have divorced themselves from tactical, isometric origins. Developed by Chronicles of Riddick studio Starbreeze, the new Syndicate thrusts you into the year 2069 as a "prototype agent" for Eurocom, a large corporation with a nice armory. Starbreeze also says it will include a separate, four-player co-op mode. Can four organized individuals be classified as a syndicate?%Gallery-133251%
Syndicate reboot (finally) confirmed by EA and Starbreeze, coming 'early 2012' to 360, PS3, and PC [Update: New images!]
EA and Starbreeze Studios' remake of PC gaming classic Syndicate has been one of the industry's worst-kept secrets. First unveiled as "Project Redlime," copyright filings fingered the actual product over a year ago. And this morning, after leaking details of the game on its own Origin service over the weekend, EA and Starbreeze are finally ready to "reveal" Syndicate to the world. "We are excited to finally reveal what we've been working on the past couple years," Starbreeze CEO Mikael Nermark told a press release. "It's been a great experience working with EA, and an amazing opportunity for us to use our expertise in the first person shooter and action genres to bring back, and reignite, the signature action/espionage gameplay of Syndicate." In Syndicate, you play "Miles Kilo, Eurocorp's latest prototype agent," tasked with navigating a "Machiavellian world run without government oversight with many syndicates vying for total dominance of their local market place," set in the year 2069. Helping you navigate that complex web of intrigue: GUNS! "Our goal with Syndicate is to provide a challenging action shooter for today's gamers as well as fans of the original," says EA Partners' Jeff Gamon. But if you're worried you won't have enough guns, Syndicate offers "a separate and deep 4-player co-op mode featuring missions from the original cult classic." And while it may have taken EA and Starbreeze some time to officially announce the project, it isn't wasting time in getting it into our hands; Syndicate is expected to be released in "early 2012" for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. %Gallery-133251%
Syndicate details leak online via Origin
Back in April of last year, a copyright document ferreted out by Superannuation revealed that Starbreeze, the developer of Escape From Butcher Bay and The Darkness, was hard at work on a revival of the Syndicate series for EA. Now it appears that we're all about to get our first look at the fruits of Starbreeze's labor, judging by an early posting to EA's Origin store, caught by the all-seeing eye of Mordo – we mean, gaming forum NeoGAF. There's plenty of info over at GAF, but the particularly interesting bits include Chips, which add new abilities and skills, four-player cooperative play, and a story penned by Crysis 2 scripter (and author of Altered_Carbon, Black Man/Thirteen and more) Richard K. Morgan. The scuttlebutt indicates that Syndicate will debut in next week's Gamesreactor magazine (a Swedish publication), and really, EA couldn't have picked a better time to reveal a Sci-Fi Noir action-adventure title, could it?
Rumor: Syndicate script slips out
Siliconera has published alleged "chunks" of a script for Starbreeze's long-rumored Syndicate game. If authentic, the excerpts would join some trademarks in a modest pile of evidence pointing to a reboot of EA's dormant cyberpunk series, created by the now defunct Bullfrog Productions in the early 90s. The narrative and dialog excerpts share some commonalities with the old Syndicate games' bleak, corporate cyborg–regulated world -- namely, the suggestion of brain-implanted "chips" -- but don't otherwise let on to any gameplay elements. In June 2009, Sean Cooper, who designed the original, isometric tactical shooter, commented on EA's failed attempts to revive the franchise. "Every time I've seen a prototype of a new Syndicate it's just been misguided," he told IncGamers. Cooper did not appear to have any knowledge of Starbreeze's possible recreation, which is rumored to have been in development since August 2007. "The essence of the game was killing people -- and that was it," Cooper said of Bullfrog's 1993 classic. "Big guns, strong dudes; Terminators essentially. If I have to kill everyone, I will. That to me was the essence of the gameplay." [Screenshot source: MobyGames (with script overlay)]
Molyneux would welcome involvement in EA's reported Syndicate remake
If an alleged remake of Syndicate is currently going on under EA's direction, Peter Molyneux, producer of the original real-time tactical game, would like the opportunity to talk with the development team (reported to be Starbreeze Studios). "It's a great feeling to see something you've created still have life or meaning," Molyneux told CVG, when asked to comment on the remake reports. "But my first thought is: 'I wish I could just spend a day with them saying what I thought was really special about Syndicate, or another [Bullfrog] title for that matter.'" EA obtained the IP rights to Syndicate from Molyneux's old studio, Bullfrog Productions, when it purchased the company in 1995. Molyneux left two years later to found Lionhead Studios. In 2004, Bullfrog was merged into EA UK (now defunct). Molyneux is confident that any team EA would select for such a project would "work it out," but notes that the situation would be like watching your kid grow up and become independent -- "you still want to be a little bit involved." He points to the DS version of Populous (a remake of his career breakout title) as being something he wished he could have had just "ten minutes" to discuss with the development team before they got started on the project. Would Molyneux be up for a visit to EA's development offices to offer advice on a Syndicate remake? "Yeah, sure."
Lost Pages of Taborea: The Runes of Magic Database
A long long time ago, I wrote about community resources for Runes of Magic. In that article is a handy resource that gathers collected data from RoM called the buffed database. Key personnel from buffed.de started a new venture called Playata to provide content services to game publishers. The point of this boring news snippet is that Playata, in conjunction with Frogster, has created the official RoM database. This shiny new official site could be viewed as getbuffed 2.0. The official version is streamlined, runs better, and has a few nice extras that the original never had. This week I put together a guide explaining what the database is, what you can do with it, and some of the extra fun stuff it offers.
More trademark registrations indicate Syndicate return
A modern update of isometric cyborg sim Syndicate is presumed to be the surviving half of a planned two-game collaboration between EA and Starbreeze Studios. As noted by Superannuation, EA filed three new "Syndicate" trademark registrations in August concerning "video game software," "electronic computer games" and, in one case, "collectable toy figures." Rumors of a new Syndicate sprang up over a year ago, and a document from the U.S. Copyright Office recently linked the Syndicate name to both EA and Chronicles of Riddick developer Starbreeze Studios. While the publisher has never made an official announcement, original Syndicate designer Sean Cooper stated in June 2009 that several "misguided" attempts to revisit the sci-fi franchise had been made since it debuted in the early 90s. Fans are likely to share Cooper's skepticism, especially if the marketing department signs off on Syndicate as a free download exclusive to every new copy of Dante's Inferno 2: Farewell to Frying Pan.
