united-front
Latest
Another Sleeping Dogs game is on the way
Sleeping Dogs developer United Front Games announced revealed that its recent trademark for "Triad Wars" is in fact another Sleeping Dogs game, and is "something we've wanted to do for ages." The next game will be based in the same universe as Sleeping Dogs, and United Front will continue working with publisher Square Enix. The first game in the series was an action-packed romp through Hong Kong as undercover officer Wei Shen. Our review for the game found its major components to be largely unoriginal, as if they were "sliced out of other media." United Front Games said it isn't planning on giving any more details on the next Sleeping Dogs game until 2014, which is a really long time in dog years.
LittleBigPlanet Karting review: Making tracks
I've never been a huge fan of the LittleBigPlanet series, but I've always respected it. I'm rendered powerless by its peerless charm, and the depth of its creation tools and the resulting masterworks churned out by its playrs never cease to amaze. My one gripe, shared by many others, is that the actual gameplay of LittleBigPlanet never seems to live up to most platformers. The floaty jumps, chancy landings, and overall soupy feel to the controls always let me down.In LittleBigPlanet Karting, at least, my one gripe has been wiped away, with developer United Front adopting a playbook long ago established by the Mario Kart series, including its simple, precise controls. The difference, and this is important, is that unlike Mario Kart, LittleBigPlanet Karting potentially has as many tracks as its players can dream up.%Gallery-170603%
Sleeping Dogs PC has high-res texture pack, multi-monitor support
Sleeping Dogs on the PC has some exclusive graphical bonuses – and not like stickers to slap on your rig, mind you. United Front Games' PC port will launch with a high-resolution texture pack for those crisp visuals, and support for multi-monitor displays. (But will it run on Batman's setup?)If you pre-order Sleeping Dogs through Steam ahead of its August 14 launch, you'll get 10 percent off the final asking price, bringing it down to $44.99. Finally, Square Enix has also released the minimum and recommended specs for Sleeping Dogs, which we've gone ahead and published below the break.%Gallery-162100%
United Front Games hit with layoffs in wake of True Crime cancellation
We've heard rumblings over the last week about layoffs at True Crime: Hong Kong developer United Front Games, but last night a representative confirmed to us that "a number of roles have been made redundant" at the studio, specifically as a result of the cancellation of True Crime. The "recent activity" page for UFG on LinkedIn, a business networking site, shows at least 25 people who were affected. Despite the layoffs, we were also told that, "UFG is still very much open for business and we will continue to ship top games." Additionally, the studio's website has an update message on its front page this morning, lamenting the cancellation of True Crime but admitting, "we understand why." We wish everyone affected at the Vancouver-based studio the best in the coming months. The full statement from United Front Games is available after the break. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Activision axing Guitar Hero and True Crime; Freestyle Games reportedly hit with layoffs [update]
Despite a recent cover story in EGM, United Front's True Crime: Hong Kong won't make it to retail. Activision's latest earnings report confirms the game's cancellation, as well as the end of the Guitar Hero franchise. "Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011," Activision said in its financial statement. The statement goes on to confirm the cancellation of True Crime. "The company also will stop development on True Crime: Hong Kong. These decisions are based on the desire to focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world's best interactive entertainment experiences." Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg went into a bit more detail on today's investor call: "Despite a remarkable 92 rating on DJ Hero 2, a widely well-regarded Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, as well as a 90-plus rated release from our most direct competitor [Rock Band 3], demand for peripheral-based music games declined at a dramatic pace. Given the considerable licensing and manufacturing costs associated with this genre, we simply cannot make these games profitably based on current economics and demand. Instead, what we'll do is focus our time and energies on marketing and supporting our strong catalog of titles and downloadable content, especially to new consumers as the installed base for hardware continues to grow."Hirshberg continued, saying that True Crime's development, "was't going to lead to a title at or near the top of the competitive open-world genre." To put things more directly, Hirshberg added, "To be blunt, it just wasn't going to be good enough." If that weren't enough bad news, Eurogamer also reports that DJ Hero developer Freestyle Games has suffered "severe layoffs," though it's unclear whether the rhythm series has been affected by the alleged redundancies. We'll update this post as we learn more. [Update: An earlier version of this post was based solely on Eurogamer's report, which has since been partially confirmed by Activision.] [Update 2: United Front Games has commented on the cancellation of True Crime]
ModNation Racers receives Title Update 1.02 tomorrow
Tomorrow, ModNation Racers, uh, racers can download Title Update 1.02, which addresses long load times, squashes some bugs, improves server stability and adds a new "casual" difficulty level. The update will go live at 2:00 a.m. PDT and also brings with it a bunch of changes to the community site including race logs, tracking systems for monitoring your favorite creators (and their favorite creators), plus friend and rep search utilities, according to the PlayStation Blog. Speed demons looking to expand their roster of racers can also download Nukular and Kart this week, a new ride and driver who look like they just leapt out of Mad Max or something. All we can say is we'd definitely steer clear of the guy on the track with the huge plow on the front of his ride. Just saying!
Impressions: True Crime
click to enlarge After a five-year hiatus, free-roaming felony franchise True Crime is set to return (sans subtitle) in Fall 2010. United Front, which is also working on the upcoming ModNation Racers and houses veterans from games such as Bully, Prototype and Scarface, is developing the new entry for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Lead producer Jeff O'Connell describes it as a "more serious" reboot -- and a story that's more closely modeled after cop films. "It's an opportunity to be an innately good guy," he said of the undercover, under-pressure role you'll assume. "That's good drama." Inspired by films like "The Departed" (see: "Infernal Affairs"), True Crime follows undercover lawman Wei Shen as he infiltrates the triad, slow-mo kicks enemies in the chin, and completes objectives across the game's new city playground. "Is it an accurate representation of Hong Kong?" O'Connell asked. "It's not." Despite referencing over 27,000 photographs, the city has been "tuned for gameplay," eschewing a realistic, street-for-street recreation in favor of a more cinematic and moody Hong Kong. %Gallery-87831%
