Halo 3: ODST tells the story of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (or the ODSTs for short) and their deployment in the middle of an invasion in a future version of the Kenyan city of Mombasa.
If you’ve played Halo before, you’ll know that Kenya is particularly important, especially Mombasa and Voi, and even more importantly, what’s in between. If you haven’t played Halo before, well, firstly you’re missing out, but essentially, the region plays a key role in the mythology of the series.
The ODST squad (Dare, Buck, Mickey, Romeo, Dutch and you, Rookie) all get dropped in the city. Except, you veer of course, crash land and are forced to attempt to make it through the night alive while at the same time, trying to find the rest of your squad. Sounds like a typical scenario for a squad shooter, right? Wrong. This time you’re playing in one massive level, Mombasa Streets, the biggest open area that the game’s developers, and Halo godfathers, Bungie have ever created. The city is a living, breathing character, full of emotion, fear, excitement and loneliness.
Could the next iTunes look like this unofficial mockup?
Summer’s just ended, Christmas is coming, it’s that time again – new gadgets from Apple! For a good few years now, Apple has typically hosted a special event featuring updates, announcements and product reveals for its entertainment business, usually followed by a live performance by a special guest, just like Jack Johnson did last year. The event, titled “It’s Only Rock and Roll, but we like it”, kicks off in just under half an hour – if you want live coverage or spoiler free goodness, the internet has got you covered. So what’s gonna happen tonight? I’m hoping for an iTunes update…
The game that started it all… Call of Duty: Classic, the remake of the original Call of Duty, hits Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network this November and comes free with both the Hardened and Prestige editions of Modern Warfare 2.
New information states that the game has been rescaled in HD, with improved visuals. Additionally, online multiplayer is present with a variety of modes including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Retrieval, Headquarters, Search & Destroy and Behind Enemy Lines, and will support 8 players.
Check out the video below to get an idea of the game. It shows the opening mission which features the first ever kill in the Call of Duty series – Nice.
Source [Game.co.uk]
Criterion Games, developers of Burnout, are Confirmed to be Working on a new Need For Speed title
Well, if the announcements at this year’s E3 weren’t enough for you, here’s some more. G4 have confirmed that EA Developer, Criterion Games, based in Guildford, here in England, are working on a new Need For Speed title. The franchise up to this point has been developed by EA Black Box in Vancouver, Canada. Recently, titles such as Carbon and Undercover have met poor reception from gamers, while other rival titles such as Midnight Club: Los Angeles and Burnout Paradise have been more popular than ever.
EA’s Chief Operating Officer, John Pleasants confirmed at the William Blair Growth Stock Conference earlier today that Burnout creator and developer, Criterion Games is currently developing a new title for the Need For Speed franchise.
“We’ve taken the Burnout team and combined it with our Need For Speed franchise. So we now have that in our favor because that Burnout team is probably one of the more online-centric and notably high-quality game developers that we have out at Criterion.”
While this sounds absolutely awesome and will clearly do wonders for the franchise, which hasn’t exactly done that well recently, I’m a little bit concerned that this means that we’re not getting a new Burnout title in the near future.
More information on this project is likely to be revealed over the coming months.
Xbox Live’s Major Nelson reported yesterday on his Twitter that the original Perfect Dark (the plot-sequel to Perfect Dark Zero) on Nintendo 64 is coming to Xbox Live Arcade, for an unannounced price, this winter. Details are currently unknown but personally, I’m hoping for online multiplayer. All we know is that it has been digitally rescaled to full native 1080p (according to Major Nelson), a rarity for an Xbox 360 game. There are only a handful of games currently on the market for Xbox 360 that run at native 1080p:
- Wolf of the Battlefield Commando 3 (XBLA)
- Feeding Frenzy 2 (XBLA)
- Portal: Still Alive (XBLA)
- Boogie Bunnies (XBLA)
- EA SPORTS NBA Street Home Court
- Virtual Tennis 3
Just because it says 1080p on the back of the box, it doesn’t mean it’s running native – it’s likely only being upscaled, unless it is one of the above games, which now includes Perfect Dark XBLA. Read more after the break!
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Incase you haven’t heard, a brand new gaming phenomenon is set to join the Xbox Live lineup this spring. Part of the Xbox Live Primetime channel, soon to join your dashboard, the 13 week gameshow 1 vs 100 is coming sooner than you think. The reason that this game differs from others, is that it’s live, occurs in real time with players around the world, hosted by a real person and, most importantly, allows you to win prizes, initially in the form of Microsoft points – up to 10,000 Microsoft points!
The shows will take place on Friday and Saturday nights with “practice sessions” occurring throughout the week, which don’t give you prizes. Just like the show on BBC 1, players are divided into three sections: The One, The 100 and The Crowd. The One is the one who’s playing the game for the prizes – (s)he is randomly selected, but they can only play as The One once in every season. The 100 are the opponents. They’re there to stop The One from winning. The Crowd are simply observers – they’re the audience. Essentially, The One is asked a series of questions, along with The 100. If The One gets the question right, he’s OK. If anyone in The 100 gets the question wrong, they’re knocked out immediately, for good. Then the game becomes, for example, 1 vs 80. This keeps progressing down and down until it’s 1 vs 1. Then it gets serious. Read more after the break!
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It’s that time of year again, and E3 is just around the corner. The favourite time of the gaming industry, it’s the biggest gaming event in the world and despite some hiccups in the past, it’s back in full force. The whole thing kicks off tomorrow with Microsoft’s press briefing at 10.25 AM (Los Angeles) and we’re promised some big reveals that will “transform home entertainment” – that’s a pretty bold statement to make! – predictions for all of the press conferences after the break!
From the creators of Guitar Hero comes DJ Hero. One of the featured artists in the game, DJ Shadow has released some screenshots of the game on his website. Also, GameTrailers debuted a new, exclusive trailer of the game – see it after the break. Expect to see more of the game at E3 next week.
Sky Player (the online service similar to 4OD and iPlayer that delivers Sky content like 24, Fringe and Lost on various channels including Sky Sports, Sky Movies, Sky News, The History Channel, National Geographic, the BBC, G.O.L.D, Eden, MTV ONE, Sky1, Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, among others) is coming this autumn to Xbox Live users in the United Kingdom.
Confirmed merely moments ago by Xbox UK, the story was earlier leaked by The Guardian before being promptly yanked from the website.
Shows like 24 are available on Sky Player
This new service will allow you to view LIVE and On Demand Sky content on your Xbox 360 connected to Xbox Live. Live content is said to be standard definition while on-demand is to be “DVD Quality”. The possibility for HD remains to be utilised in the near future.
“Our partnership with Xbox is a further example of our commitment to put choice and control in the hands of customers. Xbox owners now have a range of ways to access Sky content and can pick and choose the platform and packages that are right for them. We are extremely excited about the opportunity of reaching Xbox owners who are looking to experience Sky for the first time, as well as giving our existing customers yet another way to experience the content they love.” – Stephen Nuttall, Director of Sky’s Commercial Group
This deal ushers in the first instance of video on demand since previewed at CES – how the service will operate (and how much it will cost, if anything) is currently unknown.
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Umm, OK. Rockstar have managed to completely baffle the world by announcing their next downloadable episode for GTA IV before E3.
The Ballad of Gay Tony follows Luis Lopez (the assistant to nightclub owner Anthony Prince). His story has crossovers with both GTA IV and GTA IV: The Lost and Damned – he makes an appearance in both games as an ambusher in mission ‘Museum Piece‘.
“Liberty City is the most vibrant game world we’ve created yet. The episodic structure has allowed us to interweave stories, gameplay and atmosphere in a whole new way,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “The team at Rockstar North have yet again surpassed themselves, and made something that is both epic and very innovative. This episode’s focus on high-end night life contrasts with the biker gangs portrayed in The Lost and Damned, whilst giving us a lot of new gameplay possibilities.” Get all the nitty gritty details of content and pricing after the break.
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