BitSnark

Yes, i’m speaking to all three of you, it’s still going ahead as the development agreement is with Sega and not EA, hence why it didnt turn up in their financials.

An obvious point perhaps, but then I guess others dont think so when you see them moaning about it on message boards elsewhere.

Bioware though… quite the busy bees eh?

For those of you drooling at that concept like me, 1UP.com reports that EA’s latest set of financials has revealed a number of titles that have been suspected to be in development, but are now due out in the next 18 months including:

Mass Effect 2 & 3 (360/PC) (Bioware)
KOTOR sequel (Unknown) (Bioware)
Star Wars MMO (PC) (Bioware)
Lord Of The Rings RPG (360/PS3) (Pandemic)
Black 2 (360/PS3)(Criterion)
Skate 2 (360/PS3) (In-house)
New Burnout (360/PS3) (Criterion)
New Need For Speed (Everything, ever.) (In-House)

Thats a lot of heavy hitters there. As far as the KOTOR situation goes, it’s interesting that both the MMO and the much wanted KOTOR sequel are listed as seperate games, effectively dispelling the fact that they are one and the same game.

Still, being the kind of cyncial soul that I am, i’ll have my salt shaker at the ready until I get more concrete info on any kind of KOTOR sequel that isn’t an MMO, before EA chalk it up to a ‘misinterpretation’ by the media.

Oh also, on the subject of the Lord Of The Rings title, it seems as if many (including myself) were perhaps eager to latch onto the fact that it was developed by Bioware, as it appears that Pandemic is handling the duties for this one, leading many to believe that the title will rediscover it’s action roots from the old EA titles (less action, more RPG please).

Hopefully though, with Bioware and Pandemic in such tight cahoots these days, we’ll get a decent bit of both.

IGN is reporting that although 3D Realms wouldn’t be drawn on a release date for the near mythical Duke Nukem Forever, they did instead confirm that 90’s classic Duke Nukem 3D will hit XBOX Live Arcade sometime this year.

No details were announced regarding the port, but just the mere confirmation gets me all excited and flappy.

Anyone else feel the same?

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/850/850303p1.html

Magazines will do anything to get their circulation figures up, and while US gaming magazine GamePro is no exception (pimping a preview of the much rumoured but not yet confirmed, Gears Of War 2) most dont tend to get smacked down by the respective publisher.

Well that changed today, as VP of Epic Games, Mark Rein, said that it’s ‘complete nonsense’ and explicitly mentioned that no media sources have been appraised with anything to do with the possible existence of a Gears of War sequel.

Ouch.

Quick note to GamePro, if you’re going to make up titles and ‘preview’ them, make sure you do it for your April issue…

In what will almost certainly be another dud in a long line of failed videogame adaptations, IGN Movies reports that Max Payne is due to commence filming next month with a wrap up in late May. Mark Wahlberg is apparently in the frame to play the angst ridden, constipated looking hero, and as of yet, no further details have been released regarding the picture which is based on 3D Realms adult shooter.

In related movie news, it was announced at the premiere of the Guillermo Del Toro produced film Orphanage, that the visionary director has signed to direct New Line Cinema’s duo of Hobbit films, one covering the events depicted in the Hobbit itself and the other to depict what happened in the time between The Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring.

Don’t expect them too quickly however, as the current writers strike in Hollywood has meant that a screenplay can’t even be drafted yet, which means that we’ll see principal photography commence in 2009, with the film opening in 2010.

Needless to say, this WILL rock.

Recently announced by Bioware in a conference call was that their next project is yet another RPG (keep em’ coming guys), but like Knights of the Old Republic is based on a well known IP, this one being the Lord Of The Rings.

While no more details have been leaked about it, such as whether it’s a reboot of the cancelled ‘White Council’ LOTR game or not, anyone who has played a Bioware RPG on any machine should be salivating at this news as Bioware have yet to put a foot wrong in the genre.

Also, we might actually get a decent game based on the IP that isn’t an RTS.

Yay.

At GDC this year, those wonderfully talented bods at Crytek, will show off the engine that powers the graphically staggering Crysis on the XBOX 360 and PS3 platforms. Make no mistake people this is significant currently for one reason and one reason only… EA get to fulfill their mantra of releasing games on as many formats as they can and will bring the PC FPS Opus to the next-gen (when does it become current gen?) console market.

This is significant to you for three reasons.

Firstly, Crysis is one of the most beautiful and intricately structured shooters since Half-Life 2.

Secondly, you don’t have to pay £700/£800 for a PC rig just to play the darn thing.

Lastly, those of your friends who did, will, in all likelihood be crying into the beer when they realise you will be able to play the game on a £200 console.

Again, nothing official has been announced regarding a conversion, but surely logic dictates that it surely has to be a matter of time and an obvious conclusion to the demonstration to the CryENGINE 2 tech… Unless of course we get an orginal IP using the engine, which is unlikely given the current popularity of the Crysis IP already.

What do you think folks?

Just as a little reminder to those of you who want to get hold of Rez without scrabbling around the second hand bargain bin in your local games emporium, Rez HD becomes available on the XBOX Live Marketplace this Wednesday.

Go on, treat yourself to it if you’ve been curious and never played it, and to those of you who have… well, you know the score :).

The headline pretty much speaks for itself on that one, but for those who want a little more detail on what that it means, it basically means not a day later, or a day earlier than our stars & stripes cousins but the same darn day.

Looks like people should be booking off holidays, cancelling lives and buying baseball bats to disuade little kids from trying to convince someone to buy the game for them.

It’s all about the morality 🙂

Being the worst kept secret on PS3 for sometime now, the sequel to PS3 launch game Resistance: Fall Of Man, has finally been unveiled with the first screenshots coming online just five minutes ago.

The screenshots appear to show off a much higher level of detail than the original game, with seemingly higher poly counts for the models, better lighting and hugely improved shadowing, not to mention more detailed environments.

Impressions in just one word though?

Purdy.

Hit the link to see for yourself:

http://uk.media.ps3.ign.com/media/142/14211237/imgs_1.html