Here’s a rather strange (and dismaying) rumor that has recently surfaced on the Eurogamer forums. According to a poster there, Free Radical Design employees are currently sitting at a Holiday Inn, wondering why they’ve been locked out of their offices. This sounds like a good old fashioned shut down, if it’s true.
Free Radical is famous for the Timesplitters series and was supposed to be working on a fourth game in the franchise, along with the new Star Wars: Battlefront. Supposedly, the company is no longer answering phone calls and cannot be reached.
On the one hand, this is an unfounded claim on a message board but on the other, it’s a very bizarre story to just randomly decide to make up. If true, that’s a real shame, not just for the people employed, but for the ever-declining UK games industry. Hopefully it’s not as bad as it looks, because I don’t want to see another British developer fall apart.
The holidays and Twisted Pixel’s upcoming Xbox LIVE Arcade game The Maw have something in common — I get a warm, fuzzy feeling inside when I think of them.
When this holiday card arrived in the mail featuring the purple, big-mouth Maw and his alien buddy Frank all dressed up for the holidays, we nearly died.
The Maw picked up an "audience choice" award at the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo, where the game was playable for anyone with hands, eyes, and ears. For more info on The Maw, check out our interview I did with Twisted Pixel’s Josh Bear not too long ago.
Oh, and Happy Mawlidays!
Henry Hatsworth is the bomb and it’s going to be one of the best games for the DS next year. Check out some of the new images that were released today along with the launch of the official Web site where you can download the entire soundtrack for free!
Jim challenges the XNA Community, the answer to the F.E.A.R. 2 puzzle is "boners", Home hacking has gotten series, Metal Gear Solid is coming to the iPhone, and plenty more happened on 12/17/08.
Originals:
The XNA Community Review Challenge
Destructoid interview: Word Jong Party designer Scott Balaban
Crack this F.E.A.R. 2 code puzzle, because I sure as hell can’t
Destructoid Exclusive: GameStop robbery caught on tape
Reviews:
Defense Grid: The Awakening
Christmas:
Holiday cards: Fallout’s Mr. Handy helps Bethesda spread holiday cheer
Holiday cards: Persona 4’s Teddy sends season’s greetings
Edge of Twilight wishes Destructoid a merry Christmas
News:
Sony’s investment rating falls, shares decide to follow
Nintendo changes ‘Play on Wii’ to ‘New Play Control!’ for North America
EA accused of ‘misleading’ people with Tiger Woods ad
Nintendo reveals unsurprising DS/Wii Q1 2009 line-up for North America
Nintendo and Nyko settle suit over wireless Nunchuk
The Telegraph’s top fifty games of 2008 list is actually interesting
Pre-order Grand Theft Auto:Chinatown from GameStop get in-game cash ‘upgrade’
Halo 3 parent killer was ‘addicted’ to videogames
Metal Gear-themed DLC on its way to LittleBigPlanet
Home hacking detailed by Telegraph
Resident Evil 5 demo coming early 2009… just like the game
Eidos keeps up the quality on Arkham Asylum with its voice cast
Atari wants to rub Activision’s nose in it with Ghostbusters
Take-Two signs long-term deal with Rockstar, dumps trucks of money on key execs
WAR launches Dwarf New Year event, players encouraged to find beer
Japanese version of Home receiving Soul Calibur and Tekken lounges
Is Puzzle Arcade coming to XBLA next week? We hope so!
The real Riddick sequel on the horizon … if fans want it
Fable II’s ‘Knothole Island’ DLC delayed until ‘late January’
Celebrate the holidays with Crysis Wars free trial
Crisis: Wii pole dancing game struggling to find publisher
Offbeat:
Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose calls out Activision for its ‘low life chicanery’
Yes, that is a Shadow of the Colossus grilled cheese sandwich
Galleries:
Carry Snake in your trousers: Metal Gear Solid confirmed for iPhone
Resident Evil 5 gets a comic book (how racist)
Scratch features a turntable controller, characters more hip than you
EA sets March release for DS action-puzzler Henry Hatsworth
Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection hits Golden Axe, Comix Zone with ugly filter
Viva Pinata does Dr. Who
Videos:
I just had an RPG-gasm over this Star Ocean: The Last Hope trailer
Trailer for Doritos: Dash of Destruction is … haha … hahahaha
Leaked Sonic X-Treme video shows more of the game that never was
Zeno Clash summons forth gameplay footage, still looks creepy as Hell
Pilot for Game Damage, aka ‘that show with Yahtzee and two guys’
New developer diary for Stormrise: Helghast versus Chimera?
Like wheels? Love men? Then check out this new Wheelman video!
Community:
C Blogs of 12/17/08
Good people of America, we face a national emergency, the likes of which has not been seen since 9/11 — Peekaboo Pole Dancing does NOT have a publisher for its Wii game.
The company, known for its Carmen Electra-branded poledancing kit — The Electrapole — announced its plans to bring this time-honored tradition to Wii consoles across the nation earlier this year. MTV’s Tracey John is a big fan of female degradation and visits all manner of illicit sex houses frequently, so she caught up with Peekaboo Pole Dancing to see how their game is getting on.
"We have not managed to tie up a deal for this yet but we still remain hopeful," stated a rep. "We have, however, connected with a company that is manufacturing a peripheral product and we are investigating mutual publishing opportunities. Please feel free to give a shout out to any developers or publishers who want to give this a crack. [The game] just needs someone with a little nerve."
Have nerve? Want crack? Contact Simon Kay at Peekaboo Pole Dancing. I’m looking at YOU, Tecmo. I know you love that stuff.
Awww, isn’t that nice? Destructoid received a holiday postcard from Edge of Twilight publisher Fuzzyeyes, and we thought we’d all share. That, and we like to show off when people send us nice things.
Edge of Twilight is a game I’ve been hyped for since I first heard about it. A Steampunk adventure with a great sounding story and a surprising amount of violence has me hooked, and I was pretty pleased with what I saw at Tokyo. It’s slated for late 2009, so we’ve quite a wait yet, but hopefully we get to see more soon.
EA and Crytek are aware that gamers have some extra time on their hands during the holiday season. That’s why (starting the December 19) the publisher and developer combo are rolling out Crysis Wars for free. The offer is valid through December 28, at which point EA will pull the plug on the free fun.
If you didn’t know, Crysis Wars is the multiplayer component of Crysis Warhead. It features three different modes that shooter fans should be familiar with and over 21 maps for players to kill each other in. To keep with the feeling of the season, Crytek will be unveiling the Holiday Map Pack this week and it will be available through this offer.
To get in on the action, simply register at the official Crysis website and then download the game. Apparently, you can do this preemptively as the key is generated to only work on the dates above.
According to an official announcement on the official Xbox website, Fable II’s ‘Knothole Island’ DLC will not be hitting Xbox Live Marketplace until “late January 2009” because of “unexpected technical difficulties.” This marks the second delay of the content that was originally supposed to debut on December 12.
‘Knothole Island’ will introduce players to a new landmass with several new quests, items, properties, and enemies. The source of the problem could be tied into its nature – the developer of the content, Lionhead, were going to put two different versions out for consumers.
The premium version (800 Microsoft Space Dollars) would allow players full freedom with the content. The regular version (free) would restrict players from the vast majority of the ‘Knothole Island’ DLC unless they were with a friend who had purchased the content. One could certainly speculate that getting these two different downloads to work together may have been the source of the problem.
Because of the delay of the content, Microsoft has put a hold on their “Knothole Island Download & Win Sweepstakes” which was intended to put players in a lottery to win decent prizes if they purchased and played the content between December 22 and 23. We were all eagerly awaiting this contest and are severely disturbed that it has been delayed.
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is basically a sequel. Sure, the game has the entirety of Escape from Butcher Bay on the disc, but there is also a large amount of new content, aimed to immediately follow the events of Butcher Bay. While most of us would call it a sequel, Tigon Studios is afraid of that word. Their methodology is quite simple – Dark Athena is an episodic follow-up, the real sequel will be developed if fans want it.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Tigon Studios’ production head Ian Stevens said that “we’ve got a sequel in mind that’s a couple of years out if you guys want it, and you like this and you tell us you want more.” He went on to say that the sequel is “ambitious and … definitely going to follow the precedent that we set with the first.”
Thinking about another Riddick game after this is more than exciting. I think the majority of Riddick fans were more than displeased after the first Chronicles took a dive in ticket sales and signaled an early end to the trilogy. Regardless of what happens with the movies, at least we may have a videogame to look forward to in the future.
According to its splash page at Xbox.com, the Eidos-published Xbox LIVE Arcade title Puzzle Arcade is on its way to Xbox LIVE next week for 800 Microsoft Points.
There’s nothing particularly new or special about Puzzle Arcade — it’s simply a game where you put jigsaw puzzles together using a number of pre-loaded images (other 35 are included). The game can be played with up to four gamers on the same console in both classic and timed modes where you’ll gain points for quick thinking.
So what’s the big deal? It’s damned fun, that’s the big deal. With up to four players it can get a bit hectic on screen, with players fighting over screen real estate to place and browse puzzle pieces. Many hours may or may not have been spent fighting over pieces of Lara Croft’s face …
As someone who is so over owning physical things (digital downloads 4 lyfe!), not having to mess with and clean up a bunch of puzzle pieces is good news. And so is Puzzle Arcade potentially coming to Xbox LIVE next week. It’s about time.
[Via Gamerbytes]
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The latest developer diary for Stormrise is posted above, and it details the two warring factions and heroes that take center stage in this realtime strategy. The only thing I can think of, however, is just how similar in artistic style it looks to both Killzone and Resistance. In fact, if you had told me this was a game about Helghast fighting Chimera, I’d almost believe you.
That said, I’ll give it a chance. The aesthetic direction looks generic, but good RTS games are few and far between these days. That said, all I can think about now is my Helghast/Chimera game.
