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By Joseph Tresca

This spot won the Gold Lion at Cannes. It’s great to see Video Games are influencing Advertising in such a profound way. When Blade Runner was first released, it became the leading vision of what the future would probably look like and it held this distinction for many years. It seems Half Life has influenced the minds of the next generation of commercial and film makers even if subtly. I think that if Video games are not considered art, (I’m looking at you Mr. Ebert) then why are films and commercials borrowing from them?

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by Joseph Tresca

Namco Bandai’s Enslaved: Odyssey to the West was on display and fortunately I had the opportunity to give the demo a spin. Ninja Theory, the developer of Heavenly Sword for the PS3, have put together a unique adventure title that was a joy to play. It’s also worth noting that this game will mark the studio’s first foray into multi-platform development.

Enslaved is a third person action adventure game where you control a character named Monkey. You’ll run around the ruins of New York City fighting some really cool looking robots. Monkey can scale walls, climb ledges, swing and jump. He’s also pretty bad ass with his staff. Problem is, he’s got a slave headband attached to his head. The headband will kill him instantly if he stray too far from his partner Trip. Trip is a hacker who programed the headband to keep Monkey close to her at all times. He of course isn’t very happy about this, but it is in his best interest to keep Trip alive. Whenever the duo encounter a door that needs to be opened, Trip, being the gadget girl, will hack it. Of course this will get the attention of enemies but Monkey can also distract enemy fire from Trip as she crosses bridges or runs to cover. Trip can also heal Monkey when she’s in range.

In the demonstration the two protagonists took on dog like robots as they made their way through an overgrown New York theater. Monkey can issue certain commands to Trip as to whether she should follow him or not. I’m told that as the game progresses she’ll learn new commands.

One of the most impressive things about Enslaved is how well the cut scenes appear to be acted. The dialog isn’t cheesy and the acting seems a few notches better than most. You’ll want to keep an eye on this one for sure. Enslaved will be available for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on October 12, 2010.

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By William Countiss

So you are probably aware that Apple has just announced the iPhone 4. As Steve Jobs went through the specs acting as though he’d invented video chatting on a mobile device, I was reminded of the PSP camera. At that point I began comparing Sony’s vision for the PSP with Apple’s vision for the iPhone and I came to the realization that the two devices are really starting to compete for the same market share. Now that Apple and Nintendo have shown their cards, Sony will almost certainly release a PSP2 with capabilities on par with or greater than the competition.

Here is what I believe the PSP2 will have that the iPhone 4 and 3DS will not.

1) Multi-core architecture

Yes I still firmly believe that Sony will shrink the cell processor down to 4 working SPUs. Can you just imagine how powerful that would be? I think the core CPU will reach 1 GHZ.

2) More Ram

I think we’ll be looking at 128 MBs of Ram. With that kind of ram on a smaller display there would be more than enough space for normal maps, bump maps, specular maps, depth maps and more. Let’s not forget the added benefit to AI and physics calculations.

3) Larger screen and equal or greater resolution than the iPhone.

While Apple has made the iPhone thinner and smaller, I believe that Sony will want to increase screen real estate while decreasing the thickness and weight of the device. It should be smaller than an iPad but larger than an iPhone. Sony would score major points if the design was energy efficient and the outer bezel was razor thin.

4) A dedicated GPU similar to the RSX but much smaller.

A dedicated GPU would allow for programmable per-pixel shaders and post processing effects in portable games. Imagine playing games with Depth of Field and Motion blur. Imagine hardware tessellation or pre-computed global illumination?

5) More storage space.

64 Gigs would be the magic number. We’ve already heard of 64 Gig memory sticks so this would not be too far fetched.

I have a feeling we’ll know much more at E3. What do you think? Leave a comment below.

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By Joseph Tresca

So, 38 IW staff have filed a lawsuit for “breach of contract” as Activision strains to keep Modern Warfare 3 in production. In case you haven’t been following this drama, I’ll do my best to give you the really short version. Bobby Kotick, Activisions fearless leader, is a greedy mofo. I could stop there and you’d probably get the gist of the situation. Basically he caught wind that Infinity Ward, the developer behind the immensely successful Modern Ware series, wanted to create a different game instead of working on Modern Warefare 3. Now to add some context to this, Modern Warefare 1 and 2 have made Activision just under 2 billion dollars(read record shattering profits). As part of the developer and publisher agreement, Activision offers profit sharing. Infinity Ward employees typically make below average salaries until one of their games ship and sell successfully. Then it’s not uncommon for the employee to receive a lump sum of $500,000 or more based on the profit sharing agreement between the publisher and developer. Activision, looking to make another windfall of profit from a third entry to their Modern Warefare series, withheld profit sharing from the recently released Modern Warefare 2 in an effort to retain their talent pool long enough to push out another game. So Activision preemptively fired West and Zampella, the two studio heads who formed IW, under accusations of insubordination. Since that time Infinity Ward’s employees have been resigning en masse. Recently these former members formed Infinity Ward Employee Group(IWEG) to launch a lawsuit against their publisher.

The verdict on this court case could have far reaching implications on future publisher and developer relations. No matter how this ends, Activision has shown gamers what they truly are. I for one have no intention of ever purchasing any other Modern Warefare that is published by Activision.

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By Brandon Miller

So as the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo approaches, I thought it might make some sense to take a snap shot of the industry and grade the performance of the big three up until this point.

Nintendo

While the world patiently awaits the arrival of the Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo DS continues to dominate the handheld market. It doesn’t have the strongest processor, but there is no denying that the ever expanding game library continues to appeal particularly to Japanese gamers. I expect the 3DS to continue this trend while offering a wider appeal.

Meanwhile the Nintendo Wii is still number 1 in the console race. The Wii has almost single-handedly captured the casual gaming market. As of late though sales have finally started to decline. The next generation Wii will need to be much more than just a Wii in high definition if Nintendo wants to continue to be number one.

Grade: B+

Microsoft

Their is no denying the impact that the Xbox 360 has had on this generation of consoles. Once a newcomer to the market, Microsoft has proved their marketing and software savy. Aside from releasing the Xbox 360 with faulty hardware, there is very little to criticise about Microsofts game plan. They captured both the hearts and minds of the hardcore gamer this generation and with the release of Natal, Microsoft is threatening to take a piece of Nintendos casual marketshare.

Grade: A

Sony

How the mighty have fallen. Once the undisputed king of video games Sony has only recently started to get its mojo back. The PS3 was released too late and it was too expensive. Remarkably stupid comments from Sony executives did nothing to help their image. Sony honestly couldn’t have had a worse start.

Likewise the PSP never truly had the support that gamers were expecting even though it clearly had more capable hardware than its competition.

When we fast forward to today, we see a Sony that has completely reinvented itself. The PS3 slim and the release of several exclusive games with graphics which are simply unparalleled in the industry, are major factors contributing to Sonys recent success.

Marketing for their systems has improved 10 fold and the much needed price drop has seen Sonys PS3 outsell even the mighty Nintendo Wii. Meanwhile the PSP slim model is still overpriced for market consumption. It could use a price drop and a few more exclusives announced at a E3 but if I had to guess, I’d say Sony will be switiching focus to the impending PSP2.

Grade: B+

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