Its been nearly 400 years since the last blight and the Grey Wardens are few in numbers because no one believes that another blight is coming and they think it is just legend. You however soon find out that the Archdemon will be here in a very short time. You are recruited at a young age by one of the Grey Wardens who has been around for a long time and seen many battles.
Like Borderlands, The Saboteur is a game I’ve had on my radar for a long time. Not the typical WWII shooter, The Saboteur has you play Sean Devlin, who has somehow been wronged by a Nazi general. As Devlin, you set out sabotaging Nazi occupied Europe by joining the French Resistance in order to get back at those pesky Nazis. The thing that interests me most about this game is the art style. When you are in a Nazi occupied area, the art style is a black and white film noir (think Sin City) with the occasional yellow (and red 
) accents.
From the videos I’ve seen, the gameplay seems to be a cross between Splinter Cell, Assasins Creed, and Call of Duty (or pick any WWII shooter). There is some stealth to the game, but all of your standard era guns are in there as well, so you’ll have more than piano wire to help you out. Also of note is Devlin’s ability to climb structures, although I doubt he does the Triple Lindy from the top of buildings like Altair to get down. Due out December 8th.
EA came out with a new Skate 3 trailer recently, and it looks good. Similar to the other Skate games, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Skate 3 introduces co-op skating in a crew with your xbox live buds. Check out this vid, looks like you will be able to compete with other crews.
Hit me up if you want to be in the GHR Skate crew. If not, and I see you in game, I WILL SHRED ALL OVER YOUR FACE. That’s how I roll.
See you in May. 
In an attempt to breathe new life into a franchise that many say has long since gone stale, EA is having the arcade racing gurus at Criterion Games take a whack at the next Need for Speed.
In an interview given to Kotaku, and reported on by ShackNews.com, EA’s COO John Riccitello said that there won’t be a new Burnout right now because Criterion is “…working on a revolutionary take on Need for Speed.”
No additional details were given, other than Riccitello’s assurance that Criterion’s project would not merge the two gameplay styles.
Personally I think this is a brilliant move. EA to me has lost its focus on what it wants NFS to be. This year, there will be several NFS games hitting consoles–ranging from the sim-ish NFS: Shift, to the “arcadey” NFS: Nitro. The last good NFS I played was Hot Pursuit 2. I had high hopes for NFS: Pro Street, but bizzarre gameplay mechanics (high-speed runs killed the game) left me dissappointed in the title. Burnout is my favorite racing series, and I’m very curious to see what direction they steer this franchise.
Dante’s Inferno opens up the EA press conference. Wow. Looks absolutely insane. Seems to have a similar art style to the God of War games.
Sims 3 is shown. Never a big Sims fan but this looks fun. The iPhone version has been getting good reviews so I’ll give that one a look.
Littlest Pet Shop shown. Thank god TiVo has a fast forward
Charm Girls Club. Saw some girls play “Speed Hair Teasing” before TiVo remote could be picked up. Fast forward…Thank you TiVo
Need for Speed : Shift shown. Looks interesting. Very Nice graphics. They were talking about the innovative ‘cockpit view’ which didn’t seem all that innovative to me. It’s the view I see in most games that I dislike and switch away from.
Dragon Age : Origins is coming out October 20th on PC, PS3 and Xbox. Lots of cinematics, no idea how good the game looks or what gameplay looks like.
Mass Effect 2 is shown. Looks like Shepherd isn’t dead, just faking to run some covert op. No elevators are shown, that’s a good sign. Tons of great cinematics shown, looks amazing but no real gameplay.
Fight Night : Round 4 is shown. Tyson vs. Ali and it looks great. Comes out June 25th.
EA Sports : MMA is announced for 2010.
Lots of sports games are shown.
Madden Online Franchises are announced. 32 Player franchises with trades, message boards, stats, standings, iPhone App. Looks interesting if people stick with it.
Wii Games shown. Starts with Wii EA Active and selling the fact that games can be a positive force. Grand Slam Tennis shown, looks like a better version of the Wii Sports game.
The Saboteur is shown and actual gameplay is seen. The game is black and white until you win over the people in that area. Looks like a re-imagining of the Hitman series.
EA then shows Tim Schafer and Brutal Legend. Character design looks crazy good. Tim comes off as really loving the game and the voice actors in it: Ozzy Ozzbourne, Lita Ford, Rob Haford, Lemmy. This game looks hella fun. Lands Roctober 13th.
Crysis 2 is coming to PS3, Xbox 360 and the PC. Nothing else known right now.
APB is shown. An MMO set in a city. 100 players, some are criminals, some are cops. Very interesting concept. More cinematics shown. Guessing it’s just PC but they didn’t mention anything.
Star Wars guys all roll out to the theme music. Sith and Jedi abound. Lucas Arts and BioWare guys come out. Here’s The Old Republic MMO announcement we’ve been hearing about for years. Trailer looked good but just more cinematics. With BioWare I think it will be amazing.
EA confirmed today that the sequel for Army of Two is in the works. For some fun 2 player co-op action, Army of Two is the best. Can’t wait for this one. D1C for Tilt and me.
You were right. Following reports of disappointing holiday sales, Electronic Arts announced cutbacks in their quarterly conference call on December 9th.
EA CEO John Riccitiello announced a ’3 prong’ attack in order to boost income in fiscal 2009 – less games, focus on games with strong online and ongoing content, and reducing expenses (i.e. laying people off).
Anyone who looked at the release calendar for Oct/Nov/Dec and didn’t see this coming needs their eyes checked. There is such a thing as too many games, and I think we saw it in quarter 4 of 2008.
Read Giant Bomb and Joystiq for more.
There can be no doubt that videogames are as integrated into our societal mainstream as Mom’s apple pie and political mud-slinging. As if there wasn’t enough proof, try this one on for size. EA and Nissan have announced another first for our favorite industry. Nissan will publicly introduce their 2009 370Z sportscar to the public at large through a videogame. The game given the honors is EA’s Need for Speed: Undercover.
GameDaily.com reported on the announcement. Christian Meunier, VP for Nissan Marketing stated, “Our relationship with EA has been instrumental in bringing the Nissan brand to a passionate and unique audience. By launching the all-new 2009 Nissan Z first through Need for Speed Undercover, we also gain the spirit and energy that EA gamers experience so strongly. Together with EA, we have truly integrated the all-new 370Z in the overall game experience in a meaningful, multi-layered and profound way.”
Corporate suit speak aside, this isn’t the first time that the automotive industry has been affected by videogames and gamers. If memory serves, part of the decision to bring Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evolution stateside was it’s placement in, and preference by game players of Sony’s Gran Turismo (I found an 07 blog on AdLab.com that backed up what my brain remembered). This is just the first time where an auto manufacturer and a game publisher have jointly introduced a new product to public via a videogame. While I’m opting for the 2010 Camaro, instead of the new Z, I think this joint marketing effort between Nissan and EA is awesome.
The Madden ’09 demo is finally here. Unlike any football demo ever, Madden ’09 uses an IQ test to evaluate the player’s skill. It is still unknown how this will effect overall gameplay, but this seems to be the most significant change in years. The first noticeable upgrade in the demo is the graphics. The player models are comparable to their real life counterparts. The gameplay sustains the high quality of previous Maddens. Make sure and download the demo for preparation of the GHR Madden League. COMING TO A CONSOLE NEAR YOU!
This post started out a simple post with little in it but the more I read about this boycott, the more I wanted to put in here. Joystiq and Kotaku (among others I’m sure) were not completely happy with the boycott. Kotaku said that it did nothing and Joystiq said it wasn’t necessary to boycott because if you don’t want the game, then don’t buy it. I disagree I don’t think that others should be punished just because I don’t want to buy a game. Yes, not buying a game is the loudest message a company can receive but I also think that the boycott was good because, A: I still don’t have to buy the game if I don’t want to, and B: the people that do buy the game aren’t going to be screwed out of a few dollars because we didn’t stand up for ourselves.
Now, back to the story that started all this, according to this article from Sarcastic Gamer, Kotaku thinks that the boycott was a “hollow victory.” Apparently, Kotaku thinks they are the Major Nelson (aka spinmaster) for EA. Also, here is the link to the story that Joystiq ran about thinking the boycott was pointless.
And just in case you missed the interview from IGN that had EA’s surrender in it, here it is.
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