Blizzard has confirmed that Brian Morrisroe, the art director on Diablo III, has resigned from the company. Mossisroe was the driving for behind the game's fan-lamented visual style, but Blizzard assured MTV Multiplayer in an email that any outcry over color and rainbows in the world of Diablo had nothing to do with his departure.
"Regarding Brian, he recently resigned to form a startup technology company (outside the game industry)," the email read, continuing, "This change won't impact the game ... we're really pleased with the look and feel that Brian helped create for Diablo III, and the new person we bring onboard will work with the other artists on the team to maintain the art style moving forward." Funny – the job posting doesn't mention anything about "must own fire-retardant undergarments" or "must possess an ability to weather fans' lamentations over your use of a color palette." Oh well, whoever Blizzard hires will find out soon enough.
BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk was talking to MTV Multiplayer about the company's upcoming Dragon Age, when he took a left turn at Alpha Centauri and discussed future Mass Effect DLC. He tells the site that it's still a trilogy and that the company is "looking at some other post-release content." He won't confirm anything, but says the company is "talking about" more DLC.
The space opera has only had one episodic DLC adventure with Bring Down the Sky, which was made available free for PC purchasers of the game. Since then, the space around The Citadel has been pretty quiet ... but not in that normal space sort of way ... you know what we mean.
If you haven't been to the Star Trek Experience inside the Las Vegas Hilton, you might want to try and get yourself there on August 10th. That's when Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, will be unveiling gameplay footage from the upcoming Star Trek Online.
This long-in-the-making and often troubled MMO has had a shaky path down the development road, and Vegas might be the perfect place for it to make one of its first appearances. Developer Cryptic could renew their Star Trek vows with a quickie wedding in true Trek style. One Vulcan Vow Renewal to go, please.
Details about the next Medal of Honor have allegedly been leaked in a recent survey sent out by EA, according to French site JeuxVideo (translation). The document supposedly refers to the game as "Medal of Honor: Operation Anaconda," which is named for the large-scale military initiative undertaken in the Shahi-Kot Valley and Arma Mountains in March 2002 (finally outside of the WWII comfort zone, are we?). Unlike Call of Duty 4, apparently this version of "modern combat" will focus on historical events, including the Battle of Takur Ghar.
The survey suggests players will engage in a variety of scenarios, including front-line and sniper missions, and a "drone attack." Another tidbit claims the game will feature 60 customizable weapons. While still unconfirmed, the entire report is definitely plausible. But would it be enough to make Medal of Honor relevant again? To stay competitive, EA just might have to look to the stars.
As you might have noticed, the first episode of Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People, "Homestar Ruiner," did not make its target month of July. Maybe he was too busy pining for Trevor or [insert more recent Strong Bad reference here], who knows? Thankfully, the wait has nearly ended: Telltale has announced on its site that the first episode will arrive on WiiWare and PC Aug. 11.
We're happy to finally see SB make the leap to the somewhat larger, yet still small screen. But we're more hopeful that the announcement means Telltale can now move on the to the episodic Teen Girl Squad game we all secretly crave.
When we try to convince people to play World of Warcraft, it's usually because we despise them and want their real world lives to crumble around them as they try to convince themselves that their new sword is so much better than their last one. But be careful: Thanks to Blizzard's new recruiting push, others' motives for trying to rope you in may not be so pure.
Those who invite friends to the game and persuade them to pay for two months up front will get a free Zhevra mount, the ability to summon their referred friends and triple experience when they're questing together, up to level 60. It's tempting, but we hear that if you recruit a friend to Fury, you get the whole game. You know, just something to think about.
So, who's very excited (or surprised) by confirmation that Rockstar's go-anywhere, shoot-anyone crime caper is coming to the PC? Well, the folks at Rockstar, obviously. "We are very excited to be releasing the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV," said Rockstar Games founder Sam Houser. "The whole team is dedicated to bringing an amazing gaming experience to the PC. The game looks and plays beautifully on PC and we can't wait for people to play it."
People can expect to start playing Grand Theft Auto IV, along with its "newly expanded multiplayer" modes, on November 18th if they live in North America, and November 21st if they live in Europe.
When PS3 owners are left out of EA's Red Alert 3, they won't just be left wanting for the game's exotically tough real-time strategy. They'll also miss out on the video game acting debut of English actress/model/singer Gemma Atkinson, who will exchange her flimsy lingerie for something a little more formal as Allied communications officer Lt. Eva McKenna.
EA's PR machine tells us that Atkinson is best recognized for her work on the British soap Hollyoaks, as well as one of the region's most recognized models, though to be fair we're just going to have to take their word for it. The company also notes that she'll be on hand at the UK's M Festival gaming event this Friday, just make sure that when she talks you look into her eyes, and not upon her huge ... tracts of land.
At this point, we think it's pretty safe to call BioWare's KOTOR MMO the absolute worst-kept secret in gaming. After all, the game was all but announced during E3. (That's when EA boss John Riccitiello confirmed it was in the works, you see.) Now comes word that LucasArts is hiring testers with MMO experience. Hmmm.
Specifically, the job posting states that candidates will "test MMO games for bugs" and "strive to help make a competitive MMO." Really, now? It's something listed under the job requirements that has stirred up some intrigue, though. In order to get the testing gig, applicants must have "strong familiarity and experience with gaming consoles and Windows based PCs." So, the KOTOR MMO is multi-platform? Oh, you crazy secret-keepers.
Forgoing super heroes and knights in shining armor, NCSoft is turning to martial arts and Korean mythology for its latest MMO entry, Blade and Soul. The game is being built on Unreal Engine 3, and while it's currently planned for release only in Korea, its visual style and unique gameplay could help it get a foothold in the States.
From the looks of the first video, the game appears to draw heavy influences from Capcom's online hack-'n-slasher, Monster Hunter, working in character designs which seem like they could have been created for the PS2 action title Bujingai. Interactive environments are also part of the mix. In other words, it's definitely not the MMO equivalent of Jade Empire, but maybe BioWare will get to that after its so-not-a-secret KOTOR MMO?
It's no secret that BioWare's next big thing in the RPG world, Dragon Age, is coming to consoles at some point. Speaking to MTV Multiplayer, the dev's co-president, Greg Zeschuk, indicated that the game will receive the sort of "port plus" treatment Mass Effect did during its transition from 360 to PC.
"In the case [of Mass Effect on PC] we worked really hard to make it even better than the console version," Zeschuk told MTV, adding, "That's the approach we're taking with Dragon Age." Presumably he means in moving from PC to consoles. Zeschuk also noted that BioWare's mantra with regards to each patform's version of its games is "very definitive and very specific." With a console Dragon Age, one of BioWare's biggest tasks will be the reverse of what it did for Mass Effect on PC: taking a full-blown mouse and keyboard interface and making it play nicely with a controller.
This is it, folks. The winners of the official Game Critics Awards for E3 2008 – as chosen by 36 representatives (including yours truly) from most of the leading video game outlets – have been revealed. Leading the pack with two wins each are Fallout 3 – winner of "Best of Show" and "Best RPG" – along with LittleBigPlanet – winner of Best Console game and Best Social/Casual/Puzzle game.
The top publisher was EA (just like in our own awards) with five wins, while Sony took second place with an impressive three wins. In terms of platform concentration, the Xbox 360 barely edged out the competition with eight wins versus both the PC and PS3's seven (for those of you keeping track, the Wii only managed one win and that was for its version of Madden 09). We've got the full list after the break, or check out the Game Critics site for the breakdown by publisher and platform or refresh your memory with this list of nominees in the various categories.
Auran's reportedly $13.2 million PvP-based MMO disaster Fury will shut down within the next 48 hours. The official Fury forums announced those handling the game could not find a way to keep the servers running, so both the game servers and Fury forums will shut down imminently.
We're not exactly sure who was running Fury, as developer Auran shut down late last year after the game failed to catch on. Obviously, we know this comes as a shock to the handful out there still playing Fury, but there's whole worlds of MMO titles out there to explore. We know it's hard, but it's best to accept it and move on.
Just like your favorite indie band – those guys that issued a giant middle finger to The Man and made it their own way, retaining credibility the way a sponge retains water – Valve isn't averse to an acquisition. Whoa, whoa, whoa! Before you tear down your Gabe Newell poster or throw away your Robin Walker découpaged Trapper Keeper, hear 'em out: Valve's veep of marketing Doug Lombardi simply said, "anything is possible" and that he'd be "happy" to discuss an acquisition of the hugely successful independent developer. He's not talking about "selling out" ... like that band ...
Valve's always done plenty in-house, but partnerships with Sierra and now EA Partners have provided the dev with significant marketing and distribution resources that it would rather not take on. Speaking of EA, Lombardi relayed some details behind Valve's decision to partner with the Big Bad Publisher, concluding, "We haven't seen the boogeyman." It's clear both Valve and EA have eyes for each other and, with recently acquired devs like BioWare and Pandemic calling their relationship with the publisher "mutually beneficial," it wouldn't surprise us if EA took Lombardi up on his offer to talk.
_thumbnail.jpg "I Am 8 Bit: 2008")
