The British are a bit ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to recognising the achievements of videogames in the arts field. And the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards has become the defacto videogame awards show for grownups who aren't developers. Admittedly, that's not hard when the only real competing show is over in the US, where you'll find the likes of Megan Fox amongst the nominees.
The after parties for this year's BAFTAs are in full swing, and the winners are commiserating with the losers. The big winner on the night: Batman: Arkham Asylum, which managed to snatch the best game gong from hot favourite Uncharted 2. Here's the list:
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While BioShock 2 players are slowly cooling their jets after discovering the first DLC for the game was sitting on the game disc all along, PS3 punters are preparing for the first DLC pack for MAG, the Trooper Gear Pack. And the good news is it's going to be gratis.
Nope, no strings attached. Come next week (March 25th is the date being spruiked) it's free. Word from the official MAG blog:
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You may well be interested in seeing what EA has to offer with their return to the Medal of Honor series. If so, you may be further interested in checking out what it actually looks like.
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Rebellion Studios recently put Aliens vs Predator out the door. Now they're showing staff out the same way. As expected, the developer has pulled the trigger on the closure of their Derby (UK) office - a process that begin in January with staff being warned of impending job cuts.
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Perhaps you've heard of Trickstar Games? The Prahan, Melbourne outfit, which describes itself as "the newest, but most experienced games development studio" only recently announced its existence to the world. The crew - which appears to be a chunk of the now-defunct Transmission Games team - are already putting their nose to the grindstone, working on International Cricket 2010 for Codemasters.
The Xbox 360 and PS3 game is in experienced hands. Trickstar head Tony Parkes claims the dev team has worked on Brian Lara and Ashes 2009 titles in the past. The big draw for the game - which has secured player, kit and ground licensing rights from Cricket Australia and England and Wales Cricket Board - is the new Action Cam feature:
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Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment has announced it's publishing a new "mature RPG" Lord of the Rings game. Titled "The Lord of the Rings: War in the North", development duties for the game have been handed to Snowblind Studios.
Online three player co-op will be part of the fun. Here's part of the pitch from Warners:
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Borderlands and downloadable content. It's been an odd relationship. But the latest pack from Gearbox/2K promises something a bit more substantial. Players finally got the level cap increase they were after, and reviewer Kozeeii seems pretty chuffed with the result:
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Remember when Modern Warfare 2 tried to make a funny video about grenade spam, only for it to backfire amongst accusations of homophobia and pandering to the more thick-headed sectors of the gaming population?
You may not have, because the company quickly pulled its tail between its legs (and the video as well), but it featured a star US baseball pitcher warning against spamming - a warning any MW2 player can tell you wasn't heeded. But yes - the short life the video enjoyed meant many may have forgotten it ever existed.
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Australia only recently saw the release of Tony Hawk RIDE, an endeavour long on technological ambition but arguable short on execution. But fear not virtual skaters who enjoy not snapping their ankles doing the real thing, the next instalment in EA's acclaimed SKATE series is coming mid-May.
Here's the pitch:
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We've hit Episode 27 of The GameArena Podcast and to celebrate we're doing the same thing we do every week! We have Dave Kozicki (reviewer Kozeeii) join us to talk Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, Final Fantasy XIII, AIE's line up, Monster Hunter Tri and Pain. We consider the pronunciation of id Software, Deus Ex 3's potential and the Gamers 4 Croydon constitution.
In the news - GDC, PlayStation Move and Mapathy have us distracted and our discussion topic is stereotyping gamers and their games. This episode is about 2 and a half hours long and as always has a strong language warning! You can download the latest episode from the GameArena
files library. Stay tuned early next week for a bonus episode of the GAP - we'll be recording from The Mana Bar launch, making guests out of the four co-owners.
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