Video

The Video Game Gods Might Be Resurrecting Populous

by Salat on February 3, 2012 · 0 comments

If you were like me – and chances are, if your name is Ross and your grew up in the sticks, you are – then you spent a lot of your formative years playing the game that helped make Fable maestro Peter Molyneux a household name, Populous. (Or perhaps Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods, which was even better.) Possibly – probably – the first God game, populous created the template followed by later Gods-eye view sims like Civilization, Sim city and, well, name the game that fits the format. Unfortunately, the franchise has been property of Electronic Arts since its beginning, and in typical EA style they kind of mismanaged it. The last PC version of the game, 1998′s Populous: The Beginning was badly botched due to it having also been intended for use on the original Playstation. And the less said about Populous DS, the better.

So Populous has lain largely dormant for 14 years. But if information dug up by an enterprising Neogaf forum member named Kifimbo pans out, it may be due for a triumphant return. They searching for more information about a rumored Insomniac title called Outernauts and stumbled onto a wiki page bearing the name “EAP Marketing FY13 Home Page“. Searching around this site,they claim to have located references to the following games:

*The Secret World
*Overstrike
*Populous
*Outernauts
*Respawn

The Secret World (Funcom) and Overstrike (Insomniac) are already scheduled to be published in partnership with EA. The other three are not confirmed titles, though Outernauts’ doman registration has been confirmed by VG 24/7. As for the other two, Kifimbo speculates that Respawn probably refers to a new game from Respawn entertainment, a guess that sounds as good as anything we’re likely to offer.

We were not able to replicate Kifimbo’s results on the site, so take all of this with a grain of salt. That won’t stop us, however, from being excited about the possibility of a new Populous game. We really need this to happen. We’ll even pray, if it helps.

Source: Gaming Today

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The Video Game Gods Might Be Resurrecting Populous

by Salat on February 3, 2012 · 0 comments

*The Secret World
*Overstrike
*Populous
*Outernauts
*Respawn

Source: Gaming Today

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The OK Legislature Wants To Tax Violent Video Games

by Salat on February 3, 2012 · 0 comments

What is it with Oklahoma lately? I’m from there and I couldn’t begin to tell you. Why, less than a week ago, a state rep with the hilarious name Ralph Shortey tried to introduce a bill that would outlaw something that doesn’t exist. Funny! It (probably) will die in committee, incidentally. Maybe they just don’t care. But one thing the good people doing politics in the Sooner state do care about is video games. You’ll recall in December how grumpy Senate Republican Tom Coburn railed against a video game museum in his annual wasteful spending report. Boo!

Well, now the video game focus goes bipartisan with a proposed bit of legislation, irst introduced back in January by Democratic state representative William Fourkiller*, that would add an additional excise tax of 1% on ‘violent video games’. While one is tempted to be annoyed by this, I should confess that I have no issue with taxes on booze and smoking. And while gaming is NOT booze or smoking, the realization by legislators normally inclined to freak out and try restricting them, that they represent taxable income and not a chance to BURN THE WITCH, is somewhat promising. Once the state has an established revenue stream, they have a vested interest in keeping the thing alive.

There’s also the issue of what the taxes would fund. “The Oklahoma Tax Commission shall deposit fifty percent (50%) of the amount collected pursuant to this section in the Childhood Outdoor Education Revolving Fund created pursuant to Section 3 of this act and the remaining fifty percent (50%) shall be deposited in the Bullying Prevention Revolving Fund created pursuant to Section 4 of this act.” Damned if I have a hard time mustering up a problem with those programs.

Of course, the net cast by this bill is wide. Here is how the bill describes that:

“In addition to any other tax provided for by law, there is hereby levied upon persons storing, using, or otherwise consuming within this state, tangible personal property purchased or brought into this state, an excise tax on the storage, use, or other consumption in this state of all violent video games, based on the gross receipts or purchase price of such property at a rate specified by subsection B of this section.”

This doesn’t just mean that the bill essentially singles out anything not made for the Yo Gabba Gabba set or for educational purposes, though it does that. It also suggests that rentals would be subject to the new tax, and perhaps even arcade games. Kind of confusing, that. On the other hand, at least Fourkiller has been careful to define terms clearly: “As used in this section, “violent video game” means a video or computer game that has received a rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board of Teen, Mature or Adult Only.”

Frankly. I suspect this isn’t likely to pass. As Game Politics points out in their post on this bill, New Mexico tried to pass a similar bill a few years ago. It died. I expect Oklahoma’s anti tax zealotry will carry the day.

So what about it, GameFronters? Pro or anti this kind of thing? Let us know in comments.

*Coolest name ever.

Source: Gaming Today

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Check out Two Hours of Firefall Gameplay (VIDEO)

by Salat on February 2, 2012 · 0 comments

If the fan reactions at Pax Prime 2011 are anything to go by, Firefall is a game to be excited about. A massively multiplayer game currently in beta, David Moss affectionately refers to its genre as a blend of World of Warcraft and Team Fortress.

The last Firefall video we showed you, back in October, may have been a good teaser, but here’s a full two hours of gameplay footage, recorded via the game’s first live beta stream. Sitting in are some members of developer Red 5 themselves, including a community manger and technical designer.

I love fast-paced sci-fi FPS action — Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament will forever remain classics to me — and Firefall looks to be right up my alley. I’ll pass on the whole generation of modern warfare games; just give me a jetpack and a plasma gun. Who’s with me?

Source: Gaming Today

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Paul McCartney Is Composing Music For An As-Yet Unknown Video Game

by Salat on January 31, 2012 · 0 comments

Face it, everybody: Of all The Beatles, the one with the most impressive musical talent was Paul McCartney. Yeah, I said it. The man wrote more incredibly complex and extremely memorably tunes in 8 short years than an army of songsmiths could write in a single lifetime. His only crime is that he kind of sucked at writing about politics and spirituality, two things people cared a lot about in the 60s. Also, he long ago kind of turned into the cheesy goofball his detractors always said he was.

Even so, one hopes he might pull it out and actually write interesting music again. Maybe the thing he needs is to be taken out of creative comfort zone, kind of like when he recorded an album with Nigel Godrich and it didn’t suck. Perhaps writing for a video game? Lo and behold, it’s happening! In an interview with the German-language publication Zeit (‘Time’, auf Deutsch), he was asked if he’d ever consider writing for a game and revealed that he already is.

McCartney said it was an exciting opportunity for him, and a chance to reach a new audience. While confirming that he’s never actually played video games, he gets how big they are, noting that video games outsell records these days. Way to be modern, gramps! Now the only question is, what’s the game? Some clues:

* He’s obviously been given permission to speak about it, so either the developer is not keeping it under wraps, or they’re hoping to build early buzz.
* Macca’s statements in the interview indicate that he’s still in the compositional stages. However, writing music for a kind of like scoring a film, so he’s almost certainly looking at footage from something that is at least alpha.
* It’s probably not a music based game. This sounds like a real soundtrack.
* We can also rule out any small publisher, since Sir Paul didn’t become almost a billionaire by working for scale.
* We can probably rule out anything like Grand Theft Auto, given his politics.

I can’t speculate on the studio – this list of the world’s most successful developers might be a good place to start – but I wouldn’t be shocked if this is a late 2012 or early 2013 release. I suppose we’ll have an official announcement soon, and you’ll be updated as soon as we know. Let us know in comments if you have any ideas.

Via Destructoid.

*Note: I will ignore you if you do because I can’t have my opinions challenged or I’ll cry.

Source: Gaming Today

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Download Syndicate’s Minecraft World (VIDEO)

by Salat on January 28, 2012 · 0 comments

You may have heard of Syndicate, the “#1 Subscribed UK Solo Gaming Commentator” with over 200 million upload views. If you follow his YouTube channel — and if you’re a Minecraft fan, you probably do — then you may want to visit the same world he explores in his Minecraftian adventures.

I wonder if we can ever see a crossover of Game Front’s Minecraft show with Syndicate’s Minecraft Project…

If you fast-forward the video to 47:00, you can watch Syndicate upload his file to Game Front. And make fun of the size of our upload bar. It’s not the size that matters, Syndicate. It’s how we use it.

Download Syndicate’s world now!

Source: Gaming Today

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Brief Darkness II video goes goretastic

by Salat on January 27, 2012 · 0 comments

CVG‘s gone live with a brief 30-second clip of The Darkness II, showing off a few of the goretastic – and they are actually properly gory – executions in the shooter. Get it below. It’s out on February 7 for PS3, 360 and PC.

Source: VG247

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Sniper Elite V2 is Sniping Fun (VIDEO)

by Salat on January 24, 2012 · 0 comments

Ever heard of Sniper Elite V2? Of course you have; you clicked on this post. You’ve heard of it now.

Sniper Elite V2 is the latest game from Rebellion, the creators of all those AvP titles, as well as the first Sniper Elite game. As you will see in this video, the folks at Rebellion take their sniping philosophy very seriously, which means you have to take it slow and never, ever run and gun. Running and gunning will get you killed. So it’s at least authentic in that way.

And without further ado, here is your developer diary.

download