MMO Clerks

The game doesn’t ship until April 7, but a free demo for The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is now available for download on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
The official announcement of the demo’s release is a mess of marketing speak, so I’ll just let you read the description for yourself:
Featuring the Athena Main Decks level, the demo showcases the evocative art style and breadth of gameplay contained in The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, including brutal melee combat, nerve-rattling stealth, and high-powered gunplay. Among other gameplay elements, the demo also lets players try one of the game’s unique features, controlling a Drone, while classic Riddick cut-scenes bring the harsh Riddick universe into sharp focus.

I’m pretty sure that translates to “the demo contains one level from the game,” but feel free to draw your own conclusions.
Though the demo is currently only on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 [...]

Original post by Earnest Cavalli

The current economy spells tough times for most gaming companies, but not Activision Blizzard. Instead, the publisher sees the downturn as an ideal time to expand its operations by acquiring other firms, reports Bloomberg.com.
“The combination of Activision holding a fair amount of
cash and presumably prices being depressed, not only for
publicly traded companies, but also likely for new intellectual
property licensing rights, should certainly create
opportunities,” said Activision Blizzard president Michael Griffith.
No companies were specifically mentioned as targets for the publisher, though with even giants like Microsoft and Electronic Arts forced to lay off relatively large numbers of employees the market is certainly ripe for Activision Blizzard to start picking up development houses at bargain prices.
Activision Will Consider Acquisitions Amid Recession [Bloomberg, via Kotaku]
See Also:

Activision CEO: Economy May Force Console Price Cut
Sony Expected to Post $1.1 Billion Loss, Says Reuters
Sega to Close Arcades, Cancel Games, Lay Off Hundreds
EA to Lay Off More Than [...]

Original post by Earnest Cavalli

Electronic Arts’ Need For Speed series has a long, storied history, dating back to the 3D0 in 1994. Three new games are currently in development, distinct titles that EA hopes will appeal to different types of racing fans.

Need For Speed: Shift is aimed squarely at simulator buffs, emulating an authentic racing experience with complex physics, fully realized performance modeling, and a selection of high-performance vehicles tearing around closed-track environments.

I recently had a chance to test drive an early build of the PC version, experiencing all the joys of careening into stationary objects at mind-numbing speeds. Even in this early state, it’s an impressive ride.

Need For Speed: Shift is being developed by Slightly Mad Studios, whose previous titles (under the moniker "Blimey! Games") include racing simulators like GT Legends and GTR 2 — games that are generally ranked among the upper echelons of racing simulators.

In Shift, subtle details go a long [...]

Original post by Nate Ralph

Developer Volition, Inc. has notified 86 of the 102 employees in its quality assurance department that their services are no longer needed, reports Kotaku.
Somewhat justifying the cost-cutting measure, a representative from the company both explicitly stated that this round of cuts is part of the layoffs announced by parent firm THQ last month, and insisted that only 39 of the employees let go were full time employees.
The remainder were temporary workers, of whom the rep states “fluctuating headcount among the temporary staff is common based on when our games ship.”
Future QA work on Volition games will now be handled through THQ’s central quality assurance facility.
Image courtesy THQ
Layoffs Hit THQ’s Volition [Kotaku]
See Also:

Saints Row 3 Will Go In ‘New Direction’
Saints Row 2 PC Specs Unveiled
Saints Row 2 ‘Won’t Be Bug Free’

Original post by Earnest Cavalli

Good news for people who are waiting with bated breath for the upcoming Wii version of Punch-Out!! — motion controls will be purely optional.
Nintendo said Wednesday that the Wii remake of the classic 8-bit boxing/rhythm/puzzle/awesome game will feature an NES-style control scheme in which the Wiimote is held sideways. The Wii’s “expanded audience” can feel free to use the Wiimote and nunchuk to swing their fists at the screen, but I don’t think that would work very well to recreate the original’s precise gameplay.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this really works.
Nintendo also said today that the following characters will return: “Little Mac, Glass Joe, King Hippo, Doc Louis, Von Kaiser and other unannounced favorites.”
Punch-Out!! will be released on Wii on May 18.
Image courtesy Nintendo

Original post by Chris Kohler

Capcom’s latest promotion may not be as grisly as the headline makes it sound, but it’s certainly unique: To promote the March 13 launch of Resident Evil 5, the company is teaming with the American Red Cross to host a blood drive.
Gamers in the Los Angeles area are invited to drop by the World of Wonder gallery on Hollywood Blvd. from 11AM to 5PM on launch day where Red Cross workers will be on hand to take your donation. In return, Capcom is offering donors “the chance to get exclusive limited-edition Resident Evil 5
Blood Drive collectibles, win copies of the game” and “enter a raffle
for one of several
exclusive red Xbox 360 Resident Evil limited edition
consoles.”
If you’d like to participate, Capcom’s recommends reading the Red Cross’ guidelines on who is eligible to donate. Once you’ve established that your blood is viable, visit the Capcom Unity blog for full details and to [...]

Original post by Earnest Cavalli

The Trackmania series of racing games is built around one simple, elegant rule: Find the absolute fastest way to get from point A to point B.

There are no stats to decipher, car modifications to tweak, or even much to master in the way of physics — only the unyielding drive to find the perfect line, flaunting your prowess on a particular track.

Trackmania DS is the latest in the series, and this Nintendo DS portable version mostly nails the charm and addictive nature of its big brothers on PC. There are plenty of tracks to unlock and master, a functional level editor, and even track-based puzzles to solve. But running in circles alone gets old, and with no online multi-player mode, your chances of really enjoying Trackmania DS come down to whether or not you have friends in the same room with you.

There is no competitive racing in Trackmania — at [...]

Original post by Nate Ralph

OMG So Cute Dept.: Majesco said Wednesday that it will revive the cult classic NES game A Boy and His Blob for Wii, releasing unto the world this batch of heartbreakingly adorable screenshots.
Developed by WayForward, creators of critically acclaimed games like Contra IV and Shantae, the game will be released this holiday season. 2009 is the 20th anniversary of the original 8-bit game’s release.
One of the last console games created by legendary Activision guru David Crane, A Boy and His Blob featured stunningly innovative gameplay — you fed your Blob from your bag of many-flavored jellybeans, which caused him to transform into a variety of different helpful items. Using your transformed Blob was key to solving the game’s puzzles, collecting enough items so that you could return to the Blob’s home planet and defeat the evil emperor.
What the NES game did not have was graphics this unbelievably cute. More [...]

Original post by Chris Kohler

Making a movie out of Watchmen is a difficult enough task. But a videogame?
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ groundbreaking graphic novel is densely packed with fascinating characters and deep back story. The film, to be released Friday, does an admirable job of packing as much of this as possible into two hours and forty minutes. Watchmen: The End Is Nigh, a downloadable game released Wednesday for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (reviewed), runs about as long as the movie, but does significantly less with the allotted time.
Watchmen is a beat-’em-up game in which the object is to pummel a succession of near-identical foes into a bloody mess. This is not per se a bad idea: The comic book careers of masked vigilantes Nite Owl and Rorschach mostly involved the recursive face-bashing of criminals, so the genre does fit the source material. It’s just never very much fun.

The End [...]

Original post by Chris Kohler

Still have room for another game controller amidst your piles of plastic guitars? The upcoming game Scratch: The Ultimate DJ features a plastic turntable-style controller, giving hip hop fans and budding DJs a chance to achieve virtual fame.
Despite the familiar interface, the gameplay isn’t quite Guitar Hero meets hip hop. Yes, just as in other music games you’re pushing colored buttons to earn points as songs play. But Scratch rewards user-creativity over rote memorization, allowing players to transform the songs they’re playing into something all their own.

I’ve yet to get behind the wheel of steel myself, but the game’s creator recently dropped by Wired’s office to give us a first-hand look at a decidedly different take on the rhythm-music genre.

Scratch: The Ultimate DJ is the brainchild of Dan Lehrich, of independent game developer 7 Studios, who is creating the game in concert with Quincy Jones. While he’s a fan [...]

Original post by Nate Ralph