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Monday 5 September 2011

Weekly Wrap Up

Team Bondi is no more
            The Australian game studio responsible for bringing us the fantastic L.A. Noire is now being closed down and entering administration.  I don’t exactly know what that means but I know that they will not be making any games and I figure they are just dealing with the last of their expenses and trying to figure out what to do with their assets.  Or at least the assets they have left, since they are apparently selling most of their assets to George Miller’s KMM studio.  They are also currently holding on to L.A. Noire, maybe for a good deal or maybe to start up again one day.  I’m really disappointed to hear about this because even though I strongly felt that the company needed new management due to the terrible way that they had been treating their staff while working on L.A. Noire and possibly before that the fact that the whole studio including those talent workers that gave L.A. Noire their all are now jobless is just awful.

Another Die Hard in the works
            I don’t know why movie studios feel they need to keep desecrating movie series that have done their time in the spotlight and gone on gracefully by doing sequels decades later.  Apparently they are too lazy to use these classics as inspiration for something that’s familiar yet new and feel that it will be easier and make more money if they just bring the classics back.  There will now be a 5th Die Hard movie and it will be directed by John Moore whose last project which I’m sure most of you remember was Max Payne.  Apparently someone looked at Die Hard and said “This movie should have more slow-mo shots, so let’s make a new one that has that!” and so they figured John Moore would be perfect.  I mean he’s experienced with slow-mo and knows a thing or two about ruining a popular franchise so he must be exactly what they’re looking for. 

Gears 3 Dust to Dust
            The latest Gears of War trailer is here and I assume that this is the one that they will be using for all of their commercials this month.  It is short and great, Marcus and his team take on a seemingly endless assault of Locust and Lambent as everything around them fades and crumbles away while “Into Dust” plays giving it all an emotional impact.  This is something I have always loved about the Gears commercials because they are always sad and make you feel for the characters rather than just trying to seem badass because games need to have substance to them not just explosions.  I can’t wait for this game to come out and see how Marcus’s battle with the Locust concludes.  If you haven’t played Gears of War before and have an Xbox 360 I strongly urge you to pick up the Gears of War Triple Pack which contains both games and all of Gears 2’s DLC for $29.99 so that you can be ready when Gears of War 3 comes out on September 20th.  

Call of Duty XP
            This weekend Activision held their first ever Call of Duty XP event to build excitement for MW3.  There were panels held by creators of the Call of Duty games (except the ones that first created Modern Warfare) for fans to learn more about the creative process and answer questions, paintball to see how the fans handle “real” combat and a chance to play MW3 in a $1 million tournament.  I like the idea of companies holding events like this where a bunch of fans for the same game or series of games can get together and have a good time.  Like at a convention how most people are really friendly because they all have similar interests except better because you all have the same interest.  

Call of Duty Elite price detailed
            Call of Duty Elite for those of you who don’t know is a stat tracking feature that you will be able to access in order to improve your performance in Modern Warfare 3.  It allows you to see the sort of multiplayer stats that you can get for Halo on Bungie.net; heat maps that tell you where people are dying the most and to what weapon along with K/D spreads and other stats.  You can post videos of your games for everyone to see like the file share system in Halo 3 and Reach and send messages like on a forum (or on Xbox Live/PSN).  Anyway while most of these basic features will be free if you want extra stuff like first access to all the game’s DLC for “free”, daily prizes and short films entitled Elite TV, you will have to pay $49.99/year.  Apparently they intend to release $60 worth of DLC for the year so it sounds like it’s a good deal for those of you already intending to get all the DLC because CoD is the only game you play.  However I think that this is total BS and I don’t see the point of it at all.  Like I mentioned above Bungie has been doing stat tracking for their fans for years and never asking for money in return also if you already have the ideas for all that DLC you should put it in the game rather than ripping people off by releasing it a couple of months later, calling it “bonus content” and charging $15.  I almost never buy DLC because I feel that the company is screwing me, making me pay for something that should have been included in the first place.  The daily prizes will probably be pretty lame and Elite TV may be the saddest thing I have heard of in a long time.  Ridley and Tony Scott will be directing Friday Night Fights where apparently gamers solve their issues by playing MW3 and Jason Bateman and Will Arnett will host NoobTube where they do a humorous commentary on the week’s best matches.  It is so sad to see that these men have sold themselves out for whatever Activision is offering despite how pathetic the role as if they were Nicolas Cage.  Plus I have to say the fact that you would frequently use CoD Elite to study the game means the following: 1) you suck too much to learn how to play on your own.  2) You are taking this way too seriously.  3) You have nothing better to do with your time than study other people’s performances or your own in a game.  4) You are too stupid to realize you could be playing better games with a lot less effort.  5) You will NEVER get laid.  All this and maybe more for just $49.99/year!      


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