Codemasters, under the impression that "Jason" is the name of a video game character and not, you know, the name of the hero of the classic Greek tale upon which their game is "based", want prospective British parents to bring the name back. Name their kids Jason. To promote a video game.

I promise you the following excerpt from a Codemasters press release is real:

"These days, babies names are influenced by celebrities– and there aren't that many famous Jasons any more," says Richard Eddy, Director of Communications, Codemasters."We hope our Rise of the Argonauts hero can act as a‘virtual' star, encouraging new parents to rejuvenate this one-great English name".

Codemasters have even set up a "campaign" site at bringbackjason.com. Sigh. Worst part? It's not like the game was even any good.

Monday 16th February/...Leading videogame publisher Codemasters is embarking on a quest to re-populate the nation with Jasons.

The firm, whose videogame Rise of the Argonauts™ launched on February 6th 2009, is looking to knock Jack, Thomas, Oliver and Joshua from the top of the UK's favourite boys' names by encouraging parents to name their sons after the game's hero.

The name ‘Jason' is from Greek origin, meaning "healer". It has been considered an English name since the 17th Century, yet – whilst it consistently ranks as one of the US's most popular names – its popularity has faded in the UK over recent years, dropping down out of the top 50.

It's now time to bring it back: Codemasters' goal is to elevate Jason's ranking in the end-of-year boys names, issued in December 2009.

Over the coming weeks, Codemasters will be running editorial at www.bringbackjason.com in an effort to rejuvenate the popularity of the name. The blog will look at naming and social trends as well as asking: just what has the UK got against Jasons these days?

Any parent who names their new son "Jason" will be eligible to win a year's supply of the firm's videogames on their chosen platform. All they have to do is fax, post or email a copy of the birth certificate to bringbackjason@codemasters.com for the opportunity to enter the prize draw. *

"These days, babies names are influenced by celebrities – and there aren't that many famous Jasons any more," says Richard Eddy, Director of Communications, Codemasters. "We hope our Rise of the Argonauts hero can act as a ‘virtual' star, encouraging new parents to rejuvenate this one-great English name. Jasons, friends of Jasons, and anyone interested in onomastics should keep an eye on the blog over the coming weeks, as we document our quest to re-populate the nation with Jasons."

Rise of the Argonauts is available now 2009 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and the PC.

The campaign to bring back Jason can be followed at www.bringbackjason.com

Loosely following the ancient Greek myth of Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece, Rise of the Argonauts seeks to raise the bar for action RPGs, with more realistic combat and a leveling system that has you making offerings to the gods in order to advance, adding a layer of story to a mechanic that normally draws you out of the game.

Have they successfully created an RPG of mythic proportions, or does Rise fall flat on its face? We consult the gaming oracles for answers.

1UP
Though Rise of the Argonauts' biggest problems are the same ones associated with many action-role-playing games, it's got more than its share of fundamental mechanical and technical issues. The game looks like something that spawned on the original Xbox and was then ported to the current generation of consoles. Many of the environments exhibit a flat, generic look, doing little to push any sort of interesting style, so the game fails to stay entertaining even on a purely artistic level — it?s pretty disappointing, considering that it uses ancient Greek mythology as its source material. Worst (and most embarrassing) of all, most of the character models vaguely resemble a rejected cast of characters from some long-lost Masters of the Universe spin-off (the worst culprit: Argonauts' hulking rendition of Hercules and his tiny coconut head).

TeamXbox
Let’s begin with the framerate. After a couple hours playing this game, you might question whether or not you should go to the doctor. Your entire world will be stuttering. I’m an incessant camera turner, but like a dog getting his nose hit with a newspaper, I soon trained myself to stop. It was just that chunky. Thankfully it doesn’t seem to be quite as bad in the combat arenas, where you’ll need to control the camera for sure.

GamePro
Getting blood isn't a problem for Jason whose combat prowess pits him against man and beast across all of Greece. Rise of the Argonauts focuses on combat above all else: you're granted three hot-swappable weapons-lance, mace and sword-which you can switch between with a tap of the bumper buttons. For all weapons, pressing the X button initiates a basic attack and Y a more powerful one; moreover, holding down the right trigger allows you to augment your blows for greater damage. It's a simple, yet satisfying system that performs well enough. Swapping weapons isn't nearly as smooth and seamless as promised, but Jason moves with great agility and you're given plenty of flexibility in varying attacks.

IGN
Over the course of the game Jason will gradually become more powerful, a result of better weaponry and armor types, but it's difficult to actually gauge how powerful. So while you'll be comfortable with the knowledge that you're enhancing Jason's abilities simply by virtue of activating larger and larger numbers of passive abilities and finding the occasional sword, mace, spear, or armor, which represents the entirety of the game's equippable loadout, you never get a good overall sense of how much you're improving. The game does provide a range of effects, from enemies moving more slowly when hurt to blood dripping from wounds to indicate what's going on during a fight, but these don't really address the ambiguity.

UGO
Putting aside the inventive RPG mechanics and buggy technical presentation, Rise of the Argonauts serves up a fairly rote action-RPG adventure. The shortfalls aren’t enough to ruin the experience completely, and they are further buoyed by the abundance of unique ideas on offer. Still, prepare to be frustrated by the game’s unfulfilled potential. Rise of the Argonauts is a bit of a backward step for action-RPG gaming, but it still succeeds in delivering an engrossing story and an entertaining interactive experience.
I get the sinking feeling this didn't turn out as good as I had hoped.

According to a post on the official Codemasters forums, Rise will indeed be making the planned pre-Christmas release date, at least in a couple of regions. The Europeans get the game first on December 12th, though that unfortunately doesn't include our friends in the United Kingdom, who are still penciled in for an early 2009 release. North America gets the game 4 days later on the 16th, and the Japanese are listed as TBC.

Just when I thought I had bought all the games I needed in 2008, they pull me back in...

ROTA is coming!- Official release dates. [Codemasters Forums via Blue's News]

“Codemasters has targeted Russia as a front-line territory, key to our overall EMEA strategy” said Axel Herr, Senior VP Publishing, EMEA, Codemasters. “Localisation and tailoring of content is key to our emerging market strategy and Codemasters is keen to continue leading the charge in these fast-evolving markets.”

Targeted? Front line? Leading the charge? Is Codemasters supporting Russia or invading? Perhaps a little bit of both.

CODEMASTERS® CONFIRMS FULL SUPPORT FOR RUSSIA
Codemasters' key titles to be released with full Russian language support
Tuesday 11th November/... Further expanding its global drive, Codemasters® today announced that it will be fully supporting the Russian language localisation of all its upcoming key ‘AAA’ titles, including Rise of the Argonauts®, Damnation® and, for the first time on next-gen consoles, the eagerly anticipated war simulator due for launch in 2009, Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising™.

The announcement comes as a continuation of Codemasters’ drive for growth in emerging markets, including Russia, the Middle East, Central & Eastern Europe and India. Russia will be the first of the emerging territories to get full language for key titles from Codemasters as the company continues to push the boundaries in global development and support.

“Considering the scale and enthusiasm of the Russian market for our upcoming titles, especially Operation Flashpoint, we recognised that offering a dedicated Russian-language support was the next important step for Codemasters” said Hal Bame, Director, Distributor Territories, Codemasters. “We’re looking forward to providing an even more accessible game-play experience to future players of our key titles.”

“Codemasters has targeted Russia as a front-line territory, key to our overall EMEA strategy” said Axel Herr, Senior VP Publishing, EMEA, Codemasters. “Localisation and tailoring of content is key to our emerging market strategy and Codemasters is keen to continue leading the charge in these fast-evolving markets.”

Localisation and PC distribution within Russia will be handled by Noviy Disk company. The Xbox 360® and the PLAYSTATION®3 system versions will be distributed within Russia by Vellod. The following games will be released with Russian language support:

Rise of the Argonauts®
As the King of Iolcus, Jason had everything—a prosperous kingdom, the respect of his peers, and a beautiful fiancé. When she was killed on their wedding day, he vowed to do anything to restore her life. Now, in order to accomplish this heroic feat Jason must seek out the Golden Fleece — and with the help of Greek mythology’s greatest heroes — set sail on the most epic voyage of all.

A grand scale Action/RPG, Rise of the Argonauts immerses players in a gladiatorial adventure set in the vibrant and powerful world of Ancient Greece brought to life. Taking the role of Jason, players will battle alongside Hercules, Achilles and other Argonauts as they engage in brutal combat against formidable beasts and enemies, in a vast world alive with wondrous inhabitants and stunning panoramas. The search for the Golden Fleece is not only one of exploration but of transformation — from warrior king to exalted hero touched by the gods.

www.rise-of-the-argonauts.com

My suggestion? Just give Liquid all the time they need to make a great game, Codemasters. We've got tons to play already this season as it stands. I'd much rather get an amazing game early next year than a close but not quite title easily lost in the season's flood of quality releases.

Rise of the Argonauts misses November [Eurogamer]

The images feature former Cyber Girl of the Year Alex Sim-Wise in a set of provocative poses that have been digitally enhanced with imagery from the upcoming action role-playing game set to hit the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 this autumn.

The images are part of a six-page feature published in this month's FRONT magazine that hit stands today.

“The shoot was super rad,” says Alex Sim-Wise. “I’m massive gaming geek – so taking down the incredible bosses from Rise of the Argonauts was definitely my cup of tea. The results of the shoot are incredible. So much so I’ve been jumping around since, casting flames from my hands. Although, I did accidentally set light to a small cat.”

The images are safely locked behind the jump and very much NSFW, so don't blame me if you get fired.

Full-sized, unfishy, images can be found here.

I know this fall is littered with amazing, blockbuster releases we've been waiting years to play, but this was the one I was really looking forward to playing. If I were a panda right now, I would not be a very happy one.

Rise of the Argonauts Pre-Order Page [GameStop - Thanks James]

Hit the jump for hazy, disjointed hands-on impressions for Infinite Undisovery, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, Damnation, Rise of the Argonauts, Lord of the Rings: Conquest, and Mirror’s Edge.

I literally got no more than 10 minutes with each title in the Exhibition Hall and with the exception of The Conduit, I didn’t get to chat up the demo-keepers for the usual details a journalist needs to report on her games. But since most of these titles are coming out soon, already have demos available or were previewed at E3 and Leipzig only a week or so ago, 10 minutes is really all you need to get to know a game for yourself, if you’ve been following it in the news.

Above: Tabletop... meh.

I bee lined for Infinite Undiscovery first thing, since it’ll be the first thing I buy in that list of games. This action JRPG is the closest replacement Square Enix has offered me to replace Kingdom Hearts, and while I could deal with the lack of Disney, I’m not sure I could deal with the art design. Like Lost Odyssey, everything was proportional and colors were muted for a more realistic-looking experience – to me, it seemed ugly, but we were only playing in two areas that weren’t very well-lit (caves and stuff). The combat served me well enough – button mashing is what I expect when someone says “action” RPG. I sort of liked that you could be strategic when it came to setting up your primary party and your secondary party, and even a third party to have in reserve – but then I realized all of these characters were onscreen with me as I ran off to locate hidden energy crystals. Talk about crowded! At least Goofy and Donald weren’t so far up Sora’s ass, you couldn’t see the boss.

Despite not being able to see the demo boss, I took him out in short order (the save featured over-leveled characters, huzzah!) and gave up the controller to the girl in line behind me.

Above: You catch more bees with honey... and more gamers with food.

Then it was on to Animal Crossing: City Folk, but that was only because the line for Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World was longer. Animal Crossing: City Folk looked like it was directly imported from the GameCube Animal Crossing, with a larger town area to run around in and different NPCs. I was the most fugly-looking little boy with a beanie and I spent most of my time in the demo, running around and trying to find my house so I could empty my pockets. Failing that, I just settled for dropping cherries, fossils and decorative end tables to make enough room in my inventory to put my watering can away.

Then the line for Symphonia abruptly got shorter, so I made my move. However, the guy ahead of me got his hands on the controls and played Dawn of the New World for a solid 23 minutes straight. Other people gathered around me, fidgeting, wondering when this guy would give it up – but nobody wanted to be the asshole who asked for a turn. So I watched him play and marveled that he couldn’t seem to get the motion controls to work. How hard could it be to point the cursor at the flower and press A to trigger the flower bridge? He kept getting attacked from behind as he struggled, and most of the battles he spent mashing on the artes button to send his character into aerial attacks. Dude didn’t even bother to change his elements the way Nintendo Power says you’re supposed to…

Finally, I got my turn and wandered around the world map, trying to trigger the flower bridges. But the motion controls sucked and I found myself piddling around just as much as the guy ahead of me had. The only difference was I gave up after only 10 minutes instead of making the poor bastards behind me wait another half hour.

In disgust, I wandered over towards the back of the Exhibition Hall, maybe to get another look at the Pink Godzilla store, but I got turned around and wound up getting my hands on Damnation – since there wasn’t a line. I’d read a little bit about the game and knew that it was supposed to be this big, open-world adventure that featured acrobatic-type stunts and stuff. But I hadn’t read anything about cowboys, so I was surprised to see myself playing as one – gun slinging some far-off enemy I couldn’t figure out how to target (yeah, yeah, I don’t do shooters, so kill me). A small cluster of 12-year-olds formed behind me and one of them told me to use my “spirit vision” to target the sniper I was having trouble hitting. When I couldn’t figure out how to do it, I handed over the controller and watched to see what he would do – but I’d left him in a bad place and the sniper took him out three seconds later.

Above: Mountain of Pink Godzillas!

I wandered away before the demo level restarted and found myself staring at Rise of the Argonauts. And my only question is: how have I not heard of this game before? I’m totally down with mythology and I even suffered through God of War and God of War II just because I get a fangirl’s thrill of watching Zeus interact with Hera (it’s like the original soap opera). The game is still in early days yet, so the graphics were a bit chunky and the frame-rate was crap – but it played pretty well as far as movement. The environments were rich with detail and the cartoon-ish style of the characters totally worked for me; so I was really loath to give up the controller after only 10 minutes. But I didn’t want to be a dick and there were a lot more games to play.

Later, I felt bad because I realized I hadn’t actually experienced any combat in Rise of the Argonauts – I just ran around a hallway and made slaves open doors for me. But when I went back for a second bite at the apple, the line had suddenly swelled to ten people (I guess that E3 Game of the Year Nominee sticker above the demo table got some attention). However, it turned out man friend had played through the demo from the start and he filled me in on what I missed later.

Apparently, this game is ultra-violent between light attacks and execution moves. “Like Ninja Gaiden II?” I asked. “No,” he said. “Like Conan – except all the animations are canned.” He totally dug the big ass mace, the big ass shield, the big ass spear and the smaller-ass sword. You can switch weapons in the middle of the combo, so if you start out hacking someone with a sword, you can finish by pulling out the mace and caving in a guy’s skull. “It’s a pretty big deal,” said man friend. The combos didn’t feel really fluid to him, but we agreed that that had more to do with the game being in early development stages as opposed to the game potentially sucking.

Oddly enough, man friend was sold on the deep-looking advancement system. I had Googled the game for info about the god-based affiliations, but he was talking about aspects related to astronomy. Whatever that means. I don’t care, because I’m totally going to get this game just based on my 10 minutes with it – never mind man friend’s experience.

Next up was Lord of the Rings: Conquest – and that’s only because Mirror’s Edge had a line out to next week. My man friend volunteered to start waiting while I wandered off, and the closest console available was where I wound up. There wasn’t much of a wait to play Conquest – I assume because everyone’s already seen it. Even I’d already seen it at EA’s last Showcase event; and not much has changed between then and now – it’s still a Star Wars: Battlefront-style of action game where you can get by with button mashing. It’s pretty, though.

Man friend stood on tiptoe and waved me over to him. I dashed, thinking he’d gotten his chance at Mirror’s Edge, but it turned out he just wanted to vent. Some Parkour expert had cut ahead of everyone in line and was being given the royal treatment by the demo handler. The guy right behind Parkour dude got a consolation shirt, but the rest of the the jilted line-waiters had to suffer.

“It’s because of his shoes,” I consoled my man friend, staring at the funky-toed footwear the Parkour guy was sporting. It certainly wasn’t because this guy was good with games – he died like half a dozen times. To be fair, the demo level started you off with a pretty serious jump and if you botched it, down you went. But after that, he was getting shot because he wasn’t running up stairs fast enough to get away and he kept over-balancing on the part where you’ve got to walk across a cable stretched between buildings.

“Why is everything red?” Parkour guy demanded. Clearly, he hadn’t read up on the game… Then the PS3 overheated and I thought he’d give up and go away. But the demo handler – anxious to please – restarted the demo for him and ran through the level to get back to the point where he’d left off.

I checked my watch. It’d been more than half an hour with just this one guy!

Finally, he finished the level and the line moved up. At long last, we got our turn with the game and I let man friend take it since he’d been a dear about waiting in line. Man friend says the controls were a lot simpler than he thought they’d be. He was really impressed by the sense of moment and speed – the faster you went, the better it felt. And the combat was very minimal, which fit in with the rest of the game. He disarmed at least three guys and stole their guns – but “it didn’t feel right” so he threw each firearm away and kept running. He also didn’t really use the “bullet time” feature because it made the free-running feel less fluid (even if it did make disarm moves look cooler). The little touches impressed him the most – the multiple paths through environments, the way Faith touched the wall before rounding corners. I thought it was kind of dumb that you had to punch open doors, but he didn’t seem to mind.

My favorite part? The dot they added to the middle of the screen to reduce motion sickness. Seriously – a life-saver.

Man friend finished the level in 10 minutes and I pried him away from the console, stressing my etiquette about not taking too much time. I felt like I had been pretty efficient with the whole day, but when I check my watch again, I realized three hours had gone by and I hadn’t even seen half the games on the floor.

And that’s why I’m glad Crecente had his magic yellow badge and that I had three friends with me at the convention. Because there is no way one PAX-goer could ever do it this year all without some way to cut in line or some way to be in four places at once.

Stupid Parkour guy…*mutter, mutter*

The main difference between Rise of the Argonauts and your standard action RPG is how you kill your enemies. As the devs on hand at the E3 2008 demo for the game pointed out, a spear through the chest isn't just going to take off a few hitpoints. Not many creatures mythological or not are going to survive that sort of thing, so they won't in this game either. Enemies will do their best to block your attacks, but a sword in the gut is a sword in the gut. They'll take slashes and show damage, but when it looks like you are landing a killing blow you WILL be landing a killing blow.

This sort of realism also applies to you, unfortunately. When fighting with a shield, you your blocking is limited to enemies attacking you on the side you hold your shield. There isn't any of this holding down the block button and becoming impervious to all attacks nonsense. You have to position yourself, and if enemies get behind you I'd highly suggest you get the hell out of the way.

Rise of the Argonauts also has a decision tree dialog system, much like that found in Mass Effect and similar titles. The whole game revolves around gaining favor with four different gods - Ares, Hermes, Apollo, and Athena - and the mechanic even extends to the dialog choices you make. Early on in the game you encounter the enchantress Medea, who offers you her services. Depending on which decision you make - trust her, be wary, etc. - you gain favor with one of the four gods your choices represent. The choice also effects whether Medea is locked up in your hold during the journey or free to wander the ship, so the replay value from the dialog tree alone should be immense.

Each of the four gods also represents one of Jason's weapons. Ares is the massive mace, Apollo the shield, Athena the spear, and Hermes the sword. Gaining their favor allows you to invest in new powers and attacks pertaining to each weapon, so if you favor the sword and board you might want to lean towards Apollo and Hermes, while spear fans can tailor their choices towards Athena. No one should put points into Ares. If Hercules: The Legendary Adventures taught me anything, it's that Ares is a dick.

The demo ended with Jason and two companions taking on Medusa, who in Rise of the Argonauts is a gigantic woman with vicious eels for hair, taking up an entire ruin. First you take out the eels coming in from the sides, and then...and then they stop the demo. What is it with the teases this year?

When I first heard about Rise of the Argonauts I was convinced it was a way to capitalize on the success of God of War, but after seeing it in action I know that this is something altogether different. With a different take on the action RPG genre and a story steeped in Greek mythology, Rise of the Argonauts is definitely a title I will be picking up.

I guess you'd call it a little bit action, a little bit RPG (but mostly action). The rep who showed me the game told me it's based in good old Gods-and-heroes Greek myth, but takes a little liberty with the canonical facts. For example, the hero is Jason, he of Golden Fleece fame, and in the game, his wife has been killed and he's seeking the fabled Fleece in order to resurrect her. If Kratos has learned us anything, it's that dead wives plus mythology equals a recipe for high drama and pathos.

The scene I saw featured Jason in a coliseum-style battle against some armored Ionians, and it was deliciously gory - when Jason clove torsoes with bloody abandon, you could see the severed spine in the middle, just like a rib-eye.

Fahey posted the trailer last year, during which he said he was glad that Jason was finally getting a video game (instead of just being Cerberus food in Kratos' hero tale). Some neat traits make this title look to be a lot more than a God of War knockoff, though:

For one thing, it's not all fighting. Jason gets his powers from four different gods, who afford him strength boosts to different aspects when he earns their favor. One way to do this is in selecting responses in conversation. When you're confronted, or talking to someone, you get a little convo wheel (think Mass Effect), and you choose one of four different responses, each associated with a particular god. If you choose the aggressive response, for example, Jason will deck the offender across the mouth and you'll get a little boost from Ares, the god of war.

Moreover, you can't please them all - brown-nosing one deity will piss off others.

One cool side aspect involves dedicating your deeds to different gods, too - there are achievement-like lists of objectives you can fulfill, such as killing a certain number of enemies or performing certain tasks in the game, and if you accomplish one, you can visit a shrine to choose the god to which you'll dedicate the completed deed. Visiting the statues also shows you a list of the possible objectives you can fulfill, so it looks to add a little bit of optional goal-oriented gameplay to the experience.

One thing I'd actually never seen before in a game like this (not saying it hasn't happened, just that I've never seen it) is that you can actually turn off the on-screen displays, like health indicators and weapons and all of that, and just play the game with only the action in front of you. The rep told me they wanted to provide this option in order to enhance player immersion. How do you know, then, when you're low on life? The screen is ringed with a red haze.

It was interesting to see some ideas for innovating on the genre by adding RPG-influenced elements, and the character models were really detailed, too.

Okay, so maybe there's a little capitalization going on, but other than some similar themes and characters, it is a completely different game. You can earn the favor of the gods and gain special powers, which is kind of like GoW only this game uses a god faction system, where what pleases one god displeases others, and there is nothing more fun that a pissed off god. I wonder if Ares factors in? Michael Fahey