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New NASCAR Game Confirmed [Update]
As was rumored last week, Activision will publish a NASCAR-licensed game and racing-focused studio Eutechnyx will be building it, according to an official site launched today with a countdown clock that hits zero in five days. EA Sports had published NASCAR games from 1996 to 2009, ending with NASCAR Kart Racing on the Wii, the…
By Owen Good Published September 29, 2010 -
Activision, EA Argue Over Who’s Less Evil
Robert “Bobby” Kotick, Activision CEO and widely reviled video game exec, had unkind things to say about one of his company’s biggest rivals, Electronic Arts, blasting his competitor’s “culture,” its games, and claiming “great people don’t really want to work there.” The outspoken Kotick knocked EA in a newly published interview with Edge magazine, claiming…
By Michael McWhertor Published September 27, 2010 -
Call of Duty: Black Ops Welcomes Back Nazi Zombie Hordes
Treyarch’s beloved addition of undead to the Call of Duty series looks to continue in the next entry, Call of Duty: Black Ops. Not exactly a surprise, but an returning feature apparently confirmed today by the game’s strategy guide. CVG spotted the inclusion of “Nazi zombie coverage” in the Brady Games official guide to Black…
By Michael McWhertor Published September 27, 2010 -
This Is What A Zombie Driving Game Looks Like
Blood Drive, Activision’s quick to market roadkill driving game, was officially unveiled earlier this month for release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this November. How does it look? Still like Carmageddon and Twisted Metal, now with zombie strippers. Like Dead Rising 2, Blood Drive is set in a Las Vegas-like city overrun by…
By Michael McWhertor Published September 27, 2010 -
The Mods And Modes Of GoldenEye 007
Take a look at the tools players will have at their disposal to create more than 200 multiplayer game combinations in GoldenEye 007for the Wii. Fans will have plenty of multiplayer options available when they pick up GoldenEye 007 for the Wii this November. Developer Eurocom goes above and beyond expectations, with enough potential game…
By Mike Fahey Published September 27, 2010 -
Activision Boss Replies To Schafer’s “Total Prick” Comment
Once upon a time, game designer Tim Schafer called Activision honcho Robert Kotick “a total prick”. (“Once upon a time” being this past July). Then, Schafer said his remark was an “accident”. The “total…” exec has retorted. Schafer’s game Brütal Legend, which starred funny man Jack Black, was going to be published by Vivendi Games.…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 27, 2010 -
Report: NASCAR Coming Back Under Activision
Gamasutra this week reported that NASCAR – whose 12-year run with EA Sports ended in 2008 – will return next year under Activision and the developer Eutechnyx, known for its focus on racing games. Gamasutra’s Kyle Orland cited sources who confirmed rumors that Activision had taken the license from EA Sports, which last year redeployed…
By Owen Good Published September 26, 2010 -
An Open Letter From A Former Bungie VP to Bobby Kotick
While perhaps not seen in the full context of his talk at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch conference, Activision head Bobby Kotick‘s comments about Bungie did create quite a stir last week. It is worth your time to go listen to the full 40-minute or so talk here, but the thing that captured so…
By Brian Crecente Published September 23, 2010 -
Behind The Scenes With Goldeneye 007 Multiplayer
How do you update one of the most beloved multiplayer console shooter experiences without ruining it completely? The devs at Eurocom show us how it’s done in this behind-the-scenes video. It would be simply enough to just re-release the original game with improved graphics and a hastily thrown together multiplayer component, but that’s definitely not…
By Mike Fahey Published September 22, 2010 -
The Full DJ Hero 2 Track List Is A Delightful Mess
You could spend your morning sorting through all of the twisted tracks coming on the DJ Hero 2 disc next month, or just accept that any game that mixes Naughty By Nature’s “O.P.P.” with the Jackson 5’s “ABC” automatically wins. There’s also a mash-up of “ABC” with Snow’s “Informer” as well, which is almost just…
By Mike Fahey Published September 21, 2010 -
Is Bungie Really “The Last Remaining High Quality Independent Developer”?
Corporate “he said, she said” can be a little boring at times, but Activision boss Bobby Kotick calling Halo creators Bungie “the last remaining high quality independent developer” is too good to pass up. Speaking at an investor’s meeting, Kotick said “Bungie are a very unusual company. They’re probably the last remaining high quality independent…
By Luke Plunkett Published September 21, 2010 -
See Bond Go Hand-To-Hand In Blood Stone
If you thought all developer Bizarre Creations can do is driving, wait until you see Daniel Craig driving his fists, knees, feet, and elbows into the easily broken bits of his enemies in Blood Stone 007. I’m quite impressed by how the combat system in Blood Stone has turned out. It has a very The…
By Mike Fahey Published September 20, 2010 -
Guitar Hero Randomly Inserted Into Soundgarden Video
Soundgarden’s album Telephantasm will be inside the first million copies of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock on September 28, so someone felt obligated to include the game in this animated video for the previously unreleased song “Black Rain.” Guitar Hero’s inclusion in this video doesn’t really make any sense, but the same can be said…
By Mike Fahey Published September 20, 2010 -
Who Argues Violent Video Games Are Like Porn, And Who Disagrees
It is the season for battling in the Supreme Court about whether it should be a crime to sell very violent video games to children. No such law exists for other forms of entertainment. Who is for? Who is against? Should very violent video games be illegal to sell to kids, the way certain kinds…
By Stephen Totilo Published September 20, 2010 -
GoldenEye 007 Character
Here’s a look at the many playable characters in the Wii’s GoldenEye 007 due out this November. The Wii-exclusive will include a variety of four-player split-screen multiplayer options, more than 50 characters, ten maps, three standard modes and 17 special modifiers. GoldenEye 007 also features online multiplayer for up to eight players.
By Brian Crecente Published September 16, 2010 -
Activision Considers Selling Video Game Cutscenes
If Activision stripped all of the cutscenes from StarCraft II, pasted them together into one big movie and charged between 20 to 30 dollars for you to buy it, would you pay? Activision’s Bobby Kotick thinks you would. It’s an absolutely crazy idea. Take the cutscenes normally spread out over the course of an entire…
By Mike Fahey Published September 16, 2010 -
Call of Duty: Black Ops Gets Its Own Limited Edition Jeep
In what could be part of the ultimate collector’s edition for Black Ops, Chrysler will soon be rolling out a limited Call of Duty edition of the Jeep Wrangler. Forget the Halo: Reach Legendary Edition, how legendary would it be if Activision bundled a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops together with a limited…
By Mike Fahey Published September 15, 2010 -
Black Ops Gets Two Preorder Bonuses
A special limited edition “laser cel” – limited to 100,000; we said nothing about it being “rare” – is one of two pre-order bonuses for Call of Duty: Black Ops. The other’s a download code for an avatar item. Pre-ordering through Amazon gets you the laser cel, provided you’re among the first 100,000 to do…
By Owen Good Published September 13, 2010 -
Japan Censoring Call Of Duty’s Blown Off Body Parts
In The Land of the Rising Sun, there are two versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops. One is subtitled. One is dubbed. Both do not have have blown-off body parts. The game has been slapped with a CERO Z rating, which is the Japanese equivalent of an Adults Only rating. However, unlike AO, Japanese…
By Brian Ashcraft Published September 13, 2010 -
Call of Duty: Black Ops Will Have Just One Dedicated Server Option
Stung by PC gamer outrage over the lack of dedicated server support in Modern Warfare 2, Activision has responded with something they’ll appreciate about as little: An exclusive deal making GameServers.com the only dedicated server option for Black Ops. IGN reported the news on Friday. A ranked dedicated server will cost $14.95 per month, with…
By Owen Good Published September 12, 2010