Games industry news, gossip, and more at Playthrough

Socialspiel launches, ex-Rockstar Games developers go social

Playthrough — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:35:27 +0000

Ex-members of Rockstar Games in Vienna have announced the formation and launch of their new social games development studio based in Vienna, Austria, dubbed Socialspiel.

Founding CEO Helmut Hutterer also announced their first title, a competitive puzzler named Push, which is launching later this Summer on Facebook, Netlog and several other social networks as partnerships get closed and announced. Hutterer also went on to say

“After almost 10 years of developing big budget, AAA titles such as Grand Theft Auto and Max Payne for Rockstar Games it is a breath of fresh air to focus on developing independent games with a direct connection to our fans and players on social networks around the World,” says CEO Hutterer. “Our goal at Socialspiel ( http://socialspiel.com) is to develop richly crafted online games, with high quality production values and appealing experiences for players and their friends to enjoy throughout their daily life online”.

AIGameDev.com announces the best in-game artificial intelligence for 2009

Playthrough — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 19:41:05 +0000

Our pals over at AIGameDev.com have announced the winners in their much-anticipated game AI awards for 2009. Covering mainstream and indie games, the editors of AIGameDev.com have put together a great list winners (voted on by their community) and editor’s choice awards, determined by the developer community and editor’s of the online games artificial intelligence resource. 2009′s AAA game AI of the year, Killzone 2!

Read more editor’s picks and winners at the 2009 AiGameDev.com Awards for Game AI!

Dave Arneson, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, dead at 61

Playthrough — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 08:31:22 +0000

Dave Anreson, one of the fame co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons and one of the pioneers of model role-playing games has died at the age of 61, after battling cancer for two years.

Arneson worked closely together with Gary Gygax, who passed away in March 2008 to develop Dungeons & Dragons in 1974, creating a rich universe of medieval characters and mythical creatures which has spanned decades and is a hit with teens (and quite a few adults) around the World.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Teaser Trailer

Playthrough — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:59:52 +0000

Not really all that much to see, but hey it’s just a teaser trailer, so it does what it says. Infinity Ward and Activision are bringing another edition to the Call of Duty series and if it’s anything like the previous versions, we can’t wait!

Escape from City 17 brings Half-Life to the streaming screen

Playthrough — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 09:42:43 +0000

With game-based movies being as big a disappointment as we expected, we’re extremely glad to see it being done right! With a hint of Battlestar Galactica, the commercial and film production super-team, The Purchase Brothers have taken their love for Half-Life, compiled a brilliant cast, along with respectable special effects, to create a guerrilla style production of Half-Life 2, titled “The Escape from City 17″.

The first two episodes were a gamble, made with a budget of around $500 (!!!), no crew, not very much time, no script and lots of post-processing effects and tricks. And all of this seems to be done with Valve’s approval, flying the brothers out to Seattle to meet and remaining in communication since.

The Escape from City 17 Part 1

Nintendo confirms Q1 and Q2 2009 release schedule

Playthrough — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 10:14:31 +0000

Nintendo has dropped the word about their Q1 and Q2 2009 release schedule, confirming some exciting releases coming up for both the Nintendo DS and Wii. What’s coming up? New Pikmin and a new Wii Sports, which seem to be using the new MotionPlus attachment!

Nintendo Wii

New Play Control! Pikmin (Feb. 6 Europe, March US)
New Play Control! Mario Power Tennis (March 3 Europe, March US)
Punch Out!! (First half 2009, Europe and US)
Wii Sports Resort (2009 Europe, first half 2009 US)
Sin & Punishment 2 (2009, Europe and US)
Another Code R and Endless Ocean 2 (2009 Europe)
New Play Control! Pikmin 2 (First half 2009, Europe)

Nintendo DS

Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir (Feb 2 Europe)
Walk with me! Do you know your walking routine? (Feb 20 Europe, 2009 US as Personal Trainer: Walk with Me!)
Pokemon Platinum (2009 Europe, March 22 US)
Rhythm Paradise / Heaven (2009, Europe and US)
Mario and Luigi RPG 3 (2009, Europe and US)
Kirby Super Star Ultra (2009 Europe)
Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (Feb 16 US)

Free Eve Online expansion, ‘Apocrypha’, brings uncharted space to explore

Playthrough — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:21:41 +0000

An official Eve Online developer blog post has revealed information regarding the upcoming free expansion “Apocrypha”, which aims to bring a little excitement back into the aging MMO, by giving players the ability to explore uncharted space. The expansion will add thousands of new solar systems, reachable through wormholes through the entire game-world, which will end up hosting loads of new content, such as extra characters to interact with, resources to exploit (miners take note!) and new missions to grind through.

One exciting aspect, wormholes will unexpectedly close, potentially trapping explorers in unknown and potentially dangerous new areas of the game. Players will then have to explore the system, performing actions and completing missions in order to find their way out (if they choose to leave). Sounds awesome so far!

Wormholes will bring us to this new frontier, appearing all over New Eden as a result of a cataclysmic event, the nature of which we’ll reveal in the coming months. These wormholes are unstable and will spawn and vanish randomly throughout the known universe. A pilot who stumbles across one of these stellar phenomena can fly through it and travel to unknown space, where there are no stargates or stations, just the unexplored void of a new solar system. And when I say “new solar system” that is exactly what I mean. It will not be moving you to instanced space but rather to one of the thousands of new solar systems.

Rockstar prices Grand Theft Auto IV, Lost and Damned

Playthrough — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:32:56 +0000

The first in what I hope to be a long-line of downloadable content for Rockstar’s golden franchise, Grand Theft Auto has been priced! “The Lost and the Damned” is the first episode for Grand Theft Auto IV on the Xbox will launch on February 17th for 1600 points, which comes to around $20. Rumored to bring 10-20 hours of additional gameplay, The Lost and the Damned finds you taking up the role of Johnny Klebitz, a member of Liberty City’s local biker gang, The Lost.

Nintendo’s Wii Sports now best selling game ever

Playthrough — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 09:42:15 +0000

Wow, if this doesn’t spell out who the champion of this gens console war is, I don’t know what will. Wii Sports, the title Nintendo bundles with every Wii console, has become the top selling game of all time with over 40 million sold, an indication of the amazing sales figures Nintendo is seeing of it’s casual-leaning console. A bit of a cop-out, we know, and certainly not worthy of toppling Mario from his #1 spot, but a great milestone for Nintendo nonetheless!

Chris Kluwe pondering changing his name to show love of World of Warcraft

Playthrough — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:11:40 +0000

Professional football player Chris Kluwe, punter for the Minnesota Vikings, recently raised his love for World of Warcraft on his weekly radio program. So much so, he floated the idea of changing his name to Chris “World of Warcraft” Kluwe. In fact, he adds, people have come to start referring to him as Christ “Warcraft” Kluwe, a nickname I personally think sounds a hell of a lot tougher. Kluwe plays a troll roge on the US Kil’jaeden server, though I’m not sure if it’s a male or a female. Kluwe’s remarks from his recent show:

“I think more people like to hear me talk about playing video games than football,” said Kluwe, an expert at many video games. “I’ve played video games since I was 4 years old. I play them a lot more than I kick a football. I kick the ball about 45 minutes a day. I play video games about five or six hours a day. But that’s OK. I don’t watch TV.”

“Back when [Bengals receiver] Chad Johnson changed his name to Ocho Cinco, I told the guys at 93X that I was going to change my name to Chris ‘World of Warcraft,’ ” Kluwe said. “They said that’s too long. So they started calling me Chris ‘Warcraft.’ I could make a lot of money if I changed my name to that.”