Free online first-person shooters are typically lackluster affairs - built on ancient engines by enthusiastic, but ultimately talentless teams. Combat Arms looks to change all that - sporting production values equal to that of many recent full-price titles.
Variety have included Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago of ThatGameCompany in their recent feature, 10 Innovators To Watch. Congratulations are in order for the indie team whose first game, flOw, was the most downloaded game from the PlayStation Store in 2007.
“We believe in the snowball effect,” Chen says. “If we keep making these games, more and more gamers will want to see stuff like this. It’s not about killing each other, and that could change the world’s perception that videogames are just about teenage boys and violence.”
Ubisoft and EMI today announced that Korn’s new song “Haze”, inspired by the upcoming game of the same name, is now available from online music retailers. The song is also available on the enhanced CD version of Korn’s untitled album, now available in Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
These wonderful haircuts and their owners are mobilizing legal action against Activision, Harmonix, and Red Octane over their song “What I like About You” in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the ’80s. Seemingly worried that cover band Wavegroup Sound’s version will somehow “confuse the consumer” and detract from their sales, they are demanding the whole hog – the band wants to halt the sale of the game and accounting of all profits from the game, along with unspecified “compensatory and punitive” damages. For once the cover band gets it right, and the real band has to come along and spoil it for the rest of us.
Alex Mauer, creator of the first ever Nintendo cart music album, has put together a second cart, “Color Caves”. If these luscious bleeped-out melodies and white-noise percussion grooves float your boat, you can order the cartridge from his website.
The Messenger Kit for the Xbox 360 finally hits shelves on September 4, and will set you back a reasonable US$30. And just when you thought you could go a day or two without seeing more Halo 3 merchandise, there’s a Spartan green and gold wireless headset (US$60) and two Halo 3 themed controllers designed by Todd McFarlane (also US$60) being released on the same day.
