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Hot on the heels of the Talia al Ghul news, Batman: Arkham City has a new trailer out. This one focuses on a confrontation between Batman and Penguin — but also packs a cameo from none other than Solomon Grundy…

The Walking Dead is my favorite comic book on the market. Rick Grimes struggle to live in a zombie-infested world is something I happily dive into each month and debate with friends. That said, I’ve been all over the place about developer Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead: The Game. Will it do the se…

The Walking Dead is my favorite comic book on the market. Rick Grimes struggle to live in a zombie-infested world is something I happily dive into each month and debate with friends. That said, I’ve been all over the place about developer Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead: The Game. Will it do the se…

Diablo, Hellgate developer Bill Roper named chief creative officer overseeing strategy and direction for company’s comics-based games.

Last year, Bill Roper left his position as chief creative officer at Cryptic Studios, creator of unlicensed superhero online games like City of Heroes and Champions Online. Now Roper’s going to be dealing with the real deal, as Disney Interactive Studios today announced his appointment as chief creative officer for the publisher’s Marvel Comics-based games.

Bill Roper.

Roper’s new job calls on him to “be responsible for establishing the long-term strategy and the future creative direction and vision” for Marvel games that Disney Interactive publishes. Beyond that, he will need to spot prospective partners in the development community.

Disney Interactive has not previously published Marvel-based games. However, it was strongly hinted after Disney acquired the comics publisher for $4 billion in 2009 that once Marvel’s existing publishing deals expired, it would look to be involved in the gaming world more directly.

Roper joined Cryptic in November 2008, following the messy dissolution of his startup development outfit Flagship Studios. Flagship’s first and only project, the ambitious first-person shooter/role-playing MMOG Hellgate: London, launched with a critically positive reception in 2007. However, due to myriad problems and flagging player support, the studio largely shut down in July 2008.

As for his time at Cryptic, Roper oversaw the releases of Champions Online and Star Trek Online, which launched in quick succession in September 2009 and February 2010, respectively. Though Champions Online received favorable review scores, Star Trek Online was greeted quite coolly by critics.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

At E3, toy manufacturer supremo NECA announced a deal “to produce consumer products based on Valve’s much-acclaimed games”. Obviously this was very exciting news, if a bit of a tease given the lack of oh-so-sexy details. Things got sexy today though, with the revelation of the first full line-up, due for release in 2012. It turns out that those scintillatingly described “consumer products” will cover the full range of Valve’s main current franchises, from Half-Life to Portal to Team Fortress 2 to Left 4 Dead.

Want to know exactly what you’ll be sticking on your shelf and trying to justify as a legitimate ornamental piece of artistic decoration next year? Well click on and I’ll tell you. …

Comic-Con 2011: Street Fighter producer gives an update on a possible Darkstalkers game and crossover fighter’s latest additions: Poison and Yoshimitsu.

Who was there: Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono took to the stage to talk about various projects he has been working on, including Street Fighter X Tekken.

What they talked about: Ono began his talk with a slide that said “Darkstalkers are not dead.” He mentioned that he went back to his bosses in Japan with evidence that there was support for a Darkstalkers game in the form of a picture of Comic-Con 2010 attendees holding up dollar bills, pledging their support for a new game in the fighting series. Ono said that wasn’t enough, so he asked Comic-Con 2011 attendees to hold up a $10 bill (or even a $20 bill) so he could take another picture and show it to his bosses. The crowd obliged.

He then went on to the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network versions of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, both of which feature GGPO netcode (a preferred method for online play among the fighting community) as well as a new tournament mode and the usual assortment of visual filters. Ono thanked the fans for helping to make that happen. Ono then discussed Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition and said that based on the Comic-Con audience’s reaction (or lack thereof) to him talking about it, he was guessing that fans are not entirely pleased. But he was ready with a slide that asked fans to send balancing and retuning comments to Capcom-Unity or to Ono’s Twitter feed.

Before getting to Street Fighter X Tekken, Ono showed a single slide of a Hello Kitty dressed as Chun-Li. He said that he couldn’t mention what this project was by name but that fans could probably guess what it’s about.

As for Street Fighter X Tekken, Ono detailed some of the gameplay mechanics. The first he showed was called cross rush, which is basically a combination system that lets players tag into their partners, who will then complete the combination. He also showed switch canceling, which lets players switch characters at will. Additionally, Ono said that all characters would have super art moves like Ryu’s “Shinku Hadouken,” but all of the Tekken characters would have completely original super art moves since the Namco franchise has no comparable technique. The final two gameplay mechanics were for super charge and cross assault. Super charge lets you charge a special move up to three levels, but at the third level, it automatically turns the move into a super art without using any of the cross gauge that normally depletes with the use of a super art. Finally, cross assault is like the dramatic battle mode from the Alpha series, only Ono claims it’s more strategic, but he failed to elaborate on what that meant.

Ono then gave a glimpse of the new characters announced for the game this week, including Dhalsim and Poison from the Street Fighter universe, as well as Steve and Yoshimitsu from the Tekken universe. Interestingly, Ono also showed a trailer with other characters that have yet to be officially announced as part of the roster, such as Mike Haggar, Guy, Cody, and Hugo.

The takeaway: In talking about Street Fighter X Tekken, Ono took a lot of time to highlight his “feud” with Tekken producer Harada via a skit that showed the two battling through 13 challenges to determine whether or not Harada would be included in the roster. Still, it was good to see Darkstalkers is still on Ono’s mind and that he has a sense of humor about his work.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Nightmare on Elm Street boogeyman Freddy Krueger makes an unexpected cameo in Mortal Kombat from 9th August, Warner Bros Interactive has announced.

You’ll be able to play as the horror icon for 400 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Marketplace or £3.19 on PlayStation Network.

IGN has the announcement trailer, showing Krueger slicing his opponents to ribbons with those infamous fingerknives, tossing them into a raging furnace and dragging them down to hell.

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Nightmare on Elm Street boogeyman revealed as mystery DLC character for NetherRealm Studios’ fighting game.

Some might have considered 2008’s Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe to be a dream match, but the famously violent fighting franchise is getting a nocturnal crossover of another kind. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetherRealm Studios today revealed that big-screen bad man Freddy Krueger will be the fourth downloadable character for the recently released Mortal Kombat on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

His puns will kill you with laughter. Then he’ll kill you with knives.

Krueger is best known as the child-murdering maniac from A Nightmare on Elm Street who was burned to death by an understandably angry group of neighbors. In the films, Krueger stalks and kills teenagers in their dreams, which causes them to die in real life. This is not his first crossover, having previously had a run-in with Friday the 13th icon and fellow adolescent slasher Jason Voorhees in Freddy vs. Jason.

Krueger will appear in Mortal Kombat with his trademark knife glove, as well as his familiar red-and-green-striped sweater and tattered hat. He’ll also be outfitted with his own moveset, two unique fatalities, and a story ending for the game’s arcade ladder mode.

Gamers will be able to add Krueger to their Mortal Kombat rosters in August for $5, or 400 Microsoft points. For more on Mortal Kombat, check out GameSpot’s review.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Comic-Con 2011: 38 Studios developers detail how they’re building a rich fantasy world for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

Who Was There: Big Huge Games art director Tim Coman, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane, animator Young Vo, and artist Sean Murray.

Team Reckoning.

What They Talked About: The panel kicked things off by talking about how it’s risky to start a new IP, but when a development team has 10,000 years of lore from best-selling author R.A. Salvatore to work with, it can create a rich world with backstory for everything from characters to creatures and architecture to plant life.

Coman and McFarlane stressed how they wanted to create a world that would engage players who would want to spend the time to learn about the fabricated universe, but have it also be fun for those who just want a fun romp through a fantasy realm. McFarlane talked about how the best editor he ever had always made him go over each comic book after he was done and ask himself why he did certain things. There should always be a reason for everything, he said.

Even though McFarlane comes up with the ideas, the animation team has the freedom to animate the creatures its own way and the team meets again for tweaking and fine-tuning. As an example, the panel showed the audience concept art of the Bolgan, a large red tribal creature with one eye. The inspiration for the creature was drawn from Irish mythology, and there’s an entire story to the Bolgan that explains why it only has one eye.

Everything begins with the writing, and from there, the artists and animators can mold and create. Developing the Bolgan begins with a digital sculpt and then turns into an in-game model, which reduces the complexity of the sculpture but retains most of the information. Creating a walk cycle gives the viewer an idea of its personality, and details like the way the Bolgan pivots its foot to adjust its massive weight may be lost on most people, but the team’s goal was to make the creature as realistic as possible–beer belly and all.

Murray stressed that they wanted to build a world that is worth saving and make the towns feel like they’re integrated with the culture of the people who live there, rather than just build another fantasy city. The environment and the structure should tell just as much of a story as the people who live in it.

Now that 38 Studios has brought the Balor to life, they just need someone to kill it.

Before wrapping up the panel, the team showed some artwork of the Balor, an enormous creature that shoots a beam from its eye and moves around with crablike legs. Every detail, down to the way the Balor’s breasts jiggle when it attacks, was deliberate. McFarlane even got up at one point to demonstrate just how much movement you need in your body to make a sword strike look convincing.

Quote: “Reckoning: The best man boobs in the industry.”–Todd McFarlane, in response to moderator Adam Sessler’s comment about realistic man-boob animation.

Takeaway: Most people will play a game like Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and not notice every little thing, but the fact that those details are there will make the universe feel more alive.

Read and Post Comments | Get the full article at GameSpot

Oft-demonised Activision boss Bobby Kotick has outlined a few of the ways in which the publisher attempts to encourage and reward innovation within its ranks.

Speaking in an interview with Forbes, Kotick explained that one of the company’s key strategies was to allow staff to experiment, fail and then learn from their mistakes.

“The most important thing we do to encourage innovation is give people the freedom to fail,” he explained.

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