News

We all knew the Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception beta would end tomorrow — July 14, 2011 — but developer Naughty Dog is giving us a stay of execution. The Uncharted 3 multiplayer beta will actually be turned off on July 15th at noon PST/9 a.m. PST…

GamersFirst CEO’s Facebook page reveals that the online shooter is slated to release during the 2011 holiday season.

In November last year, online game publisher GamersFirst announced that it had purchased the intellectual property rights to Realtime Worlds’ abandoned online multiplayer shooter APB, announcing that the relaunched title, APB Reloaded, would finally see the light of day sometime in 2011. The studio then opened a public beta for the game in February this year.

Now it looks like ABP Reloaded will also be getting a retail release, with North American publishing and distribution company IGS picking up the rights. According to the Facebook page of IGS CEO and founder Paul G Lombardi, the retail version of ABP Reloaded will be released during this year’s holiday season, with a retail price of US$29.99.

APB Reloaded is set for a retail release later this year.

APB first launched in late June 2010 to tepid critical reception, logging some 130,000 users by late August. Following the game’s release, developer Realtime Worlds collapsed, and the game was shut down indefinitely.

Since GamersFirst took over the abandoned project, the publisher’s subsidiary, Reload Productions, took charge of the development and maintenance of APB Reloaded.

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Brain Farrell says Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony may face new competition during next hardware generation from service-focused giants.

The console war has been a three-sided front fought by Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony for the past 10 years. However, according to THQ CEO Brain Farrell, the next generation may see a dramatically expanded battleground.

Brian Farrell

Speaking at VentureBeat‘s GamesBeat 2011 conference, Farrell indicated that the current Big Three console makers will have more competition from the likes of Apple and Google as the industry enters the next generation of hardware. Farrell also believes that the next console generation won’t be led by technical performance gains.

“We believe Apple is going to be there, Google is going to be there,” he said. “Our view is that the next generation of consoles, if there are consoles, are going to be less about technology and more about service orientation of the gamer.”

Both Google and Apple have previously signaled their interest in gaming. Late last month, Google began hiring for its “Games at Google” business unit, though it remains to be seen what direction the search-engine giant will take with this program. Meanwhile, Apple has heavily courted the gamer audience with its iOS handheld devices.

Farrell’s comment doesn’t exactly jive with Nintendo’s direction for the Wii U, thus far the only next-generation console announced. Expected to launch before December 31, 2012, the Wii U signifies Nintendo’s arrival to the HD era. Though its exact power remains unknown, one of the systems headline features is a motion-sensing tablet controller. GameSpot’s Nintendo Wii U: Inside and Out feature has more information on that device.

As for Sony and Microsoft, neither company has made an official move toward announcing their next console. However, rumors persist that Microsoft, for one, may announce the Xbox 360’s successor at the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo.

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Focus Home Interactive’s latest PC urban planning game to include more than 1,000 structures, 60 maps, mod-friendly features.

Cities XL is back for another season of city-building simulation, as Focus Home Interactive today announced that Cities XL 2012 will arrive this October.

Cities XL 2012 should be more XL than ever before.

The second installment of the game developed under Focus Home Interactive, Cities XL 2012 will introduce a number of new features to the urban planning and development simulation. The publisher is emphasizing a new tutorial guide to help players get their cities started, and a more open approach to allow for modders to tweak the game to their liking. Players will also be able to erect more than 1,000 structures in their cities, and build metropoli on 60 different maps.

Cities XL 2012 will debut in October, available as either a stand-alone game or a discount-priced upgrade for owners of Cities XL 2011.

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Welcome to back to GamesRadar’s ongoing series of exclusive behind-the-scenes videos for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. This week, we find out more about the development team’s philosophy on sneaking, cloaking and backstabbing with stealth in the upcoming reboot…
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Actual books based on videogames are hit and miss. Faux book covers based on videogames, however, rarely disappoint. Although she isn’t the first artist to blend modern game concepts with dusty old literary jackets, UK artist A.J. Hateley’s growing portfolio deserves a quick scan nonetheless – especially if this is your first viewing. See if you can guess which games she’s drawn on for inspiration this time… …

At GDC 2011, Nintendo started to reveal its upcoming plans for the Nintendo 3DS. A global update in May would finally activate the long-anticipated eShop as well as give gamers another portable Internet browser. The company also announced a deal with Netflix, bringing the popular video-streaming service to the 3DS…

The Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception multiplayer beta ends tomorrow. That’s incredibly sad for players who have invested dozens of hours in trying to get their characters to level 50 and equally as sad for anyone with free time during the next four months. However, before we say goodbye to all things Uncharted 3 online, IGN thought it would memorialize some of the coolest kills from the beta. We asked you to send in your matches, and you sure did…

Ms. Splosion Man developer Twisted Pixel is planning on offering players regular free DLC for its Xbox Live Arcade platformer.

Whereas Microsoft doesn’t usually support free DLC, Twisted Pixel is taking advantage of the system’s Title Managed Storage feature to release new complimentary content.

The loophole allows developers to make relatively small changes to their titles via a small storage space on the Xbox Live servers. Super Meat Boy exploited the feature last year to offer new levels on the fly.

Read more…

Lead gameplay programmer at Team Bondi offers his side of development story to IGDA; 65-hour work weeks were “average,” can’t say 100-hour weeks didn’t happen.

Rockstar Games’ L.A. Noire won positive reviews, sold 899,000 units in its first month, and has shipped some 4 million units to date. However, it hasn’t been a total pleasure cruise for the publisher. The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is currently investigating developer Team Bondi for workers’ rights complaints, calling reported working conditions at the Australian studio “absolutely unacceptable.”

Heironymus can’t say 100-hour work weeks didn’t happen.

One Team Bondi employee, however, is not taking such a hard line against the developer. Studio lead gameplay programmer Dave Heironymus recently published the letter he wrote to the IGDA on industry site Gamasutra, explaining his side of the story.

Heironymus was one of the original five team members at the developer and admitted that he is part of the “management goon squad” at Team Bondi. He has been a part of the development team of L.A. Noire almost from its inception to its conclusion, a duration of more than half a decade.

Heironymus said that during the “early years” of L.A. Noire, the Team Bondi developers “generally” worked regular 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. hours. However, he claims that as time progressed and development milestones were not reached, “there was growing pressure to work longer hours.” He said there were times when “it seemed too hard to keep going” and that during these moments staffers dropped off the project.

Working on the weekend came next. Heironymus said this move was “inevitable,” but Team Bondi “put in place a scheme to (generously) reward employees for their weekend days spent at work.” Further, Heironymus claims that in the final six months of the project, Team Bondi rewarded those who worked late on weeknights with an additional four weeks of vacation time following the completion of L.A. Noire.

Heironymus also wrote about just how much time he spent in the office during a typical week. He said that “around 65 hours” per week was an accurate average and that “at no time did I ever work 100 hours per week.” However, Heironymus did concede that he “can’t say no one ever worked 100 hours per week.” Working this many hours, claims Heironymus, was “not encouraged.”

L.A. Noire had a troubled development.

Heironymus was quick to dispel the notion that management at Team Bondi had it easy while the rest of the developers worked hard.

“The management team at Team Bondi was not ensconced in an ivory tower working normal hours while everyone else crunched,” he wrote.

Looking forward, Heironymus said that Team Bondi does not view crunch time as a “good way to work” and that the studio is “actively” working to learn from the mistakes it made working on L.A. Noire.

“Please think about that when you talk about boycotting L.A. Noire or about how heinous Team Bondi is,” he wrote. “There is a team of dedicated game developers here in Sydney that look forward to learning from their mistakes, improving on their successes and taking on the world again next time around.”

For more on L.A. Noire–which is heading to the PC later this year–check out GameSpot’s review.

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