Monthly Archives: June 2012

Train2Game News: UK Charts – Third No.1 for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

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Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier once again tops the UK charts, taking No.1 for the third week in a row.

The Train2Game Blog recently spoke to Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Creative Director Jean-Marc Geoffroy and Ubisoft Development Director Adrian Lacey, with the pair offering advice on getting into the industry.

Ghost Recon is only the third game this year to score more than three No.1’s, the others being FIFA Street and FIFA 12. FIFA 12 itself stays at No.3 this week, just behind another non-mover in the form of Max Payne at No.2 . Battlefield 3 is up four to No.4, with Sniper Elite V2 up one to No.5.

Game of Thrones is the only new entry into the top 40 at No.6,  entering ahead of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 at No.7.  The rest of the top ten looks familiar with FIFA Street at No.8, Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic games at No.9, and DiRT Showdown at No.10.

The UKIE Gfk Chart-Track All Formats Top 10 for the week ending 9th June is therefore as follows:

1. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (Ubisoft)
2. Max Payne 3 (Rockstar)
3. FIFA 12 (EA)
4. Battlefield 3 (EA)
5. Sniper Elite V2 (505 Games)
6. Game of Thrones (Koch Media)
7. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Activision)
8. FIFA Street (EA)
9. Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Sega)
10. Dirt Showdown (Codemasters)

Releases for the week ahead include Lollipop Chainsaw.

There’s more UK Charts news here on the Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on this week’s top ten? Is it another well deserved No.1 for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier? Will Lollipop Chainsaw steal the limelight this time next week?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: BAFTA offering prizes for best Games Question Time questions

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BAFTA want your questions for industry professionals including Peter Molyneux and Ian Livingstone when they take part in BAFTA Games Question Time next Tuesday 12th June. It’s the perfect opportunity for Train2Game students to quiz some of the most respected figures in gaming.

Submitting a question to be used at the event is now the only way you can attend Games Question Time which has now sold out. If that isn’t enough incentive for you, BAFTA are offering prizes for what the panel judge as the three best questions of the night. Send your questions to events@bafta.org or #BAFTAgamesQT, or leave them here for us to forward on your behalf.

If you’re unable to attend BAFTA Games Question Time, the full event will be streamed live  from 7p.m. on Tuesday here.

The full panel will involve Peter Molyneux OBE, Ian Livingstone OBE, Alice Taylor and David Bailey, with more information about all of them here.

There’s more BAFTA news here on The Train2Game Blog.

Are you going to BAFTA Games Question Time next week? What would you live to ask the panel?

Leave your comments here on the Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

BAFTA’s public events and online resources bring you closer to the creative talent behind your favourite games, films, and TV shows. Find out more at www.bafta.org/newsletter,www.facebook.com/bafta or twitter.com/baftagames

Train2Game News: Paradox Interactive’s Naval War: Arctic Circle introduces modding support

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Modding support has been introduced for Paradox Interactive’s Naval War: Arctic Circle with the release of a free mission editor update. The Naval War: Arctic Circle mission editor comes with full Steam Workshop support for publishing and downloading user-created missions.

Naval War: Arctic Circle is a real time naval wargame set in the near future. With the mission editor, you get access to all units in the game, and the ability to create your own missions anywhere in the North Atlantic Ocean. The game is currently discounted to half price on Steam. Get a taste of Naval War: Arctic Circle in the trailer below.

Modding is a great way for Train2Game students to practice and show off their skills, and there’s a lot more about it here on The Train2Game Blog. Keep reading for the latest news from Paradox Interactive.

What are your thoughts on the Naval War: Arctic Circle mission editor? Will you be giving it a try?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Watch the Unreal Engine 4 tech demo now

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Watch Unreal Engine 4 in action now in Unreal Technology’s elemental demo showcase, and get a glimpse at what could be just around the corner when it comes to tools in game development.  See it below, here on The Train2Game Blog.

It’s the same video Wired got exclusive access to a few weeks ago, when they spoke about it in depth with Epic Games. This week, Epic Games revealed they want Unreal Engine 4 to shorten game development time with.

There’s more on Unreal Engine 4 here on the Unreal Engine here on the Train2Game Blog.

What are your impressions of the Unreal Engine 4 demo? Does it leave you excited for the future of game development?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Call of Duty: Black Ops II developer diary takes you behind the scenes

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Get a glimpse at development of Call of Duty: Black Ops II in a behind the scenes preview from Treyarch.

The video sees studio head Mark Lamia discuss how Black Ops II is “pushing the boundaries of Call of Duty on every front,” while the team also discuss game design, technology, overhauling the lighting, the zombie mode and more.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops II behind the scenes video features Treyarch developers including director Dave Anthony, game design director David Vonderhaar, and lead animator Adam Rosas, and you can watch it below, right here on The Train2Game Blog.

Keep reading for the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops II news, while you can see developer diaries for a variety of games here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on the Call of Duty: Black Ops II behind the scenes video?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Peter Molyneux’s £50,000 DLC experiment ‘Curiosity’

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Peter Molyneux’s upcoming game has DLC that costs £50,000. The former Microsoft and Lionhead man told New Scientist that it forms part of an experiment to explore the minds of social media users, he told New Scientist.

Curiosity, the first game from Molynex’s new 22 Cans studio sees the player in a virtual room that contains just one black cube. As players attempt to chisel away at the cube, fractures will appear and you’ll also be able to see all of those left by others.  After a certain, unspecified amount of taps the cube will open, revealing its contents, but only to the player that performs the final tap.

Players will be able to buy a limited chisels in order to speed up their mining, with the cheapest at 59p improving progress by over ten times. A special one of a kind diamond chisel speeds up mining by 100,000 times, but costs £50,000.

“It’s an insane amount of money,” said Molyneux. “This is not a money-making exercise; it is a test about the psychology of monetisation.” Will one person buy the chisel, or will players club together to share its power?”

Curiosity is will be available for PC and mobiles, and is expected to arrive within the next six weeks.

Of course, Peter Molyneux was one of a number of high profile games industry figures who mentored Train2Game students taking part in Make Something Unreal Live. You can see Molyneux giving advice to Train2Game students here.  He’s also going to be taking part in next week’s  BAFTA Games Question Time.

What are your thoughts on Peter Molyneux’s Curiosity experiment?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Gears of War: Judgement developer diary discusses multiplayer game design changes

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Gears of War: Judgement will expose players to a time zone they’ve not accessed before and a new type of class based multiplayer. That’s what Epic Games has revealed in a Gears of War: Judgement E3 2012 developer diary.

The game is a prequel which Director of development Rod Fergusson, multiplayer designer Quinn Delhoyo believe offers a different style of gameplay that puts a twist on the Gears of War series.

They also run through the game design mechanics of Overrun, the class based multiplayer mode and reveal that inspiration for it came from the feedback of Gears of War players.

Watch the Gears of War: Judgement E3 2012 developer diary below, right here on The Train2Game Blog.

Keep reading The Train2Game Blog for news from E3 2012, while there’s more from Epic Games here.

What are your thoughts on the game design changes of multiplayer for Gears of War: Judgement?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Epic want to shorten game development time with Unreal Engine 4

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 Epic Games president Mike Capps wants their upcoming Unreal Engine 4 to make game development time much shorter.

“Our goal is to keep bringing budgets down for making games because we get more games and more game content that way. Iteration is really the key to good games.” he told GamesIndustry.biz in an extensive interview, when asked if the new engine will cut down the time needed for making games.

“You build something you think is going to be fun and you try it out and if it’s not, you just keep trying again. The faster that cycle works, the more likely you are to get something that’s really fun.” Capps continued, before discussing how Unreal Engine 3 changed things for game designers.

“For us, Kismet was a big step towards empowering level designers with Unreal Engine 3 to get them to be able to do some of that iteration themselves. They could see what it would be like to kick open the door and have two locust grunts come out from either side and play it themselves.” he said.

“The things we’re doing to empower content creators this time around, and to accelerate that iteration loop, are going to have a pretty profound impact on how fun games get quickly.” the Epic Games president added.

Train2Game recently partnered with Epic Games for Make Something Unreal Live, a contest that saw student teams building mobile games based on the Fighting Fantasy series using the Unreal Engine. There’s more on Make Something Unreal Live  on The Train2Game Blog, while you can keep up to date with the latest from Epic here.

What do you think about Epic Games aiming to make game development shorter with Unreal Engine 4?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: BioWare product manager and former QA Tester on getting into the industry

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Getting a foot in the door is the most important thing  for those looking to get into the games industry. That’s according to BioWare product manager Nick Clifford, who started with the Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer as a QA Tester before moving into his current role.

“I started in the industry as a QA tester. I spent about a year testing games before I made the jump to marketing. You have to get your foot in the door, whether it’s testing or by making connections with people.” Clifford told the BioWare Blog, before adding that no matter if you’re a game designer, a game artist or something else, having a portfolio is also key.

“If you have a trade such as writing, do some fan fiction, if you are an artist, draw! The way to get noticed is to show off your skills. We are always looking for talented people to join the BioWare family.” he said.

Of course, Train2Game offers a potential foot in the door for students with the work placement scheme.

There’s much more advice from games professionals on getting into the industry here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on the advice from BioWare’s Nick Clifford?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Train2Game News: Sony on PlayStation 4 – “The number one goal is to be the best machine”

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Sony believe that the quality of PlayStation 4 will be more important than rushing their next console out to complete with the Xbox 720. That’s according to Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton.

Of course, neither Microsoft or Sony has confirmed they’re working on a next-gen console, but various signs from both have pointed in that direction.

“The number one goal is to be the best machine”. Tretton told GameTrailers when asked if it was important for PlayStation 4 to launch before Xbox 720.

“We’ve never been first, we’ve never been cheapest, it’s about being best, and I think if you can build a better machine and it’s going to come out a little bit later, that’s better than rushing something to market that’s going to run out of gas for the long-term.” he said.

“I think, ideally, in a perfect world, you want the best machine that ships first, that’s cheapest, but the number one goal is to be the best machine and that’s what we’re always focused on.” The SCEA CEO added.

There’s more about next-gen consoles here on The Train2Game Blog.

What are your thoughts on Jack Tretton’s comments? Do you agree that quality is better to focus on than rushing a new console out?

Leave your comments here on The Train2Game Blog, or on the Train2Game forum.