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Train2Game at gamescom join Danny Palmer at the press call with Raphel Colantonio President of Arkane Studios talking Dishonored
And find out how Raphel Colantonio got into the games industry
Train2Game at gamescom Tim Willits Creative Director of ID Software talks about Rage to Danny Palmer
Train2Game at gamescom Tim Willits Creative Director of ID Software talks about Rage to Danny Palmer and he shares his tips to working in the games industry.
Mass Effect 3 & Elder Scrolls V among new games revealed at VGAs
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The Spike TV Video Game Awards in Los Angeles has revealed a number of new games we can expect to see arrive in 2011 and beyond, and the excitement is already evident on the Train2Game forum.
The biggest announcements included Bioware showing off a trailer for Mass Effect 3 (So the teaser that featured on the Train2Game blog last month WAS for the third game in the series) and Bethesda revealing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
The Mass Effect 3 trailer see’s London overrun by an alien species, while a sniper inside Big Ben pleads for Commander Shepard to return to earth. The commander is looking down on the planet from space while huge alien machines lay waste to London. You can see the Mass Effect 3 reveal trailer for yourself on the Train2Game forum. The game will be coming to PC, Xbox 360 – and yes – the PlayStation 3 towards the end of 2011.
The VGAs also saw the revealing of another much rumoured RPG title in the form of Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. You can see the trailer for that here on the Train2Game forum. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a direct sequel to Oblivion and will be released on 11th November 2011. Another reveal included that of Resistance 3, with a trailer featuring a mix of live action footage and gameplay. The Resistance 3 trailer is also available in the VGA thread on the Train2Game forum.
Batman: Arkham City and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception also had extended trailers shown off. The Uncharted 3 trailer – available on the Train2Game forum – shows what we can expect from Naughty Dog and reveals the game will come at the start of November.
Meanwhile, the Arkham City trailer reveals Doctor Hugo Strange as a villain and Train2Game students can watch it below.
Other reveals included Prototype 2, Guillermo Del Toro’s game InSane, but the latter not being scheduled for release until 2013!
So Train2Game, which of the VGA reveals and announcements are you most excited about? You see all of the trailers and leave your thoughts about them here on the Train2Game forum. Alternatively, you can leave your thoughts here on the Train2Game blog.
UK Charts – Call of Duty: Black Ops stays top
Call of Duty: Black Ops has held off Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit to hold onto Number 1 in the UKIE GfK Chart Track All Formats Top 40. It means that Call of Duty: Black Ops spends a second week at the top, following its record breaking debut.
The continued success of Activision’s shooter means that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has to settle for second place, despite some extremely impressive review scores, and many retailers putting on special deals for the latest in the Ubisoft series. Sainsbury’s is currently selling Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood for just £29.99 with no strings attached, but the deal won’t last forever! Meanwhile, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit also makes a strong debut, entering the charts in third place.
The new entries of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit has pushed other titles down the rankings. FIFA 11 drops from second to fouth, while Just Dance two also moves down two places from third to fifth.
Two Nintendo Wii titles have re-entered the top ten with Wii Party climbing from twelfth to sixth while Wii Sports Resort jumps a massive 12 places from nineteenth to seventh. A Nintendo title also features in eighth spot with Professor Layton and the Lost Future for the Nintendo DS having dropped two positions from sixth.
Kinect Sports drops from fourth to ninth in its second week on sale while New Super Mario Brothers Wii rounds out the top ten having dropped two places from eighth spot.
Previous chart toppers Fallout: New Vegas and Football Manager 2011 have both dropped out of the top ten, falling to thirteenth and nineteenth respectively. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II also leaves the top ten, having dropped five places to fifteenth.
However, the three top ten leavers are still above EA’s licensed Harry Potter: The Deathly Hallows Part 1, which could only manage 20th in its first week.
The full Gfk-ChartTrack top ten for the week ending November 20th is as follows:
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision)
2. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft)
3. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (EA)
4. FIFA 11 (EA)
5. Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft)
6. Wii Party (Nintendo)
7. Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo)
8. Professor Layton and the Lost Future (Nintendo)
9. Kinect Sports (Microsoft)
10. New Super Mario Bros Wii (Nintendo)
So Train2Game, did you think that Call of Duty: Black Ops was always going to hold off Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit? Or are you surprised to see it still selling so well after its massive first week? And with Gran Turismo 5 being released on Wednesday, do you think we could be seeing a new number one next week?
You can leave your thoughts about Call of Duty: Black Ops, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Gran Turismo 5 or any other game in the UKIE GfK Chart Track All Formats chart here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood review round up
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has been released today, and the review scores suggest that the latest in Ubisoft’s franchise is going to be a big hit.
Metacritic currently gives Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood on the PlayStation 3 a very impressive score of 91, while the Xbox 360 counterpart is one point behind on 90. That means Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has a higher average review score than Call of Duty: Black Ops, which Metacritic rates at 88.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is therefore one of the highest rated games of the year, with Eurogamer even giving the title a perfect 10/10 and call it “one of the best games of 2010.”
CVG are also highly praising of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. They say “Overall, Brotherhood is an awesome package with enough new content to kill the competition this Christmas. There’s enough quality and scope here to put Brotherhood in the running not just as a top Christmas purchase, but one of the best action games of the year.” CVG give Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood 9.2/10.
Meanwhile, Kotaku claim that Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is the best game in the series to date. They lavish praise on the game in their review summary:
“The game that comes to mind while playing Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, is Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Not since Rockstar’s potent crime drama has a game so massive, so polished, so impressively improved from its predecessor been released just a year after the prior installment. But people won’t remember how long Brotherhood took to make. They are likely to remember its quality. Ezio’s new adventure may be less personal than his previous one, but it is as interesting and as mischievously manipulative of real history as the series has ever been. Nearly bloated with fun things to do Brotherhood is Assassin’s Creed in peak form.”
GameSpot UK are slightly less praising of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, giving it 8.5/10. They say “Almost every aspect of the series has seen enhancements in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. There is joy in leaping across the Roman rooftops, taking in the grand sights in front of you and realizing that it is all your own playground. This may not be Assassin’s Creed III, but like Ezio’s smirk, Brotherhood is too irresistible to ignore.”
If you’re still wondering why Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is receiving so much hype, you may want to check out both the Single Player Launch Trailer, and the Multiplayer Launch Trailer.
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is available now for both the PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360.
So Train2Game, have you got your hands on Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood yet? If so what do you think about it? Is it deserving of the very high praise it has received? Do you think that the excellent review scores could help it do the seemingly impossible and knock Call of Duty: Black Ops from the top of the UK Chart?
You can leave your thoughts about Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
Call of Duty: Black Ops – The biggest entertainment launch ever
Its official, Call of Duty: Black Ops holds the title of the biggest entertainment launch ever. As MCV notes, Call of Duty: Black Ops was launched in the same week as popular beat combo Take That reformed and launched a new album. Even a new Harry Potter film was premiered, but it was the video game that came out on top.
Here in the UK, Call of Duty: Black Ops broke all previous day one records for a video game, shifting 1.4 million copies and making £58 million in revenue. Call of Duty: Black Ops went on to sell over two million copies in its first week on the shelves, generating over £80 million in revenue.
These figures easily beat every other entertainment product around at the moment, and MCV point out “Even the ‘fastest selling album of the decade’, Take That’s Progress, only managed 235,000 units in its first day on Monday this week, around 2m in revenue.”
The success of Call of Duty: Black Ops, combined with the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect motion controller, means that the UK has had its biggest week ever when it comes to game sales. An estimated £114 million was made last week, beating the previous record of £107.6 million set in the final week of 2008.
Sales were possibly also improved by the various deals retailers provided in attempts to encourage consumers to buy Call of Duty: Black Ops from them.
Naturally, the massive sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops mean that it easily took the top spot in the UK video game charts. All of the games success has come on good, if not outstanding reviews, but its unlikely Activision and Treyarch will be too bothered with review scores given the massive success of the game across the globe.
If you somehow managed to miss all of the Call of Duty: Black Ops pre-launch hype, you can check out the launch trailer, and details of the new zombie mode featuring some famous faces here.
So Train2Game, do you believe the massive success of Call of Duty: Black Ops is good for the games industry? Or do you believe that it’ll just encourage developers to churn out the same old games?
And given that video games cost a lot more than going to the cinema, or buying a CD, do you think that the industry is getting too excited about the amount of money made by Call of Duty: Black Ops?
You can leave your thoughts about the success of Call of Duty: Black Ops here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
First Fallout: New Vegas DLC revealed
Bethesda has announced the first DLC pack for Fallout: New Vegas, and bad news PlayStation 3 and PC gamers, its Xbox 360 exclusive as the company announced previously.
The new content, titled Dead Money, has the following back-story:
“As the victim of a raw deal you must work alongside three other captured wastelanders to recover the legendary treasure of the Sierra Madre Casino. In Dead Money, your life hangs in the balance as you face new terrain, foes, and choices. It is up to you how you play your cards in the quest to survive.”
Given the open nature of Fallout: New Vegas ‘how you play your cards right’ could even mean ‘shoot those other wastelanders in the face.’
Of course, VP of PR and Marketing for Bethesda Softworks Peter Hines has spoken positively of the upcoming DLC for Fallout: New Vegas.
“We’re pleased to give fans a chance to expand their experience in Fallout: New Vegas this December with Dead Money.”
“The release of Dead Money illustrates our commitment to creating entertaining add-on content for players to enjoy in already massive games like Fallout: New Vegas.”
The Dead Money DLC will be available on Xbox Live from December 21st for 800 Microsoft points. It’s not yet know whether this Fallout: New Vegas DLC is purely exclusive to the Xbox 360, or will become available to other systems at a later date.
Fallout: New Vegas was released in October, received generally positive reviews and topped the UK games chart. It’s still selling strongly, and remains inside the top ten this week. Fallout: New Vegas has also seen a large number of bugs and has been patched since release.
So Train2Game, what are your thoughts on the Dead Money DLC? If you played Fallout: New Vegas on an Xbox 360, will you buy it? Or are you content to explore the Mojave wastes without paying extra money? Maybe you’re already done with New Vegas? And PlayStation 3 and PC owners, how do you feel about Bethesda’s decision to make Fallout: New Vegas DLC Xbox 360 exclusive?
You can leave your thoughts about the Dead Money DLC for Fallout: New Vegas here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
Bioware tease next game
Bioware has released a teaser about a previously announced game, set to be revealed at next months Spike TV Video Games Awards.
The game doesn’t look like it’ll be the much anticipated Mass Effect 3, because as you can see in the video, the new project looks to have a more modern setting than the sci-fi RPG. Could Bioware be bring an RPG twist to the stream of contemporary first person shooters we’re seeing at the moment? Will this game be a shooter?
What’s certain is that whatever Bioware are working on, it’s going to be quite different to Mass Effect and Dragon Age.
You can draw your own conclusions, that is until Bioware reveal more, by watching the teaser trailer below.
So yes, that definitely looks a lot different to Bioware’s previous games, especially Dragon Age: Origins. However, Dragon Age: Origins is one of the best RPG’s out there, and Dragon Age 2 is shaping up nicely, so it’s likely that Bioware know what they’re doing. (I haven’t got round to the Mass Effect series yet, but I hear it’s just as good, if not better than Dragon Age)
As Bioware’s teaser trailer says, we’ll find out more at Spike TV’s Video Games Awards on December 11th
So Train2Game, what do you make of the Bioware teaser trailer? What do you think the game could be? Are you disappointed that it doesn’t look like it’ll be Mass Effect 3?
You can leave your thoughts about the Bioware teaser trailer here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
Kinect launch doubles Xbox 360 sales
The high profile launch of the Kinect motion controller has doubled Xbox 360 sales in the UK. That’s according to MCV who say Chart-Track figures show that the Xbox 360 has had a massive boost in sales since Kinect became available.
The launch of Microsoft’s motion controller was a huge event, with many retailers opening their doors at midnight last Thursday to allow gamers to be among the first in the UK to own Kinect. The combined sales of Microsoft’s Kinect, and Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops made last week the best ever for video game sales in the UK.
55% of Call of Duty: Black Ops sales were for the Xbox 360, and it’s likely that a few console bundle deals also helped push up sales of the Microsoft console.
Nevertheless, it seems that Kinect has been responsible for the majority of Xbox 360 sales in the last week, and over one million of the motion controllers have already been sold worldwide. Microsoft aim to have sold five million by Christmas, and the company has previously stated that Kinect will become as core to the Xbox 360 as Xbox Live.
Kinect is available on its own for £130, but its launch has definitely had an impact on the sale of Xbox 360 consoles. Microsoft have been keen to push the new device as part of Xbox 360 bundle deals, with Kinect being available in a 250 GB Xbox 360 bundle for £299.99.
Of course, the massive marketing campaign by Microsoft has probably played a part in encouraging Kinect sales, and therefore the purchase of brand new Xbox 360 consoles.
So Train2Game, has the launch of Kinect made you invest in an Xbox 360? Could it in the future? Or do you think sales have gone up due to Microsoft’s ‘family friendly’ marketing campaign?
You can leave your thoughts on Kinect for the Xbox 360 here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.
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