Yesterday, I had a sit down with a very rare species – a female video game producer. Meghan Morgan is the producer on the brand new Activision title, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. She gave us a walkthrough of the the game and some tidbits. Here’s what I learned from our 1/2 hour discussion:
- The game’s plot centers around a mysterious tablet that gets broken into four pieces. The pieces are then scattered throughout 4 different dimensions. You have to take on different Spidey personas to recover the missing pieces.
- This weekend they are announcing the first two worlds – Regular Marvel Universe Spider-Man and Spider-Man Noir. I asked if the 3rd Universe will be Ultimate Universe Spider-Man and she just gave me a knowing smile. She would not give a hint about what the fourth Universe will be – I suggested Venom and someone else suggested Zombies.
- Marvel Spider-Man scribe Dan Slott wrote the story.
- All four universes will have it’s own unique look and each Spider-Man will play differently. For example the Noir Spider-Man will be more stealth oriented.
- All four Spider-Mans will be voiced by different actors whom many will recognize from Spidey’s many TV Incarnations.
- Two villains we saw were Kraven and a really creepy looking Noir version of Hammerhead.
- We won’t be able to play as the villains – as Morgan said, it’s a Spider-Man game.
- There will be several short first person sequences, the example they showed with Spidey punching Kraven looked weird.
- This game isn’t going to be a true Open World game, but the worlds are big enough where you will be able to do a lot of stuff.
- Morgan promised that in this game we’ll get to the Action faster than in other titles.
- She hinted that there will be some surprise appearances from other Marvel Characters.
- Morgan is leading a big WonderCon Panel discussion Saturday afternoon.
- The game is going to be released this September.
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Activision,
Comic Books,
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Wondercon 2010
Activision released their Modern Warfare 2: Stimulus Package today. So hurray, no more “Mapathy.” On the downside they are charging a ridiculous $15 for 5 Maps – two of which we’ve already played to death in Modern Warfare 1. But I do love me some Crash. Not only that but people are reporting that this update actually broke XBox Live for awhile. People weren’t able to login to XBLA. It seems to be working itself out now. The Modern Warfare® 2 Stimulus Package can now be downloaded on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system for 1,200 Microsoft Points. To celebrate its release, Infinity Ward will host a Double XP weekend for Xbox LIVE gamers from April 2 – 4. Why is it they always have live fire weekends when I’m out of town? More photos after the break.
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Activision,
Microsoft Xbox 360,
Modern Warfare,
PlayStation 3,
Video Games,
XBLA
Gut Reactions, Since I don’t have the time to write reviews of fully played games, well I do but by the time I’m done the game’s been out for months – for instance, I finally beat Uncharted 2 this weekend. I’m going to start giving you my gut reactions to games based on the first four – five hours of gameplay. Really, shouldn’t we know all there is to know about a game in the first 4 – 8 hrs? Warning – This Gut Reaction look at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a detailed look at the first four levels of the game. This means spoilers!
Playtime – 5 Hours.
I finally got a chance to play Modern Warfare 2 today and I have to say, so far I’m disappointed, I only played the first four levels and plan on beating this game before I do a full review but my initial reaction – meh. It’s gorgeous and so polished that it feels a bit "lifeless." The first three levels sets up the story and shows how you get recruited for Special Ops. In the first mission you are a Soldier tasked with storming a base (lots of base storming so far). I’m not sure what the objective of this level was. I was just shooting some nameless, faceless enemies that are so far away that you never actually see what you are shooting at. Next, I was in an armored vehicle shooting up some Middle Eastern village, I didn’t know why I was doing it, I just was. The problem here again is the village looked amazingly real but once again I couldn’t tell who I was shooting at. Just pulled the trigger, sprayed and prayed I’d hit something. The idea of the opening level is to give a sense of how frenetic things are going to become.
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Activision,
Gut Reaction,
Infinity Ward,
Modern Warfare,
Video Games
Standard Disclaimer – Stop the monkeys! There are too many darn music games. Now that I’ve said that we can talk about Band Hero – Activision’s latest round of music games. I mean hey, let’s ignore the fact they just released Guitar Hero 5 a month or so ago and earlier in the year Guitar Hero: Smash Hits. Not only that but Activision is trying to be slick by calling this Band Hero. On first blush you have to ask the question what is the point of this release. After going through the Pop Centric track list I get it. This package is for people who don’t like metal or think there has been too much hard rock and not enough pop music in past GH titles. I’m one of those people. The problem is a lot of the songs on this disc are amazing if you sing or use the drum set, but the guitar charting on a lot of these songs are just janky and don’t translate well at all, two immediate examples – Kung Fu Fighting. You are basically playing the flute part and everything else feels made up. Now I’m not going to go into all the features on the game if you’ve played any of the previous Guitar Hero, then you know what to expect – full online multiplayer, music creation, world tour “story” mode, band creation, easy jump in and out, etc.
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Tags:
Activision,
Video Games
To help combat recent trends suggesting that America’s veterans are struggling in the face of unemployment, Activision Blizzard, Inc., a worldwide online, PC and console video game publisher and publisher of the best-selling “Call of Duty” video game franchise, has established the Call of Duty Endowment (CODE). This nonprofit public benefit corporation will focus its resources on assisting organizations that provide job placement and training to veterans, as well as engaging the media and public forums to raise awareness about the issue.
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Activision,
Call of Duty,
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
I think the headline says it all. Every once in awhile a pop cultural phenomena happens that’s impossible to ignore. I really have nothing constructive to say about today’s release of Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare. I don’t have the game in my hot little hands yet. I pre-ordered it from Amazon, but then canceled because – hey this is why I have Gamefly. So I’ll be getting it from Gamefly in a few days, which is good because it’ll give me a couple of more days to finish Uncharted 2: Drake’s Fortune before COD sucks up my life for a few weeks. Activision is sending me a copy of the game, but they always send me games a week or two after release (all of the game companies do this since I do not have an official Review Console) – which is why we never have release date Game Reviews. Analyst are saying that COD2 will earn $500 million clams this week. I was thinking about buying up 10 copies and giving them away on the site, but then figured everyone who wants this game probably has a copy on order. Even if you don’t like games, go to a friend’s house and watch them play. You’ll get hooked. I have no doubt that the boys at Infinity Ward are going to give us another masterpiece. If you have the game let us know what you think.
Tags:
Activision,
Video Games
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