SemiBeta Tech, Lancing, Work, and Fries

Ubisoft prepping short film, a Ghost Recon: Future Soldier prequel

10
Mar/100

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Ubisoft will release a short film ahead of the release of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. The film will be helmed by Francois Alaux and Herve de Crecy, the duo that just won an Academy Award for their short film Logorama. We’re assuming the Ghost Recon film won’t be quite as cheeky. The short, which will serve as a prequel to Future Soldier, will be a 20-minute live-action film, reportedly with a budget between $8-10 million. It’s being written by Tim Sexton, co-writer of Children of Men.

The project is in line with Ubisoft’s ongoing strategy to expand its scope of media to include more than just video games. Last year, the company released the Assassin’s Creed: Lineage short film series to promote Assassin’s Creed II. Later in the year, Ubisoft Montreal’s Yannis Mallat envisioned a future where Ubisoft crafts films and games using the same assets, which is precisely what it did with Lineage. Given the talent and financial backing behind the Future Soldier film, it looks like Mallat’s future could be a bright one.

[Via Big Download]

Ubisoft prepping short film, a Ghost Recon: Future Soldier prequel originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

More here:
Ubisoft prepping short film, a Ghost Recon: Future Soldier prequel

Tagged as: 2009, 360, budget-between, future, ghost-recon, movies, ubisoft, xbox, xbox live

Windows Phone 7 Achievements to feature up to 200 Gamerscore points per game

10
Mar/100

We just got our hands on the Windows Phone 7 during an interview at GDC, and given our unnatural obsession with bolstering our online notoriety, the most prevalent question in our mind was: just how many Gamerscore points can we crank outta this thing? The answer: A beefy 200 Gamerscore points per game, which will be added to your total Gamerscore, as displayed on your Xbox Live Gamertag profile.

We’ll be writing up our impressions of the platform, as well as our interview with its creators, later today. For now, rest assured knowing that when you unlock an Achievement in a Windows Phone 7 game, it totally makes that satisfying “bloop-bloop” noise.

Windows Phone 7 Achievements to feature up to 200 Gamerscore points per game originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read the rest here:
Windows Phone 7 Achievements to feature up to 200 Gamerscore points per game

Tagged as: 360, inc., live, online, PLA, red, space, windows-phone-7, xbox live

Continue reading PSA: Portal guns are for trained professionals only

PSA: Portal guns are for trained professionals only

9
Mar/100

You know, we always thought GLaDOS ran the Portal simulation just so she could discover the true value of friendship, but it may really have been in the name of public service. In the video after the break — created by Freddie Wong, who you probably recognize from his ridiculous (and hilarious) Guitar Hero video — we get a glimpse at the likely ramifications of improper Portal gun training and how a few apathetic “friends” can ruin one of the most exciting experiences ever. And here, all this time, we thought GLaDOS was the bad guy!

Note: For those of you who spot that weird frame at the end of the video — yep, with all that gibberish — don’t bother to decipher it. It’s apparently just another gag from Freddie and “friends.” Yuk-yuk-yuk.

PSA: Portal guns are for trained professionals only originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tagged as: 360, a-friend-via, and-hilarious, freddie-wong, given-the-title, guitar-hero, ice, ion, kin, MPA, public, rain, red, spoof, youtube

GDC 2010: Dante’s Inferno art show at San Francisco’s Hotel des Arts

9
Mar/100

Wayne Barlow’s ‘Cerberus’ … gross

Held in conjunction with the Into the Pixel and Video Game Art Show exhibitions, San Francisco’s Hotel des Arts is dedicating its entire fourth floor to “The Making of Dante’s Inferno” through April 2010. We’ve got a sneak peek at the art on display in the gallery below, but if you want to see the real deal we’d suggest you make your way to the opening night reception being held at the Hotel des Arts on Thursday night, from 6pm to 10pm, smack dab in the middle of GDC week.

GDC 2010: Dante’s Inferno art show at San Francisco’s Hotel des Arts originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Original post:
GDC 2010: Dante’s Inferno art show at San Francisco’s Hotel des Arts

Tagged as: 360, a-sneak-peek, awesome, display, middle, san francisco, show, war, with-the-into

Analysts predict hardware, software drops in February NPD

9
Mar/100

In advance of NPD sales results for February 2010, analysts are predicting year-over-year declines for pretty much everything. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, according to Gamasutra, is predicting that hardware and software sales will decline 10 percent, with Wii hardware sales hit particularly hard (around 40 percent) due to shortages. Beyond the Wii, the continuing decline of the music genre is partly to blame for the reduced sales.

Analyst Colin Sebastian is guessing at a 15 percent decline, despite encouraging early sales for games like Heavy Rain and preorders for games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (which, as an early March release, may fit into the NPD February sales period) and God of War III. The fact that high-profile games are likely to show sharp declines after strong first-week sales will prevent software trends from turning for the better.

Analysts predict hardware, software drops in February NPD originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read the original post:
Analysts predict hardware, software drops in February NPD

Tagged as: 360, bat, iii, industry, live, MPA, music, percent-decline

Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition gets full, confusing trailer

9
Mar/100

Thus far, we’ve really learned only one thing from the trailers released for Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition: You can plan to spend a lot of time in the game pounding very strange looking people in the face. Whether you do so by yourself or with a friend is up to you. Now, thanks to the latest trailer from Atlus, we learn a little bit about the story of Zeno Clash. It seems that the main character kills someone or something known as Father-Mother. We’re not sure what started the dispute — perhaps a forgotten Father-Mother’s Day present — but the end result is a dead tribal leader, banishment and a quest for the truth. You know, that old chestnut.

Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition hits XBLA on March 31.

Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition gets full, confusing trailer originally appeared on Joystiq Xbox on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read the original here:
Zeno Clash: Ultimate Edition gets full, confusing trailer

Tagged as: 360, atlus, game, pre, really-learned, trailer, ultimate, ultimate-edition

Bodycount confirmed for Xbox 360, PS3; early 2011 release

9
Mar/100

Bodycount says: One! One new gallery of screens from Codies’ new IP

Taking aim at the “whack-a-mole mechanics” of your typical cover-based shooter, Codemasters is finally ready to take the wraps off Bodycount, the new first-person shooter IP in production at Codemasters Studios Guildford under the direction of Black creator Stuart Black. “Our shredding tech enables us to create a different kind of gameplay, where players and AI can’t hide behind indestructible cover,” says Black. “Here the environment is constantly changing as the game world is shot to hell; it’s going to be a huge amount of fun.”

That huge amount of fun will be built on the EGO Game Technology Platform, an evolution of Codemasters’ EGO Engine, for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The story has something to do with killing ‘Targets’ – those are the bad guys – on behalf of the ‘Network’ – ostensibly the good guys. In addition to a full campaign, Bodycount will feature expected FPS enhancements like online multiplayer and co-op modes.

Codies’ “first internally produced new IP for many years” will be shredding environments in Q1 2011. We’ll let executive producer – and former Sony London director – Tom Gillo have the last comically hyperbolic word on Bodycount: “From the jaw-dropping devastation caused by firing into enemies or shredding the world around you in a hail of bullets, Bodycount will crystalize that moment of pulling the trigger into an exhilarating sensory overload of action.”

Bodycount confirmed for Xbox 360, PS3; early 2011 release originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

More here:
Bodycount confirmed for Xbox 360, PS3; early 2011 release

Tagged as: 2010, 360, a-friend-via, ATI, Cove, EDs, REDD, Sony, web, xbox 360

This Wednesday: Scrap Metal rocks the XBLA Block Party

8
Mar/100

Slick Entertainment’s top-down racer Scrap Metal continues Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade Block Party promotion this week, Major Nelson reports. It’ll be available this Wednesday for 1200 and almost begs comparison to classic racer-shooter hybrid, Rock N’ Roll Racing — in that, both games have rock and roll and racing. And guns … to be used during the rocking and rolling and racing. It’s like a fruit salad of slaughter and sweet licks, we guess.

This Wednesday: Scrap Metal rocks the XBLA Block Party originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

See more here:
This Wednesday: Scrap Metal rocks the XBLA Block Party

Tagged as: 2010, 360, arcade-block, book, design-the-next, major-nelson, media, microsoft, read, scrap-metal, sli, various, xbla

Codemasters’ new FPS, Bodycount, announced briefly

8
Mar/100

Codemasters’ new FPS from Black creator Stuart Black has been revealed by OXM UK — and then promptly unrevealed, when the article was taken down. Bodycount is not based on Ice-T’s metal band Body Count, because the world couldn’t possibly be that beautiful. However, the cover of OXM (accessed through a Google cache of the article) calls it “the ultimate shooter.” Since there won’t be any shooters after this one, we assume that means it’s really cool.

We’ll find out more this week as the magazine arrives in UK homes, and presumably when an announcement is put online for good. Given the venue of announcement, we at least know it is an Xbox 360 game.

[Via Destructoid]

Codemasters’ new FPS, Bodycount, announced briefly originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.