Activision argues that they are "not evil"
Looks like someone's feelings got hurt. And that someone is Bobby Kotick, if you search his name on google images, you will find his face devil horns pasted on top of his head which really brings out his eyes. At long last, all our bitching finally got to the guy.
Here are Jim Sterling's exact words on the matter.
From Destructoid;
Monolithic empire Activision has argued that it is not monolithic empire, arguing that its reputation as a festering hub of evil is the price of being the number one publisher in the business. I'm sure the goat sacrifices and that time they raised Heinrich Himmler from the grave had nothing to do with it.
"Before our merger with Blizzard, becoming the number one publisher from a revenue perspective, we were always known as the warm and cuddly Activision; the scrappy, loveable number two," offered dev relations head Dan Winters. "As soon as we became the number one and we develop broader perspectives, perceptions started to change a little bit. We've worked very hard, and continue to do so, to let people know that, you know, we're the same guys, we really are. We haven't changed! I'm the same guy that I was before the merger, as are most of us.
“We're the same organisation. We haven't gone out and hired 3000 people. Our ability to scale and move quickly is the same as it was before. We're not this big, monolithic empire that's making decisions in a dark room, we're still very collaborative. We still have the same healthy respect and appreciation for talent that we ever did."
He also argued that studios are allowed to keep their identity and that Bobby "Basically Satan" Kotick has personally worked to do this.
That's all fine, and I personally can attest that individual Activision employees are lovely people, but that doesn't change the fact that Activision will whore out a series and then suddenly drop it when it becomes too saturated, that it won't put faith in games that can't be turned into massive franchises, and the fact that Kotick constantly makes himself sound like a cock. That's nobody's fault but Activision's.
Activision's Dan Winters [GI.biz]
SEGA takes down Streets of Rage Remake
So SEGA has just crushed 8 years of hard work by taking down the Streets of Rage Remake off the internet.
The remake, which featured new characters, special attacks, enhanced music and graphics is no longer available from original sources, and any subsequent downloads have been flagged as illegal.
You what sucks though? The developers of the remake previously stated that SEGA knew of the projects existence and said that they had no issue with it. SEGA came back with an excuse about them needing to excercise their copyrights from time to time which sounds like complete BS at the moment.
Told you guys, shoulda got the remake while you had the chance. (Google for it, sources have told me its on megaupload *wink wink*)
Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights Trailer
Sound familiar? Look familiar? I swear if I see a puzzle in this game that requires you to figure out how many moves it takes to stack a sandwich in 5 different ways then I'm screaming RIP OFF!
Now I'm being overly harsh since there is no actual gameplay footage shown in this trailer but the coincidences are just too.. obvious for them to not be noticed. If you don't know what game I am comparing this to then where have you been? I'm comparing this to the Professor Layton series. From the title, the setting, even the art style, Doctor Lautrec SCREAMS Professor Layton.
Looks like Konami is trying to nab the market that Level-5 has hooked. Then again, if the game is good, I might even like it. We'll just have to see.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc0NZAgfKMQ&w=480&h=390]
TMG Podcast Episode 01: The "We don't know what the %^&$ we're doing" Show
TooMuchGaming Podcast Episode 1 (04/10/2011) - The "We don't know what the %^&$ we're doing" Show
Quash, Migoy and a guest, Mac, talk about the games they've been playing for the week.
Quash: SOCOM 4 Crysis 2 Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition Marvel vs. Capcom 3
Migoy: Dissidia 012 Duodecim: Final Fantasy Pokemon White
Mac: Crysis Crysis 2
You can also listen to or download the mp3 of the podcast at Stream: blip.tv divshare
Vision Game engine running on the NGP
Trinity.net just released a realtime demo of their Vision Game engine running on NGP and i wasn't really impressed with what i saw. It looks ok but i'm positive NGP can do so much better.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NpgRgVgfoc]
This is only one of the many engine's to be used for the NGP so don't get all depressed about the NGP all of a sudden. We'll see more footage of how powerful this device can be.
What do you guy's think though? looks good? nice improvements? We'll just have to wait and see at this year's E3 because Sony will be all about the NGP.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS6VjleC_-s&feature=channel_video_title]