So we have heard a lot of tales and have all imagined that the Wii would be a perfect fit for a Star Wars Lightsaber adaptation and it looks like the real thing will be on display at GameCity. Gamers will get a chance to hack and slash while playing with the Lego Star Wars Complete Saga game from LucasArts. I wonder if the will make a double sided version for the Darth Maul enthusiasts?

From the official press release:

11th October 2007. Feel and Play The Force at GameCity (www.gamecity.org). Visitors to the world’s most exciting game festival are to be the first in the world get their hands on the Wii® lightsaber, in LucasArts’ Lego® Star Wars™: The Complete Saga re-mastered and shown in glorious HD.
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Looks look most big games need a collector’s edition now a days and Unreal Tournament is no different, the limited collector’s edition will be available in limited quantity at select retailers for a suggested retail price in the U.S. of $59.95, available November 2007. It will also be available across the UK, Europe, South Africa, Russia, Australia and most other territories.

From the press release:

Midway today announced an exclusive PC collector’s edition for the highly anticipated first-person shooter, Unreal Tournament 3. This limited edition is encased in a special tin hard cover. Included is an Art Book featuring the flawless art style found in the vehicles, characters, weapons and environments that are signature trademarks of the Unreal Tournament 3 universe. In addition, the limited collector’s edition includes bonus DVD extras, featuring:
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Intel, the chip making giant, has entered into an agreement to purchase Havok, the creators of the ever popular physics engine for a reported $21 million.

If you haven’t heard of Havok, it’s the physics engine behind some of the biggest games on the market. Recent big titles include Stranglehold, BioShock, and Oblivion. What many people don’t know is the same company produces an engine to create special effects in movies, which was used in blockbuster titles like The Matrix.

No idea yet how this in going to impact future game development with the Havok engine, but there’s some really smart people over at Intel that could really take it to the next level.

The development team at Incognito did some server updates today for the Warhawk servers to alleviate that stat collecting issues some users are seeing. Dylan Jobe, who should have PR job offers flowing in from every company in the industry, posted information on the official PlayStation forums:

We are deploying another server-side update and system restart during a maintenance window of 5am to 7am PDT. on Friday.

This is to further address stats related issues — surprise, surprise!

So the update should be finished now for everyone. Let us know how it worked out for you. I know a couple readers here who had some issues with their stats.

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Here is the second part of our interview with Brent Fox of Wahoo Studios/NinjaBee where he discusses with us some of his plans for the future as well as his preferences in development medium. He also talks about his thoughts on the PSN and VIrtual console, what is coming next and even a possible exclusive title only discussed with us.

Again we thank Brent and the folks at NinjaBee for the interview and the information. We will keep on the lookout for more great titles from this camp.

– Any plans to develop titles for PSN or Wiiware?

We love Xbox Live Arcade but we are also certainly open to other possibilities. We plan on maintaining our position as a driving force in downloadable console games and we will see where that takes us.

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We recently had a chance to ask a few questions of Brent Fox, Art Director and partial company owner over at Wahoo Studios/NinjaBee about what his thoughts were on the future of their game developments and how they first got started in the business.

NinjaBee is a pretty big contributor to the Xbox Live Arcade and has many downloadable games like Cloning Clyde, Band of Bugs, Outpost Kaolki X, etc. also available for PC.

We broke this up into two parts to make it an easier read, expect the second part tomorrow.

– How was NinjaBee started?

At Wahoo Studios we had done a lot of development work for publishers. In fact, that was really all we had ever done. We had an idea for a game so we did what we always did and made a demo to pitch to publishers. It wasn’t the type of game that was typically found on a console. We talked to a lot of developers and it seemed to be too risky for all of these publishers. We had a friend suggest that we make it a downloadable PC game and sell it on our own. We spent the time to convert it to a PC game and, without knowing anything about the downloadable market, released our first PC game.
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Maple Story even though old, is still trying to keep things fresh and keep their users interested in playing this free MMORPG. In-game ranking details are now accessible via MapleStory’s European website, along with new and improved forums and community features. Now players can track their progress and see how they stack up against the rest of the world in your job class and even how famous you are.

From the press release:

Thursday 6th September/… NEXON, the world-leading developer and publisher of online games, is pleased to announce the introduction of a brilliant new ranking feature for its exciting and hugely popular free to play online RPG, MapleStory Europe. Players can now actively compete against each other in a whole new way, courtesy of an online rankings database which lets people directly compare their progress against that of both friends and rivals.
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With the huge popularity these days of online multiplayer gaming, one of the biggest requests from gamers has been for console clan support. But just how important are clans in online gaming?

Sure, clans give gamers a useful place to gather with friends to play online. But for gamers who aren’t in clans, these groups seem like elitist players who want to prey on those outside of their clan. With mainly hardcore gamers involved in clans, should developers focus precious time on adding this feature? It’s been reported that Halo 3 will not have any clan support (unlike Halo 2 which had a simplified clan interface). With arguably the biggest mulitplayer console game of the year not having clan support, just how important is this feature for other games?

I’ve been in clans and had a great time. I’ve also been in games against clan members when I was not a member of a clan only to have them gang up on all non-clan members. The non-clan members dropped promptly from the game, saying it’s just not fun to be ganged up on. With the huge influx of new gamers online, could clans become a reason for many of these people to stop playing online?

Personally, I think that clan support is great, if done correctly. If clans can play online with other clans, it’s a great feature. However, if clan support is just an extra in-game friends list, it doesn’t prove enough to allow all gamers to have the best online experience.

You know what I think, what about you? Would you like to see more or less clan support in online games?

Penny Arcade is holding their yearly expo, PAX, and we just got word that they will be holding a media Q&A session to go over their new title, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness. I have gotten a chacne to see some early shots of this game and the art work looks pretty decent, but I am not sold on the game play just yet. It will be interesting what they discuss and if they announce a sequel to this first installment as the title says it’s only episdoe one.

From the press release:

Seattle, Wash. – Aug 21, 2007 Hothead Games, developer of the upcoming action RPG game, Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode One, will host a Media Q&A session to show off the title at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) later this week. The game is the first in a series of downloadable episodic computer games based on Penny Arcade, the world’s most popular web comic (www.penny-arcade.com). Multiple PAX events will offer the anticipated 30,000+ fans and media new footage and further insight into the game at the celebration of all things gaming in Seattle, Washington.
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There have been a few reports about size limitations with the upcoming PGR4 title and the format that Bizarre Creations has to work with. Bizarre has issued a statement dis-crediting these statements and assures all of their users that PGR4 environments and content is not limited DVD9 size and actually gives them more than enough space.

So Xbox 360 fans can breath a sigh of relief and know that DVD9 still has juice left.

From Bizarre Creations:

As I’m sure you’ve seen, some of the comments made on our forum have been blown out of all proportion. This has been reported on certain web sites. It seems that a number of fanboys have jumped on the topic… sigh. So it’s time we cleared this one up…

When we started designing PGR4 our primary goals were to create a great and unique experience over and above PGR3, to push the hardware as far as we could, and obviously to ensure that we give great value for money. DVD size is absolutely not a factor that we consider when designing our games… and PGR4 is no exception. DVD9 gives us more than we need to create a fabulous experience for you guys.

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