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June 19, 2012

Inside Platinum Games

Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya share their creative and corporate frustrations and reveal a surprising lack of self-confidence.

Earlier today we reported on a frustrated Atsushi Inaba, executive director of Bayonetta developer Platinum Games, hitting out at Sega over the western delay to Anarchy Reigns. Last week, the studio released a mini-documentary, the Platinum Games Concept Movie, which show that Inaba's frustrations extend far beyond his publisher's dawdling.

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Getting lost in Proteus

Ed Key and David Kanaga's goal-free adventure is the videogame adaptation that JJ Abrams’ Lost deserved.

Just in case Minecraft hasn’t offered enough evidence that a contemporary game with basic, blocky visuals can make a compelling artistic statement, Proteus drives the point home with battering ram efficiency. Some of the most cutting-edge trends in modern game development are happening in titles that look as if they should be playable on a marginally upgraded Atari 2600.

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Getting lost in Proteus

Ed Key and David Kanaga's goal-free adventure is the videogame adaptation that JJ Abrams’ Lost deserved.

Just in case Minecraft hasn’t offered enough evidence that a contemporary game with basic, blocky visuals can make a compelling artistic statement, Proteus drives the point home with battering ram efficiency. Some of the most cutting-edge trends in modern game development are happening in titles that look as if they should be playable on a marginally upgraded Atari 2600.

read more


Inaba hits out over Anarchy Reigns delay

Platinum exec apologises to fans and says Sega kept studio "in the dark" over new western release date.

Atsushi Inaba, executive director of Bayonetta developer Platinum Games, has hit out at Sega over the western delay to Anarchy Reigns, saying his studio had no idea its multiplayer brawler had been slated for release in Q1 2013.

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Microsoft announces Surface

Steve Ballmer reveals Ivy Bridge and ARM tablets running Windows 8 with kickstand, cover and keyboard, due later this year.

Microsoft has announced Surface, a 10.6" tablet computer with a built-in kickstand, cover and multitouch keyboard, running Windows 8 or Windows RT.

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June 18, 2012



Unity 4 announced

We speak to CEO David Helgason about a host of new features including DirectX 11, Flash export, and Mecanim animation.

Unity Technologies today announced the latest iteration of its development platform, Unity 4. While prior versions have ushered in all manner of changes to the popular tool, version 4 marks an important shift in its positioning away from the exclusive preserve of independent developers and into the realms of big-budget, professional-level engines.

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Is the leaked Xbox roadmap genuine?

Microsoft's supposed five-year plan isn't just a tantalising glimpse into the future; it puts its recent strategy into context, too.

Microsoft's five-year plan for the evolution of Xbox is hugely ambitious, signalling the company's intent to take over the living room, and the entire household, with a box that does it all. The Xbox 720, as the 2010 document calls it, will play games, apps, and video, not just on the big screen but any screen in the house.

read more


Is the leaked Xbox roadmap genuine?

Microsoft's supposed five-year plan isn't just a tantalising glimpse into the future; it puts its recent strategy into context, too.

Microsoft's five-year plan for the evolution of Xbox is hugely ambitious, signalling the company's intent to take over the living room, and the entire household, with a box that does it all. The Xbox 720, as the 2010 document calls it, will play games, apps, and video, not just on the big screen but any screen in the house.

read more



Journey's ending is a cop out

But a disappointing denouement can't fully neuter Thatgamecompany's thought-provoking design, writes Steven Poole.

As my steps slowed in the deep, crusted snow and the icy wind, I could see what was coming. The prophecy on the pixel-tapestry cyclorama had been true. Each step took longer and was more agonising, as though my entire body was freezing solid. Eventually, I collapsed. The screen faded to white, and I thought, ‘This is the best ending of any videogame ever.’ The game told you exactly what was coming, and fulfils that promise with a brutal purity.

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Next-gen Xbox plans leaked?

Internal document from 2010 reveals $299 price, Kinect 2, sixfold performance increase, AR glasses and cloud streaming.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 successor will be released for $299 in 2013, will feature an upgraded Kinect, be backwards compatible, and support cloud streaming of games by 2015, according to a leaked internal document from 2010.

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June 15, 2012


Lollipop Chainsaw review

An action game as unwieldy as it is characterful.

Comedy might be an established genre in cinema, but you rarely see the label applied to games, where systems, not tone, dictate classification. Lollipop Chainsaw, the latest creation from eccentric Japanese creator Goichi Suda, is a pure action game built upon martial arts foundations – particle-spewing combo strikes and set-piece spectacle aside – but it’s a comedy, too.

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Tomb Raider studio not "making a game about a girl"

Crystal Dynamics' art director on why Lara Croft is no longer about "cheap visual thrills".

Crystal Dynamics has recently come under fire for the inclusion of implied sexual violence in its Tomb Raider reboot during a scene in which Lara Croft is forced to fight for survival against a group of scavengers who have taken her prisoner.

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The Friday Game: Kuta

GFX47’s playful physics makes destruction a surprisingly creative process.

As far as videogames are concerned, physics were right there at the beginning. Spacewar! had physics, remember? So did Pong, I guess, in its own, rather simplified way. Decades on, and we’re not getting bored just yet; if anything, designers are still exploring the basics. Take Kuta, a Unity arcade title you can play over on Kongregate. Kuta’s all about sending stacks of bricks toppling to the ground. Should that still feel like this much fun?

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Harrison "surprised" by E3 violence

"So long as it's part of a balanced portfolio, it's okay," warns Microsoft's interactive entertainment business VP.

Phil Harrison, new corporate vice-president of Microsoft's IEB division, admits he was "surprised" by the levels of violence in games at this year's E3.

E3 2012 was Harrison's first visit to the conference in three years, and "the first E3 I can ever remember where I haven't been doing something public like standing on a stage introducing something new or presenting something. So I think I'm able to look at it through quite a relaxed and potentially dispassionate view."

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Ichi review

A well thought out puzzler that will occasionally quicken your pulse.

Though it has a handsome icon, Ichi doesn’t exactly inspire on first loading, saddled as it is with the overly familiar graph-paper visual treatment favoured by innumerable Doodle-something apps. It may not look imaginative, but the resulting visual clarity ensures nothing gets in the way of the clever realtime puzzles on which Stolen Couch Games’ app is built.

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June 14, 2012

Revolution Software to unveil Broken Sword 5?

New game will be revealed next month, Charles Cecil tells us it will return to the developer's 2D roots.

Veteran British developer Charles Cecil is gearing up to announce Revolution Software’s first wholly original game for eight years – tipped to be Broken Sword 5.

If the new title is the fifth instalment in the Broken Sword saga, it will be Revolution’s first fresh iteration of the point-and-click adventure series since 2006.

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Revolution Software to unveil Broken Sword 5?

New game will be revealed next month, Charles Cecil tells us it will return to the developer's 2D roots.

Veteran British developer Charles Cecil is gearing up to announce Revolution Software’s first wholly original game for eight years – tipped to be Broken Sword 5.

If the new title is the fifth instalment in the Broken Sword saga, it will be Revolution’s first fresh iteration of the point-and-click adventure series since 2006.

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