“Authentic” new Brothers in Arms game in development at Gearbox

Posted on July 16, 2015 by Josh Griffiths

gearbox-logoRandy Pitchford has been having a busy week. After confronting fans and critics alike during his Develop Brighton keynote address earlier this week, Pitchford revealed that Gearbox is working on Duke Nukem 5. But who cares about that, because he also said Gearbox is working on an “authentic” new Brothers in Arms sequel.

Speaking to IGN, Pitchford confirmed that work has begun on a new entry in the franchise:

“I feel we have unfinished business there with both the fiction and the history and I’d like to get into that. I spend a lot of time thinking about it,” he said. “I think the next Brothers in Arms game has to be authentic and we have been working on that.”

The last Brothers in Arms game, Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway, was released in 2008. Three years later, Gearbox announced Brothers in Arms: Furious 4, a Tarantino-inspired spinoff, at E3 2011. Eventually, the “Brothers in Arms” title was dropped and the game morphed into Furious 4… which further transformed into Battleborn:

“So the thing about that… Furious 4 is not a thing anymore, right? Creative development is a trip. The idea that something that started as a Brothers in Arms game through some absurd convolution ended up as Battleborn is evidence of what’s possible.”

Much like with the proposed Duke Nukem game, Pitchford says the team will need help in order to make it happen:

“Sadly it takes a lot of resources, energy and money to do what must be done, so it’s not something I feel I could completely do alone,” he said. “I need good partners for it, so we’ve been talking to great folks but it’s really putting all that together that’s the limiting factor. Once we put all the partnerships together in terms of publishing, collaborators and creatives, we can talk about it.”

I’m glad we’re finally getting another Brothers in Arms game, but I’m not sure if 2015 Gearbox is the same team as 2008 Gearbox. And it might not even happen at all given the company’s need for a development partner. So keep your fingers crossed and your helmets strapped.

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First Shenmue III trailer revealed as Kickstarter campaign enters its final days

Posted on July 16, 2015 by John Scalzo

The Kickstarter campaign for Yu Suzuki’s Shenmue III is nearing its end. With less than 36 hours remaining, the project has already racked up more than $5.1 million in pledges. Right now, it trails only Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on the list of most-funded video games. To celebrate these milestones, Suzuki and his team at Ys Net have released a short scene from the game:

Ryo and Shenhua arrive at the Lake of the Lantern Bugs after their long journey. Entranced, they watch the gentle flight of the lantern bugs upon the mirage-like oasis.

Shenmue III still has a long way to go, but this is certainly a start. If all goes according to plan, it’ll be released for the PC and PS4 in late 2017.

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Gearbox has done some concept work on Duke Nukem 5

Posted on July 15, 2015 by John Scalzo

duke-nukem-foreverGearbox CEO Randy Pitchford gave the opening keynote address at Develop Brighton, which began yesterday in the seaside city. Amid a discussion of Gearbox’s history, Pitchford revealed that his company has done some preliminary concept work on the next Duke Nukem game:

“I did not acquire the franchise merely so we could all experience Duke Nukem Forever. That was the toll to pay to give Duke a chance. That said, I liked that game,” he said. “I got to see it from a slightly different perspective and it was marvellous to me.”

“We’ve done some concept development [for a new game] and I think the challenges are there. Gearbox is very busy. I think the faster way is that a correct developer can become interested and we can work with them. I think it’s a challenging problem. But, I’ll tell you one thing. When it does happen, there’s no doubt that the whole industry will turn its head and look.”

In an ideal situation, Pitchford would like to hand off development duties for Duke Nukem 5 to another team. But if I had my way, I’d like it very much if Pitchford talked to MachineGames about this project, because their work on Wolfenstein: The New Order proves that they understand shooters from the 1990s.

Pitchford previously mentioned Duke Nukem 5 during the Gearbox Panel at PAX Prime 2011. This was just after the release of Duke Nukem Forever and Pitchford said that he would “soon” make an announcement about the next game in the series.

I guess when it takes 15 years to develop Duke Nukem Forever, four years for an announcement concerning Duke Nukem 5 could be considered “soon.”

[Source: IGN]

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Xbox Store Today: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour, Prototype 1+2, Guncraft, more

Posted on July 15, 2015 by John Scalzo

xboxgamesstore-logo

A game or two has been added to the Xbox Games Store every day this week, and these five titles are sure to include something for everyone…

  • Rory McIlroy PGA Tour (Xbox One) marks the first time that a game in the PGA Tour series will be released for current-generation consoles. It also marks the first time in more than a decade that Tiger Woods isn’t on the cover.
  • Activision stealthily added the Prototype Biohazard Bundle (Xbox One) to the Xbox Games Store on Monday. No one knew a current-generation remake of the open-world duet was in development, but here it is.
  • Tachyon Project (Xbox One) is a twin-stick shooter that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Geometry Wars series.
  • The Fall (Xbox One) is an old-fashioned adventure yarn about the AI in a battle suit keeping its unconscious human operator alive.
  • And Guncraft: Blocked and Loaded (Xbox 360) combines the voxel-based “block building” of Minecraft with a modern shooter. I’m surprised it took this long for that combination to appear in a console game.

More information on all of these games can be found after the break.

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Daily Scoop: July 15, 2015 – Well, that was disappointing

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Nicole Kline

Prime Day was definitely not worth the hype. I didn’t see anything I wanted, and even the things I kind of wanted were sold out before I saw them. It’s probably for the best, as I just spent all my Amazon points on a Wii U and a copy of Splatoon. So I see it as a relief! Anyway, if you’re inclined to check it out, feel free, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

You have a day left to pick up the Video Games Story Bundle if you haven’t already! Pay what you want for How Video Games Are Made, Kill Screen Issue 8: Virtual Reality, Boss Fight Books: Bible Adventures, and Put This In Your Brain: The Best of Unwinnable Weekly. Pay $12 or more for HG 101 Presents: An Unofficial Guide to Castlevania, Designers & Dragons: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, Scroll: #12 – Introducting MSX (plus 1-11 as a bonus), and The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers. That’s a lot of amazing books for one low price!

You can still pick up Crusader Kings II as the Midweek Madness deal at Steam. It’s $7.99, or you can get the whole collection for $39.99. Today’s Daily Deal is Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds, which is on sale for just $2.99.

There are a lot of great shirts today!

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Randy Pitchford’s #AskRandy Q&A goes horribly wrong for the developer

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Josh Griffiths

gearbox-logoTwitter is a wonderful place. But sometimes, it can be a truly horrifying place where your worst nightmares come to life. That’s the position Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford found himself in Monday when he agreed to participate in an #AskRandy Q&A for Develop Brighton.

The intended goal was to get people to ask Pitchford questions about game development, which seems fair enough. The only problem was the timing. On Friday, Pitchford made a statement in regards to Sega’s agreement to a settlement concerning the lawsuit centered around Aliens: Colonial Marines. Sega and Gearbox were being sued by gamers who argued that Sega used false and unrepresentative demos, trailers, and screenshots to sell the game. Gearbox was included in the lawsuit as the developer of the game, though most of the work was reportedly outsourced to TimeGate Studios, and Gearbox was dropped from the suit similar this year.

Pitchford went on the attack in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, saying, “the legal system failed as it was being manipulated by what appeared to me to be, essentially, mafia-style extortion tactics.” He continued by stating the free market was the only judge for the game: “The market proved it was doing its job perfectly. The market is dispassionate — rewarding what it likes and punishing what it doesn’t. There is an objectivity and fairness in the open market’s harsh, firm justice.”

Of course, the whole lawsuit was about the game being sold on a bed of lying screenshots and trailers, and the infamous E3 2013 demo, but that’s neither here nor there.

Monday also marked the release of the latest episode of Jim Sterling’s Jimquisition show, “Aliens: Colonial Marines – Game Over, Randy,” in which he disagreed with Pitchford’s comments from Friday. This coincided with Develop Brighton’s launch for the hashtag campaign, and with the powder keg primed, angry fans were handed the match.

A sampling of the tweets Pitchford received can be found after the break.

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Sega releases trailer for fictional “Shia LaBeouf DLC” for Sonic Generations

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Josh Griffiths

As a game critic and commentator, it’s my job to commentate on things like this. But… what is there to say? Sega has posted a video on it’s official forums advertising a “Shia LaBeouf DLC” for Sonic Generations. This is definitely a real thing that is definitely not happening, but it was uploaded to the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube Page yesterday, and is being promoted by Sonic’s offical Twitter account.

Sonic’s social media accounts have been extremely interesting, to say the least, over the last few weeks. Allow me to demonstrate:

This could be the start of a recent attempt by Sega to regain the public’s trust after publicly apologizing for recent missteps. I can see an old man at Sega HQ saying, what better way to reconnect with “da kids” than by quoting memes (like Shia LaBeouf’s “You can do it!” message) and posting bizarre jokes to Twitter? Maybe he’s got his feet up on the desk, with a big fat cigar in his mouth, yelling at Peter Parker to get those pictures of Spide-Man while he’s at it.

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Personal user data exposed after a hack of Epic Games forum

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Josh Griffiths

epicgames-logoEpic Games, the creator of Gears of War and the Unreal Engine, has released a notice detailing a hack of their community forums. The full details of the hack and what Epic is doing to fix the problem can be read right here:

Dear Epic Games Forum Member,

We have just discovered that the Epic Games forums located at https://forums.epicgames.com were compromised by a hacker. We are sorry to report that the incident may have resulted in unauthorized access to your username, email address, password, and the date of birth you provided at registration.

We have taken https://forums.epicgames.com offline. When the site reopens, your password will be reset. If you use the same password on this site which you use on other sites, we recommend immediately changing your password on those sites as well.

The affected forum site covers UDK, Infinity Blade, Gears of War, Bulletstorm, and prior Unreal Tournament games. However, the separate forum sites covering Unreal Engine 4, Fortnite, and the new Unreal Tournament were unaffected.

We apologize for the inconvenience this causes everyone. To further understand what’s happened and prevent it in the future, we’re working with a computer security firm to identify the nature of the compromise. We will report further information on the forums when they reopen.

While the investigation into the security compromise is ongoing, we are reaching out to you directly to let you know of the potential unauthorized access to information you provided at registration. It is possible that any information stored or sent by you using the forums may have been accessed. Since this is a public forum, we do not collect or maintain financial information, but we advise you to be alert for suspicious email such as phishing attempts.

Thank you for being a part of our community, and for your attention to this issue.

Best Regards,
The Epic Games Team

Best of luck to everyone affected by this hack.

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