Interresting GDC tidbits

[Angelica Haze]

Some Mass Effect 2 Gameplay

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from 1up.com again. 6000 on screen zombies in dead rising 2!! *fangirl shriek*

During a panel at GDC last week covering the new technologies Blue Castle Games is using in the making of Dead Rising 2, one panel member managed to divulge two exciting pieces of information in one seemingly casual sentence: Dead Rising 2 will include a multiplayer mode, and in it, there could be up to 6,000 zombies on-screen at one time.

As IGN reports (via Shacknews), these details were given by Laura Scholl, the product manager of mental mill, a program being used to properly light and shade the large amount of characters appearing in Dead Rising 2. During the panel, Scholl recounted a conversation she had with lead character designer Izmeth Siddeek, in which Siddeek confirmed up to 6,000 characters could be on-screen during a multiplayer session in the game. This was, in fact, the first time multiplayer has been confirmed in Dead Rising 2 at all.

No other details on the multiplayer mode were given, so it's uncertain exactly what form it'll take -- although given the nature of the game, a co-operative mode would seem to make the most sense (and sounds like it'd be the most fun). After all, if players are going to be taking on 6,000 ravenous corpses come alive, a little backup would probably be appreciated.

Once Capcom releases any more information about this mysterious multiplayer mode, we'll pass it on.

and from http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/03/25/new-game-from-team-ico-will-be-like-ico-gdc-2009/

A new ICO, Shadow of the Colossus esque game!

At the start of the Q&A session during the “Evolving Game Design†panel, Suda51 had questions for his fellow panelist, Fumito Ueda, the lead designer of revered titles “Ico†and “Shadow of the Colossus.â€

“I think I’ll represent everyone here by asking Mr. Ueda: When is your new game going to happen?†Suda said. After some laughter and applause, Ueda replied, “The Japan studio bosses are here so I can’t say anything specific, but it might be something similar to what’s been done. … The essence of the game is rather clsoe to ‘Ico.’†As Suda asked more questions, Ueda then pleaded, “I can’t talk about this anymore! Don’t ask anymore questions please! As soon as I stop talking they’re going to shoot me!â€

I need to find some more time for gaming!!!

 

[Angelica Haze]

ps2 price drop to $99.99

Looks like Sony's big Tuesday announcement was indeed a price drop, but not for the PlayStation 3. Instead, the PlayStation 2 had a final moment in the sun today as it dropped to the magical $99.99.

Rumors have circulated for months that PS3 is due for a price drop this year, and for a time it looked like today would be it. But then Sony issued an unequivocal denial, and attention turned instead toward the entertainment giant's old warhorse. Now the final price drop has been confirmed.

So if you're not one of the 136 million PS2 owners that Sony trumpets in its press release, now would certainly be a good time to pick one up. Issues on high-definition televisions aside, it's still one of the best systems ever made.

Bttlefield: Bad company 2

Big surprise: Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will have lots of destruction.

Even though we already knew about a sequel, EA formally announced and demonstrated said sequel last week during the Game Developers Conference. The demonstration consisted of a short (about 12 minutes long) walkthrough of a mission in the single-player campaign, plus a showing of the teaser trailer (the same one below).

Not a lot was said about the actual single-player storyline; only that, according to senior producer Karl Magnus Troedsson and various other DICE personnel, the story will be a "bit more serious this time." The previous game erred a bit too much on the side of frivolity and sass, and Bad Company 2 should feel, in Troedsson's words, "more intense, more serious." While we don't know exactly why the titular (and intact, as all the characters make a reappearance) Bad Company is in yet-another-country-or-village-near-the-Russian-border, we do know that the group's tasked with pursuing a specific enemy vehicle in this snowy town.

Of course, going after this vehicle necessitates a vicious firefight that affirms how snazzy Bad Company 2's production values are. In between clipped phrases with some military-themed action-movie jargon like "Archangel air support" and "Enemy flares! Reinforcements!" were the vicious-sounding gun battles (done by the same sound team that crafted the outstanding sound from the previous game) and the destruction they cause. Oftentimes during the demonstration, the player character would duck behind a house for cover, only to have the enemy blow said house apart. Troedsson commented that the game's environmental destruction has been amplified, and that they've added "micro-destruction" (such as punching numerous small holes into houses and other points of cover) to fall in line with the "more intense" talking point he mentioned earlier.

The demo ended when, after the player hopped onto a truck for a rail-shooter sequence and blasted apart some enemy vehicles and even a bridge or two, an enemy helicopter hovered by and started blasting away. "We want to give the player more vehicles, and even make their handling and their physics 'tighter' for a better experience," comments Troedsson. Afterward, EA showed off the new teaser trailer below:

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