DCEmu Featured News Articles

Guerrilla Games is promising tighter, more responsive controls for the forthcoming Killzone 3.

Writing on the official Killzone site, Guerrilla Game Director Mathijs de Jonge described the difficult decisions the team took in addressing this highly contentious issue. On the one hand, the response from the controls was the subject of much criticism from many gamers. On the other, the sensation of weight and inertia was one of the defining features of the game's primary handshake with the player.

"Our first priority when we started working on the controls for Killzone 3 was to listen closely to Killzone 2's players - what they liked, what they disliked, and how they felt things could be improved," Mathijs wrote. "Accuracy and responsiveness consistently came up as the top issues. At the same time, a lot of players were saying they loved the weighty feel."

Back in February, Digital Foundry took possession of a DualShock 3 controller adapted by legendary modsmith Benjamin Heckendorn. Connected to an LED monitor board, it allowed us to measure the latency between button press and on-screen action, the so-called input or controller lag.

Our result? The simple act of firing a pistol (something you wouldn't expect to have much heft or inertia) took 150ms from button press to muzzle-flash on-screen. In more challenging scenes, with the game dropping frames, latency was even higher. In comparison, most other first-person shooters running at 30FPS tend to weigh in around 100ms to 133ms max, while 60FPS titles like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare can achieve a very respectable 66ms response in optimum conditions.

The official Killzone site talks about the team "going back to the drawing board" in improving controller response.

"Right now it's still a work in progress," Mathijs explained. "But we're definitely getting there. We've recalibrated the dead zone to be more responsive and significantly reduced the input lag, resulting in far better accuracy. Best of all, we've managed to retain that sense of weight that set Killzone 2 apart from other shooters. I can't wait for people to try it out."

We played the E3 demo of Killzone 3 at the event and while clearly a proper analysis wasn't possible within the confines of SCEE's press lounge, there was definitely a sense of an additional crispness to the controls. However, in the pre-alpha demo there was still a somewhat variable frame-rate - definitely one of the significant contributory factors in adding to Killzone 2's controller lag.

Overall impressions were very positive though, and bearing in mind how little has been shown of the full game thus far, we can't wait to see more.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/di...lag-blog-entry ...

Independent games label Codename has been drafted in by Sony to create new experiences for PlayStation Home.

Four titles are due over the next few months from Codename, which brings together a number of independent developers.

In Duelling Gentlemen, created by Odd Gentleman, players strategize the right moves on a giant stage in Home's Plaza, "to outsmart opponents and win this old-time battle for honour and prestige", says the official blurb (via Kotaku).

Peanut Gallery, winner of the IndieCade 2010 Audience Award, brings Minor Battle, in which two teams run around a cube of four screens to beat each other in a capture-the-flag style platformer.

The wonderfully-named Super Awesome Mountain RPG, created by Codename, is described as a blend of tabletop board games and fantasy RPGs, where players ascend a fantastical mountain in Home's Central Plaza using a custom animated figurine.

And finally, Cogs in 3D multiplayer is a multiplayer version of Lazy8's Steampunk-style game. In Home it'll be a "dynamic public spectacle in the Central Plaza".

"We're thrilled to be partnering with PlayStation Home to create and develop games that step outside the parameters of traditional game development and we're really looking forward to the creative opportunities that lie ahead," said Codename founder Jesse Vigil.

"Our model of pulling together teams of developers and allowing them to make their creative dreams a reality has only one main tenet - any game created for PlayStation Home is graphically and visually entertaining to both play and watch, at the same time."

At the beginning of July Home's service director Jack Buser said PlayStation Home has been "a huge success" for Sony despite scepticism among press and consumers. "The proof is in the pudding," he said.

Home has 14 million registered users, according to Sony.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/in...aystation-home ...

Upcoming stab-em-up Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is not Assassin's "2.5", Ubisoft has insisted.

Brotherhood, due out on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November, comes only a year after Assassin's Creed II, which we liked very much indeed.

As a result some fans of the successful open world action series are sceptical about the game, which includes multiplayer for the first time.

Despite having only a year to create Brotherhood, developer Ubisoft Montreal has been able to make a game even bigger than its predecessor, outspoken associate producer Jean-Francois Boivin told Eurogamer.

"It's not a mission pack," he said. "It's not a 2.5. It's set in Rome, which is three times the size of Florence, which technologically is a challenge to do, just memory wise. You have this enormous playground to play with. And you have these new features, these new elements that bring a new twist and a new angle to Ezio's story.

"It's about Ezio teaching others how to become assassins. There are a lot of core features we worked on. We brought a lot of new, deep and vast features – the old Rome upgrade system, the economic system - the Brotherhood is a game in of itself.

"Plus we're bringing everything people loved about Assassin's Creed II. We took each feature and said, 'How can we make that feature better, or give it a bit of spice, a bit of Tabasco, or a bit of baby oil so it flows a bit better?' We will be extremely successful in convincing fans once they have the controller in their hands. Then the question is going to be, 'How did they do it in a year?' That's going to be the question that's fun to answer later on."

Boivin said Ubisoft Montreal was able to develop Brotherhood quicker than previous Assassin's titles because it had already established many of the base tools required to build the game.

"First of all we have extremely stable tools. We've been building Anvil [game engine] for six, seven years now. It's extremely stable. We have loads of tools that work super, super well.

"As you've probably read everywhere, Assassin's Creed 2 had hundreds and hundreds of resources all over the world. But then when you start submitting you ramp down a lot. We didn't do that. We just stayed right up there and kept our production velocity, starting right away.

"We already knew we wanted to do Rome. So the graphics team stayed the graphics team - bang, start building Rome really quickly. We know all our technical and design guidelines. How to build a city so Ezio can do some free running? The AI guys – how you can improve on NPC AI? How can we improve on the horse? How can we improve on the fights? We started working on that right away.

"Then the storyline. We already knew it was Ezio's story, and Patrice Désilets [now departed] already knew what the story was. So it was quick for us to do a story blueprint. Maybe two weeks after the release of Assassin's Creed 2 we already had the story down, and we probably started writing a few pages of script. Casting was already underway.

"The operative word here is velocity. And we still have people helping us. Our Singapore office is still working with us. The studio in Quebec City is helping us. It's a question of keeping going and making a full game in a year."

Boivin's comments mirror those of UK marketing boss Murray Pannell, who told Eurogamer he expects Brotherhood to outsell Assassin's Creed II.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ub...assassin-s-2-5 ...

Ubisoft has made it clear that, although Michael Jackson: The Experience wasn't announced until well after the King of Pop's death, it is not a posthumous cash-in.

UK marketing director for Ubisoft Murray Pannel told GI.biz that - of course - he hoped Jacko's popularity continued, but that Michael Jackson: The Experience was in development well before the superstar's passing:

"The truth is that we were engaged with Jackson and the Jackson family long before his death," he said.

"By all accounts he was very pro-actively looking for a partner that he felt could bring value - and Ubisoft seemed to fit the bill very well."

"So this isn't something that's been jumped on since his death - we've been working on this, despite the fact that we announced it quite recently, for a long time.

"It's well advanced in terms of the formats it's working on - we know how big he is, how loved he is by his fans and how successful he's been as an artist. Hopefully we can bring that to millions more gamers as well."

It seems that Ubisoft had to work hard for the game's rights, however, taking part in an 'intense bidding war' to get its hands on the Jackson name.

The game will be available for Kinect on for Xbox 360, PS3 Move, PSP, Wii and DS this 'Holiday' (Christmas).

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

Elite creator and Frontier founder David Braben has come to the defence of Kinect against those claiming it is hampered by latency issues - telling CVG that the device enables "very fresh" experiences.

Responding to CVG's opinion 'Kinect: Lag? What lag?', Braben agreed that the games media had made too much of perceived latency issues surrounding the device.

Frontier has created Kinectimals for the camera-based peripheral - a family-friendly big cat simulator, which has been dubbed 'Kinect's Nintendogs'.

"I agree that the lag factor has been overplayed," he told CVG. "As I think you hint at in your piece, what Kinect enables feels very fresh too.

"There has been a tendency in our business to knock most new technologies - apart from better graphics perhaps. This is no different."

Early videos of Kinect showed very noticeable latency between the actions of the player and what appeared on the screen in front of them - most notoriously when Jonathan Ross tested the device in February.

However, Microsoft promised that this lag would be greatly reduced by the time the device launches in November.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS ...

SEGA has announced that it will release exclusive add-on missions for Valkyria Chronicles II as an incentive for pre-ordering the strategy RPG.

The missions will be available as a free PSN download when the game is released for PSP on 3rd September in Europe.

There missions take the form of exercises against two rival classes, one requiring you to destroy all enemies, the other to take over an encampment. The SEGA blog has the details.

Valkyria Chronicles II is the sequel to the excellent PS3 original. It adds co-op and competitive multiplayer to the mix of turn-based strategy, teen soap opera, levelling and baroque, fantasy First World War fashions.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/fr...-chronicles-ii ...

The host of Xbox Live quiz game 1 vs. 100 has given his reaction to the news there will be no season 3.

"Yeah... Bummer," he told Giant Bomb. "I certainly hope to get a chance to play with Xbox again, but I have no idea what it's up to next... The Live platform is so cool and the streaming content is just way ahead of the curve, so I gotta assume it's all a part of a bigger picture. I'm sure they are plotting something rad," said Cashman.

"As for how I'm taking the news of 1 vs. 100 going away? Well... I've always been dramatic," he added, referring to his YouTube response to the news.

1 vs. 100 launched in the UK a year ago. It let you answer questions and win stuff from the comfort of your own home, but now you'll have to settle for Foxy Bingo instead.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ca...0-cancellation ...

Codemasters has confirmed there will be no playable demo for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 racer F1 2010.

The news comes via the Codemasters forum. Moderator SynGamer quotes community manager Ian Webster as saying, "Due to the nature of the game, and its layers of licensed content, it will not be possible to make a cut-down, limited content sample that would serve as a demo for F1 in 2010 within our production deadlines."

F1 2010 is due out on 30th September. You can find a hands-on preview plus all manner of screenshots and videos over on the gamepage.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/no...ys-codemasters ...

Electronic Arts' sports franchise Tiger Woods PGA Tour may have suffered permanent sales damage due to the star's public infidelities.

The latest in the series, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11, was released in June and suffered a 68 per cent drop in US sales compared to last year's iteration, which was released in the same month.

Although last year the Wii version of the game shipped with the Wii MotionPlus accessory, Doug Creutz of Cowan & Company labelled the 86 per cent decline in Wii sales of PGA Tour 11 as "particularly catastrophic."

"Although this is probably due in part to the fact that last year's version shipped bundled with Nintendo's new MotionPlus controller, we are concerned that Woods' scandal woes may have permanently damaged the sales potential of what we believe to be EA's third most important sports franchise, behind Madden and FIFA," he wrote in a note to investors.

At the start of the year, EA Sports president Peter Moore denied the franchise had been impacted by revelations of Wood's sex life, although that was before the release of the latest console game and Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online.

Looking at other EA titles released in May and June, Creutz pointed to Skate 3, with sales down 40 per cent compared to the first two month's of Skate 2, and the sale of 82,000 units of Green Day: Rock Band as the reason for reducing full year revenue estimates for the publisher from $538 million to $475 million for the first financial quarter of 2011.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-damaged-sales ...