The Big News

GTA V has been officially confirmed by Rockstar. Wooo! No other news this year could equal the excitement that this simple, information free announcement heralded. Sony could reveal tomorrow that the Playstation 4 will be housed in the body of a robot butler (with limited edition Helghast version) and there would be less excitement than there is right now for GTA V.

Unfortunately no one stopped to ask just what GTA V is about. Rockstar ain’t yet telling. But rumours, and to be fair most game industry rumours have a good record on these things, are that the game will be set in a Los Angeles inspired locale, not confirmed as Los Santos from GTA San Andreas and players would have the opportunity take on the persona of several characters in the game as opposed to the single protagonist of previous titles.

Rockstar made a big flub about the number of the GTA series, stating firmly that GTA IV was the true sequel to GTA III while the award winning and critically acclaimed titles Vice City and San Andreas were simply spin offs. In GTA IV they hoped to move the title forward in a way they hadn’t in the spin off titles by simply adding new vehicles and bigger maps. Considering we’ve had two spin off games for GTA IV in GTA Episodes, one would assume that GTA V is the next major evolution of the series. Rockstar remains one of the few game companies to produce real surprises with their sequels and to keep a lot of information under wraps until after the game releases; making the announcement of GTA V a gut twistingly exciting time for gamers.

But what would we like to see in another GTA V game; there’s no question that the lacking element in GTA V is non driving gameplay. A GTA game with shooting controls as sublime as Gears of War or Uncharted, and hand to hand fighting controls like Assassins Creed would be a good way to go. Personally I’d also like to see some diversity and depth to different characters controls. Having different characters in GTA Episodes was great, but play wise were they anything more than reskinned versions of Nico? If we’re taking on a few roles in GTA V I’d like those roles to be defined by their play style and abilities as well as their character.

Drop in drop out coop would be nice too, maybe something similar to Gears of War 3 where a player can take the role of one of the NPC’s assisting you in a mission. At the end of the day though, I’d be just as happy to have more GTA IV with new locations and characters.

The first ever trailer will appear tomorrow, or likely Thursday in the Australian timezone. As soon as it’s available we will post it here.

For the Emperor News

It’s been a long wait but Warhammer fans are finally getting the Space Maine coop mode Exterminatus, added to their game a few days past. PS3 and PC owners get the game first, followed by a slight delay for Xbox owners, though by the time you read this it may well be available for all consoles.

It’s a free and automatic update to the title which will install the next time you load up Space Maine online adding the option of Exterminatus mode to the menu. There are only two levels and it plays pretty similar to a Horde mode with up to four players fighting off swarms of enemies. The best news is that all the classes and unlocked perks from the existing competitive multiplayer are available in Exterminatus and any experience earned will count back towards your rank and achievements.

It’s a nice free gift (albeit one that was promised for the release version of the game) but hardly makes up for THQ not getting straight to work on a Space Marine sequel.

Novel News

The queen of the geek tie in novels Karen Traviss, she off the well received Star Wars and Gears of War novels, plus the script for Gears of War 3, is working on the novel that will bridge the story between Halo 3 and Halo 4 highlighting what’s going on while Master Chief is chilling in suspended animation.

What the hell all could be happening in the Haloverse then, you might ask. Well according to the outline of her novel, Halo: Glasslands, quite a lot is happening:

The Covenant has collapsed after a long, brutal war that saw billions slaughtered on Earth and her colonies. For the first time in decades, however, peace finally seems possible. But though the fighting’s stopped, the war is far from over: it’s just gone underground. The UNSC’s feared and secretive Office of Naval Intelligence recruits Kilo-Five, a team of ODSTs, a Spartan, and a diabolical AI to accelerate the Sangheili insurrection. Meanwhile, the Arbiter, the defector turned leader of a broken Covenant, struggles to stave off civil war among his divided people.

Across the galaxy, a woman thought to have died on Reach is actually very much alive. Chief scientist Dr. Catherine Halsey broke every law in the book to create the Spartans, and now she’s broken some more to save them. Marooned with Chief Mendez and a Spartan team in a Forerunner slipspace bubble hidden in the destroyed planet Onyx, she finds that the shield world has been guarding an ancient secret — a treasure trove of Forerunner technology that will change everything for the UNSC and mankind.

As Kilo-Five joins the hunt for Halsey, humanity’s violent past begins to catch up with all of them as disgruntled colony Venezia has been biding its time to strike at Earth, and its most dangerous terrorist has an old, painful link with both Halsey and Kilo-Five that will test everyone’s loyalty to the limit.

For a Halo fan (which I definitely am) I’m sure that all sounds pretty damn cool, no mention of Jun though, the Sniper from Halo Reach who was trying to get Halsey of the planet, hopefully he plays a role because I’d like to know what happened to him.

I’ve read few of Ms Traviss’s books and they’re pretty darn good, heavy on the political and military elements of the universes she writes in. She also has what amounts to pretty much my dream job, making a living writing about worlds she loves. That’s a pretty envy worthy career.

Bad Day At the Office News

Canadian developer Silicon Knights has cut it’s staff by three quarters in the last three months from 97 down to 25. The once well regarded developer hasn’t had such a good time of it lately. Their magnum opus title Too Human from a few years back received more attention for team lead Dennis Dyack inept media posturing and pot shots at Epic; all of which crumbled after the games commercial and critical flop (although I liked it).

Their most recent release, Xmen Destiny, has been critically savaged upon release with a metacritic average of 48 out of 40 pro reviews. The chances of seeing a Too Human sequel, the game was intended to be the first of a trilogy, seem remote. Confirming the axing's through a press release Silicon Knights have said they plan on finishing up the studio by releasing, "the next gen game the community wants", but we're not sure if that's an Eternal Darkness HD remake, Too Human Two, or something else entirely.

Freebie News

Trying to decide between Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3? Personally I’m hanging out for Ghost Recon Online, mainly because it suits my family man budget the best, the game is free.

Okay, it’s probably not ‘real’ free, just freemium, with the kids who stole their mums credit card equipping body armour and grenade launchers. Still, for a free(ish) game, it’s looking pretty good.

Indie News

You might not be aware but Australian’s have long been denied the Xbox Live Indie channel. Hell, you might not be aware there even IS an Xbox Live indie channel.

Well there is, and due to the open source nature of the content Australian classification laws prevent Xbox from marketing it; as opposed to the Apple app store which technically don’t count as games for legal purposes. Yes, once again our classification laws are monumentally stupid, archaic and failing to keep up with technology.

But you might recall those same laws are up for an overhaul. Microsoft is hoping these changes may free up the Indie channel for Australian consumption which is excellent news. It opens up a whole new market for fledgling game designers and new independent games for Australians. It’s all win win. No timeframe for when this might occur though, but at least it’s more likely than it was last year.

Nintendo is Apple News

Very interesting article on why Nintendo stock is a good investment right now: http://www.industrygamers.com/news/nintendo-wont-be-the-next-sega-and-why-you-should-buy-shares-game-trader/

I’ve been one of the people drawing parallels with Nintendo and Sega, seeing two companies in the same industry with the same issues and making the same assumptions. But the article makes a pretty decent argument that, historically, Nintendo are in a big slump but have plenty of resources and potential to step up the way Apple did ten years ago. They just need direction and to abandon some of the current strategies that weren’t conducive in the long term.

It’s a business, investment orientated article, but if you’re a gamer it’s an interesting, quick read.

Everyone is Wrong News

Uncharted 3 reviews have received more news this past week than the game itself. Our story begins with the big balloon top tier media outlets appear with their exclusivity deals and drop scores like 10 out of 10 for Uncharted 3. Shortly after that the second tier, often slightly more objective (but not always) reviews appear with slightly more tempered scores and constructive criticism. In the case of Eurogamer it was an entirely unsurprising 8 out of 10. (In case anyone was wondering, in the pecking order I think we’re about tier 42)

This alleged vile betrayal of the secret code of game journalist integrity (which I haven’t seen but I assume must exist given the sanctimonious level of rage) caused message boards to combust and fans to flame like they haven’t flamed since Killzone 2.

The kicker of course is that the review, by writer Simon Parkin, is very good. I’d give the review a review score of 9 out of 10 (it would have gotten a perfect score with a few funny captions). It’s reasoned and balanced and filled with glowing praise for the game. Most importantly it makes some pretty damn good arguments for its score. David Jaffe leapt to the reviewers defence and people have been arguing the reviews merits longer than the games.

Then, to add a chainsaw to the knife fight Thunderdome style, Uncharted 3 lead developer Richard Lemarchard (who I swear sounds like the same name as they guy who made the puzzle box in Hellraiser) very foolishly chimed in to say he was disappointed in the review. What? Dissapointed?

This led on to an argument in several outlets as to whether or not game makers should be allowed to comment on reviews of their games, especially perfectly reasonable reviews. Just a piece of advice in case anyone wanted to here it: there is no argument; the decent, mature thing is to not comment. That’s an entertainment industry wide given, as soon as you comment on a review of your own work it’s impossible not to sound like an ass. No writer, film maker, poet, musician, painter, actor, no one has ever commented on a critics remarks and sounded like anything other than a fool.

If only there was an example, maybe a recent example, of a similar event….

Ooooh yes, Cliffy B of Epic doing the exact same thing, just last month, ALSO about a Eurogamer review of 8 out of 10. So why did poor old Cliffy get called “Unbelievable vulgar” by Destructoid and “Selfish” by Gamepro while Lemarchard gets a pass for saying the exact same thing with slightly more diplomatic language? Mayhaps because Mr. Bleszinski isn't afraid of hanging his nuts out to be the vocal voice and PR precense of his franchise, and more often than not it's punching bag. Mr. Lemarchard we barely know, and it seems journo's were a little lighter on his indiscretion as a result, despite it being an almost exact match to Bleszinski. Call me crazy but that doesn't strike me as fair.

The drama is thankfully dying down now. Lessons to be learned here are 1) the bleating of fanboys is somehow still newsworthy and overall that’s ridiculous, and 2) the creator should never comment on criticism of their creation. There’s no way that’s ever going to be a positive thing, ever.

And can I have my copy of Uncharted 3 now Mr. Lemarchard, sir? I promise not to reveal any details about the lament configuration or the Cenobites.

Also, if you send a Collectors Edition I promise five stars.