Wranglers Claim Hobbit Production Responsible for Animal Deaths

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals reportedly plans to stage protests at the New Zealand, U.S., and U.K. premieres of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey after wranglers who worked on the film claimed the production is responsible for up to 27 animal deaths.

The American Humane Association said none of the animals died during the actual filming of the three-part Lord of the Rings prequel; rather it was the Wellington, New Zealand farm where the animals were housed that was the problem, a location "filled with bluffs, sinkholes and other 'death traps.'" Some of the animal deaths, however, were from natural causes.

A spokesperson for Hobbit director Peter Jackson acknowledged that horses, goats, chickens, and one sheep died at the farm, which kept roughly 150 animals while the movies were in production. Jackson's spokesperson said that two of the horse deaths were avoidable and that the production company moved to improve housing and stable facilities.

According to The Hollywood Reporter,  the wranglers "said they repeatedly raised concerns about the farm with their superiors and the production company, owned by Warner Bros., but it continued to be used. They say they want their story aired publicly now to prevent similar deaths in the future."

Source : ign[dot]com

The Two Sides of Far Cry 3

Painted in bright, tropical blues and greens and starring a cast of insane people, pirates, island-dwelling substance abusers and far-fetched wildlife, it’s safe to say that Far Cry 3 is not anything like as serious as Far Cry 2, and evidently has none of its grand geopolitical messaging. For some this will be a disappointment, but then, Far Cry 2 has already been made, and anything that stuck too closely to its model would struggle not to pale in comparison. Far Cry 3 is not an imitator, though it does show its influences proudly.

It begins as a tropical holiday, with snapshots of a young group of friends dancing on the beach, drinking under flickering club lights, having a good time on a beautiful island. But it all goes wrong, predictably, when they fall foul of a group of psychopathic pirates led by crazy-eyed Vaas, the convincing and unnervingly well-acted antagonist at the centre of Far Cry 3’s pre-release posturing so far. You awaken as protagonist Jason Brody. Handcuffed to a cage opposite another bound and gagged prisoner, you’re subjected to the first of many Vaas monologues in which he switches at a second’s notice from seemingly affable to completely unhinged. After scaring the wits out of you, he strides off into the night, leaving you to stew.

The prisoner opposite you turns out to be Brody’s ex-military brother, and leads a tense escape effort after setting you both free of your bonds. Sneaking through the pirate camp, crouching out of sight, you watch him grab and kill guards with a found knife as Jason whimpers and swears under his breath in fear. It’s a powerful opening, putting you in the shoes of a terrified captive, establishing a desperate, survivalist tone that persists throughout the game’s course. Without wanting to spoil anything, your escape from the camp is a fraught, perfectly-paced introduction that packs an emotional punch as Jason is forced into his first kill.

“

It stars a cast of insane people, pirates, island-dwelling substance abusers and far-fetched wildlife

From that moment onwards, though, Jason has no problem at all with murder, merrily sticking a knife into the necks of hundreds more pirates over the next few hours. This near-instant transformation from terrified abductee to silent killer isn’t exactly convincing, but Ubisoft Montreal attempts to legitimise it with a minor supernatural twist: after being rescued from the jungle, Brody wakes up with a series of tattoos on his arm that give him, essentially, magical powers, like the ability to run silently or sneak-takedown two pirates at once. These abilities are tuned towards stealth or combat, but most of them are useful whatever approach you decide to take to Far Cry 3’s open world.

On-side with the aggrieved local population and with an understandable grudge against Vaas and his pirates, Brody is set free on the island to find the rest of his friends and liberate the place – but not before you’re given an enforced briefing on hunting the local wildlife. Far Cry 3’s ample crafting system is predicated on hunting animals and rummaging through thickets of foliage to find plants and skins that can then be magically transmogrified into a bigger backpack or a healing syringe. Jason’s prey is far from docile - even the most harmless-looking beast will fight back, and if you’re after a predator you’ve not got much chance at success with just a hunting knife.

Far Cry 3’s huge island map is a forest of icons when you first start out, but most of it boils down to pirate outposts that have to be conquered to liberate an area, signal towers that can be scaled to open up another section of the map, hunting grounds, and optional challenges, like deliveries or contract kills. When you’re feeling directionless or, god forbid, tired of provoking wildlife or assaulting pirates in camps, the story missions are there to draw you back into the game’s narrative. Early on at least, these missions are fiercely scripted, in stark contrast with the very emergent feel of the rest of the game – thankfully the quality of Far Cry 3’s character animation and acting is very high indeed.

“

The directed narrative brings out another side of the game

One early sequence sees you make your way to the top of an isolated hill to meet the island’s resident narcotics obsessive, a spaced-out doctor who has found one of Jason’s friends wandering the island. He then sends you on your own trip to fetch some mushrooms for him, a mission that seems deathly dull but soon melts into a hallucinogenic adventure far more interesting than the typical open-world fetch-quest. The directed narrative brings out a side of the game that you don’t get to see when you’re stalking the jungle, making your own fun.

We’ve talked a lot about the kind of open-world insanity you can get up to before – like setting a tiger loose on an encampment, or trying and failing to run over a buffalo – but until now it’s been difficult to see how all of this gels with the fiercely scripted story direction. It feels like Far Cry 3 has two distinct sides to it, but so far it feels like they complement each other rather than creating an uncomfortable tension. So far.

“

Far Cry 3 is inherently fun to play

It helps that Far Cry 3 is inherently fun to play, whatever you’re doing, whether you like blowing things up or hunting animals or picking out targets patrolling a pirate camp with binoculars from the top of a hill before sneaking down there and silently taking them all out in sequence. As a stealth-orientated player I’m a big fan of the bow and the silent attack, but it’s enjoyably unrestrictive; when someone sees you, a carefully-planned infiltration can quickly turn into a chaotic seat-of-your-pants assault, and the game doesn’t punish you for failure so much as expect you to adapt to what happens.

It’s an interesting time for open-world games right now. Some are struggling to bring all their disparate elements together into a convincing, cohesive whole, and some have trouble with the seeming contradiction in terms between scripted storytelling and emergent play, like the great but uneven Assassin’s Creed 3. Far Cry 3 is looking to find an intersection where those two things aren’t in conflict.

Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games team in the UK and has spent far too much time in Far Cry 3 running away from komodo dragons. You can follow her on IGN and Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Two Sides of Far Cry 3

Painted in bright, tropical blues and greens and starring a cast of insane people, pirates, island-dwelling substance abusers and far-fetched wildlife, it’s safe to say that Far Cry 3 is not anything like as serious as Far Cry 2, and evidently has none of its grand geopolitical messaging. For some this will be a disappointment, but then, Far Cry 2 has already been made, and anything that stuck too closely to its model would struggle not to pale in comparison. Far Cry 3 is not an imitator, though it does show its influences proudly.

It begins as a tropical holiday, with snapshots of a young group of friends dancing on the beach, drinking under flickering club lights, having a good time on a beautiful island. But it all goes wrong, predictably, when they fall foul of a group of psychopathic pirates led by crazy-eyed Vaas, the convincing and unnervingly well-acted antagonist at the centre of Far Cry 3’s pre-release posturing so far. You awaken as protagonist Jason Brody. Handcuffed to a cage opposite another bound and gagged prisoner, you’re subjected to the first of many Vaas monologues in which he switches at a second’s notice from seemingly affable to completely unhinged. After scaring the wits out of you, he strides off into the night, leaving you to stew.

The prisoner opposite you turns out to be Brody’s ex-military brother, and leads a tense escape effort after setting you both free of your bonds. Sneaking through the pirate camp, crouching out of sight, you watch him grab and kill guards with a found knife as Jason whimpers and swears under his breath in fear. It’s a powerful opening, putting you in the shoes of a terrified captive, establishing a desperate, survivalist tone that persists throughout the game’s course. Without wanting to spoil anything, your escape from the camp is a fraught, perfectly-paced introduction that packs an emotional punch as Jason is forced into his first kill.

“

It stars a cast of insane people, pirates, island-dwelling substance abusers and far-fetched wildlife

From that moment onwards, though, Jason has no problem at all with murder, merrily sticking a knife into the necks of hundreds more pirates over the next few hours. This near-instant transformation from terrified abductee to silent killer isn’t exactly convincing, but Ubisoft Montreal attempts to legitimise it with a minor supernatural twist: after being rescued from the jungle, Brody wakes up with a series of tattoos on his arm that give him, essentially, magical powers, like the ability to run silently or sneak-takedown two pirates at once. These abilities are tuned towards stealth or combat, but most of them are useful whatever approach you decide to take to Far Cry 3’s open world.

On-side with the aggrieved local population and with an understandable grudge against Vaas and his pirates, Brody is set free on the island to find the rest of his friends and liberate the place – but not before you’re given an enforced briefing on hunting the local wildlife. Far Cry 3’s ample crafting system is predicated on hunting animals and rummaging through thickets of foliage to find plants and skins that can then be magically transmogrified into a bigger backpack or a healing syringe. Jason’s prey is far from docile - even the most harmless-looking beast will fight back, and if you’re after a predator you’ve not got much chance at success with just a hunting knife.

Far Cry 3’s huge island map is a forest of icons when you first start out, but most of it boils down to pirate outposts that have to be conquered to liberate an area, signal towers that can be scaled to open up another section of the map, hunting grounds, and optional challenges, like deliveries or contract kills. When you’re feeling directionless or, god forbid, tired of provoking wildlife or assaulting pirates in camps, the story missions are there to draw you back into the game’s narrative. Early on at least, these missions are fiercely scripted, in stark contrast with the very emergent feel of the rest of the game – thankfully the quality of Far Cry 3’s character animation and acting is very high indeed.

“

The directed narrative brings out another side of the game

One early sequence sees you make your way to the top of an isolated hill to meet the island’s resident narcotics obsessive, a spaced-out doctor who has found one of Jason’s friends wandering the island. He then sends you on your own trip to fetch some mushrooms for him, a mission that seems deathly dull but soon melts into a hallucinogenic adventure far more interesting than the typical open-world fetch-quest. The directed narrative brings out a side of the game that you don’t get to see when you’re stalking the jungle, making your own fun.

We’ve talked a lot about the kind of open-world insanity you can get up to before – like setting a tiger loose on an encampment, or trying and failing to run over a buffalo – but until now it’s been difficult to see how all of this gels with the fiercely scripted story direction. It feels like Far Cry 3 has two distinct sides to it, but so far it feels like they complement each other rather than creating an uncomfortable tension. So far.

“

Far Cry 3 is inherently fun to play

It helps that Far Cry 3 is inherently fun to play, whatever you’re doing, whether you like blowing things up or hunting animals or picking out targets patrolling a pirate camp with binoculars from the top of a hill before sneaking down there and silently taking them all out in sequence. As a stealth-orientated player I’m a big fan of the bow and the silent attack, but it’s enjoyably unrestrictive; when someone sees you, a carefully-planned infiltration can quickly turn into a chaotic seat-of-your-pants assault, and the game doesn’t punish you for failure so much as expect you to adapt to what happens.

It’s an interesting time for open-world games right now. Some are struggling to bring all their disparate elements together into a convincing, cohesive whole, and some have trouble with the seeming contradiction in terms between scripted storytelling and emergent play, like the great but uneven Assassin’s Creed 3. Far Cry 3 is looking to find an intersection where those two things aren’t in conflict.

Keza MacDonald is in charge of IGN's games team in the UK and has spent far too much time in Far Cry 3 running away from komodo dragons. You can follow her on IGN and Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

New York Comic-Con: Cosplay Winners 2012

New York Comic-Con is quickly coming up on its San Diego counterpart, not only in attendance, but percentage of people dressed in cosplay. This year, cosplayers were out in the convention hall in record numbers, and we captured some of the best costumes to participate in our annual cosplay throwdown.

Costumes squared off, battle by battle, until over 1.6 million votes were tallied. We now present the Top Ten vote-getters in the 2012 New York Comic-Con Cosplay Battle.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

Editor Picks

Here are some of our favorite costumes that did not get voted into the Top Ten:

We'll be on hand again at New York Comic-Con next year to bring another epic costume battle to you. See you there!

Source : ign[dot]com

Minecraft Beats Modern Warfare 3 and FIFA 13 on XBLA

Minecraft is being played by more people on Xbox Live Arcade than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or FIFA 13.

As posted by Major Nelson, the Microsoft Live activity chart for the week ending October 15 shows Minecraft (Xbox 360 Edition) has topped the charts for the very first time, beating out retail heavy-hitters Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and FIFA 13. They had to settle for second and third places, respectively.

A quick scan through previous chart updates shows that Call of Duty games have pretty much nabbed the top spot for the past four years. It's another colossal milestone for the game, which was recently revealed to have sold four million copies on Microsoft's console, making it the best-selling XBLA game ever.

The Microsoft Live activity chart counts how many unique users are playing a game whilst connected to Xbox Live. In addition to Minecraft, Modern Warfare 3 and FIFA 13, the rest of the top five is rounded out by Call of Duty: Black Ops and Borderlands 2.

Minecraft was the recipient of a massive patch last week, which brought with it a host of changes to the game. A full list of the latest additions and changes to the game can be found in the Minecraft Wiki.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and has a vested interest in mines, being Welsh and all. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Holy Crap! The SEGA CD Is 20 Years Old!

Whoa, remember the SEGA CD? Ah, neither do a lot of people. Some IGN editors sure do though, and now that SEGA's riskiest console is 20-years-old, we decided to look back at our fondest, craziest memories of Sewer Shark, Lethal Enforcers, and Night Trap. You know, the modern classics.

Ryan Clements , Features Editor says - "Hey! Relaaaax. Pretend it's a game. Maybe it'll even be fun... Shoot the tubes, Dogmeat!"

So barks your co-pilot Ghost, a pastiche of '90s machismo and adrenaline, in the SEGA CD pack-in Sewer Shark. Amidst the distorted power chords, rank tunnels, and absurd plot, it's difficult to call Sewer Shark a great game. But I loved it. Playing at around seven years old, my budding gaming skills made a mess of the flying. But the thrill of barreling through corridors infested with vermin and following the nervous orders of Catfish -- a distant relative of 343 Guilty Spark and Wheatley -- made all the deaths worthwhile.

And the literal light at the end of the tunnel, Solar City, beckoned me like a far-away paradise. Shining with ocean air and beautiful women. Even though a full run of Sewer Shark took under an hour, I spent far longer in my desperate plunge to beat it. But that ascent from Dogmeat to Beachbum will forever remain in my gamer legacy. For better or worse.

Ryan McCaffrey, Executive Editor of IGN Xbox says - You know when you’re a kid and you want something SO BAD that all you can do is think about it all day long? That was the SEGA CD add-on for me in the early 1990s. I remember staring at it for creepy amounts of time when it was on the cover of Electronic Gaming Monthly. Its front-panel buttons seemed sleek and futuristic. Its retractable-tray CD drive seemed light years ahead of the only other console CD-ROM drive out there, the TurboGrafx-16 CD-ROM (side note: doesn’t it seem hilarious now that we used to call them “CD-ROM”s? And do you even know/remember what CD-ROM stands for? I do*, and yes that makes me old).

Anyway, as a kid with no job and therefore no income, I didn’t get one for a while. But eventually I saved enough birthday cash and allowance to buy one – except by then it was the far-less-cool, cheaper-to-manufacture, top-loading side-saddle model that sat next to the Genesis. I have fond – if strange – memories of the games. Lethal Enforcers was a popular full-motion video-heavy coin-op light-gun game at that time, so I eagerly purchased the SEGA CD version of Lethal Enforcers II, which came in a big box with a green and a pink (!) six-shooter light gun. I remember a corridor racing/shooting game called Sewer Shark – I think it might’ve been the pack-in game since it’s something I don’t think I would’ve bought on my own – and strangely, I only remember one thing about it: when you smashed into a wall and died, an FMV cutscene popped up with some actor from the game saying, “They’ll be blottin’ you up with Handy Wipes!”

As you can see, FMV was the flavor of the month back in the SEGA CD days. It seemed like a good idea at the time, I assure you.

(*TRIVIA ANSWER: Compact Disc Read-Only Memory)

Destin Legarie, Video Walkthough Editor says - It’s funny how you remember things.  I know today that the SEGA CD was terrible, but when I was a kid and had the opportunity to rent the Genesis attachment I was astounded by the leap in technology.  For a few weekends I had a chance to rent the add-on for a hefty fee and experience two titles; Sewer Shark and Sonic CD.  Yes I recall shooting the orange rats and dodging sewer pipes, but the memories I’m much more fond of include those spent playing the blue blur.  Arguably one of the best Sonic games ever created, Sonic CD had time travel, new 3D bonus levels, and it was the first time Sonic could run in place with a figure 8 red blurring of his shoes before speeding off into the world. However what really blew me away was the animated introductory sequence and ending sequence. In an effort to capture these scenes a friend and I figured out how to run the SEGA CD through a VCR and into a television just so that we could watch the animations again and again after we had to return the system. I still have the VHS stored away to this day and remember pausing that tape again and again just so I could draw pictures of Sonic.  Sure the platform was a failure, but it created one of those fun childhood experiences that you don’t forget.

 

Meghan Sullivan, Games Database Editor says - I remember the SEGA CD for one reason and one reason only: Lunar: Eternal Blue.

This game was simply incredible, and the first RPG I had ever played with voice acting in it. In fact, Eternal Blue had nearly two hours’ worth of voice work, which was unprecedented at the time. Not only that, but thanks to the SEGA CD’s amazing visual and audio capabilities, I remember being treated to some outstanding animated cutscenes and high quality music (I saved the game disc for years just so I could listen to the main theme over and over again).

Though Lunar: Eternal Blue didn’t receive quite as much acclaim as its predecessor Lunar: The Silver Star (another SEGA CD gem), it remains one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Hopefully one day it will be introduced to a new generation of role-playing fans, so that they too can experience the magic of the Blue Star.

Greg Miller, Executive Editor of IGN PlayStation says - Conner Dowell was the only boy I knew richest enough to have the SEGA CD. I remember absconding to his game room one after school day, seeing Dracula Unleashed or Night Trap or whatever the hell that system played, and being so happy my parents hadn't bought this device. A pox on thee, SEGA CD. A pox.

Sam Claiborne, Executive Editor of Wikis says - I was duped into buying a SEGA CD (but didn't learn my lesson about buying stupid add-ons with no games until I bought the 32X), and though I quickly turned back to my SNES, I do have some fond memories associated with the SEGA CD: Figuring out what the heck I was supposed to do in Sewer Shark (follow the screaming robot);  listening to Jerky Boys CDs on my first CD player; and beating Dragon's Lair for the first time. A putt putt course near my house in Scottsdale, Arizona had Street Fighter II, Joe & Mac and Dragon's Lair II. Dragon's Lair II looked freaking amazing, but it cost a buck a play, so that's probably why I initially picked up the port of the prequel when it was released for SEGA CD. Dragon's Lair on SEGA CD wasn't bad, and I spent many afternoons and weekends puzzling through the game one trial and many errors at a time -- something that would have seemed totally unaffordable before the SEGA CD.

Caleb Lawson, Senior Editorial Video Producer says - In the fall of ’94, the biggest topic at my school lunchroom table was undoubtedly Final Fantasy III. But when my friends got going about espers and magicite and some evil dude named Kefka, I never had anything toadd. Their game sounded cool, sure, but I was a SEGA kid, and I had alreadydiscovered my own epic fantasy world to live in.

In my fantasy world, the main characters were fully voiced. There were beautifully animated cutscenes that brought the story to life. Icould even put the game in my CD boombox to listen to the incredible music while I did homework! From the moment I first saw that intro video, I was hooked. My friends didn’t understand what they were missing:

For me, the SEGA CD WAS Lunar and it’s sequel Eternal Blue. These games opened me up to RPGs and proved that the CD medium could be used for more than just cheesy FMVs. They were in good company, too. I sunk hours into exploring Out of This World and it’s SEGA CD exclusive sequel, Heart of the Alien. Keio Flying Squadron opened the door to quirky Japanese shmups. The best Sonic, Snatcher, Flashback, even Tomcat Alley and Mansion of Hidden Souls…

I’m sure I sold them all years ago, but every time I go back to my parents house, I secretly hope I’ll find a dusty box in the back of a closet somewhere containing all these deeply nostalgic gaming memories.

Did you own a SEGA CD? Play one at a friend's house? Suddenly realize you read a site largely written by people way older than you? Tell us your favorite SEGA CD memory in the comments below!

Source : ign[dot]com

Ex-Bulletstorm Devs' New Studio Licenses Unreal Engine

Former People Can Fly founders Adrian Chmielarz, Andrzej Poznanski and Michal Kosieradzki have formed a new indie studio called The Astronauts. The ex-Bulletstorm developers licensed Epic's Unreal Engine 3 for its first unannounced game, which is set for release sometime in 2013. There's no word yet which platforms the team is developing for.

Chmielarz called the decision to use Unreal a "no-brainer" given the team's six-year history working with the engine, and says "we are on a quest to map uncharted waters, and Epic’s tech provides the stability required for success."

Chmielarz, Pozanski, and Kosieradzki left People Can Fly around the time Epic acquired the studio in August.

It's also interesting that The Astronauts have not licensed the use of Epic's Unreal Engine 4, which powers Fortnite. The possibilities for what the game could be range from high-end PCs, consoles, all the way to mobile, as UE3 is what powers the Infinity Blade series.

What would you like to see from this new independent team?

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Ex-Bulletstorm Devs' New Studio Licenses Unreal Engine

Former People Can Fly founders Adrian Chmielarz, Andrzej Poznanski and Michal Kosieradzki have formed a new indie studio called The Astronauts. The ex-Bulletstorm developers licensed Epic's Unreal Engine 3 for its first unannounced game, which is set for release sometime in 2013. There's no word yet which platforms the team is developing for.

Chmielarz called the decision to use Unreal a "no-brainer" given the team's six-year history working with the engine, and says "we are on a quest to map uncharted waters, and Epic’s tech provides the stability required for success."

Chmielarz, Pozanski, and Kosieradzki left People Can Fly around the time Epic acquired the studio in August.

It's also interesting that The Astronauts have not licensed the use of Epic's Unreal Engine 4, which powers Fortnite. The possibilities for what the game could be range from high-end PCs, consoles, all the way to mobile, as UE3 is what powers the Infinity Blade series.

What would you like to see from this new independent team?

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Trials and Tribulations of PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale

It’s tough making fighting games in America. It’s even tougher to make fighting games in America that people will pay attention to. Omar Kendall knows this - he's a veritable veteran of the genre in America. Kendall’s most recent project, PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale, is a fighting game designed for both the hardcore and casual bracket. A game designed to stand out, but not reinvent the wheel: finesse here, a new take on an old mechanic there, and a hell of a lot of character.

“I’m a big fan of the fighting genre, obviously, but I know it’s a shrinking genre,” says Kendall. “Nowadays, there are obviously other game types that are dominating people’s attention. I hope that fighting games continue to evolve with the times and be able to react with people’s changing tastes. I hope they stay viable.”

To help stay relevant, Kendall believes that it's time for those working in the fighting genre to ask themselves the tough questions. What are they doing that’s hurting their appeal? What sorts of things can they do to expand their audience?

“

I hope fighting games continue to be viable - and that we’re a part of that.

“I think a game like PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale does ask those questions. The setting has a broad level of appeal, and the way we’re implementing systems we feel will also have broad appeal. I hope fighting games continue to be viable - and that we’re a part of that.”

Kendall is currently serving as Game Director at SuperBot Entertainment, the recently formed company developing Sony’s mascot brawler. He’s worked across a number of genres, but was headhunted by Shannon Studstill - Senior Director at SCEA - because he knows how to make a fighting game sing. What’s more, he’s based in the States, which is a rarity.

“It’s really difficult to make a fighting game in America, because basically there’s not a long history. You’ve got the dudes from Chicago who make Mortal Kombat, and that’s pretty much it. Most of the talent is from Japan."

Kick, punch, block, putt.

SuperBot was specifically formed to work on All-Stars. The company is comprised of a handful of fighting experts, a handful of developers who have a strong loyalty and affinity to the PlayStation brand, and a slew of in-betweeners. There are 100 odd devs working on All-Stars, so a harmony between these disparate groups was crucial.

“You do kind of have a struggle. We don’t have a hundred guys who are fighting game fanatics – maybe 25% of our total staff are really into fighting games and have maybe competed on a high tournament level. Then you’ve just got your casual guys, who maybe have played a fighting game or two, and you’ve got these die-hard PlayStation guys.”

Kendall believes this kind of melting pot is essential to the success of All-Stars; that the diversity is crucial. Not every guy who came from a fighting game background is going to give a crap about PaRappa the Rapper, and not every guy from Naughty Dog or Insomniac is going to care about the depth of Street Fighter’s mechanics. “We needed a very specific set of expertise to make the game like this,” he muses. “You have to pull from both worlds.”

It hasn’t been the smoothest ride for the fledgling studio. When All-Stars was first announced to the public, the reception was brutal.

“

It never occured to us we were being offensive to people. We just like video games.

“I think it only occurred to me... we had our announcements back in April, and we’d had some media training,” recalls Kendall, with a laugh. ‘This is what you say if someone asks this,’ that sort of thing. But inevitably, we’re making a mascot brawler, right? So someone’s going to ask THE question, and these people training us were like, ‘try to downplay the comparisons.’”

It seems absurd that the team would be requested to downplay any comparisons to Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros., considering how keenly aware they were of of its influence. But they were also surprised at the vitriolic nature of the feedback. “It never occurred to us that we were being offensive to people. We just like video games, and we wanted to make something that’s fun.”

SuperBot has succeeded in making a fun game, as anyone who’s played the beta or attended a recent consumer show can now attest to. Its appeal lies with its accessible premise and control scheme, which quickly seduces players into poking around under the hood.  For Kendell, this accessibility was crucial from the get-go.

“We’re going to attract people who are fans of the PlayStation brands, but just because they liked Sly Cooper doesn’t mean they’re going to be able to jump in and start doing dragon punches. So we set a very low technical department when it comes to inputs. It’s a really simple up, down, left, right control scheme.

"But at the same time, we like competition and getting people in the same room and have them battle it out to see who’s the best, so there is an underlying depth and strategy there. That to me is the great virtue of fighting games. It’s not like ‘oh, I can do this really super complicated sequence of input on a controller’ – it’s the mind-games that go on at a deeper level once you really have a good understanding of the systems and how they work. It’s that battle of wits. That’s the really interesting part of fighting games, and that’s what we tried to bring to All-Stars.”

Heavenly Sword's Nariko cutting loose.

Drawing from his experiences working on THQ’s UFC franchise, Kendall and his team also wanted to ensure that there was an authenticity to the game for fans of the characters.

“UFC fans are very savvy when it comes to the details of the sport. So we had a very specific strategy of really tapping into that, and going really deep into the authenticity of the mechanics and the positions that people were doing, because we knew the fans would respond to that.

"We take a similar approach to All-Stars. For example, for the Sly Cooper fan, we’ve tried very hard to get to the essence of that character. Obviously Sly Cooper has never appeared in a 2D fighting game, but there are elements to Sly that are very quintessential. He’s a very sneaky guy, so we give him invisibility and back-stabbing and the characters of Bentley and Murray play a very prominent role in those games, so we made sure to include them in his moves set. So we're really doing deep dives on these individual characters and these individual levels and universes and really trying to become as authentic and accurate in our portrayal of these characters as possible. We hope players will respond to that.”

In a game that pitches Fat Princess against Kratos, balance has also been a major focus, especially when it comes to each character’s super attack. Kendall acknowledges early criticisms of certain characters’ super attacks, where a push of a button equals a ‘kill-em-all’ cut-scene.

“PaRappa’s level three super – the Gotta Believe music concert – was actually one of the first supers that we made. It was controversial with a lot of members of the team, and on message boards, because essentially Parrapa pushes a button and watches a cut scene and then everybody dies.”

In a fighting game, says Kendell, this challenges a lot of people’s sensibilities of fairness and player agency. Sweet Tooth’s level three super, for example, requires him to shoot and catch other players in order to earn kills, demanding more from the player.

“It was a big challenge having supers like Kratos' and Sweet Tooth’s sitting next to supers like PaRappa’s, and I think that it could have been a situation where we just ran from it, and said, let’s not focus on stuff like that. But I think we really tried to offer something new and challenge some of the standard conventions of fighting games, and what it means to have a competitive landscape."

So SuperBot looked at how much energy each super cost, how many kills a super can get, how easy it is for a particular character to get energy, and tried to balance everything out. "We sort of used those exterior systems and features to try and balance those ‘I’m going to click a button and watch a cut scene’ supers with the ‘earn my kill’ kinds of supers. I guess we’ll find out if we did that right or not.”

There’s a lot of pressure, too, to be truthful to these iconic characters. Kratos must feel like Kratos, but still be able to work within the mechanics of a 2D fighting game. When we asked which characters gave Kendall and his team the biggest challenges, the answer was both obvious... and terrifying.

“The characters who appear in games that aren’t out yet. So we’ve got Dante from the new DmC, and Raiden from Metal Gear Rising: Revengance. The vast majority of people will experience those characters for the first time in our game.

“

Those are the characters that give us the biggest challenge - the ones we're developing at the same time as their creators are.

"It’s a strange level of pressure. Because – I sympathize with the developers that are working on those games, but we have to manage our own production cycle. Sometimes we’re asking them questions they haven’t even asked themselves yet about how they’re going to handle their characters, but we still have to ask, because we still have to make our game, and hope it sort of matches their vision. Those are the characters that give us the biggest challenge – the ones that we’re developing at the same time as their creators are.”

Sometimes, notes Kendall, the marketing machine can get in the way of communication between themselves and these other studios.

“I’ll be honest, there are some things that we watch, like trailers, or promotional footage that comes out of trade shows and we’re like, ‘we’ve never even seen that before!’ and want to immediately run back and put those new things into our version of the character. There’s this sort of leap frog thing that we’re doing with these characters.”

Dude - your head's on fire. Might wanna put that out.

For all of All-Stars’ challenges, Kendall must surely be pleased with what he and his team has achieved. Previews have been positive, with many citing the old aphorism ‘easy to pick up and difficult to master.’ We ask Kendall if he thinks the adage still holds weight, considering the complexity of many games available on shelves today.

“I see a lot of parallels in the game industry with Hollywood. You used to see a wide variety of experiences. You could go to the movies and watch a strong piece built on acting, story and setting, and now you’ve seen this transition to this giant, big budget effects driven movies that have sort of drowned everything else out.

And so I think in consumers' minds, it's sort of separated. That a console experience has to be this big gigantic cinematic experience, and if you want something that is that ‘easy pick up, hard to master’ experience, well that’s your Angry Birds, or something like that. That divide does trouble me, a little bit. I’ve come from fighting games, and they’ve always had that element, you know, they can still be a graphical showcase or whatever, but take years to master. And I hope there’s still an audience for the kind of game that mixes both. I don’t think they have to be mutually exclusive."

Lucy O'Brien is Assistant Editor at IGN AU. You should talk to her about games, horror movies and the TV show Freaks & Geeks on IGN at Luce_IGN_AU,or follow her @Luceobrien on Twitter. If you like what you're readin', meet the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.

Source : ign[dot]com

The Trials and Tribulations of PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale

It’s tough making fighting games in America. It’s even tougher to make fighting games in America that people will pay attention to. Omar Kendall knows this - he's a veritable veteran of the genre in America. Kendall’s most recent project, PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale, is a fighting game designed for both the hardcore and casual bracket. A game designed to stand out, but not reinvent the wheel: finesse here, a new take on an old mechanic there, and a hell of a lot of character.

“I’m a big fan of the fighting genre, obviously, but I know it’s a shrinking genre,” says Kendall. “Nowadays, there are obviously other game types that are dominating people’s attention. I hope that fighting games continue to evolve with the times and be able to react with people’s changing tastes. I hope they stay viable.”

To help stay relevant, Kendall believes that it's time for those working in the fighting genre to ask themselves the tough questions. What are they doing that’s hurting their appeal? What sorts of things can they do to expand their audience?

“

I hope fighting games continue to be viable - and that we’re a part of that.

“I think a game like PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale does ask those questions. The setting has a broad level of appeal, and the way we’re implementing systems we feel will also have broad appeal. I hope fighting games continue to be viable - and that we’re a part of that.”

Kendall is currently serving as Game Director at SuperBot Entertainment, the recently formed company developing Sony’s mascot brawler. He’s worked across a number of genres, but was headhunted by Shannon Studstill - Senior Director at SCEA - because he knows how to make a fighting game sing. What’s more, he’s based in the States, which is a rarity.

“It’s really difficult to make a fighting game in America, because basically there’s not a long history. You’ve got the dudes from Chicago who make Mortal Kombat, and that’s pretty much it. Most of the talent is from Japan."

Kick, punch, block, putt.

SuperBot was specifically formed to work on All-Stars. The company is comprised of a handful of fighting experts, a handful of developers who have a strong loyalty and affinity to the PlayStation brand, and a slew of in-betweeners. There are 100 odd devs working on All-Stars, so a harmony between these disparate groups was crucial.

“You do kind of have a struggle. We don’t have a hundred guys who are fighting game fanatics – maybe 25% of our total staff are really into fighting games and have maybe competed on a high tournament level. Then you’ve just got your casual guys, who maybe have played a fighting game or two, and you’ve got these die-hard PlayStation guys.”

Kendall believes this kind of melting pot is essential to the success of All-Stars; that the diversity is crucial. Not every guy who came from a fighting game background is going to give a crap about PaRappa the Rapper, and not every guy from Naughty Dog or Insomniac is going to care about the depth of Street Fighter’s mechanics. “We needed a very specific set of expertise to make the game like this,” he muses. “You have to pull from both worlds.”

It hasn’t been the smoothest ride for the fledgling studio. When All-Stars was first announced to the public, the reception was brutal.

“

It never occured to us we were being offensive to people. We just like video games.

“I think it only occurred to me... we had our announcements back in April, and we’d had some media training,” recalls Kendall, with a laugh. ‘This is what you say if someone asks this,’ that sort of thing. But inevitably, we’re making a mascot brawler, right? So someone’s going to ask THE question, and these people training us were like, ‘try to downplay the comparisons.’”

It seems absurd that the team would be requested to downplay any comparisons to Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros., considering how keenly aware they were of of its influence. But they were also surprised at the vitriolic nature of the feedback. “It never occurred to us that we were being offensive to people. We just like video games, and we wanted to make something that’s fun.”

SuperBot has succeeded in making a fun game, as anyone who’s played the beta or attended a recent consumer show can now attest to. Its appeal lies with its accessible premise and control scheme, which quickly seduces players into poking around under the hood.  For Kendell, this accessibility was crucial from the get-go.

“We’re going to attract people who are fans of the PlayStation brands, but just because they liked Sly Cooper doesn’t mean they’re going to be able to jump in and start doing dragon punches. So we set a very low technical department when it comes to inputs. It’s a really simple up, down, left, right control scheme.

"But at the same time, we like competition and getting people in the same room and have them battle it out to see who’s the best, so there is an underlying depth and strategy there. That to me is the great virtue of fighting games. It’s not like ‘oh, I can do this really super complicated sequence of input on a controller’ – it’s the mind-games that go on at a deeper level once you really have a good understanding of the systems and how they work. It’s that battle of wits. That’s the really interesting part of fighting games, and that’s what we tried to bring to All-Stars.”

Heavenly Sword's Nariko cutting loose.

Drawing from his experiences working on THQ’s UFC franchise, Kendall and his team also wanted to ensure that there was an authenticity to the game for fans of the characters.

“UFC fans are very savvy when it comes to the details of the sport. So we had a very specific strategy of really tapping into that, and going really deep into the authenticity of the mechanics and the positions that people were doing, because we knew the fans would respond to that.

"We take a similar approach to All-Stars. For example, for the Sly Cooper fan, we’ve tried very hard to get to the essence of that character. Obviously Sly Cooper has never appeared in a 2D fighting game, but there are elements to Sly that are very quintessential. He’s a very sneaky guy, so we give him invisibility and back-stabbing and the characters of Bentley and Murray play a very prominent role in those games, so we made sure to include them in his moves set. So we're really doing deep dives on these individual characters and these individual levels and universes and really trying to become as authentic and accurate in our portrayal of these characters as possible. We hope players will respond to that.”

In a game that pitches Fat Princess against Kratos, balance has also been a major focus, especially when it comes to each character’s super attack. Kendall acknowledges early criticisms of certain characters’ super attacks, where a push of a button equals a ‘kill-em-all’ cut-scene.

“PaRappa’s level three super – the Gotta Believe music concert – was actually one of the first supers that we made. It was controversial with a lot of members of the team, and on message boards, because essentially Parrapa pushes a button and watches a cut scene and then everybody dies.”

In a fighting game, says Kendell, this challenges a lot of people’s sensibilities of fairness and player agency. Sweet Tooth’s level three super, for example, requires him to shoot and catch other players in order to earn kills, demanding more from the player.

“It was a big challenge having supers like Kratos' and Sweet Tooth’s sitting next to supers like PaRappa’s, and I think that it could have been a situation where we just ran from it, and said, let’s not focus on stuff like that. But I think we really tried to offer something new and challenge some of the standard conventions of fighting games, and what it means to have a competitive landscape."

So SuperBot looked at how much energy each super cost, how many kills a super can get, how easy it is for a particular character to get energy, and tried to balance everything out. "We sort of used those exterior systems and features to try and balance those ‘I’m going to click a button and watch a cut scene’ supers with the ‘earn my kill’ kinds of supers. I guess we’ll find out if we did that right or not.”

There’s a lot of pressure, too, to be truthful to these iconic characters. Kratos must feel like Kratos, but still be able to work within the mechanics of a 2D fighting game. When we asked which characters gave Kendall and his team the biggest challenges, the answer was both obvious... and terrifying.

“The characters who appear in games that aren’t out yet. So we’ve got Dante from the new DmC, and Raiden from Metal Gear Rising: Revengance. The vast majority of people will experience those characters for the first time in our game.

“

Those are the characters that give us the biggest challenge - the ones we're developing at the same time as their creators are.

"It’s a strange level of pressure. Because – I sympathize with the developers that are working on those games, but we have to manage our own production cycle. Sometimes we’re asking them questions they haven’t even asked themselves yet about how they’re going to handle their characters, but we still have to ask, because we still have to make our game, and hope it sort of matches their vision. Those are the characters that give us the biggest challenge – the ones that we’re developing at the same time as their creators are.”

Sometimes, notes Kendall, the marketing machine can get in the way of communication between themselves and these other studios.

“I’ll be honest, there are some things that we watch, like trailers, or promotional footage that comes out of trade shows and we’re like, ‘we’ve never even seen that before!’ and want to immediately run back and put those new things into our version of the character. There’s this sort of leap frog thing that we’re doing with these characters.”

Dude - your head's on fire. Might wanna put that out.

For all of All-Stars’ challenges, Kendall must surely be pleased with what he and his team has achieved. Previews have been positive, with many citing the old aphorism ‘easy to pick up and difficult to master.’ We ask Kendall if he thinks the adage still holds weight, considering the complexity of many games available on shelves today.

“I see a lot of parallels in the game industry with Hollywood. You used to see a wide variety of experiences. You could go to the movies and watch a strong piece built on acting, story and setting, and now you’ve seen this transition to this giant, big budget effects driven movies that have sort of drowned everything else out.

And so I think in consumers' minds, it's sort of separated. That a console experience has to be this big gigantic cinematic experience, and if you want something that is that ‘easy pick up, hard to master’ experience, well that’s your Angry Birds, or something like that. That divide does trouble me, a little bit. I’ve come from fighting games, and they’ve always had that element, you know, they can still be a graphical showcase or whatever, but take years to master. And I hope there’s still an audience for the kind of game that mixes both. I don’t think they have to be mutually exclusive."

Lucy O'Brien is Assistant Editor at IGN AU. You should talk to her about games, horror movies and the TV show Freaks & Geeks on IGN at Luce_IGN_AU,or follow her @Luceobrien on Twitter. If you like what you're readin', meet the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.

Source : ign[dot]com

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 – Multiplayer for Everyone

Millions of people play Call of Duty every year, but many of them don’t experience everything the games have to offer. For some, Call of Duty games have become campaign-only experiences with multiplayer being looked at as “too unapproachable” or “intimidating.” Even some of the players killing one another online every day never do things like Prestige or use the film systems, often because they don’t want to lose their progress or it’s too overwhelming, respectively.

Rather than just rehashing the same multiplayer modes and other tools, developer Treyarch is attempting to employ a number of smart tweaks to known systems in an effort to make Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 the most approachable Call of Duty to date. They want you, person-who-only-plays campaign, to jump into multiplayer and learn the ropes with people who make you feel competitive. They want everyone to create films with as little or as much effort as they want. They just want you to feel like Black Ops 2 was made for you, whether you’re a headshot master or the type of person who can’t seem to keep your gun straight.

Any of the millions of people who have gotten into Call of Duty over the years have probably experienced the hardships of starting out. You come into the game after the franchise has been out for years, or maybe even jump back in to the new game after it’s been out for a few months, and you get your ass handed to you. You just can’t compete with a legion of hardcore fans that have way more hours than you to hone their skills, and thus some of you put down the controller in frustration, never to return.

To combat this, Treyarch is first and foremost introducing Combat Training, a series of special takes on team deathmatch and Black Ops 2’s objective-based modes. Here players can level from 1-10, facing off against teams that have a mix of human and AI opponents. When they hit level 10 they’re no longer allowed to participate, though anyone can still do “Bot Stomps,” teaming up with five of their friends and just murdering AI opponents for no experience. The hope is that the Combat Training modes will ease new players into the game’s multiplayer in a less-harsh environment, and that things like Bot Stomps will allow them to fight easier enemies and experience some of the game’s cooler things, like the Kill Streak-replacing Score Streaks. Even skilled players could find something to enjoy in Bot Stomps, as Treyarch views this as an excellent way for clans to plan out tactics and practice them in private before taking them out in real matches.

Of course once you get a bit of multiplayer experience under your belt you get to build a class, and Treyarch is completely redoing Black Ops 2’s loadout system to make it intuitive for all users and still feel like something new for longtime fans. Referred to as the “Pick 10 system” (which you can read about more in our previous coverage), this is where you get the most flexible loadout system ever implemented in a CoD title. Every gun, attachment and perk has a value of one, and in the Pick 10 system you get to choose a loadout of your own devising that combines most any combination of them. For instance you could take a primary weapon with two attachments, a secondary weapon with the same, then two perks and two grenades. Or you could use Wild Cards, which take up a precious slot but in turn allow you to break a game rule, to go all out on a primary weapon and give it three attachments and then use another Wildcard to take four perks instead of three. The sheer number of combinations you can do is pretty incredible, and should give even seasoned fans a lot to think about and fun ways to experiment with their loadouts.

If the Pick 10 system sounds too overwhelming for new players they can also use pre-made loadouts or tweak these to suit your personal playstyle. Additionally, you won’t have everything unlocked at once, but instead will have to hit the right level to unlock the option to use tokens (earned through leveling) to permanently unlock the gear.

Maybe you don’t think the Pick 10 system lets you take enough gear, or maybe you wish that you could play multiplayer with just your friends. Well, for you Treyarch’s including a robust Custom Games mode in Black Ops 2. You can choose between any of the modes, add bots, restrict content, modify the Pick 10 system so you can choose as few as three or as many as 17 items, and more. If you want to create your own take on Capture the Flag or Kill Confirmed and then play with your buddies then Treyarch wants you to do so. With Custom Games it’s like Treyarch is trying to tell you that they don’t care how you play, just that you’re playing.

If all you want to do is play team deathmatch you can do that, but for people looking for something new you can check out the new Hardpoint mode, as well as multi-team battles. Hardpoint is essentially Halo’s Crazy King, with capture points that bounce around the level, forcing each team to see who can hold it the longest before it up and moves again. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it’s a great addition to Black Ops 2’s multiplayer suite.

The multi-team battles, though, they really change up the dynamic of a multiplayer match. You can play three teams of four or four teams of three, with up to 18 players in a Custom Game match. The only modes currently available in multi-team battles are team deathmatch, Hardpoint and the returning Kill Confirmed, but even with the limited list this mode makes for a great alternative to standard matches. Each team essentially turns into a roving pack, with teamplay and communication becoming crucial. Multi-team battles end up having the frantic pacing of a free-for-all match with the teamplay of TDM. It’s a weird mix that just works, and is a hell of a lot of fun.

If you decide to spend the time to level up you’ll have the option to Prestige in Black Ops 2, only now you don’t lose your Challenge and weapon progress. Let me restate that, because it’s a big deal: You don’t lose your progress when you Prestige in Black Ops 2. Instead, Prestiging earns you a token you can use to ignore level requirements and unlock an item permanently, as well as one of three additional options: an extra slot for Custom Class slot; reset your stats just like you would in previous versions of Prestige; a refund that you can use at any point during your Prestige level allowing you to get all your unlock tokens back and spend them how you see fit. The reset option is there for the hardcore players who liked the challenge of starting over, but the other choices exist because they want more people to participate in Prestiging, which previously the studio found people avoided. With 10 levels of Prestige available, and emblems available for each that showcase just how much of a badass you are, the hope is that Black Ops 2 Prestige system will draw people in like never before.

Once Treyarch has all of us playing hours and hours of Black Ops 2 multiplayer, they want us to get involved with the community. One part of this strategy is the built-in shout cast capabilities, which Treyarch hopes will build up a whole new wave of Call of Duty personalities. The other part of this is improved Theater. Just like before you can cut together your games, editing short films that showcase your skills or maybe show a hilarious failure. For some people, though, the system was too complicated and time consuming, thus they avoided it altogether. To better serve these parts of the audience, Treyarch has created a one-button system where you can take any match you’ve played and have the editor pick out the highlights and cut it together in seconds. After that it’s easy to upload it to the internet and spread it around, or go in with the editing tools and tweak it to your liking. On the flipside the Theater mode also has even more tools to let ambitious film makers create elaborate scenes, such as the “attach to object” tool that lets you stick the camera to parts of the world, including things like rockets as they fly out of an RPG. The goal is to cater to both extremes: the lazy or less-interested players who don’t want to take the time to create a film, as well as the future Martin Scorceses of the world.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s multiplayer probably won’t change your mind if you dislike the franchise already, but with so many smart changes to previously established systems it just might manage to win over a few new fans, as well as surprise the hardcore with it's twists on the formula. The tagline for Black Ops 2 is “The future is black,” but with what I’ve seen so far I’d say it’s better written as “The future is bright.”

Source : ign[dot]com

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 – Multiplayer for Everyone

Millions of people play Call of Duty every year, but many of them don’t experience everything the games have to offer. For some, Call of Duty games have become campaign-only experiences with multiplayer being looked at as “too unapproachable” or “intimidating.” Even some of the players killing one another online every day never do things like Prestige or use the film systems, often because they don’t want to lose their progress or it’s too overwhelming, respectively.

Rather than just rehashing the same multiplayer modes and other tools, developer Treyarch is attempting to employ a number of smart tweaks to known systems in an effort to make Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 the most approachable Call of Duty to date. They want you, person-who-only-plays campaign, to jump into multiplayer and learn the ropes with people who make you feel competitive. They want everyone to create films with as little or as much effort as they want. They just want you to feel like Black Ops 2 was made for you, whether you’re a headshot master or the type of person who can’t seem to keep your gun straight.

Any of the millions of people who have gotten into Call of Duty over the years have probably experienced the hardships of starting out. You come into the game after the franchise has been out for years, or maybe even jump back in to the new game after it’s been out for a few months, and you get your ass handed to you. You just can’t compete with a legion of hardcore fans that have way more hours than you to hone their skills, and thus some of you put down the controller in frustration, never to return.

To combat this, Treyarch is first and foremost introducing Combat Training, a series of special takes on team deathmatch and Black Ops 2’s objective-based modes. Here players can level from 1-10, facing off against teams that have a mix of human and AI opponents. When they hit level 10 they’re no longer allowed to participate, though anyone can still do “Bot Stomps,” teaming up with five of their friends and just murdering AI opponents for no experience. The hope is that the Combat Training modes will ease new players into the game’s multiplayer in a less-harsh environment, and that things like Bot Stomps will allow them to fight easier enemies and experience some of the game’s cooler things, like the Kill Streak-replacing Score Streaks. Even skilled players could find something to enjoy in Bot Stomps, as Treyarch views this as an excellent way for clans to plan out tactics and practice them in private before taking them out in real matches.

Of course once you get a bit of multiplayer experience under your belt you get to build a class, and Treyarch is completely redoing Black Ops 2’s loadout system to make it intuitive for all users and still feel like something new for longtime fans. Referred to as the “Pick 10 system” (which you can read about more in our previous coverage), this is where you get the most flexible loadout system ever implemented in a CoD title. Every gun, attachment and perk has a value of one, and in the Pick 10 system you get to choose a loadout of your own devising that combines most any combination of them. For instance you could take a primary weapon with two attachments, a secondary weapon with the same, then two perks and two grenades. Or you could use Wild Cards, which take up a precious slot but in turn allow you to break a game rule, to go all out on a primary weapon and give it three attachments and then use another Wildcard to take four perks instead of three. The sheer number of combinations you can do is pretty incredible, and should give even seasoned fans a lot to think about and fun ways to experiment with their loadouts.

If the Pick 10 system sounds too overwhelming for new players they can also use pre-made loadouts or tweak these to suit your personal playstyle. Additionally, you won’t have everything unlocked at once, but instead will have to hit the right level to unlock the option to use tokens (earned through leveling) to permanently unlock the gear.

Maybe you don’t think the Pick 10 system lets you take enough gear, or maybe you wish that you could play multiplayer with just your friends. Well, for you Treyarch’s including a robust Custom Games mode in Black Ops 2. You can choose between any of the modes, add bots, restrict content, modify the Pick 10 system so you can choose as few as three or as many as 17 items, and more. If you want to create your own take on Capture the Flag or Kill Confirmed and then play with your buddies then Treyarch wants you to do so. With Custom Games it’s like Treyarch is trying to tell you that they don’t care how you play, just that you’re playing.

If all you want to do is play team deathmatch you can do that, but for people looking for something new you can check out the new Hardpoint mode, as well as multi-team battles. Hardpoint is essentially Halo’s Crazy King, with capture points that bounce around the level, forcing each team to see who can hold it the longest before it up and moves again. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it’s a great addition to Black Ops 2’s multiplayer suite.

The multi-team battles, though, they really change up the dynamic of a multiplayer match. You can play three teams of four or four teams of three, with up to 18 players in a Custom Game match. The only modes currently available in multi-team battles are team deathmatch, Hardpoint and the returning Kill Confirmed, but even with the limited list this mode makes for a great alternative to standard matches. Each team essentially turns into a roving pack, with teamplay and communication becoming crucial. Multi-team battles end up having the frantic pacing of a free-for-all match with the teamplay of TDM. It’s a weird mix that just works, and is a hell of a lot of fun.

If you decide to spend the time to level up you’ll have the option to Prestige in Black Ops 2, only now you don’t lose your Challenge and weapon progress. Let me restate that, because it’s a big deal: You don’t lose your progress when you Prestige in Black Ops 2. Instead, Prestiging earns you a token you can use to ignore level requirements and unlock an item permanently, as well as one of three additional options: an extra slot for Custom Class slot; reset your stats just like you would in previous versions of Prestige; a refund that you can use at any point during your Prestige level allowing you to get all your unlock tokens back and spend them how you see fit. The reset option is there for the hardcore players who liked the challenge of starting over, but the other choices exist because they want more people to participate in Prestiging, which previously the studio found people avoided. With 10 levels of Prestige available, and emblems available for each that showcase just how much of a badass you are, the hope is that Black Ops 2 Prestige system will draw people in like never before.

Once Treyarch has all of us playing hours and hours of Black Ops 2 multiplayer, they want us to get involved with the community. One part of this strategy is the built-in shout cast capabilities, which Treyarch hopes will build up a whole new wave of Call of Duty personalities. The other part of this is improved Theater. Just like before you can cut together your games, editing short films that showcase your skills or maybe show a hilarious failure. For some people, though, the system was too complicated and time consuming, thus they avoided it altogether. To better serve these parts of the audience, Treyarch has created a one-button system where you can take any match you’ve played and have the editor pick out the highlights and cut it together in seconds. After that it’s easy to upload it to the internet and spread it around, or go in with the editing tools and tweak it to your liking. On the flipside the Theater mode also has even more tools to let ambitious film makers create elaborate scenes, such as the “attach to object” tool that lets you stick the camera to parts of the world, including things like rockets as they fly out of an RPG. The goal is to cater to both extremes: the lazy or less-interested players who don’t want to take the time to create a film, as well as the future Martin Scorceses of the world.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s multiplayer probably won’t change your mind if you dislike the franchise already, but with so many smart changes to previously established systems it just might manage to win over a few new fans, as well as surprise the hardcore with it's twists on the formula. The tagline for Black Ops 2 is “The future is black,” but with what I’ve seen so far I’d say it’s better written as “The future is bright.”

Source : ign[dot]com

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 – Multiplayer for Everyone

Millions of people play Call of Duty every year, but many of them don’t experience everything the games have to offer. For some, Call of Duty games have become campaign-only experiences with multiplayer being looked at as “too unapproachable” or “intimidating.” Even some of the players killing one another online every day never do things like Prestige or use the film systems, often because they don’t want to lose their progress or it’s too overwhelming, respectively.

Rather than just rehashing the same multiplayer modes and other tools, developer Treyarch is attempting to employ a number of smart tweaks to known systems in an effort to make Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 the most approachable Call of Duty to date. They want you, person-who-only-plays campaign, to jump into multiplayer and learn the ropes with people who make you feel competitive. They want everyone to create films with as little or as much effort as they want. They just want you to feel like Black Ops 2 was made for you, whether you’re a headshot master or the type of person who can’t seem to keep your gun straight.

Any of the millions of people who have gotten into Call of Duty over the years have probably experienced the hardships of starting out. You come into the game after the franchise has been out for years, or maybe even jump back in to the new game after it’s been out for a few months, and you get your ass handed to you. You just can’t compete with a legion of hardcore fans that have way more hours than you to hone their skills, and thus some of you put down the controller in frustration, never to return.

To combat this, Treyarch is first and foremost introducing Combat Training, a series of special takes on team deathmatch and Black Ops 2’s objective-based modes. Here players can level from 1-10, facing off against teams that have a mix of human and AI opponents. When they hit level 10 they’re no longer allowed to participate, though anyone can still do “Bot Stomps,” teaming up with five of their friends and just murdering AI opponents for no experience. The hope is that the Combat Training modes will ease new players into the game’s multiplayer in a less-harsh environment, and that things like Bot Stomps will allow them to fight easier enemies and experience some of the game’s cooler things, like the Kill Streak-replacing Score Streaks. Even skilled players could find something to enjoy in Bot Stomps, as Treyarch views this as an excellent way for clans to plan out tactics and practice them in private before taking them out in real matches.

Of course once you get a bit of multiplayer experience under your belt you get to build a class, and Treyarch is completely redoing Black Ops 2’s loadout system to make it intuitive for all users and still feel like something new for longtime fans. Referred to as the “Pick 10 system” (which you can read about more in our previous coverage), this is where you get the most flexible loadout system ever implemented in a CoD title. Every gun, attachment and perk has a value of one, and in the Pick 10 system you get to choose a loadout of your own devising that combines most any combination of them. For instance you could take a primary weapon with two attachments, a secondary weapon with the same, then two perks and two grenades. Or you could use Wild Cards, which take up a precious slot but in turn allow you to break a game rule, to go all out on a primary weapon and give it three attachments and then use another Wildcard to take four perks instead of three. The sheer number of combinations you can do is pretty incredible, and should give even seasoned fans a lot to think about and fun ways to experiment with their loadouts.

If the Pick 10 system sounds too overwhelming for new players they can also use pre-made loadouts or tweak these to suit your personal playstyle. Additionally, you won’t have everything unlocked at once, but instead will have to hit the right level to unlock the option to use tokens (earned through leveling) to permanently unlock the gear.

Maybe you don’t think the Pick 10 system lets you take enough gear, or maybe you wish that you could play multiplayer with just your friends. Well, for you Treyarch’s including a robust Custom Games mode in Black Ops 2. You can choose between any of the modes, add bots, restrict content, modify the Pick 10 system so you can choose as few as three or as many as 17 items, and more. If you want to create your own take on Capture the Flag or Kill Confirmed and then play with your buddies then Treyarch wants you to do so. With Custom Games it’s like Treyarch is trying to tell you that they don’t care how you play, just that you’re playing.

If all you want to do is play team deathmatch you can do that, but for people looking for something new you can check out the new Hardpoint mode, as well as multi-team battles. Hardpoint is essentially Halo’s Crazy King, with capture points that bounce around the level, forcing each team to see who can hold it the longest before it up and moves again. It’s nothing revolutionary, but it’s a great addition to Black Ops 2’s multiplayer suite.

The multi-team battles, though, they really change up the dynamic of a multiplayer match. You can play three teams of four or four teams of three, with up to 18 players in a Custom Game match. The only modes currently available in multi-team battles are team deathmatch, Hardpoint and the returning Kill Confirmed, but even with the limited list this mode makes for a great alternative to standard matches. Each team essentially turns into a roving pack, with teamplay and communication becoming crucial. Multi-team battles end up having the frantic pacing of a free-for-all match with the teamplay of TDM. It’s a weird mix that just works, and is a hell of a lot of fun.

If you decide to spend the time to level up you’ll have the option to Prestige in Black Ops 2, only now you don’t lose your Challenge and weapon progress. Let me restate that, because it’s a big deal: You don’t lose your progress when you Prestige in Black Ops 2. Instead, Prestiging earns you a token you can use to ignore level requirements and unlock an item permanently, as well as one of three additional options: an extra slot for Custom Class slot; reset your stats just like you would in previous versions of Prestige; a refund that you can use at any point during your Prestige level allowing you to get all your unlock tokens back and spend them how you see fit. The reset option is there for the hardcore players who liked the challenge of starting over, but the other choices exist because they want more people to participate in Prestiging, which previously the studio found people avoided. With 10 levels of Prestige available, and emblems available for each that showcase just how much of a badass you are, the hope is that Black Ops 2 Prestige system will draw people in like never before.

Once Treyarch has all of us playing hours and hours of Black Ops 2 multiplayer, they want us to get involved with the community. One part of this strategy is the built-in shout cast capabilities, which Treyarch hopes will build up a whole new wave of Call of Duty personalities. The other part of this is improved Theater. Just like before you can cut together your games, editing short films that showcase your skills or maybe show a hilarious failure. For some people, though, the system was too complicated and time consuming, thus they avoided it altogether. To better serve these parts of the audience, Treyarch has created a one-button system where you can take any match you’ve played and have the editor pick out the highlights and cut it together in seconds. After that it’s easy to upload it to the internet and spread it around, or go in with the editing tools and tweak it to your liking. On the flipside the Theater mode also has even more tools to let ambitious film makers create elaborate scenes, such as the “attach to object” tool that lets you stick the camera to parts of the world, including things like rockets as they fly out of an RPG. The goal is to cater to both extremes: the lazy or less-interested players who don’t want to take the time to create a film, as well as the future Martin Scorceses of the world.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s multiplayer probably won’t change your mind if you dislike the franchise already, but with so many smart changes to previously established systems it just might manage to win over a few new fans, as well as surprise the hardcore with it's twists on the formula. The tagline for Black Ops 2 is “The future is black,” but with what I’ve seen so far I’d say it’s better written as “The future is bright.”

Source : ign[dot]com

5 Insane Items Bought by Gamers Who Hate Money

People with too much money are always looking for ways of getting rid of it. They'd sooner toss fat wads of cash at whatever they can than keep it in their pockets a moment longer. But just how little value must one ascribe to money for the following purchases to seem like sound investments?

A Microwaved 3DS XL

Do you desperately desire a 3DS XL but would prefer one that didn’t actually work? Are you a firm believer in paying over 10 times more for a broken electronic item than you would for a fully-functioning one?

You’re out of luck, muchacho, because the perfect product matching that exact description has already come and gone.

You could’ve been the owner of a brand new Nintendo 3DS XL, reduced to a bubbling puddle of warped red plastic and ash but, unfortunately for you, it’s been sold and you’ve completely missed out. Unless, of course, you’re the actual mystery purchaser of said 3DS XL (in which case, let us be the first to let you know you’re an idiot.)

Why don't you go and stir fry yourself a Circle Pad Pro while you're at it?

This utterly molten 3DS XL (complete with its original box, power cord, warranty and a bonus glass toad full of prosthetic eyeballs) that hit eBay a few weeks back is now being listed as sold.

The final amount? A paltry $2,241.

About $2,000 more than it would cost to buy a 3DS XL and microwave it yourself.

Red Sea Crossing

In 2007 one lucky punter walked away from a garage sale with two Atari games he’d never heard of: Music Machine and Red Sea Crossing. They set him back 50 cents a pop. He quickly discovered Music Machine was actually an exceedingly rare 2600 game that regularly fetches hundreds of dollars when auctioned, but he couldn’t find anything on Google about Red Sea Crossing.

That’s because Red Sea Crossing was even rarer.

Just a few weeks ago this blessed chap sold his Red Sea Crossing cartridge on GameGavel. For $10,400. For an Atari 2600 game. An Atari 2600 game that featured Moses jumping over clams, and not a very good one at that.

"Careful..."

The cartridge, referred to as “the Holy Grail of Atari games” by the seller, “was not even known to exist" until he discovered it. It had been completely forgotten by the world after its release in 1983.

$10,400. And it wasn’t even in its original packaging.

It didn't even come with the colouring book or explanatory audio cassette narrated by Dale Evans Rogers!

Leaked Copy of Modern Warfare 3

On November 3 last year somebody bought a copy of Modern Warfare 3 on eBay. Seems insignificant, really, until you note the actual release date for Modern Warfare 3 wasn’t until November 8.

When a small quantity of Modern Warfare 3 copies were inadvertently unleashed earlier than allowed it was perhaps inevitable that somebody was going to try to flog one off in an online auction. It didn’t mean somebody necessarily had to buy it, of course, but we guess there’s no accounting for boneheads.

The question is how many illicit substances does one have to be mainlining into one’s eyeballs to come to the conclusion that $1,725 is a good price to pay for a copy of Modern Warfare 3, just to play it mere days before the rest of the world?

This many.

What makes things even more absurd is that not only would playing it on Xbox Live before the official release date be potentially problematic in the first place, the estimated delivery time of three to four business days means he probably didn’t actually receive the game until launch day anyway.

It’s not clear what’s more depressing. That some muppet blew a small fortune on a game that days later would go on to become to very opposite of rare and valuable, or that there were 88 bids.

What was it they say about a fool and his money?

Michael McDonald Arcade Stick

Speaking of fools (and what they may or may not believe) are you searching for a way to marry your penchant for fighting games with your infatuation with five-time Grammy Award-winning former-Doobie Brother Michael McDonald? Looks like yah mo missed out again, chum.

Grab the matches.

In February this year this “one-of-a-kind, custom-made Michael McDonald Arcade Fighting Joystick” hit eBay and was promptly sold. Compatible primarily with PSone and PS2 this pre-loved stick, which allegedly won many tournaments for the previous owner “by harnessing the power of smooth rock”, was designed with a blue button theme to match the king of yacht rock’s “soul-piercing blue eyes.”

Dreamy, huh?

The partially-trashed stick, which came from “a smoke-free houseboat”, went on to sell for US $137.50 after 31 bids – a touch more than the going price for a brand new, current-gen Hori arcade stick.

Million Dollar Video Game Collection

It’s hard to decide which part of this story is more stunning; that a single human could personally amass a video game collection consisting of 22 full sets (including all games ever released on Nintendo home systems from Famicom to Gamecube, all games ever released on Sega systems and all games ever released on NEC systems, all in their boxes with the original instructions and many still factory sealed) or that, after doing so, said human would choose to part with it?

However, in July this year one eBay user did just that, placing a monster collection of around 7000 games (plus all the relevant consoles, also either factory sealed or mint in their boxes) on eBay with a buy-it-now price of €999,999. That’s well over US$1.2 million.

Or at least it was. Somebody (possibly) bought it.

Gaming Heaven? God must be clearing space in the garage for a new Lambo.

Now we all love games, but how much do you need to love games and hate cash to be willing to drop a cool million on a container-load of classic games you’re nonetheless unlikely to ever even unwrap? Besides, when does buying an awful game simply because you don’t have it yet become pathological collecting?

Do you really need a copy of Revolution X on SNES and Saturn?

Or, like, at all?

Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can chat to him about games, cars and other things he may like on IGN here or find him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.

Source : ign[dot]com