This week, after a slight delay of game thanks to rain and technology, the File-N-Forget podcast ignores the GTA IV release hype and instead focuses on two games that might interest folks who are not mindless GTA obsessed zombies. Iron Man the Game and Viking: Battle for Asgard. Sure Stephany dinged Viking pretty badly in her impression, but Ron quite likes it and talks about why.
The Rant and Rant section of the episode features Ron talking about how World of Warcraft can fail while Shawn bitches about bitchy women.
This weeks show is available by direct download here.
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Sega has released video five in its Iron Man Behind the Scene series. The video covers the making of the Wii version of Iron Man. Kevin Feige, Producer at Marvel Studios, and BJ Enriques, Assistant Producer at SEGA of America, and other developers talk about the difficulties of staying true to the whole mythos of Iron Man from the original comics to the movie and the game. They also talk about the challenge of making gameplay intuitive for the Wii and dealing with a character that has so many dynamic capabilities.
Robert Downey Jr. and Stan Lee also make appearances in the video. Check it out.
Viking: Battle for Asgard Developer: Creative Assembly Publisher: SEGA Price: $59.99 Platform: PS3, Xbox 360 Category: Action/Adventure ESRB: “M” for Mature Release Date: March 25, 2008
I have always been enthralled with Nordic legends, and anything Viking related. Far be it to call myself a Nordiphile, I am hardly that – I just like mythology of all sorts. I have also thought that Vikings were too often ignored in video games, and I have never understood why they have been largely shunned by the industry, This is why I was so excited about Beowulf until it was announced that it would be a movie tie-in – and in my opinion, both sucked equally.
When Viking: Battle for Asgardwas announced a few moths after Beowulf, my love of Nordic mythology took a back seat to the wariness in my brain. I decided it would be rented instead of purchased and while the waiting list for the game was long at my local Blockbuster – I am glad I waited. Whether Viking: Battle for Asgard was worth the wait or not is open to interpretation. On the one hand, I liked the visuals and some of the executions you could pull off, but the game had so many things wrong with it. It was repetitive, contained shallow swordplay, choppy framerates galore and so many other things wrong with it that by the time I was a quarter of the way finished with the game, I wanted my rental fee back. Of course, Blockbuster does not give refunds for unsatisfactory rental purchases.
In Viking: Battle for Asgard, you are Skarin - a warrior on the edge of death who is brought back from the brink by the Goddess Freya. In exchange for this life saving turn of events, you must do her bidding – and no, there are no sexual undertones to this despite the fact that she is a hottie. Her desire for you is only for you to prevent Hel, the Goddess of the Underworld from taking over Midgard. The plotline gives you the impression that the game would be full of hack and slash potential, and that is indeed true. The game was oozing with potential, and when playing I kept waiting for the goods to come to fruition but, alas, they never surfaced – probably because none were present to being with.
Obsidian Entertainment has granted a preview of their upcoming near-future spy thriller RPG Alpha Protocol to CVG. The title should appeal to 007 and Bourne fans and hopes to push the international spy thriller to the limit with a formula combining the best of “the three JBs”- James Bond, Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer.
“Yeah, Alpha Protocol has much of the edginess of the new James Bond movie,” smiles Ryan Rucinski, one of Obsidian’s senior producers, as we mull over his new roleplayer.
“Although the development of AP actually started before the release of Casino Royale. So when the movie came out and we saw the results, we knew we had made the right decision. There have been a lot of movies that have influenced us during the conceptual creation - Mission: Impossible, the Bourne films, Ronin… However, one of the main contributors in look and tone was Syriana. If James Bond is where the action comes from, Syriana has a big influence on the theme.”
The article covers the mission and level progression, skill progression and character interactions with NPCs. You can get a good feel for the game mechanics on CVG.
There are extremely high expectations for Alpha Protocol. Comparisons to the game that set the bar for high-tech RPGs, Deus Ex, are dropped several times. That’s a tough game to emulate and too many titles have been way off target. Lets hope Alpha Protocol hits the mark.
If you have some design skills, Obsidian Entertainment is hiring for positions on the Alpha Protocol development team. Applicants must be willing to relocate to Orange County California. If you’re still interested, check out the official posting on the Obsidian Entertainment site.
You’ve read Stephany’s impressions, you heard what Yahtzee had to say, now it’s your turn to try out Condemned 2. A demo has finally been released on the Xbox Live Marketplace after a long wait. While I imagine most of you have already either lost interest or bought the game, now you’ve got a chance to try the sequel to what was a pretty awesome game.
This single-player only demo is 736 MB and isn’t available in Germany. Not a big loss, though, if Yahtzee is right about this one. (Sorry Steph.)
SEGA has announced the U.S. Olympic athletes chosen to grace the cover of Beijing 2008: The Official Olympic Video Game. These four athletes are Amanda Beard,Tyson Gay, Nastia Liukin and Reese Hoffa. For those of you unfamiliar with these stars of the world of sports, their individual records and accolades are available after the break.
“These talented individuals epitomize what it is to be an Olympic athlete and we are extremely excited to have them grace the cover of our Beijing 2008™ video game,” said Sean Ratcliff, VP of Marketing, SEGA of America, Inc. “With Beijing 2008™, SEGA is striving to develop the very best Olympic video game ever and we couldn’t be more proud to have them represent our game and our country this summer.”
Developed by Eurocom Entertainment Software, Beijing 2008 will allow players to compete online in 35 different events on the Xbox 360, PS3 and the PC. The innovative control scheme promises to ease beginners into play while providing experienced gamers with a challenge.
Beijing 2008 is scheduled for release in the summer of 2008. Those of you who want more detailed information can visit www.olympicvideogames.com.
Okay look, movie/video game people, I get it: you make a movie called “Iron Man,” and the most obvious choice for a theme song is the rock tune by the same name. But please just stop it already. Between the trailers for the movie and the video game, I’m starting to hate the song; and I really don’t want to, because I like Black Sabbath. Take this new trailer that was shown at Comic-Con for example. Awesome visuals — I especially like how you can apparently just take a running jump into the sky — but the sound is like nails on a chalkboard to me. When I hear it now, I don’t think “Ozzy Osbourne”; I think “uncreative marketing.”
Candy cigarettes and gum are pretty much forbidden in the country because they supposedly make children think it is ok to smoke. Personally, when I would indulge in these treats as a child, anytime I “pretended” to smoke with them, my Mother would scold me. Plus, I thought smoking was gross as a child, but did it in High School after being exposed to the devil sticks via a party where loads of beer was prevalent. So, to say that candy smokes make me want to smoke is just silliness, I smoked because - well just for the hell of it I suppose. ANYWAY, enough of my trip down memory lane and my opinions on what makes kids take up smoking.
These candy cigarettes found in the Philippines have Sonic endorsing them so to speak. While I am sure that this novelty item is just that, over here SEGA would get sued by every single special interest group known to man. Personally I think that they are kitschy in a cool sort of way, and if you are a collector of Sonic memorabilia, this would be a must have for your collection.
Via: UK Resistance
It feels like a game developer has closed everyday recently; the latest victim is Sega Racing Studio. They had produced only one game, Sega Rally Revo, since opening back in 2005. Originally reported by Develop, the news was confirmed by a Sega rep in an email sent to Next Gen.
“Regrettably Sega today announced that it is to commence consultation regarding the unfortunate closure of the Sega Racing Studio in Birmingham, UK,” the email read.
“The decision is part of a review of Sega’s Western Development Studios to ensure that each studio is a profitable entity in its own right, and unfortunately the Sega Racing Studio’s 5 year plan would not result in a successful return for the Sega business moving forward. Sega would like to stress that there will be no changes within their other internal development studios.”
As always, we wish the staff of Sega Racing Studios the best in getting back on their feet. It’s weird to think that the games industry is thriving, yet we’re seeing all of these closures. Hopefully this is the last we’ll be hearing of this sort of news in the near future.
The upcoming Iron Man movie with have billionaire Tony Stark donning several different versions of the Iron Man armor, but the game will have even more. Aside from the different armor prototypes Stark develops on his way to the final Iron Man armor, players will be able to wear some classic armor from the comic books. These extra suits of armor may be familiar to fans of the comics, from the suit Iron Man wore in his first appearance to the “Hulkbuster” armor (shown above) used to of course fight a rampaging Hulk. Two of the armor suits will be exclusive to different consoles however, with the ”Silver Centurion” suit being exclusive to the Xbox 360 version, while the “Ultimate” suit will only be on the PS3.
You can check out the other types of armor that will be available here.
When that first trailer for the upcoming Sonic Unleashed was revealed, I think I had the same thought as many people who saw it: Please, please, please don’t be terrible this time. Well thankfully the developers seem to be taking a big step in the right direction. The game’s lead designer, Yoshihisa Hashimoto, has stated that this new game has been developed from scratch and will pretty much ignore the past few Sonic games:
“As a development team, we originally started off this project planning to create Sonic Adventure 3″, Hashimoto revealed to the magazine. “In our minds, this game will have more in common with the older Sonic Adventure series. It has no relation to Sonic the Hedgehog [on PS3/Xbox 360] or Sonic and the Secret Rings”.
Phew, that’s a relief. Now all we really have to worry aobut are how those segments involving “Were-Sonic” will play out.
Sega doesn’t seem to know exactly what to do with its House of the Dead franchise sometimes. Really, they’ve just been re-making the same games over and over, but with added features like Wii-mote support or typing lessons. And now it looks like they’ve dusted off the series to help Japanese gamers brush up on their English. The DS game, English of the Dead, seems to work similar to Typing of the Dead, in that each letter you enter equals one shot to an enemy. This time though, gamers will be translating Japanese phrases into English by spelling them out with the stylus. Actually, this is really cool, so I hope they make similar games in the future with various languages. And if they do, I hope we get a trailer that’s just as crazy as this one.
At this point, I’ve probably seen more from the Iron Man game than the movie it’s based. From the looks of things though, I’ll probably be getting my hands on both sooner or later. This new trailer focuses more on the story for the game, which naturally follows closely to the movie. Watching the video is kind of like watching a CG version of the theatrical trailers. Normally I’m smart enough to avoid vidoe games based on movies, but the pure awesome in these trailers is throwing me off.
SEGA sent us the first Behind-the-Scenes video from Iron Man today, and the video focuses on the origin of the game. Featuring members of the Secret Level development team talking about how they created Iron Man and what inspired them to go in the direction they did. This new video also features commentary from the Marvel Interactive team.
Iron Man is an action shooter featuring Marvel’s iconic Super Hero Iron Man and the game will be coming out at the same time as the movie on May 2 and will be available for the DS, PC, PSP, PS2, PS3, Xbox360, and the Wii.
Stephany already covered SEGA’s announcement of Sonic Unleashed this morning, but now we’ve gotten our hands on a new trailer for the upcoming game. For a change, this actually looks like a game starring the blue hedgehog that’s worth getting excited over. The trailer shows some gameplay off, which features Sonic doing what he does best: running really, really fast through crazy environments. Maybe SEGA has finally figured out that we don’t want annoying side characters and strange gameplay in our Sonic games? I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
SEGA officially announced Sonic Unleashed today via a press release, but thanks to some sleuthing internet users most gamers were already aware of Sonic’s latest adventure due to the leaked screens and trailer.
The latest installment in the franchise, of course ,stars our beloved blue hedgehog as he takes us on a high-speed journey around the globe. The world has been broken apart by the evil Dr. Eggman, so it’s up to Sonic to put the pieces back together again by retrieving the power of the chaos emeralds. In doing so, Sonic fans will find themselves in a race against time where both day and night play different, yet important, roles in Sonic’s newest quest. By completing a wide variety of stages spanning the seven broken continents of the world, gamers will need to unleash Sonic’s amazing abilities to save the world, and himself.
In addition to running at high speeds, which will be highlighted in four new speed mechanics, combat fighting now becomes possible. New combat, movement, functional abilities and platforming will be introduced to offer increased depth and variety with an expansive world with multiple paths to choose from, with 3D to classic 2D camera transitions.
Still currently in development, Sonic Unleashed is scheduled for release worldwide just in time for the holidays this year, and will be made available for the PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii. You can read the full press release after the jump.
Forget Ang Lee’s vision of The Incredible Hulk. Marvel is putting out a new interpretation of Bruce Banner’s incredible transformation to the Hulk and Sega is developing a game to go with it.
Sega’s The Incredible Hulk video game looks like an updated version of Ultimate Destruction; only with more enraged roaring. I hope that the game delivers at least as well as Vivendi’s Hulk tribute. That open world for the Hulk to run around and smash things in has never been replicated, except maybe in crack down. It’s hard to tell from the teaser, but it appears the game features a fully destructible environment.
Are you in the mood to plunder and pillage in an open world environment that allows you to step into the shoes of a resurrected battle weary Viking? You now have the opportunity to do so because Viking: Battle For Asgard from Creative Assembly and SEGA has finally hit stores for the PS3 and Xbox 360.We have been bombarding you with information on the game for months now, but just in case you missed it, here is some background information for you:
Viking: Battle For Asgard thrusts players into a mythological world overrun with demonic warriors unleashed by Hel, the Norse goddess of the underworld. As Skarin, a rage-fueled Viking hero, players will wage all-out war to free mankind from the grip of evil and ultimate annihilation. Players can command dragons and wield fire, ice, and lightning, laying waste to enemies in either small skirmishes or epic battles featuring hundreds of warriors. Enemies will suffer graphic dismemberment with disturbing realism from an array of Skarin’s melee, range, and magic attacks. Upgradable combat skills and Skarin’s otherworldly abilities create an ever-changing landscape of epic violence and heroic victory.
Woo Whoo! Hopefully this will be a fun and bloody action game for to drive away the Winter chills. For more information on the game along with tons of screenshots and trailers look no further than our previous posts.
Condemned 2: Bloodshot Developer: Monolith Publisher: SEGA Price: $59.99 Platform: PS3, Xbox 360 Category: Action/Adventure, Psychological Horror ESRB: “M” for Mature Release Date: 3/12/2008
When I first heard that the folks over at Monolith were making a sequel to Condemned: Criminal Origins, I was both excited and leery at the same time, because let’s face it, sequels are not usually up to par with the original. Granted, the God of War titles seem to do justice to our favorite Spartan, but that cannot be said of the majority of sequels sitting on shelves. My initial disquiet over another offering of Ethan Thomas and the maimed world in which he resides seemed to mitigate slightly when I viewed the first set of screenshots from the game, and the more I saw, better I felt. The trailers looked great, the weapon selection was both pacifying and hilarious at the same time, and the overall ambiance the trailers portrayed finally allowed me to let my guard down completely for Condemned 2: Bloodshot. However, before I get too far ahead of myself, I would like to point out that while this was indeed a very fun and entertaining game, it was far from perfect. So far, to be quite honest, that afterwards when I had played through it a second time, I started to feel extremely let down.
The XBL demos for Condemned 2: Bloodshot and SEGA Super Star Tennis are already out, and now finally, like Chris mentioned last week, the PSN store will be getting in on the love today - well, only in the US.
Both the PSN and XBL versions should be arriving on European shores soon but the exact dates depend on certification by Sony and Microsoft. I know, its a pain when most of the world already has it and you don’t, but we promise that we will keep you posted on the dates as soon as we hear more.
In the meantime, go ahead and just buy the games and trade them back in. You may loose about thirty dollars in the process, but if you are the impatient sort, this is your only option at this point.
Viking: Battle for Asgard
Obsidian Entertainment has granted a preview of their upcoming near-future spy thriller RPG Alpha Protocol to CVG. The title should appeal to 007 and Bourne fans and hopes to push the international spy thriller to the limit with a formula combining the best of “the three JBs”- James Bond, Jason Bourne and Jack Bauer.
SEGA has announced the U.S. Olympic athletes chosen to grace the cover of Beijing 2008: The Official Olympic Video Game. These four athletes are Amanda Beard,Tyson Gay, Nastia Liukin and Reese Hoffa. For those of you unfamiliar with these stars of the world of sports, their individual records and accolades are available after the break.
When that first 
Condemned 2: Bloodshot
The XBL demos for 
