Well if you’ve paid attention to the news in the last couple of days, those of us here in the Northeast are all about to get snowed in for the weekend; at least I hope that’s all that happens. According to them we’re in for a world-ending amount of snow that may or may not bring about the apocalypse, so it’s times like these that I’m glad I am a gamer, staying indoors for a few days isn’t as bad when you’ve got tons to play. In all seriousness I really do hope it isn’t as bad as they say it’s going to be, but as the snow is actually piling up faster than they said it would I really don’t think that is going to be the case. Regardless, here I am, risking my life, to bring you some gaming news you may have missed earlier this week.
Game Informer has some screenshots of EA’s Battlefield expansion, End Game, and while super early screenshots such as these are about as indicative of actual gameplay as a promotional picture of a McDonald’s cheeseburger is to the real thing, they have hinted at a few features that are more than just window dressing. Some of these new features include the return of both the Capture the Flag and Air Superiority game modes, the introduction of drop ships, and three new vehicles, a dirt bike and two Anti-Air vehicles. So despite the overly perfect screenshots it seems like End Game is going to add more Battlefield to Battlefield.
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One of my favorite YouTube series on gaming is actually the one in which the person playing knows pretty much nothing about games. Conan O’Brien’s Clueless Gamer series gives us a glimpse as to what would happen if you were to take a person in the 50s and put in Xbox in front of them, he’s pretty much a caveman. This week’s episode has him taking out his aggression on the character he voiced in Halo 4, and also his co-host Andy Richter who dies to a hail of bullets from Conan himself.
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It looks like the news isn’t that great for Sony according to Joystiq as their stocks dipped again after their eighth consecutive quarterly loss. It is looking more and more like the PS4 is going to have to perform really well in order to take them out of the financial basement. This would be an excellent time to their customer service and really make the next Playstation a great player experience, but I don’t think they’ll have time in between shutting down used games and creating sequels to titles that nobody wants to play.
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Remember when Epic was awesome enough to hire those unfortunate developers who were caught up in the collapse of 38 Studios? Well unfortunately the studio that hired them is now being shutdown. According to Gamasutra after only 6 months in existence the Maryland-based studio is closing its doors. I can’t imagine how frustrating it would be to work at 38 Studios, get laid off, get hired by Epic, and then get laid off again. Managing human resources has become a real problem in the industry as many young designers find themselves moving through the revolving door that is the modern game industry.
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The PA Report has a great write-up this week about just how fickle consumers can be when choosing which projects to support through Kickstarter. The story is about the game Retrovirus, a game that, for some reason, couldn’t seem to get its act together financially. It’s a great story, especially considering that one fan came in to fund the project and save the day, but it also shows just how close some games get to not being made at all.
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And finally, I’ve got another video of Gabe Newell speaking at the University of Texas at Austin for those that enjoyed the first. This one’s a bit shorter, only thirty minutes, but considering how much information can usually be gleaned from just one minute of his talks, thirty minutes is plenty. It’s full of his typical disclosure of all things Valve, economics, production, and games. He’s also focused on what he thinks is the future of corporations, not just gaming corporations, but all corporations in general. It’s yet another fascinating glimpse into the mind of one of the world’s most forward thinking individuals.
