E3 09 News - Page 6 - Overclock.net

OmegaNemesis28 · 05-30-09

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OmegaNemesis28 · 05-30-09

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So far, Konami's publicity department has had a pretty sadistic 2009. After famed designer Hideo Kojima teased "the next MGS" at the end of his 2009 Game Developers Conference keynote address, his publisher partner rolled out a drip-teaser campaign that has bordered on torturous. After teasing a big Kojima Productions announcement as coming May 18, Konami launched a teaser page bearing a countdown timer that ended three days later with...another countdown timer. This was followed five days later with one more countdown timer, accompanied by an image of MGS series character Big Boss, which is set to expire at 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 31--the day before the Electronic Entertainment Expo press events kick off.

Invasion of the E3 Snatchers?

Now the teaser site has changed again, revealing yet another teaser site for what might be an all-new IP. Sometime this week, the Kojima Productions logo in the lower right-hand side of the page was obscured by what looks like a ghostly face. The face also links to the URL www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/mask/, which yields a black page with the Konami and Kojima logos in the top two corners. The center of the page is filled with a metallic mask of a feminine face reminiscent of the classic silent film Metropolis, with a second face in the motif on the mask's forehead.

Though the information in the HTML only says "KOJIMA PRODUCTION 'Mask,'" there is no shortage of theories about what the teaser site is for. Besides the obvious prospect of an all-new IP, the most common hypothesis is that the game being teased is a reboot of Snatcher, the Kojima-designed digital-comic adventure released on various platforms in the late '80s and early '90s. The game's main antagonists are a race of "bioroids"--artificial biomechanical beings like the characters in the anime Ghost in the Shell--leading to speculation that the mask on the page may belong to one.

Another reason to suspect that the mask page is for Snatcher is that Kojima himself has said he is working on a remake. In a 2007 interview with Famitsu spotted by gaming blog Joystiq, Grasshopper Manufacture chief Goichi Suda confirmed that his long-germinating collaboration with Kojima, "Project S," was indeed based on both Snatcher and a radio drama inspired by it. "I think I will call it 'Snatchers.' I can't talk about the details of the story at this point," he reportedly told the Japanese gaming magazine.

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OmegaNemesis28 · 05-30-09

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May 29, 2009 - Next week at E3 2009, developer WayForward Technologies (Contra 4, Lit) will be showing off a playable version of its stylish 2D action-platformer A Boy and His Blob. But IGN readers will get to read all about it now via my interview with game director Sean Velasco and by way of my hands-on impressions, which I've very handily included for your pursuit below. Isn't that totally thoughtful of me? Excuse me while I give myself a serious pat on the back for a job well done.

I might have to give WayForward one, too (segue, people!), because the Valenica, California-based studio has not only re-imagined the 1989 NES title (I'm reluctant to call it a classic because it had its share of issues), but it's done so utilizing traditional hand-drawn animation that's so lovingly crafted it gives the stunning 2D actioner Muramasa: The Demon Blade a run for its money. I'm getting ahead of myself, though. First, a little primer for you -- and by little, I mean very little. Boy and His Blob for Wii is based on the two-decades-old David Crane (Pitfall creator) project about, yes, a boy and the jiggly alien blob he befriends. The blob devours jelly beans, which enable the creature to change into various shapes that are useful to the boy's progression, like a ladder and an umbrella. Naturally, all of the gameplay challenges revolve around these blobby items. Voila.

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OmegaNemesis28 · 05-30-09

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May 29, 2009 - For a franchise as storied as the Ratchet and Clank series, we really don't know that much about Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time. Insomniac Games started the Future story arc back in 2007, Clank got captured, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty came as a downloadable installment, and now another disc-based entry in the canon is upon us.

What is going on, people?!

Rather than sit here and come up with our own ideas for what this R&C game is going to bring us, IGN went to Insomniac Games Creative Director Brian Allgeier for the straight truth about the story, the characters, the weapons, and the fact that Ratchet is no longer the only Lombax in the known universe.

Intrigued? Read on...

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OmegaNemesis28 · 05-30-09

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May 29, 2009 - If there's one thing I cannot get enough of in videogames, it is inadvertent humor. In EA Mobile's The Sims 3 for iPhone, the Sims speak in their typical gibberish that is also accompanied by a word balloon with an object inside of it, such as a car or fish. When my Sim Bubba told a flirty joke to Ruth, a corncob appeared over his head. Saucy.

But it's that kind of silliness that has made the Sims such a smash over the years. The Sims 3 on iPhone at first looks like a stripped down version of the upcoming PC release of the same name, but after several hours of play, the game appears not to be a distillation, but just an entirely different way to get a Sims experience. You still create your Sim and imbue it with a personality. You still get a job. You still learn skills. You still socialize with other Sims and hope to one day lay down with at least one of them. But this iPhone edition just makes it easier to squeeze time with your Sim into a short game session for playing on the go or during those stolen moments found in a busy day.

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