2009 Games

Atomic Games recently announced their first person shooter Breach and now they have released a walkthrough video that shows off the game’s destructible environments.

Breach is a new FPS from developer Atomic Games, they people behind the upcoming Six Days in Fallujah. It will be multiplayer download only game that will be available on Xbox LIVE and the PC. Breach’s huge selling point is its destructible environments and I gotta say they look pretty impressive in the walkthrough video. The GameTrailers video was taken at the recent PAX East event where they interviewed Atomic Games’ president, Peter Tamte. He walks us through how Breach differs from other FPS’s on the market. It will include an Active Cover System that will allow you to shoot multiple ways from cover. The game will also feature real world spy gadgets for you to use but the most impressive thing about the video is the destructible environments. In the video we get to see that you can destroy the environment down to an individual brick. It will allow you take out full structures by taking out support beams. The game looks really cool and I can’t wait to see more from the game. It looks like a cross between Modern Warfare 2 and Red Faction: Guerilla. If that interests you at all, you gotta check out the video.

No release date has been given yet for Breach other than early summer but it will be available as an XBLA title on Xbox 360 and the PC. We will let you know when we hear more. Check out the video after the jump.Read more…

This is just too good not to report as news. GamerNode’s own Associate Editor Jason Fanelli (and everyone else who brought one to PAX East) spent some time connecting to other Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver players’ PokéWalkers at the show, proving once again that Nintendo makes it their duty to think outside the box when it comes to video games. Here’s Jason’s personal column post, in full:

"PAX East was good to me in more ways than one, but I feel that the most important thing it did for me was show me a surefire way to make new friends. Watch…"

[flash width="540" height="402"]http://www.viddler.com/player/e0e35078[/flash]

Without making a public announcement, Activision has performed a major restructuring of its senior managment and internal organization. The report comes from an internal memo acquired by The Los Angeles Times.

The memo details that Activision will be divided into four business divisions. One will be specifically for Call of Duty, one for Blizzard Entertainment, one for owned property like Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk, and one for liscensed properties such as Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man and X-Men games.

The promotion of Call of Duty and demotion of Guitar Hero comes as no surprise, as Modern Warfare 2 has made over $1 billion in sales and recent Guitar Hero games sales have drastically fallen.

Changes to the top executives in the company include former Activision Publishing president and CEO Mike Griffith being named the publisher’s vice chairman and advisor to CEO Bobby Kotick. Former chief financial officer and chief corporate officer Thomas Tippl has been named Activision’s first COO. He will report directly to Kotick and have authority over Blizzard president Mike Morhaime. Tippl will also temporarily act as the head of Activision Publishing.

The heads of newly created units will be Dave Oxford, former Activision Value head, as overseer of the liscensed division and Maria Stripp, former executive vice president of owned properties, who will lead the owned properties division.

According to the memo received by the Times, Kotick explained the moves to Activision employees, stating, "This is an important change as it will allow me, with Thomas, to become more deeply involved in areas of the business where I believe we can capture great potential and opportunity."

Activision has since released a statement to the Times regarding the story as well as announcing that the company laid off 15 workers last week.

"We realigned our structure to better reflect our slate and marketing opportunities and direct our resources against the largest most profitable business segments," said spokeswoman Maryanne Lataif.

[The Los Angeles Times]

The Modern Warfare 2: Stimulus Pack is upon us, available exclusive to Xbox 360 owners for the next 30 days, but that shouldn’t stop PC and PS3 owners from watching from the sidelines at home.  Friend of G4, Matt Pascual, took the maps to task with this comparison video looking at how the "Crash" map is depicted in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 versus how it exists in the original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.  Here’s a spoiler: You’ll notice that while the remake is a bit brighter, it’s still a very faithful rendition of the classic map.  Of course, throw familiarity out the window once someone calls in the AC-130.  See for yourself here:

Watch Larger Version | Watch HD Version 

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Do you need a vacation? Tecmo’s got just the game for you. In Dead or Alive Paradise, you’re invited to take the fun, surf, and sand of New Zack Island with you anywhere. That includes buses, airports, and family outings! Just in case you’ve been clamoring for some fun at the slots and plenty of bonding with the lovely ladies of Dead or Alive (when they’re not performing plastic surgery with their fists and feet), then Paul Semel’s got the scoop for you:

"Then there’s volleyball, which is the highlight of Paradise (though “highlight” is obviously a relative term). While it is fun, and there’s more to it than just hitting one button to hit the ball back — you can actually block, pass, spike, or make your teammate do the blockin’, passin’, and spikin’ — it’s still shallow when compared to other volleyball video games. Y’know, like the ones in Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball and Dead Or Alive Xtreme 2. Though since you can only play volleyball with one of the women you’ve befriended, the whole affair is sullied by having to do the creepy gifting thing."

Wait, what? What does Paul mean by "’highlight’ is obviously a relative term?" You’ll have to click here to find out!

Cam footage of Dead Space 2 that was pulled from the Ustream of the recent PAX East event has surfaced.

Dead Space 2 is the follow up to the surprise survival horror hit of 2008. It was announced back in December and was Game Informer’s January cover story as well. Executive Producer, Steve Papoutsis, said that the Dead Space sequel will be more focused on action and it is very apparent from the cam footage. At the recent PAX East event in Boston, someone captured some brief footage of Dead Space 2 that was being shown to show attendees. In the footage we can see Isaac Clarke flying down a narrow corridor with what look to rocket boots. It’s not the greatest footage but it does show off some pretty intense flying action. Overall the footage is pretty short but worth the quick look.

No release date has been set for Dead Space 2 but it will be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the PC sometime in Q1 2011. Check out the cam footage after the break.Read more…

Gamers won’t want to be dropping the soap this week, as Zootfly and Deep Silver’s Prison Break: The Conspiracy hits shelves. The stealth/action game based on the popular TV series will be coming to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Another game releasing this week will be Dead or Alive Paradise for the PSP, which will allow players to play an assortment of mini games while watching the DOA girls wear skimpier and skimpier outfits.

Here’s the full list of releases for this week:

DS:
America’s Test Kitchen: Let’s Get Cooking
Again
Disney’s Stitch Jam
My Pet Chimp
WarioWare D.I.Y.

PC:
Prison Break: The Conspiracy

PlayStation 3:
Prison Break: The Conspiracy

PSP:
Dead or Alive Paradise
Mimana: Iyar Chronicle

Xbox 360:
Prison Break: The Conspiracy
Samurai Shodown Sen

Wii:
Cabela’s Monster Buck Hunter
Dance Sensation!
Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love

The countdown is over, and Bioware has just revealed their much-speculated community event, the Bioware Bazaar.

Here’s what Bioware’s website has to say:

"To show our appreciation of fan support and to celebrate the 15th anniversary of BioWare, we have created the BioWare Bazaar – a week-long series of mock online auctions beginning April 6th that will feature over 400 items ranging from custom painted PC’s, Alienware laptops, BioWare apparel and more!

To bid on these items, fans will need to collect tokens through various challenges. The first auction begins at 9 AM PST on Tuesday, April 6th, with new items being made available every 15 minutes, ending 4 PM PST Saturday, April 10th."

Some of the items include Mass Effect 2 artwork and signature PC’s, Dragon-Age PC’s, ATI Graphics cards, M11x Alienware laptops, gaming glasses, and a whole lot of Bioware swag.  For a full list, follow the link below to the new Bioware Bazaar website.

[BiowareBazaar]

Besides a magazine cover, Electronic Arts and Visceral Games haven’t said much about Dead Space 2. All parties involved are quiet about a release date for the action-horror sequel, but it’s largely expected it won’t be arriving until sometime in early 2010.

PAX East marked a coming out party of sorts for Dead Space 2, however. Executive producer Steve Papoutsis, producer Rich Briggs and art director Ian Milham coming to PAX’s east coast debut to talk with fans, discuss the future of the franchise and tease a short piece of gameplay from the game. I sat down with all three of them at PAX East to discuss Dead Space, Dead Space 2 and more. 

Here’s an excerpt from Papoutsis discussing a balance between horror vs. action:

"Listening to what gamers think about the game, one thing that we heard over and over again was "hey, we love the horror elements of Dead Space, those were great, but we also want a release point," a point where you can feel like a bad-ass and kick a little bit of ass. I think the way that Rich has been explaining it and we’ve all been explaining it, if you think about a rollercoaster ride or a sine wave, there’s going to be moments where we’re building the tension, we’re building to a moment and there’s a climax and then there’s a release, where you can get your bearings, kick ass a little bit and then it’s right back into the tension. We’re sprinkling these moments throughout the game that are going to make the player feel very empowered — [they're] epic."

For more, make sure to check out my complete interview from PAX East!

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