Team Bondi and Rockstar's LA Noire or should I call Mad Men The Game: Cop Edition (seriously I found out there are like 5 actors from Mad Men including the main character), will be released in just 40 days and a new trailer got released. Cole Phelps, aka you, will not start off as a homicide detective but will have to work his way up starting in a vice squad investigating crimes such as fixing fights and drug distribution. An interesting idea that will not only prepare us for the homicides but also keep throwing new things at us as the story progresses.
Also the list of achievements/trophies was recently released by Rockstar and Team Bondi. I risked spoiling the story for myself to let you know what to expect. Don't worry, there weren't any real spoilers so I'll post the link: LA Noire Achievements. As for the trailer, I'm still a little unsure about the faces. Sometimes they look REALLY good and sometimes they look a little stiff, so I guess we'll have to wait for May 17th, less than a month after Portal 2, and if my wallet could it would definitely try to kill me.
Anyway, EA is involved with a few lawsuits. First up they're being sued by TWO parties for their EA Sports lineup. First is the creator of the Madden series who states that EA had promised to pay him royalties for every Madden game released that used the technology he created. Apparently, he hasn't been paid royalties since 1992 and is now suing for millions.
If the allegations are true then shame on EA. You may be publishing some of the best and most high-profile games this year but you have no sympathy from me if they are true.
Second a lawsuit against EA for holding a monopoly and overcharging on sports' licenses has become a class action suit. They now have exclusive rights with the NFL/NFLPA deal and they are being accused of overcharging. When 2K shared the rights with EA, they both charged about $25 and $30 per game respectively. Once EA secured the deal which cut 2K out, they raised the price of the games to $50.
Really I don't know how to respond to this. If someone who knows about this kind of stuff could look into it and give me a greater understanding on this issue, I would greatly appreciate it. I know we have laws against monopolies but I'm not sure in this case.
On the other side, the lawsuit between the two founders of Infinity Ward and founders of the new EA developer Respawn, Jason West and Vince Zampella and Activision is still heating. The founders of the developer they gave us Call of Duty are accusing Activision and Bobby Kotick of fraud. They allege that Activision and Kotick had breached the contract that they had with them and were planning on firing them months beforehand as soon as Modern Warfare 2 hit the shelves. This would indicate clear fraud on the part of Activision.
Finally, GameInformer has revealed the cover for their May issue showing that they will be giving a 12-page coverage on the highly anticipated conclusion to BioWare's incredible sci-fi trilogy, Mass Effect 3. They will be giving coverage and updates on the gameplay and story in next month's issue as well as extra updates on their website.
As a HUGE Mass Effect fan (understatement of the century), expect many updates on the state of the game as the month goes on, as long as it's about the gameplay. Anything about the story, I'm skipping over. Also a new novel, Mass Effect: Deception, is coming out. I've enjoyed the other novels and comics so why not?
As for the cover, all I can say is this: BADASS! The invasion of Earth and the Milky Way as a whole, Shepard standing there looking badass like s/he is in the games (even though I want FemShep to get attention in ads, though at this point it's not going to happen), and it looks like they took notes from LA Noire's box art with the separation of orange/red and blue as Earth is in flames and...god this is going to be amazing. Watch for my coverage on...well, GameInformer's coverage.
Blog news: tomorrow I'll be posting my first retro review of Super Metroid, and within the week I'll be posting a list of my 10 favorite video game protagonists. I'm currently playing through Baldur's Gate as that's the next retro review I'm going to do and after that I'll be reviewing Super Mario RPG. A copy of Homefront will arrive from GameFly next week and I'll give that a review when I finish it. Portal 2 will be out in less than 2 weeks so pick it up, it's gonna be awesome.
Don't worry guys, I'll make sense of these EA lawsuits. I took intro to law so I know what I'm talking about.
ReplyDelete*lengthy pause*
I have no idea what they're talking about. We only spent one session on business law. These lawsuits are getting crazy. It seems like every major publisher is involved in some sort of lawsuit. That can't be good for the industry (or at least the creative aspects of it).
Take Two is doing alright at least. I just don't get the price setting. I understand the monopolizing, I mean Edison and Gates both got that from the government.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't get saying "they're setting the prices too high". I think they're allowed to set prices as high as they want. If I'm wrong, someone please correct so I can understand that part of the lawsuit because my head hurts from that.