While Flagship's maiden voyage may have ended up as splintered wreckage at the bottom of the massively multiplayer ocean, a pair of its former crew have found safe harbor at fellow MMO studio, Turbine. The Lord of the Rings Online developer announced that former Flagship execs Dave Brevik and Jeff Lind have joined the company, and will help spearhead a newly opened studio in Redwood City, CA.
The pair is joined by industry vet and former Sniper Studios president and CEO, Matt McKnight, who will serve as the new studio's Director, while Brevik and Lind will take on roles as creative director and engineering director respectively. We offer congratulations and best of luck to all three gentlemen, though we're particularly interested in seeing what Brevik does with his new position. Creative director marks a change from his previous role as Flagship's chief visionary officer, a wise course correction given that his foresight apparently stopped just short of predicting his former employer's impending doom.
The last time Talisman really popped up on radar was last year when it was stated the game would be out by April of 2008. Svensson notes on the Capcom site that it was no longer cost effective to continue with the project after a "misfire" at the start and the rights have reverted back to Games Workshop.
Infogrames has completed its $11 million stock purchase of Atari, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher now. Infogrames CEO David Gardner stated the full buyout (it previously owned 51.4%) was another key part of the company's extreme makeover, which has seen the shocking revelation of profits show up in the publisher's coffers.
Tokyo Game Show organizer CESA announced (via IGN) that the show had 194,288 visitors this year, up about a thousand attendees from last year. The increase in visitors on the public days made up for the significant drop during the two "business only" days of the show.
Thursday (Business): 27,305 ('07 - 29,783)
Friday (Business): 24,178 ('07 - 32,390)
Saturday (Public): 71,639 ('07 - 64,795)
Sunday (Public): 71,166 ('07 - 66,072)
Good thing TGS is open to the public because those figures really help distract from asking: where have all the business folks gone?
We finally have some news on the long-awaited patch for Castle Crashers. According to a post on developer Behemoth's site, the problems (including connectivity issues) have been "knocked out" and the team is currently verifying the updates before sending it off to Microsoft for certification.
In perhaps one of the biggest understatements, the post states, "we are aware that many of you are unhappy about the wait" but explains that they had to fix all known issues at once, as opposed to release incremental updates. Certification can take a few weeks, so don't hold out hope for seeing the patch before Halloween. There should be more than enough titles to keep your attention in the interim.
The Age of Booty begins this Wednesday as the plundering pirates RTS game joins XBLA for 800 ($10). The release date is in line with what Capcom had previously announced, which means the title should be available on PSN this Thursday and "shortly after" for PC.
Taking a lesson from last week, this doesn't mean Age of Booty is the only release for XBLA this Wednesday. After Tenchu snuck in like a ninja at the eleventh hour, we're keeping an eye out whether any other games jump out of the shadows. En garde!
Shockingly, the Brash formula of churning out abysmal movie-based games with little (read: no) redeeming qualities apparently hasn't panned out so well. Now, another of the company's co-founders, Legendary Pictures' Thomas Tull, has followed the lead of former boss Nicholas Longano and vertically disembarked from Brash: The Boat Made of Holes by leaving the company's board.
Proving that the rich and the proletariat do share some common ground, Variety reports "Tull is believed to have been disappointed with the quality of Brash's games." Welcome to the clubhouse, Tom. Sorry it's so packed in here.
A NeoGAF member who hobbies as ESRB archive scavenger has stumbled upon an update for Marvel vs. Capcom 2 that lists the game for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game, a frenetic 3-on-3 arcade bralwer from 2000 (and probably one of the main reasons you keep a Sega Dreamcast around, assuming you didn't pick up the PS2 or Xbox One version), seems like a perfect fit for Xbox Live Arcade or PS Network. We've reached out to Capcom for more information.
No one does it like Japan. No one takes cosplay more seriously than them. To the Japanese it's an art form or even a form of sport, if you will. Cosplay takes massive dedication – there's getting into shape to look the part, and then talk about those hours upon hours applying wax in one's hair to get that exact patented look down right to the point of copyright infringement.
It's all about going the extra mile, and Japan has perfected the Zen-like disciplined lifestyle of the cosplayer. Of course, we're not knocking down other countries and their costume mimicry attempts; Americans are getting there, we're sure you can agree, but it still pales in comparison. This is still very much Japan's homecourt. See for yourselves ... our gallery awaits.
Here's a great object lesson in why PR people get so nervous about letting the talent do interviews: While speaking with AusGamers, Prince of Persia animation director David Wilkinson was heaping praise on Alex Drouin, who worked on animations for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, as well as mega-hit Assassin's Creed. When asked what Drouin is up to now at about 14:28 in, Wilkinson said "He's busy making Altair even more beautiful. Last thing I saw him do was getting Altair to swim."
This off-handed comment seems to suggest (1) New Assassin's Creed game is in the works (shock). (2) It will at least be partially focused on Altair. (3) He will swim, which, considering his bulky cloth duds, could be the most surprising part of all.
Wow, see now this is a game release week. We're featuring Dead Space, because it looks incredible and we're dying to get our hands on it, but we could just have easily gone with PS3'snew SOCOM game, Saint's Row 2 or Bratz: Girls Really Rock.
See the full list right after the break, just be sure to shield your wallet's eyes first. You don't want to scare the little guy.
Australia's high-strung ratings board, the OFLC, notes that 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand will be published by THQ -- at least in that region. The game received an "MA 15+" rating last Friday. Holla atcha boy if you happy it ain't banned.
The 50 Cent sequel had previously been dropped by Activision during its merger with Vivendi, which caused rumors to spring up that the game had died. But much lite Fitty getting shot, Developer Swordfish Studios got back up and announced that the game was still in development and trying to make a holiday release. THQ was previously speculated to be a publisher for the game, but the OFLC rating is the first piece of evidence of that claim's validity.
Source - THQ picks up 50 Cent game (GI.biz) Source - 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand is Dead, Dead, Dead [update] (Kotaku)
You have to feel a little bad for WiiWare. Just when it manages to mount a decent effort with the completely solid-looking World of Goo, here's what the Virtual Console answers back with:
Secret of Mana(Super NES, 1-3 players, 800 Wii Points) -- Oh, you remember Secret of Mana, it's only one of the very best role-playing games ever, with two million copies shipped worldwide. It's also got one of the best pieces of box art in history, not that you'll get to enjoy that.
Oh, and...
Street Fighter II: Special Championship Editon(Sega Genesis, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points) -- In case you have as hard a time keeping SFII games straight at we do, allow us to remind you that this is the one that blends Turbo, Hyper and Champion editions and adds the Group Battle mode. (P.S. Do yourself a favor and check out that video we linked to, it's a treat.)
Wow, WiiWare, that's gotta hurt. At least Art Style: Cubello is there to soften the blow.
We don't have much to say about this week's WiiWare release of World of Goo (2D Boy, 1-4 players, 1,500 Wii Points) because, quite frankly, it might actually be good. While great for Wii owners, it makes the weekly announcement post quite boring.
We have even less to say about this week's other WiiWare offering Art Style: CUBELLO (Nintendo, 1 player, 600 Wii Points) since, much like last month's Art Style: ORBIENT, there's virtually nothing on the internet about it that we can find. From the official description, it sounds like Cubello might be a remake of the bit Generations title Coloris. Is this and Goo enough of an incentive to finally give Mega Man 9 a break?
EA confirmed that they're working on two different expansions for Will Wright's universe-in-a-hard-drive Spore this morning, both the previously revealed Spore: Creepy and Cute Parts pack and a new expansion for the game's "Space" phase, which is already exponentially larger than its co-levels.
Expect Cute and Creepy to add around 100 new parts -- some cute and cartoonish, some monster-like. "Cute" and "creepy" is fine as a title, but at a price of $19.95 those parts had better be nauseatingly adorable and perversely horrifying. It's due on Nov. 18 and will also work for those who only own the Spore Creature Creator.
The untitled Space expansion won't arrive until spring of 2009, but it sounds substantially meatier than the parts pack. According to EA, "players' space faring creatures will be able to beam down from their spaceships to explore new planets and earn rewards for completing challenging missions" and "a new Adventure Creator will allow players to build and share online their own custom missions."
So, yeah, EA is flogging Will Wright's new creation. If this comes as a surprise, we'd kindly direct you to the Sims aisles of your local game store.
($10). The release date is in line with what Capcom had 
