GamerAndy Live! Episode 86: Chocolate Rain

Posted by Edie Sellers Categories: Activision, Announcements, Corporate News, Culture, E3, Electronic Arts, First Person Shooters, Microsoft, MMORPG, Music, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, PC, PlayStation 3, Politics, Portable/Mobile, PSP, Release Dates, Reviews, Role Playing Games, Rumors, Sony, Sports, Third Person Shooters, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace, GamerAndy

Finally, now that the dust has settled from E3, we have finally found the time to get our thoughts in order and give you an extra-long episode of GamerAndy Live!

This week, Edie and Hawkes chat up all that happened before E3, during E3, and after E3, including:

OUR E3 COVERAGE
- How Edie spotted Slash, missed Ron Jeremy and got groped by China Doll;
- Edie defends why she thinks Nintendo “won” E3 this year;
- Why Hawkes wasn’t as impressed at Killzone 2 as many others;
- Burnout Paradise;
- John Woo’s Stranglehold;
- Fallout 3;
- Hellgate: London;
- Katamari Damarcy;
- PGR4;
- Assassin’s Creed;
- Why Activision will get sued over Guitar Hero III;
- The big scoop we almost had;
- Rumor that E for All may not happen

NEWS
- Peter Moore chucks MS job for EA Sports;
- EA Sports: Hockey-less in ‘08;
- Chocolate Rain;
- Bully revamped for release on 360 and Wii;
- Wii Fit
- MGS4 coming to 360?
- Shoutouts and Shoutats;
- Problems for Unreal Engine?
- X07 gone;
- Xbox extended warantees;
- PS3 price drop…er, clearance sale;
- The Jaime Kennedy Embarassment;
- South Park’s WoW episode nominated for Emmy

Enjoy!

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E3 2007: Preview: Hellgate: London

Posted by Edie Sellers Categories: Action, E3, Games for Windows, MMORPG, PC, Role Playing Games

Here’s a quick rundown of what we learned about Hellgate: London as I got a tour of a few levels with Tyler Thompson, Flagship Studio’s director of technology.

Platform: PC

Release date: Still shooting for summer 2007 - which, let’s face it, is right now. According to Tyler, “We’re still working for that. If it takes a little bit longer, then we’ll let it take a little bit longer.” In industry speak that means, “If you don’t see it by August, you’ll see it for the holidays.”

Look: Flagship Studios, at its top levels, is populated by ex-Blizzard brains, including Diablo creators Erich Schaefer and David Brevik (and don’t forget Bill Roper, who played an integral role in the Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo series). So, think Diablo, but much, much better looking. Tyler told me that the game is in the alpha stage. I’m used to seeing games in alpha looking a bit rough around the edges. This game was, in the levels he toured me, free of jaggies and visual glitches. The word that comes to mind is “shiny.” I found it to be very reminiscent of Diablo in look and feel. Of course, bear in mind the tour was guided, which means I only got to see the best looking areas.

The biggest improvement in look, and, ultimately, playability, is the improved camera from Diablo 2. Gone is the fixed, third-person isometric camera in favor of 360-degree, fully rotational viewing.

More after the break.

Click to continue reading E3 2007: Preview: Hellgate: London

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