EA Vs. Activision

Electronic Arts has heard what Activision has to say about mudslinging and, judging by its official response, it doesn't feel the same way.

Responding to the war of words that's taken place between Battlefield and Call of Duty, Activision Publishing boss Eric Hirshberg gave a speech at Gamescom this week in which he called for an end to the trash talking. In his mind, competition is good, but "this type of rhetoric" -- referring to EA's John Riccitiello talking about his wish to see Call of Duty "rot from the core" -- "is bad for our industry." He stated, "...it's one thing to want your game to be successful. It's another to actively want the games of others to fail."

While things are fine on some fronts -- Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling checked out DICE's Battlefield 3 today -- EA's VP of communications, Jeff Brown, wasn't especially kind in a statement given to Kotaku, starting out by saying, "Welcome to the big leagues, Eric."

An interesting RPG

Gamers lament at how simplistic a lot of Western RPGs are these days, and developer Pirahna Bytes has heard you. Their new game, Risen 2: Dark Waters is set to give players what they want -- no lengthy tutorials, a giant world to explore, and an epic adventure that will take a massive amount of time to finish.

Risen 2 is all about making your character your own. After a short introduction you're dropped onto an island, left to decipher what exactly you're supposed to do. Sure, you're pointed in the vaguest of directions by a friendly NPC, but ultimately it's up to you to talk your way to success.

Conversation and dialogue are a big part of Risen 2. Over 250,000 lines have been recorded, and players have a number of options when they're interacting with the various characters they encounter. It's a significant undertaking, but done so that they can have multiple ways players can tackle a quest. For instance you might be offered an easy way off the island in return for killing some escaped slaves, while the less evil route might take you three times as long. It all comes down to what type of person you want your character to embody.

More Risen 2: Dark Waters Videos

Interacting with other characters is also a good way to learn additional skills. You don't pick a class or put points into a giant skill tree, you simply work with characters and they teach you how to do new things. For instance a prisoner might need your help to get out of jail, so working with him will teach you how to do things like sneak and lock pick. Or, if you're more of the witty type, you can interact a lot with prostitutes to learn how to get a "silver tongue."

Your character in Risen 2 is preset, but that isn't necessarily bad. I love altering the face, race, sex and more of my avatar, but it doesn't allow a game to be designed around that specific character. Risen 2 is very much the story of one man's journey as a pirate, and it's up to you to determine what sort of man he'll be.

Risen 2 isn't going to be as approachable as something like Fable III, but it looks like it could satisfy that niche audience that longs for a hardcore adventure. We'll find out in the first half of 2012 when it releases for PC and 360.

New WoW World of Warplanes

Sure, right now if you say "WoW" when addressing gamers they'll think you're talking about World of Warcraft. But, in a year or so when Wargaming.net releases the follow up to its super popular World of Tanks, that could all change. World of Warplanesbrings the same style of gameplay from World of Tanks, allowing players to take the sky in a game that's shooting for something between being a simulation and an arcade title. The best part? It's totally free.

World of Warplanes is a massively multiplayer online game where players take command of any number of classic aircraft that span roughly from World War 2 to the start of the Vietnam War. You start out with a relatively weak plane, fighting battles so that you can level up your account and earn a ton of in-game currency. Using this currency, you then buy new parts to upgrade your planes and eventually purchase even better aircraft. Of course there are micro transactions to help you out if you don't have the many, many hours needed to grind away, but the option to never pay a dime is there. After all, the company behind World of Warplanes needs people for the paying customers to shoot.

Takeoff and landing just keep players from the action, so World of Warplanes removes it entirely. Instead players drop right into the sky, ready to set up in squadrons and blast one another from the sky. Up to 30 players can participate in a match, but each round is single elimination. This means that planning and teamwork is especially prudent, and the developers fully expect clans to organize and thrive.

The challenge for Wargaming.net comes down to keeping flight controls accessible. To this end they're working on a number of control schemes, and plan on supporting joysticks, keyboard, keyboard and mouse, as well as gamepads. They're also working hard to tweak the flight physics, aiming to make them feel just realistic enough to appease simulation fans, while not so hard as to put off the odd person who just wants to see what WoW is all about. Hopefully the Beta that takes place later this year helps them fine tune it.

Wargaming also wants to ensure that the levels are varied. With World of Tanks it was easy since they could design levels with hills and buildings for the tanks to drive in, but with World of Warplanes the challenge comes down to crafting terrain that makes sense for aircraft. To this end they're creating levels filled with buildings, canyons and mountains, giving players plenty of obstructions to break up line of sight.

World of Warplanes sounds great, but the real test comes down to how it plays. They weren't allowing anyone to play it yet, but a Beta should begin soon, with a targeted release date of early 2012.

New Game: Dragon's Dogma

Dragon's Dogma remains a bit of an enigma. We know it's a new "realistic fighting fantasy" game in which you face off against typically Capcom-huge monsters with swords, bows and whatever else comes to gauntlet-clad hand. We know it's open-world, and that it's got some hot talent working on it. You can climb up enemies, which is always cool. But we still haven't seen that much of it in action, and there are still several mysteries surrounding its structure and plot.

One of those mysteries is the party system. You fight in a party of four in Dragon's Dogma – your own custom-created character, and three "pawns". You can command and customise these comrades, but exactly why and how has not been made exactly clear. At Gamescom, Capcom explained how this system works: it turns out that you'll be playing alongside other players' custom companions as well as your own.

You, as the Chosen One, have the ability to summon the Pawns from an alternate universe called the Rift. They look human, and they fight like humans, but it turns out that they are actually otherwordly beings that never age and never die. You get one "main pawn", who is yours to customise – so if you're a mage, you might create yourself a tank pawn in three-inch-thick armour to draw enemies away whilst you fight. There are six character classes in all. 

Ninja Gaiden III will not have dismemberment or decapitation

In Ninja Gaiden II, decapitating enemies and slicing off their arms and legs didn't just feel satisfying -- it was an important tactic for slowing them down and buying yourself time. This feature has been removed for Ninja Gaiden 3. Why? Because we don't want to see that anymore, apparently.

"We don't think people want to see that anymore," a member of developer Team Ninja told us at Gamescom today. "They've already seen it."

We are told Ninja Gaiden III is all about killing human beings. Team Ninja wants you to experience the feeling of your sword entering a person's body, hitting bone, and slicing through the torso. It wants these actions to feel realistic to the player, but that might be at odds with the fact that, in real life, heads and arms do come off.

Ninja Gaiden III will be out early next year. 

Urban Champion being re-released as a 3d Classic!

This week's update for the various Nintendo download services brings with it several new games, the most noteworthy of which is... worthy of being noted because of how awful it is.

Urban Champion ($4.99) is the latest game in the 3D Classics line of classic game revivals on the 3DS eShop. It's the third such remake, joining Xevious and Excitebike. It's a very simplistic fighting game (based on a Game & Watch title) that came to North America in 1986 on NES.

It isn't the strongest selection for a remake; it was also released on the Virtual Console in 2006 and was among theworst games available at the time. Nintendo has made it clear that 3D Classics likely won't ever be released in great abundance, so why a game that is generally regarded to be so miserable was chosen as one of the six planned 3D Classics is beyond me.

Diablo III to come out for Consoles??

Diablo III is, officially speaking, only planned for release on PC and Mac. More than likely, it'll also make its way to consoles at some point. At Gamescom this week, a Blizzard staffer dropped yet another hint that such an outcome is almost certainly going to happen.

Over in Germany, lead designer Josh Mosqueira stated that Blizzard "is very, very serious about bringing the Diablo III experience to the console," reports Eurogamer. He explained that they're hiring programmers, designers, and artists to work on consoles, although this still isn't an official announcement that a console port is really happening.

"All I can say is it's going to be awesome," he teased. "Stay tuned."

For the full scoop:

http://www.1up.com/news/continues-look-like-diablo-iii-coming-consoles