Hoecs Games

Although id didn’t show Doom 4 at QuakeCon today, the company did say that the shooter will be a graphical monster, and significantly more visually impressive than EA’s Rage.
Doom will “not be another four-year development period”, said tech lead John Carmack, but will have “three times the graphics richness” because it runs at 30 frames-per-second, […]

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Despite the fact that 52,000 Diablo fans have signed a petition saying they want Diablo III to adopt a more “gritty” style, lead designer Jay Wilson has said in no uncertain terms that you can scream and cry all you want: it’s not going to make any difference.
“There’s no going back now,” he told MTV. […]

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Speaking at QuakeCon today, id’s John Carmack said that there may be room for a fully-fledged sequel to Quake III Arena, but it’ll be down to how gamers respond to upcoming free-to-play browser shooter Quake Live.
“The door is not completely shut for another Quake project, and I’d say probably the success of Quake Live is […]

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According to this Gamasutra job posting, Microsoft is still looking for a “superstar game director” to work on the Peter Jackson Halo Project.
“Partner with key Hollywood talent to collaboratively craft a masterful game experience,” says the ad, adding that the successful applicant will, “Collaborate with game play designers, story writers, game writers, and said external […]

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According to this GoNintendo piece, Acitvision said in its Q1 earnings call last night that Spyro and Crash are “ripe for innovation.”
The comments come in the wake of an announcement earlier this week that Crash and Spyro would be two of the few Vivendi franchises to make the transition to the newly formed Activision Blizzard.
That’s […]

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‘Project [M]’ from NCsoft has finally been revealed as a new, graphically stunning MMO entitled Blade and Soul.

Last year during E3 2007, Sony revealed that they had entered into an exclusive deal with NCsoft to produce new titles exclusively for the PlayStation 3. This contract included titles from both existing intellectual properties owned by NCsoft as well as new IPs.

With Blade and Soul being one of the first new titles announced from NCsoft since Aion: Tower of Eternity, it’s very likely that this is one of the PlayStation 3 titles from the contract. Since there has yet to be official confirmation from NCsoft, take this as pure speculation for right now.

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Speaking in an investor conference yesterday, EA boss John Riccitiello said that a sequel to The Godfather will ship either at the end of this year or the beginning of the next, Shacknews reports.
The game has been barely mentioned by the company, with Riccitiello saying in June that the game would bare RTS elements. It’s […]

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According to this Shacknews report, Activision CEO Mike Griffith said in the company’s Q1 earnings call last night that he expects PS3 to outsell 360 this year.
The exec’s estimates:

PlayStation 3: 8 million units

Xbox 360: 6-7 million units

Wii: 15 million units

PlayStation 2: 4-5 million units

More through the link.

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Tales of Vesperia is launching in Japan soon. August 7th, actually. And some people seem pretty excited. It’s the tenth entry in the Tales series. The Namco Bandai title is an Xbox 360 exclusive, so that just might mean that Microsoft will move more than it’s standard 3,000 Xbox 360s a week in Japan. Or not.

As of posting, Amazon Japan is sold out of new HDMI Xbox 360s (but does have Elites). HAPPINET, one of the major Xbox 360 distributors in Japan, are sold out of everything but the Elite. According to game store clerk threads on 2ch, the Xbox 360 will be restocked after Tales of Vesperia is released. What’s more, the Tales of Versperia bundle is apparently limited to something like 7,000.

The reason for the shortages?

According to a 2ch. shop clerks thread, the problem is on the distribution end for the Tales of Vesperia bundle. And for the regular Xbox 360s, there could be increasing demand for Tales and other Japan-specific Xbox 360 titles. That, and the fact that there really weren’t that many consoles in stock to begin with. Retailers obviously don’t want to get burnt. Then there’s always the matter of clearing out space for the new 60GB SKU.

Others think that the shortage is on purpose, because HAPPINET is run by Namco Bandai. Hey, if shortages work for Nintendo! Then again, this isn’t Nintendo… This is Xbox Japan. They probably want to move as many consoles as possible.

But does that mean it’s impossible to get an Xbox 360 in Japan at the moment? No, obviously not. Commenter Muu was recently in Tokyo for THE iDOLM@STER concert, telling us “I did see 360s still sitting around, but then again that’s one of the biggest electronics hubs in the largest metropolitan area.”

Thanks for the tip, Muu!

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Speaking at QuakeCon, id’s Tim Willits said that we’re going to be waiting a while for shooter Rage just yet.
“It’s not like we know and we’re not saying,” project leader told Eurogamer. “It’s just, again, it’s when it’s fun and when it’s done. Unfortunately that is the answer I have to give.”
Willits was asked if […]

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