Hoecs Games

Before THQ shuttered Juice Games, the studio was working on a H.A.W.X.-esque game called Stormbirds. A Juice artist put out and then pulled back some pics and a video, but cat’s outta the bag now.

The team working on this were “made redundant” (i.e., fired) on Dec. 1 because THQ made the decision Stormbirds was “too high risk,” according to artist Greg Calvert in a post on his personal blog (the post is now taken down, the quote comes from Shacknews, which saw it.)
Looking at the visual assets, the game seems to be set in a post-apocalyptic future at least partly employing Paris and a desert oilfield as settings. And from the cinematic, my guess is the Stormbirds were some rogue/mercenary group of flyboys blowing up the huge, lumbering squadrons of whatever corrupt government is in charge at that time.

No game action in the trailer, but it is an impressive CGI render. Stormbirds was being developed for the PS3 and the 360 as well as the PC. ShackNews has more still images with its post. Pity, this thing looked like fun, but then, don’t they all at this stage of creation?

Unnanounced, Cancelled THQ Air Combat Game Revealed in Slick Trailer [ShackNews via Blue’s News]

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While THQ’s budget sadly doesn’t extend to having Gary Busey endorse Saints Row 2’s PC requirements, we can make believe. Just imagine crazy eyes, some enormous teeth and two thumbs up.

Posted on the game’s official boards, here are both the minimum requirements and the recommended requirements:

Minimum Requirements:
- Windows XP / Vista
- 2.0 GHz Dual-Core Processor (Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2)
- 1 GB Available System Memory
- 15 GB Available Hard Drive Space
- 128 MB 3D Video Card w/Shader Model 3.0 Support (Nvidia GeForce 7600 / ATI Radeon X1300)
- DirectX Compatible Display Capable of 640×480 16-bit Color Resolution
- DirectX 9.0c Compatible 16-bit Sound Card
- Broadband Connection for Internet Multiplayer

Recommended Requirements:
- Windows XP / Vista
- 3.2 GHz Dual-Core Processor (Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2)
- 2 GB Available System Memory
- 256 MB 3D Video Card with Shader Model 3.0 Support (Nvidia GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon HD3850)
- DirectX Compatible Display Capable of 1024×768 in 32-bit Color
- DirectX 9.0c Compatible 16-bit Sound Card
- Recommended System Requirements Required for 2-12 Player Multiplayer or Co-Op

While Saints Row 2 spent the year overshadowed by GTAIV on console, with the PC version of Rockstar’s game crippled by technical problems, the door’s open for Volition’s title to take a little turf back.

Re: SOME NEWS on the PC version… [Saints Row]

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G-Unit’s Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo, like group mate 50 Cent, aren’t your traditional celebrity turned video game character. They actually play the games they’re in. And they know who Sephiroth is.

In fact, during our recent sit down with Banks and Yayo, they played 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand the entire time, attention divided between shooting up scores of unidentifiable Middle Eastern bad guys and answering questions.

Banks and Yayo are self-described “video game heads,” raised on 8-bit classics like Contra, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! and Commando, arcade fighters like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. Yayo’s current obsession? Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, a title in which he feels pretty confident he could kick my ass. (We’re exchanging Gamertags to settle that…)

Yayo even bragged about his Gunnar Optiks gaming glasses, the eyewear that purports to reduce eyestrain when staring at a monitor for hours on end. What else are bored rappers going to do while on the road?

“It’s an addiction to me,” Yayo lamented, admitting that he, like the rest of us buys games on a whim… and never even plays some of them.

Unsurprisingly, the G-Unit tour bus is decked out with plenty of sports games — NBA Live, Madden, 2K Sports. They play Madden and Live for money, with a hard and fast rule that if you lose a virtual basketball game by 40 points or more, you’re banned for life. But Banks surprised us with mention of one of his favorite games of the PlayStation generation, Final Fantasy VII.

“They probably up to [Final Fantasy] XVIII now, huh?” he joked when I questioned his Japanese role-playing game credentials. “Yeah, man. Sephiroth and all them dudes. I remember when [those games] came on, like, four CDs. They were all scratched up by the time you finished ‘em. That was a big thing to see that game come up.”

The G-Unit rappers seem to represent that most mainstream of audience, the hard-casual gamer who buys and plays nothing but the biggest and best-selling of titles. They’re less fussy and learned about their gaming choices than the forum dwelling hardcore gamer, with little interest in distinguishing Rock Band — a G-Unit tour bus and green room favorite — from Guitar Hero.

But they have better taste than the purely casual gamer, preferring Street Fighter to the Def Jam brand of fighting games, Call of Duty 4 and Grand Theft Auto IV to, well, certainly not the game they’re appearing in.

“This is going to be my favorite game when this comes out,” Yayo confidently proclaimed, referring to his second video game appearance in Blood on the Sand.

The Swordfish Studios-developed third-person shooter might not appeal to the daily Kotaku reader, mainly because of its celebrity endorsement. But with some two million-plus copies sold of 50 Cent: Bulletproof, it’s obvious that there’s a substantial portion of the market that doesn’t mind celebri-gaming. While the first 50 Cent title — created by Genuine Games — was panned by critics, it was loved by the group’s fans, according to Banks and Yayo.

“People loved the game!” swears Yayo.

“Most people I talked to beat it,” added Banks, even though neither of the G-Unit founders finished the original.

“You know what we did that we kind of laughed at?” Yayo told us. “We wanted there to be less curses than the first one.” But there won’t be an E-rated ‘clean’ version.

Fortunately for fans, Blood on the Sand looks like it will be a higher quality product than its 2005 predecessor. Swordfish has a more established development pedigree than Genuine Games did when Bulletproof was released and the UK developer looks to have borrowed smartly from its third person action game peers. 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand could easily be described as “Rappers do Gears of War while hunting down Damien Hirst sculpture,” an appropriate sampling of tested gameplay and pop culture. It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it.

And it has exploding barrels.

What was Banks’ and Yayo’s involvement in Blood on the Sand, 50 Cent’s upcoming shoot ‘em up featuring a financially scorned rapper on the hunt for his diamond-encrusted skull? To hear it from Banks, it was a considerable amount of work on their part.

The concept, they say, was borne from a sit down with the G-Unit crew, influenced by the movie Blood Diamond and the group’s own travels in Iraq.

“But I have to give credit to the computer people,” Yayo says, the folks at Swordfish who turned four rappers into virtual action heroes.

“[We] just take pictures for hours,” Banks noted, sounding still exhausted from all-day voiceover recording sessions and texture-building photo sessions. That effort of showing up to THQ’s studios may have been time consuming, but it also contributed to former G-Unit rapper Young Buck being ejected from the group. He just never showed up, according to Banks.

Regardless of the poking, prodding and voice acting, Banks and Yayo still sounded as thrilled as two rappers can to be starring in their second video game, excitedly pointing out “That’s Banks! That’s Banks, right there.”

“It’s weird cause I’m from South Jamaica Queens and I remember when Banks and I didn’t have shit,” Yayo said. “I still remember not havin’. We can go through our old neighborhood and still hang with the people that don’t have. You know what I mean? Whenever it comes out it’ll be big for me. I’ll be in the store buying my copies.”

For now, we’re just going to have to settle with trash-talking each other in the games dated B.B.O.T.S. (Before Blood on the Sand). Banks is ready to take you (or Soulja Boy) on in Pac-Man. Yayo will gladly bust you up in MK vs. DC.

And 50 Cent?

“Tetris,” Banks reveals. “Yeah, he talks all kinds of shit.”

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Even Steam isn’t immune to the lure of post-holiday surplus cash, launching a massive Holiday Sale during which every single game in the store is marked down 10 to 75%.

They’re overstocked on digitally downloadable titles, and everything must go! Yes, I know you can’t technically overstock digital games, but everything still must go, and by everything they really mean everything. Left 4 Dead is 25% off. Portal and BioShock are both on sale for $4.99 a piece. There’s 25% off everything Ubisoft, 25-50% off THQ, and 25-75% off everything 2K.

Needless to say, if you bought anything off of Steam in the past month, you’re probably feeling pretty silly right about now. Don’t let it happen again. The Steam Holiday Sale ends January 2nd.

The Steam Holiday Sale [Steam - Thanks Tim!]

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THQ’s posted a new Dawn of War II movie, giving yet more reasons why the Relic RTS should be tip top of your list of PC games for the start of next year.
After the break. Looks awesome. Double awesome, probably.

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Upgrade. Upgrade. Must have new graphics card. Relic’s released footage of multiplayer Dawn of War II and it’s the most exciting thing in the world. Ever.
Here. Out early next year. If you’re not childishly hyperactive about this there’s something wrong with you.

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Upgrade. Upgrade. Must have new graphics card. Relic’s released footage of multiplayer Dawn of War II and it’s the most exciting thing in the world. Ever.
Here. Out early next year. If you’re not childishly hyperactive about this there’s something wrong with you.

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Hey, you. You any good at Gears of War? Or Uncharted? Fancy a shot at embarrassing a millionaire rap superstar? 50 Cent just gave you your shot.

See, Fiddy’s been playing his upcoming game, Blood on the Sand - which looks part-Gears, part-Uncharted - and fancies himself at it. Fancies himself to such a degree that he’s challenging all comers to a little wager:

I actually had the opportunity to play it, and I’m pretty good at it. If anybody out there wants to create a challenge or wants to bet some money online, we could play the game right now.

I’ll beat you, Mr. Cent. I’ll beat you for free, too. All you’ve gotta do is record a “WHEH MA SKHULL” message for my answering machine and I’ll walk away a happy man.

50 Cent Challenges Anyone To Beat Him At His New Video Game, ‘Blood On The Sand’ [MTV]

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Revealed just yesterday as one of the voices behind the human co-stars in THQ’s Deadly Creatures, veteran unhinged actor Dennis Hopper shares his opinion of the game in this behind-the-scenes video.

Hopper plays George Struggs, the owner of a run-down gas station with a plot to get his hands on some Civil War gold. It’s sort of a story within the story, with the humans thinking they are the stars when in reality the titular Deadly Creatures are the ones in the spotlight. Towards the end of the video, Hopper calms any fears that the game might be a flop, assuring us all that “gamers are going to love Deadly Creatures,” and who knows gamers’ tastes better than King Koopa himself?

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Hollywood A-listers Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Hopper are to voice the scorpion and spider roles in THQ Wii exclusive, Deadly Creatures.
“What surprised me about Deadly Creatures is how it looks… like watching a movie,” said Billy Bob Thornton. “The scorpion and tarantula are like two actors meeting up for a gun fight.”
“Gamers are really […]

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