Head on over to GameTrailers to watch the latest episode of GameTrailers TV from DICE 2008. You’ll see me chatting with Bethesda’s Todd Howard (who reveals there was a surgery mini-game removed from Fallout 3), id’s Todd Hollenshead, EA’s Glen Schofield, and Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi.
Lots of great exclusive reveals this week as well, including Boom Blox Bash Party for the Wii, a new trailer for The Conduit, and the world premiere of the DLC for Call of Duty: World at War. We also break news on the show by revealing Split Second, the new racing game from Black Rock Studios, the creators of Pure. Although the trailer is CGI, I love the concept of a racing game with environmental destruction — especially if they can pull it off at a decent frame rate.
If you watch this week’s episode carefully you’ll also pick up on a big exclusive for next week’s show: The world premiere of the trailer for The Pitt, the new DLC for Fallout 3 set in Philadelphia. That one premieres next Friday, March 13 when I host the show from Obsidian Entertainment to discuss ALPHA PROTOCOL.
[GTTV Episode 204 - DICE 2009]
Make sure to check out this week’s GTTV from the DICE Convention in Las Vegas. It airs this Friday on Spike. We have an all-star group of guests and some big exclusives including:
- Todd Howard from Bethesda who chats with us about the success of Fallout 3. Find out which mini-game was removed from Fallout 3 before release. Todd also updates up on the next Fallout 3 DLC and shares some exciting news about it.
- The world exclusive first look at the downloadable content for CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR. We’ll show you three of the maps in action for the first time anywhere. WORLD OF WAR is still topping the Xbox Live charts and fans are going to love the new maps.
- If you’re a fan of Burnout, you’ll definitely want to see the announcement trailer for SPLIT SECOND from Black Rock Studios, the creators of the E3-award winning Pure. This is another example of GTTV breaking news about a game before it’s even officially announced to the public!
- We’ll debut the first trailer for the sequel to Steven Spielberg’s BOOM BOX on the Wii, entitled BOOM BLOX BASH PARTY.
- We’ve got a brand new trailer for the Wii exclusive first person shooter THE CONDUIT.
- Also, I catch up with id’s Todd Hollenshead about Rage, Doom 4 (or as he corrects me, the game only known as “DOOM”), and Quake Live. Todd gives some very interesting hints, especially about Doom 4 and confirms when you WON’T be seeing Rage.
- And finally, RESIDENT EVIL 5 producer Takeuchi-san joins me to world premiere a couple boss battles from the game. You only have a week left to wait.
Killzone 2
Ever since E3 2005, gamers have been patiently awaiting the release of PlayStation 3 exclusive Killzone 2. Now it’s out and has received incredibly positive reviews from critics (amassing a 91 on Metacritic). But how is it selling compared to say, Halo 3? And more importantly, is it giving PS3 hardware sales a much needed boost?
I was curious, so I reach out to some retail managers around the country for a highly unscientific poll. The general consensus is that the game is doing well at retail, but isn’t necessarily moving PS3s — at least not yet.
Here’s what I heard:
“Killzone 2 did very well. Probably not Halo 3 well, but one of the best selling PS3 games I have seen.”
“Without checking I bet I sold less than 2 dozen. Only had a handful of pre-orders, Metal Gear 4 sold 50 copies on pre-order, 2 dozen day one, and 2 people bought PS3s just for the game.”
“Killzone sold ALOT. Normal earnings for the past few days saw an increase of 3-5 thousand.”
“10 pick ups @ midnight in AZ, needs a little more marketing push from Sony.”
“We sold through 90 percent of our reserves in the first 48 hours.”
The real tale of the tape, of course, will come in March when we see the February NPD data.
Last week it was announced that I’ll be part of two keynote talks at this year’s Game Developers Conference in March. In both cases I’ll be interviewing noted figures in the game business.
First, at Dean Takahashi’s GamesBeat conference I’ll sit down for a fireside chat with Seamus Blackley, head of the Games Department at CAA. Seamus and his department represent some of the biggest game developers including Tim Schafer, Will Wright, Ken Levine and many others. All the Hollywood agencies have tried to “figure out” the games business, but CAA, unquestionably, has had the most success. Seamus and I will be having a “fireside chat” at the conference during lunch on March 24th.
Then at GDC proper I am honored to be a part of the keynote of the Game Career seminar. I’ll be interviewing Emil Pagliarulo, lead designer of Fallout 3 — one of the best games of 2008. Emil, a former game journalist, will tell us about the multi-year odyssey of Fallout 3’s development and explain his unique careeer path in the gaming business. Since GDC is, at its heart, a conference for developers and a job fair, I’m excited to help the audience learn what it takes to build one of the most decorated games in recent memory.
If you have any questions to ask Seamus or Emil, leave them in the comments.
This week’s GameTrailers TV is now live. We headed up to Sucker Punch in Seattle for a look at Infamous, a PS3 exclusive due out later this Spring. Also look for exclusive trailers on Metal Gear Solid Touch (for iPhone), Eat Lead, Singularity (from Raven Software), and an early look at new costumes set to debut in Street Fighter IV.
[GameTrailers TV Episode 203]
Can Steve, a 52-year-old gamer from Australia take down Tiger Woods at his own game? That’s one of the questions we answer when Spike broadcasts the Gillette/EA SPORTS CHAMPIONS OF GAMING Finals on Wednesday, February 18. The show features sports legends such as Woods, Derek Jeter, Reggie Bush, Denny Hamlin, and Orlando Magic All-Star Jameer Nelson. That “pro team” has a daunting challenge ahead of them when they face off against the 5 best gamers in Madden, NBA Live, FIFA, NASCAR, and of course Tiger Woods.
CHAMPIONS OF GAMING is yet another video game special that we’re airing on Spike, and I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts. I’ve never been a big believer that “competitive gaming” will work on television, but this is the first idea that I thought could potentially translate to mainstream TV. Why? The focus of the show is about the drama that developers when pro gamers have to face off against their sports heroes. It’s amazing to see pro athletes – who normally have to answer to no one – go up against players who are geniuses at the video game version of sports these athletes dominate in real life. And some of these players are cocky about their skills. Our Madden NFL Champion is so confident he can beat Reggie Bush that he picks the worst team in the history of the NFL, the Detroit Lions, during the tournament. And then he says he’s going to beat Reggie by at least a touchdown!
So while this show may feel like it’s about “competitive gaming,” It boils down to a really interesting social experiment between gamers and celebrity athletes. Let me know what you think of the show when it airs, Wednesday at 11:30 PM on Spike. This is just the first of many video game specials I’ll be creating with Spike in 2009.
