Filed under: News

Phil Harrison, recently appointed president of Infogrames (parent company of Atari), has gone on record stating that Atari isn’t prone to pursue any more large budget, single-player games after Alone in the Dark. Harrison told Gamasutra, “I don’t see that we’re going to be making huge-budget, single-player games in the future.” Harrison did add that the company will still pursue “really astounding games that have high quality, high execution, and high innovation, but they won’t be one-player, narrative-driven, start-middle-end games.” Harrison sees on the internet, socially driven games as the future for Atari and places emphasis on episodic content.

So, while a direct sequel to Alone in the Dark sounds unlikely, it’s possible we might see similar games released in an episodic manner instead (as was the original plan for Alone in the Dark, which still incorporates an episodic structure). Harrison sees episodic games with integrated community features as a new direction for Atari and the games industry in general, giving video games the kind of “water cooler” effect that TV shows enjoy. Sounds interesting to us.

[Via Joystiq]

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Filed under: News

One lucky Joystiq blogger managed to get some extensive hand-on time with Alone in the Dark, the upcoming series revival being created by Eden Games. When all was stated and done, Joystiq got to sample three hours of gameplay, giving them the opportunity to try out the combat, driving and platforming elements present in the game. The verdict: it’s good. Surprisingly good, actually, with Joystiq equating the game to “a great season of 24, albeit one with a supernatural twist.” Head on over to Joystiq for their full impressions. Hopefully, we have the ability to all get some hands-on time with the game ourselves soon, as a demo should be arriving any day now.

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Filed under: News

At this point the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) must be thinking, “another one bites the dust.”

This day developer id Software revealed to GamePolitics its intention of leaving the ESA group of members. Following suit with their publisher Activision, who recently left the organization with Vivendi, and Lucasarts, id has yet to release a statement explaining the decision.

The ESA has yet to comment on the decision that we’re sure the organization hopes won’t become an industry-wide trend.

[via Joystiq]

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or Friday Night Fights … there can only be one.

If you’ve already gone this long without seeing Indy IV, waiting one more day isn’t going to kill you. Besides, we’ve got more Call of Duty 4, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Team Fortress 2 lined up, which is nearly too much fun to cram into one evening.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a comment left by Dtoider Arttemis on last week’s FNF post: “Damn, that was awesome sh*t. My first Dtoid Friday Night Fight, too! The first time I actually enjoyed XBL.”

Now do you see what you people are missing out on!?

[Thanks, CaffeinePowered, coonskin05, Pedro, Professor Pew, and Shipero!]

Via Destructoid

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Filed under: News, Rumors

Recently, new information regarding Resident Evil 5 surfaced over at Games Radar, revealing all kinds of (yet to be confirmed) informative bits that are sure to make RE fans’ heart go a flutter. Sadly, the news post has since been removed (Capcom damage control?), but not before the crew over at Eurogamer copied all the goods.

According to the leak which we’re currently filing under the rumor category, the biggest RE5 feature reveal is that the game will include on the internet enabled campaign co-op all the way through, where a second player will play as a female mercenary who’ll be present the entire game. If not player controlled, the game’s AI will take over. Other juicy details were mentioned including word that the mercenaries mini-game from RE4 will be back and the addition of a new cover system. As far as a release date goes, Capcom is stated to be shooting for a 2009 release that should see RE5 on store shelves between January and March of next year. You can check out the other rumor’ish and spoiler’ish nuggets of RE5 campaign info after the jump.

[Thanks, Boff]

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Filed under: News, Interviews, Xbox Live Arcade

If the world was ruled by Telltale Games everyone would respect talking animals and Sam & Max would be on the Xbox Live Arcade, the second part at least is the word from Telltale’s Emily Morganti. In an interview with Jim Squires from THEBBPS, Morganti confirmed the developer still wants Sam & Max to visit the Arcade.

“We’d still like to do it. Our tools currently allow us to develop for PC, Xbox 360, and Wii,” Morganti said. “We’re not ruling out other platforms in the future. We’re interested in PlayStation, also… we want our games to be everywhere!”

Sam & Max has been a popular series for Telltale as the episodic adventure series has found success releasing exclusively with GameTap’s on the web service– a Personal computer version of Sam & Max: Season One was recently released to retail.

With the recent release of Penny Arcade Adventures’ first episode on Xbox Live Arcade and the recent increase of file size for downloadable games, we’re hoping Sam & Max can find a home on the Xbox 360 in the very near future.

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Filed under: News, Videos

On a mission to prove that Madden NFL 09 is a ginormous step forward in the Madden franchise, EA released a new visual comparison video that pits the graphics of Madden 08 versus Madden 09. And, as you can see above, Madden 09 does actually look better, especially when it comes to weather effects and lighting. The bigger, more pressing question is whether or not we should praise EA for adding such improvements that are normally commonplace among game sequels. It’s a step in the right direction, but we’ve a feeling Madden fans are demanding a lot more.

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Filed under: News

For comic book gamers who just gotta experience everything Hulk related and will be picking up The Astonishing Hulk on June 6th, you might want to head to Gamestop for an exclusive goodie. They’re the only retailer who is offering an Xbox 360 exclusive in-game red Hulk character that’s so darn red that we’d almost suggest he make a doctors visit to be sure that it isn’t the result of over exposure to the sun. Not that the Hulk’s normally green hue is any healthier, we just get concerned when we spot anyone who resembles a cooked lobster.

[Via Binge Gamer]

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Filed under: News, Xbox Live Marketplace

Remember that free TimeShift DLC that dropped earlier this week? We hope you snapped it up swift, because it looks like it wasn’t supposed to be free. It seems some Xbox Live Marketplace ninjas have infiltrated Microsoft HQ and changed the price of “Urban Redual” to 800 MS Points. The other piece of DLC “Futures-Past,” however, remains free. We’re not quite sure what happened, but it’s clear that there was a mix-up somewhere. Whether or not time powers were involved has yet to be confirmed. Whether or not “takesies-backsies” was declared is also unconfirmed at this time.

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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Filed under: News, Videos

The not at all English website InsiderGamer posted a new Guitar Hero World Tour video that gives us a better look at the game’s drum set, the design process behind it and a first look at Blink 182’s Travis Barker in a mo-cap suit. For realz! You can view the video after the jump and take in all the World Tour drumming that it has to offer including velocity sensitive drum pads, which we admit are so very next gen. And would it be wrong for us to think that these drums may possibly be superior then what Rock Band has to offer? If it is, forget we ever posed such question.

[Thanks, L1B3RATION]

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Via Xbox360fanboy

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