Silicon Knights Slain in Court
Silicon Knights really can’t catch a break.
After the critical and commercial disasters of the studio’s last two games — Too Human and X-Men: Destiny — it is now being ordered to recall and destroy those games, as well as any other assets they have using Unreal Engine 3.
The creators of Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem filed a suit against Epic over the use of the engine way back in 2007. Epic responded with a counterclaim, which has now been ruled in their favor.
The results of the ruling include Silicon Knights being forced to recall and destroy all copies of any games they made using Epic’s engine. That includes those two disasters mentioned above. They must also remove any usage of the engine from three projects that the developer has been working on. Those include The Box/Ritualyst (a canceled, open-world horror game originally pitched to Sega), Siren in the Maelstrom (a supposedly upcoming project) and The Sandman (which shares a name with both a DC Comics superhero and a DC Vertigo graphic novel about a different character).
The ruling lands one final blow against Silicon Knights in the form of a $4.45 million award to Epic in damages, and a second payment of $4.7 million for interest, costs and attorney fees.
In summation, Silicon Knights will likely never make Eternal Darkness 2.
[Source: Justia Dockets and Filings, Via: Joystiq]
SEAL Team Six is FUBAR
It turns out that soldiers divulging possibly classified military secrets to game developers is a bad thing. That’s what SEAL Team Six, the group behind the death of Osama Bin Laden, found out after they acted as consultants on EA’s Medal of Honor: Warfighter.
As you might imagine, the members of SEAL Team Six were privy to some highly classified information. When Uncle Sam found out the group had been consulting, an investigation was launched into the SEALs still on active duty. The team has also been disciplined with formal reprimands and two month’s half pay.
It’s not clear if any such classified info was divulged to the Medal of Honor developers.
The game doesn’t actually feature any missions based on the Bin Laden operation, but it will be getting some DLC based on the film Zero Dark Thirty which is based on the Bin Laden operation. There’s probably some crossover there.
Johann. Sebastian. Joust. And Other Games
Perhaps the title for this segment is a bit unfair to BaraBariBall, Hokra and Super Pole Riders. However, I think it would be dishonest to imply that the Sportsfriends Kickstarter would be gathering a fraction of its attention without it meaning that J.S. Joust may finally be coming to the Playstation 3.
That’s right, the incredibly fun and incredibly dangerous Move-based indie darling about beating up your friends in real life that has been sweeping expo attendees off their feet for years may actually become a thing that you can buy. That’s not to take away from the other three games included in the Sportsfriends pack, which all look just as nonsensically enjoyable as you could want.
BaraBariBall is a low-pixel mix of sumo wrestling and volleyball. Meanwhile, Super Pole Riders is an idiotic (and I mean that in the best, possible way) game about dueling pole vaulters. Finally, Hokra is… Well, I’m not entirely sure what it is. Hockey-soccer-pong? Anyway, most of its trailers focus on showing players smiling and laughing, and they seem to be having a good time.
If any of this sounds appealing to you (i.e. if you like fun) I’d recommend checking out that Kickstarter campaign I mentioned. It should give you something to spend all that money you’ll be saving on healthcare.
Topical!
[Sourc: @nsuttner]
Steve’s Game of the Week
With Persona 4: Golden coming out in just over a week, I’ve once again been bitten by the Megami Tensei bug. That means I need to play something that is both unlike Persona in terms of gameplay (so I don’t get burned out), but still within the SMT meta-verse.
The solution to my problem is Devil Survivor: Overclocked.
Devil Survivor is a blend of traditional JRPG battles and turn-based tactical games. You build up several parties which are represented on the battlefield by their leader. You then move them about Final Fantasy Tactics-style until you instigate a fight, at which point it becomes your average “I hit you on my turn, then you hit me on your turn” ordeal.
I’m having a lot of fun with it, despite the fact that it’s a 3DS game — shocking, I know (and actually, it’s a slightly tweaked remake of a DS game). It’s a bit simple, and some of the characters are simply irritating, but it is fully voice acted and features that trademark Megami Tensei heaviness that’s made the franchise my favorite JRPG series. Oh, it’s also the only game of its kind (that I know of), and how many titles can make that boast these days?
If you’re interesting in checking it out — good luck. I had a bastard of a time finding a copy. Although, it does seem to be back in stock on Amazon from third-party retailers again as I write this post.
[Source: MY BRAIN!]
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