An unannounced air combat game titled "Stormbirds," in development by Juice Games, was recently cancelled by THQ, according to former Juice artist Greg Calvert.
Stormbirds was set for release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC before THQ apparently got cold feet. As a result, the team of over 30 developers was laid off by Juiced owner THQ.
"The game was in the same genre as Ace Combat and HAWX," wrote Calvert in a recent blog post. "THQ deemed the project too high risk, [and] as a result the entire team were made redundant on the 1st of December 2008."
Juice Games was acquired by THQ in 2006. The developer is best known for the "Juiced" series of racing titles.
Rather than see the fruits of their labors go to waste, some renders (below) from the Stormbirds project have been released by both Calvert and Steven Kerswell of CG studio RealtimeUK, along with an intro cinematic which is available from the link at the top of... More »
D'oh! It looks like Marvel Comics is joining the bandwagon in fortifying their defenses against copyright infringement in LittleBigPlanet. Apparently, Marvel has been hounding Sony to start moderating user-created customized Sackboy costumes that take from the Marvel universe.
We're not sure if this already applies in-game, but as far as the LittleBigWorkshop is concerned, some people have already gotten some emails from Sony stating that they had to mod some users' creations.
Over at the LittleBigWorkshop forums (linked above), one guy by the name of MuffinMan71 talks of his plight. Turns out that the Sackboy in question was one based on the Thing (like, Fantastic Four, Thing). Here's part of the email (pictured below) he received from the Workshop:
We received a notice from Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (“Marvel”) that materials that you posted on LittleBIGWorkshop.com infringe Marvel’s copyrights. Under the Digital Millennium Copyrigh... More »
Another year has passed and in 2009 promises an amazing round of games from each platform and we are likely to see mobile phone gaming finally crack the North American market (whether it is through a Symbian, RIM, Windows Mobile, Apple, or Andriod powered phone), but before we can look to 2009 we have to evaluate 2008 and see how it matches up to the so-called Best Year of Gaming; 2007.
2007 was a year where there was no shortage of quality on any platform. With the DS sporting heavy hitters like Zelda, Puzzle Quest, Hotel Dusk, and Contra 4, the PC reclaimed top honors with amazing experiences like Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, and Crysis, but the Xbox 360 was the platform that took the crown with some of the PC offerings as well as it crown jewel, Halo 3.
Not to be discounted, the Sony platforms could not be forgotten either with titles like Uncharted, God of War 2 and Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow. With such a heavy field of courter vying for our attention, wh... More »
In this feature we’re going to leave all the fanboyism at the door.
Despite the fact that this is a PS3 Web site I do take some pride in knowing that we don’t pander to Sony and certainly don’t pretend Microsoft don’t exist: I personally keep both consoles (and a Wii) at the side of the television and of late it’s the 360 that has seen the most playtime, my recent acquisition of PlayTV notwithstanding.
Why? Perhaps it’s just a case of catching up with all the Xbox games I’ve missed whilst hammering the hell out of the PS3 for the last 12 months, catching up with Gears or getting involved with the whole Community Games angle, or perhaps it’s just nice to have the option to play all the games released.
But such whimsical fence-sitting doesn’t help with this article, which is intended to do just one thing: decide the victor of 2009. Yes, there’s going to be an awful lot of educated guesswork here, because naturally we don’t kn... More »
Nintendo, Sony: Let's talk for a sec- just you and me. Look, guys, over the past couple of years, you've had a great run.
Nintendo, your DS has tons of games, a wide variety of unique stuff that's a blast to play. Sony, your PSP is a gadget-lover's gaming tool, with everything from Skype to Internet-radio support (oh, yeah, and you have some cool games, as well). But unless you both do something in 2009, the iPhone and iPod Touch will soon become the top dogs in handheld gaming.
Apple, the same folks who have pretty much ignored games since I played Marathon on a Mac, came on strong in 2008- and now Nintendo and Sony must consider the iPhone a legit competitor. The proof: Apple's iPhone/iPod Touch games start at a buck (going up as high as $10), and games have flooded Apple's App Store since it opened its digital doors in July.
Nobody at either company has asked, but here's my free advice.
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