Mortal Kombat roping off online modes?

What we heard: The Online Pass initiative first gained steam last year, when Electronic Arts announced thatthe online modes for its sports titles would be free for those who purchased the game new but require a buy-in for secondhand users. THQ quickly adopted a similar strategy for many of its games--most recently the platinum-selling Homefront--and it appears as if Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is next.

Who wouldn't willing pay to spit acid into their opponent's face?

Joystiq reports this week that it has obtained a memo from WBIE to retailers detailing an Online Pass initiative for the upcoming NetherRealm-developed fighter Mortal Kombat. According to the memo, Mortal Kombat will ship with a one-time use code that grants access to its online modes. However, those who pick up the game secondhand must pay $10 (800 Microsoft points) to play online.

"Mortal Kombat, available on April 19 for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, includes a one-time-use registration code that gives players access to all online modes in the game," the note reportedly reads. "Players who do not have a code will get a free two-day trial of the online play and then be able to purchase the online modes for 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Marketplace and $9.99 on the PlayStation Network."

The official story: Warner Bros.' PR agency had not responded to a request for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus: Looking not bogus. Publishers have been keen on monetizing used-game sales and rentals, and EA's Online Pass method doesn't appear to have negatively impacted sales. Its wider adoption appears to be inevitable.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 ships 2 million

After an 11-year hiatus, Capcom's crossover fighting franchise returned last month with Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. The publisher today dubbed the revival a success, announcing that the brawler had shipped more than 2 million units worldwide.

"Marvel vs. Capcom 3 shipped this many!"

While Capcom said that figure has already eclipsed the total of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, it puts the game significantly behind the pace set by another of the publisher's franchise revamps, Street Fighter IV. In February of 2009, Street Fighter IV--also the first new installment in its series in 11 years--shipped 2 million copies within 11 days of its Japanese launch (and just three days after its European debut). It took Marvel vs. Capcom 3 six weeks to achieve the same milestone.

However, Marvel vs. Capcom 3's shipment pace did exceed that of the Street Fighter IV update. Released in April of 2010, Super Street Fighter IV had shipped 1.6 million unitsas of last month.

Released in the US, Europe, and Japan in mid-February, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 pits comic book titans like Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, and Captain America against the publisher's own catalog of characters, including Street Fighter's Ryu and Chun Li, Resident Evil's Wesker, and Arthur from Ghosts 'n Goblins.

For more on the game, check out GameSpot's Marvel vs. Capcom 3 review.

Xbox Live Enforcement Panel

By: Dennis Scimeca

This was my first Xbox Live Enforcement panel, and I never would have thought that a room full of gamers, a lot of whom were undoubtedly guilty of breaking many of the Xbox Live Terms of Service, would be so happy at a panel held by the men who doled out their punishment when appropriate. The audience laughter and applause was some of the loudest I've heard at an Expo panel thus far. Perhaps, as Stephen “Stepto” Toulouse noted, it was just that the panel wasn't being held on the last day of the Expo as was traditional, when everyone was hung over from partying the night before.

PAX East Panel: How Game Companies Use Facebook

By: Dennis Scimeca

The overarching lesson I took away from the "How Your Favorite Game Companies Use Facebook" panel at PAX East 2011 was that if you're a company that makes games for Facebook, like EA Playfish, you know what to do with the social networking tool because you're already on it. Sam Houston, the Online Content Manager from Playfish, said that his company leverages Facebook as much as possible to send people into their games or their forums, whatever is valuable to Playfish as a company and to their community managers. For Houston, Facebook is a no-brainer. For everyone else on the panel, figuring out how to utilize Facebook is more of a challenge.

Early Look: RAGE Preview From PAX East 2011

PAX East is in full effect, and we're on the ground, trying out a ton of upcoming games. One of the most anticipated is, no doubt, first-person shooter Rage. Created by John Carmack, the father of the entire FPS genre, Rage boasts an amazing pedigree. But the point of the PAX presentation was to look at its equally impressive scenery.

"The point of the session was a tour through the wasteland, and you start off at the top of a lonely, windy gorge, part of an area called 'Ghost Territory.' A couple of statues topped with Longhorn skulls dot the immediate landscape, and the howling winds tell you that this probably isn't a friendly place. You're tasked with a quest to 'Retrieve Buggy Parts,' so you can fix up your ride. There is a buggy nearby, one of the Class One (the lowest level) vehicles, and you can drive on to your next location, noticing a towering, decrepit freeway looming overhead."

New Blizzard MMO Will Be The "Next Big Thing" After Diablo 3

In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Blizzard's COO Paul Sams gave a very brief glimpse of what's to come in the company's top-secret massively multiplayer online role playing game, code named "Titan", and that they think it will be the company's next big release after Diablo 3. In the interview, Sams explains that Titan is the most ambitious thing that Blizzard has ever attempted, and that they don't want Titan to compete with World of Warcraft, but to eclipse it.

He goes on to mention that a lot of people on Titan's development team are actually the founding fathers of World of Warcraft, and that those people have no been working on the new project for a few years. Details revolving around Titan are slim to none, but Sams mentioned that, "We're very confident in [the] product. It's an awesome one. We're playing it already. It is a total ball to play. We think that the reach of that product is greater than anything that we've done before. We're very excited about that. I believe that it's the type of game that will have a very long life, much like World of Warcraft has."

If Blizzard is saying that Titan is going to have a worldwide impact, then I'm pretty excited. What about you?

Trenched First Look: Finally, a New Take on the Mechanized WWI Trenches Genre

Double Fine’s latest downloadable effort, Trenched, couldn’t be more Double Fine if it tried. I mean, it takes place in an alternate reality where the trench warfare of World War I has received a mechanized overhaul for crying out loud. Nikole Zivalich got some eyes-on time with this supremely quirky tower defense inspired title at GDC, and here’s a little of what she saw:

“Your base, the S.S McKinley, is where you decide what to place in the weapons slots. A variety of turrets, cannons, and other weapons can be selected to place on the battlefield as defenses. If you want to play more offensively, you can run and gun on the trench itself. You have complete freedom over how you want to play, tower defense or shooter. I prefer a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B.”

Killzone 4: The Ten Things We Want To See

We were very pleased Killzone 3, but not totally pleased. Because we're perpetually dissatisfied and always want more. It was a very good first person shooter, but it wasn't quite at the top of its game. These are a few of the things we think the inevitable follow up to Killzone 3 needs to have in order to stay on top of the genre. Some of these are small complaints, and others are bigger but we hope Guerrilla Games can address these when preparing to build the next game.

Jump City: Seattle With Live Twitter Commentary Tonight @ 8PM ET!

Tonight, on an all-new Jump City: Seattle, the urban freerunning phenomenon continues with a confrontation between Miami Freerunning and Tempest Frerunning, two of the best teams in the world. Taking it to the back alleys of Seattle, they will compete to see who will be crowned champion.

Also, traceurs from both teams will be tweeting along live with the show on Jump City: Seattle's Twitter feed (@g4jumpcity). Use the #jumpcity hash tag and see if they answer one of your questions. In the meantime, watch both the show and Twitter as they provide commentary and insight into tonight's all-new episode.

Don't miss it when tonight's Jump City: Seattle premieres at 8PM ET!

Deus Ex: Human Revolution due Aug. 23

The traditional press release may want to watch its back, as more and more companies are using Twitter to make major announcements. The latest example comes from Eidos Montreal, which today used the microblogging service to reveal the release date for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Square Enix's long-in-development action role-playing game will arrive on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 on August 23 in North America and August 26 in the UK.

Deus Ex fans finally have a date to look forward to.

Deus Ex will be available in two versions: The regular $60 edition and a $70 Augmented Edition. The latter will include premium packaging for the game, a 40-page art book, a DVD with behind-the-scenes features, and a motion graphic novel included on a bonus disc. Players who preorder from specialty retailer GameStop will get a new mission--complete with a cameo from original Deus Ex protagonist JC Denton--as well as in-game assists in the form of a grenade launcher, explosives, and an automatic lock pick.

Developer Eidos Montreal has said it wants to stay true to the spirit of the original Deus Ex, allowing players to choose their own approach to each level. Depending on the augmentations players choose, they can go through each part of the game with a focus on combat, stealth, hacking, or even social interactions. For more on the game, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.

Crysis 2: CryEngine 3 Tech Demo

Crytek is readying the release of Crysis 2 on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 but last week at GDC the developer showcased the tools that are behind the upcoming shooter.  If you had any doubts that CryEngine 3 is technological marvel, take a look at the latest trailer from Crytek for CryEngine 3. The latest demo reel for the engine was released at GDC for press and developers to sink their teeth into. Over the past week with GDC having taken place we've got a glimpse into the future of gaming with the demonstrations of CryEngine 3 and Unreal Engine 3. Its certainly got gamers thinking about what the next generation could look like.

Both Sony and Microsoft claim that there is still plenty of power to be harnessed in their consoles, but historically it's time we have at least heard something about next generation consoles. Crytek didn't reveal what was type of GPUs were powering this tech demonstration so it's hard to postulate on possibilities for how much something like this would cost by today's standards.





Source: The Escapist

Rockstar Casting for “Rush” possible GTA V Project

A recent motion capture casting call was discovered by Superannuation today, where Rockstar is looking to sign talent for an interactive project titled "Rush". The casting call which is searching for "outlandish characters, weed, gangsters, and celebrities" would fit the bill of what Grand Theft Auto V is expected to be. A casting list was also uncovered and posted over on NEOGAF which showed a list of character names for the project, furthering the GTA V argument.

Obviously this could be Rockstar's next GTA game, or it could be something entirely different.  Agent is still out there, but by any and all descriptions that the game has had over the years these characters seem more well fit for a GTA story.  Time will tell, if Rockstar is quietly working on GTA V, and setting us up for a E3 2011 announcement.
The Agency Online still has this posted on their casting call site.

Categories/Roles:
Mitch Hayes:

38 – Annoying, wise cracking, highly successful FBI agent. In great shape. Does triathlons, drinks low cal beer, but still has a sense of humor.

Miguel Gonzalez:

25 Young Mexican American FBI agent, caught between a few mob bosses. Very clean cut

Clyde:

23 – Moronic, almost inbred and creepy white trash hillbilly. Very naïve but in a creepy ‘it’s only incest sort of way’

Brother Adam:

Welsh monk / cult leader / yoga teacher – 50, very lithe, very into exploring your personal tension through gripping massage. Needs Welsh accent.

Mrs Avery:

Neurotic soccer mom, home maker, 48, anxious and addled on pain killers. Very angry at neighbor MRS Bell.

Mrs Bell:

Swinger, and mellow Californian divorcee. 45. Ugly but comfortable with self.

Eddie:

47 – Weed evangelist, guy who started smoking at 30, and is now a leading proponent of marijuana’s fantastic properties. White, awkward.

Ira Bernstein:

56 – publicist for an actress known as America’s newest sweetheart who just so happens to love animals, orphans, drugs and sex. He’s always trying to hide her latest indiscretion.

Kevin De Silva:

18 – Albert’s fat, FPS playing gamer son. Smokes a lot of weed, has anxiety issues and a card for a bad back, very soft, very opinionated. Into making racist comments while playing online.

Harut Vartanyan:

42-52 years old – Armenian car dealer, moneylender, would be F*gin and would be bully. Heavily connected to the underworld, but irritates people so much no one likes him.

Nervous Jerry:

48 – paranoiac living in the sticks, near Simon, completely paranoid, and terrified of Simon.

Calvin North:

55 – clapped out FBI agent who now mostly works offering advice on TV shows – whose only claim to fame turns out to be entirely false – but a decent guy in other ways. Badly dressed. Divorced. Putting on weight.

Jerry Cole:

53 – disabled IT expert and criminal information vendor.

Rich Roberts:

English hardman actor, 35, who acts tough but who wants to do serious work - the only problem is he can't quite read the words.

Alex:

white 52 yr old loosie goosie hippy rich guy who has lost his money and is getting desperate but trying not to.

Scarlet:

45-52 years old – unshaven female spiritualist and hippy with a love of exploring the wilderness. Very into journeys.

Chad:

29 – pretty boy misogynist Beverly Hills party boy. Made money, but not as cool as he thinks he is.

Tae Wong:

39 – somewhat incompetent Chinese mobster, loves doing ecstasy, going to raves.

Taes Translator:

45 - VERY STRAIGHT LACED Chinese translator, terrified of his boss’s dad. Male, awkward. Needs to speak Chinese.