Category: News

Disney Lays Off 150 LucasArts Employees. Changes To A Licensing Model.

Well it appears the honeymoon is over for Lucas and Disney. Shit got business real today when Disney laid off 150 employees at LucasArts and said that it would become a “licensing model” and stop internal development and publishing. Effectively this means that Disney just killed LucasArts, makers of games like Rebel Assault, Rogue Squadron, Jedi Knight, Shadows of the Empire and Battlefront.

Here is the official statement from Disney:

“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games,” LucasArts parent company LucasFilm said in a statement. “As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”

This news especially sucks for Star Wars: 1313 and First Assault which were essentially cancelled. Since LucasArts will be used in name only for future Disney/Star Wars releases these two in house games will most likely never see the light of day.

It has been a joy ride so far between Disney, Star Wars and fans with high hopes of the new trilogy directed by J.J. Abrams, but this is not going to go over well in the already cynical nerd community. I know Disney is a business and honestly will not give two shits about how fat guys like myself feel about this, but I know that I was looking forward to 1313, more so than any Star Wars game in a very long time and have a little bitterness that it may never surface. I also feel bad for those 150 people that lost their jobs today. Hell, you would think that LucasArts would be a safe place to work after the Disney acquisition. Your job is the job of making Star Wars for a digital medium. If that is not safe, what is?

April 3, 2013
Activision Tells High Moon Employees, “Thanks For Making Our Game, Get The Fu** Out”.

Photo courtesy beyondhollywood.com

Activision has laid off forty employees at High Moon Studios after they completed their upcoming Deadpool game. It is not news when studios have layoffs, but it is always sad news to hear. Activision released a statement about the move.

“Activision Publishing consistently works to align its costs with its revenues – this is an ongoing process,” Activision says. “With the completion of development on Deadpool, we are taking a reduction in staff at High Moon Studios to better align our development talent against our slate. Approximately, 40 full-time employees will be impacted globally. We are offering those employees who are impacted outplacement counseling services.”

We hope all those affected find new work quickly and we look forward to playing [amazon_link id=”B008LW4SCU” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Deadpool[/amazon_link] when it releases this summer.

April 3, 2013
First Trailer For Thief Called ‘Out Of The Shadows’

Photo courtesy rubberchickengames.com

I can already hear classic Thief fans as they watch this trailer with their cries of “suck it Assassin’s Creed”.

The minute long trailer features protagonist Garrett as he stalks his prey which happens to be a rather expensive looking necklace. I know Thief fans have been more than excited ever since this game was announced, especially with the classic Thief being known for not holding players hands and being a tried and true stealth game. For some reason when I see Garrett’s one green eye at the end of the preview I think there will be some kind of detective mode like in the Arkham games and I already don’t want to hear the bitching of fans when that happens. Just give me a fun game and I don’t care.

Thief releases in 2014 for next generation consoles.

April 3, 2013
Complete List Of Ouya Launch Games
Photo courtesy ubergizmo.com

The Kickstarter darling is in the hands of its backers now and is almost in the hands of gamers nationwide. On June 4th the Ouya console will make its way onto shelves and we will get to see if it can make a mark in the game industry. The $99 little black box comes with a quad-core Tegra 3 processor running a version of the Android OS. We have all heard of the bells and whistles that they have fit into the system, but one thing we have not known is what will be available on June 4th game wise until today.

A full list of launch games can be found below. There are 100 titles as well as NES, SNES and N64 emulators that can be downloaded on the Ouya shop. Don’t worry if most of these games sound unfamiliar because every game that will be released on the Ouya will come with a free-to-play demo so you know what kid of game you will be downloading.

Take a look at the full list below.
- Abbigale And The Monster
- A Fist of Awesome
- Airstrike
- AmpGear
- Around the Rock Disc Golf
- A Space Shooter For 2 Bucks
- Barley-Break
- Beast Boxing Turbo
- Blood
- Bubblr
- Bunibon 2
- Canabalt
- Chomper Deluxe
- Combat Demonstration
- Command Crisis: Callsign
- ConSoul – x86 PC Emulation
- Deep Dungeouns of Doom
- Donut Get!
- Dubwars
- EMUya – NES Emulation
- Escape
- Escape F2P
- EVAC
- Farm Invasion
- Final Fantasy III
- Fist of Fury
- Flying Car
- Forsaken Planet
- Gamius Type IV
- Giana Sisters
- God Of Blades
- Grow
- Guns N Glory WW2
- Gunslugs
- Happy Vikings
- Hexicheckers
- Highway Rally
- Ice Rage
- iMech Online
- Jelly Bounce
- Jsidd Code Factory
- King of Booze
- King of the Hill
- Kinito Ninja
- Knightmare Tower
- Lemming Rampage 2
- Lord of Portals
- Maze City
- Monocle Man
- Mosaic
- Multi Space
- Mupen64Plus – N64 Emulation
- Natural Soccer
- One Tap Hero
- Orbiter
- Organ Trail
- Paper Wings
- Phoenix Revival
- Pinball Arcade
- Pingo: Puzzle Poker
- Pixel Pig Deluxe
- Pix n Love Rush
- Polarity
- Powerups That Kill
- Proton Pulse
- Puddle
- Puzzle 2
- Quizania
- Radiant
- Rage Runner
- RED
- Regular Ordinary Boy
- Riding Rhodri
- Saturday Morning RPG
- Save the Puppies
- Shuttle Rush
- Skymaze 3D
- Sophia’s World
- Space Buggers
- Space Repair Inc
- Space Sokoban
- Space Tech Quality Assurance
- Spin Wars
- Square Off
- Stalagflight
- Star Shipping
- Striker Soccer Euro 2012
- Stupid Zombies 2
- Subatomic Kangaroo World Tour
- Super Daddio 2
- SuperGNES – SNES Emulation
- Swindler
- Syder Arcade
- The Amazing Frog
- The Ball
- The Little Crane that Could
- The Secret Universe of Alpha
- The Vestibule
- Tower Master
- Twitch.tv
- Vector
- Wizorb
- Word Shaker
- Zombies & Trains
April 2, 2013
Xbox Live Sale Features Mark Of The Ninja And More

Photo courtesy theverge.com

Xbox Live is having another sale and there are some great XBLA titles available for 50% off. With all these sales over the past few months it’s almost like Microsoft is realizing how right Sony has been getting it with their Playstation Store sales. No complaints on this end, especially when I can get Mark of the Ninja or Deadlight for half off.

Check out the list of titles that are getting price reductions from Microsoft Studios:

-Mark of the Ninja- 600 pts.

-Deadlight- 600 pts.

-Trials HD- 400 pts.

-Dust: An Elysian Tail- 600 pts.

-A World of Keflings- 400 pts.

And here are the Deals of the Week from others:

-Quarrel- 200 pts.

-Mercury- 200 pts.

-Swarm- 200 pts.

-Pool Nation- 400 pts.

-Axel and Pixel- 400 pts.

-Retro City Rampage- 600 pts.

-Puzzle Arcade- 400 pts.

-The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom- 400 pts.

April 2, 2013
Grand Theft Auto V Cover Art Is Here For Your Eye Holes

Photo courtesy polygon.com

Wait…is that a Grand Theft Auto cover? How could you tell? I wonder if it is because it looks like every other GTA cover?

Don’t worry Rockstar, I’m not busting your balls. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it and the covers are not broke, but the driving and cover combat system are, especially after playing [amazon_link id=”B0076ZQSFI” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Sleeping Dogs[/amazon_link] and realizing how good they could be in an open-world game. I am excited for GTA V, but cautiously excited.

[amazon_link id=”B0050SXKU4″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Grand Theft Auto V[/amazon_link] releases on September 17th.

April 2, 2013
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon Teaser Trailer And Website Is No April Fool’s Day Joke….Maybe

Photo courtesy evilavatar.com

If all of this Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon work is for an elaborate April Fool’s Day joke I may just go out in public and start throwing full cans of soda at people’s heads like the machines in Maximum Overdrive. Not only did we get a teaser trailer for the supposed DLC, but the official website was also launched today.

If there was any doubt about the 80’s insanity, the video and website put it to rest with the trailer having a old VHS look to it and the website….well it speaks for itself. It looks as though Far Cry asked John Carpenter of 30 years ago to create a futuristic tale that would make Snake Plissken proud.

Here is the official synopsis for the game from the website:

The year is 2007. It is the future. Earth has been ravaged by a nuclear war and new paths for peace must be found. A U.S. cyborg army may have found a solution: a powerful bioweapon on a distant island. A Mark IV Cyber Commando, Sergeant Rex Power Colt has been sent over to gather information and figure out what the hell is going on.

Go and take a look at the website, but get your eyes ready for oncoming assault of awesomeness.

April 1, 2013
The Last Of Us Red Band Trailer Makes Us Ask Is It June 14th Yet?

Photo courtesy edge-online.com

If you were watching last night’s (disappointing) season finale of The Walking Dead then you were treated to all kinds of zombie fun. The Zombie Run 5K and World War Z had ads on the show, but the one that we actually cared about was the new 30 second spot for Naughty Dog’s [amazon_link id=”B007CM0K86″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]The Last of Us[/amazon_link].

As many of my exes have said, thirty seconds is just not long enough so here is the extended two minute trailer complete with dirty words (fuck) and goriness (blood). Joel, Ellie and Tess are all featured prominently and we see plenty of zombie (but not zombie) killing action. Every time I see some new footage I am astounded by how great the voice acting is.

The Last of Us releases on June 14th.

http://youtu.be/XKcwNIPiGKc

April 1, 2013
It’s Kirk Vs. Gorn Round 2 In The Trailer For Star Trek: The Video Game

Photo courtesy nerdreactor.com

The Gorn has had an almost 50 year career off of one appearance on the original Star Trek in the episode Arena and it keeps going strong with the new ad for [amazon_link id=”B0081B1O5A” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Star Trek: The Video Game[/amazon_link]. The Gorn play a huge role in the new game and have been revamped for the J.J. Abrams universe, but the classic still has his moments when he and William Shatner have another go round.

I think it is not too much of a stretch to call this one of the most brilliant ways to promote a product. I mean, I was already getting the game to review it for you fine folks, but if I wasn’t this commercial would have me driving to reserve it now. I know, I know, the ad is in no way telling of if the game will actually be any good, but come on. They got William Shatner to fight a fu**ing Gorn again.

And he’s 82!!

Star Trek: The Video Game releases on April 23rd.

March 29, 2013
Retro Achievement List: Mega Man 2

Photo courtesy wordpress.com

We here at Nerd Rating love achievements and trophies. We are admitted whores for them, but when you think about it, the practice of gamerscores is only seven years old with the introduction of the Xbox 360. We have 30 years of backlogged video games that need to be updated! So that is what we are venturing to do. Our new feature called Retro Achievement List will look back at games of the past and give them a set of achievements to strive for even if they may not seem serious.

First up is one of the most difficult games of all time (for me anyway), Mega Man 2. What fresh hell will you have to go through to get your 1,000 points (or platinum trophy)?

Achievement Unlocked:

*Achievement #1

Die ten times on the first level while you wonder if it is you that is retarded or the game that is hard.

*Achievement #2

Kill 25 robotic shrimp on Bubble Man’s level without making a sexual reference to a bad date.

*Achievement #3

Tell your significant other to stop with the touching crap while you are block jumping on Heat Man’s level.

*Achievement #4

Develop a headache from thinking about how Capcom could screw up a franchise as wonderful as Mega Man.

*Achievement #5

Beat every boss while purposely going out of order.

*Achievement #6

Grab an extra man on a small ledge before falling to your death.

*Achievement #7

When you die on a spike floor yell at your TV, “WHY?? WHO MAKES A FLOOR WITH SPIKES?!

*Achievement #8

Realize that the boss select screen is The Brady Bunch opening and try and place the right Brady with the boss.

*Achievement #9

After your 800th death, throw your controller at your TV and curse at whoever is in the room that they are messing you up by walking around.

*Achievement #10

Get all the way to the Wily stage on difficult only to have your power go out.

We want to hear from all of you also! What achievements would you add to Mega Man 2? Leave us a comment below or tweet us your responses on Twitter (@nerdrating) and use the hashtag #RetroAchievement

March 29, 2013