Bethesda and Splash Damage partner up

Posted by: Chuck at 5/22/2008 10:02 AM - Comments (0)

Bethesda Softworks announced today that they have entered into a "long term development partnership" with Splash Damange (the folks behind the under rated Enemy Territories:Quake Wars). No specifics of the deal or what it means for both parties have been released yet but we'll let you know as soon as Bethesda spills the beans.

Bethesda Softworks Announces

Development Partnership with Splash Damage

May 22, 2008 (Rockville, MD) – Bethesda Softworks®, a ZeniMax Media company, announced today a long-term development partnership with the award-winning U.K. studio, Splash Damage™.

Splash Damage has been recognized by the industry for the quality of its titles and particularly for its skill in creating cutting-edge multiplayer games. The studio has received numerous accolades and awards for Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory™, including Game of the Year nods from GameSpy, IGN, and PC Format. Their latest game, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars™, won over 80 Editors’ Choice, E3, Most Wanted, and Game of the Year awards and nominations.

Bethesda Softworks continues to expand its development and publishing reach, with investments in a library of AAA titles and the opening of new offices in Europe and Japan in the past year. Best known for its 2006 Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion®, Bethesda has in development a number of compelling titles, including the highly-anticipated Fallout® 3 due in Fall 2008.

“Bethesda Softworks has repeatedly been responsible for outstanding games as both publisher and developer.” said Paul Wedgwood, Owner and Creative Director of Splash Damage. “Both of our studios share a passion for creating great games, and we’re confident that this partnership will result in even greater experiences for gamers. We’re really looking forward to working with Bethesda.”

“This could not be a more perfect fit,” said Vlatko Andonov, President of Bethesda Softworks. “We are extremely impressed with Splash Damage and the quality titles they produce. They are highly creative and innovative, and have demonstrated a high level of dedication to their projects. We are confident that gamers everywhere will be thrilled with the offerings from this collaboration.”

More details about Splash Damage’s brand-new project will be provided in the coming months. For more information on Bethesda Softworks, visit www.bethsoft.com. For more information on Splash Damage, visit www.splashdamage.com.

About Bethesda Softworks
Bethesda Softworks, a subsidiary of the ZeniMax Media Inc. family of companies, is a premier developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software and has produced numerous award-winning titles, most recently with 2006 PC and Xbox 360™ Game of the Year and RPG of the Year, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion®, and the 2002 PC and Xbox® Game of the Year and RPG of the Year, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrrowind®. Among Bethesda’s more popular franchises are The Elder Scrolls® series and Fallout®, as well as its licensed properties, such as Star Trek®. Its product line spans the sports, racing, RPG, strategy, and action genres. For more information on Bethesda Softworks’ products, visit www.bethsoft.com.

ZeniMax, Bethesda Softworks, The Elder Scrolls, Oblivion, and Morrowind and related logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of ZeniMax Media Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Fallout is a trademark or registered trademark of Bethesda Softworks LLC. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

About Splash Damage
Based in London, England, Splash Damage Ltd is an independently-owned game developer which created the critically acclaimed Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory™ for id Software and most recently developed Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars™, winning over 80 awards and nominations. Founded by Paul 'Locki' Wedgwood in 2001 with key members of the mod-making community, Splash Damage also contributed multiplayer maps to DOOM 3™ and Return to Castle Wolfenstein™: Game of the Year Edition. For more information, visit www.splashdamage.com.

Splash Damage and the Splash Damage logo are trademarks of Splash Damage Ltd. in the U.K and other countries. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

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E3 2008: Dark Void (Interview and Hands On)

by: Chuck - posted: 7/20/2008 1:50 PM - Comments (0)

One of the games that I wanted to check out going into E3 was Airtight's Dark Void. The early trailers had shown some stomach churning vertical combat and given that Airtight is composed of a lot of people who worked on the Crimson Skies games there was a lot of potential in the game. After talking to Jose Perez III (audio below) I think Dark Void is another game to keep on your radar.

You play Will, your typical everyman who's sucked into the Void while traveling through the Bermuda Triangle. Now you have to find a way to escape and defeat the Watchers, an alien race trying to destroy mankind. The best way to think about the vertical combat is to take the cover based gameplay from Gears of War and turn it 90 degrees upward. Throw in a little acrophobia and now you're talking Dark Void's core gameplay mechanic (which makes sense given that the game is using the Unreal Engine 3). You'll only be climbing up rock surfaces for part of the game as eventually you'll build a fully functional jet pack and that's where the Crimson Skies influences really start to show. With the fully upgraded jetpack you can zoom around levels without any worries or restrictions and the game opens up to accomplish that.

I only got to play the game for about five minutes but zooming around the with the jetpack was a lot of fun as you got to try and take out a series of flying saucers. The real key is that you need to board one of the flying saucers and then use it to take out the others in the area. Once you get close to one of them you press the B button and then that kicks off a small mini-game where you circle around the edge of the saucer trying to work your way in. Thankfully it's not a quicktime event but once you have control you can then zoom around and take down the rest of the aircraft with ease. Controls are very tight and responsive. I will admit that flying in the jetpack is a bit like flying in WarHawk as you have the option of hovering as well as flying forward.

From what I saw the game looks like it's coming along well. I do worry that the vertical combat part of the game is going to take some getting used to as you do have to climb your way along a linear path but I don't think a lot of people will mind it. I guess we'll find out when the game ships. Here's our interview with Jose Perez III that explains more about the backstory of the game and more about the vertical combat gameplay.

Click to play

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E3 2008: Motorstorm:Pacific Rift (Interview and Hands On)

by: Chuck - posted: 7/20/2008 12:52 PM - Comments (0)

The original Motorstorm was one of the better looking titles for the PS3 and did a fairly good job of showing off the strengths and weaknesses of the PS3. You had amazing visuals, interesting SIXAXIS controls, and some really brutal load times. The follow up game looks to build on those strengths and fix a lot of the issues with the first game. In our chat with Paul Hollywood, the creative director on the project and he confirmed that the game will not require a hard drive install to increase speend.

The game is placed on a new imaginary jungle island which provides for some new challenges. You'll now have to deal with foliage and water which can slow down smaller vehicles. Water is important in other ways as it can instantly cool down your engine from boosting which adds a new tactical element to the game.

I did have the chance to go through one quick race in the game against Mr. Hollywood using the game's new split screen mode. The game builds on the amazing visuals of the first as the graphics are just jaw droppingly gorgeous. While Pure comes close I still think Motorstorm: Pacific Rift has a slight edge on them graphics wise. Gameplay is still fast paced and the game retails the multiple paths through a course setup from the first game.

Load times for vehicle selection are now almost non-existant as you now pull up a 2D card with the information about the vehicle rather than the 3D model of the car. This may change by the time the game ships but for me it works. Level load times have also been decreased dramatically and this isn't final code. The racing itself will be familiar to fans of the first game (why ruin what works well). I was able to narrowly defeat Paul but I have a sneaking feeling he let me win. Hopefully I'll be able to get a re-match this fall when the game is released.

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E3 2008: Pure (Hands On)

by: Chuck - posted: 7/20/2008 12:51 PM - Comments (0)

Despite a packed schedule I ended up with about fifteen minutes of free time to spend in the Concourse Hall. After seeing all the videos and screenshots of Disney's Pure I thought I might pop over and see if the game played as well as it looks. While the game look a lot like Sony's Motorstorm games they play concepts are vastly different. Motorstorm is a pure racing game with various vehicle types while Pure is a trick based ATV game.

Pure looks as good in person as it looks in all the trailers we've shown as the racing environments are lush and highly detailed. The heard of the game is the jump trick/system. Before you hit a jump you pull back on the left thumbstick and then push up as you go over which gives you big air. While you are in the air you can pull off tricks with the facebuttons. You start off with just having A button tricks available but as you pull off tricks on the track you earn boost which unlocks the other facebutton tricks. While you're pulling off a trick you can tap the right bu