Annual release ruined Medal of Honor according to EA

Medal of Honor series is set to be given a reboot by EA. Last couple Medal of Honor has been disappointing. MoH once a top shooters has been dwindling, but this time EA determined to correct the wrong. So when asked what went wrong with the series, EA games president Frank Gibeau share his thought.

"I think any franchise that's been around for a long time, they get in a rut, they become over-annualized. They run out of innovation," explained the EA exec. "The team pounds on a game every year, and they get tired, they run out of time and effort to be innovative and try and take some new risks. That was my view on how the franchise has fallen."

Of course that is not the only concern, Frank admitted that previous MoH series lacking in online play department. "I also felt like the online component wasn't getting enough attention," Gibeau confessed. "Any shooter worth its salt is going to be really breakthrough in its online play, and I think Battlefield: Bad Company is a good example of that, I think Modern Warfare 2 is a good example of that, I think Halo clearly is a good example of that. The power of a franchise in the shooter category is in the online component and modes."

What Frank Gibeau said was right, and it is exactly what has been happening with Call of Duty series. true that Activision lets different studio to make the Call of Duty series, but it hasn't change the fact that we still hasn't seen any innovation since Call of Duty 4. The gameplay has been more or less the same.

So the fact that EA is working hard to bring Medal of Honor to be in line with Modern Warfare is really exciting. I really hope we can see a different AAA shooters in the market soon.
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Welcome back EGM!!

Since been bought by UGO, game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly's (EGM) fate was finished because UGO didn't believe in printed magazine anymore, focusing into online news portal instead.

Being a faithful reader since high school, it was really a disappointing news. However not soon after that EGM founder, Steve Harris decided to take over EGM brand and re launch it.

After months of waiting, finally this month April, first true edition of EGM launched. Combined with printed material, the interactive magazine named EGMi not only resurrect, but also revolutionize the old EGM.

The EGMi, let's you read the magazine with additional interactive media, downloads and links. The content contained in a single page is very rich and truly remarkable.

You can go to www.egmnow.com to check out what's EGMi is like without charge. If you like it, you can subscribe the printed magazine with additional premium feature access of EGMi.

I like what Steve Harris done to the new EGM and retain couple old staff such as Dan Shoe. Wish you all success in the future ahead. Oh yeah.. Welcome back EGM!!
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Bungie and Activision agreement. What it means to the customer?

Big news broke up yesterday regarding 10 years publishing deal between Bungie and Activision. Although Bungie broke off with Microsoft on 2007, Bungie was in contract to deliver couple Halo games. Now that they made Halo Reach, which could be the final Halo series developed by Bungie, they finally can focus on the new IP.

A lot of gaming community "cried" because the deal with Activision. Activision had a bad reputation lately because of Infinity Ward's soap opera, that many gamers condemn Activision for treating IW such a way. While it is impossible know what happen exactly between Activision and IW, it couldn't stop bad publicity for Activision. 

Putting aside Activision and IW saga, should Bungie goes to EA, the balance of power is not right. EA already has Battlefield: Bad company, Medal of honor series plus whatever Respawn Entertainment will be making, which most likely will be another FPS, EA will be too strong in FPS genre and it is not good for customers.

With Bungie joining Activision, at least competition is healthy and we will enjoy some good games from all developers.Considering Activision's financial powerhouse, it will help speed up Bungie's growth even more.

And since Bungie remains independent and will retain its IP rights, Bungie should have freedom of creativity in its games and not subject to Activision's terror.

True that Activision probably is the most hated game company on earth right now, but from customer's point of view, the deal between Bungie and Activision is not such a bad move after all.
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News & Update, 30 March

- Activision being sued for half a billion dollars by Infinity ward employee group whom some of them still employed at Infinitiy Wards, on top of West and Zampella suit. According to them Activision apparently withhold bonus payment and held developers hostage until completion of Modern Warfare 3. Like I said, Activision promises is like dangling a carrot with a stick.

- The new Medal of Honor multiplayer apparently going to be developed by DICE. After liking what they did with Battlefiled Bad Company 2, pretty sure it is going to be solid.

- Bungie just signed publishing agreement with Activision for the next 10 years. Bungie will still retain the IP rights and remain independent. It is remain unclear however whether Activision will publish ALL Bungie's game for the next 10 year. This looks like just a distribution agreement for one IP to multiple consoles.
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Rumor: Leaked list of E3 games includes LBP 2, Infamous 2, many more..

The picture was taken from www.qj.net. Although it didn't indicated what source this list is, we do think it is possible. Some of the title we already knew that it is going to be in E3 like Gear of War 3, inFamous 2, Resistance 3, Killzone 3 and Dead Space 2. However couple games do raised our eyebrow.

Firstly Mass Effect 3 under Sony banner. True, Mass Effect series has been an exclusive for Xbox 360 after all this time, but Bioware and EA is still a third party, and from the looks of it, it will be coming to Sony. After all Final Fantasy XIII did come to Xbox 360 last time.

Secondly God of War 3: Afterfall could well be a DLC. Those who are not very fond of GOW 3's ending will be pleased to know that there is further twist to the story.

Thirdly is Bad Company 3. Wow, EA sure in a hurry. They just release Bad Company 2 not too long ago. Nevertheless we won't mind if given a preview of the third series, won't we?

Call of Duty: MMO. Really? Actually it is a brave move by Activision to make an MMO based of Call of Duty games. We'll see if this is any good.

Project Xfree should be a game for Project Natal. Since Natal doesn't require any controller, 'free' is appropriate word for it. Though I was expecting some party games that require motion controller from Sony. Oh well.. I'm quite excited for this year E3. Please take it with grain of salt. After all it is still a rumor. Very convincing rumor indeed..
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Super Street Fighter IV Endless Battle Mode set a new bar in fighting genre

The new Super Street Fighter IV launches today with 10 new characters and additional Ultra moves, bonus stages, online game modes and many more. One particularly notable is the Endless battle mode.

With other friends, you can create a private lobby in Endless Battle mode. This mode lets two of your friends fight each other while others are spectator like live streaming mode with excellent compression. The winners stays and fight the next opponent.

Its a huge upgrade from previous Street Fighter IV where you can only fight 1 on 1. This mode brings your friend together and share experiences which really awesome and eliminate the need to go over to your friends house. If you like the match, you can save the replay for review later.
Capcom, in fact should do this long time ago and in my opinion, every fighting game should employ this mode as a standard from now on. 


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Final Fight Double impact restricts PSN sharing

For those who just recently buy Final Fight Double Impact on PSN might have realized that the sharing won't work. You can only play the game, using the same account you bought it, with PSN connection, or the game will simply won't play.
Almost all the games that you bought from PSN can be shared among five different accounts, thus making sharing game cost possible. But that day might end. After David Jaffe called PSN sharing a horse dung, Capcom implies DRM without even mentioning it in the description. As a matter of fact, it is a trial by Capcom to see what is the response of the gamer.

While I cannot blame the developers in doing that, I love game sharing on PSN. It makes the games affordable. However it doesn't eliminate the fact that it is ridiculous to play a single player game with internet connection much like Assassin Creed 2 PC DRM.
   
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