lizi lobotomized

Saints Row 4: This Summer?!

Yes, I am also in this much disbelief right now. The freshest thing in everyone’s mind about Saints Row is that Volition was acquired by Koch Media from THQ, due to THQ going bankrupt and selling a it’s IP’s and studios… But let us travel back in time… To Summer 2011.

E3 2011 showed off Saints Row: The Third, the reboot (what the developers called it) to the series’ personality. Over-the-top, offensive, raunchy, wrong, violent, and fun. Heck, on April 1, 2011 the first trailer surfaced and was a two second long game clip of a man having is testicles assaulted. Good times.

During the press circuit for Saints Row: The Third for E3 and beyond, the producers had mentioned Saints Row 4 would be out in 2013. Last year (2012), Volition announced an expansion pack for SR:TT called Enter the Dominatrix. From what was detailed, Enter the Dominatrix was in the same fashion as Grand Theft Auto IV’s Episodes from Liberty City. Planned as a standalone DLC (or disc, whichever you wanted) it would be a semi-sequel to SR:TT and was planned for Fall 2012. After some time passed and only one screenshot, it was announced that the expansion of Enter the Dominatrix, would be incorporated into Saints Row 4.

The plot of Enter the Dominatrix revolved around an alien warlord coming to Earth in an attempt to takeover our planet. Unfortunately for him, he arrived in Steelport, where the Saints are having none of his shenanigans. To prevent the Saints from stopping him, he imprisons the leader (the player) into the Dominatrix, a simulation of Steelport…

Get it yet? ENTER THE doMinATRIX?

Then THQ went under. Koch Media now owns Volition and the rights to Saints Row.

Klemens Kundratitz, of Koch Media, has said that he expects both Saints Row 4 and Metro: Last Light to be released in 2013. Volition itself hasn’t said anything about this yet, but former Saint’s Row (SR1) design director Chris Stockman tweeted, “the word around the campfire is SR4 is shipping on current gen consoles in late August.”

Now, why wouldn’t Koch and Volition just wait for the Holiday release season? Or for the next-gen consoles? Well, there are a few reasons:

1) SR4 technically has been in development since the release of SR:TT. Metro has been in development for quite some time as well. Both, have been developed for current generation hardware.

2) Even if they were to bring it to next-gen consoles, two problems exist here. The first is that both games would be ports, and have only slightly improved graphics and gameplay… And also the possibility to not play as well. The second is the money. Not everyone will be running out to get the next-gen consoles on day 1 (even if they are released this year) and the true income will still be from Xbox 360 and PS3 sales.

3) If the games are ready to go, this would be a huge sign to the industry that Koch Media is now no longer those Dead Island publishers. It also shows that the entire THQ fiasco didn’t hurt the development of Saints Row or Metro.

4) If this is the last year for current-gen consoles, then having these two games come out this year is a no-brainer. Release them, then get to work on the next-gen sequels.

5) Grand Theft Auto V. While Saints Row 4 is being given a rumored August release date, GTA V will still outsell it, regardless of it being out a month later. (To be honest, had GTA V come out in the spring like originally planned, Saints Row 4 would sell more units if released towards the end of summer/early fall.) Hell, GTA V is expected to outsell Call of Duty’s next entry… And Saints Row: The Third was released amongst Battlefield 3 and CoD:Modern Warfare 3, and still managed to hold it’s own. But having to go against GTA V, a one-month headstart wouldn’t hurt and it would still sell more than SR:TT most likely.

The big question though, is will Saints Row 4 be an expanded version of what Enter the Dominatrix was supposed to be? Or will it be Saints Row 4 and EtD would be a part of a larger story? If you look at Saint’s Row and Saint’s Row 2, Volition did something unthinkable (by today’s standards and demands), they used the same location twice. Stillwater was obviously expanded in SR2 (the story’s 5 year gap helped to explain that), so while the bulk of the city was familiar to returning Saints, it still had took some learning to get around. The gap between SR2 and SR:TT was also a couple of years, and if Volition was to have us return to Stillwater it would again be different than we last saw it. Or would we stay in Steelport and see how it has changed now with the Saints running it. Or, taking it a step further what about being able to travel between both cities? While Steelport’s map isn’t as large as other open-world games, combining the two maps would be rather amazing… But that is just me.

Another major question that fans could ask… When will we return to the Row?

Or even… what happened to Shaundi?

hifromchantal:

Incase you were wondering what a double barrel .45 looks like #poppopbangbang

strickenlauren:

the-absolute-funniest-posts:

cursedincendium:

Remember when…

that cat is like “hell yeah they do, look at me”

My lovely followers, please follow this blog immediately

OMG. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wildcat2030:

Jack Andraka enjoys mountain biking, whitewater rafting, kayaking, and science. According to his Facebook page, he’s a fan of Beavis and Butthead, Family Guy and The Simpsons. Oh yeah—the 15-year-old also created a new diagnostic test for pancreatic cancer that is 28 times faster, 28 times less expensive and over 100 times more sensitive than the current diagnostic tests. And, in case that’s not impressive enough, the test also works for ovarian and lung cancer.

His diagnostic test earned him first prize at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, the world’s largest pre-college science research competition (the photo is from the competition).

I love Jack’s modesty. Interviewed before the fair, he said, “I’m incredibly excited. It’s like the Olympics of science fairs. It’s just amazing to be here—even if I don’t get a prize.” Well, Jack Andraka did win, receiving about $100,000 in prize money ($75,000 from the grand prize and over $25,000 from other smaller prizes).  The high school freshman said he will put the money toward college tuition.

(Source: bradaronson.com)

Grand Theft Auto V: Reason for the delay

Last week when Rockstar announced that Grand Theft Auto V had a release date, fans were overjoyed. When the learned it was September 17th, 2013 and not Spring 2013 their joy turned into dismay and anger.

Rightfully so.

Rockstar put out the first GTA V trailer in November of 2011 and it took 8 months for them to release anything else, which were two pictures. Over the summer of 2012 they released more pictures and then went silent in September. Then in October it was announced that GTA V would be the cover game for the December issue of Game Informer along with a huge blow out of information.

Truth be told: the information given was very basic, yet enough to satisfy our curiosity. Add to that, a second trailer that seemed as if GTA V would not be following the “overly serious” tone of GTA IV, and go back to the slightly over-the-top dark comedy violent setup that had made the franchise what it is today. Then once again… Rockstar went silent, only releasing a few new images on Christmas Eve.

Then last week the release date was announced. Fans blew up the Newswire site with profanity and anger. I am not saying all their words were called for, but there was reason behind it. When Rockstar announced the release date they didn’t give a specific reason as to why, which was the main cause for the uproar.

Rockstar Games, you guys created this issue, now deal with the reaction and bite the fucking bullet. In defense of Rockstar, the gaming world should have seen this coming. Rockstar is notorious for delaying their bigger titles:

GTA IV- Was slated for an October 23rd 2007 release. Was delayed until February because Sony didn’t want to wait for an online patch for multiplayer when the Xbox 360 version would have it on disc. Was delayed again for unspecified reason where it was finally released in April 29th 2008.

Max Payne 3- Was announced in March 2009 with a huge article (also in Game Informer) and was originally slated for a December 2009 release. Was delayed until Fall 2010 and then again until Holiday 2011 (as indicated by the advertisement that came with LA Noire) and was finally released in May 2012.

(Red Dead Redemption is not considered one of Rockstar’s bigger franchises as the first game in the series, Red Dead Revolver, was a cult hit and many who played RDRedemption never knew about RDRevolver.)

Now there is also the conspiracy theorists out there who believe that this delay is more than just to make sure the game is at 100%. I may be counted as one of them, because I have a feeling that this is all about the multiplayer.

Multiplayer theory-
The multiplayer isn’t done. Rockstar asked in the Fall what fans would like to see with the Crews feature in multiplayer. This is curious because you would have expected Rockstar to already have a plan for that in GTA V. That leads to the questioning about the job postings for multiplayer. Was the multiplayer even close to finished? Was it even started? Is that why it was delayed?

Next-gen theory-
The biggest theory deals with the aspect of the Playstation 4 and Xbox 720. Many fans believe that the game is being delayed to be released on the next-gen systems. This has already been shot down by Rockstar and Take-Two. Also take into account that Rockstar has been developing this game on and for current-gen tech since the release of GTA IV. If it was to be released on the next-gen consoles it would most likely be a port. Take-Two’s CEO also spoke with IGN about this, and you can read that conversation here: http://ign.com/articles/2013/02/05/take-two-on-next-gen-development-costs-gta-v-xcom

Not finished-
The final theory is that the game is simply just not ready to be released as a whole. Multiplayer, story… Just not done.

If what Rockstar and Take-Two say are true, it really is to make sure that GTA V doesn’t need a patch on day 1, or a mega patch within the first week. That they want to add features that make this game more than a landmark.

Regardless, September 17th is 5 months later than we expected, but it will be here eventually.

GRAND THEFT AUTO V RELEASE DATE OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED!

Rockstar has finally given a release date for GTA V during a call to investors…

September 17th, 2013.

Yes, rage now. Rage hard. But you cannot say you didn’t see this coming. Rockstar has been known to push their bigger titles back. They did this with Max Payne 3 and GTA IV.

The reason given for the 4 month delay is unspecified aside from being said to be development based. This means the game was no where near finished at the start of the year. This doesn’t shock me because if you read my post about when Rockstar asked what fans wanted to see in multiplayer, I mention that it made me feel uneasy as to how far the development truly was. Sure, the singleplayer was most likely done, if not near finished… But the multiplayer I figured would be the cause of a delay.

So, instead of Spring 2013, it is now Fall 2013.

the-black-page:

I kind of love this.

(Source: paradisekiller)

Brand new Grand Theft Auto V Details! (Tread lightly…)

Dutch gaming website GameKings has somehow managed to get some one-on-one time with Dan Houser of Rockstar Games. Being an ignorant American (and proud of it), I have never heard of that site until today. I won’t go and question how they of all possible sites managed to speak with Houser and will give them the benefit of the doubt, and say that Grand Theft Auto is a franchise beloved the world over, and that this is Rockstar being able to bring some news to Europe where they might not have as much as we do out west.

Regardless, the authenticity of this is not known, so I would take it lightly and with a grain of salt.

Here is what is known:

GameKings managed to get face time with Rockstar Games’ Dan Houser to talk about Grand Theft Auto V. They’ve posted up their findings in a video to share what they learned about the game during their trip to the Rockstar studios.

Press members who were at the studios to view the gameplay demo of GTA V saw a scene of the Michael (the supposed main character out of our three leads) sitting by the pool. No, this isn’t the moment from the beginning of the second trailer or even a cutscene, but a playable section of the game, which Houser confirmed. Also, the mission showcased to the press (which hasn’t been discussed) was real gameplay, and not a scripted sequence. Neither of the two scenes have been shown to the public as of yet.

The methods of which each of our three characters arrive at the mission varies. Michael and Trevor approach the mission by helicopter, while Franklin gets there on his motorcycle.

Press members also got an in-depth look at the game’s switching mechanism which will allow players to switch between the three characters. An indicator for each protagonist can be seen when you zoom out on the map, which you can choose which to switch between. The system is unscripted, so you’ll be able to switch to these characters throughout the game.

GTA V’s switching mechanic is vastly different from Heavy Rain’s more linear narrative, which forced players into the roles of the different protagonists throughout the story. And in my opinion is much closer to Clive Barker’s Jericho video game, which allowed you to switch between any of the squad when you felt like, and how each had their own abilities which would be key for certain situations, minus the FPS element. The same seems to be true is GTA, Trevor is the pilot and it is unclear if he is the only one who can fly, but based upon screenshots, my guess is no.

In line with GTA V’s free-form gameplay, players will be able to perform heists and hijackings by following armored vans which are displayed as money symbols on the map, and take the money for themselves. It’s very similar to the armored truck heists in Sleeping Dogs.

Houser also said that Rockstar had done a lot of research on the LAPD, and San Quentin State Prison. This to me just coincides with the dialog heard at the beginning of the IAA building mission from the Game Informer article, in which Trevor is talking to Michael about springing an old friend.

The original video can be found on the GameKings website, and is fully in Dutch. You can also probably see it on the GTAForums site shortly with an over eager member using a poor translator tool.