In today’s Daily Bits: 2K announces an announcement, Xbox Live gets some free stuff and a prediction, compiling info for the Call of Duty and possible Dead Space 2 Multiplayer and the Medal of Honor controversy continues.
2K to announce something tomorrow
Nothing says “major video game conference” like someone announcing an announcement, and that is exactly what 2K has done. The game distributor has slated tomorrow at 10:00 AM PDT for the announcement at PAX. The rumors are the company may just be releaseing Duke Nukem Forever, which some say explains why game creator George Broussard tweeted a link to a picture of pigs flying.
Tell me something: after all this time, does the announcement of Duke Nukem Forever really warrant the announcing of an announcement?
Xbox Live announcements and an odd prediction
By now everyone has heard about the increase in fees for Xbox Live Gold Membership in November. As if to distract from that, Microsoft has announced a whole bunch of special deals in September for Live members. The 14-20 have been dubbed “Invasion Week,” with a whole lot of deals surrounding the release of Halo Reach. On top of avatar gear and themes, several XBLA games will be dropping in price in September, and Silver members will be given full Gold access for the 17-20. In some ways, this appears to be a chance to get more people on Live Gold membership before the price increase.
Then there are the new price predictions for Live. Remember our good old friend Michael Patcher? You know, the guy who predicted the pay for play model for Call of Duty? Well, he is at it again. His latest commentary relates to what he calls the next evolutionary step of membership for Live: the $100 platinum model.
Now before anyone gets worked up over this, let’s not forget how often these “game analysts” are wrong. You would have thought Patcher would have learned from the Call of Duty incident, but apparently now. Heck, he is probably just glad we are talking about him.
More info on Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer
So, the big reveal of the Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer was last night, and more info is still flooding the game networks. Check out Kevin’s article on the event and the game here, and you can check out Joytiq’s pictorial record of the even here.
While I am not going to delve into all of the news coming out about the multiplayer for this game, I will say it looks like they are taking some ideas from established franchises like Counter Strike and adapting them to the CoD multiplayer we have all come to know and love. Don’t get me wrong; I am not trying to crticize Treyarch here. Far from it. This could turn out to be a very good idea.
Necromorphs versus Soldiers? Really?
So, what do you think the original Dead Space was missing. If you said multiplayer, you may be happy to know it is starting to look like the sequel will have just that. News coming from the GameStop conference in Texas points to an “Necromorphs VS Soldiers” multiplayer mode in Dead Space 2. EA is not confirming this, but the company is saying there will be a multiplayer element to the game.
Am I the only one who thinks a mode like this is completely unnecessary?
Military based GameStops will not be carrying Medal of Honor
It seems the controversy over having people play as the Taliban in the multiplayer of Medal of Honor is really heating up. In response to the backlash over that decision, all GameStops in military bases will not be selling the game. The company even went as far as to send the following notice to employees:
GameStop has agreed out of respect for our past and present Men and Women in uniform we will not carry Medal of Honor in any of our AAFES based stores.
I have made my feelings on this known, and I will not rehash them. I am wondering if this backlash continues, will the programmers remove the Taliban reference.
At this point in the game’s development cycle, it may be too late.
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Daily Bits is a collection of all the gaming news that has happened for the current day that we deem as interesting and relevant to our readers. Check back daily for more news round-ups and feel free to send your suggestions to dailybits@everydaygamers.com
