Tech Blog

[#1]

Video game... news! Here is some more of it! Including such stuff as dates for Ghost Recon and versus modes for Raccoon City, that sort of thing.

- Ubisoft has announced that Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier is to launch in North America on May 22nd, 2012. This has been promised for some time--you may remember lots of coverage from the past two E3s, even--and it'll be hitting then for Xbox 360, PS3 and then (as usual) Windows PC at some unspecified "later date."

This is, apparently, bumping the original release of the game back a couple of months, though a multiplayer beta will be available come April for Xbox 360 and PS3. Adrian Lacey, "IP development director" at Ubisoft France said, "“we are feature complete in our multi-player, single-player and four-player co-op campaign modes ... we have made the decision to move the date in order to ensure that all these ingredients are pushed to the highest level and provide a truly unique shooter experience. The Ghost Recon franchise is known for setting the standard of high definition gaming and we believe the extra couple of months will allow us to reach that goal."

So there you go.

- Talked a little about this last time, but Capcom has announced all of the versus modes for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, in which players will be able to take part in four-on-four team battles playing as either the Umbrella Security Service or US Spec Ops. There are three modes:

Team Deathmatch: "battle for the most kills in brutal triple threat chaos that leaves players never knowing what’s behind them, an element that could only exist in the twisted Resident Evil universe."

Biohazard: "Ensure that samples of the G-virus are returned safely to their base while fighting off all the competing forces at play in Raccoon City. "

 Survivors: "There’s limited space on board a helicopter so fight off the opposition and survive the hordes of hungry zombies, risking infection if they get too close. Try to make it out of Raccoon City alive!"

Also, I waqsn't sure if they'd announced the names of the USS/Spec Ops characters before, but they're quite amazing. If you want to work for umbrella, you'll be called "Vector, Beltway, Lupo, Four-Eyes, Spectre or Bertha." Want to be a goodie? Then your name is "Tweed, Dee-ay, Harley, Willow, Shona or Party Girl."

Dee-ay? Sheesh.

- Activision has announced that there is to be a comic series "set in the Prototype universe." A collaboration between Prototype developer Radical Entertainment and Dark Horse Comics, it is to launch February 15th digitally and is to "bridge the gap" between the original game and the sequel before the game launches on April 24th. The first entry, The Anchor, illustrated by Paco Díaz, continues the story of Alex Mercer, the protagonist from the first game, while the second story, The Survivors, illustrated by Chris Staggs, follows a small group of residents of New York trying to escape the city after it has been transformed into NYZ with the outbreak of the Blacklight virus. The third and final story, illustrated by Victor Drujiniu, is The Labyrinth and provides a deeper look into the backstory of Prototype 2’s new protagonist, Sgt. James Heller.

Now I never actually played Prototype, despite the fact I was totally looking forward to it. I did play through the first Infamous though, which came out around the same time, seemed similar, and really didn't like that at all though. I chose... poorly.

- Did you notice that Doom wasn't on the Xbox Live marketplace for a while? I didn't. I guess because I already own it for Xbox? Well, aynway, it's available again. It was probably a rights issue or something. If you've never played it, well, you really should own a copy, and on Xbox it's a mere 400 Microsoft Points (a total steal) so... pick it up now if you haven't before.

- Lets pick some DLC to cover. Not a music game for a change, eh? Well what about Disney Universe then? Anyone actually playing that? If you are, the Jungle Book costume pack is available now. It features five brand new costumes, including "the independent man-cub, Mowgli; the ferocious tiger, Shere Khan; the rowdy King Louie; the nurturing black panther, Bagheera and the adorable Baby Elephant."

Did the baby elephant get a name? No? Weird.

Well, individual costumes are 99 cents (or 80 Microsoft Points) but you can buy the whole pack for $2.99 (or 240 Microsoft Points) which is, you know, like getting two costumes for free. If... costumes in a video game are that important to you. They might be!

- And lets end with a trailer. Why not this one, for Final Fantasy XIII-2, which is out tomorrow.