GDC

Free-to-play MMOs are quite the popular genre these days, and True Games aims to keep the popularity ball rolling with their upcoming mythology-based game Mytheon. G4’s Eric Eckstein had a chance to check out the intriguing title at GDC 2010, and here’s a snippet of what he saw:

“Like Diablo, players create a character of different classes: the tank Warcaster who can control many different types of creatures, the wizard-like Elementalist who wields more elemental magic-based attacks, and the supporting Eidolon, which acts as a priest, healing and resurrecting players.”

To find out more, be sure to read Eric’s full preview. And then check out our GDC 2010 hub for even more event coverage.

Adam Sessler meets up with United Front Games' Executive Producer Stephen Van Der Mescht to talk about True Crime, the reinvention of the True Crime series, at GDC 2010.

Get all the details of the reboot with the video below!

Last night at GDC 2010, the final character in Super Street Fighter IV was revealed: His name is Hakan, and he's... odd. Hakan is a orange-bodied, blue-haired Turkish wrestler who enjoys applying oil to his body and sliding opponents all over the place before slamming them into the ground and murderizing them. It's pretty weird.

"In the history of Street Fighter, there's always been a lot of wacky and unusual characters," Super Street Fighter IV producer Yoshinori Ono told us. "We settled on Turkish wrestling because these guys literally douse themselves in oil, grappling with each other. It's such a unique and relatively unknown fighting style."

Super Street Fighter IV  will be released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 systems April 27, 2010, so stock up on the baby oil!  And check out our Hakan gallery. There's a trailer of the man in action below the cut, in solo scene and fighting with Juri.

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Hexes have never been as sexy as they are in Sid Meier's Civilization 5. The game comes out this summer for the PC, and when it does, gamers everywhere will have their lives taken over by strategy, conquest and ceaseless war. Our own Andrew Pfister put the turn-based strategy game through its paces at GDC 2010, and here's what he had to say about it...

"They had me at the pretty shimmering water.

Truthfully, they had me at the announcement of a new Civilization game, the latest in the  classic turn-based strategy series of barbarian taunting, cow pastures, settling Elvis Presley in the bustling metropolis of “Awesometown” for a culture bonus, and if you’re interested, complete global domination.

But Civilization V has some really pretty water."

For the rest of Pfister's preview, check out this link. And for more GDC news, photos, videos and awesomeness, check out our GDC 2010 headquarters.

Harmonix has confirmed that Rock Band 3 will be released by this holiday season.

"Viacom CEO and president Philippe Dauman has confirmed that Harmonix is working on Rock Band 3, for release holiday 2010!” Harmonix communications manager John Drake just announced.

No other details have been revealed at this time, but something called GDC 2010 is going on right now, so I’m sure we’ll be hearing more soon. Stay tuned.

Source: Harmonix

Remember the gratifying footage of Klei Entertainment's bloody 2D project, Shank, back at PAX 2009? Well, here's more gory gameplay from this week's GDC 2010 event. Again, that's: 2D, HD, Mature, Awesome.

Alright, we're three months into 2010, and it's finally time to get into the swing of the new gaming season. X-Play brings you the single most important launching pad for new game titles and key innovations, the Game Developer’s Conference, GDC ’10.

Hosts Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb bring you 3 days of coverage from San Francisco, where the games are made. Don’t miss exclusive interviews with gaming's biggest names, breaking news, highlights from the daily keynotes, and an expert guide to the biggest announcements. X-Play’s 3 day coverage of GDC ’10, starts March 15th. Mark your calendars...it's game time.

Also, don't forget that G4tv.com will be streaming the Sony Press Conference from GDC live on Wednesday, March 10th, starting at 7PM ET, and that Attack of the Show will be providing the only exclusive television coverage of that Sony event, breaking into the live press conference during the show on March 10th. You can check out all of the details on that Sony Press Conference here.

And, as always, you can see all of the goings-on from San Francisco at our GDC home page, where you'll be able to catch up on all of the latest news and updates on the conference. In short, if you want to know anything about GDC '10, G4 and G4tv.com, as always, is your one-stop destination.

You probably haven’t heard us mention it yet, but next week is GDC 2010. And as you’d expect, G4 is going to be covering the paint right off that place, and you better believe that includes everything from breaking news to press events.

Speaking of which, G4tv.com will be streaming the entirety of Sony’s GDC Press Conference starting at 7PM ET on March 10. What does Sony have up their collective sleeve? We could see some possible game announcements, and a new demonstration of their new motion controller, but the only way to find out for sure is to tune in and watch it unfold live...so...do that.

Attack of the Show will be the only exclusive television coverage and will be breaking in live to the press event as well on Wednesday, March 10 at 7PM ET. If you feel like watching some of the press conference on your TV, then G4 once again has you covered. You're welcome.

For those who like bookmarking pages in advance, head over to our GDC 2010 page and prepare yourself. For full GDC '10 coverage and analysis, be sure to check out X-Play next week starting Monday night at 6:30 ET.

The long-delayed Mafia II gets a new trailer in anticipation for next week's GDC event. Lots of mob-type happenings are in store in this 2K sequel glorifying how "the working man's a sucker".

An improvement to Crytek's CryEngine 3 game engine will be shown off at next week's GDC 2010... and it's in 3D. That's right, Crytek has grown tired of of the run-of-the-mill dimensions of length and width, and are adding a third dimension (depth) to its engine, and eventually, to the games you'll play.

"Over the past few years, S-3D technology has emerged as one of the key trends both in movies and games," says Crytek's global business development director for CryEngine, Carl Jones in a statement. "With CryEngine 3, developers will have the ability to create their content in 3D on all platforms."

Among the first games to feature 3D will be Crysis 2, and judging from the screenshots released yesterday, it will look amazing in any number of dimensions.

That's not the only improvement to the engine; Crytek is also showing off "LiveCreate" at GDC, a feature that will allow designers to work with a single editor, but see and play the results in real-time on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. This kind of multiplatform scalability allows game-makers to easily and quickly create multi-platform games.

3D is quite the buzzword lately, eh? I've played a few 3D games in past year or so, and seen a bunch of 3D movies, and I gotta say, it just doesn't "do it" for me. 3D gives me a headache; the stereoscopic glasses don't seem to focus right over my regular shades, and, overall, I can do without it. Judging from all the big tech shows, though, the industry itself is really pushing for 3D.

My question: What are your feelings on 3D: Is this the gaming holy grail or a gimmick?

Video game legend and Civilization creator Sid Meier will deliver the keynote speech at this year's Game Developers Conference. The keynote, entitled "The Psychology of Game Design (Everything You Know Is Wrong.)" will be given on Friday, March 12, between 10:30-11:30 AM

Meier promises to use examples from Civilization Revolution, Pirates!, and other games to "look at how including player psychology as a fundamental part of game design can lead us to some strangely counterintuitive places and save us millions of dollars in time and resources. Along the way we’ll learn why AI’s should not be too smart, how nuclear weapons are like knocking over a chess board, and why gamers can’t be trusted."

G4 will be there all week next week, bringing you everything GDC, from the keynotes, to the panels, to breaking news, interviews and lots of early looks at soon-to-be released blockbuster games.

For more info on Meier's speech, check out the official description. And for more details on G4's massive GDC 2010 coverage, check out our GDC 2010 headquarters.

Next week is GDC, people. The Games Developers Conference is a huge annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on "learning, inspiration, and networking."  G4 will be there, of course, and by extension, you will be there too. It all starts on March 9, and continues non-stop until the 13th, so just stick around our GDC site next week, and we'll keep you fed with a constant stream of gaming awesome.

We're going to be bringing you everything GDC, the moment it goes down. I'm talking interviews, hands-on previews of upcoming games, instant news announcement, coverage of GDC panels, commentary, videos, gossip, speculation, rumor, and more, more, more. (As you can tell, I'm pretty excited.)

Among the highlights: The Game Developers Choice Awards, lectures from the big names in gaming, (so far, Civilization creator and gaming God Sid Meier will deliver the keynote, Blizzard's Dominic Filion will talk Starcraft II, and Metroid creator Yoshio Sakamoto will be there, among many others.) and much more.

As for what to look for: I'm thinking we'll see a lot of Sony's new motion-controllers, we'll probably get a closer look at Fable III, and I'm expecting the reveal of Portal 2, as well as many as-yet-undreamed-of surprises. Use our comment section to make predictions, and we'll all see who is psychic.

And be sure to check out our GDC 2010 HQ for all of our updates!

Epic Games has revealed its plans for GDC 2010 next week, and not surprisingly, a good portion of their time will be spent showcasing new elements of its Unreal Engine 3.

Some of the new features on display include streamlined processes for creating and manipulating large-scale city environments (specifically buildings) and branching objects like roads, vines, and even railroad tracks. Epic will also present a new outdoor foliage demo, which will also be shown in stereoscopic 3D, to show off a number of the engine’s new features (lighting, shadowing, animation, etc.). Epic is also expected to demo Unreal Engine 3 on iPhone and iPod Touch.

Whether we’ll see anything on the level of the Gears of War 2 announcement Epic made during GDC 2008 remains to be seen, but, Epic has revealed that it will be holding two press conferences during the event, which seems to suggest an announcement of some kind or another. G4 will have crew on the ground at GDC, so as soon as any news hits, you’ll be the first to know.

Source: VG247

The consensus at this point is that the cryptic images and messages that have surfaced by way of Valve’s brilliantly intricate AGR (augmented reality) Easter egg hunt involving their beloved puzzler Portal point to an official announcement of Portal 2, or even perhaps the long awaited reveal of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 in the near future. Well, that announcement could be coming sooner than we previously thought.

Exhibit the first (and only): one of the pieces of creepy teaser artwork discovered by highly skilled Valve community fiends mentions that GLaDOS, the cake-teasing computer from Portal, has now been upgraded to version 3.11. Interestingly, Valve head Gabe Newell is scheduled to receive the 2010 Game Developers Choice Pioneer Award during GDC next week in San Francisco on...get ready for this...March 11.

Coincidence? Blatant indication that announcements are afoot? Just another reason to pose rhetorical questions? Anything’s possible.

What I do know for sure though is that G4 will have ground troops all over GDC getting the skinny on everything the event has to offer. Like you’d expect anything less.

Source:  Steam Forums
 

Developer American McGee has made a career out of taking classic children’s tales and turning them into dark and stylish games. Well, it appears that McGee and his Spicy Horse team plan to add yet another iconic character to their reimagining ranks, which already includes Alice from Alice in Wonderland, and a wide array of characters from the Grimm's Fairytales. And that character is Little Red Riding Hood.

McGee posted a couple pieces of concept art for the game on his Flickr page (via Games Watch), and explained that he’ll be pitching the game, which appears to be called Red, at this year’s Game Developers Conference next week.

"If we’re lucky,” McGee continued, "an interested publisher will help us move it into production. It’s an idea that Ken Wong and I have been toying with for years."

I really dug Alice and Grimm (which actually included a chapter based on Little Red Riding Hood), so I’m obviously pulling for this Red Riding Hood project. I mean, taking an axe to giant wolves’ necks as a kick ass girl on her way to see her grandmother? Um, yes please.

Hit the jump to see a slick poster concept screen.

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