The Christmas tree has been put away, the New Years hangover has passed and 2011 is upon us. VideoGameHenchmen.com Rumor Has It! is back. We are going to start off 2011 with some of gossip regarding games and consoles that will probably be making headlines this year. Will the next Modern Warfare be a prequel? Will you be raiding tombs with your friends? Are two dastardly villains joining the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 line-up and finally, could the price of 3DS games really be equal to console games? The internet supplies a lot of questions and I’m here to give my best answers so let’s get this show on the road.
THE SOURCE: 1UP
MY TAKE: Despite the debacle that went down with Infinity Ward, the development of the next Modern Warfare game is apparently going strong as a “source within the industry” gave away some tidbits regarding the plot. According to the source, the game will follow Ghost (the Boba Fett of the COD universe) and his merry adventures leading up to the first Modern Warfare while showing how he becomes a member of Task Force 141. The second rumor concerns Raven Software, the developer behind Singularity and Wolfenstein, who could become the fourth development studio to work on the COD franchise according to a recent job post. It appears Raven Software is looking for a “FX artist to drive the development of stunning visual effects for an established console-based, realistic, first-person military shooter.” Do those two rumors fly or do they die off faster than a player controlled character in Modern Warfare?
THE VERDICT: KILL IT!!!
Considering Raven’s publisher is Activision the military shooter referenced is pretty obvious, however that doesn’t mean they’re working on a brand new COD title. This job posting looks to be confirming another rumor from way back in May about Raven Software dropping their James Bond game to work on Call of Duty maps. Although it seems their back on the Bond project this doesn’t mean they’re done with COD maps. I can see a new system in Activision where Infinity Ward, Treyarch or Sledgehammer develop the core game and immediately move onto a sequel while Raven Software takes care of those overpriced DLC maps. It would certainly allow those studies to keep pumping out annual COD sequels while Raven supports the game via DLC. Now, the Modern Warfare prequel rumor should definitely be killed. Not only is the source unidentifiable and is only “in the industry” (which means absolutely nothing) but this apparent story would just be a retreading of the Modern Warfare comic that follows Ghost before joining Task Force 141. Seems a bit redundant to me and besides, Infinity Ward still has to wrap up the story of Soap and MacTavish before they go into prequel mode.
THE SOURCE: Giantbomb
MY TAKE: Here’s an older one that came just after Christmas (on what we Canadians call Boxing Day). Now, even though we haven’t seen much of the freshly rebooted Tomb Raider in which Lara Croft looks human for the first time in her 15 year existence, it’s got me intrigued. The old Tomb Raider formula has been completely thrown out for a fresh open world experience which seems to be lacking in the ‘tomb’ department. With this new Tomb Raider being so drastically different it could be the first one in the core franchise (Guardian of Light doesn’t count as a full retail release) to include multiplayer. This rumor was started by a job post (again) by Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics who are looking for a project manager for the multiplayer component for an “upcoming action adventure title”. Could this posting be referring to the upcoming Tomb Raider game or is it more likely Crystal Dynamics have another action adventure game coming down the pipeline?
THE VERDICT: BELIEVE IT!!!
Given that Crystal Dynamics has no other projects that would be far enough in development to require a project manager for multiplayer it seems obvious that the new Tomb Raider will include some form of multiplayer. It really does make sense since Square Enix will want to turn Tomb Raider into an elite franchise once again and multiplayer seems to be the way to do it these days. What form this component will take is completely up in the air and, of course, the biggest question on anyone’s mind who cares about the upcoming project. As we know the franchise right now there isn’t really anywhere to fit a typical multiplayer. The games have been a solo affair with Lara taking on the challenges and puzzles by herself. This reboot seems to have Lara trying desperately to survive on a savage island. Sure they could have a ‘Savages vs. Civilians’ deathmatch scenario but is that what we really want to see? Whatever they decide to do, I hope it’s as fresh as the rest of this reboot of Tomb Raider appears to be.
THE RUMOR: Galactus and Taskmaster are joining the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 roster
THE SOURCE: Destructoid
MY TAKE: Can you believe we’re only a month away from the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3? With only a few precious weeks before launch you would like to think we’ve pretty much seen the roster in its entirety but according to this rumor, we haven’t. The evidence for this tidbit of gossip comes courtesy of artwork from Mr. Kevin Sharpe which was apparently scanned from the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 comic book showing villains around a table including the Taskmaster and another image of Galactus looking all evil and such. These two images have led to the belief that these two characters will be included in the MvC3 roster. Both characters definitely fit the mold by being well known enough to justify inclusion (well, maybe not Taskmaster as much) but have not graced the MvC roster before. So could these two villains end up joining the MvC3 roster to cause all kinds of dastardly evil things or is the Kevin Sharpe just messing with us all?
THE VERDICT: SPARE IT!!!
This is a tough one to call. Like I said earlier we don’t know if Kevin Sharpe is an artist on the MvC3 comic project or if this is even the real Kevin Shape (there is a real comic book artist named Kevin Sharpe). This could just be well done art by a fan of the MvC series. Even if we agree this is the real Kevin Sharpe and he is an artist on the project there’s no guarantee these two characters make the roster. There are tons of characters like the Fantastic 4 and Ghost Rider that are going to appear in the fighting stages and won’t be playable. There’s also the issue of whether or not these characters would be compelling to play with. Taskmaster isn’t a well known character in the Marvel universe and his power is “photographic reflexes” which essentially means he copies the fighting styles of others. It could be interesting if integrated properly in his combat style but I’m afraid he’d end up just being another Rogue. Galactus on the other hand wouldn’t work at all. The man eats planets for crying out loud!!! How is it plausible that he could fit on a stage as a playable character and be killed by a Chun-Li punch? He’s probably the end boss for the game but playable? Not a chance. So to sum up for those just skimming through the column: Taskmaster=possible, Galactus=not a chance in hell.
THE SOURCE: Kotaku
MY TAKE: I’m not going to lie, I was ready to be one of those first adapters who were going to pick up the 3DS the day it came out. However, I got an iPhone last week and I realized that it better work as a portable gaming system after the $300 to buy the damn thing plus the $55/month for the plan. Sadly, I know the second I get my hands on a 3DS either at an event or from a friend I’ll be in line to lay down another 300 clams. Anyway, as of now the pricing of the 3DS has been a bit of a mystery. Sure we know the system will cost 25 000 yen but in terms of USD, we have no clue. It’s even a bigger mystery on the games side because no price in any currency has been announced. That changes now if this latest rumor is on the ball. Japanese gaming site Inside Games has stated the 3DS launch line-up will consist of 10 games and will cost 5800 yen each which translates to just under $70 US. That’s the same price as a current generation console game which is basically unheard of in gaming. Though, if you think about the technology behind the games to make them 3D the price certainly isn’t improbable.
THE VERDICT: KILL IT!!!
Am I killing that 3DS games will cost 5800 yen? No, because despite my Japanese background I know very little about their economics and can’t really predict their prices. However, there are a number of reasons why a $70 price tag on 3DS games would be a bad idea, the first being competition. With the PSP2 apparently on its way and the iPhone and iPod Touch picking up steam as portable gaming devices the portable market is going to be much more competitive. Right now Apple App games range from free to around $7 with most falling in the $0.99 – $2 range. You can get a ton of apps for $70 and consumers are going to be aware of that. There’s also competition from the 3DS’s predecessor. Right now Nintendo has sold 125 million DS’s worldwide and a good chunk of that audience probably falls under the “casual gamer” audience. Nintendo is going to have a tough time getting those 125 million people to change from their $150 DS’s with $35 games to a $300 3DS with $70 games. I think Nintendo would have to be nuts to charge $70 for their games and I believe they will probably only charge around $40-$50 (in North America) to make the upgrade from the DS more appealing to casual consumers.
THE FINAL SAY
To kick off the first final say of 2011 I would like to make a bold prediction. Each year there is usually one genre of games that really stands out, you could argue last year was year of the real time strategy game with Civilization 5 and StarCraft 2 making a big impact. This year however I think an underutilized genre is going to make a big splash and that is…the fighting genre! Just look at the two big headlining fighting games in 2011 – Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Mortal Kombat are both coming in the same year, within two months of each other no less!!! Both those games are looking incredibly awesome and both will be entering my game library without a doubt. I hope the success of these two games makes game developers aware that although 8 on 8 shooting matches are nice, nothing beats (pardon the pun) kicking someone’s ass one on one in a fighting game.And so ends the first of hopefully many editions of Rumor Has It! in 2011.
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