In this episode: Mafia II, Gun Loco, Resistance 3, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Hydrophobia, Captain Smiley, Super Meat Boy and much more!
Freeplay award winner Andrew Goulding on Jolly Rover, Steam and the Aussie indie scene.
Karen travels back in time to review Singularity, the latest shooter with a twist from Raven Software.
In this episode: Mercs Inc, Kane & Lynch 2, The Saboteur, 3D Dot Game Heroes, Deadly Premonition, Nazi dinosaurs and much more!
The Panellists: Erin Marcon, Karen Jacobson, Peter Nickless and David Walden
Related links: Saboteur survives Pandemic, Mercs Inc emerges from the wreckage, It takes two, Release the dinosaurs, Have we not met before?, I knew this would happen
Welcome to the Black List, our regular retrospective of the week in games.
On Monday, we confirmed that Pandemic Studios’ The Saboteur had alluded cancelation.
On Tuesday, we examined latest ModNation Racers trailer from United Front Games and wondered if there would be any actual racing in the game.
On Wednesday, we took a look at Ubisofts new in-game customer reward program, Uplay.
On Thursday, another Pandemic Studios’ franchise emerged from the wreckage. This time around it was the Mercenaries franchise in the spotlight.
On Friday, we covered the announcement of a new zombie based MMO from Seattle start-up Undead Labs.
Thanks for reading.
Erin Marcon – Editor
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"Don’t get angry, baby. You know I can’t talk about my work at the lab."
Seattle based start-up Undead Labs has announced that its inaugural project is to be an ambitious console-based MMO. Unsurprisingly given the studio’s catchy moniker, the game will take place in a world beset by zombies. With series such as Dead Rising, Left 4 Dead and even Call of Duty embracing the undead revival, it was only a matter of time before the concept transitioned to the MMO space.
Undead Labs founder Jeff Strain will executive produce the as yet unnamed game. Best known for his work on Blizzard’s StarCraft, Diablo and Warcraft series, he also contributed to the Guild Wars franchise. Of course, those games were pure fantasy while the threat of an undead uprising is all too real.
Stain has already revealed that the game will be supported by subscriptions rather than micro-transactions. “I don’t like this nickel-and-dime approach,” he says, “because it leads to design decisions that are based on something other than what’s most fun for the players.”
Only a week after closing Pandemic Studios, EA has confirmed that a new Mercenaries title is in the works. No platform or release date information has yet been provided.
The series kicked off in 2005 with well regarded sandbox action game Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. Three years later, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames received mixed reviews and attracted the ire of the Venezuelan government for depicting a US-lead overthrow of their regime.
Some have speculated that the announcement of the new game (working title: Mercs Inc) was prompted by the publication of leaked test footage on Bitmob (reproduced above). Alternatively, the leak could be seen as confirmation that the Venezuelan secret service has infiltrated EA.
The announcement of Mercs Inc confirms the publisher’s intention to exploit the handful of original properties generated by Pandemic. The Full Spectrum Warrior series of army-themed first person shooters is one candidate for revival. Destroy All Humans, in which the player assumes the role of an alien invader, is another.
Pandemic’s swan song, The Saboteur is due for release on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on Thursday 3 December 2009.
