Company
Sierra Online (owned by Vivendi) has officially announced a game (with both online and single player components) based on the popular TV series, Battlestar Galactica. It's being developed by none other than those busy people over at Auran Games on Xbox Live and PC for a planned release later this year. Fans of the TV show who have access to Xbox Live can download some Battlestar Galactica content onto your Xbox 360 right now!
In addition, in order to ramp up fan anticipation for the game, Xbox Live users can download gamer pictures and theme packs from the show from the Xbox Live Marketplace beginning today.While few details have been released as to the extent to which the game will relate to the popular television show, Sierra officials have revealed that players can expect the game to include ships as well as as missions based on the series.
The full article can be read over at Gamasutra...
Uhh, It says Xbox Live Arcade game, not MMO...
"Officials from Vivendi Games division Sierra Online officially announced plans to release Battlestar Galactica over Microsoft's popular Xbox Live Arcade service"
and
"and will feature both single and multiplayer gameplay as either the humans or Cylons. "
Its an Xbox Live Arcade game, i.e. 50mb download, not some MMO.
Should be interesting anyway.
Sorry, that was my mistake. I saw the news first at <a href="http://mmorpg.qj.net/Battlestar-Galactica-coming-next-Fall/pg/49/aid/82…">http://mmorpg.qj.net/Battlestar-Galactica-coming-next-Fall/pg/49/aid/82…; and it kinda threw me off.
There was a lot of rumor and speculation floating about the news sites that this was going to be the BSG MMORPG - some even said that it was confirmed as such!
I'm very excited about this, I think it's a healthy thing for the Aussie industry to have such a popular title in our midst. Plus, I think it's the kind of game that'd be a dream to work on. ;)
Australia has quite a few interesting titles coming out, including Bioshock, destroy all humans 2, hellboy etc etc
Destroy All Humans 2 is out already. There's also LA Noire, Heatseeker, and the unnanounced titles from Krome, Red Tribe, and others.
Hm heatseeker i wouldn't call exciting, heroes was not heatseeker. Red Tribe have announced one of their titles, the bugs bunny game thing, could be interesting I guess. Auran have their fury game which could be interesting, something to keep an eye out on.
LA Noire is going to be interesting, now that its swapped from Sony to Rockstar it could be a dud just because Rockstar have a reputation for bleeding their studios or studios that work for them dry.
Heatseeker not exciting? NOT EXCITING? I played it this morning and I was so excited a little bit of wee came out. And not for the first time, let me tell you. Check the game's website (can't link here, but search on the codemasters site) for videos showing off its excitingness.
Things blow up! A lot! And in bullet time close-up with thousands of particles and bits flying everywhere! Nearly forty planes! Nearly forty weapons! Mad dictators! Aircraft carriers! Guided bombs! Cruise missiles! Laser tanks! *Tanks with blinkin' lasers!* Mountain fortresses! Burning oil rigs! Massive naval fleets! Stealth planes! Icebergs! SAM sites! Bunker Buster bombs! Afterburners! Break the sound barrier! Terrorists! Worryingly lingering close-ups of jet planes! And more explosions! And more! And yet more! And it's on the Wii! And that's fantastic! Woohoo!!!!!11!
Yes, it's my game, but even after a year of hard work on it and playing it all the time I'm not remotely sick of it, I honestly think it's fantastic. When you have Heatseeker and Bugs Bunny in your hands in EB, give it some serious thought.
I certainly didn't mean that there aren't other exciting games being developed here. My point was that Battlestar Galactica, being a highly acclaimed television show, already has a very heavy fan-base before the release is even made. So there's good chance that such a title will sell very well globally.
But yep, there's definitely some really great titles in development. Heatseeker, Bioshock, LA Noire, Fury, Hellboy, Looney Tunes. Pandemic's announced development of Mercenaries 2. I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting.
Exciting times for Australia. :)
Hmmmm Battlestar Galactica on the Xbox Live network........
"The rectangular area of play starts filled with colored Cylons. The only valid move is to swap adjacent Cylons to make three or more Cylons of the same color line up horizontally or vertically. When that happens, the player earns Frak Points, the lined-up Cylons disappear, the Cylons above them fall and the extra space is filled with random Cylons. Once this has happened, there may once again be three or more Cylons lined up, in which case the process is repeated. This is called a "StarBuck". The game ends when there are no valid moves. Battlestar Galactica is somewhat similar to Tetris Attack.
In the "Find the Toaster" mode, the progress through the level goes down faster and faster and when it reaches 0, the player loses."
* Warning game may or may not highly resemble Bejewled *
the sad part of this news is that Auran is developing it? how did they get this gig.. there are much better studios in australia let alone around the world who could do a better job.
Now thats funny. Better than what eh?
And seriously Ben Board, you must be blind or something - going on screenshots alone Heatseeker looks utterly dated. look at that terrain.. and buildings? seriously? Have you played games like Ace Combat? Bit of reality for you.. Heatseeker looks quite average - even if it plays great, those gfx are not what anyone could call top quality for this day and age. Come on devvers.. get a little realistic here.. why don't companys shoot for the best looking gfx in the world? I cant even think of a single title from Aus that has gone even close in the last 6 years...
Screenshots are a little deceptive sometimes, will just have to wait for the game to be released and see how it looks and feels at the time.
Check the videos (search for 'Heatseeker Video Game' on YouTube - can't post links here, I think). It looks great. The vids are taken from the PS2 build - the Wii version looks better still.
P.S. Battlestar Galactica... coo-hoo-hoool, ditto Fury and the rest. Aussie Aussie Aussie!
Crikey people, come on, a little bit of self critique here. You honestly think that terrain is top quality (dont need moving to see that)? You honestly think the texturing (sea and terrain) is some of the best around? Its one thing to blow your own trumpets.. but imho, unless it _is_ competing with games like Ace Combat.. you still have a substantial way to go. Im all for Aussie developers producing their best.. but you need to reflect _honestly_ what you are doing. How else will you achieve the best.. if you already think it is?? Find the best.. and better it.. again .. gfx wise.. Aus companies haven't had the best gfx for many years... quite odd imho.. since I know we have the talent here to do so.
Gfx isn't everything, seen some very fancy games go down the tubes because the gameplay is complete load of garbage. Just beat the game all around :)
We might have the talent here to do so, but we don't have the production know-how to do so - from a management point of view. We also lack the design, which I think generally is not much better than the graphics.
Reality check people...
Grover you say you cant think of a single aussie title that comes close in the last 6 years.....what about the Total War games? Tribes vengeance? even Transformers....
Whinge whinge whinge.
Transformers didn't make a profit, if I recall correctly - it was a lemon.
Total War is an existing IP title, and Creative Assembly are an international company - now part of a publisher. One wonders where there know-how actually originates and flows from - also where their tech does as well.
Tribes Vengeance is another existing IP title, though competitive, wasn't breaking any new ground IMHO. Though, I think Irrational Australia, though part of a larger international company and now part of a publisher, do great work - like with Freedom Force, the studio's first foray. Still, I could ask where their know-how flows from as well, does it originate here, or, overseas in Boston?
Whats the problem with existing IP?
Ty sold really well, Spyro, Destroy All Humans developed here in Australia, etc etc I just see a whole heap of people whinging and just not getting on with making decent games.
AC#20 I think you wiull find you're wrong on Transformers, it went platnum and sold about 1mil, hardly a lemon.
AC 21: I think the people getting on with making decent games are not the ones posting.
They didn't make a sequel to Transformers, which is odd if it was a sucsesful title. Maybe the licence expired?
The sequel was at a design stage at Melbourne House but Atari gave it the axe for some reason.
to me that would suggest the sales didn't come back as strong as expected / needed.
Or they wanted someone else to create a game that tied into the Transformers Movie, seeing as Michael Bay has all the vision of a naked mole rat, and why wouldn't you want to tie in your business with such a movie? It would be a summer hit!
Or they wanted a ridiculous amount for the license since the first sold and the movie was coming up...