Speaking of weapons: Dragon’s Breath. That’s based on a real weapon?

It’s an incendiary shotgun round called the Dragon’s Breath that basically does what you see in the game. You look it up on YouTube and you’ll see the guys shooting the shotgun shell and it looks like a big fireball comes out. But, that’s a theme that you’ll see in the game; modifications of weapons, special ammunition, special prototype weapons maybe not in wide use at the time. These were the kind of guys who would go out and do field testing these things. They were the first to get their hands on a new weapon. So, that’s will be a theme you’ll see running through the game.

Read the rest of this entry »

Treyarch is no stranger to the Call of Duty franchise, having created Call of Duty 3 and World at War, but, up until it began work on this November’s Call of Duty: Black Ops, it was stuck in the past — World War II, that is. After getting our first look at its take on more modern combat, we spoke with Black Ops producer Dan Bunting to find out what to expect from the series’ move into the Cold War and the world of deniable operations. Oh, and zombies — we had to ask about those.

Joystiq: Black Ops seems to me to be “modern warfare” — with s lower case “m” and lower case “w.” It’s a lot different than the Call of Duty games that Treyarch has made in the past. What’s it like going from World War II to a more modern setting?

Dan Bunting: It’s a completely untapped era; there’s been a small number of games that have covered that in the past. It’s a really rich time frame to draw inspiration from for creativity. The team is completely jazzed about the theme of the game, and taking more of a special ops angle to it. The Cold War era, there are so many stories there that people don’t even know about. A lot of people don’t even know what the Cold War is, but there was a kind of birth of these special operations happening during this time frame.

Read the rest of this entry »

Click to rappel into our gallery.

“The team’s work can speak for itself, so we’re gonna jump right into the game. We’re gonna take you to a weapons manufacturing facility deep behind enemy lines in the Soviet Union. This is WMD.”

After this brief introduction by Treyarch’s Mark Lamia at an event in Los Angeles earlier this month, I was treated to a first look at the annualized, even-year Call of Duty production by Treyarch. Amidst all the legal posturing, accusations, departures, hires, and general unpleasantness (read all about it), Call of Duty: Black Ops is nearing the end of its two-year development cycle and heading toward a November 9 release date.

Read the rest of this entry »

After announcing a new Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 project with EA Partners, Insomniac Games faces a bombardment of questions from fans and press. We fired off some of our own earlier today in an interview with Insomniac CEO Ted Price and EA Partners’ Global Marketing VP, Craig Rechenmacher, and while the prolific developer remains tight-lipped when it comes to discussing the details of the new project, we learned more about the partnership’s motivation and scope.

Joystiq: This announcement, is this for a single game? Or is this for the entire franchise?

Ted Price: This is for a single game.

Read the rest of this entry »

At Square Enix’s pre-E3 event yesterday, we got a chance to talk with Karl Stewart, global brand director for Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics. We asked him about the reorganization inside the developer (which lead directly to the development of the already impressive Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light), its new approach to managing the Tomb Raider brand and how its new focus is affecting the way other Eidos studios work. We also got a taste of just how outside-the-box its new “experimental team” can go.

Joystiq: This reorganization all happened after the Square Enix acquisition?

Karl Stewart: We had actually been going through the shakeup at the studio prior to it, and really we had already presented that we knew we needed to make a drastic change for the studio and that continuing down the same path wasn’t really going to cut it any longer. So Darryl Gallagher had taken over the studio at that time and he had some great ideas about how to sort of retool the studio, and it was around then that Square Enix came aboard, purchased us, so we presented our vision for it and they thought it was the right way to go. And as a result, we continued down that path.

Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps you’ve been glossing over any stories with the words “Lara Croft” in the headline, sure that it couldn’t possibly have anything to offer you. You and Lara had your thing … but that was years ago. You’re older now. You’ve moved on.

Well, so has Lara. The team at Crystal Dynamics did an admirable job updating the Tomb Raider series with the Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld trilogy but they understood that they “needed to make a drastic change for the studio and that continuing down the same path wasn’t really going to cut it any longer.” So, Crystal Dynamics split itself into three groups: one focused on making the “pillar games” that will use the “Tomb Raider” branding; another focused on controlling the Lara Croft intellectual property and brand in-house; and the last one intent on delivering fresh “experimental” gameplay in a downloadable format using the “Lara Croft” brand. And that gets us to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.

Read the rest of this entry »

Capcom is expected to make a big announcement, nay, a “bombshell” of an announcement of a Western-developed sequel at E3 in a few week’s time.

Shacknews’ Garnett Lee has the in on this one; “Boy, their E3 bombshell puts that to test,” he said in a recent podcast for the site. “I’m not going to spill it because I don’t want to make anyone mad, but boy their E3 bombshell puts that to test.”

What it is is anyone’s guess at this point, but there have been rumors. How does a Ninja Theory-developed Devil May Cry 5 sound?

Read the rest of this entry »

Blizzard has announced that tickets for this October’s BlizzCon 2010 will go on sale early next month. As proven in the past, they’ll likely sell out in less than half an hour, so do make notes of the dates and times: June 2 at 7PM PT and June 5 at 10PM PT.

Each ticket will go for $150, another $25 increase over the previous year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday’s gameplay debut trailer now has some company; Eidos has released nearly a handful of new screenshots from Lara Croft’s next adventure, the download-only Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Podcasts

This week’s podcast had its share of ups and downs … like, there was the time the file got messed up and we had to re-record half the show this morning, or the time we accidentally murdered Justin with a chloroform overdose. Actually, that sounds like a lot of downs. On the “ups” side of things, we talk about Rocket Knight, Steam on Mac OS X, and we answer your wacky emails, so there’s still some good left in the world.

And big ups to Evan Hodgins for his stark vision of an exoskeleton-enhanced Joystiq Podcast.

Read the rest of this entry »