Rockstar Games

The Old West was a tough time for everyone. Men were shot in cold blood, there were constant train/wagon hijackings and tensions were high between factions that occupied most settlements. In the Old West setting of Red Dead Redemption the female characters aren’t exactly the clueless damsels in distress that you may have thought they would be.

L.A. Noire has been in development for an incredibly long time and virtually hasn’t made any sort of public showing that shows us the true face of the game. Yeah sure, that CG teaser trailer from a few years ago was cool but it was a CG teaser trailer and not the real deal.

I never thought I would say this but Rockstar Games is actually starting to make themselves look bad. No, I’m not talking about the recent rumors of employees working 7 days a week for 20 hours a day.  I’m instead referring to how amazing Red Dead Redemption looks and how it makes GTA4 look like child’s play by comparison. Now I’m not trying to start a flame war or anything but the level of detail, overall atmosphere, the unique characters and stellar visuals of RDR makes GTA4 a bit archaic by comparison.

Amidst all the Super Bowl hoopla and general laziness that most of us participated in this past weekend some interesting info popped up concerning L.A. Noire. Last week we got a look at the Game Informer cover story and a promise that the game will feature “revolutionary” facial animation. Not only do we have some details on what L.A. Noire is doing on the gameplay and technical front but we also have a potential release date for Rockstar’s noir adventure.

It shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise that the next issue of Game Informer will feature the world debut on L.A. Noire. When Rockstar revealed that the long in development sandbox noire game would be shown off soon many came to the conclusion that it would be shown via Game Informer due to the history Rockstar has with the magazine.  Now that’s what I call some good detective work.

The rumors, constant crying and internet flame wars can finally be put to rest as GTA: Episodes from Liberty City is coming to the PlayStation 3 and PC in March. Is everyone happy now? Now there’s no reason for anyone to be left out or feel like Rockstar came into their home and robbed everything or kicked their pet.  PS3 and PC gamers may be getting the content a bit late but I guess that’s better than not getting it at all.

The latest installment of Rockstar’s documentary style videos for Red Dead Redemption has been released and this time it focuses on the various Western weapons of death players can use.  Despite the old West setting the weapons in the game pack the same visceral punch from the looks of things as seeing someone get taken out by a rifle looks at entertaining as it did in GTAIV. Or maybe that’s just me being a sick basterd since I found myself chuckling at the variety of the death animations in the video.

Usually when a game has a special pre-order bonus we’re stuck with something boring or silly. But Rockstar Games and GameStop are allowing gamers to let their voice be heard for the pre-order bonus of Rockstar’s upcoming cowboy game Red Dead Redemption. Voting on which unlockable costume you want may not seem like that big of a thing but there are a few benefits that could entice some gamers.

Last week we were greeted with some good news as Rockstar revealed that we would be getting our first look at L.A. Noire, a game that has been MIA since Rockstar announced it in 2006.  But some may not know exactly how troubled the development of the game has been. We all know that developing games isn’t an easy thing to do and even the best game on the market encounters a few bumpy roads or major revisions but the history of L.A. Noire could almost rival the infamous Duke Nukem Forever.

There are games that have troubled production cycles and then there are others who merely drop off the face of the Earth leaving next to no details as to what the hell happened. Team Bondi’s L.A.

If you’ve been a fan of the Midnight Club series then you may want to sit down as reports are coming in that Rockstar has shelved the street racing series.  Despite being Rockstar’s second biggest franchise after Grand Theft Auto the company has for reasons unknown dismantled the core Midnight Club team along with firing two veterans who had been at developer Rockstar San Diego for 10 years. 

Maybe Rockstar and Take Two are changing the way they publicize their games or perhaps they’re just really proud of Red Dead Redemption.  It must be a combination of the two because compared to the pre-release media of other Rockstar games we’ve gotten an absolute gold mine with Red Dead Redemption so far with a bevy of images and trailers.

Without sounding like a broken record Rockstar Games’ upcoming Red Dead Redemption looks really damn pretty. I mean the game could easily dethrone GTA IV as being the most immersive sandbox game this gen since the lighting is amazing and the visuals show how great a stride Rockstar San Diego has made with the RAGE engine.

In news that shouldn’t surprise anyone Take Two announced today via their financial report that the next installment of the Max Payne franchise won’t be coming out anytime soon and is currently slated for a Q4 release (August-October 2010).  Max Payne 3 was originally set for a winter 2009 release but after news on the game fell off the radar, even more so than usual Rockstar standards, after the premier in Game Informer many had assumed that we wouldn’t be seeing the exploits of the new burly Max Payne anytime soon.

At Sony’s E3 conference it was announced that the PlayStation 3 was getting an exclusive franchise from prolific developer Rockstar Games in the form of Agent.  Besides a cool looking logo and a simple summary that the game would be a spy story set in the 1970s no other details were given. And of course in typical Rockstar fashion it’ll be quite some time before we see any media or learn new details on the project.