RipTen Videogame Blog » Eidos-Interactive

Square Enix to Expand into Canada With New Montreal Studio, Eh!

Catherine Cai — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:16:19 +0000

When Square Enix revealed the trifecta of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Tomb Raider, and Hitman: Absolution, I had a glimmer of hope that Square Enix wasn’t going to make choices that would ruin these three franchises for me as well.

Now, a few months after Square Enix revealed the first tidbits about these three games, only Human Revolution has hit the shelves. And it did really, really well. I mean, enough so that Eidos Montreal is opening up 100 new jobs to develop more Deus Ex and Thief games. Oh, and Square Enix has decided to open up a new studio in Montreal.

The first project that SquEnix Montreal is going to tackle? A totally new hitman. That’s right, Square already has another Hitman planned after Absolution. Confident, aren’t they?

I expect that this move just means Square Enix is seeing more profits in the ‘Western’ sector of gaming. I noticed this year that Square Enix wasn’t pushing its Japanese franchises quite as much as the big three Western titles. Since Human Revolution did so well, Square Enix is probably jumping in on the action to take advantage of developing more sequels based off of the Western titles it owns. So yes, expect to see more of Square Enix’s name stamped across any games affiliated with Eidos. Huzzah.

Lynch Just Called, To Say, He Loves Kane

Chad Lakkis — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 03:46:01 +0000

So as I sit here scouring the web for game related news, my phone starts to ring. Without thinking, I pick it up and say hello. The man on the other end calls me something that didn’t register at first, and then he starts talking about needing help, saying something along the lines of:

“It’s Lynch, we’re in China. I need your help. (goes on for a bit but I was too busy laughing to jot it all down) Ive gotta’ girlfriend now. My priorities are not the same. I cant afford any more screw ups. Call me back. And Kane, I uh … it’ll be good to, you know, see you again. I’ll show you around.”

Hey, good for Lynch. I’m was glad to hear that he’s turned over a new leaf, and I’m fairly certain that he and Kane will resolve their differences (before creating some new ones) in the upcoming release of Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days.

They say time heals all wounds, so all we need now to complete the circle of love and forgiveness, is for IO Interactive and Gamespot to hop on a conference call with good ol’ Jeff Gerstmann, shed a few tears, issue a bro-hug, and call it a day.

Come on guys, make it happen. Jeff might have said you had “ugly characters”, and sure, that might have put a minor strain on the advertising relationship you had at the time, but he did say you had “really nice ideas.” Shouldn’t that count for something? Hug it out and let’s move on.

Alright readers, are you excited to see a Kane & Lynch sequel, or will Lynch have to issue more than an appologetic phone call to gain vote? Sound off in the comments section below.

RipTen Review: Just Cause 2 (PC)

Bryce Wilson — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 06:46:49 +0000

Just Cause 2 is a sandbox game, actually I don’t think sandbox accurately describes this game. Just Cause 2 is a Sahara Desert Game! Ah, that sounds better. Once again you take the reins of Rico Rodriguez on another cliché story based explosion extravaganza.

Just Cause the original had a playable game field of 1,012km² with 21 missions and hundreds of side missions (Even though they were cookie cut from each other). The main gripe everyone had with Just Cause was how repetitive the game play was, and how it got boring and stale quite quickly. Just Cause 2 has improved on that in numerous ways and Avalanche and Eidos have done a good job to make Just Cause 2 more enjoyable for all.

Set on the other of the world to the original title Rico is on a fictional island called “Panau” in Southeast Asia. Your mission is to overthrow Pandak “Baby” Panay who of course is the evil dictator and puppet to your former boss, Tom Sheldon. Game play is pretty standard. Complete missions to get Intel on the location of Tom Sheldon so you can kill him, ultimately fulfilling your own personal mission whilst being the puppet of various “tribes” located around Panau who all have their own hidden agendas.

This is done by making your way to waypoint of sorts on the map where a brief cut scene will inform you of your objective. Carry it out, mission accomplished. Most of them revolve around going to a Panau landmark, destroying a heap of equipment and essentially taking the base for yourself. One of them sees you flying to an enemy Missile launch facility and destroying satellites before they’re launched into orbit. It makes for fun game play and the explosions are nice however it gets very old, very quickly.

To unlock more missions, you have to blow more stuff around Panau up. This is a problem in itself as to blow stuff up you either need explosives or weapons. To get them you either need to kill armed soldiers placed all over the island of Panau or buy them from the black market which you unlock about an hour into the game. You activate a beacon and a helicopter flies over top of you and drops off whatever you buy but make sure you have money, and lots of it. An Assault Rifle costs around $40,000 which is $10,000 more than a Jet Plane. Who in the design department did the equations here? A rifle should cost at most ten thousand dollars. When your tools of destruction cost more than the tools to get around the island, you start to think if it’s worth paying for either but then you’re forced to use the incredibly slow vehicles everywhere else.

But then that problem is pretty much overweighed by the fact you can use the new grapple hook feature. By hitting the “F” key on PC and pointing at an area within about 50 meters of you, a cable will extend and pull you to where you shot it. Then by hitting space bar you open your parachute and glide for ages. Repeat this and you have effective free travel. The parachute comes back no matter how many times you’ve opened it, and regardless of the fact you opened it two seconds ago.

The grappling hook can also be tethered to two objects at once. So you can hook it to a car, then a plane, then take off with a car below you and use it as a literal wrecking ball before it explodes into a ball of fire. It’s fun driving near people and tethering their car to the ground so when they drive off their car just disintegrates. You can also grapple enemies, buildings and pretty much anything you see.

The graphical presentation of Just Cause 2 is met by nothing I have ever seen before. This game features possibly the most beautiful island ever created. It’s essentially separated into 3 parts; Tropical, Desert and Snow. The tropical area being my favourite. Featuring lush forests, beautiful shore lines and gorgeous water visuals it really does look like a work of art. The water is probably some of the best I have ever seen. It’s filled with vibrant colourful coral and underwater life.

The draw distance of the game is pretty insane. By getting onto the tallest point of the game and looking around you can see the whole island. The same goes for flying straight up in one of the many planes or helicopters and hitting the Left Alt key to hang below the aircraft. It really is something I recommend everyone to see as it’s not done very often and pulled off this well.

Character models look nice however sometimes they look a bit dull. This could be due to a blurring effect that affects pretty much everything that moves. Explosions are where this game strives in leaps and bounds. Nothing is more appealing to the eye then detaching a Minigun from a stationary position and just blowing up heaps of fuel tanks and vehicles and watching them all explode. Just Cause 2 probably has some of the best explosions you will see in games for the next year or two. There will be video footage all over YouTube so make sure to search it up.

The soundtrack within Just Cause 2 is pretty bland. The same sound bite is played time and time again whenever you enter into danger or evade it. The guns all sound pretty realistic and have a sense of individuality which is good in Just Cause 2 as everything basically blurs into everything else. One gripe I had though, was the explosion sounds. They sound occurs, then pretty much disappears a few seconds later, no echo or residual sound left over. Which doesn’t make sense if the explosion occurs in a valley or inside.

The cars too leave a lot to be desired because the sound they make at top speed isn’t really representative of the onscreen speed look. They seem to be going slow in comparison to their engines revving out.

Some of the voice acting within Just Cause 2 is pathetic. It literally sounds like some High School graduates reading page scripts and that’s it. With voice acting in Splinter Cell: Conviction and Alan Wake, this leaves a lot to be desired.

This game features a great deal of extra things to do. There’s numerous military bases to fly around find, then destroy as well as something like 2,000 upgrade parts for cars, weapons and equipment. This game could easily see you playing for 90-100 hours and still be enjoying it and finding new fun things to do. If you’re looking for a game with a lot of fuel in the tank, this really is for you!

Both Steam and Xbox 360 Achievements in Just Cause 2 are pretty well balanced. They aren’t extremely hard to get, but you do have to work for them which really does give you a good sense of accomplishment when you unlock one and even more so if you could get them all. Some of them are pretty fun too. My favorite being where you have to base jump for around 1000 meters (Hint: Giant nightclub in the sky!). Some of them are a bit ridiculous, such as one for driving all 109 vehicles on the island, considering some are extremely rare to find.

Just Cause 2 is good, not perfect but good. They nearly hit the nail on the head but a few things like cost of weapons, repetitiveness of missions (Base Takeovers / Destroy X) and a lot of filler on the island leaves a bit to be desired. Hopefully they get it right in the inevitable sequel.

The Rundown:

+ Great open ended do whatever you want gameplay
+ Never run out of things to do
- Repetitive missions and tasks
- Over price and underthought equipment

Alien Breed: Impact was developed by Avalanche Studios/Edios Interactive and published by Square Enix for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. The game released in the United States on March 23rd 2010 with a retail price of $49.99 USD. The copy used in this review was for the PC and purchased by the reviewer. The game was played to completion for the purpose of this review. Specs of the PC used are as follows: Asus M2A74-AM-SE Motherboard, AMD Quad Core 630 @ 2.81ghz, HIS 5750 1GB DDR5, 4GB RAM, Tritton AX720 Dolby Digital 5.1 Headset, Windows 7 (64 Bit).

Xbox 360 Gets Two Exclusive Tomb Raider: Underworld Chapters as DLC

Chad Lakkis — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:08:54 +0000

“The Xbox 360 will let you play with me six hours longer than the PS3. Meow!”

Eidos Interactive has announced today that the Xbox 360 console version of Tomb Raider: Underworld will be benefiting from nearly 6 hours of additional gameplay time in the form of two additional chapters titled “Beneath the Ashes” and “Lara’s Shadow”.

The DLC will be available via the Xbox Live Marketplace, with the first chapter (Beneath the Ashes) expected to hit this Christmas, and the second (Lara’s Shadow) unloading in early in 2009.

Eidos promises that both chapters will provide a unique experience, and Sean Vesce, General Manager for Crystal Dynamics, adds that the “retail release of any videogame is just the start of the player experience.”

It seems that Microsoft has bought into Sean’s philosophy, as they appear to be buying up exclusive content left and right. While it may be extend the life of a game, it remains to be seen whether or not it will drastically improve a console manufacturers bottom line.

You won’t have to hold your breath till December though, in addition to the DLC, it was also announced that a demo of the game will make its way on to XBL in October.

Full press release available after the jump.

EIDOS AND XBOX ANNOUNCE EXCLUSIVE DOWNLOADABLE CHAPTERS FOR TOMB RAIDER: UNDERWORLD

First New Chapter Rolls Out in Time for the Holidays with Game Demo Available in October

Redwood City, Calif. – October 6, 2008 – Eidos Interactive, creator of some of the world’s leading video game properties, today announces an agreement with Microsoft to release two brand new downloadable chapters in the continuing Tomb Raider adventures of Lara Croft. Containing up to six hours of new gameplay and content for Tomb Raider: Underworld™, the chapters will be available exclusively on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®. A demo for Tomb Raider: Underworld will also be available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace in October.

Offering entirely new content specifically designed to extend the Tomb Raider: Underworld experience, Tomb Raider: Underworld – Beneath the Ashes and Tomb Raider: Underworld – Lara’s Shadow will deliver two very different single player gameplay experiences. Tomb Raider: Underworld – Beneath the Ashes takes place after the Underworld story has finished and will feature an incredible new environment to explore, additional secrets to unlock and different enemies to fight. Tomb Raider: Underworld – Lara’s Shadow will introduce players to a new kind of playable character and create a unique Tomb Raider experience.

The first new chapter, Tomb Raider: Underworld – Beneath the Ashes, will be available for download exclusively on Xbox LIVE Marketplace this Christmas. Tomb Raider: Underworld – Lara’s Shadow will follow in early 2009.

“We are constantly looking at ways to extend our franchises, whilst developing a deeper relationship with our players. The retail release of any videogame is just the start of the player experience, from there it all depends where you want to take the player in terms of ideas and innovation,” said Sean Vesce, General Manager for Crystal Dynamics. . “With these additional chapters and the online reach of Xbox LIVE, we are able to deliver exclusive content to millions of gamers worldwide.”

“We’re thrilled that Xbox owners will be able to extend their Lara Croft adventures with exclusive Tomb Raider: Underworld episodes,” said George Peckham, General Manager of Global Third Party Publishing for Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business. “We look forward to continue working closely with our great publishing partners to deliver the most robust gaming experiences, only on Xbox 360.”

First Gameplay Footage & New Screenshots for Tomb Raider Underworld

Demi Adejuyigbe — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:52:57 +0000

Today, Eidos Interactive revealed the first gameplay footage, as well as some screenshots for the PS3/Xbox 360 versions of Tomb Raider: Underworld. They also announced a release date of November 18th of this year for the Xbox 360, PC, PS3, and PS2 versions of the game.

While the trailer is done as if for a movie, it’s great to see some footage of the game in action. I haven’t played a Tomb Raider title in a while, so I’m definitely going to be checking this one out. Plus, she encounters a giant freaking squid. Hit the jump for the gallery of screenshots.

Kane & Lynch: Playboy Interview

Drake Hess — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:38:40 +0000

Creative advertising 101. In an effort to beef up their gaming coverage, Playboy Magazine will be running the following advertisement/interview with Kane of the upcoming Kane & Lynch video game. The piece will be titled “A candid conversation with a convicted killer about a final assignment that left 25 dead and why he looks forward to his own execution”.

You gotta’ give it up to the individual(s) who thought this up, as it kills two birds with one stone, acting as an advertisement as well as giving readers a glimpse into the character, ultimately reinforcing the brand.

After all, brand awareness is huge in an era where games cost $60 a pop and the competition is stiff.

Playboy: Do you deserve to die?
Kane: That’s what the judge said.

Playboy: Do you feel guilty for your crimes?
Kane: I’m about to put on an orange jumpsuit and get on a bus with barred windows. I sure as hell am not innocent. I acknowledge the pain I’ve caused. But I’ll be honest and say that I’m not really feeling much anymore. You get numb as the years go by.

Playboy: How do you want your family to remember you?
Kane: [Pauses] I don’t want them to. It will be easier that way.

Playboy: Are you saying your family isn’t important to you?
Kane: I’m saying my family is important to me. That’s why all they need to remember about me is that I was sorry tat I left them when they needed me the most. I’d do anything to make that up to them.

Playboy: You sound as if you’re looking forward to your execution.
Kane: That’s what prison food will do to you. [Smiles] Not everything you’ve heard about me is true. Most of it is. By now, dying is the easy part.

Playboy: You’ve been linked with high-profile heists, bank robberies, and murders around the world. Was it hard to go to work every day?
Kane: In the beginning, yes. But I’ve never had the choice not to go–I’ve never had the opportunity to return to a normal life. I lost that privilege a long time ago. But yes, I did enjoy the money.

Playboy: Tell me about The 7.
Kane: [Smiles] Is that your lucky number?

Playboy: Or an international criminal organization that is believed to have stolen more than $14 billion in the past 20 years, leaving hundreds dead in the process. It’s also rumored that The 7 is the only group to have ever successfully broken into the United States Treasury.
Kane: You think you know a lot of things, don’t you? [Pauses] There is no 7, not [cut off of advertisement]

Three additional caption/quotes that appear below three photos just under the interview above…

“I have been waiting my entire career to meet a member of The 7. I am surprised to see the clear intelligence in Kane’s eyes. He is not crazy. He is relaxed and almost humble. That makes him even more frightening.”

On the smoking: “Kane smokes an entire pack in 10 minutes. I ask him why he smokes so much and he says he wants the cigarettes to get him before the electric chair does”

On the movie: “Most people, killers or not, would love a movie and game created about their life. Not Kane. Look he says, I’ll be dead and my family won’t get a dime.”

Kane & Lynch: Playboy Interview/Advertisement (click to enlarge)

Credit: Kotaku