Not many of you have access to Spike TV I’d guess, but I’ve just been told this Friday (28th) Gamer Trailer TV you’ll be able to see a great feature on Iron Man and also find more details on our other Marvel game - The Incredible Hulk.

Edit: Urtheart tells me that it’ll be available to download on gamertrailers.com after it has aired. Nice.

On a cold morning last Tuesday a bunch of people dressed up as game characters to set a world record and guess what? SEGA turned up as well as an official partner for the event!

Yes, I braved the elements (and a restless nights “sleep”) with my guests from the NiGHTS fanbase TRiPPY and DiGi Vallentine who I’d had flown down from EDiNBURGH, er, sorry Edinburgh to participate in the event.  As the first ones there we sort of held the fort for the organisers and others gathered around the NiGHTS shaped becon of cosplay.  Amongst the first people around were a Gordon Freeman, a Saria and a Lloyd Irving who was moderately astonished I knew who he was but then I am the big Symphonia fan. Incidentally OXM, he’s the one you don’t recognise on your photos.

TRiPPY was bedecked in her truly stunning NiGHTS outfit, which garnered a lot of attention whilst DiGi was donning the blue suit and tights- much to his dismay - of Sonic.  Actually DiGi was a very good Sonic indeed, showing off the full range of Sonic manerisms after a crash course from myself and ample costumed “speak” doable for a man wearing a large suit, big shoes and having zero visibility.

There were many characters there from across the various gaming divides and many stories to tell, some of the Sonic community turned out too.  Blog poster extreme Diogo appeared as Assassin (minus his Creed), whilst Urtheart turned up as Pokemon Trainer Red complaining he’d put too much dye in for his cap and that it was itching like crazy.

Here we can see a rather tall looking Tails who was very popular with the kids, especially the primary school class who had turned out en masse as Super Mario.  If you caught Newsround on that day you’ll have seen one small girl claiming that Tails was her favourite by far, admitedly she said he was from Sonic Underground but we’ll forgive her that slight mistake.

Unfortunately Tails had a tendency to dance around rather strangly - “NO ONE KNOWS WHO I AM!” yelled Vger at the top of his voice.  Actually the danger money award should go to Vger as the interior of the Tails head was unprotected chicken wire and frankly looked like it was going to do damage to him.

I was of course busy with NiGHTS and Sonic making sure they were okay, but then look who turned up: Richard Jacques himself!

We got into a very animated conversation about various things Sonic related including SST which is out today in case you didn’t know, but in his small entourage there was an Ulala with a tennis racquet!  So we had pretty much half the line up for the game as well as the composer and the game!

By the way, myself and Richard agree that if that bastion of all things Jacques, UK:Resistance, miss the FOURTH RJ item in a row from these pages then they fail spectacularly and should be ashamed of their fan abilities. Ashaaaaaammmed!

Eventually all the press dragged our costumed heroes away whilst myself and Richard talked “shop”. Though after a while I also went back to defend our bags because they had been left lying outside the Tate Modern. To the TWIT who left a rather expensive looking Nikkon camera, iPod and dog shaped speaker unattended on a bench you have me to thank for it not being stolen.

In the end the day was a success, the record was set a load of children got to dress as Super Mario and I had to send “the first couple of Nightopia” on their way. It was a great day and you can find the whole range of photos from the day on the SEGA Europe flickr account at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/segaeurope/

Hi everyone, the Iron Man website has just gone live! At the moment its just the English version but we should be getting the likes of the French, Italian, German and Spanish (or FIGS as we say in the trade) up very soon - plus more!

To get to the site go to: www.sega.co.uk/ironman where you can see a rather snazzy trailer - you can catch and throw missiles at things… MISSILES! - and find various other details about the game.

You’d thought I’d forgotten about this hadn’t you?  Well we’d left my story, which was a while ago now, as we had just finished the podcast and a slice of cheesecake had been sacrificed to the great TRiPPY beast.

Now apparently, as it was really cold and damp it was a very good idea to go up to Edinburgh Castle - this was especially neccessary so we could yell “Yay castle!” at the ancient edifice. You may have guessed I was beginning to wonder what was in the cheesecake following this statement - but I wanted to go and see it regardless so up we went.

The castle was of course closed and the Queen wasn’t in - which was very rude of her, I’m from frickin’ SEGA! But the views from atop the very, very steep hill across Edinburgh were truly fantastic.  A twinkling cacophany of white and yellow lights and the sound of the wind…  and somebody taking out their frustrations on a pay-and-display machine.

Having discovered it was even colder where we were, we turned tail and walked back chatting about this and that.  I was told of how the current streets of Edinburgh are built over the streets of old which was done so to trap the plague victims and wipe the slate clean - judging by the large steps on either side of the road this had been happening a lot.  Edinburgh also has so I’m told one of the most haunted graveyards in the country, the ghosts and ghouls within being none too pleasant.  Tourists coming out with mysterious injuries inflicted up them, cuts and bruises - TRiPPY recalled she came out of one of the trips with a massive bruise on her thigh.  That the ghosts were angry and vengeful.

“I’m not surprised if you lot keep paving over people.” Was my reply.

Seeing Jof off at the train station we went back to the hotel where I wished everyone goodnight where I went off to a very comfy bed and a slice of banoffi pie and a coke from room service (I paid before you lot say anything).  The next day myself, DiGi and TRiPPY met up to kill time before I had to go off to the airport again.

I was rather desolate to find that Gamestation had recieved a delivery of Wiis in that very morning - if only I didn’t have the accurs’d Dev Wii I could have bought one and taken it home with me! NOOOOOOO!!!  We moped around and had breakfast before I had to get my bus to the airport, the highlight being a tramp outside the job centre who started yelling at me that I was a bum for no reason whatsoever.

The time came for goodbyes and I departed for pastures more Southern, but even then there was a twist in the tail.  Only a few days later (as some of you know) TRiPPY and DiGi through a series of unfortunate events were forced out on the streets and ended up having to rough it. Several of you have asked me how they are and the good news is that they are indeed safe and well in a new abode.

In fact Miss T and Mr D were helping me with something else a bit closer to home yesterday - keep an eye out for details on that!

With Sonic City down with the flu, I’ve decided to add the next Richard Jacques SST article to the main blog instead.  This time I invited Richard to tell us a bit more about some of the technical aspects of his work on SEGA Superstars Tennis (which is out of course on March 20th).  Over to you Richard:

From the beginning of the project, the producers of SEGA Superstars Tennis were keen to have all the classic music from the various franchises produced in surround sound. This was a superb decision and so I started to make a list of all the classic tracks that would need mixing in surround.

As the latest consoles all support one form of surround or another, coupled with the fact that home theatre systems are now comparatively cheap and widely adopted amongst the gaming community, this was a great move by SEGA to be so forward thinking and accept nothing less than the highest audio quality for the title. So myself, and SEGA producers Warren Leigh and Ben Barker started to get together a list of the tracks that needed mixing in surround. This was already a fairly daunting task since the game involves so many classic franchises, and therefore a lot of the music associated with a particular character or franchise.

When all was said and done we ended up with about 85 music tracks that were going to be mixed for surround sound. This is no tall order, and SST has one of the largest music track lists produced in surround.

The main format we were working on was producing 5.1 Dolby Digital content. This is a widely adopted surround sound format which can be produced on PS3, Xbox 360 as well as being present in many home cinema receivers and amplifiers. It basically means that you have two main front speakers (Left and Right), a centre speaker, two rear surround speakers (Left and Right) and a sub woofer (also known as the LFE channel) for earth shattering bass!

One of the challenges with the music for SST was that we were dealing with material that had been created over a 15 year period, and obviously technology (both gaming and recording studio technology) has changed a lot during that time. Another factor was that there was music from many different composers, recorded and produced in many different studios in Europe, Japan the US and other countries, so we also had to bear that in mind.

So I and my team began to create the surround mixes.

This was a complex process using lots of high end studio equipment and we had to treat each music track in its own right and tweak various settings accordingly. And of course we were under tight time constraints so there was a constant stream of surround mixing, composition and remixing taking place for the duration of the project. I think everyone will agree that the results are stunning, and it was a joy to be able to work with such iconic music (including some of my personal favourites), providing a new fresh surround sound to these classic tracks.

I am very excited to tell everyone that we’ve just announced Alpha Protocol™; a thrilling new espionage role-playing game set in the modern world. Alpha Protocol™ is developed by the globally revered and genre defining development studio, Obsidian Entertainment, known for smash hits such as Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and Neverwinter Nights 2. This exciting new game will set the world alight on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Windows-based PCs in 2009.

Here’s some bits from the press release:

“Alpha Protocol blends Obsidian’s knack for intricate stories, engrossing characters, and significant character advancement with fast-paced modern combat,” said Feargus Urquhart, CEO of Obsidian Entertainment. “Alpha Protocol embraces everything we enjoy about making RPGs from a fresh perspective. We are confident our talented staff at Obsidian will enable us to deliver this exciting RPG experience.”

Loyalty carries a price and no one knows this more than agent Michael Thorton. A talented young agent cast out by his government, Thorton is the only one with the information needed to stop an impending international catastrophe. To do so means he must cut himself off from the very people he is sworn to protect. As players determine how to accomplish different objectives, the decisions made and actions taken in each mission will ultimately transform the type of secret agent Michael Thorton will become. Every choice the player makes as Michael Thorton will carry consequences for his future and the fate of the world.

“Working with Obsidian Entertainment on a project of this stature is incredibly exciting for SEGA. We have one of the best independent developers working on what will be one of the definitive games of 2009,” stated Gary Knight, European Marketing Director, SEGA Europe Ltd. “With innovative RPG action and an incredible interactive storyline to match the very best spy-thrillers, Alpha Protocol delivers a heart thumping high definition experience.”

We are please to announce that two chilling Condemned 2™ Theme Packs and five Picture Packs are available via the Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft®. Developed by Monolith Productions, the geniuses of spine-chilling video games, Condemned 2 is the next chapter in the award winning and critically acclaimed Condemned™ series. The two Theme Packs, “Fight Club Theme” & “Characters Theme” are full of beautifully grim artwork to use as wallpapers, whilst the Picture Packs feature similarly gruesome imagery. The Theme Packs are available for 150 Microsoft Points each, and the Picture Packs for 120 Microsoft Points each.

Condemned 2 thrusts players into the worn boots of Ethan Thomas, the former Serial Crimes Unit investigator, found drifting aimlessly through a society in inexplicable decline. Fighting inner demons throughout his one-man investigation into a sinister conspiracy, Ethan will need to use anything and everything in the environment to survive as he unravels the mysteries shrouding the city in darkness.

Condemned 2 is set for release across Europe on April 4th, 2008 for the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.

It’s Marvel time once again!

Not only do we have Iron Man heading your way, but later in the year of course we have The Incredible Hulk which is again tying in with a film release from our friends at Paramount. 

Speaking of the film, an exclusive to msn trailer for said film went online not long ago, you can check it out here: http://video.msn.com/video.aspx/?mkt=en-gb&vid=9e40dad6-3281-4b65-adb8-3fa052e71c66&playlist=videoByTag:tag:movies_summerblockbusters:ns:Gallery:mk:en-gb:vs:1&tab=m1205317754712&wa=wsignin1.0

We’ll be hitting you with various Hulk stuff soon, so keep a green eye out for those.

Hi guys,

Welcome to our third Viking: Battle for Asgard Q&A. Keep your questions coming on our official forum!

Q. When can we expect the next update about this game?

A. Right now!

Q. Any news on when the official site will be up?

A. The official Viking: Battle For Asgard website is now online. If you are over 18 years old, visit www.sega.com/viking to check it out!

Q. Couldn’t help but notice that Skarin’s hairstyle seems to have changed slightly in the vids and pics. Is that simply a redesign of the character, or will he sport different looks through the game?

A. Some of the screenshots were taken early during the game’s development. As such, our artists were still finalizing Skarin’s look. With the entire mortal realm of Midgard to save, Skarin has little time to experiment with other hairstyles during the game.

Q. Speaking of looks; Is it futile to give my idea of what Skarin’s sword should look like? ‘Cause I mean ok, I don’t mind that he uses a hand-and-a-half sword, but it doesn’t really look *Viking* enough.

A. Skarin’s is no ordinary sword, and can be upgraded to harness powerful magical abilities. While Norse weaponry of the period was certainly referenced, we wanted to give our Viking Champion a unique sword from which to battle the undead Legion forces.

Q. Is this planned to be just a single game, like Spartan was, or will it have sequels?

A. We really enjoyed developing Viking: Battle For Asgard and are currently considering our options…

Q. Oh, and will Hel appear as in the mythology? Right side of her a beautiful woman, and left side a rotting corpse? Didn’t look like it in the trailer (if indeed that was Hel), but it COULD have changed…. just like Skarin’s haircut, hah.

A. Hel does indeed have a bit of a nasty skin condition. If you have seen the concept art, her legs looks like they are well past their sell-by date! There have been many different interpretations of how Hel looks in Norse mythology, and I believe ours captures her outward beauty and inner decay rather well.

Q. Why did the developers go for a more muscled and less dressed Viking style for Skarin whereas how much muscles he has wouldn’t actually save him in the cold frozen north (does he migrate in the winter?)

A. Between 7-55% of a person’s total body heat is lost through the head, dependent on their cardiac output. Killing undead Legion hordes and traversing islands over a kilometre square is tiring work. Therefore Skarin’s long hair and well-covered lower torso are enough to regulate his temperature to a suitable level.

Q. I have a question; will Viking Battle for Asgard have a good Composer?

A. Viking: Battle For Asgard’s musical score is by Richard Beddow, Walter Mair, and Simon Ravn (and they are all very good!). It was performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus Recording Studio.

Q. And the most important question; since we’re talking about Vikings here. Will Skarin have the ability to go berserk?

A. When Skarin performs quick attacks, he is rewarded with rage crystals that can be spent on more powerful attacks. Many additional moves can also be learnt from your ancestors in the training arena, including a powerful combo attack that allows you to target several enemies in quick succession.

For further information, be sure to add Viking: Battle of Asgard as a friend on MySpace and join our Facebook group!

Thanks,

Mark O’Connell

Everyone has been very busy this last month as the fiscal year comes to an end, as such we’re all stressed out and a good gaming session is exactly what the doctor ordered.  Here’s what we’ve been relieving the tension with.

ArchangelUK

The Orange Box (X360)
I finally spent money on the game and have already worked my way through it pretty convincingly, sorting out the majority of the achievements.  Yes, even finding all the lambda caches! Achievements are kind of my thing at the moment it has to be said as I try and catch up my senior team members with their massive gamerscores.  Now if only I had broadband so I could get the online ones!  HL2 Episode 1 has irked me a little, as the bridges in the Citadel core broke and didn’t move when they should have, leaving me stranded and screwing up my “One Bullet” run.  I’ve just spent £50 on items from the valve store, so while I sip water from my Aperture Science mug and listen to the soundtrack I can think of the joys of Portal and how I am SO not getting the Neighbourhood Watch achievement on Episode Two.

Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games (DS)
Well it IS my game after all, so with all the demoing and sorting out of things I was bound to have played it more than once or twice.  Hopefully my DS will appear soon so I can go back to reducing my 100m time.

SD! Vs Raw 2008 (X360)
It came with the console deal, and hey I like wrestling - its like a soap opera without the misery and people asking telling their daughters to eat up their chips.  SD! Vs Raw 08 is a hideously flawed game in places (Do you want to relinquish your title? No. You have relinquished your title!) but again its rather good on the achievement points.

SEGA Superstars Tennis (Wii)
Its an early build the version I have alas, but I’ve been enjoying it far too much to care.

Forza Motorsport 2 (X360)
Another bundled title. my driving may be awful but I’m racking up the wins at least.

Mark OC

I have spent most of my time recently travelling around Europe and playing Viking: Battle For Asgard (out on 28th March!). I have also found a little time to play Super Mario Sunshine, Guitar Hero 3, Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (DS), Call of Duty 4 and also revisited an old favourite - Crackdown.

El Magnifico

Football Manager Live has been my main vehicle of play this past month, purely through commitment to work and for research purposes, of course. It remains my ultimate life goal to leave Dynamo Dave FC in a state of financial ruin and see Electronic Hearts as the dominant club at SEGA. Other than that, I’ve been keeping my consoles warm with the following:

Outrun 2 SP
Still awesome at capturing a sense of serious speed, and the drift is enormously satisfying. A killer soundtrack, too.

Ghost Squad
The thinking man’s mindless shooting game.

Professor Leyton and the Curious Village
This is my way of salvaging grey matter after bringing out my savage side on Ghost Squad. A very satisfying puzzler. 

Dave K

I went all retro this month digging out my old Atari ST and sampling some Football Management classic. The original Football Manager got an hour of my time, before I bored of this and moved onto the challenge of guiding England to glory on Tracksuit Manager.

As ever, Football Manager Live & Pro Evo made up my staple gaming diet for February. But, I did manage to squeeze in a little Mario & Sonic on the Wii.

The Big Cheese

Trying to improve my team’s ranking in Football Manager Live BETA, I’ve got a warchest of £2M for the start of the new season and I’m trying to pick up a bargain from my shortlist.
 
Other than that, PS2 Katamari has been revisited, not only for the fantastic gameplay but also for the funky songs. I’ve collected further stars on Super Mario Galaxy, been shooting like a loon on the PS3 version of The Club and been building an empire on Civ 4.
 
Final Fantasy Tactics on the PSP is making those long train journey’s whizz by, Cooking Mama 2 and Mario and Sonic DS are also complimenting the handheld fun.