Speaking with the New York Times about its web-based video content portal Crackle.com (it’s not a TV channel, folks), Sony execs ambiguously noted that “an expansion is in the works” for the service on PlayStation Network. Currently, Crackle content is available through PSN in the “Featured Collections” video section, offering some free and some paid programming (as seen above)
We’ve seen a few of the bright and generally welcoming environments of Lego Universe — today, we get a look a few screenshots from the MMO’s Gnarled Forest area. We never would have assumed a game about toy heroes could contain such ominous imagery. Check out the images after the break.
We really hope that Realtime Worlds’ living APB avatar, Josh, is getting paid quite a few duckets, as he’s not only getting the future-punk rocker haircut of an in-game character, but also a septum piercing, not to mention two giant wings tattooed on his back. He’s being called “The Human Avatar,” and, well, he’s a living advertisement. Fans of the game (and generally folks with cruel hearts ) have been voting on various stages of the gentleman’s development over the past few weeks at the project’s official website
Blizzard Entertainment took the stage here at Comic-Con in San Diego to talk about World of Warcraft -inspired merchandise, and when the topic of the WoW movie came up during the Q&A, Vice President of Creative Development Chris Metzen confirmed that though the process has slowed recently, the movie is still happening. Director Sam Raimi is still “very, very passionate” about getting the movie made, but Metzen said that a treatment is still being hammered out.
Atari is finally bringing back its classic Haunted House franchise for a new XBLA, downloadable PC, and Wii (presumably WiiWare) game. For those of you who aren’t ancient, Haunted House is a maze game about a kid exploring a mysterious mansion in order to put an urn back together, hindered both by aggressive ghosts and total inability to see items or exits without lighting a match
We know Dead Space -dev Visceral Games has had its eye on the downloadable space — along with the rest of EA — for some time now with the oft-rumored Jack the Ripper title and something else.
Harmonix’s Dan Teasdale , lead designer for Rock Band 3 , has made the jump to Comic Jumper and ‘ Splosion Man developer Twisted Pixel, where he will begin work on “a ridiculously cool new project.” He is flying to Austin, Texas today to join the team, though we suspect there will be time for Mexican food and Amy’s ice cream somewhere in there. While we assumed the only reason you’d leave a job like that is the sudden onset of deafness, Teasdale offered justification for the decision. In a blog post , he cited a desire to work with a smaller game in order to have more hands-on influence on the creation process
Aside from answering questions about the current state of documentary film and divulging his current love affair with Black Rock Studios’ Split/Second , Eat Sleep Play head David Jaffe is busy bustin’ through speculation about his current game project. “By the way, I WISH we were making a new Twisted Metal
Epic Games and Painkiller dev People Can Fly have finally taken the wraps off Bulletstorm , their FPS collaboration for EA, and it’s looking like a brutal yet beautiful love note to fans of over-the-top action. Epic’s design director Cliff Bleszinski and Bulletstorm producer Tanya Jessen (who also produced Gears of War on PC) flew in to San Francisco last week to debut the game. The duo kicked things off with the above trailer before getting into the nitty-gritty details in a live gameplay demo, with Bleszinski steeling the crowd for what he considers to be “a mix of Burnout , Duke Nukem and Firefly / Serenity .” Bleszinski prefaced the demo by saying that, while still very much into the Gears series, “what really gets me out of bed in the morning is crafting a whole new world” — something that he’s excited to do on this project with the team at People Can Fly in Poland.
Get ready to play around with boys one more time! Ubisoft just announced HAWX 2, presumably one of the two new Tom Clancy games mentioned by an Ubisoft producer late last month.
