Bodycount - "What's that?" we hear you say. It's our brand new upcoming FPS designed by Stuart Black.
Snippet from the press release:
"Ripping apart the FPS in an orgy of bullets and destruction, Bodycount™ is the new game in production at Codemasters Studios Guildford.
Designed by Creative Director Stuart Black (co-creator and designer of Black, 2006), Bodycount is being created for the Xbox 360® and PlayStation®3 and scheduled for release early next year.
In Bodycount you become ensnared in a clandestine global power struggle as a powerful combat asset with a green-light to eliminate enemies known only as ‘Targets’ on behalf of the ‘Network’. Equipped with a mouth-watering selection of contemporary weapons, you and opponents tear through destructible cover to execute explosive kills in a shreddable world where operatives are encouraged to leave no witnesses. Complimented by online multiplayer and co-operative game modes, Bodycount will blast outrageous action and spectacular fire-fights from both barrels.
“We’re all massive FPS fans,” said Stuart Black, Creative Director on Bodycount “and believe that there’s room for a refresh of the shooter experience. If Race Driver: GRID™ was all about the purity of racing, then everything in Bodycount is absolutely centred on the bullet and its impact on the world. Our shredding tech enables us to create a different kind of gameplay, where players and AI can’t hide behind indestructible cover and rely on whack-a-mole mechanics. Here the environment is constantly changing as the game world is shot to hell; it’s going to be a huge amount of fun.”
Intrigued? Want to know more? Then head on over to either of the following channels to stay abreast of the latest Bodycount news.
Bodycount Facebook page
Follow @bodycountgame on Twitter
Visit the website
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Bodycount revealed!
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Oxford – City of Science and Fantasy
A while I go I ventured on a short trip to the famous city of Oxford. I knew that it was renowned for its university and colleges and I was expecting to see a lot of stunning works of architecture.
So I packed my camera and went there without having a plan where to go. I like to discover new places on my own without a guide that limits what I discover to the main attractions.
I managed to find the city centre fairly easily and immediately left the crowded square in front of Carfax Tower to stroll down St. Aldate’s Street.
This street leads from Oxford city centre towards the south and out of the city. Remarkable buildings on this street are the Town Hall, which includes the Museum of Oxford, Christ Church and Pembroke College which you can see in the picture below.
I wouldn’t be a community liaison officer for LOTRO if I didn’t know that J.R.R. Tolkien used to be a fellow of Pembroke College in his role as Professor of Anglo-Saxon in Oxford.
In fact, Tolkien has been a regular guest at many other places in Oxford. After walking down the length of High Street, which led me from the city centre towards the east of town, I dared to take a peek into one of the narrow alleyways. Who would have thought that such an impressive building as the Radcliffe Camera would be hidden there?!
It is a large circular building with a lofty dome, which was built by James Gibbs between 1737 and 1749 and was designed to house a library endowed by Radcliffe. The building is the earliest example of a circular library in England.
The Radcliffe Camera also has a special connection to Tolkien as he once remarked that it resembles Sauron's temple to Morgoth on Númenor. Curious, I looked up the description to said temple: it is described as a circular building with a huge silver-clad dome. The walls were 500 feet in height and 50 feet in width at the base. Yes, that sounds a lot like what we are looking at in this picture!
The area around the Radcliffe Camera is dominated by college buildings which transfer you into another time when people would have been smoking pipes instead of cigarettes. I wondered how it would feel to be a student here. The intense learning atmosphere must certainly have a positive influence on one’s studies. I walked down the length of All Souls College and turned left where I reached the next building which played an important role in Tolkien’s past: Exeter College. Here, Tolkien studied the Classics, Old English, the Germanic languages (especially Gothic), Welsh and Finnish in his early days as an academic from 1911 to 1913.
Attached to Exeter College are the buildings of the “Museum of the History of Science” also known as “The Ashmolean Museum”. It is the world's first university museum. Its first building was constructed in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities Elias Ashmole gave Oxford University in 1677. Here, Tolkien spent two years working on the Oxford English Dictionary from 1918 to 1920.
I like this picture although it is a bit blurry due to the fading daylight. It looks like the statue on top of the right building is playing a song to the building on the left.
At this point I decided to end my tour through Oxford (it was getting very cold) but I will definitely come back because there are many more places to discover which have a most interesting history.
If you ever come near Oxford you should definitely take your time to go for a walk through the streets and alleyways in the city centre!
Thursday, 11 February 2010
I thought he never said anything…
This was in my inbox this morning.
Look, Gordon, I know Valve are taking their sweet time making episode 3, but it’s sad to see you reduced to this to make ends meet.
And what would Alyx think of the “Dr. Love” moniker?
Is your computer safe?
It is, if you’re using the Disapprov-O-Tron™ Computer Security System! Just one withering glare sends hackers away whimpering about their pathetic life choices!
From Cute Overload :)
Friday, 29 January 2010
A discussion on rhythm gaming, part 3: “And, In The End...”
It’s sad when you can see that a genre you really love is now on the downward curve of popularity. The public’s taste waxes and wanes and it seems pretty clear that we’re now moving into that phase with rhythm-action games. 
LEGO Rock Band: genius cross-marketing, witty self-parody, or desperate cash-grab?
Every game shop in the country seems ankle-deep in The Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition bundles, Band Hero bundles, and copies of DJ Hero. Rhythm gaming’s big grab for the mainstream (through targeting the older generation, younger females and people just plain not into guitar music) looks like being categorised as a failure.
As to what the future holds for this genre, I don’t think it’s going to die off completely – there’s a huge installed user base of equipment out there, even allowing for some reliability issues with drum kits (from both manufacturers). But I do think we’ll see a lot fewer boxed releases. There can’t be many potential converts out there who don’t now have the peripherals. Coming back to my parents, they may have loved the game, (and like the idea of having it as a regular activity for the times the whole family get together) but even though they own a Wii, they don’t really want the game. As real (well, folk) musicians they have enough instruments littering the house already.
Personally I will probably always love the guitar games, as I think that they’re a fascinating way to experience music. I well remember being taught about the connections between Blues, pop, and rock when I was still at school, but playing the first Guitar hero really made that connection show (part of this is that great set list the first game had) that a game could make a combination of buttons recognisably “bluesy”, and show that Classic heavy metal is just blues played very fast and very loud was a great moment. I already knew that, but Guitar Hero made me understand because, even though it was in the crudest way, I was feeling the connection through the movement of my fingers on the "fretboard". This was educational gaming in a great sense. You’re forced to pay attention to the music, listen to every note, the structure, and the interweaving parts. This was, apparently, one of the things that convinced the surviving Beatles and the widows of the dead ones to allow their game to go ahead. (Though I’m sure the money helped.). There’s a bit in the bass line of Taxman where Paul seems to just go full-on Bootsy-Collins mental for a few bars before the solo that I’d previously not noticed, despite listening to the song countless times. It almost doesn’t count as gaming. I’m not in it so much for the challenge as just engaging with the music. 
The end of a world-changing career. Except it actually wasn’t and they recorded Abbey Road after this. But the "Let it Be" film was released after that. It’s a bit confusing, really.
The test is going to be the next console transition. If the new generation of consoles is not backwardly compatible with all our guitars, drumkits and so on, then will there be the willingness for everyone to re-invest in new fake plastic instruments? The publishers (thankfully) allowed for cross-compatibility between games and drum kits in this generation, but generational cross-compatibility is in the gift of the platform holders and sometimes they do, and sometimes, they don’t… if consoles are backwardly compatible, will the huge amount of DLC that the Rock Band Business model depends on persist? (This touches on a wider issue here about the ephemeral nature of digital game purchases – if, for instance, steam were to go out of business, what would happen to games you’d bought from it?)
I should finish this article by adding the standard disclaimer. Yes, I did get a real guitar and found that I have little or no talent for doing the real thing. It amused me once when the sadly departed–from-these-walls Deum once introduced me to a new starter and said, “Oh, Rich is a guitarist as well”. I may be many things “Father”, “Writer”, “Editor”, “Gamer”, but “guitarist”… no. I am a man who owns a guitar. I can bash out a basic blues riff, but nothing beyond that. It mostly sits in the corner of my living room, looking very pretty (it’s a butterscotch-coloured Telecaster clone, black pickguard, dark fretboard) and mocking me for my lack of talent and application as I fire up Beatles and have another crack at Gold-starring Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It might even be gently weeping while I do it.
So, is this the end for rhythm action games, or is this a hiccup due to recessionary trends?
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Plus d’images du projet « Sur les traces de J.R.R Tolkien » désormais disponibles sur Flickr
Si vous avez aimé les 2 premiers articles de notre projet « Sur les traces de J.R.R Tolkien », vous pouvez désormais voir plus d’images sur les endroits visités.
Pour les curieux parmi vous, nous avons mis en ligne une série d’images de notre visite de Warwick et de son Château, sur la chaîne Codemasters du site Flickr. Bon visionnage !
Weitere Bilder von der Tolkien Tour jetzt auf Flickr
Für alle die Neugierigen unter euch haben wir nun einige Bilder unserer Tour nach Warwick und zum Schloss von Warwick im Codemasters Flickr-Kanal hochgeladen. Viel Spaß beim Ansehen !
More Pictures From The Tolkien Tour Now On Flickr
If you enjoyed reading the first two articles in our Tolkien Tour series you might want to see a bit more of the places we visited.
For the curious among you we have uploaded a bunch of pictures from our tour to Warwick and Warwick Castle to the Codemasters Flickr Channel. Enjoy!
Monday, 25 January 2010
I got DJ Hero as a Christmas present and I’m kind of in two minds about it. It’s certainly fun, though the music doesn’t really hook me in. There’s also the issue that I’ve achieved a pretty high level of proficiency at playing a fake plastic guitar, and moderate one at playing fake plastic drums and I’m not sure I want to put the hours in getting good at a fake plastic turntable. A lot of it is music I like to listen to, but I don’t really want to emulate performing it.
That’s a nice hat.
The Roster of real DJ endorsements is long and respectable, though there are a few I’ve never heard of.
As an aside, it was amusing to have a game include DJ Jazzy Jeff as a “Serious DJ” as, (and I will admit to not being familiar with the entirety of his work) in my mind, he’ll always exist in a permanent state of being thrown out of the Banks house by Uncle Phil*. His set list in the game is pretty good, though. 
DJ Shadow, another of the many real-life DJs who endorsed the game
I think one of the reasons the game hasn’t completely grabbed me is that personally this sort of music works best for me from the point of view of the long, epic set (such as Coldcut’s 70 Minutes of Madness). The art of the DJ as DJ Hero celebrates started, in part, from a wish to keep a party going and not stopping to change records. DJ Hero is all 3-minute mashups and it loses that sense of momentum and flow just as it’s getting going.
DJ Hero was actually coded just down the road from us – many of the staff at Freestyle Games are ex-Codies, and they’ve done a really good job with the game. The inevitable sequel has already been confirmed and I hope that they can take the solid base they’ve got and build on it. Arguably the Guitar Hero games only reached maturity with GH2. Of course, the difference here is that between GH1 and GH2 a genre was forming, and now we’re in this declining phase. DJ Hero 2 needs to really shine and establish itself as a genre in its own right if it’s not going to get dragged down with the guitar games.
*The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. That must be getting on for 20 years ago, now I think about it. -shudder-
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