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Let's Have A Link Parade: March 4

Longtime game journalist breaks camp, Capcom Talks PC, New Final Fantasy Anime, Guerrilla Thinks About Killzone 2 controls, and more!

If you want to stay up to date on things, you're going to need to move fast. Or you're going to need to spend most of your time sifting through the Internet's dark corners, where even your Google Alerts can't reach.

Or you could just realize that you only care about the top level stuff. If that's the case, here are some things you might want to know.

Activision's been doing some talking to Bloomberg about what it plans to do with its $3 billion in cash. No, it's not going to blow it all at the horse track. No, it's not going to use it to buy me ice cream, either. Activision's looking at the recession-powered valuation drops and seeing opportunities to perhaps acquire some other companies.
“The combination of Activision holding a fair amount of cash and presumably prices being depressed, not only for publicly traded companies, but also likely for new intellectual property licensing rights, should certainly create opportunities,” Mike Griffith said yesterday in an interview in San Francisco.
...hey, I hear Midway might have a couple of things they want to sell. Think Activision could end up with Mortal Kombat in its sizable stable? Activision never really seemed like a fighting game kind of company to me, but MK's a big franchise, and we all know how much Activision loves franchises. An annual fighting game installment would probably burn out the market...  so they'd have to put it on a Call of Duty two-year cycle with the core fighting team doing a game every two years with some sort of Shaolin Monks-like offshoot to run in the off years. OK, now I'm just speculating on top of speculating. Let's move on.

J'Gai Allard, relaxing at home.
J'Gai Allard, relaxing at home.
Newsweek's N'Gai Croal will, as of this Friday, be N'Gai Croal's N'Gai Croal. He's getting out of the game journalism biz to pursue a career as a consultant. Gamasutra's Leigh Alexander has an interview with Croal in which he talks about what he hopes his new role will entail and reflects upon his past work. This might be a spoiler, but the article he cites as one of his favorites happens to be one of my favorite Croal pieces, as well! Either way, we congratulate Croal on his escape.

I distinctly remember seeing N'Gai's exclusive Killzone 2 hands-on coming out shortly after E3 2007 and thinking about how crazy it was that the enthusiast media, with all its emphasis on securing exclusives at any cost, was suddenly competing with the mainstream media for yet another style of content. Though it didn't lead to screenshots of games showing up on the front page of the New York Times or anything like that, it was definitely a moment that made me feel like the mainstream acceptance of gaming (and games coverage) was on the rise.

If you have something to say about Killzone 2's control, say it to their face.
If you have something to say about Killzone 2's control, say it to their face.
Speaking of Killzone 2, Seb Downie of Guerrilla Games dropped in on Sony's message boards to state that they're investigating all the whining that people are doing about KZ2's controls. My response probably would have been a bit more like "you are all soft." I mean, hey, I like Call of Duty 4's control scheme, but that doesn't mean that every single first-person shooter needs to play exactly like that.

QuakeCon registration opens on Friday at 6:30PM Pacific time. The actual thing itself goes down in mid-August.

MCV reports that Square Enix and Eidos have agreed to buyout terms. Shareholders are expected to approve this month and the deal should close by May 6. Do you think that the Eidos name will live on as a brand once this goes through? Seems like they might not need to say Eidos when they can just say "Square Enix."

Capcom's Christian Svensson spoke with Rock Paper Shotgun about PC gaming and how important digital distribution is for games on that platform. While I don't mind going to stores for console games, buying physical PC games just seems totally backwards to me these days. I can't quite express why I feel that way. Might just be an unhealthy love of Steam (which is weird in its own way since I'm not exactly a huge fan of Valve's games, either).

Anime Vice has a bit up about a new Final Fantasy VII OVA. Then I had to go look up "OVA" to remember exactly what it means. It means "animated movie," I think. It's going to be called Final Fantasy VII: Episode Denzel: On the Way to a Smile. In it, Denzel enters a virtual world and fights Cid 6.7, who isobviously played by Russell Crowe. Man, they should just make a Virtuosity anime instead.

And this video that Legend posted in the forums is kind of the greatest thing ever made as of 12:40PM on March 4.

  

Jeff Gerstmann on Google+

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jeff

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Edited By jeff
If you want to stay up to date on things, you're going to need to move fast. Or you're going to need to spend most of your time sifting through the Internet's dark corners, where even your Google Alerts can't reach.

Or you could just realize that you only care about the top level stuff. If that's the case, here are some things you might want to know.

Activision's been doing some talking to Bloomberg about what it plans to do with its $3 billion in cash. No, it's not going to blow it all at the horse track. No, it's not going to use it to buy me ice cream, either. Activision's looking at the recession-powered valuation drops and seeing opportunities to perhaps acquire some other companies.
“The combination of Activision holding a fair amount of cash and presumably prices being depressed, not only for publicly traded companies, but also likely for new intellectual property licensing rights, should certainly create opportunities,” Mike Griffith said yesterday in an interview in San Francisco.
...hey, I hear Midway might have a couple of things they want to sell. Think Activision could end up with Mortal Kombat in its sizable stable? Activision never really seemed like a fighting game kind of company to me, but MK's a big franchise, and we all know how much Activision loves franchises. An annual fighting game installment would probably burn out the market...  so they'd have to put it on a Call of Duty two-year cycle with the core fighting team doing a game every two years with some sort of Shaolin Monks-like offshoot to run in the off years. OK, now I'm just speculating on top of speculating. Let's move on.

J'Gai Allard, relaxing at home.
J'Gai Allard, relaxing at home.
Newsweek's N'Gai Croal will, as of this Friday, be N'Gai Croal's N'Gai Croal. He's getting out of the game journalism biz to pursue a career as a consultant. Gamasutra's Leigh Alexander has an interview with Croal in which he talks about what he hopes his new role will entail and reflects upon his past work. This might be a spoiler, but the article he cites as one of his favorites happens to be one of my favorite Croal pieces, as well! Either way, we congratulate Croal on his escape.

I distinctly remember seeing N'Gai's exclusive Killzone 2 hands-on coming out shortly after E3 2007 and thinking about how crazy it was that the enthusiast media, with all its emphasis on securing exclusives at any cost, was suddenly competing with the mainstream media for yet another style of content. Though it didn't lead to screenshots of games showing up on the front page of the New York Times or anything like that, it was definitely a moment that made me feel like the mainstream acceptance of gaming (and games coverage) was on the rise.

If you have something to say about Killzone 2's control, say it to their face.
If you have something to say about Killzone 2's control, say it to their face.
Speaking of Killzone 2, Seb Downie of Guerrilla Games dropped in on Sony's message boards to state that they're investigating all the whining that people are doing about KZ2's controls. My response probably would have been a bit more like "you are all soft." I mean, hey, I like Call of Duty 4's control scheme, but that doesn't mean that every single first-person shooter needs to play exactly like that.

QuakeCon registration opens on Friday at 6:30PM Pacific time. The actual thing itself goes down in mid-August.

MCV reports that Square Enix and Eidos have agreed to buyout terms. Shareholders are expected to approve this month and the deal should close by May 6. Do you think that the Eidos name will live on as a brand once this goes through? Seems like they might not need to say Eidos when they can just say "Square Enix."

Capcom's Christian Svensson spoke with Rock Paper Shotgun about PC gaming and how important digital distribution is for games on that platform. While I don't mind going to stores for console games, buying physical PC games just seems totally backwards to me these days. I can't quite express why I feel that way. Might just be an unhealthy love of Steam (which is weird in its own way since I'm not exactly a huge fan of Valve's games, either).

Anime Vice has a bit up about a new Final Fantasy VII OVA. Then I had to go look up "OVA" to remember exactly what it means. It means "animated movie," I think. It's going to be called Final Fantasy VII: Episode Denzel: On the Way to a Smile. In it, Denzel enters a virtual world and fights Cid 6.7, who isobviously played by Russell Crowe. Man, they should just make a Virtuosity anime instead.

And this video that Legend posted in the forums is kind of the greatest thing ever made as of 12:40PM on March 4.

  

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Legend

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Edited By Legend

That video is insane.

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Jeffsekai

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Edited By Jeffsekai

boobs

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LiveOrDie1212

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Edited By LiveOrDie1212

they better fuckin keep the control scheme for KZ2 as it is or i'll be very dissapointed if they decide to change it.

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LordAndrew

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Edited By LordAndrew

Where did you get that "J'Gai Allard" picture?

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Lashe

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Edited By Lashe

They could go all SNK vs Capcom (vs Marvel vs DC vs MK...) and shut people up by just creating a CoD groove.

Its never going to happen, and it shouldn't. The controls are nice, I didn't honestly feel uncomfortable with them after 5-10 mins.

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dudacles

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Edited By dudacles

That video...

Video...

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tekmojo

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Edited By tekmojo

All I want in KZ2 is the ability to map controls to my own personal preferences. Is there a law that says I have to use the default settings? I'd hope not.

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FCKSNAP

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Edited By FCKSNAP
OVA = Straight-to-Video
...or Orignal Video Animation if you wanna split hairs
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Edited By Cheapoz

KZ2 - Video game publisher bowing to public pressure for whiny internet users about their game? Never!

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LiveOrDie1212

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Edited By LiveOrDie1212

they better fuckin keep the control scheme and feel for KZ2 as it is or i'll be very dissapointed if they decide to change it.

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Reale

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Edited By Reale

kings of power is old, watch pirate baby too... thought you would all be up to date with cool vids like that

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OmegaPirate

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Edited By OmegaPirate

Thaat video is by far the most disturbiong thing i have ever seen in my life - im honestly speechless 0_o

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8xBiT

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Edited By 8xBiT

That video was too awesome and was well worth the 12 or so minutes.

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Kowalski

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Edited By Kowalski

That video was crazy. I love 2d, love it.


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lordofultima

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Edited By lordofultima

I feel like my life is complete after seeing that video. Yes, it all makes sense.

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darthincredible25

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A trip indeed!

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Cerza

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Edited By Cerza

That video is just....wow...wow...wow...

As far as the Killzone 2 controls go, I hope they either A: give us more options, as in real options, because right now there is really only one option for controls, or let us map the commands to whatever button we feel like. You know, like they let you do on PC....oh right we are on console...

Or B: remap them to Call of Duty standard that makes sense and everyone is used to using, because while the controls for the game aren't horrible they aren't all that great either...

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MasterHiggins

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Edited By MasterHiggins

Paul Robertson is a beast.

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KnightsofRound

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Edited By KnightsofRound

That video is just... wow.  I don't even know what to say but that was fucking amazing.

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dvorak

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Edited By dvorak

That video, holy shit.

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BrickRoad

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Edited By BrickRoad

Finally, someone uploaded a video walkthrough of how to complete Kings Of Power 4 Billion %! I kept messing up on the bit where everyone dies.

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LaszloKovacs

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Edited By LaszloKovacs

I didn't really have a problem with the way KZ2 controls... I kind of hope they keep it as-is.

Also if you're a fan of Kings of Power etc etc you should really keep up with the dude's blog:
http://probertson.livejournal.com/
Weird, awesome shit.

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Lilarcor

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Edited By Lilarcor

Anything Activision buys as a result of this economic slump is just another franchise for them to drive into the ground. Hopefully they don't get their hands on anything good.

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Kohe321

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Edited By Kohe321

That video was weird and awesome at the same time!

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Edited By Soap
Lilarcor said:
"Anything Activision buys as a result of this economic slump is just another franchise for them to drive into the ground. Hopefully they don't get their hands on anything good."
I believe the term is "current economic down turn" :P
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TatoBins

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Edited By TatoBins

what the hell did I just watch?

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RipTheVeins

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Edited By RipTheVeins

that video was everything right with the world...gore, happiness, awesome music, Japan, and the fact that it's a 12 minute sex metaphor....I can die now.

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AllanIceman

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Edited By AllanIceman

Face.......... melting........... video..........................

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Zebadee

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Edited By Zebadee

Wha..w...what did I just watch?

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MrKlorox

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Edited By MrKlorox

That video was pretty cool. Didn't like the music at first, but it the got cooler. Surprised and satisfied with the ending.

Fucking crucifixes......

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haethos

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Edited By haethos

Can we stop whining about control schemes already? The complaints about Killzone 2's controls mean nothing to me because it is it's own game, not a clone of CoD4. If you want CoD4 controls, go play CoD4. A similar storm of complaints is hovering over RE5; so it doesn't feel like Dead Space or l4d, get over it. If every game had the same control scheme, we'd only need one game/engine.

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c1337us

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Edited By c1337us

The video is kind of cool I guess. I wouldnt mind it if there was a feature in Killzone to the map the controls to the buttons of your choice. I dont think they need to come up with some alternatives.

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PicklesOnParade

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Edited By PicklesOnParade

Somebody give those dudes a million bucks and get them makin games!

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Dauragon

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Edited By Dauragon

Oh yeah Kings of Power 4 billion % is amazing! Paul Roberson is CRAZY

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Edited By mracoon

That video left me speechless.

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Edited By DukeTogo

While I think N'gai was a good panel member on Bonus Round and is a very talented columnist, his game cred was always a bit low.  He was outed by admitting his first video game console was the PS2, and while one could argue that having a common disconnect with the "core" gamers as his readers (casuals) would is a good way of connecting to his audience, it makes the folks like me who remember buying a 2600 at Sears feel like he's just some youngster that really can't comment on gaming being so new to them.

Then there's the whole "RE5 is racist" story he single-handedly created.  I hate to say it but it feels like he took a page from Rev. Jesse Jackson's playbook on playing the race card.  Calling RE5 racist based on one trailer that showed nothing but a RE game set in Africa just looked like a great way to get himself noticed.  I'll admit I never heard of him until that story and it got him attention all over the interwebs.  And now it looks like it got him what he wanted, the official unofficial go-to person to see if a game is racist.  Bravo.

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Dalai

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Edited By Dalai

I watched about 3 minutes of that video until I had to stop to clear my head.  I'll finish watching it eventually.

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ArbitraryWater

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Edited By ArbitraryWater

That video is the most seizure inducing thing I have seen in the history of ever. And If it doesn't give you a seizure then it will make your head explode.

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Edited By Dots

That video was so awesome that I need to get some sleep... That was exhausting...

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clarke0

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Edited By clarke0

That video... I don't think anything I will ever watch will match up to that level of insanity.

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JackiJinx

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Edited By JackiJinx

...what just happened in that video?! D=

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FlipperDesert

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Edited By FlipperDesert

Damn, I'm so tired I just drifted-off and had a dream where i was watching this crazy video made out of 2D... Wait.

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hawkeye

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Edited By hawkeye

Don't underestimate the power of THE NEW ULTIMATE JESUS!!!

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modous

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Edited By modous

The video is nice, but nothing compares to his first video Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006

enjoy

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=908674814285543652



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curlyq101

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Edited By curlyq101

That Vid is soooooo Boss!

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Paloc

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Edited By Paloc

Did that seriously just happen or did I finally snap?

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deactivated-6406b1cb85b6d

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With... with, swatsticas carved on their foreheads?

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Hector

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Edited By Hector

Woah....