It’s Halo: Reach news. I mean… that already is pretty exciting, right? The beta’s coming this May and now we have some idea of the newness in the lobby and matchmaking system! Hooray!

In short: a whole lot is new. There’s the whole thing where developers talk about how they listened to gripes and addressed them, and then there’s the whole thing where developers listen to gripes and address them. A whole mess of stuff is updated. Just to quote a few of the many…

Active Roster – This is a throwback to Halo 2. When you boot up Reach, right at the main menu or lobby, you’ll see a list of what your Xbox Live friends are doing within Reach. You’ll get detailed information about any friends playing Reach including who they are partied with, what game they are in (plus score and remaining time), and more. Basically, Bungie wants to make it so that you do not have to utilize the Xbox Live Guide to find out what your buddies are doing in Reach.

Queue-Joining – In Halo 3, it was difficult to join friends that were already playing in a match. You had to wait until they were finished. If you started a game while you waited, they would then have to wait for you. Instead of going back and forth, Reach will support queue-joining. Simply put, Reach will automatically join up as soon as your friends are joinable.

Matchmaking Connection Options – The options for finding games in matchmaking will be more open to the player, if they so choose. If you only ever want to play in games with a good connection, that can be set in the options. If you only ever want to play against players of a similar skill, that can be set. The same goes for finding players that speak to same language.

Arena Playlists – Possibly the largest change coming in Halo: Reach is the Arena. This is a Slayer and Team Slayer set of playlists entirely geared toward the hardcore. If that wasn’t enough, players will be rated and placed into skill divisions in month-long seasons.

The rating system is smart enough to realize that kills aren’t the only determining factor behind skill. This is especially true for team games where assists play a huge roll. Similarly, players that have a greater kill/death ratio (had more kills than deaths) will rank higher than players that die as much as they kill.

There’s quite a few more on the link, such as being able to set priority criteria for the kinds of games players want to get into, from connection quality to game type to a whole slew more.

It’s exciting to see the level of control, but there’s also the lazy bum part of me that is ok with a handful of options to pick from, and then to hop in and go. But it seems like that’s doable too, so I can’t complain too much. No… can’t complain at all, actually.

In case you didn’t know, the game’s coming later this year, the beta’s in May, and Microsoft’s hyping the hell out of it. Basically, if it doesn’t find you your soul mate, you can only be disappointed.

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Frédérick Raynal, the creator of the original Alone in the Dark released back in 1992 while at InfoGrames, is working on a new game set to be released by Ubisoft this year, maybe, it’s been found out.

According to Raynal’s own website which teases the game at the bottom of the page with a chalk board and French texting, “The name of the next game is on the back of the slate.” Clicking on it however only reveals a ”Sorry, it’s not LBA3 [Little Big Adventure 3]!” which could’ve been an expected choice, but evidently isn’t.

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Gamespot, after many years of wrangling with IGN has finally taken a lengthy lead in traffic rankings. Gamespot has now held onto the number 1 Alexa (non-poker) gaming site traffic position for a solid month.

Could this be a sign of quality returning to Gamespot, or just a blackhole of a site consuming everything in its path?

I know there is a lot of hate toward traffic counters like Alexa, and I must admit, Alexa isn’t the most reliable source for traffic stats, but generally, for the top 5,000 sites, it is pretty accurate.

Interested where your favorite gaming site sits? Well be sure to check out the Alexa gaming site statistics here.

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A while back, Tommy Refenes (creator of indie gem Super Meat Boy) put a largely pointless app on the iTunes App Store: Zits & Giggles.  You pop zits, and that’s about all; it’s actually kind of gross.  It hit the store at the boring old app price of 99 cents, sold a few copies, and then the sales inevitably dried up.

Instead of dropping the price to free to re-spark interest (as many app devs are wont to do), Refenes tried something different: he raised the price to $15.  Three people bought it anyway.  So he raised the price to $50, and four more bought it.  And so our tale begins…

Refenes decided to perform a “social experiment:” he would raise the price of the app every time at least one copy is sold.  By the time it hits $300, he’s still selling.  Fourteen people pay $300 for it, and a handful more play $350.  This proves, in Refenes’s own words, “the people who you’re selling to on the App Store are not necessarily gamers,” the App Store “is the Tiger handheld game of this generation” (meaning that licensed drivel sells better than original ideas nine times out of ten), and that he “absolutely f***ing hate(s) the iPhone App Store.”  That last line was delivered at this speech at GDC 2010.  Harsh.

So, what does Apple do?  They pull his app from the store.  He even sold one at $400 on the day it was pulled.  Why?  He didn’t break any rules about inappropriateness, and the price can change at the whim of the developer (Apple gets 30%, so I don’t know what they’re complaining about).  Unable to get a hold of Apple so far, it seems he must resign himself to his fate: Steve Jobs laid the smack down.  Don’t bite the hand that feeds you…

Source: GamaSutra, and Kotaku via Negative Gamer

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Sony’s E3 presence this year will overshadow its recent GDC announcements, SCEA CEO Jack Tretton advertises. Speaking on the latest episode of GTTV, Tretton said that Sony is “bringing the heat” to the summer expo and that there will be surprises; one of which may be Killzone 3.

While shying away from announcing an announcement, Tretton did remind that Guerrilla is owned by Sony, and said that he “can promise you a Killzone 3.”

“We’re gonna keep some stuff up our sleeves,” he said, but that Sony’s E3 will have “a lot of new stuff, believe me.”

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Heavy Rain game director David Cage has already “written the next game” and has “a very clear idea” of where he wants to go next, he told GTTV at the Game Developers Conference last week.

Although he mentioned that it wasn’t finished yet, he did say he wouldn’t “want to do some kind of a sequel, or whatever.”

“It’s going to be very different, I think, it’s going to be very surprising,” Cage added.

But the juicy part was that according to Cage himself, it won’t be kept a secret for too long. The project may be revealed in “less [time] than you think.”

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The size is strong with this one. In a recent interview with VG247, Star Wars: The Old Republic producer Jake Neri stated that there’s no telling how large the forthcoming BioWare MMO could get. As Neri states: “I guess it really depends. We would love to imagine this game lasting for years and years and years, so I don’t know how big it could get. I know that at launch we plan on providing a substantial amount of content; stories, planets, adventures, zones, zones that are ripe for conflict and others that are safer for low level players.”

Neri attributes the game’s unpredictable size to the huge amount of lore and mythology that exists within the Star Wars universe: “One of the things that you hit on, is the fact that there is all this rich lore and so there’s endless possibilities of what we can do, and endless planets that we can go to. I think it’s safe to say that we would love to continue tapping into that as time goes on.”

While he can’t say how large this game is going to be, we do know its targeted release window: spring 2011.

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Heavy Rain is a game that has divided opinions here at Gamer Limit. Some of us think it’s a glorified cutscene with obligatory button presses, others think it’s a welcome change of pace and a great narrative-driven game.

Heavy Rain’s influences are vast; movies like Se7en and Saw are easily spotted. Yet there is one gem of a game that hasn’t been praised for being a visionary of its time, and an obvious influence on Ubisoft’s big PS3 exclusive. I give you: Road Avenger!

Road Avenger (also known as Road Blaster) was an arcade Laserdisc game that brought together cutting edge narrative and fantastic visuals; it really was the Heavy Rain of its day. Ported as a launch title for Sega’s Mega CD system, the game showed what the system was capable of, bringing the excitement of movies to life. Don’t believe me that it rocked? Check out this intro clip, then tell me I’m wrong.

Taking the role of a vigilante seeking vengeance on the biker gang that killed your wife, Road Avenger immediately tugs at the heart strings with its harrowing introductory sequence.  From then on, it is a desperate race to the end of each level, getting ever closer to the boss of the gang and gaining revenge for your fallen loved one.

What really set the game apart from other Laserdisc titles was the sheer choice of movement as your car tore around streets, beaches, shopping malls, and country roads. Not only would the game give you the old steer left and steer right, but brake and turbo were also included to give more variation than previous Laserdisc king Dragon’s Lair could ever dream of.

The fantastically deep chase scenes in Road Avenger are clearly ripped off by Heavy Rain; why the current rights holders, G-Mode of Japan, haven’t sued yet is beyond me. Perhaps a Facebook group would be the way to get the ball rolling and have Ubisoft held accountable for their copyright infringement. Just look at Heavy Rain’s car chase below, then sample a few levels of Road Avenger. See what I mean?

It seems I’m not alone in appreciation of the awesomeness that is Road Avenger. In January this year it was announced that a novel based on the events of the game is set to be released sometime within the next couple of years. The book is being written by Margaret Park and will be published by MMP Publishing.

With a Heavy Rain novel a distinct possibility, it’s great to see Road Avenger getting in there first for the recognition it deserves.  In a recent press release,  Margaret said: “The original concept is ‘Mad Max‘ like, so we’ve decided to make ‘Road Avenger‘ a psychological action drama, which will end up like a cross between ‘Mad Max‘, ‘Ronin‘, and Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Traffic‘. Though we are expanding on a simple plotline, we are straying far from the typical Hollywood attitudes that engulf many fine stories.”

I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean “simple”plot – it was probably a typo. Margaret should know her stuff though, since on the same press release she is described as “an Author and Poet of Psychological and Experimental Fiction Crossover Writings, best described as Stephen King partying with David Lynch in The Twilight Zone”.  I hear King likes to get down, that must’ve been one bad ass party.

Hopefully this has opened your eyes to what now needs to happen; it’s so obvious I can’t believe I didn’t think of it earlier. Road Avenger must be remade by Hideo Kojima for the Playstation 3, as only the cut-scene king himself could do justice to such a visionary title. Also, only the powerful Blu Ray format (just like the Mega CD before it) could house what is sure to be the future of video games.

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Technology is constantly changing. Some being large advances, while others are merely an iteration upon existing technology. Playstation Move is obviously an example of the latter.

Nintendo Wii proved to the world that motion control is more than capable of finding its rightful place in the video game industry. Captivating a new audience in the gaming space is no easy task. And yet, Nintendo’s established audience grows each and every month as the Wii consistently stands tall amongst its peers in sales.

But while Microsoft’s Project Natal is redefining motion control, Sony is iterating upon Nintendo’s success – all in the name of “precision”. Is that enough? Ultimately, does precision really matter?

The Wii MotionPlus was debuted by Nintendo at E3 in 2008. By the end of 2010 there will have been roughly 20 Wii games that actually support this peripheral. A peripheral which was supposed to provide Wii gamers a more accurate level of precision. While still a young addition to the console, it is almost an altogether forgettable device.

Among these roughly 20 titles, 3 actually require the Wii MotionPlus: The Legend of Zelda to be released later this year, Red Steel 2 to be released later this month, and the extraordinarily successful Wii Sports Resort. But let’s be honest, the success of Wii Sports Resort was not because of the precision provided by this 20-dollar peripheral.

Now, I in no way consider myself a fanboy of any console. Writers (or bloggers as the case may be) should never neglect or unfairly favor the resources available to them – especially when it helps give a fair perspective. So, I give credit where credit is due. Nintendo has sparked another space in gaming. That much cannot be denied. And with that, enter Microsoft with Project Natal, and Sony with Playstation Move.

When I say “Microsoft’s Project Natal is redefining motion control”, what I mean by that is that it’s a perfect example of thinking outside of the box. It, from what one can discern, is providing a new experience in the field of motion control entertainment. And for that I can appreciate and understand its place among the “competition” as some may incorrectly call it.

Natal knows what it does best and it advertises itself as such. The great jump in, jump out mechanic that Natal will provide is unmatched in this immature gaming space. No prior knowledge of how a controller works is required. Just jump in and do what makes sense – what feels natural. And how appropriate it is that the promotion that introduced the Xbox 360 was “Jump In”.

After its true, formal introduction at GDC 2010, Sony has made it quite evident that its selling point with Playstation Move is precision. The word precision was used at least a dozen times from Sony during its announcement and demonstration of its newest addition to the Playstation 3. A product that will come in at under $100 and with over 20 games supported by April 2011.

Think about that for a second. Within the first few months of its release, Sony’s Playstation Move will support precision motion control in roughly the same amount of games as the Wii. And of course I use precision in regards to the Wii MotionPlus very loosely as it is not as accurate and precise.

But what does precision give us? Does it make games more fun? The Wii proves that it truly isn’t required to make motion games fun. Does it help immerse us in the experience? Surely it does not when you are still holding devices in your hand. In fact, I would argue that Natal would be a more immersive experience in a majority of games.

OK. So does it help us play specific games in a much more realistic fashion? Undoubtedly. Such games would include sports games, first person shooters, and, with the success of Heavy Rain, story driven games – giving the upper hand of immersion to Sony in this case.

Sports games may be enough for some users, but not a majority. While FPS games with motion control are neat at first, it will always be far less efficient and useful than any controller or mouse. So, knowing that precise motion control gaming is beneficial in such a limited library makes me question why it is the biggest thing Sony is advertising. Ultimately, it doesn’t give enough of a new experience in comparison to what the Wii provides.

While gimmicky, augmented reality may be a more appealing feature to drive home to potential users of the Playstation Move. It would, ironically, perfectly signify how I view motion control gaming in the first place: gimmicky. But, Sony needs something that will differentiate itself from what are ultimately entirely new platforms in and of themselves.

But if precision isn’t it, what does Playstation Move provide that the Nintendo Wii can’t? Augmented reality sure, but is that enough to move the amount of units they want to? When looking at the Nintendo Wii and Playstation Move side by side, I can’t help but see the Nintendo Wii having the upper hand in just about every aspect of motion control gaming.

Is the Playstation Move providing enough for you to warrant a purchase? Maybe it will it do nothing more than make you dust off your Wii. Or perhaps justify that purchase of Nintendo’s little white box you’ve been contemplating for so long.

Precision isn’t it, Sony. Ball is still in your court.

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The Mass Effect universe is about to get a major expansion in the form of a monthly comic book series. Mass Effect Redemption was originally slated as a four-issue miniseries to serve as prequel to the recently released Mass Effect 2. Because of the miniseries’ strong sales however, publisher Dark Horse Comics has opted to create an ongoing monthly series based on the Mass Effect world.

Redemption writers Marc Walters and John Jackson Miller will stay on board.

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