Traveller's Tales Taking LEGO The Lord of the Rings Very Seriously
The LEGO The Lord of the Rings game we will be getting our hands on later this year will be a little different from the past titles. The most obvious change, as evidenced in the trailer, is that every character has their own voice. These are not the little noises in previous games but rather the actual dialog from The Lord of the Rings movies. Traveller's Tales is going all out on LEGO The Lord of the Rings and taking it very seriously, because Traveller's Tales wants to deliver the definitive The Lord of the Rings video game. The dialog is the first step and another is including some light RPG elements in the game. Characters can now carry "story" items in a backpack and can even hold up to eight at once. These items can be used to improve the characters as well, which should prove interesting over the length of the game.
Traveller's Tales has recreated as many of the cinematic shots from the movies as possible in LEGO The Lord of the Rings, though there will of course be a few differences. The game world is not entirely made out of LEGO bricks either, so this should make for an even more stunning LEGO game. The team has even faithfully recreated Tolkien's Middle-Earth map for the game, which allows you to move between areas without a loading screen. There is still a fair bit of humor in LEGO The Lord of the Rings, but even if that was missing this is sounding like the best LEGO game yet.
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Crytek Planning to go Free-to-Play for Future Titles
You do not often see a well-known studio desire to go entirely free-to-play, but that is exactly what Crytek's CEO Cevat Yerli has said. Speaking to VideoGamer.com as E3 wrapped up, Crytek's Cevat Yerli said all future titles from the studo will be free-to-play. These will all be AAA F2P games created by Crytek, which means large budgets ($10 to $30 million) for the best possible quality. Yerli sees premium gaming services and DLC as "milking customers to death" and wants to change what his studio does. Once all current contracts are up, like Crysis 3, Crytek will only focus on F2P games and its new social gaming platform GFACE. Crytek is already at work on free-to-play title Warface, which will be the studio's first F2P title. Yerli believes the future will be online and free-to-play, and it looks like Crytek will be holding the banner.
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Microsoft Says Xbox 360 has More Than Two Years Left
There are people looking ahead to what Microsoft has in store for the Next Xbox and just what kind of graphics it can display, especially because of Unreal Engine 4. Microsoft, on the other hand, does not seem too concerned with the next-generation of consoles, and in fact thinks the Xbox 360 still has "more than two years" left in its life. Microsoft Studios head Phil Spencer says the 360 is the "number one console globally" and can go a lot longer. This goes against analysts predicting the Next Xbox will be launching in short order, but it does not rule anything out completely. Sony still supported the PlayStation 2 after the PS3 had launched, so Microsoft could do the same with the Xbox 360 and its successor. Until we hear actual word on a successor, it looks like the Xbox 360 will be here for at least a couple more years.
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Gossip More Prevalent in Workplaces Than Anticipated
When most people think about gossip they infer some kind of negative communication, but the fact is gossip does not have to be negative and is even a needed part of communication. Gossip is a good source of information about people, without having to actually interact with them, and is common to all people. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology decided to study just how common gossip is in the work place and fortunately there is a good source of information. After the Enron scandal in 2001, some 600,000 emails from within the company were made publicly available for study. The Enron corpus is the largest, publicly available collection of related and natural emails in the world.
The researchers found that roughly 14.7% of the emails were gossip emails. Considering the average corporate email user will send 112 emails every day that is a lot. For those of you who are guilty of gossiping at work though, don't worry, you are in good company because the second most gossipy rank at Enron was occupied by vice-presidents and directors. The most gossipy were the regular rank-and-file office workers.
This study was not done to inform executives about how much their employees gossip though. It was done to improve our knowledge of anthropology and sociology by examining how gossip is used in different social groups. As a means of entertainment, information, intimacy, and influence, gossiping is here to stay.
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RAGE Still Planned as a Large Franchise - No Word on Others
Id Software was talking about RAGE being a new franchise leading up to the game's launch last year, but since then has remained quiet. The studio has not revealed any sales data on RAGE or what the future will hold for it. Bethesda's Pete Hines said the company hopes RAGE can become a big franchise for id, but is otherwise not saying much. Hines did say Bethesda is looking at things to do with RAGE, but when people ask about id Software it is typically concerning the other franchises. DOOM 4 has been asked about for years, but little is known about it. Earlier this year some supposed screenshots of the game leaked right around the time DOOM 4 was said to be canceled, but Bethesda quickly shot down that rumor. We do know the team behind RAGE has been moved to DOOM 4, but other than Hines saying the game is being worked on, that is pretty much all we know.
We also have not heard anything about Prey 2, which also had cancellation rumors fly around. Bethesda yet again shot down those, but Hines said the company is trying to get things worked out with developer Human Head Studios. He did not say anything else other than to say Prey 2 will not arrive this year. The Bethesda website does show Prey 2 as in development, so until something happens, you can be sure it is being worked on.
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