Recently in a blog post from Capcom producer Tomoaki Ayano, a number of Ultra Street Fighter IV-related questions were touched upon in addition to the re-iteration of the absence of "effect taunts." (Say goodbye to a possible Rolento grenade taunt.) Most notably, the lack of support for two very popular franchise characters, Alex and Karin, was brought up. When asked why Alex wasn't added to the Ultra roster (although he is rumored to be), Ayano stated, "Being the main character of Street Fighter 3 and all, Alex sure is popular, isn't he? Having both strong normal attacks and good throws, he certainly seems like he'd be a strong character."
Karin was also mentioned, to which Ayano responded curiously, "She got 1st place in the national popularity poll, didn't she? Personally, there are a lot of character I'd want to add to Ultra Street Fighter 4, but please look forward to further announcements!" While this isn't confirmation, it's nice to see that anything is being considered, and with major fan input being considered for all things Ultra related, a character as popular as Karin could easily make it into the game at some point.
Perhaps he's saving them for an Ultra Street Fighter IV Turbo on PS4 and Xbox One?
Street Fighter IV [Saikyo Blog via Event Hubs]
After more than a decade as CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer has disclosed his plan to retire within the next 12 months. "There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time," he wrote in a message to employees. He'll be out once a replacement is found, and that process has already been initiated.
A committee which includes Bill Gates has been appointed to find Ballmer's successor. "The board is committed to the effective transformation of Microsoft to a successful devices and services company," said board member John Thompson. "As this work continues, we are focused on selecting a new CEO to work with the company's senior leadership team to chart the company's course and execute on it in a highly competitive industry."
I was starting to think Ballmer would never leave Microsoft. It's been time for a while now.
Moving Forward [Microsoft -- Thanks, Captain 'Merica] [Image source]
Making its debut at E3 2013, The Crew is Ubisoft's attempt to create a new and fast-paced racer for the next-gen consoles. Although the publisher has definitely got some stiff competition from other racing titles, what separates it from the rest is its ambitious take on open-world racing with competitive and cooperative gameplay.
While it's currently making the rounds at gamescom, Ubisoft allowed us to take the game for a spin at its San Francisco office. Developed by Ivory Tower, The Crew intends on giving racing fans a nation-sized playground to explore and test their prized vehicles against other players in style.
It doesn't seem to matter what Rare is working on these days. (For the record, currently, it's Kinect Sports Rivals .) If it's not one of the studio's beloved properties, there's going to be pushback from fans who have been waiting years for their return. There's a desire to work on these franchises internally as well, creative director Simon Woodroffe tells OXM.
"We've got an idea for [Perfect Dark]," he said. "It would be controller plus Kinect. We've got ideas for most older Rare IP, you won't be surprised to hear. There's quite a lot of desire to do that, and Viva Pinata, Conker... Banjo's very popular internally, a lot of people want to do stuff with Banjo."
The studio's drive, Woodroffe says, is to give people new types of experiences by leveraging technology in creative ways. "We want to find that thing that nobody's ever done before and make a game out of it. We should be inventing new genres, inventing new ways to play. And this sensor gives us new opportunities to do it, with the fidelity it has now.
"When we launched Kinect obviously there was a big focus on 'everything must be Kinect.' Now it's in the box [with Xbox One], use it where it make sense, don't where it doesn't. It can be used in some really -- not gimmicky ways, which is what I think you'll see a fair amount of -- but ways that actually really enhance the game." A proper Viva Pinata sure would hit the spot, Rare.
Rare: we've got ideas for Kinect in Perfect Dark, Banjo, Viva Pinata [OXM]
It's common knowledge that it's tough to be an indie studio -- especially if you're running a competitive online multiplayer title. Despite the fact that your game may have across-the-board rave reviews, maintaining a community, constantly developing new content, and figuring out ways to monetize is incredibly hard. Ronimo Games is going through that with Awesomenauts right now.
To help Ronimo stay independent, they've launched a Kickstarter that at the time of this writing is doing quite well, nearly breaking $100,000 in just a few days. But the studio has a lot of work to do starting with the PlayStation 4 version of their game -- a version that's now launching with the console, by the way!
Take my review of last year's Madden 13 . Give it a roster update. Associate any players I named who've been swapped around like pogs with whatever their new team is. Axe a missed dangling participle or two. Tighten up the mechanics of writing. Maybe there was a misused em dash. Replace it in a way that is (probably) grammatically correct. Add some flourishes here and there. Some new puns, maybe.
You now have my review of Madden 25.
