StarTrek: Online makers almost sued.

A lawsuit filed by industry public relations firm Kohnke Communications against former Star Trek Online developer Perpetual Entertainment has reportedly been dismissed in court following a mutual resolution by both parties.

A Kohnke representative confirmed the resolution to consumer site Shacknews, commenting, “The parties have reached an agreement, but we can’t detail any further than that. Part of the agreement was that we would not detail.”

The suit had alleged fraudulent transfer, breach of contract, fraud and other charges, with claimed damages totaling between $80,000 and $280,000, stemming from Kohnke’s claim that it was owed payment for its work promoting the canceled title Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising.

The suit also claimed Perpetual sold the Star Trek Online license to a separate corporate entity, P2 Entertainment, before liquidating its assets, without disclosing details of the transaction to the PR firm.

The resolution comes just after, according to consumer site Kotaku, Perpetual had issued a formal response to the suit, calling the PR firm’s claim “vague, uncertain, ambiguous and unintelligible” and asking a judge to dismiss the case.

Perpetual recently ceased its work on Star Trek Online, whose license and content — excluding the game’s code — will reportedly be transferred to another Bay Area development studio, where work on the game will continue.

As for P2, they maintain a business focus on their Perpetual Platform, and will additionally focus on the casual games market.

[Via Gamasutra]

Bioshock in a nutshell.

I just had to pass this one on to you:

 

eeKnight sums up Bioshock in a nice little paragraph:

I’ll certify that Rapture’s self-destruction had nothing to do with political/economic philosophy and everything to do with nutrition.

I’ve played through five major locations now and my poor character has had nothing to eat but potato chips, cream-filled pastries, and “pep” bars — washed down with vodka, gin, whiskey, wine, beer, and a thermos of coffee now and then.

When your entire population is hung-over and constipated you’ve got to expect some amount of civil disorder. They’re deep under the sea, so everyone’s got year-round Seasonal Affective Disorder from lack of sunlight, and I bet that because of the close conditions all the women had their menstrual cycles sync up.

Even Plato’s Republic will end up with blood on the walls under that kind of stress.

[Via Bohemian Word Werks]

Official release date for Grand Theft Auto IV

Wow, the Devil May Cry 4 demo and the official release date for Grand Theft Auto IV in the same day? What did we do to deserve this? After a delay in late 2007 and the months of speculation that followed, Take Two has finally pinned down the official release date for the game, April 29. We should note that this is the worldwide release date for GTAIV, so gamers the world over can officially start getting excited now. If you’re not excited, then perhaps you should direct your attention to the flood of previews that swept the internet yesterday. Once you’ve reached the proper level of excitement, please read this post again and react accordingly.  [Via Joystiq]

 

[Via Xbox FanBoy]

Age of Conan Delayed.. two classes get the sword.

Yesterday, Funcom announced that the sometimes-highly-anticipated Age of Conan has had its release date pushed back to “polish the game further” due to the “level of bugs.” From all that I have heard, this was a very good decision on Funcom’s part. The amount of bugs plaguing the game, as well as things like class balance have all been mentioned before, and from what a lot of people have been saying, this was another needed delay.

It’s nice seeing developers finally owning up and reaching out when it comes to delaying their games. Director Gaute Godager has a profusely apologetic Letter from the Game Directer posted up over at the site, in which he extols on how much this delay actually was needed, and how they promise to spend the time wisely. He also specifically mentions being upset over the way that their beta schedule hasn’t been met as he wanted. Whether or not that means they expected to have open beta by now, who knows. Hopefully they really do manage to spend that extra 8 weeks wisely, get an open beta out and last minute bugs squashed, and make a worthwhile release.

Also announced at Funcom’s recent gathering for Age of Conan fan sites, was that their class list is getting reduced from 12 to 10, with the Lich class skill set getting rolled in the Necromancer, and the Scion of Set is getting rolled into the Tempest of Set class. As much as I hate seeing developers having to do things such as this with their babies, maybe down the road this will end up as a good thing when it comes to getting the game out the door.

 

[Via MMO-Gamer]

and even more on the Mass Effect Sex Scandal.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, then you know that Fox News recently ran a story on Mass Effect in which the news network labeled the BioWare developed game shows full digital nudity and sex.

As if that wasn’t enough, the report also referred to the Microsoft Xbox 360 as the “‘SE’XBOX” after the discovery of full-blown alien sex scenes in the massive RPG.

Publisher Electronic Arts, however, sent a letter to Fox News Network regarding serious errors in how Mass Effect was portrayed.

In the letter, EA’s vice president of communications Jeff Brown explained that

“Mass Effect does not include explicit or frontal nudity. Love scenes in non-interactive sequences include side and profile shots – a vantage frequently used in many prime-time television shows.”

EA also corrected Fox News’ statement about the game allowing players to have graphic sex, saying such intimate scenes in Mass Effect are not graphic and are very similar to sex sequences frequently seen on network television in prime time.
Brown didn’t fail to mention that Mass Effect is rated Mature by the ESRB, appropriate for players 17-years and older. It is not what Fox News claims to be a game marketed to kids and teenagers.

Also noted were guests in the segment that made similar incorrect statements about the game who apparently “had zero experience with Mass Effect and are largely ignorant about videogames.”

“The resulting coverage was insulting to the men and women who spent years creating a game which is acclaimed by critics for its high creative standards,” said Brown after pointing out all the errors in the report.

He admitted that “as video games continue to take audiences away from television, we expect to see more TV news stories warning parents about the corrupting influence of interactive entertainment.” Still, EA’s communications VP believes Fox News’ misinformed report “represents a new level of recklessness.”
The giant video game publisher EA haven’t made any legal moves against Fox News, and Brown clarified that the letter he sent is not a legal threat. “…it’s an appeal to your sense of fairness. We’re asking FNC to correct the record on Mass Effect,” he said in conclusion.

For those who haven’t seen Fox News’ report that caused all the commotion, a video of it is embedded below. Further down, the “via” link can lead you to the full letter published on Game Informer.  [Via Game Informer]

 

 

[Via QJ]

Turbine talks D&D Online update

Turbine is spilling details on the next update for its MMO Dungeons & Dragons Online in a video developer diary which you can watch via our video player.

The update, Module 6, is due soon and called The 13th Eclipse. It introduces a new landscape littered with devils which adventurers will be fireballing. New monster types are coming too, it’s explained, along with a new five-stage raid that features a new raid boss.

Codemasters, which handles D&D Online here in Europe, recently launched a ten-day free trial of the MMO. You can read more about that here.

Releasing in early 2006, Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach is an MMORPG based on the popular pen and paper role-playing game, adventurers experiencing quest, combat and camaraderie in the Eberron campaign setting.

[Via CVG]