E3 2011:Dead Island: Last Chance on the wall gameplay

Over the past year and a half, Electronic Arts has launched a number of initiatives designed at pocketing more money from the games it sells. These programs includeEA Sports’ Online Pass, which erects a pay gate around online modes for those who play the label’s games secondhand, and the digital-download service Origin.

Now, EA Sports has made a move to cut out the middleman altogether. Speaking to Forbes, EA Sports VP of brand marketing Chris Erb said that the publishing label plans to open up its own chain of retail stores. The first EA Sports brick-and-mortar store is expected to open this fall.

“As pervasive as digital is, there’s still an offline component to acquiring new customers that remains important,” Erb said. “Our approach is to be creative and innovative with whatever we’re doing offline and ensure that it connects with our digital strategies. For example, we just started construction on our first North American EA SPORTS retail store, which will open this fall in the Charlotte, NC, airport.”

“It is the first of what we hope to be at least three new retail stores to open in the next year, and it’s a place people will be able to interact and buy their favorite EA SPORTS games,” he continued. “As we look to expand the overall sports game audience, it’s important for us to create environments for people to get their hands on our products and experience how much interactive sports experiences have evolved over the past few years.”

The opening of the first EA Sports store coincides with the launch of some of EA Sports’ biggest brands, including Madden NFL and FIFA Soccer.

(Source: Gamespot)

Nintendo Wii U: Zelda Tech Demo

Epic Games’ websites and forums were recently hacked, the company confirmed in a statement this afternoon. Epic says it expects everything to be restored in “a few days.” 

Forum email addresses and encrypted passwords were “likely” obtained. The Unreal Developer Network was not compromised. 

Below is a statement from Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney: 

Our Epic Games web sites and forums were recently hacked. We’re working on getting them back up and running, and expect everything to be restored in a few days. 

The hackers likely obtained the email addresses and encrypted passwords of forum users. Plain text passwords weren’t revealed, but short or common passwords could be obtained by brute-force attack. Therefore, we’re resetting all passwords. If you have an account on the Epic Games forums, you can request to receive your new password by email it to the address we have on file for you. 

The Unreal Developer Network (UDN) has not been compromised. None of our web sites ask for, or store, credit card information or other sensitive customer data. 

We’re sorry for the inconvenience, and appreciate everyone’s patience as we get our servers back under control. 

(Source: IGN)

The Wii U controller is, in some ways, more of a traditional controller than the Wii Remote. Its button layout is similar to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 controllers, and Nintendo’s own GameCube controller. The biggest difference from other contemporary controllers, besides the giant touch screen, is that the Wii U controller replaces dual analog sticks with dual circle pads, and analog triggers with regular buttons. 

If you want to feel what Nintendo’s Wii U controller is using instead of analog sticks (like the stick found on the Wii Nunchuk), you don’t have to wait for the Wii U to hit stores. Just pick up any old 3DS right now and check out the circle pad on the upper left side. This slider functions on a basic level as an analog input — the further you push it in a direction, the stronger the effect is. 

The thing is, analog sticks work much better than circle pads. There’s less friction and they are more sensitive to slight tilting movements that are so essential for tracking and popping tiny heads in the distance. Most people have been using analog sticks since the Nintendo 64, and so far the Wii Remote’s pointer functionality is the only thing that’s been an acceptable replacement for a stick on consoles (PC gamers have the all-powerful mouse). 

This lack of analog sticks on the Wii U controller is especially unusual since Nintendo popularized the analog stick themselves, deeming it the only way to control Mario in 3D space. The purpose of the circle pad on the 3DS is, ostensibly, to save space. It’s unclear why the sticks fell out of style on the Wii U controller, since there’s plenty of space for sticks — the thing is massive. 

The rear triggers on the Wii U controller are simplified buttons, unlike the sensitive analog triggers you would use to gradually accelerate in any modern driving game on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Again, the 3DS shares similarly lacks analog triggers if you want to check it out. This seems like less of a big deal, but the loss of the standard analog controls altogether may dissuade gamers from playing multiplatform games on the Wii U. It’s hard to imagine the various advantages of the controller outweighing basic loss of functionality that even the GameCube controller had a decade ago. 

The Wii U controller is still a prototype, and if Nintendo is truly serious about wooing the biggest third party developers, you can count on those porting existing games like Aliens Colonial Marines to make a fuss about the lack of analog controls. But that might not be enough — so we’ll lay on the pressure too — and you should let us, and Nintendo, know about your concerns in the comments below.

(Source: IGN)