You’d better limber up because this roundup is going to be a bit of a stretch. First off, one of the artists I’ve got here doesn’t necessarily work on games nor is his work actually concept art. Secondly, another artist primarily works on 3D art pieces, so he’s not actually in the eponymous arena either. It kind of makes me want to rename this feature, but we’ve made it this far so let’s keep going! When we make mistakes, it’s a lot easier to ignore it and just plow ahead, right?

Or something like that.

Anyways, let’s start off with Josh Herman. He currently works as a character artist at Marvel. If you check out his IMDB page, you can see he’s done a lot of damage in Hollywood for such a young fellow. Herman here has worked on Iron Man 3, Total Recall, Real Steel, and a whole bunch of other Marvel movies, mostly as a digital sculptor. He’s also done art for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and pre-production work on the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy.

He also tweets in rather sporadic but rapid clumps and just started a blog about learning to draw.

Next up is Joshua Brian Smith, a bona fide concept artist at Riot Games. Riot, if you weren’t aware, develops the incredibly popular League of Legends game, the MOBA that people can’t stop playing. He graduated pretty much a year ago from the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles and made the seven-mile drive up to Santa Monica soon after to work with Riot.

While his work there at the studio is impressive, some of his school stuff is also quite good, though also quite different. League of Legends has pretty much locked him in a fantasy world, but I would love to see him branch out. It’s very obvious he has a wide range of influences and passions that would benefit from his grand-scale vision and raw take on lighting scenes.

Tohan Kim works at Crytek’s Austin studio in Texas, though if you’re familiar with the fallout of the THQ bankruptcy, you’ll know that this used to be Vigil Games. Vigil was the studio behind the Darksiders series, a critically well-received but commercially disappointing franchise of games about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse dealing with said worldwide annihilation, and were in the process of making Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium.

Dark Millennium, however, is still under wraps seeing as how its future is mostly undecided after the THQ dismantling, but Kim’s Darksiders work is all the way out there, as are some Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning pieces. Jeez, I can’t believe how long Mythic Entertainment has been making MMOs.

Lastly we have some concept art from Herman Ng for Rift: Storm Legion. Storm Legion is an expansion from late last year for Rift, an MMO from Trion Worlds. If you’re wondering where else you may have heard that name, it’s probably from the inescapable advertising of the Defiance tie-in MMO also being developed by Trion.

Ng, though, has a bunch of cool art up from Storm Legion. He’s really good at giving his drawings a sense of life to where it looks like he actually captured these creatures and people in the middle of some action.

Platform Nation » Gaming

Phil Harrison doesn’t know the answer. He has answers, sure, but he doesn’t know which one is right. From the media—and public—perspective, it feels an awful lot like we’re getting a multiple choice question in response to our queries, but each answer is accompanied by mean mugs and shoulder shrugs. (Shimmy shimmy cocoa what.)

Stephen Totilo over at Kotaku wrote up a great piece called “The Xbox One Uncertainty Principle” wherein he brings up the flurry of conflicting reports and interviews and PR responses that they and others have been getting over the past week, starting with the next-gen Microsoft event in Redmond and culminating in the confusing As we all got to our Qs. There’s a great quote in the middle of it from Totilo:

Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle tells us that the more we try to observe a particle’s position, the less precise we can be about its momentum. Heisenberg, have we got a game console for you.

The uncertainty principle is a little more broad than that (it applies to any set of complementary variables), but we get the gist: the more we try to find out about the Xbox One, we discover just how little we actually know about it.

In the opening bit, Totilo relates to us an anecdote about Aaron Greenberg, chief of staff for Microsoft’s interactive division, saying that response to their new console was mostly positive. In fact, he says it was about 40% positive, 40% neutral, and 20% negative (though maybe some fact-checking is in order?). Unfortunately, we find those numbers to be less than accurate.

If we take a look at the Brandwatch blog, the musings of a company that specializes in monitoring social media reactions, we find that the online reaction isn’t as positive as Greenberg thinks it is. Brandwatch puts positive at 52% and negative at 48% (neutral isn’t tracked in this). AT Forbes, Fizziology puts the numbers in a different light as well: 32% positive, 10% negative, and a whopping 56% neutral.

Of course, these numbers only account for people able to interact with social media at the time, so those working, traveling, sleeping, or any other number of things preventing them from updating their Facebook or tweeting are not accounted for. And these analyses are never quite as accurate as you would like (intent is harder to derive from content without context), but media, by and large, also take themselves out of the immediate conversation and often opt for video recaps and written summaries to express their views. Same go for industry analysts. But there is archived evidence for my Twitter feed (and many others) being primarily negative the following day when thoughts were put into long-form articles.

Perhaps the most problematic of the cluster of misinformation disseminating among Microsoft (if Greenberg is an indication) is that always-online and used games are still up in the air. We’re likely to get answers in the coming weeks at E3, but it’s still distressing that something so fundamental to the console’s operation and the industry’s functionality is undecided. First Phil Harrison, corporate vice president of Microsoft, says that you can sell back used games at retail stores. Then he says you’ll sell them back online. Which is it? Or is it both?

And then when asked about what happens if Microsoft stops running servers for the Xbox One. Will the always-online requirement simply render all the consoles they’ve sold useless? Harrison, as Totilo puts it, “smiled and said something about not thinking that would happen.” Which should frighten you. It’s a thought we’ve been putting off for years as digital distribution channels like Steam and Origin and PSN and XBLA become more prominent. When—not if—those servers shut off, we will have nothing to show for all the money and time we put into that ecosystem.

While probably not totally unique among those that make those sorts of decisions, Harrison’s reaction should tell you a lot about priorities. There is no exit strategy for gamers like there is for the business itself. Microsoft can sell assets and patents and rights to stay afloat. Keeping around servers that do nothing but tell consoles it’s okay to play a game long after the device is relevant is basically a hole to throw money into. Microsoft—and its competitors—is a business, after all.

If it sounds ridiculous that Microsoft could ever not exist, consider Palm. Look at where Sega used to be and where it is now. Look at Nintendo’s current trajectory. There is a graveyard of dead companies that used to rule the roost, businesses that people would treat like the Titanic, like they were unsinkable. So when Microsoft goes under, which could be in five years or 20 years or 400 years, all of this…stuff, these video games of not insignificant cultural importance, will be lost. Games are archived on retails discs and carts. How do we archive encrypted servers that feed directly into proprietary technology?

Two and a half weeks and we might get some answers. We hope we’ll have answers, but Microsoft had better be ready with them. Fizziology put 24% of all negative reactions pertaining to always-online. Personally, I say that’s 90% of my concern right now. Another 2% is wondering when will Microsoft get their act together and give some straight answers. What’s left is for J Allard. Godspeed, Allard. Godspeed.

UPDATE: retail sources have told MCV that they can charge whatever they want for pre-owned Xbox One games, but Microsoft and publishers will get a cut. Sure, I guess, but why couldn’t Microsoft have told us this straight up?

Platform Nation » Gaming

Microsoft didn’t waste any time giving us a look at the new Xbox One console and controller, and the new Kinect sensor. But what the boxes all those next-gen games will be packaged in? Well, thanks to Major Nelson, we’re getting a look. Head past the break for a full shot of the “Forza 5″ box art.

In all its glory…

So, now we know what to look for when head out to buy our next-gen games. Xbox One will be in the green, while PlayStation 4 and Wii U stick to different shades of blue. Which do you like better?

Related Posts:
‘Clash of Clans’ Update 4.14 Decreases Building Times and More
Nintendo eShop Update 5.23.13

–

Follow @MTVGeek on Twitter and be sure to “like” us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more! And don’t forget to follow our resident gadget geek @hatfieldy!

Tags Box Art, cover art, forza 5, microsoft, Xbox One

MTV Multiplayer

The web series follows the action as masked crooks “Dallas, Hoxton, Wolf and Chains descend on Washington D.C. for an epic crime spree,” according to developer 505 Games. The series of shorts is from director Demian Lichtenstein who was responsible for the Elvis-themed crime flick “3,000 Miles to Graceland” and is directing the big screen adaptation of “Payday: The Heist.”

Meanwhile, the retail sequel for the PS3-exclusive “Payday: The Heist,” “Payday 2,” is coming to the PC, 360, and PS3 in August.

Watch: Payday 2 Webseries Teaser Trailer

Related Posts:
‘N’ version 2.0 Adds New Features and Multiplayer, Available Now for Free
‘Diablo III’ Infographic Sheds Light on One Year’s Worth of Demon-Slaying

–

Follow @MTVMultiplayer on Twitter and be sure to “like” us on Facebook for the best geek news about comics, toys, gaming and more! And don’t forget to follow our video gaming and TV writer @TheCharlesWebb.

Tags 505 games, Demian Lichtenstein, Payday 2

MTV Multiplayer

Though EA may still be attempting to argue that players in NCAA video games don’t exactly represent the likenesses of the real athletes (they even filed a study that only about 15% of in-game characters match height, weight, home state, and position) ultimately that will be a tough sell to a jury in the monumental lawsuit ahead. Instead what they have been producing being protected as artistic works appeared to be the far stronger point to be made but the hits keep on coming for the NCAA, CLC, and EA who appear to be in big trouble in the case. 

A post on SBNation with the info and image coming from a reader details how Tim Tebow’s name actually appeared in NCAA Football 10. An entire formation was based on Tim Tebow – Shotgun Twin QB Tebow. This completely undermines EA’s declarations that they don’t use names or base players on their real life counterparts.

Displaying that a formation and plays were designed with particular athletes in mind could be a smoking gun that the three defendants went too far in profiting off likenesses that may, or may not, be protected under the First Amendment. That argument however recently hit a snag as noted yesterday. Given that much of the basis of their defense regarding video games has been that player names have never been used this could end up being a crucial development if it gets entered into evidence.

The player likeness lawsuit against the NCAA, CLC, and Electronic Arts is the culmination of two high profile filings that were combined as led by Sam Keller and Ed O’Bannon (and O’Bannon now heads it up). It alleges improper use of player likeness through various forms of merchandise and media including video games in which the parties in question conspired to avoid paying players for their rights. Some interesting details and claims regarding the case at hand were revealed when EA was reentered as a defendant after initially being dismissed.

EA has won a previous case regarding player likeness with the courts ruling video games are artistic works rather than commercial speech and therefore protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court in 2011 established forms of media, producing expressive works of art, are not subject to judgments based on incorporating someone’s name or likeness. One dismissed case however, involving Ryan Hart, has resurfaced after an appeals court reversed a decision based on that argument.

Recent uncovered emails have shown that NCAA representatives were well aware that players in games were based off real-life players. At one point the NCAA and EA had nearly reached an agreement to have actual player names included in the products. The EA Locker / Roster Share feature was a fallback option. With momentum clearly on the plantiffs’ side NCAA reps have begun to publicly express concern over the future of collegiate sports. A former EA Sports producer admitted players in NCAA games were based off real athletes.

This consolidated case in California looks as though it will be going to trial and ultimately be the determining factor of how the NCAA proceeds in the future handling broadcasting rights, merchandising, and video games. Should a negative result come down, which one analyst has pegged as being a potential loss of $ 1 billion for EA, it would likely not just end the NCAA Football series but also with it any realistic possibility of college sports games being made in the future. The NCAA is currently seeking to block classification as class action. The trial now is slated to begin June 2014. Appeals following a decision could extend the fight through 2020.

pastapadre.com

Hello Games has sent word that it is bringing its Joe Danger games to PC. The Guildford-based indie developer will be releasing both the previously-released PSN and XBLA games Joe Danger and Joe Danger 2: The Movie on Steam, although no exact release date was specified.

Here’s an official description of what you can expect:

In addition to brand-new levels, both games will come with special new PC-specific features. Enhanced graphic settings and resolutions take full advantage of modern PC power. Steam Big Picture support means you can play from the sofa with gamepad, while mouse and keyboard support means it feels at home on desktop screens, too.

Steam Workshop support allows you to easily browse and share your edited levels over Steam – click the level and it’ll pop up in the game. And ghost recording has been added to both Joe Danger and Joe Danger 2 and integrated with Steam so you can compete with other players right from within the game.

“I think we have some kind of OCD at Hello Games,” says founder Sean Murray. “We have a rule that whenever we put our games onto a new platform we have to add something. We can’t just do a quick and dirty port. We have some more surprises to announce for the PC editions of Joe Danger as we lock them down.

“Actually, PC is Joe Danger’s spiritual home,” Murray added. “I coded my first ever PC engine when we started making the original Joe Danger back in 2009, because we couldn’t get hold of console devkits. So it’s incredibly exciting to be finally able to release it.”

So, any PC fans plan on checking these games out?

Side Mission

EA Sports has announced that FIFA 14 will be launching September 24, 2013 in North America and September 27, 2013 throughout Europe. In addition, the company is offering FIFA 14 Ultimate Team gold packs to fans who pre-order the game on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

FIFA 14 was announced as one of the EA Sports titles that will utilize the company’s new Ignite engine on next-gen consoles, but it appears the below-described bonus is EA’s way of getting some extra mileage out of this console generation’s footie fans. Here’s official word on what you can expect from the pre-order bonus.

Fans who pre-order FIFA 14 will receive FIFA Ultimate Team gold packs to help build their ultimate team. Each gold pack is a mix of 12 items, including players, contracts, stadiums, managers, staff, fitness, healing, balls, kits, and badges. Gold packs consist mostly of players rated 75+ in-game, and include one rare item, such as enhanced player attributes, longer contracts, and the most coveted players.

FIFA Ultimate Team is the popular game mode within EA SPORTS FIFA that reflects the best recent real-world performances of the world’s best players. Over 3.4 million games of FIFA Ultimate Team are played daily, and over 17 million footballers are transferred through the transfer market on a daily basis, as millions of fans re-shape their squads based on the real-world performances of their favorite players.

You can find out more about the FIFA 14 pre-order bonus by heading here. How many people here plan on picking up FIFA 14 and if so, what platform do you want to play it on?

Side Mission