Rumors! Hearsay! Gobbledygook! Before I began writing this article, I only knew how to spell one of those first three words. And it wasn’t “rumors” or “hearsay.”
News Blips:
A rumor claims that EA already has their grubby mitts on Microsoft’s next-generation machine; EA counters: That’s crazy talk. We all know that Nintendo will be showing off their next console at E3, but we have plenty of room to speculate about Sony and Microsoft. Today, that speculation came in the form of an anonymous source with whispers about an Xbox 3-imbued workstation deep within the bowels of EA. Hours later, IndustryGamers posted a response from EA Corporate Spokesman, Jeff Brown, who said: "This story is a total fabrication -- 100 percent not true." My money is firmly on the “Oh god, please don’t introduce a new console, because I’m not nearly caught up with this generation” square in our office pool. [G4TV]
Call of Duty Online could be introduced next week. RockPaperShotgun.com is reporting that Activision’s take on the free-to-play first-person shooter, similar to Battlefield Play4Free, will be made official in the corporation’s earnings call on May 9. I’m sure many of you are groaning “who cares” through a painfully bored facial expression, but millions of Call of Duty players will be very keen to hear details about this. I think most of us are still waiting for this series to define itself in a post-Infinity-Ward-scandal world -- perhaps this will be a major step in that direction.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution coming to Steam with Steamworks. Guess what, PC guys? Eidos is throwing you a bone by bringing the quintessential PC series to Steam. I’m going to be very disappointed if there aren’t at least three comments about how condescending it is that Eidos had to announce that Deus Ex is coming to the computer’s biggest online store. Naturally, the Steamworks support includes the standard auto-updating, cloud saving, and Steam achievements. Now go, and comment while caps-locked.
Burnout Crash revealed to be a top-down version of Burnout 3’s Crash Mode. We knew this download-only spinoff was coming, but we could only guess how it will play. Crash mode forces players to crash a variety of vehicles to score the most points possible. Burnout Crash is taking that classic gameplay and pushing it over the top -- Sly Stallone style -- with UFOs and lobster monsters. Combine all that with leaderboards, and this could be an addictive mix. To be fair, this game had me at "lobster monster."
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