A Little Bit:

The game developer Free Radical is down… and out. The company door locks were changed so employees were unable to get access to their former work premises. Instead, they were told to report to an offsite location (a hotel meeting room) for a (de)briefing and a “Thanks for all your help, and goodbye” talk.

Kotaku reports a follow-up post on the subject.

While it is not uncommon for game studios to shut down, and there are certainly plenty of reasons for it (lack of funding, lack of interest, loss of distribution, etc.), more well-known developers may be heading for the chopping block as the economy continues to worsen and/or concepts collapse into obscurity. Earlier this year, Flagship Studios closed down, with Namco still running the game servers until early next year (and despite plenty of copies of Hellgate: London still being sold at full retail at Best Buy).

The news from Namco had come out a few days earlier, and with such timeliness with regard to the Soulcalibur IV tournament, too:

Darth Vader is available later today as an Xbox LIVE downloadable item for the Soulcalibur IV game. Priced at 400 MS points (about $5.00 USD), it should introduce the dark fella for you to put the extra hurt on your foes.

Hurry up, before it’s too late!

For those of you who were wondering what that odd blurb in the booklet and the inside jacket of your Soulcalibur IV game case was all about… the tournament for Namco’s Soulcalibur IV has officially kicked off. Already, the first of the three Brackets has filled up.

However, you still have a chance to sign up for either Bracket 2 or Bracket 3 in the tournament. The deadline is October 24, 2008, but the slots are bound to fill quickly. 

So, once you’ve signed up… get back to practicing your mad skillz!

N.B.

The tournament is sponsored by the Global Gaming League (GGL.com) folks. So, you may or may not choose to sign up for the contest… FWIW, YMMV and caveat emptor, folks.

A Little Bit:

1UP has an interview with Bill Roper, co-founder of Flagship Studios, the dissolved game development shop behind Hellgate: London. Some discussion is spent on the events that led to the fall, and the terms surrounding the outcome, as well as some of the players in the corporate drama, including Namco Bandai.

“Steve, did you get Soulcalibur IV?”

Quite a common statement lately, when I had returned from the Hawaii trip.

During my hiatus, Soulcalibur IV was seemingly released with little fanfare. A lot of the diehard fans are gone…? Or are they? Or are they, like me, patiently biding my time for each Soul series release?

Upon my return, I acquired a copy of Soulcalibur IV and reviewed the new characters… and, once again, I was disappointed by the changes in the moves for several of my favorite characters, like Mitsurugi, Ivy, Sophitia, Kilik, Nightmare, Siegfried…

This is gonna take some time.

Even better (or worse, depending on your own mood), there’s now multiplayer available for this latest version. 

Several weeks ago, I had downloaded the Soulcalibur arcade-like version from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace; while I spent a lot of time amusing myself by unlocking as many of the Achievements as possible, I quickly discovered that the Xbox 360 controllers are not as tactile or comfortable as the Dreamcast controllers. But at least the character moves were the original arcade version’s. Unfortunately, Ivy’s Summon Suffering command is extremely difficult to enact with the Xbox 360 controllers.

Time for more practice… for both the original Soulcalibur and, now, Soulcalibur IV. Let’s return to the Stage of History once more!

N.B.

Above, I pointed to the main Soulcalibur page (although the predominant game being promoted is, of course, the current version, SC 4). This is the link to the U.S. English version.