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With news of a Knights of the Old Republic MMO out in the open, Star Wars fans must surely already be bomb-proofing their wallets for the inevitable cash drain that lurks on the horizon. Naturally, LucasArts is doing nothing to help, already talking about the merchandise opportunities that present themselves.

"We are looking forward to working with our partners in LucasFilm, that have worked with us previously on KOTOR in bringing the comic books to life, and action figures, and all kinds of things," beams LucasArts' Tom Nichols. "I think the potential is there for us to have similar types of products and extensions from our licensing partners as well."

Rough translation: Your bank account is going to get f*cking raped.

Last week, while Americans were celebrating Thanksgiving, a series of ten coordinated terrorist attacks hit Mumbai, India. Over 170 people have been confirmed dead thus far, and nearly 300 were injured in the tragic, brutal acts. One of the individuals lucky enough to escape with his life was Canadian actor Michael Rudder. The Montreal native has done voice work for a number of Ubisoft-published videogames, including Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Assassin’s Creed, and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, in which he voiced the Dark Prince.

Rudder was having dinner with friends at the Oberoi Hotel when terrorists opened fire, and as he lay in a hospital bed, he related his harrowing ordeal in an exclusive interview with CBC reporter Terry Milewski. I’ve put some choice quotes after the jump, since it’s a rather chilling account. (Text transcribed from video linked on interview page.)

[Via Kotaku]

For any of you that have fears about CD Projekt RED dumbing down the console version or moving away from PC games, here’s word directly from The Witcher Community news.

“Console gamers don’t want to be treated like kids; they’re ready for deep story-driven games, and we think we’re delivering one of the deepest console RPGs ever with The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf,” said Adam Kicinski, CEO of CD Projekt RED. “The only thing we’re taking directly from The Witcher is the story; everything else is being created from scratch or significantly reworked to get us to our end goal of delivering the ultimate console RPG.”

“We’re not about to dumb down our games for anyone. We want to give players the best games, regardless of platform,” added Michal Kicinski, co-founder of CD Projekt. “It’s important to us that each game plays to the platform’s strengths while treating our players with respect. That was our development philosophy with The Witcher and it’s our philosophy on all three of the games in development at CD Projekt RED, including Rise of the White Wolf. Anyone concerned that we’re going to somehow offer a shallow RPG or abandon the PC platform simply because we’re working on consoles can stop worrying.”

The trailer was leaked early ruining the official surprise. Gamers and game developers are an impatient bunch. However sneaking a premature peak at your gifts is still surprising and can actually heighten the anticipation of claiming the package. Console gamers will be opening The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf Fall 2009.

For PC gamers who are disappointed the fuss wasn’t about a sequel… don’t forget there are two more games in the works to speculate about.

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Related Articles at Gaming Today:

• The Witcher Leaked Trailer Teases Console Versions
• CD Projekt Red: Tom Ohle New VP of PR
• The Witcher Enhanced Edition Coming in September
• CD Projekt RED Enhanced Presence at Leipzig for The Witcher
• Metropolis Joins CD Projekt

Due to the immense popularity of the last sneak peek weekend, Cartoon Network is hosting another one for their MMOROG, FusionFall on December 5-7. They are hosting another huge Beta test, and need as many people as possible in the game. Just like last time, anyone with a FusionFall account is welcome, so log in and get your game on. If you do not have an account, get one here.

As a kid in this world, players will team up with other players and Cartoon Network characters to defend it from an alien invasion of epic proportions. The game is a mix of all the action of a 3D console platform game and all the customization, character development and open-ended world exploration of an MMORPG. In addition, small, super-deformed versions of Cartoon Network characters are collected along the way and travel with players, providing powers and abilities to assist during missions.

For more information on Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall, hit the links above. You can also view screens from the game here.

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Related Articles at Gaming Today:

• Warhammer Online Dark Elf Sneak Peek Details
• World In Conflict Beta Starts June 1st
• Commando 3 Hitting XBLA Next Week With Invites to Street Fighter Beta
• Tom Clancy's EndWar Beta To Hit In November
• Guild Wars: Eye of the North - Sneak Peak Weekend

One of my favorite things about a huge game like Fallout 3 is that everyone in the company had a chance to tuck little details into their work, and add a lot of love to the many dark corners of the world. A few of my favorite little touches I added to Fallout 3 (some of which may include minor spoilers):

* The Mechanist's pseudo-heroic line: "The scaly claw of tyranny must be destroyed by the cold, unfeeling pincers of justice!"

* Really, all of Moira's lines, from worrying about "those poor little Mole Ratties" to the many nasty ways the player can vent their frustrations at her, to the 20-years-later epilogue that she gives at the back of the game's special edition strategy guide.

* The Summer Release Schedule in the basement of Hubris Comics, where I got to come up with titles like "Drake Tungsten, Chrono-Cowboy" and "Grognak the Barbarian: An Axe For All Ages." I also got in touch with my inner fanboy with the furious Letter to the Editor, which refers to the Grognak's original, genius author, "Mr Moorellis" - a mashup of two of my own favorites.

* And finally, the most obscure reference I put in the game, the nearly impossible-to-find unique version of the Alien Blaster called "Firelance" - a reference to the Martian Firelances in the fake plot-text in the paragraph book for the original Wasteland.

A video is circulating around the Internet advertising consoles versions of the award winning PC RPG, The Witcher. According to the trailer, The Witcher: Rise of the Wolf has been retooled with a new engine, more dynamic combat system and Sixaxis compatibility.

Gaming Today spoke with Tom Ole, VP of Public Relations and Marketing for North America and the UK, who confirmed that the video was not officially released by CD Projekt RED.

“We haven’t made an official statement yet. CD Projekt RED has three games in development at this point.”

The Witcher Community website has been running a Hunt for inside information on CD Projekt RED’s latest projects. The Hunt is officially over, but little has been revealed. The official website for The Witcher has a new opening page that reveals pieces of an image as you remove chunks of the old.

Whatever “deepest, darkest secrets” CD Projekt RED reveals, it will be at the time of its own choosing.

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Related Articles at Gaming Today:

• The Witcher Gets Wiki
• The Witcher Special Edition Trailer
• New Gameplay Trailer and Screens for the Witcher
• The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Coming This Year; New Trailer
• New Trailer for Empire: Total War Teases

Does “Gears of War” creator Cliff Bleszinski hear snoring that makes him dream he’s wielding a Lancer chainsaw?

Does “Burnout” architect Alex Ward dream that his car has flipped?

Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, Patrick and I asked a few game developers how their work in the gaming industry affects their dreams. We heard back from creators behind “Fable II,” “Mirror’s Edge” and “Alone In The Dark” as well as from one game-crazy p.r. man.

Here are their gaming-affected dreams. Brace yourself:

The gaming dreams of Tom Farrer, producer of EA’s “Mirror’s Edge” [via phone]

“… And then comes the dreaming. When you’re working on something for years and years, it sort of works its way into your subconscious and pops up in your dreams all the time.

“I’m going to regret this, aren’t I? I did have one dream where I woke up and was heading out to work — I hadn’t left the apartment — and I was dressed as ['Mirror's Edge' heroine] Faith. I think that’s the weirdest one that I have. I remember on ‘Battlefield‘ dreaming that I was in one of the maps and under fire from snipers — which is probably where the project was at at the time.”

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The gaming dreams of Peter Molyneux, head of Lionhead Studios, makers of “Fable II” [via e-mail]

“During the time we were developing ‘Fable 2′ I has quite a lot of dreams. Some about the lower moral characters in Albion — probably best not to go into details! Quite a lot about being lost in Albion which is probably more about development process I suspect and one where I had a pet Balverine!”

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The early-90’s gaming dreams of Chris Kramer, current public relations manager at Capcom, U.S.A. [via instant message]

“I played a lot of the original ‘Warcraft.’ It got to the point where I would have these dreams where my town was being attacked and my peons were being slaughtered, but I was unable to control my units. Very stressful! I’d actually wake up from these dreams talking out loud, which would either wake me up or (more importantly) the very, very patient woman who is now my wife. After the third or fourth time this happened, there were some rules made in the house about length of time spent playing ‘WC’ and what time it had to be shut off.”

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The gaming dreams of Emile Morel, game designer at Eden Games for Atari’s “Alone In The Dark” [via e-mail]

“When you work on a video game you start having a lot of weird dreams, especially in crunch period, when you literally work all day. Sleep becomes the only moment you have for yourself, away from work. The problem is that when you work a lot, sleep sometimes loses its relaxing abilities, and you basically end up working even when you sleep, your brain just can’t stop working.

“That happened to me on ‘Alone in the Dark’ when I was working on the monsters of the game. I spent a lot of time working on all the monsters in the game, setting and tuning them, to make sure they would always behave correctly. Before placing them inside the game, I had a test scene in the shape of a big arena where I could place all the monsters to test them.

“While I was working on those monsters, many times [I was still working on them] even in my sleep. In my dreams I was making new settings in the monsters and then I was watching them in the test scene to see if they were behaving correctly.

“But one time, this dream got weirder, I found myself literally inside the test arena, just as if I was inside the game, only it all seemed very real! I was surrounded by all the monsters of the game, but they were all very nice to me, I was the mean one. I was like the mean coach of a sport team, always yelling at the monsters because they were not doing what I was asking them to do, ‘You guys don’t get it, this is not the way you should react when you hear a noise, that doesn’t work,’ or things like that. And the monsters were very nice, doing their best to try to please me, but every time they were just doing the exact opposite of what I was asking them to do.

“I don’t remember how this dream ended, but I can tell you that after a dream like that, when you come back to work, it just feels like you never left work and that you never went to sleep…”

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If working on video games has affected your dreams, please let us know. We’re ready for anything.

Sundays are for writing GTA4 reviews. Well, they are for me. Should be up later on Eurogamer. But when not doing that, I like to compile a list of the interesting stories I read online this week involving games, and try to avoid linking to a webcomic thing that tickled my tickler. And here it is. The list, not my tickler. What a horrid idea.

• Tom Armitage puts his GameCity presentation online, where he muses about what if Gamers ruled the world. Because within a decade, world leaders will totally be well within those who grew up with games. One of my standard riffs is that for games to be more generally accepted, all we have to do is wait for old people to die. This is a much more positive (and smarter) take on the same subject matter.

(...)
Read the rest of The Sunday Papers (401 words)

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