EA announced the hiring of big-time film composer, Steve Jablonsky, as the man behind the music on the Sims 3.

Jablonsky’s most recent work was on Transformers, where I’m sure everyone remembers the music when they weren’t waiting for the giant robots to start fighting or Megan Fox to show up.

Look there she is!

Yeah!

He recently received a BMI award for his work in the film.  They rewarded him for being the guy to put Linkin Park over the credits.  Dwell on that for a bit.

The plan is that Jablonsky will implement all the music for your everyday simulated life, as well as come up with distinctive sounds for the menus.

“In addition to the theme music, Jablonsky’s score is featured throughout key areas of the game. For instance, in Create A Sim, the music will reflect the creative nature of choosing from a selection of facial features, hairstyles and outfits. There will also be a unique sound to distinguish build and buy modes in which you can create your dream home and design the neighborhood. In The Sims 3, you are able to visit many areas of the town for the first time, such as the beach, gym, bistro or even a friend’s home. The music will also follow suit. For instance, when you are walking by the beach, the sound will coordinate. You might hear seagulls, waves crashing and the music will reflect the breezy feeling of being near the ocean. The gym will also feature appropriate music suited for that specific environment, such as fast paced disco tech.”

Basically, each area or “level” will have it’s own music that will play when you go there.  Just like every other game ever.  Why is there a press release to announce different music for different levels?

“EA announces next game to contain pixels and explore all three dimensions!  Will be controllable by humans!”

Press Release after jump.

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Today EA announced the tracklisting for Skate 2 on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 as well as Skate It for the Wii and Nintendo DS.

Looking at the list they have a nice mix of metal, rock, punk, and hip hop, ad frankly any game that has the Wu-Tang Clan and the Clash on the same soundtrack has my undying love, even if I’m more of a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3* kind of guy.  Though I wish they had picked something else by the Clash.  Not that I don’t love ‘Death of Glory,’ but there has to be something that hangs with the rest of the list a little better.

‘I Fought the Law’ is a cover, so it may have been harder to get, but don’t all 13 year old skaters want to fight the man anyway?  Just steal it.  Skate or die, gleam the cube, etc.

Full track list after the jump.

*it’s called ‘dating yourself,’ kids.

Note: All songs listed are in Skate 2.  Song with a ‘1′ behind them are on Skate It.

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A lobbying group was recently put together in the UK, to try and get tax breaks for British game developers who are having trouble competing with US and Japanese companies in terms of publishing and advertising clout.

The tax break isn’t a life line per se, but rather they want to enjoy the same benefits and breaks that the movie industry gets when British filmmakers and studios stay in the UK to create.

The law would be a great way to help legitimize games as a creative outlet, not to mention help keep the development community nice and diverse.  Two of the biggest franchises in gaming history Tomb Raider and Grand Thft Auto were created and developed by studios in the Empire.

Educate yourself at the Guardian’s tech blog.

EA’s recent acquistion of Bioware is beginning to yield fruit.  Sweet, well designed, engrossingly plotted fruit.

It was announced late yesterday that EA would publish the Bioware developed Star Wars: The Old Republic. The game will be a MMORPG, covering the events 300 years after the events of Knights of the Old Republic.  Which in the press release sounds like a big deal, since it’s an unexplored part of Star Wars canon, until you realize that Knights was set 4,000 years before New Hope and thus it makes sense that that time was not really well explored.

Anyway, this will probably be amazing, thanks to Bioware, and hopefully they’ll be able to keep Lucas away so he can’t deposit any brilliant moments of characterization where characters just say outloud what emotion they’re feeling.

Looking at you, Anakin.

Good press release, guys, now get the hell to work on more Jade Empire.

Press Release after the jump.

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The LA Times has posted the second part in a three part series of articles that are taking a look at the industry side of videogaming.

It’s an interesting read to say the least, as the article does a fairly good job of demystifying the idea of videogames being created by asocial mouth breathers, and tries to distance game development from kids’ stuff, and firmly root it in computer science (you know, the field that’s currently keeping our world running).

Though, the story opens on a young man, Dhruv a  grad student at USC, who talks about how his family was intitally resistant to the idea of their son majoring in game development, because they wanted him to go into nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology.

You may as well just said “magic.”  Are we seriously at the point where you just study nanotechnology?  It’s something that should show up in Neal Stephenson novels and Japanese cartoons, not a syllabus.  I figured you’d show an aptitude in computer science or something, and then the government secreted you away to a facility to work on germ-sized robots and missiles to shoot down incoming asteroids.

Which brings me to my second point regarding India’s familiarity with nanotech; “Asia, what the fuck are you guys up to?”

Read the story here.

(in the UK)

Yesterday Sony announced the Little Big Planet would be delayed until October 27th due to background music containing quotations from the Muslim Holy Book, the Qur’an.

And not the fun quotes from the Qur’an, either.

“The track featured Arabic words from the Qur’an translated as “Every soul shall have the taste of death” and “All that is on earth will perish.’”

The song will be completely removed from the game, and the European release date should have no effect on the US release date of November 14th.

Full story here at the Guardian.

Nintend dropped a press release today that officially announced Wii Music.  Largely in the vein of Wii Sports, Music plans to bring all the creativity and joy of playing a musical instrument, and incorporating with the Wii’s motion controls to make every act look vaguely perverse. 

It’s sort of a weird trade-off, because for a lot of people, playing the little plastic Guitar Hero and Rock Band guitars feels unbelievably dorky, but will holding a Wiimote and essentially playing air guitar be much better?

The inital release will contain 60 instruments and 50 songs, not to mention all the customization opportunities, to change, warp, and re-mix songs.  As long as they have Waterfalls, I’m happy.

Press Release after the jump.
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The Guardian’s Tech Blog revealed today that your living room hates your pets.

An insurance company in the UK found that modern electronics are possibly sentient, but most definitely trying to murder your animals.

“According to the survey, iPods are most likely to cause injury to cats; rabbits are particularly at risk from Sony PlayStations; while the biggest dangers to guinea pigs come from DVD players and remote controls,”

I’m sorry, but if it works out that an iPod or a remote control is a constant threat to your life, guess what?  God wants you and your species wiped from the Earth forever.  Evolution’s the poolman and genocidal DVD players are the chlorine.

I guess all those jokes I made in high school about my precariously placed Xbox tipping over and crushing my mother’s purse dogs were less a joke and more a harrowing look into a dismal, dogless future.

Linked for your convenience: stop the violence, save the pets.

Nintendo sat comfortably atop the hardware sales charts for the month of September with the Wii on the throne in the number one spot, and the DS at number two.

The Wii has sustained serious sales clout since it was released, mostly due to it relative affordability compared to other next-gen hardware, and its acceptance by the financially significant casual gaming crowd.

Though, I’m still not sure how holding a wand and dancing around like you’re covered in bees is socially more acceptable than playing Halo while calmly sitting in a chair pantsless and caked in Cheetoh dust.

C’est la vie, am I right?

As always, press release after the jump.

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Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.

Mortal. Kombat. vs. D.C. Universe.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.

MORTAL KOMBAT VS. DC UNIVERSE!

What?   I mean…it’s just….okay…so…yeah…what the fuck?

I was convinced this was a joke.  The press release, the horrible game renders, everything was an elaborate joke.  Midway was making a DC game and here was some funny, free publicity before it hit, but it just keeps going.

Guys, seriously, sometimes I don’t think they’re going to pull out of this like a plane hurtling through the air to french kiss the ground at 900 miles an hour, only to pull up at that last impossible second.

As the days go by, and news trickles out, I’m starting to think they might actually go through with it, and frankly it makes me a little sick, and cold all over.

They got Alex Ross to paint the cover, and he doesn’t come cheap.  Plus, the money would have to be good because Ross really, really, really likes his idea of a character and everyone else can go to hell. 

That’s not a direct quote, mind you, but, you know.

So to have him help craft a cover featuring the spine-ripping ruthlessness of Sub-Zero and the incorruptable Dark Knight, I can only imagne that the payment could only be delivered via dump truck.

So this forces me to believe that maybe, just maybe, this will actually reach store shelves.  Earlier this week, Midway announced that the game will (supposedly) street November 16th in the US, and Europe November 21st.

Someone out there asked for this game.  Now, I’m not mad.  I want that understood right now.  I am not upset, but we will be having a discussion about right, wrong, and crazy, and possibly a quick review of the ’sex talk.’