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Friday News Round-Up! 27 Jun, 2008 / Comments: 24

By The Tingler


Some interesting pieces of news today, so instead of dividing them and risking you missing one of themwe I thoughtwe'd I'd put them together!
  • Insecticide has been released for the PC... maybe. Well, on GamersGate anyway. None of the other download sites that were supposed to have it like GameTap, Direct2Drive and even the game's website make no mention of it. Also not mentioned on GamersGate is that it's the first of two episodes. It also seems to be rather expensive for just one episode.

    According to Crackpot, they're still working on Episode Two, so it can't be both episodes together. Something may be wrong here. Thanks to Diduz for the heads-up though, and we'll keep you informed as to what's going on.

  • LucasArts fire even more staff. Reports at Joystiq, who have interviewed an ex-employee, say that key members of The Force Unleashed's team have now been laid off. If LucasArts want to make another game in the series, they would have to either outsource or pointlessly hire new staff and train them. LucasArts maintains that they're committed to internal development and the next Indy game is not affected.

    What is most surprising about this is that several of the staff laid off were long-term members of the team who survived the previous culling and walkouts and actually worked on titles like X-Wing, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango.

  • Simon Pegg has written a new Spaced sketch spoofing the American remake unaffectionately dubbed 'McSpaced'. See it at his blogsite here. While this really has nothing to do with us (aside from the "TFU" gags we often use to accompany Force Unleashed posts), more proper British Spaced means the world is a slightly happier place. And that's always worth posting about.
NON-SPACED UPDATE:

24 Comments

  • larryahern on 30 Jun, 2008, 06:02…
    Unfortunately, I wish I knew more about the lack of official info, but the word I got from the publisher is that we should be available on all the sites come Tuesday. Also, I asked our producer about the situation with Gamer's Gate, and unfortunately, it sounds like it was an error for them to be charging $29.99. We'll get this sorted out, but it is supposed to be $14.99 for Part 1, and Part 2 will be available at the same price later. He said he'd be contacting the site to have them fix this error. I tell ya, we're like a well-oiled machine here! Yeah, well anyway, last I checked, there's a great PC game in there. Lots of cool stuff above and beyond what we were able to fit onto the DS, so we appreciate your patience.
  • Udvarnoky on 30 Jun, 2008, 06:55…
    Thanks for coming here and giving us the straight skinny, Larry.
  • jamessnee1 on 27 Jun, 2008, 22:12…
    funny how no one seems to care about the 2nd news item, the lucasarts staff being laid off.....last time I checked this was a primarily lucasarts fan page. Before anyone critizises me for this comment Im merely making an observation hehe
  • The Tingler on 27 Jun, 2008, 22:46…
    Mostly because it's not really new news, this is just an extension of what they've been doing recently. The only thing that surprised me about it was that they actually had folks still working there from the X-Wing/Full Throttle days!
  • Ascovel on 27 Jun, 2008, 22:14…
    what a terrible comment!
  • Gabez on 27 Jun, 2008, 22:13…
    Actually, this is a SPACED fansite!
  • Remi O on 27 Jun, 2008, 22:25…
    Uh, I think you know this is primarily an LCD enthusiast page.
  • The Tingler on 27 Jun, 2008, 22:47…
    LCD? You mean nice plasma TVs, that sort of thing?
  • Zaarin on 28 Jun, 2008, 00:16…
    Plasma isn't LCD! I'm starting to wonder if you're cut out for this!
  • Remi O on 28 Jun, 2008, 02:39…
    Hahahaha.
  • The Tingler on 28 Jun, 2008, 09:36…
    I had a feeling, but couldn't be bothered to check. C'est la vie.
  • Remi O on 27 Jun, 2008, 22:56…
    Yes. We moved on to that after LSD.
  • Dirk on 28 Jun, 2008, 18:53…
    I still miss the LSD entry. Can't someone send it to me? pleaaaase!
  • Remi O on 28 Jun, 2008, 22:34…
    Just go to the appropriate post and view source it.
  • Dirk on 29 Jun, 2008, 00:44…
    thanks
  • Dirk on 29 Jun, 2008, 00:48…
    a little bit hard to read though.
  • The Tingler on 27 Jun, 2008, 23:01…
    Ah, I hadn't noticed. I thought my screen looked a bit nicer!
  • Maratanos on 27 Jun, 2008, 16:02…
    Well Insecticide is certainly purchasable and downloadable. I took the dive and bought it on the assumption that it was 30 bucks because they didn't want to have you pay again when episode 2 came out. If that's not what's going on, well, we'll see. Should be able to tell if they're totally scamming us in under an hour. I'll get back to you.
  • jp-30 on 28 Jun, 2008, 23:30…
    So, what's it like?
  • The Tingler on 27 Jun, 2008, 16:18…
    I don't know if it's a scam, but it's certainly odd. At the very least it's overpriced.
  • Udvarnoky on 27 Jun, 2008, 19:39…
    More importantly, it is not the price attributed to the episode in the press release: $14.99.
  • Maratanos on 27 Jun, 2008, 20:32…
    Right, and that press release was so very reliable last time I checked. Oh wait, no it wasn't. In any case, it's the real game, and given the way it's set up, it wouldn't surprise me if it works exactly like Telltale's pay-for-the-entire-season-and-get-the-episodes-when-they-come-out system. Price is exactly double the cost of episode 1 (and there's 2 episodes), and it doesn't specify episode 1 until you get into the actual download, which might signify their intent to put episode 2 on the same purchase.
  • Udvarnoky on 28 Jun, 2008, 00:17…
    I love how you talk about Gamecock's lack of reliability but are all to happy to punch in your credit card number under the assumption that you're getting content that the product page doesn't in any way specify.
  • The Tingler on 27 Jun, 2008, 20:43…
    You've got a point about the reliability of that press release, but unless they specifically SAY that you're buying both episodes I'm not going to risk it, as much as I want the game. I'll wait for further confirmation.