ea-redwood-shores posts

Electronic Arts's Redwood Shores, CA studio has been cracking out titles for quite some time, ranging from The Godfather games to the recent Simpsons title. The studio recently launched the Dead Space survival horror series and that may have been part of the reason why EA decided to give the Redwood Shores studio its own unique name.

In a new press release, EA has announced that it will now refer to the Redwood Shores studio as Visceral Games. The studio's web site has already launched and in a message its general manager Glen Schofield states, "We are not abandoning our past but embracing the future. With an obsessive focus on excellence and a relentless commitment to intense action, Visceral Games is set to execute all future games at the quality, innovation and polish of Dead Space." The studio will also have a branch in Melbourne, Australia. It's currently developing the third person action game Dante's Inferno and two more unannounced titles are in the works.

Electronic Arts ships out their organized crime action sequel The Godfather II to stores today but apparently the publisher could be sending out an illegal item in their media pack that are sent to certain journalists. The kit contains a number of items including a set of real brass knuckles.

So what? Well, Game Politics points out that metal knuckles are considered to be an "offensive weapon" at least in the state of Pennsylvania and therefore illegal to possess. However, there is a loophole in the law that allows possession of such items "solely as a curio or in a dramatic performance." Having brass knuckles in a swag media packet to help promote a game would seem to fall under the "curio" definition.

Last fall Electronic Arts works with Film Roman and Starz Media to release Dead Space: Downfall, a direct-to-DVD animated movie that served as a prequel to the Dead Space game. Now EA and Stars Media will work together again on a similar direct-to-DVD animation tie-in project this time based on Dante's Inferno.

The movie is due for release in early 2010 alongside the game. Unlike the prequel Dead Space movie, the Dante's Inferno animated film will parallel the story of the game with some additional story elements. The movie will use several animation studios to give different artistic perspectives of Dante's journey through the nine circles of Hell.

Even though the game has gone gold, Electronic Arts recently announced plans to send out a "day one" patch for The Godfather II on April 7, the day the game is scheduled to ship to stores. The patch will add an all new multiplayer mode for the game, called Don Control.

EA has now released 12 new screenshots that show off the new multiplayer mode. As you can see the game combines the action portion of the movie-based game with the strategic "Don's View" that was put into the single player portion of the title. The press release states that the game will support up to 16 players as they fight to protect their in-game currency they have collected in the single player game. If you lose you also lose the money in the single player campaign. Of course, that might not make the Don Control mode very popular but at least it's a different way to look at a multiplayer feature.

It looks like even after its completion, Electronic Arts has got some surprises up its sleeve when it comes to The Godfather II. The movie-based open world action game is due out in April 7 but today EA revealed that it will release a free patch that will add a new multiplayer mode to the game.

That mode is called Don Control and uses the single player strategic portion of The Godfather II and puts it online. As the press release describes it, "Players can now challenge one another in 16-player battles for their in-game currency from the single-player game. As a Don online, players can recruit others to join their family by giving them a cut of the profits. But if a player loses as Don, the in-game currency they wagered will be removed in their single-player campaign and their empire can come crumbling down." That actually sounds interesting.

It's almost time to be pulled back into playing as a member of the Corleone family. Electronic Arts just announced that The Godfather II, the next game in their open world crime action series based on the classic mob films, has now gone gold and will ship to stores for the PC and other plaforms on April 7.' Previously the game was scheduled to be released last month but EA pushed the release date back about six weeks.

As we have mentioned before, The Godfather II (developed by EA's Redwood Shores studio) puts you as the head of the Corleone family during the 1960's. In addition to New York City the game takes place in Miami and Cuba. It also mixes in action gameplay with some strategy elements as you have to manage businesses, plan hits on enemies and more. Of course, this title tends to be on the violent side. Good thing it has an "M" rating, huh?

Electronic Arts is taking on a truly classic work of literature with its upcoming game adaptation of Dante's Inferno. This week the first previews of the game started popping up on the Interwebs tubes, with sites like IGN, Eurogamer and Gamespot getting their first glimpse of the title created by EA's Redwood Shores team.

The game itself places you in the role of Dante Alighieri himself as he navigates through all nine circles (or, if you like, levels) of Hell. However your version of Dante in the game isn't a wimpy writer dude. He's a scythe-wielding action man who takes out demons and monsters with weapons and magic spells. There's even some moral choices to be made; you can punish lost souls which results in quick reward or absolve them which makes the player go through a mini-game that if successful will grant even more rewards. EA has also released the first in-game screenshots from the title which is scheduled for release in early 2010.

Unfortunately we have one more Electronic Arts game that has a release date delay. Today in their financial report the publisher announced that their open world crime action game sequel, The Godfather 2, would not be released this quarter as originally announced.

EA had been posting up display ads on gaming web sites recently that revealed a Feb. 24 release date. However EA's new financial press release now says the game, developed at their Redwood Shores studio, will now be released sometime in the company's fiscal 2010 time frame (which actually begins on April 1, 2009). No reason for the delay was announced. In a conference call with investors, EA execs stated that the game would now be released in the company's first quarter 2010 time period (between April and June 2009).

Electronic Arts is planning to release its second game based on the Godfather crime moves in early 2009 and this week the publisher released some new screenshots from the open world action game showing more of the somewhat brutal and, yes, explosive action we can expect in the final version.

Developed by EA's Redwood Shores studios, The Godfather II will have open world gameplay like the first game in the series but will expand on the first game's location as the player controls organized crime in the 1960s in not just New York City but also Miami and even Cuba. The screenshots show off not just the action portion of the game but also the strategic view which allows the player to get more involved in the business portion.

In Dead Space, one of the biggest deep space mining ships mankind has ever built, the USG Ishimura, floats derelict in orbit above a deep space colony. Its crew has been out of communication and virtually all the ship's systems are in disrepair. Players take the role of Isaac, a member of a small engineering team sent in to repair the Ishimura's communications system. They soon find out that the giant ship has far more going on than a broken communications array. The crew has been slaughtered and their corpses transformed into grotesque monsters, called necromorphs, bent on adding Isaac and his team to their ranks.