propaganda-games posts

Publisher Disney Interactive is in the middle of a large layoff but the company is being silent on exactly how large the company's restructuring will be like. Reports on the net, including our sister site Joystiq, suggest that the company could be cutting as much as half of its team members.

The company has a number of in-house game developers and already one of them, Propaganda Games, has been closed. Another online report suggests that Junction Point Studios, founded by industry legend Warren Spector, have had "minimal" numbers of layoffs in this restructuring. The fate of Disney's other in-house developers, including Black Rock Studios (makers of last year's racing game Split/Second) remains unknown at this time.

A few things become painfully apparent soon after starting Tron: Evolution. First and foremost being that trying to dodge target seeking discs is an exercise in futility. Another is that players should be prepared to plummet to their doom... a lot. The game tells an original story that sets up the events of the upcoming movie. Players take the role of the System Monitor, a security program written by Kevin Flynn to help preserve order in the Tron world. In doing so, the character uncovers a conspiracy to exterminate a group of sentient programs and take over the entire computer world known as the Grid.

Check out all Tron: Evolution downloads

As we get closer to the release of Tron Evolution, the movie-based third person action game is already prepping for extra downloadable content. IGN reports that the Propaganda Games-developed title will have a code in the retail game box that will enable players to download free extras when the game ships on December 7.

On that date, two new multiplayer maps (Codestream Nexus and User's Plaza) will be available for download via the retail code. That will increase the total number of multiplayer maps in the game from four to six levels. In addition the code will give folks a way to grab a new multiplayer skin that looks like Sam Flynn, the lead character of the upcoming movie Tron Legacy.That will be made available the week of December 13.

In 1982, Disney took a bold risk with the release of the movie Tron, a film set largely inside a fictional world in the computer and made largely with CGI. It was different and new and at the time the movie didn't get a huge box office reception. However the legacy of that movie, and of the arcade games it spawned, have influenced the world at large, and game and computer programmers in particular, for years to come.

While developer Monolith released Tron 2.0 in 2003 for PC owners as a sequel to the movie, Disney decided later to create a true movie sequel in Tron Legacy which is due in theaters on December 17. On December 7, Disney Interactive and developer Propaganda Games will release Tron Evolution for the PC and other platforms. This action-adventure game serves as a prequel to the new movie. Big Download got one of the game's designers Dan Bourdage to give us some more info on the game including some PC specific features.

Sid Meier's Pirates! is a game which has yet to be accurately imitated by any other developer. Propaganda Games, however, seems to be giving it a shot. They are working with Disney to make another Pirates of the Caribbean game - subtitled Armada of the Damned - and it looks to be a successor to the Pirates! formula. Here's hoping it lives up to this trailer.

Download HD Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned E3 2010 Trailer (213MB)
Check out all Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned downloads

Depicting the fictional world inside of a computer, it is one of the first examples of the "cyberpunk" genre that is so typified by Neuromancer. Now, with TRON: Legacy, the universe is being revisited, and naturally there is a videogame tie-in. TRON: Evolution looks to build an action-adventure game on the back of previous TRON games, and its release trailer is suitably impressive. Color us interested.

Download HD TRON: Evolution E3 2010 Trailer (150MB)
Check out all TRON: Evolution downloads

Old school sci-fi fans may be looking forward to the upcoming TRON: Legacy movie. Of course, where there's a movie based in a video game world, there's an actual game accompanying it. In comes TRON: Evolution, an action adventure game being developed to release before the movie. It looks like there's going to be strong collaboration between the movie and game development, but the game's plot will deal more with the TRON mythology and bridge events that occur between the two movies. The game is expected to release during the 2010 holiday season.

Download HD TRON: Evolution 'Virus' Trailer (90 MB)

The trailer debuted during the Video Game Awards Saturday night and this morning publisher Disney Interactive offered up more info on Tron Evolution, confirming that the action game title from developer Propaganda Games would indeed be heading to the PC in late 2009.

The game takes place in between the events of the classic 1980's film and the upcoming sequel Tron Legacy. The game's official press release hints that the new movie references events that are depicted in the game. We are promised both melee disk combat and light cycle racing in Tron Evolution. Tron Legacy's director Joseph Kosinski will "consult" on the game's development and actress Olivia Wilde will have her voice and likeness as the movie's character Quorra in the game as well.

During this evening's evening's Spike TV Video Game Awards, more info was revealed on the new upcoming Tron game. It now has an official title, Tron Evolution, and will be developed by Disney Interactive' s internal developer Propaganda Games (who last developed Turok and are also working on another upcoming Disney Interactive game, Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Dammed.

The game will be released in late 2010 around the time the upcoming movie Tron Legacy will be released to theaters. The movie's lead actress Olivia Wilde announced during the awards ceremony that she will be participating in some way with the game The trailer showed off some light cycle racing combined with some third person action gameplay.

Disney Interactive continues to milk its Pirates of the Caribbean franchise into games. There's been a number of titles released including an MMO game. Now IGN has the first word on Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned, a new open world action-RPG that's being developed by Propaganda Games (who last developed 2008's FPS Turok).

Set before the events of the Disney movie trilogy, the game will feature the player controlling (natch) a pirate at the start of his career. While there's not much in terms of specifics, the game will have a mix of both land and sea adventures and will feature things like ship-to-ship combat and allowing players to pick their own crews. A release date for the game has yet to be revealed.