Somehow, I missed out on Soul Calibur 3. I think it was because after I realized how badly I sucked at number 2, my shame intervened and kept me from seeing any news about the series. Apparently, Mr. Shame has fallen asleep on the job, though, because I have managed to become aware of a widely publicized preview of the fourth installment! Courtesy 1up, a teaser trailer and a brief look at the full preview, which will be published in 1up’s paper counterpart, EGM, in the first week of July. The tease has no actual gameplay elements, but it did teach me one thing: Soul Calibur hasa story. Weird.
Telltale Games are becoming gradually more awesome as time progresses. Their episodic Sam and Max took a little bit of getting used to, but they maintained a solid blend of the Hit The Road humor and familiar gameplay across the whole "season," as they call these first episodes. Now, they’ve managed to score $6 million in funding from venture capital, which they are investing straightaway into further game development. Two things about this make me happy: the first is that this is happening to Telltale, who have earned it; the second is that the company seems as if it can do an awful lot with this $6 million, which is a pittance compared to some of the operating budgets of the larger development houses.
Following up on a story from yesterday, Game Set Watch’s Alex Handy gives us this editorial on the state of Mac gaming and its future prospects. Despite EA’s and id’s pledge of support, Handy has a bleak outlook, dredging up a similar pledge from id back in 1999 and the broke hearts that resulted from the paltry Mac gaming support that actually took place. It’s a good read, since Handy has been in the Mac gaming scene for a long time, and was writing professionally about it back in ’99. His conclusion brings up the same concern that has been tossed about the ‘net the last couple of days: With Boot Camp, and Parallels offering 3D support, is a Mac gaming segment even necessary?
Are you a hardcore gamer? Wizards of the Coast would like to snag you into yet another social networking site! Theirs is called Gleemax, and aims to bridge the gaps between videogamers and tabletop gamers by showing that we’re all part of one big, competitive family. Since this is Wizards of the Coast, the family is going to be confronted by their particular game offerings at every turn.
Finally: never before has such an unimportant detail attracted such rabid speculation.