UFC Undisputed 3 Full Match Gameplay Video Showing Off The New & Improved Submission System & Ground Game

Here is the latest video to be released from THQ with developers commentary on what to expect from UFC Undisputed 3. This video is focusing on the ground game and new submission system which has been added to this years iteration.

Metro: Last Light Gameplay Demo

L.A. Noire Seven Year Production Hell

L.A. Noire is so far my favourite game of the year, It could even be one of my favourite games of all time. A delicate balance of impressive detective work, fantastic chase scenes, movie like storylines and all round incredible game world that Team Bondi created. Yes they must be incredibly proud of what they achieved, but it seems that things were not always rosy within the studio. A great article from Owen Good at Kotaku explains the bad times of working on a game that spans seven years.

Owen Good, Kotaku

It took seven years. It spanned two console generations. It was the biggest undertaking in Australian games development. And the seven years it took to bring L.A. Noire to store shelves was consistently an unhappy time for many who worked on the game, reports IGN.

The freelance journalist Andrew McMillen, writing for IGN, gives a comprehensive look at L.A. Noire's development, with stinging criticism from former Team Bondi staff and remarkably candid replies by the studio's founder, Brendan McNamara. Throughout, Team Bondi is depicted as a contentious studio populated by exhausted developers perpetually in the throes of "crunch," an industry term and one of its nastier little secrets.

McNamara, to his credit, does not evade questions with corporate speak. Asked to account for turnover that saw at least 100 staff enter and leave the studio during Noire's making, McNamara replied that he thought the figure was actually higher than that. "Of the people we tried to build the game with, most of them would've never had any experience with this kind of thing before," he said.

He also doesn't run from anonymous-sourced complaints about his management style, which some called verbally abusive. "Am I passionate about making the game? Absolutely," he said to McMillen. "Do you think that I'm going to voice my opinion? Absolutely. But I don't think that's verbal abuse."

More troubling are the allegations IGN reports of unpaid overtime and manipulated job titles that dumped multiple job descriptions and 110-hour workweeks on some at insubstantial salaries. (The story alleges that overtime would only be paid out three months after the game was completed, requiring everyone to stay in order to be paid for that.) This is a common complaint in games development, especially here in the U.S. McNamara chalks up the workers' unhappiness to their disillusionment about what kind of field this is, and what it really means to be competitive in it.

"The expectation is slightly weird here, that you can do this stuff without killing yourself; well, you can't," McNamara told McMillen. "Whether it's in London or New York or wherever; you're competing against the best people in the world at what they do, and you just have to be prepared to do what you have to do to compete against those people."

Crunch is not a virtue. It's poor management coupled with abusive labor practice. Games development is shot through with the attitude that it's OK. We saw it when Danny Bilson of THQ casually remarked on the "thousand-yard stare" of Kaos Studios after two months of seven-day workweeks, making Homefront. (Kaos' ultimate reward:Studio closure and the project being shipped to Montreal.) And they get away with it because the layperson conceives of video games development as a Wonkaland of fun that anyone should feel lucky just to be a part of. That, and the lines of developers waiting at the door for the next disgruntled employee to quit, help keep things solidly in the favor of ownership.

"There's a lot of naivety amongst young game programmers out there," said one unnamed Bondi developer. "There's all this young enthusiasm to get into the games industry. People are willing to do so much to do it, but they're not educated about how they really should be standing up for themselves, and making sure that the conditions are right."

Thank you Team Bondi, Thank you.

Saints Row: The Third - Gunning For GTA

Most people were getting excited and speculating over all the leaked information about GTA 5. I on the other hand was over the moon when Saints Row: The Third was announced. OXM Magazine gave Grand Theft Auto IV 10 out of 10, Saints Row 2 got an 8. In my eyes this was obsurd. Yeah GTA looked stunning and created an impressive lively world, but if I had to do another chase mission across that long ass map one more time, I would of lost my mind! Very repetitive and just a bit boring really, Taking all the fun out of what made San Andreas so amazing. This is exactly what drove me to Saints Row. Similar to GTA: SA in many ways, the game is all about non stop fun. Good story, great variety of missions and a lot of creativity, Also great co-op. Now Saints Row: The Third is coming and I for one can not wait! They look to have taken everything from the last games and ramped it up to 11! I mean come on, You can beat someone to death with a giant pink dildo.. If it ain't worth buying this game for that then you are just plain crazy.


Saints Row: The Third Dev Walkthrough