Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Wii gets ´Manhunt´ sequel



The sequel to the equally acclaimed and controversial ´Manhunt´ game will be released for PlayStation2, PSP and Wii, developer Rockstar Games has revealed via the Take 2 Games investor relations website:

Manhunt 2 is the debut title from the newly formed Rockstar London studio, which is developing the game in conjunction with series creator Rockstar North. The Wii™ version is being developed by Rockstar Toronto. Manhunt 2 will be available this summer.

"With Manhunt 2 we have tried to create a game that stays close to the original concept of chilling suspense and stealth, whilst pushing the game design and storytelling forward," said Sam Houser, founder and executive producer of Rockstar Games. "We are also excited to have our newest development team, Rockstar London, working on the title alongside our two established UK studios, Rockstar North and Leeds."



This announcement should finally put to rest all fears that Wii would not have enough third party games with an ´M´ rating. As far as those titles are concerned, ´Manhunt´ will be in good company this year: ´Mortal Kombat: Armageddon´, ´The Godfather: Blackhand Edition´, ´Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles´ and ´No More Heroes´ are all rated mature (or, in the case of the latter two are likely to be rated such).

But there is another issue here, which seems much more important to me. There is a separate team working on the Wii version of ´Manhunt´, which seems to be a growing trend: this was also the case for EA´s ´Madden´. Should the trend continue, this may soon become a crucial point in the Wii´s favour. While those games must be considered straight ports on Xbox or PlayStation platforms, they are at least partly unique for the Wii.

EDIT In the meantime, Rockstar Games put up a teaser site for the title. Also, Nintendo have spoken to GamePolitics about the game.

Manhunt 2 is not developed or published by Nintendo. It is one of many titles released by third party publishers for our system that appeal to people of all ages and interests. Just as with movies, television, and books, different video games appeal to - and are appropriate for - different audiences.

Video game retailers and purchasers are strongly encouraged to follow the age-specific ESRB ratings when considering what software to sell or buy. If parents are concerned about kids having access to inappropriate Wii games, we encourage them to utilize the PIN-operated Parental Control features built into Wii.

Sources: Take 2 Games, Manhunt 2 teaser site, GamePolitics
Thanks to: Joystiq, Product_Number_18, Superuser, Nintendo Wii Fanboy, GoNintendo, Joystiq

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm both happy Rockstar see potential in the Wii and that they see merit in using a different development team to work on the Wii version.

The GC suffered from a lack of third party support, mostly because the Playstation brand was easy money for publishers.

The Wii's threat thus far seems to be ports. The problem is as gamers we want our console to have the games (or at least competing games) of the other consoles. Since the Wii has a dissadvantage in terms of processing power and graphics, ports will always come through as the ugly cousin of the family.

It will take a few great unique versions of games to prove this to everyone, developers and gamers alike. I just hope that happens before it's too late.

Jason said...

The Media is going to have a field day with this on Wii in America let alone in Europe and Germany!

Falafelkid said...

Hi Jason Alexander.

You are right that there is a danger involved. But bear in mind: All parties involved will do their best to downplay this, of course. The game will never be released in Germany. Nor will the ´Godfather: Blackhand Edition´. In fact, I believe it won´t even launch in Austria (which is where all Germans are getting their ´Gears of War´ fix from). So a lot of those media that would jump on that bandwagon will never even hear about this game.

Anonymous said...

@falafelkid
"In fact, I believe it won´t even launch in Austria"

I don't care if i have to play the english version ;-)

Metaldave said...

Well I guess that leaves out Scarface and Driver for Germany too right?

I have not played Manhunt but I've watched some clips of it after the announcement. It looks interesting but the videos didn't show too much of the "killing" so I couldn't really get a grasp on how gory and violent the game really is. I'm sure its intense.

I'm pretty sure the Wii already has more "M" rated games announced for it this early in its life span than the Gamecube did by a long shot.

RGB said...

Yes easily.

Keep em coming, its all good for the image of the system.

Anonymous said...

And another great game coming to Wii: Guitar Hero


http://www.joystiq.com/2007/02/08/guitar-hero-rocks-on-wii-maybe-ds-too/

Anonymous said...

Not to ignore what this may mean for the Wii, but I don't get this scramble to get M-rated games on it. It's as if there's some confusion about the whole deal and people are being all too focused on the "M." I mean, for me, games like Final Fantasy are plenty mature and it carries a T rating. We shouldn't focus on the mature rating but more on the maturity in itself. It's a little hard to explain really and is kinda subjective.

Frankly, games like Manhunt don't interest me at all. I mean I like games like Metal Gears Solid, Silent Hill, Resident Evil and all but Manhunt? There's something more disturbing about it theme-wise, and, gameplay-wise, is rather mediocre going by what some people say. Seems to be more gratuitous than thought provoking personally although that's not always the case. Even games like Killer 7 are said to have quite a mature storyline but I regard it similar to Manhunt. Maybe I just like being a "hero" than playing games where you are the criminal or hitman.

Tadashi Oshima said...

Falafelkid, I just noticed that you use the wrong character for an apostrophe.
On the german keyboard layout it's the shift-version of #.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostroph

It's amazing you're a journalist and didn't noticed it.

Anonymous said...

@Tadashi Oshima

It seems to me that he's using apostrophes correct, but he's using ' (Apostrophe) over " (Quote) bc it makes it easier to differentiate between quoted text and his own writing...

Just a thought.

It's amazing that you didn't seem to consider something like this. ;-)

Tadashi Oshima said...

@superuser
Nope, it's an acute accent, Unicode 00B4:
http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/00b4/index.htm

And have I ever said that he uses apostrophes wrong? He's only using the wrong character.

Falafelkid said...

@ Tadashi Ochima

I briefly read up on the apostrophe situation and the reason why a lot of continental Europeans (including myself) get this wrong is because of the keyboard layout, see here.

Also, if that is the only complaint you have about my blog, I take that as a huge compliment, shall I? ;)

Seriously, I would go as far as saying that my spelling is almost perfect. Something that cannot be said about a lot of proper news sites, unfortunately, let alone blogs (take the common mistake the console and it´s software).

Anonymous said...

@Tadashi Oshima

Oh! ok...

:-)

RGB said...

Tadashi visit english.blogspot.com, it might be more interesting for you there.

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