You can't read the news lately without seeing Gearbox Software in the headlines.

From rumors of "Halo 4" to the departure of the studio's director of platform technology, Corrinne Yu, to Microsoft's new team tasked with working the "Halo" brand, broken by Kotaku this morning.

MTV Multiplayer reached out to Gearbox president Randy Pitchford for his thoughts on Yu's leaving, what that means for his company and how that relates to their ever-mysterious "big-ticket" (those are his words) new project.

Pitchford started teasing this "big-ticket" project back in February, saying that it's "big" and he couldn't "oversell this one." Immediate speculation pointed to "Halo 4," given Bungie's newfound independence. Yu's move to Microsoft only fueled the rumors.

"We are really excited about Corrinne joining Microsoft!" said Pitchford in an e-mail earlier today. "I expect her to bring a lot of passion and inventiveness on that side. I think there is a lot of value for everyone for this transition."

"Meanwhile," he continued, "Gearbox is really excited about the changes we've made to our Platform department in-line with finishing "Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway" in order for our platform engineers to support the multi-platform launches of "Aliens: Colonial Marines," "Borderlands" and an un-announced big-ticket game."

Pitchford dropped a number of hints about this "big-ticket" game to me. In the same e-mail, he described the very same project as:

* "an unannounced but unbelievable project in development"
* "the big unannounced shooter"

So, we now know Gearbox's hidden project is a shooter -- shock! -- but Pitchford also implies it's a multi-platform project. That doesn't sound like "Halo 4" to us. While that doesn't mean Gearbox won't work on the next "Halo," this particular project doesn't appear to be it.

What do you think?

I can't be the only person who sneakily tries to look at other people's DS or PSPs.

As I'm flying up the west coast towards Seattle -- direct from seat 17D! -- en route to the Penny Arcade Expo, the lady to the left of me is playing her white DS. She's had headphones on the entire trip, or else I'd ask her what she's been playing.

A few times, her DS has tilted my way and I've almost been able to tell what she's playing. It looks a little like platformer of some sort. But I can't really tell.

The only thing visible was a background of lava. She could be playing anything!

Read more...

Potential "God of War" movie maker Brett Ratner would really like to make a "Guitar Hero" movie.

But the "X-Men" and "Rush Hour" director doesn't think Activision would want him to.

Ratner spoke to my MTV News colleague Jocelyn Vena yesterday for an interview primarily about his "Best Director" Video Music Awards nomination for his work on Miley Cyrus' "7 Things" music video. Since Ratner has done a lot with "Guitar Hero" lately -- he had Miley pretending to smash "Guitar Hero" instruments on the set of "7 Things," had "GH" in his Mariah Carey video and got it on American Idol -- we needed to ask him what else he has in store for the game.

This was his unexpected response:

"I love 'Guitar Hero' and I think it's a part of pop culture. I would love to do a 'Guitar Hero' movie, if Activision would ever let me. I'm trying to convince them, but why would you have a movie screw up such a huge franchise? Not that I would make a bad movie. So that would be cool, to do a 'Guitar Hero' movie. "

And here is his idea for the plot: Read more...

MTV News rock writer James Montgomery felt the need to suggest some songs for the newly announced Christian music interpretation of "Guitar Hero."

Here is his post:

Hey, do you love to rock, but think those pesky devil horns are an affront to the Lord?

Do you uphold the Sabbath but abhor Black Sabbath?

Well, you're in luck … because Digital Praise--"the leader in Christian-themed, family-friendly entertainment software"--have developed a pious-yet-fret-shredding game just for you: "Guitar Praise," a new "inspirational PC guitar game that lets anyone live their rock dreams." Provided those dreams involve Flyleaf and/or Hawk Nelson, of course.

"Praise," which could generously be described as "Guitar Hero" for the Godly (even the box looks rather familiar), is currently available for pre-order through DP's web site--retail price: $99.95--and features more than 50 Christ-approved tunes from acts like Newsboys, Family Force Five and James Clay (but strangely, no Jars of Clay), plus perhaps the only Christian song I can readily identify, dcTalk's massive "Jesus Freak "(I mean, it even got played on real radio).

And while there's plenty strange about the entire thing--the idea of Christians "rocking" being chief among them (please Lord don't smite me)--what has me thoroughly perplexed is that tracklisting. Because while 52 songs is an awful lot of Christian rock, there's tons missing from the list … and though I'm not exactly sure if the game will allowed players to download new tracks, I've gone ahead and made a list of some potential songs that Digital Praise would be wise to include if they're looking to expand the digital Hymn book.

**Sufjan Stevens' "The Lord God Bird" (yeah, this is about a woodpecker in Arkansas, so what.)
**Um, hello … Stryper?!?!
**Selections from the Flaming Lips' Oh My Gawd!!! album
**Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" (pfffffffffft!)
**The entirety of Porno For Pyros' Good God's Urge album
**The musical stylings of Senator Orrin Hatch
**Anything from Holy F--- (get it?!?!)
**Kanye West's "Jesus Walks"
**Spiritualized's "No God Only Religion"
**The Doobie Brothers' "Jesus Is Just Alright"

Anything I'm missing? I'd love to hear your suggestions below. Go now, in peace, to love and serve the Lord.

--James Montgomery, MTV News

This week is the first week of the year that I'm caught up listening to gaming podcasts. Among those I subscribe to are "Platform Biased," a hopefully-not-fully-official podcast conducted by testers at Microsoft. They do the normal what-we've-been-playing stuff, talk about the life of game-testers and, in the most recent episode, interview some of the creators of the games they're working on.

Good tidbits leak out in these shows, like the fact that the Xbox 360 "Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts" developers at Rare made the game's vehicle editor before crafting the game world around it. Also intriguing: the editor has more than 100 parts, some of which are in-joke references to other Rare games. And? They compare the game to... "Crackdown."

Plus, in the 21st minute, I'm mentioned on the podcast. In the same breath as Denis Dyack? Odd.

Listen to the one-hour "Banjo" episode here: Podcast #006 - *BLEEPS* & Bolts

Related Posts:
Banjo Redeemed — Xbox 360 Game Makes Great Second Impression, Features In-Game N64
Why I Finally Accept What Happened To That ‘Banjo Kazooie’ Stop N Swop Thing
Does New Xbox 360 ‘Banjo Kazooie’ Deserve All The Hate?
Violent Mario Cameo In New Xbox 360 ‘Banjo Kazooie’ Just An Innocent Joke, Rare Says

Gamers are everywhere these days -- even Turkey.

I learned this while taking in a short demo of the Turkish-developed medieval action RPG "Mount & Blade" yesterday.

Before this, I didn't even know there were Turkish developers.

Since I had one in front of me, I asked TaleWorlds co-founder Armagan Yavuz what Turkish gamers are interested in (other than his own game, obviously!).

Yavuz told me that cell phone and web-based games are very popular in Turkey. He also said an MMO set in Istanbul and a "Resident Evil"-like thriller also set in Istanbul -- are we noticing a pattern? -- are both well-known, though he couldn't recall the name for either.

Doesn't sound too different from what we play in the United States. Readers, what have you noticed people playing during your international travels?

Is your Xbox Live account safe?

I've filed a story over at MTVNews.com investigating security concerns raised with Xbox Live following my discovery that "Halo 3" multiplayer producer Joe Tung had his account compromise by a hacker.

Tung isn't the first person to lose control of his account.

Hackers have been taking advantage of a popularized technique called social engineering, where an individual (in this case, Microsoft customer service reps) is coerced into releasing otherwise private information. Social engineering isn't a new concept, but it's been a regular problem for Microsoft.

I contacted an avid "Halo" player and expert on the subject of social engineering to explain why this is such a dangerous technique and what steps you can take to prevent your account from being compromised.

And what did Bungie have to say about what happened to Tung? From my story:

Bungie would only tell MTV News that an outside party accessed Tung's account. "We can confirm that Joe's account was compromised," Bungie Studios writer Luke Smith said. "Representatives from Microsoft aided Joe in swiftly resolving the issue."

As for the implications of the compromise: "No comment," Smith said.

Read the rest of my story, which includes tips on protecting XBL accounts, over at MVNews.com: Reports Of Hacked Xbox Live Accounts Stir Concerns Over Gamers' Security

Over the years, gamers have seen dozens of high-profile titles make their world debut by being featured on the cover of Game Informer. In fact, if you're a regular shopper at GameStop, you're probably one of the magazine's more than two million readers.

But does a game getting on Game Informer's cover signal it's going to be great?

Can you be confident that these debuts will, one or two years later, become games you want to buy and play? Perhaps the magazine has a "Madden" curse (though that was recently debunked) -- or, instead, maybe it offers a Game Informer… blessing?

Recent covers of games such as "Ghostbusters" and "Prototype" (both in publishing limbo) or "Dark Sector" (released to flat reviews) might make a GI reader wonder.

We decided to look at a 55-issue run of Game Informer -- from June 2003 to December 2007 -- to see which games lived up to GI's hype… and which ones didn't. We also tracked the games' review scores, so you can see one measure of how well they turned out.

Read on to see what happened to these cover games, and which ones were hits, misses and even canceled... Read more...

Interrupting a dry spell that began on July 26, according to my system calendar, I turned on my Wii last night.

Earlier in the evening, I played the first two levels of the Xbox 360 version of "Star Wars; The Force Unleashed" and rejected a friend invitation to play "Castle Crashers" (the game many of my Live friends were playing). I then gave the Wii a shot.

It wasn't "Blastworks" that brought me back. Not yet. That game's still on deck. Instead, I finally tried "Order Up," which I had heard was the unofficial evolution of "Cooking Mama."

I opened the box to discover that it does indeed come with a chef's hat. I did not put it on.

I started playing the game and learned that it combines "Cooking Mama"-style gesture-driven cooking mini-games with very light restaurant-management simulation gameplay. I controlled a chef who could cook burgers and grilled cheese at his diner. The menu would later expand. I was also responsible for selecting which tables the waitress took orders from and for hiring help. I played one day at the diner, brought in one assistant chef and earned a one-star rating for my restaurant. My goal: get a food critic to come to my diner and like it. And then I think I will get a bigger restaurant.

My early impressions of "Order Up" are quite good. And I guess this is what everyone who enjoys the Wii likes it for, right? Playing something that's fairly simple and fun and that you could never have seen yourself playing -- and enjoying it.

Next: I have breakdancing DS game to try and a "Star Wars" one. Should be a fun commute...

I recently had the opportunity to e-mail the creators of Xbox 360 action role-playing game "Too Human" a few questions about the game they just spent the last four years making. I asked not to talk to the game's lead creator, the widely-quoted Denis Dyack, because I thought it would be interesting to hear from other people on the team at development studio Silicon Knights.

We talked about:

• How the game's rocky journey in the public eye -- from its maligned E3 2006 debut to recent controversies -- affected the development team.
• Which aspects of "Too Human" they are most proud of.
• Why the game's creators made an action game that maps combat to an analog stick rather than to buttons.
• How they settled on the number of levels and enemies in the game -- and what they say to people who think there are too few.
• And more

And they said stuff like:

The public perception of what "Too Human" was I don’t think scratched the surface of what was really going on here internally.

Check it out… Read more...