Tango Gameworks, led by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, joins ZeniMax

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Welcome, stranger! Nick here with more extremely exciting news to share. Fresh off the announcement that Arkane Studios has joined ZeniMax comes this crazy bulletin: Shinji Mikami, legendary game developer and creator of the Resident Evil series, has followed suit with his new studio Tango Gameworks.

Mikami’s credits are long and distinguished. Fans will know him best as the creator and longtime steward of the Resident Evil series, which he founded in 1996. Mikami supervised the franchise until directing his final entry, Resident Evil 4, widely considered to be a masterpiece of game design.

Tango will be working on AAA, multi-platform video games, and Mikami will be acting as creative lead on each project. But don’t take my word for it — check out the release below:

CELEBRATED GAME DEVELOPER SHINJI MIKAMI
JOINS ZENIMAX MEDIA

Creator of Resident Evil Will Develop Titles for Bethesda Softworks
Mikami’s Tango Gameworks acquired in latest deal for ZeniMax

October 28, 2010 (Rockville, MD) – ZeniMax Media Inc., parent company of noted game publisher Bethesda Softworks, today announced acclaimed game designer and director, Shinji Mikami, has joined ZeniMax in a deal where ZeniMax acquired Tango Gameworks, the development shop founded and run by Mikami. Best known as the creator of the Resident Evil series, Mikami is a 15-year veteran of the industry who has developed numerous award-winning titles.

“It’s refreshing to find a publisher who understands, trusts, and supports the development of blockbuster games and works to make it a collaborative effort,” said Mikami. “The library of AAA franchise titles ZeniMax owns speaks for itself. We are very excited to be joining ZeniMax and working with a company that is dedicated to creating the best games ever made.”

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Inside the Vault: Obsidian’s Jorge Salgado

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What’s your job at Obsidian?

Since joining Obsidian in November 09, I’ve worked on Fallout: New Vegas as an Area Designer.

Area Design involves all sorts of responsibilities, but you can boil it all down to the act of creating a game space, giving it form (geometry, ambiance, lighting, etc), adding its interactive elements (NPCs/Creatures, loot, doors, traps, furniture, etc.), designing its expected gameplay (quests, combat, stealth, dialogue, etc), and then implementing it all in a way that emphasizes consistency, and coherency – areas must belong within the entire game world.

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Brink parkour tour hits Amsterdam

This just in from Amsterdam — Daniel Ilabaca is still crazy. We have video proof.

That’s right, the Beyond the Brink parkour tour has officially launched its freerunning film series. Ilabaca’s daring moves will be on display across eight European cities — in this case, good ole Amsterdam.

Give the clip a gander above. Then check out the bonus video after the Brink.

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An update on updates (updated, part deux)

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Wanted to let you guys know that Obsidian and Bethesda are continuing to work to address issues reported with Fallout: New Vegas. Overnight, a new game update went up on Xbox 360, resolving a number of quest and scripting issues — similar to the update we reported on Wednesday for PC players. To get the update, players will want to make sure their Xbox 360 is connected online.

A newer update is up on Steam as well — fixing issues players reported with game saves. In our forums, senior producer Jason Bergman explains the update

“We are also pleased to say that we have just released a second fix for PC users to address the autosave and quicksave issues that some people were encountering. That particular issue was never seen prior to release and it was extremely difficult to reproduce reliably, even after the game had launched. In order to fix this problem we have had to disable Steam Cloud functionality. It has been turned off, and we won’t turn it back on until we’re absolutely sure it will not cause any more problems. Please restart your Steam client to make sure you get the update.”

As we have more details on game updates/patches, we’ll keep you posted.

Update: We’ve received word that the PS3 update for New Vegas is live in both Europe and North America. Make sure your PS3 is connected online to receive the update.

Updates on Fallout: New Vegas (Update for Aussies)

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Unless you’ve been stuck in a Vault, you probably know that Fallout: New Vegas was released yesterday. We’re thrilled that so many people are enjoying the game, but we also realize there are a few issues that you guys have been reporting.

We have just released an automatic update for the PC version of Fallout: New Vegas that resolves quest and scripting issues. Be sure to restart Steam to ensure the update is downloaded on your next launch of the game. We’re also working hard to make this update available for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game as soon as possible, and will let you know as soon as we have the dates they’ll be up.

The issue regarding the PlayStation 3 digital pre-order bonuses has also been resolved. Users should attempt to re-enter the codes to download their bonuses. Should the “80023156″ error continue, we ask that players wait 24 hours before entering the code again. The code should then activate the bonus without any issue.

In addition to the updates, we’ve also released the official G.E.C.K. editor for the PC version of Fallout: New Vegas. You can download it from the Fallout G.E.C.K. page. The editor will also be available on Steam shortly.

We’ll continue to keep an eye on issues that are reported within the community.

Update: With the game out in Australia, we have this info to pass along:

Anyone in Australia or New Zealand who pre-ordered Fallout: New Vegas on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 – and received a pre-order code for downloadable content – will be able to download the content beginning Friday, October 22nd at 10:00am AEDT. Should the content become available sooner, we’ll be in touch with an update.

Stay tuned for the latest.

Union Square: Buy New Vegas, get a free cab ride home (updated)

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If you’re looking to pick up New Vegas tonight in NYC and are in a rush to go home and play it… here’s a promotion you’ll want to know about. Between right now and 11PM EST, anyone picking up Fallout: New Vegas at Best Buy or GameStop within Union Square will receive a complimentary ride home. The taxis will have 2D Extension Taxi Tops for Fallout: New Vegas and will surround and light up the streets of Union Square.

No word if the Cash Cab guy will be driving (and yes, there’s a Cash Cab guy in New York).

Updated: We’ve got a winner!

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Fallout: New Vegas Official Strategy Guide Blog — The Legend of the Star: Required Reading About Collectibles

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Today we release the final New Vegas diary from the official game guide writer David Hodgson. Don’t forget that the guide, available in regular and collector’s edition flavors, are now available.

Here’s David once more…

Soon after you collect your first Sunset Sarsaparilla Star Cap — a strange and rare bottle top with a blue star emblazoned on it — you’ll begin to realize you’re going to need a Companion to weigh down with the hundreds of Collectibles this adventure yields. In this final Strategy Guide Blog, some of the finest rare items are revealed, along with information on the additional content contained in the limited-and-numbered Collector’s Edition.

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Your Fallout: New Vegas launch day stories

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Photos of the Irvine launch event courtesy Kate from I Shoot Games

Getting time off from work to play a game can be tricky. Ryan devised a unique, but particularly painful solution to the problem for today’s Fallout: New Vegas launch:

I’m a school bus driver in cold ass Duluth, MN. Time off isn’t given to me very liberally, so unless I have a valid reason, I don’t miss a day. However, this game is something I’ve been looking forward to since its’ February announcement. I had to guarantee myself some time to play it, without anyone being able to ask me to move off of the couch. So, what did I do?… I scheduled all four of my wisdom teeth to be removed tomorrow, and I will have to be off work for five days, recuperating on my couch, and unable to help family or friends with anything at all. It’s time to Fall-Out!

“Rodent” had a more direct approach:

I just straight told my boss that I can’t come in on Tuesday because Fallout trumps trolling on the computer. It’s even marked “FNV” on the calendar — but indecently I logged about 80 hours of Fallout 3 just at work so it’s not even an issue.

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