November 2012

Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed | Review


Posted on November 30, 2012 by Broken Joysticks

Cue old school Genesis SEGA jingle–that aura of nostalgia is in the air. Why you ask? Because the sequel to Sega’s Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing has arrived with Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. Released on November 18th, the game was released on multiple platforms including Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U. There will be a handheld port for Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita as well as PC releasing on December 11th. This review is based on the Xbox 360 version and the only differences between the console versions are exclusive characters where the Wii U version has a playable Mii character and the Xbox 360 version having your Avatar playable. There are no exclusive characters for the PlayStation 3.Read More


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Final Nintendo Power Issue Cover Revealed


Posted on November 29, 2012 by Broken Joysticks

After twenty-four years of insightful first-hand information about your favorite Nintendo games, and the countless previews, reviews, tips and tricks from the sources, Nintendo Power has finally come to an end. The final issue’s cover made its way to the Internet (the very entity that undoubtedly defeat Nintendo Power but alas) via Twitter, and it’s clear that Issue 285 decided to end the long-standing magazine the way it began: A brilliant clay model of Nintendo’s renowned hero making an adventurous leap for one last time.
Read More


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Sony’s Sales Strong Throughout Black Friday


Posted on November 29, 2012 by Broken Joysticks

After much counting and calculating, Sony revealed its Black Friday weekend sales figures, where the PlayStation 3 and Vita bundles made a solid consumer impact.

Thanks in part to the PlayStation 3 Ultimate Value Bundles, 525,000 PS3s were sold throughout which was an increase in bundled sales by 15% over last year.. Meanwhile, PS3 systems, games and accessories sales improved as well by 9%.The PlayStation Vita bundles (ACIII: Liberation, COD:BO:Declassified, Lego Batman 2) gave the ailing system a much-needed boost, contributing to 160,000 Vitas sold.

In another Sony sales surprise, the PlayStation Plus subscriptions have exploded, resulting in an increase of a whopping 259% of the PSN service over last year’s Black Friday. Thanks in part to the myriad of discounted and free products that PlayStation Plus users can take advantage of, the service has received an overall customer satisfaction rating of 95%.


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DeathStroke Joins NetherRealm’s Injustice Gods Among Us


Posted on November 29, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

DeathStroke, a master assassin in the D.C Universe has been announced as the next playable character in the expanding roster of Injustice: Gods Among Us. Deathstroke’s fighting style according the publisher utilizes a series of small hand held weapons for both ranged and melee attacks.

If you are wondering DeathStroke’s comic back story – He’s a former army soldier who was part of a secret government program in the 1960s to create superhuman soldiers. After unfortunate events such as the kidnapping his son, some drama with his wife and the loss of his eye he became a mercenary. Anyone who watched 2004’s Teen Titans or read the comics would know him under his other alias Slade.

InJustice: Gods Among Us is the next fighting game from the folks at NetherRealm Studios, the creators behind the legendary Mortal Kombat franchise. It will be released next April for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Check out his debut trailer below:

[youtube id=”PVDqpsXAgLI” width=”600″ height=”350″]


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GTA: Vice City Celebrates 10 Years of Crime Sprees


Posted on November 29, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Maybe I’m just getting old but it is hard to believe that Grand Theft Auto: Vice City launched a decade ago today. Premiering just one year after the groundbreaking Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City transported us back two decades, to 1980s Miami. In celebration the game will be available on mobile platforms including Apple’s IOS!

I remember being so excited for the game back in high school. It was the one game that all of my friends were talking about at the time. Our excitement reached fever pitch when we set up a projector with a 20 FT screen and played in to the wee hours of the morning, committing unspeakable crimes! What is your fondest memory of the GTA Series? Love it or hate it, it has been a part of the gaming zeitgeist for almost two decades now!

Alongside a YouTube trailer, which you can watch here, RockStar provided us with a press release for the 10th anniversary of Vice City. Check it out below:Read More


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Genesis RPG, Pier HD, May Head To Dreamcast & Current Gen!


Posted on November 28, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

I think a lot of people in the gaming community laughed when a Sega Genesis game, Pier, was released by an independent developer in 2010. This RPG was a love letter to an RPG long past and thanks to Kickstarter the developer hopes to port the game to current gen consoles including the Xbox 360, Wii U and… the Sega Dreamcast?

Originally the developer aimed to bring the game to all platforms using the original 2010 graphics but as the project’s funding grew and grew their vision became more ambitious. For those of you wondering how such a project could possibly live on a platform like the Dreamcast, which has long been dormant, the answer is quite simple. Due to the systems Windows CE operating systems porting the game should be quite easy. In fact many different homebrew games have gained prominence on the internet, especially amongst collectors, who snatch up the games that are burnt (or pressed) on to CDRS, bundled with instruction books and command a price close to that of modern retail games.

Click the read more tab for the full list of announced perks if they raise enough money over the next six days.Read More


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Bethesda Considers Dishonored ‘A Franchise’


Posted on November 28, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Dishonored has been a bit of a critical darling recently and Bethesda has gained from this in terms of higher than expected sales. Speaking about the title Bethesda’s Pete Hines tells Destructoid that the game is now considered a franchise.

Here’s the direct quote:

“We did terrific numbers again this past weekend, both in stores and on Steam, where Dishonored was listed as the #1 selling title over the holiday weekend. And Dishonored has really sold well overseas. So, we’re very pleased and appreciate all the fans that have supported Dishonored and Arkane. We clearly have a new franchise.”

Did you enjoy Dishonored? We would love to hear your impressions of the game in our comments section. Perhaps now that we know that Bethesda is committed to the franchise perhaps we’ll see a new entry come the launch of the next generation consoles, or shortly there after.


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Sorry Xbox 360 Owners, Still No Metal Gear Solid 4 For You!


Posted on November 28, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

An Xbox 360 version of Metal Gear Solid 4 has been the butt of a joke in the PS3 community for some time. It went so far as to have users create image macros of a 20 disc Xbox 360 box art mock up for the game. So that when we learned that a New Zealand retail outlet listed an Xbox version of the game we were a little skeptica

As it turns out, the image is just the PS3 artwork for the 25th anniversary edition of the game that was recently released with an Xbox 360 banner plastered on top. A konami rep told another outlet the game is not planned for the Xbox360 and will remain a PS3 exclusive. Considering each chapter in the five chapter epic takes up 3,500MB each in addition to a 25GB Blu Ray you’d be looking at five discs or more to contain the game. Then again, games like Lost Odyssey are four discs and this year’s Halo 4 required an 8GB install for some features. So there is a precident for larger games.

All of this doesn’t mean that Xbox 360 owners are without Metal Gear Solid love in the near future. Both Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeros and Metal Gear Solid: Risingare scheduled for 2013 on PS3/Xbox 360. The Metal Gear Solid HD Collection was released for the Xbox 360 last year that included MGS2, Peace Walker and MGS 3.


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Dragon Age III Bound For The Next Generation of Consoles?


Posted on November 28, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Rumors, reported by Kotaku, state that Electronic Art’s next entry in the Dragon Age franchise, Dragon Age III, has shifted focused to the as unannounced Xbox 720 and PS4 rather this current generation of consoles. The source for this rumor is a LinkedIN profile for a former employee of Bioware who worked on the game as a level designer. This platform shift apparently will cause the game to be delayed from a late 2013 launch window to sometime in 2014.

Kotakue reports that the unnamed employee wrote on their social resume:

“Scope of the DAIII has been chaged [sic], which will target next gen platform [sic] and will be postpone [sic] to 2014.”

If DAIII was released two years from now would that spur your decision to jump into the next generation? Let us know in the comments below.


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Mass Effect 3’s Omega DLC Released


Posted on November 28, 2012 by Les Major

Noted as being the biggest expansion in the franchises history by our own Joshua Rust, the latest single player DLC for Mass Effect 3 focuses on Aria’s battle to reclaim Omega with Commander Shepards help. The announcement for the DLC asks “Forced to rely on Aria’s unique knowledge of the station and faced with her lust for revenge, how far will you go to retake Omega?” Read on for the launch trailer.Read More


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Sequel On The Way For Hotline Miami


Posted on November 28, 2012 by Les Major

Jonatan Söderström, creator of Hotline Miami has confirmed there will be a Hotline Miami 2. Earlier this week he tweeted, “Working while listening to the sweet tunes of a preliminary Hotline Miami 2 soundtrack that we’ve put together during the weekend.” Sounds like a productive Black Friday weekend indeed!

In an interview with Eurogamer, Jonatan revealed more about the sequel. Originally DLC for the first game was planned, but it was decided instead to be made into a full fledged sequel. He did also note however that they only have general ideas for the second game, and the team is still working on fixing Hotline Miami.

Our own Aaron Chados loved the original and you can check out his review here.


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Huge Black Friday Weekend For Xbox 360


Posted on November 28, 2012 by Les Major

Microsoft announced that over the Black Friday weekend (November 18th to 23rd) they sold 750,000 consoles in the United States alone. I have to admit, I even know some folks that took advantage of the new bundles and wonderful deals available for the Xbox.

Also noted was that Halo 4 sales exceeded expectations. It seemed quite a few retailers were offering gift cards along with the latest adventure in the Halo franchise. Sounds like the new trilogy is off to a great start both in reviews and sales!

Lastly Microsoft reported that on Sunday alone more than 14 million people logged into Xbox Live across the world. Once the newcomer to the console industry, Xbox has come a long way.


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Bungie Releases Concept Art From Destiny


Posted on November 28, 2012 by Les Major

Bungie’s first title under Activision is something fans have been eager to see. Under the working title of Destiny the included screen was released on Bungie’s website yesterday. It’s definitely going to be something to see where the Halo developer is going now that they’re with activision.

It’s an exciting time to be a gamer considering Halo 4 under 343 Industries is still getting rave reviews and we all know Bungie is a fantastic company that is surely doing something amazing with Destiny. What do you think we’re in store for? Bungie is promising more news soon!


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