December 2012

Eurocom Enters Administration, Lays Off Staff

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

This past fall’s 007 Legends wasn’t particularly well received by critics, including us. It looks like the developers behind the game, Eurocom have closed their doors for good as they enter “administration”, as reported by Eurogamer. A company in the U.K entering administration is similar to one filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy here in North America, they have effectively laid-off their entire 150 person workforce.

Prior to working on 007 Legends Eurocom released the well received James Bond title, GoldenEye Reloaded, on the Nintendo Wii and then Ps3/Xbox 360 one year later. Other notable projects over their 25 year history include Deadspace Extraction on the Wii and the really under rated Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds on the PlayStation 2. The remainder of their catalog consists of various ports and licensed titles dating back to the early 90s.

Our hearts and thoughts go out to everyone who lost their jobs yesterday. It is always sad to see a company go under, especially around the holidays.

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Ruffian Reveals Streets of Rage Reboot Concept

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Broken Joysticks

As we play video games in the current age of reboots, revisions and remasters, developers are always looking to revive vintage franchises that may have been lost in the annals of time for both hardened fans who can wax poetic of the classics, and the new generation of potential fans.

Now, one such franchise that has been silent for quite some time is the brilliant beat ‘em up known to many as Streets of Rage. Made famous for providing an exclusive arcade-style action game for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive with some of the best VG soundtracks created by famed music director Yuzo Koshiro, it would be a series of games that served as a vantage point for Sega in the console wars of the early ‘90s. Sadly, the last Streets of Rage game that was released was Streets of Rage 3 which was more than eighteen years ago, and that’s not counting the debacle that became Fighting Force. However, one developer did not forget and wanted to revive this bare knuckle brawler.

Enter Ruffian Games, best known for their sequel to the skill-for-killing Crackdown 2, and their ultimate pitch: Revive Streets of Rage. Over the course of six to eight weeks with a small group to pitch their efforts, Ruffian produced a 3D prototype of what could’ve been a digitial distributed rendition of the SoR remake. The video below reveals the initial concept for all its worth:
Read More

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Skylanders: Giants “Hot Dog” Now Available For Pre-Order

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Joshua Rust

If you’re all like me and have been playing the Skylanders games with your children, you’re always on the lookout for when the next characters are releasing.  I don’t know about other regions, but the Skylanders Giants figures seem to be staying in stock pretty well – I mean, Activision & Toys For Bob can’t really make any money of scalpers right?

So today it was announced that you can now pre-order Hot Dog through Gamestop.com! I’m sure you could also pre-order this in store as well. Hot Dog will be available January 1st, 2013 (assuming the world doesn’t end here soon huh?). I know I’ll be headed out tomorrow to pre-order mine! So who is everyone’s favorite Skylander from both games combined? I’d have to say mine is between Hex & Terrafin – I’m also digging the giant Bouncer as well!

You can find the link to pre-order Hot Dog by clicking right here!

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Dunwall City Trials DLC Trailer

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Jesse Lord

Bethesda just sent over this fantastic new trailer for the first bit of DLC for Dishonored, called Dunwall City Trials.  Check it out below!

[youtube id=”mEqwAd1o_8k” width=”600″ height=”338″]

This DLC comes out on December 11th, this coming Tuesday, and will cost you $4.99 on PC and PS3, and 400 MS Points on Xbox 360.

Also, I just got a nice Holiday card in the mail from our friends at Bethesda, so I wanted to take the time to say thanks for that!  Here’s what they sent – it’s a very stealthy Christmas, apparently:

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Ubisoft Publisher Sale On Xbox Live Now!

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Joshua Rust

Ubisoft is hosting a huge sale over Xbox Live that includes everything from full games, arcade games, and add-ons. Most notably all of the previous Assassin’s Creed games are on sale so if you haven’t had a chance to pick them up – now is the time! Not to mention that DLC for Assassin’s Creed is on sale as well.  While I haven’t played a lot of these arcade games listed below, I did enjoy the heck out of From Dust. As far as I know this sale will presumably last until this coming Tuesday. So don’t delay!

Games on Demand

  • Assassin’s Creed –  (1080 MSP)
  • Assassin’s Creed II –  (1080 MSP)
  • Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood –  (1400 MSP)
  • Assassin’s Creed: Revelations –  (1400 MSP)
  • Prince of Persia (2008) – (1400 MSP)
  • Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands – (1080 MSP)
  • Splinter Cell: Conviction –  (1040 MSP)

 

Xbox Live Arcade

  • Babel Rising – 400 MSP (was 800)
  • Beyond Good & Evil – 400 MSP (was 800)
  • From Dust – 800 MSP (was 1200)
  • Mad Riders – 400 MSP (was 800)
  • Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes – 600 MSP (was 1200)
  • Outland – 400 MSP (was 800)
  • Prince of Persia Classic – 400 MSP (was 800)
  • Rayman 3 HD – 400 MSP (was 800)
  • Scott Pilgrim – 400 MSP (was 800)
  • Zeit 2 – 200 MSP (was 800)

 

Game Add-Ons

  • Babel Rising – Sky’s the Limit – 120 MSP (was 240)
  • Mad Rising – Zambia Pack – 120 MSP (was 240)
  • Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes – I Am the Boss – 120 MSP (was 240)
  • Scott Pilgrim – Knives Chau Add-on – 80 MSP (was 160)
  • Assassin’s Creed II – Sequence 12: Battle of Forli – 160 MSP (was 320)
  • Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – The Da Vinci Disappearance – 400 MSP (was 800)
  • Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – Ancestors Character Pack – 160 MSP (was 320)
  • Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – Mediterranean Traveler Map Pack – 400 MSP (was 800)
  • Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – The Lost Archive – 400 MSP (was 800)
  • Prince of Persia (2008) – Epilogue – 400 MSP (was 800)
  • Splinter Cell: Conviction – Deniable Ops: Insurgency – 400 MSP (was 800)
  • Your Shape Fitness Evolved – Bundle: Toned Body and Cardio Boxing Platinum – 280 MSP (was 560)

 

Let us know what you’re planning on picking up in the comments below!

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Phantasy Star Online 2 Vita Beta Begins In Japan

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Phantasy Star Online 2 isn’t even out in North America yet but that hasn’t stopped an entire community of avid players from either figuring out how to sign up the Japanese version or posting on forums about the game. PSO2 will see a release on Sony’s Ps Vita sometime early next year in Japan and right now beta sign ups are available for the portable version.

I’m sure by the time this article is published thousands of English speaking gamers will be flooding the servers with their vitas. In order to sign up for the Japanese Beta you will need a PS Vita with an active Japanese PSN account as well as a SEGA Network ID. There are a limited number of spots (50,000) so HURRY!

Only the PC version has been confirmed for North America and is scheduled to arrive sometime next spring. PSO2 is also heading to mobile android phones in Japan but just like the Vita version it may never see the light of day on our shores. When the Vita version releases next Feb it will be available free of charge, supported by micro transactions, or as part of a retail bundle that includes a ton of extras.

Source

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Black Ops II Kills Its Way To $1 Billion In Sales In 15 Days

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Black Ops II

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is a juggernaut of a game being enjoyed by millions of fans since it launched a few weeks ago. The game had already passed the $500 million mark, reached within 24 hours and now it has earned Activision a billion dollars. It’s a figure that would make even Dr.Evil proud, see the key to getting a billion dollars isn’t threatening the world directly with nuclear weapons but creating a game where technologies like nuclear weapons threaten the world!

For comparisons sake last years’ Modern Warfare 3 reached $400 million in a similar period. Despite analysts speculating that the COD franchise cannot continue to grow, the numbers continue to defy professional expectations.

Source: Joystiq

Check out the full PR text after the jump.Read More

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Fire Emblem Awakening Gets North American Release Date

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Great news for North American fans of the Fire Emblem series, Fire Emblem Awakening for the Nintendo 3DS will be released next spring. You’ll be able to get your portable tactical RPG itch scratched on February 4th 2013 according to Kotaku.

Fire Emblem Awakening is the first entry in the franchise on Nintendo’s next gen handheld and was released on the 3DS this past April in Japan. New features return alongside innovations introduced in previous games including the ability to team up with ally characters for joint attacks and the inclusion of player created characters that can be customized.

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End of Nations Dev Faces Layoffs, End of Beta Program

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Things are not looking good for developer Petroglyph Games and their latest RTS offering End of Nations. After going into a limited closed beta earlier this fall development on the game seems to have halted with the studio reportedly laying off 30 employees from its Las Vegas office.

This sad news comes on the heels of two other announcements that transpired these past few weeks. Frist the publisher of the game, Trion Worlds, refunded any purchasers of the game’s beta access pass and now the developer has closed the official forums section for the game. Currently the next beta stress test of End of Nations is scheduled for some time in 2013.

Given their pedigree it’s kind of surprising that Petroglyph just couldn’t get things right with this one. Granted no one else has attempted an MMORTS but when your staff’s resumes include the Westwood era Command & Conquer series and 2005’s spectacular and underrated Star Wars: Empires At War you’ve done something right. Then again Universe at War didn’t exactly set the world on fire when it was release in 2007 either.

Source: Joystiq

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Square-Enix Creates And Pulls Hitman Absolution Facebook App

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Broken Joysticks

In just a single day, the P.R. department representing Hitman Absolution went from celebrating the creation of a brand-new Facebook App to promote the release of said game to initiating damage control because of it.

The idea of the app in question was it gave people a chance to send a virtual death threat (yes, that’s the intent of it, I kid you not) by providing a description set from a list of cruel attributes (i.e., muffin top, annoying laugh, small “breasts”, etc.) and a reason why Agent 47 should step forward and kill the person in question, along with a picture of the target.
Read More

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Dishonored 1.2 Patch Available

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Bethesda has released a new patch for Dishonored bringing the game up to version 1.2 on all platforms. The majority of these fixes are rather minor including one or two encounters that invalidate a non-lethal playthroughs and a bug that prevented the game from being played offline on Steam.

Check out the full list of fixes courtesy of the Bethesda Blog below:

BUG FIXES

  • Support for playing the game on multiple screens.
  • Game Settings are now saved and restored properly even when using Steam offline.
  • Fixes for some interactions with Granny Rags that invalidated nonlethal playthroughs under certain circumstances. (Note: These fixes work even for savegames AFTER the final Granny Rags encounter.)
  • Fix for a crash that could happen during loading/transition between areas – notably near Dr. Galvani’s house.
  • Reworked “Choke” interaction to make it more reliable in valid contexts.
  • Fixed minor localization issues (PS3/360).
  • Fixed global post-process that sometimes worked improperly during some missions.
  • Fix for a rare crash that could happen when killing a NPC with a possessed rat and spring razor (PS3/360)

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PS Vita Firmware 2.01 Now Live

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

PlayStation Vita owners hold on your hats because a new firmware is now live! Okay, so it’s a minor update but it does fix a rather nasty bug that occurred when attempting to sync your PS+ Vita game saves to the cloud. Hopefully no one reading this has lost their saves, with great games like Gravity Rush and Uncharted: Golden Abyss on PSN Plus it would be a shame to have to restart.

The update was announced on twitter this morning and should only take a few moments to apply. On twitter Sony wrote:

“PS Vita system software update 2.01 coming soon. Will fix the issues with automatic synching of PS Plus game saves”

Source: IGN

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Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Demo Lands on PSN

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

The collaborative RPG effort between Professor Layton developer Level-5 and legendary anime studio Studio Ghibli, Ni No Kuni, finally has a presence in North America with the release of a playable demo on the PlayStation Network. If you can’t wait for the game to ship on January 22nd of next year, you now can try a slice of the game free of charge!

The demo allows players to experience two levels from the final game including two boss fights – the Guardian of the Woods and Moltaan, according to IGN.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch was developed by Level-5 in 2010 for the DS before being ported and completely overhauled for the HD Era with a PlayStation 3 release in 2011 in Japan.  Studioo Ghibli, the creators of such great Anime features such as Princess Mononoke and Howls Moving Castle handled the art direction and character design. The story centers on a 13 year old boy, Oliver, who is able to use a book that belonged to his deceased mother to enter a parallel world.

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Skyrim’s Dragonborn DLC Arrives On Xbox 360 Today

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Rae Michelle Richards

Bethesda’s latest update to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim arrives this morning on Xbox Live with the launch of the Dragonborn DLC pack. This latest expansion allows your adventurer to explore the coasts of Morrowind as well as explore the fate of Solstheim. For 1600 Microsoft points you don’t just get a new area to explore, allowing you to travel back to some of the same areas as 2001’s Morrowind but you can also gain access to new powers like additional Dragon Shouts. Check out the official description and trailer below:

Price: 1600 Microsoft Points

Dash Text: With this this official add-on for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, journey off the coast of Morrowind, to the island of Solstheim. Encounter new towns, dungeons, and quests, as you traverse the ash wastes and glacial valleys of this new land. Become more powerful with new shouts that bend the will of your enemies and even tame dragons. Your fate, and the fate of Solstheim, hangs in the balance as you face off against your deadliest adversary – the first Dragonborn.

 

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

 

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Wonderbook: Book of Spells | Review

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Broken Joysticks

Hoo boy I was not looking forward to this one. Harry Potter is a huge phenomenon all over the world and that is so for many reasons. Today we’re not here to discuss the excellent novels or the pretty good movies, we’re here to talk about the terrible, terrible licence games. None of the harry potter games have ever risen above decent in terms of quality in my opinion and unfortunately, Wonderbook: Book of Spells might just be one of the worst entries in the whole franchise. This game is clunky, ill-designed, and most of all boring. As such something this bad rarely comes along, so kiddies without further ado, bring your beat-sticks, let’s get thrashing.Read More

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