Monthly Archives: November 2011

Horde4Charity will be playing Gears of War 3′s Horde Mode for forty-eight hours straight on Insane difficulty in order to benefit the Skylight Miscarriage Organisation. Starting November 18, the event will be streamed live on Justin.tv with Twitter updates via the Gears 4 Charity account and live blogged on the official Facebook page. Come November 20, the six Scotsmen participating, will finally collapse from sleep deprivation, but hopefully not not until enough donations have been made. If you would like to help out, please be a dear and visit the official webpage for the charity and hit the donate button.

Extending the lifespan of games by producing DLC is one way to stop you trading it in, according to Epic Games.

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Eidos president and gaming legend Ian Livingstone has tipped networked software platforms as the future of gaming, in place of hardware.

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NOA’s Reggie Fils-Aime has said Nintendo wants to offer its customers a “complete experience” upfront, and is only interested in paid DLC “to the extent that it makes sense to the consumer.”

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“I can’t blame you if you couldn’t imagine a Facebook game at the level of Unreal Tournament 3 before today. We’re not just talking about triple-A console quality on the web, we’re actually showing it onscreen, in a web browser, playing inside Flash. We chose as our demo a fully playable level from Unreal Tournament 3, and it turned out to look even better than the version we shipped on Xbox 360 and PS3, with improvements like global illumination, better shadows, and god rays.” – Epic’s Mark Rein to Develop regarding Tim Sweeney’s Adobe MAX 2011 demo of UT3 running in Flash Player 11.

In the next issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, Hideo Kojima discusses in an interview with the magazine his “entire body of work”, discusses his thoughts on Metal Gear Solid: Rising, and best of all: “openly discusses his plans for Metal Gear Solid 5 and Project Ogre for the first time.” He also talks about why he’s been trying to “kill off” Solid Snake for the past decade. The issue is expected to hit newsstands on November 29.

Former Activision and Call of Duty veterans Dusty Welch and Chris Archer have announced the formation of a new studio called U4iA Games.

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Nordic Games has announced the acquisition of Painkiller publisher DreamCatcher. The label will be separate under the Nordic label, with the aforementioned game part of a relaunch of an “extensive” back catalogue of games. “After the incorporation of the JoWood and The Adventure Company publishing label, DreamCatcher is the third and last to follow for the time being,” commented Nordic Games CEO Lars Wingefors in the press release. “Our approach is to assess the performance of DreamCatcher’s portfolio through back-catalog sales, and as a consequence develop sequels to its bestselling brands and licenses, just as we did with our other two publishing labels.”

The firm is in negotiations with North American companies regarding the distribution and marketing of products. Thanks, Blue.

NIS has announced the third Atelier title in the Arland sub-series will be localized for the US and Europe. This means you can expect Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland to release on PS3 sometime during spring 2012. The game features a development system which allows the player to add new areas and facilities to the game world, which over time, will change its appearance. The turn-based battle game see the heroine, princess Meruru, become an apprentice of the alchemist Tortori Helmod. Thanks, Gematsu.

Double Fine has announced that Trenched, now known worldwide as Iron Brigade, will be released in Europe on November 30 for XBLA. In addition to the European release, on the same day, players who have already purchased the mech shooting and tower defense title under the Trenched name, will be updated automatically to Iron Brigade complete with new content and enhancements free of charge. The additional goodies to the game include a challenging infinite Survival Mode and ten new pieces of high-powered loot, along with a new leaderboard.

Torchlight 2 has been officially delayed, according to a post from Runic Games president Travis Baldree on the game’s official website.

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During a call to investors today discussing the firm’s financial results, GameStop resident Tony Bartel announced that Call of Duty Elite subscriptions helped pad the firm’s digital sales growth for the quarter.
“In the case of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, we worked closely with Activision, Sony and Microsoft to pre-order and deliver nearly 600,000 instances of the Modern Warfare Elite DLC to date,” Bartel told investors and analysts. “This places the launch of Elite as one of our top 10 launches of the year so far.” Earlier today, GameStop reported 59% growth in digital sales year-on-year, with console digital sales up 63% and PC digital sales up 51%. Thanks, Gamasutra.

SOE has announced the second downloadable pack for DC Universe Online, Lightning Strikes, will be released later this year, adding electricity powers and a new adventure starring the The Flash.

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It was revealed during a during a Nintendo retailer briefing by Resident Evil: Revelations producer Masachika Kawata, that players will be able to unlock the game’s online co-op, Raid Mode, only after completing the main campaign. It was also announced that after the core campaign was finished, Jessica and Obrian will be unlockable as well. It has been noted previously, the main playthrough will last around the 10-hour mark, so be prepared to set aside an allotment of time in order to participate in the co-op. Revelations is set for release on 3DS in February. Thanks: Andriasang, Shack.

GOG.com has announced it’s planning to add newer titles to its digital catalogue of retro games in 2012.

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Rockstar has debuted a new video series for Max Payne 3, which focuses on the game’s design and the technology implemented in the development. The first video, posted below, offers a look at the game’s targeting mechanics, enemy intelligence, movement, and animation, along with other “technical design innovations.” Max Payne 3 is out in March for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

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SEGA has announced the acquisition of the developer of Spiral Knights, Three Rings Design, calling the move a “key part of SEGA’s aggressive expansion into the digital space.”

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John Carmack is in the process of rewriting the code for id’s open-source version of the Doom 3 engine, due to legal issues surrounding the shadow rendering.

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2K’s announced on its blog it’ll release the first brand new trailer of Spec Ops: The Line in nearly two years following a dark period for the shooter, first unveiled at the VGA 2009. A raft of hands-on impressions will also go live at the same. To calm the wait, 2K’s released a brand new shot of the game, which you can find here with the rest of the post.

The Line releases in 2K’s FY2013 for PS3, 360 and PC.

Skyrim players have reported issues with the PS3 version once 5-6MB of stored save data is surpassed, which is apparently causing lag and the inability to interact with NPCs.

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