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People pledged $83 million towards games on Kickstarter in 2012

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According to the very amazing Best of Kickstarter 2012, amazing people around the world pledged $83,144,565 to games. I’m having a hard time writing this right now, because the game I’m working on, Monsters!, is among them. My heart is swelling! Of the 13 creative categories in Kickstarter, the Games category had the most money pledged (though Music had the most funded projects with 5,067).

Scroll through the slideshow they have up there. Seriously. I challenge you not to cry when you get to December and see the first marriage proposal through Kickstarter via – what else? – a video game.

Thank you, everyone, for your love and support, and for making some of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Sometimes the Internet brings the world together in beautiful ways.

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Daily Scoop: January 9, 2013 – Halfway there!

It seems that way too many of my scoops are about counting down to the weekend, pining for the weekend, or lamenting the death of the weekend. That’s mainly because the weekend is when I can actually game without guilt! Well, this term, I will have homework, so maybe “without guilt” is the wrong word to use. Whatever, it’s when I stay up as long as I want, gaming or doing homework!

Looking for a good deal? Well, I’m sad to say I only found one today. Best Buy has the Ultimate Combo Pack: Twisted Metal & DUALSHOCK 3 Wireless Controller on sale from $59.99 to $39.99. This is a pretty good deal!

Just two shirts for you today: (more…)

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2K Games pulls off the hidden ball trick by announcing Major League Baseball 2K13

majorleaguebaseball2k13-boxLike a pitcher with a perfect pickoff move, 2K Sports waited until the last possible second to announce Major League Baseball 2K13. But that’s just what they’ve done, confirming that a new deal with the MLB and the Player’s Association will allow MLB 2K13 to be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on March 5, 2013. David Price, the American League Cy Young Award-winning pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays, has been selected to appear on the cover.

“We’d like to thank our league partners for their support in helping us reach an agreement to bring back Major League Baseball 2K,” said Jason Argent, Vice President of Marketing for 2K Sports.

2K will also bring back their popular (but controversial) Perfect Game Challenge. For 2013, the publisher plans to introduce a new format for the contest, which they’ll announce at a later date.

But, following up on the pickoff metaphor, it remains to be seen if this latest iteration in the simulation series will be a precision strike or an errant throw that sails wildly off the mark.

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Treyarch officially unveils Revolution map pack for CoD Black Ops II

It appears that the rumors are true. Announced yesterday by Treyarch and Activision, Call of Duty: Black Ops II‘s first downloadable map pack will be known as Revolution.

Available to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace on January 29, Revolution will include four new multiplayer maps, a new Zombies map, a new Zombies gametype, and a new weapon (The Peacekeeper, a new SMG/assault rifle hybrid). You can watch the trailer above for all the details on the new maps or you can read about them yourself right here:

  • “Downhill” – Set in the ski country of the French Alps, where players fight their way down the slopes and through a ski lodge, while avoiding the moving hazards of the mountain’s gondola system.
  • “Grind” – Transports players to the historic birthplace of skateboarding, California’s Venice Beach, where they will battle it out through the ramps and half-pipes of this massive, epic skate park in a multiplayer environment comprised of unique curved architecture requiring players to adapt and learn new ways to take cover.
  • “Hydro” – Opponents must dodge the floodwaters as they contend for dominance of this hydroelectric dam facility in Pakistan, filled with treacherous spillways.
  • “Mirage” – Pits players in competition amidst the sand dunes of a dilapidated luxury resort in the sandstorm-devastated Gobi Desert, where a range of long-distance and close-quarters combat will mix up the action for all play styles.
  • “Die Rise” (Zombies) – Transports players to the Far East, where they will attempt to overcome a zombie infestation inside a series of collapsed skyscrapers towering over the remains of an obliterated Chinese city.

“Die Rise” will be joined by “Turned,” a new Zombies gametype that lets players play as the undead for the first time.

The Revolution map pack will be available for 1200 Microsoft Points ($14.99) or as a free download for owners of the Call of Duty: Black Ops II DLC Season Pass. Revolution will be released on additional platforms (including the PC, PS3, and hopefully the Wii U) at a later date.

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PS3/Xbox 360 release of Painkiller Hell & Damnation pushed back to April

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The PS3/Xbox 360 port of Painkiller Hell & Damnation was tentatively set for a late January release, but it looks like the devils at Nordic Games have other plans. The publisher has announced that the game will now be released for consoles in April. European gamers will get it on April 5 while a new American release date has yet to be announced.

No specific reasons were given for the delay, but a Nordic representative has revealed that the development team at The Farm 51 needed a little more time to get the console version up to snuff.

“We have been working around the clock to bring the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game in line with the quality and standard of the PC game,” said Reinhard Pollice, the Production and Business Development Manager at Nordic Games. “There has been a slight delay so that the console communities can enjoy the fiendishly ghoulish experience that we know they want and deserve. In taking this additional time to add the final touches, we know that players will realise that the best things do come to those who wait!”

Hopefully, we’ll hear about the final US release date soon.

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PSN Today: God of War: Ascension beta, EDF 2017 Portable, Demon’s Souls, more

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If you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, the big item in today’s PlayStation Store update is surely the God of War: Ascension multiplayer beta. Also available today is Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable, a Vita-exclusive port of the Xbox 360 classic with added levels and a new character class.

If you prefer to do your gaming on the PS3, there’s a quartet of new choices: the action RPG The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, movie tie-in Rise of the Guardians, PSN newbie Dance Magic, and the beloved Demon’s Souls.

Hit the jump for a more complete rundown of all of these titles and be sure to visit the PlayStation Blog to view this week’s new game add-ons. (more…)

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DayZ standalone version “overhauls” the zombie apocalypse with inventory, UI tweaks

dayzProject Leader Dean Hall and his team at Bohemia Interactive missed their planned 2012 release date for the standalone edition of DayZ. But they’ve got a good excuse. Hall’s latest development update has revealed that Bohemia has used the extra time to rebuild the game engine and “[make DayZ] the game […] we all dreamed it could be.”

Besides changes to the game engine and the user interface, Hall’s main focus has been on overhauling the inventory system. From the sounds of it, this new system could change the way we look at surviving the post-apocalyptic landscape of your average zombie game:

You scavenge for items now, as individual parts, picking up pieces rather than piles, looking for cans on shelves or under beds. The new system opens the door for durability of items, disease tracking (cholera lingering on clothes a player wears…), batteries, addon components, and much more. If you shoot a player in the head to take his night vision, you will damage the night vision. The changes to this inventory system are huge.

Hall has also revealed that Bohemia is planning an internal test of DayZ and that we can expect a new release date only after any issues discovered during the test are fixed.

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Daily Scoop – January 8, 2013 – Shirts galore!

OK, so I lied: it’s not really shirts galore. But there are three awesome t-shirts that I think you’ll all love, including a great Adventure Time mashup. If anyone is looking for a present for me for my birthday, feel free to buy it for me!

Not a lot of deals going on today, folks – sorry! There’s plenty to get excited about on Amazon’s video game deals page, but nothing really all that specific. I’m just going to keep on playing my backlog until Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch comes out. Oh, actually, I’ll be playing the Borderlands 2 DLC next week, so that only gives me a week to play that before Ni No Kuni. I’m going to be busy! I don’t need no sales!

And now, what you’ve really been waiting for… the t-shirts! (more…)

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