Most Recent: News

D3 announces US release date for Earth Defense Force 2025

Posted on December 13, 2012 by John Scalzo

earthdefenseforce-logoD3 Publisher has announced that the fourth Earth Defense Force game will be making its way to America in 2013. Announced as Earth Defense Force 4 a few months ago, the game will be released in America for the PS3 and Xbox 360 as Earth Defense Force 2025.

In addition to more missions and bigger bugs, EDF 2025 promises to include a four-player multiplayer mode and the return of original developer Sandlot.

Earth Defense Force 2025 is an action shooting bonanza that arms players with their choice of EDF soldier classes equipped with more weapons ever in the series and the elite training to exterminate menacing insects of all sizes in the global quest to protect the world from alien invasion.

Sign me up.

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GLaDOS battles Lovecraftian aliens in Del Toro’s Pacific Rim

Posted on December 13, 2012 by John Scalzo

Rumor has it that Guillermo Del Toro’s Insane is back in production at some mystery game developer. And with the release of the first trailer for next year’s Pacific Rim film, it looks like the famed director will be battling a lot of Lovecraftian monsters in 2013.

In Pacific Rim, skyscraper-sized aliens have emerged from a portal underneath the Pacific Ocean and its up to Idris Elba and his team of Jaeger pilots to stop them. Anime fans will recognize the Jaegers as being very similar to the 25-foot tall mechas that are very popular in Japanese cinema and television. Be sure to check out the trailer above where Elba gives a rousing speech that rivals Bill Pullman’s at the end of Independence Day and listen close for the voicework of Ellen McClain (AKA GLaDOS from the Portal series) as the voice of the AI that manages the mechas.

Pacific Rim will be open in theaters on June 12, 2013.

Posted in Etcetera, News |

BitComposer obtains the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. license

Posted on December 12, 2012 by John Scalzo

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BitComposer, a European publisher headquartered in Germany, has acquired the video game rights to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series from the estate of the Strugatsky brothers. Arkady Strugatsky and his brother Boris, who passed away last month, wrote the novel Roadside Picnic in 1972. It heavily influenced the 1979 film Stalker and subsequently formed the backbone of GSC Game World’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.

The publisher views the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. license as their springboard to more international recognition.

“The acquisition of the S.T.AL.K.E.R. license serves as an important cornerstone for the further international orientation of bitComposer Entertainment,” said Stefan Weyl, who is a member of the company’s executive board. “For us, this brand represents a bridge to an important segment of triple-A products and a milestone in the history of the company.”

Former publisher GSC Game World was working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 before their closure in April.

Posted in News |

Daily Scoop: December 12, 2012 – Yes, I know, it’s a lot of twelves

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Nicole Kline

Wow, the Internet is really excited that today is the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year! They were especially excited at twelve minutes and twelve seconds past noon. Apparently, it’s also a popular day to get married – I think it’s called a “vanity wedding date” or something crazy like that. What will they think of next?

Anyway, after yesterday’s Gold Box event, I’m happy to tell you that there are still some pretty decent sales going on! Dishonored, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Halo 4, Hitman: Absolution, and Medal of Honor: Warfighter are all $39.99 on Amazon. There are some new weekly specials featured over at Play-Asia as well – you can get Asura’s Wrath for $14.90 and Catherine for $17.90.

There’s just one t-shirt today, but it’s a cutie! (more…)

Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News |

XBLA Today: Black Knight Sword, American Mensa Academy

Posted on December 12, 2012 by John Scalzo

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We’ve got two new additions to the Xbox Live Arcade today. First up is the Suda 51-produced platformer, Black Knight Sword:

From the twisted and brilliant mind of Suda 51 comes Black Knight Sword, a platforming adventure with an unprecedented visual style. In this fresh take on the classic fairy tale, The Black Knight treks through a dark and mysterious world filled with whimsical creatures to kill the dark princess and ending her reign of terror. A throwback to classic platformers, Black Knight Sword evokes simple yet addictive and challenging gameplay with an overall aesthetic unlike anything released to date.

Also available this week is the braining training game American Mensa Academy:

Get ready to stretch your grey matter as you put yourself through more than 100 interesting and challenging puzzles designed to stretch and train your brain in key areas including logic, language, visual and more. Mensa Academy is the only brain training game backed by Mensa, the high IQ society, so for the first time you’ll be able to put all that practice into action by taking on real Mensa-style questions, like the ones you see in the Mensa IQ tests. What will your Mensa Academy score be?

Both games have been priced at 800 Microsoft Points ($10) apiece.

Posted in News, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Diablo III is “up and running” on consoles; still no official announcement

Posted on December 12, 2012 by John Scalzo

diabloiiiconsoleOh Blizzard, you’re such a tease!

Speaking to Polygon, Blizzard’s Rob Pardo has confirmed that the developer has a version of Diablo III “up and running” on console hardware. But, he reiterated, the company is still not ready to officially announce it.

“We’re still kind of exploring it,” said Pardo. “We’ve got builds up and running on it. We’re hoping to get it far enough along where we can make it an official project, but we’re not quite ready to release stuff about it, but it’s looking pretty cool.”

I realize Blizzard wants to ensure a console version of Diablo III can live up to its PC predecessor before they officially announce it or post screenshots or give it a release date, but come on, this is getting ridiculous.

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Rumor: PS4 codenamed Thebes, set to launch in Spring 2014

Posted on December 12, 2012 by John Scalzo

playstationlogoI was just thinking that it’s been awhile since we’ve heard some PlayStation 4 rumors.

The latest news to come out of Sony via inside sources says that the PS4 has been codenamed “Thebes” (and not “Orbis,” like previously assumed). Production hasn’t begun on the system’s innards just yet, so this rumor posits that the PS4 will be available in Spring 2014 at the earliest. And if that doesn’t happen, the next-most-likely release date is listed as Fall 2014.

So much for Sony swearing they wouldn’t be last this generation, huh?

[Source: SemiAccurate]

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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Black Knight Sword, more added to PS Store

Posted on December 12, 2012 by John Scalzo

“The Trilogy” is complete, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is now available to download from the PlayStation Store in “PS2 Classics” form.

Joining the open world classic in this week’s update are Black Knight Sword (a platformer from Suda 51), Judge Dee: The City God Case (a hidden object game), Mix Superstar (a music mixer), and Ben 10 Omniverse (which is based on the popular Cartoon Network cartoon).

Finally this week we have Big Sky Infinity, a twin-stick shooter for the PSN/Vita that features randomly generated stages that change based on your skill level. Also, it’s a Cross-Buy title, so if you buy it for one platform, you get it on the other for free.

Hit the jump for a closer look at all of these games and hit up the PlayStation Blog for a complete rundown of this week’s new game add-ons. (more…)

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