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Gearbox adds female characters to Aliens: Colonial Marines multiplayer

Given that the Alien film series has always featured strong female roles (including Ellen Ripley, Private Vasquez or Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in Prometheus), it seemed not only sexist but basically wrong when Aliens: Colonial Marines producer Brian Burleson announced there would be no female characters in the multiplayer portion of the game. After a major online petition, signed by over 4,000 people including several associated with the Aliens film, it finally caught the attention of Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford.

Speaking to Eurogamer at this weekend’s PAX Prime, the company’s head honcho revealed that the co-op mode and online multiplayer will both feature at least one playable female character. The company released artwork of the co-op character, Private Jennifer Running, a fiery, short-haired redhead. Whether she was created after the petition, or existed all along and was only revealed early because of the outcry, we will never really know.

While it is a great result for female gamers, or those males who wish to get it touch with their female roots, should we really have been having this discussion over a game set in the Aliens universe? What do you think, readers?

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2K announces four DLC expansions, Season Pass for Borderlands 2

In a move certain to fan the flames of the DLC debate, 2K and Gearbox have announced four additional downloadable campaigns for Borderlands 2 before the retail game is even out. Each one will cost $9.99, meaning the total comes to $40, two thirds of the game’s actual price. Thankfully the company is offering a Season Pass, which will ensure that you’re the proud owner of all four DLC campaigns for only $30, saving you $10.

Minus the Season Pass, this is the same amount of content Gearbox created for the first Borderlands game.

I love Borderlands and the DLC for the original, But I still bought them through gritted teeth over the realization of spending $100 on a single game. Especially when the Game of the Year edition was released with all four campaigns included (and is now available for a mere $20). So if you love Gearbox’s humorous FPS and are flush with cash, the Season Pass may be for you. But for the rest of us, hold out for the GotY edition, which given current trends will probably be out this time next year.

Borderlands 2 will be available for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on September 18.

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Brothers In Arms: Furious 4 will drop the Brothers In Arms name

Last month, Gearbox Software President Randy Pitchford promised that the company was still toiling away at Brothers In Arms: Furious 4. This weekend at PAX Prime, he revealed that while the game still hasn’t been canceled, it’ll no longer carry the “Brothers In Arms” name.

“I wanted to let everyone know that that game’s no longer going to be a Brothers In Arms game. It’s going to be an all-new IP,” Pitchford said.

First revealed at E3 2011, Furious 4’s comic tone was at odds with the franchise’s formerly serious structure. Instead, the co-op shooter seemed to be taking its cues from Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

The all-new Furious 4 will be re-announced at a Gearbox Community Day event later this year.

[Source: The Verge]

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Weekly Warp-Up: PAX Prime 2012 Edition

No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…

Are you living it up at this year’s PAX Prime expo? Did you get a chance to view the 11-minute Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes trailer? How about Insomniac’s announcement of Fuse? Or Runic’s announcement of a release date for Torchlight II? Have you found the Arcadecraft devs yet? Or the big question, have you played the Wii U?

If the siren song of Seattle didn’t lure you in this year, there’s still plenty to talk about on this Labor Day weekend. Like 5 Video Game Characters Who Deserve a 3-Day Weekend or your favorite Nintendo Power Memories. We can even chat about What We Played in August 2012.

But if you’re looking for something more than that, have no fear, the rest of the Weekly Warp-Up is here (after the break)! (more…)

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Check out this 11-minute Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes trailer

Hideo Kojima has invaded PAX Prime 2012 to give us a closer look at his newly announced Metal Gear title, Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. The nearly 11-minute trailer above is very impressive and we now know that the game won’t star Solid Snake. Instead, the game will continue the adventures of Big Boss in the 1970s as Ground Zeroes is being positioned as a direct sequel to Peace Walker. Not only that but, according to Kojima himself, the game will serve as a prequel to Metal Gear Solid 5.

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes is in development for the PS3 and Xbox 360, but no release date has been announced.

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New Releases: The Sims 3 Supernatural, Everyone Sing

We have to endure one more week of the slow Summer season before the Fall avalache covers us all in a blanket of new games.

But for fans of The Sims, this week sees the release of The Sims 3: Supernatural. The sppoky expansion adds witches, wizards, werewolves, vampires, and fairies to the Sims world as magical spells and shuffling zombie hordes.

Also available this week is Everyone Sing, which is being released for the Wii, the PS3, and the Xbox 360.

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Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII announced for PS3 and Xbox 360

As expected, Square Enix announced a third game in the “Lightning saga” during today’s start of the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary celebration. The game will be known as Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, and it’ll explore the final 13 days of Lightning’s world.

Yoshinori Kitase, a Producer on the Fabula Nova Crystallis project, promises that the game will include “the answers to the Lightning saga” and we were given our first taste of those answers through a series of presentations by the game’s developers.

The game will be an open world RPG that makes use of the Paradigm Shift combat system. Players will also be able to customize Lightning’s armor and weapons as they attempt to save the world from its apocalyptic demise. You can more about the game directly from the developers themselves as Director Motomu Toriyama, Game Design Director Yuji Abe, and Art Director Isamu Kamikokuryo all gave lenghty presentations on stage in Japan.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 sometime next year.

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Insomniac announces Fuse at PAX Prime 2012

Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price announced a new game during his PAX Prime 2012 keynote address. The name of the game is Fuse and Price directed audience members (and those of us watching at home) to FuseGame.com, where we were greeted by a countdown clock.

The clock expires on September 12 at 9 AM (Eastern Time). Presumably we’ll learn more about Fuse then. But if the screenshot above is any indication, Fuse is just a new name for Overstrike, Insomniac’s multiplatform “secret agents versus robots” actionfest that was first announced at E3 2011. Don’t believe, check out the official Overstrike site and compare.

Whatever you call it, we’ll have more information in a few weeks.

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