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Skyrim practically sweeps the 2012 IAAs with five awards

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences handed out the Interactive Achievement Awards for the 15th consecutive year on February 9 and, not surprisingly, Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim came away the big winner.

The RPG practically swept all of the major awards including Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction, and Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering. It also took home RPG of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Story.

Among the other winners, Portal 2 lead the way with three awards including Outstanding Achievement in Connectivity, Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition, and an Outstanding Character Performance for Wheatley. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception also took home three awards, all for Naughty Dog’s continued mastery of game graphics.

You can find the full list of winners after the break, while all the nominated games are listed here. (more…)

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Star Trek pushed back to Q1 2013, Namco Bandai co-publishing

The new Star Trek game is set to be released in early 2013, just in time for the May 17 release of the new Star Trek film. Paramount will be working with Namco Bandai, who will be co-publishing the game.

The game, which was revealed at last year’s E3, has an original story, which is being scripted by the writers and producers of the film, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, working with BAFTA award winner and God of War writer Marianne Krawczyk. Players will play cooperatively as Kirk and Spock in the same prequel universe created by J.J. Abrams 2009 film.

Star Trek is being developed by Digital Extremes and will be released on the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. A Wii U version might also be in the cards as the press release also referenced the game’s release on “major consoles.”

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Skylanders Giants goes big this Fall

Activision has announced Skylanders Giants, sequel to 2011’s Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure.

The sequel will “feature close integration” with the online world Skylanders: Spyro’s Universe, and will also have “a variety of new characters, new challenges, a thrilling new story-driven adventure, and advanced integration across console, handheld, mobile and online.” It will have eight new collectible figures, characters that interact with the figures, new Skylanders, more arenas, and more gameplay options. The sequel also has compatibility with the original game.

Skylanders Giants is once again being developed by Toys For Bob and is scheduled to be out this fall for a “to be announced” set of platforms. The game will make its debut February 12th to the 15th at the North American International Toy Fair in booths 3151 and 3251 at the Javits Center in New York City.

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Mass Effect 3 “Reinstated” trailer shows off FemShep

The new trailer for Mass Effect 3, entitled “Reinstated,” shows off lady Shepard in all her badass glory. The franchise’s fans have been asking for an official trailer featuring the gender-flipped Shepard and it’s finally here. This game just keeps looking better and better with every scene they release.

Mass Effect 3 will be out for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 on March 6. So until then, ponder if you’ll be taking enemies on as FemShep – or, you know, just regular old Shepard.

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New Releases: Vita First Edition, Twisted Metal, UFC Undisputed 3, More

It’s a fight for the hearts of gamers everywhere in this week’s new release roundup as the octagonal orgy of ouchies that is UFC Undisputed 3 (PS3, Xbox 360) goes up against the open-world vehicular violence of Twisted Metal (PS3).

But the real fight this week is for the wallets of gamers everywhere as Sony plans to put out the PlayStation Vita First Edition Bundle and the first wave of Vita software including Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational, Little Deviants, Lumines: Electronic Symphony, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Wipeout 2048, and more.

Nintendo, and other publishers, plan to counter this onslaught with a trio of big 3DS games of their own including Tales of the Abyss, Tekken 3D: Prime Edition, and Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

You can check out the full list of the rest of this week’s new releases after the break. (more…)

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With no new releases, Modern Warfare 3 leads the January 2012 NPD report

With their January 31 release date, Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Soul Calibur V missed the cutoff date for the monthly NPD report, so Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 emerges victorious once again.

Infinity Ward’s latest shooter was followed by string of titles that have been racking up big sales all Winter including Just Dance 3 (#2), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (#3), NBA 2K12 (#4), and Battlefield 3 (#5). And a #8 finish for Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure capped off a strong 2011 for the toy/video game hybrid, including 22% of all accessory sales.

With no major new releases last month, game and hardware sales for January 2012 dropped 38% from the year before when Dead Space 2, which explains the large number of holdovers from 2011.

You can find the complete top ten for January 2012 after the break. (more…)

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Skyrim Creation Kit and High-Resolution Texture Pack now available

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim‘s Creation Kit and High-Resolution Texture Pack are now available for free via Steam.

Players can now “upload, download, and install custom content through the Skyrim Workshop.” What I’m wondering is: could the legends be true?

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Sanctum 2 announced

Coffee Stain Studios recently announced a sequel to their first person co-op shooter/tower defense game, Sanctum. Joystiq revealed that the sequel, Sanctum 2, will be out sometime in 2013.

Unlike the original, which was a PC exclusive that sold over 300,000 units on Steam, the sequel will be released for “digital console platforms,” including PC, the PSN, and XBLA.

Ted Lange, executive producer for Reverb Publishing, said “Sanctum has been a huge success on Steam for Coffee Stain Studios, and bringing the next version to console players as well as the PC market is a great next step to share this unique experience. We all have logged quite a few hours with Sanctum and can definitively say that what Coffee Stain has in store for Sanctum 2 will blow the minds of Sanctum fans and new gamers alike.”

Check out Sanctum on Steam, or pick it up for $9.99.

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