Most Recent: PS3

Call of Duty: Black Ops is the best-selling PS3 game of all time

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Relying on data from the NPD Group, Chart-Track, and GfK, Activision announced today that Call of Duty: Black Ops is the highest selling game on Sony’s PlayStation 3 since the console launched in 2006. The PS3 is in its fifth year on the market, and CoDBlOps managed to accomplish this feat in less than four months. The announcement came with the arrival of the First Strike DLC map pack on the PlayStation Store this week.

We recently compared the game with its immediate predecessor, Modern Warfare 2, and came out with Black Ops as the superior game. While Call of Duty isn’t necessarily the greatest series in the world, it’s nice to see Black Ops surpass the records of the last one.

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Mortal Kombat introduces the Challenge Tower, wants you to cry

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

The newest feature revealed by NetherRealm Studios for the upcoming Mortal Kombat is the Challenge Tower. We could make a news post detailing all the insane scenarios shown and described in the trailer above (Test Your Might, Test Your Sight, etc), but you really should just see it for yourself. My favorite is when Mileena offers Scorpion a Teddy Bear, which he refuses. Frustrated at how long she spent making it, the two have no choice but to battle it out.

Mortal Kombat will be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on April 19, with a PlayStation Plus-exclusive demo planned for March 8.

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Resistance 3 multiplayer detailed at GDC, beta coming soon

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Insomniac made waves at GDC today when they shed some light on the multiplayer for the latest installment of their alternate history, sci-fi shooter series, Resistance 3. Probably the biggest change is the reduced scale. Resistance: Fall of Man wowed players at the time with up to forty players per game at a constant frame rate, and Resistance 2 upped that to 60. Things are being considerably toned down and focused now, as the third game will have intimate, 16-player battles. Insomniac made this decision from fan feedback and seeing just how fun the gameplay was on the smaller maps.

Another big feature will be loadout customization, where players can spend unlock points to develop their repertoire. The defining aspect of the progression system seems to be the abilities, and they come in four flavors. The first two are Abilities (Support and Tactical), which allow you to distribute ammo, enhance your team’s radar, or dash really quick to get out of a tight spot. The second set are Attributes, which come in Personal and Combat flavors. These appear to be your standard perks like faster reloading, but also really interesting options like having the series’ trademark leapers burst from your corpse upon death.

I got a lot out of Resistance 2, it was worth much more than the $60 price tag if you ask me, but it hasn’t aged considerably well in this age of shooters, and I’m glad the match sizes will be more personable. I’m worried they may be missing the point on the progression system, though. Call of Duty popularized the mechanic, but they always made the abilities you earn at high levels a lot harder to effectively utilize than the all-purpose abilities you start out with. Having players augment them as they gain experience may be a little hard to balance. In any case, we’ll be looking out for Resistance 3 when it launches on PlayStation 3 on September 6 later this year.

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Mortal Kombat demo coming to PlayStation Plus next Tuesday

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Sony’s been trying really hard to get you to jump in on their subscription-based service PlayStation Plus, and today they deliver another enticing offer in that effort. Mortal Kombat will arrive on the PlayStation Store next Tuesday, March 8 for Plus subscribers only. Regular PSN users will get a chance to download it a week later. The game will be compatible with Automatic Download, so make sure you turn the feature on so your PS3 can achieve sentience and download it on its own.

The demo features Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage, Mileena, and Sub-Zero as they battle it out on two ultra-vintage stages: The Pit and The Living Forest. You can get in on these fights with both single player and one-on-one Versus modes. And, of course, Fatalities and the new X-Ray Mode are included. Finally, for all you affluent technophiles, yes, the demo will support 3D.

The PlayStation Blog invites players to experience the joy of over-gory Fatalities, which it calls “once-controversial.” I’m not so sure about that. Seeing Kung Lao pull his victims legs-first towards his spinning razor hat to be dissected like some horrible biology experiment is an image I simply can’t get out of my head. Maybe listening to the iconic theatrical theme song of the series will help me stay sane until Mortal Kombat releases for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on April 19. I hope.

WB Games has said that the Mortal Kombat demo will be released on the Xbox Live Marketplace at a later date.

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Red Dead Redemption, Minecraft clean up at GDC Awards

Posted on March 3, 2011 by John Scalzo

The Game Developers Conference continues to roll on in San Francisco, and the game industry honored their own last night with the 11th annual Game Developers Choice Awards.

Red Dead Redemption was the most honored game of the night, winning the Game of the Year award as well as Best Game Design, Best Technology and Best Audio. The developers at Rockstar San Diego had to share the spotlight with Mojang’s Minecraft, which won three awards: Best Debut Game, Innovation Award and Best Downloadable Game.

Three other games were winners at last night’s GDC Awards: BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 for Best Writing, ZeptoLab’s Cut the Rope for Best Handheld Game, and Playdead’s Limbo for Best Visual Arts.

Three special awards were also handed out. The man behind the Fable franchise , Peter Molyneux, won the Lifetime Achievement Award. Another big name among RPG producers, Yu Suzuki, won the Pioneer Award. Maybe this’ll give him the clout he needs to create the long-rumored Shenmue III.

Finally, the Ambassador Award was given to Tim Brengle and Ian MacKenzie, two early organizers of the Game Developers Conference.

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Saints Row: The Third coming Holiday 2011

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Fans of the over-the-top, open-world crimefest that is the Saints Row series will be pleased to know the latest entry, Saints Row: The Third, will be available this Holiday season for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

The game will take a turn for the series, as the player will begin as already being the head of a criminal organization, with all of the benefits that go along with it, instead of starting from the bottom. “There’s no delivering pizza, no shuttling family members about in a long series of taxi missions. Instead, you take all the power of the Third Street Saints and you take the world by storm,” said Executive Vice President of Core Games (what?) Danny Bilson of THQ. We could take it a step further and say it’ll take video game forums by storm, as after the last two iterations of each franchise, many hold that Saints Row has surpassed Grand Theft Auto.

More information will be available when the April issue of Game Informer hits subscribers’ mailboxes soon.

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Dead Space: Ignition Review: Devilishly Puzzling

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Nicole Kline

Visceral Games has been really busy lately with the release of Dead Space 2, the port of Dead Space: Extraction, and the development of their recently released DLC entitled Dead Space 2: Severed. Back in October, they released Dead Space Ignition, which came free with Amazon pre-orders of Dead Space 2. I finally had a chance to play this devilish puzzler, and while it was short, it was enjoyable and gave yet another viewpoint of the Dead Space universe. (more…)

Posted in PS3, Reviews, Top Story, Xbox 360 |

InFamous 2 allows you to make your own missions, beta coming in April

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Sucker Punch really doesn’t want you to stop playing InFamous 2. “No matter how many missions and mini-missions and systemic opportunities and branching story lines we add to the game, eventually the story ends,” said Development Director Chris Zimmerman (not Kris Zimmerman). To make sure the game never leaves your PS3, they announced today at GDC that InFamous 2 will provide the means for you to play, create, and share user-generated missions. The interface looks similar to the creation wheel in ModNation Racers as you can select props, enemies, and determine how the mission will play out. The trailer showcases defending and escort scenarios, and the developers tease that you’ll be able to create pure stealth objectives and even disc golf by substituting frisbees with cars.

A limited beta will begin in early April which you can sign up for starting March 14. Some of the best created levels during this time will even show up on the final version of the game. InFamous 2 launches on PlayStation 3 June 7, with an insane special edition.

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