Most Recent: Xbox 360

Remedy reveals more Alan Wake

Posted on May 10, 2011 by John Scalzo

Remedy’s Head of Franchise Development, Oskari Hakkinen, has reached out to Joystiq to confirm that a new Alan Wake mystery project is in the works.

Hakkinen was encouraged to send the confirmation due to a Joystiq report that “Alan Wake 2” had appeared on the resume of an artist who claimed to work on the title. The “2” part in the title appears to be a mistake, but Remedy also revealed that the new project is not DLC for the original Alan Wake:

Fans of the franchise will be excited to learn that yes, more Wake is coming! But to be absolutely certain to avoid confusion, this next Wake installment will not be Alan Wake 2. But neither will it be DLC. The rest we’re saving for our official announcement when we’ll actually SHOW YOU.

So it’s not a sequel and it’s not DLC. So it’s either a sidestory (in the same way that Capcom doesn’t consider Resident Evil: Code Veronica a sequel to Resident Evil 3: Nemesis) or it’s a new edition of Alan Wake that contains new content (and I would guess the previously released DLC as well).

There’s no details on when it’ll be officially announced, but Remedy did say the game has a tentative release date of Fall 2011. Hakkinen also said that “platforms” (that’s plural, with an “S”) for the game would be announced soon. So it sounds like Alan Wake may finally be lighting up the desktops of PC gamers this Fall as well.

Posted in News, PC, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Mortal Kombat: Legacy episode 5 now available

Posted on May 10, 2011 by John Scalzo

Kitana and Mileena continue their training in the latest episode of Mortal Kombat: Legacy. The sister’s tale is once again told through a combination of animation and live action as they hunt down Shao Kahn’s enemies and prepare for the first Mortal Kombat tournament.

There’s no hint as to who will take center stage next week, but here’s hoping it’s Scorpion and Sub-Zero!

Posted in Etcetera, News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged ,

Activision: No Diablo III in 2011, Call of Duty 8 will be awesome

Posted on May 10, 2011 by John Scalzo

Activision held their quarter financial call yesterday and laid out a few more details about their 2011 slate of games. The company’s executives stressed that any real information about these titles would have to wait for E3, they did reveal a few juicy tidbits of information.

First off, it looks like it’s unlikely that a new Blizzard game will be released in 2011. That means no Diablo III and definitely no StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. Instead, the publisher’s COO, Thomas Tippl, said to expect both games in 2012: “[O]ur outlook at this time does not include a new game from Blizzard in 2011. Should Blizzard not release a major title this year, we would expect, for planning purposes, to launch a minimum of 2 Blizzard titles in 2012.”

Mike Morhaime, the CEO of Blizzard, was a tad more optimistic, saying the team wants to release Diablo III in 2011, but that they’re not ready to confirm an official release date yet: “The development team is working hard to try and launch Diablo III this year. But I want to be clear that we do not have an official release date or window yet. As always, we will not compromise the quality of the game in order to hit a window.”

While a 2011 release date is still a question mark, A Diablo III beta is being planned for the Summer.

One Activision title that does have a confirmed 2011 release date is the currently unannounced Call of Duty 8. The publisher still hasn’t shared any new information about the next entry in the mega-selling series, but Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, is pretty convinced it’ll be awesome: “By any measure, Call of Duty is one of the biggest entertainment franchises in the world and we expect this year’s game will set a new standard for this incredible franchise. The creative excellence and sheer scale of the game we are making and the unprecedented online universe that will accompany it will reset the bar for this genre, giving players a new level of immersion, connectivity, community and of course epic action. The game today has exceeded every internal milestone and we look forward to sharing this with you soon.”

Hirshberg also confirmed that a new James Bond game is in the works for 2011. But again, it looks like we’ll have to wait until E3 to learn more about it (and all of these titles).

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 | Tagged , , , ,

Guardian Heroes coming to XBLA

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Bret Morace

Sega announced that they are releasing the classic Guardian Heroes for the Xbox Live Arcade. Guardian Heroes was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn and developed by Treasure. The re-release will include online co-op, battle modes, enhanced graphics, and much more. The game will be available this fall.

“Ever since we began to make Sega’s classic Dreamcast and Genesis titles available for modern systems, the fan response has been overwhelming – and the demand for their favorite games has been pouring in,” said Haruki Satomi, VP of Digital Business at Sega. “Players have been clamoring for this treasured favorite from the Saturn days, and we cannot wait to show them what we have got for them.”

Posted in News, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Brink launch trailer is full of wall jumping

Posted on May 9, 2011 by John Scalzo

The continuing PlayStation Network outage means that Brink‘s multiplayer portions will be closed off to PS3 players, but that hasn’t stopped Bethesda from releasing an amazing launch trailer that shows off the game’s wild wall running and gorgeous gunplay.

Brink will be available in stores tomorrow for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Daily Scoop: May 9, 2011 – The PSN outage continues

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Nicole Kline

The ApocalyPS3 is still in full swing, with Sony now admitting the service will likely not return “fully” until May 31. In case you hadn’t noticed, May 31 is 22 days from now. That is a ridiculous amount of time for the PSN to be down, bringing their total downtime to well over a month. I’m not sure what their welcome back package is going to include, but I think for some people, it’s going to need to offer to pay for the therapy they’re in right now as they’re going through multiplayer withdrawal.

And now, onto the deals! Today’s Amazon Deal of the Day in video games is LucasArts’ Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars for the Wii. It’s $34.99 down from $49.99. I would definitely recommend it for the fan of the Lego games in general – sure, if you’ve played one, you’ve played them all, but they’re really enjoyable either way. I’ve been playing the 3D version on the 3DS and it’s been a pretty fun time!

Also, Brink is coming out tomorrow, and Amazon’s running a $10 promotional credit on that, as well as cutting $5 off the price tag on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. They’ve also upped the promotional credit for L.A. Noire to $15 for both PS3 and 360 versions. Click here for a full list of all bonus offers at Amazon right now.

Today’s daily t-shirt is courtesy of Ript, and it’s called A Moogle We Can Believe In:

Can we say Moogle/Chocobo ’12?

Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 |

Keiji Inafune tricked Capcom into publishing Dead Rising, Lost Planet

Posted on May 9, 2011 by John Scalzo

It’s almost fitting that Keiji Inafune, best known as the creator of Mega Man, is the proud owner of a giant pair of brass balls.

Two of Inafune’s more recent projects, Dead Rising and Lost Planet, have become big moneymakers for Capcom. But the company didn’t have the utmost confidence in them when development began. In fact, the publisher canceled both games when they were still in the prototype stage. Expecting this outcome, Inafune and his team continued work on the games in secret and he went back to his bosses a second time. Not wanting to lose all the money Inafune spent on developing both games, Capcom executives gave the go-ahead to push them into full production.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Inafune was prepared to be fired for his act of treason. But he did it to fight back against a rule at Capcom that mandated that 80% of the company’s output had to be a sequel to a previously released game. So all those Street Fighter/Resident Evil/Mega Man sequels? They were the result of an actual company policy to sequelize everything. That explains so much.

Inafune believes his work on Dead Rising and Lost Planet (and their eventual blockbuster sales numbers) saved Capcom from bankruptcy. We’ll never know for sure, but if the father of Mega Man said it, I believe it.

[Soruce: Andriasang]

Posted in News, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Saints Row 3 character creator announced

Posted on May 7, 2011 by John Scalzo

Ninja? Pirate? Ninja-pirate? Naked ninja-pirate? The choice is yours…

First off, that’s the greatest opening to a press release in… well, pretty much ever. Secondly, ninjas and pirates are almost totally identified by what they wear, so there can never be a “naked ninja-pirate.” Although, I suppose if anyone could pull it off, Johnny Depp could.

All this talk of pirates and ninjas is because THQ has revealed the Saints Row Initiation Station, a standalone character creator that’ll be made available for free ahead of Saints Row: The Third‘s holiday release. But pirates and ninjas running around Steelport will seem relatively normal next to some of the other character ideas THQ has suggested:

  • Your favorite train wreck celebrity-turned reality TV star
  • Your least favorite overpaid prima donna professional athlete
  • A cape-wearing superhero (or villain)
  • Cowboys and Indians
  • A Dominatrix and her sex slave
  • Tag-team wrestling partners with sordid pasts

Players will be able to use the Initiation Station to create as many characters as they can come up with. These characters can then be uploaded and shared with all your closest friends. You can even download someone else’s character and change it to suit your own twisted imagination.

Oh yeah, Saints Row 3 is going to awesome. Or at least awesomely bizarre.

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged