PSN Today: God of War: Ascension beta, EDF 2017 Portable, Demon’s Souls, more

Posted on January 8, 2013 by John Scalzo

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If you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, the big item in today’s PlayStation Store update is surely the God of War: Ascension multiplayer beta. Also available today is Earth Defense Force 2017 Portable, a Vita-exclusive port of the Xbox 360 classic with added levels and a new character class.

If you prefer to do your gaming on the PS3, there’s a quartet of new choices: the action RPG The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, movie tie-in Rise of the Guardians, PSN newbie Dance Magic, and the beloved Demon’s Souls.

Hit the jump for a more complete rundown of all of these titles and be sure to visit the PlayStation Blog to view this week’s new game add-ons.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops II Review: Let This Call Go To Voicemail

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Michael Martin

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The Call of Duty franchise practically prints money for Activision shareholders. It is for this reason that an annual release in November is as certain as Thanksgiving. 2012 marked Treyarch’s turn in the development driver seat and they are looking to show that they aren’t just the Call of Duty “B-Team.” Unfortunately, Call of Duty: Black Ops II falls short of the lofty expectations set forth by the stellar World at War and the original Black Ops.

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

DayZ standalone version “overhauls” the zombie apocalypse with inventory, UI tweaks

Posted on January 8, 2013 by John Scalzo

dayzProject Leader Dean Hall and his team at Bohemia Interactive missed their planned 2012 release date for the standalone edition of DayZ. But they’ve got a good excuse. Hall’s latest development update has revealed that Bohemia has used the extra time to rebuild the game engine and “[make DayZ] the game […] we all dreamed it could be.”

Besides changes to the game engine and the user interface, Hall’s main focus has been on overhauling the inventory system. From the sounds of it, this new system could change the way we look at surviving the post-apocalyptic landscape of your average zombie game:

You scavenge for items now, as individual parts, picking up pieces rather than piles, looking for cans on shelves or under beds. The new system opens the door for durability of items, disease tracking (cholera lingering on clothes a player wears…), batteries, addon components, and much more. If you shoot a player in the head to take his night vision, you will damage the night vision. The changes to this inventory system are huge.

Hall has also revealed that Bohemia is planning an internal test of DayZ and that we can expect a new release date only after any issues discovered during the test are fixed.

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Daily Scoop – January 8, 2013 – Shirts galore!

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Nicole Kline

OK, so I lied: it’s not really shirts galore. But there are three awesome t-shirts that I think you’ll all love, including a great Adventure Time mashup. If anyone is looking for a present for me for my birthday, feel free to buy it for me!

Not a lot of deals going on today, folks – sorry! There’s plenty to get excited about on Amazon’s video game deals page, but nothing really all that specific. I’m just going to keep on playing my backlog until Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch comes out. Oh, actually, I’ll be playing the Borderlands 2 DLC next week, so that only gives me a week to play that before Ni No Kuni. I’m going to be busy! I don’t need no sales!

And now, what you’ve really been waiting for… the t-shirts!

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Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News |

Lego Marvel Super Heroes assembles on every platform this Fall

Posted on January 8, 2013 by John Scalzo

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The team-up you thought you’d never see! Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (a sister-company to DC Comics) and Marvel have announced that Lego Marvel Super Heroes will be released this Fall for the 3DS, DS, PC, PS3, Vita, Wii U, and Xbox 360.

Like the other games in the “Lego _____” series, Lego Marvel Super Heroes will be developed by TT Games and include a huge number of characters from the source material. According to the publisher, more than 100 Marvel characters will appear in the game, including Spider-Man, Iron Man, Wolverine, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Nick Fury, Deadpool, Loki and Galactus. And, as you might have guessed, the game’s story will ask players to save the Earth from Loki’s tricks and the hunger of Galactus.

“We’re very excited to bring a myriad of classic Marvel characters to life in Lego form for some fun, family-friendly gameplay in Lego Marvel Super Heroes,” said Tom Stone, the Managing Director at TT Games. “Players will brave the ultimate mission to save the world as they explore famous landmarks in Lego New York and take the adventure beyond Earth to iconic locations in the Marvel Universe.”

I bet The Hulk can do some excellent smashing when the entire world is made of Legos.

Posted in 3DS, DS, News, PC, PS3, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Telltale has sold 8.5 million episodes of The Walking Dead

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Nicole Kline

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Unsurprisingly, The Walking Dead has done very well for Telltale Games. The company has sold 8.5 million episodes of the adventure game, according to an interview with Telltale CEO Dan Connors in The Wall Street Journal. This number is across iOS (iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch), PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. Connors said that about a quarter of these sales are on iOS, which makes it “the fastest growth for The Walking Dead among platforms, underscoring how important mobile devices are becoming in the eyes of game publishers,” in the words of WSJ writer Matthew Lynley.

Touted as the Game of the Year for 2012 by multiple media outlets (and included in “The Apocalypse List” of our Golden Pixel Awards), The Walking Dead has been Telltale’s biggest success to date. I’m not sure if this in any way signifies that iOS devices have “come of age as true gaming platforms,” as Lynley suggests, but it’s certainly a big step for the tiny machines.

Be sure to hit up the Wall Street Journal for the full interview with Connors.

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MLB 13: The Show cover athlete vote begins

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Nicole Kline

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Great news, baseball fans! Well, PlayStation baseball fans, at least. Sony announced the launch of the “Major League Baseball (MLB)13 Cover Showdown” yesterday, in which fans will vote for which baseball star will grace the cover of the upcoming MLB 13 The Show. Voting will run from January 7 until January 11 at mlb.mlb.com/covervote, through which you can Facebook or Tweet your choice. You can also vote straight from Twitter with the players’ hashtag. Here is the list of players you can vote for:

  • Ryan Braun (Milwaukee Brewers – five-time All-Star, 2007 National League Rookie of the Year, and 2011 National League Most Valuable Player award winner) – #MLB13Braun
  • Miguel Cabrera (Detroit Tigers – seven-time All-Star, 2012 American League Most Valuable Player award winner, and the first Triple Crown Award winner since 1967) – #MLB13Cabrera
  • Bryce Harper (Washington Nationals – All-Star and 2012 National League Rookie of the Year award winner) – #MLB13Harper
  • Matt Kemp (Los Angeles Dodgers – two-time All-Star) #MLB13Kemp
  • Andrew McCutchen (Pittsburgh Pirates – two-time All-Star) – #MLB13Cutch
  • Buster Posey (San Francisco Giants – 2012 World Series Champion, one-time All-Star, 2012 National League Most Valuable Player award winner, and 2010 National League Rookie of the Year award winner) – #MLB13Buster
  • CC Sabathia (New York Yankees – six-time All-Star as well as the 2007 American League Cy Young award winner) – #MLB13CC

Fans can vote once a day for their favorite player. The player with the most votes will get his mug on the cover of MLB 13 The Show, which will be available on PlayStation 3 and the Vita. New features will include Playoff Mode, which will somehow recreate the “excitement and tension of October baseball.” Hmm. Unless they can make my living room fall-crisp, and include a rally hat with each game, I’m skeptical at best. There will also be a new Beginner Mode to help new players, and a streamlined Play Now Mode which promises “faster and simpler games.”

Who’s ready for some baseball?!?!?

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Bane, Lex Luthor added to Injustice: Gods Among Us

Posted on January 8, 2013 by John Scalzo

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Netherrealm has added two new heavies to the Injustice: Gods Among Us roster: Lex Luthor (in his power suit) and Bane. The news comes courtesy of a tweet from Netherrealm’s supreme leader, Ed Boon:

Luthor looks very similar to his Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe incarnation while Bane will be taking his cues from the comics and not his recent appearance in The Dark Knight Rises. This includes the use of his Venom steroid as well as the luchadore mask.

Should this news get you excited for Injustice’s April release? Of course!

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