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In addition to honoring the greatest games of 2012, the Spike TV Video Game Awards will also showcase a wide variety of “World Premiere” trailers for some of 2013’s most anticipated games. You can add two more to the list as new trailers from BioShock Infinite and Tomb Raider have been confirmed for the awards show.
You can view a teaser of the BioShock Infinite trailer above, but you’ll have to wait until tonight (9 PM Eastern to be exact) to get your next glimpse at Lara Croft’s return.
Microsoft has used their PlayXBLA blog to reveal the contents of the next Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition update. Without further adieu, the seventh title update will include:
More details were promised to be made available “soon,” but the publisher did confirm that “The End” won’t be included in this update. Instead, Microsoft and 4J Studios are saving it for the eighth title update.
Ernest Cline’s 2011 novel, Ready Player One, was a massive gift to nerds everywhere (especially ones who came of age in the 80s). And it sounds like he’s gearing up to do it again with his next novel, Armada. The book has been described by publisher Crown as “The ultimate wish fulfillment to every video game fan on the planet.”
Universal was so impressed by Cline’s 20-page proposal that they’ve already purchased the film rights to Armada… even though the world only found out about it yesterday! The movie will be produced by Scott Stuber’s Bluegrass Films and Dan Farah’s Farah Films. Farah is also hard at work producing the Ready Player One film adaptation.
Obviously, it is much too early to discuss anything about Armada, book or film. But hopefully we’ll learn more soon.
[Source: Variety]
Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Halo 4 set records in November 2012. The Wii U also opened strong with sales of over 400,000 consoles. And the Christmas rush resulted in big numbers for new releases like Assassin’s Creed III, Just Dance 4, and Need For Speed: Most Wanted. But that still didn’t stop The NPD Group from reporting that retail game sales dropped 11% from November 2011.
“Despite an overall retail video game decline of 11 percent, November had the smallest year-over-year decrease we have seen for dollar and unit sales so far this year. This is a sign of momentum going into the December holiday period,” said NPD analyst Liam Callahan.
You can view the complete top ten from last month after the break, and remember, despite what The NPD Group says, the console game market is still in good shape.
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I’m going to open this review with an honest disclaimer, I’ve never liked the Assassin’s Creed franchise. While the concept of an open-world assassination game sounds just fine, quite exciting even, the actual execution felt lacklustre with cumbersome controls and free roam diluted down to near nonexistent levels. “Kill your targets any way you want,” the adverts said, but what they failed to mention was that unless you adhered to Ubisoft-approved killing methods within Ubisoft-sanctioned locations your open-world experience would suddenly feel like a confined cardboard box as the game punished you for not playing it right. I tried the second game for all of an afternoon before the masquerade fell away and left me feeling cold, cheated and unloved. All subsequent games failed to rekindle our relationship; I just couldn’t get interested, but for some reason (clue: my interest in Colonial America) I somehow found myself falling for the hype and giving this franchise another chance with Assassin’s Creed III.
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So I’m finally feeling slightly better – that is, I feel like there might be a person somewhere inside of here. In the meantime, my cat and my boyfriend are both not feeling well! So I was dealing with a sad, crying, horking cat, and a sad, tired, coughing human last night. My poor guys! They’re having a rough time of it. Hopefully tonight will be better for both of them. I think they just need more vitamin H (that’s Hugs!)
There are a couple more featured deals going on at Amazon, though nothing too big. You can get Asura’s Wrath for $17.14, the Capcom Digital Collection for $12.59, and Cradle of Egypt 2, Cradle of Persia, and Cradle of Rome 2 for $14.99. Scoop ’em up!
There are two awesome shirts today – even if one is a repeat!
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Sega and developer Creative Assembly, the team behind the Total War series, have reached an agreement with Games Workshop to create games based on the Warhammer license.
“With this year being our 25th anniversary, it seems fitting for us to embark on such a dream project with such a well-established partner. The incredibly rich and detailed Warhammer world is something we grew up with, and has left an indelible imprint on us as both designers and gamers,” said Tim Heaton, Studio Director at Creative Assembly.
Heaton continued, “We’ll be doing the Warhammer universe justice in a way that has never been attempted before. We’re bringing those 25 years of experience and expertise in extremely high-scoring games to bear, delivering a Warhammer experience that videogamers will absolutely love.”
The first Warhammer game will be developed by a new team within Creative Assembly’s UK office. The currently untitled game will be released “beyond 2013,” so don’t expect to hear more about it for a long time.
One final note, Eurogamer has confirmed that this agreement applies only to the Warhammer license. THQ will remain the sole publisher of Warhammer 40,000 video games.
Zen Studios has announced that their pinball sim, Zen Pinball 2, will be available to download from the Wii U eShop sometime in December.
The base game will be a free download, but individual tables will have to be purchased separately. However, to give gamers a better idea of what a table will play like, Zen will offer a demo version of every table, including the Plants vs Zombies and Marvel Pinball-themed tables.
You can check out the Wii U-centric trailer above and marvel at the game’s platform-specific features including “controlling the plunger on the touch screen, rotating camera views, accessing information via the dot matrix, and Free View control by tilting the Wii U GamePad.”
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