Fire Pro Wrestling Review: “Royal” Rumble or Wrestle “Meh”nia?

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Mike Ryan

I feel bad for wrestling games; I truly do. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t have any preconceived notions of the genre. In fact, I enjoy it very much. I loved playing Pro Wrestling back on the NES (Starman FTW!). WWF Raw and Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game were also two of my favorites. The reason I pity wrestling games is due to WWF No Mercy. The game is over a decade old, but it was such an amazing title that every wrestling game that followed was immediately judged against No Mercy’s ridiculously high bar. While there have been some great wrestling games since 2001, only a select few were deemed good enough to be favorably compared to the N64 classic.

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Posted in Reviews, Top Story, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Battlecry Studios, Bethesda’s new studio, opens its doors

Posted on October 3, 2012 by John Scalzo

Bethesda acquired Arkane Studios in 2010 and the developer’s first game under the Bethesda banner, Dishonored, will be in stores next week. So it seems like a perfect time for Bethesda to announce that they’ve opened Battlecry Studios, the company’s second studio in the Austin, Texas area.

Battlecry will be headed up by Rich Vogel, the former Executive Producer of Star Wars: The Old Republic. He is currently in the process of staffing the new studio and beginning work on an untitled future project that may be a free-to-play FPS for next generation consoles. At least, those are the jobs Battlecry Studios is currently hiring for.

Hopefully we’ll find out more soon.

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Daily Scoop: October 3, 2012 – Some sales are less useful than others

Posted on October 3, 2012 by Nicole Kline

It’s Wednesday, even though it feels like it should be Friday. The manacles of time chain us down, binding us to our narrow worldview and creating in us a vacuum only filled by love and video games. And when love is not available, video games are all that we have.

Ok, I’m being a bit melodramatic. I blame it on Homestuck. Also, did you know there’s a Homestuck Video Game Kickstarter? Smash open your swollen porkhollow and surrender your boondollars. I want those Midnight Crew playing cards. How about you?

Not many deals going on today – at least, nothing really all that useful. Amazon’s got some sales going on, including lots of stuff for under $10. Cheap doesn’t always mean good, though. I mean, do you really want a copy of Duke Nukem Forever, or Shaun White Skateboarding, or Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian? You do??? Well then go scoop them up for under $10!

No game-related shirts today, readers. Sorry! Hopefully the daily shirt gods will bless us tomorrow.

Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News |

No XBLA update today, but it would have been NBA Live 13

Posted on October 3, 2012 by John Scalzo

Microsoft’s Major Nelson has confirmed, via Twitter, that there won’t be a new addition to the Xbox Live Arcade today. It’s the first Wednesday in quite a long time that Microsoft couldn’t add a new game to its download service.

However, a new game was in the works as of last week. According to the Major, EA’s NBA Live 13 would have appeared on the XBLA today if not for the company’s plan to permanently bench it:

Posted in News, Xbox 360 | Tagged

John Romero’s about to make Kickstarter his bitch

Posted on October 3, 2012 by John Scalzo

I respect his contributions to gaming (he co-created Doom, after all), but John Romero will never be able to live down his infamous ad for Daikatana. Now, Romero is back, and along with his former id Software cohort Tom Hall and Wizardy developer Brenda Braithwaite, he’s going to take Kickstarter by storm. Suck it down! (Sorry).

Those three legends of game development lead Loot Drop, a studio that is hard at work on Old School Role-Playing Game, a… wait for it… old school role-playing game. Like many indie developers nowadays, Loot Drop has turned to Kickstarter to fund their new project.

The project is seeking $1 million, but the stretch goals are where the real action is. If the project reaches $1.9 million, Loot Drop will develop two old school RPGs. One will be lead by Hall, while the other will be shepherded by Braithwaite. Oh, and the two games will be linked as “the endings in one game affect the beginnings in another.”

Wow, did John Romero just make me his… huh… I think he did!

Posted in News, PC |

Borderlands 3 isn’t in development… yet

Posted on October 3, 2012 by John Scalzo

Randy Pitchford, the President of Gearbox Software, wants the entire Internet to calm down. In a series of posts on Twitter, Pitchford has done his best to assure everyone that Borderlands 3 isn’t in development. But just like head writer Anthony Burch, Pitchford admits that he’s “thinking about it.”

Gee Randy, tell us how you really feel.

Posted in News |

Justin Bieber is playable in NBA 2K13, god help us all

Posted on October 2, 2012 by John Scalzo

Having celebrities mix it up with NBA players is nothing new in the world of video games. Way back in 1993 Bill Clinton, the Beastie Boys, and George Clinton schooled Scottie Pippen nightly in NBA Jam. But I think 2K Sports might have gone too far with the Celebrity All-Stars team included in NBA 2K13… because they put Justin Bieber on the team. Observe:

Pauly D and Vinny from Jersey Shore, Mac Miller, Bow Wow, JB Smoove, Wale, Sean Kingston, Meek Mill, and Brian Baumgartner make up the rest of the Celebrity All-Stars team. If you so desire to see Bieber dunk on Team USA (to his hit song “Baby,” no less), you’re in luck, it’s already on YouTube.

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

PSN Today: Resident Evil 6, NBA 2K13, New Little King’s Story, more

Posted on October 2, 2012 by John Scalzo

Sony’s Day 1 Digital initiative begins today with two awesome PS3 Full Game releases: Resident Evil 6 and NBA 2K13. If zombified Presidents and basketball simulations aren’t your thing, the budget-priced Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 has also been added to the PlayStation Store.

Sega has added a pair of classic titles to the PSN Games section: Sonic Adventure 2 and Nights Into Dreams (which also include Christmas Nights!). A pair of PS2 Classics are also now available on the Store as well: Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon – Special Edition and Ruff Trigger: The Vanocore Conspiracy.

Finally, on the Vita side of the Store is New Little King’s Story.

Hit the jump for more information on all of these titles and for the lowdown on all of this week’s new game add-ons, hit up the PlayStation Blog.

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