Activision reveals more 007 Legends missions

In all the time they have held the James Bond license, Activision has never been able to top the critical and commercial success of Rare’s GoldenEye 007, even when they remade the game, as GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, last year. However, they might have a shot with their new game, 007 Legends, which will tie together various missions from Bond’s fifty years of cinematic history spanning 23 films.

Joining the missions already announced are two from the more modern era; the finale from Timothy Dalton’s Licence to Kill, and the Ice Hotel mission from Pierce Brosnan’s swansong, Die Another Day. The latter will see Bond teamed with Agent Jinx (Halle Berry) as they race through the melting ice palace while avoiding the deadly Icarus Solar Array. That mission will conclude with a confrontation against North Korean bad guy-turned-ginger toff, Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens).

The Licence to Kill level will see Bond destroying the drug factory of evil Mexican drug lord Fran Sanchez, and joining forces with DEA agent Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell) to kill Sanchez in revenge for the death of CIA agent and friend Felix Leiter. It has also been announced that Toby Stephens and Carey Lowell will lend their thespian vocals to the new game, although no word yet on Halle Berry.

It will be very interesting to see how Activision ties all the missions from Bond’s history together, given that the character exists in a paradoxical bubble; for example, Felix Leiter dies in Licence To Kill but is alive in well in the new slate of films. Let us hope they can finally shrug off the GoldenEye shroud and give us a cracking game that will leave us shaken (but not stirred).

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Weekly Warp-Up: Gamescom 2012 in Review

No, that’s not a typo. Welcome to the Weekly Warp-Up, your weekly wrap-up of the biggest and the best articles posted at Warp Zoned this week…

The 2012 Gamescom expo has come to a close, but what a show it was! Sony came out swinging with the most announcements, including a new trailer for The Last of Us, the announcement of Killzone: Mercenary on the Vita, Media Molecule’s Tearaway, and the PS3/Vita “Cross Buy” program. Oh, and they also reassured Ico/Shadow of the Collossus fanboys that The Last Guardian is still in development.

Sony wasn’t the only publisher making noise at Gamescom. Konami revealed a release date for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and delayed the release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate. Activision showcased the first trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified. EA announced a release date for Dead Space 3. And Capcom posed players with a simple statement, Remember Me, when they unveiled their latest game franchise.

What else happened this week? Hit the jump to find out.

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New Releases: Transformers Fall of Cybertron, More

After last week’s bountiful batch of new releases (some might even call if a cornucopia), this week’s slate is a bit less impressive. But some might say that it’s more than meets the eye…

That’s right, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron will be available in stores this week and provide players with all the robot-rampages and dinosaur robot-rampages they could ever want. Me Grimlock and me approve… you might say. Fall of Cybertron will be available as a PC Download and on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Also available this week is a trio of budget PC games: Nightmares From the Deep: The Cursed Heart, Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome, and Disciples III: Gold Edition.

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Generation Xbox Review: Movies and Games Sitting in a Tree…

I’m always baffled when academics or authors choose a single video game platform as the voice of a generation. Take Generation Xbox, for example. The Xbox 360 has been extremely successful over the last seven years and will likely go down as the system that everyone remembers from this era even though the Wii was more popular and the PS3 was more powerful. In addition to that, the title doesn’t even have anything to do with the content of the book.

Thankfully, the book’s subtitle, How Video Games Invaded Hollywood, lays it all out for you. And if you’re interested in the continuing convergence of games and movies, then Generation Xbox might just be the book for you… even if you’re a PlayStation gamer.

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Posted in Etcetera, Reviews, Top Story |

Daily Scoop: August 17, 2012 – Philly Geek Awards

And the day has finally arrived! It’s the day of the Philly Geek Awards, for which the town is very excited. I even got a fancy new haircut for it! It should be an exciting night – a few very good friends are up for awards, and I’m hoping they win them all! Especially the awesome Tristin Hightower, who is up for Geek of the Year. It’s a great night to be a geek in this awesome town!

No deals, I’m afraid, but there are some sweet t-shirts you might want to consider picking up, as always!

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Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News |

This is the complete Just Dance 4 soundtrack

The full track list for Just Dance 4 has been revealed, and I have a feeling people are going to be excited that it’s a boatload of songs that are impossible to get out of your head once you’ve heard them. “Call Me Maybe” will be in it, and I sincerely hope the dude in this Chat Roulette video has the game on pre-order as a result of that.

In addition to over 40 new songs, Just Dance 4 has a Battle Mode, unlockable Alternate Choreographies, and an expanded “Just Sweat” Mode. The Wii U version also has exclusive features, including Puppet Master Mode, which allows the player with the Wii U GamePad to switch up the routines on the other players. Sounds slightly sadistic!

Just Dance 4 will be out on October 9 for the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360, with a planned launch release on the Wii U. Hit the jump for the complete song list.

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

DayZ developer wants to bring it to consoles

Dean Hall, the project lead on DayZ, is trying to take his dream even further: he was meeting with console developers at Gamescom to discuss the possibility of bringing his mod to consoles.

The main problem is that he’s not sure if a console port would be justifiable. “You’re not going to put it on the consoles if you’re only going to sell 100,000 units or something like that,” said Hall. “DayZ will be driven by its PC development and it will innovative on that. And, once we’re at a point, we’ll take it and do a Mac version, 360 and PS3.”

Hall has experience on producing console games, saying he knows about the “pitfalls and horrors” involved. Hopefully he’ll be able to bring his dream to consoles, so I’ll get a chance to play it.

[Source: Joystiq]

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Sony launches PS3/Vita “Cross Buy” program

Earlier this month, Sony released Sound Shapes on the PlayStation Network as a special PS3/Vita bundle. During their Gamescom presentation in Cologne, Germany this week, the publisher revealed that they’ll be expanding the program to retail releases this Fall.

This new bundling scheme will be known as the “Cross Buy” program, and starting this Fall, any gamer who purchases a “Cross Buy” PS3 title at retail will receive a voucher for a free downloadable copy of the Vita version. The first wave of “Cross Buy” titles will include PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale (due out November 20), Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault (due out sometime this Fall and known as Ratchet & Clank: Q-Force in Europe), and Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time (due out in 2013).

While the “Cross Buy” program is currently limited to Sony-published titles, the company is actively courting third party publishers to commit to it as well.

“We’ll obviously encourage third-parties to adopt it but ultimately whether or not a game includes Cross Buy is a publishing decision and it will be at the third parties’ discretion whether or not they want to go down that route,” said Jim Ryan, President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

[Source: GamesIndustry International (1, 2)

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