Daily Scoop: June 15, 2012 – The many masks

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Nicole Kline

Well, I woke up this morning thinking it was Saturday, and I was bummed out to discover it was only Friday! But at least the weekend is a few hours closer. I hope to catch up on some sleep and chores! Well, I mean, I’d rather be gaming and writing, but sometimes you need to take out the trash, if you know what I’m saying.

Amazon’s got some solid downloadable PC deals right now – you can get Risen for $5.99, Dead Island for $11.99, or The Darkness II for $12.49. Best Buy is having some sales on games as well – you can get Dirt 3 for 50% off (if you’re a Reward Zone member, that is). They’ve also got an extensive sale list, including games like FIFA Soccer 12 ($39.99), Battlefield 3 ($39.99), and Mortal Kombat ($29.99). Scoop ’em up!

Just one gaming t-shirt today:

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

Diablo III named best-selling game of May 2012 after collecting a ton of loot

Posted on June 15, 2012 by John Scalzo

Can you guess the best-selling game of May 2012 according to The NPD Group’s monthly calculations? Go on, guess, it’s not really a mystery… The best-selling game of May 2012 was Blizzard’s Diablo III.

Diablo III’s loot frenzy was the lone bright spot for the game industry this month as total sales were down 28% from May 2011 with console hardware taking the biggest hit (a 39% drop).

But that’s not for lack of trying. A ton of new releases broke into the top ten this month including Max Payne 3 (#2), Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (#3), Sniper Elite V2 (#7), and Dragon’s Dogma (#9). But I guess they didn’t put up the sales numbers to compete with last May’s biggest game, L.A. Noire.

The complete top ten can be found after the break.

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Resident Evil: Retribution trailer claims “Milla Jovovich in 3D,” not sure about rest of cast

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Andrew Rainnie

A new trailer has hit for the fifth (and possibly final) live-action Resident Evil film, Resident Evil: Retribution. Director and producer Paul W.S. Anderson keeps churning them out alongside spousal superhero clone (or is it the original?) Alice, who was clearly absent the day the cool character names were handed out, such as Michelle Rodriguez’s Rain Ocampo or Colin Salmon’s James “One” Shade.

But wait, didn’t they, like, totally die in the first film? Indeed, but they are back like a bad case of crabs. The trailer suggests their return is prompted through a mix of false memories in Alice’s very pretty head, and possibly cloning. Other fan favourites returning are Carlos Oliviera, played by the suave Oded Fehr, Sienna Gilroy as Jill Valentine, Boris Kodjoe as Luther West, and Shawn Roberts as Albert Wesker.

Maing their live action debut are Resident Evil 4 protagonists Leon Kennedy, played by Johann Urb, and the sexy Ada Wong, played by the amazingly named Bingbing Li. However, their addition will most likely make we wish they had had just made a film version of that game instead of continuing the ridiculous, nonsensical storyline from the last four films.

Expect a barrage of bullets, axes, grenades and other assorted weaponry to come flying at your face in 3D when the film is released on September 14th in North America and Canada. The UK and Australia will have to wait anther two and four weeks respectively to get their Resident Evil on.

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Neversoft has been drafted to develop a Call of Duty game

Posted on June 15, 2012 by John Scalzo

Activision has recruited another one of their internal teams to work on the Call of Duty franchise. This time it’s Neversoft, the developer formerly repsonsible for the Tony Hawk series and the non-Harmonix Guitar Hero games. Neversoft is now the fifth team connected to the Call of Duty franchise, joining Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Raven Software, and Sledgehammer Games.

The news comes from Neversoft’s Careers page, which features multiple job listings connected to their new project including a Single-Player Level Designer, Multiplayer Level Designer, and Senior Environment Artist.

But the real question is, what Call of Duty game is Neversoft working on? Treyarch is the lone developer behind Call of Duty: Black Ops II while Sledgehammer and Raven currently share DLC duties for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Infinity Ward is working on an unannounced “next generation game” that may or may not be Call of Duty 10.

So where does that leave Neversoft’s game? The way I see it, there are three options:

1. Neversoft is the currently unnamed developer behind the Vita-exclusive Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified. Or…
2. They’ve been handed the recently rumored Wii U port of Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Or…
3. They’re developing the current generation port of Call of Duty 10.

I suppose there’s a fourth option, but that would involve the announcement of yet another Call of Duty game.

Posted in News |

Penny Arcade 3’s release moved up to June 25

Posted on June 14, 2012 by John Scalzo

Zeboyd Games is pulling a Saturn! Two weeks ago, the indie developer announced that Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 would be released on July 10. In that time, they finished the game and got it approved for release on Steam and Xbox Live Indie Games. So they’ve pushed up the release to June 25 instead!

Jerry “Tycho” Holkins dropped the happy news on the Penny Arcade homepage yesterday:

“On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness: Episode 3 was well received at E3, which is nice, because we tried desperately to bring about that very result. We’re committed to releasing it “When It’s Done” as they say, and it is done, so waiting until July seems dumb. How does the 25th sound, for Steam and XBLIG? Zeboyd is throwing in Cthulhu Saves The World for Steam purchases in the first week, which I thought was sweet of them. The ports are… porting, EVEN NOW, and the PC version will have SteamPlay when Mac goes live.”

Holkins also promised that a new trailer would be released on Monday, so keep your eyes peeled for that sure bit of awesomeness next week.

Posted in News, PC, Xbox 360 | Tagged

First Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition patch will be available tomorrow

Posted on June 14, 2012 by John Scalzo

Remember that list of bug fixes and new features for Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition we posted on Monday? It turns out that that update, which was said to be coming “soon,” will actually be available tomorrow. I think Minecraft fans the world over just started doing a happy dance. Perhaps a little jig.

Before you put your dancing shoes away, you can dance past the jump for the complete list of fixes and new features.

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“Autobots transform!” Original voice cast returns for Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Andrew Rainnie

Activision has released the voice cast for their upcoming sequel, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, and fans of the original series are in for a treat. Topping the list are two fan favourites… Peter Cullen is returning as the sage voice of Autobot leader Optimus Prime, while Gregg Berger, the man behind the hulking Dinobot Grimlock, will be bringing many of his trademark soundbites to the video game. I can’t wait to hear him howl, “Me Grimlock no bozo! Me king!”

In addition to this, many of the actors from Transformers: War for Cybertron will be returning, including Naughty Dog veteran Nolan North as Brawl, Bruticus, and Cliffjumper. Troy Baker, soon to be heard in The Last of Us, returns as Jetfire, while also tackling the roles of Jazz and Kickback. Fred Tatasciore (Megatron, others), Steve Blum (Shockwave, others), and Isaac C. Singleton (Soundwave) have also benn welcomed back into the fray, the trio voicing most of the Decepticons.

You’ll be able to hear all their cybernetically enhanced vocal boxes when Transformers: Fall of Cybertron for the Xbox 260, PlayStation 3, and PC on August 28. Or, you can check out the announcement trailer above.

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Miyamoto considering Majora’s Mask remake, Link to the Past remake/sequel for 3DS

Posted on June 14, 2012 by Andrew Rainnie

With the success of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, it was only inevitable that Nintendo would quickly offer up another adventure featuring Link and friends on the handheld console. The only question was, would it be another 3D remake of one of the classics amongst the back catalogue, or would it be an entirely new adventure? Nintendo’s Eiji Aonuma previously confirmed that an original Zelda game for the handheld was in the works, but that may not be the only one.

Speaking to IGN, Shigeru Miyamoto has revealed that the next Zelda game might be a rerelease of the N64’s Majora’s Mask or a project somehow tied to the Super NES title A Link to the Past. Whether that’s a remake, a sequel, or something else entirely was left up in the air.

Here’s what the famed developer told IGN at E3: “We haven’t quite decided yet, whether we’re going to do A Link to the Past, because there’s also the possibility of doing a remake of Majora’s Mask. This is something we’ve certainly been talking about and doing a little bit of experimenting with, to figure out which way we’re going to go.”

While Majora’s Mask may be easier to develop, A Link to the Past may find a wider audience with those gamers who didn’t play it the first time around (can you believe it’s 20 years old?). The top-down RPG is considered the best in the series by many, and Miyamoto first expressed an interest in a 3DS remake last November.

Which game would you want?

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