Daily Scoop: December 11, 2013 – Who wants to play video games?

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Nicole Kline

So I got a bunch of video games on sale during the crazy Black Friday deals, and now I have to decide which one to play. I’m already backlogged enough as it is, and started playing my other free/cheap games over the last few weeks, but now it’s serious. Oh, and as always, I have games to review. So where should I start? If you’ve got a game you think I should be playing, leave me a comment!

Speaking of games I am going to get despite having a massive backlog, the Humble Store has some great new stuff, including the just-released Samurai Gunn for $11.99. In case you don’t remember, Samurai Gunn was voted one of our Best of PAX Prime 2013, and is absolutely a must-have for your library. They’ve also got Forced on sale for $10.49, which is another game we really enjoyed from PAX. Check them out!

If you want even more deals, there are tons of game deals at Amazon right now. Pick up Scribblenauts Unlimited on 3DS for $11.99 or on Wii U for $19.99, Red Dead Redemption: GOTY Edition on Xbox 360 for $14.99, Dishonored: GOTY Edition on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 for $29.99, or PixelJunk Monsters Ultimate on PC for $9.99. So many good deals!

Just a few shirts today…

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Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News |

Lightning Returns: FF13 Collector’s Edition includes a pocket watch and other stuff

Posted on December 11, 2013 by John Scalzo

Square Enix’s “Fabula Nova Crystallis” series has been decisive with gamers ever since the release of Final Fantasy XIII in 2009. But whether you love ’em or hate ’em, you have to admit that Square Enix produces beautiful Collector’s Editions for them. The recently announced Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Collector’s Edition is no exception. Available exclusively through the Square Enix Online Store, the Collector’s Edition has been priced at $89.99 and will include plenty of goodies:

  • Premium Packaging: Featuring artwork from the Japan release.
  • Silver Embossed Pocket Watch
  • 80 Page Hardcover Artbook: Contains Tetsuya Nomura’s original sketches of Lightning, a foreword from art director Isamu Kamikokuryo, and concept art from Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.
  • DLC Code: Aerith Gainsborough’s “Midgar’s Flower Girl” Outfit from Final Fantasy VII
  • Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Game Disc

The Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Collector’s Edition (as well as the standard edition) will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on February 11, 2014.

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Xbox One reaches two million in total console sales

Posted on December 11, 2013 by John Scalzo

xboxone-logoAre you ready for another next-gen console sales update? Microsoft has announced that they have sold over two million Xbox One consoles across the globe, as of yesterday, December 10. If you’ve got a giant scoreboard at home, be sure to adjust it accordingly.

But those 2.1 million Xbox One owners seem to be pretty happy with their purchase. Since the system’s November 22 launch, they’ve unlocked more than 39 million Xbox One Achievements (totaling more than 595 million Gamerscore).

Yusuf Mehdi, the Xbox Division’s Corporate Vice President of Strategy and Marketing, is also pretty pleased with the fan reaction to the Xbox One so far: “We continue to be humbled and overwhelmed by the positive response from our fans. We are thrilled to see sales of Xbox One on a record-setting pace, with over two million Xbox One consoles in homes around the world. Demand is exceeding supply in our 13 launch markets and Xbox One is sold out at most retailers. We’re also particularly excited to see consumers engaging in a wide range of games and entertainment experiences on the platform, with more than one million paid transactions* on Xbox Live to date.”

If you recall, Sony announced on December 3 that they’ve sold 2.1 million PS4 consoles so far.

Posted in News, Xbox One |

The Elder Scrolls Online will be released on April 4

Posted on December 11, 2013 by John Scalzo

Bethesda has announced that The Elder Scrolls Online will be released for the PC and Mac on April 4, 2014. In honor of the good news, Game Director Matt Firor has posted an update on ESO’s progress at ElderScrollsOnline.com:

Game development is coming along very well. We completed major systems development, and are focusing on making this the Elder Scrolls game you expect: polishing the hundreds and hundreds of hours of content, making combat even more fun and responsive, fixing quest issues, and much, much more. In fact, we plan on spending the next few months before launch reacting to the latest feedback from internal and external testers and gameplay data we have collected.

The Elder Scrolls Online will also be available for the PS4 and Xbox One, but console gamers will have to wait until June 2014 to explore the massive world the Zenimax Online team is building. But everyone can enjoy the game’s new trailer, “War in Cyrodiil,” which has been embedded above.

Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One | Tagged

John Carmack reminisces on 20 years of Doom and what happened with Doom 4

Posted on December 10, 2013 by John Scalzo

doomOn this day twenty years ago, gamers everywhere felt a sense of Doom that they haven’t been able to shake since. Doom may not have created the first person shooter genre, but it popularized it like no game had before. In fact, it made such an impression on gamers that other FPSs were known as “Doom clones” for years.

To mark this momentous occasion, John Carmack, one of the driving forces behind the creation of Doom at id Software, sat down with Wired‘s Chris Kohler to discuss the story behind one of his earliest accomplishments. The interview is certainly worth a read, and Carmack even gives readers an inside look at what went wrong with Doom 4 before his departure from id earlier this year:

“That’s something I can’t really go into much in detail. It’s been hard—one of the things that was a little bit surprising that you might not think so from the outside, but deciding exactly what the essence of Doom is, with this 20-year history, is a heck of a lot harder than you might think. You get multiple Doom fans that have different views of what the core essence of it is, and there’s been a design challenge through all of it.”

If you’re interested in the full story behind the making of Doom, I highly recommend checking out the book Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner. I also highly recommend playing some Doom today, and not just because its the 20th anniversary of its release. Everyday is a good day to play Doom.

Posted in News, PC | Tagged ,

PS Store Today: Doki-Doki Universe, Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God, More

Posted on December 10, 2013 by John Scalzo

playstationstorelogoAnother PlayStation 4 game is now available through the PlayStation Store as HumaNature Studios has released their side-scrolling, planet-hopping platformer Doki-Doki Universe for the next-generation system. Doki-Doki Universe is available in three different packages including a free Starter Pack, a $14.99 Full Game version, and a $24.99 Limited Edition. It’s also Cross-Buy compatible with the PS3 and Vita, so every Sony fan will get a chance to play it if they want to.

Strength of the Sword 3, a beat ’em up for the PS3; Mahjong Royal Towers, a mahjong game for the Vita; and Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God, a rogue-like for the Vita are also available as of today.

More details on all of these games can be found after the break and a full rundown of this week’s new game add-ons can be found at the PlayStation Blog.

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Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita |

Daily Scoop: December 10, 2013 – Snowy day!

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Nicole Kline

It’s snowy here in Philadelphia – we’ve been getting a lot of the white stuff! It’s fantastic. It snowed all morning long, and now we’ve got a few inches everywhere, which I’m not complaining about. Sadly, it’s going to all freeze and turn into hazardous material soon, so please everyone get home safely, and play some video games!

There are some great digital deals happening over at Amazon right now. You can get the Max Payne Complete Pack for $10.99, which includes all three games. Or, if you have the first two, you can get Max Payne 3 for $6.79 or Max Payne 3 + Season Pass for just 20 cents more. And if you somehow missed the series completely, you can get Borderlands 2 and Borderlands GOTY Edition for $11.99. Insane.

And now, for the t-shirts!

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Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News |

Regular Show: Mordecai & Rigby in 8-Bit Land Review: Hmmm, Hmmm

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Mike Ryan

regularshow3ds-header

I am a huge fan of Regular Show. I remember seeing a promo for the cartoon and thinking, “Well, this sure looks strange.” When I finally got a chance to see it, I was instantly hooked. The episode, entitled “High Score,” featured the show’s main characters, Mordecai the blue jay and Rigby the raccoon, attempting to earn respect by getting high scores in an arcade game. As both a gamer and a child of the 80s, this episode really drew me in. It featured old-school arcade games, a New Kids on the Block song, and a perfect parody of 80s arcade icon Billy Mitchell. It even had the universal sign of “I got next” by putting a quarter on the arcade cabinet monitor.

As I got more involved with the show, I noticed more and more retro video game references popping up. Even the Sega Master System makes an appearance in several episodes. It quickly became obvious to me that series creator JG Quintel is a huge fan of retro video games and the generation from which they came, and his love of 80s culture is proudly displayed in every episode. Having understood this, I could only imagine how amazing a Regular Show video game would be. My excitement grew when I heard that not only was a game being made, but it was also being programmed by WayForward, one of my favorite developers. I thought that there was no way that this game would be anything short of perfect. Now, having completed Regular Show: Mordecai & Rigby in 8-Bit Land, I found myself feeling that, while the game is fun, it could have been so much more. So much more.

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Posted in 3DS, Reviews, Top Story |