Bejeweled 3, Dungeon Defenders added to XBLA

Posted on October 19, 2011 by John Scalzo

It’s Wednesday, so it’s time for another dose of the new releases on Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday. Man, how long has it been since someone at Microsoft has referred to it as XBLA Wednesday?

Anyway, this Wednesday is particularly shiny as PopCap will be adding Bejeweled 3 to the download service. Priced at 1200 Microsoft Points ($15), the third Bejeweled game features eight game modes for all your gem matching fun.

Also available this week is Dungeon Defenders, a four-player “tower defense action RPG” (a genre mouthful if I’ve ever seen one). Dungeon Defenders has also been priced at 1200 Microsoft Points ($15)

More information on both titles can be found at Major Nelson’s blog (Bejeweled 3, Dungeon Defenders).

Posted in News, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Daily Scoop: October 19, 2011 – Win Sinestro Corps. Batman Skin for PS3!

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Nicole Kline

Warp Zoned is running another contest! If you’ve purchased Batman: Arkham City for the PS3, enter to win the Sinestro Corps. Batman Skin. We’ll be drawing a winner at high noon on Friday, October 21, so enter now!

Amazon’s got an awesome Deal of the Day in video games today! It’s Aksys’ Bit.Trip Saga 3DS for $29.99! I am so tempted to pick this up right now. It’s a bundle of some of the best downloadable games, ready to go in 3D. Urge to purchase… rising…

There are also a bunch of sales going on right now over at GameFly! The Bargain Bins are full to burst with deals on PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 games. Yum!

Ript has an awesome gaming shirt today, simply titled “Another Castle” and with a new take on the much-loved phrase:

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Posted in Daily Scoop, Etcetera, News |

Christina Hendricks, Sean Faris to star in Need For Speed: The Run

Posted on October 19, 2011 by John Scalzo

Before Castle, Nathan Fillion starred in Drive, a TV show about an illicit cross-country road race. Today, EA has announced that his Firefly nemesis, Christina Hendricks, will star in Need For Speed: The Run, a game about an illicit cross-country road race.

Hendricks, who also stars in Mad Men and Ryan Gosling’s new flick (also coincidentally titled Drive), will be joined by Sean Faris (Ben from The Vampire Diaries) in the game.

Sean Faris is Jack Rourke, one of the best drivers around. Jack’s cockiness and arrogance has led him into a debt he can’t repay. The mob has put a price on his head, and it’s a lofty one. Christina Hendricks stars as Sam Harper, a woman with ambition, street smarts and a penchant for lightning fast cars. Sam is the only person who can help Jack. Sam fronts Jack’s buy-in for The Run, a cut-throat coast-to-coast race from San Francisco to New York with a prize of $25 million. With Sam as his eyes and ears, all Jack needs to do is win.

A demo of Need For Speed: The Run was just added to the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store. The full game will be available for the 3DS, PC, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 on November 15.

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NFL Blitz is back thanks to EA Sports

Posted on October 19, 2011 by John Scalzo

EA Sports resurrected the NBA Jam series last year after a seven year absence (and they just released a semi-sequel, NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, last week). Now, the publisher is bringing back another arcade classic, NFL Blitz.

The team at EA Tiburon revealed their latest (re)creation exclusively to the guys at EGM. And from the sound of it, they’ve managed to capture everything that made Blitz one of the biggest hits of the 90s:

Aside from 30-yard first downs and 2-minute quarters, you’ll see post-play elbow drops, players launching themselves across the field like missiles to make unbelievable tackles, and guys just getting the ever-loving stuffing beaten out of them without a single yellow penalty flag in sight.

In addition to the arcade feel of yore, the new Blitz will add a ton of new features, including play-by-play commentary from NBA Jam announcer Tim Kitzrow. The new Blitz will also feature online multiplayer, customizable teams, “Mario Kart–like power-ups,” mascot teams and a whole lot more. Seriously, read the EGM preview, you won’t be sorry.

NFL Blitz will be available to download from the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network just in time for the NFL playoffs (that’s January for those not up on their NFL schedule).

Posted in News, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Payday: The Heist, Okabu, more added to PS Store

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Ryan Littlefield

If you’re like me, you’re making sure you spend $60 in the Playstation Store this month in order to get the $10 credit back in November. Once I signed up for a three-month PS Plus subscription, I realized that it would be easy to drop the remaining $40 on a couple of games.

This week, that task gets even easier for anyone else reaching for that $10 credit. First of all, the initial PS2 titles on the PS Store are obviously still available (GrimGrimoire for $10? Sold!) and we’re getting some more neat content to choose from this week! Okabu is out this week – and looking pretty awesome too – as well as Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken. Both of these games are currently 20% off for PS Plus members as well. So you can save while you save on savings. Ahem, /x-zibit.

Dungeon Defenders also seems insane, and I am a sucker for anything tower defense. Sony is offering free Dungeon Defenders DLC for PS Plus members as well. Consider me convinced. Oh, and also, there’s some other game – Payday: The Heist. It’s probably fun, and has some clowns robbing banks. If you want to play through the first five minutes of The Dark Knight movie, maybe this would be a good purchase for you.

The Store is bursting with even more new releases including Beat Hazard Ultra, an “intense music driven twin-stick arcade shooter;” downloadable versions of Dead Space and Ridge Racer 7; the lovable adventures of Sam & Max: Beyond Time And Space; and the robot boxing of Real Steel.

There are still many discounts on Halloween/Zombie-themed games as well. Check ’em out, and enjoy your credit back in November! Also, look here for all the information about this week’s PlayStation Store update.

Posted in News, PS3 | Tagged

PS Vita penciled in for a February 22, 2012 launch

Posted on October 18, 2011 by John Scalzo

Sometimes, it’s nice to be right. Sony President & CEO Jack Tretton used the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco to announce the North American, Latin American, and European release date of their Vita handheld. While the venue of the announcement doesn’t make much sense to me either, we now know that the Vita will be available in stores on February 22, 2012.

The Vita will be available in two different versions, a Wi-Fi only edition (priced at $249.99) and a Wi-Fi/3G version (priced at $299.99). They weren’t ready to talk specific launch titles, but they did let us know that there are over 100 Vita games in development including Sound Shapes, Resistance: Burning Skies, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Capcom’s Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Vita, and Activision’s Call of Duty Vita.

Whew.

Posted in News, Vita |

Two new Xbox 360 bundles for the holidays

Posted on October 18, 2011 by John Scalzo

Microsoft has revealed this Fall’s new Xbox 360 bundles and, as expected, they feature some of last year’s most popular games.

The Xbox 360 Holiday Bundle features an Xbox 360 system with a 250GB hard drive and a wireless controller. The package also includes Fable III, Halo: Reach and a three-month subscription to Xbox Live Gold. The Xbox 360 Holiday Bundle will retail for $299.99.

Next up is the Xbox 360 Kinect Holiday Bundle. This box also includes an Xbox 360 system with a 250GB hard drive and a wireless controller. A three-month subscription to Xbox Live Gold is also included. The Kinect package includes a Kinect sensor and two Kinect-powered games: Kinect Adventures and Carnival Games: Monkey See Monkey Do. The Xbox 360 Kinect Holiday Bundle will retail for $399.99.

Both bundles will be available in stores starting today.

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Why I Hate Hearing the Words “Borderlands and Fallout 3 Are the Same Game”

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Nicole Kline

Many people say that they don’t want to play Borderlands because it’s just like Fallout 3, or that the settings are identical. While I understand the idea that a wasteland populated mostly with freaks building things out of trash sounds like it would make two things exactly the same, this is not the case at all. While the settings may appear to be similar, there’s nothing at all the same with these two games – location, gameplay, and plot aren’t even remotely similar. Add to this mixture the brand new Rage, which also looks and feels similar, and you’ve got a recipe for confusion and indecision. So without further ado, I present to you the differences between Borderlands and Fallout 3 – or why you should never, ever mistake one of these games for the other.

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Posted in Opinions, PC, PS3, Top Story, Xbox 360 | Tagged ,