Gears of War 3 gets two “epic” special editions

Posted on May 16, 2011 by John Scalzo

Epic Games’s latest Video Documentary takes you “Inside the Wicked Workshop” to get a look at the two collector’s editions they have planned for Gears of War 3.

Chris Perna, Epic’s Art Director, takes viewers through the process and mindset required to create the unique art piece at the center of the $149.99 Epic Edition, a giant Marcus Fenix statue. Perna also showcases some of the beautiful artwork found in the Epic Edition’s exclusive 96-page art book.

A $79.99 Limited Edition will also be available that contains a fabric COG flag, an Octus Service Medal replica, an unlockable multiplayer skin of Adam Fenix (Marcus’s father) and the “Personal Effects of Adam Fenix.” All of the contents of the Limited Edition will be included in the Epic Edition.

Hit the jump to view a few more details (straight from Epic) about the complete contents of the Epic Edition and the Limited Edition.

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Rumor: Microsoft to unveil ten “not obvious” Kinect games at E3

Posted on May 16, 2011 by John Scalzo

The E3 2011 rumors continue to trickle out as Eurogamer has revealed that their sources are telling them that Microsoft plans to announce ten Kinect games at the big show. Other tipsters told the site that these games will “serve the hardcore” and they “won’t be obvious.”

The ten titles include:

  • Forza World, an open world driving game from Playground Games
  • A “AAA” shooter from Microsoft Vancouver
  • A game with “highly experimental gameplay” from Microsoft Family
  • A game “aimed at the younger audience” from Microsoft London
  • A new game from Rare
  • Two titles from an anonymous developer who has previously worked on a Kinect game
  • Three other unknown games.

On top of these new announcements, Eurogamer is also reporting that Microsoft will unveil a string of sequels to many current Kinect titles, such as Dance Central 2 (from Harmonix) and Kinect Sports 2 (from Rare). Forza MotorSport 4, with added Kinect features, will also be on display.

Finally, third parties will use the E3 Expo to showcase previously revealed Kinect titles such as LucasArts’ Star Wars Kinect and Crytek’s Codename: Kingdoms.

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CoD Modern Warfare 3: More evidence for November 8th date

Posted on May 16, 2011 by John Scalzo

An anonymous retail source has delivered a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 promotional poster to IGN Australia that lends more credence to the game’s rumored release date.

The poster features the now confirmed Modern Warfare 3 cover image along with the date “08.11.11”. Before you get all excited about a surprise August 11th launch, bear in mind that the poster uses the Australian date format of Day-Month-Year, so it actually reads November 8, 11.

Which is the exact same date that Kotaku learned from its sources. So I’d say this rumor is as good as confirmed.

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

Chrono Trigger added to Virtual Console

Posted on May 16, 2011 by John Scalzo

Square Enix has added their time-travelling epic, Chrono Trigger, to the Wii’s Virtual Console today. The Super NES classic can be downloaded later today for 800 Wii Points ($8). Also available this week in the WiiWare section is Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove: Monster Mix, a dancing game… with monsters!

A trio of new DSiWare games have been added to Nintendo’s portable download store: Big Bass Arcade, a fishing game; Word Searcher 3, a word search game; and Hellokids Volume 1: Coloring and Painting, a “coloring book for your DSi.”

More information on all of these titles can be found after the break.

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Disney trademarks “SEAL Team Six” for games

Posted on May 15, 2011 by John Scalzo

Because of their involvement in the death of Osama bin Laden, SEAL Team Six has been in the news a lot lately. Considered by many to be the most elite special forces team in the entire U.S. military, it’s not surprising that they would capture the public’s interest.

Disney has decided to capitalize on this new found notoriety by filing an application for the trademark to “SEAL Team Six.” The application covers “hand-held units for playing electronic games other than those adapted for use with an external display screen or monitor” as well as “Christmas stockings,” “Christmas tree ornaments and decorations,” “snow globes,” and “clothing.” Interestingly enough, the actual SEAL Team Six was renamed in 1987. The unit is now known as the United States Naval Special Warfare Development Group (or DEVGRU for short). No company holds the trademark to DEVGRU.

This actually isn’t the first time a company has held a trademark on “SEAL Team Six.” Budget publisher NovaLogic held the mark until 2006, and used it in their Delta Force series of games.

It seems unlikely that this new trademark application will lead to a Disney-produced “Raid on Osama bin Laden’s Hideout” game (the language used in the trademark application sounds more like those standalone handheld units that Tiger Electronics used to make), but stranger things have certainly happened.

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Weekly Warp-Up: Play Ball… Umm… PSN!

Posted on May 15, 2011 by John Scalzo

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…

Get Warp Zoned!
I’ll make this week’s Weekly Warp-Up quick as the PSN is back online!

Yes, Sony’s online service has been restored and online play, chat and third-party services like Netflix are all up and running. The PlayStation Store remains down for the time being. It’s been a hard road to bring the PSN back online and a Sony Japan spokesman actually said the company was targeting May 31st for a complete restoration of the service. Thankfully, things were able to come back online piecemeal. The company even kept it’s promise of “a few more days” that it made on the 10th.

As if that wasn’t good enough news, we’ve also got a new episode of the Warp Zoned Podcast for you this week. Mike Gutierrez, Nicole Kline, and Ryan Littlefield are joined by a very special guest – contributing writer Brianne Galli! The foursome start off by discussing what they’re playing, and I’m sure no one is surprised at this point to find out that the answer is “Pokemon!” They also talk about Nintendo’s successful handheld, the DS, and how the different iterations have stood up to the test of time – from the clunky original all the way up to the shiny new 3DS. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll want to buy Radiant Historia when you listen to this week’s Warp Zoned Podcast!

But due to the PSN outage, we may have gone a little mad as this week we analyzed Christina Perri’s “Jar of Hearts” and found that the pop singer was totally singing about Mortal Kombat!

Hit the jump for the rest of the Weekly Warp-Up.

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Sony begins restoration of PlayStation Network

Posted on May 15, 2011 by John Scalzo

The PlayStation Network is back! Sony began the process of restoring PSN functionality at 5 PM Pacific Time starting with the following services:

  • Online play
  • Third party services like Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and MLB.TV
  • PlayStation Home
  • Friends List and Chat
  • Trophies

As part of the restoration, PS3 owners will have to download the new 3.61 firmware. This update will require all PSN users to create a new password as well. Services are being turned back on on a state-by-state basis. Sony has started with the northeastern states and California and the PlayStation.Blog is tracking the system restoration progress. Sony also released a special message from CEO Kaz Hirai, which can be viewed above.

So the PSN outage is finally over! Time to celebrate by buying that game I’ve always wanted… oh, right… the PlayStation Store will be restored “as soon as possible.” Still, it’s great to have online play back.

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Army of Darkness: Trapped in time, Surrounded by evil, Now a tower defense game

Posted on May 14, 2011 by John Scalzo

Alright you primitive screwheads, listen up! You see this? This is a news article informing you that Backflip Studios has recently added Army of Darkness: Defense to the iTunes App Store in both iPod Touch ($0.99) and iPad ($2.99) versions.

Army of Darkness: Defense is a tower defense game that recreates the climactic scene from the film where swarms of Deadites raid the castle in search of the Necronomicon. Bruce Campbell returns as Ash to give the “world’s biggest idiot” a dose of “Groovy!” as he’s joined by swordsmen, armored knights, archers and more.

The movie really seems to be tailor-made for the tower defense treatment as Arthur, Henry the Red, Sheila, the Wiseman and Evil Ash will all join the fight. Thankfully, Ash’s trademark weaponry can also be unlocked including his Boomstick, the chainsaw, magic spells and the Deathcoaster.

With all that firepower, maybe Ash’s boys can protect the book. Yeah, and maybe I’m a Chinese jet pilot.

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