The Witcher 2 opening level actually looks really cool

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

If you listen to the Warp Zoned Podcast, you’ll know I’m not a big fan of Western RPGs. So it’s saying something when even I have to admit that The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is looking pretty awesome. CD Projekt released the dev diary above, narrated by some guy with a vague European accent. Regardless, it does a great job showing off the opening sequence, as well as the character progression and variety thereof. They even give you a taste of bar-room brawling!

The Witcher 2 will be available on PC May 17, 2011.

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LucasArts licenses Unreal Engine 3

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

LucasArts and Epic Games have announced a long-term contract licensing LucasArts to utilize Unreal Engine 3, across all their studios and for multiple titles. This seems kind of late in the game, especially considering the Ronin engine for The Force Unleashed games looks pretty solid on its own. But I guess it could be a great solution for multiplatform games, especially going into the future.

Mark Rein, VP of Epic Games said, “LucasArts is now primed to capitalize on Unreal Engine 3’s ability to scale across platforms, from mobile, through PC and console all the way up to the next generation of games.”

So anybody want to take a guess what these new multiplatform titles will be? Star Wars: Battlefront III, anyone?

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Jurassic Park delayed on PC/Mac, multiplatform launch coming Fall 2011

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Last month we posted an in-depth dev diary and confirmed that Jurassic Park: The Game would have an April release date for the Mac and PC, with console versions coming later in the Fall. Telltale is scrapping that schedule, instead opting for a simultaneous multiplatform release later this year. This doesn’t seem to be an arbitrary decision, with the company genuinely wanting to make the best game possible:

We see a ton of potential in the game’s exciting mechanics and style and feel we can take what we already have in place to an even more thrilling level, so we’ve decided to continue work on the game and launch the PC/Mac version of Jurassic Park: The Game to coincide with the our multiplatform release in fall 2011.

As an apology to those who pre-ordered the first full season on Mac or PC, Telltale will refund your money and send you a voucher for a copy of any Telltale game you wish, regardless of whether you want to wait and use it for Jurassic Park later in the year.

Jurassic Park: The Game is coming to PC, Mac, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

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Sony says “we didn’t know hackers stole info” as CT Senator goes after company

Posted on April 27, 2011 by John Scalzo

It looks like gamers aren’t the only ones that can’t believe Sony waited as long as they did to inform consumers about their lost personal information. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal has written a letter to SCEA President and CEO Jack Tretton demanding that consumers be compensated for the security breach and Sony’s failure to notify PlayStation Network users in a timely manner.

The Senator is asking Sony to provide PSN users with free access to credit reporting services for two years (this service is actually already provided by the federal government) and asked that “affected individuals [..] be provided with sufficient insurance to protect them from the possible financial consequences of identity theft.”

While I’m sure gamers everywhere appreciate Blumenthal going to bat for them, Sony is actually claiming that they just learned of the user information theft on Monday, April 25th. A Sony spokesman posted the following timeline of events on the PlayStation.Blog late last night:

There’s a difference in timing between when we identified there was an intrusion and when we learned of consumers’ data being compromised. […] It was necessary to conduct several days of forensic analysis, and it took our experts until yesterday to understand the scope of the breach.

The forehead-slapping stupidity of that statement makes me think the Senator might have a point. Sony’s failure to admit it was a strong possibiliy that hackers accessed the personal information of 77 million PSN users on the 19th is inexcusable.

Maybe it really is the “ApocalyPS3” for Sony…

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Sony admits hackers stole personal info, possibly credit card numbers as well

Posted on April 26, 2011 by John Scalzo

First, the good news. Sony has “a clear path” to bringing the PlayStation Network back online. The software giant expects some services to be back online within a week. It’s not much, but a preliminary timetable is more than we knew before.

Now the bad news… HACKERS HAVE STOLEN YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION FROM SONY! According to Sony, during the intrusion, an outside party obtained the following information from PSN users:

[N]ame, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID. It is also possible that your profile data, including purchase history and billing address (city, state, zip), and your PlayStation Network/Qriocity password security answers may have been obtained. […] If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.

While Sony states they are still investigating the security breach, I can’t believe they just learned what personal information (and possible credit card information) the hackers gained access to today. Sony should have notified PS3 owners about this possibility a week ago and I’m shocked that they, quite literally, said nothing over the holiday weekend.

More information is available at the PlayStation.Blog.

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COD Black Ops goes grindhouse: Buffy, Freddy, Machete battle zombies

Posted on April 26, 2011 by John Scalzo

Treyarch promised “something special” for the new “Call of the Dead” mode included in the Call of Duty: Black Ops Escalation Map Pack and they definitely made good on their promise.

Taking a page from Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse, the developer has enlisted a quartet of the biggest names from zombie films and television. Sarah Michelle Gellar (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), Danny Trejo (Machete), Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Michael Rooker (“The Walking Dead”) have all performed voicework and supplied the use of their likenesses for the DLC pack. While they’re not officially playing Buffy, Machete, Freddy Krueger and Merle Dixon, they’ve definitely dressed the part.

The best part is who Treyarch got to play the leader of the Siberian zombies that the team encounters: George “The Godfather of the Zombie Movie” Romero! That’s just too awesome!

The Escalation Map Pack will be available to download from the Xbox Live Marketplace on May 3 with PC and PSN versions following soon after.

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Portal 2 Review: Buy it. For Science. You Monster.

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Nicole Kline

When Portal 2 was announced, the question wasn’t whether or not it would be good, but whether or not it would be successful. As a sequel to a short game that was added in as an extra on The Orange Box, many people wondered if it could live up to the original and if it was worth making a sequel. But Valve has done it again – they’ve given us a game rich with story and full of new and interesting gameplay. It still remains within the Aperture Science universe, and it still has that same self-contained story, but now it’s been expanded further. Portal 2 is a monumental success, and should be an example for how sequels can succeed under the right guidance and passion.

Press Start to Continue →

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

THQ renews Warhammer 40,000 license

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

THQ and Games Workshop have announced today that they are renewing THQ’s exclusive license to prepare video game adaptations of the popular Warhammer 40,000 tabletop war game.

The publisher has two Warhammer 40,000 games in development: PC/360/PS3 third person shooter Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and MMORPG Warhammer 40,000: Dark Milennium Online. THQ President and Ceo Brian Farrell expressed his enthusiasm for both games, still scheduled to launch this year, saying, “our envisioning of the Warhammer 40,000 universe will continue to grow with top quality games across all platforms, including the upcoming launches of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine and Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online.”

The last big game to come out of this license, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, was a notable success among PC gamers, breathing a little extra life into the Real Time Strategy genre.

In other tabletop news, anyone wanna get in on a D&D campaign?

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