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PixelJunk Shooter 2 is the latest downloadable PlayStation Network game from Q-Games. This multidirectional shooter is a sequel to the first game, which was one of my favorites of 2009. Shooter 2 was promising, touting new game mechanics and a continuation of the simple storyline they’d started in the first game. But could it live up to the long wait, and fill the shoes as the first official PixelJunk sequel?
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According to the amazing information sleuth superannuation, Quantic Dream is up to something. The creators of Heavy Rain have registered seven new domain names, all with the words Play Series and Five (written as Fiv5): playseries.fr, playseries.net, playseries.de, fiv5.net, fiv5.co.uk, fiv5.de, and fiv5.fr.
Fiv5 has been trademarked in Europe by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe as well. To top it all off, Benoit Godde, recently hired by Quantic Dream, has both Five and Infraworld listed on his resume on LinkedIn (Infraworld was a title the company was working on back in 2006 that was canceled due to disinterest by publishers).
While I’m excited to hear Quantic Dream is working on another game – I love Heavy Rain – it saddens me to find out this way. I do respect (and fear) superannuation’s amazing sleuthing skills, but at the same time, I really prefer to hear about games when they’re more fleshed out – and when the company is ready to tell us about them. Nothing gets me more excited for a game than a sexy trailer or some steamy screenshots, and while I do love information, it’s almost anti-climactic to read about it on LinkedIn. Talk about a boring way to find out about a game. Either way, hopefully David Cage releases some more information now that this has surfaced.
On the heels of the live action Prey 2 trailer, UK magazine Game Reactor has even more details for us. According to MTV’s Multiplayer Blog, the game will feature parkour like Mirror’s Edge, environmental scope akin to Assassin’s Creed 2, combat similar to Killzone, a loot system kindred to Borderlands, and thankfully that’s all they said in the article, because I’m out of synonyms for “like” at this point. Oh, and a Human Head Studios producer said, “If the first ‘Prey‘ was the Luke Skywalker version of the story, ‘Prey 2‘ is Boba Fett’s story.”
So we’ve got parkour in a giant environment with bad-ass combat and loot systems, and we’re also going to be switching gears from the equivalent of the whiny farmer to the bounty hunter? It sounds too good to be true, until you consider they’re canning any multiplayer in favor of focusing everything on a “more robust single-player campaign.” The idea there is they don’t want to compete with all the other great multiplayer games out there – but can they compete with the single-player campaigns? With this intense amount of video game culture all tossed together like the Prince rolling up a giant Katamari ball, it’s either going to be a beautiful star in the sky or a complete disaster.
It’s March 21, which means tomorrow is the long-awaited release of Crysis 2. I am going to rush home after work tomorrow, tear it open, and toss it right into my PlayStation 3. If anyone needs me, you can find me on the PSN.
For today’s Amazon Deal of the Day in video games, they’ve got Namco’s Body and Brain Connection for the Xbox 360. It’s on sale today for $39.99 from $49.99. I guess calling it a Kinection instead of a Connection would kind of defeat the purpose of trying to make you smarter, right? Still, they missed out on a great marketing ploy there. There’s also $10 off the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller with Transforming D-pad at Best Buy this week – $54.99 down from $64.99 – as well as $15 off the 12 month Xbox Live Gold Card Membership at both Best Buy and Amazon.
Nothing directly related to video games in t-shirts today, unless you count the Famous Androids from Ript Apparel:
I can’t be certain, but I think I spy a Mega Man in there.
Did Marquette kill your Final Four bracket yesterday? Or maybe it was Florida State. Or maybe, like President Obama, your bracket is still relatively pristine.
Whatever your bracket looks like, EA Sports is giving gamers a second chance to prove their bracket prowess with the Madden NFL 12 Bracket Challenge. EA has selected 32 players (one from each team) to compete in a single elimination tournament to determine the cover athlete of Madden NFL 12. That’s right, the recipient of the curse is on us now.
EA will reveal the full bracket on ESPN’s “SportsNation” today at 4 PM (Eastern Time) today. But they did say that Super Bowl XLV MVP Aaron Rodgers, Madden NFL 11 cover athlete Drew Brees (who won a three-way fan vote), Madden NFL 2004 cover athlete Michael Vick, Maurice Jones-Drew, Adrian Peterson and Julius Peppers are among the finalists.
Madden fans can create their own bracket by using the Madden NFL Bracket application on Facebook. The winners of each matchup will be chosen through daily voting at ESPN.com/maddenvote.
The top two bracketologists will win the Grand Prize of $2,000 and two tickets to Super Bowl XLVI. Eight 1st Place winners will receive four tickets to an NFL game of their choice. “Group Winners” will receive a copy of Madden NFL 12 when it’s released in August.
We’ll be back with the full bracket later today.
The users at the Hitman Forum have apparently cracked the barcode code from IO Interactive’s alternate reality game and discovered the first screenshot for Hitman 5. While the game’s publisher (Square Enix) has yet to confirm that the image to your left is an authentic screenshot, it does feature Agent 47’s signature gloves and silencer.
Further manipulation of the barcodes also reveal a number that looks suspiciously like a date: 06-07-11. And surprise surprise, that’s the first day of the E3 expo.
So it looks like Hitman 5 is coming (which we knew) and it’ll be announced at E3 (which is nice to know, but kind of obvious). But why didn’t IO/Square Enix just come out and announce it? This viral marketing stuff is annoying.
Back before every wrestling game had to have a WWE (or WCW or ECW or TNA) license to be successful, Natsume released Natsume Championship Wrestling during the Super NES-era and wrestling fans everywhere seemed to enjoy it. With WWE All-Stars scheduled for release next week, this new addition to the Virtual Console might be a good warm-up. It’s joined this week by the WiiWare release Arcade Essentials, “a collection of five classic arcade games.”
The DSiWare Shop will also receive two new titles this week: Shapo, a balancing puzzle game; and G.G. Series: D-Tank, a shooting game where players control a tank.
More information on all four games can be found after the break.
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Here’s something awesome for a lazy, 3DS-less Sunday afternoon. If you’ve ever wondered what World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. would look like from a first person perspective, you’ve got your answer.
The video’s creator also has Real Life Mario Kart for your viewing pleasure.
Video Game Canon
Video Game Research Library