RBI Baseball 2017 will be released for the Switch on September 5

Posted on July 19, 2017 by John Scalzo

Major League Baseball Advanced Media has announced that RBI Baseball 2017, their retro-themed baseball simulation, will be released for the Nintendo Switch on September 5.

RBI Baseball 2017, which has long featured fast paced and fun gameplay, is a full nine-inning game in less than 20 minutes with easy-to-use controls. The game features Season, Postseason, Exhibition and Local Multiplayer, including season saving and simulation capabilities. All 30 MLB ballparks are rendered in stunning detail and teams feature the latest rosters in regular updates. Players can modify lineups with complete MLB rosters or classic rosters allowing them to play their games their ways.

RBI Baseball 2017 debuted for the PS4 and Xbox One earlier this Spring, and it’ll be available to download through the Nintendo eShop and as a boxed release at your favorite retailer. Both versions of the game will be priced at $29.99… a $10 premium over the same download on the PlayStation Store or the Xbox Games Store.

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Telltale will premiere the first episode of Batman: The Enemy Within on August 8

Posted on July 19, 2017 by John Scalzo

Batman returns this Summer, as Telltale Games has announced that the first episode of Batman: The Enemy Within will be available to download in August.

Picking up where Batman: The Telltale Series left off (and the choices you made in that game can carry over to the sequel), The Enemy Within will ask the Caped Crusader to do battle with The Joker and The Riddler. New foes will also stalk the streets of Gotham, along with new allies to help finish the fight:

In this latest chapter, both Bruce Wayne and Batman will be forced into precarious new roles. The Riddler has returned to terrorize Gotham City, but his gruesome puzzles merely foreshadow an even greater crisis. With the arrival of a ruthless federal agent and the return of a still nascent Joker, Batman must navigate uneasy alliances while Bruce Wayne undertakes a perilous series of deceptions. Which of Batman’s new allies will you choose to trust? And how deep into the darkness will you let Bruce descend?

The first episode of Batman: The Enemy Within will be known as The Enigma, and it’ll be released for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, and mobile devices on August 8. A Season Pass Disc, which will include the first episode and downloadable access to all subsequent episodes, will be available in stores for the PS4 and Xbox One in October.

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PS Store This Week: Superhot, Fortnite, Orcs Must Die Unchained, more

Posted on July 19, 2017 by John Scalzo

The mob is marching on the PlayStation Store as three games that are all about crowd control will make their digital debut this week.

Team Superhot will bring their unique first person shooter, Superhot (and its VR-focused spinoff, Superhot VR), to the PS4 this Friday. Both games pit the player against an army of “Red Guys,” but don’t worry, “Time Moves Only When You Move” in Superhot.

Joining Superhot on the PlayStation Store this Friday is Fortnite, a new “action building” game from Epic Games. In Fortnite’s post-apocalyptic reality, players have to build up the defenses in their base, but also go on the offensive against the game’s mutant attackers.

Also available to download for the PS4 this week is Orcs Must Die! Unchained. An army of Orcs are making a beeline for your base, but players will be able to “slice them, burn them, skewer them, and launch them” in this tower defense game.

You can learn more about all of these games (and a few other new releases) after the break.

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Posted in News, PS3, PS4, Vita | Tagged ,

Major League Baseball might oppose Blizzard’s Overwatch League logo

Posted on July 18, 2017 by John Scalzo

Blizzard has big plans for their Overwatch League. Like traditional sports leagues, Blizzard wants to connect franchise owners in the Overwatch League to a city, and to help build fan support for professional Overwatch franchise at the local level. They even opted to create a logo that should look very familiar to sports fans… a silhouetted figure against a two-toned background.

Unfortunately, Major League Baseball believes the logo looks a little too familiar.

Major League Baseball has requested an “Extension of Time to File An Opposition” against the logo with the US Patent and Trademark Office. This request gives lawyers for Major League Baseball a chance to investigate the Overwatch League’s logo, and decide if its too similar to their own. If the USPTO agrees with Major League Baseball, Blizzard would have to change the design of the Overwatch League’s logo.

While it’s not hard to understand the MLB’s position (the two logos do look almost identical), I find it hard to side with the sports league over Blizzard. Putting both logos side-by-side-by-side with the National Basketball Association logo, which was adopted in 1971 and also features a silhouetted figure against a two-toned background, casts further doubt on the MLB’s tentative claim.

Major League Baseball has until July 26 to officially file the paperwork for an “Opposition” to the Overwatch League’s logo.

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BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle is a fighter that mashes together characters from BlazBlue, Persona 4, Under Night In-Birth, and RWBY

Posted on July 18, 2017 by John Scalzo

If you missed all the action during this weekend’s EVO tournament, you might also have missed Arc System Works’s announcement of BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, a new 2D fighter that’ll include characters from BlazBlue: Central Fiction (Ragna the Bloodedge), Persona 4 Ultimate Arena (Yu), Under Night In-Birth (Hyde), and RWBY (Ruby Rose).

Konomi Higuchi, an Illustrator at Arc System Works, will serve as the game’s Lead Character Designer, and more characters will be announced at a later date.

BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle is currently in development for at least one console, and is expected to be released in 2018. The game’s first trailer has been embedded above.

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Max Brooks’s Minecraft: The Island novel is now available at bookstores everywhere

Posted on July 18, 2017 by John Scalzo

Mojang teamed up with Max Brooks (the author of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide) to create the first official tie-in novel based on Minecraft. Titled Minecraft: The Island, the book is targeted at a younger audience and it’s available on store shelves today.

When writing Minecraft: The Island, Brooks found inspiration in classics like Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe to tell his own tale of survival and mystery:

Washed up on a beach, the lone castaway looks around the shore. Where am I? Who am I? And why is everything made of blocks? But there isn’t much time to soak up the sun. It’s getting dark, and there’s a strange new world to explore!

The top priority is finding food. The next is not becoming food. Because there are others out there on the island… like the horde of zombies that appear after night falls. Crafting a way out of this mess is a challenge like no other. Who could build a home while running from exploding creepers, armed skeletons, and an unstoppable tide of hot lava? Especially with no help except for a few makeshift tools and sage advice from an unlikely friend: a cow.

In this world, the rules don’t always make sense, but courage and creativity go a long way. There are forests to explore, hidden underground tunnels to loot, and undead mobs to defeat. Only then will the secrets of the island be revealed.

You can read the first chapter right now at the novel’s official website.

Posted in Etcetera, Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged

Content Crash #6: Net Neutrality and Video Games

Posted on July 17, 2017 by Dan Hartnack

Welcome everyone to the Content Crash podcast. I am your host, Dan Hartnack, and joining me as always is my co-host Keno Eastmond.

Today’s topic… though I admit we’re a bit late on the whole issue at hand… is Net Neutrality. It’s an issue that’s really big, and it’s been making a big dent in the news cycle recently. A lot of websites recently held Net Neutrality “protests” and put up banners explaining the issue, but I want to focus on how Net Neutrality affects gamers like us…

You can subscribe to the Content Crash podcast on YouTube or SoundCloud.

Posted in Podcast, Top Story |

Square Enix announces Closed Beta for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT

Posted on July 17, 2017 by John Scalzo

Square Enix has announced that registration is now open for a Closed Beta for Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. The Closed Beta will begin later this Summer, and developer Koei Tecmo’s test for the team-based brawler will include 3v3 battles, and some of the franchise’s most recognizable characters:

This summer, the Closed Beta will let fighting game fans get hands-on with the team-based brawler as they play the roles of legendary heroes and villains from the Final Fantasy franchise, take part in epic 3 vs. 3 battles across iconic arenas and invoke the help of classic summons including Ifrit, Shiva, and Odin.

Fans can register for a chance to join Dissidia Final Fantasy NT’s Closed Beta at Square-Enix’s official website. And a special message from developers Takeo Kujiraoka and Ichiro Hazama can be found after the break.

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is set to launch for the PS4 in Early 2018.

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