Turn-based strategy Dungeon of Zaar is now on Kickstarter for the PC and Nintendo NX

Posted on October 7, 2016 by John Scalzo

The Nintendo NX is coming to Kickstarter! Don’t get too excited, the consolemaker isn’t funding the creation of their mystery console on the crowdfunding site. But a young development team has given prospective backers the option to select an NX copy of their upcoming project, Dungeon of Zaar.

Dungeon of Zaar is a turn-based strategy game in development at Kurb, a development studio located in France. Looking to Final Fantasy Tactics, Advance Wars, and Pokemon for inspiration, Dungeon of Zaar will feature 5v5 battles that focus on lightning fast decision-making to win the day. Multiple multiplayer options are also set to make the game stand out from the traditional solo-only genre.

Kurb is seeking €25,000 ($27,828) to help fund Dungeon of Zaar’s creation through Kickstarter, and they hope to release the game on the PC in Summer 2017. The Nintendo NX launch for Dungeon of Zaar is planned for a few months after that. Their pitch video, which explains quite a bit more about their dreams for the game, is embedded above.

Posted in News, PC, Switch |

Oculus Touch motion controller will be available on December 6 for $199

Posted on October 6, 2016 by John Scalzo

Oculus has announced that the Oculus Touch motion controller will be available on December 6. Pre-orders for the Oculus Rift accessory will open on October 10, and you should probably start saving now, because the controller will be priced at $199.

While the Oculus Touch turned out to be pretty pricey, the box will include more than just the motion controller. Players will also receive an additional Sensor and two games… VR Sports Challenge and The Unspoken. VR Sports Challenge will be developed by Sanzaru, and it’ll include VR recreations of baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Meanwhile, Insomniac’s The Unspoken is a magic dueling game where players will wave their hands around to perform arcane spells and summon unfathomable monstrosities in one-on-one battles.

Players interested in pairing the Oculus Rift and Oculus Touch with a “Full Room” experience will have the chance to purchase a third Oculus Sensor, which will also be available on December 6 for $79.

The Oculus Touch will support 35 games at launch, and you can get a quick glimpse at a lot of them in a new trailer that was released by Oculus earlier today.

Posted in News, PC | Tagged

Salvation DLC Pack is now available for Call of Duty: Black Ops III on PC and Xbox One

Posted on October 6, 2016 by John Scalzo

Call of Duty: Black Ops III‘s fourth, and final, downloadable expansion is now available to download on the PC and Xbox One. The Salvation DLC Pack includes four additional multiplayer maps and “Revelations,” the final episode of Treyarch’s Zombies Saga:

Multiplayer Maps

  • Citadel: Once home to a powerful medieval army, this ancient castle now sits broken and abandoned. Tight corners force close-quarters engagements, while the moat and drawbridge allows for unique player movement opportunities in this mid-sized map. The last trespassers didn’t make it out alive – maybe you’ll have a better shot.
  • Micro: What’s better than a BBQ on a hot summer day? A miniaturized war zone that takes place on a well-stocked family picnic table, that’s what! Navigate this bite-size battlefield for a larger-than-life experience.
  • Outlaw: Gear up for a showdown in Outlaw; a western-style re-imagining of the fan favorite map Standoff from Call of Duty: Black Ops II. This rough-and-tough medium-sized map brings classic engagements, flanking routes and strategic positions for long and medium ranged combat.
  • Rupture: The Call of Duty: World at War classic Outskirts is re-imagined as a high-tech facility, designed by a futuristic society desperate to repair the Earth’s atmosphere.

In “Revelations,” we meet up with the Origins characters after they’ve taken an epic journey through space and time – all of their struggles lead to this very moment. In this, the final chapter of the Zombies experience, Richtofen, Dempsey, Takeo, and Nikolai finally come face to face with the mysterious Doctor Monty in The House. Confronted by an ancient evil, our heroes must fight the zombie horde once more in the final battle to save their immortal souls.

The Salvation DLC Pack is available as a free download for owners of the Black Ops III Season Pass, but it’s also be available as a standalone download for $15.

The next game in the franchise, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on November 4. Fans who pre-order the Legacy Edition or Digital Legacy Edition will also receive a copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered.

Posted in News, PC, Xbox One | Tagged

Sony delays Gravity Rush 2 release until January 20, 2017

Posted on October 6, 2016 by John Scalzo

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Sony has announced that Gravity Rush 2 will float away from its previously-announced release date of December 2. In an update posted to the PlayStation Blog, Game Director Keiichiro Toyama has confirmed the game will now launch on January 20, 2017.

Toyama apologized to fans and promised that this extra month-and-a-half of development would give his team enough time to produce “a title we are very proud of”:

Gravity Rush 2 is the conclusion of Kat’s journey, so we want players to have enough time to dive deep into her story. In addition, as a lot of work went into online features that allow for asynchronous player interaction, we want as many people as possible playing the title at the same time. Thus, after careful deliberation, we have decided to change the release date.

I would like to apologize to all those players anxiously awaiting Gravity Rush 2. After four years of development making a title we are very proud of, we want to release it at the very best time.

In an additional apology to fans, Toyama announced that a post-launch downloadable expansion that was originally going to be sold as “premium DLC” will now be free of charge.

Posted in News, PS4 | Tagged

Nintendo Download: Paper Mario Color Splash, Mario Vs Donkey Kong 2, Mega Man X2, more

Posted on October 6, 2016 by John Scalzo

The Nintendo eShop is gets colorful this week with the latest entry in the Paper Mario franchise and two classics from Nintendo’s archives.

Paper Mario: Color Splash will be available for the Wii U tomorrow, and it’ll be the last Nintendo-published game until The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild‘s release next week. But Wii U owners will get a big adventure to keep them busy until then as Color Splash tasks Mario with restoring the color to Prism Island with his fancy new Paint Hammer… Mario must be a fan of Splatoon.

If you’re looking to download something today, Nintendo has added two new Virtual Console titles to the Nintendo eShop. Mario Vs Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis was originally released for the DS in 2006, and the action-puzzler is now available to download for the Wii U. Meanwhile, Mega Man X2, arguably the best game in the Mega Man X series, originally launched for the Super NES in 1994 and it’s now available on the 3DS.

More information on all three games (and a few other new releases) can be found after the break.

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Posted in 3DS, News, Wii U | Tagged

Sony unveils full launch lineup and unboxing video for PlayStation VR

Posted on October 6, 2016 by John Scalzo

Sony will unleash their PlayStation VR headset on retail outlets across the country beginning next week. The consolemaker is making a big push into virtual reality, so it hasn’t been easy to keep track of which games will be available when. And on top of that, some games will require the PlayStation VR headset, while others will just be “VR Compatible.”

Thankfully, the PlayStation Blog has swung in to the rescue with a complete rundown of the PlayStation VR’s launch titles, as well as a second list of games that’ll be available by the end of the year, and a third detailing what early adopters can look forward to in Early 2017.

You can find the complete list of PlayStation VR titles after the break, and up above you’ll find an official unboxing video for the headset hosted by the PlayStation Blog’s Sid Shuman.

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Posted in News, PS4 |

The Big List of Nintendo NX Games: October 2016 Update

Posted on October 6, 2016 by John Scalzo

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The calendar will turn over to March 31, 2017 in exactly 176 days, which is the last possible day for Nintendo to release the NX and still hit their planned March 2017 launch date for the console. And if that seems abnormally short, it should, no console in history has ever been released with such a small window of time between its public unveiling and its launch. It’s disappointing that we still don’t know anything about it yet (though yet another executive has hinted at the handheld/console hybrid concept), but it’s kind of exciting as well.

E3. Gamescom. PAX West. Tokyo Game Show. All of them have come and gone with nothing. Even though it was ultimately a bad idea for Sega to drop the Saturn on an unsuspecting public, this information blackout is almost enough to make me hope Nintendo pulls the same trick. And they just might be able to pull it off too, as the latest rumors around the NX say Nintendo performed a trial production run of their upcoming console in preparation for the beginning of full production.

But what about the games? Thankfully, we learned a lot more about the NX’s in-development lineup of games in recent weeks.

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Posted in Features, Switch, Top Story |

Gears of War movie adaptation announced on the eve of Gears of War 4’s launch

Posted on October 6, 2016 by John Scalzo

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Epic Games tried to bring a Gears of War movie to the big screen nearly a decade ago, but as things often do in Hollywood, things fell apart and the adaptation was ultimately canceled. But it looks like Microsoft wants to take another chainsaw stab at the idea…

Announced yesterday during a massive Gears livestream, The Coalition’s Rod Fergusson said that Microsoft is teaming up with Universal to distribute the film. Production will be handled by Scott Stuber and Dylan Clark of Bluegrass Films, who have previously worked on dozens of films including Ted and the upcoming Patriots Day.

While it was too early to speculate about who would play Marcus Fenix, Fergusson did say that the film won’t necessarily be based on the storyline from the games:

When you do a movie like this, you have to… realize that it’s a different medium with a different audience. I think if you were to go in and say, like, “OK, it’s got to be completely 100% faithful to the game canon,” or the story of the game, like, what’s going to end up happening is… it’s not going to be the best movie. The big thing we’re really trying to focus on is making the best Gears movie possible, as opposed to the one that’s the most closest to the game.

The developer later expanded on his plan to create a great movie that’s not wedded to the game’s plot in an interview with Variety:

“I think you have to let the movies be the movies,” Fergusson said. “They’re two different mediums, and two different audiences in some cases, and I think some video game movies in the past have failed because they tried to make a movie for gamers. If you have this great IP with a deep backstory and lots of lore that you can make interesting stories out of it’s great, but if you just go after the gaming audience then it isn’t going to be a successful movie.”

We don’t know when Gears of War will hit theaters, but Gears of War 4 will be available for the PC and Xbox One on October 11 (or four days earlier if you sprung for the Ultimate Edition).

Posted in Etcetera, News, PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged