If you have been biding your time playing other games while you wait for 4J Studios to release their next update for Minecraft on the Xbox 360 then you will be happy to hear that your wait will soon be over. Today 4J Studios stated on their Twitter the following: “Microsoft has confirmed that we’ve passed Cert Test, and the 1.8.2 update will be out tomorrow (October 16th)!”
This update adds a “ton” of new content in the form of creative mode, hunger, new food, new biomes, new mobs and the ability to sprint. There are also a few fixes planned with this patch and you can find the complete list of changes and upgrades to the game here.
While a number of you have already clocked many hours running through Borderlands 2’s latest class, Gaige the Mechromancer, some people haven’t played as her yet, either because they are too attached to their original classes, or simply because they haven’t downloaded her yet.
Of course, for those who haven’t downloaded Gaige yet, you will be able to pick her up for free if you are a member of the Premium Club or pay $10 if you are not. Today 2K Games and Gearbox released the below trailer showing off some of Gaige’s skills and although it may be a week late, it still is quite informative as it goes over the many skills that make Gaige a badass.
For all those with their sights set on the skies, Konamis acclaimed Flight Simulator Birds of Steel is now available for digital download, allowing more players to get into the cockpit of the 100+ planes on offer and join one of many historic WWII aerial recreations. Birds of Steel is now available at $29,95AUD for XBox 360 users via the Game on Demand channel and can be downloaded through PSN for Playstation 3 users. In conjunction to its availability through digital download Konami have released 3 new DLC packs which add a larger range of currency options to players attributes.
In what I can only assume to be a first in video game history, and potentially is a competitor for weirdest news this month. A virtual company within Second Life has started a Indiegogo campaign in order for it to increase its presence within Second Life. Nintai Brokerage Corporation teaches players how to participate in its virtual stock exchange called the Capital Exchange.
Nintai is seeking the funding so that they can improve the quality of the simulation, and also make it accessible to more players. Nintai’s goal of $5000 may seem small in comparison to some video game crowd-funding efforts, I’m looking at you schaffer, but it has yet to be seen whether people will rally around this. They do have 28 days to achieve their goal and frankly I have seen for weirder things funded, so they may just manage to pull it off.
Here is what the CEO of the virtual company, Cecil Niosaki, had to say,
“I think it’s incredibly important that we continue to operate on the Second Life grid so that we can teach people how the stock market works. I believe that an education in finance is necessary, and oftentimes players take what they learn on the Capital Exchange onto the real stock market.”
Second Life is an online virtual world created in 2003 by Linden Labs, which allows players to create avatars for themselves, so that they can interact with other users and participate within the Second Life economy. Though popularity for Second Life has died off in recent years, it still has a substantial userbase which may be due to the level of creation that it allows its users to have within the game.
Be sure to check in at a later date, for if they actually manage to reach their goal, then I will definitely be writing about it.
Activision announced today that the launch of its upcoming behemoth Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 will herald not only a newly revamped Call of Duty: Elite, but one that is becoming free for all to use as well. They also announced that the revamped version of Elite will provide support for both clans and the wildly popular zombies mode. The revamp was also widespread enough for them to consider it necessary to release a video explaining all the new features, so if you prefer video to actual reading then jump (or fall?) to the bottom of the page.
Activision Publishing CEO, Eric Hirschberg commented on this change “We’ve learned a lot in our first year of Call of Duty Elite, and we’re very proud that we over delivered on our commitment of playable content to our premium members. What we have realized is that several of the Call of Duty Elite services which are currently only available to our premium members for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 are things that would further unite, engage and delight our player community. So we are going to make them free for Call of Duty: Black Ops II.”
“For Call of Duty: Black Ops II, DLC Map Packs will be a separate offering from Call of Duty Elite. The Season Pass will be a great way to acquire all four Map Packs at a discount, but if our fans would rather take it one Map Pack at a time, then we’ll offer each pack á la carte for anyone who wants it. What we aren’t doing is requiring a paid membership to access the great player services for Call of Duty: Black Ops II and we’re thrilled to offer all of Elite’s Call of Duty: Black Ops II features to players for free.”
The Call of Duty: Black Ops II Season Pass will provide you with four DLC packs, with it setting you back 4000MSP. The DLC packs will retail otherwise at the CoD standard of 1200MSP, this would provide Season Pass buyers with an 800MSP saving. No release schedule has been given for the DLC besides them not being released until 2013. As with previous iterations of the Call of Duty franchise the DLC will be a timed exclusive on the Xbox 360 much to the chagrin of some PS3 users.
Not only has the Wii been made cheaper, but it looks like the Xbox 360 will be cheaper this holiday season. Microsoft has announced that the Xbox 360 holiday bundles will be $50 cheaper than past year’s prices.
The first bundle will include a 250GB Xbox 360 Slim, Forza Motorport 4 as well as a digital download of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, as well as all of the standard in-box content you’d usually receive. The other bundle will offer a 4GB console, Kinect, Kinect Adventures, and Kinect Disneyland Adventures. These bundles will be available at nearly all retailers in North America closer to the holidays.
With Nintendo’s Wii U console set to be released roughly a month from today in North America, the company has chosen today to announce that they will be dropping the retail price for the Wii another $20. So now the console will be sold for $130 rather than the previous price of $150.
It is worth noting that this new price also means a new Wii bundle which Nintendo says will be in most stores by October 28th. The bundle includes Wii Sports Resort as well as the standard inclusion of Wii Sports, a black Wii console, black Nunchuk and black WiiMote Plus.
In what should be a surprise to absolutely no one, Microsoft has announced that they will be issuing permanent Xbox Live bans to anyone who has already started playing Halo 4 through various leaks and piracy. MCV is reporting that people who have pirated the game are now receiving emails explaining the situation and why they were banned. It is said that the reason for the ban in the email is due to “illegitimate prerelease title play.”
Considering the only way to play pirated games is to hack your console, it is likely that a ban was already being levied against most users regardless. It is worth noting that this is something that this is not the first time Microsoft has done this, as they performed similar actions when 2010’s Halo: Reach was leaked to the public before release.
If you were hoping to get some actual storyline content for Sleeping Dogs before the end of October, then you are not only very specific about your DLC schedule but also in luck. Over the weekend Square Enix revealed at New York Comic Con that they are planning to release the first piece of storyline DLC for Sleeping Dogs on October 30th.
The DLC is called “Nightmare in Northpoint” and will add a new horror-themed game mode which appears to be similar to what was found in Undead Nightmare for Red Dead Redemption. When a fellow gang member is tortured and killed, he comes back to life and leads an army of undead gangsters and only Wei Shen can put them back in their graves. Shen will be able to gain magical abilities such as lightning fists through items and face off against Jiang Shi, which happen to be chinese vampires. Currently no price has been announced for this content, but this DLC is certainly not what most people were expecting to say the least.
Over the weekend FUNimation announced at New York Comic Con that they had acquired the license to the anime movie Wolf Children and Toriko. FUNimation is currently planning a theatrical release for Wolf Children sometime in 2013 as well as a retail release afterwards, while the first release of Toriko on DVD is currently scheduled for January 8, 2013.
FUNimation’s licensing of Wolf Children shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, though if any surprise is to be had it would be that the company took so long with the series considering it has been released in other territories already, in fact you can read our review for the Australian release of the series here.
For those who don’t know, Wolf Children follows the story of a 19 year old college student named Hana who falls in love with a “wolf man.” After marrying this man, Hana gives birth to two children and eventually moves to a rural town away from the city after her husband dies.
As for Toriko, it is a shonen anime where the story follows Toriko, a gourmet who happens to travel the world in a hunt for various animals and plants needed to create the best meals. This license should also not come as a surprise, considering the company has been providing a stream for the series since last year.
