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Finish Resident Evil: Revelations to unlock Hell Mode

While it has already been revealed that a co-op mode will be unlocked once players finish Resident Evil: Revelations the first time, apparently another bonus will unlock once the game has been completed. This bonus however may be one that a lot of people will not even try to attempt.

The bonus will be a new difficulty level which is being called “Hell Mode” which will up the difficulty level of the title above normal. Considering Resident Evil: Revelations is meant to return back to the original feel of the series, with small spaces and limited ammo this could be quite a challenge. Still, this is a good challenge for those who will pick up the title when it is released on February 7th in North America and January 27th in Europe.

Media Blasters Lays Off 60% Of Their Staff

Earlier today ANN reported word from John Sirrabella, CEO of Media Blasters a North American anime distributor, that 60% of there staff has been layed off. There staff previously consisted of 15 regulars and is now cut to 5 or 6 regular staff members.

The writing has been on the wall for a long time now with Media Blasters and one quick trip over to their official website is enough of a sign that they have seen better days.

Sirrabella insists that this is not a problem with the anime industry but simply a transition all industries are eventually going to take. That transition being to more heavy use of freelance workers over regular employees.

He goes on to state that none of Media Blasters releases will be affected by the staff cuts. They still intend to release Kite on DVD and Blu-Ray on the 28th of February and the entire first season of Squid Girl on March 13th.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 demo available now on PS3 and 360

With the release of Final Fantasy XIII-2 at the end of this month in North America, Square Enix has prepared a demo for the title and has made it available on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 today. The demo is quite large in size and will take 1.29GB of space so one can imagine that the demo is quite expansive.

In the demo players will enter the Bresha Ruins where Noel and Serah will fight against Atlas, a giant monster that will appear often throughout parts of the title. In this area players will be able to test out all of the new features added into FFXIII-2 such as the Live Trigger events and conversation system, sub-quest system and even the ability to capture and use monsters in your party.

Zero no Tsukaima F acquired by Sentai Filmworks; to be subtitle only

Sentai Filmworks has revealed today that they have acquired the license rights to Zero no Tsukaima F, also known as The Familiar of zero F. They are currently planning on releasing the series on DVD later this year but have already revealed that the title will only be given a subtitled release and not a full English dub. This news comes after Friday’s announcement from Crunchyroll saying that they would stream the series for North American viewers.

Zero no Tsukaima F is the fourth and final anime series of Zero no Tsukaima which is based off of Noboru Yamaguchi’s light novel series. While it is disappointing to see that Zero no Tsukaima F is only going to be given a subtitled release, it is not unexpected. FUNimation previously held the rights to the first few seasons of the anime but let their licensing rights expire due to poor franchise sales.

Homefront Ultimate Edition announced

In what can be seen as a bit of a surprising move, THQ has announced that they will be releasing a Homefront Ultimate Edition sometime in the first quarter of 2012. There currently is no word as to what this special collection will contain but one can assume that it will contain the two DLC packs “The Rock” and “Fire Sale” will be included.

It appears that the latest trend in the video game world is to release Complete Editions as this is now the second announcement for a special re-release of a title in nearly as many days, with the announcement of the Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition yesterday and the L.A. Noire Complete Edition released just a short while ago perhaps waiting a few months before picking up certain titles is the best deal now.

Workers laid off at id Software

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Some rather distubring news appeared earlier today that the developers of RAGE, id Software have suffered from a number of lay offs. It appears that this news is quite true. Bethesda Softworks, the parent company of id Software has responded to an inquiry by Joystiq with a confirmation that an unknown number of workers at id Software were let go.

The firings are apparently “part of its standard business practice, id regularly evaluates staffing to ensure it has a workforce that meets the needs of the studio. As part of that process, some id employees were recently let go.” They went on to say however that the company is still “recruiting and hiring qualified developers” and that “development work on future id titles continues unabated.” Seems like not everything is doom and gloom at the studio, but we wish those who lost their jobs the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Xbox Live ‘House Party 2012’ kicks off February 15

After it was revealed yesterday that the House Party 2012 line-up of games would include Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, the long-awaited I Am Alive, Nexuiz and EA’s Warp Microsoft has come out with a launch date for the House Party. Unfortunately that date is all that was announced at this time so we do not yet know the order in which the games will be released nor the pricing structure that will be used.

The House Party 2012 promotion will begin on February 15th and will likely also offer some sort of promotion for those who pick up every House Party title like in past years. I can already name two titles there that must be acquired and that is I Am Alive and Alan Wake’s American Nightmare. How about you?

Nisemonogatari Anime set for 11 Episodes

Akiyuki Shinbo, the director of the Nisemonogatari anime series, which is a sequel of his previous anime Bakemonogatari (both of which are adaptations of novels) has confirmed that his latest work will weigh in at 11 episodes in length.

Nisemonogatari is based upon NisiOisin’s popular light novels called the Monogatari series. The director of the anime adaptation went on to say that he intends to adapt the rest of the light novels following Nisemonogatari.

What do you think of an 11 episode count for Nisemonogatari? Do you think it needs more room to adapt all of it’s source material? Let us know what you think of this news in the shoutbox and comments section.

Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D crawls onto shelves February 21

While many people have played Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater back when it was on the PLayStation 2, none of them had the chance to play it in 3D. Thankfully they will now soon have that chance as the long announced Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D will finally be making its way to store shelves on February 21st in North America and March 8th in Europe, Japan and Australia, which is quite interesting as most Metal Gear titles are released in Japan before the West, not the other way around.

A number of new features have been added to Snake Eater 3D such as a photocamouflage system that allows the player to change the color of Snake’s clothes to a picture you take with your camera. Also it will make use of the gyro control system on the 3DS, the 3D feature and will make use of the Circle Pad Pro attachment to make controlling the camera easier.

New Screenshots for Game of Thrones


Now scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2012, the Game of Thrones RPG is getting into gear with some more screenshots of Westeros. The six images follow the two playable characters – Mors, a sworn brother of the Night’s Watch, and Alester, a red priest – on their respective journey’s, taking in famous locations from the novels such as the Wall, King’s Landing and the Red Keep.

In keeping with the structure of the novels the story will alternate between character viewpoints, with each character at the head of their chapter until the two meet at the corner of a common quest.
The game is being developed by the same team responsible for Game of Thrones Genesis, and will be released on PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Click on the thumbnails below for a closer look at the rest of the new screenshots.