Those looking to purchase Battlefield 3 better get their money ready now because if you pre-order the game you will be getting a free upgrade to the “Limited Edition” version of the title that is more or less simple motivation to pre-order. United Kingdom pre-orderers will be getting the Physical Warfare package which includes early unlocks to a handful of weapons and free access to the Back to Karkand expansion pack.
The expansion pack will contain four remade maps from Battlefield 2. Those looking to pre-order can do so either at GAME or GameStation for either £39.99 on 360 and PS3 or £34.99 on PC. The weapons that will be given out are the Type 88 light machine gun, the SKS sniper rifle flash supressor, the DAO-12 semi-automatic shotgun and Flechette ammo for the DAO-12. Battlefield 3 will be released some time in this fall season.
Sony will release their fiscal year earnings on Thursday and today they released their revised predictions for the fiscal year that ended on March 31st 2011. They are reporting what they expect to be a $3.2 billion loss for this time period which is an extremely large amount of money. This includes losses due to the tsunami and earthquake as well as tax problems and overall internal costs. Although the PSN being down fell outside of this time period, Sony still stated that what types of losses they are expecting to see due to the PSN hacking.
Sony’s estimates for their costs associated to the hack are being “estimated to be approximately 14 billion yen on the consolidated operating income level.” This is around $171 million in US currency. This number comes from the welcome back program costs, the identity theft protection program, customer support, network security being beefed up and legal costs. The numbers do not include any of the class action lawsuits that are currently being leveled against Sony, and do not include the possibility of anyone’s credit card or identity being stolen due to the loss of information. If these things due end up coming to fruition then the costs would obviously rise.
EA and Spicy Horse have come up with an interesting way to boost sales in their upcoming game Alice: Madness Returns. They have created a storybook application for both the iPhone and iPad which bridges the gap in story between the events of American McGee’s Alice and Alice: Madness Returns.
Fans of the series would benefit from picking up this application, especially considering it is free, because not only does the application fill in the storyline but it also happens to give readers a $10 discount code at the end. This $10 code works only through the EA Store so you are unfortunately limited with whom you can purchase the title from. You can download the App here.
SCEA has announced that Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One’s North American release date will be October 18, 2011.
The cute and fury Lombax and his robot pal will be back for the franchise’s 10th game, and we can expect the same kick-ass weapons, humour and great cinematic style that we’ve come to love since the series launched in 2002. Featuring in All 4 One is the introduction of an on and offline four-player co-op where players can team up as Ratchet, Clank, Quark and Dr. Nefarious!
To entice new and old fans alike, people who pre-order the game on GameStop, Amazon, Best Buy and Wal-Mart.com will receive a free unlockable item exclusive to each retailer: Mr. Zurkon (GameStop), T-Rex Morph Mod – think of a baby dinosaur version of the Morph-O-Ray (Amazon), Pyro Blaster Unlock (Best Buy) and Sheepinator Mod (Wal-Mart).
Also announced is the official box art for All 4 One (see picture).
Game:Virtua Tennis 4
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Sega
Platforms: PS3, XBox 360(Reviewed), Wii, PC
Release date: May 10th 2011 Price: $49.99 – Here
Overview
While Top Spin has always been more of a Tennis sim, Sega’s Virtua Tennis franchise has thankfully always had more of an arcade fun feel to it, and I can safely say that this instalment has not moved too far from that successful strategy. I say thankfully as I was brought up on the NES Ten yard fight and Super Tennis on the SNES which proved that games could be an enormous amount of fun without having to worry about pressing multiple combinations of buttons just to execute one shot. Don’t get me wrong, Virtua Tennis 4 is jam-packed with features to keep you interested and on the edge of your seat, it just comes without a lot of the fine tuning that more often than not can cause complications and frustration in many other tennis titles and sport games in general. Virtua Tennis 4 is the 3rd sequel in the franchise which hasn’t had an update since 2006, and is the first game in the series not to have an arcade title release.
Modes
Training – While being very simplistic the training mode is essential in giving players an insight into the timing and positional play required to participate at a high level on the World Tour. As there are only 4 different shot selections on offer; the lob, slice, normal and power shots, many games are won and lost through positional play and timing. Almost in the same way that Fifa soccer utilises players positions when they actually kick the ball to determine the height and power of the shot, Virtua Tennis 4 rewards players greatly for being in the perfect spot to play a given shot. Playing too close to the body will result in a cramped and weakened stroke whereas giving the player room to move will increase the angle and power of the shot. Training is only broken up into 5 different sections and aside from serving is mainly focused around teaching positional play on the court, by aiming at balloons.
Exhibition – The Exhibition mode is pretty stock standard, allowing single players matches as well as up to 4 players competing locally in doubles matches. I played a lot of the multiplayer singles matches against friends and I can honestly say there were intense moment that made you jump out of your seat in frustration and many obscenities mumbled under our breath. One of the reasons for this is the incredibly long rallies that can be generated, due to some of the ridiculous shot angles found Virtua Tennis 3. Winning a long rally with a great shot down the line or overhead net smash is one of the more satisfying elements of the game.
While I’m all for equal rights for women the one complaint I have is that there didn’t seem to be much of a difference between the females and top male players in the exhibition mode. There were many inconsistent wins where Maria Sharapova would beat Roger Federer between 2 quite equally rated game users, but then that same player would lose using a Rafa Nadal. It’s only a minor complaint about a game that focuses more on creating a fun experience rather than a digital version of tennis stats. This mode is a great for when u have a few mates around or don’t have much time and feel like playing a game or two.
World Tour – This was wacky, bizarre and straight out odd, but I loved it. As you can see from the pic above the world tour is setup like some kind of bizarre cross between Monopoly and a map of the world. First players have to customise a character to use during the tour from the 5 preset defaults. Everything from facial construction to height and build can be manipulated to individualise characters to everyone’s tastes. I tried a few variations and beside the obvious visual differences couldn’t gauge much difference in gameplay. The main focus of the world tour is on the “move tickets” which players use to move around the different activities on the tennis circuit with the main aim revolving around collecting stars which allow you to compete in the major and biggest tournament in the area. There are many ways to earn stars ranging from the 8 funky mini-games synonymous with the franchise through to signing autographs for your fans and playing in celebrity matches. The mini-games were broken into 5 levels of difficulty and included hitting targets, beating opponents with barriers on the court, collecting and saving chicken eggs as well as playing long rallies in strong winds. Each games successful completion increases a specific aspect of your players abilities. Although they were a lot of fun and were helpful in teaching player movement they became a little repetitive as the game progressed. The world tour consists of 4 main tours in different locations.
For any competent sporting gamer I would recommend playing the world tour on experienced mode which I would equate to being the same as normal mode on most games. Playing on the lower difficulty levels became painfully easy once you worked out how to fine tune your shots to most areas on the court. Even playing top ranked players was relatively easy from the beginning on this mode despite the games warning that your chances of winning were low and the insinuation was that it was more of a learning curve for future matches. Players start with 0 stars and the more you collect from the various events the further up go up the rankings. To give you an idea of the length of the world tour mode, most events give out around 5-10 stars on average and players like Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic have rankings around the 700 star mark, meaning there is plenty of game play available in single player mode.
Your coach will guide you through the various events and let you know when you need to rest your character for upcoming events. While it is fun to have to work out the correct sequences in which to move to get to various events it can also be frustrating not having the correct move tickets available. Saying this, players are given the option to purchase tickets from the clubhouse at certain intervals. There were two features that left me a little baffled. The first was the heart icon which when landed on caused a bad event such as injury or loss of points, as well as the random fan mail which kept popping up. It felt more like I had a group of stalkers then admirers.
Arcade mode – This was the first mode I played and is a good way to jump on and play a few quick very competitive matches against higher raked opponents across 4 different tournaments. Essentially gameplay is identical to the other modes but limited to 4 quick tournaments. Each tournament takes place on a different court surface from grass to hard-court which all react very differently to one another.
Party Mode – Consists of 8 different mini games ranging from sliding panels which block shots through to making poker hands by hitting and spinning cards. While they provide a welcome change to the more serious side of the game and are exceptionally fun in multiplayer mode, don’t have much of a replay value when playing by yourself.
Graphics and Audio
While by no means being beautiful the graphics are visually appeasing and character likeness is very accurate. Players move with fluidity and while they somewhat lack the exceptionally sharp features of some sport simulators, all the games visuals fit perfectly with the arcade feel they have successfully achieved. Sound wise, menus and setup screens have quirky little pop tunes playing in the background and in-game play is complete with the infamous grunts many players give as they hit the ball. Really though there’s not much you can do with the audio of a tennis game to make people stand up and cheer, something which i was happy to hear the crowd do, as well as let players know when the game was tense or they missed a shot.
Gameplay
I thoroughly enjoyed the arcade feel to Virtua tennis 4 and the more simplistic style of play on offer. While on easier settings it was simple to take your opponent wide with a good powerful serve then crush them down the opposite line, higher ranked opponents caught onto these tricks pretty quickly and positioned themselves to return almost everything. All players have certain styles, be it a hard hitter or good defence, and by playing to these strengths fill the power meter at the top of screen. I did find this to be a biased way for players to fill the meter as for example a player like Nadal who has a defensive style is forced to play slice and lobs to quickly fill the meter with other styles of shots having no effect on it. Interestingly once the meter had been filled once and the rally continued any shot refilled it at a much faster rate than before. Once full it allows the player to hit a Super shot which if positioned correctly will more often than not result in a winner. Again it is all about timing and position when you strike the ball as to the success of these shots. One really cool feature was just before a power shot the view changed allowing players to somewhat gauge where it is going to fall on the court, which at least gives the opposition some kind of chance of returning it. General gameplay was smooth with no visible glitches and player movements were for the most very realistic especially remembering this is essentially an arcade title. There has been some minor tweaks from previous versions, namely the unrealistic diving to get near impossible shots, as well as improved Ai of opponents.
Overall
All in all I personally think that the keep it simple approach has resulted in a much more accurate representation of the game of tennis then many other titles with far more advanced controls. Simplicity doesn’t mean easy as although beginners can pick up a controller and get stuck into it straight away it takes some time to master its finer aspects. Shots can be redirected at the last moment, catching out those sneaky mates that watch your hands as they play, and serving is an absolute joy once you get used to the sensitivity of the control stick. Similarly you don’t have to push any special buttons to perform a drop shot or go to the net, it’s all about the players position and what they would naturally do in that situation. Sure there are a few discrepancies but they by no means take away from the positive aspects of the game. The single player world tour is fun and imaginative and if I was to have a few mates around this would be my first choice should tennis be on the agenda.
N.B I do not own a PS3 Move or an Xbox Kinect so I cannot comment on its functionality on those peripherals. From what I have read the PS3 Move has many added features including a close up view through the players eyes, with the controls being very accurate to players off-screen movements. The Kinect, from various reports is slightly less responsive with the Wii controls being touted as the most effective way to play the game with motion control. I also didn’t have much time to explore the online aspects of the game but gameplay is no different to the world tour or arcade mode.
This week I’ve been quite busy organizing E3 appointments and up-keeping the site. I haven’t played much which isn’t very good. I did manage to get my hands on Spicy Horse Studios new upcoming sequel to American McGee’s Alice in Wonderland, Alice Return To Madness, I also got to speak to American McGee about the game and brush up on my Chinese (as their main offices are located in China). I have to say that Alice Return to Madness is a great platformer, a lot of people are saying it’s like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot, but personally I think it’s step up from both of those titles. The amount of work that Ken Wong (Art Director) and the team over at Spicy Horse have put into the level design and enemies is amazing, playing the game on nightmare mode will have you pulling your hair out as the enemies are very challenging.
I also got to play an hour or two of Suda Goichi (51)’s punk rock adventure, Shadows Of The Damned, which I must say is once “KICK-ASS” game. You can see Suda 51’s influence in the game almost immediately with the crazy tongue in cheek humour and politically incorrect dialog (which I absolutely LOVE) that makes Shadows Of The Damned stand out from your run of the mill action adventure games.
Shadows Of The Damned is a third person shooter that feels and plays a lot like Resident Evil and Alan Wake, two games I truly love. The gameplay over the shoulder feels exactly like RE with one extra added improvement that a lot of people out there will appreciate – you can now AIM & MOVE at the same time. The action element of the game will have you taking down enemies protected by “Darkness” Instead of using your trusty flashlight to burn off the Darkness, you use your Demon Torch that also doubles up as your fire-arm (gun) weapon called “The Boner” (Yes, and it does get bigger and better and more powerful as the game progresses).
Senior Editor: Travis Bruno
Let me just get the lesser titles that I have been playing this week out of the way first. I’ve nearly completed The First Templar and am honestly surprised at the content that contains. Sure there isn’t much of a challenge to the title and it really doesn’t stand out much as an action adventure game but it has a decent enough storyline to keep me playing. Also I was surprised by the amount of gameplay that there is to the game… it never quite seems to end. Besides that I’ve still been working on Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, both on the Xbox 360 by the way, and have enjoyed the different perspective that the Lego universe applies to that of Pirates.
Besides that I’ve picked up my 3DS again to play some Pokemon White. Yes, not exactly a 3D game but still quite enjoyable. I’ve been using the Pokemon Dream World a lot more frequently and it is great to see some old favorites of mine being imported into the title via the dream world system. Also they just released the Eevee evolutions through the dream world so it is a good time to access it. Also I’ve played some Star Raiders for my review, but honestly it isn’t a title that I would play again short of trying for achievements because it really does not have any lasting appeal, nor lasting enjoyment.
Now onto the big one that I’m sure will be appearing all over the place this week. L.A. Noire on the Xbox 360. I’ve only just started my role as Cole Phelps but I must say that this is going to be a title that will be hard to put down. I’ve tried out the Black and White mode that the game offers but I found it to be more difficult to find clues so I chose to stick with modern color, also I feel as if the world loses some of its appeal with the whole black and white feel, could be because I hate old movies. The whole scene searching mechanic for finding clues and interrogating suspects and witnesses is absolutely amazing and it is going to be hard to find any game that can rival the animations that Team Bondi has made for it in the future.
Senior Editor: Dustin Spencer
This week has had some great experiences, and some flat out horrible ones. Thor for the Xbox 360 is now behind me, and looking back it can stay there. In my opinion I believe games based on movies have it tough as they have to take a character and world everyone likes, and make it into an original experience. As I mentioned in one of the two reviews though, it has been done before and could be done again if more time was taken and more love was given. I liked the DS version as you could feel the heart put into it and there is a lot of attention to even the smallest details. Even though some of the moves may seem out of character, Wayforward just wanted to make the game fun, and succeeded greatly in that. The 360 version on the other hand was a shallow disaster. The upgrade system is about the only depth found and combat is clunky and nearly unplayable. I would rather have a game have working repetitive mechanics than a jumbled mess of the varied ones that Thor for the 360 gives. I still have a lot of hope for future licensed titles as they can get better, but Sega need to be a bit wiser in choice for developers next time around.
Now that I have that small rant out of the way, I have begun L.A. Noire and am loving every second of it. I went into it thinking I could get a GTA experience or something close to Mafia II (which isn’t a bad thing with the latter), but instead the game is like nothing I have ever seen before and as Kelly said in her review, L.A. Noire is simply a breath of fresh air for the market. I also put in more time with Mighty Milky Way, which is a really well made puzzle/platformer so far. I also invested some more time with Pokemon and Mortal Kombat.
Editor: Jared Hilliers
I haven’t really deviated from last week’s plan to finish old games in the library, I’ve just picked up my free copies of Portal and Portal 2 which I’ll plough through, as well as looking to download infamous when the PlayStation store is finally back up. I’ve gotta prepare for Infamous 2, I had the original Infamous but traded it in for something more epic, what that was I don’t remember. Atleast now I’ll be getting Infamous back for free, it’s great that we’re getting free games, but seriously it’s been so long that I’m starting to get sick of the store being down. Every time I try to log in and it fails, a little something dies inside, get your act together clowns! You’re killing my excitement to consume freebies.
But we have to remember it’s a free service, so complaining is sort of like being a spoilt brat. I’ve also downloaded APB Reloaded, a game currently in its BETA stages, but it’s an MMO action shooter and is quite interesting! I recommend it if you’re bored and looking for something to play.
Editor: Kyle Moore
I have had such a sad and gameless week this week. I have honestly spent only a few hours this week playing anything. The majority of my time dedicated to games was spent playing Roger the Flying Pig. It didn’t really take that long to get through, it is a rather short game, but with some whacky animations and nice simplistic gameplay. If you want an in depth (slightly more in depth look) check out the review I wrote for Roger and his many attempts to fly here. Other than this, I have spent thirty minutes of the week playing Pokemon White. I am at that point where all the challenges are done, and all you have to do is chase around Pokemon and do some after the game side quest type things. Basically I just tracked down the other six sages, which I found to be really unrewarding. I must say I also find the whole cramming of 500+ pokemon into a few different areas that open up after you beat the Elite Four a little weird. Obviously I’m a little behind on my pokemon though and the majority of people beat this long ago. Other than this, I downloaded Legends of Yore for the iPhone, which I played for a whole five minutes before I fell asleep. This isn’t due to the game, although I wasn’t really impressive, but rather due to the fact that I can only find time to play in the late hours of the night/early hours of the morning right before I sleep. To end on a positive note, my DVD player recently broke. Okay, so that didn’t sound positive, but I soon realised I still own a PS2 that can play DVD’s. I’ve pulled it out of the garage, dusted it off, and am about to plug it in. I plan to re-play all those Sonic the Hedgehog games, that were amazingly re-released for the PS2, whenever I get time. So hopefully next week I have a bit more of an interesting list of gaming experiences to share!
Editor: Michael Marr
This week has been a little busy for me work-wise, so I haven’t had much of a chance to play anything beyond a few hours of Team Fortress 2. Even though the title is a little bit old by gaming standards, it still stacks up as one of the greatest competitive shooters of all time. While bot functionality is useable, it doesn’t replace the straight-up chaotic nature of full multiplayer competition. Mind you though, to this day I’m still only a familiar with a few different maps. For the games I was playing, everything seemed to be stuck on either Dustbowl or 2Fort. As for my performance… wel, I’m not the GREATEST PC gamer by a long shot. Most times I only rank around the middle of my teams score. Not the best. But certainly not the worst. I still find the use of a handheld controller more my speed. And since my play style tends to favour the up close and personal, other players will often see me take on the roles of either the Pyro, Spy or Heavy. And for those who are interested in such things: NO, I DO NOT use hats… -__-
Editor: Ben Webb
The first game that I have picked up with this week is CounterStrike: Source. It’s an old game, but it’s pretty fun to play. I also noticed someone by the name Lingling, who seemed be related to this site somehow. I want to know your connection to me Ling; and I want to know it immediately.
The other game that I have picked up is Spiral Knights, which was published by SEGA. You may have noticed that I had put up an article detailing that the game had just implemented some new features, like the auction house. That’s when I started the game. It seemed to look okay from what I was writing about, and I had the site bookmarked from before it’s release because I like to look into upcoming MMOs, especially by SEGA. The game is pretty fun so far, and I quite like how they limit your play time with the energy system, it keeps you from getting hooked. You can buy more energy, using crowns or real cash, but, as a lunch-time diversion, you don’t need to. If you play, add me – My name in-game is Ayexe.
Again, I have my usual game QuakeLive, which I actually did amazingly well on this week. See attached picture for more details.
The last thing that I’ve been playing is the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! DS game, World Championship 2011, which is really fun! I’m absolutely loving it so far, but some of the duels can be insanely tough, especially towards the beginning (you’ll know what I’m talking about if you have the game). Expect a review up for this soon.
And last thing that I have been playing this week, is anything that I have put a review up for since the last one of these. That is all.
Editor: Michael Irving
This week I tried out Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee, and was extremely disappointed with the buggy mess I found myself in. The game itself looks fun, although it loses some of the magic of the first two, but I can’t play it. I fall through solid ground and die, only up, down, left, and right work on the thumbstick – trying to go diagonally, which you often do in a 3D game, slows movement to a crawl – and the game frequently crashes to desktop. I’m hoping I can find a way around this, or that a patch is released soon, because I really want to play this game.
Also this week I finally caught up with the bandwagon, and began Portal 2. Usually, if something gets really popular and I don’t think it deserves it, I end up hating it (you may have noticed my dislike of CoD). But Portal 2 deserves every word of praise it receives. The puzzles are really clever, the new elements, such as the gels and the light bridges, are expertly implemented, and of course, the writing is fantastic. If the gameplay was weak, it would be worth playing through just to hear the dialogue. But thankfully, Valve have balanced excellent writing with excellent gameplay, something very few games have managed before. A new bar has been set for gaming.
Editor: Kelly Teng
What else could have been possibly playing but L.A. Noire? Instead of talking about it, I’ll just let you read my review: check it out here! I am going to say though…I absolutely love that game. I haven’t been able to put it down, and it’s gotten to the point where I even dreamt about it one night!
Aside from that awesome game, I’ve also rocked out to a little New Super Mario Bros. and Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics on my DS, but really it’s my Xbox 360 that’s been getting the workout this week.
Editor: Alexis Ayala
This week I’ve had to suffer through a horrible trial of patience and will. Yes, I’ve gone a week without the internet… I know, the horrors are unspeakable, so I’ll pause for a moment so you can compose yourself, then we can talk about what I’ve been playing.
…
This week I’ve finished World of Goo for iPhone, which I’ve gushed about before and is fantastic on any platform you can get it on so I’ll spare you any further fellating. I’ve also been slogging through Storm in a Teacup and Orions 2: The Deckmasters on iOS for review. I’ll save all the chit chat on those for when the actual reviews go up. Also new on iOS is Foodies, which is a wonderful little game with inventive controls and some misguided music. Aside of iOS titles, I’ve also spent a lot of time thinking about playing full console games. Since all of my personal effects are still in transit somewhere adrift on the Atlantic Ocean, thinking about playing a game with a controller is about the best I can do. Expect further deterioration and withdrawals in the coming weeks.
Editor: Darren Resnekov
I’ve been playing LA Noire since its been released and I have to say it’s not what I expected, but its awesome. It’s very reminiscent of Heavy Rain in my opinion. I’m finding it hard in the interviews but besides that, it’s all good. I’m also getting beaten at Fifa 11 by mates who dont even own consoles is a bit disappointing but I am letting them use Spain and international teams. Other than those games I have also been playing a fair bit of Virtua Tennis 4 which is surprisingly good. It’s much more simplistic than Top Spin 4 but arcade in nature.
The developers of To-Fu: The Trials of Chi, HotGen Ltd, have brought out a new trailer for their vegetarian-friendly action puzzler, as its 26th May release date closes in.
Built for iPad, iPhone and iPod, To-Fu: The Trials of Chi is an iOS game like no other, featuring a touch-screen mechanic that enables you to stretch and ‘ping’ the courageous To-Fu through each of the 100 levels. The adhesive hero To-Fu sticks to any surface. The game’s control system is easy to pick up – simply requiring the player to grab To-Fu with their finger, dragging him to stretch and releasing to ping.
I suppose the only question that remains is who would win in a fight; To-Fu or Super Meat Boy?
Upcoming 3DS game, The Legend of Zelda – Ocarina of Time, is going to have it’s own PRIMA guidebook that is set to launch along-side the title in June.
Ocarina of Time is set to be released on the 30th of June, 2011 and is probably going to sell like hotcakes spiked with cocaine. The game is going to feature a graphically remastered version of Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64, as well as a remastered version of the Master Quest version of the game, where all the dungeons have new layouts. The guidebook is likely to cover both versions of the game as well as any additions that will be included in the game.
To quote the press release –
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D official game guide includes maps of the worlds, guides through every dungeon, solutions to all puzzles, strategies for defeating every enemy type including bosses, locations for all Heart Containers and Gold Skulltulas and important detailed information on unlocking and completing the Master Quest.
I’m personally excited for this, as I want to be able to compare the written guide of this game to the one that was released with Ocarina of Time, way back when. Also, it should be noted that I actually got the guidebook to the game before I actually got the game. But all that went out the window when I was actually playing it. Haha 😀
The guide book is at a Suggested Retail Price of: $34.95.
Who wants a Duke Nukem Forever First Access code for XBOX ? I know I do… Oh wait I already have one. Leave a comment below on why you NEED THIS CODE !!! The bestest (yes that’s a word cos DUKE said it was) comments will win the code. Once you win it you can Kick ASS and Chew Bubblegum with MasterAbbott.
We’ll have a few codes to give away so make sure your comments are SUPER COOL, make us laugh a little, be creative, think like Duke, maybe put yourself in his shoes and think what he’d say if he wanted to win a code.
With Skyrim now just under six months away, those who have been trying to find something to occupy themselves until 11-11-11 can now rejoice as Bethesda are celebrating the 5th year birthday of Oblivion (can’t believe it’s been that long) with a bang. Why am I saying this? The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 5th Anniversary Edition is now set to release on June 28th according to several online retailers.
Along with a stunning steelbook (which sells me on the package instantly), this version of the classic will include the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game Of The Year Edition, a map, making of DVD with Skyrim Trailer, and a $10 OFF voucher for Skyrim. It also seems that the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC will all see this beauty for a nice low price of just $29.99. Now this is looking like a limited release, so I would advise to do some planning ahead but as of now, only Best Buy and Overstock have the 5th Anniversary Edition actually listed for pre-order, which is sure to change eventually. Honestly though, if you are planning on getting Skyrim, this deal is a no-brainer as even without the DVD and fancy goodies, this is still a fantastic deal that should not be passed up. Now wipe the drool off your face and get to pre-ordering!
