It looks like Square Enix will be lending a hand to Deep Silver and Techland by handling the distribution for Dead Island in the United States. Previously it was said that Deep Silver would be handling Techland’s upcoming zombie apocalypse game on their own but today it was announced that the Deep Silver and Square Enix would instead collaborate to release the title across the world.
Deep Silver’s Chief Operating Officer Geoff Mulligan stated that “Square Enix’s impressive distribution and marketing capabilities, combined with their proven success with launching top-notch AAA titles, makes them the absolute best partner for Dead Island.” He also said that they are “thrilled to be partnering with their dedicated and talented team” which is a good news for Square.
Dead Island will be released sometime in the fall season for the Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3 and give players a chance to fight with mostly melee items with guns only being a last resort due to a limited amount of ammo. After the impressive marketing we’ve already seen for the title expectations are certainly high.
If you have been wanting to try out the uDraw and have been suffering from the limitation of not owning a Wii, it looks like you are in luck as THQ announced today during a fourth quarter fiscal 2011 report that they would be bringing the artistic tablet to the Xbox 360 & PS3. Since launching late last year, the Wii version of the uDraw has shipped over 1.7 million units which certainly shows that this port of sorts should be a smart move.
Aside from a “Holiday” release, not much else is known, but I am sure the 360 and PS3 versions will work identical to the Wii tablet with the uDraw studio bundled in. It will however be interesting to see just what games will support the uDraw though as there certainly is a lot of potential for the device. Since THQ publish the Smackdown vs Raw games as well, I personally would like to see a new way to create logos and designs in the create a wrestler as it takes hours during the current process. Either way, there is no doubt the uDraw should do well for all consoles it lands on if history repeats itself and we can now look forward to having a new toy to play with on the Xbox 360 & PS3.
Yes, you heard that right. We have seen many games featuring the ever popular Nicktoons, but now it looks like Spongebob and company are ready to strap on a glove and play “America’s favorite pastime”. 2KPlay Announced Nicktoons MLB today, which will mix Nicktoons such as SpongeBob SquarePants, ZIM, Dudley Puppy, Fanboy, Chum Chum, and Ren and Stimpy, along with professional players from 30 different teams on the Xbox 360 with Kinect, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo DS.
2K Play & Nickelodeon both had a statement on the announcement of this new toony title:
“The Nicktoons are an animated bunch and it’s no secret they have been petitioning our office to facilitate this unprecedented match up,” said Steve Lux, Vice President for business development of 2K Play. “Whether an extraterrestrial from Planet Irk, superheroes who wear underwear on the outside of their costumes, or a secret agent dog, time will tell if these heavy hitters have the grit to play in the big leagues.”
“Our Nicktoons stars are taking the field and plan to ‘go yard’ against the best players in Major League Baseball,” said Shaan Kandawalla, Vice President of Digital Retail Games for Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group. “Nicktoons MLB will introduce a whole new rivalry on the baseball diamond and mark the first time our popular animated characters and MLB’s players will be featured in the same game.”
This certainly is a different direction for the standard sports fare and if Mario can do it, I guess why not the toons we all grew up on? Of course there are a few that I don’t really know myself mixed in, but here is to hoping we will see an appearance from “Patti’s Pulverizers” (which has about a 1% chance of happening, but props for anyone who can match the reference). High Voltage will be working on the console version of Nicktoons MLB and Black Lantern Studios will be giving a hand with the DS release. Nicktoons MLB officially releases this summer and it certainly will be interesting just how this title pans out, so we will keep you updated when more is released over time.
No you actually read that right. But first let me address the fact that the Red Faction: Armageddon demo has went live today on the Xbox Live. Unfortunately the planned release for the PlayStation 3 demo didn’t happen because well… THQ can’t control the PSN. Either way, fans of Red Faction will be able to get their taste of destruction with the magnet gun allowing them to demolish buildings, form worm holes in the ground and destroy everything in site.
Now if the demo is downloaded one million times then a cute little addition will be given to everyone who downloaded the demo. That bonus will be a unicorn that shoots rainbows out of his butt and can cause a lot of pain to his enemies. Though it seems that he isn’t very happy being used as a weapon either as you can see below. Fans will be able to access the full game when it releases in stores on June 7th for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
Tecmo Koei previously announced that they would be releasing the Japanese voice track for the game for free but did not place a release date on the actual release. If you take a look on the XBLM then you will know now that the Japanese voice option is available for download as well as a slew of other content that costs a little bit of money. When the PSN finally goes up you will also be able to purchase this content or download the voices for free.
The new content includes some costume packs, a weapon pack and a new stage and background music package. Unfortunately the Costume Packs do cost money which is unfortunate because they were previously mentioned to be free but instead will only cost $1.00. You can find the full list of content released today as DLC below with prices included:
Costume Pack 0 (DW1 costumes) – 80 MSP/$1.00
Costume Pack 1 (DW6 costumes) – 80 MSP/$1.00
New Stage & BGM Pack 1 (Sanjiang Castle map, plus eight music tracks from DW5/DW6) – 240 MSP/$3.00
Weapon Pack 1 (Dagger-Axe and Bomb) – 160 MSP/$2.00
Just a heads up to all the zombie lovers out there, oh and those who love Call of Duty: Black Ops online too I suppose, the new Escalation DLC pack is available now. The price tag will run 1200 MSP ($15) and is currently exclusive to the Xbox 360 only with a PC and a PS3 release some time in the near future. With this download pack you will get four new multiplayer maps and one special zombie map called Call of the Dead.
Matt Vella went into detail about the zombie mode and talked about each of the famous characters that you will be seeing. This includes Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy The Vampire Slayer fame, Robert Englund the voice of Freddy Krueger, Danny Trejo from Machete and Michael Rooker from The Walking Dead. But then again you should also watch out for George Romero because he seems a bit under the weather and angry.
Well at least there is a silver lining to the cloud of darkness that is hovering over Sony at the moment. Sony Online Entertainment revealed that they had been hacked yesterday and that they had lost 12,700 credit card numbers at that time. However it was stated at the time of revelation that these cards were relatively older and that the database hacked was outdated until 2007.
Because of this Sony told Gameindustry that only 900 of those credit card numbers are active today. This means that if you have any type of credit card registered to the SOE in the past then it would be best to keep an eye out on your statements because you never know if your card could be one of those 900 active. Things keep getting worse for Sony as they are continuously hacked and losing personal information, at least this helps clear the mind of 11,800 people.
The last add on content released for Fallout: New Vegas was released quite a few months ago. December for the Xbox 360 and February for the PC and PS3 to be exact. It seems that soon enough however you will be wanting to dust off your copy of Fallout: New Vegas because Bethesda has announced today that three more add-on packs will be released in the next three months, one in each month.
The first of which will be available on May 17th, a paltry two weeks away. This pack will be titled Honest Hearts and will take players to the unspoiled wilderness of Utah’s Zion National Park. However everything doesn’t go so easy when your caravan is attacked by raiders and you must now make your way back to the Mojave wasteland. Unfortunately things aren’t ever that easy, with a war between the tribes and the New Canaanite missionary and whispers of a Burned Man, you may find the road home a long one.
Releasing sometime in June will be the Old World Blues package that will give players the chance to discover how some of the Mojave’s mutated creatures came into existence when you yourself become a lab rat for a science experiment gone wrong. In the Big Empty you will need to find any technology you can to survive against your kidnappers, or maybe even join up with them for the big picture.
Last but not least we have the Lonesome Road which is being released in July. The Lonesome Road will bring the courier’s journey to a full circle when you are contacted by Courier Six, a man named Ulysses who originally refused to deliver the Platinum Chip to New Vegas, making you the courier instead and launching the game’s entire storyline. Ulysses promises to tell you why he refused the chip but only after you do one job for him, a job that will take the player into the Divide. The divide is a land torn apart by violent storms and earthquakes, with so much danger involved that the few people that ever tried to cross it never came back alive.
Each of these DLC packs will cost 800 MSP or $10 and will be released on the Xbox 360, PC and the PlayStation 3.
A great deal of Yoostar 2 content will be coming this May, adding to the setlist with more scenes, sets and backgrounds making their way to the game. Among those making their curtain call is The Dude, from cult-hit The Big Lebowski, something I mentioned I longed for in my review of the game HERE Available for purchase through the in-game Yoostore, Xbox LIVE Marketplace and PlayStation Network, new individual scenes and scene packs are launching online every Tuesday.
“Yoostar Playground is an exciting new way for players to connect and interact with each other across the globe, as well as a direct line of communication with the community to hear which scenes they most want to play,” said Nicholas Reichenbach, Chief Content Officer for Yoostar Entertainment Group. “Thanks to great fan feedback, Yoostar is a constantly expanding universe that delivers the most popular scenes in Hollywood.”
May 2011 releases include:
Scenes
· American Graffiti – Got an ID for the liquor?
· Apollo 13 – Re-entering Earth’s atmosphere
· The Big Lebowski – I’m the Dude
· The Big Lebowski – The rent
· The Blair Witch Project – I’m scared to close my eyes
· Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie – I’ll teach you some Spanish words
· Crank – Who are you?
· Fletch –John who?
· The Hangover – Doug is missing
· Kick-Ass – Child, you always knock me for a loop
· Kick-Ass – The kindest daddy in the world
· Marathon Man – Swallow the diamonds
· Matrix Revolutions – Give ’em hell!
· On the Waterfront – I coulda been a contender
· The Princess Bride – You killed my father – prepare to die!
· The Princess Bride – Where is the poison?
· Saw II – I want to play a game
· Saw V –Killing is distasteful to me
· Star Trek: Generations – The death of Kirk
· The Terminator – You’re terminated
· Three Amigos! – A plethora of piñatas
· Weeds – A grow loan
HollywoodSets
· Men in Black 2 – You are the Light of Zartha
· Scarface – From the desk of Tony Montana
· Tropic Thunder – Scorcher VI trailer
Free Video Background
-Fast-Moving Clouds
Scene Packs Hollywood Sets Pack
· 300 – Xerxes’ great beast advances
· Clash of the Titans – Tremble before the Kraken
· Fast and the Furious – Drag race
· GI Joe – Missile chase
· Tropic Thunder – A pandacide
Hollywood Icons Theme Pack
· Beverly Hills Cop – Axel checks in
· Forrest Gump – A bullet in the buttocks
· The Godfather – Luca Brasi and Don Corleone
· Rocky 2 – I am a fighter
· The Terminator – I love you, too, sweetheart
The Hangover Film Pack
· The Hangover – What’s the last thing we remember?
· The Hangover – I’m gonna propose to Melissa
· The Hangover – Am I missing a tooth?
Soldier 3-Pack + bonus video background
· Platoon –Make it out of here
· Rio Grande – The War Department promised 180 men
· Sands of Iwo Jima – I’m gonna get the job done
· Video Background – Desert Fire
Wizard of Oz 3-Pack
· The Wizard of Oz – Dorothy meets the Cowardly Lion
· The Wizard of Oz –Is that the witch?
· The Wizard of Oz –Toto didn’t mean it
As a gamer who was fortunate enough to grow up playing Duke Nukem 3D, I have to say that THIS has been a long time coming. Today, MasterAbbot, Kelly and myself were fortunate enough to be invited to attend a special media event at the Slide Bar on Oxford Street in Sydney Australia. This was to be the venue where representatives from Gearbox software would be showing off the upcoming mega-hit: Duke Nukem Forever. What can I say? It’s the game that we’ve been waiting so many Duke-less years for. Who in their right mind would refuse that invitation?
Upon entering the slide bar, we all immediately noticed that the bar’s decor had been altered by the fellows from Gearbox and 2K, in an effort to make the place look more like a place where the King himself would go to hang out. Giant plaques of Duke and his lifetime achievements were scattered around the room. A giant backdrop with the words “Duke Nukem Forever” hung from the main stage (complete with vertical bars). Overhanging the stage hung what looked to be a neon sign for Duke’s very own Bar: “Duke Nukem’s Titty Bar”. And maybe most notably, the abundance of female staff dressed in Duke approved apparel. All we needed were a few beers, some good food and the experience would be truly.. – oh, wait a sec… that was provided to us too. Well save for the alien invasion, it really was like stepping into Duke Nukem’s world.
But we didn’t forget the real reasons why we were attending the event (but that extra stuff was still good.) Our mission was threefold: Play through the gameplay trial being presented to the media; learn as much as possible about the impending release; and obtain an interview with the heads of Gearbox software, who were present at this very event. Now while we can’t disclose exactly what sort of things we played through and saw (yet…), we were told that we were more than welcome to ask a few questions and spend time re-living those experiences of playing Duke Nukem, but in a brand new way.
The event itself was broken up into 3 2-hour sessions, which would allow different groups to come and go, speak with members the development team and play test the demos on offer. Needless to say, I was impressed with both the scale and management of the whole thing. Before everybody inevitably gravitated towards the unmanned play-test tv’s, our attention was seized by the two reps from Gearbox who were commanding attention to the stage. They introduced themselves as Randy Pitchford, the president of Gearbox software and Steve Gibson, the vice president. It was pretty clear from their mannerisms on stage that both were highly psyched about this game. Randy took us through what gamers loved so much about Duke, and even provided us with a little history lesson regarding the huge wait for this release. As an ex-3D Realms employee, Randy was already very familiar with the Duke franchise, and for years, like most of us, has been waiting to see when the King would return to video gaming. When 3D Realms answered in 2009: “never”, this set in motion a chain of events which ultimately led to Gearbox buying the rights to Duke to change that around. It was clearly a story and a situation that is close to his heart. He and Steve both proceeded to talk about what was new with Duke in 2011, and how this game stands out from the rest.
It was said that the gaming industry has changed dramatically between DN:3D and DNF. In a modern market that already features an abundance of first person shooters, all with the same, shoot, kill, move-on flow of gameplay, the designers of DNF have tried to capture the spirit of the older Duke games, while still introducing some new innovations. While of course there IS a lot of ass-kicking to be had, the game was described as more than that. Players would be forced to think about their decisions and interactions with the Duke world. It’s a first person shooter game, but it’s also a puzzler, an adventure game, and a problem solving experience. Sure many problems can be solved with heavy artillery and use of said artillery, but there apparently will be moments when players really need to think to progress. Both reps said that they were particularly fond of the work on Portal 2 which has helped define intellectual challenges in FPS gameplay.
While they continued to discuss elements of Duke’s story, I took a quick look around only to see a bar-girl offering to get me a drink. In the middle of the day, I was expecting coke and water. “We have beer for you guys” what she said, and suddenly, out rolled the Crowns. Looking over by the bar, I also spotted a few ladies clad in clothing that was even more tight fitting that those being worn by the bar staff. All three were wearing the same outfit consisting of a white shirt, VERY small red patterned skirts and long black boots. I recognised the outfit from the announcement trailers I had already seen. I figured that these ladies were reps from 2K who would later be helping us get introduced to the play-test.
Then, Randy and Steve stepped off stage. The three afore mentioned ladies moved up to the stage and positioned themselves on the vertical bars. Suddenly, I figured maybe they weren’t there to teach us how to play. Alice Cooper’s “Poison” began to play as the stage lit up, and smoke was fed in from stage right. All of the attending guests were then treated to, believe it or not, a stage pole dance show from the girls in Duke apparel. I mean, what else can I say? It was certainly fitting of the Duke Nukem theme. It was sort of surreal and kind of awkward for me, but I could tell that about half the audience were staring on with intent. Including MasterAbbott. 🙂
We were later given a photo opportunity to have with the girls, where I swear MasterAbbott thought that for a moment, he was Duke himself. Seriously, take a look at the photos! C’mon… Free food, free beer, video games, and babes? It doesn’t really get much better than that.
Needless to say, I was VERY impressed by the game test-plays. In my own opinion, I feel that this will definitely be a game worth looking out for. I can’t say exactly what I played (yet…) but take a reassuring pat on the back, it’s AWESOME. I think it captures the essence of what made previous Duke games great, but at the same time, has created new innovations that may well define the game industry and the FPS market for years to come.
At the final stage of the event, our little group was ushered upstairs to have a one-on-one chat with Randy and Steve regarding the release of DNF. Everything went pretty smoothly Randy and Steve, who are both VERY cool guys. To watch the interview itself, click HERE
All in all though ,it was a fantastic event to be a part of. It was fun, entertaining, and for me, fulfilling to see Duke had been passed into hands that shared our dream to see the final product hit selves. Not only was it able to project the Duke Nukem world into reality, it also projected that fact that the game itself: Duke Nukem Forever WILL be becoming a reality for gamers very soon. Scheduled for a worldwide release on June 10th (or 14th in the States) mark the date down, because the King will be back to kick ass, and chew bubblegum.
