To celebrate Spring and Easter, EA Mobile has more than slashed the price of titles ranging from The Sims 3, Tetris and Tiger Woods 12 to Dead Space, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and Monopoly.
The sale is good for games on your iPhone, iPad, and Android* devices so if you’ve run of out things to play on your iPhone or Android devices head on over to the iTunes or Android store and grab yourselve a Easter/Spring Bargain now.
This is one of EA Mobile’s largest sales of the year – don’t miss these limited time prices!
Click below on the title names to be taken to the iTunes Store (these are just a few make sure you do a search for EA or Electronic Arts in iTunes or in the Android store to see them all)
No your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. Game Informer has been given two exclusive screenshots for Mass Effect 3 and has placed them online for the world to see. The two screenshots can be seen both above and below and show Cerberus forces fighting against Shephard on the Salarian homeworld known as Sur’Kesh. This is the first time we have seen the Salarian homeworld in actual gameplay so a new planet will be available this time around.
The Cerberus Network seems to be attacking this Salarian city but exactly why they are there is anyone’s guess. Currently no other information was released so take a quick gander at these screenshots and contemplate just what else they have added into Mass Effect 3.
In a bid to push for an 18+ rating for video games in Australia, Federal Minister for Home Affairs Brendan OConnor has compiled a table of games comparing their ratings across various countries. Many games on the list such as Borderlands, Bulletstorm, Duke Nukem Forever and WET to name just a few, were rated M15+ in Australia while being adults only (17-18+) across Europe, US, Canada and NZ. In what I could only assume would be pressure from gaming companies and the massive profits that would be lost if the Australian market was excluded, these games are being pushed into the wrong categories and into the hands of many impressionable kids around the country. Don’t get me wrong I actually haven’t got any issues with a 15 or 16 year old kid playing whatever games they want but it’s a little bit out of hand when 5 years olds play war games or get that demonic look on their face while taking out pedestrians in GTA.
OConnor believes that “If the new category is introduced, it could result in computer games that are currently classified M15+ being re-classified R18+, providing a new level of protection for children”. While I do believe that passing a law such as this is a step forward for the gaming community I think its goals as set out by O’Connor will fail. My argument is that Mr OConnor is basing his argument on the fact that introducing these new laws will keep these games out of the hands of young children and it won’t. Laws are already in place to keep children under 15 from buying these games but does this stop them, no it doesn’t. The only thing that will stop children of a young age from playing violent and disturbing video games is their parents awareness or concern for what their kids are doing.
What an R18+ category will provide is a means for parents who do monitor their childrens gaming activities to be better informed of the games content. As a parent you may deem a game labelled M15+ as suitable for your 14 year old son but would not consider looking at the R18+ range. Currently parents are being slightly misguided due to the massive inconsistency and variation of games all lumped together under the M15+ rating. Interestingly OConnor notes that games that are currently deemed unclassifiable such as Mortal Kombat will remain so under the new laws, as many parents were worried that new R18+ laws would see the introduction of even more raunchy titles. Without starting a debate, surely if there was an R18+ rating in place then games like Mortal Kombat could be reintroduced for sale to their intended audience with fines in place for retailers caught selling it to children. Sure they could buy it over the internet, but they already can as the PS3 is a multi-region machine and there’s a multitude of websites just eager to supply desperate gamers with a copy when the legitimate stores cant.
While it may seem a step in the right direction, and I do agree with keeping certain games away from kids I really don’t think it will keep the games out of the hands of those who want to play them. Kids these days have seen pretty much everything from Sly Stallone wasting over 200 enemies in his last Rambo film to Sub Zero ripping out a spine in the original Mortal Kombat (which I remember the hoard of schoolkids waiting to play at the local milkbar). And with his statement regarding currently unclassifiable titles it doesn’t even look as though it will benefit adult gamers and give them access to these previously unplayable titles. F any of this was going to work there would need to be a universal ratings system that correlated closely with movie ratings. There’s no point banning a violent video game but allowing an equally violent movie to be available at the cinemas.
^Above: The Mortal Kombat: Legacy cast at the Mortal Kombat: Legacy launch party!
Mortal Kombat: Legacy, the online web series debuted on youtube last Tuesday, and since it has collectively received over 5 million views on youtube. The series has been praised by many as a glorious return to the series’ mature presentation, and has given the Mortal Kombat a more realistic approach to the characters, changing many aspects of the storyline, but fans reception so far seems like they don’t seem so mind much, many actually embracing it. It is an anthology of nine live action episodes and sheds light on the motivation behind each character’s participation in the Mortal Kombat tournament.
“Kevin Tancharoen delivered an amazing production that millions of fans around the world are enjoying,” said Thomas Gewecke, President of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution. “We couldn’t be more pleased with the reception it’s received. This is truly a testament to the quality of the series and the ongoing popularity of the Mortal Kombat characters and franchise.”
The high anticipated first episode of the series entitled “Jax, Sonya and Kano Part 1” debuted on April 12 exclusively on Machinima’s YouTube channel, and can be viewed here.
While Sonic is celebrating his birthday this year, Sega are still very aware that their beloved puzzle franchise, PuyoPuyo is also turning the big 2-0 and are planning the celebrate with a new game on the Nintendo DS. I had my first taste of the puzzle title well over 15 years ago when I played Kirby’s Avalanche (and later Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine and the Gamecube, GBA & DS Puyo releases) and I have always loved the chain-making madness that is the PuyoPuyo engine, so news of a new title has me a bit excited at the moment.
It is a little surprising considering on how many consoles we have seen the franchise on that the Nintendo DS was the unit of choice for Sega, but since we haven’t seen much from the series in a few years I am sure fans like myself will be just happy to see a new version released period. Siliconera are reporting that the 20th Anniversary of the game will feature both old and new versions of the game, such as PuyoPuyo Sun and Fever as well as a Nintendo Wi-Fi mode.
The release date for PuyoPuyo! 20th Anniversary is set in Japan for July 14th with both standard and “anniversary box” editions. In Japan PuyoPuyo is a much larger property than it is in the rest of the world, but hopefully we will receive word if this latest Puyo title will release on a global scale from Sega soon enough.
If you have been waiting to play Fable III then you sure have been waiting a long time. Even though Fable III was rumored, and minorly leaked, to have a Windows Live version released some point in the future there had never been a release date given for PC gamers.
That is all changed as Microsoft has announced today that Fable III will be releasing on May 20th for the PC and will be available through a number of different ways. Fable III will be available for Steam and Games for Windows Marketplace. However you will see different pre-order bonuses depending which one you pick. Steam users will recieve the Rebel’s Weapon & Tattoo pack, but the Games for Windows Marketplace will provide Fable: Lost Chapters entirely free. It seems despite adopting a Steam release policy, Microsoft is throwing in a large bonus for those who use their marketplace.
Well, some people may not know when to quit. Over the past few days we’ve been seeing the death of a handheld. Or rather a version of a handheld that has seen success in other versions but not this one. But it seems that Sony in the U.S. still believes that the PSP Go has what it takes to sell. Too bad it hasn’t.
Despite Japan and Europe stopping production of PSP GO Sony of America spoke to Joystiq and told them: “We are continuing production of PSP Go for North America.” Why exactly they are doing this despite worldwide abandonment of the PSP Go is unknown at the moment but perhaps they have a stockpile of PSP Gos in a warehouse somewhere and will say those are newly produced still.
That certainly didn’t take long. Just a couple weeks after officially revealing Sonic Generations, Sega have now launched an official website for the game and released a gameplay trailer. Scheduled out for a “Winter” release in Japan, this new title celebrating Sonic’s 20th Anniversary is still yet to see an official date for the rest of the world, but I imagine Sega of Europe/America should be shedding light on that very soon. Also, it does indeed look that this will be a full-priced disc title due to a listing on GameStop’s official website which lists a placeholder date of 12/31/2011 with a pricepoint of $59.99 (US).
The true star of this story though is the brand new trailer. The clip is over three minutes in length and shows Sonic tearing his way through the Green Hill Zone with the classic famed tunes from the level unchanged. From this trailer alone I can easily say Sonic has never looked this fast and fluent in years and if the whole game plays like what we see hear, we might be looking at the return to glory that Sonic Fans have wished for since Sonic 3. So do yourself a favor and feast your eyes on the new trailer below and once Sega start confirming some more official dates for Sonic Generations, we will be sure to bring you an update.
Nevermind that June 7th release date that EA and Suda 51 announced a few months back for Shadows of the Damned. In an event in San Francisco, Grasshopper Manufacture announced that the game will instead be seeing a June 21st release. This place sit two weeks after the original release for unknown reasons. But two weeks of extra polish is always a good thing, if that is what this delay is for.
Shadows of the Damned is going to be a very bizarre third person shooter with plenty of horror themes. The names on the development team lead to quite a strong backing already with Shinji Mikami, Suda 51 and Akira Yamaoka being on the team. Meaning that fans of any of those men should already have their money in hand for when the game releases, despite Alice: Madness Returns, another horror based game, being released shortly beforehand.
Looks like Mario & Sonic are going to be teaming up again to bring children the Olympic Games this year, or perhaps next year as no release date is currently known for the title. But either way this is now the third Mario & Sonic Olympic Games game ever since they started the franchise back in 2008. The logo above for the game also contains the London Olympic Games’ logo above it.
Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (long name) is going to be released for the Wii and most importantly for the 3DS. There will be new events added to the Wii edition of the game including soccer and horse riding as well as something called Dream Events. The 3DS version of the game unfortunately has not seen any actual game announcements but will contain over 50 different events that can be played. It will be interesting to see this family friendly game on the 3D handheld when it arrives some point in the future.
