Fans of Killzone 3 are getting a huge treat tomorrow! A new map pack will be on the PSN store in Europe tomorrow. American’s receive the new maps on Tuesday, April 12.
The “Steel Rain” DLC wraps up a Guerrilla Warfare map called Junkyard that will be filled with dead jetpacks and broken exoskeletons. Stahl Arms is a Warzone map in a Helghan weapons manufacturing plant (yay, lots of weapons there!)
Free to Playstation Plus subscribers for the first month, it will later be available for €4.99/$4.99.
EA games have today announced the latest expansion pack for the hit life simulation game ‘The Sims 3’. ‘The Sims 3: Generations’ is set to enrich and emphases the life stages of Sims, from childhood to adulthood. A range of new items, options and activities have been included in this expansion for players to fulfil each Sim’s childhood, teenage and adulthood dreams. New features gameplay will allow teens to pull off pranks and adult Sims to suffer a midlife crisis, just to name a few. “The Sims 3 Generations includes new gameplay experiences and content that our community has been requesting for years including bunk beds, expansive weddings, midlife crises and more,” said Scott Evans, General Manager of The Sims Studio at EA. “Imagine booby trapping a friend’s toilet or turning your imaginary friend into a real person, throwing bachelor or bachelorette parties, all to spend your elder Sims years reminiscing about the past.”
Players will also be able to upload their Sims’ life moments on to thesims3.com and on Facebook thanks to the in-game cameras and the new memory system.
The Sims 3: Generations is set to be released on May 31st for the PC and Mac
Timegate Studios posted on their Twitter account today, saying that the sequel to Section 8 will be launching on the Xbox 360 first on April 20th, 2011. PC gamers will be able to get their shooting and jumping fix next month, on May 4th.
This Microsoft timed exclusive will be short lived though, as the Playstation 3 version of the game will hit the ground running this summer. All 3 of the games will have a price tag of $15.00.
Section 8: Prejudice is notable because it is one of the few shooters to be a digital download that will include multi-player and a campaign. The first game also incorporated the super cool feature of being able to drop in from above ANYWHERE on the map. Plus, jetpacks!
WHAAA! Last we heard, the proposed law that would institute an R18+ rating in Australia had the full support of the federal government. However, it has recently surfaced that Victoria AG Robert Clark is not fully on board, saying that the new law “would legalize games with high levels of graphic, frequent and gratuitous violence, including violence against civilians and police.”
His statements agree with Australian Christian Lobby director Rob Ward, who said the Classification Board was “asleep at the wheel” when it granted titles like GTA 4 MA15+ ratings, allowing them to be released in the continent. Ward added, “that’s not a reason to create an R18+ category. That’s a reason to clip them behind the ear.”
Perhaps he just needs a good clip in the ear to wake himself up, although that would probably prove, rather than disprove, that gamers are more violent. A shame. A crying shame.
Who can say “no” to licensed video games?! Especially when their published by Disney and feature the characters from one of the most watched shows on the Disney Channel. I’m so excited!
Sarcasm aside, Disney does look like they may actually be putting a lot of effort into their new video game, Phineas and Ferb: Across the Second Dimension. Coming out on Nintendo Wii and DS, plus the Playstation 3, the game is set to release in the Winter of 2011. Be prepared to play as one of 10 characters from the show, including Phineas, Ferb or Agent P.
“We collaborated closely with Disney’s video game development team to ensure that the video game captures the humour and style of our movie ,” said Dan Povenmire, Emmy Award-winning Creator/Executive Producer,Phineas and Ferb. “The antics of the characters and the immersive new worlds of the video game will extend the experience fans will encounter in the Phineas and Ferb: Across the Second Dimension.”
While playing as one of those characters, your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to travel through mysterious lands, like a “1928 style cartoon world, a lawn gnome land and a gelatine world.” And when travelling through these lands, what better way to protect yourself than with a “Carbonator – that fires carbonated orange soda to melt enemies – and ninja gloves, which allow players to stick to walls.”
The Nintendo DS verison of the game will have slightly different gameplay, but you’ll undoubtedly be to busy playing to notice. The PS3 game will include PS Move support. Think about using the Ninja Gloves with THAT!
Now lean all the way to the right. Don’t go too far or you’ll fall over. You did make sure to move that glass table over there didn’t you? Uh oh. Well that trip the hospital won’t be too bad considering Michael Jackson The Experience looks to be one of the most entertaining dance games that is coming out for the Kinect. You can catch the trailer for the title below and be prepared for when it releases on April 12th in the US and April 14th everywhere else.
Fans of Michael Jackson may remember that the game was released on the Wii, DS and PSP back in November of last year but neither of these had the full body recognition of the Kinect. The game will also be coming out for the PlayStation 3 on the same day with Move support but the highlight of this trailer is the capabilities of the Kinect itself. Once April 12th rolls around you will be able to dance like Michael Jackson himself to some of his greatest hits like Smooth Criminal, Bad, Billie Jean, Thriller and many more.
Back in the day of the arcades beat em ups were some of the best. You had games like TAITO’s Double Dragon, Capcom’s Final Fight and Konami’s 6 player licensed cash cow X-Men, and Sega had Streets of Rage. Many of these games excluding X-Men found its way to home consoles. Streets of Rage was brought home to the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive back in the 90s and boy was it so much fun. Now a days companies are wanting to cash in on our memories as much as possible by remaking a lot of their classic franchises. While Sega has given the remake treatment to Sonic, Streets of Rage fans are begging and crying while firmly cuddling with their cartages in hopes they will hear their pleas. Not all hope is lost as a group of fans have made their own Streets of Rage game.
These guys have really out done themselves with this, you get 19 playable characters, 64 different kinds of enemies, 83 remixed tracks, 103 different stages, and many more. Its not ripped off of the games themselves it has all been made from scratch. Since this is a fan project the game is completely free and I highly recommend checking it out if you love this series or love classic arcade beat em ups then this is the one to try. Check out the website here :
There are plenty of online shooters. You can name nearly any title that is out there and it will have some sort of multiplayer aspect that was tacked on for no reason other than to provide that option to players. Sometimes this addition only ends up hurting the game as a whole but Brink certainly won’t suffer in these regards.
In the newest trailer from Brink we see plenty of footage that shows some of the abilities that players will be able to unlock as they play consistently with one class of character and level them up over time. Of course there is also a rather extensive character customization mode that will hopefully allow you to become a unique looking fighter on the battlefield when the title releases for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on May 17th in the US and May 20th in Europe.
As evidenced by my review of SHMUSICUP, I’m a big fan of rhythm games or games that can incorporate rhythm elements. While there are few big names out there making these types of games, the independent scene is always more than willing to provide. Sequence, a game planned for release this month on the Xbox Live Indie Games service, offers promises of rhythm and roleplaying to excited a frothing masses. Alright so maybe it’s more of a niche title than that, but come on, how can you not be excited? Imagine combining Rock Band/DDR with classic roleplaying elements all for only 3 dollars American.
The game, developed by indie company Iridium Studios, has surprisingly high production quality for an XBLIG release features 12 hours worth of rhythm gameplay with 28 music tracks by Ronald Jenkees and Michael Wade Hamilton, as well as 90 minutes of fully voiced dialogue and compatibility with guitar and dance pad controllers. Iridium recently released a trailer along with a walkthrough to help explain how they combine these two very different styles of gameplay. Even if you have no interest in the game, do yourself a favor and check out the below video, which contains some of the funniest voice over I’ve heard in a while. Watch the video at the bottom of this post to check out Sequence, and then head to Iridium’s website for more information and screenshots.
There is no doubt that PopCap have a dominate market on today’s casual games, but it now seems the company is looking to expand by launching a brand new label by the name of “4th & Battery”. 4th & Battery is going to be a bit of a developmental playground for PopCap, allowing them to launch new titles that are still in the testing phase. In a way, this kind of works like Xbox Indie games, except the consumers will be able to try out these new ideas while they are still in the experimental phase.
PopCap released this statement today for the launch of 4th & Battery:
“4th & Battery is a pressure valve intended to keep our heads from exploding,” explained Ed Allard, Executive Vice President of Studios at PopCap. “The PopCap brand has become closely associated with ultra-high quality, polish and attention to detail — which is a great thing. But our standard game development process is therefore long and involved, and doesn’t really accommodate all of the creativity pumping through our collective veins. 4th & Battery gives us a way to quickly try really strange or marginal ideas, and to give our designers a safe area to hone their chops.”
4th & Battery is expected to produce several games per year, primarily small-scale, arcade-style games for platforms ranging from PC to Facebook® and iPhone. Unlike PopCap’s traditional franchises, some of the content emanating from 4th & Battery, including its initial launch title Unpleasant Horse, will be aimed at mature audiences.
“4th & Battery is a purely experimental, creative label with none of the typical concerns like schedules, profitability, or even target audience. It’s kind of the video game equivalent of B-sides or short films,” explained Jason Kapalka, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at PopCap. “Expect weirdness.”
Unpleasant Horse will be available next month for the iPhone and iPod touch through the Apple App Store for the nice low cost of “Free” and will consist of “a strikingly unpleasant horse that sports wings and advances through the game by destroying small birds and landing on more pleasant horses from above”. A mature rated game with horses? Yes, I think we have a winner here.
Sounds pretty interesting and if this helps PopCap let their creative juices flow, I am all for it. With the many hits we have received over the years I have no doubt that there will be a lot more to come from 4th & Battery in the future, but for now you can check out the shiny new website for yourself at www.4thandbattery.com.
