After years of releasing absolutely zero information about the game and then that amazingly memorable trailer, Techland’s Dead Island is looking better than ever. Deep Silver released a few more screenshots today that show off the picturesque island setting that the game will take place on.
Of course it would be picturesque if it wasn’t for all of the blood on the ground there by those lounge chairs. Also it looks like the beach has seen better days. But wait a second… is that a giant zombie looking thing in a straitjacket and wearing some sort of mask on its face? Yes… that is exactly what it looks like. It seems there is much more than normal zombies to deal with on Dead Island.
As anyone can tell you, the two things I love are platformers and retro games. You can imagine then how excited I have been the last few years about the impending release of FEZ. It may seem like a lifetime ago that FEZ first came on the scene, and some may have given up waiting for it all together. Today, however, it was announced that POLYTRON, the independent studio that created FEZ, and Trapdoor, an independent Montreal based developer, will be partnering up to bring FEZ to the Xbox Live Arcade in 2011.
After three years of anticipation since its debut at the 2008 Independent Games Festival, where FEZ won the Excellence in Visual Art award, we may finally get a chance to play this game. Described as a quirky combination between Super Paper Mario and Echochrome, FEZ is a rather unique platformer with a fantastically charming retro style. Hopefully there won’t be any hiccups with Microsoft’s often rather stringent protocols for its downloadable service, and if all goes according to plan we should have our hands on FEZ before the coming apocalypse!
With a release date set its apparently time to show off what the box will look like so that way when Shadows of the Damned comes out in stores you know what you will be looking for. Today EA and Grasshopper Manufacture have released the boxart for the game, with the PS3 version and the Xbox 360 version sharing the same image.
As you can see to the right the image contains protagonist Garcia Hotspur in a purple leather jacket and pointing his skull-headed gun towards you. With Shadows of the damned being the latest creation of developer Suda 51 and Grasshopper it certianly looks like the game will be one to enjoy this summer when it comes out on June 7th.
THQ may not be having a good time on the stock market right now with a stock price still down from where it was before Homefront’s release but apparently sales of their most pre-ordered game ever are good enough for them. THQ is claiming “robust” first day sales in the U.S. and have stated that they have sold around 375,000 units.
While two million units is still far away it is a relatively good start that for the game. THQ VP Danny Bilson stated that “Due to the strong and growing demand for Homefront’s multiplayer, we continue to add dedicated server capacity,” which means that you may be able to find a multiplayer match even easier. Brian Farrell also stated that: “We are delighted with first day sales for Homefront and are already fulfilling re-orders for the game from multiple retailers.” My money is that those retailers are Walmart and Amazon.
Swarm has gone gold and given a definitive release date in both Europe and the US for both the PS3 and Xbox360. Swarm will be coming on March 23 on XBLA and March 22 on PSN in North America. Sadly, Europeans will have to wait until March 30 to get it on PSN. You can take control of the blue swarmites for the cost of 1200 Microsoft Points on Xbox and $14.99 on PSN. If you are a PlayStation Plus member you can get it for the reduced amount of $12.99.
At first glance it may seem like a Pikmin type game where you have to use the Swarm to complete tasks, but it is actually more of a platformer. A platformer where you get bonus points for getting to the next checkpoint with the least amount of Swarmites ALIVE, MUHAHAHAHA!
In the wake of the recent trifecta of disasters Japan has been facing in the last week, several companies and organizations have made attempts to lend a helping hand in one way or another. Bungie, creators of Halo, Marathon, and Myth, have stepped up once again to do their part. Similar to their relief campaigns for the Haitian earthquake and Hurricane Katrina victims, Bungie will be attempting to raise money for the people of Japan.
The Bungie Store will be selling specially designed wristbands for 5 USD, all of the proceeds from which will be donated directly to the Japan relief effort. They will also be donating all of the profits from their online store to the relief effort from now until April 30th of this year. That means that any money you spend on awesome Bungie swag in the next 6 weeks will go straight to helping out those in need in the Land of the Rising Sun.
The bracelets, as shown above, are in light blue and have both English and Japanese embossed letters on the front and back. The Japanese characters on the front read “Ganbare Nippon!”, a popular expression used to cheer someone on or to lift one’s spirit (roughly translated as “Hang in there, Japan”, although very roughly). Bungie has also ensured that these bands can be purchased by international supporters, so no matter where you live, feel free to head on over to the Bungie Store and pick one up.
The popular ABC channel game show Wipeout will be getting a game outside of the Wii this time. Activision has acquired a licensing partnership with ABC and the show’s producer Endemol to bring us Wipeout In the Zone for Kinect. Wipeout is a widely popular obstacle course game show where contestants must navigate the course with the fastest time in order to advance.
The game will feature the “infamous ‘Big Balls'” that the original show is known for and often jokes about as well as 30 different obstacles that make Kinect users have to dive, dip, duck, dodge, and run through every obstacle that they come across. Unfortunately from the looks of the first screenshots released for the game it bears a striking resemblance to the previously released free XBLA game Doritos Crash Course… just with Kinect use added in.
Well this is not good news for THQ considering they have stated previously that Homefront must ship 2 million copies to break even. Just one day after Homefront was released in stores in the United States Walmart has decided to “roll back” prices on the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game. This isn’t a simple $5 or $10 price drop either but a full drop down to $41.96.
In an effort to keep their prices as competitive as they can with the competition Amazon.com has also dropped down copies of the game for those two consoles to the price of only $41.96. The cost has never been cheaper to fight for your homeland. Of course day after release price drops are never a good sign for publishers and THQ’s stock has fallen by nearly 26% at the time of writing this since the game’s release. This news comes as a surprise considering it was also previously said that Homefront was THQ’s most pre-ordered game ever.
During Batman: Arkham Asylum The Riddler was more of a background villain who only popped in to challenge Batman to find every riddle that he had hidden around the island and if the player managed to do so they were treated to a bit of extra interaction between Batman and The Riddler, unfortunately he was never shown on screen.
But back at GDC Warner Brothers actually had shown off the Riddler in full view of everyone. This time around clues will only be visible by using detective mode and he has hidden trophies around the city similar to Arkham Asylum. At the same time players will be able to interrogate Riddler’s gang members and keep one of them partially concious so he can gather information on clues. This is a much better integration of The Riddler’s unique personality and challenges into a game than simply having questions appear out of thin air.
After the events of the recent disasters in Japan many games from Japanese developers and Japanese based companies have received delays or push backs to unannounced dates. Today Tecmo Koei announced two more games that now are on an indefinite hiatus with no release date given. Dead or Alive Dimensions, originally slated for a release of March 24th, and Warriors: Legends of Troy, originally set for release on March 31st.
The release date for Warriors: Legends of Troy won’t be affected for Western gamers because the game itself is already out, but Dead or Alive Dimensions never had an official release date internationally but considering the delay it will now be even longer before a date is announced. Tecmo Koei only listed various circumstances to the delay and did not officially state that it was due to the recent disasters.
