BioWare announced today that Dragon Age 2 will be getting a full demo that will be available on every system that the game is coming out for on February 22nd. That means that anyone who has a PC, Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 will be able to get access to Dragon Age II before the game actually sells in stores, as demos usually are.
What isn’t common for demos however is the fact that if players choose to access the demo they will be able to obtain the dwarven sword Hayder’s Razor. Hayder’s Razor will boost Hawke’s health, mana and fighting power and is able to be used in the full game as long as the player obtained it in the demo. Besides the free weapon the demo will allow players to choose one of three different character classes and meet Isabela who is a love interest in the main game.
There are so many different MMOs in the world that it is impossible to really find out what everyone of them are. I’ve seen a fishing MMO before, but never a zombie MMO. But that will change because Undead Labs has revealed today that, in collaboration with Microsoft Game Studios, they will be bringing an open-world zombie survival MMO to the Xbox Live Arcade. Currently the title is being called Class3, but expect a name change eventually.
Class3 will be a third person title that will place players inside of a zombie apocalypse where they must survive in settlements and fortify the world around them to prevent the undead from feasting on their flesh, all the while trying to find more survivors out there in the world. Players will be able to do this in what Undead Labs has said will be “sweet guns, fast cars, hand-to-hand combat, and copious amounts of zombie gore.”
Supposedly the game world will change in real time depending on what players do and how they will try to survive. There currently is no actual release date given for the game, nor much news besides plenty of promises that make Class3 sound like an instant buy for any zombie lover, such as myself.
Jeff Strain, founder of Undead Labs had this to say regarding the project:
“Undead Labs is thrilled to work directly with Microsoft to bring Xbox 360 players an outstanding zombie-survival franchise. Our mission is to create original online games that truly feel at home on the console platform, and Xbox 360 is a fantastic platform for online console gaming. We plan to create an ambitious open world XBLA game and use its gameplay, setting, and technology as the foundation for a full online world game.”
We may not have known much about the main character of Deus Ex: Human Revolution before, but we know at least a little bit now thanks to Square Enix’s latest trailer for the game. We learn that Adam Jensen is the main character’s name and there are even a few tid bits about his past in there as well. Of course what Human Revolution video wouldn’t be complete without a bit of gameplay thrown in at the end as well.
From the looks of it Deus Ex: Human Revolution will feature primarily first person action while switching to third person only when you are taking cover or performing a brutal looking stealth kill. From what we know so far the game will retain much of its stealth history from past Deus Ex games, but exactly how much is unknown. Currently the game is set for a release some point this year for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC but exactly when is still a mystery.
Nintendo has made it clear that they want fans of the Pokémon series to jump at their earliest possible chance to pick up Pokémon Black and White, and now they are doing it by offering even more incentive to early buyers. For those who pick up the game between it’s release date of March 6th and April 10th they will receive a Liberty Pass if they use the Wi-Fi system to connect to the network.
This Liberty Pass will allow players the chance to capture Victini, whom is called a Victory Pokémon by Nintendo and is the very first Pokémon to ever feature a Fire and Psychic-type put together. Victini will not be able to be captured through normal gameplay, so if you want him/her you will need to buy the game early or find a good friend to trade with. Plus it will also have an accuracy boosting ability which will raise the accuracy of every Pokémon in your party which will be very useful considering some battles will have three of your fighters out at one time. There is additional information on Victini on Nintendo’s website here.
Sacred Odyssey playes out like an action / adventure game with a slight blend of RPG. You don’t actually have abilities in the game. The weapons and magical items you collect are what makes you stronger. This is quite different to other RPG style games out there at the moment on any platform. As you all know traditional RPGs have a habit of keeping you in the menu and stat pages where you’re constantly changing stats and abilities and weapons and armor and everything else under the sun to find that perfect combination to make you that little bit stronger. In Sacred Odyssey it’s the opposite you only have three pages to check out, your quest logs, your map screen and your very simple to understand inventory page. By making this very simple and straight forward you don’t have to worry about constantly trying to figure out what ability point you should allocate what perk you should add here or there but instead focus on the GAME at hand and have fun saving fair maidens and bashing things up.
This is a great title for new comers to the Action/Adventure genre. It’s not too hard to understand, quest are straight forward, the onscreen map system is brilliant and the voice acting in the game makes it much more enjoyable than just reading on screen dialog.
I could go on and on about the game but the video gameplay adds everything else to you need to know about the game. Click play and enjoy the show.
The Australian development team, Nnooo, have been busy working on their new title for the DSiWare, Spirit Hunters in which the player will battle and capture spirits that inhabit our world. This title is very interesting as you use the DSi’s camera to put the location you are in at the time as the backdrop for the happenings in the game itself.
“The development of the game is really taking shape and we are delighted to be able to show the battle mode which will represent a large part of the player’s in-game experience”, said Nic Watt, Creative Director at Nnooo. “Now that we have some of the sound effects and player abilities in place, we are able to give a much better feel for what it’s like battling against the spirits.”
The plot puts the player in the role of being a member international task-force called Spirit Hunters Inc. where you must battle and capture spirits, sending them back to the spirit world. Throwing in some RPG elements, each spirit captured leads to experience points and in-game currency in which you can gain/buy new abilities and level-up.
“We are very excited about how the game is developing”, said Watt. “Augmented Reality is a really exciting new area for games and we think that Spirit Hunters Inc is really making use of all of the Nintendo DSi’s features. We are also planning a version for the Nintendo 3DS™. More details about this will be revealed in the future.”
Of course the most interesting thing to come from Nnooo so far on this tile is the developer diary. Instead of just talking about the game’s production with videos of gameplay, creative director Nic Watt shows the game play on an actual DSi and shows off the battle system as well as a few other areas of gameplay. I am most impressed about the graphics though at the moment, as when I first heard of this title I imagined a bit of image tearing with the backgrounds, a problem that has plagued many camera-based titles on the system. It is very obvious from the video that this is not a problem and the game seems to play very smooth.
We still don’t have a release date at the moment other than a release window of sometime later this year, but you can check out the developers diary below in full for yourself and if any news comes forward for Spirit Hunters, we will be sure to update all of you.
A new video has been uncovered entitled the ‘Art of Yars’, and features one of the game’s developers giving you a rundown of what to expect in Yars’ revenge, the background behind the rebirth, and interesting look at plenty of concept art in a slideshow-esque manner. The concept art is particularly nice to behold, as it shows the illustrators and designers imaginings of the game world before it was transfarred onto the screen.
Some of you may not know this purely because it’s so ancient, but Yars’ Revenge is in fact a remake of an old Atari 2600 title, or if the word ‘remake’ is too strong, then at the very least a HD realisation of the game. True to their heritage, Atari are fronting this game’s release, and will be releasing it on XBLA and PSN this Spring.
Namco Bandai has revealed the sales figures for Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, an action/adventure game released on Xbox 360 and PS3 in October 2010. The game has sold 460,000 copies to date, but this isn’t the response publishers Namco Bandai were hoping for, with the game failing to break the 500,000 mark.
This news puts a possible sequel in serious doubt, which is a shame because the game is actually quite good, as you can see from our review HERE
However, it’s not all bad news and the IP is not abandoned yet. Developers Ninja Theory were recruiting for an unannounced game, as well as working on DMC for Capcom, so this unannounced title could just be an Enslaved sequel. Also, only last week that Namco Bandai UK marketing director Lee Kirton said that the IP still had a future, so there’s still a morsel of hope for those who enjoyed Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.
Nordic Games, creators of the ‘We Sing’ line of games has announced today that it is expanding the brand by bringing two territory-specific We Sing games to both Australia and Germany, planned to be the first of many new country specific editions. They hope that, as all the tracks are hand-picked locally, it will ensure each game has an authentic vibe and is more appealing to residents of that country as it is from their home-grown musicians, bands and artists.
The Australian version is called ‘We Sing Down Under’ and aims to give a ‘pub rock’ feel to get everyone singing along, featuring tracks like Rolf Harris “Tie Me Kangaroo Down”, Gina G “(Ooh Ah) Just A Little Bit”, Natalie Imbruglia “Torn”, The Divinyls “I Touch Myself”, Men At Work “Down Under” and Olivia Newton-John “Physical”. As one of the countries biggest musical exports and given the Karaoke nature of some of her songs, you would expect Kylie Minogue to make an appearance, although her inclusion has yet to be confirmed.
The other title which will be releasing in Germany is We Sing Deutsche Hits which offers German classics which weren’t popular outside of the region. The top five We Sing Deutsche Hits tracks are: Die Fantastischen Vier “Gebt Uns Ruhig Die Schuld”, Unheilig “Geboren Um Zu Leben”, Sportfreunde Stiller “Ein Kompliment”, Nena “Nur Geträumt” and Ich & Ich “Vom Selben Stern”.
We Sing Down Under has 30 tracks, whereas We Sing Deutsche Hits has a set-list of 40 songs, and both will arrive in their respective regions exclusively on Wii this Spring. If their launches prove successful, then we could see more of these territory-specific We Sing titles cropping up in many other countries, and Nordic Games certainly aren’t against the idea, with more planned for the future.
“de Blob 2” is all about bringing color to a lifeless and gray world. When one fan of the game won a t-shirt off the game’s Facebook page, he decided to express his gratefulness through the art of dance. Calvin Harris’s “Colours” is the name of the song; you can watch some amazing dance moves to this song if you just scroll down a little bit farther.
And speaking of “de Blob 2,” if you watched last weeks episode of “Chuck” you would have seen that everybody’s favorite super spy/nerd is also a fan of the game. Check out that episode here. If you want, the “de Blob 2” reference is at about 7:30.
de Blob 2 will be available on the Xbox 360, Wii and Playstation 3 on February 22, 2011.
BioWare announced today that Dragon Age 2 will be getting a full demo that will be available on every system that the game is coming out for on February 22nd. That means that anyone who has a PC, Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 will be able to get access to Dragon Age II before the game actually sells in stores, as demos usually are.
