Kicking off a new feature here, where I take pictures of the odd stuff that arrives at my desk on a semi-daily basis. Today we have two entries, pictured above.
The first is a gingerbread man, packed in with "Overlord 2." If you're very familiar with the game you'd know that there's a snowy gumdrop Christmas village level, which explains his origin. If you're not at all familiar, then it's just a very odd thing to pack in with a game that features a giant, evil looking dude with a sword on the cover.
On the left things get even stranger. Yes, that's a copy of "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince." And beneath it? Yes, a Harry Potter snap bracelet. Remember those? Well, they're back! And they're branded. This one is especially cool as it's laminated and as cloth on the inside to prevent journalists from using it as a shiv. How thoughtful!
Well, I warned you. I said there'd be weeks like this one coming. Weeks where your new gaming options are, well, limited. Unless you're a big, big fan of "Harry Potter," retail stores won't exactly be brimming with exciting new content. Thankfully there's always downloadable games!
Pick of the Week: "Worms 2: Armageddon" (XBLA)
I'm willing to accept that not everyone loves "Worms" as much as I do, but considering my loving dedication to the franchise, understand that it's been a long, long while since I've seen a "Worms" game this rock solid. You're gonna have a hard time finding a better use for 10 bucks this week.
Runner Up: "Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood" (360/PS3/PC)
It's not great, but it's good...especially if you're a fan of westerns or straight-up shooting games. This sequel chucks all of the annoying stealth and platforming bits from the first game, leaving you with some intense (and extremely difficult) gunfights. Again, not going to burn your house down, but if you're desperate, it's not a half-bad option.
I haven't participated in a real-life, honest-to-goodness LAN party in a few years, but I'm well aware at the joy they bring to the world. It's with that in mind that I'm a little shocked that Blizzard is out-and-out preventing LAN play with "StarCraft 2."
They explained to Joystiq why they would take such a staunch position, and in the end the argument seems a little flimsy:
"We don't currently plan to support LAN play with 'StarCraft II,' as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with 'StarCraft II' and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with 'StarCraft II' and safeguard against piracy."
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Great news today for anyone who enjoys blowing the crap out of Mars. "Red Faction: Guerrilla" is getting a series of 3 DLC packs. The first is called "Demons of the Badlands" and will release sometime in August. It's a single-player campaign-extending pack which will be set primarily in the Badlands, an section of the game map that was only briefly explored in the main campaign. Expect sand raiders, "Mad Max"-looking motorcycles and what's this, a new mech? Yes, please!
Follow-up packs are still unrevealed (here's hoping Gary Busey is involved!), but expect at least one of them to feature additions to the already-robust multiplayer component.
(via EuroGamer)
UPDATE: Despite appearing for pay on the "Battlefield Heroes" test servers, EA has reached out to inform us that the costumes will be free upon release. Rejoice!
ORIGINAL STORY: Looking to pay tribute to Michael Jackson's passing? Well then you should probably pay MONEY to Electronic Arts.
"Battlefield Heroes" players will be able to pony up 420 Battlefunds (about $3 in real money) for each Michael Jackson-themed costume. The good guys have access to the white suit from the "Smooth Criminal" music video, while the bad guys get the black leather getup from "Bad."
I don't take issue with the concept, an in-game memorial of MJ, but to sell them? Sure, Battlefield Heroes is a free game and it makes its money off of in-game customization options, but this just smacks of bad taste.
For the first time in video game history (I'm pretty sure, at least), a video game has been revealed via the Weddings and Celebrations section of the New York Times. The piece profiles the upcoming marriage of Amy Gilbert and Joshua Atkins, a couple that will be joined this Sunday at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.
Apparently Amy is studying for her Ph.D. in molecular biology while Joshua is the lead designer of "Fable 3." Oh, interesting, do tell more about that molecular biology Ph.D.!
This isn't the first time news about "Fable 3" has slipped. British TV personality Jonathan Ross spilled the beans on Twitter a few months back, saying that he "got asked to do voice in 'Fable 3.'"
Microsoft is, predictably, doling out the "No Comments" like they're peanut chews on Halloween. Considering the development time of "Fable 1" and "2," we probably won't be hearing any official news for quite a while.
(via Kotaku)
I spent some time this morning talking with Tom Mustaine of Escalation Studios and John Carmack of id Software regarding today's release of "DOOM Resurrection" on the iPhone. Unlike previous "DOOM" games, "Resurrection" takes control of the player's movements, leading you about the environment almost like an arcade light-gun game. Originally this style of gameplay was implimented simply because id wasn't sure if they could pull off a standard FPS on the iPhone. Carmack explains:
"At the beginning [of development] it wasn't clear that traditional first person shooter controls worked. None of the demo games that people had made were any good at all from an FPS standpoint. So we thought we'd look at the platform from scratch and say 'What type of gameplay would work here?' regardless of what we had done in the past."
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A new law in China is banning the trade of virtual currency for real-world goods and services. So, for example, if you wanted to pay $10 for 1,000 gold in "World of WarCraft," you would pretty much be on China's sh**list.
This is unlikely to cause much of a change in the already complex world of gold farming. Such laws, which primarily affect web-based retailers, who sell virtual gold for real cash, are very difficult to enforce, and many gold farming establishments have been founded outside of China's borders.
A few years back MTV ran a piece on the lives of gold farmers, which you can watch below (assuming you don't live in the U.K. or Canada).
In honor of The Gloved One's passing, Microsoft was giving away free downloads of his classic music video, "Thriller," over the weekend. Over the 48-hour span, over 50,000 people downloaded the video.
That's pretty awesome, and it was a neat idea that Microsoft was able to pull this off with such short notice, but I'm a little surprised at the lack of "Thriller" interest. After all, Microsoft has around 20 million Xbox Live subscribers, so 50K works out to just 0.25% of the subscription base. C'mon people, I know Vincent Price is scary but you really gotta do your part!
iPhone games are built, for the most part, with quick gameplay in mind. Chances are you're waiting for a subway and you only have five minutes to sneak some playtime in. Therefore it makes sense that the AppStore is filled with match-three clones, simple shooters and arcade games. "Zenonia" is not one of those games.
At first "Zenonia" looks like 16-bit adventure games like The Legend of Zelda on the SNES. But the clean graphics hide the true nature of a surprisingly deep RPG. Like "Diablo," "Zenonia" has you traversing a large world map, completing quests, killing evil wildlife and leveling up your character. There's a skill tree and stats which you can boost depending on your play style, and there are three very unique character classes to kick your adventure off (the slow but powerful warrior, the magic-using paladin and the speedy and deadly assassin).
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