Things That Make A Huge Difference In Dark Souls II PC

Dark Souls II releases for PC on April 25. The question on everyone’s mind is what sort of port this will be, especially in light of the original Dark Souls PC version. While we’ll have to wait until release day for our formal assessment, here are some of the key details you’ll want to know if you’re considering picking it up.

Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes Completed in 10 Minutes

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes has received plenty of criticism for its length, and one player has likely just set the record for shortest completion time of the game.

According to their report, Eurogamer YouTube Editor Ian Higton skipped all the side missions and cutscenes to complete Ground Zeroes in just 10 minutes. With that said, Higton had played the game several times and knew exactly what to do, so don't expect to be able to do this on your first go.

Still, as noted in our review, Ground Zeroes can be completed in about two hours


story via ign.com

Wal-Mart taking on GameStop, will soon accept video game trade-ins

Watch out, GameStop, you have a new competitor in the used game market. Wal-Mart announced today that it will begin accepting video game software trade-ins at 3,100 stores nationwide on March 26.

During a conference call attended by GameSpot, Wal-Mart merchandising chief Duncan Mac Naughton said Wal-Mart is hoping to "shake up" the secondhand market and steal some marketshare away from competitors like GameStop.

There are 880 million video games sitting in homes today, Mac Naughton said. And according to a cited NPD report, 80 percent of these games, or more than 700

Electronic Arts in the running for "Worst Company in America"

Electronic Arts is yet again in the running for the title of "Worst Company in America" from the recently launched poll arranged by consumer affairs blog The Consumerist. EA was named "Worst Company in America" in 2012 and then again in 2013.

In the first round of this year's poll, EA is up against Time Warner Cable. The only other game-related company featured in the poll is Xbox maker Microsoft. However, EA is the only company on the list whose businesses operations are focused exclusively on gaming.

Companies featured in the poll were based on reader nominations. The Consumerist did not say what behavior warranted EA's nomination to the list, but there was significant controversy surrounding the release of Battlefield 4 in October over its widespread technical troubles.

Voting for this year's Worst Company in America begins tomorrow, March 19. The winner will take home the "Golden Poo" trophy. We've reached out to EA regarding their nomination to the poll and will update this story with anything we hear back.

via Gamespot

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD lands July 18

Tony Hawk will ride again next month. Xbox Live director of programming Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb today announced prices and release dates for 2012's Summer of Arcade promotion, which will kick off on July 18 with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD for 1,200 MS points ($15).

Developed by Robomodo (Tony Hawk Ride, Tony Hawk Shred), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD will be the first Tony Hawk title distributed exclusively through digital channels. It will contain levels from the first two Tony Hawk titles, retouched and running on a new game engine. Its soundtrack includes a mix of songs from past games, like "Superman" by Goldfinger, as well as tunes new to the franchise, like "Teenage Blood" by Apex Manor and "Please Ask for Help" by Telekinesis.

Confirmed characters for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD include familiar favorites like Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Andrew Reynolds, and Eric Koston, as well as newcomers like Chris Cole, Nyjah Huston, and Hawk's son, Riley Hawk.

Following Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD will be Iron Galaxy Studios' Kinect game Wreckateer on July 25 for 800 MS points ($10). The title has players controlling a magic ballista, which gamers will use to destroy castles in a medieval fantasy world.

Next up will be Tequila Works' side-scrolling horror game Deadlight on August 1. This title puts players into a postapocalyptic world and will cost 1,200 MS points ($15). A week later on August 8, Scribblenauts studio 5th Cell will release its first shooter, Hybrid. The multiplayer game will sell for 1,200 MS points ($15) and has players enlisting as either Variant or Paladin factions and duking it out in a number of arenas.

The 2012 Summer of Arcade promotion will come to a close on August 15 with Dust: An Elysian Tail for 1,200 MS points ($15). Developed by Dean Dodrill, the role-playing game was originally targeted to be released through Xbox Live's Indie Games channel. After winning Microsoft's Dream.Build.Play competition in 2009, the game was granted a spot on Xbox Live Arcade.
Gamers who purchase three or more Summer of Arcade titles will receive 400 MS points ($5) back.

[gamespot.com]

PopCap and Wooga Are Backing Away From Google Plus

Popcap Games, which is a subsidiary of Electronic Arts, and Wooga, are shutting down its games, and walking away from Google Plus.

Both companies have been incredibly successful with Facebook gaming, but Google Plus simply isn't providing enough users for the companies to continue to allocate resources toward the maintenance of its games. Electronic Arts and Popcap is shutting down its Google PLus version of Bejeweled Blitz tomorrow, and Wooga shut down its games Monster World recently. Wooga issued a statement saying it has "decided to remove certain games from Google+ because we have a much larger following on Facebook and they are active users."

It may not entirely be the fault of Google Plus however. If previous reports are any indication, social gaming in general is rapidly losing popularity.

[gameinformer.com]

Dead Island 2 not in development

Earlier this week, a source told IGN Germany that Yager Development, which is presently finishing up Spec Ops: The Line for its June release, had been tapped to develop Dead Island 2. This is not the case, says Guido Eickmeyer, development director with the original game's publisher, Deep Silver.

Dead Island 2 is not in development, at least not yet.

"We are neither working with Yager on Dead Island 2 nor do we have any contractual agreement with Yager about any project at this point," he said.

The developer did not rule out working with Yager in the future, saying there is a "legitimate chance" the companies will one day team up. He even went as far as to say a future relationship could be on a project related to the Dead Island franchise.

Eickmeyer went on to explain that Deep Silver does not have Dead Island 2 "in concept or production with external partners" and that it is currently considering options for a sequel.

Dead Island was developed by Polish shop Techland and shipped in September 2011 to generally positive review scores. The game shipped 3 million copies and welcomed various add-on packs. Speculation about a follow-up sparked in November, when Techland filed a trademark application for Dead World.

Though a sequel to Dead Island is currently out of sight, a movie based on the property may see the light of day. Film studio Lionsgate optioned the rights from Deep Silver after the game shipped last year. Development of the Dead Island film will be led by The Mummy producer Sean Daniel and Stefan Sonnenfeld, who did postproduction work on various Pirates of the Caribbean films and X-Men: The Last Stand.



[gamespot.com]

                                                                                                                       

Capcom announces Sengoku Basara HD Collection

Fans of Capcom's Devil Kings and Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes can look forward to reliving the past iterations of the franchise with the Sengoku Basara HD Collection for the PS3, announced this week by the publisher in Japanese magazine Famitsu (via Andriasang).

The collection, which contains Sengoku Basara (Devil Kings in the US), Sengoku Basara 2 and Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes, will be on Japan shelves on August 30. As expected from past HD collections from Capcom, the game will have updated high-resolution graphics. Sengoku Basara 2 and Sengoku Basara 2 Heroes were never released outside of Japan.

In addition, the collection will also include an audio CD featuring the voices of the generals from a past Capcom contest involving the Japanese launch of Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes.

[gamespot.com]

Starhawk map packs will be free

Gamers won't have to reach into their wallets to pick up map packs for LightBox Interactive's new PlayStation 3-exclusive shooter Starhawk. Company president Dylan Jobe explained today on the PlayStation Blog that all forthcoming map pack downloadable content for Starhawk will be free. No mention was made concerning how many total map packs will be released during the game's lifetime.

 

Jobe explained that the decision to offer all Starhawk map packs for free is due to lessons learned from 2007 predecessor Warhawk. Jobe said paid map pack DLC for that game divided players, and after three expansions, the community was "pretty fractured."

Starhawk shipped today exclusively for the PlayStation 3, and LightBox is already at work on the game's first free map pack, titled Cypress. The level is set on a lush, wet world, which is home to an abandoned research center formerly responsible for investigating the properties of Rift Energy.

Though map packs for Starhawk will be free, Lightbox will also offer paid DLC for the game. Details are not available on this content at present, with Jobe commenting, "We're still playing around with what that will be."

[gamespot.com]

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD rides in June

The Tony Hawk franchise will ride again this June. The iconic skateboarder revealed recently via Twitter that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD will release on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network in June. Previously, the game was expected to arrive sometime this summer.

In development at Robomodo (Tony Hawk Ride, Tony Hawk Shred) Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD will be the first Tony Hawk title distributed exclusively through digital channels. It will contain levels from the first two Tony Hawk titles, retouched and running on a new game engine. The title will also feature some, but not all, of the songs from the original games.

Confirmed characters for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD thus far include familiar favorites like Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Andrew Reynolds, and Eric Koston, as well as newcomers like Chris Cole, Nyjah Huston, and Hawk's son, Riley Hawk. A firm price for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD has not been announced, but it is expected to sell for "around $15."

[gamespot.com]

Ubisoft registers Avengers domain

Ubisoft may be developing a console version of the recently released Marvel film The Avengers, according to a domain name spotted by Fusible this week.

The site reported that the domain name "avengersbattleforearth.com" was registered on May 3, 2012 (a day before the film's release in the United States), through the brand-protection company MarkMonitor. According to Fusible, the domain name was registered by Marvel Characters Inc, but is currently listed on Ubisoft servers.

Speculation of a video game adaptation of Marvel's The Avengers began with the news last September that THQ's now-defunct studio, THQ Studio Australia, had been working on an unannounced game based on the Joss Whedon film.

Marvel later announced that it had taken back the rights to the game, based on its Avengers intellectual property, and would be "exploring potential publishing and licensing opportunities".

As far as video game outings go, the Avengers have previously been featured in 1996's Data East arcade fighter Avengers: Galactic Storm, as well as the 1991 arcade beat-'em-up Captain America and the Avengers, which received a number of console ports in the following years. Individually, the main characters of the Joss Whedon film--Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, and Iron Man--have all starred in their own feature films and accompanying game adaptations, in recent years.

However, the only current video game based on Whedon's The Avengers is Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita. The downloadable content for the Xbox 360's Pinball FX 2 and the PS3's Marvel Pinball features a four pack of new pinball tables and a virtual machine based on the film. It will be released this spring.

[gamespot.com]

Company of Heroes 2 incorporating next year

After six years, Relic Entertainment's real-time strategy game Company of Heroes is going to get a proper sequel. Scans of the UK PC Gamer magazine have surfaced on Reddit today, revealing Company of Heroes 2 is on the way from THQ.

Company of Heroes 2 will focus on the eastern front of World War II, with a story following a war correspondent's changing perspective on the situation as battles drag on through the winter months. In keeping with that setting, Relic is placing a special emphasis on the way snow impacts the game; infantry will trudge slowly through snowdrifts, but can make much better time walking in the tightly packed snow left behind by tank tracks.

Fans of the original Company of Heroes may be pleased to know Relic won't be straying far from the template established by the original in the name of wider appeal. The developers told PC Gamer that they considered a more significant departure from the formula--along the lines of what they did with the sequel to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II--but ultimately wanted to maintain the core of the original.

When asked for comment, a THQ representative told GameSpot that the publisher "looks forward to sharing more details soon." For more on the game and how Relic is approaching it, check out the June 2012 issue of the UK PC Gamer magazine

[gamespot.com]

Elder Scrolls Online confirmed for 2013

Skyrim fans yearning to explore the game's fantasy world with other people will get the chance next year, as Bethesda Softworks today announced The Elder Scrolls Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game take on the long-running series, set for release in 2013.

Bethesda didn't reveal any gameplay details, but a Game Informer tease for the magazine's cover story on Elder Scrolls Online revealed that the game will be cover the entire continent of Tamriel, including the lands featured in previous Elder Scrolls games like Cyrodiil, Skyrim, and Morrowind. The game will be set 1,000 years before the events of last year's hit Skyrim, and put the players into the world on the brink of demonic assimilation at the hands of the daedric prince Molag Bal.

Elder Scrolls Online will also feature three player factions, though they were not detailed. However, a rumor that made the rounds in March and correctly predicted the game's announcement suggested that they will be represented by animals: a lion, a dragon, and an unspecified bird of prey.

The Elder Scrolls Online will be the debut game from Zenimax Online Studios, which was established five years ago with Mythic Entertainment cofounder Matt Firor (Dark Age of Camelot) heading up the operation. Firor is also serving as game director on the project.

[gamespot.com]

Creative Assembly's Alien game may be multigenerational

It looks like Creative Assembly's upcoming Alien title may land on both current- and future-generation consoles. A multiplayer programmer job listing at the United Kingdom developer (spotted by GamerZines) calls for a person to build a "AAA multiplatform title on current and future generation consoles set in the Alien universe."

Publisher Sega announced Creative Assembly's Alien title in May 2011, saying it will be based more on the suspense-driven Alien film rather than the fast-paced Aliens, but it will still be an "action" game. The title has yet to be shown publicly, and further details remain absent.

In June 2011, Sega Europe's managing director of development Gary Dunn said the team at Creative Assembly may ship its new Alien title for the Wii U.

"We're considering it," Dunn told Eurogamer at the time. "But there are no decisions on…The Creative Assembly Alien title we haven't announced any platforms for yet. As we go through production we'll need to monitor what the best platforms are to launch that game on."

Creative Assembly's Alien project marks the fifth title based on the property since Sega landed the license in December 2006. The publisher first commissioned a role-playing game set in the sci-fi universe from Obsidian Entertainment (Fallout: New Vegas) before canceling the project in mid-2009. The company also hired Gearbox Software (Borderlands) to work on the first-person shooter Aliens: Colonial Marines, which is set to release this fall. In February 2010, Sega released the Rebellion-developed Aliens vs. Predator to lukewarm reviews. Lastly, WayForward built the warmly received Aliens: Infestation for the DS, which shipped in October 2011.

[gamespot.com]

fable heros review.

I suspect that Fable Heroes is Lionhead’s attempt to capture the thrill of modern downloadable beat ‘em ups like Castle Crashers and blend it with the charm of LittleBigPlanet. In principle, this sounds great, and Lionhead is a proven studio that presumably has the chops to pull it off. However, something terrible must have happened during the journey from concept to reality, because Fable Heroes falls short in nearly every department.

Fable Heroes plays like a prototype project Microsoft accidentally released. This downloadable disaster doesn’t even feature a story; players are given no context for why several anthropomorphic voodoo dolls are prancing through train set-sized models of various locales from the Fable series and lazily slashing at cartoon versions of some of Fable’s classic enemies.
If you’re really curious to experience everything this title has to offer, it won’t take you long, because every level follows the exact same pattern. You walk forward until an invisible wall stops you, fight a bunch of enemies that spawn around you, collect the coins they drop, and then start walking forward again. Sometimes a second group of enemies spawn after you beat the first one, but there isn’t much variety to the formula otherwise. Even the bosses are reading the same script: They all stand in one corner of the screen and do large area of effect attacks while you furiously attack their torso, and then occasionally disappear after spawning small groups of enemies. The game is so dull that this description is probably more exciting than playing through one of Fable Heroes’ levels.
Thankfully, the gameplay and visuals aren’t charming enough to sucker anyone into playing for more than five minutes. The art is so generic that it could be placeholder art in a working title, and the combat is so drab I’d rather listen to old people complain about their feet. You have one major attack button that you spam unceasingly, and one flourish attack that takes so long to unleash that it’s useless.

The Fable series is well regarded for its artistic style, so it’s surprising that this downloadable adventure has been drained of all appeal. Even leveling up is hollow thanks to how Fable Heroes handles its progression system. At the end of each level, players tally up the coins they’ve collected from their fallen foes and are awarded a number of dice roles based on their loot. Players then roll the dice and move forward along an upgrade board. The idea is unique, but also frustrating because you can only upgrade a certain skill if you land on that square. At the end of the game, I had a pile of unspent coins because I hadn’t landed on the squares worth the investment.
Fable Heroes continues to function outside of the norm by spreading a series of mini-games throughout its levels, but these are in rougher shape than the rest of the game. One minigame has players kicking exploding chickens at one another, which sounds exciting, but aiming them is challenging and dodging them is easy, resulting in long and boring battles. Several racing games use the repeated mechanic of jamming on a button repeatedly until you cross a finish line. The arena survival minigame is so easy and boring that you could probably draw it out forever; my fellow players and I voluntarily killed ourselves just so we could end the fiasco.
Player choice has always been a key feature for the Fable series, shaping a hero based on your decisions and actions. In Fable Heroes, the only choice is a forked path at the end of every level. One path leads to one of the game’s repetitive boss battles, and the other takes you to a mind-numbing minigame. Sadly, both choices are wrong. When you find yourself standing at this fork in the road, reach for the power button and turn off your system.

Email the author Ben Reeves, or follow on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and Game Informer.

               

[gameinformer.com]

Skyrim mods downloaded 13.6 million times

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim still hasn't seen its first official downloadable content yet, but the game's PC players have taken matters into their own hands to keep Skyrim fresh in the meantime. Bethesda Game Studios today posted on its official Twitter account that the number of Skyrim Steam Workshop downloads has topped 13.6 million.

Those user-made mods were facilitated by the February release of the Skyrim Creation Kit. The freely downloadable program gives gamers access to Bethesda's own development tools to make new Skyrim content and distribute it for free through Valve's Steam service. Some mods simply add weapons and armor to the game, but others allow players to use working fishing nets, kill the ordinarily invincible children in the game, or remove the game's meme-spawning "arrow to the knee" line of dialogue.

[gamespot.com]

Xbox 360 banned in Germany, says judge

A German court has granted Motorola Mobility an injunction against the distribution of Microsoft's Xbox platform line in Germany, Reuters reports. The Mannheim court ruled today that Microsoft must remove a string of products from the German market, including the Xbox 360 and devices running the Windows 7 operating system.

The move will not have immediate implications, the site reports, because a US district court in Seattle, Washington, has granted Microsoft a preliminary injunction against Motorola that prevents the phone company from enacting the German order.

"Motorola is prohibited from acting on today's decision, and our business in Germany will continue as usual while we appeal this decision and pursue the fundamental issue of Motorola's broken promise," a Microsoft representative told the site.

Additionally, Reuters reports that Microsoft has already moved its software distribution center in Europe from Germany to the Netherlands, ahead of anticipated decisions in the ongoing patent trials.
This news follows a US International Trade Commission judge determining last week that Microsoft's Xbox 360 hardware infringes on Motorola Mobility patents for video decoding, Wi-Fi connection, and console-to-accessory connections.

Electronic Arts Files Trademark For SimOcean

Electronic Arts recently announced an update to the SimCity series, a franchise that hadn't been touched since 2003, and it looks like it may want to continue with the Sim series.

Electronic Arts filed a trademark for the word SimOcean. It doesn't necessarily mean a SimOcean is in development. Electronic Arts could be making sure it owns the name before anybody else tries to grab it.

We recently compiled a list of all the Sims games and the ocean was one of the few areas of the globe not simulated when Sims were at the height of their popularity.

[gameinformer.com]

Trials Evolution sets XBLA launch-day record

From Geometry Wars through Fez, Xbox Live Arcade has seen nearly seven years of weekly releases since the Xbox 360 launched in November of 2005, but none of those games had a bigger debut than this week's Trials Evolution. Microsoft Studios today revealed that the RedLynx motorcycle stunt game set a record for the highest-grossing first-day sales in Xbox Live history.

Not pictured: Dozens of inevitable and painful crashes.

Launched on Wednesday, Trials Evolution sells for 1,200 Microsoft points ($15). A follow-up to 2009's million-selling Trials HD, the game sports 60 tracks spanning hills, valleys, rivers, and roads, as well as urban and industrial-type areas. The game supports four-player local and online play, as well as a track editor system and a means to share creations online.

[gamespot.com ]

Adventure Time game in works at WayForward

Adventure Time with Finn and Jake is leaping from the television screen and onto the DS, according to series creator Pendleton Ward.

Through a series of tweeted doodles, Ward revealed last night that he would be working "so closely" with WayForward Technologies to develop a DS game based on the Cartoon Network show. Details are thin on the project, but Ward said the game will ship in 2012.

Adventure Time for the DS will not be the first game based on the TV show. A series of Flash games are available through Cartoon Network's website.

[source gamespot.com ]