For those of you who have read some of the initial press or reviews about Monolith’s eagerly awaited Gotham City Impostors, you’re most likely pretty stoked that it comes out tomorrow. If you haven’t, then get ready for, as Monolith puts it, “Over-the-top gameplay where players become personalized versions of the Bats and the Jokerz.” Yep, that’s right, you get to play as impostors of either The Caped Crusader or his insane and chaotic antagonist, The Joker. Did I mention it’s only $15?
Today, publisher Deep Silver has announced a truly collectible Collector’s Edition of Risen 2, their pirate RPG. I say it’s truly collectible because its one of the few limited editions to not include a book of DLC codes, and instead contains only physical goodies.
Earlier this week, Kotaku reported on the annual Madden Super Bowl prediction saying that the NY Giants will win the Super Bowl 27-24. A few days after Madden released its simulation’s prediction, NFL 2K5 released theirs; the New England Patriots will win 45-31. So while the real-life underdog Giants have the blessing of industry front-runner Madden, the real-life front-runner Patriots have the blessing of industry underdog NFL 2K5. So who is going to win this match-up?
The Klei developed beat’em up Shank is getting its deserved sequel early this week to bring a bit more blood into this lovey-dovey month. Shank 2 brings players back in control of the titular character Shank as he travels the gritty comic-book-style world to, well, beat dudes to a bloody pulp, this February 8.
OK, well maybe not free live time for all, but if you happen to be a silver member when downloading the upcoming ME3 multiplayer demo, Microsoft has a surprise for you.
Anthony M. Graziano, a man charged with starting a fire at a synagogue in Bergen County, New Jersey earlier this month, appeared in court yesterday to plead not guilty because of a predisposition to violence caused by playing violent Xbox 360 games. His lawyer, Robert Kalisch, argued their position to the court, saying that to his client, “… it’s not a game anymore. It becomes reality.” Kalisch did not elaborate to the court which violent games his client played, but pressed the court to see how “these” games create, “lots of violence, lots of meanness,” in those who play them.
When I played Dragon’s Dogma at last year’s E3 I found a competent hack-and-slash title that, while fun, didn’t exactly grab me in a way that warranted a day one purchase. Well, that may be changing, though it’s not due to Dragon’s Dogma itself; rather, it’s because Capcom is bundling the game with the first Resident Evil 6 demo, and I just can’t say no to Resident Evil.
It seems like every day there’s a new rumor regarding the inevitable successor to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, but don’t expect Microsoft themselves to say anything about the mysterious new console any time soon.
In tough economic times like these, it’s not unwise to tighten your belt and cut your expenditures down to the bare necessities. Of course, what qualifies as a “necessity” is open to interpretation: while some (sane) people make paying the rent or making sure they have food to eat their top priority, my personal need to be entertained overrides any basic survival instincts. I am an 20-something American male dammit, and society demands that I engage in blind, insatiable materialism and media consumption. As worrying as the thoughts of going hungry or bankrupt are, my hands shake like a withdrawing drug addict at the thought of not being able to afford more games.
The internet has been filled with Microsoft related rumors lately, and the latest is a doozy: Kotaku editor Stephen Totilo says he’s heard info from “a reliable industry source” that Microsoft’s next console will be incompatible with used games.
FFXIII-2 isn’t even out in the West yet and Square-Enix is already assuming that the game will be successful enough to warrant a long series of paid DLC and merchandise.
While Final Fantasy XIII’s heroine Lightning is relegated to a supporting role within XIII-2′s main storyline, the first DLC pack for the game will once again allow players to add Lightning to their party as a playable character, provided they can defeat her in a coliseum battle first. In addition to Lightning, the DLC pack will also let players add several classic Final Fantasy monsters to their party as well.
While the first DLC pack is limited to simply letting you add Lightning to your party as a bonus characters, Square is already planning future DLC that will flesh out Lightning’s story further. It doesn’t end there either: if the DLC is successful, Square plans to create even more downloadable story chapters that focus on FFXIII’s afro-wearing, chocobo lovin’ Sazh as well as new fanservicey merchant character Chocolina.
If nothing else, the announcement of all this DLC shows that Square-Enix is still committed into turning Final Fantasy XIII into a decade-long franchise, a-la FF7, despite the lukewarm reaction from fans to the series so far.
Tired of having to convert your money into Microsoft Points every time you buy something off of XBLA? Sick of always having 40 or 80 points left over after buying a sale item, and having absolutely nothing worthwhile to use them on? Well, these annoyances may be a thing of the past, as Microsoft is rumored to be phasing out their version of Itchy and Scratchy Dollars in favor of simply allowing users to pay for downloads directly.
According to the rumor, Microsoft is phasing out the use of Microsoft Points in favor of real currency in order to create parity between the Windows Mobile app store, the Zune marketplace, and Xbox Live. Mobile app developers have allegedly already been told to plan their future pricing strategies around real money MSRP’s instead of points, and Microsoft is supposedly going to phase out the old points system before the end of the year.
Now, obviously Microsoft is denying all this at this point, but the change would make sense: the whole points system makes XBLA seem anachronistic when compared to the more streamlined check-outs available on Steam and PSN since you don’t have to convert your money into points, and I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve had to buy $10 worth of Microsoft Points (800 MSP) in order to buy a game that was on sale for 500 or 600 MSP. I think Xbox Live would benefit as a whole if Microsoft got rid of their pointless nickel-and-dime-ing MS Points scheme and simply let users make purchases with real money like, y’know, every single other website in the universe.*
(*except for the Wii online shop, but seriously, who uses that anymore? I think even Nintendo forgot that it exists.)
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