Daily News - 1st May 2012 - Black Ops 2 Official Trailer!, Skyrim Kinect Patch Released, New Powerhouse Graphics Card and More!

Black Ops 2 Happening Fo Sho

We have confirmation, and it's what the internet had already figured out: Black Ops 2. In fact, by the time you read this the trailer will have already been shown on American TV (I'll update this story with it as soon as I'm able). The game will supposedly take place in a "near-future" setting, with the pre-order page for the game reading:

"Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 propels players into a near future, 21st Century Cold War, where technology and weapons have converged to create a new generation of warfare"

So basically, from the screenshots, expect flying mini-robots of death and massive walking tanks. COD fans rejoice!

EXCEPT HEY, GUESS WHAT, THEY JUST RELEASED THE TRAILER AS I WAS TYPING THAT ABOVE SENTENCE! SO HERE'S THE TRAILER! LOOKS LIKE CALL OF DUTY MEETS TERMINATOR! GET PUMPED!

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Skyrim Patch Lets You Shout At Your TV Constructively... NOW!

Wow, that trailer reveal kinda threw me for a loop... Right, yes, Skyrim. This patch was officially announced a week or so ago and promises to let you cast Shouts, sort your inventory or whip out a particularly fierce weapon at a moment's notice. it actually looks like it works really well, and they've made it very intuitive things that you can use it for. A trailer detailing some of the things is below, and a PDF of the complete list of commands can be found here.

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Geforce Reveal Their Newest Card... It's $1,000

I'll be honest here, I don't know as much about graphics cards as I'd like, but what I DO know is that it's well documented that you can almost always find a sick graphics card with near-comparable capabilities to a far more expensive card, in fact, I'm sure there are people out there who make good money off of testing cards against cheaper ones and advising which cheaper card is just as good as the expensive one. $1,000 is a fucking shitfuckload of money, and I'll be damned if I'd ever pay for that, but Nvidia will try and sell you on it anyway. If you wanna read the reveal article you can do so here. Nvidia say that it's "not a graphics card for everyone". That's because most people don't have infinite money.

....It does look rather nice though. Damn! They've got me!

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And finally...

Skyrim First DLC Announced, No Details Yet

Other than a picture of a guy with glowing eyes, all we know is the DLC's title: Dawnguard.

Midnight Purple 3DS Coming

It looks fricking lovely, though it's still a 3DS... Shame that.

That thing looks maybe even sexier than that graphics card. Om nom fucking nom!

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Daily News - 28th April 2012 - Portal 2 PC DLC Incoming, Sony's Smash Bros Rip-off and Mass Effect PS3 Events Are On

"Perpetual Testing Initiative" Coming To Portal 2 Soon

Portal 2. Those 2 words alone should be enough to stir excitement in even the most cold-hearted video game fan. The first of Valve's free DLCs for the game was months ago and was a few new levels for the game's co-op, so it's fair to say this can be considered the first REAL DLC for the game. The Perpetual Testing Initiative is, in essence, a map editor for the game, presented in the style of the game's various elevator vignettes (the "Animal King Takeover" one being a personal favourite of mine). It's hard for me to wrap my head around the brain power it would require to construct an ingenious Portal puzzle, but tools like this aren't built so I can come up with my own puzzles, they're built so physics students, and amateur game designers can cut their teeth and design something truly impressive for the game's community, and when the game you're designing your custom puzzle for is Portal 2, you get to flex your gray matter in ways other games simply can't match. The map editor is due for PC on May 8th, but not on consoles. Sad face.

This is the actual interface for the Map Editor. Brill. I. Ant.

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Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale Is The Super Smash Bros. Clone You Never Wanted

Oh dear. A few days ago word got out that Sony's rumoured Smash Bros. clone was a thing that was happening, and we also got it's name: Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale, but it wasn't until we got screenshots that I started getting a little angry. Blatent rip-offs are always disappointing, and even moreso when it's a rip-off of one of the most popular and most beloved of Nintendo's franchises. Not only does All-Stars Battle Royale feature a whole host of 'classic' Playstation-exclusive characters, but it's also a 2D fighting game, with an interface VERY reminiscent of Super Smash Bros'. It fills me with sadness in a very real way, though it will be, admittedly, pretty cool to see Kratos kicking the shit out of Parappa The Rappa. The game doesn't look like it has anywhere near the same production values as Nintendo's original, kinda looks like a cheap cash-in to me, but we won't know for sure for a little while.

If Super Smash Bros. were a Playstation 1 game it may look like this

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Mass Effect On PS3 Now Letting You Take Part In Events

The multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 is, aruably, the best thing about it, so it's good to hear that Playstation owners now get to take part in Bioware's weekend events. The events tend to last the weekend and let players earn cool loot and prizes for taking part (and sometimes everybody who plays the game will get a prize, whether they take part or not). The events are awesome, and the multiplayer addictive, so Playstation owners beware! It may just grab you!

Play as a motherfucking KROGAN!

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And finally... Bargain!

Civilization 5 - £4.99!!!

Civilization V is so ridiculously good it's not even funny. Even if your PC can't run it, just buy the fucker... just in case.

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Daily News - 24th April 2012 - Diablo 3 Beta Weekend Figures, Batman: Arkham City DLC and Black Ops 2?

Diablo 3 Servers Appropriately Stress Tested, And Wiped

So that Diablo 3 beta happened last weekend. I played my Witch Doctor upto level 9-and-9-tenths, picked up some mediocre loot, beat a skeleton king then was done with it. I didn't find it very enthralling, but that's neither here nor there right now. According to the Blizzard Community Manager, an estimated 300,000 people were online at any one time on Saturday, which should get those servers good and ready for when the game goes online in a few weeks time. It wasn't exactly smooth sailing for the beta, with errors popping up all over the place, and people attempting to log-in getting turned away, but overall I'm sure Blizzard would say it was a success. Now if they can just figure out a way of actually making the game fun.... Trololol ofcourse.

When I saw this message pop up I was pretty pissed. Bit of a smack in the teeth.

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Inevitable Arkham City Game Of The Edition Will Release Alongside New DLC

Arkham City, being one of the best games of last year (spoilers), has definitely earnt itself a Game Of The Year Edition, bundling all the existing DLC together. Now while this is fine enough news on it's own, the release of the GOTY Edition will align with the release of a new DLC pack, featuring Harley Quinn as your main antagonist and letting you play as Robin whilst exploring the city. I'm super excited to play as Robin, his cameo was one of the most awesome cameos in the whole of Arkham City and I for one loved it, so the oppurtunity to skulk around the rooftops as the Boy Wonder fills me with tremendous amounts of joy. The GOTY Edition will launch on May 29th.

Anyone who thinks Robin is gay clearly doesn't know Robin

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May 1st Expect Activision To Announce Black Ops 2

Activision have been releasing less-than-subtle teasers giving the date May 1st as something to look out for. The teasers remind me alot of the Black Ops style presentation, with the font and background, which makes sense as it's about 99.9% certain to be a new Black Ops (according to various reports of leaked info from the last week or so). It makes an unbelievable amount of sense to make a sequel to Black Ops, while the story may not exactly be set up for a sequel, the game made near-infinite amounts of money so don't expect to be able to escape the eventual advertising campaign. The game's first advert will debut during some basketball... so yeah, that's erm, a thing...

Not the subtlest of teasers, but if they were looking to create excitement, they probably succeeded.

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Daily News - 20th April 2012 - Trailer For New God Of War Game, Prey 2 Not Cancelled, Diablo 3 Beta Weekend and More!

God Of War Prequel Is A Thing That's Happening

Last week we got teased with possible announcement of a new God Of War game, and while not God Of War 4 like people may have been hoping, what we're getting instead is a prequel to the series. Announced yesterday after the trailer got leaked, the game will follow Kratos before he got involved with all this daft god murdering business. The trailer is embedded below, though admittedly it doesn't show much.

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Prey 2 Just Delayed, Not Cancelled After All

Phew! Looks like it was premature of the gaming community to deduce that Prey 2 was canned (though, in our defence, in this medium any game can get cancelled at basically any point), turns out the game is just going to be delayed. We don't know when the game's going to come out, but it definitely won't be 2012, according to bethesda's official blog:

Development of Prey 2 has not been cancelled but the game will not be released in 2012 as planned. The delay is due to the fact that game development has not progressed satisfactorily this past year, and the game does not currently meet our quality standards. Prey 2 has shown great promise and we regret disappointing our fans. We have made a substantial investment in game development to deliver the experience fans want. We are determined only to release the AAA game that fans rightfully expect, and are unwilling to compromise our quality standards to meet a release schedule.

No matter which way you slice it this is good news. A space bounty hunter game, with parkour elements is a concept I can get fully behind... and fully intend to when it (finally) comes out.

Sexy alien (what I can only assume is a) prostitute? Check. That's me happy!

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Diablo 3 Open Beta Weekend Has Started

Well, there goes my weekend. Diablo 3, after accidently activating it earlier in the week, have officially kicked off their Beta Weekend today, and it should be ready for you to participate in now. All you need is a Battlenet account and to click this link and download the Beta client. Have a fun weekend of loot-grabbing, power-levelling fun!

Hacking both sides of someone's head with axes, simultaneously? ...Seems reasonable enough.

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And finally...

Sony Working On Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Problem

Hopefully PS3 owners will be participating in the weekend events soon.

Halo Movie Cancelled

Apparently Microsoft are demanding too much profit from the eventual movie. Bastards!

007 Legends Announced

The game will encompass the plots of 6 Bond films! Sounds like a cool idea!

Family Guy Online Gets A Beta

An online Family Guy game? I guess so! Drop by here if you're interested.

Apparently this is a screenshot of Family Guy Online??? Hell if I know! Looks terrible!

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Daily News - 18th April 2012 - Dead Space 3 Outed, Trials Evolution Level Editor "A Beast" and Lots More!

Dead Space 3 Is A Thing That's Happening

It's always iffy to report on a game that hasn't even been announced yet, but this is one rumour that has some weight to it. Not only has it been long enough since the last Dead Space that it makes sense for number 3, but the site that leaked the info, allowing you to pre-order the game, is South African site BT Games, leakers of such eventual true things as Jak And Daxter HD Collection and Mass Effect 3's Multiplayer mode. It definitely feels like an appropriate time to see Isaac slice some arms and alien willies off, plus Dead Space was apparently pretty good too. Bring on Dead Space: The Third!

I don't know much about Dead Space, but I'm gonna guess these two aren't friends

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Trials Evolution Has A Pretty Incredible Level Editor, Apparently

I'll leave this story up to Trials Evolution's Creative Director, Antti Ilvessuo. He can say it better than I can:

"It's really a beast. We don't know the limits yet.

Obviously, you cannot create something like a brand new MMORPG with spaceships or a real-time strategy game with one thousand units controlled by an AI… but if you like to make physics-based games, and from that make shooting games, driving games, puzzle games, arcade games, the upper limits have yet to be explored.

If you think about it, a first-person shooter is basically physics - the actors move around the world, and fire small projectiles at each other to intersect. It's the same with top-down shooters, platformers, they have a fundamental style of mechanics that we can use."

This story also serves as a cheeky little reminder that Trials Evolution is out today, for the reasonable price of 1,200 Microsoft Points.

As soon as this daily news is up, I'm buying the hell out of this! Squee!

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And Finally...

Darksiders 2 Delayed Atleast 2 Months

It's sad, but if it leaves me with a better game I'll be happy. no date in August set yet.

Diablo III Beta Servers To Close On May 1st

This will ofcourse be ahead of the game's supposed release on May 15th. fingers crossed!

Xbox Entertainment Apps Free This Weekend

Normally you have to be gold to watch Demand 5, 4OD, Lovefilm etc on your Xbox. Not this weekend though.

Halo 4 Release Date Confirmed

November 6th. Prepare thyselves, fanboys!

Pikmin 3 And A New Super Mario For Wii U At E3

I am there with bells on! Or something!

Apple And Valve Team Up On Console?

that's the rumour, and if true, it's BANANAS!!!

Happy 16th Birthday To Jack

His gamertag is Xxmackenzie96xX, hope he has a great day. 16 eh? Lemme tell ya, It's all downhill from there mate. Enjoy it while it lasts.

For you Jack, the cake is not a lie.

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Daily News - 15th April 2012 - Mass Effect 3 Patch Fail, New God Of War Teased, Valve Working On A Console? And More!

Mass Effect 3 Patch Screwing Some People Over

Oh Bioware, you poor company, when will you catch a break? So remember how early on, even before the ending stuff was a thing, people had a problem importing faces from older Mass Effect games? Well Bioware patched that last week.... Sort of. It turns out that since that patch, some Mass Effect 3 players have been reporting problems with, well, playing the game entirely on Xbox 360. The patch bug makes the game unable to progress to the title screen during the "Connecting to EA servers" step of starting up the game, kicking you back to the disc start-up creating a loop of pain. It's been a tough month for Bioware, this must feel like a swift kick to the backside, frontside and teeth all at once. Free hugs from me, Bioware.

I already used this last week, but I feel it remains appropriate.

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New God Of War Game Announced On Playstation Fan Page

It's fair to say God Of War is a pretty big deal at this point, and any new game in the series is bound to be a good money maker for Sony, so it's not surprising to hear than another entry in the series is indeed on the way. The game was teased on the Playstation Facebook fan page, and we'll probably get more info about it next week. The last game in the series had a secret ending which implied the series could definitely continue, though I'm fairly certain Kratos has basicaly run out of gods to fuck up at this point.

Only a couple of days to wait!

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Valve Maybe Working On A "Steam Box"

Fairly self explanitory here. Valve, the all powerful PC game distributor, are looking like they wanna have a box to stick in your living room, after posting a job listing for an electronics engineer to help work on "whole new gaming experiences". According to the job listing the duties of the person they employ will be to:

"Work with the hardware team to conceive, design, evaluate, and produce new types of input, output, and platform hardware."

Definitely screams to me that they're making a console, but that maybe it'll be a holodeck/dreamatorium type thing, who knows, only Gabe Newell knows for sure... (cue picture of Gabe Newell).

Brow furrowed, he contemplated new ways to change gaming forever. No pressure, Gabe.

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And Finally...

No Mass Effect 3 Events On PS3, Sony's Fault

Playstation owners don't get play the weekend ME3 events because Sony won't allow it.

Resident Evil 6 Brings Back Mercenaries (Yay!)

Some retailer exclusive maps are already announced though: the Catacombs, High Seas Fortress and Rail Yard.

Super Mario 4 Domain Registered By Nintendo

A true sequel to Super Mario Bros 3?!? Fingers crossed!

Pokemon Black And White 2 Brings The Newness

The game will contain new cities and characters, aswell as new gym leaders.

Skyrim Actually Getting Kinect Voice Support

Say "Fus-Ro-Dah" to mother fucking Fus-Ro-dah!.

Good advice!

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Overdue Daily News - 11th April 2012 - New Resident Evil 6 Trailer, Mass Effect 3 "Falsely Advertised" and More!

Resident Evil 6 Gets New Trailer, Brings Release Date Forward

Resident Evil has become, in it's past 2 installments, one of my favourite franchises. The style of action they deliver coupled with the tactics, gun-levelling and treasure hunting has tickled my fancy like you wouldn't believe. Resident Evil 6 looks set to change the formula now, which probably means an end to the campy money-collecting, gun-buying, "What're ya buying?" stuff which makes me sad, but everything I've seen of it has made me wet... in the mouth with anticipation. In the newest trailer we see Wesker's son, Chris and Leon kicking the fuck out of each other and that they've moved the release date forward 6 weeks! What's not to like?!?

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Better Business Bureau Decides Against Mass Effect 3

I think it's fair to say Mass Effect 3's ending controversy has spread further and wider than the typical gaming circles, with stories on regular news websites picking up on the outrage. You could argue that the bad press isn't great for the public's perception of gaming as a whole, but personally I think that any press is good press for gaming... Though not necessarily for Bioware. Today's "fuck Mass Effect 3" news follows on from enquiries by gamers towards the The Better Business Bureau as to whether the game failed to make on promises made in the promotion to the game, in essence, false advertising. Well the BBB Blog had the following to say on the matter, citing the quote below from the game's pre-release marketing:

 “Experience the beginning, middle, and end of an emotional story unlike any other, where the decisions you make completely shape your experience and outcome”.

...

"The issue at stake here is, did Bio Ware falsely advertise?  Technically, yes, they did.  In the first bullet point, where it states “the decisions you make completely shape your experience”, there is no indecision in that statement.  It is an absolute."

So this doesn't sound good. Basically the BBB decree that Bioware lied about Mass Effect 3, falsely advertising the product. There's no word yet about what, if any, consequences this will have, but you can be sure I'll post a news story about it many days after it happens. Ugh, I need to step my game up...

"somebody wanna tell Shepard about this Better Business Bureau thing?... Nevermind, he already knows."

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And more...

Molyneux Was Not Satisfied At Microsoft

He didn't hate Microsoft, just wished for more danger. "I was in a creative padded cell... I felt like I was being suffocated creatively a little bit"

Crysis 3 Announced

Game will be available on PS3, PC and Xbox 360. No release date yet.

Bulletsorm 2 Not Forgotten

Work on a sequel had started but had been cancelled. Epic promise it will happen one day though.

Hitman: Absolution Professional Edition Announced

Will contain DLC for the game, an art book and a documentary.

Yes, gimme more Bulletstorm! Hook it up directly to my veins!

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Daily News - 6th April 2012 - Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut, GAME Has Been Saved and More!

Free Extended Cut Of Mass Effect 3 Coming In A Few Months

In the case of Mass Effect 3 Vs. Humans, Bioware have made a nice gesture and announced that the eventual "Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut" will be free to everyone who has the game. Obviously, as the name of the DLC implies, they aren't changing the ending at all (which makes sense) and are instead adding to it with new footage, hopefully relevent to your character's specific journey. It's not spoiling much to say one of the worst things about Mass Effect 3's ending is it's vagueness, so a bit of clarification will go a long way, with me atleast.

Maybe the Extended Cut will feature Shepard facing London's massively inflated prices

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GAME Bought By Comet Owners

That's right, GAME has been saved, and it's been saved by OpCapita, the same company who saved Comet last year. GAME had already closed down lots of their stores by the time the buyout happened, but fortunately it happened in time to save 333 stores and over 3,000 jobs. I'm glad we get to keep a specialist store like GAME here in the ol' U of K, but the company's old mis-steps need to be fixed before this happens again next year. Part of the problem GAME ran into was people discovering that they could get the same game off the internet for a good £10-£15 less even at launch, plus their prices never had to even try to be competitive. If you were lucky, a sale at GAME used to mean £5 off something you kind of, maybe wanted, now hopefully it'll line up with an actual value proposition. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and here's hoping it's a huge success.

Now I'm not saying Nathan Fillion 'SAVED' GAME, I'm just saying he probably had SOMETHING to do with it...

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And Finally...

More Details Of Notch's Next Game

It'll be called 0x10c, and loads of details have been announced. It sounds amazing.

Civilization V DLC Coming On June 19th

The Gods and Kings DLC will be with us in 2 months. Too long, 2K!!!

Microsoft Register URLs All Relating To Something Called Halo: Infinity

Domains include haloinfinity.net and haloinfinitymultiplayer.com. Let the mind wander, Halo fans!

Killer Is Dead Announced By Grasshopper (Makers Of Mental Games)

Be the executioner, a guy who goes around the world killing "S-level criminals". The guys behind Lollipop Chainsaw and No More Heroes are behind this, so it'll likely be awesome.

Funcom, Developer Of Secret World MMO, Talk About The Wii U

In their own words, the console will be "perfect" for MMOs. Makes sense/makes me happy.

New Batman: Arkham City DLC Hinted At From PS3 Trophies

The trophy info implies you'll play as Robin against a pissed off Harley Quinn. It won't be a fighting arena like other DLCs, this will be story-related and even contain new Batman dialogue. Robin! Squee!

Robin is definitely cool enough to hold up a DLC on his own, especially Arkham City version!

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Daily News - 2nd April 2012 - The Best Of April Fools

As always, the game industry did some pretty cool stuff for April Fools this year. Here are some of my favourites of the ones I've seen.

Google Maps For The NES

This was my favourite by far! Not just a pretty obvious and entertaining hoax, but something I would gladly pay GOOD money for. Take a look at the video below, and try to contain your unbridled joy.

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Mass Effect Saturday Morning Cartoon Announced

Ofcourse this is real, it's too obvious to be fake. A cartoon like this would obviously be relegated to campy, 80s cult status after just 3 seconds of airing. In fairness to the video, beating the Reapers using a rock and roll battle of the bands is only slightly less plausible than what actually happened.

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First Ever Rock Band Boardgame!

Boasting such wild features as "A larger song library than any other rhythm-action board game!" and "Auto-calibration", not to mention this pretty kickin' trailer!

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Think Geek Show Off Incredible Fake Products

think Geek have a habit of doing this, coming up with amazing things for April Fools, the actually having to produce them because of their amazingness. Past examples include the Tauntaun Sleeping Bag and the iCade, both still up for sale on the ThinkGeek store. this years offerings included an Admiral Ackbar Billy Bass, a Dohvahkin Hoodie and Minecraft Marshmallow Creeps (a play on 'peeps', an American Easte treat). Us regular folk can vote for which one they want to see be made a reality. Pick a side! Me personally, it's gotta be Ackbar. It's a money trap! For my money!

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Block Of Ages Adds Corners

Imagine adding a cube character to a game where you roll down hills. Sounds like an April Fools to me!!!

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Daily News - 27th March 2012 - Bioshock Movie On Hold and GAME Closes Down Over 250 Store

Bioshock Movie Is On Hiatus

Bad news for the inevitable Bioshock movie, in that it's lost it's director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Fresnadillo said the following regarding the film:

"To be honest, by now, I'm completely out of that, and developing other stuff. Right now it's on hold. The studio and the video game company, they have to reach some kind of agreement about the budget and the rating."

Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) took over from Gore Verbinski (The Ring, Pirates Of The Caribbean) in 2009 and until this news was still assumed attached, but apparently there are too many problems with budgeting and ratings for the film to get made any time soon.

My advice would be to shoot this cunt's face off ASAP

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GAME Lay-Off Over 40% Of Workforce, Close 277 Stores

It seems likely we have seen the last of GAME, atleast the store as it used to be. Included in the closures listed above are all but 3 of the entire of Northern Ireland's set of stores, one of which in Dublin is holding a sit-in in protest of unpaid redundancies. It's a terrible situation all round, which leaves 2,100 people jobless. It's worth remembering that this includes Gamestation aswell, a store I remember fondly before GAME bought them out. My local experience was a Gamestation (literally) next to a GAME, and then post buy-out, both stores having the exact same prices on everything, despite being 2 seperate shops right next to each other. It was all handled so shitly, hopefully whoever the next big game chain over here is they can figure it out better.

Sad to see you go, Gamestain, err, I mean, Station

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And Finally...

Epic Mickey Coming To 3DS

The 3DS version of the series was announced today, following news of the sequel on Xbox, PS3 and Wii.

GTA 3 In GTA 4 Engine

Modders are transferring GTA 3 into the GTA 4 engine. Here's hoping for great success.

Amazing Spiderman Getting Move Support

Expect web-slinging action on your PS3, and probably Wii too, at the game's launch.

Darksiders 2 Makers Say Wii U Is As Good As The Current Gen

The dev is making the game for PS3, Xbox and Wii U and have the Wii U keeping up

Phantasy Store Online 2 Will Be Free-To-Play

Platforms so far are PC, Vita, iOS and Android

I don't question the results, I only post them

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