Daily News - 29th February 2012 - Amalur DLC, Borderlands 2 PC, A New Baldur's Gate? And more!

Kingdoms Of Amalur DLC Will Indeed Be Story Related... And Apparently Massive

I played a good few hours of Kingdoms Of Amalur and, well, I couldn't have been less interested to be honest. Not everyone felt the same as me though, and I have to hand it to 38 Studios, because they know how to make their fans happy. The first DLC for Amalur will be one of the bigger DLCs I've ever heard about. The DLC takes place on a new island and is called The Legend Of Dead Kel. It'll expand the world size by 15%, contains loads of new items, quests, characters and enemies, aswell as a huge estate for your character to live in, which will also bring with it plenty of new quests and places to explore. You can expect the DLC for 800 Microsoft Points (just over £6) on March 20th. Enjoy!

Clever EA PR guy that doesn't exist: "Amalur you into buying this DLC!". Sneaky one, EA guy!

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Large Layoffs At Blizzard

Blizzard are set to layoff around 600 employees in the near future, to keep it's employee base in line with the actual needs of the company. I appreciate that you don't want to spend money when you don't need to, but it's never good news to hear about so many company layoffs, especially at a game studio that does such a good job as the fine people at Blizzard. I expect they'll find work relatively quickly though, Blizzard don't hire schmucks.

I typed 'Blizzard game' into Google and got this... S'good!

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Borderlands 2 PC Version Will Use Steamworks

Ahh, Borderlands 2. You released that epic trailer and now you have my full attention. Unfortunately for me my laptop will not be able to run you, so I won't get to take full advantage of today's announcement that the game will utilize Steamworks, which means instant updates, Steam Achievements, DLC and cloud storage. Good news about Borderlands 2 is any news about Borderlands 2.

Already this one screenshot has about 10 reasons to get excited

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Pac-Man TV Series On the Way For Nobody To Watch

On Disney XD. Don't watch it.

Oh just fuck off

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New Baldur's Gate Game? Bioware Sure Want You To Think So

My money's personally on a remake of the old games, but I shall leave you to make up your own mind, dear internet user.

New Baldur's Gate Website

"The Lord of Murder shall perish, but in his doom he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny, chaos will be sown by their passage." So sayeth the wise Alaundo

Trailer Round-Up + Daily News - 27th February 2012 - Pokemon Black + White 2; and Borderlands 2 and Operation Raccoon City Trailers

Nintendo Announce Pokemon Black And White 2

Baffling, I know, but there it is. The games will launch in the fall and will, so far, only feature one new Pokemon (predictably a new dragon-type). Nintendo gave out no solid details but did say to anticipate plenty of new surprises.... I choose not to believe them. They'll still be on the DS, so no 3D Pokemon for probably a few years yet.

Is it me, or are these "legendary" Pokemon the least original looking?

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Borderlands 2 - Heavy Drop Edition

The best trailer ever? Very few trailers get me quite as pumped as this one does. Epic.

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Resident Evil: Operation Racoon City - Kick Zombie Face

I can't tell if this looks crap or not, but still, here's 90 seconds of neck stabbing, face stomping, bowel shooting trailer.

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Daily News - 24th February 2012 - Killzone 3 Free Trial, Huge Battlefield 3 Patch and Blizzard Making A Free-To-Play Game

Killzone 3 Free Multiplayer Trial Will Be Available To All Next Week

Following on from MAG, which had a free multiplayer trial for Playstation Plus users, Sony are doing the same thing with Killzone 3, only better as it will be available to everyone. The trial will act as a demo, with an undisclosed level cap. It will be a free app on the PSN store, and will include all of the game's maps. If you want to, you can also buy just the game's multiplayer mode for probably between £10-15. You lucky Playstationers, you!

You lucky, lucky Playstation owners! Free shit!

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Massive Battlefield 3 Patch On The Way

There are SO many changes coming to Battlefield 3 I can't even come close to explaining them all! From things such as flares no distracting laser-guided missiles, to fixing scopes that didn't always work on all weapons, the changelog is frigging ridiculous! Go and have a look, and a nice 2 minute scroll downwards.

Battlefield 3 - Next Patch Changelog (so far)

I forgot how much I love looking at Battlefield 3 screenshots!

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Blizzard Working On Secret Free-To-Play Game

We know nothing about it yet, other than it's price, but i'm already excited. Blizzard say that the development on the game represents a fundamental shift in their marketing mentality for the long term future, which means we'll be seeing free-to-play games with micro-transactions coming from the company in the future (with their subscription-based games not going anywhere, obviously). Blizzard have dabbled in this before, basically offering WoW as f2p until level 20 and Starcraft 2 for free as long as you only play Terran... though why would you ever WANT to play Terran? Pffffffft.

THIS IS WHAT WE LIKE TO SEE!

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Daily News - 22nd February 2012 - Starhawk Beta, Aion Going Free-to-Play and Borderlands 2 Release Date Confirmed

Starhawk Beta Now Open To All

Well that Nintendo stuff that was hinted at today turned out to be a load of nothing, so I'm gonna ignore it. Yay for having your own website! PS3 owners, you should now be able to how on PSN and begin downloading the Starhawk Beta, which is no longer in closed beta, and is now in wonderous, open beta! which means servers will be tested, balance changes will have a watchful eyes kept on them and, most importantly, means you can play that shit for free for a little while. The game has always looked awesome to me, if you don't know, Starhawk sees big multiplayer battles take place on the ground, in vehicles, in the air now, in space simultaneously. give it a go and let me know if it is, indeed, "the shit!"

SPACE BATTLES!!!!!

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Aion Will BeFree-To-Play After Next Update

Following in the footsteps of, well, almost every MMO beside SWToR and WoW, aion will be moving to a free-to-play model when the game updates to it's next version, version 3.0, which brings with it an increased level cap, houses, zones, mounts and new raids. As a guy who likes free things I think I'll actually end up sinking some time into this, and try roping my mates in aswell. Chumps! Muahaha!

Flying in an MMO! Squee! It'll be like Star Trek: Online but with feathers instead of nacells!

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Borderlands 2 Dropping September 18th

I'm. Just. So. Happy. Trailer. *shed a joy tear*

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Daily News - 21st February 2012 - Nintendo Stuff Tomorrow, Get Seaman On Your 3DS and Will Video Games Cure Cancer?

Reggie Teases That We Should Keep Our Eyes Peeled Tomorrow

Swap note is cool... it'd be cooler if I had any friends with a 3DS but oh well. Well, Reggie apparently likes it too, and he likes to use it to tease us. 3DS may find a new little note today from Reggie himself, letting us know that we should probably be keeping an eye on the news sistes tomorrow as Nintendo may just have a little something for us. I doubt it's going to be anything on par with some mental Wii-U information or a new Zelda game, but it's still exciting nonetheless. Keep watching the skies!

He may not be the prettiest, but he WILL kill your dick!

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Seaman 'Coming' To 3DS

If you don't know what Seaman is just Youtube it... actually, I'll do it for you.

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And Finally...

Video Games Helping To Fight Cancer

One nice news story for your Tuesday evening. It turns out that, basically, scientists have started using GPUs (Graphic Processing Units) used in gaming to render cancer cells more exactly than is possible on any other devices, and ofcourse, ss video game graphics technology increases, so will their ability to render these cells, ultimately helping us in the fight against cancer. You can read a more complete story below.

Video games offer clues for cancer research

Ironcally, Ubisoft have been rendering cancer in video game form for years now, completely by accident.

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Trailer Round-Up - Week Of 13th February 2012 - Far Cry 3, Max Payne 3, Syndicate and Some Optional Mass Effect 3

Trailer Of The Week is Far Cry 3. Looks good, although I'm not sure how the storyline we see emerge in the trailer can carry a full game. Will be interesting to find out.

Far Cry 3 - Meet The Locals

Maybe it wasn't on the map for a reason...

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Armored Core V - Every day Is Doomsday

Who doesn't want to customise and then destroy some massive robots!?

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Max Payne 3 - Find That Special Someone

I still think this looks crap, but feel free to make up your own mind

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Prototype 2 - Daddy's Coming Home

Something tells me these phone calls are gonna turn sour pretty quickly...

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Syndicate - Make A Name For Yourself

So sad this is looking to be the exact same as Deus Ex. We'll find out if it is on Friday.

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Alan Wake's American Nightmare - Mr. Scratch Is Crazy

Other trailers for the game have been limp as a wet noodle, but how can you not love this?

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And Finally...

Mass Effect 3 - The Reapers Are Coming

I am, obviously, refusing to watch this, but you are more than welcome good sir!

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Daily News - 16th February 2012 - Assassin's Creed 3 Confirmed, Civ V DLC, The Walking Dead and Far Cry 3's Release Date

So basically something for everyone!

Assassin's Creed 3 Is A Thing That's Happening

Now I make no secret of how much I hate Assassin's Creed games, but the fact remains that they make money, and so I'm forced to take notice of them every year. What makes matters worse is when they release games that feature similar character designs and locations (seeing screenshots of Assassin's Crfeed 2, Brotherhood and Revelations back-to-back-to-back has made me die a slow death inside) so I am atleast vaguely interested to hear today that Assassin's Creed 3 will feature a brand new assassin character and location, which, while a small victory for my ever-decreasing sanity, is probably big news for everyone but me in the world. Oh, and the final insult? They have the release date down as October 30th, otherwise known as: My birthday. It's like they WANT me to hate them.

"Can you believe how much our games suck?" "I know, right!"

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Gods And Kings Expansion For Civ V Brings Back Old Civ Conventions

Civilization V was awesome, and still is, but I've had little reason to play the game in a long while. That will all change when the Gods And Kings expansion launches in Spring, and brings with it a pair of classic Civilization mechanics, aswell as reworking the combat system somewhat. As you may have guessed from the Gods And Kings name, one of the 2 mechanics making a comeback is religion, allowing players to create it's own organised religion and make prophets to spread it around. The other mechanic is to bring back spies to the series, allowing you to spy on other nations, rig their elections and even steal their advanced technologies. Expect the update in "late spring".

Just seeing this screenshot gives me the itch...

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The Walking Dead Adventure Game's First Episode Confirmed As Coming In Spring

It's been a long while since this was announced, and details have been scarce, but we finally have a release window and the game's probable platforms. The game will be coming out in Spring and will probably be coming out on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, seeing as there will be a Walking Dead talk show on both XBLA and PSN.

Wait, are those zombies?!? Nobody told me there'd be zombies...

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Far Cry 3 Trailer Shows September 7th Release Date

The trailer for Far Cry 3 dropped yesterday and, while not showing any gameplay, gives a pretty good idea of the game will play, based on the first Far Cry (which similarly took place on an island) and what we do see in the trailer, which is a sinister group of thugs shooting at you and generally being dicks. Trailer embedded below.

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Daily News - 15th February 2012 - Psychonauts 2 More Possible, Skyrim Workshop Success and Metal Gear Online Going Away

Psychonauts 2 Budget Not Too High For Notch

You may remember last week, when "Notch" (the creator of Minecraft) reached out to Tim Schafer (the creator of Psychonauts) with an offer of making Psychonauts 2 happen. Obviously people got excited but with no information, other than a desire from both parties to make it happen, there's only so excited we can get. Well, it turns out a bit more news has come our way. The original Psychonauts repotedly cost $13 million, and when confronted with this fact, Notch responded with "I can do that". Notch can afford it, Schafer wants to make it, it's a few years away for sure but it looks like this shit is gonna go down!

Making a guy slide down some stairs aint cheap!

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Skyrim Workshop, It Turns Out, Is Pretty Successful

If you're a Steam user who downloaded a mod for Skyrim using the Steamworks Workshop, it turns out you weren't not alone, with the service boasting over 2 million downloads and 2,500 mods so far. Makes me jealous of all you PC users!

There are still alot of you out there slaying dragons, and I envy you!

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Metal Gear Online Shutting Down On June 21st

Games like Metal Gear Online are never too successful, but tend to claim a small group of dedicated users. Unfortunately for those users of MGO, the gbame will cease to be online in just a few, short months. The game has been online for almost 4 years, with the game actually shutting down shortly after it's 4th birthday. It's a shame but these things happen, hopefully it's users will move on to bigger and brighter things... an MMO perhaps, or Modern Warfare.

no homo.

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Trailer Round-Up - Week Of 6th February 2012 - Mass Effect 3, Lollipop Chainsaw, I Am Alive and Gotham City Impostors

Well, it was another week of slim trailer pickin's, that is until a Mass Effect 3 trailer rears it's sexy, female head. Trailer Of The Week definitely goes handily to Mass Effect 3, though a few other games had good trailers this week, there wasn't anything mental or even funny. these game makers really need to step up their game!

Mass Effect 3 - Female Shepard Means Business

You don't wanna fuck with Shepard, she'll mess you the fuck up!

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Lollipop Chainsaw - Hold Your Loved Ones Close

If you weren't sure of the tone they were going for in Lollipop Chainsaw, you will be after this.

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I Am Alive - Scale The world

If you thought the Lollipop Chainsaw trailer conveys the game's tone perfectly, then watch this.

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Gotham City Impostors - Keep Your Identity Safe

I couldn't get the game to run well on my laptop, but the humour in the game was great. Matches the trailers.

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Daily News - 10th February 2012 - Diablo 3 Delay, Skyrim 'Game Jam' and Double Fine's Gamble

Diablo 3 Won't Be With Us For Another Few Months.

Oh dear, looks like Blizzard strike again! Granted, when they originally said they'd have Diablo 3 with us in "early 2012" almost everybody turned their noses up at it, but it still doesn't sucks. The game's beta has been lengthy, and is still having changes made to it. I'm definitely okay with Blizzard focus testing the shit out of the game, it just means a bit more waiting for you already patient Blizzard fans. Blizzard have said they'll have the game out before the end of Q2 (June 30th), so still not that long to wait.

Or perhaps it is the Beta that has defeated me!

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Bethesda's Game Jam Highlights Possible Future Skyrim Content

So as it turns out, the guys at Bethesda know how to have fun! As soon as skyrim was finished, they told everyone in the company to go away and design one unique piece of content for the game. It could be anything they wanted so long as it fit into Skyrim. Some of the ideas were subtle; like being able to use spears, or combine different types of spells (Heal + Fear = Drain Health); and some of their ideas were massive, like Dragon mounts, a new Skill Tree just for Werewolves or building your own house. Take a look at the video below, and be glad you own a copy of Skyrim.

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Double Fine Reach Out To Their Fans To Fund Their Next Game. And They (Massively) Succeed!

Double Fine, the studio behind such games as Psychonauts and Iron Brigade, and containing the brains behind such classics as Day Of the Tentacle and Monkey Island, took a pretty big risk yesterday, when they reached out to their fans and asked them to fund their next project. The icing on the cake for fans, aside from being guaranteed a copy of the game for donating more than $15, is that the game will be an adventure game, in the old-school style, made by the people who invented the genre. Turns out fans were excited by the prospect of the makers of Monkey Island and Day Of The Tentacle making another game of that style and, well, let's just say they expressed that excitement with their wallets. The target for the project was $400,000, which would cover both the production of the game and a documentary following it's progress, but the project, after just 24 hours of being online, had already generated 1.2 million dollars. The company said that any excess past the original $400,000 would be spent on extras, like a Mac version of the game for example, so goodness knows what they'll do with over a million dollars! The page to donate to the project is still up for another 32 days, so that number could easily shoot up. I got my $15 in early, any of you gonna be doing the same?

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