We Have A Winner!

Well, that's it, it's finally over. The first ever GameBanter Competition came to a screeching halt yesterday, with a grand total of 8 entries. That may sound like almost no entries at all (your own fault for not entering, grumpy!) but I'm actually really happy with the turn-out, especially considering the somewhat niche prize. 8 of you sat there and racked your brains, trying to come up with a funny, original answer to the question and then you all took the time out of your day to email me your answers, often with little notes attached justifying your choices, you guys actually put effort in, and it always made me smile seeing a new email in my inbox marked "Competition", but the big question is, which entry made me smile the most?

And so we reach the hard part, picking just 1 entry that made chuckle that teeny-tiny bit more than the others and that, for whatever reason, was the one that myh eyes kept wandering back to amongst the entries. and so, without further ado, I say congratulations! To Darren Carney, for his entry:

"Need For Speed: Segway"

Is it just me, or would a racing game based on Segways actually work pretty well?!? It'd have to be incredibly ridiculous, and brutal as hell, but that could be fun! (for an afternoon atleast) Once again, thanks to the handful of you that entered, and I'll be emailing Darren within minutes of posting this. Sorry if you didn't win, but hey, there's always next time!

I can totally see myself playing this!

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Daily News - 7th February 2012 - Portal 2 In Skyrim, Quarrel Trouble and Psychonauts 2?!?

Skyrim Creation Kit Launches, Brings With It A Cheeky Space Core...

Skyrim patch 1.4 is finally live, and brings with it the Creation Kit, a method by which users can easily create mods for the game, and it also now has Steamworks support, allowing you to easily browse and install existing mods for the game in the lovely Steam interface. That wasn't all though, with Bethesda also dropping a little extra surprise: Portal 2's Space Core! The core will follow you around and, I'm sure, tell you all about the joys of space. Worth buying Skyrim just for this alone! and handily, it's on sale on Steam as we speak. Talk about lucky timing!

I'll not lie, this may be the greatest thing I have ever seen.

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Quarrel Suffering From Being Too Profane?...

The XBLA version of Quarrel (which I reviewed the other week) has run into some trouble following a rather odd revelation about the game. The game, being a word game, is pretty reliant on words (duh!) which is where the problem comes in: Offline the game works fine, but online, Microsoft's word filter blocks a large variety of words, and not just the rudey ones either! Apparently words like "help" and "start" aren't even allowed, due to the strictness of Microsoft's family protection filter. It's an unusual problem with no elegant solution. A real shame for Quarrel fans and the people who put all the effort into the game.

I would wager this screenshot was taken whilst the game was offline...

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Minecraft Creator Offers To Fund Psychonauts 2. Tim Schafer says "Interesting"...

In what can only be described as mental, shit has gone down rather unexpectedly today over Twitter. Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson out of the blue said on Twitter:

“Let's make Psychonauts 2 happen.” “I’m serious.”

Tim Schafer woke up a few hours later to a slew of text messages. It took him a while to fully wake up but you can see the brain processes in his tweets:

“Man, so many tweets. I assume this is all people asking for codes to Happy Action Theater and Rise of the Martian Bear?”

Followed by, moments later:

“Oh wait. Hm. This is interesting.”

Schafer has made no effort to hide his want to make a Psychonauts sequel, and the company has taken offerings from outsiders before to make games (Costume Quest was funded by the owner of website XE.com) so this actually seems pretty likely! Giant Bomb's Patrick Klepek approached DoubleFine for a statement and got this back:

"Tim and Markus are talking. Who knows what might happen?"

So yeah. Get buzzing!

Admit it, you're excited as fuck!

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Trailer Round-Up - Week Of January 30th - Trials: Evolution, SSX, Natural Selection 2

Talk about slim pickings! This week for trailers was dire, with Trials: Evolution clearly stealing the show. That trailer just screams "sequel done right" to me, it looks like enough of the same, miced with enough new to make me need to cross my legs in anticipation. Can't wait!

Multiplayer in Trials?!? Bestill my beating heart!Trials: Evolution - Reveal Trailer

If this doesn't float your boat you dont deserve to have one!... A boat that is... Because of the float thing...

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SSX - Navigate The Frozen Tundra

Here's a good idea of how the environemts will look in SSX, looks nice!

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Natural Selection 2 - Three Whole Minutes

Derived from an old Aliens game mod I believe, this looks pretty cool. FPS vs RTS funkyness.

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Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - Cheat At War

I'll be honest, this game can only be fucking dull, but it's a trailer so here you go (yes, slim week for trailers)

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Competition Ends Midnight Tomorrow!

I would be surprised if you weren't aware that we've had a competition running this past week, as I've been whoring it left, right and centre, and the time has almost come to pick the winner. I decided to make the deadline a little bit longer than a week and instead of calling quits on it today, I'm going to give everyone one last chance to get their answers in. If you somehow missed the post just go here:

GameBanter's First Ever Competition!

And follow the instructions. It's a nice easy comp, and for the 60 seconds it takes you, a little bit of fun too. I should add, that so far the comp has had... 8 entries. If I receive no more, then each of you have a 12.5% chance of winning. I know, mental right?! That's how small this website is! Although I have to say, this week, what with the competition and the NeverDead Review, we've had the most traffic we've ever had, getting more visitors than the previous 3 weeks combined! So thank you all so much for spreading the word and continuing to drop by, I hope I can reward you all with more comps like this in the future. You deserve it.

All of this could be yours!!! For PC! Ts&Cs apply! Just kidding.

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Daily News - 3rd February 2012 - Team Fortress 2 Update, Trials Evolution and Bastion On Sale

'Top Secret' Team Fortress 2 Update Coming This Year

Valve have been very teasy today, and told us that we can expect "something brand new for 2012" in the game, and that it "isn't a hat" and "isn't a map", which isn't a huge amount of information, but from Valve, that's about all you can expect. My immediate guess was a new class or 2, but maybe that's a bit too big of an update? Any ideas of your own?

There's definitely room on either end for a new guy or 2!

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Trials HD Sequel 'Evolution' Trailer Released

Trials HD is the most successful Xbox Live Arcade title of all time, (or atleast it was a few months ago when I looked for myself) so it's only logical that a sequel should arise eventually. What isn't logical though, is how you outdo a game that already did so much! The original was already pretty nuts; super difficult; and loads of fun but if this trailer is anything to go by, then Trials Evolution will blow it out of the water. Few reveal trailers that I've seen show off as much as this one does, and every single thing it shows off looks amazing! Enjoy it for yourself 1cm below this very sentence!

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Public Service Announcement: Bastion Half-Price This Weekend On XBLA

Bastion is fucking awesome, and if you won't take my word for it, how about every single website, games magazine and game critic that played Bastion in any capacity? The game is almost universally loved by everyone that's played it (me included) and while I was late to the party, I don't regret waiting to buy the game, because for this week on XBLA it's only 600 Microsoft Points, an incredible bargain. Trust me when I say that Xbox owners, you definitely shouldn't be missing out on this deal, take the plunge and thank me later (maybe by entering the GameBanter competition!?)

Bastion on XBLA - 600 Points

To call Bastion merely stunning, is doing the title a disservice. Fantastic game!

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Daily News - 2nd February 2012 - Simpson's Arcade, Syndicate Multiplayer and Yes, You Guessed It, A Competition Reminder!

The Simpson's Classic Arcade Game Coming To Consoles Next Week

I have fond memories of that Simpsons aercade game, Bart hitting things with his skateboard, Marge whacking enemies with her vaccuum, it's as if my 6 year old self was there playing it right now. Well, for those of you who, like me, enjoyed it back in the day you can re-evoke those feelings next week, when the game comes to Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. Welllllll, to be more accurate, the game will be available on Xbox Live tomorrow (the 3rd) for 800 Microsoft points and on PSN on the 7th, but to make up for the difference in release dates, PSN Plus members will be getting the game for free. Pretty good deal!

If you don't love this then there's a good chance you're dead inside

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Syndicate Won't Have A Multiplayer Pass

Following on from yesterday's news of the new SSX having a completely optional online pass, it seems Syndicate is following suite, or more accurately, taking it one step further. The reason Synidcate won't be asking you for any extra money for the pleasure of playing online, is that the game doesn't feature a competitive online mode, rather it's only online content is all cooperative play. EA are starting to toy around with the online pass concept, I'm sure it won't go away but a few exceptions here and there won't exactly have me complaining!

"I just Syndicated YOUR FACE!" is what I shall say!

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And Finally...

GameBanter's First Ever Competition!

Sorry guys, I hate to keep banging on about this but it's my first ever competition. Not to make the point to much but you really do stand a good chance of winning! You know when a huge website has a competition for, like, a 60-inch Plasma TV and 20,000 people enter and your chances are basically zero? Well, WE are a very small website, with a (kinda lame) relatively tiny prize and your chances of winning are better than 1 in 10 as of right now. How crazy is that! Just for visiting my little website you could own a game that got an 84 on Metacritic, brand new, that'll probabkly net you a good £20 or so even if you don't want it. I'm just one guy, who smiles every single extra view he gets, so please spread the word, every person who sees this website, likes it, and keeps checking it, makes more giveaways like this more likely for the future. And afterall guys, free game. FREE!

That guy, that guy in the car... that could be you!

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Daily News - 1st February 2012 - Skyrim Creation Kit, SSX Multiplayer and Competition!

Skyrim Creation Kit And Steamworks Integration Detailed

If you play Skyrim on the PC then you should be pretty excited, Bethesda has released a video showing the features of their upcoming Creation Kit, that will be present in the next patch, and it looks pretty cool. Personally I have no interest in making my own mods, but the Steamworks integration, which makes installing mods unbelievably easy, is fantastic. Look forward to this PC gamers, it's basically why you own the game on the PC in the first place!

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SSX Will Have Online Pass-less Multiplayer

The trend nowadays is to lock away a game's multiplayer behind a one-time use code, that encourages buying the game new and discourages 2nd hand purchases, but the new SSX game, will do things a little differently. Without the pass you can still play online, but any credits you earn (which are used to unlock items for your snowboarder) will be saved until you enter a pass. Ofcourse, if you entered your pass previous to playing online you get your credits immediately. I think this is a far better way of handling this than the usual way of not letting you play at all, and it means you could conceivably play the game for months, then all of a sudden input a code and get showered in in-game credits! Lovely!

Delivering a salty mid-air teabagging will cost you no money extra! Bargain!

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GameBanter's First Ever Competition!

I'll be honest here guys, the competition's been on for about 24 hours now, and we have 2 entries. Yes 2. TWO. How insane is that! I got quite a few views yesterday thanks to the NeverDead review, which is all well and good, but barely anyone entered the competition at all. It's really easy guys, and actually pretty fun I'd wager, plus you have an incredible chance of winning!!!

Seriously, 2 entries. In 24 hours. As it stands, these guys now have a 50% chance of getting a free game for basically fuck all. They're making you look like a chump! You're not a chump are you? Didn't think so! So just visit the link and follow the instructions, there's a pretty good chance you could win a free game!

Alright, so it's not the BEST prize ever, but it is a prize. Get to it!

GameBanter's First Ever Competition!

Hey everyone, today was a big day up in here! I posted my first ever "ACTUAL" review for a game! If you like, you can go check out my NeverDead review RIGHT NOW!!! (Spoiler: T'aint good) 3 days before the game's release on Friday.

Anyway, as a celebration of this personal milestone, I decided it was time for a competition! Admittedly the prize isn't the best, but it's brand new and factory sealed, so you can atleast sell it on eBay or some crap, plus we're not exactly swimming in visitors, so your chances are pretty damn good! First things first though, "What's the prize?!?" I hear you cry! Well, it's this:

Need For Speed Shift 2: Unleashed

Yes, there it is, your glamourous prize! Shift 2: Unleashed! A game that scored an 84 on Metacritic, no mean feat! But now I hear you asking "But how on earth do we go about winning this marvelous prize?!?". Well, I'm glad you asked!

To win you won't need to simply follow a Twitter account, or 'like' a Facebook page, I'm gonna make you work for it! (Not too hard though, please stay!) I take the inspiration for the competition from a game called "Country/Bird/Fish", in which multiple players are given the same letter and have to come up with different things that begin with that letter, scoring more points for originality: So, if the round is the letter 'E' and more than 1 person answers 'England', both those players would lose points for not having an original answer.

I am going to play to Country/Bird/Fish's strengths here and seek out originality in your answers, whilst also making it apply to Need For Speed! (Because I'm giving away a Need For Speed Game... see?) So, in order to win, you are going to have to answer the following question:

What type of vehicle would you like the next Need For Speed game to be based around?

Please send answers to me in such a way that nobody else can read them, either to @GameBanter as a DM on Twitter, or much more easily, to GaZZuM@GameBanter.co.uk

I figure we'll keep this running either until Friday (the day NeverDead comes out and my review ceases to be pre-release epicness) or until this time next week. Either way, get racking your brains, and take a quick gander at the rules, atleast at rule 1... unless you LIKE not winning that is...

Good Luck all! And thanks for visiting my poxy little site, your views really do mean alot to me.

The Rules:

1. In the spirit of Country/Bird/Fish, any 2 or more answers I receive that have chosen the same mode of transportation, WILL NOT WIN! This means 1 of 2 things: Either you'll pick an incredibly obvious answer in the hopes nobody would pick a vehicle that obvious, or you'll pick a ridiculous answer, but run the risk of somebody else picking it in order to be equally as ridiculous... ofcourse, the complete opposite also applies to that, so think real hard!

2. Any entries I recieve either in comments, or not via DM on Twitter will not be included in the above rule, and will not be counted as entries full stop... so if you see someone answer in the comments maybe steal their answer, who knows!

3. There is no cash alternative blah blah blah, but you can just sell it on eBay anyway, so yeah, there's that.

4. Your vehicle does not have to be real, speeder bikes are fine, as are jetpacks, just so long as you aren't making it up yourself, your entry counts.

5. Feel free to answer with more than just 1 word. If you wanna try and convince me your answer is the best, far be it from me to stop you, and who knows, you might just talk me round!

6. As the game's age rating is '3' anyone of any age can enter, but I won;t go leniently on you just because you're 4 years old, if your answer sucks, it sucks. End of story.

7. You've read the rules! Good for you! As a reward, here's a little entertainment for the next 10 hours of your life. Enjoy, you've earned it!

Trailer Round-Up - Week Of January 23rd 2012 - The Witcher 2, The Darkness 2 and Darksiders 2

It's the week of twos! This week the twos really shined, with great trailers from Witcher 2, Darkness 2 and Darksiders 2, but Trailer Of The Week goes to The Witcher 2. The 4 minute long trailer is AWESOME, and could probably stand alongside some Oscar nominated animated shorts in terms of action and storytelling. There are characters you care about, badass moments and heaps of atmosphere... and it's only 4 minutes long. Just epic.

The Witcher 2 - Celebrate With An Execution

The Witcher 2 is coming to Xbox 360, and here's a sick new trailer to whet your appetite.

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SSX - The Hazardous Slopes Of Patagonia

They've got their style down to a tee here, the game looks incredibly snazzy!

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The Darkness 2 - Everything Has A Price

If this trailer doesn't make you want to play this, then you may have psychological problems... Not funny in the slightest...

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Dead Island - Ryder White DLC

This actually looks cool, probably not a bad reason to dust off your copy of Dead Island

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Darksiders 2 - Death Springs Eternal

They certainly know how to make a game look epic!

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Deadlight - Keep Your wild Side At Bay

God knows what this game is. Assassin's Creed in modern day? The jumping would suggest so. Interesting.

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Daily News - 27th January 2012 - Angry Birds News, Aliens: Colonial Marines Delayed and Nintendo Goodies To Come

Angry Birds Coming To Facebook

In a move that con only be described as "inevitable", the world's most successful pig-smashing game is coming to Facebook on Valentines day. You'll be able to pit your scores against your friends' scores and you'll also be able to buy power ups with real money. I've never played Angry Birds, but I've played countless Flash Games with similar gameplay so I'm eager to see how Angry Birds feels in comparison.

I hope the physics are good enough

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Aliens: Colonial Marines Delayed Until Autumn

Aliens: Colonial Marines has been in development for a good 3 years now, so what's another few months eh? Originally the game was due to be out by Spring 2012, but Gearbox have said that "creativity and invention" don't "necessarily follow the structure of an assembly line." which is fair enough. Frankly, I'd rather a game company have this attitude than have to constantly meet deadlines, even though we get our games later, atleast we get them complete.

Oh. Dear. GOD!!!

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Satoru Iwata Announces Plenty Of New Nintendo Goodness To Analysts

Nintendo look set to suffer their first financial losses in years, what with 3DS underporforming and the Wii slowing down in popularity drastically, and as such Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President, had to reassure everybody that exciting Nintendo stuff was coming. Amongst his announcements was news of a new sidescrolling Mario game for 3DS; Nintendo Network, a new online service for Nintendo users in the planning stages (essentially PSN or Xbox Live for Nintendo Customers); and the inclusion of NFC (Near-Field Communication) technology in the Wii U controller, which in lamence terms means that you can have something that was readable by the controller nearby and it would be able to scan it and know what it was... imagine being able to buy stuff with a credit card simply by holding the card near the Wii U controller. Pretty interesting stuff!

between Nintendo Network and NFC, the Wii U is shaping up nicely!

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