Daily News - 25th January 2012 - XBLA House Party, Mass Effect 3 DLC Methods and Resident Evil 6 Multiplayer

Prices And Dates For The XBLA House Party Announced

Between I Am Alive and Adam Wake's American Nightmare there are sure to be lots of people looking forward to the House Party, and for those people there's some good news and some bad news. The good news is we finally have prices and release dates, but the bad news is that you still have a few weeks to wait. The release dates and prices are below.

February 15th

800 Microsoft Points - Warp

February 22nd

1200 Microsoft Points - Alan Wake's American Nightmare

February 29th

800 Microsoft Points - Nexuiz

March 7th

1200 Microsoft Points - I Am Alive

I'm looking forward to it, although it sucks that I Am Alive is last. Why must I wait so long for you!?! Arg!!!

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

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Mass Effect 3 Related Products To Net You Mass Effect Game DLC

This news isn't quite as exciting as it should be, but it's still quite cool. Along with the game, there will be alot of Mass Effect 3 related merchandise available, most notably, an art book and a selection of action figures. Why are these 2 particular items worth noting? Well because when you buy them you'll receive a code to get DLC in-game! Now dont get too excited, the DLC will be things like extra weapons or costumes for multiplayer, but it's still kind of a good idea, so long as no major DLCs get released this way. THAT would suck.

I might be tempted to buy an action figure to be honest, depending on how anatomically correct the Miranda one is... *cough*

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Resident Evil 6 To Contain Many Forms Of Multiplayer

Resident Evil 6 has caused quite a stir since that demo burst onto the scene, leading to many information hungry internet users to go and scour the internet for any morsels of information they can find. Well, they found some good stuff. turns out that aswell as featuring a 2-player offline co-op mode, they game will also feature 6(!) player online co-op and 8 player versus multiplayer. Obviously the details are scarce right now, but it's pretty exciting stuff, and the fact that the game's been in development for the better part of 2 years bodes very well, especially for a title as massive as Resi 6 is sure to be.

Between Leon looking like Sawyer, and this girl looking like Kate, I'm beginning to wonder if Resi 6 won't be some sort of weird Lost homage but with zombies.

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Trailer Round-Up - Week Of 16th January 2012 - Resident Evil 6, Darksiders 2 and More...

Trailer Of The Week is obviously Resident Evil 6. I mean come on, not only does it contain Chris Redfield AND Leon Kennedy, but it also contains the words "It's Raccoon City all over again". DUDE! DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!!!

No, it's not Sawyer, it's Leon!
Resident Evil 6 - Announcement Trailer

Bigger scale, awesome characters, action all over the place PLUS scares. It's literally the dream!!!

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Skullgirls - Meet Painwheel

I have basically no desire to play this, but damned if it doesn't look gorgeous!

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Max Payne 3 - All About The Shooting

Shooty shooty gun face

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Soul Calibur V - Know Thy Enemy

Yo dawg, I hear you like souls.

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Darksider 2 - Meet Your Maker

There have been few more epic looking lead characters than Death. So awesome.

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Star Trek Online - Explore Strange New Worlds (For Free!)

I've been playing alot of this and it's properly great.

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Unstoppable Gorg - Protect Earth

This looks kinda poo... but I love me some daft trailers!

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Shank 2 - Uncut Gameplay Footage

Another gorgeous 2D game. Can't get enough of them.

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Daily News - 20th January 2012 - Diablo 3 Beta Changes, Skyrim Patchs Coming and Resident Evil 6!

Blizzard Making Changes To Diablo 3, Long Beta Cycle Paying Off

The Diablo 3 beta has been going on for a while now, and you'd be forgiven for thinking it was just a demo for the game, but not to Blizzard. Thanks to good player feedback, they're starting to make some decent sounding changes to the game, from small changes to NPCs, to massive changes like reworking the entire attribute system. For the full list of changes visit here, to see a post from Game Director Jay Wilson.

The longer the Beta, the beta the finished game will be (sorry)

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Skyrim Patch 1.4 Coming

Don't worry, Bethesda haven't forgotten about you Skyrim players out there, patch 1.4 is almost finished and it will fix, well, loads apparently. Aside from fixing a myriad of bugs and exploits, the patch will also bring with it the Skyrim Creation Kit and Steamwork support for mods and similar shenanigans. PC players rejoice.

Ahh, killing dragons... never gets old

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Resident Evil 6 Is A Thing That's Happening

A couple of days ago, people started noticing the website nohopeleft.com and many people guessed it was linked to a new Resident Evil. Well, they were right! And yesterday we were treated to a trailer for the new Resident Evil game: Resident Evil 6! I don't wanna tip my hat too soon, but I think this looks absolutely fucking awesome!

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Daily News - 19th January 2012 - Mass Effect 3 Demo, 3DS Demos, Bioshock: Infinite's 1999 Mode and A Kick-Ass Looking Deus Ex Short Movie

Don't Make Plans For Valentine's Day, You've Got A Date With Commander Shepard

The Mass Effect 3 demo folks. Let that sink in for a second. The demo... for Mass Effect 3. Is coming. And as you may have guessed, it's coming on February 14th, otherwise known as Valentine's day. Good or bad news, you decide, on the fact that the demo will have full Kinect support, which as we saw E3 will entail giving your comrades orders, or taking part in Shepard's conversations. The PC version of the demo has had it's tech specs revealed aswell, which is probably useful to somebody out there. I've stated before that I'm staying away from everything Mass Effect related, as to avoid any and all spoilers, so I'm wrestling with myself on whether to play the demo or not... it hurts to think that I might be missing out on some Mass Effect goodness as early as possible, but I think I'll feel better about myself in the long run. I think...

Get it inside my face holes right now. Please,

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3DS Demos Kicking Off With Resident Evil: Revelations

Nintendo have been lagging behind for a while, not in terms of sales or money earned, but as far as features go they've been in the stone age for a long time. All credit to them, they're starting to see the value of what we consider the feature standards of the industry, and doing their best to get in line with other consoles out there. Their latest attempt to keep up with the current gen is kicking off on 3DS, with demos, the first of which is Resident Evil: Revelatons. RE:R is a pretty high profile game to start off with, but I won't get truly excited until I get the oppurtunity to try out a Mario or Zelda game. Those are the Nintendo selling points, and those are what I look forward to. Get on it, Shigsy!

Insert joke about Jill getting wet

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Bioshock: Infinite Introducing Oldschool '1999 Mode'

Why would I talk, when I could just let the man himself explain it to you, Bioshock: Infinite's Director, Ken Levine:

"We want to give our oldest and most committed fans an option to go back to our roots. In 1999 Mode, gamers face more of the permanent consequences of their gameplay decisions. In BioShock Infinite, gamers will have to sweat out the results of their actions. In addition, 1999 Mode will demand that players pick specializations, and focus on them.

I'm an old school gamer. We wanted to make sure we were taking into account the play styles of gamers like me. So we went straight to the horse's mouth by asking them, on our website, a series of questions about how they play our games. 94.6 percent of respondents indicated that upgrade choices enhanced their BioShock gameplay experience; however, 56.8 percent indicated that being required to make permanent decisions about their character would have made the game even better."

Harder than normal, but with with bigger consequences... sounds like unprotected sex for a 17 year-old. I'm not proud of that.

1999 Mode eh? Kinda just sounds like achievement fodder... whcih means I'll play it

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And Finally...

'Deus Ex Short Film' Behind-The-Scenes Footage Found. Blows Mind.

The best video game adaptations have typically been the more independent offerings: Escape From City 17, Portal: Still Alive, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth etc. so when Kotaku report that they've discovered evidence of a short film based on a pretty good game from last year, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I get excited. Take a look at the behind-the-scenes video below and see if you get as excited as I did!

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Daily News - 17th January 2012 - Syndicate 4-Player Demo and An Ong-Bak Game?

Syndicate Comes In Your Face With it's Throbbing, Meaty Demo

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I love demos. Some are great, some not so great (you should totally play the Asura's Wrath demo bytheway, it's fucking awesome), but one thing's for sure, 99% of the time the quality of the demo is a good indication of the quality of the finished product. The Syndicate demo shows tremendous promise, stuffing itself with quite a large chunk of the game's co-op mode. The demo will showcase an entire mission from the game's 9 mission long co-op mode, and once up, will only be up for a limited time, so don't dilly dally! And don't miss your chance to play for one of the best named in-game corporations of the past few years: Wulf Western.

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Expect An Ong Bak Game By The End Of The Year... I Guess!

If you've not seen Ong Bak, it's basically a few hours of Tony Jaa kicking the fuck out of people... so it makes sense that the series would translate well into a video game. The only danger here is the unproven developer, Studio Hive, who are yet to prove their mettle on a full-blown title, though enthusiasm can carry a studio far:

"It's a great honor for our team to work on the very first Ong-Bak multiplatform game. As a Thai development studio we love the movie and have a deep understanding of the Ong-Bak brand values and we make sure that the videogame will be an inspiring martial arts action experience for gamers."

That quote comes from a press release by Hive's General Manager, Kan Supabanpot. I like the subject matter, I like video games... I'm wary though. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed as tightly as I can!

Expect MUCH kicking in the face

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Trailer Round-Up - Week Of January 9th 2012 - Gears Of War 3, Katamari, Lollipop Chainsaw and More!

Welcome, gentle reader, to the first Trailer Round-Up of the year that is 2012! Now while these trailers didn't all come out this week, they have all surfaced since the last Trailer round-Up from late last year, so feast your eyes on a bevvy of beauties from across the internets.... and Katamari.

Trailer Of The Week goes to Gears Of War 3. The Raam's shadow DLC looks to be one of the coolest DLCs in recent memory, and the trailer, while not perfect, makes me glad I have a copy of Gears Of War 3 sat by my Xbox as we speak.

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Gears Of War 3 - Raam's Shadow

Play as Raam, or a squad of Gears on Emergence Day... when it alllllllll kicked off.

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Spec Ops: The Line - Dubai In Ruins

This looks like it could be a dark horse for this year. My hopes are high.

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Saints Row: The Third - Genki Bowl VII DLC

What's this? Something unusual happening in Saints Row? Surely a mistake has been made somewhere.

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Touch My Katamari - A Duo Of "WTF"

Feel free to question many a game developer's sanity after watching these 2 trailers.

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SSX - SSX's Arctic Features

This is gonna be a fun breath of fresh air when it comes out.. fingers crossed.

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Lollipop Chainsaw - Meet Swan

Sexy cheerleader with chainsaw saws zombies in half. Sold.

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Daily News - 13th January 2012 - Darkness 2 Demo Next Week, Minecraft And SW:TOR Updates and Kid Icarus' Daft Peripheral

Look Forward To Ripping Dudes In Half In The Darkness 2 Demo

It's fair to say that a good demo can make you buy a game, it's happened to me in the past a few times (most notably with Skate 2, Just Cause 2 and Bulletstorm) and it'll happene again in the future I'm sure, the real question is, will it happen with the Darkness 2? The demo's getting a somewhat staggered release, with Xbox Live Gold members getting the demo a week ahead of everyone else. The demo will be available to Gold members on January 17th, and regular Xbox live members, PS3 owners and over Steam on January 24th. If you've not seen any of the trailers for the game then I suggest you do so, as it looks like alot of fun!

It's gonna be brutal, but the good kind

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Minecraft And Old Republic Receiving Big Updates

I'll be honest, neither of these are games I give a fuck about, but I know alot of people do so let's get to it! Minecraft's 1.1 update is available now and adds enchantments, tweaks and recipes... which I have to assume are things to do with Minecraft. Old Republic's update comes out on Tuesday, and adds some extra high-level instances, or "Flashpoints". Arguably Old Republic has the bigger update, but in the grand scheme of things, it's like measuring who's poo is smellier: Sure, somebody wins, but at the end of the day, you're both just smelling shits.

I'll be honest, Minecraft Star Destroyer is pretty epic

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In Japan, Your Kid Icarus: Uprising Will Come With A 3DS Presentation Stand!

In what has to be the most bewildering things I've read in a while, reports have been coming out that the Japanese version of Kid Icarus: Uprising will come with a stand for your 3DS, so you don't have to hold it. A portable you don't have to hold? It's a million dollar idea! How did somebody not think this up sooner?!?

Are you seeing this??? What the shit?!?

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Daily News - 12th January 2012 - Xbox 360 Sales, Kid Icarus For Lefties and Asura's Wrath Demo

Xbox 360 And Kinect Doing Quite Well

It's CES in Las Vegas right now, which is basically E3 but for all the newest tech coming out in the next year. Microsoft had a keynote, and couldn't resist flaunting their newest sales figures. According to Microsoft, they have sold 66 million Xbox 360s since the console's launch, and 18 million Kinects, with almost 40 million Xbox Live members. Impressive numbers no matter which way you slice it, although I am pretty shocked at how well Kinect is doing. ah well, fair play top Microsoft for making alot of people feel pretty stupid, sorry for doubting you boys! (and girls!)

Ofcourse it's sold well! Look how much fun those douchebags, I mean, guys are having!

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Kid Icarus: Uprising Will Be Friendly For Lefties!

Lefties probably have a hard time of it. I never really think about it but it must suck having to use your weak hand for trigger pulling and such, but not if you plan on buying Kid Icarus: Uprising. The game will be able to take advantage of Monster Hunter 3G's custom Circle Pad peripheral to allow you to play the game with your "devil hands". Surely, any way you look at this, it's good news, right? Unless you hate left-handed people ofcourse... which would make you weird,

It may look ridiculous, but it seems to serve a few useful purposes

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Asura's Wrath Demo Available Right Now!

Asura's Wrath, one of my most intriguing games of this year, has finally gotten it's demo, and I for one can't wait to give it a a try. It's available on Xbox and PS3 as you read this, so if you're looking to watch bonkers shit to go down for free, then go get your hands on it!

Spoiler: Asura's angry! Also, note the giant, weird, golem babies. Download it. NOW!

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Daily News - 10th January 2012 - XBLA House Party, Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition, Aliens: Colonial Marines and Silent Hill HD Delayed

Who's Invited To This Year's Xbox Live Arcade House Party?

For those who aren't in "the know", the XBLA House Party is a way for Microsoft to draw attention to a few of it's bigger Live Arcade releases by bringing them out in quick succession and has proven to be a good money maker for them in the past. this years selection of games seems pretty awesome, with the 4 chosen being:

• Warp - A puzzle/action game featuring a teleporting alien
• Nexuiz - A multiplayer FPS in the same vein as Quake
• Alan Wake's American Nightmare - The sequel to 2010's Alan Wake
• I Am Alive - A new IP from Ubisoft set after the apocalypse

No prices have been announced yet except for Nexuiz, which will be 800 Microsoft points. The House Party should be here soon!

Will an XBLA game be able to come close to the original? We shall see!

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Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition Features Announced

I liked Mortal Kombat, quite a bit in fact, and I bet it's going for fairly cheap nowadays, but if you've yet to pick yourself up a copy of the game you'd do well to wait a short while. The Komplete Edition of the game will come packaged with all the game's DLC, including the 4 downloadable characters Kenshi, Rain, Skarlet and Freddy Krueger and "klassic" costumes and skins, plus digital downloads for an album called "Mortal Kombat - Songs Inspired By The Warriors" and the awesome Mortal Kombat film. the package comes out February 28th and you could do alot worse with your hard-earned money.

That could be you! But are you giving or receiving? Depends how good you are!

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Early Leaked Collector's Edition Of Aliens: Colonial Marines

Found on a French website Gamekyo, this image of the collector's edition shows that it will contain a stauette of ripley's queen-stomper mech thing from the Aliens movie, a fold-out backdrop for the statue, a book of art, a new game mode and some exclusive in-game stuff that, to be honest, I couldn't care less about. Seriously though, look how awesome that is! Dude!

Want!!!

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Silent Hill HD Collection Release Pushed Back To March

Sorry Silent Hill fans, but if you've been looking forward to revisiting the sleepy ghost town (as featured in Silent Hill 2+3 only, bytheway) then you're going to have to be patient for a little while longer. The collection's release has been nudged back to March 6th, with no real reason given. It's comning though, albeit slower than you thought.

It seem like the theme of today's news seem to be patience. all you video game fans out there just bide your time and play Skyrim, your games will be here eventually!

"Oh Mabel, if only these walls could talk. Why Mabel if these walls could talk, they'd say 'There was a hole here, it's gone now'!.... or, something?"

Daily News - 9th January 2012 - Final Fantasy XIII-2 Demo, Steam Sales 2011 and Lego Batman: 2

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Demo Coming In A Few Days

Is anyone excited for this? Will anyone buy this? Why does this exist? These are all questions you could be asking yourself, whilst playing the Final Fantasy XIII-2 demo tomorrow on PS3 and Wednesday on Xbox 360. What'll be in there? Who knows! Enjoy!

I have no idea...

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Steam Does Predictably Well In 2011

Valve had a great 2011, enjoying not only Portal 2's huge critical and commercial success, but also because Steam, once again, announced it had exceeded last year's sales by over 100%, keeping up it's record of 7 straight years of success. Other stats of note are:

• 40,000,000 Steam Accounts now exist
• This year Steam pushed out 780 Petabytes of data (double the previous years')
• Over 400 games now contain Steamworks, with over 14.5 million games containing Steamworks sold (67% more than 2010)
• There are now 1,800 games available on Steam

Gabe Newell had the following to say:

"Steam and Steamworks continues to evolve to keep up with customer and developer demands for new services and content. Support for in-game item trading prompted the exchange of over 19 million items. Support for Free to Play (FTP) games, launched in June, has spurred the launch of 18 FTP titles on Steam, with more coming in 2012. Looking forward, we are preparing for the launch of the Big Picture UI mode, which will allow gamers to experience Steam on large displays and in more rooms of the house."

Congrats to Valve, the service is great and it's only going to to go from strength-to-strength.

Wheatley is impressed!

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Lego Batman 2 Announced And Sounds Awesome

I like the Lego games, they're simple but have about a thousand carrots on various sticks which makes it hard to stop playing them. Lego Batman is one I've yet to play, but by the sounds of the sequel I won't have to! Lego Batman 2 will not only feature Batman, his friends and his rigues gallery, but will also rope in other DC superheroes too. Subtitled "DC Super Heroes", the game will feature Superman, Green Lamtern, Wonder Woman and other good guys from the comics, but will also contain extra bad guys too like Lex Luthor. No release date has been announced yet, but they have said to expect a summer release date, on all the usual platforms. If the Flash is in this, I may totally lose my shit...

Lego Superman looks spot-on