Daily News - 26th and 27th July 2011 - Massive 3DS Price Drop, Red Faction Phasing Out and Humble Indie Bundle #3

Nintendo NUKES The 3DS Price, But Doesn't Punish You For Getting One Early

The DS was an unbridled success, it exceeded anyone wildest expectations and penetrated everybody's vocabulary, whether it be OAPs or toddlers, they all know what a DS is... So it's little surprise the 3DS hasn't performed as well. To a world full of DS's, a $250 3DS isn't an attractive proposition, especially with Vita announced at $250 and looking very impressive. Luckily, Nintendo aren't stupid, and make money on their consoles so from August 12th, the 3DS in America will have it's price slashed by $80. EIGHTY DOLLARS!!! That's ballsy as hell! And, as if that wasn't enough, they're also offering tonnes of free games to people who bought one before the price drop. When Nintendo open up the NES and Game Boy Advance Virtual Consoles, "early adopters" will get free games from both stores. The full lists haven't been announced but the game will include:

NES:

• Super Mario Bros.
• Donkey Kong Jr.
• Balloon Fight
• Ice Climber
• The Legend of Zelda
• And more...

Game Boy Advance:

• Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3
• Mario Kart: Super Circuit
• Metroid Fusion
• WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong.
• And more...

so there you go! If you already have a 3DS you're laughing, and if you don't, you're laughing! Everybody wins!

Balloon Fight - A classic I won't have to pay for! What a dream!

Red Faction: Armageddon Could Be the Last Red Faction Game

Armageddon was horrific. They took the formula of a game that overachieved, sold well and surprised critics (Red Faction: Guerilla)... and then threw it out of the window. Gone were the wide open martian vistas of Guerilla; the epic-feeling battles and focus destructibility, and instead they were replaced with cramped, indoor caves; generic enemies and boring battles with the destructibility merely getting in the way. The game under performed (and rightfully so) and now THQ are phasing the series out altogether. It's a shame because Red Faction: Guerilla was tremendously fun and came out of nowhere to grab some warranted attention. There's no condoning Red Faction: Armageddon though, but that doesn't make seeing the series end any easier. What a waste!

Arg! Guerilla was so good, I'm so pissed at this news!

Humble Indie bundle #3 Is Here! And Is compulsory! Buy It!

For those who aren't aware, the Humble Indie Bundle is a charity bundle of indie games, raising money for the charities Child's Play and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The bundle is made up of "indie darlings", games of high quality made by small teams. The major twist is that you can choose the amount you pay for the bundle! If you wanna pay the equivalent of a dollar (about 60p) then you can, but if you want to pay 10 dollars, that's fine too. The 5 included games are:

• Crayon Physics Deluxe
• Cogs
• VVVVVV
• Hammerfight
• And Yet It Moves

VVVVVV and And Yet It Moves have won awards in the past, and are probably worth the price of the entire bundle on their own, so what are you waiting for?!? Go on, treat yourself to a bargain and give to a good cause at the same time!

http://www.humblebundle.com/

Yes VVVVVV, yes it will.

Daily News - 21st to 25th July 2011 - Bulletstorm Lack Of Profits, New Soul Calibur 5 Trailer and A Majora's Mask Remake?!?

Bulletstorm Made No Money, But Epic Still Love It

Bulletstorm is great. People Can Fly's game is funny, fun to play and apparently, lost a ton of money! The game supposedly came nowhere near making back it's rather large budget, but the good news is Epic aren't mad, because they know the game came out awesome. Mike Capps, Epic's President, said the following:

"The studio has shipped AAA content, the next thing we do with People Can Fly will be great."

Epic come from a background of game development themselves, so they know the pressures of making a game to meet it's sales targets and won't drop People Can Fly just because Bulletstorm lost money. Thank goodness Epic are so awesome, the thought of no more Bulletstorm in my life fills me with melancholy.

Absurdly absurd. Bulletstorm is a joy! Even if there's no money in it...

Majora's Mask 3DS Definitely A Possibility

The game's director Eiji Aonuma has spoken to Nintendo Power and the following boner-inducing stuff to say:

"It's been 13 years since Ocarina of Time was originally released, and one of the big things that we made this remake possible was that there was an outpour of emotions from people who said they would like to see this game done. We said we could do it in 3D, so we did. I think certainly if there was a similar output of emotion and clamor from fans for a remake of Majora's Mask, it wouldn't be an utter impossibility."

Majora's Mask is an incredible game. High concept but still Zelda, and with very emotional moments (for 15 year old me, anyway!). I'd love to play through the game again... probably multiple times, so I'm mega up for this!

A darker tone for a Zelda game, and all the better for it!

Soul Calibur 5 Comic-Con Trailer Actually Looks Alright

The initial teaser trailer they brought out for this looked awful, but this new trailer has much more promise. Gameplay looks good, albeit with some Street Fighter-esque special moves thrown in. Take a look, if you're so inclined.

Daily News - 20th July 2011 - Zelda 25th Anniversary Concerts and Lollipop Chainsaw... Yep, Lollipop Chainsaw

First Date Of The Worldwide Zelda 25th Anniversary Concerts Revealed!

At Nintendo's E3 press conference, they opened with a Zelda montage backed by a live orchestra. It was epic. They then promptly announced a series of global concerts in honour of the game's 25th anniversary. My heart fluttered. Today they revealed their first venue, the date of the concert and even ticket prices. The first stop on the world tour will be at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles on October 21 and tickets will range from $35 to $173. The odds are that when they do England they'll only visit London, but if they do visit Manchester (it's an alright city... I guess!) I'm gonna be there! In those cheap seats! $35 is like £20! Bargain!

Pretty games deserve pretty music!

Grasshopper's Next Game Is Gonna Be Called Lollipop Chainsaw, Looks Suitabky Nuts

Suda51 and Akira Yamaoka have just finished making Shadows Of The Damned (which I'm playing for review and kinda digging) and already they're off making their next insane game. The game, awesomely titled Lollipop Chainsaw, will feature a schoolgirl cheerleader named Juliet Sterling who murders zombies with a chainsaw. The game will apparently be very similar in tone to No More Heroes, so expect the lead female character to be massively sexualized (this is a Japanese game afterall) but also expect it to be pretty awesome... they have a pretty great pedigree.

Looks.... ideal

Daily News - 19th July 2011 - Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 Roster, Aliens: Infestation and More Good Uncharted Movie News

The Full Roster For Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 Is Revealed, Makes Me Sad I Hated It

I hated Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. With a passion. And I wasn't the only one who didn't enjoy it. But I've got to appreciate what goes into making the game, assembling awesome as fuck characters from both universes and having them fight it out takes many, many pinches of salt and the "Ultimate" edition of the game will be no exception. The full list of new characters they'll be adding came out and it's a pretty nice selection:

From Capcom:

• Firebrand
• Frank West
• Nemesis
• Phoenix Wright
• Strider
• Vergil

From Marvel:

• Dr. Strange
• Ghost Rider
• Hawkeye
• Iron Fist
• Nova
• Rocket Raccoon

I won't pretend to know who all those characters are, but the fact that Phoenix Wright is in there, along with Nemesis, is epic unto itself. My one major grievance is that these guys weren't in the game to begin with! The roster was hugely lacking in the original, with only 3 unlockable characters, but if these guys had been unlockables in the original I might have actually really liked it. Argh, I hate setting myself up to get my heart broken. Fuck this game! And fuck Capcom!

Imagine taking that TO THE FACE!!!

Aliens: Infestation Revealed For DS

The game will be a side-scrolling shooter for the DS (Note the lack of a "3") and will be co-developed by Sega, WayForward and Gearbox. The companies involved have been keeping quiet about the game for a while... and personally I find it hard to see why. The game doesn't look terrible, in fact games like this usually tend to turn out to be pretty good, but it doesn't look like it's going to be making any Game Of The Year lists. The game will take you back to some "classic" Alien universe locales (as all games taking place in the Alien universe nowadays have to do) and will feature multiple marines to control and no doubt lots of weapons to use to kill the Xenomorphs. The game's scheduled to come out in September, for the none-3D DS.

*Sigh* Look guys, it's the Space Jockey! In an Aliens game! How original!

Neil Burger, Making Our Uncharted Movie Dreams Come True!

Remember that terrible idea for an Uncharted movie David O. Russell had? To have Mark Wahlberg be part of a globe-trotting family of treasure seekers with Joe Peschi and Robert Deniro? Well, good news! Scrap all that! The film's new director, Neil Burger, is starting from scratch, and gave this incredibly encouraging quote:

"Mainly we’re beginning from scratch and going back to the videogame, because there’s a lot of cool stuff, actually, from the videogame, if you know it... It’s really one of the most cinematic video games, and one that has really developed characters. So, you know, there’s a lot of cool, really intense things that, if they work for the film’s story, I want to use them."

And, furthermore, he's come out and said that he knows all about the internet campaign to cast Nathan Fillion as Nathan Drake and that he's not ruling anything out, just saying that he'll decide on casting depending on whoever reads best for the part when the time comes. I. Am. Excited! And another excuse to post a photo of Nathan fillion! Squee!

Look at him! He's an action star already!

Daily News - 18th July 2011 - Valve And DOTA 2, Modernwarfare3.com Is (Hilariously) Fake and Final Fantasy XIII-2 Dated

Valve Improving Steam's Download Speeds And Says DOTA 2 Will Be Here "Soon"

Today Valve said they were working on doing some back end fanciness to improve the rate at which steam transfers data, meaning those hefty game downloads won't be feeling quite so hefty soon. Now obviously, they're not gonna give away too much... because they're Valve, but they did give this mini statement:

"Over time, more and more of the content on Steam will be delivered using this new system. Soon, Dota 2 will be delivered using it."

WHAOH THERE! You see that?!? They just casually threw in that DOTA 2 is coming soon like it was nothing! The fiends! DOTA 2 has me interested, I've been playing alot of League Of Legends lately (a less hardcore DOTA clone) and been having a blast, so I'm interested to see how this is gonna turn out... although let's be honest, while "soon" may not generally be precise, for Valve "soon" might aswell be tomorrow. Yay!

Poor love, can't even dial 999.... Her hands are on fire

ModernWarfare3.com Wasn't Owned By Activision, but DID redirect To Battlefield3.com

So believe it or not, Activision didn't find this hilarious! in fact, those spoilsports decided to go after the site in a somewhat... shall we say, "legal" way. Now the interesting thing about this is that up until last weel the website was a front for Modern Warfare trolling. The website fronted itself with a nice looking Modern Warfare 3 banner but contained numerous anti-Modern Warfare statements, such as:

"Modern Warfare is crap. On November 8, 2011, the most over-hyped first-person action series of all-time returns with the copy and paste sequel to the lackluster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Check out the E3 2011 gameplay demo featuring the Black Tuesday level for a look at the epic fail of the campaign. Pre-Order Call of Duty MW3 Today for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC to secure exclusive bonuses only available online for Modern Warfare 3 fanboys who don’t know that Battlefield 3 is the better game"

Now I'm all up for banter... as my website may have led you to believe! But that's just sad. It's not witty, it's not clever and it's not funny. Now redirecting the domain to Battlefield3.com, THAT shit gets me smiling. As you'll figure out of you try it, the site's down now, and Activision's lawyers surely aren't done, but as far as the concept of "Modern Warfare" goes, this is about as real as it gets in these cyber times.

this is how the site looked before the re-direct. Not bad right?!?

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Out January.

Headline explains news story in lack-of-funny-headline shocker!

"Am I male? Uhh.... Oh fuck it, SUMMON MASSIVE KNIGHT!!!"

Daily News - 14th to 15th July 2011 - June's Best-Selling Games and A First Look At Battlefield Battlelog

June's Best-Selling Game Was L.A. Noire

The figures have come out for June biggest hits, and unsurprisingly Duke Nukem Forever didn't make number 1. L.A. Noire continues to be extremely popular and it's nice to see Ocarina Of Time 3DS selling well, look at the top-ten below:

1. L.A. Noire
2. Duke Nukem Forever
3. inFamous 2
4. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game
5. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
6. Call of Duty: Black Ops
7. NBA 2K11
8. Mortal Kombat
9. Cars 2
10. Just Dance 2

"Where am I? What's going on? Buy Zelda!"

Battlefield 3's Social Network Looks Promising / White

Thanks to the German Battlefield blog we've gotten our first image of the Battlelog, Battlefield's answer to Facebook and anything Call Of Duty try to charge people for. The idea is that your Battlelog profile will link up to other Battlefield games you've played and let you say "Howdy!" to other players. We don't know a tonne right now, but we do have a screenshot, look at the shiny whiteness just down there.

I love me some Battlefield, so I'll love me some this

Daily News - 12th and 13th July 2011 - EA Shutting Down Servers and A New Arkham Asylum Trailer

If You Like Old Online EA Games... Then You're Not In Luck!

The time has come. You knew it couldn't last forever. EA are shutting down some of their old servers. I guess the good news is that alot of the servers they're shutting down are their old sports games but also shoved in there are Battlefield 2 for Xbox 360 and a few demos. See the full list below, I hope your favourite game didn't make the cut!

• Army of Two for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• Army of Two Demo for Xbox 360
• Battlefield 2142 Demo for PC
• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat for Xbox 360
• Battlefield 2: Modern Combat Demo for Xbox 360
• Madden NFL 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• Medal of Honor Airborne for PlayStation Portable
• Medal of Honor Heroes 2 for PlayStation Portable and Wii
• NASCAR 09 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 (North America)
• NCAA Basketball 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• NCAA Football 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• Need for Speed Most Wanted for PC and Xbox 360
• Need for Speed Undercover for PlayStation Portable
• NHL 10 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• Skate for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 Demo for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360

Battlefield 2. Still a... "great" looking game, even nowadays... *cough*

The Riddler Gets His Own Arkham City Trailer

Arkham City is easily one of my most anticipated games on this year. The original was damn-near perfect and really made you feel like the insane badass Batman is, so any news regarding the sequel is music to my ears. The newest trailer, featuring the Riddler gives me the same chills the original Arkham Asylum trailers did, so I couldn't be more excited!

Daily News - 11th July 2011 - Trenched In Trouble In Europe, Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy Gets Bafflingly Detailed and New Article

"Trench" Copyright Owner To Fight Microsoft Over Trenched

Last week news came out that Double Fine's newest game Trenched wasn't out in Europe yet because a Portugese board game already held the copyright to the name "Trench". Crazy stuff, but what's even crazier is that the guy who owns the Trench copyright intends to fight Microsoft over this, saying he intends to make his own "electronic game" under the Trench title, thus his unwillingness to comprimise. This sucks, because Trenched is supposed to be awesome, and I wanna play it. Sad faces all round!

Ahhh Trenched, you look like a game I wanna jump on and lick

Wanna Know More About Theatrhythm? Me Neither

I'm gonna make this short, because talking about this language-abortion hurts my brain. Theatrhythm will featured characters from every Final Fantasy game and you'll battle enemies by doing something rhythmically. That's pretty much all we know, except for the storyline, which is suitably mental:

Apparently, the space between the gods Chaos and Cosmos is known as "Rhythm." "Rhythm" gives birth to the crystal which controls music, and fills the world with sound. However, the forces of chaos have disrupted the peace, and the crystal has begin to lose its shine. To restore the crystal's shine, the music wave "Rizpo" must be increased. And so, the warriors, guided by the crystal, begin their journey of music.

Uhh, fucking what?!? Please, just stop making this now, it makes me pull a frown face.

Decipher this if you can

And finally...

I wrote an article about my favourite XBLA games, what with the Summer Of Arcade just around the corner I thought it would be quite apt. hope you guys find it informative (if nothing else)

Xbox Live Arcade - The 10 Games You Should Already Own And Love

Daily News - 8th July 2011 - This Year's "PAX 10" and Planetside Sequel In The Works

2011's "PAX 10"

Bottom line, if you wanna know what the big downloadable games for the next year will be, you pay attention to the PAX 10. The Penny Arcade Expo (Or PAX for short) is a show put on by the guys behind Penny Arcade where they highlight some of the lesser known games being worked on by smaller teams of people. It's a great oppurtunity for smaller games to get their moment in the spotlight, with past gems like Audiosurf and Super Meat Boy being part of the PAX 10 you can pretty much expect them to be pretty great. Here's the complete list:

• A Flipping Good Time
• Antichamber
• Atom Zombie Smasher
• Fez
• Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony
• Snapshot
• Solar 2
• Splatters
• Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix & Her Nightmare
• Word Fighter

This is Fez, your typical, awesome looking member of the PAX 10

Planetside 2 Is A Thing That's Happening

The original Planetside didn't light the world on fire but it made enough waves that thje announcement of a 2nd one is sure to turn heads. Planetside, if you didn't know, was a first-person shooter MMO with persistence amongst different player-inhabited factions for control of the planet. Sounds awesome right? Well the execution was a little off back in the day but there's still definite potential in the basic premise. Take a look at this trailer and see if it floats your boat. I'm definitely interested.

Daily News - 7th July 2011 - Uncharted The Movie, Burnout CRASH and The Remarkable Bioshock Infinite E3 Demo

The Uncharted Movie Apparently Gets A New Director

According to Variety, Neil Burger (Director of The Illusionist and Limitless) is now tied to the project based on the popular Playstation series. As you may recall, the previous director David O Russell (The Fighter) had cast Mark Wahlberg as Nathan Drake and had changed the entire plot of the adventure to the point of barely being recognisable as Uncharted. No news yet on whether Mark Wahlberg is still a part of the film but let's hope not. Nathan Fillion is still the dream Drake!

SPOT. ON.

Criterion Reveal Burnout: CRASH

Burnout: CRASH was revealed a few months ago by accident and a few details have dribbled out since then, with the game being shown properly yesterday. The game will be a downloadable, top-down version of the series' crash mode. It will take a much more arcadey, almost mini-game approach to the gameplay, even including gesture controls. It looks like alot of fun! Expect it to be out some time in the next few months.

As you can see, chaos is the order of the day

Bioshock Infinite's E3 Demo is Basically, Astounding

At this year's e3, the obvious winner of the show was Bioshock Infinite, a game that received not one single bad word said about it the entire 3 day show. Watching the demo for yourself it's easy to see why. I'm not a fan of the original Bioshock myself, it never grabbed me and I didn't feel compelled to carry on playing it past a few hours but Infinite looks impressive for sure. Be warned, this is a 20 minute video, so go grab a cuppa and prepare to be a little bit blown away...

Tags: GameTrailers.com, GTTV - BioShock Infinite, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360