This Week in Gaming News: 5/12/12 – 5/18/12

Pre-order incentives are supposed make you want the game even more. Gearbox thinks that players of Borderlands 2 will want to put a lot of stuff on their shelves as well as play their game.

And remember when everyone was excited about Diablo III coming out this week? Apparently Blizzard didn’t get the message that people were anticipating this one.


Kingdoms of Amalur studio isn’t doing so well

38 Studios, the company behind the RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning which released last year, is in a bit of a pickle. In order to finish the game the studio took a $75 loan from the state of Rhode Island. And just this past week they missed out on one of their payments. Hopefully this was just a mistake and the company can give them the money quickly. But it might be the end of the studio if they cannot pay off their debts. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning had mild success upon release, and it is sad to see a skilled development team fall. (Source: Kotaku)


Diablo III release met with tons of downtime; Blizzard apologizes for issues

Perhaps you were like me this week and were hotly anticipating Blizzard’s Diablo III officially being released. And perhaps you were like me when you were told you just bought the game but you couldn’t play it yet. There are many reasons for this happening. I’ll break it down for you:
Error 3003: Unable to connect to service or the connection was interrupted.
Error 37: The servers are too busy at this time. Please try again later.
Basically Blizzard doesn’t have enough servers to host the game for all the players.
Now before you scream foul of Blizzard for their “Always Online” approach to D3, just give them some time. When has Blizzard failed us in the past? Sure, it’s a bit silly to still have to wait to play the game, but I have faith in Blizzard that they’ll get this fixed quickly.
Blizzard released a statement on Thursday talking about these issues and others. In the statement, the company apologized to players who were expecting to be able to play the game and instead were met with technical issues. They said in the letter, which was posted in the Diablo III forums, that they are working to fix the issues. Also of note, the Real Money Auction House, which was scheduled to open May 22nd has been pushed back to a later date.
(Source: Diablo III Forums)


The South Park RPG has been moved into 2013

Still early’ish in development, the Obsidian developed role-playing game based on Comedy Central’s foul-mouthed kids has been pushed back into sometime next year. I can’t say I didn’t see something like this coming, because any game that gets announced well before it’s initial release date is likely to have something happen to push it back (Just look to last week to see Bioshock: Infinite suffer the same fate). The game still looks very intriguing, putting Kyle, Stan, Kenny, and Cartman in the world of myth and magic. I’ll wait for this one with much anticipation. I wonder how many times they’ll kill Kenny… (Source: GameSpy)


Nintendo releases a patch for Mario Kart 7

Oh wow… a patch? Why is that news?
Well, not only does the patch eliminate a few shortcuts that were discovered in the 3DS title released late last year, but it also shows us that Nintendo has finally stepped deeper into the online gaming world. Perhaps Nintendo will release more patches for games, and better yet more Demos and online content in general (They are releasing more Demos, with Kingdom Hearts and Rayman: Origins on the way). Concerning the patch itself though, gamers will be prompted to download the patch in order to play the game online, where the shortcuts will be eliminated. Offline play will keep the “hidden” paths intact. (Source: GameSpot)


Borderlands 2 gets a crazy pre-order incentive

Hey vault hunter, did you like Borderlands? Well then show your enthusiasm by spending boatloads of money to buy one of the Borderlands 2 special editions and get a whole bunch of extra swag! The “Premiere Club” gets you the game plus new items and a download code for the new class, the Mechromancer. Or get the “Deluxe Vault Hunter’s” edition, which comes with all that plus a Marcus bobblehead, an artbook, a map of Pandora, a downloadable comic book, and a sticker set. Or… you can purchase the “Ultimate Loot Chest” which comes with all that PLUS a steel game case, a vending machine bobble head, field notes from Sir Hammerlock (Whoever that is), a replica Borderlands rare chest, Creatures of Pandora cards, four postcards, and a certificate of authenticity. And all of that can be yours if the price is right if you fork over $150. Honestly… I’m tempted. (Source: GameSpot, Borderlands 2)


Laters,
Jsick

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