Game rumors, game announcements, DLC forthcoming… another fine week in gaming news.
Disney thinks they can break into the toys-and-video games market cornered by Skylanders, the newest Borderlands 2 DLC will be out in just a few days, and there are even more Black Friday deals to take advantage of in the coming week.
Read on and plan out your future spending…
Disney working on a Skylanders style game with its properties
New this week is an exciting bit of information for both Disney lovers and Skylander freaks as well. The company that Mickey built is working on a title called Disney Infinity (Formerly called Toy Box) which will use the same technology Activision’s Skylanders’ games have used to import physical toys into the video game. Naturally, Disney Infinity will have a Disney twist, not the least of which being the use of Disney characters instead of “generic” toys for Skylanders. Early reports show Sully from Monsters, Inc., Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, and Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles as starting characters. Rumors have been flying about the incorporation of Disney’s other properties making appearances in the game, namely Marvel and newly acquired Star Wars. Time will tell, as the game is still in early development. (Source: Machinima; GameSpot)
GameStop’s Black Friday ad gets leaked; features fantastic console bundles
With Thanksgiving and Black Friday less than one week away, GameStop’s Black Friday ad with all of it’s discounted titles appears to have been leaked early. While this isn’t worthy of news in many respects, what is worthy is mentioning the truly great savings you can grab at the retailer. The ad, if true, states gamers can pick up an Xbox 360 250GB console with games The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Forza 4, and Call of Duty: Black Ops II all for $249.99. Considering each of those games cost around $50-$60, this is a truly fantastic deal for the holidays. As of this writing, the official GameStop site doesn’t have the ad listed, but they will likely post it soon considering the time of year. (Source: Kotaku)
Second Borderlands 2 expansion coming next week
Rogue trophies included with the previous Borderlands 2 expansion hinted at the upcoming DLC for the game being called “Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage,” and earlier this week it was deemed true by Gearbox, the game’s developer. Slated for release this Tuesday, November 20th, the second DLC will feature Mr. Torgue, one of the game world’s gun manufactures as well as more guns, loot, and a new story to play through. It’ll cost 800 MSP ($10) and will be included in the Season Pass for those players that have already purchased it ahead of time. (Source: Machinima)
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm coming March 2013
Blizzard Entertainment announced that the first DLC for 2010’s StarCraft 2 will be coming March 2013. Entitled StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, the game’s story will focus on the Zerg race and will continue the story from StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. There are also some different collectible versions of the game coming out, including an $80 Collector’s Edition which features the game as well as a Zerg mousepad, hardcover artbook, and more. Things are looking bright for SC fans! (Source: Game Informer)
Valve is working on Source Engine 2 to power games; hints at upcoming title
At a celebration for Valve’s co-founder Gabe Newell, it was revealed that the company is working on a new game engine to succeed its popular Source engine. While the Source engine has been mighty successful during its time, the news of a new engine gets me all excited for what is to come. Not only that, but Newell hinted that a new game would release alongside the new engine, and of course fans are interpreting this to be Half-Life 3. Since there isn’t a scheduled date for either of these just yet, I wouldn’t hold your breath for a release any time soon. (Source: Kotaku)
Inaccurate review removed from GamSpot, but left on MetaCritic
In this week’s “What the Hell?!” story, we look at the curious case of MetaCritic and one GameSpot reviewer’s review. Eric Neigher, a freelance reviewer, posted his review of the PC game Natural Selection 2 to GameSpot, and users quickly found many faults with the review, and by faults I mean legitimately inaccurate descriptions and pieces of information. GameSpot removed the review and posted an updated review from a different reviewer with the correct information, and Neigher released an apology. Interestingly however, the review aggregate site Metacritic refused to remove the inaccurate review under its terms of policy. The site states they take the first review from a site only, and any subsequent reviews aren’t considered for the MetaScore. Even with the issues in the review, MetaCritic still has the old 60 score sitting on their site, with a note stating they only include the original review from a publication. Also of note, the score of 60 from this review is still affecting the overall MetaScore. This is just my opinion of the situation, but it’s just another reason to avoid MetaCritic in determining quality of games. (Source: Kotaku)
Laters,
Jsick
