Release Date For BattleBlock Theater Has Been Confirmed

From the makers of Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers, Behemoth has finally given a release date for there next project BattleBlock Theater. BattleBlock Theater will be released on April 3 ,2013 on the Xbox Live Arcade.

The story behind BattleBlock Theater is simple,  Hatty Hattington and his nameless friend are on a ship and out of nowhere a violent storm comes and maroon’s  them on a island where they find this mysterious theater.

Behemoth first announced BattleBlock Theater back on 2009. BattleBlock Theater is co-op platformer that holds 1-4 players for local play and 1-4 players online.

BattleBlock Theater will combine some of the same elements that made Alien Hominid and Castle Crasher so great.  BattleBlock Theater will feature nine arena game modes.

It will also feature a level editor where players  can share there levels to other player as well as download other levels from other players.

BioShock Infinite preview

BioShock Infinite will be the third game in the prominent BioShock series. Infinite will be a totally original  story that will be set around 1912 in the floating city of Columbia.

Players will take control of protagonist Booker DeWitt as they try to save Elizabeth, who has been trapped in Columbia since she was a child.

BioShock Infinite’s story will be focused on the relationship between Booker and Elizabeth. Elizabeth will also be a help to Booker during combat by using her special abilities.

What will be replacing the enemy type of the Big Daddy,one of  the main enemy types that was present in Bioshock 1 and Bioshock 2, will be the Song Bird, the jailor and the protector of Elizabeth which will do anything to return her to her prison.

Other enemy types will include Boys of Silence, Handy Men, Motorized patriots, and the Sirens, each enemy will bring  a unique challenge to the player.

Like in previous entries in the BioShock series, players will get to augment their powers and abilities which they will acquire during there progression of the game. Plus there will be an assortment of various weapons for the players to use in the game.

During the game’s launch, a Season Pass will be available. The Season pass will cost $19.99 for  $30.oo worth of content.It will include three add-on dlc pack,Irrational games has not given any specifics on what downloadable content will be coming to people who purchase the Season Pass for BioShock Infinite.

People who purchase the season pass will get the Early Bird Special Pack for free.

The Early Bird Special Pack will include four pieces of exclusive gear, a Machine Gun Damage Upgrade, a Pistol Damage Upgrade, gold skins for both weapons, and five Infusion bottles that will increase players health, durability or give the player’s ability to use Vigor to increase the quantity of Salts they carry.

Bioshock will be available worldwide on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC in March 26, 2013.

Saints Row IV announced

Saints Row IV has just been official announced. The game will come out on current gen consoles and on the PC in the U.S on August 20, it will come out in other territories on August 25.

The game will be published by Deep Silver, who recently picked up the rights to the Saints Row IP after a THQ auction. Volition will still be at the helm of developing  Saints Row IV.

From what was featured in the Saints Row IV announcement trailer, Volition will continues the trademark wackiness that was present in previous games in the Saints Row series.

There is still much info that will flowing in the following weeks, to find out more stay tuned for updates and news on Saints Row IV.

Pokemon Rumble U

Recently Pokemon Rumble U was announced for the Wii U, a western announcement has not been confirmed of as of yet. Much like the Skylander game, players will be using toy figurines to interact with the game.

Pokemon levels and data will be stored in the figurines. Figurines will cost about $2 and the Pokemon Rumble U will cost about $20.

Star Wars: First Assault

Recently there was leaked information on a video game called Star Wars: First Assault in the past weeks. Star Wars First Assault is  downloadable shooter that was meant to be released on the Xbox Live Arcade, which is powered by Unreal Engine.

Rumors suggest that First Assault will be a predecessor of Battlefront 3.

If released, First Assault will be pit two teams of stormtroopers and rebel soldiers where they will do battle in the worlds of Bespin and Tatooine.

However there is an air of uncertainty surrounding Disney and there acquisition of Lucas Arts. So there is no clear answers on when First Assault or Star Wars 1313 will be released at all.

We don’t know Disney’s hidden agenda on what it is going to do with the long storied tradition of Star Wars games  and properties that had a huge impacts in the gaming industry in the recent years.

Since there September acquisition from Disney,  Lucas Films froze all hiring and game annoucements. That means the people who are working on First Assault don’t know whether it will be released or not, Star Wars 1313 is in the same situation.

Even the Cartoon Network show Clone Wars has been cancelled due to these recent predicaments.

As of right now, it is the waiting game for Lucas Arts as they wait to see what Lucas Films and Disney’s executives on what they want to do with the current games in development and future games.

Gears of War: Judgement preview

For the fans of gore, bullets, and killing stuff, Gear of War: Judgement will be coming soon to fill your sadistic urges. Gears of War: Judgement, developed by People Can Fly and Epic Games, will be the prequel to the Gears of War trilogy.

Gears of War: Judgement will be set thirty days after Emergence Day. Most of the game will be located  in the Halvo Bay located in the nation of Tyrus.

Judgement will follow the exploits of new protagonist Lt. Damian Baird and Kilo squad. The story will be told differently form previous entries, Kilo Squad is accused of some war crime, and each character will be giving there own perspective through gameplay that gamers will take part in.

Something new that will be introduced to gears is the new scoring systems, which is a system where it judges how well you performed from 1 star to 3 stars.

Multiplayer will feature some of the same modes from previous gears of war games, but there will be a new multiplayer mode that will be introducing called  overRun will be a new mode  OverRun. OverRun is an objective focused mode where you alternate in teams of 5 with Locust and COG soldiers.

Gears of War will be released March, 19 2013 as an Xbox 360 exclusive.

People who pre-order Gears of War: Judgement at GameStop will get an a “Young Marcus” character skin, Lambent weapon skin, and the classic Hammerburst rifle.

Black Ops 2 will start offering micro-transactions

Activision announced this week that micro-transaction will be available for Black Ops 2 on the Xbox 360, the PS3 and PC will eventually get the in-game features in the near future.

The in-game purchases will just be aesthetic customizations that will not effect gameplay.

Personal Customizations packs will be going for  160 Microsoft Points, which will include different weapon camoes, three targeting reticules, and a calling card.

Activision will also be offering an Extra Slots Pack that consists of ten more Create-a-Class slots and a increase in storage media.

Also on sale will be the Flags of The World Calling Card Packs which will cost 40 Microsoft Points.

Parents need to be educated about the ESRB rating

Most recently the ESRB, the Entertainment Software Rating Board, announced that they will be launching a national campaign to inform parents about the ESRB’s video game rating system.  ESRB should recieve high praise for taking action on such a important issue of the lack of awareness that parents have when they are buying their kids video games.

I believe that this generation of gamers people aren’t playing games that are suited to there age, for example there are a bunch of kids playing violent video games like call of duty, fallout, mortal kombat, and grand theft auto. Parents have been living under a shell when it comes to what there kids are playing.

The kids are also to blame, but the majority of the problem is the parents and there lack of knowledge. I am myself have been guilty of  making my parents buy me a violent video game. I remember it was my birthday and San Andreas has just came out, i begged my parents to get the game for me, after my constant whining, they gave up and decided to buy the game for me.

I was there when my parents bought the game from the store, and all they did was just looked at the price tag, didn’t bother to look whether the game was mature or not. My parents could have been more infromed on the type of game that they were buying for me.

This campaign needs to succedde in order for parents prevent situations like the one that me and my parents experienced.

Games are a totally different beast, you got developers getting better at making graphics look my realsitic than have look in the past. Plus with the help of social media, kids are being lured to play some inappropriate games that are being poplularized more by the more mature gamers out there.

With the current mass shooting that happend in Newtown, there is the argument that Adam Lanza probably was affected by playing call of duty. However, in my opinion i don’t think it was video game that made him kill all those people that day, yet still gave the video game industry a bad wrap.

Some of those people are parents that are being ignorant about the whole issue. Games aren’t brain washings tools that make people kill other people, it is merely  fantasy and make believe.

I don’t want to prevent kids from playing the games they want to play, i just want the parents to just be informed in what type of games they are getting for there kids.

 

Injustice: Gods Among Us Preview

Injustice: Gods Among Us will be the next fighting game  being made from the developers who made the Mortal Kombat series NetherRealm Studios. This game will feature  many characters from the comic book universe of DC Comics.

Injustice will feature an original story that will be cooked up by the help of DC’s Justin gray and Jimmy Palmiotti. Injustice will feature epic skirmishes and battles between villains and heroes.

The story mode will feature small interactive mini-games that would add variety to an already packed game. Also NetherRealm developers will try to seamlessly transition from an in-game cutscene to actual combat, which is something different from NetherRealms previous works.

Players will get to play in familiar locations and battlegrounds familiar from DC Comic’s. Injustice will feature over the top superhero that will change the area of where you are fighting.

As in previous NetherRealms games, Injustice will feature an online multiplayer where you get to fight against friends and people from around the world.

Some of the characters that will be featured in Injustice will be Superman, Green Lantern, Captain Marvel, Batman, and many other characters.

Injustice will be available in the standard edition, Battle edition, and the Collectors edition.
Injustice: Gods Among Us will be released April 16 on the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U.

PETA should get over its beef with Ubisoft

Not too long ago, many of gamers found out that there was going to be another assassins creed game sooner than they thought with Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag. There was some mixed feelings about the game, some either thought it came to early or some thought it came in just the right time.

However in the early days of the reveal of the newly announced  assassins creed game, PETA blasted Ubisoft for their depiction of whaling that will be included in Assassins Creed 4.

My perspective is that this is just animated violence, this game is merely fantasy and not reality at all. It is not like Ubisoft is promoting the game with intentions of getting gamers to go out and hunt whales.

Whaling was something that was happening around that time period of  Assassins Creed 4 setting. PETA has to know that  Ubisoft is just making a fictional game based on that particular era.

I can understand why they are mad, but they can’t get all worked up at Ubisoft and its new game.  In my opinion I do believe whaling is a horrible and detestable.

PETA shouldn’t take its anger out on this specific game, take your grievances against the people who are actually whaling. Go to the real source of the problem,

Another thing too is why they don’t talk about all the countless people who are going to be killed, humans are animals, albeit really smart ones, show the humans some love too PETA.

Gamers aren’t as gullible as PETA assumes they are.  I can’t speak for all gamers, but the majority of them have a basic understanding of what they are playing. They are not going to be brainwashed thinking whaling is right, in fact it might have the opposite effect on them.

All there has to be said is that PETA focus on the real issues at hand. Animal cruelty is a horrible thing, but take it out the people and organizations that promote it.