If you don’t already know this year is the 25th anniversary of our fearless, red overall wearing plumber. What’s Nintendo doing to celebrate this quarter century achievement? They’ve put in a request to trademark a new logo to place on possible special edition games, accessories, maybe even possibly and limited edition Wii/Gameboy? Who knows but the possibilities could be endless.
Happy Anniversary Mario!
Level Cap Raised for Boarderlands Update Plus DLC info
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford told an audience at PAX live, that the new level cap will be raised and the game will go through some rebalancing. It will not be available through the latest DLC that will be released but from a free title update instead. The choice was not a delicate one as the “General Knox” DLC already did a 11 point raise which people paid for. So the new level cap will go from 61 to 69 and will be released sometime around the Boarderlands Game Of The Year Edition which is scheduled for in October.
Before all of that the latest expansion for Boarderlands will release entitled Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution. So if you’ve played Boarderlands you’ll about the infamous Ninja Assassin Claptrap that is talked about, well this game will let you go face to face with it. The DLC will include 20 new missions, more for your arsenal including more backpack slots, items, skill points and Modded Claptrap beasts. It will be priced at $10 across all platforms and is said to release sometime in September. So it seems Boarderlands still has some fight in it only a year later, here’s hoping they got big plans moving onward.
Call of Duty Black Ops: What We Know So Far
News of Black Ops have been flying left and right the past few days of what Black Ops will have to offer, and I must say it is all pretty overwhelming. Originally I was semi impressed of what Treyarch was offering us in their rendition of the Modern Warfare franchise, but as more information is getting released to us the more and more appealing the game is turning out. So here’s a list of what we know so far for the Multiplayer part of the game, keep in mind nothing is set in stone and things may change.
COD Points: In game currency used to purchase upgrades, outfits, killstreaks, emblems, customization for weapons, customization for looks, and is also used in “betting” for competitive Wager game mode. More on Wager mode later.
Killstreaks: This is one of the more important aspects of the game play. From what we hear kills from killstreaks do not count towards the next killstreak. Meaning to get up to the 11th kill streak kills must be made manually with loadout weapons. Current killstreaks are lined up as shown:
* 3 kill streaks: Spy Plane, RC-XD
* 4 kill streaks: Counter-Spy Plane, SAM Turret
* 5 kill streaks: Care Package, Napalm Strike
* 6 kill streaks: Sentry Gun, Mortar Team
* 7 kill streaks: Attack Helicopter, Valkyrie Rockets
* 8 kill streaks: Blackbird, Rolling Thunder
* 9 kill streaks: Chopper Gunner
* 11 kill streaks: Attack Dogs, Gunship
Combat Training: This is something new and innovative to the COD franchise. Training will be either single or co-op and give players the ability to practice games off-line to get accustomed to the levels. Bots are available within training to get a semi-realistic game play. Treyarch hopes that this mode will get gamers who don’t play online a chance to practice before jumping into a real online game so they aren’t as humiliated.
Replay System: You read it right, Treyarch has given braggers an easier way to upload and record their game winning kills in a “Halo Forge” styled system. Players can review each game through the point of any player and through any angle.
Contracts: Contracts is another way of making COD Points. Pay for a contract, complete the task assigned to the contract such as getting 10 kills within a game within an allotted amount of time and gain more points in return. Fail and well… there’s no returns on failed tasks.
Wager Matches: A way to put your COD Points where your mouth is. Think you have what it takes to make money and rack up kills at the same time? Wager matches gives players a way to put COD Points on yourself in a game. Top three players get paid, and everyone else… Well they don’t quite really matter since only the top three get paid. Within Wager matches are different game modes.
“One in the Chamber” pits players against each other armed with just one pistol and one bullet. Killing someone else earns you an extra bullet, but missing leaves you with just a knife.
“Sticks and Stones” gives everyone a tomahawk, a ballistic knife and a crossbow, and hitting an opponent with a tomahawk automatically bankrupts them.
“Gun Game” has players progressing through the various gun tiers, a kill moves you up to a stronger weapon, but dying drops you back down.
“Sharp Shooter” gives everyone a series of random weapons, with everyone switching to the next randomly selected one after a certain amount of time that has passed.
Care Package Weapons: Care package only weapons in the game so far include Death Machine: a gatling/mini gun, and Grim Reaper: a four incendiary round rocket launcher.
Regular Weapons:
Assault Rifles: AK-47, AUG, Commando, G11, M16, FAMAS, Galil, M14, Enfield, FN FAL
Submachine: Guns MAC-10, MP5K, AK-74u, Skorpion, Spectre M4
Light Machine Guns: RPK, HK21, M60
Sniper Rifles: L96A1, Dragunov, WA2000
Shotguns: SPAS, KS-23, Stakeout/ Ithica, Olympia
Pistols: M1911, Python, Makarov, ASP, CZ75
Launchers: China Lake, RPG-7, M72 LAW
Grenades: Frag, Smoke, Concussive, Gas
Miscellaneous Weapons and Equipment: Ballistic Knife, Camera Spike, Crossbow, C4, Flamethrower, Knife, Tomahawk, Tactical Insertion Extended Mag, Dual Mag, Masterkey Shotgun, Flamethrower, M203, Suppressor, Snub Nose, Speed Reloader, Flashlight, Grip, Swarovski Scope, Red Dot Sight, Infrared Scope, ACOG Sight, Reflex
Duke Nukem Forever No Longer Taking Forever
Alright this is not a rumor nor myth, Duke Nukem Forever finally has a window of being released! Yes it has been over a decade of waiting for this big blockbuster of a game and why shouldn’t it? Duke Nukem was one of the first big games that made games, well… I guess fun. I mean who else will kick ass and chew bubble gum? Gearbox Software and 2K Games have teamed up to bring this beast back into the light and have shot for a 2011 release for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC. Proving that they have something already completely finished they released a playable demo at PAX. Let’s just say the first time they said they were going to release it I was playing little league baseball. Well Gearbox Software and 2K games have set a goal out and they do indeed want to meet it.
Batman Arkham City Screens
Alright, I haven’t had a thing for Catwoman since Halle Berry, but by god man, I can only take so much! Between Catwoman and Harley Quinn I have a feeling a lot of lonely gamers are going to be spending a lot of time playing Batman Arkham City and taking “breaks” between cut scenes, but anyway enjoy the eye candy!
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CoD: Black Ops Kill Streak Revealed
If you haven’t started practicing yet I would advise you to pick up your controllers and get your CoD skills back into par. The current list is only from a build version of the game, so the kill streaks may change before the final version is released. So far kills line up from 3 to 11, no news of nukes, or emp’s yet but they got dogs! Everyone knows dogs trump nukes any day. Feel like they’re missing something or something should be added? Let me know.
- 3 Kills – Spy Plane
- 3 Kills – RC-XD (RC bomb)
- 4 Kills – Counter Spy Plane
- 4 Kills – SAM Turret
- 5 Kills – Care Package
- 5 Kills – Napalm Strike
- 6 Kills – Sentry Gun
- 6 Kills – Mortar Team
- 7 Kills – Attack Helicopter
- 7 Kills – Valkyrie Rockets
- 8 Kills – Blackbird
- 8 Kills – “Rolling Thunder”
- 9 Kills – Chopper Gunner
- 11 Kills – Attack Dogs
- 11 Kills – Gunship
Final Fantasy Legends 3 is a planned DS Remake
Last year, for the 20th anniversary of the SaGa series, Square Enix released a DS remake of the Game Boy’s SaGa 2, which we knew as Final Fantasy Legend 2. This year, Square Enix is remaking SaGa 3: The Ruler of Space and Time (our Final Fantasy Legend 3).
Early Famitsu scans show the same kind of slightly cutesy visual makeover given to SaGa 2. Siliconera reports that it’ll retain the freaky class system from the original, in which characters can change classes immediately either by equipping cyborg parts from downed enemies — or eating meat made of defeated monsters.
Xbox Getting New “Fighter” Oriented Controller
Xbox 360 Wireless controller has created a brand new version that includes a transforming D-pad. By transforming I mean a d-pad that can go from a solid + form to a current disc form with the twist of the d-pad. In addition to the new d-pad, the matte silver controller also features concave analog sticks and gray A,B,X,Y buttons for added style. The controller will only be available with the new Play & Charge Kit that will launch on November 9th for US $64.99.
Analyst Think Increase For Live Subscription Still Benefits Consumers
Just yesterday Major Nelson dropped the bomb on us and announced that Microsoft has decided to rape our wallets of our hard earned cash, by increasing the Xbox Live subscription fees. New additions to the Xbox Live Gold account would be ESPN along with other features that will explain the increase. Apparently EEDAR analyst Jesse Divinch is defending the price raise and claims that the subscriptions are still “incredible value” for consumers.
“When taking into consideration the numerous services added to Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers over the last eight years, it comes as no surprise that Microsoft would eventually increase the price of a Gold subscription by a moderate amount,” says the analyst. “When originally launched in 2002, a Gold subscription cost the same as an AAA video game, $49.99. When taking into account for inflation ($50 in 2002 is roughly $60 in 2010) and the additional services available to Gold subscribers in 2010, such as ESPN, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Last.fm and Video Kinect, a $10 price increase still represents an incredible value to consumers.”
10 Gigs Worth of Gran Turismo 5
No I’m not joking. Kazunori Yamauchi, of Polyphony Digital posted on twitter information pertaining to how Gran Turismo 5 would run with less problems if you were to install it directly to the Playstation 3’s hard drive. Which makes sense of course because it takes the load off the blue-ray disc readers which in turn means less heat and load times. Gamers who were lucky to get the 250 gig PS3 finally have something to fill their hard drive with, and has for the gamers who bought the smaller hard drives, well you may want to start making room in you’re going to buy GT5, because all in all in racing games a speed bump in performance could mean a difference in gold and silver. Grant Tursimo 5 comes out on November 2nd in the US and November 3rd everywhere else.
