Category Archives: News

News

Sony’s Wonderbook: Book of Spells to Tour UK

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Keen to cash in on the Christmas shopping boom, Sony are taking their latest toys on tour to UK shopping centres with a large focus on the new Wonderbook PS3 peripheral and JK Rowling’s Book of Spells, set in the Harry Potter universe.

Using the PS Move motion controller in conjunction with the camera players will be able to interact with the Wonderbook directly thanks to its numerous large augmented reality pages that allow you to conjure up dragons and castles and take part in wizardry classes. Check out the trailer to see for yourself.

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Silent Hill: Book Of Memories Screenshots: Heinous

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Oh dear. Just…oh god. Silent Hill you used to be terrifying for all the right reasons, now you’re just assaulting my eyes with some of the worst graphics we’ve ever seen on the Vita. We tried giving them the benefit of the doubt by saying it might be a downloadable title, but alas, this is a retail title.

The camera viewpoint points towards a Diablo-esque game, but presumably with unresponsive combat and more enemies that look like inside-out genitalia. The addition of multiplayer to this take on the series could be something of a winner though. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed this plays better than it looks.

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Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes Trailer Sneaks In

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It’s Metal Gear, so forget any notions of a twenty second teaser video, here’s nearly 11 minutes to shove your face into. You’ll get to see cutscenes and a bit of gameplay too. The FOX Engine is looking pretty damn good as we see snake infiltrate a base in a rainy night. Nobody seems to have told Konami that this generation’s hardware is on its last legs.

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New Screens And Trailer For Final Fantasy XIV Online

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Not to be outdone by the return of Lightning, new signs of life emerge from Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn. At today’s 25th Anniversary event for the Final Fantasy series new in-game screenshots were released along with a new trailer.

The original FFXIV was something of a disaster on PC, leading to Square-Enix deciding to pull back and essentially start again, hence the Reborn part of the title. Old assets have been scrapped to ensure everything looks as new as possible as graphical standards have moved on since the original release. That and almost everything attached to the old game was broken.

Have a good nosey at the images after the jump and don’t forget to click them if you want to see enlarged versions. There’s a new trailer too, which almost makes us want to forgive the original’s shoddiness. It’s reassuring to see a PS3 logo at the end of the trailer too as you’d be forgiven for thinking Square-Enix had sacked off those plans. Saying that, is anyone taking bets it will end up being a PS4 game?

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Aliens: Colonial Marines Playable At Eurogamer Expo

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That’s right; the game that some of us believed would never see the light of day will be playable at Eurogamer’s mammoth public show! Coming from the mighty Gearbox studio, we hope this delayed title is more like the awesome Borderlands 2 rather than their last title, the abomination that was Duke Nukem Forever.

Let’s face it though; it’s going to have to try really hard to not be awesome. Randy Pitchford is probably bouncing around his office with excitement as we speak. Check out Tom’s preview to see what all the fuss is about. The Eurogamer Expo runs from the 27th-30th September at Earl’s Court, London. There are still tickets remaining, but you’re going to have to be quick.

Or maybe you’d like some free tickets?

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Marvel Heroes Registering For Beta Players Now

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Fancy getting to play Marvel Heroes before anyone else? Of course you do. Coming from the creator of Diablo, Marvel Heroes is an upcoming multiplayer action RPG that will also be free-to-play. Featuring a host of Marvel favourites such as Wolverine, Captain America, Spider-Man, Thor and Iron Man, things are heating up for one of the hottest titles money can’t buy.

The news was part of the new announcements at PAX 2012, where the developers took the chance to reveal the latest additions to the roster: Punisher, Daredevil and erm… Squirrel Girl. Check out the new trailer after the break.

We got our hands on the game at Gamescom recently and can’t wait to play more. To find out how to stand a chance of getting into the closed beta just click the link below.

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Far Cry 3: Survival Trailer Welcomes Us To Rook Islands

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For those of you tired of military shooters, feast your eyes on the gorgeous Far Cry 3. Rather than focus on Vaas telling us All about his ‘insanity’ for a change we get a real good look around the two main islands that will be used for the single player campaign of the game.

Lush jungles -complete with wildlife ranging from birds, komodo dragons and tigers- are amongst the most detailed ever seen on a console. It sort of makes Just Cause 2 look like something spewed out on Blue Peter. An early look at some of the underground ruin areas shows a new side to the game and gives it something of an Uncharted FPS feel. Or imagine Skyrim’s tombs actually looking like something on a current-generation machine (sorry, burned PS3 gamer here).

Jet skis, hang gliders, jeeps and quads are given a brief showing. Nasty nature seems keen to eat your face as we see close encounters with tigers and sharks. Wrapping a bandage around your arm or pulling a dislocated thumb back into place are shown too, not that any of those will be applicable to getting out of a shark’s stomach.

Far Cry 3 is climbing up our most wanted lists at an alarming rate.

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Paragon Studios Closing And City Of Heroes To Shut Down

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NCsoft are closing Paragon Studios meaning the popular original superhero MMORPG City of Heroes is set to shut down before the year’s end.

Paid subscribers should take note that their recurring subscription billing has already been cancelled. Further details regarding a timeline for cessation of services will be revealed over the coming weeks. So we’d recommend getting as much game time in as possible before the servers are turned off permanently.

A statement on NCsoft’s blog read: “”In a realignment of company focus and publishing support, NCsoft has made the decision to close Paragon Studios. Effective immediately, all development on City of Heroes will cease and we will begin preparations to sunset the world’s first, and best, Super Hero MMORPG before the end of the year.”

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Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII Revealed

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Disappointed about Lightning’s backseat role in FFXIII-2? Us too, but fear not, as Square-Enix has just announced a new title for the PS3 and 360, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

Set to be the final entry in the FFXIII series, the game will take place over four large open-world islands on the world of Novus Partus. The Paradigm battle system remains but we will be able to move Lightning around the battlefield and swap weapons. That sounds like quite a big departure from the norm, but the combat in the last two games certainly needed a little more player input.

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Raiden Slices Up The Competition In PlayStation All-Stars

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Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance star, Raiden has been added to the upcoming multiplayer brawler, SuperSmash PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. He’s the latest third-party All-Star to be added to the ranks and it looks like he’s not going to make Sackboy’s life any easier thanks to him packing some deadly blade attacks.

I raised some concerns with my Gamescom Hands-On Preview that characters with swords seemed to significantly out-balance everyone else in the game and this video shows Raiden going along with that theory nicely. Hot damn he’s looking pretty badass though. With his Special attacks displaying killer moves like spinning heel blades, a stun attack slice-fest and a merciless charge on competitors trying to hide in cardboard boxes.

Other recent inclusions that you may have missed are Nariko (Heavenly Sword), Evil Cole (inFamous) and Sir. Daniel (MediEvil). But will any of them be able to stand up against the seemingly unbeatable Kratos?

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Play Darksiders II, 3DS XL And More At Manchester MCM Comic-Con Expo Tomorrow

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Fancy getting your hands on this summer’s hottest titles before release? Of course you do. Northern gamers should get to Manchester Central (formerly the G-Mex arena) for the MCM Comic Con event taking place all day tomorrow for the only way to spend a Saturday.

While mainly focused on comics and anime products, there’s a solid line-up of games to try out too. THQ’s killer sequel, Darksiders 2 will be there in playable form and as an added bonus, a live panel will be hosted by lead designer Haydn Dalton and art director Han Randhawa around 1:30pm.

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Play Darksiders II, 3DS XL And More At Manchester MCM Comic Con Expo Tomorrow

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Fancy getting your hands on this summer’s hottest titles before release? Of course you do. Northern gamers should get to Manchester Central (formerly the G-Mex arena) for the MCM Comic Con event taking place all day tomorrow for the only way to spend a Saturday.

While mainly focused on comics and anime products, there’s a solid line-up of games to try out too. THQ’s killer sequel, Darksiders 2 will be there in playable form and as an added bonus, a live panel will be hosted by lead designer Haydn Dalton and art director Han Randhawa around 1:30pm.

Still not sure about picking up a 3DS? Well why not try out the new and improved 3DS XL at the expo? You’ll be able to play unreleased games like Super Mario Bros 2 and Pokémon Conquest. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance was released today, but why not try before you buy?

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Features, News, Video

Sony E3 2012 Press Conference Highlights

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To kick things off, Jack Tretton (President and CEO of SCEA) welcomes David Cage to the stage. The creative mind behind Heavy Rain finally announces the next game from Quantic Dream, Beyond: Two Souls. Here’s what he had to say:

“Death is the biggest mystery of mankind. What will happen after we die is something no-one knows. We all have our hopes, our fears, our doubts. But what’s on the other side remains unknown. Jodie Holmes knows a little bit more about all this than you and I. As far as she remembers, she has always felt a link with an invisible entity. Some presence around her, a spirit or ghost; she doesn’t really know. Something living between our world and the other side. Beyond tells Jodie’s story over fifteen years of her life. We will see her growing, evolving, learning to live with a difference. And discovering more about what’s beyond. For the first time in a videogame we will live the life of a character, go with her through happy and difficult times and help her to become who she is.”

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News, Wii

Nintendo Launch Blue Wii for Final Christmas Assault

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Console bundled with Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games on November 18th.

With Nintendo hoping the Wii U will be bringing in the cash next Christmas, the blue console will be the Wii’s last chance to shine at gaming’s busiest season. Backwards compatibility for GameCube games and controllers will no longer be supported though.

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Play PS3 Hits Of Tomorrow In Manchester This Weekend

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Live near Manchester? Want to play some awesome PS3 games before they hit the shops? Of course you do. So you’ll need to get down to the PlayStation Access event in Manchester this weekend.

I went along last night and enjoyed playing the likes of Uncharted 3, Goldeneye: Reloaded, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Starhawk, Tekken Hybrid and Assassin’s Creed Revelations. There are a few recent releases to try too, like Resistance 3, Dark Souls, Ico HD and FIFA 12. There’s a new 3D visor-headset to try out too along with a few games hooked up with a Move SharpShooter attachment.

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News, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Move

PlayStation Access Event Hits Manchester This Weekend

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Live near Manchester? Want to play some awesome PS3 games before they hit the shops? Of course you do. So you’ll need to get down to the PlayStation Access event in Manchester this weekend.

I went along last night and enjoyed playing the likes of Uncharted 3, Goldeneye: Reloaded, Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, Starhawk, Tekken Hybrid and Assassin’s Creed Revelations. There are a few recent releases to try too, like Resistance 3, Dark Souls, Ico HD and FIFA 12. There’s a new 3D visor-headset to try out too along with a few games hooked up with a Move SharpShooter attachment.

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Features, Interviews, News, PC, Platforms, PlayStation 3, PS Vita, Video, Xbox 360

The Voice of Uncharted: A Nolan North Interview (Video)

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After attending a recent developer session at a games expo event, I was invited to a behind closed doors interview session with Nolan North, the talented voice actor behind Nathan Drake of the Uncharted series. During the interview he spoke about how he became a voice actor and about his roles in other games such as the Penguin in Batman: Arkham City and as Desmond in Assassin’s Creed.

Click through to watch the extensive video interview.

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News, PlayStation 3

Space Marine on PS3 Failing Online

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PS3 gamers eager to get online and show off their Space Marine skills after charging through the single-player game may find a nasty little bug is stopping them connecting to any matches.

When logging into the multiplayer options many players are getting this message: “Your NAT is not set to “Open”. This may prevent you from joining or hosting some game sessions.”

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