Archive for January, 2010

Weekend Wrap Up January 30th Edition

For this last week in January we have a little bit of everything for everyone. We have a videos of new racing games and Heavy Rain, a game that defies genre classification. We have a review for MAG and the recent DLC for Assassin’s Creed 2. Most importantly, we have the hilarious ShockCast Episode 2, where editors and writers of DualShockers get together to talk about videogaming news and random other things that pop into their twisted minds. You can listen to the ShockCast here. Other than that, check out the news and editorials and have a great week!

Videos:

• New Blur Trailer
• Heavy Rain News and Trailer
• Release Date and Trailer for Metro 2033
• Red Dead Redemption – Weapons and Death
• Resonance of Fate Opening Movie
• New Lost Planet 2 Trailer
• Bioshock 2 – Scout Plasmid
• MAG is Here
• New Trauma Team Screens and Trailer
• New Star Ocean: The Last Hope International Trailer
• Justice Against All Boosting in MW2
• Tatsunoko vs Capcom Fighting Stick Unboxing
  

Editorials:

• Happy RPG Day, Japan!
• TSG is Re-Imagining Competitive Gaming in NYC
  

Reviews:

• MAG Review
• Assassin’s Creed II: Battle of Forli DLC Review
  

News:

• Tatsunoko vs Capcom Nintendo World Event
• Assassin’s Creed II Coming to PC
• Screens from The Room: Main Building
• Super Street Fighter IV Dated
• Tatsunoko vs Capcom Stick Impressions
• Xbox Live Indie Games Making Bank
• Army of Two: The 40th Day Price Lowered
• Ego Draconis Patch Goes Live
• FIFA 09 Stabbing
• Capcom Stacking Up for Spring
• Bungie Dishes Out Reach Stuff
• No LAN or Dedicated Servers for Bioshock 2
• Turtle Beach X41 is Peripheral of the Year
• 1 Million to First No Hitter
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Impressions
• Episodes from Liberty City Coming to PC and PS3
• “All You Need is Love” to Help Doctors Without Borders
• IGN to Help Haiti with Rare Collectibles
• Mass Efffect 2 Sells Over Two Million
  

IGN to Help Haiti with Rare, Signed Items

As we all know, Haiti was recently devastated by earthquake that killed thousands. Many more Haitians are still in dire need of help, desperate for antibiotics, and medical assistance. Now, like most of our readers, I’m not a doctor nor do I manufacture antibiotics, but I can still help by bidding on rare, signed collectibles being auctioned off by IGN. How you ask? Well, look at this…

IGN for Haiti is our small effort to help those in need. All proceeds from all auctions in this store are donated directly to Habitat for Humanity to help earthquake victims in Haiti.

That’s right, the more money you spend on awesome collectibles, the more money gets sent to Haiti. It’s definitely a win-win situation, however if you happen to lose an auction or just nothing catches your fancy I implore you donate a little money to help Haiti.

[IGN for Haiti]

Download “All You Need Is Love” to help Doctors Without Borders

Microsoft has announced that the world-wide sales of “All You Need Is Love” on Xbox Live and The Beatles: Rock Band Special Edition Bundles has raised $217,780 for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which is working to help those in Haiti who have had their lives changed by the devastating earthquake that struck the country, killing and injuring thousands on January 12. When you download “All You Need Is Love” on Xbox Live, the value of 112 Microsoft Points will be donated to the MSF. This offer ends on January 31, 2010. Microsoft, Apple Corps Ltd, MTV Games and Harmonix have really stepped up to help those in need and it really says a lot of not only the gaming community as a whole, but also what these corporations are doing for a good cause.

MSF has been in Haiti since 1991, helping the residents of Port-au-Prince with medical emergencies and treatment. 800 staff members went right to work on that terrible day, setting up triage centers and performing life saving surgeries to those with major trauma, broken bones, and crush injuries. An inflatable MSF hospital equipped with two operating centers has been erected and is helping those in need, and MSF cargo planes loaded with emergency personnel and supplies are now on the ground doing what they can. MSF is running 15 hospitals in and outside of the capital, has treated over 6,000 patients, and has conducted nearly 1,000 surgical operations. This cause needs our help though.

“We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of people around the world who have contributed to us through the download of “All You Need Is Love” and the sales of the one-of-a-kind Xbox console,” said Dr. Matthew Spitzer, president of the Board of Directors for MSF-USA. “It is because of funds generated from initiatives such as this that MSF was able to respond to the Haiti earthquake so quickly, providing urgent lifesaving medical care immediately in the aftermath.” he added. “With your continued support, we will be able to carry on our medical work in more than 60 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe. On behalf of our patients, MSF says ‘Thank You.’”

Check out www.xbox.com/thebeatlesrockband and www.doctorswithoutborders.org for more information and how you can donate to this great cause. Download it today everybody, because you can make a difference.

Justice Against All the Boosting in MW2

One man has stood up and taken the fight to the boosters in MW2. His name is Sandy Ravage, and last Saturday he decided to go hunting for boosters and streamed the entire thing. Later, he cut it into a montage of pure awesomeness that I’m surprised YouTube could contain. It has musical clips from Kill Bill and one liners from Duke Nukem while killing boosters. Yeah, I just lost half of the audience due to heads exploding from the sheer amount of epic. Check it out below.

White Knight Chronicles Invading Little Big Planet

Although White Knight Chronicles is a pretty serious RPG, it has stepped into much softer light with it’s recent invasion of LittleBigPlanet. It’s pretty strange to look at screens of White Knight Chronicles, think “Oh shit, this game is not messing around.” Then look at the costumes in LittleBigPlanet and not laugh.

The pack is scheduled for release on February 25th, as a bonus to the costumes you will also get a dopeass sticker pack. Well, I can’t guarantee how awesome the sticker pack is, but if it is anything like the costumes it will be awesome.

[Kotaku]

Dead to Rights: Retribution Dated

If anyone really cares, Namco Bandai slapped a release date on their action game, Dead to Rights: Retribution. It will be out on April 13th in the United States on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.  Retribution is a revival of the series from it’s PS2/Xbox days, of which it featured a extreme police officer and his canine companion, Shadow. I just never felt that attached to Shadow, unlike Dogmeat in Fallout 3, whom was pretty much the best dog companion ever. Man, now I sound like Kanye West.

Anyways, if you decide to pre-order this game you have your choices on perks,  you can either get an exclusive “noir mode” which is reminiscent of MadWorld or dog camouflage. Yeah, I probably won’t be pre-ordering this either.

Mass Effect 2 Sells Over Two Million Copies

Now, the press release says that it sold two million copies in the first week, but the first week won’t be over until Monday night.  So, I’m going to hop on the assumption train and say that the game sold over two million copies.  Why EA jumped the gun on this press release is anyone’s guess.  I can see if it sold this many copies in 24 hours…but five days?  Why send it out after five days and nail down the entire week’s sales to two million?  Perhaps by Tuesday morning it will have moved another million units?  Wouldn’t that sound more impressive?

Needless to say, this sci-fi action shooter (notice I left “RPG” out of that description?) is a hell of a lot of fun and has an epic story, amazing writing, art direction and dialog, it’s no surprise that it flew off the shelves faster than it takes Commander Shepherd to put a bullet in your ass if you piss her off.  Just like with Dragon Age: Origins, I am definitely pleased to give Bioware (and, begrudgingly, EA) a collective pat on the back for dishing out such an amazing piece of art.  Now, I must get back to scanning for minerals.  Look for my review in the coming weeks.

McFarlane Toys To Produce Halo: Reach Action Figures

Halo Reach action figures will be produced by one of the most popular toy makers in the world, McFarlane Toys announced today on their website. McFarlane Toys will produce 5 inch action figures as well as in scale vehicles of the anticipated mega hit not only in 2010, but plan to produce them well into 2011. Also on tap will be deluxe figure packs featuring the characters from the game. McFarlane Toys CEO Todd McFarlane had this to say about the announcement:

“We are extremely excited about what Halo: Reach offers as the next evolution of the Halo franchise, both in terms of story and gameplay and how these elements can be translated into our specific field of expertise: action figures and collectibles.” said McFarlane Toys CEO, Todd McFarlane. “This is a great opportunity for us to bring some of the exciting visual advances that have been developed for Halo: Reach to three-dimensional life in the action figure arena. More and more of our retailers are seeing the impact that video games — and Halo in particular — are having on popular culture and entertainment as a whole, and they’re finally waking up to the fact that video games are as much of a viable toy product as the biggest movie franchises. It looks like 2010 will end on a tremendous up swing!” 

McFarlane Toys has a long history of making action figures based on some of the most popular characters of all time including the Universal Monsters, Horror Movie Series featuring Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers, Leatherface, and Freddy Krueger. McFarlane Toys also produced the cult classic action figures of the Wizard of Oz reinvision by McFarlane himself. No release date has been set for the Halo Reach series but I would suspect it will be right around the time the game is released. Check back with DualShockers for more information.

Battle Field Bad Company 2 PC Multi-Player Beta

PC fans of Battlefield Bad Company 2 are getting their shot to enjoy the first person shooter on the way from EA Games. There are two ways to get your code, you can either pre-order the game from one of the retailers listed at the bottom of this post or you can take your chances and request a beta code directly from EA at http://battlefieldbadcompany2.com/beta . The map EA will make available for gamers will be Port Valdez in Rush mode. The demo is already available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. On February 4th the demo will be available on the PlayStation Network in Europe and on February 11th in North America and Asia.Battlefield Bad Company 2 is set to release on March 2, 2010 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.  Here is a list of retailers participating in the beta code giveaway.

US – GameStop.com (US Only), Direct2Drive,

Austria – Gamesonly.at

Czech Republic – xzone.cz and jrc.cz

Germany – amazon.de

Poland – gramer.pl, ultima.pl, EMPIK PC and sklep.gry-online.pl

UK – play.com and Direct2Drive

Australia – EB Games

Russia – DirectCOD, igromagaz.ru, Turbodom and TotalBF

Hungary – CD Galaxis and 576

Switzerland - wog.ch

Italy – Multiplayer.it

Sweden – Webhallen, GAME, CDON, GameStop and SIBA

Denmark – Blockbuster, GameStop, CDON and GAME

Norway – Platekompaniet, Spaceworld, GameStop, GAME, and Absoluttspill

Finland - GameStop and CDON

New Zealand - EB Games and Mighty Ape

Singapore – Selected Retailers

World Wide Option – EA Store, Steam, Direct2Drive

Resident Evil 5 Josh and Excella Videos

Capcom has released two videos for two of the new playable characters for Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition. They will be playable in the Mercenaries Reunion mode and are looking pretty cool. Can’t wait to play as them. Enjoy the two videos below. They’re only a minute long each, they’re short but sweet. Why am I still talking? Just watch the videos and judge for yourself.

Click here for the Excella video

Assassin’s Creed 2: Battle of Forli DLC Review

By the time you have finished reading this sentence, you could have played through the Battle of Forli…twice.  Kidding aside, I noted what time I sat down to play the game and was finished within an hour.  That’s not skipping any cut scenes, and includes failing a mission once. That does include one trip on Leonardo’s flying machine which, I’m pretty sure was put it so people could get the achievement related to it without having to play through it again.

New Pokémon on the Way

The Pokémon Company has announced that a new Pokémon series is currently in development and on the way. This new series will be coming to Nintendo DS and will include new Pokémon, new functions and new features. Release for North America is unknown, but should be arriving in Japan this year. Please please please break away from formula. I like the Pokémon games a lot, but they have become very stale to me. I will probably never get my wish. Not until a Pokémon MMORPG arrives. Why did I use that image as this post’s thumbnail?

“Entirely New” Pokemon Series Coming This Year [Kotaku]