Google begins gradual rollout of games in Google Plus [update] After early indications were discovered in Google Plus source code -- and after anyone ever lookedat Google Plus and applied common sense -- we knew games would be available on the social network soon.Today, Google began rolling out a small assortment of games, including the ubiquitous Angry Birds, EA2D's Dragon Age Legends, and sudoku. You know, Facebook stuff. A "Games" button at the top of your stream will take you to the available games, if the rollout has made it to your account. If it hasn't, Google says it will "soon." :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: Google begins gradual rollout of games in Google Plus [update] | Joystiq
Sega Australia boss shows interest in acquiring ex-THQ talent down under Two days ago, THQ announced it's realigning its resources, shutting down two of its Australia-based studios: the Melbourne-based Blue Tongue Entertainment and the Brisbane-based THQ Studio Australia. Today, Sega Studios Australia's head honcho, Marcus Fielding, has shown interest in THQ's dismissed devs.Fielding told MCV that Sega is looking to "explore our short term hiring strategy to reflect the sudden influx of talent in Australia." He added that he hopes to "announce the potential for taking on more staff soon." :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: Sega Australia boss shows interest in acquiring ex-THQ talent down under | Joystiq
COD Black Ops Rezurrection video goes straight to the Moon [video=youtube;d2X4iH28Nj4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2X4iH28Nj4[/video] Activision sent out new footage of the Call of Duty: Black Ops "Rezurrection" DLC, including your first look at the "Moon" level, which features space-suited soldiers blasting zombies in low gravity. A warning: it's only a few seconds until you see a zombie depressurize, puff up and explode. Grody. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: COD Black Ops Rezurrection video goes straight to the Moon | Joystiq
Disgaea 4, ClaDun X2, Atelier Totori dated Disgaea 4will explode like a spectral penguin onto PS3 on September 6. Publisher NIS America announced that and a few other release windows today on the PlayStation Blog. It'll be available in three different configurations, depending on how much extra stuff you want to pay for.Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland, a new alchemy-themed RPG for PS3 (and sequel to last year's Atelier Rorona), will be out on September 27. In this game, young Totori searches for her missing mother while defeating monsters, helping townspeople with quests, and learning the art of alchemy in order to synthesize items. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: Disgaea 4, ClaDun X2, Atelier Totori dated | Joystiq
August 9th London riots torch Sony factory, hurt PS3, movies, and music More misfortune has befallen Sony, this time the London riots has resulted in its sole UK warehouse being burnt down. According to Reuters, the 20,000 square meter facility, which stores CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs and PS3 games, has been burning since at least early Tuesday morning. Sony issued a statement indicating that supplies in Britain will be affected as a result."There will likely be some impact on deliveries," said Yoko Yasukochi, a spokeswoman at the Japanese giant?s headquarters in Tokyo."We cannot determine the cause of the fire or the extent of the damage yet because it's not possible to enter the building," she said. She also confirmed that no one was injured as a result of the fire. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: London riots torch Sony factory, hurt PS3, movies, and music | Electronista
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Includes the First Two Metal Gears Both Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake are packed in thanks to Subsistence.The Japanese and overseas editions of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid HD Collection differ on one important detail: gamers living in Japan won't get the HD version of Peace Walker that others will, but they do get a code to download the original Metal Gear Solid. As Peace Walker is the more recent game, that makes the overseas version the better deal for most gamers. In either case, the remastered version of Metal Gear Solid 2 is based on its enhanced version, Substance. Likewise, Metal Gear Solid 3 is based on Subsistence, meaning players have free control over the game's camera. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: Metal Gear Solid HD Collection Includes the First Two Metal Gears
Even Retail Copies of Battlefield 3 Require Origin You'll be making an Origin account to play Battlefield 3 whether you like it or not. Battlefield 3 players will, as they found out during the recent alpha test, find servers and join games from the Battlelog website, meaning you'll need to use your browser in order to play Battlefield 3. On top of that, it's been confirmed that no matter where you buy it, BF3 requires you to have Origin in order to play. The requirement only exists for PC gamers -- those playing on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 will only need an EA account, which isn't much of a hurdle to jump through (and odds are, if you've played an EA game online before, you already have one anyway). :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: Even Retail Copies of Battlefield 3 Require Origin
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Coming to PC and Consoles Global Offensive brings new maps, modes, matchmaking, and more. Fans recently picketed Valve's offices in the hopes that it would convince the developer to release Half-Life 3. Two days later, they got something else instead. Word got out last night that either a new Counter-Strike or an update to the existing game would soon be revealed. E-sports website ESEA claimed it would be called Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which it had been invited to Valve's offices to see. Sure enough, Valve has formally announced CS: GO, which is coming to Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network in early 2012. Counter-Strike fans are some of the most hardcore around, and word that GO is coming to consoles will only fuel angry commenters to claim it is therefore going to be watered down. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Coming to PC and Consoles
Weekend Deals: Frozen Synapse and Section 8: Prejudice Many Kalypso games are 66% off on Steam and Dead Space 2 on PC is less than $12. You can now pick up a 3DS for $169.99, $80 off the old regular price. To go with it, GameStop is offering $10 off a number of 3DS games including Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, which is one of the best games on the system to date. Indie title Frozen Synapse is on sale in more than one place, namely Steam ($12.49) and GamersGate ($9.98). A demo was finally released this week if you're uncertain that it's something you want to invest in, but by many accounts, it's an excellent game. Section 8: Prejudice is half price ($7.49) on Impulse, and Steam is holding a big sale on Kalypso games. That means you can get 66% off many of its games like Tropico 3 ($6.79 for the Gold Edition) and Patrician IV ($10.19), :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: Weekend Deals: Frozen Synapse and Section 8: Prejudice
Mortal Kombat sells 'close to' 3 million worldwide, has paid for itself When Midway bit the bullet and liquidated all of its assets during the first half of last year, the future of one of gaming's most ubiquitous and legendary franchises, Mortal Kombat, was completely up in the air. People didn't know whether or not MK's new baby-daddy at Warner Bros. Interactive would continue the series' proud tradition of increasingly ludicrous violence, or if it would continue the stagnating series period.Fast-forward a bit, and thankfully it seems to have worked out for history's favorite murderers, with Warner's first entry in the franchise garnering critical acclaim and millions of dollars. According to WB Interactive President Martin Tremblay, Mortal Kombathas already paid for all of the assets acquired from Midway by selling "close to" 3 million units worldwide. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: Mortal Kombat sells 'close to' 3 million worldwide, has paid for itself | Joystiq
Ready at Dawn gets technical about God of War: Origins Collection on PS3 [video=youtube;M7cR1nE_AL4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7cR1nE_AL4[/video] Oh, you just thought they tighten up the graphics a bit and call it a day, huh? No way, José -- converting PSP games that run at 480 x 272, 30 frames a second, to full 1080p, 60 frames a second is no small task. Ready at Dawn had to get its hands dirty and create a custom PS3 version of its internal engine for God of War: Origins Collection, Nathan Phail-Liff recounted on the PlayStation Blog today."We ended up going through every single character in the game and doubling or tripling polygon count by hand, as well as up-rezing and re-painting every texture across both games at 4x resolution on both characters and environments," Phail-Liff said. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: Ready at Dawn gets technical about God of War: Origins Collection on PS3 | Joystiq
Square Enix launches official digital magazine Square Enix has launched an official, free, online magazine full of info and interviews on all of its upcoming games, aptly titled "Square Enix Magazine." The first issue, available right here, features stories on Tomb Raider, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Final Fantasy XIII-2. Finally, Square Enix has given us a place online to get information about video games. Whew. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: Square Enix launches official digital magazine | Joystiq
Dead Rising 2: Off the Record trailer recaps Frank's rise (and fall) [video=youtube;BKz8EQ_Pb8M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKz8EQ_Pb8M[/video] We all thought Frank West was out covering wars between the events of Dead Risingand Dead Rising 2: Off the Record, but that's not the case. Turns out, he became a celebrity after the Willamette incident -- and like every star out there, West eventually turned to the bottle. Fame must be pure torture, you guys. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: Dead Rising 2: Off the Record trailer recaps Frank's rise (and fall) | Joystiq
Rumor: Angry Birds may be worth $1.2 billion in entertainment explosion deal Angry Birds developer Rovio is out to prove money really can't buy happiness, with a deal to receive funding that would make the company worth $1.2 billion, Bloomberg rumors. Rovio wants to expand the explosive brand into other entertainment sectors, including making an Angry Birdsmovie and selling the game and its products in China, which may explain talks with an entertainment company, as revealed by Bloomberg's two anonymous sources.Michael Pachter pegs EA, Zynga and Walt Disney as likely candidates to do a deal with Rovio, as Disney could make Angry Birdsa movie and theme park, and Zynga could turn it into Farmville. While one of those sounds immensely more appealing to us (Angry Bird Slingshot ride, anyone?) :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: Rumor: Angry Birds may be worth $1.2 billion in entertainment explosion deal | Joystiq
New Rage copies get hidden treasures, pre-owned left out id Software has decided to take the fight against pre-owned videogame sales into its own hands with their upcoming FPS,*Rage. Instead of following the trend and instituting an online pass of some sort, the developer has decided give codes for exclusive content unlockable*onlyby*purchasers of brand new editions of the game.Within the world of Ragethere will be various hatches with loot inside, many of which can only be unlocked by the code within new retail copies of *the title. Spread out around the game world, the hatches have to be found and opened, but are not required to be found. In fact, avoiding the hatches altogether*will have no negative impact on the game. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: That VideoGame Blog » New Rage copies get hidden treasures, pre-owned left out
Video posted on August 13th, 2011New Ridge Racer footage goes in for the takedown [video=youtube;ofCRiQO0pbk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofCRiQO0pbk[/video] Earlier Ridge Racer games have taken a slightly more elegant approach to arcade driving and drifting. This time, developer Bugbear will have Unbounded unleash a gritty, explosive road rage on cities built, customized and shared by players as featured in this new trailer :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: That VideoGame Blog » New Ridge Racer footage goes in for the takedown
Video posted on August 13th, 2011Ace Combat on a full-blown assault; new trailer [video=youtube;BNYWO8RrdPE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNYWO8RrdPE[/video] While dogfighting always sounds cool, very few flight action games have been both critically and/or commercially successful. Ace Combat Assault Horizon might just stand out in that small crowd judging by what we've seen so far, including this new trailer. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: That VideoGame Blog » Ace Combat on a full-blown assault; new trailer
Pitchford: Aliens an ?accessible experience? With a developer like Gearbox behind it, Aliens: Colonial Marines could very easily have been a squad-based shooter that was heavy on the tactics and punishing on the difficulty.But that won?t be the case, the developer has told OXMUK. Speaking about how the game will play, co-founder Brian Martel said:*?I would say that it?s an easy leap to say, hey, these are the guys who made Brothers in Arms, they?re likely going to have squad control and those kind of things. The issue with that is that it?s really hard to flank an alien.?While squad mates will be present, you won?t have control of them. Gearbox has promised that their presence will be important, but you only have to worry about yourself when actually playing. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: That VideoGame Blog » Pitchford: Aliens an ‘accessible experience’
Just Cause dev to continue down the digital route Just Causedeveloper Avalanche has stepped away from its open-world shooter madhouse to do something a little different with Renegade Ops, a downloadable top-down shooter due out next month.So having had a taste of a different type of development, will the the team continue to come up with smaller digital games? Absolutely, says*director Axel Lindberg.?Yes, I definitely think so,? he told CVG. ?I think we?ll definitely continue with digital downloads. It?s very different, very fun, and once again it?s a very nice deviation from the big projects.?I?d say it was a good way for teams to get a new boost of energy,? he added. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: That VideoGame Blog » Just Cause dev to continue down the digital route
Watch the DOTA 2 Gamescom tournament live As we already know, Valve will be blowing $1 million on DOTA 2at Gamescom this year by hosting a huge tournament for the upcoming strategy sequel.But what if you?re not going to be in Germany? Well you may not be able to play but that doesn?t mean you have to miss out; developer IceFrog has confirmed that the tournament will be streaming on the internet for its duration. Four different languages will be available for commentary:*English, Russian, Chinese and German (sorry, France) and the footage will start as the tournament and show get underway on August 17.As forDOTA 2itself, we?ll like have to wait until Gamescom for release details. :vampire: CLICK THE LINK 4 MORE :vampire: That VideoGame Blog » Watch the DOTA 2 Gamescom tournament live
