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NYCC 2012: New Marvel Heroes characters and trailer debut
What better place to learn more about a game based on comic books than a comic book convention? Marvel Heroes had its own panel earlier today at the New York Comic Con, where devs not only shared a new trailer but announced three new playable heroes. And luckily for folks who missed the chance to see the panel live, Gazillion Entertainment has been sharing the announcements via Twitter! Along with such iconic heroes as The Hulk, Wolverine, and the Human Torch, players will also have the choice to play as Phoenix (Jean Grey), Luke Cage, and NOVA. Although fairly brief, the new features trailer shows off different abilities, a variety of costumes, a quick peek at some multiplayer zones, and a glimpse of a few iconic villains. Check it all out after the break.
Borderlands 2 baddies are smarter than you think
Well, at least the AI programming behind each enemy in Borderlands 2 is smarter than anything in the first Borderlands – the baddies themselves are victims of the rancid planet Pandora and probably wouldn't pass a first-grade spelling test. They will, however, blow your brains out.Jasper Foreman, lead AI programmer at Gearbox Software, sat down with us (on the floor in a hallway of the Hard Rock Hotel, right outside of San Diego Comic-Con central), to describe a handful of enemies we can expect to see in the new Borderlands and the tech that makes them smarter than ever.There are 15-20 separate enemies in Borderlands 2, but each type has numerous variants, bringing the total number of foes somewhere between 200-300. Foreman once tried to count them all by running a script, but with the complex descriptors composing each enemy it was impossible to locate every one. Suffice it to say, there are a lot.%Gallery-161206%
Marvel Heroes chief: 'It's very Diablo-like'
Gazillion founder David Brevik opened up in an interview at Comic-Con, talking about Marvel Heroes' strong suits (pun intended). When asked about how this title will keep players coming back for more, Brevik said "It's very Diablo-like: random levels and lots of items that drop. It's very addictive gameplay, as well as lots of endgame content that we haven't talked about yet." Brevik also discussed the game's story, which pits players against a nefarious plot by Doctor Doom. The key parts of the story will be told in over an hour's worth of motion comics. The team is strongly leaning on the Marvel IP to draw in fans and is relying on well-known heroes and classic locations to make geeks happy. When asked why players will not be allowed to make their own superheroes but instead will be forced to play one of Marvel's pre-existing characters, Brevik said that the game's system is just more compelling. While he admits that there could be 20 Spideys all in the same area, he points out that players have the option of switching their active character or choosing a different costume. You can watch the full video after the jump!
Beyond: Two Souls discussion with Ellen Page and David Cage
There was a lengthy panel on Beyond: Two Souls back at SDCC, which revealed Kadeem Hardison will also play a starring role in the game. Immediately following the panel, both David Cage and Ellen Page sat down with the PlayStation Blog for the video interview above.Within, Page discusses her own relationship with games and how Heavy Rain really got her on board with what Cage is trying to do in Beyond: Two Souls. There's also a good deal of mo-cap footage, giving us a glimpse at some of the more physical acting Page has done so far for the game.
Watch The Last of Us Comic-Con panel without waiting in line
Naughty Dog waxed poetic about The Last of Us in front of a packed panel room at San Diego Comic-Con, sharing design processes and story hints, and you now have a front-row seat (which is more than we can say when we were actually there).We've already covered the new character announcement, a cranky old man with a familiar name and face. In the above video creative director Neil Druckmann and game director Bruce Straley discuss the intricacies of post-apocalyptic survival with Joel and Ellie, while actors Troy Baker, Ashley Johnson and W. Earl Brown talk performance capture.
In-fighting to win in Behemoth's Battleblock Theater
I really wish The Behemoth didn't always have such an awesome booth set-up.The giant, colorful arcade cabinets, adorable cartoon-emblazoned fight sticks and beautiful screens running Castle Crashers and Battleblock Theater are all an elaborate tease of things that only exist in the magical world of conventions. Every player's excited laughter turns into a cry of remorse as soon as he steps away from the booth and realizes this experience may never again be repeated, at least not in the comfort of his or her own home.Battleblock Theater is poised to follow in Castle Crashers' footsteps as an addictive, enthusiastically fun cooperative platformer with oodles of replay value and longevity when it eventually launches on the XBLA. I played through two levels on two separate cabinets, on two separate days with two different people, and had the same joyful experience with both. Battleblock Theater is a game to be enjoyed with friends, or with people who seem to have a good attitude about getting hit with friendly explosive Frisbees in the middle of complicated platforming maneuvers.
Battleblock Theater is 'code complete' [Update]
Battleblock Theater, the long, long-awaited title from Castle Crashers developer The Behemoth, passed its code complete milestone just before San Diego Comic-Con kicked off last week, project manager Emil Ayoubkhan told us. We played a few rounds of Battleblock Theater at another fantastic installment of the Behemoth booth at the con. Battleblock Theater still has no set release date, and has a few more stages to complete before The Behemoth gives it one. Right now the speed of development is "all on us," Ayoubkhan said, and every day is one step closer to a final version. Update: The original story read that Battleblock Theater had passed Microsoft certification, and that The Behemoth planned to release it before the end of the year. We have received confirmation that this is not the current schedule, no matter how excitable anyone may have been at Comic-Con.
Wii U Mass Effect 3 will include 'Extended Cut' ending by default
Those who start with Mass Effect 3 on the Wii U won't have to go through the (apparent) heartbreak of seeing an unsatisfying ending, then waiting to download a better one. The new "Extended Cut" will be built in."The extended ending is basically going to be part of the game instead," series producer Michael Gamble told Siliconera during Comic-Con. "You won't have to download it." That makes sense given the DLC's status as a "fix" for the controversial ending. We can only hope the ending is extended even further, to show you even more ending on the WiiPad screen while the Extended Cut ending is happening on your TV.The Wii U release of Mass Effect 3 is scheduled to coincide with the launch of the system.
Kojima: 'leaked' Metal Gear Solid 5 logo is fake
Even after Konami UK debunked the Metal Gear Solid 5 info supposedly leaked out of Comic-Con, there were still weird lingering questions. Those questions have now been decisively answered by someone who would know his own logo: Hideo Kojima."Since I've received inquiries about the MGS5 title screen/the announcement made at ComicCon which I had no idea of, I looked up on the net and found the source," Kojima tweeted. "But please note that title logo is completely FAKE. I apologize to those who were looking forward. Anyway it proved I can still create the buzz," concluded the designer, who has never had any problems creating "buzz." Kojipro senior producer Kenichiro Imaizumi also denied the veracity of the images, saying, "I've been asked about the screen shots of MGS5 on the game sites. These're ALL FAKE."Just because that logo's a fake, of course, doesn't mean the game isn't real: Kojima has already been talking about the features of the sort-of-announced sequel, and has been hiring for the "'next' MGS."
Epic shares Gears of War insight and trivia at Comic-Con panel
Cliff Bleszinski, Design Director at Epic Games, along with Production Director Rod Fergusson, voice actor Fred Tatasciore (the voice of Baird as well as "most of the Locusts") and writers Rob Auten and Tom Bissell all took the stage at Comic-Con 2012 for a panel about Gears of War: Judgment. The biggest piece of news out of the panel was that Judgment has a release date: We'll be killing grubs as Baird in the prequel on March 19.The rest of the panel, however, contained a few juicy bits of Gears trivia, just for fans of the series. If you've lived and died with the COGs for three games now, read on.
Mass Effect 3 single-player DLC to focus on Shepard
So, what's next for Mass Effect? Producer Mike Gamble showed off one picture of future Mass Effect 3 content in his panel at Comic-Con, and from what he told Joystiq it seems to point to more single-player DLC. "We want to do single-player DLC," he said. "We want to do single-player, maybe more multiplayer if people still play it."That single-player DLC, whatever it is, will still be about Shepard, not someone else in the universe. "Mass Effect 3 is Shepard's story," said Gamble, "so the single-player DLC for Mass Effect 3 will probably focus around Shepard."The Earth DLC pack for Mass Effect 3 will be the fifth update to the game since launch, following three other multiplayer updates, and the Extended Cut update that fans begged for. Mike Gamble and his team have learned a lot over the course of these updates, but he told us there were quite a few things that surprised them about the reception to Mass Effect 3 multiplayer."We see people who have everything unlocked all the way up to level 20 on everything, plus all the mods, plus all of the gear, everything," said Gamble. "It takes a lot of time, a lot of time to get that stuff, like hundreds and hundreds of hours of play to usually get up to that level. And some of these people had done it in the first month to two months."Gamble was also been surprised by the response to the Vorcha class, playable for the first time in the Rebellion Pack DLC. "I expected people to shy away from the Vorcha because they're Vorcha, but everyone seems to love to play with them."
Co-opinion: Avengers: Battle for Earth
.portal-left { padding: 10px; background: #CCC; margin: 20px 0; min-height: 85px; } .portal-right { padding: 10px; margin: 20px 0; min-height: 85px; } .portal-right img { padding-left: 5px; } .portal-left img { padding-right: 5px; } Mike Schramm: I'm sure at some point in this writeup, we'll probably talk about how Avengers: Battle for Earth is a Kinect game, and that means, like most Kinect games, it works much better in theory ("A fighting game where you control Marvel characters by making moves on Kinect") than it does in actual practice. But I don't want to get to that point yet, because here's the thing: I had a lot of fun playing it. There's something awesome about sticking your hand up in the air and then pushing it forward to make Thor fling electricity from his hammer, or crouching down and then bringing your arms up high to make the Hulk chuck some ground at his opponent. These are iconic characters from my childhood all the way up to the popular movie, and this game portrays them in a really colorful and fun way. Jess Conditt: Let it be known that Mike Schramm makes an impressive (nay, an incredible) Hulk. I wasn't so bad either, I think. Especially for rippling-muscle-challenged people like myself it's wonderful to embody the larger-than-life heroes in Marvel's repetoire, as Mike suggested. I played our multiplayer battle as Venom and Iron Man, two of my personal favorite characters, and they didn't disappoint. Most motions are shared by each character – punch, knee up, arms out and clapped together, etc. – but the resulting moves are different. With the same punching move, Iron Man shoots a beam of light from his palm and Hulk rushes the player, fists-first. It's a powerful feeling to throw a punch "at" your friend and watch his hero respond on-screen.%Gallery-160465%
Hello Kitty X Street Fighter plushies heading to a Hot Topic near you
The Chun Li Hello Kitty plushies available at Comic-Con last weekend were sold out by Saturday morning, but there is still hope for the thousands of remaining fans clamoring to get their hands on one. The Hello Kitty Ryu, M. Bison and Chun Li plushies pictured in their Comic-Con display above are soon coming to "as many stores as we can get them into," a Capcom booth employee told us. He mentioned specifically Hot Topic, Sanrio stores and Toys 'R' Us as possiblities for the plushies, which are "Series 1" in a planned line of Hello Kitty X Street Fighter toys.
Cole McGrath, Jak and Daxter added to PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale roster [Update: Now with trailers!]
Cole McGrath of Infamous fame and Jak and Daxter of, well, Jak and Daxter fame were just revealed as the two latest additions to the PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale cast during a panel at SDCC. As seen in the announcement trailer above, Jak and Daxter will function as a pair of characters working in tandem and controlled by one player, sort of like Ice Climbers in Smash Bros. Jak will utilize signature weapons from his series, such as the Gyro Burster and Mass Inverter, and also has the ability to transform into Dark or Light Jax. Daxter will lend a hand with melee attacks, and probably provide moral support. Meanwhile, McGrath's move list is predictably lightning oriented. Head on past the break for two more trailers showcasing the new characters.
PlayStation All-Stars' combo system is more Marvel than Smash Bros.
PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale faces an interesting challenge in ingratiating itself to the patently skeptical fighting game world, as not only is it a brand new IP, but it's also a four-player brawler, rather than a "traditional" 2D or 3D fighter.The game's combo system, however, has more in common with Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 than it does any iteration of the Super Smash Bros. series, as is evident by the trailer above. Speaking personally, we love the idea of legitimate combos in a brawler setting, but we're also worried about keeping track of something that complicated during a fully-zoomed four-player fight. What if we get confused and do a forward quarter-circle instead of a backward quarter-circle? How embarrassing.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 receiving 'over 100 swimsuits' as pre-order bonus
Bikini downloads in fighting games must be the "in" thing to do these days, because Tekken Tag Tournament 2 will be following in SoulCalibur 5 and Dead or Alive 5's footsteps, offering "over 100 swimsuits" in a "big bikini bundle," according to this "Tekken Bad Girls" trailer.While the trailer frames the costumes as a pre-order bonus, Tekken godfather Katsuhiro Harada spoke of them as DLC during SDCC (according to Andriasang), which indicates that they may be made available to people who don't pre-order at some point in the future. Surprisingly, the bundle includes swimsuits for every character in the game, not just the ladies. And yes, that includes the animals.
Rampant Speculation Theater presents: BioWare teases single Mass Effect 3 image
The picture above, snapped by Joystiq's Mike Schramm at SDCC, is the only clue BioWare gave during its panel of what's next for Mass Effect 3. It clearly shows a Cerberus Atlas mech, but what is that environment? Could it possibly be an underwater landscape? Something to do with Leviathan, perhaps?
Overheard at Comic-Con: The battle for Seth Killian
During the "Titans of Fighting Games" panel on Friday afternoon at Comic-Con 2012, PlayStation All-Stars director Omar Kendall was introduced on stage just after Street Fighter creator Yoshinori Ono left it, and he cleverly joked as Ono departed that developer SuperBot was happy to have Seth Killian on board, who of course came from Ono's team at Capcom. "If anyone else is looking for a job," poked Kendall, "you can email us."Later in the panel, Kendall remarked to fellow panelist Tekken creator Katsuhiro Harada that he was happy to have Tekken's Heihachi in PS All-Stars as a playable character, and he added that if Ono was in fact still in the room, he'd also be happy to have a character from Street Fighter included. The characteristically goofy Ono returned to appear at the Q&A mic later on, and his first question, in the middle of a laughing crowd, was to Kendall."Yes, can you give me back Seth Killian?" he asked in accented English, and the panel broke out laughing."If you give me Chun Li," Kendall joked back, "I'll give you back Seth Killian." Ono considered that a moment, and then replied, though he was barely heard by the cheering crowd: "Deal."But Harada, who was on the panel to also talk about Tekken Tag Tournament 2, was having none of it. "Ono, go home," he also said in English. "We don't have time for this."
Capcom announces Jojo's Bizarre Adventure HD, coming to PSN and XBLA August 21/22
An HD remake of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure was just announced during a Capcom panel at the San Diego Comic-Con. The remake features both the original graphics and a high-def reskin, as well as online multiplayer capabilities. Reliving one of the craziest fighting games ever made will run you $19.99/1600 MSP when the game launches on PSN and XBLA August 21 and 22, respectively.Hints of this remake were uncovered just three days ago by Xbox360Achievements, though this announcement failed to confirm speculation that CyberConnect2 would be handling the HD conversion. CC2 is making the new 3D fighting game for Namco, and its name also showed up on Xbox360Achievements as the developer for HD Ver., possibly erroneously.If you're mystified and confused, let us fill in the gaps: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure was a Capcom-developed fighting game released in Japanese and North American arcades in 1998, and on the PlayStation and Dreamcast in 1999 and 2000. The exceedingly eccentric fighting game, based on an equally eccentric manga, was developed by the team at Capcom responsible for the Street Fighter III series.
High Moon's Deadpool game announced, coming 2013 [Update: Now with trailer!]
That Deadpool game we caught wind of earlier today has been officially announced during a Marvel panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con. Developed by High Moon Studios and published by Activision, the game looks to be an action shooter and is expected to launch on undisclosed platforms sometime in 2013.Marvel's T.Q. Jefferson was cagey during the panel's Q&A session, unable to specifically answer questions from audience members regarding the game's expected platforms and genre. "There will be lots more to come," he said. Nolan North will be reprising his role as the assassin, having previously portrayed him in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, and that Hulk vs. cartoon.%Gallery-160452%
