q2 2011
Latest
Wii Play: Motion has stone skipping, ghost hunting
Nintendo hasn't officially detailed the MotionPlus-enhanced minigames in the Wii Play: Motion collection, but a set of screenshots posted by GoNintendo gives an impression of all the new minigames you'll own when you decide to buy another Wiimote. There's a game in which you fly around using an umbrella in strong wind; one called "Spooky Search," which makes use of the Wiimote speaker (to locate ghosts in your room); a stone-skipping game; and a sort of "Human Tetris" scenario in which you pose a Mii to fit through Mii-shaped holes in the wall. There's also a side-scrolling minigame about guiding balloons through mazes, something diving-themed, and a spacecraft flight game. Wii Play: Motion will begin irritating hardcore gamers with sales on June 13 in North America and June 24 in Europe.
Unpleasant Horse trots, nay, prances onto App Store
Unpleasant Horse, the first title from PopCap Games' edgier 4th and Battery division, is available now for free on the iOS App Store. Bouncing back from an Apple rejection earlier this month, the game made its intended April launch in a photo-finish. In Unpleasant Horse, players tap the angry winged bronco from cloud to cloud, tearing small birds apart and dropping more pleasant horses into the meat grinder below. Also, once down there, little meaty bits pop out. Yuuup, Peggle it ain't.
Two Worlds 2: Castle Defense rushes to Mac, PC & iOS on May 17
Waiting for the next big Two Worlds event is rough -- we know. September is, like, ages away, and don't even get us started on 2012 (who knows if this world will even still be around then). But, surprise! Publisher TopWare Interactive has announced Two Worlds 2: Castle Defense, coming to Mac, PC and iOS on May 17. As the title suggests, rather than role-playing in a fantasy world, you'll be defending towers in a fantasy world, controlling various combat units and striking down the forces of Gandalf's evil twin, Gandohar. Of course, this still leaves us waiting more than three weeks for the next big Two Worlds event. However will we-- surprise! The demo is available right now, so stick that in your impatience pipe and smoke it. Is that not how demos work?%Gallery-122088%
Back to the Future Episode 4 coming next week
If you've been waiting with bated breath on the next installment in the continuing adventures of Digital Marty and Digital Doc Brown, you'll be pleased to learn that you'll be able to exhale fairly soon. Telltale Games announced today on its Twitter account that Back to the Future's fourth episode, titled "Double Vision," will be released next week on PC and Mac. In this installment, Marty must team up with Episode 3's First Citizen Brown to create "an epic invention so that he can prevent young Emmett Brown from making the worst mistake of his life." We're not really sure what that means, but we've certainly got our fingers crossed for a cameo by Foreigner.
NBA Jam hits iPad from downtown
One day, Goldilocks decided she wanted to play EA's new NBA Jam. First, she sat down on the couch and tried to play it on a console, but the TV was too big. So she pulled her iPhone out of her pocket and downloaded NBA Jam from the App Store. But that screen was too small. Finally, EA released a version of NBA Jam for the iPad, and it was just right (and cost $10). EA also released an update for the iPhone version that adds multiplayer functionality, but we couldn't fit that into the story.
Qualcomm reports record quarterly revenues, boasts 100th Snapdragon device
Qualcomm's back again with yet another set of impressive numbers. For the second quarter of this fiscal year, the chip giant saw record earnings of $3.88 billion, up 46 percent from the same quarter in the previous year, and collected $999 million of sweet profit which is a 29 percent jump from last year. This is no doubt to do with the 70 percent increase in the MSM7000- and MSM8000-series Snapdragon shipments in this half of the fiscal year (compared to 2H 2010), and it should be noted that this quarter also saw the 100th Snapdragon-powered device announced by a Qualcomm client. Additionally, EVP Steve Mollenkopf reassured us that the recent events in Japan won't have any significant impact on upcoming shipments, so the 30 Snapdragon tablets in the pipeline should arrive as scheduled. Excerpts from the financial report can be found after the break.
Mahjong gets Cub3D on 3DS this summer
Atlus appears to have been eager for something to supplement Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked in its 3DS lineup, as it's picked up a Japanese launch window game we didn't expect to see localized. The publisher is bringing Sunsoft's Shanghai 3D Cube to North America this summer as "Mahjong Cub3D." Players will match mahjong tiles on the faces of a cube in "Cube Mode" or in a more traditional Shanghai arrangement (flat, facing up) in "Classic Mode." There will also be multiplayer via Download Play, if you want to test your tile-swapping abilities against an opponent. In all, Atlus claims there are 200 puzzles to be found. The first: What's a mahjong cub?%Gallery-121642%
Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery EP journeys to iPhone this week
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, the artsy, jokey, pretty adventure game from Capy, musician Jim Guthrie, and artist Superbrothers, is launching a two-pronged assault on iPhone this week. The iPad version of the game will receive a free update "shortly before Thursday, April 21st 2011" that makes it a Universal app compatible with iPhones and iPod Touches. At the same time, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP Micro will be added to the App Store. It's "the same exact videogame," but in a version compatible only with iPhone-size devices (3G and newer, but not "super smooth on 3G.") "The S:S&S EP project began life on the smaller touchtronic machines," the announcement notes, "so many of the key art & design decisions were made with this very particular form factor in mind." The iPhone version is "definitely 'the way it was meant to be' - it's an entire little world you can slip into your pocket at any time."
Under Siege hits PSN on May 3, comic book downloadable now
Okay, so that November release didn't happen. And then December slipped by. But Seed Studios was just biding its time, waiting for the perfect strategic opportunity to spring its Move-friendly RTS, Under Siege, upon unsuspecting PS3 users, and it turns out that time is May 3. As a show of gratitude for the patience of fans, Seed Studios released a free Under Siege comic book, which should help provide some background about the team of Eirik, Kari and Asgeir, the fantasy world they occupy, and why they are currently besieged. You can download that here in eBook, CBZ, or PDF format, in Portuguese or English.
Blazblue: Continuum Shift 2 coming to PSP and 3DS May 31
Nintendo said that the 3DS version of Blazblue: Continuum Shift 2 would be out in North America on May 24, but publisher Aksys offered a different timetable today, when it officially announced the PSP and 3DS releases of Arc System Works' fighter. The bad news is that CS2 will actually arrive a week later, on May 31. The good news is that it won't have to needlessly compete with Dead or Alive Dimensions by being released on the same day! We have galleries of each version, so the PSP and 3DS releases can battle one-on-one for your fighting game budget. There's also a trailer after the break.%Gallery-121385%%Gallery-121383%
Puzzle Agent investigates PSN April 19
A downloadable PS3 version of Telltale's Laytonic puzzle adventure game, Puzzle Agent, was announced a couple of months ago. On the PlayStation Blog, the publisher cleared up precisely when you'd be able to use your DualShock 3 to guide Nelson Tethers through the mysterious, puzzley town of Scoggins, Minnesota: April 19, for $10. Sadly, you'll have to use that controller, because this version won't be Envelotech-compatible. Find a teaser for the PSN version after the break. Although an even better teaser would be all the media released for every other version.
MotorStorm Apocalypse crashing down May 3 in North America
The indefinite delay that struck the North American release of MotorStorm Apocalypse has become specific: Sony has announced that the game is delayed until May 3. The game's launch date was shaken up in all regions in an effort to distance the racer's eye-catching urban destruction from the recent events in Japan. As compensation for the delay, Sony is offering up a Premier Pack DLC voucher -- which enables two exclusive in-game vehicles -- in "every new copy of the game."
Resident Evil Mercenaries VS. enters the iOS arena
If Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D isn't bite-size enough for you (or available enough for you), you can have an even smaller Mercenaries experience right now on your iPhone. Capcom has launched the iOS game Resident Evil Mercenaries VS., which streamlines the experience so much it even drops "The" from the title. Mercenaries VS. features three playable characters (Chris, Jill, and Wesker), three maps, and multiplayer support for up to four players through Bluetooth or wi-fi. Capcom is touting it as the company's "first online multi play iPhone / iPod touch title." It's on sale now for $2.99, though no end date for the sale is provided, nor is any indication of the regular price. It's more than $2.99, at least.
Senran Kagura for 3DS serves side-scrolling ninja action and total humiliation
Marvelous's new 3DS game, Senran Kagura, is a side-scrolling action platformer starring a group of five ninja school students battling evil mercenary ninjas. You can juggle enemies in aerial combos, double-jump and dash around the screen. Sounds awesome, right? Oh, by the way, all the characters are young women, "ranked" by bust size. During the game, their clothes tear off, and occasionally the screen will zoom in and display their decreasingly covered bodies in 3D. ... Senran Kagura will be out in Japan this summer.
Call of Duty: Black Ops mod tools launching in May
Tired of all that silly "paying" for new Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer maps? We know, we know -- money is so 2010. Good thing for you, then, that Treyarch announced plans this week (via Twitter) to officially release the promised mod tools for Black Ops sometime this May. The tools will, of course, only end up on the PC version of Blops, though considering that they never ended up in any version of Modern Warfare 2, we're looking at this as a pretty major improvement. Also, now we can finally live out that dream of recreating Super Mario Bros. stage 1-1 in Call of Duty. Wait ... what?!
Backbreaker: Vengeance tackles XBLA this summer
NaturalMotion officially unveiled what it was teasing earlier this week, and ... it's kind of confusing. Backbreaker: Vengeance uses the same subtitle as the company's recent iOS football game, but it is not the same game. The new Backbreaker: Vengeance (who are these football players seeking vengeance against?) is an XBLA-exclusive, arcade-style game that "takes inspiration" from the first Backbreaker's "Tackle Alley" mode. That means one runner attempting to cross the field against various arrangements of pre-placed defenders. Check out a trailer after the break -- especially if you're fond of body-crunching sounds. Actually, that advice also works in regards to buying the game this summer.
Kinect-controlled Netflix available today on Xbox 360
It's only been 25 days since spring officially started, but it appears that Microsoft is already rolling out one of its promised spring updates -- Kinect-enabled Netflix control. That's right, folks, now you can wave your arms and speak commands directly at your Xbox when you've had enough Say Yes to the Dress for one evening. We imagine Kinect will work in a pretty cursory capacity -- as the announcement video demonstrated -- with the release describing two options for accessing Netflix via Xbox 360: "With Xbox LIVE, take your Xbox 360 online and browse the full Netflix library to find the movie or TV show that you want, or launch Netflix from the Kinect Hub and select from one of the recommended titles using your voice and hand gestures as the remote control." Well, that sounds ... limited! A Microsoft representative further detailed Netflix's Kinect functionality to us on the phone, saying that all Netflix films will be navigable with Kinect, but only "recommended films" through the Kinect sub-Dashboard Netflix application will be selectable. In so many words, you still have to start playing the majority of films with a controller, though all can be controlled with Kinect after they start playing.
Dead or Alive Dimensions goes live in North America May 24
After finalizing the Japanese release date for Dead or Alive Dimensions, Tecmo Koei has provided a specific release date for the 3DS fighter in North America. You can start counterattacking busty ninjas in Ridley's lair, collecting player profiles over StreetPass, and unlocking figurines that you can pose and photograph, on May 24 -- the exact same day BlazBlue: Continuum Shift 2 arrives on 3DS. As in Japan, Tecmo Koei is offering 34 costumes through SpotPass, and giving you two opportunities to get each. One costume will be released every day from May 24 through June 26, and again from June 28 through July 31.
Ubisoft officially unveils Kinect superhero fighter PowerUP Heroes
Ubisoft is finally acknowledging the development of technology to give your Xbox 360 avatar superpowers. This top-secret program, called PowerUP Heroes, will be available to the public around the world in June, turning Kinect-enabled Xbox 360s into a battleground for personal simulacra. Players infuse their "super suits" with powers, and then face off in Kinect-controlled fights, in order to earn the right to take their opponent's suit, leaving them powerless and nude. Some of the 20 suits include the Necromancer, which gives your Avatar dominion over a skeleton army, and the Mentalist, which gives your Avatar the power to " break into their enemy's mind."%Gallery-121020%
Wii Play: Motion announced for June 13, Ocarina of Time 3D follows on June 19
Nintendo laid out its Wii, DS, and 3DS lineup for the second quarter of 2011 (which, yes, has already started), revealing a MotionPlus-based successor to the extremely successful Wii Play. Called Wii Play: Motion, the bundle will included 12 new minigames and, of course, a Wii Remote Plus. It'll be out and upselling everyone who goes out to buy a Wiimote on June 13. Nintendo is also publishing a Wii iteration of the hidden-object Mystery Case Files series, Mystery Case Files: Dust to Dust, on June 27. Nintendo's big 3DS release for the quarter, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, has also been given a release date: June 19. It'll be followed by third-party standout Cave Story 3D on June 28. Find more release dates for upcoming Wii, DS, and 3DS games after the break.
