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Super Hero Squad Online wishes you a merry X-Men Month
If you're gearing up for Xmas, then why not invite the X-Men over for some casual MMO gaming? Gazillion has declared that December is "X-Men Month" in Super Hero Squad Online, as the title turns its attention to Professor X's extraordinary students and their action-packed outings. Enrollment is open for the School for Gifted Youngsters, and signing up for superhero mayhem are several brand-new heroes for the game. The MMO is also unleashing four new quests -- two for Wolverine and two for Rogue -- to go with its signature card battles. Vice President Jay Minn is (sorry) super-psyched for the theme month: "X-Men month has been a long time coming since the launch of our game. Nightcrawler, Phoenix, Angel, Iceman and Shadowcat have always topped our list of most-requested Marvel heroes. We are very excited that our fans will finally be able to show off and fight evil as the X-Men! Happy holidays everyone and Hero Up!" [Source: Gazillion press release]
Zen Studios bringing Pinball FX to 3DS, Vita, mobile; shows off X-Men table
As if Zen Studio's Pinball FX series wasn't already enormously popular, studio reps told an audience of New York Comic Con attendees that the pinball franchise would be heading to Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Vita, and iOS/Android "phones and tablets" at some point in 2012. Get your flippin' fingers at the ready! He also revealed a brand new table coming this winter as part of the upcoming "Vengeance and Virtue" Marvel DLC pack, themed around the X-Men. Which apparently means it's of the "Virtue" category, though we don't think Wolverine would appreciate being called "virtuous" very much.
X-Men Destiny review: Destined for failure
Sometimes you read about a canceled game and think, "Oh, that's too bad, that could have been fun. I wish they'd just release what they had finished so I could check it out." Do me a favor. The next time that thought should happen to flit across your mind, remember X-Men Destiny. Because when someone has a cool idea and releases it unfinished, this is exactly what it looks like. %Gallery-130861%
X-Men Destiny launch trailer needs a decision, pronto
We know you've been putting off deciding whether you want to be an evil mutant or a good mutant for a while now; however, judging by the X-Men Destiny launch trailer posted above, you're going to have to make your decision sooner rather than later. (We'd go with evil. Their coffee's better.)
20th Century Fox to offer digital downloads for Android devices, Blu-ray purchase required
20th Century Fox is dipping its downloading toes into the 21st century's waters, releasing movies on Android in addition to good, old-fashioned Blu-ray. According to the Financial Times, retail discs of X-Men: First Class will direct owners to a website where they can sideload a digital version of the film onto their Android device of choice. Apparently some of the suits over at Fox caught wind of how popular Android tablets are getting, and now see them as complementary, not cannibalistic (remember that industry buzz kill?) Sure, right now you shouldn't expect any Netflix-sized library of titles, but perhaps we can all agree this is a step in the right download-to-own direction. Residents of the US, UK, Germany, and France will get the first crack at downloading the films. The rest of you can just stream and wait. [Image credit via 20th Century Fox]
X-Men Destiny preview: Designer genes
Silicon Knights founder Denis Dyack is happy to hear that X-Men Destiny looks unlike many of the games already based on Marvel's mutant universe. "We've been collaborating with Marvel and Activision to do things very differently," he says. In most X-Men games, you pick a familiar hero, like Wolverine or Gambit, and then explore the world from his or her point of view. In X-Men Destiny, however, Dyack and his team have been given free reign to separate powers from characters. Your custom-built hero can play through the RPG-driven side of the game by equipping powers as you would gear. You could combine Cyclops' eyebeams with Juggernaut's charge, or Wolvie's healing factor, all while finding a place in the campaign somewhere between the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants. Unfortunately, while there are a lot of interesting touches in the story and powers system, X-Men Destiny's core game struggles to hold the higher ideas up. The graphics look only marginally better than those leaked screens, and even in the short demo I played the game's combat and enemies teetered on the verge of becoming notably repetitive.%Gallery-128867%
Star Trek TV series, X-Men cartoon are among Netflix Watch Instantly additions today
As promised, Netflix added several of the Star Trek TV series to Watch Instantly this morning. While Deep Space 9 is due to arrive in October, TOS (only seasons 2 and 3 at the time of this posting), The Next Generation, Voyager and Enterprise are all present and accounted for. If you're looking for HD streaming, only the remastered original series and Enterprise will fit the bill, but judging by the sorry state of our TNG Betamax dubs we'll take what we can get. Also new today is Marvel's X-Men cartoon (in SD), although it appears many of the amazing season finale episodes (especially those dealing with the Phoenix saga) are still trapped on discs.
X-Men Destiny's new character has the power of petulance
Aimi Yoshida is an all-new mutant created for X-Men Destiny by developer Silicon Knights. According to her bio, she "feels only the bitterness and anger of abandonment." She also feels the need to dress like Gogo Yubari from Kill Bill. See what we mean in these new screens.
X-Men Destiny teased again
When will you get to see Silicon Knights' X-Men Destiny in action? We just don't know. You can, however, watch this total teaser for it from the latest episode of GTTV. We're hoping that the X-Men among you will dissect the trailer and let us know of any interesting tidbits in the comments below.
Correction: X-Men Arcade coming to PSN in North America on Dec. 14, XBLA on Dec. 15
Konami representatives confirmed with Joystiq tonight that X-Men Arcade will be arriving in North America on PlayStation Network next week on December 14, while Xbox Live Arcade gets it the next day. We originally reported that the game had a two-month window of exclusivity on Xbox Live Arcade, per Konami reps speaking with Eurogamer. It appears that this report is not the case, at least for the game's North American release -- US-based Konami reps couldn't confirm European release dates for X-Men Arcade as of publishing. Furthermore, the game was given a December 26 North American launch date by Konami reps speaking to GameFocus in a recent video interview. Since the interview, however, the PSN launch date has been moved up and North Americans can get their co-op Magneto murdering in a full 12 days earlier. We're just hoping that buying the game won't be as maddeningly difficult as nailing down a solid release date from its publisher.
X-Men Arcade coming to XBLA on Dec. 15 as two-month exclusive [update]
Update: The release date has been updated by Konami. X-Men Arcade arrives in North American on December 14 for PSN and December 15 for XBLA. Following October's announcement of Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network versions of X-Men Arcade, many of you had just one question for publisher Konami: "When do we get to play it?" (Two if you count, "Did anyone pick Dazzler yet?") In speaking with Eurogamer, Konami confirmed that the game would slice up Xbox Live Arcade in North America and Europe next Wednesday, December 15. PlayStation Network will get the game two months later in February. No price has been put to the partially updated release, but we're hoping Microsoft's exclusivity money bag keeps it squashed.
New Transformers, Spider-Man and more next year, Activision doing 'large-scale' Call of Duty
Activision's recent conference call wasn't all facts and figures, you know. The company also outlined the future of some of its biggest franchises over the course of the next calendar year. According to CEO Eric Hirshberg, the publisher will launch titles from "proven franchises including the Hero brand, Spider-Man, X-Men and Transformers, which will be supported by what is expected to be another major blockbuster movie from Michael Bay." Sounds like they're kinda putting the cart in front of the giant, shapeshifting robot-car with that one. Hirshberg also made the unsurprising announcement that 2011 would also see the release of a new Call of Duty, explaining "in the back half of 2011, we are launching a new, large-scale Call of Duty FPS title." Considering the last installment in the franchise had like, ten different scenes where nukes went off, we don't know how much "larger" the proceedings could become. Unless, of course, Hirshberg was referring to Activision's oft-rumored plans to monetize the series' multiplayer component. Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter, who previously predicted Activision would subscriptionalize the franchise this year, released a statement shortly after the conference call, stating, "We expect Activision to announce plans to monetize multiplayer online some time in 2011, and expect greater visibility into the release schedule throughout the year."
X-Men Arcade being developed by Backbone, supports widescreen
We've got a couple of tiny updates to last weekend's announcement of the classic X-Men Arcade game making its way to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN. The title will be transferred from arcade cabinet to consoles by Backbone Entertainment, which was also responsible for ports like Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix and Marvel vs. Capcom 2. We also followed up with Konami after noticing some reports of the game's "high-definition graphics." A representative for the publisher explained that the gameplay graphics may be upscaled, and that there would be new HD updates for some of the UI and menus. Also, before there are riots in the streets, we did ask about the game's "widescreen" support. Refresher for some: the X-Men arcade game came in a couple versions: one that was just a standard 4:3 television, and another that used some visual trickery by sticking two screens together and creating a "wide screen" supporting six players. We were informed that the game will support widescreen when the game is open to six player "drop-in multiplayer." The PS3 supports six players both online and couch, while the XBLA version only supports six online. On either console, if there are four players or less, the game flips to a 4:3 scale; however, it sounds like if you just leave the game open to the possibility of six, it will stay widescreen. We'll have to test that once we get some hands-on time with the game.
Konami's classic X-Men arcade game coming to PSN and XBLA
Konami's classic, six-player X-Men arcade beat-em-up will make its way to the XBLA and PSN platforms, as revealed during Marvel's New York Comic Con 2010 presentation. Marvel Games' T.Q. Jefferson revealed that the title will be ported by its original developer to the two platforms "soon," and will retain its six-player cap, achieveable through an online co-op mode. Jefferson didn't reveal a price for the title -- we'll try and ascertain more information while on the floor at NYCC. Also, we call Dazzler. Don't even try to get in here and play as Dazzler. We called her.
Silicon Knights is X-Men: Destiny developer
Perhaps you were expecting Too Human 2? Though Silicon Knights claims that the trilogy treatment is still planned for the Too Human series, Activision has confirmed that Denis Dyack's studio is in fact developing X-Men: Destiny. Outside of this confirmation, IGN has the debut trailer for the game (embedded after the break), which echoes this morning's announcement -- X-Men: Destiny will be a choice-driven game. With New York Comic Con kicking off this weekend, hopefully we'll learn more about just what kind of choices we'll be asked to make.
X-Men: Destiny coming to consoles in Fall 2011
Activision and Marvel have announced a new X-Men game, due to "invade game consoles" in Fall 2011. X-Men: Destiny has you playing a new recruit amongst comic's motley mutant band, and promises a "branching storyline that features a deep element of choice." Dare we envision a Marvel-fueled Mass Effect? Activision also notes that X-Men: Destiny will grant "players ultimate control of their destiny," which means at least one mutant will have the uncanny ability to spontaneously alter and contradict the contents of a dictionary. The story will be penned by X-Men: Legacy's Mike Carey. You can check out a sparse teaser website now, and get a peek at the game itself during this weekend's New York Comic-Con. We're attempting to confirm the identity of the developer, in light of earlier rumors that suggested Too Human studio Silicon Knights was creating a Marvel RPG. Update: Silicon Knights has been confirmed as the developer. [Image: X-Men: Legacy #208 cover]
Europeans, get Wolverine claws in PlayStation Home
Okay, we'll admit that this is one of the cooler items you can wear in PlayStation Home: Wolverine's adamantium claws. Best of all, you can don these shredders for free. Yes, you'll have to suffer through the trailer for X-Men Origins; Wolverine at the Home Theatre -- but once the painful two minutes are over, you'll find these claws waiting for you in the Threads store of the Home Mall.Unfortunately, these are non-functional weapons. We so would've loved to go on a virtual rampage in Home. Also, this is strictly a European affair. Sorry, everyone else.[Via Kotaku]
Wolverine commercial has glaring error
Now that Wolverine is finally available --and pretty decent, as it turns out -- Activision has seen fit to release a new live-action commercial to promote the game. Admittedly, the commercial is actually kind of cool. It reminds us a bit of Neill Blomkamp's Halo 3 shorts, and we particularly dig its first-person grittiness. There is, however, one fatal flaw. Why on earth would Wolverine bash his way out of a cage? We know Wolvy's got some rage issues, but you'd think he'd have the presence of mind to use his claws to cut open the cage instead of ramming it. It would save time, time that could be spent dismembering people. Come on, Activision, details matter.
Joystiq Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Uncaged Edition)
One thousand three hundred and fifty five people: murdered. Okay, some of them were unfeeling killer robots, but even after eliminating every piece of scrap metal from the virtual cemetery, you're left with a considerable number of motionless bodies by the end of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Or at least things that, when reassembled, vaguely resemble bodies. Wolverine is a game that exudes excess and revels in recklessness. The design mirrors that of its protagonist, an unhinged brute who lops off limbs, tears apart helicopters and frequently howls at the camera. Oh, and he apparently has a lot of fun, too. Like God of War and its ilk, Wolverine is at its best when it feels like all limitations have been dissolved, along with any possibility of you succumbing to a mere army of opponents. Even distance becomes an ex-factor, with an always satisfying lunge maneuver planting you in someone's chest before they can do something futile -- like shooting you. %Gallery-44056%
Video: DIY Wolverine could totally take the Star Wars Kid
Maybe it's just us, timid bloggers sent recoiling at the mere touch of particles from what you call the Sun. But we're finding it hard to watch the video of this Wolverine fan without feeling a bit awkward, dangerously awkward. No doubt, the craftsmanship of his Wolverine claws is superb; a flex of the bicep releases the claws with the satisfying metallic shink of Adamantium blades locking into battle mode. Nevertheless, we hope this guy won't be sitting anywhere near us in the theater this weekend. See what we mean after the break.Update: Er, the video has been pulled. Perhaps the cardboard finally won?
