Apocalypso's Atomic Arcade: 5/16/10

2010/05/22

Apocalypse Then: Pac-Man Turns 30 This Month

Pac-Man Turns 30

That old classic, Pac-Man, turns 30 years old this month. It first came out in 1980, on May 22nd in Japan. It arrived later on the same year in the US and became a major hit, becoming a game that many recognize and associate with gaming, along with Space Invaders, Pong, and Asteroids.

It was originally developed and published by Namco, and made it’s debut on arcade machines.

Gameplay looks rather simple. All you do is control pac-man, the yellow blob, who has to avoid the ghosts, while collecting all the dots. He can also get the power pellets which allow him to eat the ghosts for a time. The whole whole intention of the game is to see who can get the highest score; going through many, many levels to get there. Over 250.

I remember first playing it years ago on my brother’s old PC – I can’t remember what it was. It didn’t have Windows on it. This was the early nineties.

Reinforcements Have Arrived: Metro 2033 and GTA: Episodes From Liberty City

How did you like the Worms reference? Remember that? Anyway, I got some new games over the weekend: Metro 2033, and GTA: Episodes from Liberty City.

I bought Metro 2033, only to discover that it came bundled with one of THQ’s other games, Red Faction: Guerrilla, which I bought last year. I could have saved a bit of cash there I suppose. It’s also ironic that I was playing RFG the other day, and yet now it doesn’t work. Weird. Probably making way for Metro!

The other game, GTA: Episodes from Liberty City, includes the two DLC packs for GTA IV: The Lost and Damned, and The Ballad of Gay Tony. Admittedly, I didn’t get around to playing GTA IV, but I saw that this DLC bundle is standalone, and doesn’t require GTA IV to be installed. So I got that as well.

2010/05/21

Red Dead Redemption in Local Stores Friday, the 21st of May

I saw an advert on Vuzu either before, during, or after The Verge aired live last night. I can’t remember when, but it showed Red Dead Redemption, and it had a big bold date slapped on the screen at the end which read “21 May 2010”.

Then as I was going through my feeds, I saw that this is indeed the date that the game will be arriving in local stores in SA: Friday, 21 May, 2010 – which is today. Megarom confirmed this to LazyGamer.

Reportedly, if you have preordered the title, then you might have a problem getting it on this exact date due to the Icelandic volcano, but you’ll have to take it up with the retailer.

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Sources:

Vuzu -- Red Dead Redemption Will Be In Stores On Friday – Great News [Lazygamer]

BT Games’ New Facebook Group Up, Exclusive Deals for Members

BT Games has a pokey little store in Tygervalley Shopping Centre that I might have frequented once or twice, but make no mistake – they’re a force to be reckoned with when it comes to video game retail. Not to mention that they except trade-ins of second hand games for credit on new ones – or so I’ve heard. And I often see these BT Games coupons in NAG Magazine too.

Now there’s an official BT Games Facebook group up, and to go a long with this there are perks for people who join.

These are reportedly time-limited special deals on games, consoles and so on, but are only for members of the group, and entail you having to have a password as well. So it sounds as though you’ll have to go on the Facebook Group page, see the deal, get the password, rush like hell to a BT Games store near you, remember the password, get the deal. If you forget the password or arrive too late: you lose, you go home, you cry yourself to sleep.

Interesting…

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Source: BTGames Expands its Social Networking Circle, Includes Awesome Specials [LazyGamer]

2010/05/20

Latest Medal of Honor Screenshots

Some new screenshots for Medal of Honor were released by EA the other day. It’s said that these screens are really just from one of the trailers released for the title, and not from actual gameplay.

I think the foliage, you know – the flowers and the bushes - looks hideous by the way.

July 2010 Issue NAG Cover DVD Requests Open

The time for your requests for the June 2010 Issue of NAG’s Cover DVD is over. But now the thread for the July issue’s DVD is open.

Once again, anything you come across on the internet, you can put a link to it on the thread if you don’t feel like downloading it yourself, or perhaps it’s too big, or maybe you want to share the file with others and see it on the DVD, or you just might not have the privilege of having the internet yourself, but you somehow got the web address of the download.

I’ll likely put some suggestions on there myself. Off the top of my head, I can think of some trailers I’d like seeing as NAG *loves* trailers. I’d want both Call of Duty: Black Ops trailers on there, and the new F.E.A.R. 3 trailer.

I’d also like RoboCop 4. It’s this game I read about the other day that was developed by Anthony Burch, former editor of and occasional contributor to Destructoid.

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Source: NAG July DVD Request Thread [NAG Online Forums]

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Disappears into 2011

It’s not really that surprising, but news has been broken that Ghost Recon: Future Soldier has been pushed back into 2011.

The game’s existence was rumoured last year or so, and only officially announced within the last few months.

It was originally scheduled for a release for sometime near the end of this year, but according to G4tv, the game’s been purposely held back to avoid the competitive market at the time of the year [Call of Duty, Medal of Honor]. It’ll see a release in Q1 2011.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot:

"Due to a very competitive environment, we decided to move the game out of the Christmas quarter, and into the March quarter. It will also provide additional time to our development teams to realize their vision."

I for one don’t really like to see games that are announced, released in the same year, so I think it’s not a bad idea if it’s pushed back a few months. It ensures more of a quality product, I would think. Also not every game is bunched into the same quarter, so you get games coming out in all parts of the year, so we don’t suffer from “drought”.

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Source: Ubisoft Delays Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Now Coming In Early 2011 [G4]

2010/05/19

Video Game Deals on Amazon [May 19, 2010 Edition]: Tom Clancy's EndWar, Tropico 3, Lost Planet 2

VGDs feature on AAA once or twice a week with deals at least $7.00 [R50] or more making the big list. Deals which are over $10 make the best deals list.

Links go to game detail pages at retail and digital distribution outlets like Amazon and Steam, etc. You can also check out my Amazon aStore for the latest and greatest games released this year.

Best deals:

Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection [Game Download] - $10.49 - Save $19.50 [PC]
Project Nomads - $14.15 - Save $15.84 [Mac]
Tropico 3 [Game Download] - $14.99 - Save $15.00 [PC]
King's Bounty: Armored Princess [Game Download] - $14.99 - Save $15.00 [PC]
Tom Clancy's EndWar - $7.66 - Save $14.00 [PC]
Petz Wild Animals Tigerz - $16.06 - Save $10.75 [DS]

[Mac]

Warbirds of WWII - $19.99 - Save $8.50
Project Nomads - $14.15 - Save $15.84

[PC]

Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection [Game Download] - $10.49 - Save $19.50
Tropico 3 [Game Download] - $14.99 - Save $15.00
King's Bounty: Armored Princess [Game Download] - $14.99 - Save $15.00
Tom Clancy's EndWar - $7.66 - Save $14.00
Trine - $9.99 - Save $8.50

[PS3]

NIER - $44.99 - Save $11.00
Lego Rock Band - $19.99 - Save $9.56
Lost Planet 2 - $49.99 - Save $7.00

[Xbox 360]

NIER - $44.99 - Save $11.00
Lego Rock Band - $19.99 - Save $7.79
Lost Planet 2 - $49.99 - Save $7.00

[Nintendo DS]

Princess on Ice - $14.00 - Save $15.99
Petz Wild Animals Tigerz - $16.06 - Save $10.75

[Nintendo Wii]

Sengoku Basara Samurai Heroes - $39.99 - Save $10.00

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Source: Amazon - Nowinstock

Fallout: New Vegas Box Art and Screenshots

The box art for Fallout: New Vegas was released recently, and you can see it for each version of the game to the right.

People all over agree that Fallout 3’s box art was better. But this one is the final version, so there won’t be any changes. Just deal with it. The game inside the box should be a killer one anyway.

And there are some new screenshots for the game too:

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Source: Here’s the final Fallout: New Vegas box art [Bethblog]

Call of Duty: Devils Brigade - MIA

Bang! You’re dead! No, I shot you! Mom!

A BlogSpot blog was spotted, which was started this year, belonging to one Leonid Korostyshevskiy and contains some leaked images of yet another Call of Duty title, that perhaps very few people know about, besides the people making it of course.

Call of Duty: Devil’s Brigade was a World War II themed FPS, but instead of taking place in Normandy like most of the run of the mill WWII shooters, this one was to be set in Italy.

It was being developed by Underground Development, most notable known for being involved with the PS3 version of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars as well as Guitar Hero: Van Halen, and was going to appear on PS3 and Xbox 360, but the project was shut down when the studio was closed by Activision, and it didn’t see the light of day. Not all that surprising or saddening, seeing as people are tired of WWII shooters nowadays, and Activision latched onto Modern Warfare instead.

Looking at the dates on the screens, it looks as though these were taken in 2007, the same year as CoD 4: Modern Warfare and before World at War. And if you look at the bottom it says there “CoD 4”. Apparently the game played a bit like Ghost Recon, and there’s even some clips of gameplay footage on YouTube.

Doing some research, there was a Devil’s Brigade, also known as 1st Special Service Force, which was active during WWII. It was comprised of both American and Canadian Commandos, and they fought in Italy and Southern France, before being disbanded in 1944, before the war’s end. The Devil’s Brigade has been the influence behind a few films and doccies, one of which is Inglourious Basterds.

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Sources:

superannuation
http://artbrigada.blogspot.com/

2010/05/18

Ronnie James Dio Passes Away at 67 [Music]

Heavy Metal legend Ronnie James Dio, otherwise known as Ronald James Padavona, passed away the other day. He died of stomach cancer at the age of 67. He was diagnosed with the disease a few months ago.

“Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever.” - Wendy Dio

Known as Dio for short, he was likely most known for being in the band Black Sabbath, replacing Ozzy Osbourne as the lead singer, and afterwards starting his own eponymous band, Dio, and then forming Heaven & Hell. Before Black Sabbath there was also Elf and Rainbow – not to mention many other bands he was in over the years.
Dio is also credited with having popularised the devil’s horns gesture.
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Sources:

http://www.ronniejamesdio.com/
Heavy Metal Legend Ronnie James Dio Passes Away [Digg]

Thievious Update: Medieval Magical Mayhem

Thievious is another Thief-inspired mod for Doom 3, much like The Dark Mod. Except it’s aim is to be a multiplayer coop game, and in addition to this, the latest update for the game sees you using magical powers, perhaps inspired by the Pagan Shamans and Hammerite Priests from the Thief series, or even the Imps from the Doom series. Who knows? Maybe both.

These powers include the conjuring of fireballs, like the picture shows, as well as manipulating the environment with telekinesis.

The picture above likely looks a little fuzzy because it might well be a screen taken from a clip of the gameplay. Either that or it’s a LQ screenshot.

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Sources:

Thievious Work In Progress Update 3 [ModDB]
Thievious Update 3 [PlanetDoom]

2010/05/17

Dead Space 2 Coming to PC After All, New Screenshots and Trailer

The PC version of Dead Space 2 was in doubt for a while, but then some financial record was seen, and on it it said that a PC version of the title was scheduled for Q1 2011.

EA later confirmed that Dead Space 2 is in fact arriving on the PC, tweeting on twitter:

"Dead Space PC lovers can relax! Dead Space 2 is officially coming to PC."

The game is also arriving on consoles and handhelds next year, and EA wants to make sure that fans of the first game are happy with the sequel:

“One of the focuses of the development team is to listen to the various types of feedback.”

“We do different sets of focus testing, we’re always checking out our Facebook page to see what the community is saying, and we have to balance all that feedback, as you said, to make sure that the game comes out as the players want it.”

“One of our goals with the game, is to make sure that when we release it, is making sure that it surpasses what we did with the previous game. That’s important to us.”

“Also, another thing that’s important to us, is for the people that have supported us this long, that have been into the franchise, are happy with what we deliver.”

“So, we’re paying a lot of attention, we’re going back and forth as far as a lot of different tweaks and things that we’re going to do to the game to make sure it’s a game that people want.”

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Sources:

Dead Space 2 Now Confirmed For PC [G4tv]

Dead Space 2: Visceral wants to make sure fans are “happy” with sequel [VG247]

Valve’s Portal is Free for PC and Mac until May 24

Valve’s Mac supported version of Steam is out, and one of their most critically acclaimed titles next to Half-Life, Portal, is being offered completely free until May 24, 2010. This goes for both the PC and Mac versions of the title.

I’ve played it as part of the Orange Box years ago, and although yes, it had it’s good puzzle solving stuff going on, it was a bit short, and too be honest, a bit boring. I mean – no guns… no enemies to use said guns on? Come on!

Still, to get a game of this calibre for free is a good deal, and worth looking into if you need a less violent FPS.

Get Portal here or here.

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Source: Portal Is Free [RPS]

Fable III Could be Coming to PC as well as Xbox 360

I’ve never really cared much for Fable, one of Peter Molyneux’s and Lionhead’s biggest franchises, before. That is until it was said recently that Fable III, the latest game in the series, might well be coming to the PC.

Well, besides this, there is the man, the legend, John Cleese, who will take the part of Jasper the butler.

The first game was available on PC, Mac, and Xbox, and the previous title in the series, Fable II, was an Xbox 360 exclusive, and it was thought that Fable III would be the same, but the box art for the game claims that it will be arriving "Only on Xbox 360 & Windows”.

This box art could just be incorrect though, as earlier placeholder box art for the game claimed it was Xbox 360 only. Molyneux has said that he would like to see the franchise come to the PC before, and Lionhead some time ago was looking for someone to ‘convert and maintain the network code of the Xbox 360 version of Fable III to the PC and enable the Xbox 360 version and the PC version to play together’.

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Source: Fable 3 box art crowned with windows label [Joystiq]

2010/05/16

Video Games Coming out This Week [May 16-22, 2010]: Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Alan Wake

This week has a lot of games coming out. It’s the high point of Q2 2010 now, and Alan Wake is coming out for the Xbox 360. The PC version is no more, as the studio, Remedy, said it couldn’t handle two versions of the game, because it was too small.

Red Dead Redemption, by Rockstar, is also out this week for consoles, and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is also arriving too. I’ve forgotten how many games in the PoP series Ubisoft has managed to milk out over the past several years. The PC version will be out next month.

So it’s definitely a console week then.

Available links go to game detail pages at retail and digital distribution outlets like Amazon and Steam, etc. You can also check out my Amazon aStore for the latest and greatest games released this year.

[PC]

Dragon Age: Origins - Darkspawn Chronicles
Fantasy Earth Zero [Free MMO]
Legio
Runaway: A Twist of Fate
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episode Two - The Tomb of Sammun-Mak
Shrek Forever After
Split/Second
Sword of the Stars: Complete Collection

[Xbox 360]

Alan Wake
Alan Wake Limited Collector's Edition
AQUA - Naval Warfare [XBLA]
Attack of the Movies 3-D
Dragon Age: Origins - Darkspawn Chronicles
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Red Dead Redemption
Shrek Forever After
Split/Second

[PlayStation 3]

Dragon Age: Origins - Darkspawn Chronicles
Gundemonium Recollection
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Red Dead Redemption
Rocket Knight [PSN]
Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse Episode Two - The Tomb of Sammun-Mak [PSN]
Shrek Forever After
Split/Second
Supermarket Mania

[PSP]

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Supermarket Mania

[Nintendo Wii]

Attack of the Movies 3-D
BIT.TRIP RUNNER [WiiWare]
Boot Camp Academy
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Shrek Forever After
Trauma Team

[Nintendo DS]

Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow
Frogger Returns [DSiWare]
Imagine: Animal Doctor Care Center
Looksley's Line Up [DSiWare]
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Shrek Forever After

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Sources:

The Release List of 5/16 - 5/22: Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake, Prince of Persia and More [Shacknews]
New Releases Week of May 16, 2010 [Gamespot]

Raven Could Be Making Call of Duty Titles [Rumblings]

Some might say that Activision is in crisis. Their “A Team”, Infinity Ward, has been emptied over the past month or two since Jason West and Vince Zampella were fired, and the legal fallout came to light.

Activision has three Call of Duty games that we know of. There’s Black Ops, in development at Treyarch, and there’s an untitled CoD game by Sledgehammer, which sources say could be something like ‘Future Warfare’, ‘Advanced Warfare’, ‘Secret Warfare’, or ‘Space Warfare’, according to recent discoveries based on domain and trademark registrations by Activision. The third is obviously Modern Warfare 3.

There’s a rumour floating around the internet that Raven, another studio owned by the publisher, is going to be making DLC map packs for Black Ops.

But the question that everyone wants to know is: who the hell is going to work on Modern Warfare 3? Bungie certainly made it clear that they don’t want to.

Now, I must be honest when I’ve made clear my impressions of Raven titles in general. They’re good – just not great. Look at Wolfenstein or Quake 4 to get my drift. But their latest effort, Singularity, when released, might be the telling factor in whether it would be a good move to potentially let them handle Modern Warfare – Activision’s most profitable franchise.

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Sources:

Rumor: Raven Working on New Call of Duty [Shacknews]

Trademark and Domain registrations [Superannuation]