Prey 2 Quietly Announced (UPDATED) March 12, 2011
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Prey was the game that rose from the ashes of time like the proverbial Phoenix. It has been originally announced in the late 1990s and was originally in development at 3D Realms around the same time as Duke Nukem Forever. However, the technology just was not right for the times and despite very impressive showings at E3, the game was eventually outright cancelled while development at 3D Realms focused on Duke Nukem Forever (we all know that story).
However, in summer 2006, Prey was released for the Xbox 360 and PC through a joint development between 3D Realms and Human Head Studios and published through 2K Games. Using the Doom 3 graphics engine, Prey was a unique story where you played a Native American who had abandoned his roots and needed to reclaim them in order to save his girlfriend after they are abducted off their reservation by aliens.
It was quite a deep story about heritage and resistance against overwhelming opposition. The powers you used were a part of the mythology which had been established for centuries by the Native Americans and was done with incredible respect to their culture and heritage.
The game ended on a classic denouement which promised it would be continued. In fact, many interviews with 3D Realms (who produced the first game) announced Prey 2 was already in development at Human Head. However, after some time had passed Human Head announced they were no longer working on the project and 3D Realms later confirmed this, although a reason was never given. 3D Realms was in severe problems by this point over Duke Nukem Forever’s development, and while it is likely that this had something to do with Prey 2 being put on hiatus, I have no direct evidence to cite for this conclusion.
The first Prey 2 preview has graced the cover of an overseas gaming magazine, along with the announcement of the game. No details have been released yet as I don’t believe the magazine has reached shelves yet however the latest details I have found is that Bethesda is publishing it.
I will keep you up to date on all the details on this story as it is made available!
UPDATE: Bethesda has issued a press release on their blog with the full details. The game will be developed by Human Head (who I guess is resuming work on it because they were working on it after Prey’s completion then stopped) and will use id Software’s Tech engine. More details are expected next week.
Prey 2 is coming for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2012.
CLARIFICATION: The press release mentioned that Prey 2 will use id Software’s tech engine, and a lot of websites jumped the gun that this would mean Prey 2 will use the engine that is powering RAGE and Doom 4, this is not the case. Prey 2 is using an older id engine, likely the Doom 3 or Enemy Territory: Quake Wars engine. Doom 3’s engine powered the first Prey game.
Bulletstorm Epic Edition Unboxing March 12, 2011
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Maniac unboxes the Bulletstorm Epic Edition for the Xbox 360, which includes access to the Gears of War 3 beta.
Bulletstorm is avalible for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. What makes the Xbox 360 version of the game EPIC opposed to the other versions of the game which are just considered limited editions, is on top of all the day one downloadable content included in the game (such as an exclusive map, free XP, and the ability to change colors of some of your effects) the Xbox 360 grants you access to the Gears of War 3 beta (details here) a week before other Xbox Live Gold users will get it.
See you all in the Gears of War 3 Beta!
iPad 2 Released March 11, 2011
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At 5:00pm today, the iPad 2 has been released to the public at almost every store I’ve seen. The unknown cameraman wanted one today, and we figured that the best chance we’d have to get one would be at a store that didn’t overtly flood our e-mail accounts that they would be selling one today, and that was Target.
So, here’s what it was like at my local Target. There are no Apple Stores in my area and Best Buy’s line was full by the time we got there. We were able to get an iPad at our local Target just arriving on the scene 15 minutes before 5.
My apologies for not doing an unboxing with this, I really wanted to but it was something that they were not comfortable doing. I can tell you that it includes pretty much everything an iPhone 4 came with, a USB cable, AC adapter, headphones, a quick setup guide, and Apple stickers. I did not see a dock included (which is something I think the iPad 1 did have) but since I was not permitted to see the unboxing I don’t know if it was deeper in the packaging.
Batman Arkham City Release Date March 11, 2011
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A release date for the highly anticipated sequel to 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum, Batman: Arkham City, has been announced. The first game was the sleeper hit of the summer it was released in, and offered an almost free-roaming enviroment where you could explore Arkham Asylum as the Dark Knight.
Recently it has been announced that Dr. Hugo Strange will appear in the game as one of the main villians. Other major villians that have been confirmed in screenshots include The Joker, Two Face, Harley-Quinn. There are also expected to be other appearances from other both well known and obscure characters from Batman’s long history.
In this game, Arkham Asylum has moved. The prisoners are out roaming the city, and Arkham’s walls have been expanded to keep them confined to the area of Gotham that they are inhabiting. Chaos and destruction follow in their wake, and you will have to enter that part of the city as Batman and put an end to it.
The Riddler’s challenges are also expected to get a return. In it, you’ll have to find specially marked henchmen who act as his informants. You’ll have to track these guys down to get the challenges, or you’ll be stuck having to find them yourselves.
Batman: Arkham City is coming October 18th, 2011 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.
Death Rally GDC2011 Trailer March 10, 2011
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Death Rally, the first game ever released by Remedy, who also brought you Max Payne and Alan Wake, is breaking free of DOS and coming to your Apple iPhone very soon. Here’s a trailer for it from GDC.
I remember playing the demo of this game when it was released with the Duke Nukem 1.4 Plutonium Pack CD-ROM (which hasn’t been for sale for some time). Since it was published by 3D Realms, Duke Nukem did make an appearance in the game as a competator. Since this is an updated version of the game for handheld play, Duke Nukem is likely to make a return in it, and we’ve been promised cameos from other Remedy characters, like Barry Wheeler from Alan Wake.
Death Rally is coming to iPhone this month. No specific release date or price point has been announced. You can currently obtain the original PC version of the game as freeware here.
Uncharted 3 Cutscene Released From GDC March 8, 2011
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Naughty Dog has released the first cutscene from the highly-anticipated Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Previously they had only released teaser trailers and a little bit of gameplay, but nothing concrete has been shown about the new story, just that it would take place in the desert.
Well, at GDC this week, Naughty Dog has premered a full cutscene from Uncharted 3 in 720p HD and it is glorious. The original humor that made Uncharted the important brand it is is fully intact, as well as the deep characters we all remember in Nathan Drake and his mentor and partner “Sully” Sullivan. This scene also premeres the new character Katherine Marlowe, who will be the main antagonist of the new game, and from the looks of it, it’s a character that Nathan and Sully have some history with already.
Uncharted 3 will be released November 1st, 2011 exclusive to the Playstation 3.
Hey, Naughty Dog, when’s that second part of the Behind the Scenes video coming out?
Mortal Kombat Demo Details March 7, 2011
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Release details for the demo of the next Mortal Kombat game have been announced, but they’re likely not going to make a majority of people happy. The demo is coming first only to Playstation Plus subscribers on March 8th (Tuesday) and won’t be made available for the rest of the Playstation 3 owners until March 15th. Release dates on the Xbox 360 version of the demo were not announced.
The demo will include playable characters of Johnny Cage, Scorpion, Mileena, and Sub-Zero in the Living Forest and the Pit.
Mortal Kombat will release April 19th, 2011 for PS3 and Xbox 360.
One Year Passed…Thank You March 4, 2011
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It occurred to me just a few moments ago that today marks exactly one year since I actvated this website, and my obligatory Hello World post confirmed that.
It has been one heck of a year. There have been articles, videos, news, controversies, secessions, revolutions, but more than that there have been games, games and more games.
I don’t really have anything further I want to say about the site or my thoughts on the past year right now, but if anything there are a few people I want to thank, this is mostly in chronological order.
Matt Jersey – For contributing the awesome banner you see above you, thanks a bunch Matt!
diskreader117 – For being the first person I knew who was willing to be IN FRONT of a camera.
anachronos – For being a great friend and mentor for the past ten years, and for all your contributions to the site, if you ever want to go to E3 Ruben, you just have to ask.
E3 Expo – For letting me in.
The Unknown Cameraman – For being an enigma, and a damn good handheld cameraman.
And finally…
Thank you to all the site regulars. You’ve seen my articles and videos and you just keep visiting! I hope to be seeing more of you.
Gears of War 3 Beta Dated March 4, 2011
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Microsoft has announced that the beta for the highly anticipated Xbox 360 exclusive Gears of War 3 will activate April 18th for people who own the Xbox 360 version of Bulletstorm and April 25th for everyone else. It will end on May 15th.
Unusual to beta tests, Epic promises that certain stats and goodies earned from the beta will carry over to the final version of the game. Playing any match earns you a beta tester medal for your profile. Finishing a match before April 24th will earn you the Hammerburst Weapon, finishing one match during the week of April 25th will get you a Flaming Lancer weapon, the week of May 9th will get you the Flaming Gnasher Shotgun.
There will also be other goodies. Completing 50 matches will get you an exclusive trashball Cole multiplayer skin. You will need to play 10 more matches with it on to unlock it for the final game.
Finally there will be the exclusive Golden Lancer which is unlocked for playing 90 multiplayer games. To keep it in the final game, you must kill one hundred enemies with it while unlocked.
Epic has also announced the game will come in three versions. The standard edition for $59.99 US, the Limited Edition for $79.99 US and the Epic Edition which will cost $149.99 US. I’ll post up more details about these editions as they are released.
Gears of War 3 is coming September 20th, 2011 exclusive to the Xbox 360.
iPad 2 Announced March 3, 2011
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Apple has announced in a press event which featured Steve Jobs himself that a successor to the popular iPad, dubbed the iPad 2, will be coming in March.
The iPad was the first consumer tablet released by Apple which was based around the operating system which was used in the iPhone and iPod touch. It was a larger iPhone with a faster processor. You could get online access either through local WiFi or if you paid $130 extra you could buy a model which ran off AT&T’s cellular network for a monthly fee.
The problems from the first model all seemed to revolve around the fact that two people could not communicate through them, as you could with the less expensive iPhones, even if you had a cellular model. This model seems to answer that. Similar to the current iPhone 4 and iPod Touch designs, the iPad 2 will have two cameras (one on the front and one on the rear) which can be used for taking pictures or capturing video in 720p. The cameras will also fully support Apple’s Facetime client, which allows for full duplex voice and video chat between iPhones, 4th Generation iPod Touch, and camera equipped Mac computers.
The iPad retains the same screen size and resolution as the previous model, boasting a resolution of 1024×768 (slighly higher than an iPhone 4’s screen resolution). The new iPad 2 processor is dual core, promising faster processing speeds, and Apple promises this will not impact battery life.
The iPad 2 will release at the same price point and storage capaity options as the current iPad, which are expected to be phased out entirely in retail. The operating system that powers it, iOS 4.3, will be made avalible for current iPads, 3rd and 4th generation iPod Touch, iPhone 3GS and the GSM equipped iPhone 4. iOS 4.3 will bring WiFi tethering options to the iPhone 4. It will be released March 11th, 2011.
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