Alan Wake’s American Nightmare – Super Effective Sales Trailer April 5, 2012
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I found myself enjoying Alan Wake’s American Nightmare quite a bit (as I’m sure anyone who watched my So, What Happened? video could probably tell). But this new trailer for the game has me on the floor laughing!
Props for cameos by Sam Lake as Mr. Scratch’s writer!
Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is out now exclusively for the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade!
Bungie Homepage No Longer Supporting Halo April 2, 2012
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Over the weekend, many people probably noticed that Bungie.net was no longer recording or allowing you to modify statistics in any of their Halo games. That’s because as of 3/31/12, the last remnants of Bungie’s support for Halo has finally closed.
It’s really unfortunate as Bungie has probably kept the best online multiplayer stats page since the days of Halo 2, and allowed its users a whole range of customization options. For example, the ability to get Recon Armor in Halo 3 exclusively required use of the Bungie.net site in addition to completing all seven of the VidMaster Achievements in Halo 3 and Halo 3 ODST. It was also the place where you could enable features like Nameplates in Halo Reach, which can now no longer be altered.
The Bungie Mobile App has been updated to remove stat tracking for Halo Reach, as well as the Love, Bungie gifts the app gave you like the Blue Flame effect and the Star Nameplate as those features no longer work.
This has been a long time coming of course, but it it still sad when it happens. A lot of functionality in the Halo games have been moved to the Halo Waypoint, but there are still some features that just can’t be replaced in our memories.
The last records Bungie kept ended on March 31st, 2012. You can read the full information about all they have logged right here. It’s been a great ride. If you want to hear what my personal feelings were about the past ten years of Bungie, check out “This Halo Life“.
New Episodes of Alan Wake’s Night Springs On Display March 27, 2012
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The original Alan Wake did a fantastic job at establishing the depth of the universe that Remedy had created for it. You could turn on a radio and hear the chatter of Pat Maine, The Night Owl, who could keep you in touch with what was going on in other parts of the town or what the consequences of your actions were.
Another thing you could do was turn on a TV and watch the game’s original programming. The show Night Springs was Alan Wake’s answer to classic pop horror shows like The Twilight Zone. In fact, the game had established that Alan had originally written a few episodes of the show back when he was just a fledgling writer. This little tidbit is very important information for anyone who plays Alan Wake’s American Nightmare.
I loved these episodes, and while you could always watch them on the TVs in the game, now they’ve been posted online. But that’s not all, apparently there were three MORE episodes of Night Springs produced which never made it into the final version of the game, and they will be posted very soon!
The first new episode is up, give it a look!
Two more episodes are to come!
Silent Hill HD Collection Does Not Have Original Voices For Silent Hill 3 March 24, 2012
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I know I already did a post that Silent Hill HD Collection gave users a choice to listen to the original voice over for Silent HIll 2 or a newly recorded voice over. It turns out Konami did not offer players this choice for Silent Hill 3.
When Silent Hill HD Collection was announced, the developers announced that they would be recording new voice overs for the re-release, but they only mentioned that it would be new voice overs for Silent Hill 2. The response to this announcement was overwhelmingly negative (as I noted earlier). In fact the response was so negative Konami changed their mind and included both the original and new voice over for Silent Hill 2 in the final version of the game. As far as I know what has gotten no mention was that new voice recordings were apparently also done for Silent Hill 3, and unlike Silent Hill 2, there isn’t a menu option to choose the original.
My apologies for taking a while to post about this, espessailly after the quick post that Silent Hill 2, but unlike Silent Hill 2, I never actually played the original version of Silent Hill 3, and had no frame of reference for if the voice over changed or not. I did however, upon starting a playthrough of the game, compare the game’s voices to online recordings of Silent Hill 3, and noted that the voices do not match.
The Playstation 3 version of the game did recieve a 250mb or so 1.1 patch this week. I have not been able to find any patch notes about it online so I don’t know what it did to the game, but when I did check the voice over it was after the game had been patched, so the patch did not affect this.
Disney Epic Mickey 2 Announcement Trailer March 23, 2012
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First premiered last night on Spike TV, here is the announcement trailer for Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of 2.
If you’d like more details about the game, you can watch the episode of GameTrailersTV it premiered on right here.
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of 2 is coming Fall 2012 to Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii.
Epic Mickey Sequel Reveal Tonight March 22, 2012
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Tonight at 1am EST on Spike TV and Spike HD Warren Spector and Geoff Knightly will be premiering the first trailer and five minutes of gameplay footage for Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of 2.
The first Epic Mickey released as an exclusive to the Nintendo Wii and saw Mickey Mouse using paint and thinner to navigate through an apocalyptic wasteland made specifically for forgotten Disney characters. Along the way he runs into the Wasteland’s defender, Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, the first forgotten cartoon character.
Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of 2 promises to feature the return of Mickey Mouse and Oswald The Lucky Rabbit and is releasing for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. More details and a trailer is expected to air tonight during GametrailersTV.
Silent Hill HD Collection Includes Original Voice Overs for Silent Hill 2 March 20, 2012
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Just a very quick post script here folks because I know there was a huge issue about this for the past few months. Shortly after Konami announced that they were re-releasing Silent Hill 2 and 3 with the Silent Hill HD Collection they announced that the updated game would feature brand new voice overs.
Based on a lot of the comments I read on several internet retailers, the internet very quickly went into an uproar over this news. Silent Hill 2 had been out for so long that its original audio was just as classic as the rest of the game, and many fans did not want the audio changed for the HD Collection. The Silent Hill HD Collection, which originally was intended for release towards the end of 2011 got delayed, and delayed. I heard some musings online that the reason for the delays was because Konami changed their mind and decided to include the original voice over along with the new voice recordings.
I’m happy to inform everyone that the original voice over for Silent Hill 2 is included in the released retail version of Silent Hill HD Collection. Since I live in North America, my version is NTSC region 1, so I can’t speak for any other versions of the game that may have released in other territories. If you live in Europe or Japan and would like to post a comment about this feel free to.
UPDATE: Silent Hill HD Collection features new voice overs for Silent Hill 3, but unlike Silent Hill 2, does not offer the option to play with the original voice over.
Expect an unboxing very soon!
The Making of Silent Hill 2 and 3 March 20, 2012
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It’s March, Konami’s self-appointed Silent Hill month! Three major Silent Hill games are slated for release in the month of March. Those games are Silent Hill: Book of Memories, the Silent Hill Vita game, Silent Hill: Downpour, the new Silent Hill game, and today saw the release of Silent Hill HD Collection! For $39.99US it includes Silent Hill 2 and 3, (highly regarded as two of the best games of the series), updated for modern HD game consoles.
In honor of the HD Collection release, I’m going to do something kind of special for you guys. I did some digging through the internet archives and found this video someone had taken the time to resurrect. Two official making of documentaries for Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3. They’re extremely well made, and as far as I know, they were only released in Europe.
Enjoy and expect an unboxing later.
Silent Hill HD Collection is out now for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
David Cage KARA Interview March 13, 2012
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Sony has released this interview they did with David Cage from Quantic Dream, where he talks about the KARA demo he showed at this year’s GDC which has gotten a tremendous response. The interview features a ton of behind the scenes information about the growth of Quantic Dream since the release of Heavy Rain (their previous game) and what they’re hoping to achieve with this technology.
If you want to hear about my experiences with Quantic Dream, feel free to check out my latest Mind of Maniac.
Journey Releases Today March 13, 2012
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If you’re not a Playstation Plus subscriber, Journey, the third Playstation 3 game by thatgamecompany, will launch today for purchase and download on the Playstation Store.
Journey expands on thatgamecompany’s philosophy of game design and has its player searching through a desert with the goal to reach a mountain in the distance. Along the way you solve puzzles and may be assisted by an anonymous second player brought in through the Playstation Network.
As this is the third game from thatgamecompany for the Playstation 3, previous games that they’ve made are still available including FlOw and my personal favorite Playstation Network exclusive game, Flower.
As I said before, you can already buy the game if you’re a Playstation Plus user, if you’re not the game is available for preorder up to the moment it launches. Journey is $14.99 US and exclusive to the PS3.
