Tag Archive: news


Job Listings Point to Open-World, Next-Gen Star Wars Game Coming from EA Canada

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November 27, 2013

An EA Canada job listing suggests that an open-world Star Wars game is in development at the studio, Kotaku reports.

One of the listings, specifically for an animation director position, mentions that they’re looking for someone “…to help define and deliver on the vision for a major new next-gen open world action game.”

This would make EA Canada the third EA studio to start work on a Star Wars title since EA and Disney agreed to a 10-year licensing deal a short while ago. The other two studios are DICE, which is currently working on a new next-gen Star Wars: Battlefront, and Visceral Studios, which is working on a yet unnamed project that was revealed back in May by their own job listings.

Two other recent listings for Star Wars executive producers, one for EA Canada and another for Visceral Games, are almost identical and could signify a joint venture between the studios. 

EA Canada is best known for its work in developing both the NHL and FIFA sports franchises. The extra hires would make sense for the studio, since it would surely need to bolster its staff to take on another franchise, let alone one such as this (or even to collaborate with another studio, especially with the prospect of this being an open-world action title).

It doesn’t matter, though, if EA Canada is working with someone or alone, Star Wars fans everywhere must be excited by the prospect of multiple next-gen adventures coming their way at some point. Here’s hoping the Force is stronger with this one than it was with Star Wars: 1313. 

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VGX Nominations Announced, GTAV Leads All Nominees

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The VGX (formerly SpikeTV’s VGAs) have released the full list of nominees across their 21 awards categories.

Twenty of the awards are voted on by an advisory panel of 23 experts from around the videogame industry, with the last award, Most Anticipated Game, being voted on by the public.

Leading the way this year is Grand Theft Auto V with nine nominations, including Game of the Year, Best Soundtrack, and a Studio of the Year nom for Rockstar North. Bioshock Infinite has the second most with eight nominations, and The Last of Us comes next with seven. Both are also up for Game of the Year. To see all the categories and nominations, you can head over to the official VGX website.

The VGX is a rebranding of the long-running videogame awards show meant to coincide with the advent of next-gen consoles and a move to live, digital streaming across a variety of gaming platforms and Viacom Properties including Spike.com, ComedyCentral.com, MTV.com, GameTrailers.com, and more.

The new digital format will allow the VGX to focus an entire day solely on gaming, including the world premieres and breaking news the show is known for. The awards kick off live Saturday, December 7, at 6 p.m. Eastern Time, 3 p.m. Pacific.

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Electrocutioner Added to List of Villains in Batman: Arkham Origins

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October 29, 2013

During their Saturday night panel at NYCC 2013, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment revealed the Electrocutioner, the sixth in the group of eight assassins hunting Batman in Batman: Arkham Origins.

Electrocutioner joins the likes of Deadshot, Deathstroke, Bane, Copperhead, and Firefly. It’s unlikely the other two assassins will be revealed before the game’s launch.

For those of you who don’t know, the Electrocutioner first appeared in Batman #331 in January of 1981, but three different men have worn this mantle. Batman: Arkham Origins’ Electrocutioner looks to model itself after the third and most recent one, Lester Buchinsky, who was brother to the original Electrocutioner and first appeared in Dectective Comics #644 in May of 1992.

The Electrouctioner’s only real ability is that his suit can generate enough electricity to kill a man, but he can dial it down to simply stun his target if he so chooses. It’s safe to assume this is the boss battle where Batman will get the previously revealed Shock Gauntlets, and this fight will more than likely take place early on in the story.

No one who has been the Electrocutioner has even risen above C-list status in Batman’s Rogues Gallery. The villain has pestered Batman, Robin, and Nightwing on various occasions with no success due to his numerous shortcomings. In this new rendition, it looks like Buchinsky is just as stupid as ever, evident by his badly burned face (which probably comes from playing with electricity a tad too much).

Buchinsky’s addition has this Bat-fan worried in regards to how much Origins has scraped the bottom of the barrel to flesh out their cast of assassins, and then seemingly added Black Mask, Penguin, Mad Hatter, and Joker on top of it all just to try to balance the villainous catalog with some A-listers. While I wouldn’t be surprised if another strong assassin like Lady Shiva were one of the remaining two—it would help balance the male to female ratio and could introduce Ra’s Al Ghul and the League of Assassins (might be good to have a whole league in there if the game revolves around assassins)—I still don’t know if it’s enough to warrant the addition of weaklings like Electrocutioner. I suppose one positive note about his inclusion is that Steve Blum will voice him.

Batman: Arkham Origins launches October 25 worldwide on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U, and PC.

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Pokémon Bank App Launching December 27, Costs $4.99 Annually

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The Pokémon Bank app will launch on the 3DS eShop on December 27, Nintendo of America announced today on their official Twitter account.

According to the app’s official FAQ, there will be an annual fee of $4.99, meant to help maintain and manage the servers, to use the app. If you sign up before January 31, 2014, however, you’ll be given a free 30-day voucher.

The Pokémon Bank will provide players with 100 different boxes online to store Pokémon in, giving them the potential to store 3,000 different Pokémon on Nintendo’s servers, which can then be accessed at anytime through the Pokémon X/Y software.

If you sign up for the Pokémon Bank, you’ll also get the Pokémon Transporter companion app for free, which allows you to move Pokémon from Pokémon Black and White and Black and White 2 into the bank. Those Pokémon can be transferred into Pokémon X and Y, linking the two most recent generations of Pokémon together. This is only a one-way move, however, so you can’t bring Pokémon in X and Y to Black and White.

For more info on the Pokémon Bank, including a way to theoretically bring Pokémon from as far back as Ruby and Sapphire to X and Y, check out the Pokémon FAQ page here.

Pokémon X and Y launches exclusively for Nintendo 3DS worldwide on October 12. EGM’s full review will go live next week, on Monday, October 7.

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Call of Duty: Ghosts Trailer Explains ‘Squads’

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With only a month left before Call of Duty: Ghosts drops, Activision has released a trailer highlighting a new multiplayer option for players called “Squads.”

Call of Duty: Ghosts’ multiplayer features 10 different loadouts for players to customize and level up via experience points earned in battle. Squads allows you to take all of those loadouts at once and play alongside them in four AI-driven modes: Wargame, Squad vs. Squad, Squad Assault, and Safeguard.

To get the full rundown on each mode in Squads and what it entails, be sure to check out the trailer below.

Aside from being an interesting option in its own right, Squads has the dual purpose of allowing players to learn maps and get some practice under their belt if they feel intimidated by the more hardcore Call of Duty players out there. They can learn against bots that scale to their skill level without having to worry about their K/D ratio getting demolished right out of the gate.

Call of Duty: Ghosts will be available on Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and Wii U worldwide on November 5, and will serve as a launch title for both the PS4 and Xbox One.

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UDON Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Release of Street Fighter Origins: Akuma

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September 23, 2013

In order to celebrate their 10th anniversary and continuing relationship with Capcom, as well as mark the publishing of their 150th original book, UDON Entertainment has released Street Fighter Origins: Akuma.

One of the most feared fighters in the world, Akuma, Master of the Fist and wielder of the Dark Hado, has always been a Street Fighter fan favorite. Never before though have we been able to learn just how Akuma came to be and what drove him down his sinister path. Following him from his youth in rural Japan, we see how this once innocent boy becomes trapped on the path of chaos.

Even if you’re not a big fan of Street Fighter, at the very least you can always appreciate UDON’s high quality work. Artist Joe Ng delivers the kind of breathtaking visuals that define UDON books, and Chris Sarracini’s story makes sure there’s plenty of action, which you’d expect would punctuate the early life of someone as destructive as Akuma.

Street Fighter Origins: Akuma is a 128-page, 8” x 11” hardcover graphic novel retailing for $34.95. The title is available now wherever comic books are sold.

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Capcom Hypes Up DuckTales: Remastered with Limited Edition Gold NES Cartridge

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September 5, 2013

In anticipation of next week’s release of DuckTales: Remastered on PSN, Nintendo eShop, and Steam, and next month’s release on XBLA, Capcom sent a special package out to remind some of us of those great childhood memories we might’ve had playing the game.

At first we here at the EGM office thought it was just a lunchbox with the sweet art for DuckTales: Remastered plastered on the front. A fine piece of swag in and of itself. But, as I am wont to do with most packages that come into the EGM office, I gave it a good hearty shake before placing it down and realized there was something inside the tin bin.

Upon opening it, to our joyful surprise, we found the contents of the box were possibly as valuable as the whole of Scrooge’s moneybin. The lunchbox had been holding a limited edition golden NES cartridge for DuckTales (ours was numbered 107 of 150). Now, we don’t know if the cartridge is actually a legitimate, playable cartridge, but it has contacts and is well put together enough that we at least vow to bring an NES into the office tomorrow to try it out.

Along with the cartridge came a certificate of authenticity, several Duckburg themed coupons similar to those that you might find in an old school NES box, and advertisements from Capcom to check out some of their other classic games like MegaMan, Bionic Commando, and Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins.

You can check out the fully laid out contents of the box in the pictures below. Woo-oo!

UPDATE:

The NES cartridge does indeed work after some tests (and several NES’s) and is the 1989 version of the game.

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Cavalcade of Characters Confirmed for LEGO Marvel Super Heroes

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July 23, 2013

As part of the Marvel Video Games panel Saturday at San Diego ComicCon, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes game director Arthur Parsons revealed a plethora of the 150 characters that look to inhabit TT Games’ LEGO-fied Marvel Universe.

A special focus was given to the heavies, the hulking brutes who are far larger than most LEGO characters and were given their own trailer (embedded below). In it we see the Blob, Rhino, Kingpin, Lizard, Colossus, the Thing, and the Juggernaut join the likes of the Hulk and Abomination. We even catch a brief glimpse of Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armor in LEGO form.

Parsons had more up his sleeve at Comic-Con, playing a slideshow that a whole host of other Marvel characters set to make their LEGO debut. This list included the likes of:

  • Dr. Doom
  • Jean Grey
  • Beast
  • Gambit
  • Storm
  • Elektra
  • Magneto
  • Vulture
  • Silver Samurai
  • Punisher
  • Green Goblin
  • Iron Patriot (pre-order bonus)
  • Squirrel Girl
  • Sabertooth
  • Deadpool
  • Howard the Duck

And to cap off the cast additions, Parsons revealed that some Marvel execs, including the legendary Stan Lee (who then appeared on stage to arguably the loudest applause of the entire Con) would also appear in the game.

At the heartfelt behest of a young boy, Parsons also revealed that Doctor Strange had made the cut, and mentioned that Troy Baker will be playing Loki, Clark Gregg will reprise his role of Agent Coulson, and Nolan North returns to the character of Deadpool.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes’ brick-building mayhem commences on the Xbox 360, PS3, PC, 3DS, DS, PS Vita, and Wii U this fall (sometime later for Xbox One and PS4). Excelsior!

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Ultimate Warrior Confirmed as WWE2K14 Pre-Order Bonus

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Weighing in at 280 lbs. and hailing from Parts Unknown, The Ultimate Warrior will be playable in WWE2K14—if you pre-order the game.

This is a big deal for many wrestling fans. It marks the first time The Ultimate Warrior will appear in the yearly WWE franchise (having previously appeared only in WWE: Legends of Wrestlemania and WWE All-Stars). Many believe it was the strained relationship Warrior had with the WWE that resulted in his exclusion in the WWE games.

The Warrior celebrated the news with a visit to 2K Games, which you can see in the trailer embedded below.

Known for his phenomenal intensity in and around the ring, The Ultimate Warrior’s career peaked in 1990, when he knocked off Hulk Hogan at Wrestlemania VI in “The Ultimate Challenge,” during which both Hogan’s WWE Title and Warrior’s Intercontinental Title were on the line. This marked the first time one man held both belts, although it would be short-lived—Warrior would have to vacate the IC belt due to a stipulation at the time that no man could hold both titles. Not even an Ultimate one.

“Immortality is inspiration, pure and simple. An example to others that they, too, can do things larger than the life they are actually living, and Ultimate Warrior was the pure embodiment of this belief, in what has proven to be a very attention-getting and inspiring way,” said Warrior. “It was my good fortune to be his creator and performer, and I am humbled by all those fans who’ve not only kept his legacy alive, but deepened it over time. In WWE2K14, Ultimate Warrior’s creed, ‘Always Believe,’ lives on.”

You’ll get a chance to relive some of Warrior’s best matches if you “always believe” when WWE2K14 Gorilla Press Drops and then Running Splashes onto Xbox 360 and PS3 on October 29, 2013.

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New Pokémon Gameplay Trailer Reveals Several New Species, New Villains

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A new trailer for Pokémon X & Y highlights several new species of Pokémon, shows cover Pokémon Xerneas and Yveltal in action, and introduces key characters we’ll meet on our journey through the Kelos region.

Two Pokémon in particular caught my eye: the new Dark- and Fighting-type Pokémon, Pangoro—who looks like an angry panda—and the new Fairy-type Pokémon, Swirlix, which looks like cotton candy. In the trailer (embedded below), Swirlix can be seen using a move called Draining Kiss, a new move that’s basically the Fairy equivalent of Absorb for Grass types.

Meanwhile, Xerneas, officially revealed as a Fairy-type, uses a new move exclusive to its arsenal: Geomancy, which generates rainbow-colored light from the ground to damage enemies.

Not to be outdone, Yveltal uses its own exclusive move, Oblivion Wing, which sees the Dark- and Flying-type Pokémon take to the sky to blast a heat ray at its opponents. Kinda reminds me of Superman.

Some of the key human characters players will meet were also revealed, including Professor Augustine Sycamore—the man who will likely give us our first Pokémon—and Team Flare, the red-obsessed bad guys who surely wish to steal Pokémon for their own nefarious schemes.

Players will have the chance to come face to face with these new characters when Pokémon X & Y becomes available worldwide on October 12, 2013, for the Nintendo 3DS.

Check the full trailer out for yourselves:

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