Author - Jerry Paxton

The 7th Guest 3: The Collector Kickstarter Unveiled

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MEDFORD, OREGON – Trilobyte Games, LLC today announced the final episode in the studio’s blockbuster franchise; The 7th Guest: 3, and unveiled a new Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign designed to underwrite production of the videogame.

The 7th Guest was released in 1993. At the time, Bill Gates called it: “…the new standard in interactive entertainment.” The title sold over 2 million copies and drove hardware sales. The sequel,The 11th Hour, was released in the fall of 1995.

“We’ve been waiting to make The 7th Guest: 3 for a long time,” said Rob Landeros, co-founder, creative director and CEO of Trilobyte Games. “The team’s in place; new puzzles are in development, and the most notorious villain in all gaming, Henry Stauf, is poised to return and finish the story that begin in The 7th Guest.  With the launch of our Kickstarter campaign, we’re turning to our fans and the gaming community to provide the only remaining ingredient, development and production funding.”

In The 7th Guest: 3, Stauf’s house is filled with 20 devilishly clever puzzles that will test wits–and scare even the most jaded gamers. The house is not only filled with puzzles, it is a puzzle; one gigantic, mechanical mind-bender. To complete the game and the story, players must solve every puzzle in the house and the puzzle of the house itself. Only then will the final, dreadful secret of that brilliant madman, Henry Stauf, be revealed.

While the gameplay of T7G3 will fairly closely follow that of The 7th Guest and 11th Hour, Trilobyte plans to thoroughly leverage touch-screen, mobile technology, and modern standards in video-game presentation to bring players the 7th Guest of their fondest dreams (and nightmares)!  “We are committed to staying true to the spirit of the original 7th Guest,” said Landeros.

The new Stauf mansion will be rendered in beautiful high-definition, extensively renovated and furnished with hundreds of interesting new items. The house’s remodelers won’t stint on redecoration. The grand, revamped edifice will be something of an historical museum.

“We estimate development and production time of approximately one year to finish this final episode,” said Landeros. “Our team is already working and we’re the kind of studio that delivers on its promises, so be ready.”  Company officials note that the price of the new game is not yet set, but is anticipated to be in the $29.95 per copy range for PCs and Macs.

Kickstarter is all about rewards. And Team Trilobyte has cooked up some creative incentives to motivate its target funders. “How’d you like to be immortalized in a blockbuster game?” asked Landeros. “At the highest donor levels, we reward backers with portraits and busts of their likeness at prominent points in the mansion – as well as a producer’s credit on the title. True fans may secure, with a major donation, an invitation to dine with Stauf in costume, party with the team, and tour the actual mansion modeled in the game.”

Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z Release Date and Trailer

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BURLINGAME, Calif. – OCTOBER 31, 2013 – TECMO KOEI America and Team NINJA announced today that YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z will launch in North America on March 4, 2014 for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Steam® (PC) and Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Additionally, a new trailer has been released, introducing Miss Monday, YAIBA’s in-game tour guide, as well as offering an in-depth look at how Yaiba’s newly implemented skills will deliver increasingly gruesome kills.

In YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z, players battle fierce zombies as YAIBA, a cyborg ninja brought back to life with cyber-technology, who will do anything for revenge. Brandishing his deadly ninja sword and the mecha weapons integrated into his cyborg arm, he slaughters zombies with brutal, over-the-top abandon.

Step into a stylized living comic book where stunning graphics depict a world gone mad overflowing with hordes of the undead.  Only YAIBA’s drive for retribution and willingness to use any means necessary to get the job done can stop the countless waves of zombies in his path. YAIBA’s lust to kill is insatiable as he mercilessly slices through masses of enemies with his sword, or the array of weapons accessible via his cyborg arm. Miss Monday is Yaiba’s virtual escort and is vital to his survival. However, not even she is safe from his brash, unbridled sarcasm.

YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z comes from the two teams behind the most famous ninja and zombie videogame creations as Team NINJA and legendary producer Keiji Inafune team up to create a new experience. The world of the ninja meets undead warriors, cybernetic weapons, comic books, in an entirely new IP that draws from the NINJA GAIDEN franchise with a host of bold, new features including an original storyline and style of gameplay.

Always intense, never boring, YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z is violent, creative, and daringly different. Sharpen your sword, fire up your cyborg arm, and prepare to GET SOME!

YAIBA: NINJA GAIDEN Z will be available for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Steam® (PC) March 4, 2014. This title has not yet been rated by the ESRB.

Trailer

Survive Trailer for Arma 3

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Prague, Czech Republic, Thursday 31st October 2013 — To reinforce the launch of the Survive campaign episode, Bohemia Interactive has released abrand new trailer for Arma 3. The first campaign episode – which introduces the conflict between the NATO, CSAT, and AAF factions – is now available as an automatic update on Steam.

In Arma 3’s campaign, players take on the role of Ben Kerry, a soldier who is a part of the NATO peacekeeping operation in the Mediterranean. Five years after the bloody civil war in the Republic of Altis & Stratis came to an end, NATO has started to withdraw its forces from the region – unknowingly creating the conditions for a Mediterranean flashpoint. Kerry’s unit, ‘Task Force Aegis’ – together with a clandestine group of UKSF operators – is soon caught up in a situation beyond their control, and trapped in a fight for survival.

Besides new playable content, the first campaign episode also provides extra building blocks for Arma 3 content creators. These come in the form of new weapons, animations, 3D objects, and scripted modules. More free content, including new vehicles, is expected to be released together with the next campaign episodes. The exact release dates of the second (Adapt) and third (Win) campaign episodes will be announced later.

Arma 3 features the large open terrains of ‘Altis’ (270 km²) and ‘Stratis’ (20 km²), 12 singleplayer showcases, 3 factions showcases, 9 multiplayer scenarios, 10 firing drill challenges, more than 20 vehicles and 40 weapons, 5 factions, the scenario editor and modding support. The singleplayer campaign is deployed across 3 campaign episodes.

People can purchase the regular Arma 3 (44.99 EUR/39.99 GBP/59.99 USD) or the Arma 3 Digital Deluxe Edition (49.99 EUR/42.99 GBP/64.99 USD) from Steam and Store.bistudio.com. A boxed version of Arma 3 is also available at many of the major retailers.

Trailer

Happy Halloween from Think Jam and Fright Night 2

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The good people over at Think Jam and the new horror flick, Fright Night 2 (now on Blu-ray and DVD), have wished us all a “Happy Halloween!” and sent over some cool e-cards. Check them out below!

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Steam Passes 65 Million Accounts

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October 30, 2013 – Valve today announced 30% growth in active accounts during the trailing 12 months on Steam, a leading platform for PC, Mac, and Linux software.

Now offering over 3,000 games and software titles to over 65 million accounts, 2013 also marked Steam’s 10 year anniversary of providing services to gamers. Expanding upon that history, Steam gamers saw the introduction of several new service features during the year, including Family Sharing, Steam Trading Cards, Early Access, and support for Linux titles.

Looking ahead to 2014, Valve looks to expand Steam’s services and offerings to gamers and developers by holding the Steam Developer Days in Seattle, WA this January and rolling out the recently announced Steam Machines with a variety of hardware partners later in the year.

“The main goal of Steam has always been to increase the quality of the user’s experience by reducing the distance between content creators and their audience,” said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. “As the platform grows, our job is to adapt to the changing needs of both the development and user communities. In the coming year, we plan to make perhaps our most significant collaborations with both communities through the Steam Dev Days and the Steam Machines beta.”

Hellraid Pushed Back to 2014

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The folks at Techland, developer of the upcoming Dying Light, have announced that they have pushed back the release of Hellraid to 2014. They also announced it would be released digitally.

From their official blog post:

“Since we started developing Hellraid we have had a clear goal to create a game that we all would love to play. We wanted to pay tribute to the best aspects of classic titles we grew up on and enhance them with new ideas, modern technology and extensive co-op that would provide players with dozens or even hundreds of hours of pure and bloody fun,” writes game producer Marcin Kruczkiewicz.

“If we released our game this year we would have to make too many compromises and the final product probably wouldn’t meet all our promises and players’ expectations.”

The decision to release Hellraid in 2014 was made in order to implement new ideas and redesign those parts of the game that fans didn’t like while playtesting the game. “For example we want to redesign the magic system to make it even more powerful and diverse, add new ways of casting spells and a set of new, more visually stunning spells,” reveals Kruczkiewicz. The team wants to use this additional time also to add new gameplay features and game modes which should make the game even more entertaining for both single player and 4-player co-op.

F1 Race Stars: Powered Up Edition Release Date

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Los Angeles – Oct. 30, 2013 – Today Codemasters® announced that F1 RACE STARS: POWERED UP EDITION will launch in December for Wii U™ and will be available exclusively from the Nintendo eShop. F1 RACE STARS: POWERED UP EDITION is a fast-to-the-fun arcade racing game for all ages, expanded with fantastic new content and features to take advantage of Wii U hardware.

For the first time on a Nintendo platform, a cast of FORMULA ONE stars, including Jensen Button, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel have become personality-packed, cartoon heroes sprinting for the checkered flag in cars representing each team on a range of super-fast, feature-packed circuits perfect for split-screen multiplayer fun.

F1 RACE STARS: POWERED UP EDITION expands the world of F1 RACE STARS with four extra tracks and nine extra accessory packs. Racing on 15 circuits around the globe, players are challenged to race through marina and dodge flying tomatoes in Europe, whip through water gardens in China, make their move through a mountain railway pass and power through a palace in India and dodge the grumpy groundhogs and motor past the mighty moose in Canada.

New content and functionality means F1 RACE STARS: POWERED UP EDITION will let players enjoy the unique advantages and gameplay options of Wii U. Features including racing as a player’s Mii and Wii U™ GamePad motion and tilt controls are integrated to use the GamePad as a steering wheel, display a map or let gamers choose to steam into the action on the GamePad.

With instantly accessible pick-up-and-play gameplay, F1 RACE STARS: POWERED UP EDITION will enable players of all ages and abilities to dive straight into position-swapping, wheel-to-wheel competition. With up to 4-players competing in split-screen multiplayer, head-to-head or coming together in teams, F1 RACE STARS: POWERED UP EDITION is perfect for sharing the fun with friends and family.

Racing fans of all ages will experience FORMULA ONE like never before as they dodge a Truckosaurus, speed past Robo-Sumos and leap into a shark’s mouth on speedy circuits inspired by 15 iconic tracks including Monaco, Silverstone and the new Circuit of Americas in Austin, Texas. Game modes include a range of globe-trotting Championships, Free Play so players can dive straight into their favorite events and Time Trials for players to set the best time in their household.

Coming this December and available exclusively from the Nintendo eShop, F1 RACE STARS: POWERED UP EDITION for Wii U is developed by Codemasters, the home of the BAFTA award-winning series of Official FORMULA ONE video games, and is created under exclusive worldwide agreement with Formula One World Championship Limited. Fans can stay in touch with all the action by liking the game at www.facebook.com/f1racestars or following the team on Twitter at www.twitter.com/f1racestars.

New Screenshots

New Screens and Music Tracks from Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition

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EDMONTON, ALBERTA — Prior to Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition’s release on November 15th, Beamdog announces concept art for new playable NPC “Hexxat”, as well as 12 new screenshots and three new music samples from the game, have been released on www.BaldursGateII.com/media.html

The original Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn, launched in September 2000, quickly becoming the most celebrated Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying video game of its time. On November 15th, 2013, gamers new and old can experience the epic continuation and conclusion of the Bhaalspawn Saga, with full HD resolution support and area art remastered from the original renders.

Set in Wizards of the Coast’s iconic Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms universe, Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition includes the adventures Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal. In addition to improved graphics and gameplay, the Enhanced Edition bundles four new allies, including Hexxat, for your party, each with their own unique quest storylines. Also bundled in the Enhanced Edition: The Black Pits 2: Gladiators of Thay, an arena challenge that puts players’ tactical skills to the ultimate test.

Visit www.BaldursGateII.com for more information.