Author - Jerry Paxton

Activision Sends Us Call of the Dead Poster


The good folks at Activision have sent out some pretty cool items to promote the upcoming Call of the Dead gameplay mode in the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops Escalation content pack – a full-size poster! Call of the Dead features four-player coop against the zombie masses but, instead of no-name humans, you get to play as genre stars Danny Trejo, Robert Englund, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Michael Rooker! Additionally, the baddest zombie of them all is none other than a zombified George A. Romero himself!

The content pack is due out on May 3rd, 2011.

City of Heroes Celebrates 7th Anniversary

NCsoft has announced its plans to celebrate the 7th anniversary of their superhero MMO, City of Heroes. The MMO has had 20 content updates and 2 full expansion packs over the course of it’s seven year-run, and the anniversary events are will be both in-game as well as full dev chats. You can find out more on the events including details on the developer chat over at the official CoH website.

n-Game Meet and Greet with the Devs!

It wouldn’t be an Anniversary celebration without the opportunity for us to thank you, our players, in person so join us at the following times in Pocket D on Union for European players and the Training Rooms for our North American players for a celebratory Meet & Greet!

Union – 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. British Summer Time (18:00 – 21:00 Central European Summer Time), Thursday, April 28, 2011*: once you’ve created a new character, head over to Atlas Park, under the Atlas statue, Mercy Island, next to Kalinda, and Nova Praetoria, next to Praetor Duncan, where representatives of the Community team will be able to teleport you all the way to Pocket D thanks to their mighty Community gathering powers!

5:00 – 6:00 p.m. British Summer Time (18:00 – 19:00 Central European Summer Time) – Nate “Second Measure” Birkholz and Matt “Positron” Miller
6:00 – 7:00 p.m. British Summer Time (19:00 – 20:00 Central European Summer Time) – Daryl “Arbiter Oates” Hall, Sean “Dr. Aeon” McCann and John “Protean” Hegner
7:00 – 8:00 p.m. British Summer Time (20:00 – 21:00 Central European Summer Time) – Tim “Black Scorpion” Sweeney, Chris “Baryonyx” Behrens and Jeff “Arbiter Hawk” Hamilton.
NA Training Room – 4:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (7pm-10pm Eastern Time), Thursday, April 28, 2011*

4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time (7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time) – Nate “Second Measure” Birkholz and Matt “Positron” Miller
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time (8:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time) – Tim “Black Scorpion” Sweeney, Chris “Baryonyx” Behrens and Jeff “Arbiter Hawk” Hamilton
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time (9:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time) – Daryl “Arbiter Oates” Hall Sean “Dr. Aeon” McCann and John “Protean” Hegner.
*In some cases (and depending on availability), certain Developers may stay beyond their scheduled ‘appearance’ times.

If you don’t currently have a copy of your character on The Training Room, make sure to do it in advance so that you can pay the Devs a visit!

Need for Speed: The Run Teaser Trailer


Electronic Arts has released a new teaser trailer for an upcoming Need for Speed game titled Need for Speed: The Run. The Run takes on a high-stakes, ‘Cannonball Run’ style race across the country, from San Francisco to New York City. In the game, the player takes part in this race – no word yet on gameplay modes or specifics, save for a release date of November 18th, 2011.

From the official EA Vision YouTube Page:

It’s called The Run. An illicit, high-stakes race across the country. The only way to get your life back is to be the first from San Francisco to New York. No speed limits. No rules. No allies. All you have are your driving skills and sheer determination as you battle hundreds of the world’s most notorious drivers on the country’s most dangerous roads.

 

Total War: Shogun 2 2nd Multiplayer Tutorial

SEGA and The Creative Assembly have released a new multiplayer tutorial video which walks players through important concepts such as the use of retainers, avatar advancement, and advanced unit options. Total War: Shogun 2 is available now on Windows PCs.

 

Obsidian Issues Layoffs (Unconfirmed)

Unfortunate news for some Obsidian employees as it looks like the company has begun issuing layoff notices to some of its employees. Unconfirmed sources also point to various Twitter posts from now ex-Obsidian employees. Obsidian is currently working on Square Enix’s upcoming Dungeon Siege III and recently did work for Bethesda Softworks with their Fallout: New Vegas. We have reached out to Obsidian and will update this post when we receive a response.

Akil Hooper (producer/designer at OEI)
“11 years, nearly a dozen shipped titles, Designer, Lead, Producer. 1 cancelled game, survived 7 layoffs, 8th got me. Not a bad track record.”

Jason Fader (producer)
“*sigh*”

Justin Reynard (programmer)
“Today marks my 3 year anniversary working at Obsidian Entertainment. To my coworkers (and sadly the ones we’ve lost) you guys are amazing.<3”

Ashley Betters (QA tester)
“No longer work at Obsidian. I guess this means I will have to start buying my own pens.”

Good luck to all of those affected.

Ridge Racer Unbounded Teaser Trailer

Coming in 2012, Namco Bandai’s Ridge Racer Unbounded promises to take the racing game series into a new, fresh angle with urban street races featuring over-the-top, arcade action and destructive environments. Namco Bandai has released a new teaser trailer for the game, which you can see below.

Darkspore Launch Trailer

Electronic Arts and Maxis Software have launched their much-anticipated Darkspore, a sci-fi action RPG partially-based on their 2008’s Spore. Darkspore allow players to create and grow their own race of warriors to defeat an evil force spreading across the galaxy. In celebration of this launch, the companies have released a launch trailer for the title, which you can see below.

The Witcher 2 Gone Gold

CD Projekt RED has announced that their upcoming third-person actioner, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, has gone gold and is now off for mass production at the factory. The game is set for release on Windows PCs come May 17th.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is the eagerly awaited sequel to the award-winning, million-selling RPG that captured the imaginations of discerning players everywhere.  It introduced a truly unique protagonist, the professional slayer of monsters, Geralt of Rivia, and defined a new standard for thought-provoking, non-linear game narration, with mature themes, significant choices that weren’t automatically good or bad, and true decisions that led to meaningfully different consequences.

Mortal Kombat Review

NetherRealm Studios new Mortal Kombat is a re-imagining of the famed fighter series that began back in 1992 with the original Mortal Kombat. Created by Ed Boon and John Tobias, the series started off with an arcade fervor that lasted for a few iterations before losing some steam on the console generation as it began to stray from its core gameplay. This new Mortal Kombat, which has been released roughly 19 years after the original, is an attempt to get back to the roots of the series.

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Call of the Dead Trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops Escalation

Activision has released a new trailer done up in VERY cool 1970’s grindhouse style showing off Call of the Dead, the new zombie game mode for their upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops Escalation content pack, due out on May 3rd. The new game mode features the likenesses and voices of cult fave like Danny Trejo, Michael Rooker, and Sarah Michelle Gellar.