Author - Jerry Paxton

Borderlands 2 Will Ship with Steamworks

New York, NY, February 29, 2012  2K Games, Gearbox Software and Valve today announced an agreement to power all PC versions of the highly anticipated Borderlands™ 2 with Steamworks when the game launches on September 18, 2012 in North America and September 21, 2012 internationally. Currently in development by Gearbox Software,Borderlands 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed four-player cooperative shooter-looter that combined intense first-person mayhemwithrole-playing gameplay.

Borderlands 2 players will enjoy the benefits of Steamworks features, such as Steam Achievements, downloadable content, auto-updating, multiplayer matchmaking, Steam Cloud support and more. Customers who purchase the PC retail version of Borderlands 2 will also be able to enjoy all the great Steamworks features as well. Borderlands 2 features all-new characters and skills, imaginative and diverse new environments with unique missions and enemies, and more exciting, fun weapons, equipment and loot than ever before. All of these features come together in a story that takes players to the world of Pandora to take down the notorious Handsome Jack and his corrupt Hyperion Corporation as a solo campaign or with up to four cooperative players. To pre-order Borderlands 2, please visit www.borderlands2.com/preorder.

Borderlands 2 is not yet rated by the ESRB. For more information on Borderlands 2 please visit www.borderlands2.com.

2K Sports Announces MLB 2K12 RV Tour

New York, NY – February 29, 2011 – 2K Sports today announced the return of the Major League Baseball® 2K12 RV tour, a coast-to-coast mobile experience featuring special giveaways, batting cages and hands-on play time with Major League Baseball 2K12. The cross-country tour brings the excitement of authentic baseball action to fans this spring and summer with a custom-designed Major League Baseball 2K12 recreation vehicle. The mobile demo vehicle will be rigged with portable video game gear for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. Traveling to various Arizona Spring Training hotspots, including Hohokam Park in Mesa and Tempe Diablo Stadium in Tempe, as well as big league ballparks, such as Comerica Park in Detroit, Citi Field in New York and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, 2K Sports will slide into more than 25 cities in total.

“For the second straight year, we’re taking the 2K Sports RV on the ultimate baseball road trip,” said Jason Argent, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports. “It’s always a pleasure to interact with our fans across the country, and we can’t wait to get the tour started and share Major League Baseball 2K12 with baseball fans everywhere.”

2K Sports will begin the tour on March 9, 2012 in Surprise, Arizona, and visit Cactus League ballparks throughout the month of March. Following the start of the regular season, the tour kicks into full gear with events through June. Some of the highlights include stops at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, and two special events at the MLB FanCave in New York City. The tour concludes with a booth at MLB All-Star FanFest in Kansas City.

Fans at tour stops will have the opportunity to practice their in-game pitching skills for the $1 Million Perfect Game Challenge, which returns for the third successive year beginning on MLB Opening Day, April 4th. Eight gamers who pitch perfect games on Xbox 360 or PlayStation®3 prior to May 1 will be eligible to participate in a live tournament for the grand prize of $1 million. Full rules and details can be found at www.2ksports.com/perfectclub.

The Major League Baseball 2K12 tour dates** are below. Additional events will be added at a later date, so fans should visit www.2ksports.com/mlb2k12/tour for the latest schedule.

March 9                         Surprise, AZ – Surprise Stadium

        Host: Texas Rangers

March 10                       Glendale, AZ – Camelback Ranch (Games @ 12:05 PM and 6:05 PM)
        Host: Chicago White Sox

March 11                       Tempe, AZ – Tempe Diablo Stadium
        Host: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

March 15                       Tempe, AZ – Tempe Diablo Stadium
        Host: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

March 16                       Surprise, AZ – Surprise Stadium (11 AM)
        Host: Kansas City Royals

        Phoenix, AZ – Phoenix Municipal Stadium (5 PM)
        Host: Oakland Athletics

March 18                       Maryvale, AZ – Maryvale Baseball Park
        Host: Milwaukee Brewers

March 22                       Goodyear, AZ – Goodyear Ballpark
        Host: Cincinnati Reds

March 23                       Tucson, AZ – Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium
        Host: Chicago White Sox

March 24                       Mesa, AZ – Hohokam Park
        Host: Chicago Cubs

March 25                       Goodyear, AZ – Goodyear Ballpark
        Host: Cleveland Indians

March 29                       Tempe, AZ – Tempe Diablo Stadium
        Host: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

March 30                       Glendale, AZ – Camelback Ranch
        Host: Los Angeles Dodgers

April 6-7                        Anaheim, CA – Angel Stadium of Anaheim
        Host: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

April 9-10                      Oakland, CA – Overstock.com Coliseum
        Host: Oakland Athletics

April 14-15                    Los Angeles, CA – Dodger Stadium
        Host: Los Angeles Dodgers

April 20                         Houston, TX – Minute Maid Park
        Host: Houston Astros

April 24-25                    St. Petersburg, FL – Tropicana Field
Host: Tampa Bay Rays

April 29                         Atlanta, GA – Turner Field
        Host: Atlanta Braves

May 1                           Cincinnati, OH – Great American Ball Park
       Host: Cincinnati Reds

May 4-5                        Detroit, MI – Comerica Park
Host: Detroit Tigers

May 7                           Baltimore, MD – Oriole Park at Camden Yards
       Host: Baltimore Orioles

May 9-10                     New York, NY – MLB FanCave

May 12                         Philadelphia, PA – Citizens Bank Park
Host: Philadelphia Phillies

May 14-15                   Flushing, NY – Citi Field
Host: New York Mets

May 19-20                   Washington, D.C. – Nationals Park
Host: Washington Nationals

May 22                         Pittsburgh, PA – PNC Park
Host: Pittsburgh Pirates

May 26-27                    Chicago, IL – U.S. Cellular Field
        Host: Chicago White Sox

May 29                         Minneapolis, MN – Target Field
       Host: Minnesota Twins

June 5-6                        Kansas City, MO – Kauffman Stadium
       Host: Kansas City Royals

June 9-10                      St. Louis, MO – Busch Stadium
Host: St. Louis Cardinals

July 6-10                      Kansas City, MO – MLB All-Star FanFest

**Tour dates are subject to change. Visit www.2ksports.com/mlb2k12/tour for the latest schedule.

New Game of Thrones Screenshots

The upcoming Game of Thrones RPG today unveiled a new series of 6 exclusive screenshots.

Screenshots

Blizzard Entertainment Announces Layoffs

Blizzard Entertainment CEO, Mike Morhaime, has posted up an official letter to the gaming community over at the Battle.net forums announcing that the company is in the process of laying off 600 employees. We wish all of those affected by the layoffs the absolute best and hope they recover quickly.

Please see below the official letter for this morning’s Blizzard Press Release.

Official Letter

Everyone,

We announced today that we’re in the process of cutting a number of active positions, mostly non-development, throughout the company. I’m sure this announcement has sparked some questions from all of you, so I want take this opportunity to address those as best I can. Over the past several years, the company has grown rapidly and evolved to better serve you and the rest of our global community. Thanks to all of your support, we continue to serve by far the biggest subscription-based MMO community, as well as the most passionate eSports and online gaming communities, in the world.

In order to keep making epic game content while serving players effectively, we have to be smart about how we manage our resources. This means we sometimes have to make difficult decisions about how to best maintain the health of the company. We’re in the process of making some of those hard decisions now.

After evaluating our current organizational needs, we determined that while some areas of our business had been operating at the right levels and could benefit from further growth, other areas had become overstaffed. As a result, we need to scale down some of our departments and part with some of our colleagues and friends here at Blizzard. I know that you all understand how difficult this type of situation can be for anyone who might be affected, so I want to assure you that we’ll be offering each impacted employee a severance package and other benefits.

I also want to emphasize that we remain committed to shipping multiple games this year, and that our development teams in particular remain largely unaffected by today’s announcement. We’re continuing to develop, iterate, and polish Blizzard DOTA, Diablo III, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, as well as other, unannounced projects. We’ll have exciting news to share in the coming weeks regarding Diablo III’s release date, and will soon be holding a private media event to showcase the latest work on Mists of Pandaria. It goes without saying that we’re working hard to get all of these games in your hands as soon as possible.

You’ve all come to expect Blizzard to live up to our mission statement with every game, and deliver the most epic entertainment experiences ever. You can continue to expect that and nothing less from us as we move forward.

-Mike Morhaime

 

Blizzard Entertainment Announces Staff Reductions

IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that it has conducted a review of its business based on current organizational needs. Following a completion of the review, the company is conducting a global reduction in workforce of approximately 600 employees. The company anticipates approximately 90% of the affected employees will come from departments not related to game development. The World of Warcraft® development team will not be impacted.

“Constant evaluation of teams and processes is necessary for the long-term health of any business. Over the last several years, we’ve grown our organization tremendously and made large investments in our infrastructure in order to better serve our global community. However, as Blizzard and the industry have evolved we’ve also had to make some difficult decisions in order to address the changing needs of our company,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Knowing that, it still does not make letting go of some of our team members any easier. We’re grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the people impacted by today’s announcement, we’re proud of the contributions they made here at Blizzard, and we wish them well as they move forward.”

Blizzard’s current development and publishing schedules will not be impacted. The company will announce specific release plans for Diablo® III in the near future, and it’s continuing to drive aggressively toward beta testing for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard DOTA, and StarCraft® II: Heart of the Swarm. Blizzard also remains committed to maintaining its high standards of quality for customer service delivery. In addition, Blizzard is still recruiting and looking to hire qualified developers for a number of open positions. Further details are available at http://jobs.blizzard.com.

Prometheus Viral Marketing Begins with TED 2023 Video

This has turned out to be a great day for geek-kind as the viral marketing campaign for Ridley Scott’s upcoming Alien prequel sci-fi flick, Prometheus has begun! It comes to us in the form of the official website for Weyland Industries (which eventually combines with Yutani Corp to form Weyland-Yutani a la Alien and Aliens) AND a video keynote from TED 2023, fifty years before the movie is said to take place. In the video, Guy Pearce (who plays Weyland) gives a keynote speech about wanting to change the world, comparing humanity to the Gods of old. Check it out!

Weyland Industries TED 2023 Keynote

ROCCAT Lifts Curtain Off Savu Gaming Mouse

Hamburg, 28 February 2012 – ROCCAT Studios today announced the upcoming availability of the Savu Mid-Size Hybrid Gaming Mouse – a competition device that “fusion welds” an ideal blend of performance and customizable features into a robust, perfectly-balanced, medium-size design.

The Savu offers a combination of unprecedented, true 4000 dpi optical sensor power, world famous Easy-Shift[+] technology allowing for advanced button configuration, and a lighting system delivering 16.8 million colors. What’s more, it’s the world’s first mouse to feature a stats and trophy system – called the ROCCAT Achievements Display, or R.A.D. — something previously known in similar form only in online gaming. Designed specifically for fans of mid-size gaming mice, the Savu also pampers the hands with an ergonomic right-hand thumb rest and soft-touch surface.

Hamburg-based ROCCAT Studios says the Savu severely outperforms every gaming mouse in its class and is sure to set a new standard in the mid-size field. CeBIT 2012 visitors can catch the Savu debut at stands from Acer (Hall 22, Booth 24) and XMG by Schenker Notebooks (Hall 23, Booth A01-3.1). The Savu is expected to hit shelves internationally early May.

“The Savu raises the bar for optical mid-size gaming mice significantly,” says René Korte, ROCCAT Founder and CEO. “It really is a dream piece of machinery for gamers who love medium-size gear and a welcome addition to our powerful mouse line-up.”

With its advanced Pro Optic sensor, the Savu delivers true 400, 800, 1600 and 4000 dpi – placing it at the pinnacle of optical gaming mice. The latest R3 sensor also delivers lag-free gaming without any interpolation, and provides ultra-precise feedback during even the fastest movements – all so players can command with the utmost accuracy.

The Savu comes standard with exclusive Easy-Shift[+]™ technology, which lets gamers set two functions for each mouse button and the scroll wheel, essentially transforming a seven-button mouse into a 12-button one without the clutter of unnecessary additional buttons. Easy-Shift[+]™ also lets gamers take advantage of Easy-Aim, which automatically reduces the dpi setting when in sniper mode – delivering pinpoint accuracy at the touch of a button. And thanks to advanced Omron switches, the Savu’s two main buttons feature consistent and precise pressure points – as well as high durability for a long life.

The Savu features a large, customizable rear light bar, which users can set in their choice of 16.8 million colors – to add to the atmosphere of gaming sessions. Players can also activate a color cycling feature, as well as a “breathing” function, which instructs the mouse to pulse in a choice of color.

The Savu also marks the debut of the ROCCAT Achievements Display – or R.A.D. – a fun and useful application that tracks and rewards a wide range of gaming feats, such as mouse movement, button clicks, scroll steps, etc. The driver-based software compiles user data, provides a range of statistics for analysis, and hands out trophies when exceptional milestones have been reached. It’s an entertaining way for gamers to keep track of their mouse skills – and it even lets players share their accomplishments with others via social network sites, like Facebook.

See the Savu in action for the first time at CeBIT 2012 at the Acer Stand, Hall 22, Booth 24, and at the XMG by Schenker Notebooks Stand, Hall 23, Booth A01-3.1.

Further information available after 6 March 2012 at:

www.roccat.org

Apple Announces iPad Event for March 7th

As the rumor-mill predicted, Apple has announced its next iPad press briefing for March 7th at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. Among other rumors for the iPad 3 (or iPad 2S depending on how they brand it): A retina display, improved camera, increased processing power, reduced charging dock connector size, and more! Exciting times these are!

PS Vita Sells Over 1.2 Million Worldwide

TOKYO, Feb. 28, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, today announced that the sales of the PlayStation®Vita (PS Vita) portable entertainment system reached over 1.2 million units worldwide as of February 26, 2012. PS Vita experienced an initial burst of momentum when it launched on December 17, 2011 in Japan followed by Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. Newly launched in North and Latin America, Europe and PAL territories as well as in Singapore on February 22, 2012, sales have exceeded expectations surpassing over 1.2 million units worldwide, firmly establishing PS Vita as the must-have portable entertainment device across the world. Software sales across the globe have surpassed 2.0 million units at both retail and on PlayStation®Network.

“PS Vita was designed to deliver the ultimate portable entertainment experience, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the reaction we’re seeing from consumers and the pace at which PS Vita is selling,” said Andrew House, President and Group CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. “The market has responded and there is clear demand for a mobile device capable of providing a revolutionary combination of rich gaming and social connectivity within a real world context. To sustain momentum, we’re working closely with 3rd party developers and publishers to ensure the best games and franchises possible will be available on PS Vita, and our software line up for the remainder of 2012 will have something for everyone across the globe.”

“The PS Vita is an impressive piece of hardware that brings gaming to a whole new level,” stated Bob Puzon, vice president of merchandising at GameStop. “Based on the opening weekend sales that we’ve seen at stores across North America, and our successful midnight launch events, consumers have clearly recognized this as well. We’re doing our best to keep units in stock to satisfy the strong demand.”

PS Vita introduces new ways to play, delivering deep and immersive gameplay experiences that have never been offered on any other handheld gaming device. Equipped with dual analog sticks, a vibrant 5-inch high definition OLED multi-touch screen, powerful quad core processor, six-axis motion sensing system, built in microphone, and front and rear cameras, PS Vita is the ultimate portable entertainment system. In addition to the ultimate portable gaming experience, by having both Wi-Fi and 3G network connectivity, together with various applications, PS Vita will enable infinite possibilities for users to “encounter,” “connect,” “discover,” “share” and “play” with friends wherever they are.

With more than 25 titles currently available in North and Latin America, Europe and the PAL territories and Japan* respectively including EA SPORTS FIFA Football, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom®3 from Capcom, UNCHARTED™: Golden Abyss, WipEout® 2048 and Escape Plan from SCE Worldwide Studios, as well as over 70 titles in development, PS Vita is poised to drive continued momentum across the globe.

SCE will vigorously promote PS Vita as the next generation portable entertainment platform and work towards expanding the portable gaming market.

* Titles may differ by countries and regions.

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action Quick Review (PC/Steam)

A bit of background on this particular piece. Ripper71, one of our esteemed writers, is under the weather. Please send him your good thoughts and jujumugumbo in his recovery! In the meantime, however, I will try to do an adequate job of reviewing a game which was originally on his plate: Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. This game is basically a modernization of the classic game Jagged Alliance 2. It brings crisp 3D graphics to the table as well as a mixture of real-time and turn-based combat (the original only featured turn-based).

How is it?

During my short time with the game, and being a fan of the original, I would have to say it is pretty darn good and well worth your money. The action is still very tactical, even when using the real-time mode (which younger gamers will probably find more appealing than us “old” guys), and it brought back a lot of fond gaming memories of Jagged Alliance 2 while also making plenty of new ones. There is a ton of equipment to outfit your mercenaries with on your quest to liberate a small island nation from a vicious despot. Mercenaries also have personalities and skill load-outs of their own and, some, don’t even like each other! A particular mercenary might not want to work with you if you are employing another individual.

Aside from controlling squads in an isometric view, you will also have to macro-control multiple squads as they maneuver across the island. Plan carefully, as by trekking across the game world in this manner, squads lose stamina until they get a chance to rest a while. Also of particular coolness is that, after you liberate a a map area from the regime, you will see militia units pop up, which you can then outfit with gear. These NPCs will help defend the territory from enemy troops whether you are there or not! Of course, they don’t always win but it is better than using harsh language and rude gestures to route the enemy.

All that being said, Jagged Alliance: Back in Action does have some low-points. Unfortunately, the game’s AI can be downright wonky. Ranged characters do not always auto-defend themselves from opponents who get in close for a melee strike, even when set to guard, and the detection rate of enemy soldiers seems to sway back and forth between making them seem like near-sighted elderly people to highly-trained US Navy SEALs.

Overall

Overall, Jagged Alliance: Back in Action is a fun and tactical game of combat which will provide you with a lot of fun – even if there are some frustrations thrown in every so often. Just make sure to save a lot and you will be fine. Now, get ordering up another thousand rounds of .45 ACP for your mercs, they are running low!