Author - Jerry Paxton

The Flash and Electricity Coming to DCUO

2011/11/17
Jerry Paxton
News

Sony Online Entertainment has announced the Lightning Strikes DLC pack for their super-hero MMO, DC Universe Online. The new DLC pack is due out “soon” and will feature The Flash and a new powerset: Electricity!

“In this DLC pack, fans have the opportunity to immerse themselves in another great character and action-packed story from the DC Universe,” said Jens Andersen, Creative Director for DC Universe Online. “With exciting gameplay, a new power set and new locations to share with your friends, we packed a whole new kind of fun into this DLC pack and are eager for our players to dive into another legendary adventure.”

Features:

  • Central City – An all-new map that offers players a more open world experience that provides on-going gameplay, with solo and group missions.
  • The Flash Museum Duo – Players can now experience the Central City of today and tomorrow. In The Flash Museum Duo, players can travel back in time to the very moment when Barry Allen became The Flash and battle foes inside the Central City Police Station!
  • Electricity Powers – Players now have the opportunity to get the new Electricity Power set for current and new characters. The new Electricity Power set allows players to leverage the lightning power of electricity and use new types of attacks in combat. Electricity Powers include the Tesla Ball, which creates a floating ball of electricity that zaps nearby enemies; the Shockwave, which shoots streams of electric bolts at enemies; and Ionic Drain, which drains energy from the environment to replenish a player’s health while simultaneously damaging surrounding enemies.
  • New Gear – Players can earn all-new gear sets including the new Zoom-inspired gear set for villains, and the new Black Lightning-inspired gear set for heroes.
  • New Characters – Lightning Strikes brings players new iconic DC Universe characters including Livewire, Black Lightning, The Top, The Trickster, Static and more. New characters — such as Livewire — will be featured as new “Inspired By” options for players who can choose to create a new character inspired by some of DC Universe’s legendary characters. Additional new characters — such as Black Lighting — serve as a bounty mission that players can fight if they choose to be a villain.

Screenshots

Modern Warfare 3 Breaks 5-Day Sales Record

2011/11/17
Jerry Paxton
News

Activision has announced that their new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has broken the worldwide, five-day video game sales record with a whopping $775 million dollars. This breaks the previous record of $650 million dollars set by Call of Duty: Black Ops.

“With $775 million of sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in its first five days, Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for three consecutive years across all forms of entertainment,” said Robert Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard. “Life-to-date retail sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded $6 billion worldwide, which makes Call of Duty one of the most valuable entertainment properties in the world. We expect continued sales momentum, as reviews and audience enthusiasm suggest that this is the best Call of Duty game that we have ever made. Online play for Modern Warfare 3is at record levels and we continue to see high online play for both Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which ranked as the #2 and #4 top-played Xbox LIVE games for the week of November 7, according to Major Nelson.”

Interesting Facts from Microsoft Regarding MW3 Xbox LIVE Play

  • More than 7.0 million multiplayer hours were logged playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 by the end of launch day, November 8, a 19% increase over last year’s 5.9 million multiplayer hours logged playing Call of Duty: Black Ops last year’s launch day.
  • More than 3.3 million unique gamers played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in one day on November 8up from 2.6 million unique gamers for Call of Duty: Black Ops.
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 set a new record for concurrent players on Xbox LIVE with 3.3 million simultaneous users on November 8.

Max Payne 3 Design and Technology Video #1

2011/11/17
Jerry Paxton
News

Rockstar Games has released the first in a series of videos showing off the design and technology behind their upcoming, and highly-anticipated shooter: Max Payne 3. This video showcases some of the game’s targeting, movement, AI, and more.

Video

SteelSeries Launches the Simraceway SRW-S1 Steering Wheel

2011/11/17
Jerry Paxton
News

The Simraceway SRW-S1 Steering Wheel, SteelSeries first foray into the world of racing peripherals, is now available. The wheel features motion-sensing technology as well as a ton of buttons, knobs, and other controls to replicate steering wheels found in professional race cars. The wheel even features enhanced functionality for the Simraceway racing game platform. It retails for $119.99 dollars.

“We’ve been working with the Ignite team and their professional drivers for the past year to really perfect the wheel’s design and functionality,” added SteelSeries CEO, Bruce Hawver. “We’re confident in the success of this peripheral; we’ve combined feedback about its design from its rubberized grips to shift lighting along with the features that are found in true racing wheels, that Indy 500, F1 and simulated racing drivers need and use. The wheel’s original functionalities, price and its compatibility with virtually every PC racing game on the market, makes it a truly unparalleled product.”

Images

Square Enix Licenses Unreal Engine 3

2011/11/17
Jerry Paxton
News

Square Enix has licensed EPIC Games Unreal Engine 3 for several upcoming titles. News on which titles will be developed utilizing the engine is forthcoming.

“It is a pleasure to provide Square Enix with an exceptional game engine that will help them bring thrilling new experiences to legions of fans all over the world,” said Taka Kawasaki, territory manager of Epic Games Japan. “Many Western games have achieved great success with the Unreal Engine, and this milestone reflects the Japanese development community’s trust in our technical prowess. We can’t wait to see how Square Enix fuses the power of Unreal Engine 3 with its beautiful characters, enthralling storylines and fantastic gameplay.”

New Images from Trine 2

2011/11/17
Jerry Paxton
News

Focus Home Interactive has released some new screenshots from the upcoming actioner, Trine 2.

Screenshots

Nordic Games Purchases Dreamcatcher

2011/11/17
Jerry Paxton
News

Nordic Games GmbH has acquired DreamCatcher Interactive (SuperPower, Painkiller) for an undisclosed amount. This puts the number of studios under the Nordic Games umbrella at three, after JoWood and The Adventure Company.

“We are very happy that we were able to close the deal according to our internal schedule. After the incorporation of the “JoWooD” and “The Adventure Company” publishing label, “DreamCatcher” is the third and last to follow for the time being”, commented Nordic Games Holding AB CEO, Lars Wingefors. “Our approach is to assess the performance of DreamCatcher’s portfolio through back-catalogue sales, and as a consequence develop sequels to its bestselling brands and licenses, just as we did with our other two publishing labels”, elaborates Wingefors.

Xbox 720 Due in 2012 with Announcement in January (RUMOR)

2011/11/16
Jerry Paxton
Articles, CES, News

File this under rumor for now, but EDGE is reporting that Ubisoft Montreal developers are currently working on build computers tricked out to match the specs of the next-gen gaming console from Microsoft. According to EDGE’s unnamed source, more of these build computers should be reaching other developers prior to Christmas of this year, pointing to an Xbox 720 (or whatever it will be called) launch later in 2012. With CES coming up in early January, it is not too hard to speculate that, if another rumor is correct, we will see some sort of announcement during the Microsoft keynote.

This other rumor, recently posted at VG247, claims that the new Xbox runs a hex-core CPU with 2GB of DDR3 RAM and will utilize an AMD processor.