Author - Jerry Paxton

Murdered: Soul Suspect Gets Release Date

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LOS ANGELES (March. 4th, 2014) – Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of SQUARE ENIX® interactive entertainment products in the Americas today confirmed supernatural detective thriller Murdered: Soul Suspect® will go on sale in North America June 3rd, 2014. Outside of the Americas, Murdered: Soul Suspect will go on sale June 6th, 2014.

Square Enix also announced US customers who preorder Murdered: Soul Suspect from select retailers* will receive an interactive digital strategy map. The map, accessible via computer or tablet, will help players unearth all of Salem’s secrets, including the location of hundreds of in-game items including quest givers, collectibles, and Easter Eggs.

Murdered: Soul Suspect will release June 3rd in North America on the following platforms:
–       PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system ($59.99)
–       Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft ($59.99)
–       Windows PC ($49.99)
–       PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system ($49.99)
–       Xbox 360 ($49.99)

*Select retailers who will offer the Murdered: Soul Suspect digital strategy map as a preorder bonus include: Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, and Walmart.

Batman: Arkham Knight Announced

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Burbank, Calif. – March 4, 2014 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment today announced Batman™: Arkham Knight, Rocksteady Studios’ conclusion to the series of award-winning, best-selling titles Batman™: Arkham Asylum and Batman™: Arkham City.  Batman: Arkham Knight is based on DC Comics’ core Batman license and will be available exclusively for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Windows PC.  The game is scheduled for release worldwide in 2014.

In the explosive finale to the Arkham series, Batman faces the ultimate threat against the city he is sworn to protect. The Scarecrow returns to unite an impressive roster of super villains, including Penguin, Two-Face and Harley Quinn, to destroy The Dark Knight forever. Batman: Arkham Knight introduces Rocksteady’s uniquely designed version of the Batmobile, which is drivable for the first time in the franchise. The addition of this legendary vehicle, combined with the acclaimed gameplay of the Batman Arkham series, offers gamers the ultimate and complete Batman experience as they tear through the streets and soar across the skyline of the entirety of Gotham City.

“Batman: Arkham Knight is the pinnacle game of our hugely successful franchise, and we are giving players the most expansive, impressive title in the series,” said Martin Tremblay, President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.  “The Rocksteady Studios team is continuing to focus on the excellent gameplay for which they are known while delivering a thrilling new experience for gamers and Batman fans.”

“The team at Rocksteady Studios is putting a tremendous amount of work into delivering the final chapter of our Batman: Arkham trilogy so that fans can feel what it’s like to be the Batman,” said Sefton Hill, Game Director at Rocksteady Studios.  “We’re excited to be developing the game for next-gen platforms, which has allowed us to bring to life the design elements that we envisioned from the beginning such as the Batmobile and how it augments Batman’s abilities, to the fully detailed and realized Gotham City.”

For more information on Batman: Arkham Knight, please visit www.batmanarkhamknight.comhttps://www.facebook.com/BatmanArkham or https://twitter.com/BatmanArkham.

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Stronghold Crusader 2 New Screenshots

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London, UK – 4th March 2014 – Firefly Studios has just released a new screenshot gallery for Stronghold Crusader 2, giving players their first look at the game’s Crusader single player story campaign. Tornados, boats and burning farmlands will all feature in the “Lionheart” campaign, which chronicles the Crusader forces’ invasion of the holy lands, setting up the plot for the second Arabic campaign.

Firefly talk about the campaign in more detail on the game’s official website:

“Although announcing the title of the Crusader campaign drops fairly bit hint (!) about which characters will be making their return in Crusader 2, we enjoy teasing things as much as the next developer. As a team we are looking forward to players experiencing the Crusader campaign, although we fully expect the skilled Stronghold community to blast through it on the road to online domination. The game’s single player campaigns are really stepping stones to high level skirmish play and multiplayer, but we wanted to make sure we included them in the game at launch.

In the days of Early Access and open betas it is tempting to add large features via post-release updates. With Crusader 2 we will continue to support the game after launch, as we have always done with the Stronghold series, however we wanted the game to feel complete as soon as it is made available. Fans of the first game have been waiting almost 12 years now for their chance to return to Crusader, so the least we can do is include everything they expect from the game at launch.”

The full news post can be found at www.strongholdcrusader2.com.

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Take On Mars to Get Manned Mars Mission Expansion

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Prague, Czech Republic, Tuesday 04th March 2014 — Bohemia Interactive, an award-winning video games developer based in the Czech Republic, today announce their plan to launch the first ever manned mission to Mars. The project, which uses ‘Expedition One’ as its working title, is part of the studio’s effort to explore the red planet and – ultimately – establish a human colony on Mars. While the first space shuttle is scheduled to depart as early as April this year, Bohemia Interactive is still actively recruiting for people to join its marsonauts training program.

Expedition One, a content update for Bohemia Interactive’s new sim game Take On™ Mars, enables volunteers to explore Mars from the most intimate of perspectives; through their own eyes. Participants will be tasked with performing a multitude of scientific experiments, constructing habitats spanning from shelters to entire installations, and searching for viable sources of oxygen, water, and raw materials. Due to the limited amount of supplies the space shuttle can carry, one of the most significant challenges for the marsonauts will simply be surviving the harsh Martian environment. As such, participants will have to actively manage their oxygen levels, food stocks, grow plants, and operate drilling rigs in the search for new resources. Unpressurized and pressurized manned vehicles will be at their disposal to increase their mobility across the vast alien terrain.

“As a studio, we’ve always been obsessed with games that explore topics of human fascination”, said Bohemia Interactive’s CEO, Marek Spanel. “One of those is space exploration. Missions to Mars – from the past, present, and also some ambitious projects for the future – sparked our imagination about what it would be like to be the first human on Mars. We soon felt that this should be the endgame for the Take On Mars campaign.”

With the arrival of the Expedition One content update, the campaign in Take On Mars will be divided into two chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on the exploration of Mars via the Mars Rovers and Stationary Landers, while Chapter 2 is entirely dedicated to human exploration of the red planet. Those who would wish to embark on this exciting adventure right away will be able to skip the first chapter. However, this does mean that they will start out with fewer resources than those who completed part one of Take On Mars’ Space Program campaign.

Highlights of the Expedition One mission include:

  • Take the next giant leap for mankind and leave the first human footprints on the surface of Mars
  • Drive unpressurized and pressurized manned vehicles to explore the new 8×8 km Cydonia terrain
  • Build your own habitat spanning from shelters to entire installations via a unique construction system
  • Live off the land by managing and extracting resources to build your base and keep you alive
  • Establish the foundations of a human colony on the surface of another planet

Expedition One will be made available in the second quarter of 2014. To enroll for the manned mission, people can join Take On Mars’ Early Access program on Steam for the reduced price of 13.99 EUR/ 17.99 USD/ 11.99 GBP.

Take On Mars was officially announced at E3 2013, where it won IGN’s Best New PC Game award. For more information on Take On Mars, please visit http://mars.takeonthegame.com/and/or follow Take On Mars on Twitter and Facebook.

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South Park: The Stick of Truth Review (PC)

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“South Park” first aired on August 13, 1997 and was a huge hit for Comedy Central. The show blended youthful innocence with delightfully crass, satirical, and often-times controversial takes on situations that we all experienced as children growing up, and even events taken from the headlines of the day. Many might not know that South Park originally came from two stop-motion, animated shorts – one of which, “The Spirit of Christmas“, became what Wikipedia calls “one of the first viral videos”. Since 1997, the IP has expanded into a multitude of other media, including video games. South Park: The Stick of Truth is the latest video game coming from the IP, and may just be the absolute best game of 2014 depending on how the rest of the year’s releases go. Heck, I would say it’s probably the best game I have played since Bioshock Infinite, which released in March of last year.

South Park: The Stick of Truth starts of with an epic, Ralph Bashki style cartoon prologue telling about the “Stick of Truth”. Then, the player gets to customize their character with a generator similar to the Avatar Creator over at the official South Park website. At that point, the game’s incredible art design comes into play and it genuinely appears as though you are watching an episode of the TV show. I give huge kudos to Ubisoft, Obsidian, and Matt Stone & Trey Parker for not trying to turn the franchise into some sort of a first-person experience. South Park: The Stick of Truth, is probably the best adaptation of its source material into a video game that I have ever seen. Moving your character is done with the WASD array and control of your selections and actions is done with your mouse. Your character is the “new kid”, just moved in from out of town for mysterious reasons. Ordered by your parents to leave the house and make friends, you encounter the gang of children playing a LARP (live-action roleplaying game) where two factions vie for control of the Stick of Truth. Of course, like in any episode of South Park, things always get blown way out of proportion, and you are in for an absolute treat – especially if you have watched the show since the beginning.

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The game’s creators had 17 years of South Park lore to comb through in their efforts to build the game’s story and flesh-out its world, and they use just about everything in doing so. Literally, the entire town of South Park (and then some) is yours for the exploring. Throughout your travels, you will have to pick up and loot items, weapons, character and item modifications, and more which you can use or sell at various vendors for cash. At its core, South Park: The Stick of Truth houses an excellently done Final Fantasy style combat system. Combat is turn-based, based on order of combat initiative, and the player selects actions or defends as they see fit. To make combat more engaging, the player has to pay attention while attacking or defending, as each actions has its own key or mouse click combination associated with it. Once selected, the player has to pull off this combination, or the action is much less effective. The same goes for defense – in order to block incoming attacks, you have to click the right mouse button when impact is imminent.

If South Park: The Stick of Truth on the Windows PC platform has any negatives, its that the combat control combinations are a bit confusing  – especially when using combat abilities for the first time. You have to very carefully read the white text at the bottom of the screen to get an idea of the controls for each move – and some instructions are just not verbose enough. Still, after a while, you will get the hang of it and the game has a nice way of easing you into combat with in-line tutorials that don’t take you out of the experience.

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The voice cast is pulled straight from the South Park TV show, and there really isn’t anything more to say about them other than they are all absolutely brilliant in their roles. They go a long way in selling the idea that you are “playing” an episode of the TV show. As I have grown up watching the show, I have found myself steadily gaining a bond with the character of Randy Marsh, and I loved the sequences when you get to team up with him, “butt” I digress…

[ezcol_1half]Pros

  • 17 Years of South Park History
  • Storyline/Plot
  • Dialog/Voice Acting
  • Graphics/Art Design
  • Gameplay
  • Funny as Hell

[/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]Cons

  • Combat move control explanations lack verbosity at the beginning of the game

[/ezcol_1half_end]

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Overall, South Park: The Stick of Truth has been an absolute blast to play. From start to finish, the game took me about 13 hours, and I did most of the side quests I could find. I just hope we don’t have to wait so long now for the boys’ next adventure. Thankfully, it doesn’t look like we will as the game’s menu system has an option for downloadable content. Now that the base software has been laid out, it is my hope that they will offer new, episodic adventures using the show and game assets at a much higher turnover rate. If you are a fan of the show, or great turn-based role playing games, or simply love dark humor, you owe it to yourself to purchase South Park: The Stick of Truth.

**NOTE: This is a mature game. You will see things in it that you cannot un-see, or that you probably don’t want your child to un-see… You have been warned!

[easyreview title=”South Park: The Stick of Truth Review Score” cat1title=”Overall Score (out of 5)” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”5″ ]

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Creative Labs Launches Sound Blaster Roar

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SINGAPORE – 3 March 2014 – The reception of the recently launched Creative Sound Blaster Roar at the IT Show 2014 in Singapore was nothing short of phenomenal.  The Sound Blaster® Roar, a new concept, 5-driver high performance portable wireless speaker blew away the huge audience that throng the recently-concluded IT Show 2014 with its amazingly powerful, precision-tuned, high fidelity sound from a compact and portable booklet size, and scored a very impressive average sale of more than one unit sold per minute during the show, literally flying off the shelves within the show’s opening hour each day, making it one of the hottest selling products at the show.  The IT Show is one of the largest annual consumer electronics shows in Singapore.

The Sound Blaster Roar was made available for sale for the first time after it sneak previewed at CES 2014 in Las Vegas in January 2014.  The sneak preview at CES generated similar overwhelming response from tech reviewers and general visitors alike.  Almost every one who saw the product demonstration at the Creative booth wanted one immediately.

“Most of the Bluetooth speakers of this size that I’ve heard really can’t hold a candle to it,”
– Influential Tech Editor focusing on premium audiophile products

“First and foremost, audio performance is exemplary of a speaker of its class and size, and easily rivals and even outclasses lesser 2.1 speaker systems…… the Sound Blaster Roar offered very good clarity, smooth mids and deep, well-controlled bass.  It also exhibited very good speed and dexterity…. it represents tremendous value for money and it is a no-brainer for us to recommend to anyone who is looking for a powerful portable wireless speaker.”  Source: HardwareZone.com, SPH Magazines, 2 March 2014

Designed to rival existing home stereo systems in sound quality yet light enough to be portable, the sleek metallic Sound Blaster Roar measures only 57 x 202 x 115 mm and weighs 1.1 kg.  Dubbed the ‘Audiophile Sound Booklet’ by audio aficionados, it is engineered from the ground up with Creative’s heritage in audio technology and years of research and expertise in speaker design, and represents the pinnacle of portable wireless audio.  Its superb audio performance is set to redefine the home stereo and wireless speaker market – by combining wireless connectivity, portability, high fidelity and audio power all into one compact unit that can rest on the palm, and be brought along on-the-go for a truly mobile digital lifestyle.

“First of all, I would like to say a big heartfelt thank you to all the visitors and well-wishers to our booth for their overwhelming support of the Sound Blaster Roar, especially to those who bought the product.  With limited publicity, the reception of such a new product has rarely been so astounding.  When the legendary Sound Blaster card was launched at Comdex in Las Vegas in Fall 1989, also with little publicity, one unit was sold every 4 minutes, and everyone was already completely blown-away.  In subsequent years, this spiraled to hundreds of millions of units sold.  Are we seeing a repeat of history here?  You decide.” Said Sim Wong Hoo, Chairman and CEO of Creative Technology.

Advanced Acoustic Highlights of the Sound Blaster Roar:

  1.       The Sound Blaster Roar’s bi-amplified design sets it apart from most other portable speakers that feature only one amplifier, allowing it to produce amazingly powerful and balanced lows, mids and highs.
  2.       Far-field high frequency front-firing drivers project audio further than other portable speakers.  Audio spaciousness is further enhanced through the top-firing bass and mid-range driver and side-firing passive radiators, resulting in room-filling audio that is not audio sweet spot-dependant.
  3.       The Sound Blaster Roar’s boxer-bass-module design allows it to have a low centre of gravity that increases speaker stability.  This means that the unit will not move from its position or rattle even at high volume levels.
  4.       The ROAR button: in scenarios where audio power is of absolute importance, such as in parties or gatherings, pressing the ROAR button will instantly and significantly boost the speaker’s loudness, depth and audio spaciousness.
  5.       Housed within the Sound Blaster Roar is a high quality microphone that provides clear 360° voice pickup, making it suitable for speakerphone teleconferencing.
  6.       Integrated MicroSD WMA and MP3 Player – Plays music directly from a MicroSD Card without having to connect to the user’s smart device.
  7.       Integrated Voice Recorder – Allows for simple, one-touch audio recording directly to a MicroSD card.
  8.       High-quality aptX® and AAC codecs Bluetooth support for wireless audio playback that sounds as good as a wired connection.
  9.       NFC connectivity – One tap of an NFC-enabled smart device on the Sound Blaster Roar connect it to a device via Bluetooth.
  10.      Connects to two Bluetooth-enabled devices simultaneously – Ideal in a situation when a user is watching a movie on a tablet and wants to take a phone call on the Sound Blaster Roar from another device.
  11.      Bedtime Mode – Gradually lowers the volume level before shutting off, perfect for bedtime listening or playing back pre-recorded bedtime stories for children.
  12.      Life Saver Mode – Plays random tones and sound bytes at random intervals to keep users alert.
  13.      Dual Purpose Battery – 6000 mAH battery charges smartphones and tablets beyond providing up to 8 hours of continuous audio playback.
  14.      Siren – Comes with a built-in siren that lets user instantly grab attention when need to.
  15.      Additional Sound Blaster Functionality – Connecting the Sound Blaster Roar via USB to a PC or Mac enables advanced audio processing through Sound Blaster Control Panel, a downloadable software program specially designed for the speaker.
  16.      Size: 57 x 202 x 115 mm
  17.      Weight: 1.1 kg

For more information on Creative Sound Blaster Roar, visit

http://www.creative.com/g/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-roar-sr20

Konami Announces New President

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El Segundo, CA – Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today announced Tomohiro Uesugi as its new President. Uesugi previously held the position of Executive Vice President of Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.

“I am honored and grateful for the opportunity to serve as the head of our talented and passionate employees, and I have a deep respect for our community of fans,” Uesugi said. “We will focus on our talent and iconic brands as we continue to provide innovative products for even deeper and more enjoyable experiences to our customers.”

Mr. Uesugi brings a reputation and history as a transformational leader with a strong track record of driving revenue and promoting organizational development. His diverse experience includes a background consisting of human resources, finance, consulting, planning, and operations management. This experience will offer a unique perspective to KONAMI, which will help further the company’s brand and sales in North, Central and South America.

Prior to joining KONAMI in 2013, Uesugi served as the executive vice president of SANYO North America Corporation, the North and South American regional subsidiary of SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. the global electronics manufacturer. Earlier in his career, he served in roles at KPMG Azsa, which offers financial advisory services, and worked in Sumitomo Trust & Banking’s real estate division. He earned a Bachelor of Economics from Osaka University and has an MBA from Doshisha University.

The Makeup Show LA 2014 Photo Gallery

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This weekend, we got to check out The Makeup Show L.A. over at the California Market Center in Los Angeles, CA. An annual event, we decided to attend the show in order to scope out some of the latest special effect makeup in preparation for our Halloween themed coverage. We had a great time wandering up and down the aisles of the expo in search for special effects. While much of The Makeup Show is focused on the more standard cosmetics industry, we did find some monster makeups – mostly being applied from current and past contestants of the SyFy channel show, FaceOff!

The Makeup Show L.A. Gallery

Activision Reveals Pre-Order Bonus for The Amazing Spider-Man 2

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March 3rd, 2014 — We are pleased to unveil the pre-order bonus for The Amazing Spider-Man 2™ on PlayStation®4, PlayStation®3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC. Web-heads who buy the game early through GameStop will receive theWeb Threads Suit Pack, a DLC bundle making available four sleek, super-powered suits for Spidey’s wardrobe on launch day. Each outfit offers unique combat bonuses throughout the adventure, as well as a great look for those front page shots in The Daily Bugle.

The Web Threads Suit Pack contains:

  • The cutting-edge designed, red and gold Iron Spider Suit
  • The stellar, blue and white Cosmic Spider-Man Suit
  • The all-consuming, Venom-like Black Suit
  • The pulp-style Spider-Man Noir Suit

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will arrive April 29, 2014 in North America for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii U, Nintendo 3DS & Windows PC (digital only in North America). For more information, visit www.TheAmazingSpiderManGame.com and follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheAmazingSpiderManGame.

CounterSpell Episode One Now on Machinima

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Machinima has launched its new scripted comedy series, CounterSpell, which you can check out below.

About CounterSpell

Machinima is taking a step back to its roots with the launch of a new scripted comedic “machinima” series, CounterSpell. Set in a classic video game world, CounterSpell follows two dungeon mini-bosses who choose to leave their boss fight instead of facing their scripted deaths at the hands of four RPG players. They embark on a misguided evil adventure that will likely doom the world and turn the RPG genre on its head. The series premieres this Monday, March 3 at 7 am pst (10 est).

CounterSpell was created by some of the biggest names in the YouTube and Machinima universes, including YouTube heavyweights MLGhwnt (220,000+ subs), iHasCupquake (youtube.com/iHasCupquake, 1,300.000+ subs),ImmortalHD (youtube.com/ImmortalHDFilms, 650,000+ subs), and Slyfox (youtube.com/xXSlyFoxHoundXx, 1,180,000+ subs). They are joined by some of Machinima’s top talent including Machinima’s Inside Gaming co-host Bruce Greene, Machinima’s ETC host Khail Anonymous, and Host/Writer for Machinima Realm Brett “Hundar” Hundley.

CounterSpell Episode One