General gaming

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• Dungeon Siege 3 Review
• 1UP's Zeevex Virtual Currency Giveaway
• Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition Review
• Sightseeing: What The Top Shooters of 2011 Look Like
• Trench Board Game to Blame for Trenched's Absence in Europe
• Google's Next Move in the Games Space Lies With the Newly Launched Google+
• PSP Remaster Games on PS3 to Run on the PSP Engine
• Steam Summer Sale Here to Rob You of All Your Money
• Limbo Confirmed for PS3 and PC
• One Nintendo Shareholder's Unusual Question, and How Iwata Responded

Dungeon Siege 3 Review Posted: 30 Jun 2011 06:31 PM PDT One of the reasons I always enjoyed the Dungeon Siege series is because long, drawn-out plot explanations aren't necessary when beating the crap out of people and collecting loot. That, or I have distorted and fond memories of Dungeon Siege 2: walking up to my character's destroyed farm, and immediately being told to pick up a weapon and kill anything that attacks me. Beat up a bunch of people? Sure, I can do that. Combat has always been the best part of these games for me. This time around, an overarching storyline gets half-heartily forced down your throat. Dungeon Siege 3 borrows the conversation-driven storytelling approach from Mass Effect, without having as much of an influence on what occurs. Sure, there are moments where you can choose what sort of response is merited, or what action to take on, say, a prisoner of war, but these options are limited. To be frank, the fruition of your choices aren't made apparent until the very end of the game -- and with lifeless storyboard cut-scenes no less. Because of this strange disconnect (from realizing the impact of your decisions until the end), the story seems easily dismissable.

1UP's Zeevex Virtual Currency Giveaway Posted: 30 Jun 2011 06:12 PM PDT 1UP's Zeevex Virtual Currency Giveaway How To Play Remember these guys from E3? They're the Zeevs, and they rep Zeevex! We're giving you the opportunity to skip the trip to one of the 41,000 retail locations where you can get one of these bad boys for yourself. Instead, we're letting you win the premium currency for online content right here at 1UP without spending adime or budging an inch. Want to win? Here's how: We'll post a secret message on our homepage, right next to our Top Story area. Here's a pic:

Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition Review Posted: 30 Jun 2011 06:00 PM PDT Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition was released in Japanese arcades late last year, and after months of speculation as to whether it would ever see a console release, it's finally here -- both in DLC and retail format. Since then, Capcom has mentioned a few times that this will be the last entry into the Street Fighter 4 series, and is the definitive version of the game. For those of you who grow tired of purchasing updates and don't want to be bothered with the idea of another revision coming out in the following months, this is obviously good news. For the rest of us though, who want a game that is just as balanced as the previous version, all we can do is hope that Capcom has a change of heart, and releases an update sometime down the line to fix a few glaring character balance issues.

Sightseeing: What The Top Shooters of 2011 Look Like Posted: 30 Jun 2011 05:30 PM PDT IRONSIGHT Sightseeing: What The Top Shooters of 2011 Look Like 2011 is already the "Year of the Ironsights." Can you identify these shooters in our quick little quiz? By Thierry Nguyen, 06/30/2011       Share it: Tweet Page 1 of 26   VIEW AS: SLIDESHOWLIST We almost saw it right away -- beginning with Microsoft's press conference at E3. "It" being the sort of sameness in some of the game demos at some press events. Yet even before the proper beginning of E3, in a Monday full of press conferences where publishers such as Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, and Sony CEA show off their key titles for the next year, "it" hit us in force: shooter fatigue. It was so obvious that even Cracked beat us to the punch of showing how many FPS games there were at the show. We decided to take that idea and expand on it a bit. So here's a little quiz, where we took a bunch of screengrabs of different shooters (think of this as the anti-bullshot) from both 1UP and IGN (hooray for corporate synergy!) gameplay videos, and put them into this gallery. We'll throw in a small hint as the caption, but otherwise, you have to figure out which 2011 shooter the image came from. There are mostly first-person games, but third-person titles with easily grabbable moments featuring iron sights or sniper scopes are included as well -- and we also have some images from 2010 games (still being played a lot thanks to DLC map packs). There won't be any prizes for correctly identifying all 25 images (besides personal pride), but we hope you notice the same thing we do when it comes to shooters in 2011. At some point, you go down the metro in this shooter.

Trench Board Game to Blame for Trenched's Absence in Europe Posted: 30 Jun 2011 04:20 PM PDT Trenched is good fun, as you'd expect from a Double Fine game. If you happen to reside in certain parts of Europe, however, you won't know that for yourself, as the game was delayed due to what were called "unexpected challenges with distribution." Those problems apparently stem from a trademark issue involving a board game. Eurogamer reports Trenched is being held up by the trademark for board game Trench, which has been held since 2007 by Portugese board game designer Rui Alípio Monteiro. The trademark covers not only board games, but computer games as well, which is likely the problem for Double Fine's XBLA game. Like Trenched, Trench is focused on the military aspects of the World War I era. Some had speculated that, at least in Germany, a Nazi-style salute was to blame for the hold up, though that suggestion was categorically denied.

Google's Next Move in the Games Space Lies With the Newly Launched Google+ Posted: 30 Jun 2011 03:00 PM PDT Google launched a trial of its new social networking service, Google+, earlier this week. While games aren't a component of the ongoing closed trial period, source code that has been uncovered suggests it will likely adopt Facebook-style games at some point. The code makes numerous references to what would be used to notify users about games, Engadget reports. "... have sent you Game invites and more from Google+ Games" is found in several locations, as are mentions of what sounds like an unrelated question-and-answer component that might compete with Quora. We've known for some time that Google was making a move into the videogame space, it just wasn't clear in what capacity it would do so after its failure with Google Lively. Google made headlines recently with a job posting for a games product manager at "Games at Google." But more than a year ago, Google was already seeking a games project manager before investing upwards of $100 million in FarmVille maker Zynga.

PSP Remaster Games on PS3 to Run on the PSP Engine Posted: 30 Jun 2011 01:14 PM PDT At this year's Game Tools & Middleware Forum event, held today in Tokyo, Sony showcased the engine that will allow for PlayStation Portable games to be ported to the PlayStation 3 as a part of the PSP Remaster line that was announced last month. The Remaster series will see select PSP games ported to PS3 on Blu-ray discs, complete with enhancements like high-definition graphics. The PSP Engine is what makes this possible, according to a Famitsu report, and allows for support of high-res rendering, DualShock/Sixaxis control, 3D, Ad-Hoc Party, and more. None of this was unexpected, as they were all possible features mentioned when the first Remaster title, Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD Version, was revealed. There's no word yet on when or if the PSP Remaster line will be brought to North America. That doesn't mean PS3 owners will never be able to enjoy any of the PSP's game on their home console -- the God of War: Origins Collection, announced during E3, will allow them to do just that. It includes both PSP God of War games, Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, in high def and 3D, provided you've got a capable TV. Unlike PSP Remaster titles, the collection will feature Trophy support, something Monster Hunter fans will have to do without when playing Portable 3rd HD Version.

Steam Summer Sale Here to Rob You of All Your Money Posted: 30 Jun 2011 12:10 PM PDT Prepare to be completely broke very soon: Steam has kicked off the Summer Camp Sale, which runs from now through July 10. There will be not only daily deals on individual games and bundles, but for the length of the sale you can get complete publisher packs at a heavy discount, such as all of Telltale or Valve's games (including Portal 2) for $49.99 each. The catalogs of more than a dozen companies are also 25% off or more, giving you a good chance to pick up just about anything you want on Steam for cheap. Today's daily deals include The Witcher 2 for $33.49 (33% off), Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition for $7.50 (75% off), Back to the Future: The Game for $12.49 (50% off), The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for $6.80 (66% off), Recettear for $5.00 (75% off), and more. Besides the deals themselves, Valve is offering some additional encouragement to either play the games you already have or pick up some that you don't. Each day of the sale will have a list of "camp activities" to do; in other words, you're tasked with earning specific Achievements (if you haven't already) in select games. By doing this, you'll earn a prize ticket that can be cashed in for downloadable content for select games. Additionally, each prize ticket earned will enter you for a chance to be one of 100 people who will win the top ten games on their Steam wishlist.

Limbo Confirmed for PS3 and PC Posted: 30 Jun 2011 11:39 AM PDT Following a Korean ratings board listing that popped up for a PlayStation Network version of Limbo yesterday, developer Playdead has confirmed it's working on porting the platformer to both PlayStation 3 and PC. It'll be made available on the PlayStation Network and Steam, respectively. As noted on the PlayStation Twitter account, the PS3 version will be out very soon -- a July release is currently planned, with more details to be announced next week. Listings for PC and PS3 versions were discovered last year prior to its release on the Xbox Live Arcade. Playdead called it a mistake, saying, "You won't see a PS3 or PC version this time around, sorry." Speaking with Joystiq today, CEO Dino Patti said, "This might be the second time around we have been waiting for."

One Nintendo Shareholder's Unusual Question, and How Iwata Responded Posted: 30 Jun 2011 11:04 AM PDT Besides the usual questions you'd expect to be asked during a Nintendo shareholders meeting, like questioning the reaction to Wii U, if Nintendo is capable of developing high-definition games, and if core gamers will embrace Wii U, one forthcoming shareholder had something different to say to Nintendo President Satoru Iwata. "I'm concerned about the falling stock price," the shareholder said to Iwata, according to an Andriasang translation. It's not a ludicrous thing to bring up; since being worth $38.29 in the U.S. on February 25, Nintendo's stock price has steadily dropped all the way down to $23.27 as of this writing. It's what comments came after this that are strange. "I own stock, but I don't own a single Nintendo product. I believe games are a waste of time. By the way, the reason I own Nintendo stock is because the name is nice, it's in Kyoto and it was listed in the year of my birth." It's not necessarily the thing you expect someone who owns stock to say in this sort of forum. Nonetheless, Iwata answered, "There are people in this world who don't feel that games are a waste of time, so Nintendo continues to exist. We'd like to eliminate the thinking that playing games by yourself is negative, or when there's a crime you immediately tie it into games. We'd like to raise the social importance of games. We're working to expand the gaming population, yourself included."

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