General gaming

General gaming


Call of Duty Elite Beta Launches on 360, Ditches PC

Posted: 14 Jul 2011 05:47 PM PDT


Although the plan had been to include PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, at this point only the two consoles will be supported during the Call of Duty Elite beta that began today.

No reason for the decision was cited. An updated version of the beta FAQ states, "Currently, we do not plan to launch a version of the beta for the PC version of Call of Duty: Black Ops."

The FAQ also reveals that the beta is launching only on Xbox 360, but will soon bring PS3 players into the fold. There is no exact date for when PS3 players will get in, but at this point, the large majority of 360 players who signed up to participate aren't in either, so there's no reason to get angry over alleged console bias.

EA Sports Loses NBA Jam, Smash TV Creator Mark Turmell

Posted: 14 Jul 2011 04:43 PM PDT

Mark TurmellThe creator of NBA Jam, Mark Turmell, has left EA Sports.

The news has been confirmed by EA, saying in a statement sent to Kotaku, "We appreciate Mark's contribution to Tiburon and EA Sports and wish him well in future endeavors." As for what those future endeavors might be, Kotaku reports Turmell is headed to FarmVille maker Zynga.

Following initial rumors of an NBA Jam revival early last year, it was confirmed that Mark Turmell had joined up with EA Tiburon as senior creative director. Turmell would serve as a consultant on the NBA Jam game that came to Wii (and later, 360 and PS3, once NBA Elite 11 was canceled), which was developed at EA Canada. Tiburon is the studio responsible for the Madden and NCAA Football series, as well as Tiger Woods PGA Tour.

Call of Duty XP Tickets on Sale Next Tuesday at 10AM

Posted: 14 Jul 2011 04:25 PM PDT

Call of Duty XP

Those hoping to attend the first ever Call of Duty XP event in Los Angeles later this year will want to be on their computers next Tuesday morning, credit card in hand.

Tickets will go on sale July 19 at 10am Pacific for $150. It sounds pricey, but as was noted when the event was first announced, 100% of ticket sales go to the Call of Duty Endowment, a non-profit group that supports military veterans -- this isn't a case of Activision being greedy. According to Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, $150 wouldn't have covered all the expenses of the event anyway, "so this is partly about raising money for a great cause, and it's partly about just giving something back to our fans."

Each ticket allows its owner to visit both days of the event, September 2 and 3. Only two tickets can be purchased by a single person. Buyers need to know exactly who will be using each ticket -- a full name and certain unspecified "info" will be required for each person when buying the tickets. Those who attend need to be at least 18 years old and have an ID with them when visiting the 12 acre compound located outside of Los Angeles.

Duke Nukem Trails Only L.A. Noire in June NPDs

Posted: 14 Jul 2011 04:02 PM PDT

Duke Nukem Forever

Hope you didn't bet on Duke to be number one.

Duke Nukem Forever had a relatively strong debut in June -- its combined sales of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC versions sold better than every other game in the United States with the exception of L.A. Noire last month, according to NPD Group numbers covering May 29 through July 2.

L.A. Noire sold 419,000 copies, while Duke Nukem Forever sold 376,300, Giant Bomb reprots. These numbers, like all NPD software sales, only account for physical sales, not digital.

1UP's Sucker Punch Blu-ray Prize Pack Giveaway

Posted: 14 Jul 2011 02:47 PM PDT

1UP's Sucker Punch Blu-ray Prize Pack Giveaway
How To Play

We've heard what you're saying to us on twitter: you want more movies!

Naturally, the first movie we thought of was Sucker Punch. With multiple protagonists and different vignettes, it would totally lend itself to a video game. That's why today we're giving you a chance to win Sucker Punch on Blu-ray/DVD/Digital, the Sucker Punch Origianl Soundtrack, and The Art of Sucker Punch book! That's a lotta swag!

Each winner gets all three prizes, so play to win from the moment we start! Here's what it takes to win:

Super E.D.F. Out on Virtual Console, Nintendo Tells No One

Posted: 14 Jul 2011 01:39 PM PDT

Super Earth Defense Force

For many, the highlight of Nintendo's weekly downloadable offerings will be the 3DS Netflix app. It isn't the only new item available to download today, and despite Nintendo making no mention of it whatsoever, the Wii's Virtual Console is now home to Super E.D.F.: Earth Defense Force.

Neither Nintendo of America's tweets nor its announcement sent out to media and published online makes mention of how Super Earth Defense Force is out now for $8. It joins WiiWare's 3D Pixel Racing ($5) as the only new Wii download titles this week.

Despite the similarity in names, this Earth Defense Force has nothing to do with D3 Publisher's two recent games of the same name, EDF 2017 and EDF: Insect Armageddon. Those are both a part of the Global Defense Force series, whereas the Super Nintendo game was a horizontal shooter from the early 90s that began as an arcade title.

Simon Belmont Looked Like This as Castlevania: Lords of Shadow's Lead

Posted: 14 Jul 2011 12:51 PM PDT


Before it came to be the game we know today, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow started out as a remake of the original Castlevania. Players therefore would have again assumed the role of Simon Belmont, not Gabriel Belmont, who ended up becoming the main characters in LoS.

At the recent Gamelab conference in Barcelona, Konami showed off an early concept video that demonstrates what Simon would have looked like had he been the star of the game. Simon appears shortly after the 1:20 mark, quick lays the smackdown, and is gone before you know it.

While Simon didn't make it into the final game, you can still see his influence; Gabriel's armor is similar to that of Simon's in Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, a game whose focus on exploration was also an inspiration to LoS' developers.

20 Facts From 20 Games You Don't Already Know

Posted: 14 Jul 2011 12:30 PM PDT

Feature

20 Facts From 20 Games You Don't Already Know
We polled developers to tell us little nuggets of trivia for their games, and here's how they answered.

By 1UP Staff

"Tell us something about your game that people don't already know." That was a question that we recently and repeatedly asked a bunch of developers while checking out a game. We didn't want the usual, "this game has 12 weapons that feel like 24 because of the alternate fire for each" factoid. We asked for stuff like whether a feature was cut, or if someone put in a picture of their dog in a poster within one of the levels. Think of this as the gaming equivalent of hearing that one of James Cameron's goals was to feature "the ultimate cat-fight between badass moms" in Aliens. We asked twenty developers to tell us one piece of trivia for their game, and here's what they said.

Battlefield 3:
From executive producer Karl-Magnus Troedsson: "There might be one thing that maybe not everyone noticed what we did in the EA press conference [at E3] -- I challenge all hardcore Battlefield fans to take a look at the absolute first couple seconds of the presentation. There's an audio cue in there you might recognize -- it's an homage to Battlefield 1942. It starts out with a tune from 1942."

BioShock Infinite:
Creative director Ken Levine gives us an alternate take on the one of the more significant narrative changes between the original BioShock and the upcoming Infinite: "In the early story briefs of BioShock Infinite, Elizabeth was mute." Which makes for an interesting inversion of having a chatty protagonist accompanied by a mute companion.

Our First Glimpse of Battlefield 3's New Battlelog System

Posted: 14 Jul 2011 11:54 AM PDT

Battlelog

Just as the Call of Duty series is getting free social networking features with Call of Duty Elite (the beta of which begins today), Battlefield 3 will bring with it something similar in Battlelog.

As announced during E3, Battlelog provides players with a place to check out statistics, track unlocks and awards, communicate with other players, and so on.

The German Battlefield blog seems to have jumped the gun by posting several pictures of Battlelog from an alpha trial version. The post, originally located here, has since been pulled, but not before fansite Battlefieldo noticed.

NCAA Football 12 Review

Posted: 14 Jul 2011 11:35 AM PDT

"Please, please, please, don't let them break the game I loved and played for 100+ hours last year" -- that has to be the most common annual refrain of the sports gamer. And who could blame us? Having lived through The QB Vision Cone™, Read and Lead Passing™, Liquid A.I.™ Analog Spiral System™, Crease Control™, and The Truck Stick™ (only one of those ridiculous marketing terms isn't real), we've come to expect that, for the sake of adding a bullet point, the beauty and balance of a great game can be cast into disarray. Last year's NCAA Football 11 was just such a great game, and I'm more than a little relieved to report that this year's entry does nothing to damage that legacy.

In fact, to the casual observer, it would seem they've done nothing to the game... at all. That's because, while the list of updates and improvements to NCAA 12 is definitely extensive, the enhancements tend to be of the type that are either buried in menus (things like custom playbooks and custom conferences), or require some familiarity with the series to recognize their significance.

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