Battlefield 3 trailer strikes at Karkand
Battleblog has released a new trailer and information for upcoming Battlefield 3 DLC Back to Karkand. The pack includes the “reimagined” Strike at Karkand map, based on the hugely popular Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 1942 level.
As well as the four maps, the DLC also includes 10 assignments, which are persistent throughout both the new maps and the original ones. DICE demonstrates this with the “Let it Rain” assignment, in which the player must kill 20 people with a light machine gun and two more with a mortar to unlock a new Back to Karkand weapon.
It’s not all good news though – PS3 owners will be able to access Back to Karkand a week before PC and Xbox gamers. Which really sucks. If you pre-ordered Battlefield 3 you’ll get Back to Karkand for free – if not, you’ll have to splash out £11.99 on EA’s Origin store.
Crusader Kings 2 gets hilarious live action trailer
Live action trailers have become quite popular lately, with Call of Duty and Skyrim trying their hand. This one for Crusader Kings 2 seems to be poking gentle fun at Bethesda’s effort, and also at the megalomaniacal tendencies of most strategy gamers in a very Monty Python and the Holy Grail kind of way.
Poor Duke of Winchester. I know I’ve often started wars because I’ve gotten bored with a peaceful victory before, how about you readers?
Future round up
Official PlayStation Magazine
Assassin’s Creed: Revelations most brutal counter kills
Official Nintendo Magazine
Mario Kart 7 shortcuts video guide
Nintendo: GBA Ambassador games are coming this year
Computer and Video Games
PS4: Why it won’t be what you expect
15 Essential Tips to Conquer Skyrim
GamesRadar
GamesRadar UK Podcast Episode 002
When is a gaming community not a gaming community?
Battlefield 3 Back to Karkand hands-on
League of Legends now bigger than World of Warcraft
Insanely popular MOBA title League of Legends has surpassed 11 million active players, giving it a bigger number of players than World of Warcraft’s 10.3 million, according to a new infographic released by the developers. The free-to-play action strategy game now has a registered playerbase of over 30 million people – approximately the population of Sudan, census fans.
Read on for more crazy numbers, and the infographic itself.
Telltale employees genetically engineer Jurassic Park scores
Is Metacritic the new Amazon? Despite only coming out three days ago, Jurassic Park has a host of decent user scores on the review aggregator, which set Gamespot’s fake reviews radar a twitchin’. Gamespot did some cursory Googling and found that the reviewer’s names matched up to those of developers Telltale’s employees.
In a statement to Gamespot, Telltale covered their backs by saying: “It is being communicated internally that anyone who posts in an industry forum will acknowledge that they are a Telltale employee. In this instance, two people who were proud of the game they worked on, posted positively on Metacritic under recognizable online forum and XBLA account names.”
Saints Row: The Third released in the UK
Several days after it was released for the rest of the world Saints Row: The Third has come out in the UK. Huzzah! Now we can finally experience all the fun Tom S had in our Saints Row 3 review! However, like several other recent games, it’s missing from the steam store in the UK. Boo! Hiss! This sadly means UK players won’t be able to get the Saints Row 3 Team Fortress 2 promotional items. You can, however, still buy the game digitally via Gamersgate, Direct2Drive or Origin.
Once again, we wish we knew why steam is being affected by these absences and no-one else is, but we’re being kept in the dark as much as you are. Rest assured, if we ever find out, we’ll let you know.
Star Wars: The Old Republic beta key reminder
Update – Keys are out, go here to register.
Hey you! Yes you with the face, did you enter our Old Republic beta key giveaway? You did? Then I suggest you check your emails, because you and thousands of others should find a key there waiting for you. Remember, you have to register it on the Old Republic site before midnight tonight, or it’ll expire! With that finished, you’ll be able to join the beta weekend on the 25th of November.
If you didn’t enter, it’s too late now, the giveaway is over. Sorry.
DC Universe Online announces Lightning Strikes DLC pack
Flash Fact #1: DC Universe Online’s transition to free to play has been very successful, with huge numbers of players joining since the switch.
Flash Fact #2: Sony are capitalising on this by working on a new DLC pack called Lightning strikes.
Similar to the Green Lantern themed Fight for the Light pack, this pack offers a new set of content themed around one of the iconic DC characters, in this case The Flash. New with Lightning Strikes will be an Electricity power set, a new map based around the Flash’s home town of Central City, new gear, new characters and more.
Check inside for a rundown of what’s included and some early screenshots:
Play Magicka for free on Steam this weekend
‘Tis a grand weekend for indie gaming on Steam. In addition to the Super Meat Boy Pack, bonkers co-op RPG Magicka is free until 9pm on Sunday, and, yes, developers Arrowhead Game Studios have fixed most of the bugs. There’s also a wizard’s sleeve worth of offers on Steam, including Magicka itself for £1.99, a four-pack for you and three chums for £5.99, and the Magicka Collection – including all DLC – for £4.24. Magic!
Just go here to download it.
Mass Effect 3 collector’s edition trailer reveals returning character
The Mass Effect 3 collector’s edition trailer has inadvertently revealed the return of one of Mass Effect 2′s main cast. The appearance is brief, but thankfully PC Gamer’s Chris Thursten has the eyes of a hawk and the soul of a nerd and spotted it right away.
For those who consider it a spoiler, we don’t name the character up here, but you can find a screenshot and a name beneath the cut.
Super Meat Boy anniversary bundle packs serious meat
Super Meat Boy completely won us over with its slightly icky take on the good ol’ platform genre. To celebrate its first anniversary, the game has been released as part of a huge bundle on Steam, which includes the original game, Aquaria, Bit.Trip Beat, Bit.Trip Runner, Braid, Gish, Machinarium, VVVVV and World of Goo. You’ll also get the music tracks from Super Meat Boy, Braid, Machinarium, Bit.Trip Beat and Bit.Trip Runner. That’s a whole bunch of indie gaming right there, and it’ll only set you back £17.89 ($28) – or £1.78 per game. Oh yeah, it also includes Half-Life 2, for some reason.
Mass Effect 3 collector’s edition detailed
Eurogamer have spotted a listing at Gamestop for Mass Effect 3′s collector’s edition, which comes with all sorts of goodies including an art book, a soundtrack and a comic. There’s also a neat little trailer to show them off. The art book in particular looks utterly gorgeous, and I’m a sucker for a metal case, especially one with the new female Shepard design on it.
Most intriguing is the promise of a bonus character and mission, presumably similar to Zaeed in Mass Effect 2, details for that one are being kept under wraps however. Check inside for the full list of bonus material.
Mass Effect 3′s creative director on multiplayer, MMOs and Bethesda
We’ve previously covered Mass Effect 3’s jolly exciting multiplayer mode, but Mass Effect 3’s creative director Casey Hudson’s shed a little more light on it in an interview with Xbox World.
Multiplayer’s always been on the cards for the Mass Effect series, but the solution was to build Mass Effect 3 from the ground up with multiplayer in mind. Rather than controlling Shepard, the player is charged with an independent character for multiplayer. “Shepard is still the hero, making the big decisions, deciding what’s going to happen with the universe and building alliances,” said Hudson. “But now there’s armies all over the place, fighting to just hang onto different locations.”
CD Projekt to release five games by 2015
Posters on NeoGAF have mined CD Projekt’s investor report for details of their current projects. The report says that the Witcher developer plans to put out two high profile games in 2014 and 2015, with two low and one mid budget projects planned for 2012-2013. All are planned to be multiplatform and, given CD Projekt’s history, we assume one of those platforms will be the PC.
The report also confirms that CD Projekt are working on a new intellectual property, which makes sense with all those games in the works, otherwise they’d end up producing ‘Witcher Kart Racing’.
Sega buys Three Rings, making Dr Who MMO
Sega have purchased Three Rings, the developers of Puzzle Pirates and Spiral Knights, and will collaborate with them on their upcoming Dr Who MMO. The announcement was made on the Three Rings website, where founder Daniel James assured people that current games would not be affected.
Earlier this year the BBC was working with Three Rings on a Dr Who MMO dubbed Dr Who: Worlds in Time, Sega will now be working with them on the project.
