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Feature review: Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Tarryn van der Byl

Dec 31, 2011

Dear Claudia,

I’ve arrived in Constantinople, and have decided to write you this letter as a clever means of narrative exposition without all the drag of pre-rendered cinematics because we kind of blew the whole budget on the intro sequence. I think it looked pretty magnifico, though.

Anyway, I am here to find a bunch of keys to open Altaïr’s secret library in the castle at Masyaf because all the answers are there (I’m sure!), but this might be a bit harder than I’d first thought. I mean, it doesn’t look like they’re anywhere on the docks, so I guess I’m going to have to get off this ship and actually go into the city and look for them.

Anonymous announces second planned attack on Sony

Miklós Szecsei

Dec 30, 2011

SOPA – the Stop Online Piracy Act is pissing off a lot of people. In short, if this new bill is passed in the USA, then media corporations will be given enough power to censor certain websites. Websites like YouTube and Reddit are examples of sites that could suffer if SOPA passes. There are many, many online websites that are vehemently opposed to the act, and gaming websites are no different – just check out Destructoid’s official stance on the matter.

Internet activist group Anonymous has voiced their intention to “destroy your [Sony’s] network” yet again. This comes as a response to Sony pledging their support for SOPA. Anonymous won’t stop at Sony however, as they’ve indicated that they’ll be targeting anybody who supports SOPA, and that includes individuals like Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. Yeah, you read that correctly: Anonymous plans to take out Justin Bieber and other celebrities who have expressed their support for SOPA.

You can read Anonymous’ full address to Sony after the jump. Oh and, uhh, you might want to ensure your PlayStation Network password is not used for any other of your online accounts; at least Anonymous has had the courtesy to warn us before they distribute our information all over the internet. This is getting so tiresome now.

Fez gets a PEGI rating

Miklós Szecsei

Dec 30, 2011

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Stop! Before we begin: hit play on that header image because, as we’ve discussed in the past, static screenshots do not do justice to the beauty that is Fez.

Now that your header image is rotating slowly while piping soothing music through your speakers, we can get down to what this post is really about. The years and years and years in development indie title from Polytron has been given a European rating by PEGI. This was spotted by eagle-eyed Xbox Live Arcade website XBLAFans.

With a rating being one of the last hurdles in game development, we think it’s pretty safe to say that Fez will be sticking to its “early 2012” release date. There’s quite a bit to look forward to, with the game’s lead designer Phil Fish admitting that there are oodles of references and influences from older titles like the original Zelda, Mario Bros., ICO and even Myst and Riven. So are you excited yet? You should be.

Source: XBLAFans

Review: Mario Kart 7

Rhys ap Gwyn

Dec 30, 2011

The Mario Kart series is oft-championed as the epitome of karting games. Enter Mario Kart 7, a title that is challenged with keeping the series fresh while delivering the thrills and quirks fans desire.

As with many of Nintendo’s first party titles, you will be genuinely reminded over and again why you started playing video games. Through its animations, track design and characters, MK7 throws endless charm and colour at your grinning face.

Valve says we’re all being trolled, Half-Life 3 doesn’t exist

Miklós Szecsei

Dec 29, 2011

And just like that, the lovely folks at Valve have silenced the Half-Life hype machine and murdered current hope that we might be getting some news regarding their conspicuously absent FPS franchise.

Co-writer for Portal 2 and the last two Half-Life games Chet Faliszek, jumped onto the Steam forums to put everyone in the “Half-Life 3 announced ? black-aperture.com” thread out of their misery. The bottom line: the community is trolling the community. There is no Half-Life 3.

This all started back at the beginning of December when a Valve employee was spotted wearing a Half-Life 3 t-shirt. A few days later was the Spike TV Video Game Awards in which Portal 2’s Wheatley gave a speech that was systematically torn apart by the internet. People “discovered” (read: created) Half-Life 3 hints in the video. A week or so later, and that oh-so-glorious black-aperture.com website cropped up. Too bad that URL isn’t even registered to Valve, and it looks like all the content that was on it has since been removed.

Guns don’t kill people, Xbox Live Avatars kill people

Miklós Szecsei

Dec 28, 2011

Word on the street is that Microsoft is about to roll out an amendment to the Xbox Live Avatar Marketplace. That amendment cancels out the one that gives Avatars the right to bear arms. And by arms we mean those little props that resemble guns and stuff, not their, you know, actual arms.

If you have ever been ummming and uhhhing as to the merits of dropping 320 MS Points on a Gears of War Lancer for your Xbox 360 Avatar, then you have until midnight of 31 December 2011 to decide. As of 01 January 2012, no guns or “gun-like” props will be permitted on the Avatar Marketplace and all existing gun props will be removed. If you’ve bought one already then you’ll still be able to use it so don’t panic, if this is anything worth panicking about anyway.

This probably has something to do with the whole family-friendly ethos that Microsoft is re-skinning the Xbox 360 with. You know what would help when re-skinning anything? The chainsaw part of a Lancer; makes getting off the old skin so much easier. Just saying, Microsoft.

Source: Kotaku

Dreadnoughts coming to purge the unclean?

Miklós Szecsei

Dec 28, 2011

Here’s some good news for fans of THQ’s third-person action game Space Marine. Developer Relic tweeted the above screenshot saying that they have a “big metal surprise coming to @SpaceMarine in January”.

Whether or not we’ll get to play as a Dreadnought or just have them as AI teammates is not certain; at this time all we have to go on is that one tweet and screenshot. In an ideal world we’ll get some single-player DLC in which you play as a Dreadnought ripping through waves of Chaos Marine bastards; at least then we won’t have to hear Orks shouting “Space Marines!” every three seconds… because we’d be a Dreadnought, and there wouldn’t be any Orks. Ideal!

Space Marine wasn’t a bad experience insofar as action games go; you can check out our review here. It certainly wasn’t going to win any Game of the Year awards, but it was definitely worth a playthrough especially for fans of the Warhammer 40K universe. We’ll update you as soon as Relic and THQ reveal more about this possible Dreadnought DLC.

Source: Game Informer

The Ender Scrolls V: Minerim

Miklós Szecsei

Dec 28, 2011

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Just let that title wash over you and submerge you in the infinite possibilities for awesome. I mean seriously: Minecraft and Skyrim shacking up to produce Minerim? It’s too cool to imagine. Also it’s a really, really slow news day so we’re willing to post anything.

An interwebs citizen by the name of avemagnadude has put together this mock-up trailer. It’s set to the goose-bump-inducing Skyrim trailer of a few months ago, except it’s made in Minecraft. It also has some fancy animation thrown in to make the whole thing more impressive. Give it a watch, and then start designing your own Dovahkiin Minecraft skin. Once you’ve done that, then send me a copy because I’d love one but couldn’t be asked to faff around making my own.

Queue, or queue not. There is no try.

Miklós Szecsei

Dec 23, 2011

EA and BioWare’s years in development MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic officially launched on 20 December 2011. That makes the online galaxy far, far away about three days old. Bless it; it’s so small and vulnerable and hassled by teething problems.

Word on the interwebs is that people are loving the game; that’s great news for EA and BioWare considering the amount of effort and money that went into the project. The bad news is that people might be loving it a little too much as servers are DYING out there. Some of the more popular US and EU servers have queues before you can join the game, and sometimes those queues last for up to two hours.

It’s an odd notion, standing in a digital queue before you can play a game you’ve purchased, but I’ve never really been down with the whole MMO thing so maybe it’s part and parcel during the early days of a new title? Be that as it may, it must be pissing off a few people. The bad news is that according to the game’s senior online community manager Stephen Reid, those virtual queues are going nowhere.

‘Chievo chaser: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Tarryn van der Byl

Dec 23, 2011

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably already clocked over fifty hours playing Skyrim, but you’ve completed, like, five quests. Maybe. It’s like every time you decide to get back to business, something just sort of comes up. A nearby cave, perhaps, or a mammoth, or just a really nice looking crag in the distance, and on the way over there, you notice there’s actually a town or something somewhere up ahead, then SUDDENLY DRAGONS or GIANTS or BUNNIES, and then it’s dark and you realise you forgot to eat dinner. And lunch. In fact, everything that’s happened since breakfast is kind of vague and it might be tomorrow already and the cat looks a bit miffed.

Skyrim features fifty Achievements / Trophies, and the good news is that, with only two exceptions (and one is more like a very unlikely contingency), none of them can be accidentally skipped over.

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