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Gamescom 2011: Dust 514 preview

Miklós Szecsei

Aug 26, 2011

EVE Online has a certain allure about it, don’t you think? The game has been around for more than eight years now and has grown in magnitude to become one of the deepest MMO games available today. The only catch is it’s not exactly accessible to newcomers or those looking to dabble in a different online experience.

A few months ago I watched a friend playing EVE Online. I was captivated but at the same time put off by the Everest-like incline in the learning curve. I longed to get involved but had to admit that I never would; there was simply too much to absorb. If only CCP Games had some means of making their gloriously detailed universe more accessible to those with shorter attention spans and less time on their hands. Oh wait, they totally do! It’s called Dust 514, a download only MMOFPS heading exclusively to the PlayStation 3.

Super Monday Night Combat

Miktar

Aug 25, 2011

Don’t call it a comeback (or a sequel), because Super Monday Night Combat isn’t, according to Uber Entertainment. Taking the DotA-inspired third-person shooter to the Free-To-Play arena, Super Monday Night Combat will sport some gameplay changes to the original’s formula, new Pro characters and of course, micropayments for getting new (hats/gear/something – nothing confirmed yet). You can read more over at Kotaku, and check out some screenshots after the break.

Gamescom 2011: Borderlands 2 preview

Miklós Szecsei

Aug 25, 2011

Gamescom 2011 was Gearbox Software’s first real occasion to show off Borderlands 2. The game was outted by Eurogamer prior to Gamescom, but that did very little to quell the excitement amongst those attending the press preview sessions during this year’s show.

2K didn’t muck about when showing off their upcoming titles. Their preview rooms were more like mini cinemas than the poky little prefab nooks that other publishers utilised. In a darkened room that had been plastered with Borderlands 2 artwork, we ensconced ourselves on huge leather armchairs and said hello to what will be one of 2013’s most anticipated titles.

Win! Deus Ex Augmented Edition!

Geoff Burrows

Aug 25, 2011

UPDATE: This competition is now closed. Congratulations to Paul “Grimnebulin” Nain. We hope you enjoy your prize!

Courtesy of Megarom Interactive, we have one lonely copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution Augmented Edition plus a Deus Ex T-shirt (size large) to give away. This is for Xbox 360 only. Don’t ask us for any other platform, because we’re already claimed them for ourselves (mwuhahaha).

Seriously.

Click on for all the details.

NAG September 2011 issue

Geoff Burrows

Aug 25, 2011

After a decade of waiting, it’s finally time for us to have a Diablo III cover. To go along with that, we have thousands of words of info on the game, as well as a look at what you can expect at rAge 2011. If you need more reasons to buy this issue of NAG, we review Shadows of the Damned, Call of Juarez: The Cartel, From Dust, Child of Eden, and more; and we preview Bodycount, Lollipop Chainsaw, Ninja Gaiden III and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Our hardware coverage is dominated by two shootouts: AMD Llano vs. Intel Sandy Bridge, and ASUS Crosshair V Formula vs. GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD7. We also take a look at the ASUS MATRIX GTX580 Platinum, the ASUS G74SX, the NOCTUA NH-D14 CPU cooler and more.

The September issue of NAG is on shelf from today, the 25^th of August.

Click here for the contents PDF [414KB]

Let’s celebrate the Human Revolution with a launch trailer

Dane Remendes

Aug 24, 2011

Deus Ex: Human Revolution launches this Friday! Are you wearing your excited face? You should be. I haven’t played the game since going all hands-on with that delicious offering of tender ‘n’ juicy preview code a few months ago, but I can safely say that there’s good reason to be foaming at your augmented mouth in anticipation of this – whether you’re a long-time fan or not. It’s like being transported back to a time when shooters didn’t all feel like they might as well be on rails. Choice – it’s everywhere!

The game now has a launch trailer, filled with cherry-picked quotes from early reviews that are sure to give you a big ol’ nerdboner.

Portal gets a live-action short film, world rejoices

Dane Remendes

Aug 24, 2011

This debuted at San Diego Comic-Con not too long ago, and now the Internet has taken it hostage. It’s a high-quality short film directed by Dan Trachtenberg and starring our favourite Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. Also – Danielle “More Muscular Than Me” Rayne.

Man, that thing looks unwieldy when it’s not just a blip in the bottom corner of your first-person view. Watch it – it’s good stuff.

GC 2011: Hands-on with Disney Universe

Geoff Burrows

Aug 23, 2011

Gamescom

Disney Universe is the kind of kid’s game that you’ll buy for your younger sibling or child, and end up playing it long after they’ve lost interest and gone to find some crayons to chew on, or whatever kids do these days. At its heart, it’s a side-scrolling beat-‘em-up with a few simple platforming and puzzle elements, which will make this game easily accessible for anyone who’s ever stepped foot into an arcade, as well as the targeted younger audience that spends its days watching brain-rotting cartoons.

The game’s story is almost non-existent: you play as a person who was testing some sort of gaming system for Disney, when an evil guy called Hex came along and trapped you and your friends in the world. Now you have to escape by bashing lots of monsters. The game will launch with six worlds available to you, with each based on a popular Disney franchise such as The Lion King, Wall-E and Monsters Inc., and players will be able to wear suits that strongly resemble Sackboy’s outfits from LittleBigPlanet, based on a licence as well. Each suit has its own set of weapons and abilities, and can be purchased once you’ve gathered enough gold from the environments and fallen enemies.

CG2011 – Hands-on with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Miklós Szecsei

Aug 23, 2011

It wouldn’t surprise me if you hadn’t heard of Reckoning. The open-world, fantasy RPG by lovably eccentric game developer Ken Rolston certainly came out of left field for me, but I’m undeniably delighted that it did. My brief hands-on time with the game was not only a treat because of the gameplay and delectable art style (designed by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane by the way) but also because it’s given me another single-player, action RPG to look forward.

Tucked away in EA’s expansive Business Area stand (they pretty much had their own floor in the Business Area they were showing so many games) was a tiny room with enough space for about eight people and three screens. In this minute room that was bursting with enthusiastic developers from 38 Studios and Big Huge Games, I met Reckoning – and we’ve been friends ever since. This is an RPG to keep an eye on.

Opinionated: The truck stops here

Rogan Louwrens

Aug 22, 2011

I’ve always had the deepest respect for people who do such things as drive trucks for a living. For one, most of them could probably cripple me with a well-meaning handshake, and there is a certain je ne sais quoi to people who control 40 tonne explosion-driven monsters and advance with malicious intent on the sort who say “je ne sais quoi.”

I’ve even wondered what it must be like to become so intimate with the tarred arteries of a whole country, a nomad bearing down on the world from atop a really, really big horse. Is it a fun life, what with the truck stops, greasy food and the ever-pertinent promise of discount prostitutes?

I have never been possessed of a lorry-driving constitution, I’m afraid to say, so I let go of that dream pretty early, along with firefighting and astronauting and other such strongholds of compressed testosterone. Oh, tears were shed and teeth were gnashed, but one gets over these things. In short, I moved on.