Latest News
Street Fighter X Tekken Gets New Characters...
But only on PS3 and PS Vita, due to an exclusive agreement. Yes, this new fighting game from Capcom which pits Namco's characters against Capcom's will now include Pac-Man (controlling that tree dude from classic Tekken games), Mega Man (in a terrible form, akin to the original US box art from the original), Cole from inFamous, and wacky Sony characters Kuro and Toro. And they'll only be on PS3 and PS Vita. Yes, I do believe a shark is being jumped right... about... now.
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Steam Mobile App Goes Into Beta
Valve has announced that a version of Steam for iOS and Android has gone into beta, allowing those whose Steam accounts are enabled for it to use Steam chat, check out sales and buy games, read news, and play around in Steam communities. (No gaming - or at least, not for now.) Note that this is still a closed beta for now, but installing the app and logging into your account will vastly increase the chances of you being added to the beta so you can actually, well, use the app.
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New Neo Geo Portable!
Shacknews has word (originally from Japanese blog Famitsu Plaza) that SNK Playmore is delivering a new Neo Geo portable console to play their classic games on. It'll be a little bigger than an iPhone with a hybrid D-pad/analog-looking control scheme along with four face buttons, four shoulder buttons (not sure what those are fore), 4" screen, and an SD card slot. It will ship with about 19 games on-chip, mostly from the earlier generation of Neo Geo games. Click "Read More" to see a picture and get into some discussion!
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Next Gen Rumors Abound
Over the last year or so, you've probably seen one or more rumors about the kind of hardware that will go into the next generation of consoles Microsoft and Sony are making. Admittedly, the Wii U was announced almost a year ago and we still don't even know what hardware's in that, but it's important to point out that all of these rumors, when you add them together, start to coalesce into something that just makes sense. Let's talk below, shall we?
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Real Money on Microsoft Stores?
Tech site InsideMobileApps (via GameSpot) has a pretty solid rumor going that Microsoft will be ditching their points system on Xbox Live and other stores for real-money transactions all over the world. Apparently this comes with the introduction of the Windows Phone store into the full Microsoft buying-stuff ecosystem. While this probably means the end of discounted points on eBay and such, I think this is still a step forwards.
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Skyrim Patch Detailed, PC Creation Kit Soon
Bethblog has details on the upcoming 1.4 patch for Skyrim, which includes a bunch of quest fixes, some minor optimizations on PC, and, probably most importantly for all those PS3 users seeing dire issues with big save files, an improvement to keep the PS3 version of the game running acceptably for more than twelve to fifteen hours. The Creation Kit for PC is still on track for January release as well!
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'1999 Mode' Announced for BioShock Infinite
Irrational Games has announced a mode which will be available in this year's BioShock Infinite, dubbed "1999 Mode". It will be a toggle that's separate from the difficulty setting, and it forces players to more carefully manage resources, make permanent decisions about the protagonist's advancement, and only get limited use out of what would normally be the infinitely reusable respawn chambers. It's an homage to the first person shooters of old and a wave to the FPS gamers who want an additional challenge, and it's a very welcome addition for us here at AtomicGamer.
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Max Payne 3 Trailer
This just-released trailer by Rockstar will be the first in-game footage of Max Payne 3 that many will have seen. It includes briefings on how the third-person camera and action work, pinpoint accuracy, weapon switching, and more. I'm a little concerned over the use of cover, but if the enemies become very aggressive when you get behind cover, then we should be fine. And oh yeah, diving and bullet time are well-represented, too!
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Star Trek Online Now Free to Play
Perfect World has announced that Star Trek Online, the once-subscription-based MMORPG, is now free to play with premium paid features.
[Update: The latest client is now mirrored here]
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Max Payne 3 Delayed until Mid/Late May
GameSpot has word that Rockstar's Max Payne 3 is getting delayed. The console versions are coming out on May 15th, and the PC version will follow two weeks later.
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Yesteryear's Games Teach You How to Play
How many times have you seen a recent video game interrupt the action and talk to you like you've never played a game before? How many tutorials have you just mashed buttons through, wondering when you're going to get to the action? It wasn't always like this. There were games made in years past that intelligently taught you how to play by showing you what to do in a more natural way, that would illustrate upcoming dangers and allow you to figure out how to overcome them while sitting there safely. GamaSutra has a wonderful article up explaining how Super Metroid did this, but I'd also like to point out this Sequelitis video (NWS language) about Mega Man X.
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Mojang Staying Busy
This feature by Edge Online has word that Mojang AB, the company behind Minecraft and the upcoming Scrolls, also has three unannounced games in the works, one of which is by Notch, the original Minecraft creator. The best part? It's possible that two of them will be available to the public by the midpoint of this year. Notch's own game is still in such rudimentary stages that he doesn't really know what it is yet, and I imagine that any public releases will be in a pre-alpha or alpha state like Minecraft was a couple of years ago, but either way, it's good news for fans of Mojang.
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Notch Says: Pirate Minecraft if you can't afford it
An interesting exchange happened on Twitter in the last day or so. When a user tweeted Notch to ask for a free account since he couldn't afford Minecraft (and suggested he'd pirate it if nothing else), here's now Notch replied:
Just pirate it. If you still like it when you can afford it in the future, buy it then. Also don't forget to feel bad. ;)It's different when Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails tells an Australian audience to pirate his last major record label CD, as Trent knew that Aussie customers were getting ripped off with high prices, and almost none of that money was going to him or his band. But here, this is a direct sale, and while it seems silly for a developer to tell a fan to pirate his game, what other choices are there? All I can think of is copy protection or DRM, which no one (including Notch) actually wants to see implemented...
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A Petition to Valve for Half-Life Info
This Steam Group with over 6,600 signatures (as of this writing) is trying to get Valve to start talking about whatever Half-Life project they may or may not be working on currently. Is it just me, or does anyone else find it nice that a developer is not announcing a game years ahead of its release to slowly trickle out teasers, screenshots, and magazine covers? My secret wish is for Valve to just not announce Half-Life 3 at all; just release it on Steam one day. No hype, no lead-up, no spoilers and no press showings - Just millions of buyers scrambling to click "Add to Cart" when they find out the game was completed right under their noses without their knowledge. If there's one franchise that could pull this off, it's this one.
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STALKER 2 Development Continues!
After some harrowing news about the future of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 developer GSC Game World over the last month, the devs have posted a message to their Facebook page that they're continuing to work on the game. There's no word on whether it's with fewer people or not, but considering what happened over the last month, that certainly seems possible.
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Space Pirates & Zombies Deal!
MinMax Games' indie space action/strategy/RPG/epic game Space Pirates & Zombies is on sale today on Impulse for a very deep discount of $2.49. Check out our review to read my words of praise about this wonderful little game. If you liked classic space games like Master of Orion or Star Control 2, then this one's worth the half-a-coffee tag for sure!
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New XCOM Strategy Game Announced
GameInformer has the scoop (and the upcoming cover on their February issue) on 2K Games' XCOM: Enemy Unknown. It's going to be a re-imagining of the classic 1994 PC game, but this is not the first person shooter being developed at 2K Marin. No, this is another game, and it will be actual turn-based strategy like the original. Best part? It's being made by Firaxis Games, the developers behind a little franchise you might have heard of - it's called Civilization.
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Microsoft Flight: Free this Spring
Microsoft has announced that their upcoming flight simulator, titled simply Flight, will be a free-to-play title released this spring. Some have wondered why Microsoft is going this route for a hardcore game like a serious flight simulator, but after seeing just how much post-release content was bought for Flight Simulator X in the five years since its release, it becomes clear that the money is in the added planes and geography.
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EVO Returns in July
The EVO fighting game tournament that's been running for over a decade will be back this July, and they've announced which games will be run in the tourney. The lineup goes like this: Street Fighter IV 2012 Edition, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Soulcalibur V, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter X Tekken, and King of Fighters XIII. Even if you're not interested in playing these games, watching the streams on Twitch.TV (both the weekend of the tournament and the many local events every week that lead up to it) is usually quite entertaining, or at least they are once you learn the lingo (note: not a complete list). And who knows - maybe we could get another one of these moments?
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Best MMO Exploit Ever.
In the history of the world. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Star Wars: The Old Republic's /getdown. (Seen on Reddit!)
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