April is starting off a little slow on the news front. Sort of matches the release schedule for this Spring. But, there’s still a little to learn.
Ronimo Games, the team that brought you Swords & Soldiers, has a new title coming to PSN and XBLA on May 1st. Awesomenauts is a 2D Multiplayer Online Battle Arena inspired by 1980’s cartoons. Taking place in the year 3587, the game features six anti-heroes, with up to three players split-screen or online. Froggy G, coming from the swampy ghettoes of Ribbit IV, is a mercenary thug. Sheriff Lonestar is genetically engineered cowboy created by sentient cows; he was banished from his homeworld for wrangling the natives. Leon Chameleon is a stealthy and suave lizard, now the most wanted criminal in the galaxy. Clunk was built to be part of a robot army that fell apart when the villain building it died from an untimely infection; his attempts at a repurposed life as a housekeeping robot have left him with anger management problems; he began his new career as a mercenary to save money for therapy. Yuri is a Russian space-monkey from 1960’s Earth; a warpfield anomaly sent him hundreds of years into the future and provided him with super-intelligence; his homemade time-traveling rocket pack translates his speech. Voltar the Omniscient was a super-scientist whose brain, being the only part of him left after a star-encapsulating power station exploded, has been transferred to a mechanical body that he now uses to command his robots; his role as a mercenary is unclear, but surely is related to his constant scheming. So the characters are creative, and I dig the cartoon art style. But, so far, the action doesn’t look that impressive – a complaint I’ve had with Ronimo title in the past. I’ll still definitely be keeping an eye on this one.
Another downloadable with a fun art style is coming soon, this one from Team17. Worms Revolution is a new evolution for the franchise, built on a brand new engine and returning to the much-loved 2D side view. Release is scheduled for “consoles” in third quarter of 2012.
Fresh off the success of Gotham City Impostors, Monolith is apparently hard at work on another licensed game. While they’ve clearly proven they’re capable of making good licensed games, they will be facing a different challenge by making a movie tie-in with The Hobbit: Part One. The game’s based on the film trilogy were okay, but not great. Since then the franchise has gone downhill with Aragorn’s Quest and War in the North. It will be interesting to see what Monolith and WB Seattle do with this one, set to release alongisde the film in December. The same team is likely working on the tie-in for part two next year.
While Sony and Microsoft are still adamant that we won’t be seeing any announcement for “PS4” or “XBox 720” at E3 this year, the rumor mill is keeping the stories active. Sources supposedly in the know at Sony say the “design goalposts” have been in place for over two year, certain developers and publishers already know what’s happening and are working on it, other devs should know more by the end of the year and most of the strongest ones this summer. But the big one from Sony is that they’re “confident” the PS4 will beat “neXtBox” to market, both of which are expected by holiday 2013. Apparently the keynote addresses at E3 next year will be the big tip off as to who starts the next-gen salvo.
Meanwhile, Microsoft‘s specs for their next-gen console, whatever it’s to be called, have some rumor leaks as well. Their new machine looks to have two GPUs equivalent to AMD 7000s. Unlike dual PC setups, the two GPUs will work independently, drawing separate items at the same time. The CPU will supposedly have “four or six” cores. That seems like a pretty big distinction, making me wonder about the validity of the rumor as a whole. Supposedly, one core will be for the built in Kinect, and another for the OS. It is also rumored to require a constant internet connection as an anti-piracy measure. That seems sketchy, as high speed internet connections aren’t universal to all gamers.
Do you need more overly endowed fighting girls in your life? Good, because Skullgirls has finally gotten it’s release date – and it’s sooner than you might think. The downloadable fighter will be available from XBLA on April 11th for 1200 points.
THQ and WWE announced a “Wrestlemania Edition” of WWE ’12 in conjunction their flaghsip event this past Sunday, where The Undertaker moved to a 20-0 record at wrestling’s biggest stage. This edition will be featuring extra characters Batista, Brie and Nikki Bella, Brodus Clay, Michael Cole, Mick Foley, Alicia Fox, Vicki Guerrero, Kharma, Jerry “The King” Lawler, Shawn Michaels, The Rock, Jim Ross, the late Randy “Macho Man” Savage, and Trish Stratus. Additionally, you’ll get alternate costumes the Road Warriors, Hawk and Animal, plus Edge and Christian. This special set is planned for May, though it would have made more sense to come out this week to more closely align with the Pay-Per-View.
NIS America has announced three new PS3-exclusive RPG variants are headed for release in the coming year:
This next bit seems to have come a little bit out of left field. It appears Rocksteady is set to release story-based DLC for Batman: Arkham City, half a year after the game was released and several months since the last piece of DLC. Unlike the extra costumes and challenge maps we’ve gotten so far, this one actually looks to expand the story of the game, with players taking on the role of Robin versus Harley Quinn. This is technically rumor since Warner Bros. Interactive hasn’t actually announced yet, but it’s got a very high likelihood. Geoff Keighley was able to confirm its existence about a month ago but couldn’t get any details. Meantime, the supporting trophies and achievements have been uncovered. The Robin and Harley theory comes directly from the description for “A Few New Tricks”: “Use 5 different Quickfire gadgets in one fight as Robin in Harley Quinn’s Revenge.” With the achievement descriptions already released it’s possible this will launch today, but it would be strange to Rocksteady to release it with no announcement.
Sony has closed it’s Seattle-based developer Zipper Interactive. The official word from Sony is that “The closure is a result of a normal cycle of resource re-alignment within [Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios]. Zipper has completed all work associated with its most recent project, Unit 13 for PlayStation Vita. Zipper titles MAG, SOCOM 4 and Unit 13 will continue to be supported, including the new Daily Challenges in Unit 13.” The closure affects 80 employees in the Seattle area. What does this mean for the SOCOM franchise, or any of their other projects? That’s up to Sony, but we’ll let you know as soon as we hear more.
Your PlayStation Vita will soon have a system software update (1.65). Is this the compatibility for PSOne games you’ve been wanting? No. Actually, all of the tweaks are pretty minor, but they do expand the convenience factor, giving the device more options for your style of use:
That’s all for now. Check back Friday for the rest of the week’s news!