Today being a mass amount of nerdish holiday’s I figured I’d help us geeks with the 1 thing we can never seem to prevent. Mass amount of cash spending! WIth May the 4th upon us a few game deals have been popping up in celebration.

Zen Studios, Star Wars Pinball

What would May the 4th be without a pinball sale?! Zen Studios has announced that from April 30-May 7 their Star Wars titles are 50% orr!

Steam: Star Wars Pack
Steam is selling their Star Wars 2013 pack for 50% off putting your wallet at a $50.00 disadvantage, vs it’s usual 100. this pack includes:
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith
Star Wars Republic Commando
Star Wars Starfighter
Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes
Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition
Star Wars The Force Unleashed II
Star Wars: Dark Forces
Star Wars: KOTOR
Star Wars Empire at War Gold
Star Wars KOTOR II

It’s a hefty bundle, well worth your investment!

I hope you find more game deals to tickle your fancy, on a non Star Wars note, TOMB RAIDER is 50% off this weekend on Steam, just saying.

Happy Star Wars whatever folks!

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance‘s Blade Wolf DLC has been issued a release date. Featuring “multiple hours of gameplay,” the add-on stars LQ-84i, a robotic wolf. It is set for release on May 14th and will set you back about $7.00 (560MSP).

Microsoft is stirring the rumor pot a little more. With the announcement of their next-gen console scheduled for May 21st, they’ve recently purchased every domain variation imaginable for XBox Fusion (.com, .biz., de, etc.). Currently some of those domains are rerouting to XBox.com, while others a routing to Bing, which is the only reason anyone would end up on that search engine. XBox Fusion was first noted as a term when trademarks were filed back in 2011. But what is it? Is that the name of the system? Or is it the name of the rumored XBox lite that will handle all of your “other” media, possibly even functioning as a cable box and/or DVR? I imagine we’ll know in a little less than three weeks. [Damn, I just realized I’ll be on an airplane during that press conference.]

A recent Time Warner job listing is raising some eyebrows. According to the listing, they need Creative Director that is “Expert in next-generation AAA action/adventure games” to work with a game development team “responsible for expanding the DC Comics universe in the interactive space.” The position is at WB Montreal, the studio currently developing Batman: Arkham Origins, a prequel to the two very successful Arkham games from Rocksteady. Is the posting related to that game, or to a possible new project with a different IP for next-gen systems?

The first two Grand Theft Auto titles, the top-down ones from the PSOne era, have reportedly gotten ESRB ratings to be released on PSN. It would appear both games will be available as PlayStation Classics and playable on PS3, Vita, and PSP. When this happens, am I correct in thinking that GTA London is the only part of the franchise not available on a current Sony product?

Zen Studios is celebrating May the Fourth with a 50% price reduction on Star Wars Pinball. Frankly, I’m a little disappointed that they aren’t doing it by releasing more tables, but a discount will have to do.

Crystal Dynamics, the developers of the recent Tomb Raider reboot are apparently working on a new IP for next-gen systems. This comes from the LinkedIn profiles of a few employees. Level artist Matt McCulloch is “creating wildly cool environments for a soon to be announced title for Crystal Dynamics.” Combine that with a job listing from last year asking for help on a “cutting edge, original IP” for “future consoles” and you have the makings of a big announcement soon. A January blog post from Square Enix’s community manager says they are “hard at work preparing to reveal exciting new intellectual property to the world.” I’m guessing this will be revealed shortly after Microsoft’s announcement on the 21st, unless it’s announced at their conference. At the latest, we should see something by E3.

As expected, Rockstar unleashed a torrent of information about Grand Theft Auto V. It’s kind of overwhelming, so here are a few highlights, starting with each character’s own special ability:

• Michael has John Marston style bullet time.
• Franklin’s time dilation is similar but with cars, helping evade or cause crashes.
• Trevor has a berserker-like rage that doubles inflicted damage while cutting his own in half.
• Switching characters is not location-sensitive, effectively making it a fast travel option.
• The map, including underwater areas, is five times the size of Red Dead Redemption, all available from the start.
• a modified version of the San Andreas‘ skill system returns (Stamina, Shooting, Strength, Stealth, Flying, Driving, Mechanic and Lung Capacity).
• Vice City’s property buying also returns (garages, businesses, night clubs, marinas and houses).
• All three characters can be personalized (haircuts, tattoos, and clothing).
• Vehicles can be customized (grills, spoilers, etc.) at Pay ‘n’ Sprays.
• Weapons can have silencers, scopes, etc. added.
• Off-mission activities include: picking up hitchhikers, BASE jumping, hunting, racing, golfing, hijacking, robberies, tennis, diving, and more.
• On the combat side, a rolling maneuver to move in and out of cover is also included.
• You already know it’s coming September 17th and have it pre-ordered. Right?

The fourth, and likely final, story DLC for Borderlands 2 is scheduled for June 25, 2013. “Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dungeon Keep” appears to pit player characters in live roles during a game of Bunkers & Badasses, the Borderlands spoof of Dungeons & Dragons. Tiny Tina will be the dungeon master. I just realized how little sense that makes. You are a person, playing a video game. Your video game character is playing a game within that game, but for real (or at least fake real since the game is fake), and that game is a spoof on a real game (that’s really real, but takes place fictionally). Oh, and a fake person is really (but not) controlling the real (but fake) game in the fake world where the fake character you’re really controlling (assuming you’re real) is playing. Aaaahhh, video games.

A bug, since fixed, seems to have accidentally exposed Injustice: Gods Among Us‘ follow-up to the Lobo DLC. For a short time, users were apparently able to see Batgirl as an option on XBLA when looking at DLC through the in-game store. I’ve yet to see anyone who was actually able to download the character, but some Youtube users did manage to capture some video, which looks legit. Also, Batgirl seems like a reasonable addition to the roster. Still waiting for an official confirmation, but I’d put this one a little beyond the realm of rumor. Assuming it’s true, there are still two more planned characters yet to be revealed for inclusion with the $12 season pass. Personally, I’m pulling for Martian Manhunter. He is, after all, the UFC Light Heavyweight champion.

That seems to be a bit for the weekend. Hopefully you’re in a part of the world where you’ll be able to enjoy some nice Spring weather this weekend. If not, do what I’m doing: watching Iron Man 3 and visiting my local comic shop for some free comics. How wonderful that Free Comic Book Day just happens to fall on May the Fourth this year?

When Inkle Studios sent me an email to review this the negative and cynical thoughts racing through my mind knew no bounds. I’m the last guy you ask to review anything related to 1980’s style pen and paper RPG’s. I’ve played Dungeons and Dragons twice in my life, and have done everything I can in the realm of nerd to avoid sinking “that far”. You can imagine, then, somebody telling you a fighting fantasy book converted to an app is a pretty far fetched pitch for you to enjoy.

The descriptive text guides you through the story, while music sets the tone.

After playing through the game twice, once on my iPad and once on my phone, (which by the way it looks gorgeous on both with only one purchase!), I can without a doubt say that I’m hooked. The premise of the game is pretty basic as far as fantasy goes, a great evil has stolen an important artifact and you’re the poor sap chosen to go get it back. You wake up in a strange town with your sword ready to embark on the journey, a quick tutorial teaches you to fight, haggle, spend money, and deal with characters in the game and away you go. Instead of watching videos you read descriptive text to set you into the mood of the game, with music playing while reading I found it extremely easy to be pulled into their universe. The spell casting system was also very unique, instead of simply choosing a spell and having it use your magic points, you aligned stars that help spell out your attack. For example if I want to cast lightning, which happens to be called ZAP! I would align Z, A, P and then cast.

COMBAT:
Combat is handled in an incredibly unique way, being a game that would resort to dice rolls Inkle has taken that seemingly random event and made it strategic. You get to choose your attack power while your opponent chooses the same. Your goal is to choose a higher number than your opponent. If you block you are losing 1 stamina and if your opponent blocks they are losing one stamina, so strategically you don’t want to use a super heavy attack if they’re blocking since it wastes energy. Combat then, is a chess game of analyzing how much energy your opponent has and calculating how much he will attack with, or if he’ll block to conserve your energy. Imagine using this system against a creature with double your stamina, and double the attack power. The amount of strategy involved is ridiculous. I fought the Manticore (close to the final boss) about 6 times to finish him once. On my second play through I fought him 3 times, so the strategy is absolutely key.

The game map guides you from level to level.

Without videos to move their story forward, Inkle has relied on illustrations that reference playing through a book, but still keep the game interactive. Words to describe are tough, but what I’m saying is that the images make you feel like you’re playing a pen and paper RPG, on your device. The crisp illustrations bridge the two technologies flawlessly, and make you want to defeat the “vile creatures”, or escape the terrifying situations you have encountered.

The game map guides you from level to level.

The final piece of note are the death sequences, I cannot tell you how many different ways I died due to stupid choices. I starved to death, was strangled by snakes, speared by a Manticore, bludgeoned by “Elvens”, poisoned by a witch, crushed by a stone, and I know for a fact that I still missed more opportunities to die. Seeing the death scripts almost became a game in itself, I wanted to find out how to die. This changing story arch gives you ample opportunity to mess up and experience everything the world has to offer, it goes as far as to allow different paths for your entire adventure. My first go I missed 2 towns since I was captured, and ended up meeting a bridge troll. Play through number 2 I went the opposite way ended up skipping a small town, missed the bridge troll and somehow muddled my way through to the end.

The $4.99 you spend on this game is wasted if you only play through it once, your repeated play throughs should only take you 30-45 minutes unless you thoroughly inspect every piece of the game. I left this story excited to see part 2 release. This is a unique new genre, that has definitely been done right.

We all knew there’d be another Call of Duty entry in the series this year, and one has been rumored for quite some time. Well its official now, Call of Duty: Ghosts has a teaser trailer and releases November 5 this year on the PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and “next generation consoles.”

The most exciting part of this news is that the full reveal is happening May 21 at the new Xbox reveal event. It definitely doesn’t look like it will be exclusive to the next Xbox, but associating the Call of Duty brand with the new console is a great idea and will garner a lot of attention. I haven’t been a fan of Call of Duty games for several years now but this one could be a big deal. Its likely to launch around the same time frame as the new consoles making it a launch window title. It could be a fun way to try out the new systems with action packed fun.

Source: Polygon

Cryptic Studios, developer of Star Trek Online and Champions Online, just pushed their latest MMORPG into the gauntlet of open Beta testing. Neverwinter is based off of the fourth edition rule-set for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, which was widely panned by role-playing game enthusiasts (as evidenced by Wizards of the Coast already testing D&D Next). Early game play footage for Neverwinter looks promising, but only actual hands-on play will determine the game’s worth.

Neverwinter will be free-to-play, which has been the standard operating model for Cryptic games since they were acquired by Perfect World Entertainment in May of 2011. Neverwinter will feature micro-transactions in game, allowing players to purchase cosmetic and XP upgrades for their characters. Perfect World has come under fire in the past for flooding their games with treasure items that can only be unlocked with keys that are only available through real-world purchase. Whether this practice will continue with Neverwinter remains to be seen, but this was one of the primary reasons why I stopped playing Star Trek and Champions Online, both of which I really enjoyed.

Open Beta is available to all players, and can be accessed through Neverwinter’s website. I’ll be back with my thoughts on the actual game later in the week!

Tower defense if done right can be an absolute blast, tower defense with multi-player is the exact description of done right in my mind. 11 Bit Studios announced yesterday that you can now officially pre-order their new competetive tower defense title Anomaly 2 on Steam, their website, or other digital outlets. The game will cost $14.99 but those that pre order through Steam or 11 Bit directly will receive a free copy to gift to a friend or “hoard selfishly”, and even better if you reserve through the Anomaly Website, will receive an additional gift.

Mechs Vs Alien Snake Thingy

The few features that caught my eye on this one are:

• Troops that transform into war mechs
• Stunning visuals
• Tower defense vs. tower defense mechanic, play as the towers stopping the humans or lead the humans to annihilate alien towers
• The trailer had 80s rock in it

It’s going to cost you a wopping $7.50 if you split it with a friend, and you can play it with the Big Shiny Robot Steam Group!!!, Check out the trailer below:

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GameStop employees have revealed a new display blueprint that strongly suggest we’ll see the announcement of the next Call of Duty tomorrow. Black Ops 2 was also revealed on May 1st during the NBA playoffs, so the precedent makes sense. A recent “leak” of the (presumed) cover art indicates it may be subtitled Ghosts instead of the expected Modern Warfare 4, hinting at a possible origin story. Other “leaked” details indicate the title will be built on an entirely new “next generation” engine. Does this mean it’s just a new engine, or should we expect to see this on next-gen systems?

Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot Mystery has been announced for the PlayStation Vita. The episodic adventure game will follow Jacob through his misadventures in summer camp with his Sasquatchian friend, Biggie. It’s being developed by Lucid Games, staffed mainly by Bizarre Creations (Blur, Project Gotham Racing) veterans. No word yet on a release date. If it’s PSN only I’d expect it very soon; if it’s retail it could still be a ways out.

The first DLC character included in the Season Pass ($15) for Injustice: Gods Among Us is coming next week. The previously revealed Lobo is on the way, possibly with a Flashpoint costume for Batman as well. No other DLC has been confirmed yet, but rumors are rolling so stay tuned.

Techland has revealed the official title of the “Project Hell” that was announced last August. Hellraid is a first-person, co-op hack and slasher for up to four players. You, and three of your friends, will be facing off against demons and other Hell-dwellers in story-driven battles. It will have all of the standard elements of a good dungeon crawler: loot, questing, weapon crafting, customizing armor, character upgrades, magic, boss fights, etc. Replayability comes from randomly generated online challenges via the “Game Master system,” which also places loot and enemies in different locations for each play. No solid release date, but it is coming later this year.

Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs has been given the official release date of November 19, 2013. Before I get into the rest of the details from the announcement, allow me to point out that this game is definitely coming for PlayStation 4, and likely the next XBox, which does not currently have a release date but is slated for 2013. Is this confirmation that next-gen will be here by that date? Seems likely. Along with the date, a few special editions were revealed, as well as confirmation that Sony platforms will have an extra 60 minutes of gameplay. The premier version will be the DEDSEC Edition: Aiden Pearce (main character) figurine, collector packaging, art book, soundtrack, four AR cards, three badges, a map of the game’s Chicago, and three single player missions (Palace Pack, Breakthrough, and Signature Shot; approximately 60 minutes total). The Vigilante Edition includes Aiden’s Cap and Mask, soundtrack, and the Palace Pack mission. The Uplay Exclusive Edition comes with a steelbook and all three extra missions. Finally, the Special Edition (which looks like a free preorder upgrade) comes with the Breakthrough Pack mission.

How much do you love Grand Theft Auto? Do you want to be a cult member in Grand Theft Auto V? If so, check out the Epsilon Program’s website and click on Join Now. The Epsilon Program is Rockstar’s humorous take on Scientology and five lucky fans will be featured as member characters of this deluded cult. You’ll need a link to your photo for identification when you arrive in Los Santos. Kifflom!

That’s it for this week’s early edition. In case you missed any of our other gaming stories from the week, be sure to check them out now:
Great screen shots from Batman: Arkham Origins
Bioshock Infinite DLC rumors
And an invitation to BSR!’s new Steam group

Do you live inside of Steam like many of our bots? Do you buy games and find yourself wondering why your friends aren’t jumping online to join you? Are you looking for people to game with regularly or simply socially, or even just for random groups when your usual party isn’t online? Look no further internet friend, the Big Shiny Robot Steam Group is alive! There is a video below from Triscut of Doom showing you how to find the group and explaining it’s goals, but for those that prefer pen to video I’ll itemize it for you.

If you want to look at the group, you can find it HERE

There aren’t many rules to our ragtag group of gamers, but those that exist are important.

• 1: Be respectful
• 2: Participate
• 3: Have fun!! Gaming is fun, therefore you have to have fun playing. If you’re going to rage out, scream, yell, insult, or be what we call a douche bag don’t join. We’re not a competetive gaming league yet, we’re simply here to play our games.
• 4: Don’t feel committed, because you aren’t. We’re committed to moderating the discussions and setting up events attendance isn’t mandatory but all are welcome.

That’s pretty much it folks, we’re creating a safe environment for you to come play your games whatever your taste may be. This is a community hosted by yours truly to encourage gamers from all over the world to jump on board. Feel free to join the group and we’ll see you online!

Watch live video from bigshinyrobot on TwitchTV

Lightning Gaming, is reporting that Bioshock Infinite’s DLC may include a new AI counterpart to replace Elizabeth. Their sources for the news come from one of the developer’s Linked In profiles. Michael Shahan a senior animator for Irrational Games lists his experience for Bioshock Infinite DLC 1 as follows:

Bioshock Infinite DLC1
• Cataloging of existing Bioshock animation assets and custom UDK implementation
• Creating cinematic and in-game motion capture asset tracking docs
• Providing animation and R&D for a new AI companion character
• Managing outsource animation from the 2K Australia Studio”

Based on the ending for Bioshock Infinite anything could be possible. The numerous amount of possibilities for the DLC could take us anywhere in the city in any matter of time lines. I doubt that Booker will have a new sidekick. If they go this route I could see them having a new Protagonist and Sidekick combo for an entirely differnet experience. Guess we’ll have to wait to find out, what would you want to see? More story, or new characters?

Dark Horse announces Halo: Initiation mini-series starting in August by Halo 4 writer Brian Reed. See how Sarah Palmer became the first Spartan-IV commander! (more…)