First, in case you missed it, Nordic Games will be picking up the remaining scraps of THQ pending an approval by the bankruptcy court. Upon approval, this will mean a large IP acquisition for Nordic, as well as hope for fans of many series that could have died on the vine. Some of the franchises that will go to Nordic include Red Faction, Darksiders, MX vs. ATV, Titan Quest, Supreme Commander, Frontlines, Stuntman, Juiced, Full Spectrum Warrior, Destroy All Humans, and more.
The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) has recently rated a PS Vita version of The Sly Collection, meaning the original three games from the PS2 era are likely headed to Sony’ handheld. An HD collection was released for PS3 in 2010 and the conversion was fantastic. The fourth title, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (PS3 and Vita with cross-buy), was released in February to largely positive reviews.
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger has received an official date and price. You’ll be able to step into the shoes of bounty hunter Silas Greaves on PSN and XBLA May 22nd. So, only a month until you get to shoot outlaws and chickens both. The announced price is 1200MSP/$14.99.
The Australian Classification Board may have outed a new Bethesda title before the publisher was prepared. According to the ratings board, Endless Summer will be rated MA15+ for “strong horror themes and violence,” “very mild impact” nudity and “mild impact” language and sex. So, are we looking at Shinji Mikami’s The Evil Within being renamed in Australia? Or is this a totally new game, part of what Pete Hines promises as Bethesda “making considerably more noise this year than [they] did last year, as a publisher?” Time, and an official announcement from Bethesda, will tell.
Thomasz Gop, the producer from The Witcher 2, has revealed a few more details about his next-gen RPG, Lords of the Fallen. According to Gop, an area with ten enemies should take about an hour to clear, an idea which is directly attributed to the difficulty of Dark Souls. The action skill tree and classes, however, are more reminiscent of Borderlands. So a Borderlands – Dark Souls mash-up, in a setting where a god’s corpse separates the world into two halves, both populated by tribes with different in beliefs? I’m definitely intrigued.
As a side note, Gop also made mention of the next-gen XBox that Microsoft has yet to reveal. Gop says he “can’t talk too much about the next-gen Xbox, but [he doesn’t] think a lot of people [are] going to be surprised. [He doesn’t] think it’s going to be huge news what’s inside, no – seriously.” Kind of a strange statement. Am I not going to be surprised because all of the leaks are true? Or is it just obvious that the tech will be similar to what Sony has already shown?
Yet another Metal Gear bundle has been announced by Konami. Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection will be a PS3 exclusive. It’s a pretty extensive bundle, including: Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: HD Edition, Metal Gear Solid 3: HD Edition (including the MSX versions of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2), Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD Edition, Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions, Metal Gear Solid 4: Trophy Edition, and two Ashley Wood graphic novels. While eight games and a pair of graphic novels all in one place does seem like a great deal, I have to question whether there’s an audience for this one. Don’t fans of the series already have several editions of each of these games? If you haven’t played the series yet, isn’t this a little intimidating? At a cheap enough price point this may get some buyers. But, have you ever actually played through an entire series in a big chunk like this? It gets pretty tiresome. I’ve even had trouble keeping my attention from wandering when playing through an HD-ified PS2 trilogy.
Preorders are now available for Saints’ Row IV. Deep Silver and Volition have announced a free upgrade for getting that order in as well. The Commander in Chief edition is full of sarcastic American pride. That version will come with the ‘Merica weapon, Uncle Sam costume, and Screaming Eagle jet. The game is set for release August 20, 2013.
Keep this in the rumor category for now, but a few small, online retailers have listed Gran Turismo 6 for PS3 as going on sale November 28, 2013. Rumors are that the game is coming for this generation, not PS4, so the date seems reasonable. It’s also worth noting that one retailer could have simply screwed up the date and others are now jumping on that erroneous bandwagon. Wait for an official announcement from Sony to celebrate, but it’s probably safe to get your hopes up a little.
The biggest news recently in games crossing over to movies comes with the announcement that a Ratchet & Clank movie is on the way. Blockade Entertainment and Rainmaker Entertainment are currently working on the film version of the titular heroes’ adventure. T.J. Fixman of Insomniac Games, who has written all of the duo’s recent titles, is writing the films’ script. Insomniac is also involved in production, screenplay, character development, and animation consulting. No, it isn’t live action (it’s CG). James Arnold Taylor, who has voiced Ratchet since the PS2 era, will be reprising his role. The film is set for release sometime in 2015.