I think I editorialized enough in this week’s early edition, so let’s jump straight into the news.
Apparently WWE fans are finally getting bored of legacy versions of The Rock, Steve Austin, and Mick Foley as preorder bonuses. For WWE ’13 they’re bringing back another Attitude-era “star.” Actually, Mike Tyson was never one of the brand’s superstars, but his role as “ring enforcer” at Wrestlemania XIV led to Steve Austin’s first title reign (defeating Shawn Michaels) and the true onset of the Attitude-era. Which is why, despite the boxer’s checkered past, the late ’90s “ring enforcer” version of one of the hardest hitting boxers to ever live is the preorder bonus for this year’s game. The Attitude era is a strong focus for WWE ’13, making the hall of famer an appropriate add-on. Errr, well as appropriate as playing a convicted rapist in a video game gets anyway. Preorder now to get Tyson, the game releases October 30th.
This year’s Summer of Arcade for XBLA has been announced. It kicks off next month and will bring five games, though admittedly I’m only really familiar with the first one. As a bonus, purchasing at least three of the games will net you a 400 MSP rebate. Any guesses on the likelihood one these games will be adding DLC to the tune of 400 MSP soon after the promotion ends?
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD – July 18th – 1200 MSP
- Wreckateer – July 25th – 800 MSP
- Deadlight – August 1st – 1200 MSP
- Hybrid – August 8th – 1200 MSP
- Dust: An Elysian Tail – August 15th – 1200 MSP
If that’s not exciting enough for XBox users, there’s also a way to earn more points based on your Achievements. If you call yourself an Achievement Hunter (and everyone else calls you an Achievment Whore), this deal is tailor-made for you. Starting in Fall, the XBox Live Rewards program will give a little back for all those Achievement points. If you’re unfamiliar with Rewards, it’s a way to earn Microsoft points by answering questionnaires, renewing your Live membership, etc. It’s unclear how this reward expansion will work, but indications are that you’ll be earning MSP credit based gamerscore boosting. Which should result in a nice sales boost to all those legacy games with cakewalk 1000s. (*cough*LEGO*cough*) Watch for more details as we learn them. [For what it’s worth, my prediction is that you’ll only be rewarded for scoring a set amount within a specified period of the game’s release to encourage new, not used, sales of new, full price titles.]
The Dreamcast’s Sonic Adventure 2, possibly the last good Sonic game ever made, has long been rumored to be coming to XBLA and PSN. Recently, the game was spotted on the Marketplace with a release date of October 3rd but was promptly taken down. These slips pop up every now and then and I’ve never seen one be 100% wrong, though the dates do tend to shift. Oddly, one of the images included showed PlayStation button prompts, a strong indicator that it will be hitting both services. I’ll update as soon as I can get official confirmation, but I doubt we’ll see it any time soon. Digital only releases don’t get talked about much until actual dates are locked.
Amaterasu is coming home. The Japanese Sun God first took the white wolf form in video games back in 2006 on the PS2. A couple years later it was ported to Wii with motion controls for brush strokes. Okami HD is now set for a PSN release with Move compatibility sometime this Fall. Pricing looks to be $15-20, though a release like this just screams PS+ discount.
Saints’ Row: The Third has had a veritable boon of DLC, and many fans have been eager for the game’s standalone expansion, Enter the Dominatrix. When THQ’s president, Jason Rubin, saw what Volition had in the works he “blown away by the ideas and desire to expand the fiction of the franchise.” Rubin discussed the possibilities of the game with Volition if they were “given more time, more resources, and a broader scope for the project.” Becuase of the great possibilities, this will no longer be an “expansion” but will instead be incorporated into “The Next Great Sequel in the Saints Row Franchise.” Looks like one of those good news / bad news stories. The expansion you’ve been wanting has been cancelled, but they’ve confirmed a full sequel instead. Even better, it’s confirmed for 2013, though it will likely be sometime after April.
Prior to the game’s announcement at E3, it was heavily rumored that Beyond: Two Souls would feature two well-known Hollywood stars. Yet only one has been featured in all of the media so far, Ellen Page (X-Men 3, Juno, Inception). Quantic Dream has not confirmed who, or even if, the second star will be, but rumors indicate it’s another star with Marvel connections, Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man series, Fantastic Mr. Fox, John Carter). If this is true I’d love to see more information about his role, though Quantic Dream can be even more secretive than J.J. Abrams so I wouldn’t expect much. The game is expected for fourth quarter this year, and that may be the first time we actually see Dafoe in-game, if this is even true.
Reggie Fils-Aime made a couple of big announcements on Nintendo Direct last night, 3DS XL coming soon and details for Pokemon Black and White 2. Click the links for details from Zombietron.
Most retailer slip-ups that accidentally expose games from little known foreign markets. Which is why I was a little suprised to see my source for most games, GameFly, accidentally expose the Journey Compilation from thatgamecompany. The listing has since been taken down, but thatgamecompany has been proactive about the leak, confirming via Twitter that “Yes, the #JourneyPS3 Collector’s Edition is a thing, and it includes #flOwPS3 and #FlowerPS3, but we can’t say anything more.” No official date until they can talk more about it, but August is the expected time frame. I’ve had every intention of playing Journey, but Sony’s reluctance to add my new zip code to their database has ground my PSN purchases to a halt. It was finally fixed recently, but I’ve been too busy to catch up. Now I think I’ll skip the purchase and wait for the disc on my GameQ.
Kim Swift, co-creator of Portal, finally has a confirmed release date for Quantum Conundrum, a three dimensional puzle platformer. I’ve been eyeing this one for a while – the dimension switching to solve puzzles concpet seems right up my alley. This one is coming to XBLA and PSN on July 11th. Price was not announced. I’ll predict $15, but $10 would be nice.
That’s it for this week. Two more issues of VGQH left this month. In a way it seems like June just flew by, but then it also seems like E3 was so long ago, when it’s really just been a couple of weeks. It’s unfortunate that there really hasn’t been much in the way of portable gaming news. The summer travel season is really getting into full swing. The heavy convention season is kicking in as well. It would be nice to see some announcements for games we’ll be playing on cross country flights and road trips.
And if you’re in the Salt Lake area, don’t forget to come out to Brewvies Sunday for Geek Show Movie Night. As part of Geek Show’s ongoing Gay Pride festivities they’re showing two of the most unintentionally homoerotic films they could find, The 300 and Top Gun.