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Mortal Kombat X TV spot goes back to the past to ask “Who’s Next?”
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
With just a few weeks to go until Mortal Kombat X‘s April 14th launch, NetherRealm Studios has unveiled the game’s full-length television commercial. It’s mostly comprised of footage we’ve seen before, but it’s interesting to see NetherRealm ask “Who’s Next?” by traveling back to the past.
First, you’ll notice that the soundtrack blares to life courtesy of System of a Down’s 2001 hit, “Chop Suey.” But what you might not notice is that the Mortal Kombat X spot is also a modern riff on the very first commercial used to sell the series. The crowd, the urban setting, even some of the camerawork, can all be linked back to the infamous “Mortal Monday” commercial that was used to promote the console release of Mortal Kombat in 1993.
Mortal Kombat X will be available for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on April 14. A mobile version for iOS and Android will also be released next month, and a version for PS3 and Xbox 360 owners will be available in the Summer.
RBI Baseball 15 will be released for PS4, Xbox One on March 31
Polygon is reporting that MLB Advanced Media’s RBI Baseball 15 will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One on March 31. That means the retro-styled sports game will be going head-to-head with Sony’s MLB 15: The Show, which will also launch on the last day of this month.
Last year’s game, RBI Baseball 14, was a stripped-down sports game that kept things simple. A little too simple, we thought at the time. While still not a modern simulation, RBI 15 will add in several features absent from RBI 14 including full team rosters, stat tracking, and online multiplayer.
RBI Baseball 15 is also in development for the PC and mobile platforms, but MLB Advanced Media wasn’t ready to reveal a release date for those versions just yet.
Broken Age: Act 2 coming on April 28; PS4, Vita version will launch on same day
Double Fine Productions has announced that PC players will be able to download Broken Age: Act 2 on April 28. After their massive Kickstarter success, Double Fine realized that Broken Age was too big and ambitious to make its originally planned 2012 release date, so the game was split into two Acts. So with the release of Act 2, the complete Broken Age saga will finally be available for all to play:
Broken Age tells the story of Vella and Shay, a girl and boy from completely different worlds who seem to be leading strangely parallel lives…
Vella has been chosen by her village to have the honor of being sacrificed to the terrible monster Mog Chothra, but having no interest in being devoured by a horrible beast, must go against ages old tradition and make her escape. Meanwhile somewhere in space, Shay is living a solitary life under the care of a very motherly computer, and whilst his every need is taken care of in every way imaginable, he wishes for nothing more than to break free from the monotonous safety of his daily life, and have some real adventures.
But what if you don’t like to play games on your PC? Don’t worry, Double Fine has you covered. Both halves of Broken Age will also be released for the PS4 and Vita on April 28 as well. The PS4/Vita version of the game will offer Cross-Save functionality and it’s Cross-Buy compatible, so a single purchase will unlock the game on both platforms.
Now that Broken Age is complete, Double Fine has also decided to make the entire behind-the-scenes documentary series created by Two Player Productions available to everyone. You can view the documentary series, for free, at the Double Fine Productions YouTube Channel.
Game of Thrones: Episode 3 will be available starting tomorrow
Well isn’t this a nice Monday morning surprise? Telltale Games has announced the third episode of their Game of Thrones adaptation, The Sword in the Darkness, will be released for all seven platforms this week:
- March 24 – PC, PS3, PS4
- March 25 – Xbox 360, Xbox One
- March 26 – iOS, Android
A new trailer for The Sword in the Darkness has been embedded above and here’s what players can expect as they reach the halfway point of Telltale’s take on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga:
Asher, the exile, heads to Mereen in search of an army to take on the Whitehills. Meanwhile, far across land and sea in Westeros, Mira must deal with the lethal politics of King’s Landing. Her family’s safety is paramount and she will do anything to protect them, but nothing is given freely, and her choice of allies may soon come to haunt her. To the north, in Ironrath, the Whitehill occupation continues. Gryff Whitehill, fourth-born son, is out to prove himself, and brutality and violence grows daily, pushing the Forresters to make far-reaching decisions. Finally, at the Wall, Gared learns that he must head north if he is to help his house survive. But fate is cruel, forcing choices that will change his path forever.
Telltale has been releasing new episodes in their Game of Thrones about two months apart, so expect Episode 4 to launch sometime in late May/early June.
Nintendo President reveals more about company’s move into mobile gaming
Gamers the world over are still in a state of shock after Nintendo announced they would start developing mobile games. Especially since the “how” of this historic news is still a big question mark. Thankfully, Time Magazine approached Nintendo’s President, Satoru Iwata, to ask the big questions about the company’s mobile push.
According to Iwata, Nintendo is not outsourcing development of their planned mobile titles to DeNA. The consolemaker themselves will develop the games while DeNA offers assistance with the “service side of things.” Iwata also said that famed developer Shigeru Miyamoto may work on mobile titles in the future, but for now, his time is being spent working on a trio of previously-announced Wii U games (Star Fox, Project Guard, Project Giant Robot) that are scheduled to launch in 2015.
Finally, any discussion of the mobile game market will include the big question… Premium or Free-To-Play? According to Iwata, Nintendo is not committing to either scheme and will chose each game’s pricing scheme on a title-by-title basis: “[F]or each title, we will discuss with DeNA and decide the most appropriate payment method. So, specifically to your question, both can be options, and if a new Nintendo-like invention comes of it, then all the better.”
For more insight into Nintendo’s mobile partnership with DeNA, I recommend reading the rest of the Time Magazine interview.
Nintendo partners with DeNA to produce mobile games and unified network
Nintendo and mobile devices have had a shaky relationship for years now. Investment analysts called out the company for ignoring the market (and thus, forgoing the giant piles of money they’d surely make from mobile games), while Nintendo executives reiterated that the time wasn’t right for a mobile move. I guess today’s the day as Nintendo has announced a partnership with Japanese developer DeNA to produce original mobile games based on existing Nintendo characters.
The word “original” is key here as DeNA and Nintendo will definitely not be producing mobile ports of existing 3DS and Wii U games. All Nintendo-branded mobile games will be built from the ground up exclusively for mobile devices and no characters will be off-limits. That means franchises as varied as Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Star Fox, Mario Kart, or even Pikmin could soon appear on your iPhone or Android device. Who knows, something as niche as Earthbound could even be on its way to an app store near you.
Leveraging the strength of Nintendo’s intellectual property (IP) and game development skills in combination with DeNA’s world-class expertise in mobile games, both companies will develop and operate new game apps based on Nintendo’s IP, including its iconic game characters, for smart devices. The alliance is intended to complement Nintendo’s dedicated video game systems business and extend Nintendo’s reach into the vast market of smart device users worldwide.
To support this move into the mobile market, Nintendo and DeNA will also collaborate on a unified online membership service that will accessible from mobile devices, PCs, the 3DS, and the Wii U. It’s unknown if this service will replace the existing Nintendo Network as details are currently scarce, but we know it will launch in Fall 2015.
Nintendo and DeNA will announce the first titles for their mobile initiative soon.
The PAXpocalypse List: The Best of PAX East 2015
Most of the big publishers chose to skip the 2015 edition of PAX East and even those that did attend (like Nintendo and Microsoft) kept their most anticipated projects home. But that didn’t stop a wide variety of indie developers from setting up shop in the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center to wow the assembled masses. These developers set the tone for this year’s expo, which featured a heavy focus on games that attempted to reinterpret classic gameplay concepts for a new generation of players. And the crazy thing is that many of the developers hyping these games looked like they would have been in diapers the first time I fired up an SNES.
It was a welcome sight with the rest of the industry pivoting away from those types of games and towards a competition to see who can push the most polygons. So if you were a fan of gaming in the NES, Super NES, and Genesis days, this PAXpocalypse List is for you. Because these are the games we would have played over and over again if some horrible snow storm had trapped us inside the convention center beyond the last day of the expo. (more…)
Posted in Features, Mobile, PC, PS3, PS4, Top Story, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged 20XX, Axiom Verge, Extreme Exorcism, Gigantic, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number, Just Shapes and Beats, Knight Squad, PAX East 2015, Pit People, Rive, Shovel Knight, Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows, Tabletop Games, Tumblestone, We Are Doomed
Dragon Age: Inquisition wins “Game of the Year” at 2015 SXSW Gaming Awards
BioWare’s Dragon Age: Inquisition won “Game of the Year” at the 2015 SXSW Gaming Awards, but 2014’s other big releases walked away with the rest of the categories.
Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and The Last of Us: Left Behind were the only multi-award winners. Shadow of Mordor collected trophies for “Excellence in Gameplay,” “Excellence in Animation,” and “Excellence in Design and Direction,” while Naughty Dog’s expansion to The Last of Us was awarded with the “Most Valuable Add-On Content” trophy as well as “Most Valuable Character” (for Ellie).
The full list of winners (which also includes Destiny, Far Cry 4, Alien: Isolation, Transistor, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, and many others) can be found after the break. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS3, PS4, Vita, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Tagged Alien: Isolation, Child of Light, Destiny, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Far Cry 4, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, Tabletop Games, The Last of Us, The Last of Us: Left Behind, The Wolf Among Us, Transistor