It looks like 2012 is going to be another great year for gamers, thanks to the sheer number of awesome releases coming up. We’ve even got a couple of new console systems to look forward to – the PlayStation Vita handheld, and Nintendo’s next generation Wii U. Over the past week or so we’ve been battling it out here at VidThru.com, but we’ve somehow managed to get a consensus on the titles we’re most looking forward to in the months ahead. Start saving up those dimes you found under the couch cushions, ‘cause you’re gonna need them!
Capcom announces Devil May Cry HD Collection
Yesterday, on the ten-year anniversary of Devil May Cry, Capcom officially announced the Devil May Cry (DMC) HD Collection for Xbox 360 and PS3. The rumors started about a month ago when the Entertainment Software Rating Board updated the DMC titles’ platforms to include Xbox 360 and PS3. Although this wasn’t a confirmation, it seemed likely with DMC’s milestone on the horizon–and now Capcom has confirmed the gossip.
The game bundle will include HD remasters of Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 2, and Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening Special Edition. The special edition includes all the original extras, including the viscous Virgil as a playable character. Bundling these games together happened once before, on DMC’s 5th anniversary, but this time Dante and his demon adversaries are sporting a fresh new HD appearance. Capcom also says the new collection will include trophies and achievements as well as “a wealth of new content,” although no details on this aspect have been released.
Minute to Win It Kinect game due in October
Television game shows can make for interesting video games, and another has just been announced for the Xbox Kinect system: Minute to Win It. The game looks like a family-friendly title that’ll be perfect for game nights with friends, starting October 18.
The game will utilize the Kinect for physical challenges in a setup that allows players to compete for a virtual $1 million. Each game session includes 20 challenges, and these are designed to look extraordinarily – and deceptively – easy.
In case you’ve never seen the NBC game show hosted by Guy Fieri, “Minute to Win It” gets players to participate in 60-second game challenges that use items found around a regular household. These get progressively harder, and much like a video game, players have three “lives” to lose. This month, the show ended its second season and is expected back in 2012.
Netflix DVD business to become Qwikster, add video games
This week, Netflix announced that the DVD-by-mail portion of the business will now have a new name, Qwikster, while the streaming video business will keep the name Netflix. It also announced that Qwikster would offer video games for an upgraded price.
Netflix is fighting an uphill battle to regain trust in consumer’s eyes, a situation that the company recognizes. Ever since Netflix announced a price hike and a split service for DVD and streaming this past July, its customers have expressed dismay and left the company in droves. They’re mostly unhappy about the loss of the combination streaming video and DVD mail service, which cost $9.99 per month but was then split into two plans priced at $7.99 each. Recently Netflix had to revise its expected subscriber loss; after July’s mismanaged announcement, it expected to retain 25 million subscribers. It is now expecting to retain 24 million.
Interview: Kilroy Fx, Creator of BloodyCheckers
If you’ve ever imagined you’d like to create a video game of your own, take some inspiration from Irvine, Calif.’s Kilroy Fx, whose game BloodyCheckers has been topping the charts on Xbox LIVE Arcade’s Indie Games channel since it was released in June 2011. Out of the blue, this sleeper hit has gotten waves of great reviews from industry critics as well as gamers, and it keeps getting better thanks to Kilroy‘s updates (a big one, his fourth, is coming soon). And it just goes to show that one guy with a good idea and a whole lot of persistence can still make a difference.
In case you haven’t checked out the game yet – why not? Part of the appeal of this game lies in its price: 80 Microsoft Points – that’s $1. Another part of the appeal lies in the story of its creator, who was a gamer and film industry veteran with zero programming knowledge a year and a half ago. He spent hours and days and months learning and researching everything from the Middle Ages to board game strategy and creating fonts, developed his own game in 10 months – often in a self-imposed cone of silence – and is now making his software and his techniques available for free to anyone who’d like to use them. Bucking the industry’s norms can be a difficult proposition, and Kilroy Fx is doing it with style.
Gears of War 3 DLC set for November release
Microsoft and Epic Games today officially announced the Horde Command Pack add-on for Gears of War 3, set for release on Xbox LIVE Marketplace on November 1. The DLC will include new maps, playable characters, and many Horde fortification upgrades.
The add-on game pack includes the following maps:
Blood Drive: This returning favorite takes place in the Jacinto Medical Plaza, a safe haven turned into an inferno after it was overwhelmed with evacuated citizens after the Hammer Strikes, who rioted and caused much damage. This map includes lots of high ground and funneled choke points.
Preview: Batman: Arkham City
Title: Bat
man: Arkham City
Genre: Action-Adventure Stealth
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC (including OnLive)
Developer: Rocksteady Studios
Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Square Enix
Retail Price: $49.99/$59.99
ESRB Rating: Pending
Release Date: Oct 21, 2011 (Xbox 360, PS3) November (PC)
Batman: Arkham City is the highly anticipated follow up to Batman: Arkham Asylum. The timeline is set almost a year after the events of Arkham Asylum’s. After falsely claiming to have stopped the Joker, Quincy Sharp rode the coattails of his new-found fame to rise to mayor of Gotham City. Soon after his mayoral inauguration, he declared that Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison were in no condition to harbor criminals. As an alternative, he sectioned off a part of the city to hold criminals instead.
The new internment area allows its prisoners free reign to do as they please – apart from escape. Arkham City is supervised by the hospital’s head psychiatrist, Hugo Strange. Strange has discovered Batman is Bruce Wayne.
Batman: Arkham City sells over 4.6 million copies in first week
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment announced yesterday that their critically acclaimed collaboration, Batman: Arkham City, has shipped over 4.6 million copies in its first week of release.
This amount is double the first week sales of Batman: Arkham Asylum, the game’s predecessor from 2009. Arkham City was developed by Rocksteady Studios and was released October 18. It’s already well on its way to becoming one of 2011′s top-selling video games.
President of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Martin Tremplay said, “Rocksteady Studios went above and beyond in delivering an incredible game, and the support of the entire team at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment drove the excellent campaign a game like this deserves.”
The game is receiving exceptional praise from critics; Metacritic gives Arkham City a score of 95, for example.
Nintendo 3DS top seller in Japan again
For a while the 3DS was looking like a flop for Nintendo. The company went as far as instituting a price drop within four months of the portable game system’s release, which Nintendo had never done in its history before. However, this past week saw the portable gaming system jump back to the top of the best-sellers list in Japan, beating out its main rival the PS3.
The big reason appears to be the release of Ocarina of Time 3D. According to Japanese tracking firm Media Create, sales of 10,504 copies of the Zelda game helped to jump the 3DS’s sales from 49,076 units the previous week to 58,837 units.
The PS3 came in second this time around, and Sony’s portable gaming system the PSP was third. The Nintendo Wii was 4th, followed by two versions of the DSi, the PS2 and the Xbox 360, which clocked in at eighth. The DS Lite and PSP go rounded out the top 10. The PS3 is still doing well in part due to sales of a special themed console based on the Tales of Xillia game, even though numbers for this Japanese title itself are on the decline.
Xbox 360 may get cable TV
We’ve long known that video game systems are no long just for gaming. With advances in technology in the last several years, and console companies trying extend the lifetimes of their products, they’ve expanded to offer all kinds of entertainment content. Now Microsoft is working on growing its vast console experience by adding cable television service. The company is close to finalizing a deal with Comcast and Verizon that would allow Xbox users to access digital cable service without a separate set top box.