Let’s keep this brief. We all have a lot of Skyrim playing to do and I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. By the way, let me first say how grateful I am that Bethesda included something in Skyrim that is nearly extinct these days: A REAL MANUAL. With color pictures and everything. Never change, Bethesda. Never change.
► The new Halo CE maps will arrive as DLC for Reach next week for the now-average price of 1200 points. Considering that the whole revamped game is only $40 and comes with them, I’m not sure I will be availing myself of them, but Reach fans who refuse to re-enlist to Start the Fight will not be left out in the cold.
► Humble Bundle, the pay-what-you-want-for-awesome-games-for-charity folks have added even more goodness to the current offer. Humble Bundle Voxatron includes the alpha version of Voxatron, The Binding of Isaac, Blocks That Matter and now Gish, one of my all-time favorite little indie games. You get all these if you pay more than whatever the average is, which at the time of writing is just over five bucks.
These are always great little games that are DRM free, run of Mac, Windows or Linux, and you also get codes for Steam. Grab them at www.humblebundle.com. And speaking of Steam…
► Have you changed your Steam password lately? Well you probably should, and if you’ve made purchases with your credit card via Steam you may want to keep an eye on your statements for a while since Steam’s Gabe Newell just announced that last week’s intrusion went well beyond just the forums. Newell had this to say:
“Jabba no wonga. Mongo wan chee kospah ooh. Peecha wanchee lockhba tang nannee du chonky troy.”
…which means that Bothan spies were able to infiltrate the Valve Star and make off with pretty much all of your private account info. The good news is that at least Gabe is smart enough to encrypt that shit, and so far there is no evidence that the encryption has been broken, but you can be sure that there is a gonk droid somewhere right now working on it.
Forum users will be required to change their passwords on their next visit, but it’s probably a good idea to go ahead and change your Steam password and anything else that shared it.
Seriously, you should be doing that anyway.
► From the “Dog Bites Man” department, Activision has announced that Modern Warfare 3 sold around 6.5 MILLION copies in its first 24 hours alone, making it the biggest day one launch ever. That is a cool 400 million smackers in the pockets of Kotick and his Legion of Darkness, not including Elite subscriptions and other add-ons.
You can bet that over 6 million of those are now in the hands of raging, racist, homophobic teenage virgins who will pwn your ass like crazy. In a totally unrelated event, there is a sudden shortage of gamertags with the characters “xXx” and “420″ available for use on Xbox Live.
► Target wants you to tell Wal-Mart what they can do with that little smiley face this holiday season, so they are offering up some nice price points over the next few week on gaming love. And to our Canadian friends, you totally wish you had a Target.
This week, Target guests can save on the best in gaming and gadgets for everyone. Through Target’s Electronics Trade-In service, exclusively offered in more than 1,490 Target stores nationwide, guests can trade in used iPhones, iPads, iPods, Nintendo DS units, cellphones, video games, calculators and DVDs, and receive credit good for most Target purchases. Guests can receive additional savings and 5 percent off nearly all Target purchases when they use their Target REDCard.
New this week, available Sunday on Nintendo 3DS: Super Mario 3D Landfor $39.99.
Save on this week’s new releases for the whole family, available Tuesday, Nov. 15.
Pick up Assassin’s Creed Revelations (Xbox 360 and PS3 $59.99, and PC $49.99).
Snag Saints Row: The Third (Xbox 360 and PS3 $59.99, and PC $49.99).
Grab Need for Speed the Run (Xbox 360 and PS3 $59.99, and Wii $49.99).
Pick up Rayman Origins (Xbox 360 and PS3 $59.99, and Wii $49.99).
Other titles releasing: Kinect Disneyland Adventures for Xbox Kinect, $49.99 and Zumba Fitness 2, $39.99.Video Game Savings
Receive a free $20 Target GiftCard with the purchase of two games from the Tuesday new releases above and below:
Elder Scrolls Skyrim (Xbox 360, PS3 and PC), $59.99.
Batman Arkham City (Xbox 360 and PS3 $59.99, and PC $49.99).
Lego Harry Potter (Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 $49.99, 3DS $39.99, DS and PC $29.99).
Just Dance 3 (Wii and Kinect), $39.99.
Black Eyed Peas Experience (Wii and Kinect), $49.99.
Disney Universe (Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3), $49.99.
Go Vacation (Wii), $39.99.
Uncharted 3 (PS3), $59.99.
GoldenEye Reloaded (Xbox 360 and PS3), $59.99.
Rage (Xbox 360, PS3 and PC), $59.99.
Dead Island (Xbox 360 and PS3), $59.99.
Ratchet and Clank All 4 One (PS3), $59.99.
Little Big Planet 2 (PS3), $59.99.Receive a free $50 Target GiftCard with purchase of a PS3 Uncharted 3 Bundle featuring the 320GB PS3 game system, the Uncharted 3 game and one wireless controller, $299.99.
Receive a free $20 Target GiftCard with purchase of a Nintendo 3DS game system.
Receive a free $50 Target GiftCard with purchase of a 4GB Xbox Kinect Bundle for $299.99, which includes the Kinect Adventures game, 4GB Xbox 360 game system, Kinect sensor and one wireless controller.
► Wanna play a little “Hunt the Sausage”? Beginning today and for a limited period of time, indie developer Falcon Mobile are offering their cute and fun platform game, ‘The Rolling Cat’, as a free download in collaboration with ever popular games- and app-portal, Daily App Dream (www.dailyappdream.com)
Not only are cats cute, fluffy and funny, they also love a good sausage, and in ‘The Rolling Cat’, compatible with the Apple iPhone and Apple iPod touch, this game is any cat’s virtual dream: Sausages are literally falling from the sky, and the objective in this game is to collect as many sausages as possible within the time limit! The game is made progressively harder by obstacles such as dangerous falling icicles that must be avoided at all cost, or the poor kitties will find themselves with a headache instead of a full stomach!
‘The Rolling Cat’ is available from the App Store here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-rolling-cat/id467501146?mt=8
► None shall pass! Except you. Maybe. Paradox Interactive and Most Wanted today released their first glimpse of Defenders of Ardania for iPad, an upcoming tower defense title that challenges players to not only defend their own territory, but simultaneously deploy waves of enemies against their opponents and cast deadly spells. With each of these three powers drawing from the same precious reserve of mana, as well as three unique factions to choose from, gamers can specialise however they like.
The trailer shows off some of the different units available in-game, as well as serving to highlight the beautiful landscapes players we be fighting tooth and nail over when the game releases next month.
Defenders of Ardania, the inaugural iOS title from Paradox Interactive, is slated for a multi-platform launch December 6 and will allow players to test their skills on iPad, console, and PC.
► I’m sorry to say this to our Japanese readers (I’m looking at you, Sneak), but the Japanese release of Saints Row The Third has nerfed the cock. They have stiffened the hardware. That is to say that the dildo bat, arguably the signature weapon of the game, “will lack the physics (i.e. wobbliness) and texture (veininess) found in the Western versions”.
So, Asian friends, you will have to cope with rigid, smooth giant dildos with which to beat your enemies into a well-deserved submission.
Well, that’s it for this week. Make sure to comment if you have any questions or want us to feature something for you. We are experts at getting the dirt of game devs and getting them to produce the goods, and we do it all for you.
