Shacknews

May 17, 2013
More Game Gear titles headed to 3DS eShop
Shacknews - Steve Watts

Game Gear emulation on 3DS earned high marks from us when it launched, but its output since launch has been notably low. So low, in fact, that the three initial launch titles are still the only ones available. Nintendo has plans to change that, with a veritable flood of Game Gear titles making their way to the 3DS Virtual Console.

Today during the company's Nintendo Direct presentation, it showed a long list of Game Gear VC games on the way. They include Columns, Crystal Warriors, Defenders of Oasis, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, G-LOC: Air Battles, Shining Force 2: The Sword of Hajya, Sonic Blast, Sonic Drift 2, Sonic Labyrinth, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Tails Adventure, and Vampire: Master of Darkness.

Nintendo didn't outline when these will hit the eShop, but company president Satoru Iwata promised "all of the games you see here will be releasing soon."

May 17, 2013
Killzone: Mercenary shoots onto Vita on September 10
Shacknews - Andrew Yoon

Vita-exclusive FPS Killzone: Mercenary has a new release date: September 10th, one week earlier than originally scheduled. (Perhaps this has something to do with the shift?) There's a pretty new trailer, but first, now that there's a solid release date, Sony must announce the requisite pre-order bonuses.

Included with early copies of the game is "Blackjack's Briefcase," which grants access to 48 hours of double XP and an in-game cash bonus. "You'll have enough Vektan Cash to pick up a new weapon before you even step foot on the battlefield," the PlayStation.Blog teases.

Here, take a look at the things you'll be able to shoot at:

May 17, 2013
Trion Worlds hit with more layoffs, Defiance team impacted
Shacknews - Andrew Yoon

Trion Worlds has undergone yet another round of layoffs, a new report confirms. This follows layoffs in December, which largely affected the Rift team. According to sources speaking to IGN, "mostly Defiance support staff and dev staff" and "teams that provide generic responsibilities and services" have been let go.

It's unclear how many people were let go, but the report says that the bulk of the layoffs affect Trion's San Diego studio, where Defiance was developed.

The company told IGN that the layoffs were "to best position Trion in a rapidly changing industry" and that Defiance's "progress from launch to ongoing development" led to the team reduction. "As we progress from launch to ongoing development of the game, we are adjusting our staffing levels to deliver new content and improved features. Rift, and our other titles in development, were unaffected by these changes," the representative said.

Rift will be making a transition to free-to-play on June 12th, while Defiance will get DLC as its tie-in show preps for a second season.

May 17, 2013
Ratchet Clank: Full Frontal Assault defending Vita next week
Shacknews - Alice O'Connor

The Vita edition of Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault was supposed to launch alongside its PS3 sibling last November, but the platform-o-tower defense's port simply wasn't up to scratch. It'll finally launch next Tuesday, Insomniac Games announced today, but out right now is a new multiplayer map and mode for PS3.

As promised, it includes a free copy of Ratchet & Clank: Deadlocked in apology for the delay, and of course it's a cross-buy game so PS3 peeps automatically get it on Vita too.

But wait, there's more! Insomniac explains that a new patch for the PS3 version out today adds a new multiplayer map, based on Molonoth Fields from A Crack In Time, and another mode aimed at "hardcore players."

The 2v2 Full Front Assault mode "eliminates the phases--so you can always capture nodes, build units, and attack the other team's base," said Insomniac's James Stevenson. "This results in a more dynamic, more strategic experience that will test players' skills more than ever before." See:

May 17, 2013
Game Wario was originally going to be pre-installed on Wii U
Shacknews - Andrew Yoon

Game & Wario wasn't always meant to be a standalone game. The upcoming Wii U game was originally planned to be a small demo pre-installed on Nintendo's latest console. However, Nintendo's Goro Abe explained that trying to make an experience that would appeal to everyone ended up being too restrictive for the creative process, and led to the game spinning off into a full release.

"The original plan was that the game would come pre-installed on the Wii U console, so it wasn't actually conceived of as being part of the WarioWare series," Abe told Nintendo president Satoru Iwata in a new column. "We began working on something that we could present and which would be easy for people to pick up and play."

He explained that because these mini-games would come built into the console, "we didn't want something that would only appeal to a certain section of customers." However, it conflicted with the WarioWare team's goals. "The WarioWare team have always had free reign to come up with all kinds of zany ideas, but we now found that we had to restrain ourselves... we would put to one side all those crazy, out-there ideas that might have really appealed to certain players, but not to everyone."

But apparently, after playing the game, Nintendo's Yoshio Sakamoto told the team to "shake things up," and perhaps not take things so seriously. With the creative restrictions lifted, the team ended up coming up with "too many ideas for a game that was going to be pre-installed," Abe explained.

And so, Game & Wario was born, transformed into a full retail release. You can see the fruits of their labor in June when the game releases on Wii U.

May 17, 2013
The Last of Us digital download lets you start playing sooner
Shacknews - Andrew Yoon

The Last of Us will give PS3 gamers a small taste of PS4's new accessibility features. Like many recent retail releases on PS3, the game will be available for download via PlayStation Network at launch. However, you won't have to dread having to download dozens of gigabytes at once before you can start playing.

Naughty Dog's creative director Neil Druckmann and The Last of Us game director Bruce Straley told Game Informer that once you've downloaded fifty percent of the game, you'll be able to start playing. It isn't quite the instant gratification promised by Sony for PS4, but it's not too easy to retrofit new features onto old machines.

It's likely that the retail downloads will work similarly to the demo press received yesterday. Our digital copies of the game had a small initial download. Remaining data was then downloaded while the executable was running. Perhaps the PSN version of the full game will work in a similar way?

May 17, 2013
Weekend PC download deals: Borderlands 2 for $11
Shacknews - Alice O'Connor

This weekend has some cracking sales so it's hard to pick one headlining game, but Borderlands 2 for $11 is pretty darn good. Other exciting bargains include Sleeping Dogs for $6, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare for $7, Dark Souls for $8, The Walking Dead for $8, Batman: Arkham City GotY for $8, Hitman: Absolution for $9, Diablo 3 for $40, and a cracking bundle of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Civilization IV Complete, and Civ V Gold for $20.

Here's our selection of this weekend's PC deals:

GameFly

Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition

Amazon

Amazon's huge sale includes so much more than just these:

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Bitcon Bundle

Pay what you want--in Bitcoins--for a bundle of And Yet It Moves, Eufloria, a beta of Eufloria HD, Spirits, and World of Goo. I know, right?

Eufloria

Blizzard

Diablo III

GamersGate

Friday:

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Get Games

Sleeping Dogs

GOG

GOG's big Ubisoft sale includes:

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Green Man Gaming

GMG offers 20% off most games with the code GMG20-LLASD-D8WBQ, which you'll need for most of (but not all) these prices:

The code GMG25-55FJ7-ADQ3P gets you 25% off these:

The code GMG30-JLLFD-2CQSV gets you 30% off these:

Borderlands 2 Psycho DLC

Groupees

Pay what you want for Patrician IV, Slam Bolt Scrappers, Fairy Bloom Freesia, Paranutical Activity, and Radical Roach. Pay over $5 to also get Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition, Constant C, Blades of Time, and Drakensang.

Slam Bolt Scrappers

Humble Bundle

Pay what you want for Costume Quest, Psychonauts, and Stacking. Beat the average price to also get Brutal Legend and eight of Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight prototypes.

Brutal Legend

Impulse

Might & Magic Heroes VI

Indie Royale

Pay what you want for Burn Zombie, Burn!, Lucius, Plain Sight, Primal Fears, Alien Shooter 2, Droplitz, and Ironclads: Anthology.

Lucius

Steam

As well as being on sale until Monday morning, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is free to play until Sunday afternoon. Click here to install it through Steam.

X3: Terran Conflict

Vblank

Retro City Rampage

May 17, 2013
Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection coming to PS3 in July for $50
Shacknews - Steve Watts

Konami announced today that Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection will hit the PlayStation 3 on July 9, just barely missing its earlier stated target of June. As previously reported, the collection includes Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: HD Edition, Metal Gear Solid 3: HD Edition, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD Edition, Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions, and Metal Gear Solid 4: Trophy Edition. The original MSX Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2 are playable through MGS3. The two graphic novels from Ashley Woods detail the events of MGS1 and MGS2, and were previously only released on the PSP in North America.

Konami also revealed a price for the package: $49.99 for all eight games, two digital graphic novels, and the art book. And while many of the games will be included on the two Blu-ray discs, the PSone releases will be offered as a voucher. (That means you'll be able to play those games on your PSP and Vita, if you'd like!)

May 17, 2013
Madden NFL 25's $99 'Anniversary Edition' includes Sunday Ticket
Shacknews - Steve Watts

EA Sports announced a limited Anniversary Edition of Madden 25 today. The $99 set comes with a one year subscription to DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket, which usually costs a few hundred bucks by itself.

If you don't already have DirecTV, the special edition includes a $10 off per month promo code to get the service, which will let you use the "NFL Sunday Ticket Max" too. If you already are a DirecTV and NFL Sunday Ticket subscriber, you can access it with your computer and mobile devices as well. Finally, if you're out of range of DirecTV service, you can at least get a code for a trial of the regular 17-week season to watch on your computer, tablet, or mobile device.

The Anniversary Edition will also include an exclusive Ultimate Team pack each week during the regular season. The special edition is exclusive to the online retailer Amazon.

May 17, 2013
Weekend Confirmed 165 - Metro: Last Light, Fuse
Shacknews - Ozzie Mejia

This week, it's a special five-person edition of Weekend Confirmed! Hosts Garnett Lee and Jeff Cannata welcome in Shacknews' Andrew Yoon, Insomniac's James Stevenson, and Volition's Steve Jaros to discuss the Precursor Games Kickstarter and continue the look back at the previous generation by examining some of its most important games. Talk then turns to the Gran Turismo 6 announcement before adding some dream ideas for EA's future Star Wars titles. The show wraps up with some love for Metro: Last Light and a new round of finishing moves.

Weekend Confirmed Ep. 165: 5/17/2013

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Here's a handy pop-up player so you can listen from right here on the page. Let us know how it works for you.

If you're viewing this in the GameFly application, you can play Weekend Confirmed Episode 165 directly.

Weekend Confirmed comes in four segments to make it easy to listen to in segments or all at once. Here's the timing for this week's episode:

    Show Breakdown:

    Round 1 - 00:00:34 - 00:30:04

    Whatcha Been Playin Part 1 - 00:30:43 - 01:02:01

    Whatcha Been Playin Part 2 - 01:03:13 - 01:31:24

    Segment 4/Finishing Moves - 01:32:18 - 02:11:05

Follow the Weekend Confirmed crew on Twitter, too!

Weekend Confirmed @WeekendConfirmd

Garnett Lee @GarnettLee

Jeff Cannata @JeffCannata

Andrew Yoon @scxzor

James Stevenson @JamesStevenson

Steve Jaros @SteveJaros

Remember to join the Official Facebook Weekend Confirmed Page and add us to your Facebook routine. We'll be keeping you up with the latest on the show there as well.

Original music in the show by Del Rio. Check out his latest music video, I Brought It Here, featuring cameos from Jeff Cannata and Christian Spicer on YouTube. Get his latest Album, Club Tipsy on iTunes. Check out more, including the Super Mega Worm mix and other mash-ups on his ReverbNation page or Facebook page, and follow him on twitter @delriomusic.

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