New Mortal Kombat Series Officially Announced

Digital series will delve into the history of the characters.

Confirming the news that broke a couple of weeks ago, Warner Premiere has officially announced a new live-action Mortal Kombat webseries - or, in their terminology, "digital series."

As expected, Kevin Tancharoen will direct, following the positive response to the unofficial short he directed, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, in a bid to get Warner Bros to hire him to direct a new MK film – something that could still happen after this new series.

Says Warners, "Available this spring through online digital retailers from Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, the Mortal Kombat digital series is an anthology of multiple live action shorts, each providing never-before-revealed insights into characters featured in the upcoming videogame as well as the game's universe. Additional details, including casting, will be announced in the coming weeks." The spring debut of the digital series is planned in conjunction with the release of the new Mortal Kombat game, which comes out April 19th.

D-Dub Announces Bonecraft

Adult game is parody of World of Warcraft and Starcraft.

Huh. For years I assumed life was the most precious commodity in the universe. Turns out it's elf pussy. Thank the folks at D-Dub Software for dropping knowledge in the announcement for their new erotic fantasy game that puts a porn spin on World of Warcraft and Starcraft, Bonecraft.

After bringing gems like BoneTown and BoneTown's Tiger Woods Affair Tour 2010 to market, D-Dub announced today Bonecraft is now in development and set for launch sometime this year.

OnLive, Vizio Announce Cloud Gaming Partnership

Full line of Vizio products will feature built-in OnLive access.

On-demand cloud gaming provider OnLive announced today it's taking the next step in bringing its service to the masses. The company revealed this morning it has partnered with California-based consumer electronics maker Vizio to integrate OnLive directly into HD televisions, tablet computers, and smartphones.

OnLive and Vizio made the announcement at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, promising unprecedented game performance, convenience, and flexibility.

New Assassin's Creed for 2011

And Ubisoft hints at the next location.

On the back of Asssasin's Creed: Brotherhood shifting over a million units after its first week on sale in Europe, Ubisoft has begun talking about the next outing in the increasingly successful series – and begun hinting where the time-hopping adventure might be heading next.

Geoffery Sardin, Ubisoft's EMEA chief of marketing and sales told MCV that next year there will be another installment in the Assassins' Creed series.

Sardin went on to hint where the series could go having already explored Renaissance Italy and The Holy Land. "If you've read the comic books you will see that we took Assassin's Creed to the USSR, or Caesar's Rome – that's a good example of what we could do in the coming years in the next video games," Sardin told MCV, "We never saw this as just a franchise – it is a 360 degree franchise, and touches a lot of other experiences. It's not just a game, but an animated story, on comics, in books, and other formats too. There's lots of scope for what we can do."

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood launched last week, getting an 8.0 from IGN in the process.

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Kinect vs. Move: Let The Court Decide



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Study: Playing Tetris Helps Prevent Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Flashbacks

Oxford University scientists find Tetris acts as a "cognitive vaccine".

Tetris is a videogame classic, iconic for its colored, form-fitting blocks and hypnotic puzzle play. And according to a new independent study out of Oxford University, it's something else entirely: a potential treatment used to help prevent post-traumatic stress disorder flashbacks.

The so-called "Tetris Effect" has been talked about for years -- the feeling of relaxation and accomplishment players often experience after playing a few rounds of the 26-year-old Russian videogame. According to research conducted by the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University, the effects of the game are real and could change the way trauma victims are treated.

In detailing the discovery, lead researcher Emily Holmes wrote: "Tetris may offer a 'cognitive vaccine' against flashback development after trauma exposure."

Hitman 5 Definitely In Production, Coming 2011

After a very, very long time of rumours, speculation, faked trailers and subtle hints, SystemLink can exclusively reveal that not only is Hitman 5 definitely being made by IO Interactive, it's also down for a 2011 release date.

Dragon Age Facebook Game to Unlock Content in DA2

"Dragon Age Legends" to let players earn loot with friends in tactical combat.

EA is cross-promoting its next big classic-styled RPG with a social networking game on Facebook. Dragon Age Legends is a tactical combat game with co-op built around interacting with friends, and will serve as an introductory piece to Dragon Age 2. It's set to launch in February of 2011, but users can sign up now for a chance to get into the beta test.

Square Enix is Editing Call of Duty Black Ops for Japan

Dismemberment, interrogation and swastikas are being removed.

Last week we learned that Call of Duty Black Ops was facing release problems in Germany. Today Square Enix announced that the localized Japanese version will have a few elements removed. Specifically, all swastikas in zombie mode will be replaced with the Iron Cross in the Windows and dubbed home console versions of the game. Only in the subtitled console editions will the Nazi symbol remain intact.

Supreme Court Reacts to Violent Game Law

Justices seem split on possible sales ban.

While an official ruling on today's U.S. Supreme Court hearing will have to wait, many of the justices questioned the proposed California law that would ban the sale of violent video games to minors.

In a transcript posted online, Zackery Morazzini, a California attorney general arguing for the law in today's proceedings, said the state should be allowed to regulate the sales of violent games, similar to the same sales restrictions placed on sexual material. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg quickly shot down his assertion, however.

"What's the difference?" said Ginsburg. "I mean, if you are supposing a category of violent materials dangerous to children, then how do you cut it off at video games?"

Medal of Honor "Didn't Meet Our Quality Expectations," says EA

Europe VP defends the series reboot, but acknowledges it needs to get better in the future.

Medal of Honor, the series reboot developed by Danger Close and DICE, "didn't meet our quality expectations," admitted Electronic Arts Europe vice president Patrick Soderlund to Eurogamer.

As most shooter fans would know by now, the latest Medal of Honor was released last month to mostly warm but not exactly ecstatic reviews. And while Soderlund defended the game against what he thinks are worse reviews than it deserved, he also acknowledged the series will have to get better in the future if it's going to seriously compete against rival series like Call of Duty.

Rumor: New Resident Evil Game Coming from Slant Six

SOCOM: Confrontation developer reportedly making team-based Resident Evil title.

According to a development document obtained by Kotaku, Capcom has drafted SOCOM: Confrontation developer Slant Six to create a brand-new Resident Evil title, codenamed Resident Evil: Raccoon City.

The document suggests that Raccoon City will be a "team-based" Resident Evil game, which would explain why Capcom would seek the know-how of a developer with experience making team-based shooters.

 

UK Medal of Honor sales top 350,000 units

Also approximate life to date UK figures for FIFA 11 and Just Dance 2.

It's usually not possible to reveal life-to-date sales data for UK video game releases, but a slip up by UKIE, the trade body for the UK's wider interactive entertainment industry, and percentage sales changes of games (data published by GfK Chart Track) has allowed VideoGamer.com to extrapolate approximate weekly and life-to-date figures for Medal of Honor, FIFA 11 and Just Dance 2.

PopCap Announces Bejeweled 3

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Masters of casual gaming PopCap has announced Bejeweled, the match-three puzzle series, is to get its third game proper later this year.

Bejeweled 3 is to come a full six years after its numerical predecessor and will be landing on PopCap.com on December 7.

It brings with it full HD graphics and four new game modes, including Zen and Lightning – two takes on the Bejeweled formula that promise to both calm it down and intensify it respectively.

PopCap's Jason Kapalka was on hand for the official reveal; "The challenge in creating a new version of Bejeweled is to innovate and keep it fresh and exciting without losing touch with the game-play that millions of people love," he said, "So we're very careful when we make changes to the core game, which is why it can take so long!"

Bejeweled has become one of the top ten videogame franchises in history since it first released ten years ago, and a copy of the game is sold every 4.3 seconds.

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Ghosts 'n Goblins Getting Online Makeover in Korea

New game will be shown at the G-Star game show later this month.

A new Ghosts 'n Goblins game made by Korean developer Seed9 is coming to the G-Star 2010 game show in Seoul later this month. Dubbed "Ghosts 'n Goblins Online", this latest installment of the spooky platforming series will include new characters by way of a "class" system.

Details are still scarce, according to 4Gamer.net, but this new "online action game" will retain the side-scrolling of past entries. Also returning will be the series' infamous battle damage system: your character loses armor when hit and ends up clad only in underwear.

Top 13 Scariest Video Games

It’s October. The leaves are falling, pumpkins are being smashed and video game nerds are breaking out all their scary video games from the past. Which are the scariest though? In this list we will go through what video games frightened the gamer to the core of his being while trying to find their way through the game. Some games just plain nailed the spooky quality needed to make a game scary by accentuating the moody soundtrack and making the enemies horrifying to look at. Some of the choices on this list may not be obvious, but on second look the reader will understand what could make a simple game like Pac-Man for example, so scary, which we will start off with first.

13. Pac-man

Pac-man may seem like a simple game and it is. It’s the greatest simple game of all time. But let’s think about it a little bit more. You are a floating head trapped in pitch black maze with four ghosts chasing after you. Is this not the definition of hell? Spending the rest of your life as a moving mouth running away from ghosts that never tire from trying to exterminate you from existence? With this in mind, I think we now all understand how scary of a game Pac-Man was. We like playing the game, sure. But who would honestly want to live the life of Pac Man?

12. Alone in the Dark

Alone in the Dark was unprecedented for its time. The music was suspenseful at every turn. The voice overs were dramatic and dark. Doors would randomly close behind you, and you never knew what was behind the next corner waiting to suck your blood. This 3D adventure started a slew of games like the Resident Evil series, where you were alone in a house trying to solve mysteries and find artifacts. Actually laying Alone in the Dark in the dark would accentuate the already tense mood of being in a massive house reading Latin scripture relating to biblical demonic prose. Making this game even more scary was seeing yourself from the prospective of zombies inside the house and you drive into this nefarious manor. Alone in the Dark was the first of it’s kind and still gives spooks to those who have played it thoroughly in the past.

Mega Man Creator Leaves Capcom

Head of development Keiji Inafune announces departure from company of 23 years.

Keiji Inafune is currently head of R&D at Capcom and CEO of Capcom online gaming subsidiary Daletto. This will remain true only through the end of the month. Inafune announced via his blog today that at the end of the month, he will be taking leave of his posts at both companies. He did not say where he would end up.

Inafune entered Capcom 23 years ago, initially working as a character designer. He rose to become a major producer at the company, eventually heading up all R&D efforts and also taking on CEO duties at Daletto, a Capcom subsidiary that operates online games like Monster Hunter Frontier Online.

Recently, Inafune has been the source of some controversial comments regarding the Japanese game industry. At a Dead Rising 2 Tokyo Game Show party last year, he declared the Japanese industry dead after having seen the offerings on display at the show.

Darth Vader in Games: A Visual History

We celebrate Star Wars' greatest villain in pixels and polygons.

The sullen cyborg Sith Lord of the original Star Wars trilogy has starred in films, comics, books and nightmares since 1977, but Darth Vader's appearances in video games has often been overshadowed by the likes of Luke and company.

Despite having one of the most recognizable visages in geekdom, a voice imitated more than Richard Nixon, Arnold Schwarzenegger and ALF combined, and recently topping IGN's Top 100 Star Wars Characters list, Darth Vader has had a somewhat spotty career in gaming, with appearances ranging from awesome to downright debasing. We pried open IGN's carbonite-sealed vaults and thawed out some of Darth's more memorable pixilated moments over the past 30 years for this retrospective. In the pages below we celebrate the man, the mask and the moroseness of Darth Vader.

Top Ten: Remakes We’d Most Like To See

What with Sonic Adventures getting the re-release treatment, and the likes of Ico and Shadow of Colossus soon to be seen in glorious HD, we at Dealspwn got rather nostalgic and began to wonder what games of old we’d most like to see resurrected on our flat screens. I’m not necessarily talking a like-for-like conversion with a fresh lick of paint, but the return of an old favourite with a brand new outlook on life.
So read on for out Top 10 Remakes We’d Most Like To See, and don’t forget to sign off in the comments and tell us what games you’d like to see resurrected!

10. Zone of the Ender



Hideo Kojima is recognised as the creator of the Metal Gear Solid series, but his best piece of work, in my opinion, is his mecha-classic, Zone of the Enders. It was my first game on the PS2, and I can quite honestly say I’ve yet to be ‘wowed’ by a game as much as ZotE. It was the little touches, like how Orbital Frame Jehuty’s feet sprayed sparks as he careened across stages. I hear Kojima is pondering a new Zone of the Enders title to occupy his next free slot as game director, and I couldn’t be more excited. Just no thirty minute cutscenes or clone sagas, please.

9. Perfect Dark

We’re ignoring Perfect Dark Zero. In fact, it’s ceased to exist, a myth relegated to the untold history of videogames. Perfect Dark was a fantastic game, and while Halo may have popularised the console FPS, I feel Rare laid the foundation. It had it all, a thrilling campaign, replete with X-ray snipers and aliens in sneakers called Elvis. Then the multiplayer, still great, even by today’s standards. Oh, but hire a new writer, as PD Zero’s dialogue almost forced to insert a pair of sewing needles into each ear-drum.

8. Star Wars: TIE Figther



In the past, Star Wars enjoyed a string of great games, and none were better, in my opinion, than TIE Fighter. I’m not even a flight-sim fan. I struggle with the controls. But TIE Fighter was great. Flipping sides to the Empire felt heretical, but deep down, we loved blowing up X-Wings. It was also quite taxing on my poor old 95′ PC, which began to shudder each time I ran the disc! Hopefully, our current crop of consoles and PCs can run an updated version.

7. Killer Instinct

If you’ve followed my writing, you might notice I’m quite the fan of Killer Instinct. I never managed to defeat Eyedol, and if I can’t find an old copy and a spare SNES, then I demand a remake! I worry, however, when I hear of a Killer Instinct reboot, courtesy of Kinect. Unless they solve the chugging lag, I’d rather see an old-school fighter with HD slick visuals. Maybe I’ll finally be able to defeat Eyedol? (I won’t. I’m awful at fighting games)

6. Quake



At the moment, we’re seeing far too many CoD clones on the online circuit. It’s all modern military and leveling up to upgrade your guns. I’m cool with Call of Duty, just not the string of pretenders. Quake, true to its name, shook up conventional multiplayer in 96′, so think of what an updated version might do? What set Quake apart was the level of freedom afforded to movement. You could jump fifty feet into the air, land neatly, all the while spraying rockets into your fellow airborne foes. Come on, id, make it so!

Back to the Future game out in December

Telltale announces launch month and platforms for its episodic Back to the Future adventure game.

Back to the Future: The Game will launch in December for the PC and Mac, with a PlayStation 3 and iPad version coming later, Telltale Games has announced.

 

Back to the Future: The Game comes from the developer of Tales of Monkey Island and Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse. As with those games, Back to the Future will span five episodes, with one episode released each month. Telltale secured the deal to make a Back to the Future game back in June, along with the rights to adapt Jurassic Park.

At the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the studio's design director Dave Grossman told GameSpot to expect an experience that advances Telltale's approach to adventure games: "You can expect Back to the Future to be the next step in the evolution that we have been doing for the adventure game--probably a little more accessible and directed. We've been moving things in that direction for a long time."

On the newly launched official site, the PC and Mac versions of the game are available for preorder. The $24.95 (£16) preorder bundle includes Telltale's Puzzle Agent puzzle adventure game, access to a community "insider forum," and a $1 donation to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. The site is also inviting users to register to receive the first episode for free.

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