Preselected players from EVE Online will receive beta access, including those that attended the Eve Fanfest in Iceland this past March. The beta will be throwing in more people into the mix during the summer and more information about the game will be revealed at E3.

There are some good reasons why Diablo III having that online requirement is needed. Diablo II was plagued with hackers, exploits, and illegal methods of item duplication. With the foundation placed by Blizzard, it gives Blizzard a way to stomp these great evils that can ruin an online game.

Of course, there are many bad reasons. The Error 37 bit has become a bit of a meme and was a trending topic on Twitter on May 15th, D3′s release date. The issues that Blizzard would solve with stomping hacks and exploits would not apply at all to those that prefer to play the game single player. And yes, not being able to play the game completely offline is a huge bother for those that cannot connect to the internet.

There were possibily other ways to go about this while still maintaining what Blizzard aims to do with the real money auction house and being able to build a huge online infrastructure under the Battle.net name.

So my question to you: Does Diablo III really need to be online-only? Considering the issues with D2′s online play, blending both offline and online characters, and still maintaining that real money auction house that is void of exploiters and illegal activity, what do you think would work better. Do you think that the cure is worse than the poison?

Sound out in the comments, shoot me an email at mogknight@themogblog.com, talk to me on Twitter @MogKnight, let me know! I’d like to hear what you guys think of this.

Snow’s Story will throw Snow into the coliseum after being separated from his fiancée Serah. Completion of this DLC addon will allow you to have Snow as a party member.

Lightning’s Story will continue what happened after she clashes with Caius in Valhalla. Players will take control of Lightning with her own special abilities for you to use. The biggest question is if this is the true ending to Final Fantasy XIII-2. Square Enix emphasizes that while you can play the DLC when you want, beating the main story of the game is recommended to understand what is going on. My opinion? I do not think this will conclude the story, we may very well see a Final Fantasy XIII-3.

It’s been a long time coming, but now we will finally play Virtual Fighter 5 Final Showdown outside of Japan. June 5th will see the digital release of VF5FS on PlayStation 3, with June 6th making way for the Xbox 360 release.

For $14.99 (or 1200 MSP), you will get the base game. Throw more money down and you’ll get a good chunk of character customization that range from $5 to $15. These are all aesthetics though, and will not make you god-tier… But at least you might look cool.

I got my hands on a Torchlight II beta key and I’ve been sitting down with it as it would tide my Diablo III cravings. While they are both completely different, the bare fundamentals of a dungeon crawler is still very much there. Torchlight in general can be considered more traditional in terms of character progression much like the original Diablo and Diablo II. The only issue with the original Torchlight was that it completely lacked any multiplayer.

Thankfully, Torchlight II now features multiplayer with online and LAN support. It also features an irate engineer played by an irate Asian guy.

I did not spend so much time with the original Torchlight, but this really does feel like a modernized Diablo II. Everything from how the skill system works and stat allocation really brings me back to how things were in Diablo II. It is really hard to not compare the two, but on that note it also feels that if anyone were to dislike some of Blizzard’s decisions in regards to Diablo III, Torchlight II is definitely something to look at. I’m sure that the option to play offline and without DRM will win some people over. It’s also a very well made game and a nice alternative.

One might not be better than the other, in this case at least. It is simply another option, much like all those MOBA games that are out there right now.

Originally planned to be released in Fall 2012, Crystal Dynamic’s re-imagined and reboot of Tomb Raider has been delayed until Q1 2013. A message from Darrell Gallagher, the Head of Crystal Dynamics stated:

A Message to the Tomb Raider Community

When Crystal Dynamics first set out to reboot the Tomb Raider franchise, there were two goals that we were extremely passionate about. The first was to create a modern Tomb Raider game that would surprise and excite gamers. The second was to make this the best game of our careers, something we would be really proud to be a part of. We truly believe that we have something very special on our hands and we can’t wait to share it with you.

Our priority now is to make sure we fully deliver the very highest quality game. In order to do this, we have decided to move the game’s release date by a few months, from Fall 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.

We’re doing things that are completely new to Tomb Raider in this game and the additional development time will allow us to put the finishing touches into the game and polish it to a level that you deserve. We believe this is the right choice and I guarantee it will be worth the wait. The game is looking amazing and we can’t wait to show it to everyone at E3 in a few weeks.

Darrell Gallagher

The original showing of Tomb Raider at E3 2011 did surprise a lot of people. It is without a doubt that they will be showcasing something at E3 that will impress us even more.

Couch Potato Special: Episode 5 -Peach Cobbler (Runtime – 76:18)
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E3 is right around the corner, and everyone seems to not be excited about what isn’t coming out. Final Fantasy Versus XIII? Nah. Mog, Ed, and Will chime in to give their thoughts and opinions about E3, throw down the gauntlet about video game difficulty, mention a silly little fighting game from Japan, and even Mog admits his fear of spiders.

For more info about Tōkidenshō Angel Eyes, you can check out the video in the show notes.

Show Hosts:
MogKnight – @MogKnight
OnesOwnGrief – @OnesOwnGrief
RockmanXelnia – @XelniaKuirsche[

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DOTA, or Defense of the Ancients, started off as a custom map dating back into Blizzard territory. With DOTA2 now in the hands of Valve and Blizzard wanting to release their own version of DOTA titled Blizzard DOTA, trademark kind of gets in the way.

As an agreement, Blizzard and Valve has announced Valve will use the DOTA trademark for commercial purposes, while Blizzard will continue to use the DOTA name as noncommercial with regard to player-created maps in Warcraft III and Starcraft 2.

Also as part of the agreement, Blizzard will be renaming Blizzard DOTA to Blizzard All-Stars. Makes sense, considering that it does involve Blizzard’s casts (the All-Stars) and that a variant of DOTA in Warcraft III was called DOTA Allstars.

In the end, both companies just don’t want to drag out a trademark dispute. That’s a good thing, no one needs to get hurt.

Dynasty Warriors VS (for the Nintendo 3DS) – This title is for Japan only & will not be localized and released for / in overseas. #TKfamily

— Chin Soon Sun (@inspchin) May 11, 2012

I will continue my hack and slash adventures in Warriors Orochi 3 with a sad face.

Tomahawks galore! Have a look at some of the gameplay featured in Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed III. Connon, the new protagonist, will stop at nothing to prevent those that try to impede justice and freedom.

You know, something about the American way… or something.

As MMORPGs advance on through the years, lower level areas start to suffer population issues which results in empty zones. Now, Blizzard has come up with the technology to fix this issue in World of Warcraft by introducing cross-realm zones. Specific zones in World of Warcraft will be set as cross-realm zones, which will include low populated areas based on the server.

While this will allow zones to feature a little bit more life in their deserted areas, I can only imagine how often PvP fights would occur with this addition. Last time I’ve leveled up on a PvP server, barely any PvP took place as I hit level cap. It is also interesting to see a function like this due to the changes made in Cataclysm where most group quests were removed.

This will be implemented and tested on the closed Mist of Pandaria beta soon.

While the DSi does have its fair share of games available to the system with the entire DS library and the DSiWare games, any core gamer should probably spend the money to jump forward to the 3DS or step back with the DS or DS Lite just for the Game Boy Advance support. However, if you’re a parent that just want a portable device that will keep your kids busy, certainly can’t go wrong with this.

Starting on May 15th (you know, the day when all hell breaks loose), stealth adventurers will be able to run to their GameStop, pre-order, presumably grab a code, and download Sniper Challenge. The Sniper Challenge seems to act as a preview to the game much like Capcom did with Dead Rising 2: Case Zero. However, scoring big in this preview may potentially net you a trip to Denmark to visit the developers to get your face digitized and shoved into the next game.

Additionally, any unlocks including the Kazo TRG Sniper Rifle will transfer to the main game when that comes out on November 20th.

Keep an eye out for http://www.hitmansniper.com/. Certainly, something has to show up once next week hits, right?!

Well considering…

• Skylanders came out of nowhere, successfully managed to sell well over 30+ million toys through 3/31, and became the burden of parents and game retail shops everywhere…
• Call of Duty Elite has 10+ million registered with around 2+ million are CoD Premium Elite members as of April 30th…
• Blizzard’s World of Warcraft is standing strong as the #1 subscription-based MMORPG with 10.2 million subscribers as of 3/31…
• Diablo III setting pre-order records for Blizzard (no real surprise here)…

… Yeah, I’d say that Activision is doing really well with these huge titans backing them up. Here are some more highlights from their report:

• The Call of Duty franchise has had approximately 40 million monthly active users.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 players had logged more than 1.6 billion hours of online play.
• Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure was the #3 best-selling game overall in NA/EU and including all of the accessories and figures during the first quarter of 2012. It was also the #1 best-selling kids’ title in dollars.
• Both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty are in the PC top-10 selling titles in NA/EU.

Why, yes. That is Stan Lee swinging across the Manhattan streets.

Due on June 26th, The Amazing Spider-Man from Activision will have its own share of pre-order bonuses including playing as Rhino and Stan Lee. Rhino will be breaking the crap out of things but only if you pre-order from GameStop. Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man and the face of Marvel Comics, will be a playable character that will suddenly inherit Spider-Man’s powers in order to find pages of his latest script. He can be yours if you pre-order from Amazon.

Each of these seem to be mission based DLC so chances are that you won’t be able to play these characters in the actual game, but who knows. Frickin’ Stan Lee is playable, I guess anything can happen.

Raptr is a social networking tool for gamers that allows you to keep track of your playtime and achievements on your PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games. You’ll be able to tie your friends together in one unified list, and even be given news of games and stuff that are relevant to your interests.

Raptr recently launched the beta of Raptr Rewards. Raptr Rewards essentially rewards you based on your stats and will allow you to redeem specific rewards depending on if you fulfill certain conditions. What kind of rewards? They did give out Ghost Recon Future Soldier beta keys and Diablo III beta keys recently. They also have a multitude of coupons and free-to-play MMO redemption. Starting tomorrow (and chances are it will go very quickly), they will be giving out 2500 copies of Minecraft for XBLA, which came out today.

You can view the rest of the potential rewards and claim your Minecraft XBLA code tomorrow (5/10). However, note that you will need to sign up for Raptr (it’s free) and probably will need to associate your Xbox 360 Gamertag as well. While you’re at it, follow us on Raptr! Because, you know, we told you about this stuff.

Good luck tomorrow!

Update: Raptr has released a few details for those who are aiming to win one of the 2500 codes given away for Minecraft. Because of very high demands, there will be some requirements needed for your Raptr account. Here are the details:

*You will need a Raptr account

*You will need a valid active Facebook account connected to your Raptr account, you can set this up here: http://raptr.com/account/sharing
(though you don’t need this to ‘earn’ the reward, you will need this on your account before you can claim the reward).

*You will need to be someone who loves games like Minecraft. What does this mean? While we don’t want to spoil every qualifier, this reward is geared towards the dedicated gamer who’s attained a certain rank in either Minecraft for PC (tracked via the Raptr PC desktop app), recent XBLA games, or Minecraft-like games. (More details on this qualification will be released when the reward goes live tomorrow morning).

*You will need to be from a country or region which has Xbox Live Service and have an XB Live account to redeem the Minecraft code. (complete list here: http://www.xbox.com/en-gb/live/countries)

The Evolution Fighting Game Tournament has always been the main event of the year when it comes to international competition in fighting games. This year, they face an issue of going over the capacity that the Caesar’s Palace venue allows. To alleviate this, EVO 2012 will now require purchase of an attendee badge to attend the tournament finals that are held on Sunday. Everyone who is partaking in the tournament will already be eligible to attend finals but attendees will be required to have the badge in order to enter the ballroom.

Friday and Saturday are still free to attend. Panels that are held at EVO 2012 will prioritize badge holders. Other than that, those that choose not to purchase an attendee badge will still be able to enjoy the finals in a separate room with the show being streamed on a huge TV. Of course, there will also be an internet stream as well for those who can’t make the trip out to Las Vegas.

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare can be considered a bite sized Alan Wake rather than a full blown sequel. Alan Wake was released on Steam a bit recently ago, and now American Nightmare will be following suit come May 22nd on both Steam and GOG.com. It will also a retail boxed release shortly after.

If you already own Alan Wake on Steam or GOG.com, you will get 15% off. If you pre-order Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, you will get 10% off. Alan Wake is currently on sale for 50% off. You can essentially buy both games for around $25 dollars. Not a bad deal!

As a part of the Diablo III’s “Darkness Falls, Heroes Rise” campaign, a 100% progression unlock has revealed an animated video short. This animated video showcases the conflict between the angels and demons that has lasted for thousands of years. This collaboration effort with Blizzard and Titmouse Inc. is impressive and should get people excited for the eventual May 15th release of Diablo III. Will we be seeing more collaboration efforts? I sure hope so.

I recently reviewed Tribes: Ascend and it was a pretty good game. The new Tartarus update that was applied to the game recently features more maps, more balance tweaks, and a nice addition of being able to save custom loadouts. The loadouts is a nice feature when you’re playing different game types and needing to switch to different sets. Additional loadouts will cost some money or XP.

The “Tartarus” map is a new CTF map, while the “Hinterlands” map is a new Arena map. Both are simply added to the rotation.

You can play Tribes: Ascend for free by signing up here.

In EA’s Investors Results for the fourth quarter fiscal year, they have announced that BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic has gone from 1.7 million subscribers down to 1.3 million. They attribute the drop from casual players who do not see enough interest into maintaining their subscriptions. They have also stated that SWTOR is not so much as important brand to EA such as Madden and Tiger Woods, noting that SWTOR is in their top 10, not their top 5.

The MMO does have some accolades though. It did have a very successful launch with The Old Republic selling well over 2 million and is sitting right below Blizzard’s World of Warcraft.

It might sound a bit discouraging that EA is not placing SWTOR so highly. EA has stated in their report that the current subscription count was what they assumed that they get with SWTOR before acquiring BioWare years back. 1.3 million is still a significant number regardless.

We’ll most likely hear more about this going into E3 2012.

THQ has announced a sequel to the original Company of Heroes. Titled Company of Heroes 2, players will expect to survive the harsh cold weather in the land of Mother Russia during the events of World War II. And yes, there will be Nazis.

Company of Heroes 2 will use Relic Entertainment’s Essence 3.0 Engine, which will probably mean it will look nice, will feature massive explosions, and whatever fancy thing that they could really shove with their own proprietary engine. Needless to say, it will be something that we all will need to see. There is no trailer as of this posting.

Company of Heroes 2 will be on the PC in early 2013.

Announced by Activision and Twentieth Century Fox, Family Guy will be making its way back to consoles this fall with Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse. There was no mention of a specific console or even any real hint as to what could be in this game. They did leave a quote though from David Oxford, Executive Vice President of Activision:

Fans of Family Guy will love that we’ve taken some of the series’ most iconic and memorable moments and built them into an impressive and uncensored video game.

Uncensored. Ooooh.

I noticed there was a huge influx of traffic lately to The Mog Blog about a previous post involving Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3. As it stands right now, there has been no confirmation or anything about MUA3 but I figure there are probably a few reasons as to why there has been an influx of interest.

For one, the original article did take a quote from Dan Amrich, Social Media Manager of Activision and all-around awesome guy who wrote a book about reviewing video games for a living. It stated that, at the time, Capcom did have the license for making Marvel games. This is until The Amazing Spider-Man announced during Spike’s Video Game Awards in 2011 and will be published by Activision. Then there was news about a domain registered by Ubisoft and Marvel at “AvengersBattleForEarth.com.” No real idea where that will take us.

With the recent release of the film Marvel’s The Avengers, now would seem like a very good time to bring Marvel Ultimate Alliance back to the spotlight. Alas, there still has not been any official news about this, and judging by how average Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 was, it might not be a priority.

Nevertheless, the interest seems to be there. It’ll be interesting if something does come out of all the hype that has been going on with the Marvel universe. I enjoyed the original MUA when I played it with a few buddies. I did not think it was the most fantastic game out there but it was great to be able to play all these different Marvel characters and see what kind of unique attacks and abilities that they have. Some of the RPG growth elements were fun.

Ah well… Maybe something will get announced soon.

You know what would make World War 2 interesting again? Taking it into the air so you can blow stuff up. Mad Catz is continuing their publishing gig with Damage Inc. Pacific Squadron WWII (you can debate if this sounds better than the original name: War Wings: Hell Catz).

This World War II-based plane shooter also has a planned Collector’s Edition which comes with a Pacific AV8R FlightStick, a DLC plane and some fancy stickers to customize your stick with. I’m not one to judge FlightSticks that well (simply because I haven’t invested in one) but the quality of this stick from what I tried at PAX East seems to work well for what it does. Feels like it could use a little bit of weight, but again maybe we’re supposed to bolt that thing down to something.

Heck, the last time I called a flight simulator a game…

With the recent troubles that THQ has been having, there is definitely some light at the end of the tunnel. What started off as an April Fools joke, Volition’s Saints Row: The Third – Enter the Dominatrix has went from fake to real and leading you into a fake world.

Whew boy.

Players will enter a virtual copy of Stillwater as the alien warlord bastard Zinyak plots to take over the Earth by getting rid of you and the Saints. Players will also have access to some super powers as they go around the city and causing whatever havoc and hell that is needed to probably pull themselves out of the system.

This is a standalone expansion, so you won’t have to have a copy of Saints Row: The Third. It will be available sometime in the future and will carry a suggested retail price of $29.99. Will we expect a full fledged game? I bet we will!

It’s official: The next Elder Scrolls game will be taking the series to a new level with an MMORPG. Taking place about a millennium prior to the events of Skyrim and spanning across all known regions of The Elder Scrolls world, Elder Scrolls Online will feature your typical MMORPG questing and PvPing and probably a few more features when the next Game Informer magazine starts spilling the beans.

Time to start speculating! Will this be as much of a sandbox as the rest of The Elder Scrolls series? Can we shout at stuff? Will the Boots of Blinding Speed make a return?!

Couch Potato Special: Episode 5 -Peach Cobbler (Runtime – 76:42)
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Sony unveils a new fighting game that is sorta-but-not-really like Super Smash Bros. Mog wishes for a Gran Turismo car as a playable character. Ed and Will want a ton of third-parties. Wii U does something really interesting with their digital distribution releases and is dragging the poor 3DS along with it. All this, and more, on this episode of Couch Potato Special!

Show Hosts:
MogKnight – @MogKnight
OnesOwnGrief – @OnesOwnGrief
RockmanXelnia – @XelniaKuirsche

The badges were open up for sale a week ago. Unfortunately, the vendor system they were using kept crashing and sales were temporarily stopped with the promise that the badges will be back up for sale the following week. Hype is risen, everyone knows that tickets are being sold soon if they did not know already, and everyone has been waiting for the window to pop back open. Within a few hours, the 3-day badges were completely sold out.

For those who still want to attend PAX Prime, single day badges are still available. Saturdays tend to sell out soon after the 3-day, so get on that.

Yeah, I went there.

Keeping up the annual release track for the Call of Duty series, it is now time for Treyarch to take the helm again. This time, instead of going backwards in time, they will be taking the fight to the year 2025 where new technology has advanced war and even horses are thrown into the mix. The Call of Duty: Black Ops II world reveal trailer now “officially” pinned down the release date of November 13th 2012.

For those wanting more footage, check out the LA/Denver NBA Playoffs game tonight for more.

Persona 4 Arena, a fighting game featuring Persona 3 and 4 characters, will be making its way from Japan and overseas sometime in the summer. Atlus has released a simple tutorial video (which I assume will be a series of videos) that shows you some very basic controls. Sure, it tells you how to walk but knowing how to throw and what all the gauges mean will only help you.

It blew my mind back in 2010. Phantasy Star Online 2 was announced to the world and there was much rejoicing. Then gameplay footage and trailers starting popping up, showcasing a battle system that goes beyond anything we’ve seen previously in Phantasy Star Online or Phantasy Star Universe. Long gone are the clunky animations, boring gun play, and drowning yourself in fluids to keep your tech spells going. PSO was reborn.

Recently, Sega has announced that Phantasy Star Online 2 will be a free-to-play game and will also be showing up on mobile devices and the PlayStation Vita. What was more important was that a closed beta and open beta was planned. I managed to get myself into the closed beta, and I’m enjoying every bit of it!

Phantasy Star Online 2 Beta Teaser/Trailer

One main complaint that most people will find going into the original PSO or PSU is the fact that, as an action RPG, everything felt stiff. PSO2 alleviates a lot of that by allowing players to freely form combos using their normal and special attacks while preventing the issue of mindless button mashing by rewarding players who time their attacks.

Item finding is still very much an important part of the experience, and now players have their own loot drops. No more will you have to charge in against other players for that red rare box when it drops! To spice things up, random scripted events will occur where an “emergency” objective will appear. Completing the objective will net you some more XP and meseta. There are also quests where you will enter multi-party areas where you will be roaming around huge areas with other parties. Don’t expect a huge MMO gathering in these quests though as these are more of a “party within a party” situation where it caps out at 16 players.

The current level cap is 20 in the beta. Thankfully, if a certain class isn’t working out for you, you will be able to change your class freely. Each class also has their own set of skill trees that you will be able to assign points to. If you want to specialize in different builds for your class, you can also buy more specs to suit every need. Just expect to spend some real money for this addition.

There’s a lot of social actions that you will be able to do. Adding on to your typical dancing and waving emotes, you will be able to slam your fancy face across the screen with a chat bubble and annoy the hell out of everyone! Fancy clothes can be had too, though I would assume more will require real cash to purchase. You can also sign up for a premium service that allows you to have your own personal room, a shop and the ability to trade items with others. Just take note that when you do rent a room, it’s completely empty! It might even be a trap to try to get you to buy furniture too.

I spent most of my time playing Ranger. It definitely feels like Rangers are pretty powerful, a lot more involving compared to PSO, and definitely not boring compared to PSU. The set of photon arts given to the Ranger and their rifles can deal a great chunk of damage though their regular attack is nice for chipping things down. Thankfully, they do account for enemy weak points and shooting those specific spots will deal more damage. Having access to rockets and launchers sweetens the experience.

Melee weapons offer something unique as well. As you start building up your photon art arsenal, you can attach up to three different arts to your melee combo. You are able to activate specific arts based on where you are on the chain combo with the special attack button akin to something like Dynasty Warriors. Some arts can pop an enemy up and lead to juggle opportunities. Some lead into massive attacks that will fill the area.

Forces can not only bring the pain with their powerful tech spells but now they will be able to hold down and charge their tech for more damage. Thankfully, your resources for spells can be recharged simply by switching to another weapon and using that to attack and recharge. Gunblades are particularly useful in these moments as you won’t even need to melee since there is a ranged mode on those weapons.

While the game primarily sticks to a quest/mission system that is seen in Phantasy Star Universe, completing certain requirements will unlock a free roaming area that sort of mimics the classic PSO formula of running through an area and kill the boss. So far, the beta features Forest and Caves, except that they’re given names but we’re all going to remember them as Forest and Caves. It also features a City mission that only occurs at specific times of the day.

For those lone warriors out there, you will be able to summon NPCs that you befriend during the course of the story. If you do have a few friends, you can also summon them as AI NPCs if they aren’t there to assist you. While not the best substitute, they will hit things and will soak up some damage for you. Overall, it is always better to go with a full party than to go completely solo. Full XP is always gained even if you don’t touch the mob.

Overall, Phantasy Star Online 2 is shaping up to be the perfect game to spend hours upon hours on, much like the time I have spent playing the original PSO. Everything is fresh but it comes with a very familiar taste that is sure to attract new and old fans back into this franchise. I can only hope that there will be a full on effort to bring this title overseas, translated and in English.

With Diablo III only 15 days away from release, those diving straight into hell to convert loot into cash are probably wondering the details of the auction house. Questions such as commission or if the purchases and sales are taxable. Blizzard has written a detailed FAQ about it.

Blizzard will take $1 off of each equipment item sold on the real money auction house, regardless of how much it was sold for. Commodities such as gems or dyes will have Blizzard taking 15% of the total sales price. In both cases, any money made will incur a 15% transfer fee of the amount being transferred if you were to transfer the funds to your PayPal account. If you choose not to transfer it and keep it in your Blizzard wallet, you can use that money to buy anything off of the Blizzard store, including World of Warcraft game time or further expansions that might pop up.

Note that once you hit a certain threshold, you will need to pick yourself up an authenticator of some sort, be it the small keychain or the mobile app. Heck, you should be using one of those if you intend on playing around with real money. Certainly don’t want to get your account hacked with your PayPal info.

Wait a minute. Exclusive for Xbox 360?

Don’t act surprised. Bethesda has stated since August that the first two DLC for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be timed exclusive for Xbox 360 for 30 days.

But here it is! Dawnguard! What can we fish out of this teaser image? Nothing really. What else do we know? Nothing until E3 2012. Until then, if you’re playing on Xbox 360, rejoice in knowing that you’re getting the DLC first and also enjoy the fact that the Kinect update should be active now for all your shouting needs.

The rest of us PlayStation 3 and PC players will be right here… Waiting… For 30 days.

The Xbox 360 version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will get the much hyped Kinect update on May 1st, where you will be able to shout to your heart’s content. Bethesda has posted up a PDF on their blog with a full list of commands that does not only include shouts but various menu shortcuts as well.

To sum up how it all works: All the commands can be said without holding a button except for shouts in Dragon language. You can say “Unrelenting Force” without having to hold the button as an example. You must hold RB down if you wanted to say “Fus Ro Dah.” You will still be able to assign your shouts to button shortcut but you will need to hit LB and RB at the same time to activate them while the Kinect is enabled.

Nifty!

So far the current offerings are Cosmo Black, Aqua Blue, Flame Red, Pearl Pink, and now Midnight Purple. Hopefully we’ll be seeing Blinding Yellow or Puke Green fairly soon!

… But seriously, I would consider yellow or green if they were to make them.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

Let me repeat that again.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

Okay.

Just recently shown on GTTV, Sony and Superbot Entertainment will be releasing this smashing of a brawl game that probably involves melee and will feature a good number of Sony first-party characters along with a few third-parties. There’s no denying it. When you look at the game, it looks like a straight up Super Smash Bros. clone but featuring Sony IPs instead.

So far the announced characters are:

Kratos from God of War
Parappa the Rapper
Fat Princess
Sly Cooper
Radec from Killzone
Sweet Tooth from Twisted Metal

Of course, there are probably a lot of game play differences that will separate itself from Smash Bros. As Brawl has been the game that really had a hard time meshing well with the tournament scene and having really shoddy online, it would be interesting to see how well this will be received. Do the Sony characters hold up as well as classic Nintendo characters? We’ll find out this as the game is targeted for a holiday season release and we’ll most likely know more about the game come E3.

Ah yes, the ever so addicting gun crafting element. In Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier, you will be able to modify the 52 different weapons, and be able to add and remove attachments to fit your own needs. You will also be able to use Kinect or the PlayStation Move as you go through all the fancy details and make changes as desired.

I can see myself messing with this for a while. Gotta put that Kinect to good use somehow!

Future Soldier is currently in beta. If you’re lucky enough to grab a code, I hope you’re enjoying it! Otherwise, you will be able to purchase the game on May 22nd.

The Ultimate Edition includes the full game, the Explosive Mission and Tactical Enhancement packs, as well as The Missing Link DLC. Included is a 40-page art book and a bonus disc, featuring a 44-minute “making of” documentary, motion comic, animated storyboard, CGI trailer, and soundtrack. That’s a lot of boom for buck.

The Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Ultimate Edition can be had for a mere $50 in the US. You can also find the game digitally from multiple retailers.

Minimum System Reqs

2.0GHz Intel Mac with at least 4GB RAM, 20GB free Hard Drive space, 256MB or better graphics card, and Mac OS X 10.7.3 or later. The following graphics cards are not supported: ATI X1xxx series, ATI HD2xxx series, NVIDIA 9400, NVIDIA 7xxx series, NVIDIA 320M, Intel HD3000 and Intel GMA series.

You can find our review for Deus Ex: Human Revolution here and our review of The Missing Link DLC here.

Soon after this departure from Infinity Ward, Robert “FourZeroTwo” Bowling has started a new venture as Founder and President of Robotoki, a “developer development studio, that happens to make video games.”

What do we know about this new business? Game Informer has had some time with Robert Bowling to talk about the future projects. It will be pretty exciting to see what he intends to do with Robotoki. From Community Manager to developing developers, I want to see what he can do and I’m sure others share the same sentiment.

Yeeaaahhh… As pointed out by Game Informer and various others, the box art for the Game of the Year edition of Batman: Arkham City is anything but elegant. Aren’t review quotes supposed to be on the BACK of the box and not littered all over the front in a cluttered mess?

Included in the GOTY edition will be all the DLC up to this point and the Harley Quinn’s Revenge DLC that will also be released in the digital channels for those that have already purchased the game. While details are skim, it looks like this DLC will pick up where Arkham City ended and it also looks like this is not a simple Challenge Mode addition either!

Much like everything else coming out of Capcom recently, even Steel Battalion Heavy Armor has its own set of pre-order bonuses spread out over the big three major retailers. Available only for Xbox 360 and requiring a Kinect, Steel Battalion Heavy Armor will put you in a huge vertical tanks that you can customize. By pre-ordering your game from GameStop, Amazon.com or Best Buy, you’ll get not just one piece of armor but two!

Chances are that these items will pop themselves up on the Xbox Live Marketplace shortly after release. Steel Battalion Heavy Armor will fusing your Xbox 360 controller and Kinect on June 19th in North America with a June 22nd release in Europe. Remember, you do need a Kinect to play and no one will judge you at all if you pick up Kinect Star Wars along the way.

Starting from Friday, April 20 at 12PM PDT, players are welcome to stress test the servers and play some Diablo III over the weekend. Now, don’t expect too much as anyone in the open beta will be restricted to what the closed beta players were limited to. You will only be able to play up to level 13 and up to half of Act 1. However, it is a very nice sample that Blizzard is graciously allowing players all over to experience before the eventual May 15th release. Note that the open beta will last until Monday morning.

Those that are currently in the closed beta will still be able to play long after the weekend is over… Well, not that much longer as Blizzard did announce that the closed beta will officially end May 1st. Sure, it’s about 2 weeks until the game comes out but I’m certain that everyone involved will be tired of killing that damned Skeleton King again and again.

The 2D action RPG from Vanillaware, most known for Odin’s Sphere, will not be publishing from UTV Ignition Games any more but will now be published by Atlus. While there has not been any word as to why this exchanged happened, Atlus has done work with Vannilaware before with Odin’s Sphere.

Dragon’s Crown is a 2D RPG with multiplayer action with up to four players and will be on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2013. Let’s just hope that they plan to keep the servers up as long as possible, considering that Demon’s Souls will be taken offline fairly soon.

I'm Team Shantotto

Yeah! A stylus! It is not just any ole stylus either. This Thearhythm Final Fantasy stylus also includes stickers to customize your melodic weapon against the evils that exist in this music rhythm game for the Nintendo 3DS.

Pre-ordering Theatrhythm nets you this stylus which, from what I’ve been told, is about 6cm in diameter. If you have been useing your regular 3DS stylus for a while, I actually recommend trying to get your hands on a thicker one to carry around. Trust me, your hands will thank you.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy will be making its way to North America on July 3rd and will feature over 70 songs spanning the many Final Fantasy games. Amazon has confirmed to be one of the places where you can pre-order and get the stylus. You may as well get it there!

Felicia Day! Yay!

IndieCade, a festival of independent games where all the indie devs and fans gather to showcase new and unique games, is a fantastic show that anyone around the Los Angeles area (or even those that are not) should definitely check out. Hosted annually, one of the big attractions to IndieCade is the award show. Rolling out the red carpet and all, the award show will also be hosted by Felicia Day, best known for The Guild and her new project on YouTube Geeks and Sundry.

The award show at IndieCade recognizes games from the previous year while giving praise to the new ideas of the future. Fez, a recently released title on XBLA and PC, was showcased in IndieCade and was a winner in a previous award show. This year? Who knows what will come out as champion.

Not everything is about video games in IndieCade. You can find yourself some unique games that do not require itself to be in front of a TV. Note that I did not say table top games (though there are plenty of that) as you will probably find something out from the norm when you’re dealing with an event like this.

For more information about the awards show and about IndieCade, check out their website at http://www.indiecade.com/.

Couch Potato Special: Episode 4 – International Final Zodiac Remix Edition (Runtime – 93:43)
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Skullgirls, Remixes, HDseses and more in this episode of Couch Potato Special? Mog wonders how well Skullgirls will get picked up by the pro players while Griefy expresses his extreme hate with a bunch of re-releases that we simply do not need. Xelnia is catching up on his reviews, even after beating Tales of Graces f for the millionth time.

Show Hosts:
MogKnight – @MogKnight
OnesOwnGrief – @OnesOwnGrief
RockmanXelnia – @XelniaKuirsche

First was House of the Dead 4. Yeah, I played the crap out of this before in the arcades but seeing Lissy getting excited about waving a PlayStation Sharp Shooter actually got me pretty excited to grab the gun and start going Rambo style. The game is out now but let me tell you that if you’re not playing this with a Sharp Shooter, you’re doing it wrong!

We also got to try Hell Yeah! At first it looks like a typical platformer but when you start getting into this buzzsaw-like vehicle, it’s time to mow the hell out of everything and everyone. The story, from what I understand, is about a bunny who had some embarrassing pictures posted on the internet and now he’s taking out his rage on hell. While bloody, it has that cutesy art style that gives your trip through hell a very vibrant look. All I know is that there’s a crap ton of blood and both me and Lissy have found ourselves yelling out “hell yeah” everywhere we went.

I actually didn’t get much time on the Virtua Fighter 5 setup and that’s mainly there was so much to do at PAX. However, I will say that as an Akira player, there’s a lot that’s different and some of my old VF5 tricks simply won’t work. It might as well be a brand new game at this point. I’m hoping that more players will try this out when Summer hits.

Lissy was also getting all sexy with the Sonic statue. Was it uncomfortable? Maybe for the people in line. However, we didn’t want to wait in line to play Sonic 4: Episode 2 because, holy crap, the lines were too damn long only had so many stations in the booth. Same with the new Aliens: Colonial Marines, which I hear is canon to the Alien’s universe. That was something I wanted to try but, alas, damn those lines.