I'm Back... But Where Did I Go?

Honestly... Nowhere. I've been a bit pre-occupied gaming and sleeping and kept getting sidetracked from posting updates here, so that's why there hasn't been anything new over the last week. Luckily for me it hasn't been too news heavy this week anyway. Here's what you may not know but probably would if i hadn't been slack...

Several major games have released including Fable 3, which has eaten up over 10 hours of my life already and apart from being a bit glitchy is an excellent game. Fallout: New Vegas has also been out for a little while and was extremely glitchy at launch, however was slightly improved when Bethesda released a patch to address over 200 bugs (surely there must be quality control restrictions in place that stop them from shipping a game with over 200 bugs, which they had to have known about). Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 is out and doesn't suck as much as i thought it would. TFU2 is still very similar to the original but receives a significant graphics upgrade as well as more variety in all things from enemies to lightsaber crystals.

On the more newsy side of things, the CEO of Take Two Interactive, Ben Feder, has resigned from his position to spend time travelling Asia with his family. Take Two is the parent company to multiple games studios which can best be summarised as all the Rockstar and 2K Games studios. The current Executive Vice President, Karl Slatoff, will take over top job as CEO effective from January 1st.

Also pulling the plug on an epic career is Keiji Inafune, who has announced his departure from Capcom. Inafune's current job title is Head of R&D Management Group, Consumer Games R&D Division and Contents Management Division, which means his hand has been pulling the strings behind pretty much every Capcom game you can name of late, but his early career included creating Mega Man. He announced via his personal blog that he will be leaving Capcom in order to look for his next challenge and start his life over.

With Great Power...

There is no R18+ rating for video games in Australia. A fact that most gamers are aware of, most gamers want to correct, and yet the Australian government still won't bring the topic to light. People who oppose an R rating do so on the grounds that it opens up our industry for adult content which they believe can't currently come into games, However i find this trail of thought typically comes from those who most rely on the ratings system... The parents who allow their children to play games purely based upon the rating on the front cover and with no knowledge of the games actual content. Thus, i come to the actual point of this post, i found a great article by a mother who learned the hard way that ratings aren't always what they seem and has taken the responsibility of herself being the censor for her family. You can read the article HERE.

Line-Up To Kinect

The launch of Microsoft’s motion control, Kinect, is just around the corner and if you’re planning on buying it then you’ll likely want to pick up a few extra games to go with it. Well, here is the list of games coming out at, or around the same time as, Kinect.

• Kinect Adventures
• Kinectimals
• Harry Potter and the Death Hallows – Part 1
• Game Party: In Motion
• Dance Central
• Your Shape: Fitness Evolved
• The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout
• EA Sports Active 2
• Zumba Fitness
• Get Fit with Mel B
• Dance Evolution
• Dance Paradise
• Kinect Sports
• MotionSports
• Sports Island Freedom
• Kinect Joyride
• Fighter Uncaged
• Sonic Free Riders
• Crossboard 7

I can’t guarantee all of these titles will be available in Australia (some seem to be UK exclusive) but so far the line-up looks pretty impressive, until you notice that half of the games are all the exact same thing. Will we see some decent non-fitness games from Kinect soon? I hope so.

Robots In… Your Body

EA have announced a new title heading to the Xbox LIVE Arcade and PSN in early 2011. MicroBot will see you taking control of a prototype microscopic robot (cleverly called a MicroBot) as it enters a persons body to fight off other MicroBots that have malfunctioned and started spreading disease through the hosts body. Looking like a cross between Asteroids and the first stage of Spore, MicroBot will send you through perilous areas of the body such as the heart, lungs and brain. Not to worry though, as you’ll have 20 pieces of technology to unlock in order to build up your MicroBots attributes and really take the war to your robotic brethren. If none of the above made sense to you, then check out the launch trailer below…

See more Game Videos at EA.com.

Write up

Just making a quick post to let everyone know I’m trying out a new program that will hopefully allow me to update here on The Arkhive and over at The Gamers Pad much quicker and easier. If everything goes according to plan, then much of my news feed here will likely start appearing on both sites, meaning you’ll be able to visit whichever page is more convenient for you and still get the latest random bits of news from gaming and/or whatever other random stuff i think to post. So… yeah… I’ll keep everyone updated on how it goes.

Cutting Encouraged

What do you love more than a limited edition bundle that includes a ton of DLC you'll never use? A limited edition that includes a ton of physical items you won't use, of course. Behold the limited edition of Dead Space 2, which recently popped up on Amazon, before being removed once more...

The special edition will include the game (obviously), bonus armour, soundtrack, an art cell and, yes, a replica plasma cutter. Just a hunch but i don't think it's going to be working, so don't get excited thinking of how you could mount this to your buggy from the Black Ops special edition and drive around chopping peoples feet off. That's what you were thinking of doing right?

[UPDATE] It is now confirmed the above edition will be exclusive to North America. Australia will likely get the same edition revealed for European gamers, which includes everything above but the plasma cutter and adds an in game rivet gun. Even more confusing, while the N.A. version is advertised for both Xbox and PS3, the European special edition is currently only advertised for PS3. Keep an eye here for more details if they become available.

The End Of The Road

Have you bought Outrun Online Arcade off the Xbox LIVE Marketplace yet? If not then you might want to think about snapping it up before the end of next year. Outrun has already been pulled from the Playstation Network and will also be pulled from the Arcade by December 2011. This may well be the first time a game has had to be permanently removed, so why are they removing it, you might ask... Sega no longer holds the licence to use Ferrari vehicles. The exact vehicles than Outrun is full of. So if you like you're racing games, or just want to grab it up as something of a rarity, might be better to grab it sooner rather than later.

Going Crazy

If you were disappointed by Sega's first attempt to bring the Dreamcast's greatest hits back, then fear not as at the end of November they'll be taking another crack at it. While Sonic Adventure may have been a bit of a failed attempt, Sega will be releasing the Xbox LIVE Arcade version of Crazy Taxi on November 24th. This time they've put in the extra work and the Arcade re-release will be complete with a 720p upgrade and transition to 16:9 screen ratio. On top of that you'll also get another 2 game modes on top of the original, and all for a reasonable price of 800 Points.

Banking Some Extra Points

Microsoft's whole point rebate idea for Winter of Arcade must have went well, as they've decided to do it again. Any person who buys at least 2400 points worth of arcade games or add-on content during the month of October will net themselves an extra 800 points. While this may not be much encouragement to make everyone spend more, it's a nice bonus for people like me who end up spending that much most months anyway (Sonic 4, The Writer DLC and Costume Quest pretty much cover it). Just remember if you DO spend over 2400 points, you won't recieve the bonus points until the end of November.

Writing An Ending

Just a quick reminder that the last piece of DLC for Alan Wake (The Writer) should be out some time today. In my opinion, Alan Wake still stands as my choice for game of the year, and i'm very interested to see how this final piece affects the story of the game. Keep an eye out for a review tomorrow.

Returning From The Future and Still Arriving Late

In news that is surely unrelated to the previous post (...right?) it seems DC Universe Online has been delayed from it's November release to a 2011 release. The delay is apparently to "address community feedback", so i guess they need extra time to iron out some bugs and finish developing it. Guess this will be arriving just in time for all the WoW players who manage to finish of Cataclysm then give up on it once more.

A New Age Is Upon Us

There is a world other than ours... A world of magic, of mythology, of warcraft. All World of Warcraft players know that Azeroth will soon tremble and be divided by an all mighty Cataclysm, but until now, we had no idea when that would be. Blizzard has finally lifted the veil on it's "you'll get it when it's ready" policy and announced World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will be hitting shelves on the 7th of December. So if you've played WoW before, then grab your time cards and prepare your Death Knight (or whatever class you choose to play as) and if you haven't then now would be as good a time as any to give it a shot... whats the worst that could happen?

A Wealthy Inheritance

It's already been discovered that the rank's on Halo: Reach seem to have been capped off at Lt. Colonel grade 3 for now, but no-one actually believed that would be the top rank. Well thanks to MLG we now have an entire list of ranks and amount of credits needed to get there. Click 'Read More' for the full list, but for those wondering, the top rank is Inheritor and you'll need to amass 20,000,000cr to get there... yes, twenty MILLION. With me approaching Captain, that puts me at about 1% of the way there. Have fun grinding that out, and remember not to cheat, unless you want to end up like the 15,000 people in the previous post.

The Banhammer Strikes

Bungie has started to make true it's claims of not letting players cheat on Halo: Reach. Just days ago, Bungie performed a credit reset to 15,000 players, who were apparently using an exploit that allowed them to complete a challenge more than 20 times in one day via network manipulation. The affected players will lose all credits and progress, however will still hold their commendations and will need to redownload any extra DLC armour they had. Reach players be warned, Bungie is shining up its banhammer, and they WILL use it.

Hits and Misses

Everyone loves to have a bit of fun, even game devs. Lately the main source of fun for Xbox players has been Halo: Reach, and Bungie has stepped up to show everyone that it doesn't matter who you are, sometimes bad things just happen... but as long as its happening to someone else, it's always hilarious. Check out the video below for some hilarious fails, and some insane hits by Bungie employee's.

The Ultimate Of Ultimate Editions

I may be a bit biased in saying that Bioware is one of the best RPG creators, and Dragon Age: Origins is one of the best RPG's of recent years. Anyone who agrees with me will be interested in the now confirmed Ultimate Edition that will be hitting shelves at the end of the month and will include the original game, Awakenings expansion, plus all 7 extra DLC chapters (plus the feastday packs). If you haven't played the game before, or you have but don't have any of the DLC, i HIGHLY recommend you pick this up. The price tag looks to be set at around $100, so for no more than the standard price of a game, you'll get hours upon hours of fun, fighting and fantastic story.

It's Not Like Locust Have Watches

Gears of War 3 has officially been delayed. As much as we were all anticipating the final invasion this coming April, the game will now be released closer to the end of 2011. This also means we'll be waiting a few extra months to find out the fate of Carmine.

Forza Motorsport Shifts Gears

To Top Gear that is. Turn 10 and Top Gear (the BBC tv show) have entered into a long term partnership that will see Top Gear branding coming to future Forza Motorsport games, plus a heap of Top Gear related DLC coming to Forza 3.With the Ultimate Edition of Forza 3 coming out in October, so too will the first such piece of DLC, 'Stig's Garage Pack' will bring 3 more cars to the already massive line-up (Koenigsegg CCX, Lexus LFA and Mercedes Benz SLS-AMG) but personally i'm just wondering if the Kinect support for future games will include a Kinect controllable Stig :D