This Week in Gaming #3 (1/30-2/5)
By TJ311 2 Comments
Written for the week of 1/30/11 - 2/5/11
Hey All. Sorry for all the late blogs but i will try to catch up eventually. All the ideas are right in front of me, I just have to find the time to write them. Not much news going on for this week but let's see what we got.
News
Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike DLC
Call of Duty: Black Ops' first wave of DLC has hit this week in the form of the First Strike DLC. As i have covered in previous blogs, this DLC map pack has four online multiplayer maps and a new zombie map. My little brother bought this pack with the leftover Microsoft Points he had from Christmas and I must say that the maps are not bad. My favorite, by far, has to be Stadium. I like the feeling of indoor close quarters on this map and there are a ton of places on this map to do that. You have the two buildings with the two balcony's, the workout room in the corner of the map, and of course the stadium itself. What I do not like about the map is that i cannot go on the ice rink. Very disappointed Treyarch. My least favorite map is Berlin Wall. I do not get what Treyarch was trying to do with this map. The two sides of the wall with the buildings are unoriginal and the No Mans Land in the middle is a dumb idea. The other two maps, Kowloon and Discovery, are good maps. Kowloon has nice verticality to it but there are a lot of campers on this map and Discovery I like just a bit more that Berlin Wall because it feels different. The zombie map, Ascension, I have only played once and for someone who does not play zombies on a regular basis, playing with a friend who does made this map a hell of a lot easier. The zombies here are harder to defeat that on Kino der Toten, the launch platforms are a nice getaway device, and starting off in black and white until you turn off the power was a brilliant idea. I feel like i have dragged on with this topic long enough so I will end by saying that $15 for 5 maps ($3 a map) is way too expensive to pay for a game that you will only play for one year but thats how Activision gets you. If you are having a difficult time figuring out if you wanna buy the maps, check out the Quick Look and TNT.
Remakes Galore
Remakes are becoming a new thing in this buisness. With the success of the God of War Collection back in 2009, other studios have dug into their back catalog and are trying to see which of their old franchises they can bring back to life. The week started off with the announcement of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee would be getting a remake. Just Add Water, the people working on the PSN exclusive remake of Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, will HDify (its a word now) the game but no systems or dates were given. Previously announced were the Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy HD Collection, featuring the Original Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow, and Chaos Theory, and the Prince of Persia Classic Trilogy HD Collection, featuring The Sands of Time, Warrior Within, and The Two Thrones. Both of these collections from Ubisoft will come in Stereoscopic 3D on a single PS3 Blu-Ray disc for the price of $39.99. The week ended with a rumor that a Halo: Combat Evolved remake could be in the works. Joystiq ran the story, stating that it will feature new art assets, new refined controls, full 1080p resolution, 3D, and online co-op. The game is said to release in the holiday season, marking the 10-year anniversary of the game. My thoughts on remakes in general are they are an awesome idea. They give a chance to gamers who missed out on the games that they might have missed out on last generation. With the God of War Collection, God of War III was coming out and I did not want to go into the game not know Kratos' story because I did not play them when they were on the PS2 because i was not into those games then. It gave me a chance to see Kratos' story and not feel left out and with remake's I can play the original games in High Definition and not fell left out. I am looking forward to how these remakes turn out.
Leaving out a special article until the end, there was no more news to talk about. Time for...
Quick Fire
A lot of miscellaneous news coming your way.- Treyarch's Community Manager Josh Olin released a ton of facts about Call of Duty: Black Ops since it's release in November. The numbers are astonishing.
- New additions to DC Universe Online are happening in February featuring a cherub form of Metropolis and Catwoman.
- Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds is getting a fight stick as well as an Xbox 360 exclusive fight pad.
- Bulletstorm has gone gold. It will release on February 22, 2011.
- KIllzone 3 is getting a Retro Map Pack for it's release on February 22. Details are on the PS Blog.
- MTV Games has closed it's doors. My condolences to those affected.
- Major Nelson has released the Top Xbox Live Games of 2010. Can you guess which game is #1?
- New Power Rangers Game!! That is all.
- THQ released some information on it's upcoming year, including a new Saints Row, WWE Online and Company of Heroes Online cancelled, and some interesting release windows.
- Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Medal of Honor, and other games sell well for EA. NBA 2K11 also sells well for 2K Games.
- New Games were announced this week including:
- Gunstringer from Twisted Pixel. Kinect game? Okay...
- Dark Souls, a sequel to Demon Souls. The first wasn't hard enough.
- Battlefield 3. 'Nuff Said.
Release Dates
- Lego Star Wars III: Clone Wars will release on March 22, 2011
- Prince of Persia Classic Trilogy HD Collection will also release on March 22, 2011
- Final Fantasy IV hit stores April 19, 2011
- 3rd Birthday is in stores March 29, 2011
- Back to the Future hits the PSN on February 15, 2011
- Homefront is delayed one week to March 15, 2011
New Releases
Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike DLC
(XBLA) Quick Look in main articleBionic Commando: Rearmed 2
(XBLA, PSN) Quick Look goes here and Reviews get inserted here, here and I think here.The Undergarden
(PSN)Earthrise
(PC)
Video of the Week
So this is a new part of the blog I am starting. With those "I fell bad that the blog is late" videos, I decided that since cool and funny videos happen every week that why not just post the best one I find and think is funny and show all of my readers. This week I'm sure everyone has seen by now.Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm
If you don't know the story, Epic Games released this a a parody to the most popular game this generation, Call of Duty. The game, Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm, is an actual downloadable game. It is a promotional item for their game, Bulletstorm. The marketing for this game has been over the top as seen in some of the Giant Bomb Mailbags, like this one and this one. There was also a Halo Parody but this piece of marketing material takes the cake. It probably didn't take them that long to make this game in my opinion. Enough talk and watch for yourself.
That just about does it for this week. I can't believe I actually sat down and wrote this without being distracted. Let's hope I can catch up with the times. As you can tell, the Black Ops DLC got me back into playing the game so Activision wins this round. I have the next blog written down, i just have to type it up and it will be on it's way out. I want to thank you all for reading. Stay tuned maybe tomorrow for the next blog, follow me on twitter @teejay311. That's it for this week, thanks for reading and I will see you guys later.
-TJ
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