So you’re thinking about firing some bullets and you want to fire a LOT of them at a LOT of people as fast as possible in a game where you massacre basically all day long, right? Video games these days are like that, lots of them are, so you’ve got to choose the right one. How does buying one iffy game sound if you also get a massively popular game’s early access to Beta gameplay with it? That’s what’s happening right now – if you purchase the new “Epic Edition” of the game Bulletstorm, (for Xbox 360,) you’ll be granted early access to Gears of War 3 beta.
This game comes out on February 22 of 2011 (that’s forever away!) while the Beta of Gears of War 3 is scheduled for “sometime” next year. The Bulletstorm Epic Edition game will cost $60 (same as the regular edition did) and will be on Xbox 360 only, and it’s limited edition (whatever that means nowadays.) In addition to the nothing-else-matters bonus of GoW3 Beta access, Bulletstorm EE has 25,000 bonus experience points, new boots and armor, “visual upgrades” for your leach, and of course, one new freaking awesome sounding gun: the “Peace Maker Carbine.”
Check out the full press release here:
Epic Games and EA Announce ‘Bulletstorm Epic Edition’ With Exclusive Early Access to Gears of War 3 Beta
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– People Can Fly, Epic Games, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) and Microsoft Game Studios today announced the “Epic Edition” of Bulletstorm™, the highly anticipated new action shooter from the makers of the award-winning Unreal Tournament and Gears of War series of games. In this unique promotion, Epic Games and EA are blowing out the launch of Bulletstorm with access to the public beta for Gears of War 3, the spectacular conclusion to one of the most memorable and celebrated sagas in video games. Players that purchase the Epic Edition are guaranteed early access to the Gears of War 3 beta*. Pre-order now to reserve a copy of the Epic Edition which will be available on Feb. 22, 2011 for MSRP $59.99, only for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system, while supplies last.
“Epic is poised to break new ground in 2011 with Gears of War 3 and Bulletstorm,” said Dr. Michael Capps, president of Epic Games. “With these two highly anticipated triple-A experiences comes a unique opportunity to do something to really excite players, and that’s what we intend to accomplish with the support of Microsoft Game Studios and EA. This is for the shooter fans.”
In addition to access to the beta, the Epic Edition gives players bonus in-game Bulletstorm content when playing online, including 25,000 experience points, visual upgrades for their iconic leash, deadly Peace Maker Carbine, boots and armor. With this unique gear, gamers can kill with skill in style. Bulletstorm’s insane Anarchy four-player online cooperative mode takes full advantage of the game’s unique skillshot gameplay and unlock/upgrade weapon system to deliver the best possible multiplayer experience within the Bulletstorm world. The combination of Bulletstorm’s multiplayer gameplay and skillshot system creates a frantic and frenzied experience setting itself apart from the multiplayer experiences in traditional shooter games.
Poised to be one of next year’s most anticipated original games, Bulletstorm will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC on Feb. 22, 2011 in North America and Feb. 25, 2011 in Europe. For more information on Bulletstorm, please visit www.bulletstorm.com and www.facebook.com/bulletstorm or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bulletstorm.
* Conditions and restrictions apply. See back of pack for details if and when available.
About People Can Fly
People Can Fly, an Epic Games studio, creates visually and technically superior action games for PC and console entertainment systems. Founded in 2002 and based in Warsaw, Poland, People Can Fly is developing “Bulletstorm,” an original, Unreal Engine 3-powered onslaught of ‘kill with skill’ gameplay and blockbuster moments to be released in 2011 by Electronic Arts. People Can Fly made its mark on the shooter genre with its award-winning “Painkiller” series of games for PC and Xbox prior to shipping Epic’s “Gears of War” for PC. Additional information about People Can Fly can be found at www.peoplecanfly.com.
About Epic Games
Founded in 1991 and based in Cary, N.C., Epic Games develops cutting-edge games and cross-platform game engine technology. Epic’s “Gears of War” series has sold more than 12 million copies and won more than 50 Game of the Year awards. Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 is the four-time winner and Hall of Fame inductee for Game Developer’s Best Engine Front Line Award. Unreal Engine 3 has also won three consecutive Develop Industry Excellence Awards, and consequently Develop magazine has dubbed it the number one game engine. Visit www.epicgames.com and www.unrealtechnology.com.
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is a leading global interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, wireless devices and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA Mobile™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2010, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.7 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million units. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.
EA, EA SPORTS, EA Mobile, and POGO are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. “PlayStation” is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox, and Xbox 360 are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. People Can Fly, Painkiller and Bulletstorm are trademarks or registered trademarks of People Can Fly Sp z o. o. in the United States of America and elsewhere. Epic, Epic Games, Gears of War, Gears of War 3, Unreal, Unreal Engine, UE3, and Unreal Tournament are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
The Unreal Engine 3 already made a quite spectacular debut on iOS with Epic Games’ own Infinity Blade, but the company’s decided it’s time to finally stop teasing and give us the software to really play with it. Tomorrow’s planned update to the UDK will deliver iOS support, meaning that all the fancy tools that helped make Infinity Blade such a blindingly gorgeous game will be at your fingertips should you be feeling creative. Licensing for the Engine is free for testing and non-commercial use, but you’ll have to pay $99 if you want to sell anything you produce with it, to be followed by a 25 percent slice of your earnings beyond $5,000 and, of course, Apple’s 30 percent cut of whatever’s left. That might not sound like the best business plan in the world, but consider that Infinity Blade is estimated to have racked up over $1.5 million in sales already — we’re sure there’ll be enough change left for ice cream even after Epic and Apple have had their share.
For only $55 you TOO can have a mouse under which is a totally sweet gamepad for use with all your favorite old-timey games. I suppose you could use it for some newer games too, but I think the whole world will agree that clearly the best use is for Dr Mario. This mouse is wireless, optical, has a 2.4GHz transmission band, 7 keys and 1 scroll wheel on the top of the mouse, joypad featuring 14 buttons. Interfacing with the mouse is done via USB 1.1 / Plug & Forget / Intelligent ID Link. It’s 1.5V (operational voltage), 30mA (operational current,) and weighs approximately 115g (without the battery).
Sadly, ever so sadly, this mouse will only work with Windows machines (Windows 95/ 98/ 2000/ NT/ ME/ XP/ Vista/ 7). I will be unable to use such a lovely device. For the rest of you though, the resolution of this mouse adds up to: 400/800/1000/1200/1600dpi (adjustable), samples at 125Hz, and its optical sensor is a Pixart. It’s super fancy. You’re gonna want to check it out. I’m surprised it hadn’t been thought of before. Get to playing. Available soon via [Shogun Bros]
Don’t have the airspace required for an AR.Drone? Gearing up for its CES 2011 debut, Sphero is a small, robotic toy ball made by Orbotix, and controlled remotely via Bluetooth and your smartphone’s tilt sensor. A ball that moves by itself? Call us lazy (too lazy to roll a ball even), but we think this is a toy whose time has come. Sure, the whole thing is pretty straightforward, although we hope that once iPhone and Android developers get ahold of that open API we’ll see plenty in the way of augmented reality gameplay: a maze or a racing game of some sort would make this thing quite coveted, in our opinion. Catch a video of the prototype in action after the break.
So you know how when you go back to your cave of video games, you open up a 2-liter of Mountain Dew, you fire up the oven to lay in some $2 pizzas or go ahead and order from some big chain like Domipapas or whatever you might call it, and you bust out the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to murder a few hundred civilians whilst stealing cars and outrunning the police? Turns out you might be living the life of none other than Michael “Shagg” Washington, a man claiming to be a backup singer from Cypress Hill. Say what?
Washington is saying he met with the game’s developers for two hours back however many years ago, answering questions about “his street life including how the teen-agers in his gang rode around on bicycles.” He says he was told by these developers that if they chose to use his likeness / his life story in the game, he’d be notified. Well guess what?
Now Washington is saying the lead character “CJ” is not only based on him aesthetically, but that his storyline is a BIT too close to Washington’s own troubled youth. Now he’s filing a complaint with the Los Angeles Superior Court, asking for no less than 25% of the game’s billion dollar profit. Dat’s a lotta loot.
According to MobyGames, a place similar to imdb.com but for video games, Washington DOES show up in the credits for Andreas under the Talent section. On the other hand, over at the official Cypress Hill homepage, they’ve distanced themselves from this man they say has got nothing to do with the band at all. Who is this mystery man then really? Or is it C.H. that’s forgetting they’ve had some Shagg in their past? Either way, I bet B-Real loves him some GTA.
Oh dear me, looks like someone screwed up somehow or another. A five year plan for the future of Blizzard Entertainment has been leaked in China, Blizzard China’s manager Ye Weilun is looking to be held responsible, he resigning quietly as Dai Jinhe (aka Alex Tai) takes over. This “Blizzard Product Slate” includes release dates for 18 products or events, including but not limited to: a World of Warcraft movie, a new possible MMO called Titan, Starcraft 2 Phoenix, and Diablo 3 (plus two expansions!) We are sad for Weilun, but extremely pumped up about Diablo 3 being released fourth quarter of 2011. Hopefully the dates stick!
Along with the DIII release in Q4 of 2011 you’ll see the next WoW expansion set for 2012 and the WoW movie and “Titan” set for release at the end of 2013. Over at MMOGameSite, they mention “Blizzard headquarter office went berserk at the mention of the News “Blizzard Product slate leaked” and have ordered thorough investigations on the leak incident.” More than likely this means more than one person’s gonna get the barbarian axe to their career – I’d be cowering in the corner about now.
Today there’s been a live stream going on over at Elisa, the creators, Rovio, giving out some news points to the world along the lines of payment for the Android version of the game. Their main announcement was about “Bad Piggy Bank,” an in-game payment option for Android users that allows them to remove the ads on their otherwise free Angry Birds screens. This payment function will also allow Android users to purchase the “Mighty Eagle” update for the game which they say is on the way!
The interesting part about their newly announced “Bad Piggy Bank” function is the way it processes payment. Instead of requiring a credit card of some kind, it simply adds on to your monthly mobile phone bill. This functionality, Rovio says, will be offered to all other Android developers soon, making it extremely easy (or so it sounds) to process payments for all. Oh my goodness that seems like a rather dangerous thing for me- I’ll be spending all day long if I can’t see it. Shucks. Rovio’s Peter Vesterbacka noted that they were “not picking on Android particularly, but I think that the payment method up to now has been less than perfect.”
Bad Piggy Bank will launch in Finland first with operator Elisa, (same place that’s running the live stream,) and will hopefully be global next year “since it requires deals to be struck with local telcos.” Speaking with TechCrunch after the event, Vesterbacka added that Angry Birds was now at about 50 million downloads, over 10 million of those downloads being on Android. He noted also that Angry Birds would be coming to Mac and PC computers soon as well as gaming consoles, with “some new things” happening online in 2011.
Also at this live event were “The Ran,” an indy band who’ve written a song for the Angry Birds series. Their song had a lot to do with birds flying through the sky via slingshots, hitting pigs, you know, the usual. Feel free to hang on over back to Elisa to see the entire event on video start to finish if you wish. Watch out for big red hoodies with bird faces on them.
Welcome to the virtual reality world of Jenga. Some of you might be aware of the Jenga game in the real world, but it’s basically time to forget about that and get in to the real deal, this app for iOS devices. This game is so good that there’s not a free demo version in the world for it. You’ve just got to lay down your cash, either three bucks or five bucks, and have at it. I and we have it downloaded already and are having not just moments, but hours of fun playing inside the tiny screen of the iPod Touch. Now you TOO can play Jenga at Applebees.
I’ve got the “mini-review” tag on this post because there’s not really that much to say. This app is basically completely excellent. You choose from several ways to play Jenga, either original or points-grabbing ways in the “Arcade” version, and you go for it! Click any brick on the short side or the long side and drag it out, bit by bit, little by little. You’re timed, though, so watch out!
Bottom line: this app is worth the price you pay for it all day long. Especially if you enjoy the game in its analog form, but even if you don’t. This app costs $2.99 in its regular form, $4.99 for the super fancy HD version that works only on the iPad. Take a peek at the gallery below to get a tiny taste of what to expect. Fun! Also take a look at the full official description:
The official Jenga® game is here! Designed in consultation with Leslie Scott, the original creator of Jenga®, Jenga for iPhone/iPod touch lets you take the tower building experience anywhere.??
REALISTIC PHYSICS?
Real-time 3D physics simulation, authentically recreating the behavior of a real wooden Jenga tower. Each block is realistically affected by the surrounding blocks, recreating the same strategic depth as the original game.??
TOUCH CONTROL
?Anyone who’s played Jenga knows how delicate your touch needs to be. The iPhone’s super-accurate touch screen gives you the control you’ll need to go for world record heights (incidentally… the record is 40 2/3 layers!). Blocks can be teased out using a mix of gentle tapping and drag controls. It’s easy to begin with, but you’ll soon find it tough when the pressure is on and the tower is wobbling!??
SOCIAL GAMEPLAY?
Obviously the best part of Jenga is putting off your friends as they are making their move. The four-player Pass’n’Play mode truly reproduces the nail-biting tension of the real thing… but you can play it anywhere!?And what’s more, Jenga for iPhone lets you compare your current tower height against that of friends around the world – while you play! A little friendly competition is the best motivator…
??ARCADE MODE
?Jenga on iPhone introduces a brand new mode: Jenga Arcade. Match colors for exrtra points and score multipliers by moving fast – but don’t topple the tower! While you play, you earn coins which you can spend on special boosts like collapse reverse, multipliers, and wildcards. It’s fast and frantic… totally turning Jenga on its head.
??STUNNING VISUALS
?Jenga for iPhone is beautiful. With full Retina display support, you won’t see a single pixel. Advanced wood shaders make the tower pop out and let you gauge its stability. And everything is set in beautiful environments, rivalling the quality of modern games consoles.
??GAME CENTER INTEGRATION
?Like all titles from NaturalMotion Games, Jenga fully supports Apple’s Game Center including leaderboards, achievements and easy friend comparisons.??
AUTHENTICITY
?Designed in consultation with Leslie Scott, the inventor of Jenga, to create the most authentic Jenga experience ever.
Aww, would you look at that, the iPhone’s trying to play big boy games! Following in the well received footsteps of Rage HD, today marks the debut of Infinity Blade, the second in what’s hopefully a wave of gorgeous-looking iOS games boasting advanced 3D graphics, if not 3D gameplay. Epic Games has put aside the chainsaw-equipped projectile weaponry of its wildly successful Gears of War console series to deliver the first mobile game built around its Unreal Engine 3. You won’t be surprised to hear that it’s utterly delicious to look at, and the visuals certainly helped transport us to this alien realm of swords, axes, shields, and magical rings — where body armor is optional, but helmets apparently are not. Jump past the break to see this visual feast in motion and to soak up some more of our impressions.
