Rumors have been swirling around the internet for weeks about Portal 2's connection to the Half Life series due to a leaked achievement listing. But Portal 2 has a lot more in common with Half Life than a couple of silly achievements. There has always been something odd about the orange accented GLaDOS bot you see here- he has always appeared to be a bit more serious than his counterpart and there is a pretty good reason why. Portal 2 takes place several hundred years after the first Portal took place and even more time has passed since the events in the Half Life series transpired. The secret that has been right under our noses the whole time is that the bot with the orange accents has actually had Gordon Freeman's consciousness uploaded into it. This robot, much like Gordon, is the strong, silent type and now we know why. What other secrets await us in Portal 2? Find out on April 19th.
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From Software, developer of 3D Dot Game Heroes for PS3, has announced that they are working on a remake of the original Legend of Zelda in cooperation with Nintendo to celebrate the franchise's 25th anniversary. The developer was approached soon after the release of 3D Dot Game Heroes due to its close resemblance to the Zelda games of yesteryear. Many gamers have been pining for a return to the free-form nature of the original Zelda and From Software has made it their goal to recapture that sense of exploration. They also promise modern polish and enough updates to surprise even the most dedicated of fans, while still maintaining close ties with the source material. The Legend of Zelda DX will launch simultaneously for both Wii and 3DS November 18th 2011- just in time for the holidays.
Sony Online Entertainment has confirmed the closings of its Denver, Seattle and Tucson studios as well as the elimination of over 200 jobs. SOE is now shifting development resources towards two new MMOs based on its PlanetSide and EverQuest properties. Seattle's long delayed project, The Agency, has been cancelled and the other studios projects will be shifted over to the San Diego headquarters. I hope that everyone affected by these closures lands on their feet.
Wayforward, a developer better known for family friendly games like Shantae, A Boy and His Blob, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold is behind a new 2D BloodRayne hitting XBLA and PSN this summer. Wayforward promises new characters, gruesome environmental puzzles and lots of blood in BloodRayne Betrayal.
Citing 'various circumstances', Capcom has decided to pull the plug on Mega Man Universe. One of the main reasons is probably the fact that Mega Man creator, Keiji Inafune, left Capcom last Fall. He was the conceptual lead behind this user generated take on the classic Mega Man gameplay. The game itself didn't look that interesting to be honest, it was literally an ugly re-make of Mega Man 2. I don't see why they would need Inafune to be there to continue development of something like this, seeing as how it should be mostly user driven. It's a shame,it would have been interesting to see what other gamers could cook up if the tool set was comprehensive enough.
Now it makes much more sense why Spider-Man 2099 co-creator Peter David was sitting in on Beenox's roundtable at Wondercon. He is writing the story for Spider-Man Edge of Time, where both present day Spider-Man and his 2099 counterpart's fates are intertwined. Spidey's present day actions will have clear effects on the 2099 version's gameplay. This news is very relevant to my interests, I loved Spider-Man 2099 as a kid growing up in the early 90's.
Monolith's latest RPG, Xenoblade, is finally making it to Europe. The game will feature both English and Japanese voice overs in case the voice acting doesn't turn out to your liking. The game got rave reviews from Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu so I am glad that more people will finally get to try it out. The game sounds amazing, the concept of the overworld taking place on the corpses of two ancient gods is pretty... interesting. I hope the fact that this is being translated to English means it will get a U.S. announcement soon, but then again Disaster: Day of Crisis also had an English translation. Hopefully I can update this story soon with some more good news.
Official English Site Update: Nintendo of America has purchased the domain for xenobladechronicles.com, which currently directs you to Nintendo's website. The long awaited Super Meat Boy user created hub, Super Meat World, is only "days away" according to developer Team Meat's twitter account. This free update will allow Steam users to create and share levels with other fans, eventually leading to new chapters created from hand picked user created content. I can't wait to see what twisted designs people cook up. Luckily you actually have to beat the level yourself before you submit it, alleviating some of the potential torture. Look for news on my own creation soon! During Grasshopper Manufacture's Grasstream 2 event Suda 51 commented on the possibility of No More Heroes 3, saying that would like to do another one... but not anytime soon. This would make sense given his previous statements about waiting for the Wii's successor to bring out another sequel. That day can't come soon enough, I can't get enough beam katana action!
Rumors have been flying around the net the past couple of days about the Xbox 360 receiving a new disc format. Many speculated the Xbox 360 would finally get a Blu Ray drive, but Major Nelson's posting for volunteers seems to suggest that it is some sort of system update.This would directly coincide with Digital Foundry's sources that say a new update will add 1GB of storage space to the standard Xbox 360 Dual Layered DVD, helping to alleviate a space limitation that has been plaguing developers for years now. Apparently this extra space is coming from what was originally blocked off for piracy protection. It is unclear if they eliminated that partition entirely or gave it a drastic cut, but Microsoft must know what they are doing. This move is was either prompted by a game needing that extra space or possibly to allow the aging DVD format to hang in there a little while longer since the Xbox 360 likely has a couple of years of life left in it.
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