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Rock Band Weekly: The Flys, Queensryche, Staind

Image After years of writing Rock Band Weekly, we're coming close to its conclusion, with the DLC announcements for April 2 the end of the line. 275 consecutive weeks (over five years) is an impressive run and Harmonix deserves much respect for pulling it off. ... Continue Reading

Jonathan Blow bears Witness to getting an indie, PC game on PS4

Jonathan Blow bears Witness to getting an indie, PC game on PS4
Jonathan's Blow's next mind-melting puzzler has a bright – and colorful – future in the next generation, as he took center stage at Sony's conference last night to announce The Witness would come to PlayStation 4 as a timed exclusive. After the show, Blow told us that his team is hard at work on the PS4 port of The Witness, and a PC version is still in tow.

"Basically, you'll see The Witness on PS4 before you'll see it on the next Microsoft console or on the Wii U, presuming we eventually do ports to those consoles," Blow said. "Ideally we want the game to be in as many places as we can get it, but since we are a small developer and it's a complicated game, we can only do so much at once."

Blow decided to port The Witness to PS4 because he liked the console, not to snub players on other platforms or simply make a quick buck, he said:

"People are speculating that we did this because of money, but that is not the case at all. We like the console and we like the people we are working with; we were already developing a PS4 port of the game, which prevents us from doing other console ports anyway, again because we can only do so much. So it was only a small step to go from this practical fact of development to a formal agreement signed on paper."

Besides, signing a contract with any company wouldn't be too difficult for Blow and his team, since they already have at least one Witness.

Retro City Rampage hits WiiWare Feb. 28, bonus content on the way

Retro City Rampage's long, pixelated journey to WiiWare finally comes to an end next week. The campy parody crime game will land on WiiWare on February 28 for $10. The Wii release will also feature the bonus "ROM City Rampage," which will allow players to "experience what Retro City Rampage could've been like if it were actually released in the '80s, as a 100% NES hardware-accurate ROM." ROM City Rampage will be accessible via the in-game arcade.

PC players will also get to experience the bonus mode thanks to a free update scheduled to release alongside the WiiWare version. Creator Brian Provinciano also reminds Wii U owners that they will be able buy and play the game using the Wii menu.

Finally, the Steam version of Retro City Rampage is on sale this week for $7.50, half the usual price. The sale ends on February 28.

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New Nintendo eShop releases: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate demos

Today is all about demos. If you've wanted to see what the whole "Monster Hunter" sensation is about, today you can download demos of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on both Wii U and 3DS. There are also demos of Trine 2 on Wii U and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed on 3DS.

Etrian Odyssey 4 will also be released on 3DS eShop on February 26 – between now and the next weekly eShop release list.

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Ubisoft confirms Watch Dogs for Wii U

Following today's demo of Watch Dogs during the PlayStation event in NYC, Ubisoft fired off a press release for the game confirming it will launch on the PS4. But at the bottom of that press release, Ubisoft also confirms a Wii U version – something that was never officially confirmed.

While Ubisoft confirmed a PS 4 version of the game today, Watch Dogs has also been confirmed for Xbox 360 and PS3. The game will also be available on the PC when it launches sometime in 2013.

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Nintendo returning to Gamescom in 2013

Nintendo bailed on Gamescom last year in favor of its own "sampling events" throughout Europe. Nintendo will return to the world's largest video game convention for the 2013 iteration, which takes place in Cologne, Germany from August 21-25.

Other publishers attending this year include Bethesda, EA, Konami, WB, the newly gigantic Wargaming, and Deep Silver, who might suddenly have something to show (and something not to show). There's no word yet on whether Microsoft will attend, having skipped last year as well.

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Nintendo releasing 60Hz F-Zero onto Europe's Wii U Virtual Console

Nintendo releasing 60Hz FZero onto Europe's Wii U Virtual Console
European Wii U owners get to play F-Zero at the same speed as North Americans - always handy with a racing game - when the SNES classic arrives on the Wii U's Virtual Console this week. The news of the 60Hz version coming to Europe follows the criticism Nintendo received last month for releasing a 50Hz version of Balloon Fight.

Games running at 50Hz, which they used to in Europe because over there older TV sets only displayed the lower refresh rate, run noticeably slower than their 60Hz counterparts, as clearly demonstrated by audio and side-by-side comparisons.

F-Zero isn't the only Nintendo download racing into Europe this week. Demos for Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (both on 3DS and Wii U), Trine 2: Director's Cut on Wii U, and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate on 3DS are speeding their way there, as is a full-blown releases for NightSky on 3DS.

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Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate and the power of customization

Those who don't own a 3DS or Wii may not be familiar with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate – it's an updated version of 2010's Monster Hunter Tri, coming to both the Wii U and 3DS in North America.

Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto says the Wii U update is a logical fit based on Wii U's dual-screen setup.
"When we decided to make the game on the Wii U, we actually brought out the game on 3DS first – the 3DS version of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate came out in Japan about a year ago, so the game was designed from the very beginning to have that two-screen interaction. So when we made the game – although it was based on Monster Hunter Tri – we felt like we had put so much new content into the game that it deserved the chance to be played by more and more people. The Wii U was a perfect fit because of the fact it has the two screens and you're able to do cross-compatibility between the 3DS and the Wii U. It just made a lot of sense for us to bring that experience into the living room, into the HD realm."

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Ubisoft games 30% off on Wii U eShop

U can save on ZombiU, along with the rest of Ubisoft's Wii U lineup this week. From today through February 26, downloads of full games from the publisher are 30% off.

That puts ZombiU and Assassin's Creed 3 at $41.99 each, and Just Dance 4, Rabbids Land, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013, and ESPN Sports Connection at $34.99 each. It's a good time to load up on Ubigames, as long as you remember to factor in the cost of an extra hard drive.

This isn't the only sale happening on eShop: pick up F-Zero for 30 cents tomorrow.

Activision lays off 30 people, expects fewer licensed games in 2013

Activision laid off 30 full-time employees, noting that this year it intended to launch fewer games based on licensed properties. Activision provided a statement to Joystiq:

"In 2013, we expect to release fewer games based on license properties and as a result are realigning our structure to better reflect the market opportunities and our slate," the publisher said. "Approximately, 30 full-time employees have been impacted globally, which represents approximately one half of one percent of Activision Blizzard's employee population."

Activision's lineup of licensed games in 2013 included The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, Deadpool and the first three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games, and there was something up with the James Bond games.

A portion of the 30 layoffs came from Call of Duty developer Treyarch, though Activision said it was a "minimal reduction" that wouldn't affect the launch of any DLC for Black Ops 2.

Rayman Legends receiving Wii U bonus mode in April


To make amends for Rayman Legends' Wii U delay, Ubisoft will release a challenge mode for free on the Nintendo eShop this April. The publisher previously promised an exclusive Wii U demo to appease the console's vocal install base.

Rayman Legends was originally slated as a Wii U launch exclusive before it was delayed (twice) and planned for other consoles.

[Thanks, Michael]

Now Playing: February 18-24, 2013

Now Playing February 1824, 2013
Take hunting in an urban jungle to new levels this week with Crysis 3...

Choose your platform to jump to a specific release list:

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Resident Evil: Revelations HD port driven by fan feedback

"When we worked on the 3DS version, we were completely targeting the 3DS. We didn't start in HD, scale down, and now we're scaling up – we worked to the exact 3DS specs," Tsukasa Takenaka, producer on Resident Evil: Revelations HD told Joystiq at a recent Capcom event. "Development was also going on Mercenaries so the team wouldn't have had the capacity to be working on anything above the resolution of the 3DS screen, just to have the assets. At the time there was no plan for consoles – the console version was only decided after the 3DS launch and after we received fan and critic feedback on the game."

Takenaka said that the port was largely driven by fan feedback, specifically from two segments of people: those who wanted to play it on the big screen, and those who didn't own a 3DS.

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Rock Band weekly DLC lowers the curtain April 2

The final weekly DLC release for Rock Band will be issued on April 2, Harmonix announced today. Due to other ongoing projects at the studio, production on Rock Band DLC has slowed in recent months. Up until April 2, Harmonix will release weekly DLC per usual.

Harmonix has been issuing Rock Band DLC songs for over 275 consecutive weeks, which comes to over five years of consistent weekly releases. The Rock Band DLC catalog includes over 4,000 supplemental tracks, spanning all Rock Band games and the Rock Band Network.

Dragon Quest X Wii U hits Japan March 30, hardware bundle unveiled

Dragon Quest X roars onto Wii U in Japan on March 30 in both retail and download versions, and the Square Enix MMORPG is getting its own hardware bundle to boot. The game itself includes 20 days of free play, while the Wii U bundle includes the console's Premium set, a Pro Controller, a ¥1000 pre-paid card for use in-game, and five in-game Super Energy orbs which double XP and gold collection for 30 minutes each.

Square Enix also announced that the beta, originally targeted to release this month, will now begin on March 6. While the series has traditionally made its way westwards in recent years, there remains no word on either the Wii or Wii U version coming here.

Aliens: Colonial Marines storms this week's UK charts

Aliens Colonial Marines storms this week's UK charts
Disaster or no, Aliens: Colonial Marines is still a big enough name to not only take top spot ahead of Dead Space 3 in the UK charts this week, but to become the country's biggest new release of 2013 so far - a stat perhaps scarier than anything in the game itself.

Dead Space 3 is in second place this week after a 57 percent drop in sales, while the traditional mid-term holiday bump - sales rose 39 percent overall from last week - sees Assassin's Creed 3 and Halo 4 re-enter the top ten at sixth and tenth respectively.

Ni no Kuni and DmC: Devil May Cry suffered big drops last week, and both continue their descents this time around. Ni no Kuni's third week in Europe sees it tumble to 25th, while after five weeks DmC almost leaves the top 40 altogether, coming in at 39th.

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Injustice: Gods Among Us' alternative costumes for Harley Quinn, Bane

Injustice Gods Among Us concept artalternate costumes surface for Harley Quinn, Bane
A small care package of delightfully intriguing Injustice: Gods Among Us artwork has been delivered to the fighting-focused folks over at Shoryuken, containing both concept art and a look at what are presumably the first of many alternate costumes for Harley Quinn and Bane.

Harley's new digs, as seen above, are much closer to her previous iterations than her default Injustice costume, with the most appropriate comparison being to her appearance in Batman: Arkham City. The big difference here, besides the return to a biker aesthetic, is the fact that her hair has been changed to its correct original blonde, rather than the New 52-inspired red/green default.

Meanwhile, Bane's alternative look is much more techno than his primary appearance, with a mask that says "grim reaper" more than "luchador" and a green chest repository of Venom somewhat reminiscent of Soul Calibur's Astaroth. Hit the source link below for the full gallery of screenshots and concept art for both characters.

PSA: Amazon video game Gold Box Event coming Tuesday

PSA Amazon video game Gold Box Event coming TuesdayLike a stealthy jungle cat patiently waiting for its tired, limping prey to drop its guard, so too does Amazon's devious sales engine stalk the emaciated husk of our post-December wallet. Its latest attempt at snaring our monetary entrails, an all-games Gold Box Event, will begin at 3 a.m. Eastern time on the morning of Tuesday, February 19.

We won't know exactly what said Gold Box Event's Lightning Deals or Deal of the Day will consist of until Tuesday. In the meantime, Amazon has also marked down a sizable number of games and accessories as part of its Winter Deals sale, which includes Halo 4 and a year of Xbox Live Gold for about $40 each.

Resident Evil: Revelations' Raid Mode features quite the Hunk

Image Capcom streamed 40 minutes or so of Resident Evil: Revelations Xbox 360 gameplay on Valentine's Day - that's a teaser above, and you can find the rest here. The Raid Mode demonstrations featured Jill Valentine and everyone's favorite emotionless operative, Hunk. ... Continue Reading

Rock Band Weekly: Barenaked Ladies, Collective Soul, Fall Out Boy

Image The Rock Band Blitz tracks keep flowing over to the Rock Band music store, with next week's individual tracks featuring Barenaked Ladies, Collective Soul and Fall Out Boy. Refresher: All 25 tracks from the $15 Rock Band Blitz are compatible with Rock Band. ... Continue Reading

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