It’s been a while since we at Gadget Helpline have done one of our classic Gaming Weeklies, but fear not, as with a new writer in tow, the Gaming Weekly is back.
Who Wins, YOU DECIDE!
It’s just a few days away from the 2012 Game British Academy Video Games Awards, which is the biggest date in the gaming calendar and a great day to see which one of your favourite games has been recognised and immortalised at the annual awards ceremony. With the gaming world turning out en mass, it’s a great way for developers, designers and every person involved in the year’s best games to put on a smart suit and trim the unkempt hair.
What’s more important for us gamers is to do the thing we all love more than getting any Achievement/Trophy… we get to argue and discuss which game is going to be awarded the Game Award 2011 for Game of the Year.
Unlike the rest of the awards, this statue is voted for and decided by the fans themselves.
This year a host of familiar games and a few new faces are up for the prestigious Game of the Year award with the likes of Batman: Arkham City (sequel to the 2009 Game of the year winner Arkham Asylum), Call of Duty MW3 (sequel to last year’s COD: Black Ops winner) and Uncharted 3 being the sequels in contention, but with relative newcomers such as MineCraft and L.A. Noire contending for the first time games it could be a closely fought battle. The full list of contenders are:
- Batman: Arkham City
- Battlefield 3
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- FIFA 12
- L.A. Noire
- Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
- Minecraft
- Portal 2
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception
You can cast your vote by Visiting a Game store in the UK or by clicking here on the official voting page.
Our vote is going to the massive Batman Arkham City… but we are always biased to anything Batman related – we are still voting for Bruce Wayne as rear of the year, ahem.
Top UK gaming retailers Game and Gamestation have announced that as of this week both stores have started a “Firesale” of its pre-owned stock in both of the high street games stores.
Firstly for us in the UK, a fire sale needs to be determined, with the help of the British Thesaurus:
Fire Sale – an occasion (usually brief) for buying at specially reduced prices; “they held a sale to reduce their inventory”; “I got some great bargains at their annual Fire-sale”
Now that’s cleared up, we can see that Game and Gamestation are keen to shift some of their probably massive amounts of pre-owned gaming stock in a bid to free up some space and to make a bit of money off of its stagnant stock.
Prices and titles are changing between stores, depending on the stock of the items but bargain listing websites such as Hot UK Deals and its keen user base have been sharing some of the mega discounts already, including games like Gears of War 2 for £1.98 (Xbox 360) and Resistance 2 for £2.98 (PS3).
Games are even discounted as low as 48p for the likes of Pro Evolution Soccer 6 for the PSP and Fifa 09 for the PS3!
The sale comes in the wake of a series of rumours regarding the retailer group that indicate Game and Gamestation stores may be in a bit of financial trouble. Gamers can pick up the bargains in any of their local (or non-local!) Game or Gamestation store, but stock is varied from store to store.
This week saw the arrival of one of 2012’s biggest and most sought after games – Mass Effect 3 – the closing chapter in the Mass Effect trilogy. By arrival we mean big old stampede of gamers to the shops to get the latest edition of the hugely popular and much loved games franchise.
EA, the makers of the game, must be pretty pleased as a mere few days after the release of the game its head honcho John Riccitiello has announced that Mass Effect 3 has sold a jaw dropping 890,000 copies with in its first 24 hours on sale in North America, with a massive 3.5 million copies have been shipped worldwide to adoring fans.
Riccitiello, speaking at the Wedbush 2012 Technology, Media and Telecommunications Management Access Conference, happily stated the numbers to the world and confirmed that the controversial “From Ashes” DLC that was released the same day as the game has also been very successful with 40 percent of people who bought Mass Effect 3 downloading the additional content.
Gamers and fans of the Mass Effect series have been upset since the announcement of the additional DLC coming on game day at an extra cost, but EA has assured gamers that the DLC is a worthwhile addition (at £7.99 it best be!) and that it is not just a money making scheme by using a crucial part of the game’s story line.
EA has assured that Ashes is “Only For Story Fanatics”… but its up to you to decide.
Don’t say it aloud: DLC, DLC, DLC
Speaking of DLC, its been a big week for the game add-ons otherwise known as Downloadable Content, as three of the biggest games currently available have announced new DLC packs coming to gamers in the next couple of weeks.
First up, Sony announced that Uncharted 3 will be getting some new DLC updates in the form of a new Co-Op Shade Survival Mode, which will arrive on the PlayStation Store on March 13.
The pack will cost $5.99/€5.99/£4.79, or if you are a member of the Fortune Hunter’s Club you can get it a day earlier for free.
The DLC is essentially a Horde mode where Drake will have to clear out levels of enemy with increasing mass, difficulty and amounts and should keep any Uncharted fans busy for a while.
Also released on the 13th will be a new DLC for Square Enix’s new Final Fantasy XIII-2. The download will feature PSICOM Officer Jihl Nabaat as a downloadable Coliseum opponent and will be available for 240 Microsoft Points or £1.99 on the PlayStation store.
More importantly though, Square announced that they will be releasing a further DLC pack featuring the original protagonist of FF XIII – Lightning. The DLC entitled “Lightning’s Story: Requiem of the Goddess” is set to be released in mid-May.
And finally EA and DICE have announced a further 3 DLC expansion packs coming to its massively popular Battlefield 3 game.
The three packs are entitled “Close Quarters”, “Armoured Kill” and “End Game”, which will be released in June, Autumn and Winter time respectively.
Each pack will bring new features and gameplay modes to the game, starting with Close Quarters, in which 4 new maps and ten new weapons will be included. The difference is that all of the maps and weapons will be situated inside of buildings and will be infantry-only games.
However, information regarding the forthcoming “Armoured Kill” and “End Game” packs is a bit sparse, with DICE only stating that Armoured Kill would include the largest map the team has ever designed, with the inclusion of some new vehicles.
Finally, as per the name, “End Game” will be the final expansion pack for Battlefield 3 and currently very little is known. However, we should expect a big blowout for the game before instalment 4 is announced.
That’s all Folks!
That’s all for this week’s Gaming Weekly but check out the video for the next game from the Heavy Rain developers entitled “Kara” for its forthcoming game Quantic Dream.
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.