Hasta La Gadget!

We knew since before Black Ops II released that Activision and Treyarch would develops all kinds of DLC for the game, and sure enough, the details for the game’s first DLC offering have leaked out. Like all Call of Duty DLC packs before it, this one is a map pack, and it’s apparently being called “Revolution.” Provided everything about this leak is accurate, players will be in for five new maps total – four for competitive multiplayer, one for zombies mode.

The four maps destined for competitive multiplayer are called Hydro, Grind, Downhill, and Mirage. Since this leak centers entirely around promotional posters that were put up at a GameStop early, we don’t have any additional details on the maps, but it should be relatively easy to derive a few guesses from the names alone. On the other side of the coin, the map being added to zombies mode has been titled Die Rise.

While the fact that Call of Duty players will be getting new maps in Revolution is no surprise, there is a bit of a twist with this DLC pack. Apparently Activision and Treyarch have decided to add a new weapon in Revolution too: the Peacekeeper SMG. This is the first time weapons have been added in Call of Duty DLC, so perhaps the future is bright for those who have been asking Activision for weapon DLC for years? It certainly looks that way.

According to these early promotional materials, Revolution will be coming to Xbox 360 first on January 29. There aren’t any details on when Revolution will release on PC or PS3, so stay tuned for those dates. While information on pricing is also non-existent, expect to pay $15 for the map pack unless you picked up the Black Ops II season pass, in which case you’ll get Revolution at no additional cost.

[via Charlie Intel]

First Black Ops II DLC details leak out is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Polytron’s Fez, despite being an indie title that’s exclusive to the Xbox 360, was easily one of the best games of the year. It’s no surprise, then, that fans are wondering when Polytron will begin porting the game to other platforms, if it ever does at all. We’ve heard whispers of such ports in the past, but nothing was ever made official… until today, that is.

In a new post on the Polytron blog, Fez creator Phil Fish looks back at the year that was 2012 and what the studio will be doing in the year to come. The first thing on the list for 2013 appears to be porting Fez to other platforms, which is enough to get any indie aficionado excited. “For one, FEZ will finally be ported to other platforms,” Fish wrote. “Yes, I’ve heard you, dozens of people emailing me everyday telling me how much of an idiot I am for not porting FEZ to everything.”

Fish doesn’t say which platforms Fez will be ported to, but it seems the logical choices would be PC and PS3 first. We’ve known for a while now that Fish was plotting a PC port of Fez, so if there’s one platform the game pops up on, that’s likely to be it. After that, the sky’s the limit. Perhaps Polytron will decide to port the game to iOS and Android? We’ll just have to wait and find out.

2013 isn’t only going to be about Fez, though, as Fish says that there are “a couple of new games in the pipeline, of course.” He naturally doesn’t give any details about these games, so Polytron fans have quite a bit to look forward to in 2013. Did Fez make it on your favorite games of 2012 list?

Fez coming to other platforms, Polytron announces is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Humble Indie Bundle 7 has been available for a week now, so that must mean it’s time for new games. Sure enough, a trio of indie gems has joined the already stellar Humble Bundle, bringing the total number of games on offer up to nine. The offer doesn’t just stop at games though, as Indie Game: The Movie and nine different soundtracks are also included in the bundle.

To get all of that loot, however, you’ll need to pay more than the average. Since the average currently sits at $6.45, we imagine that won’t be too difficult for most gamers. That’s especially true when you see the games that were just added to the bundle: The Basement Collection by Binding of Isaac developer Edmund McMillen, Offspring Fling, and Cave Story+. Cave Story+ has been featured in Humble Indie Bundles of the past, so veterans should be quite familiar with this game by now.

The Basement Collection is actually a bundle itself, bringing together a number of indie games made by Edmund McMillen. When you remember that Dungeon Defenders and Legend of Grimrock are both also beat-the-average bonuses, then you have every reason to shell out a little more cash. How can you possibly resist when so much great indie gaming is unlocked when you pay more than average?

Unlike the last Humble Bundle we saw, all of the games in this bundle are compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux. With six days left to go, the amount the Humble Indie Bundle 7 has raised is closing in on $2 million, so it’s possible it could break $4 million by the time everything is said and done. Regardless of what happens in these remaining six days, we doubt it’ll manage to top the Humble THQ Bundle, which pulled in more than $5 million by the end of its run.

The Basement Collection, Cave Story+ added to Humble Indie Bundle 7 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

2012 was an interesting year in many respects, but it was a particularly interesting year for gaming. 2012 had its share of ups and down, but looking back on the year as a whole, I’d say that it was ultimately good for gamers, developers, and the industry in general. A lot happened throughout the year, and even though we saw vitriol from gamers climb to pretty frightening heights in some cases, there were some pretty cool things happening that you may not have noticed. Needless to say, if 2012 was any indication, then 2013 should be one of gaming’s biggest years yet.

Before we turn our sights to the future, however, let’s look back at some of what went down in the year that we’re about to leave behind. It’s pretty obvious that we’re at the end of a generation, regardless of if Sony and Microsoft want to admit it. The problem we face at the end of a console cycle is that developers become hesitant to begin a new IP (more on that later). Because of this, we tend to see sequel after sequel, and in the triple-A space at least, 2012 was no different. This isn’t all bad though, as it gave indie developers a chance to shine.

Shine they did. 2012 was an excellent year for indie gaming. Minecraft came to the Xbox 360, thatgamecompany released Journey, a game that has quickly risen to the top of countless favorite lists, and we seemed to have a new Humble Bundle to go nuts over at least once a month. Indie games were in the news constantly too, with games like Hotline Miami, Lone Survivor, Faster Than Light, and Legend of Grimrock being discussed alongside the likes of Black Ops II and Assassin’s Creed III. That in particular is very encouraging, because if we can create an environment where a game developed by a pair of passionate gamers can get recognition just the same as games that cost millions to produce, everyone wins.

Of course, great indie games have been given the attention they deserve for years now, so this isn’t some new phenomenon for 2012. It did seem like there were a really high number of indie games that managed to strike a chord within the gaming community, though. The year brought us some truly amazing indie releases, and there were almost too many to count. Whether you were playing Mark of the Ninja, Fez, Dust: An Elysian Tale, or Spelunky, the list of notable indie releases for 2012 was long and varied, with many of them giving us very unique experiences we couldn’t wait to rave about.

While we saw a lot of sequels this year, we also saw some developers take their chances with introducing a new IP. Some of these, like Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, didn’t work out so well. Others like Dishonored are unquestionably just the beginning of something exciting. Square Enix found a winner in Sleeping Dogs, while Capcom surprised everyone with Dragon’s Dogma. Let’s not forget that 2012 was also the year that Nintendo listened to its fan and released Xenoblade Chronicles and The Last Story in North America. Now all we need is Pandora’s Tower and we’ll be set, so get on it Reggie.

Even though the end of the generation is unsurprisingly accompanied by a large number of sequels, the batch for 2012 impressed. 343 Industries showed us with Halo 4 that the series isn’t doomed to mediocrity just because Bungie is working on new projects. Ubisoft managed to revitalize interest in the release-heavy Assassin’s Creed series with Assassin’s Creed III, while Gearbox released one of the best games of the year in Borderlands 2. One of the biggest surprises of the year involved Far Cry 3 launching to critical acclaim, something many of us didn’t see coming. Oh, and did Sega just school Nintendo in the art of making a kart racer with Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed? I think it did.

Fans got riled up in 2012 too. Project Rainfall, for instance, was a major player in getting Xenoblade and The Last Story to North American shores, while angry fans for better or worse managed to get BioWare to change the ending to Mass Effect 3. That’s pretty big considering that BioWare stuck to its guns for a long time, saying for months that there weren’t any plans to change the highly controversial ending. Disgruntled players also got Ubisoft to back away from always-on DRM, which is something gamers and publishers went back and forth about all year.

We also have to keep in mind how big Kickstarter was for gaming in 2012. When Double Fine kicked off a campaign for an old-school adventure game and asked for $400,000, no one could have guessed that we’d be calling 2012 “The Year of the Kickstarter” by the time everything was said and done. The classic RPG Wasteland is getting a sequel after more than 20 years of waiting thanks to Kickstater, and Obsidian can now return to the computer RPG glory days of the past with $4 million in funding for Project Eternity. The biggest gaming-related Kickstarter of the year was unquestionably OUYA, the little Android console that raised a whopping $8.5 million in funding. Sure, some of the Kickstarters funded this year will ultimately fail, but we also have a number of great games to look forward to thanks to Kickstarter. This is made even sweeter by the fact that many of these games would have never seen the light of the day had it not been for Kickstarter’s very existence.

We also saw the big companies that run the show open up their platforms more in 2012. Microsoft changed around some of its policies so Minecraft players on XBLA could get frequent title updates, and it’s even letting free-to-play titles like Happy Wars on Xbox Live these days. Steam expanded its offerings to include non-software titles and rolled out Big Picture Mode so it can have a stronger presence in the living room. It also opened the floodgates for Linux users, as Steam for Linux is now in open beta. Welcome to the party Linux users – we saved you seats between Team Fortress 2 and Torchlight.

There were some bumps along the way – as there always are – but overall, 2012 was another great year for gaming. Developers can really flex their muscles with the hardware we have available, and Nintendo has already kicked off the next generation with the Wii U. 2013 is bound to be just as, if not more, exciting than 2012 was, due in large part to the expectation that either Sony or Microsoft will unveil their new console. Get excited, because I have a feeling that 2013 isn’t going to disappoint on the heels of 2012.

Why 2012 was a great year for gaming is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you get stuck on a game, there are resources everywhere you can use to get back on track. You could hunt down a walkthrough on the Internet, visit YouTube to see if someone has posted a video that can help, or you can even head out to your local game store and pick up a physical guide if you want. Valve has decided to tackle this realm of the gaming universe as well, launching a Steam Game Guides beta as part of the Steam Community beta.

Yes, that means we’ve got a beta within a beta on our hands folks. Starting today, those who are in the Steam Community Beta can whip up a game guide of their own, which other Steam users can use as a resource to get through particularly tricky parts of a game. It seems pretty straightforward in that you can upload your own images or use screenshots you already have saved to Steam Cloud. You can also place YouTube videos in your guide if you happen to be one of those YouTube Gamemasters we mentioned earlier.

When your guide is done, all you need to do is hit the publish button and it will go live for the entire Steam Community to see. Game Guide tabs can be found in a title’s Game Hub, with guides for some of Steam’s more popular games already live. A word of warning though: the community can comment on game guides, so if you post one that’s sub-par, don’t be surprised if you get a little bit of backlash for some users.

It’s an interesting idea, but since some other websites like GameFAQs have this whole walkthrough thing on lock down, it doesn’t really seem all that necessary. We’ll have to see what Valve does with Game Guides as the beta rolls on, and what the feature looks like when it launches for everyone at a yet-undetermined date. Do you think this is a good idea, or will you go somewhere else for your tips and tricks?

[via Steam]

Steam Game Guides launch as part of Community beta is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.