Hasta La Gadget!

One of the biggest talking points about the original Black Ops was Zombies mode. When Activision and Treyarch announced Call of Duty: Black Ops II, footage from the game’s Zombies mode was surprisingly absent, but that all changed today. After teasing the mode last week, Activision has released a new trailer for Zombies, and a new write-up from Polygon gives us an idea of what we can expect to find when we delve into Zombies mode once more.

As it turns out, Zombies mode will be a little deeper than just “shoot all the zombies” this time around. The traditional game mode where players team up to take on wave after wave of zombies is still there, rest assured, but Zombies in Black Ops II will feature two additional modes: Tranzit and Grief. If you’re a Zombies fan, you might want to brace yourself before reading on, because both modes sound excellent.

In Tranzit, players will work cooperatively to make it through a zombie-based story mode. Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia says players will have a “massive world” to explore, and there will be items to collect and defenses to build as well. Did we mention that there’s a bus to use for transportation? There is, and though it provides some degree of shelter, it like like zombies can also board the bus, leading to a potentially sticky situation. Tranzit mode will apparently have ties to the story behind the Moon map that released for the original Black Ops, though Lamia didn’t get into specifics when talking about how the two are related.

Changing gears completely, we come to Grief mode. This is a competitive survival mode that pits two teams of varying sizes against groups of zombies. The teams will compete to be the last team standing, though here’s the twist: you can’t shoot players on the other team. You’ll have plenty of ways to screw them over though, hence the name. It should give us an interesting spin on the played out team deathmatch mode, and that is definitely something to look forward to.

All in all, these new modes sound great, especially Tranzit mode, which immediately reminds us of the Arma II mod DayZ. We’re told to expect more information on Black Ops II‘s multiplayer modes later on this week, so you can bet we’ll be keeping an eye out for those. In the meantime, let us know what you think of Tranzit and Grief modes – have they managed to pique your interest?

Black Ops II Zombies mode debuts in new video is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Anyone who follows video game news knows that there is never any shortage of Half-Life 3 rumors, but this one probably takes the cake as far as extravagant claims go. French gaming site Le Journal du Gamer (via International Business Times) has spoken to an anonymous source close to Valve who claims to have some surprising information on the development of Half-Life 3. According to this source, development on Half-Life 3 has been restarted several times, with Valve’s latest attempt at getting it right going in a completely different direction.

Apparently, Valve has decided to toss in some open world elements with Half-Life 3. Inspired by other games like Skyrim and Fallout, Half-Life 3 will feature NPCs that give the player quests to complete and a sandbox world to wander around in. No, we’re not kidding – this is what the latest rumor claims.

According to the source, the game won’t release until sometime after 2013, which suggests an early 2014 release date for Half-Life 3. That’s a little easier to believe, as are the whispers that claim Half-Life 3 is currently in development. We’re a little hesitant to believe that Half-Life 3 will come offering open world elements, however, as open world has never really been Valve’s style.

Who knows though? Perhaps Valve has truly decided that it’s time for a change. The studio has already mastered the linear FPS, so maybe the developers at Valve are looking for a new challenge and have decided that Half-Life 3 would be the perfect way to test out the idea of an open world. As hard as it is to believe, an open world Half-Life could be pretty cool, but we’re still not convinced that Valve has taken development in that direction. What do you think? Would you like to see an open world Half-Life game, or would you prefer it if Half-Life 3 was more like its predecessors in terms of gameplay?

Half-Life 3 has reportedly become an open world game is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We all knew it was coming eventually, and today BioWare and Electronic Arts confirmed our suspicions by announcing the next Dragon Age game. Dragon Age III: Inquisition is its name, and even though we don’t know much about it at all, there are still a few talking points to get excited about. For starters, it’ll be landing sometime in late 2013, but don’t be fooled into thinking that this latest installment is being rushed out the door.

The game was announced in a BioWare Blog post penned by longtime employee Mark Darrah. He spends most of the blog post talking about past projects he’s been a part of, ranging from the very first Baldur’s Gate (along with Tales of the Sword Coast, BGII, and Throne of Bhaal) all the way up to the Dragon Age series, which has him in the role of executive producer. He’ll be playing a major role in the development of Dragon Age III as weels, and assures readers that the DAIII team consists of BioWare veterans and talented newcomers alike. Specifically, Darrah states that many of the people who worked on Dragon Age: Origins have returned to work on Dragon Age III.

As stated above, Darrah doesn’t get too specific when it comes to Dragon Age III details, but he does let a few interesting tidbits loose. He isn’t willing to talk about story at this early point, but he does say that series fans should be able to figure some stuff out from the title alone. Dragon Age III has been in development for the past two years, with production ramping up about 18 months ago. Even better is that BioWare will be using a new engine with Dragon Age III, with DICE’s impressive Frostbite 2 engine serving as the foundation.

That’s it as far as actual information goes, and it seems that this blog post is geared more toward reassuring fans that Dragon Age III will be worth their time than anything else. To some fans, BioWare has been slipping lately – many fans complained loudly about Dragon Age II‘s move away from the gameplay in Origins, and even more complained about the ending in Mass Effect 3, which many felt was ultimately a big letdown when held up against the rest of the series. With this blog post, BioWare is suggesting that its getting back to its roots with Dragon Age III, and if the studio is serious about that, then it should have no problem getting back into the good graces of longtime fans. Keep it tuned here to SlashGear for more information about Dragon Age III – we’re expecting new details soon, and we’ll share them when we have them!

Dragon Age III: Inquisition announced, built on new engine is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Been keeping up with Steam’s Big Picture interface? Then you probably know it’s already in beta. The 10-foot UI hopes to help Valve’s content distribution portal get comfortable in front of your couch, offering gamers access to their favorite PC titles from a gamepad-friendly interface. We piped the beta out to our own living room to take a look, and weren’t surprised to find a sleek attractive UI with a heap of polish. That said, we were glad we didn’t leave our mouse and keyboard at the office.

Continue reading Steam Big Picture beta hands-on

Filed under: Gaming, Software, HD

Steam Big Picture beta hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Sep 2012 09:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NPD has released its sales statistics for the US video game market in August, and Darksiders II has taken the software crown. That’s in a month where every category tumbled year-over-year, with total software sales falling by a significant 20% to $515.6 million. The decline in software sales didn’t sting as much, with that number only dropping 11% year-over-year before resting at $252.8 million for the month.

Hardware sales took the biggest hit, tumbling a whopping 39% to come in at $150.6 million. Looking at the software side of things, Darksiders II managed to take the top spot on the chart for the month, but NPD later confirmed to GamesIndustry International that the game only sold 247,000 copies in its first week and a half – Darksiders II was released in the US on August 14, and NPD’s cutoff date for the month was August 25.

That has to be a bittersweet moment for struggling publisher THQ. On the one hand, it must be nice to see Darksiders II take the top spot, but it’s almost certain that THQ was counting on more sales than Darksiders II managed to pull in. It may not be all doom and gloom though, as it’s important to keep in mind that NPD’s numbers don’t figure in Steam or international sales. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter says that worldwide sales of Darksiders II may have climbed as high 1 million by now, but also pointed out that THQ needs to sell in the area of 2 million copies to break even on the game.

“I think that the sales are below what they had hoped for,” Pachter said. “I presume it sold around 500,000 globally in the first two weeks (the NPD cutoff was Aug 25), so it’s probably over 1 million now, but my understanding is that breakeven is greater than 2 million units, so it’s not likely to get much higher than that.” Pacher continued by saying that we should give Darksiders II another month to see if its sales improve. Have a look at the full NPD top 10 software list for the month of August:

1. Darksiders II (360, PS3, PC)
2. New Super Mario Bros. 2 (3DS)
3. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (3DS)
4. NCAA Football 13 (360, PS3)
5. Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (360, PS3, PC, Wii, DS, 3DS, Vita)
6. Sleeping Dogs (360, PS3)
7. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron (360, PS3)
8. Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3, PC)
9. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, PC, Wii, DS)
10. The Amazing Spider-Man (360, PS3, Wii, DS, 3DS)

Sadly, if Darksiders II sales don’t pick up, we may not see another release in the franchise. THQ has been struggling in a big way lately, and new president Jason Rubin has made it clear that he has no problem whatsoever cutting projects and franchises that aren’t performing in line with company expectations. While it’s great to see Darksiders II rank as the top-selling game for August, that may not be enough for a publisher that has no choice but to cut initiatives that aren’t bringing in cold hard cash. Let’s just hope that Darksiders II is more successful than these NPD numbers (and Pachter’s analysis) lead us to believe.

[via GamesIndustry International]

NPD: Darksiders II sold 247k copies in August, takes top software spot is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.