Hasta La Gadget!

Well this is a surprise: Gearbox has released the Mechromancer DLC for Borderlands 2 a week early. It was originally scheduled to go live across Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on October 16, but it appears that Gearbox has finished it up a little ahead of schedule. If you pre-ordered Borderlands 2, the Mechromancer DLC is a free bonus as part of your membership in the Premiere Club, whereas everyone else with have to pay $10.

The Mechromancer is Borderlands 2‘s fifth playable class, and is essentially the game’s pet class. The Mechromancer’s action skill allows her to summon a robot affectionately named “Death Trap,” and a number of her skills center around making Death Trap better. If you’re planning on starting a Mechromancer the next time you boot up Borderlands 2, you can plan out your character to level 50 with the skill trees found on the Borderlands 2 official site.

Before you download the Mechromancer DLC or the patch that accompanies this release, however, you should know that some users are reporting issues with the downloads. Apparently, that nasty bug which wipes badass ranks is rearing its ugly head again, and users on the both the Gearbox and Giant Bomb forums are thinking that the DLC and patch downloads may be a trigger for the issue. The bug has also been wiping out unlocked skins, heads, and even entire character saves.

Gearbox has yet to make a statement on the issue, but still, tread carefully. It may be a better idea to wait on the Mechromancer download until we get official word from Gearbox, just to be on the safe side. We’ll have more information for you once we hear something from Gearbox, so keep it tuned right here to SlashGear for more information.

[via Kotaku]

Borderlands 2 Mechromancer DLC released a week early is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

What else can be said about the PlayStation 3 at this point that hasn’t already been said? Since launching in 2006, there have been approximately 400 different permutations of the console: variations on hard drive sizes, functionality, physical shape and, of course, price. The latest model, the PlayStation 3 Superslim, is no different. It comes in just two permutations: 250GB ($270) and 500GB ($300). With the latter launching at the end of October, we’ve spent the last week with the already available 250GB model. Is it time to finally jump in to the PlayStation 3 party, or upgrade that aging 2006 model? Head below to find out.

Continue reading PlayStation 3 Slim review (late 2012): is the third time a charm?

Filed under: Gaming, Sony

PlayStation 3 Slim review (late 2012): is the third time a charm? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re sure that many PlayStation 3 gamers are still waiting on the Skyrim: Dawnguard DLC to arrive on their console, although based on the comments we’ve received so far, it seems that a good many have given up as well. Unfortunately if you were hoping for good news, you might be disappointed as Bethesda’s Pete Hines has announced via his Twitter that Skyrim DLCs for the PlayStation 3 – Dawnguard and the recently released Hearthfire – are still a no-go. He does not have any new information to share with us at the moment although the good news is that they are still working on it. This is despite previous reports which have suggested that Dawnguard and Hearthfire may never arrive on the PlayStation 3. We guess it’s good of Pete Hines to keep fans and gamers informed even though there wasn’t any good news to share. In any case we’ll keep our eyes peeled for Dawnguard and/or Hearthfire updates for the PlayStation 3, so check back with us at a later date where hopefully we will have some good news to share with you guys.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Skyrim: Dawnguard for PlayStation 3’s status not expected to change “soon”, Skyrim: Dawnguard still “isn’t good enough” to be released on the PlayStation 3,

Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski announced today that he will be leaving the company. This is a surprising announcement to be sure, but it doesn’t sound like Bleszinski will be leaving Epic for another company. Instead, Bleszinski says that he needs a break from the fast-paced games industry after working for Epic for the past 20 years.

His departure was announced in a post on the Epic Gamers blog, where a number of Bleszinski’s colleagues at Epic said their goodbyes. “In 20 wonderful years with Epic, Cliff Bleszinski has grown into a true design luminary, and his contributions to the ‘Unreal’ and ‘Gears’ series have helped shape the game industry into what it is today,” said Epic founder, CEO, and technical director Tim Sweeney. “Cliff leaves Epic with our gratitude for his many contributions, and our wishes for continued success in the next chapter of his life!”

Epic also shared an excerpt from Cliff’s note to his co-workers, in which he says that he’ll miss working with everyone at the studio. Have a look at it below:

I’ve been doing this since I was a teenager, and outside of my sabbatical last year, I have been going non-stop. I literally grew up in this business, as Mike likes to say. And now that I’m grown up, it’s time for a much needed break.

I will miss the projects, the playtests, the debates, and most importantly, the people. Epic only hires the best of the best, and it has been a joy working with each and every one of you on a daily basis, whether you were hired weeks ago or decades ago. I have been fortunate enough to collaborate with a variety of disciplines, from code to art to marketing and PR – it’s been one big, rewarding learning experience. I’m confident that each project that is being built, whether at Epic, Chair, PCF, or Impossible will be top notch and will please gamers and critics alike.

Bleszinski, believe it or not, has been working at Epic for more than half of his life. Those who have been fans of Epic from the start will remember one of his earliest efforts at the studio creating Jazz Jackrabbit. Bleszinski also worked on the Unreal series, which took the PC gaming crowd by storm in the late ’90s. He’s always been an outspoken and active member of the game development community, and was widely known as “CliffyB” for a number of years before dropping the persona a while back and going by his actual name.

More recently, Bleszinski served as creative director on the Gears of War series, a franchise that made Epic a household name among console gamers. He was working on Gears of War: Judgment when he announced his departure from the company, which is scheduled to launch on Xbox 360 in March 2013. Bleszinski will certainly be missed at Epic, but we’re definitely looking forward to seeing what he does once he decides its time to come back to the games industry. Stay tuned.

Cliff Bleszinski announces departure from Epic Games is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We know the folks at iFixit love to perform tear downs on new devices to determine how easy they are to repair, and even the brand new Super Slim PS3 isn’t safe. It’s the subject of iFixit’s latest teardown, so if you’ve ever wanted to see the innards of a PS3 all laid out in front of you, now’s your chance. The big question is: what changes has Sony made to the PS3 in order to not only make it smaller, but also bring down the cost of production?

It seems that a lot of the cuts were made to the disc tray. The disc tray of PS3s past is gone and has been replaced with a top-loader, much the annoyance of PS3 fans everywhere. Sure enough, iFixit says that sliding disc tray door feels cheaply made, and might break after repeated use. The good news is that the new disc tray is modular, which means that it should be relatively easy to repair.

Some more good news for potential owners: the cover on the hard drive bay pops off easily, and after you’ve removed that cover, you’re only one Philips screw away from being able to remove the hard drive entirely. iFixit says it should take only 5 to 10 minutes to remove and replace the hard drive, though with this new PS3 coming in 250GB and 500GB variants, you may never need to do that.

If you ever need to get at the fans or the heat sink, be prepared for some work, as iFixit says that you’ll need to remove the entire motherboard assembly in order to get at them. Likewise, the internals of the power supply are secured behind four screws and a number of clips, but thankfully you probably won’t need to make repairs to the power supply all that often. At the end of everything, iFixit gives the new Super Slim PS3 a repairability rating of 7 out of 10, so if you’re a do-it-yourselfer, you should have a relatively easy time making any necessary repairs on your own. Be sure to read through iFixit’s full tear down if you’ve got a few minutes to spare, as it gives a very in-depth look at the inside of Sony’s newest PS3!

Super Slim PS3 torn apart by iFixit is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.