Playstation 3

New Dead Island DLC to Launch on November 22nd

Deep Silver (the creators of the surprise hit Dead Island), just announced that the new DLC for Dead Island will be titled “Bloodbath Arena” and will be released on November 22^nd.  It sounds like the DLC will add a hoard-type mode, with the addition of four new arenas and a new weapon.  News that Dead Island is doing this shouldn’t be much of a surprise, as many of the holiday games that are coming out or have already been released in the past weeks have had a similar type of mode (Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3, Modern Warfare 3, etc.), and with Dead Island’s success, it seems natural that they would follow suit. 

The DLC will be released at the lower DLC price of $9.99, but the question that I want to ask is not whether people are still playing Dead Island or not (because the replayability is there), but whether or not this is something that players would want to purchase?  At least in recent memory, Gears of War 2 (an exceptional game) brought the idea of Horde mode to prominence, and with all of the other triple-A titles releasing equivalent wave based modes, is 10 dollars the right price to charge for this mode?

Infamous: Festival of Blood Makes PSN History

Infamous: Festival of Blood is a stand-alone PSN game that utilizes the Infamous 2 engine.  Festival of Blood
is an alternate chapter in the Infamous series where Cole McGrath
becomes a vampire.  The game takes place in New Marais, the same venue
for Infamous 2.

Need for Speed: The Run Exclusive Supercars Revealed

November has been a crazy month with the games that have already launched, and we’re not out of the woods yet.  Need for Speed: The Run, the latest installment in the Need for Speed series is just a few days away and thanks to the PlayStation blog, we now know the seven, yes that’s seven, PS3 bonus supercars.

Saints Row the Third Also Has a DLC Season Pass

Just like Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3 and many other current and future games, Saints Row the Third is getting a DLC season pass.

Buying the pass for $19.99 US will get you all three of the first few DLC mission packs and the Nyte Blayde vampire hunter content, which includes some vehicles and costumes, all of which look like they belong in some kind of awesome (and stupid) 90s comic book. In total, you’ll be saving 15% on each piece of DLC which is already pretty cheap. While the DLC mission packs haven’t been detailed, they’ve all been named and you can probably guess what kind of insanity will ensue with each of them.

The PlayStation Card

I knew it was only a matter of time until we had a gaming-centric credit card.

Sony has just debuted the PlayStation Card.  While it appears to be a standard Visa, it comes with specific bonuses for those who use it on Sony’s online services.  Ginger Kraus, SCEA’s Sr. Director of Promotions detailed what people can look forward to via the PlayStation blog:

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception – Review

Uncharted as an intellectual property has been the ‘jewel in the crown’ for Sony and their stable of great PlayStation exclusives.  Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves were well received critically and financially.  So undoubtedly there was a metric ton of hype for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception.  With so many games coming out right now, I’m sure you’re asking yourself, “Should I buy into the hype?  Do I need to get this game?”

Modern Warfare 3 causing Mass Hysteria Amongst Bootleggers

Over the weekend, a few men in France crashed their car into a truck that was carrying video game-related cargo (which was later figured out to be Infinity Ward’s latest title, Modern Warfare 3), and upon breaking into the truck, attacked the driver and passenger with tear gas.  In similar fashion, another heist was conducted, in which a car was used to block the road which a truck was traveling, allowing the assailants to steal the truck with the games in it.

The second attack was not monetized, but the number of copies stolen from the first heist cost somewhere around €400,000, and the physical number of copies stolen was in the range of 6,000.  While this may seem like a fairly large-scale crime, bootlegged copies of Modern Warfare 3 are being leaked all over the place.  With such a wide-scale release, the number of copies produced is massive, so if some low level worker at Wal-Mart decides to go into the back and cut into the palette, he or she could sell the copies of the game for massive profit (in fact, the most expensive copy of the game on eBay reached 1,700 dollars).  If you’re one who can wait though, MW3 comes out later tonight at a much more reasonable price.