Video Games

Call of Duty Elite Pricing Detailed

While
Activision has spoken a lot about their new Call of Duty Elite
subscription-based service, they have kept a pretty tight mouth when it
has come to pricing or features for premium membership, avoiding
questions about both for a lengthy period now. In the way that
Activision treated the subject, one might have been worried that the
pricing or perks would be unreasonable.

That
changed at Call of Duty XP, where both the price and details for
premium membership were revealed for Call of Duty Elite. Activision
Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg confirmed that a year-round premium
membership would cost $50. While Call of Duty players can use
Elite for free, paying users can get access to several perks, including
access to every piece of DLC released for Modern Warfare 3. On its own, the DLC will cost $60, saving $10 for hardcore Call of Duty fans.

Free Watch: Star Trek Online

For months, I have been writing about older MMOs and shooters being changed to the free-to-play business model. This trend doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon, and Star Trek Online, the middling Star Trek MMO from Cryptic Studios (creators of Champions Online), has switched to the free-to-play format.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution DLC Confirmed for October

The long awaited Deus Ex: Human Revolution
was finally released last month and while the game has been really well
received, a lot of gamers have finished it by now. However, thanks to
some new DLC for the game called “The Missing Link,” fans of the game will have a perfect excuse to dive back into the role of Adam Jensen.

“The Missing Link” is set during the three days that Adam Jensen disappeared in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
The story follows Jensen who, after being tortured by Belltower agents
and having his Augmentations deactivated, must attempt to escape from a
cargo freighter using little more than his basic capabilities.

Call of Duty XP Concludes With MW3 Multiplayer Details

For those who didn’t know about it, Call of Duty XP, the world’s first official Call of Duty
convention, happened over the weekend. From all accounts it was a great
experience for those who attended and towards the end gamers were
treated to the first look at Modern Warfare 3‘s multiplayer gameplay.

To say that gamers are excited for Modern Warfare 3‘s
multiplayer mode would be a bit of an understatement. For a lot of
gamers this is the big selling point of the game, particularly if
Infinity Ward is able to fix the issues of imbalance and general
buggyness of Modern Warfare 2′s multiplayer.

Train Frontier Express – Review

Here’s a quick disclaimer before this
review gets under way; I am not a train enthusiast, and a videogame train
simulation sounds like my personal idea of hell.  With expectations duly lowered, let’s take a
look at Train Frontier Express, which is available on Xbox Live as part
of the Indie Games Summer Uprising for
240 Microsoft points.

It’s difficult to call Train Frontier Express a
game when it doesn’t really present itself as one. Upon hitting “New Game,” you aren’t given any
kind of introduction to the game you’re about to play. No instructions, no intro cinematic, no
information of any kind to give you a clue about what you’re actually supposed
to do – just a big, green, empty map and a nagging feeling that you
need to do something train-related.

Cute Things Dying Violently – Review

Sometimes you discover a game which can be
summed up in just one sentence. Grand
Theft Auto is one popular example – it’s (fundamentally) about stealing
cars and committing crime. Grand
Theft Auto. Simple. Cute Things Dying Violently is a
good example of this kind of naming convention, except in this case it’s a
little more straightforward – the game is about cute things, dying violently.

Available on Xbox Live for a mere 80
Microsoft points, Cute Things Dying Violently sees you taking on the role of
omniscient god-being, shepherding and protecting hordes of small blue dots with
legs and arms (“critters”) through simple one-screen levels filled with traps
and hazards. The gameplay is simple: you
can flick critters by pulling back the right thumbstick and letting loose, or
drag them into position for a flicking by holding the left trigger. However, you can only move your crosshair
horizontally and not vertically, which adds a greater challenge and
stops you from dragging critters all over the level to make it easier for
yourself.

Modern Warfare 3-Themed Xbox 360 Console Will Hit Stores

Following in the
footsteps of Gears of War 3 and Kinect Star Wars, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
will also have its own special edition themed Xbox 360 console.  Microsoft and Activision announced that the
console will have a 320GB hard drive, which, along with the Gears of War 3 and
Star Wars console, will be the largest hard drive for an Xbox 360 to date.