Video Games

Goodbye Bizarre, You Will Be Missed

As most of you probably know by now, Bizarre Creations has closed its doors. Activision decided to retire the company a few months back. Bizarre made such hits as the PGR franchise, Geometry Wars 1 and 2, and the surprisingly good 007: Blood Stone. As a thank you to the BIzarre team, their trailer editor put together this absolutely beautiful tribute to them. The tribute showcases two things: Bizarre was an incredible developer, and that Activision made a terrible mistake.

Weekend Sales Presidents Day Edition

It seems like all of the digital distributors used up their patriotism on yesterday’s sales, because none of the newly announced deals for today really have anything to do with the upcoming three-day weekend which honors Presidents Washington and Lincoln.

Champions Online Announces XP Boost

Apparently people like to get stuff for free.  Not only is Atari’s superhero MMO Champions online free now, but the developers are giving away bonus experience points within the game too.  This combination of Free and Bonus seems to be working out very well from a marketing standpoint.

Dead Island for 2011

Dead Island is a new first person survival horror title being developed by Techland, the company behind the Chrome series and Xpand Rally. The game is said to be a shooter with some RPG elements, prominent focus on melee combat, and a non-linear or “sandbox” game mechanic where the action is open-ended. The developers have also revealed that Dead Island will also feature a clear and original story where your character will be challenged to brave the zombie-infested island—which will be heavily influenced by George A. Romero films. There will be multiple playable characters as well as 4-person drop-in/drop-out cooperative play. Players will be able to use nearly any object as a weapon and be forced to make decisions that affect enemy behavior and surroundings. As the island is plunged further into chaos, you will need to unlock the islands hidden secrets and explore the darkest areas of this tropical paradise gone wrong.

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit Obtains DLC

You guys remember Need for Speed Hot Pursuit? Remember how great that game was? Now it’s getting even better. EA and Criterion games have announced that they will be releasing three DLC packs for Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, all having them release in consecutive weeks, starting on February 22^nd.

The first pack will be called “Armed and Dangerous” and will feature two new multiplayer game modes. The press release describes them like so: ““Most Wanted” is an open world battle where the cops are out to bust a specific racer while the racers battle to protect them, making full use of the open world, weaponry and demanding team tactics. In “Arms Race” it’s every man for himself as racers use their full arsenal of weaponry on each other in ruthless races to the finish.” This pack will be priced at a nice seven dollars and will be available on both PSN and XBLA.

Weekend Sales Thursday February 17th

Thanks to Presidents’ Day, we’re heading into a three day weekend, which means that you’ll have an extra day to loaf around playing video games before heading back to work or school on Tuesday.  Direct2Drive.com has the right spirit this, and they’re offing a 20% discount on everything they sell if you enter the code “hailtothechief” at checkout.

Dead Island Developers Release Teaser Video

We have no idea how good the game will be, but this promo video for Dead Island is definitely worth watching, and speaks well for the people making the game.  There’s no actual gameplay footage, it is just a little teaser about the premise of the game; zombie survival horror on an a resort island filled with wholesome vacationing families.