News Wrap Up: Mobile Dragon Age & Star Wars, Yogventures, Oculus Rift Games & More!
By Rob Keyes 08 January 2014
It’s been another major week in video games with Germany’s Gamescom event being host to the most announcements, unveilings and news since E3 in June. On the news front this week, we’re going to look at the status of Yogventures; Dragon Age and Star Wars mobile games; another real-instrument music game; Call of Duty headsets and a Command & Conquer tank; a library of Oculus Rift games; Ubisoft’s other big movie, and high profile Vita games.
Read on for the details and more stories.
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Yogventures Update
The Kickstarted game based on the incredible Yogcast YouTube team has endured a slow and repeatedly delayed development, so much so that we’ve almost forgotten about it (despite backing it ourselves). For the first time in a while, the devs at Winterkewl have provided an update and the good news is that the Closed Beta begins at the end of the month. Read all about the status of the game here.
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Castlevania
Konami announced the release date for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 which will hit PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on February 25, 2014. The sequel (and conclusion of the Lords of Shadow story) is set in modern times as players take on the role of a reawakened, but weaker Dracula in an effort to battle Satan.
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May The Force Be With You
“These aren’t the games you’re looking for. Move along.”
Taking a step back from the Star Wars title gamers are excited for (Battlefront) casual and mobile users can look forward to Konami’s just-announced Star Wars: Force Collection, a card battling game. Find out more here.
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BandFuse: Rock Legends
For the music lovers, and gamers who dug Ubisoft’s Rocksmith, Realta Entertainment Group has set a release date for BandFuse: Rock Legends, a game that supports real guitars, basses and microphones and aims to turn players into real-world musicians. It’ll be available on PS3 and Xbox 360 on November 19, 2013 with the following packages:
- The Artist Pack ($69.99 MSRP) includes the BandFuse: Rock Legends game and 1/4” to USB guitar cable (Xbox 360 also contains an Audio Adapter and headphone extension cable).
- The Band Pack($79.99 MSRP) includes two guitar cables, a microphone, multi-port instrument hub, and an acoustic guitar adapter.
- The Guitar Bundle includes the BandFuse: Rock Legends game, guitar cable, and authentic Fender Squier guitar (MSRP to be announced at a future date).
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We’ll Bring The Tank
At Gamescom EA brought a customized tank to make an impression for the up and coming free-to-play reboot of Command & Conquer. Taking a note from Wargaming.net who frequent E3 with WWII vehicles, the devs take us behind-the-scenes.
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More Vita Games!
Great news for the Vita! Not only was a price reduction announced at Gamescom this week, but two high profile games are making their way to the console. Gearbox Software’s Randy Pitchford always wanted Borderlands on the Vita and it’s happening with Borderlands 2 coming to the handheld in 2014.
And while Phil Fish is taking a break from the world of video games after a Twitter meltdown (where he shockingly canned Fez 2), his original Fez is making its way to the PlayStation family, releasing for PS3, PS4 and Vita. There’s no timeframe yet but Blit Software is handling the porting duties, working with original developer Polytron.
Sources: Sony (1, 2)
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Call of Duty: Ghosts Headset
Almost certainly a lock to be the best-selling game of the year, Call of Duty: Ghosts is appropriately getting the merchandise tie-ins. From Turtle Beach, comes several licensed headsets fit for the gamer at home or the pro-circuit eSports elite. Coming this October:
- The Call of Duty®: Ghosts Ear Force Spectre is a special edition of our tournament-grade SEVEN Series headset combined with an in-line amp for fingertip controls. It has an MRSP of $199.95.
- The Call of Duty® Ghosts Ear Force Phantom is a wireless Dolby surround sound headset with a programmable dual-stage audio processor. It has an MRSP of $299.95.
- The Call of Duty®: Ghosts Ear Force Shadow is an amplified stereo headset with an in-line amp. It has an MRSP of $99.95.
Looking for several Turtlebeach hardware reviews on Game Rant in the coming weeks.
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Heroes of Dragon Age
This week EA and BioWare announced Heroes of Dragon Age, a free-to-download microtransaction-supported mobile title developed by EA Capital Games. Players form a party of heroes from “packs” of 3D figures to battle online. The game is cross-platform.
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Watch Dogs Movie
Ubisoft formed Ubisoft Motion Pictures to begin actively developing live-action adaptations for their Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed franchises in addition to TV projects. With more and more IPs coming from the studio, and talent already attached to AC and Splinter Cell, the next in line may be Watch Dogs with the game company signing a deal with Sony and New Regency.
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Oculus Rift Games Libary
The most impressive thing we saw at E3 was Oculus Rift, the VR headset that’s taking the games industry by storm. Even at Gamescom, the newly announced EVE: Valkyrie (the evolution of EVE-VR that we played) is blowing people away. Dev kits of Oculus Rift are available right now through their official site and the company secured $16 million in financing recently to take the product to the consumer market next year. If you have one and are looking for games, there’s now a website just for that.
share.oculusvr.com
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Follow Rob on Twitter @rob_keyes.
