In this weeks Newswire, we take a look at the Battlefield 4 beta details, the new IP from the team behind Mass Effect and much more. Here’s a round up of the past weeks biggest and best gaming news.
DuckTales Remastered Announced
Before we get into the news about the latest gritty games, Capcom have announced that the classick 1989 NES title, DuckTales, is receiving an HD makeover for the current gen. Furthermore, the original voice actors will be lending their talents to the updated title.
Capcom senior vice president Christian Svensson confirmed that the game has been in development for over 2 years and that “Scrooge’s voice actor is now 94 years old but he still came into the studio and did his thing like a pro. The voice work really adds a lot to the package.” We can’t wait for this to arrive later this year.
Mass Effect Studio Working On Brand New Series
Speaking at PAX East, Mass Effect executive producer Casey Hudson has stated that the Bioware Edmonton team are working on a “whole new fictional universe.” Fret not, Mass Effect fans, as Mass Effect 4 is still also in the works and will be built using the gorgeous Frostbite engine.
The team recently released an in-depth retrospective video of the Mass Effect team featuring personal reflections from producers, writers, engineers, voice actors and more from the past nine years of the series. You can see the video over on the Mass Effect YouTube channel.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Announced For iOS
On the back of the games fantastic critical and public success, Firaxis and 2K Games have announced that XCOM: Enemy Unknown will be making the leap to iOS very soon. Lead designer Jake Solomon gives us all a tour of the full game port in the video featured above but didn’t comment on if there will be an Android release.
During Firaxis’ PAX East panel, the development team showed another video that hinted at a new XCOM project with reference to “another force”. Whether this will be a fully formed sequel or DLC is yet to be seen, but you can see the footage over on All Games Beta.
Double Fine Adventure Unveiled As Broken Age
You may remember quite a while back that Double Fine kickstarted a new adventure game. Well the team have finally loosened their lips a little more about the project and have revealed that the formerly dubbed “Double Fine Adventure” is actually titled “Broken Age.”
As detailed on the new accompanying website, “Broken Age is a point-and-click adventure telling the stories of a young boy and girl leading parallel lives. The girl has been chosen by her village to be sacrificed to a terrible monster–but she decides to fight back. Meanwhile, a boy on a spaceship is living a solitary life under the care of a motherly computer, but he wants to break free to lead adventures and do good in the world. Adventures ensue.”
New Character Unveiled For Borderlands 2
It seems that 2K Games and Gearbox aren’t quite done with Borderlands 2 just yet as the team announced that a brand new playable character, Krieg, will be arriving in May alongside a level cap increase and other updates.
On April 2nd, an update will be made available that raises the level cap by 11 and adds a pearlescent weapon tier – for a price. A free update released on the same day will introduce an Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode for anyone who has beaten True Vault Hunter and reached level 50.
Battlefield 4 Beta Open To Premium Members
We’re not far from the official Battlefield 4 reveal at this years GDC but that hasn’t stopped fans digging around for any new information. Russian Battlefield fansite MyBattlefield has nabbed a screenshot from Origin Russia that looks to confirm details of the Battlefield 4 beta.
According to the screengrab, the Battlefield 4 beta is due to arrive later this year and Battlefield 3 Premium subscribers will be given exclusive access. Currently the only guaranteed way to get into the beta was via the code given in the Medal of Honor: Warfighter pre-order, but opening access to the series Premium members makes complete sense.
UK Game Sales Chart (week ending March 22nd):
1. GEARS OF WAR: JUDGMENT – MICROSOFT
2. TOMB RAIDER – SQUARE ENIX EUROPE
3. THE WALKING DEAD: SURVIVAL INSTINCT – ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
4. FIFA 13 – ELECTRONIC ARTS
5. SNIPER: GHOST WARRIOR 2 – CITY INTERACTIVE
6. GOD OF WAR: ASCENSION – SONY COMPUTER ENT.
7. MONSTER HUNTER 3 ULTIMATE – CAPCOM
8. SIMCITY – ELECTRONIC ARTS
9. FAR CRY 3 – UBISOFT
10. CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II – ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
11. METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE – KONAMI
12. CRYSIS 3 – ELECTRONIC ARTS
13. ASSASSIN’S CREED III – UBISOFT
14. SKYLANDERS GIANTS – ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
15. NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED – ELECTRONIC ARTS
16. ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES – SEGA
17. THE ELDER SCROLLS V: SKYRIM – BETHESDA SOFTWORKS
18. SONIC & ALL STARS RACING TRANSFORMED – SEGA
19. HITMAN ABSOLUTION – SQUARE ENIX EUROPE
20. LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROES – WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE
That’s it for this weeks weekly newswire! Have a great gaming week and be sure to check out this weeks features.
Newswire: Battlefield 4 Beta, Mass Effect Studio New IP & More StickTwiddlers