Injustice: Gods Among Us - "History of Batgirl" ViDoc

With Batgirl now available as the second downloadable character for Injustice: Gods Among Us, NetherRealm Studios has released a ViDoc recounting the character's history, conveniently entitled "History of Batgirl."

You can check it out here or below:

Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition Announced for PC

Earlier this week, fans long since waiting for Mortal Kombat (2011) to come to PC have had their prayers answered:  the game will arrive this summer.

On July 3rd, Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition will be available digitally, with retail copies hitting store shelves on August 2nd.  No system requirements have been announced yet, however note that the PlayStation Vita exclusive content will not be present, this is t
he same version as what's currently available on consoles.

I'm also not sure if Kratos will be present, or the Chamber of Flame.  My guess is no since the PC isn't a Sony-specific platform.

You can check out the official announcement on NeatherRealm Studios' site here.

Shame the extra klassic skins from the PlayStation Vita version won't be there, but here's hoping they're able to vastly improve the game's netcode!

Xbox One Announced

Today, Microsoft announced their next generation console:  Xbox One.  Releasing this holiday, Xbox One is an all-in-one entertainment device that lets you play games, watch TV, stream movies, and have Skype calls with your friends, all in your living room.  A new Kinect sensor is also packaged with every console.

You can check out the reveal video here or below:



For full announcement details, you can check out the official Xbox One page here.

Right now, it's pretty much what I expected, a general media hub that doesn't seem like it tailored to the hardcore gamer packaged with a lot of flashy buzz terms that don't mean much aside from marketing.

Microsoft is promising to showcase their games, as well as new exclusives, at this year's E3, so that'll really show us the direction they're going with here.  As a gamer, it's the games I care about, and not the casual Kinect stuff or other random entertainment features.  I want inspiring, innovative game experiences.

At present Xbox One doesn't look like it's a console for a consumer like me, but of course, we'll see.

Batman: Arkham Origins Official Trailer

Yesterday, the official CG trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins was released, and you can check it out here or below:



Simply an excellent trailer.  Of course being CG we need to see some actual gameplay, but I have faith that the game will turn out solid despite the new developer.

At least this trailer shows they have the mood and atmosphere down pat.

Iron Man 3 Review

I think few will doubt the strength of performance and character that Robert Downey Jr. has brought to Iron Man.  Five years ago I walked into the theatre expecting a typical summer blockbuster and in tandem with that, I was blown away by the personality and charisma that he brought to Tony Stark.  Watching Iron Man was all about watching him, plain and simple.

I missed out on Iron Man 2, however there's no question that charisma transferred over to The Avengers, and Downey Jr.'s performance was once again a huge show stealer.  Thankfully he's lost none of his touch for the start of this summer's blockbusters in Iron Man 3.

In a post The Avengers world, Tony Stark is having some problems.  The film begins with many of his suits being destroyed, and then flashes back to before the first film, 1999 in fact.  Celebrating New Years in Switzerland, Stark is still a pompous jerk focused on one thing, and that evening it's with a hot botanist, Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall).  This sets off a chain of events that's finally caught up to him now, resulting in the devastation of his personal life.

In the present day, Stark is having a lot of anxiety issues from the attack on New York earlier and his brush with mortality.  While he struggles with his inner demons and keeping his relationship to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) ship-shape, a new terrorist calling himself the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) has arisen and is doing terror bomb attacks throughout the US.  The catch is no one can figure out how these bombings are actually occurring, as there doesn't appear to be any bombs or remaining components present at the detonation sites.

Of course since it's public knowledge that Tony Stark is Iron Man, many people are looking to him to help stop the Mandarin, and when he issues a challenge to the terrorist, well, that's when things get personal.

What follows is an action packed effects fest of the highest calibre.  In addition to Downey Jr.'s always amazing performance, the level of action and specifically effects was extremely enthralling.  Even outside his suit, which Stark spends a good bit of time, the film's action doesn't disappoint, which I loved.  Battles of all sorts are grandiose in the extreme, interjected with humour at every turn.

In truth, my only gripe about the film was the plot as a whole felt very contrived simply to get stuff to go boom, and while that's certainly not the end of the world, it made Iron Man 3 feel less clever than the original; more of a spectacle than a story.  Overall that's quite forgivable, though what was really hilarious was the villain's actual motivation.  I'm not talking about the twist (which was very cool and I won't spoil it here), but let's say the film's antagonist has the dumbest motivation I've ever seen for a villain ever.  He still makes a great villain, however, it's just the reason he's doing everything doesn't quiet add up to anything substantial.

Regardless, Iron Man 3 is a great film, very entertaining and extremely enjoyable.  It's all about Robert Downey Jr. again, and provided you loved his rendition of Tony Stark before, you won't be disappointed now.

Injustice: Gods Among Us "Batgirl Gameplay Reveal" Trailer

It's confirmed, Batgirl is the next DLC character in Injustice: Gods Among Us.

For those looking to see how she plays, you can check out this official gameplay trailer here or below:

Injustice: Gods Among Us - "History of Lobo" ViDoc

With Lobo now available for download via Xbox LIVE Marketplace or the PlayStation Store, NetherRealm Studios has released a ViDoc explaining the history of the character.

You can check it out here or below:

Star Trek: The Video Game "Shatner vs. Gorn" Trailer

I have no interest in the upcoming Star Trek: The Video Game at all, but this trailer is great.



Shatner, is there anything you can't do?

Injustice: Gods Among Us "Lobo" Trailer

Lobo will be the first DLC character for Injustice: Gods Among Us.  You can see him in action in this trailer here or below:

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Behind the Battles "Broadcast Promo"

The next "Behind the Battles" video for Injustice: Gods Among Us is out, this one entitled "Broadcast Promo."

I have no clue why it's called that (I guess it was meant for broadcast somewhere), but it goes into brief detail about the design and content of the game itself.

You can view it here or below:

Injustice: Gods Among Us - Arkham City Skins for Catwoman and Harley Quinn

A trailer has been released showing off the Batman: Arkham City skins for Catwoman and Harley Quinn in Injustice: Gods Among Us, which you can view here or below:

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Legendary Edition Announced

For those who've been holding off on picking up The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, now's your chance.

On June 4th, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Legendary Edition will be released on Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3.  This bundle includes the full retail game
(of course), the 1.9 Title Update, and all three DLC add-ons.

For full details, you can check out this Bethesda Blog post here.

Injustice: Gods Among Us Battle Arena Finals

I was swamped last week so apologies for posting this up late.  The Injustice: Gods Among Us Battle Arena has come to a close, with the final match between Superman and Batman happening last Monday night over a live stream.

For those who missed out on the entire tournament over the last two months, take a moment to view this "Road to the Finals" video here or below for a nice summary:



Now that you're all caught up on what's been happening, for those who want to say goodbye to a beloved hero you can watch this short "In Memoriam" video here or below:



And now, for the final match of the Battle Arena, you can watch Superman take on Batman here or below:



And there you have it, two months of voting and battles done.  I received my Green Lantern skin for voting a day or so ago via email, so if you haven't gotten yours yet you should soon.

Injustice: Gods Among Us is available now on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii U.

Injustice: Gods Among Us Launch Trailer and Gameplay TV Spot

This coming April 16th, Injustice: Gods Among Us releases to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii U.  The game's launch trailer is now out and can be viewed here or below:



In addition, there's a TV spot making the rounds, which you can check out here or below:

Injustice: Gods Among Us "Green Lantern" Trailer and "Ares vs Killer Frost" Trailer

With Injustice: Gods Among Us launching this Tuesday, the promo videos are rolling in.

Recently released is a Green Lantern character trailer that you can watch here or below:



Also, a new gameplay trailer showing a match between Ares and Killer Frost can be viewed here or below:

Injustice: Gods Among Us Battle Arena Live Finale Announced

The final battle in the Injustice: Gods Among Us Battle Arena will be streamed live this coming Monday, April 15th.

Along with the match, there will be discussions with celebrity guests and the game's first DLC character will be revealed.

You can check out the video announcing this live stream here or below:



On Monday at 7:00 pm Pacific Time, tune in here for the stream.

BioShock Infinite Alternate Covers Available for Download

Many fans were disappointed with the box art for BioShock Infinite, and prior to release Irrational Games heard their complaints and held a voting poll for gamers to choose their favourite alternate cover, which also shipped wit
h the game.

Not only did Irrational Games do this bit of fan service, but now, they've posted up all the other covers that could be voted on along with a few others for people to download, allowing them to create even more box art for their copy of the game.

Head on over here to choose the one you want, if you're interested.  Make sure to select the version of the game that you have before printing!

As for me, I really like the third one, "Falling Art."  Shame that wasn't in the original round of voting.

Gears of War 3 Sold

Yesterday I got around to selling Gears of War 3, which is something I should have done a long time ago.  Clocking in as my most disappointing game of 2010, I regretted getting it almost immediately.

I personally found the storytelling and certainly the character development and horrible dialogue in the Campaign to be so bad it was laughable, I never cared for Versus, Horde wasn't innovative enough over what was offered in Gears of War 2, and I never really got into Beast Mode.

After finally getting a few Multiplayer Achievements last Spring, I took almost a year break from the game and came back to it to see if my opinion would have changed, and so I fired up the Campaign on Insane.  Sadly, my opinion did not change, and I found it just as disappointing as before, only now more so because of the horrible Checkpoint system and sub-par level design made far more apparent by the added difficulty.

Anyway, I happily sold it, and I certainly won't be picking up Gears of War: Judgment.  At this point, unless something drastically changes, I'm done with the franchise.  I'll always have extremely fond memories of the first two games and may go back to Gears of War 2 every now and again, but basically the Gears of War franchise is one that went completely downhill with Gears of War 3, and there's far better games out there to spend my money on.

The Walking Dead (Xbox 360) Completed for the 2nd Time, Game Breaking Bug Prevents 3rd Completion

I realized I forgot to post a few weeks back that I completed my second playthrough of Telltale Games amazing The Walking Dead (Xbox 360).

In contrast to my first playthrough, I decided to play as a more cruel Lee, though I basically supported Kenny through most of the game.  I also saved Doug this time, and performed several other selfish actions that I don't want to type here since they're spoilers.

While much of the end result is still the same, it was great to see how things changed along the journey of getting there, and I really need to commend Telltale Games for crafting such a wonderful storyline with such great character development.

I had so much fun, that only a week or so later I began my third and final playthrough of the game, this time playing sensibly and how I would react if I were indeed Lee.

Everything was going great up until the end of Episode 4 when I received the following error message:  "Storage device lost."  I've never in my history of gaming on an Xbox 360 seen this error before, and I assumed that it was the beginning stages of my HDD dying.

Turns out it's a game breaking bug, and at present, it doesn't appear that Telltale Games is able to reproduce it, let alone fix it.

Basically I first saw the error towards the end of Episode 4 when I'm choosing who's going to come and search with me.  I was able to use the "Rewind" feature to go back to the previous Checkpoint and complete the Episode without further issue, but the following day this error message began again roughly midway through Episode 5 (during "Seige").

Things I've tried to resolve the problem:

- Playing from Cloud Storage
- Clearing my System Cache
- Deleting and redownloading the Title Update

I even had a back up on a USB flashdrive from a few days earlier before any errors occurred, so I copied this to my HDD and resumed from there (halfway through Episode 3).  I was able to clear Episode 4 no problem, however I was only able to make it to "Trapped" in Episode 5 before the error hit again.  Subsequent attempts has it happening on "Siege" or "Trapped."

Sadly, I don't know what the issue is or why this is happening, and I've emailed Telltale Games Product Support in the hopes they can assist.

If anyone has also encountered this error and has found a solution, I'd love to hear what worked for you.

It's such a shame as otherwise the game is absolutely amazing, and I'm only about an hour out from finishing it for my third and what would be my final time.  Should I learn of a solution, I'll also post it up in case any of you are having the same issue.

Frobisher Says! (PlayStation Vita) Review

I'm going to keep this review very short and simple:  Frobisher Says! is a free-to-play game for the PlayStation Vita.  It features a series of mini-games that players must complete over and over while trying to earn a time bonus to increase their score.

I first downloaded the game last Fall and gave it a whirl, and personally, it really is not a game for me.  I was very underwhelmed by the art style, the mini-games, and the whole thing really.  It does make use of all the PlayStation Vita's capabilities, such as motion controls, the front and rear touchpad, and even the camera, however I found its responsiveness was not always the best which added to my negative impression of the title.

After giving it a short try, I deleted it, however a few months back Trophy support was added via a patch, so I redownlaoded the game and started earning Trophies.  Thankfully, they weren't too hard to achieve (most of them anyway), but even after revisiting it and really trying to get into what Frobisher Says! has to offer, I don't like the game at all or anything about it.  Once I earned my last Trophy today I promptly deleted the title and have no intention of getting it again.

For those interested, the mini-games consist of things like scratching Frobisher's back using the rear touchpad (pictured), smiling at ladies as they come by on a conveyer belt and not smiling when its an animal (pictured), using the bumpers to punch a boxing bear, using the front touchscreen to remove a plug from a bathtub drain, squashing clay faces by pinching them between touchpads, etc.

While I didn't like it at all, however, you may, and since it's free feel free to give it a whirl.  Personally though, I wouldn't recommend it as there are for more entertaining free-to-play games out there.