Become a Beta Tester for Bungie!

     Bungie announced it was looking for beta testers!  Applying to be a beta tester is the best, and right now the only way to get a sneak peak at what super-secret new project there working on.  More after the break.

BioWare's New Title

     Looks pretty badass, even more so if its a screen shot instead of part of a cinematic teaser trailer.  However, BioWare did not release the name of this game, and won't, until Spike's VGAs next month, when the whole trailer will be played.   Fans of BioWare games have dissected this pic as well as two barcodes posted on the official BioWare facebook page.  More after the jump.

Game Review - Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

     I recently got my hands on Enslaved: Odyssey to the West(courtesy of my good friend VVB) and thought I'd share my thoughts on the game.  For a quick overview of the game's story, check out our previous Enslaved article.  To check my review of the game, jump down past the break.

New SCII Map Mods

     During Blizzcon(the part not devoted to WoW), Star Craft II developers released 4 new mods created entirely within the game's editor.  The mods themselves after the break.

More Cataclysm Raid Videos!

     More raids encounters have opened in the cataclysm beta, head to our WoW page to view 4 of the new fights!

Posted by SLG_J

CoD: Black Ops Leaked?

      A picture of a CoD: Black Ops disc tagged with 'UNGODLY LEAKER' made its way to the web today.  If true, Ungodly Leaker got his and/or her hands on a copy of the game for the 360.  Check out the article at CVG here.

Posted by SLG_J

How Playing Farmville May Bite You Where it Hurts

      According to the Wall Street Journal, three of the top ten game apps on Facebook, including FarmVille, are transmitting user's names, and sometimes the names of users's friends to advertising and tracking companies.  What is actually transmitted by the apps is the users ID number(which is unique to each user) and can be used to to find a person's name if their account is private, or all their information if the account is not.
    The article also mentioned that over 25 sites received information for these apps and that one firm sold the information it collected to 'over a dozen other firms.'

Read the full Wall Street Journal article here.

Posted by SLG_J

Free Upgrade For DA2 Pre-Orders

      For anyone interested in the next installment of BioWare's Dragon Age series, anyone who pre-orders a normal copy of the game before January 11th, 2011, will receive instead the BioWare Signature Edition.  More after the jump.

Lord of the Rings Online Doubles Revenue

     GCDO, the studio behind Lord of the Rings Online has reported a double in revenue since they switched from a monthly subscription to a hybrid free to play model.  In addition, Joystiq reports that over one million players have created accounts in the month since the switch, and Turbine, monitoring the servers reports the free-to-play launch was even bigger than the original 2007 launch.

     I don't know if free-to-play is the way to go for most mmo's, but GDCO must be doing something right.

Posted by SLG_J

League of Legends Wins Big at GDC Online

     League of Legends won five awards at the first annual Game Developers Choice Online Awards, an awards show created by developers, for developers.  Among LoL's competitors were such games as Aion, EVE Online, and WoW.  Read the full list of awards after the jump.

New Force Unleashed II Trailer

     Badassery abounds in the new Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II trailer.  Starkiller awakens in a cell, where Vader tells him he is a clone... and his memories belong to a dead man.  Starkiller never takes shit sitting down and hes not about to start now.  Watch him wreck Stormtroopers, unfinished clones, droids of all sizes and even tie-fighters with a combination of the Force or his twin lightsabers here.

Posted by SLG_J

Blog Update

The Following Posts have updated material!

Drake of the wests Winds | Kron'Kar Scorpion Mount | Reins of the Golden Kings

ShockedLlamaGaming now has a dedicated page to the changes coming up in Cataclysm!

Castlevania Demo Hits 360

     The demo for Castltevania: Lords of Shadow was made avalible for download today via XBOX Live.  The full game will be released October 5th in North America, October 7th in Europe and December 17th in Japan.  For more information on the game, visit the main site here, or the wiki page.

Posted by SLG_J

Cataclysm Release Date Confirmed

      In a press release in Irvine this morning, Blizzard announced an official release date for their newest expansion, Cataclysm.  Read the full press release after the jump. 

Credits Reset for 15,000 Reach Players

     And the banhammer is on the way.  More than 15000 players have had their credits reset after it was discovered a glitch in the game's challenge mode allowed players generate credits by repeatedly disconnecting from matches.  In addition, anyone who's credits were reset were also given a one day ban on credit earning(not from playing the game itself), in order to get the message across.  The banhammer will fall later in the week, after the Reach devs are satisfied their automated watch systems will accurately recognize blatant exploits of the bug. 

     Read Bungie's full post here.

Posted by SLG_J

PC World Rates COD: MWF2 #1 Most Offensive Game

     Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 can add another award to the list:  PC World has rated it the number one most offensive game ever made.  More after the jump.

The Banhammer Falls on SC2

     According to battle.net, over 5,000 Star Craft 2 players were banned from online play this morning. 

      "We recently took action, including suspensions and bans, on over 5,000 StarCraft II players who were in violation of the Battle.net Terms of Use for cheating and/or using hack programs while playing. In addition to undermining the spirit of fair competition that’s essential to play on Battle.net, cheating and hacking can lead to stability and performance issues with the service. Maintaining a stable, safe, and secure online-gaming experience for legitimate players is a top priority for us, and we'll be continuing to keep watch on Battle.net and take action as needed."  - battle.net

Posted by SLG_J

Schafer & Co Show Halloween a Little Love

     Tim Schafer, head of the independent game studio Double Fine, creators of such awesomeness as Brutal Legend and Psychonauts is about to shower us with some holiday-themed gaming goodness.  Costume Quest is a Halloween-themed RPG coming soon to XBLA and PSN.  In Double Fine's own words:


     "Play as Wren or Reynold, in this action-adventure role-playing game that unfolds on Halloween night across seemingly peaceful suburban neighborhoods, a mysterious village carnival and a monster-infested shopping mall.
     Go door-to-door collecting candy, points, cards, battle stamps and quest assignments to prepare for combat. Use your wit, bravery and home-made costumes with superpowers to rid the neighborhood of creepy monsters and SAVE HALLOWEEN!" - Double Fine

     According to the review posted on CVG, players can equip different costumes, which impact the character's abilities, and can even lend a hand out-of combat.  For example, the robot costume allows your tiny trick-or-treater to blaze around town on roller skates.

     For CVG's article, take the link here.  For a link to the trailer, hit the Double Fine link above.

Posted by SLG_J

Beyond Good & Evil Release on XBLA

     Ubisoft has announced that they will be re-releasing their 2003 hit Beyond Good & Evil for XBLA and PSN.  However, unlike most games repackaged for Microsoft & Sony's respective online networks, Ubisoft has overhauled the graphics - to full 1080p, including character models and environments.  In addition, the soundtrack is being polished, hopefully as much are the graphics.  The game is slated for a 2011 release, and its sequel BG&E 2 is 'still under development' according to Ubisoft, which leads me to believe this re-release may be aimed at hyping the series before the sequel hits.

For a links to the new HD screenshots, check out GameInformer or CVG

Posted by SLG_J

Update: WoW Patch 4.0.1

     It looks like Blizzard is nearing the release of 4.0.1(already on the public test realms), one of the last patches before the expansion ships.  With  it comes a massive  amount of changes, ranging from new 31 point talent trees to completely overhauled guild and spellbook interfaces.  These changes will bring new class mechanics, and will require new strategies.  With larger overall health pools for every class and spec, and high spell cost coupled with weakened mana regeneration, many classes will have to spend some time adjusting their play style.

   I'll list some of the major changes here:

• Armor Penetration, MP5, Block  and Defense Rating are going away.
• Spirit will be the mana regen stat for all classes.
• New Glyphs, and a new glyph rank: Prime.
• New Talent Trees for every spec
• New stat - Mastery - grants a unique ability depending on spec
• No more Badges - all badges will be converted to Justice Points - any gear previously available for badges you can buy with these points, and as far as we know, these points will carry over to the expansion.
• Flexible Raid Lockouts - raids can be changed between 25 and 10 man, and will give players the opportunity to kill each boss in a raid once a week, regardless of the difficulty level.

     In addition, Blizzard is adding some polish to the games graphics, including new water/ lava effects, dynamic sunshafts, and multi-monitor support.

     Patch 4.0.1 is a comprehensive change to most of the WoW's gameplay, and will give the players a chance to get comfortable with all the change before the expansion  ships.

     However,  the real world-changer will be patch 4.0.3.  Want a hint?  They call 4.0.3 "The Shattering."  To read up on the 4.0.1 patch notes, check this link. 



 Posted by SLG_J