Three Words I Said To The Man I Defeated In Gears Of War That I'll Never Say Again 
New Doom 3 For Xbox 360 And PlayStation 3 Supports Head-Mounted Displays 
Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land 
Why Robin Makes Batman Better 
Resistance: Burning Skies: The Kotaku Review 
Harley Quinn's Revenge Is Batman: Arkham City's Bad New Ending The flow of free to plays coming from Asia to Western markets doesn’t seem like it’s going to stop any time soon; THQ has announced plans to bring Dragonica, a Korean-developed casual MMO, to North America next year in partnership with Chinese game operator ICE. Dragonica will be free to play, supported by pay-for-content and microtransactions, and is a 3D side scrolling game. From what I’ve seen of it, it looks sickeningly cute. Will we have another MapleStory-esque sleeper hit on our hands? Full release after the jump.
Had to rub my eyes when I saw this Onion-esque headline at Wired. “Bejeweled, Warcraft Combine to Form World’s Most Addictive Game.” No, it’s not April Fool’s. The puzzle game will be added into WoW next Thursday, allowing players to kill time when they’re on long, tedious tasks, like waiting for a raid or gold/item-farming.
What’s interesting on top of packing one world-class timesuck inside of another (in real world terms, this would be like snorting bacon-flavored meth), is how it all came to pass. Michael Fromwiller, a student at San Jose State, wrote an add-on he called Besharded, which came reasonably close to mimicking PopCap’s hit. But it didn’t come close enough for PopCap, which instead of sending out a C&D letter, reached out to Fromwiller and hired him to do a version of the real thing. Next week it’s available for WoW, with no opposition from Blizzard. Wired has the word straight from PopCap itself, but a no-comment from Blizzard.
Bejeweled, Warcraft Combine to Form World’s Most Addictive Game [Wired]
Looks like The Superintendent is back at Bungie. Confused? You may have missed the fuss in July when a game by that title, rumoured to be a 2D platformer whose titular character is more Mr. Venezuela from “South Park” than he is Chalmers from “The Simpsons.” Which is to say he’s not an education bureaucrat, but a dude who keeps things clean and functioning and I suppose has a weapons-grade key ring on a pulley-chain.
Everyone thought this game would be announced at one of the summer’s game conventions, but it wasn’t. Then last night around 7 PDT the Super, who posts in the Bungie forums under his calling card identity of |||||, left a robotic, cryptic message transcript that of course tips off something, just not sure what. Announcement coming soon? Dunno. These things are designed to keep you checking back. Full transcript on the jump.
Interesting week as the silly season for new releases churns up momentum. The big headlines Nintendo’s going before the feds in an IP scrape that refuses to die; the world flirted with the Google/Valve rumour until we smashed down a crowbar upon that one. Activision’s boss, presently vacationing on planet Zantrar 5, says they’re “dominating” Rock Band. And I for one am thrilled that 50 Cent’s next video game is not entirely caput kaput; for an evening rental among stoned friends, there’s just no better ironic gaming experience than playing that un-ironic, unintentionally hilarious portrayal of Fiddy’s badass guns-blazing supahero existence. Plus, who among us actually watched the entire hour of the TNT Amusement infomercial? The week that was in original reporting, highlights below, full roster on the jump.
