Gamecca Magazine: January 2012

31 January, 2012

Gamecca Magazine February 2012

The February 2012 issue of Gamecca Magazine is now available for free browsing and downloading.

Microsoft has denied that a new Xbox console will see the light of day in 2012, and that the company will not be competing with Nintendo’s Wii U.

Wii U for Christmas?

Nintendo fans can rejoice in the knowledge that the newest console offering from the massive game makes, the Wii U, will be under a whole bunch of Christmas trees at the end of 2012.

Growing Origin

It seems that Electronic Arts are more than a little serious about their digital delivery system, Origin. The have just signed deals with 11 more publishers to distribute titles via the platform.

Another rumour regarding the next iteration of Microsoft’s Xbox console has arisen. This time around, gaming website IGN reports that the new system will go on sale late in 2013.

Resident Evil 6 to support six-player online co-op

It seems as though Xbox unwittingly unveiled one of the biggest secrets in gaming so far, by adding the information that newly-announced Resident Evil 6 will support six-player online co-op play. The information was posted on Xbox.com’s marketplace listing for the title - which has been promptly removed.

British gaming magazine Play claims that PlayStation 3-exclusive Syphon Filter 4 will be launching in the winter of 2012, (the end of the year).

The latest issue also claims that Syphon Filter 4 will be officially announced in February, together with God of War 4.

Long Arm of the Law

It might not be entirely relevant to South Africa, unless you are a torrent-using pirate-type, but it is extremely interesting: the FBI have closed down file sharing site Megaupload, and have extradited the site owners from New Zealand to face several serious charges in the USA.

Review Archive Live!

At Gamecca we know that there are a bunch of people who will buy a game the very second it is released. They will stand in line outside their favourite video game retailer, waiting for the doors to open so that they can get their game as soon as humanly possible.

But we also know that there are other people – possibly even more than the previous lot – that will take their time buying games, waiting days, weeks… even months… before purchasing a particular title. And it with these people in mind that we have constructed our Review Archive…

Looking Good, Max!

We may have to wait a bit longer for Max Payne 3, but the above video shows that the little bit of extra patience we need to employ may be well worth it.

The technology in this video is directly related to his targeting, weapons and tactical movement. With it… wait, let’s see for ourselves in the video!

18 January, 2012

Max Payne 3 Delayed

Take-Two has announced that Max Payne 3's release date has been delayed until the middle of the year.

Minecraft To Go Offline In Protest Against SOPA

Mojang has announced through studio head Markus Persson that they will be temporarily shutting down Minecraft.net and Mojang.com in protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act. As of yet there has been no word on how long the site will be down, but those with installed versions of Minecraft will still be able to play.

No Mass Effect 3 Via Steam

PC player fans of Mass Effect won’t be able to get the third instalment via Steam. This is according to a statement made by Electronic Arts.

South African video game distributor Ster Kinekor Entertainment will be taking over this distribution of Sega titles within the country from February 2012. Their first title from the long standing publisher will be Binary Domain.

Best of the Best

Which were your favourite games of 2011? The Gamecca Crew got together and had a long discussion (and a few fights) before applying several unique and complicated formulas to determine our picks of the best titles of last year.

Check out our choices here.

12 January, 2012

The Vita is Coming!

The PS Vita is set to hit our shores in late February, 2012 (the 22^nd, in fact). We’re pretty excited to see what the device does in terms of performance, graphics and so on. And now we have some news on unit pricing, game pricing and more.

In March 2012, we will be able to take to the skies in a game inspired by the movie Top Gun. While we doubt that Tom Cruise will be anywhere in sight, publishers 505 Games promise us a thrilling, action-packed experience.

After Blizzard community manager Marc "Bashiok" Whiple mentioned on Twitter that Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo 3 console project, fans took it as confirmation that Blizzard is indeed developing a console version of the highly-anticipated dungeon-crawler.

With all the rumours of new consoles flying around, it seems that some console manufacturers are doing their best to deny speculation. Sony’s Kaz Hirai did just that at CES, reinforcing his belief that the PlayStation 3 is still only half-way through its life-cycle. And he went further to say that he did not believe the world was ready for download-only consoles… physical media would, in his opinion, play an important part in consoles until networks were improved substantially.

GR:FS Out in May

A release date for the long awaited (and often delayed) Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier has been set for the25th of May, 2012, for South Africa. The game will be available for Xbox 360 and PS3 initially, with a PC version to follow at a later date.

Gideon Emery is an actor with strong ties to South Africa… and he was the voice of Blackburn in Battlefield 3. We managed to catch up with him and he spared some time in his busy schedule to tell us about the processes, the industry and the business of voice acting.

Check out our exclusive interview with Gideon Emery here.

10 January, 2012

New AC: Revelations Map Pack

Assassin's Creed: Revelations was released late last year, but gamers will be able to go on new adventures in 2012 with the release of the second batch of new locations - the Mediterranean Traveller Map Pack. Ubisoft announced that the latest pack will officially be released on 24 January.

Full Steam Ahead

If you thought that PC gaming was dead, or at least in the process of kicking the bucket, think again. While the activity is still very strong here in South Arica, we often hear that it is on the decline in other parts of the world. But performance figures released by the Steam distribution platform show nothing but growth.