Brink free for just the weekend and 75% until Monday in Steam

Bethesda's Brink came out this year and is one of the disappointing titles for 2011, and Steam realizes this. For just the weekend, you get to try Brink for free until Sunday. If satisfied with what Brink offers, you can buy the full game for just $4.99 thanks to the 75% off discount that lasts until Monday. Five bucks(PHP 200) for a 2011 retail game? very tempting...

Will try out the free trial and see if I take the bait and throw 5 bucks to steam.

Battlefield 3 - Back to Karkand hitting PS3 on Dec 6, Xbox 360 and PC arriving a week later

EA finally gave Back to Karkand a release date, which is really just days away. PS3 Pre-ordered customers with the Limited Edition will finally get their moneys worth when the content hits on Dec 6 with Xbox 360 and PC following a week later.

I ran my battlefield 3 last friday to update my PS3 since I was aware of the 1.2 patch promised by DICE(thanks for the nerf in that damn light attachment btw). When updating I noticed the patch is 758MB. For a game patch? nah, that's Back to Karkand being placed into your system for preparation. When you claim your free expansion pack, most likely you'll be downloading an unlock code that's only a few KB's then bam you have Back to Karkand.

Back to Karkand will feature four Battlefield 2 maps remastered for the Frostbite 2 engine. Also included will be new guns, vehicles and a new game mode called Conquest Assault Mode.  If you don't have a Limited Edition of Battlefield 3(honestly haven't seen a store selling a normal copy), you'll have to cough up $14.99 for the expansion.

Konami's new game Never Dead dated

While I do enjoy a new title coming out, the concept of Never Dead never really caught my interest. A protagonist Demon Hunter that can never die and the ability to lose/grow limbs? A unique concept with a sense of humor I guess. Never Dead will be out on January 31, 2012, and February 3 for Europe.

In Never Dead, you play as Bryce Boltzmann, an immortal demon hunter who teams up with a private investigator named Arcadia to fight off invading demons. Since Bryce can't really die, doesn't mean there's no game over. Bryce can lose his whole body to the point where he is left with just his head. To recover, you'll have to roll the head to retrieve your lost body parts in order to keep fighting, like your playing a mini katamari game . The head is the most important(obviously) and when consumed or crushed, your done. You can also fail if Arcadia has been killed since she's still mortal.

With the concept of protecting Arcadia part of gameplay, it brings interesting options to keep her alive, like literally using Bryce as a meat shield to keep her safe. But it all boils down if they provide us with a smart AI controlling Arcadia. It's a cool concept to add variety to the game but if the AI is doing dumb stuff leaving you with unnecessary deaths, then it becomes more of a chore babysitting Arcadia.

Bryce will have a series of weapons somewhat similar to Devil May Cry(pistols and a sword) but gameplay is nowhere as fast paced and flashy. It's in 3rd person view and the game I can come up with to compare it with is Shadows of the Damned since it might bring more shootouts than going all hack and slash.

To sum it up - Its such a weird game seriously. Never Dead will be out on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

Final Fantasy Type-0 localization is in the works

Finally! Final Fantasy Type-0, the latest Final Fantasy game to hit the PSP, may soon see a release out of Japan.

The Final Fantasy Type-0 Ultimania Guide just hit retail today and contains an interview with Type-0 direction Hajime Tataba and he mentions that the development team is working on an overseas version of the game.

This is great but not surpising news as Final Fantasy is still a pretty big name and would be a perfect final game for Sony's aging handheld. I've tried the Japanese demo of the game is it seems pretty solid. Hopefully this game gets a release date before or shortly after the PSVita's release set for February 22 early next year.

Source [Andriasang]

[Update]Skyrim 1.2 patch out now for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC to follow

The next patch for Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is out now on the Playstation 3 with Xbox 360 and PC to follow the next day(Nov 30). This 1.2 patch is aimed to address the big issues especially seen on the Playstation 3. At the same time, the patch also addresses the Xbox 360 version of losing texture detail when installed on your console.

[UPDATE] - When PS3 and 360 version of the game is updated to 1.2, it helps the lag issue from PS3 and fixes the low res textures when installed on your 360, but it seems like it comes with a price. The patch provides game breaking bugs that's even worse of you ask me. Magic resistance seems to be not working anymore and Dragons fly backwards. It's so silly that Bethesda patches never work.

For 360 players, I suggest ignoring the damn patch and just keep playing the game without the installation. With PS3, it's harder to suggest to play without it because of the unplayable lag. Some say it greatly improves the performance but not you have no point in putting magic resistance plus those awesome dragons acting weird. Still need to do testing but I'll continue the game without it, feels safer.

Here's the full patch notes thanks to Bethesda's blog:

UPDATE 1.2 NOTES (all platforms unless specified)

• Improved occasional performance issues resulting from long term play (PlayStation 3)
• Fixed issue where textures would not properly upgrade when installed to drive (Xbox 360)
• Fixed crash on startup when audio is set to sample rate other than 44100Hz (PC)
• Fixed issue where projectiles did not properly fade away
• Fixed occasional issue where a guest would arrive to the player’s wedding dead
• Dragon corpses now clean up properly
• Fixed rare issue where dragons would not attack
• Fixed rare NPC sleeping animation bug
• Fixed rare issue with dead corpses being cleared up prematurely
• Skeleton Key will now work properly if player has no lockpicks in their inventory
• Fixed rare issue with renaming enchanted weapons and armor
• Fixed rare issue with dragons not properly giving souls after death
• ESC button can now be used to exit menus (PC)
• Fixed occasional mouse sensitivity issues (PC)
• General functionality fixes related to remapping buttons and controls (PC)

Testing still needs to be done if this patch actually fixes these issues but thankfully it has arrived. Xbox 360 and PC 1.02 patch is coming tom so can't wait to test if installing it is better now on my 360.