All those billions of dollars Activision racked in from the Call of Duty franchise didn’t mean squat as the company is putting the franchise axe to the semi-long running Guitar Hero series. After mismanaging the franchise with multiple releases every couple of quarters and too many iterations of the same thing to keep up with, they did what everyone seen coming: milked the franchise to death. Find out what the future is for all Hero games…you won’t be surprised. On the brighter side of the industry Serious Sam 3 is coming this summer and it was announced that the very intriguing shooter, The Darkness, would be receiving a sequel as well for the Xbox 360 and PS3. These stories and more in this February 12th, 2011 edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap.
Sunday
Dark Souls Harder Than Demon Souls? The game director explains how the game could be easier or harder depending on a few factors.
MAT On A Mission of Love With A Marriage System. Amidst the zombie blasting and Terminator bouts you can get married…no joke.
Spare Parts XBLA Review. How well does this new Live Arcade game hold up? Check out the review to find out.
Warriors Legends of Troy Cooks up Some Heroic Screenshots. And not just heroic screenshots, try some intense blood-spilling screenshots.
Monday
Dragon Soul Pre-Beta Sign-Ups Now Underway.Yet another fantasy medieval MMO…how original.
NASCAR 2011 Full Season Dev Doc. There’s more to it than meets the eye…actually no there isn’t. No I’m just kidding. Actually, no I’m not kidding.
Cuall of Juarez: Cartel Announced. Ubisoft didn’t forget about the game and they’re hoping you haven’t either.
BlizzCon 2011 Dates and Location Revealed. Find out where this year’s BlizzCon will take place.
Free to Play KneeBouncers Catches Flak For Subscription Model. Should it charge or should it not? That is the question.
Orion Prelude Video Covers Concept Art, Game Footage and Free DLC. Indie games are really kicking it up a notch.
Warhammer Online Shutting Down Three Servers. Oh well, looks like the game is losing a few (thousand) more members. Tough.
Tuesday
Why Conan O’Brien Isn’t On Xbox Live.It’s a simple matter of…they didn’t know what the show was going to be.
Yakuza 4 Bonus DLC Announces For US Gamers. After the EU and JP regions received special bonus content Sega felt sorry for those poor US gamers and threw them a bone.
Marvel Capcom 3 Getting Shadow Mode DLC. Fight against shadows to hone those thumb-numbing skills.
Xwerx’s PS3, Xbox 360 Controller Add-On To Debut At PAX. It looks ridiculous but it’s been receiving fair praise so I guess it’s not all that bad.
Darkness II Announced For PS3, PC and Xbox 360. The Darkness returns and I’m curious how it’ll turn out.
Galactus Revealed As Final Boss For Marvel Vs Capcom 3. And he’s ready to finger smash you to death.
Dungeons Released For PC; Demo Now Available. it only makes sense that a demo becomes available
PSN Catching Up With XBLA Software Sales According To Research Data. Microsoft should watch out as Sony closes the gap.
Max Payne 3 To Be Released in 2011? Well, it’s a possibility…or is it?
Knights Contract Concept Art Character Renders Revealed. Some ghastly and very well designed character concept art surfaces for the action hack-and-slash game.
Dark Eye Demonicon Coming For PC, PS3, Xbox 360 In 2012. A new RPG based on the dark, fantasy medieval universe is on its way.
Top 20 Best DSiWare Games Worth Playing. Not just the average or the good enough, but the absolute best of the DSiWare that’s worth playing.
Call of Duty Black Ops First Strike Sales And PS3 Release Date Announced. How well did the map pack sell? Quite well…quite well.
True Crime Hong Kong and Guitar Hero 7 Cancelled. I’m not surprised with Guitar Hero but dang…I was looking forward to True Crime HK.
Batman Arkham City Comic Book Miniseries Announced. A new comic book mini-series based on the game that was based on a graphic novel will be coming soon.
Thursday
Torchlight II Coming In July. The sequel is being primed to spice up your summer.
Call of Duty Developer Beachhead Studios Announced. Activision wants to ensure that the next Call of Duty is going to hit store shelves fast and hard with as many developers behind it as they can muster.
LittleBigPlanet 2 Goes Back to the Future. New gizmos, gadgets and gear for the interactive game creation toolset.
Guitar Hero and DJ Hero Really Are Dead; No More DLC Planned. A nail in a coffin that I don’t mind being buried.
USA Today Employs Microsoft Tags For Non-Digital Content. Print media may go the way of the Dodo but not before helping its digital counterparts succeed.
Blizzard Considering Console Diablo. Well this should have been a no-brainer. I guess all the money from World of Warcraft dulled their senses.
Details Coming For Shoot Many Robots Next Week. Smoking hot, robot-fried details. Who’s pumped?
Clint Mansell Working on Mass Effect 3 Soundtrack. Requiem of a Dream’s composer lends his hand to the sprawling space opera.
Crysis 2 Has Dedicated Servers. Good news for PC gamers.
PixelJunk Shooter 2 Release Date Announced. The multi-directional shooter gets a solid release date.
Friday
Duke Nukem Forever Balls of Steel Edition Announced. If you’ve got intestinal fortitude equivalent to titanium steel, well then you’re already good to go. For everyone else, there’s Duke Nukem’s Balls of Steel edition.
PopCap Games For iOS, Android, Nintendo 3DS A Possibility It takes a while but Popcap will eventually get there.
Silver Lining Episode 3 Coming February 17th. By the time you read this it’ll only be a few days out from release.
Black Ops Community Manager Thinks Biggest Problem In The Industry Is…Gamers. That’s right, the people who put money in those deep pockets are also the problem.
Mortal Kombat Soundtrack Coming April 5th. You can finish him…with music once the 5th hits.
Saturday
StarCraft II Heart of the Swarm Doubtful to make a 2011 Release. That’s too bad. But Blizzard has been hard work on more WoW content, probably.
Kill Dead Space 2 Devs For Exclusive Viral Suits. If you play Visceral Games employees in a match of Dead Space 2 you could win some extra in-game swag.
Serious Sam 3 Coming This Summer. Startling end-of-the-week news that’s music to the ears of many shooter fans, I’m sure.
Blizzard Hoping Diablo III To Make 2011 Release. If they leave World of Warcraft alone for a couple months maybe Diablo III will make a 2011 release!
XBLA’s Most Wanted: Star Wars Battlefront Arcade. I couldn’t agree more.
That wraps up this edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap. Shuffling through the videos, a good end-of-the-week trailer happens to be the Crysis 2 multiplayer progression trailer, showcasing some of the goodies players can unlock by logging in a couple of hours of multiplayer. Enjoy.
