What a big week in gaming. I guess that's just about every since May 21st, eh? Well, the news bomb that rocked the world came in the form of that Shia Labeouf looking kid, Patrick Klepek, breaking out the journalism hammer and banging some truth out of the Microsoft money machine. The results? The Xbox One is no longer rocking DRM like it was 1932. After the controversial end to their consumer poll, Amazon drops some numbers on us all indicating that the PS4 and XB1 are moving big units in the pre-order department. And, the Arma 3 beta is set to get underway after successfully completing alpha testing. These stories and more in this June 22nd, 2013 Xbox 180 edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap.
Sunday
Project Spark Is Free-to-Download on Xbox One, Xbox 360, Windows 8 Microsoft offers an olive branch in the form of Project Spark. Will you take it? Will...you...take...it?
Angry Joe Vs Major Nelson: The Explosive Xbox One Interview Of The Decade Microphone snatching, spittle-spewing showdown between Angry Joe and Major Nelson. This thing just got righteous!
Garry Newman From Gmod Releases Rust, Dayz Meets Minecraft Game It's a real griefer, but it gets it done.
Battlefield 4 Spectator Mode Confirmed With Gameplay Video After lots of whining, lots of begging and lots of suffering...the spectator mode has finally arrived for the upcoming Battlefield sequel.
E3 2013: Narrative Director Steven Gallagher Steps Out of the Shadows With Thief Gaming Blend's Ryan Winslett gets some face time with the director of the next-gen version of Thief.
Assassin's Creed & Watch Dogs Set In The Same Universe? An exploration into the possible same universe-ness of Ubisoft's biggest franchises.
Battlefield 4 Vehicle Customization For Boats Makes Them Not Suck Anymore This is great news for people looking to customize their rides in the upcoming FPS.
PS4 Grabs 95% of Consumer Votes, Amazon Ends Poll Early With the poll cut short we find out that 95% of the votes were in Sony's favor anyway.
Thrustmaster Wireless Headsets Announced For PS3, Xbox 360 Bringing a little bit of class to the old and decrepit generation of consoles.
Xbox One Physical and Digital Games Will Carry A $59.99 Price Tag Not lowering the bar, are we?
DayZ Standalone Set For Release on PS4 But Not on Xbox One Why? Click the link to find out.
Monday
E3 2013: Tracking Down Monsters In Witcher 3 Wild: Hunt Gaming Blend's Ryan Winslett gets some hands-on time with the latest Witcher game.
PS4 Pre-Orders Tops List Of Major Online Retailers Over Xbox One The apples you don't like? Well, they're going to keep falling and you'll have to keep eating them. Them the bricks, kid.
Saints Row 3 Getting Mod Support As Test For Saints Row 4 Mods Volition is finally doing the right thing and opening the game up for mods...thank you, Volition! Thank you!
MadCatZ Arcade Fightsick Tournament Edition 2 Announced For Xbox One A new fightstick is on the horizon from MadCatZ for the XB1.
E3 2013: Exploring Crazy Action With Killer Is Dead Hey, let's not forget about that crazy Suda 51 kid, he still has some interesting titles coming out, too.
Oculus Rift Getting Commercial Release With additional funding, the Oculus Rift is now going to become available for consumers everywhere. Yeah, VR just got legit.
D-Link Gaming Router Announced A router that keeps on giving...if you're a gamer.
Contrast Sticks to The Shadows For PlayStation 4 A crime noir platformer starring a female lead is heading to the PS4.
Fields of War Brings 200 Player Mech Battles To Windows, Mac and Linux 200 player mech battles? Let the lag wars begin!
Witcher 3 DLC Free On PC, May Not Be Free On PS4, XB1 Good news for PC gamers, but not so good news for console gamers.
Shadowrun Returns Launching Soon On Steam Pre-purchases become available for those looking to get in on the retro-style iso-RPG.
State of Decay Patch Isn't Working Right Now However, they'll try to get things sorted in the second title update.
Tuesday
Crackdown 3 Is Something Microsoft Wants To See Happen Why it hasn't happened yet? Well, you'll have to click the link to find out.
Dead Space 4 Development Team Working On Something But it's not Dead Space 4.
XCOM Enemy Unknown Gets iPhone, iPad Release Date Firaxis is planning on bringing the turn-based title to mobile devices.
Beatbuddy Story Receiving Some Tender, Loving Care From Rhianna Pratchett The music-based rhythm puzzle game receives some support from writer Rhianna Pratchett.
Dark Matter: The Super Metroid Style Game For Today's Gamer This awesome side-scroller brings some retro-style mechanics to today's generation of gamer.
EA: Star Wars: Battlefront is a Perfect Fit For DICE Well, you don't say?
Titan Fall Not Exclusive To Windows 8, Gamers Rejoice Well it's not exclusive to the OS that Microsoft doesn't even use. Good, good.
State of Decay Sells Over 500k Copies, Sandbox Mode and PC Version on the Way State of Decay racks up some big numbers its first week on the market.
Oddworld New N Tasty Not Coming To Xbox One Due To Indie Restrictions There's still time for change yeah? Still time?!
PS4 Takes 89% of the Vote Versus Xbox one In Green Man Gaming Poll Yet another poll showing favoritism towards the PS4. Still slanted?
Microsoft Says Windows 7, Nvidia GTX PCs at E3 Were Xbox One Dev Kits If that's what they say, who's to argue?
Alan Wake and More Join GOG Summer Sale Good Old Games begins the summer sale on their titles.
Xbox One Still Requires Kinect Well, you can't win them all.
Xbox One DRM Removal: Is It A Game Changer? Gaming Blend's Managing Editor talks up the features and DRM of the Xbox One and whether it will change the landscape of the gaming medium.
Bloodmasque Puts Your Face In The Game This Summer Snap a photo and use it in the upcoming game Bloodmasque for mobile devices.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified Gets Pre-Order DLC, Details Firaxis and 2K roll out some additional details on the upcoming third-person strategy shooter, The Bureau.
EverQuest Next: Will It Shock Us All? SOE could be kicking it into high gear and we'll find out soon enough.
Lifeless Planet Cinematic Trailer Is Eerie, Compelling And Cool I love the look, feel and design of this game and we'll definitely be seeing more later this year.
EVGA Unleashes Supernova 1300 G2 Gold Power Supply This specific heart that pumps the lifeblood into your PC could be the heart of gold you've always been waiting for.
Thursday
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number Trailer and Screenshots Released The most brutal game to release since Manhunt 2 is back at it and Dennaton released some new media to celebrate the game.
Xbox One Kinect 2.0 Could Be Affected By Government Privacy Act For once, government intervening on behalf of the games industry could actually be warranted and celebrated in this case.
Gamefly, GameStop Happy About Xbox One DRM Reversal; Stocks Surge And why wouldn't the stocks surge? It's a happy day in gaming town.
Arma 3 Beta Deploys June 25th Bringing all sorts of high-end military action to the table.
Super Luigi U Available now Digitally, Arrives August At Retail Nintendo is slowly releasing new games for the Wii U starting with Super Luigi U.
Destiny Screenshots Show Guardians At Work Some new shots from Bungie's upcoming MMO for home consoles.
Age of Wushu Weather System Coming Soon It's not just a simple visual thing either, this stuff actually affects the entire game.
APB Reloaded Brings Angel Pack Back, Fixes Up UI And there are a couple of new weapons to toy around with as well.
Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition Pulled From Stores Lawyers legaled up and kicked the crap out of the digital re-release of the game.
First Sanctum 2 DLC Hits Steam On June 26th The game's first pack of extra DLC arrives for the game following its launch.
EA Keeps Online Passes Dead Even though Sony and Microsoft are doing away with DRM, Electronic Arts won't be returning to the Online Pass system.
Xbox One Price Cut Incoming? There could be a price cut to make the system more competitive with the PS4.
Cliffy B Says Xbox One DRM Reversal Was Because of Sony, Not Whiners Ouch. Harsh words from the former front man for Gears of War.
Friday
Cube World, Open-World Voxel RPG Heads Into Closed Alpha The one-man made open-world RPG heads into closed alpha testing.
Splatter Brings Max Payne Grit To Steam's Greenlight It's a really dark and gritty game that fuses zombie survival with top-down arcade action. There are also a couple of other noteworthy games that are also on Greenlight.
Amazon Pre-Orders For PS4, Xbox One Sold at 2,400 Units Per Minute This just goes to show you that gaming isn't as niche as a lot of mainstream news sites might lead people to believe.
Dragon Ball Z Battle of Z Announced For Xbox 360, PS3 Sorry, Wii U owners will be skipped over this time around.
3DS Update Adds Save Backups, Mii Games Some brand new Mii Plaza Games have joined the eShop along with a new 3DS update that allows you to have a backup save so you don't have to worry about losing your important games.
Hotline Miami Busts Onto PSN One of the most violent games around finally makes its retro debut onto the PlayStation platforms.
Saturday
Luigi U, Project X Zone Arriving for Nintendo's eShop This is one of those times where the eShop is getting a big set of new games.
Injustice Gods Among Us Gets General Zod, Man of Steel DLC Liked the movie? Want to take on the role of Zod? Check out the newest bit of DLC for the game.
Titanfall: Why It Doesn't Have Single Player Respawn Entertainment explains why their newest game isn't a straight-up single-player title.
Assassin's Creed 4 DLC Season Pass Stars First Mate, Adewale You don't always play as an Assassin in Assassin's Creed, sometimes you play as the first mate, mate.
Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- Petition For Wii U Gets Arc Systems Works' Attention Gamers want the game on the Wii U and Arc Systems is watching.
That wraps up this edition of the Gaming Blend Weekly Recap. You can check out the upcoming DLC of General Zod in action with the new trailer from NetherRealm Studios below. Enjoy.
