“We are excited to bring a new chapter of Wolfenstein to gamers everywhere,” Jens Matthies, creative director of the Sweden-based MachineGames, said in a statement. “As fans of the series, working on this game is an honor, and our team is driven to create an unforgettable action-adventure experience that will make FPS [first-person shooter] fans proud.”

According to Gamespot, Blazkowicz must launch an “impossible counter-offensive” against the Nazi powers that rule the world, set in an alternate 1960s. Sounds like a heck of a challenge doesn’t it? If not, you’ll see for yourself that the Nazi’s have a new killer weapon that looks like a freaging Mech, which is teased in the new trailer. If that’s the case then I hope to god Blazkowicz is geared up with more than just a shotgun and a Submachine gun.

Wolfenstein: The New Order will hit the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC later this year. Next-generation consoles will also get the game, but Bethesda didn’t specify which ones.

Mikami said the following about the new horror franchise:

“My team and I are committed to creating an exciting new franchise, providing fans the perfect blend of horror and action.”

Bethesda officially announced The Evil Within today, which is in development at Tango Gameworks for current and next-gen consoles, including Windows PC. Expect the game to be released sometime in 2014.

More About The Evil Within

Shinji Mikami, the father of survival horror, is back to direct The Evil Within – a game embodying the meaning of pure survival horror. Highly-crafted environments, horrifying anxiety, and an intricate story weave together to create an immersive world that will bring players to the height of tension.

Even if you’ve already heard of Dishonored, you might not have yet seen the creative kills gameplay trailer, which was released earlier today. And yes, you heard that right! CREATIVE KILLS trailer! That means you will be watching a demo that shows the many different creative combinations you can explore with your magical abilities to kill a foe in Dishonored.

What looks like a blatant blend between Assassin’s Creed and Bioshock, Dishonored is a first-person stealth action video game developed by Arkane Studios that will have voice work done by several famous actors such as Susan Sarandon, Carrie Fisher, Brad Dourif, and Chloë Grace Moretz.

Dishonored is scheduled for release on October 9, 2012, for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows.

The worst crime a hotly awaited game can commit is to be ordinary. Not awful. Not even excellent. To be unremarkable is the worst offense. RAGE is here at last. One of the year’s most eagerly anticipated titles is finally on store shelves. While the game is easily capable of standing on its own merits, it’s undeniable that RAGE was assembled from parts of other, sometimes even better, games.

If you take the time to peruse RAGE’s family tree, you’ll find branches from three particular titles: Borderlands, Fallout, and Bioshock. RAGE borrows and sometimes outright steals elements from all three games to the point of lacking any originality to call its own. The end result is certainly pleasing to the eye, well-crafted and enjoyable while it lasts, but no reviewer should ignore the obvious similarities to other games. RAGE is a mixture of Borderlands’ driving and obsessive loot collecting, its post-apocalyptic setting is a picture-perfect replica of Fallout 3’s, and the weapon upgrading and ammo swapping mechanic is a clear nod toward Bioshock.

Thus, the question facing players is: Can RAGE stand on its own two feet and be judged solely on its own strengths? Or will the shadow of other games send it scurrying into a deep, dark hole, hiding its face in shame? While the following review may seem negative, keep in mind that I enjoyed my time with RAGE. However, if I had to recommend a game in the post-apocalyptic shooter genre, RAGE would never be my first pick. Games do not exist in vacuums and must be judged against their peers. While I like RAGE, I simply cannot deny that it is a Frankenstein’s monster assembled from the parts of stronger games.

This is Yell! Magazine’s review of RAGE, available for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. For review purposes, the PC version was used, along with DNA testing to determine whether or not Borderlands is indeed this baby’s father.

Congratulations! It’s a… it’s the deformed guy from Goonies, apparently.

The Story

Rather than boring you with a prolonged opening sequence filled with story bits, RAGE wastes no time in getting you into the game. A mere 60 seconds after firs starting Rage, you, the lone survivor of an ark, emerge into the desolated wastelands of the near future in a scene entirely too reminiscent of Fallout 3’s vault dweller’s exit from the Vault. I half expected to find a discarded Pip-Boy on the ground.

Mere moments later, you’re dealt a vicious manhandling from a bunch of roving bandits. Luckily, you’re saved by Dan Hagar, soothingly voiced by John Goodman, who gently shoos away the evildoers with a generous amount of automatic fire into their higher brain functions. Of course, this being a video game, Hagar is going to want something in return for his good deed. In fact, every single person you encounter in RAGE has some type of Fetch Quest™ waiting for you. At this point in my gaming career I’m so completely past the point of caring about the insanity of NPCs asking perfect strangers to carry out their inane requests, but Rage does take things a bit far. Minutes after emerging from your hidey hole Dan fills your hands with cold steel and asks you to infiltrate a heavily fortified bandit base and murder a baker’s dozen of their members. Dude, I just woke up! Let me get some coffee in me before I get my murder on, will ya!?

Now see, if I had some caffeine in me, this never would have happened…

In any case, the game then proceeds along familiar pseudo-RPG lines by sending you on a variety of assignments, some of which will net you cash, others better gear or a combination of both. RAGE apes Borderlands’ quest model something fierce here. You could literally copy the quest giver monologues from Borderlands and paste them into RAGE with no noticeable difference. Kill bandit leader A, wipe out bad guy camp B, fetch vehicle part C and so on and so forth.

The game’s overall tale isn’t very interesting. RAGE suffers from a lack of a Big Bad. Yes, there’s the ephemeral Authority to defeat but fighting an idea is always less interesting than fighting an actual opponent with thoughts, goals, and witty bad guy dialog. Writing clever stories has never been ID’s strong suit. They excel at atmosphere and mood rather than immersive storytelling and all the flaws inherent to that business model as present in RAGE. It’s a shame since great characters and writing would have made the long breaks between gunfights more tolerable.

Read about the gameplay, presentation, and verdict after the jump…

Yell! Rating (x/5 Skulls):

[rating:3]

Published by:

Bethesda Softworks

Developed by:

Id Software

Year Released:

October 4, 2011

Also Available On:

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, iPhone, Macintosh

Genre:

Action

Official URL:

RAGE Official Site

In this video, the Resistance has heard rumors of an Ark surfacing in Jackal Valley, and they need you to search the site for a valuable data decrypter. Finding it won’t be easy as the valley is home to one of the Wastelands most brutal factions, the savage Jackal Clan.

RAGE releases next week in North America on Tuesday, October 4th (October 7th in Europe).

Get a premium Skyrim map with your preorder.

“Making real maps of our fantasy worlds is an Elder Scrolls tradition. As Todd Howard said all the way back in a Morrowind blog post, ‘There’s something about having a physical object in your hands that feels like it’s part of this other world, that you are that person in the game, finding your way among the hills.’”

With that in mind, today we are announcing that anyone who preorders Skyrim will automatically receive a premium-quality world map with their copy as a no-extra-cost-to-you bonus.

To guarantee your copy of your premium-quality world map, please preorder today.

Update: Had plenty of questions about the map. The map is a high-grade material that has a feel similar to burlap, and will be available in North America and Europe. There will be a regular paper map included in all copies of the game, but if you want to get the premium map, we recommend preordering the game.”

https://bethblog.com/index.php/2011/06/23/get-a-premium-skyrim-map-with-your-preorder/

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Cloth Map

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Which somehow fails to explain why I got sent to the naughty corner of the room whenever I cheated off my classmate’s test. What? It was my way of honoring all of his work …by copying it and calling it my own. You say cheating I say homage but Mrs. Lorraine called it “cheater, cheater, pants on fire” and whacked me with her ruler. One thing us cheaters learn early on, it’s the knowledge that our work will aways be inferior to the original. Try as we might, we’ll never be able to capture the eloquence of little Patrick’s thesis on why his summer vacation rocked so much harder than ours. It’s the fate that awaits every copy, to be inferior in every way, to never contribute anything that isn’t recycled to the world. To be rated a D- while Patrick’s masterpiece gets an A+.

God I hated that kid.

What the hell were we talking about?

Oh yes. Brink. A rip-off of a much better game.

(Think I’ll go look up Pat on Facebook. I bet he’s fat now.)

Brink, released by Bethesda and created by the team at Splash Damage, bills itself as an online multiplayer first person shooter, where up to 16 players can slaughter each other like happy little maniacs off their meds on a variety of different maps and using a bundle of gameplay styles.

If the words “TEAM FORTRESS 2” just popped over your head in big, neon lit letters and an orchestral score, congratulations! You’re as familiar with the current standard bearer of cooperative online shooters as the team behind Brink so obviously is. However, if a giant green crystal popped over your head instead, I’ve got bad news: you’re a Sim and therefore have no control over your own fate. Your entire existence is at the mercy of a capricious player who will likely leave you face down in a pool of your own pee in an apartment he couldn’t bother buying furniture for because he’s the type that likes pulling wings off flies. But enough about me.

Yes, to call Brink similar in every way, shape and form to Team Fortress 2 would constitute a criminal misuse of the word “similar.” The guys at Bethesda studios have peeked at their competition’s term paper and retitled it Brink. It’s Patrick the class favorite all over again!

The question facing this reviewer is: do I remain silent and judge the game on its own dubious merits? Or do I blow the whistle to get on Mrs. Lorraine’s good side and score some brownie points? Such a terrible conundrum….

(Raises hand.) MRS. LORRAINE! MRS LORRAINE!

The Storyline, or the lack thereof:

Normally, at this point in a review, I like to ramble on a bit about the game’s storyline. While Brink does feature a barebones attempt at linking together the various maps and factions in the game, it does so almost as an afterthought. The overarching plotline goes something like this: The planet Earth is screwed (What? Again?) and worldwide famine and general nastiness are the words of the day. Also, that whole climate change thing the hippies were always going on about? Yeah, turns out they were on to something. The fat lady is clearing her pipes and Death, War, Pestilence and Snooki are saddling the horses. But all is not lost! There’s a utopian floating megacity called The Ark and there’s all sorts of good stuff on it. Plus, it’s in international waters so that means gambling and hookers. SOLD!

It’s like Vegas! Only with less slot machines and more wanton carnage.

Unfortunately, The city is soon filled to overcrowding with refugees from every port. It doesn’t take long for the social niceties to break down. The Ark is soon turned into a warzone between its internal Security forces, who are only interested in keeping the peace and the scrappy Resistance who just want to plunder The Ark’s resources and set sail for the horizon. (Wait, I thought the Earth was a flooded wasteland? Where are they gonna go? Oh right, it’s a shooter, don’t think about it too much.)

You can play as either the cops or the robbers in this scenario but what it all boils down to is that mission objectives for one side will always be the opposite for the other.

Help! Help! I’m being repressed! Come and see the violence inherent in the system.

Resistance wanna blow up a generator? Up to Security to stop them. Resistance trying to blow up a Bieber concert? Yeah, Security’s probably gonna go AFK for that one…

Objectives are tied together with meager cutscenes which you’ll get tired of right around your second viewing. Nice touch: the team you win a map with is the team that will show up during these in-engine cutscenes.

Read the gameplay and verdict on the next page…

Yell! Rating (x/5 Skulls):

[rating:2]

Published by:

Bethesda Softworks

Developed by:

Splash Damage

Year Released:

US: May 10, 2011

Also Available On:

PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Genre:

First-Person Shooter

Official URL:

Brink

Created entirely from gameplay footage, the trailer takes you through a mission where the player needs to find equipement to upgrade the standard defibrillator submerged into your chest. The old man at the beginning of the trailer prompts you to explore Dead City where all the actions begins, and finally escapades to something too extreme to handle.

Overall, you get to see some shooting action with a deadly secondary weapon that does justice for close range combat, kill a few fugly mutants, and see a detailed city scape in ruins (that looks nearly just as impressive as the cities in Bulletstorm, or even better I would say). The trailer also reveals at the very end of it the next mission teaser called “The Shrouded” that should be released very soon.

RAGE is in development by id Software, the pioneers of the first person shooter (DOOM, QUAKE, Wolfenstein), and releases in North America on September 13th (September 16th in Europe).

Stay tuned at Yell! Magazine for more RAGE trailers and news updates.