This week, we have the return of a long-absent PC series, a long-quiet PlayStation Move action game and the long-ridiculed concept of Transfarring.
TOP STORY: SimCity V revealed
SimCity will be returning to PCs finally in 2013 compliments of Maxis. During its GDC event this week, EA revealed that this entry would use an entirely new game engine called Glassbox. This engine will enable SimCity V to contain fully-3D cities for the first time, along with curved roads. The only real details about its gameplay state that there will be both a competitive and a cooperative online component to the game. We expect to hear more about it at E3 this year, but if it doesn’t incorporate llamas in some way, it just won’t be SimCity.
Paradox Interactive and Arrowhead Studios, the creators of Magicka, have unveiled their newest project: an arena battler called The Showdown Effect. We’d tell you that it plays similarly to Super Smash Bros. and focuses on customization of modes and parameters, but… at this point, you should know nothing we say is going to be as ludicrous as what Arrowhead puts in a trailer. Check it out.
This weekend, we’re giving you a look at the split-screen mode of upcoming downloadable team arena game Awesomenauts. The game, which we previewed last summer, supports three people playing together on one console as a team against another three-player team out in the aether. (It also supports full online play for those who want their screens, and couches, all to themselves.)
Here at Snackbar Games, we’re as interested in news as anyone else, and this week we have a surprising new announcement from Game Freak.
TOP STORY: Pokemon White & Black 2 revealed
Nintendo made a big Pokemon announcement this weekend, revealing the first direct sequels in the Pokemon series: Pokemon Black & White 2. While this is a surprise by itself, the fact that they will be released only on the DS is probably a bigger surprise. The DS does have a much larger install base, but the popularity of the Pokemon franchise would have assured brisk sales of the 3DS upon release. No release window was given in the US, though it will be releasing this summer in Japan.
This year is turning out to be a much bigger year for the Wii than anyone would have expected, with Xenoblade Chronicles hitting the U.S. in April and the newly announced U.S. localization of The Last Story landing this summer from XSEED. To celebrate the reveal, check out this Nintendo of Europe trailer for the highly-anticipated title.
