Nintendo announces a slew of release dates

Your next year might be pretty busy, if you’re primarily a Wii and DS gamer, or at least someone with kids to entertain. Nintendo published a huge list of release dates for both consoles this weekend. Here’s some links to the Wii list and the DS list if you’d like to see them in their raw form. However, you don’t have to look at them that way if you don’t want to — Joystiq did some shuffling and managed to organize them in a much more readable fashion. (I thank them for that, seriously.) I’ve republished that whole list below. What are you shelling out for? 2K Play Wii: Nicktoons MLB — August Nickelodeon Dance — November DS: Nicktoons MLB — August Dora and Kai-Lan’s Pet Shelter — November Team Umizoomi — November Activision   Wii: Transformers: Dark of the Moon — June Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure — Oct. 16 Generator

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‘The Sims Social’ brings the popular franchise to your real social life

The Sims are making their way to Facebook, where you’ll lose even more of your free time playing with them. The Sims Social will launch this summer on Facebook in five languages. You’ll get to create a brand-new Sim, build it a home and then play with your real-life friends. EA Play announced that this title would have a companion mobile app available so that you don’t have to constantly nurse Facebook — you’ll be able to fulfill your Sim’s wants and needs on the go. In the game, you’ll be able to engage with every aspect of your character’s social life, including moments like the all-important first kiss. And, of course, this is Facebook, so you’ll be helping your friends with tasks. You might (cough) even make some Woohoo with them. Yeah. That could get awkward. But your Sim can take on your personality. “Just like you and me,

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Review: Mass Effect 2 (PS3)

Rating: M (for Mature) Publisher:Electronic Arts Developer: Bioware Release Date: January 28, 2011 (PS3) RENT Mass Effect 2 was released for Xbox 360 and PC back in the beginning of 2010. It is getting pretty tired that it takes games like this another whole year to come out on the PS3. Why they have to continue with the annoying exclusivity rights and other delays that make PS3 releases take forever is beyond me. The focus should be on the consumer experience, and that would mean good customer service. If we don’t have a game for a year, then that is literally not serving the customer. That may all be in the past if Mass Effect 3 which is said to be dropping this fall, becomes cross platform. This game had the distinction of winning several Game of the Year Awards, which did not make not getting it on time any

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Review: Dead Space 2

Isaac has no idea where he is or how he got there. He only knows that he’s back in the bowels of hell, on a strange ship, and he needs to run.

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Review: Dragon Age II

Genre: RPG Rating: M (for Mature) Developer: Bioware Publisher: Electronic Arts Release Date: March 2011 RENT I emerged last week from my first 7 year adventure in Kirkwall. Somewhere around the middle of the game, I created several saves, so that I could hop back into the game when it finished. I did exactly that just a few hours after finishing my first playthrough.  Now, I’m *this close* to finishing my second complete playthrough.  But here’s the thing, the more I pick up the game and play, the less enjoyable I’m finding the game — not because I don’t like the story or the characters, or even the game itself — but because I find more and more problems: bugs and glitches as I play. For instance, the day-one DLC “The Exiled Prince” had several issues on release, the biggest problem being that the achievements for the Xbox 360 version

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Steam offering a deal on Darkspore as well as a beta

(The alliteration in the title would have been so much cooler if it was a demo instead of a beta. Oh well.) Through Friday of this week, you can download a beta for online action RPG Darkspore on Steam for free. It’s a good chance to try the game out and help the developers at the same time. Steam is also offering a special “buy three, get one free” offer to make sure that you and your friends will be able to get in on the action at a bit of a discount (25 percent, if you’re keeping track). Darkspore, based partially on Maxis’ Spore, releases in North America on April 26.

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EA removing instruction manuals from all future game releases

Not only are a ton of newspapers and magazines getting the axe these days, but another paper staple is about to become part of history, as well — the instruction manual included with games since…well, the very beginning. Electronic Arts announced that all future game releases will not include game manuals, which has upset a few people who still love their paper manuals. (If format doesn’t really matter to you, you’ll be happy to hear that manuals will still be downloadable on EA’s Support page.) Are you going to miss instruction manuals? I know I will – as a kid, I would carry them around with me as a way to placate myself between gaming sessions. They’re especially useful when I’ve taken a long break from playing something and don’t want to download a PDF to remember how to make it work, but whatever.

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‘Battlefield 3′ gameplay trailer looks almost photorealistic

The latest Battlefield 3 trailer is supposedly gameplay. I say “supposedly” only because parts of it look so good that I can’t really believe it. Granted, this is a pre-alpha build that will likely look a lot different from the final, shipped product – but still. This is some good stuff. The trailer takes you across a few rooftops and features some sniper-to-sniper action. The language gets pretty salty, so don’t click “play” if that sort of thing bugs you. Video Games | Battlefield 3 | Fault Line: Episode 2 Xbox 360 | PlayStation 3 | Nintendo Wii | PC Games

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“Crysis 2″ PC demo lands March 1

On March 1, get ready to take over the rooftops – the multiplayer demo for the PC version of Crysis 2 is available then at http://crysis.ea.com and other “partner sites.” The demo includes two maps, “Skyline,” set on a series of skyscrapers (both inside and out) and “Pier 17,” which apparently has limited cover as a feature. Good luck with that one. Matches feature 6v6 teams in one of two modes: “Team Instant Action” is a classic “kill as many opponents as possible” mode, while “Crash Site” has players fighting for control of alien drop pods while fighting to protect those pods. Crysis 2 is getting the same treatment as several other recent EA titles like Dante’s Inferno and Dragon Age II – pre-order now and get an automatic upgrade to a special edition of the game. This edition contains four special unlocks: · Bonus XP – Players will jump

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Big Sale from EA

Tomorrow January 18, EA (Electronic Arts) will be having a rather large sale in terms of how many different titles are discounted. Starting with reducing some of its XBLA content by 50%. EA’s sale will run from January 18-24. Both DeathSpank and DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue are half off. You’ll be able to buy both of those games for 600 MS Points. Try out the Free Demo of Microbot with its unique control scheme. For Sports fans Madden NFL Arcade and NHL 3 on 3 Arcade are on sale too. Here are some of the EA deals below. Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening Dragon Age: Origins – The Golems of Amgarrak Dragon Age: Origins – The Darkspawn Chronicles Dragon Age: Origins – Witch Hunt Dragon Age: Origins – Leliana’s Song Medal of Honor – Hot Zone Pack Battlefield 1943 DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue DeathSpank RISK: Factions Madden NFL Arcade Hasbro

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