EA Games has announced that they will be partnering with Hothead Games to publish DeathSpank for Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network.
"The team at Hothead Games is a perfect fit for EA Partners. They are a great example of how the EA Partners program continues to emphasize the importance of building strong relationships with the world's top indie developers," said Jamil Moledina, Outreach Director, Business Development at EA Partners. "DeathSpank is an engrossingly fun and hysterically funny experience, and we are all excited to have the opportunity to help introduce DeathSpank to gamers across the world."
The game is releasing in 2010, but no official date has been revealed, more info after the jump.
It appears with all the fancy online multiplayer games released thus far from last year and this eyar are giving a boost to Online Gaming according to the NPD. An NPD report stated that the weekly hours spent on online gaming has risen 10 percent and it also said that on average gamers spent up to eight hours per week which is up from the 7.3 that was last reported.
NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement, "While the percentage of the population that reports playing games has declined slightly, this study details other metrics which point to both stability and growth in both online and offline gaming."
In addition, it appears that online gamers regularly purchase games, even in a tough economy. The report said that 71 percent of online gamers purchased or received one game over the 2009 holiday season, or calendar Q4. Buying habits between 2008 and 2010 didn't significantly change among online gamers either.
"This suggests that online gamers’ purchasing behavior may not have been impacted significantly by the recession and may bode well for future pockets of economic weakness," NPD said.
The PC is the most used platform for online gaming, which is said from the Eighty-Five percent of gamers that said they used that platform of choice. But the Xbox 360 rules the family room for gaming time online and for the third year in a row its the leading home console with 48 percent saying they take online console gaming as well. The Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii are about even at the moment.
NPD said Xbox 360, PC, and PS3 racked up the most hours among respondents, with 7.3 hours per week, 6.6 hours, and 5.8 hours, respectively.
The Sims just keeps growing and growing with every new expansion pack released, one can only imagine where the series will turn too in it's next iteration. Here players will be able to direct their Sims in the career path of their choice as it affects the overall gameplay experience in and around your neighborhood. You can make house calls as a secretary or save lives as a doctor. You can even go the more evil route and test experimental medicines on patients or be a hero as a firefighter. The possibilities are endless.
"The variety of careers to choose from is unmatched and we've never given players the opportunity to follow their Sims to work and affect their actions on the job," said Scott Evans, General Manager of The Sims Studio at EA. "The Sims 3 Ambitions changes that. Players' actions at work now directly affect their lives, community and neighbors and become an extremely important part of how the game is played."
Players can now experience some of the most exciting and varied jobs. In The Sims 3 Ambitions, players can choose to hunt down vengeful spirits as the ghost hunter, invent brilliant and potentially destructive gadgets as an inventor, craft glorious masterpieces as a sculptor, and solve riveting cases by any means necessary as an investigator with dozens of cases to solve and numerous clues to find. Additionally, players will be able to change the look and feel of their town by becoming an architect and directly affecting the neighborhood around them leveraging Build and Buy mode. The stylist career and new tattoo system allow players to make over their Sim neighbors in fashionable or catastrophic ways. For the first time, players will be in charge of how their Sims' career progresses and decide if they will work for good or evil, pursue creative endeavors or technical affairs, climb to the top quickly, or be a slacker. The future of a Sims' success or failure is entirely in the hands of the player.
This expansion pack will also be available for the Iphone and Ipod Touch versions of the game in late 2010. For the PC and Mac you'll see the expansion pack hitting store shelves this June. More screenshots below
The upcoming fast paced racing title, Blur will be hitting the store shelves on May 23rd with a Beta to kick things off this month. Europe will only have to wait a few days after when it hits their shores on May 28th. The beta will have plenty of things for you to mess around with in the online world. In order to get into the beta you can try and grab a key at one of several outlets around the web that will be giving them out in plain sight. What is exactly in the beta? Take a look.
What's in the Beta?
14 cars in four different car classes (A through D). Some are nippy (Koenigsegg CCX-R), some are beautiful (Volkswagen Scirocco), some are tough (Land Rover Defender SVX), and some are just plain cool (Chevrolet Camaro 1969).
4 different race tracks: Barcelona Gracia, Tokyo Shutoko, Amboy, and Long Beach Docks. Each provides a totally different racing experience, from wide-open off-road races to tight, technical inner-city tracks. My personal favourite is the Docks - it's got alternate routes through shipping containers, and one particular crossover which is going to ruin a few bumpers...
Twitter support. You can enter your Twitter credentials and share a Tweet or two DIRECTLY from the game. And it won't spam your account either - nothing is posted without your say-so. Just hit the left-bumper from anywhere in the menus to bring up the "Share" menu.
...And of course, 8 meaty power-ups. These really are what make Blur different to every other racer out there. They're so important that we've built a brand new section of our website to tell you about them. More details at the end of this post.
You'll be able to play the beta from March 8th onwards till release. Good luck and I'm suure you'll get into the beta!
Human Soft has announced for Nintendo Wii, Hardgrip, which is now in development and will be supporting the Wii Motion Plus. The game features the most experience with extreme rock climbing.
HardGrip takes players on a tour of exotic and stunning locales around the globe as they compete in open events or invitation-only official races. With no harnesses or lifelines, players must solve seemingly impossible challenges and conquer their fear to make it to the top. Speed counts, but climbers who prove their ingenuity and daring will earn more respect. As climbers progress, their skills will have to become truly awesome to make the grade.
"Free climbing is all about style and creativity. Just making it to the top fast isn't the point if you used an easy route." says Gabor Kadas, CEO of Human Soft. "By incorporating the MotionPlus, we can capture that competitive spirit in a game for the first time."
In addition, Hardgrip is in development for other motion-controlled based systems.
